After Gregori and Savannah arrived, MaryAnn showed up with Manolito not an hour later. Every person in the house congregated down in the basement.

"Are you certain you do not mind me walking through your mind to relive these memories with you?" asked Gregori, full of caution. He was not only looking at Lena, he was also making certain Armand did not mind him touching the mind of his life mate.

Lena swallowed back some fear as Armand squeezed her hand supportively. Looking into Gregori's silver eyes, she still saw the very ancient Hunter as intimidating, but she knew she trusted him implicitly. "There is no choice. That guy is batshi-"

"Lena," Andriev stopped her before she could finish uttering the bad word.

"All right, all right," she relented. "But it's true, he is freaking nuts and he isn't even turned or anything. That's a big problem, isn't it?" she asked as she looked back and forth between Gregori and Andriev. "I mean, if he were turned it would make sense that he's out of his mind. But since he's not, what is wrong with him?"

Gregori saw that she was having a true dilemma about what could possibly have gone wrong with the unnamed half Carpathian. "I do not know, young lady," he admitted. "But do you understand that sometimes people are simply ill?"

"I know but- I just didn't know that Carpathians could be that way, too. I thought it was just humans."

He gave off a true, genuine smile. "Little Lena, are we not, after all, still nothing more than people?"

"I suppose that's true," she said as her eyes cast downward and she surveyed the tops of her knees contemplatively. Since Armand was already sitting on one side of her, MaryAnn went and sat on her other side.

Gregori remained sitting just in front of the young lady. Both Savannah and Manolito were standing across the room, watching them closely. Andriev and Danica went and left the basement, giving them some small measure of privacy.

Gregori closed his eyes and attempted to enter Lena's memory, but he immediately came up against somewhat of a brick wall. "Your shield is even more impeccable than when you were a child," he said, eyes still closed, as he smiled. "MaryAnn?" he prompted.

The counselor took Lena's other hand in her own. "Look at me, Lena."

She looked over at the mocha skinned therapist and nodded.

"Remember the way we always do this, okay?" said MaryAnne

"Okay."

"Close your eyes," she said softly. "Listen to the sound of my voice."

Lena took a deep breath in and out. She looked over at Armand, first. "It is fine," he encouraged. "I am here." He saw then that she was waiting to merge minds with him, so he did that for her sake.

Immediately calmed by Armand's presence, she felt prepared then to relive everything that had happened from right before the time she had been taken…

All four of them walked with her through the experience. It reframed it in her mind so that she did not feel so alone. Each of them noticed different things in different parts of the memories. But both Gregori and Armand were mystified by the time they exited the group experience.

"You?" Gregori enquired of Armand.

He knew exactly what he was asking. "Nothing," remarked the Hunter. "And you, old friend? Anything at all?" asked Armand.

Gregori shook his head with regret. "No. Nothing."

"What is it?" asked MaryAnn. Lena also looked confused.

"We do not recognize him," Gregori said as he shook his head.

Lena frowned, confused. "What? But like- Haven't you two been around for kind of a really long time?" she tried to ask delicately.

"Is that a gentle way of calling me old, young lady?" teased Gregori, trying to get her to smile.

She did crack somewhat of a small smile and looked down while trying not to laugh. But it was Savannah, standing across the room, that mumbled, "Well if the shoe fits…" Gregori turned and looked at his life mate as he smiled and shook his head. She smiled widely in return at the ancient Hunter and quipped, "You left yourself wide open for that one, old man."

Lena did start to giggle then, almost against her will. "And I am old, as well?" Armand asked her, teasingly.

She was still looking down at the ground and she couldn't help the words that tumbled out of her. "Not just you. There's a whole of lot of shoes that fit in this room right now," Lena laughed quietly with a look of mischief on her face.

MaryAnn was also giggling by then, "Three pairs of very old shoes…" The therapist looked over at Manolito whom simply shook his head as he began to smile slowly in return at her. His eyes grew hot as they threatened a fitting punishment for his life mate much later on…

"So?" asked Lena. "What could you tell?" she asked as she looked between both Armand and Gregori.

"He is most certainly a hybrid of mage and Carpathian," Gregori sighed. "I suspect he may be older than we know. But he seems to not have lost his emotions, yet," Gregori shook his head. "I do not know how that has happened, how he has circumvented this grave disadvantage."

"Well whatever he's done, time has to be running out for him," Lena opined. "He is worried, after all, about getting a life mate. If he didn't need one, why would he care about that?"

"I am very concerned about so many of these things," Armand admitted as he looked at both Gregori and MarnAnn. "He knows my Lena now, knows what she can do… word may spread about her…"

Gregori nodded. "Yes." He looked all around him as if seeing something invisible. "Her proximity to both her aunt, and you Armand, is keeping her shrouded. And her mind has its own natural shield… it is the only reason he was unable to get in and ascertain the full truth of her and the fact that she already possesses a lifemate and is quite aware of the Carpathian race… I do not know if that would have made a difference to him, though. He seemed to be already quite powerful. There is something here that must be said. The two of you may not be pleased with what I suspect."

Lena felt cold steeling up her legs. "Oh?"

"He is of mage kind and he seemed quite certain you would birth his lifemate. Perhaps—and this is a large 'perhaps'- he has had some form of vision because of his abilities, some glimpse of the future that is a form of ability that Andriev also possesses. Andriev is, after all, of the Dragonseeker line."

Lena's stomach almost rebelled as she stood quickly, snatching her hand out of both Armand and MaryAnn's. She was pacing back and forth. "No, NO, NOO! Not my baby!"

Armand was quickly at her side, pulling her to him. "Shhh," he was attempting to soothe her. "Please, Lena, please, it is only a suspicion. It is not absolute truth," he held her hand in his, once again. "You must calm yourself. You were only injured yesterday."

"I will scramble these eggs first and make a cheese omelet," she said as she clutched her abdomen with her free hand, "before something like THAT gets his hands on them!"

"Before we go any further," Gregori continued, "you must settle this issue of Lena's safety as well as your own, Armand."

"My safety?" said Armand as he held Lena to him as she got her breath back. "What of my safety?"

"You have not tied her to you, as of yet. Her safety and yours are bound together. See it done as soon as possible. In fact, see it done this night. Do I make myself clear?"

"But during the daytime-" Armand began.

"I can take it," said Lena. "I can sleep through most of the day now, right?"

Armand didn't feel that it was correct to put her through that. "I do not wish to put you through pain of any kind," he admitted. "If you should awaken-"

She said to him with slight nervous laughter, "No pain? So you will also be birthing our children, as well?"

He recognized her attempt to make him feel better and looked her in the eyes. "Damita," he called her by his endearment for her, "only if you are entirely certain."

"I don't want you turning. I want you to be able to feed." She could see the gaping hole in him, waiting… "It's not fair for you to have to keep waiting after how long you've waited as it is. I'm ready. I've been ready since you showed up at my door."

He sighed, "Fine. I will do that. But that is all for now."

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

"There is a session still awaiting us, is there not?" Armand asked as he looked over at MaryAnn.

The therapist then remembered his request from before. He wanted a form of memory exploration to figure out what had happened in Lena's past so that he did not do anything to scare her or bring up her former trauma. "We can do that anytime you're both ready."

"I am ready when she is," said Armand as he looked down at Lena, still resting in his arms.

She looked up at him. "It's time to move forward. I'm ready now."

"We will leave you to that," said Gregori as he, Savannah and Manolito then left the room.

A/N - There's only about 2, at the most three, chapters left to this particular tale. I'm trying to get them out of my head and onto the screen as fast as possible. Thank you for your patience.