Dimitri raked his hands through his dark hair in agitation. "That makes no sense. What would Shura be protecting me from?"

Stas rolled his eyes feelingly. "From yourself, dunderhead! She didn't think you would pass up the chance to feel guilty over something that wasn't your fault and damned if she wasn't right."

"And how would you have me feel, Stas?," Dimitri said, turning tormented eyes to him. "She was my responsibility. I didn't protect her well enough and she was taken from me. Now I hear that because of my shortcomings, my sister spent the first four years of her life buried alive as some sick experiment. How would you have me feel?"

Stas looked away. "And now you know why she never told you," he said softly. "You love your guilt too much."

"Stas…..."

"What, you're going to deny it?" The boy turned to him, angry now. "You're going to tell me Shura and I were wrong to keep it from you? You love to feel guilty even over things that you can't help! Look at how you reacted to that girl you were mated to! Why do you think she didn't want you to get involved with Skyler again?"

"I know," Dimitri whispered. "Now I know."

After a moment Gregori spoke up. "How did she manage to keep the memories from Dimitri for so long? They've shared blood and know each other's minds - I was in her mind when I healed her and I saw nothing of those four years."

The boy shrugged. "Shura just does things."

"She shouldn't be able to …."

"You keep measuring her against you!" Stas cut in impatiently. "She's not like you! She's not like anybody."

Gregori and the two delaCruz brothers exchanged glances. The healer sighed. "I think we've established that. Even the way she uses her powers isn't really - well - Carpathian."

Rafael frowned. "How so?"

Gregori turned to Dimitri, whose expression had grown wary. "You need to believe that we are on your side, Dimitri. But we need to figure your sister out, to know exactly what we're dealing with here. I'm sure it is not news to you that she is capable of using outside sources of power."

Dimitri did not bother to deny it.

"In fact," Gregori continued slowly "everything she does, everything she is able to do, seems to stem from that. In essence that is her only real power - because she isn't able to do other things that Carpathians can do - like regulate her body temperature. Even her healing process is slow, much slower than ours. But this ability to draw energy, to manipulate it, translates into so many possibilities that she gives the illusion of being all powerful - when truth is she really has only that one power."

Dimitri nodded.

Gregori drew a long breath. "Let us take a step back. Bear with me as I talk this out, no matter how crazy it sounds. We know that Aleksandra's mother- your mother - refused to talk about her pregnancy, possibly meaning she was impregnated against her will. Aleksandra is Carpathian from the mother's side of the family. Her father is unknown, but we do know she is dragonseeker, at least in part, and as she seems to walk in daylight with no trouble she must be part human."

Manolito spoke up. "We know that Razvan has half human offspring. That might explain that. But what do you think of this suspicion of ours that she is Malinov?"

"The resemblance could be a coincidence. But if it's not, the implication is that Maxim has found a way to join forces with Xavier."

"This is getting way complicated - far-fetched,even," Julian said. "So Aleksandra's father was possibly Razvan's…. grandson? And also Maxim's… something? Son? Grandson? She carries both their bloodlines?"

"Do you have a better explanation?"

Julian shrugged a little. "I'm no scientist but I'm thinking that putting all that together in a test tube might have been easier than all the convoluted matchmaking that combination would have required."

The others exchanged glances. "You're right," Gregori said. "Crazy as it still is, that's actually more plausible."

"It still means a conspiracy, however." Rafael said.

Julian shrugged a little. "That conspiracy theory might also mean that the attack on Dimitri's mother wasn't random. The vampire that killed her wasn't after her - he was after the child she was carrying."

Gregori wiped his hands across his face. "We need to find her."

Stas spoke up from the corner. "Why? Why do you need to find her? Why this need to figure her out?"

"Because if this situation is what we think it is, she could be in deep trouble. You both could. Maxim's arms reach into this world and Xavier is in a class all his own in evildoing. If she is not already corrupted, then it will be their aim to do so."

"And me? Don't you wonder if I'm corrupted?"

"Are you?," Gregori asked pointedly.

The boy's lip curled in derision. "Figure it out for yourself."

"I intend to. But we need both of you to do that. Are you not curious, Stanislav? This may solve the mystery of you origins, as well."

"I'm not interested in my past, only my future."

"This affects both your futures. Do you know where Aleksandra is?"

"Even if I did, you haven't given me a good enough reason to tell you."

Gregori's face grew dark as he neared the end of his patience. "Well how about this, little boy? If Maxim and Xavier have joined forces and you and Aleksandra are products of that alliance - then it will mean that the enemy has working prototypes of a jaguar with Carpathian mind powers, plus a Carpathian who can walk in daylight and is able to tap into energy sources not her own. Now that she is of age and assumedly coming into her powers they will want her back, just as they will want you back. Based on what you have told us about Aleksandra and yourself, you and her are theoretically the blueprints of what they believe to be super entities of Carpathian and jaguar. The first of many to come. Can you bear the thought of an entire generation of children spending their formative years caged or buried alive? Subjects of experiments? Bred to evil?"

Stas fell silent.

Aleksandra walked around in silence, taking in the patterns of rock and undergrowth, bush and hill, trying to superimpose them on her own memories. A few things had changed - a shrub where a tree had once been, bare ground where it used to be bush, but it was the same place, she was sure of it. She was on the right track.

She pushed on. The thing about walking was that it cleared her head - and filled it at the same time. Images of this path flashed through her mind's eye - this tree, that patch of grass, the rockscape of boulders to one side- like a film playing in reverse. The last time she had been here she had been going not coming.

The last time she had been here she had been the hunted, not the hunter.

The sun had set and the horizon was the color of blood. It was a picture both beautiful and just slightly grotesque. Just like her life, she thought. Or, no, actually her life was the other way around, grotesque, with just a little bit of pretty around the edges. She kept going, despite the fact that she was getting winded. She felt the other presence again, just as she crested a small hill, and she sighed. This was getting tiresome. She stopped, took a steeling breath and called out. "For crying out loud, show yourself already. This tailing business is getting really old."

There was a moment of silence when it seemed even the wind held its breath. Then the air felt as if it expanded behind her and Aleksandra turned and faced exactly the person she expected.

"What," she said in a long-suffering voice, "do you want?"

Nicolas de la Cruz looked down at her from his imposing height, his dark eyes glittering in the fading light. "You need to stop this nonsense," he said in a tone that brooked no contention.

Aleksandra wasn't impressed, either by his tone of voice or the fact that she had to look up at him to speak. "And since when do you get a say in what I do?"

"Since you took leave of your senses."

"Even if I did, it's none of your business."

"It is my business. You are my lifemate."

Aleksandra's eyes narrowed. "A temporary technicality."

"That's what you said the last time."

"Well I'm not the one who was stupid enough to initiate a blood exchange ! That's probably what fused the bond I had already cut ! "

"You were dying! "

"Then you should have let me die," she said with a shrug. "Simpler for everyone, don't you think?"

Nicolas gazed at her for a moment. "That was never an option. Do not even think it." His hand lifted to her cheek but she dodged it neatly and took a step back.

"Go home, Nicolas." She spoke quietly now, seriously. "I'm in no shape right now to be trying to sever our bond again but I promise I will do it. "

"You're in no shape to be doing anything!" he frowned. "You left the ground half-healed and you're in no better shape now than you were when you left Brazil. Don't bother to lie, because I can tell - we're bonded, remember ?"

"Not completely." It was as much a challenge as a statement.

Nicolas raked his hand through his hair. "You have been leading me a merry chase. I don't know how you manage to cut off the connection from time to time but I'm tired of it, Aleksandra. It has taken me weeks to find your trail."

"This is not about you, you egomaniac! "

"What the hell have you been doing anyway? This is not a safe place to be! "

"It's where I need to be right now."

"What? Why?"

Aleksandra gave him a steady look. "Because," she said. "I am going to find myself."