Christine Feehan - Dark Curse 19

Mikhail nodded. «The women gather now. There is much magic in the old ways. Syndil is providing the richest soil and Shea has come up with a strengthening drink to aid their bodies in gaining nutrients they seem to be lacking.»

«There is some reason to believe that Xavier has a hand in this,» Nicolas said, raising his voice so all could hear. He related the small cracking open of the door to Lara's memory. «We hope she will

remember more when we go to the ice cave. Perhaps there is a piece of the puzzle that we can find in time to help.»

«Xavier's lair is dangerous,» Lucian said. «If he is alive he would not have abandoned it completely. He had too many of his secrets stored there.» He looked at his brother. «As a healer, Gregori, what kinds of things could he have done, centuries ago, that would cause our women to have these problems?»

«The fact that the problems changed over the years leads me to believe that whatever Lara saw could be real. First we noticed the lack of female babies,» Gregori noted. «The precedence occurred over a long period of time. Because our women as a rule only give birth every fifty or so years, no one noticed that the male count was rising as the female count dropped.»

«His first attempt?» Lucian asked.

«Perhaps,» Mikhail mused. «We would have to talk to Shea about the way he could have influenced the sex of the children, but many of our people were attending his school. In those days, Xavier was a trusted friend. He set up the safeguards for us, weaving strands of magic with natural energy to protect the places we rested. No one ever guessed his jealousy of our longevity would lead him to commit the atrocities that he has over the centuries.»

Gregori shrugged broad shoulders. «His jealousy has led him down the path of madness.»

«He is entirely evil now,» Nicolas declared, «if he wasn't already before.»

Natalya stood suddenly, touching her lifemate's arm with gentle fingers. «I'm sorry, but Raven has summoned me. I must go to her.»

Mikhail's face was drawn and tired as he looked at her. «I appreciate whatever you can do to help us, Natalya.» He pressed his fingers to his temples. «She has asked that I do not interfere with what they are doing.»

Gregori's face was pale as well. «They want Natalya right away.»

Natalya nodded. «Yes, they are calling for me and of course I'll go. Whatever it takes, all of us are behind you.»

Vikirnoff brushed a kiss across the top of her head and squeezed her hand as she took her leave. «Natalya isn't always comfortable within a group.»

«No one is comfortable right now,» Mikhail said. «This is a heart-breaking situation for everyone. If Raven and Savannah cannot keep these children, do you think any of the women who are now pregnant will feel as if they have the chance to carry? And the ones who are not, do you think they will chance the heartache?»

«They will not have a choice, Mikhail, if our species is to survive,» Lucian pointed out. «All of us feel the pain of the loss of our children, but we cannot give up or give in to that heartache.»

Mikhail's eyebrow shot up. «I did not realize you and your lifemate had suffered the loss of a child, Lucian.»

«All losses diminish us as a whole.»

«Words give little comfort when one suffers the loss of a child who is not only the best part of you but part of your beloved lifemate as well,» Mikhail agreed, «but we talk with our child. We encourage him, love him, suffer the pain when he is hurt because Raven's body is rejecting him. He is as real to us as if we were able to hold him in our arms. Raven has lost a son once already. Now there is another and she is losing him to an enemy we cannot see or fight. Each rising he slips farther from us, inch by slow inch and we are helpless to save him. Do you think I want this for my lifemate? Or for yours?»

There was a small silence. Gregori stirred. «We are asking that everyone weigh in with these matters because if we do not have answers soon, our species will not recover.»

«You are a healer, Gregori,» Destiny said. «Do you think our women should continue to try to have children when we have been unable to resolve these problems? Wouldn't it be better to wait until we know what's wrong before we subject our hearts, minds and bodies to such trauma?»

«Our problem is very simple, Destiny,» Gregori answered. «If we do not have children, we die out. Every hour we wait to have female children, we lose more of our males. Yes, it is a tragedy and is a terrible thing that our women must risk losing a child, but our men are without hope. No one can continue without hope.»

«It seems a useless sacrifice to get pregnant knowing the child will die, just to give false hope to a male. In the end, he has nothing anyway,» Jaxon pointed out. «If we cannot safely have children, maybe the solution is to look in another direction. Why not put together a database of female psychics as Dayan mentioned? We could find a way to check them out, record their voices, have our males listen and see if there is a possibility that they can find their lifemates that way.»

Destiny nodded. «We're not utilizing modern technologies for our searches.»

«If you create a database, our enemies will have their targets laid out before them like a feast,» Lucian objected. «Do you think the moment word got out, as it would, that we have stored names and locations of potential lifemates our enemies would not move on that as fast as they could?»

Nicolas frowned. «There has to be a way to protect the database. It does not sound like a bad idea.»

«Our enemy thought of it before us,» Destiny said. «They have a psychic research center called the 'Morrison Center' in the United States. I'm betting they've established them everywhere. The women go to the center, are tested and then they are targets for murder. The database already exists.»

Several of the men without lifemates exchanged long looks of complete understanding. One stepped forward. Nicolas had seen the man once, years earlier, but only when he had passed through the Amazon forest chasing a vampire. Like most males without emotion or color, he had been solitary and rather curt when they had met. His name was Andre. Nicolas had tracked him and found evidence that the man had been wounded in the ensuing battle, but he was long gone from De La Cruz territory.

Andre gave a stiff bow toward the two women before addressing the others. He stood tall and straight, his face a chiseled mask, his eyes hollow. «If there is a database already of potential lifemates, I say we take it over. We have all accumulated wealth through the years, we can buy them out legally, or hack into their system, or just walk in and take over those running the place by using mind control. Once we have control, we turn the site into a fortress.»

«It is a calculated risk,» Lucian said. «The more we expose ourselves the chances of discovery are

greater. The world of computers and modern technology-with cameras on every cell phone and nearly every public place one goes outside of these mountains-raises the danger to all of us.»

«I am more than willing to take that chance if it increases the odds that even one of us will find a lifemate. We cannot afford to wait to give our protection to these women,» Andre declared.

There was a note in his voice that told Nicolas he was asking permission and most likely would go after the database whether it was okayed or not. Judging from the looks on the other males without lifemates, Andre would have a lot of help.

Gregori started to speak but Mikhail forestalled him by moving into the center of the circle. He looked around the chamber filled with many single males, men who had given their lives to sustaining a dying species.