«I had not considered those things,» Vikirnoff said. «In truth, I had decided we should just go in tonight if we find a suitable entrance, and leave the women behind.»
«Your woman would not follow you?»
«Of course she would think to follow me if she knew.» Vikirnoff sent Natalya a look of utter devotion. «She does not know the meaning of 'quit.' On the other hand, I have more experience and if necessary, could throw her off for a few hours in order to do the necessary exploring. She would be angry with me later, but I would much rather have her safe.»
«And if you tell her to stop hunting?»
«If Natalya decides it is the right thing to do to stop hunting the vampire, she will stop, but that is the only way. I could dictate to her until the end of days, but she goes her own way and I am proud of her for doing so.»
«You are not going to be much of a help,» Nicolas pointed out.
Vikirnoff frowned. «I've always had a quick learning curve and in dealing with women, I've found it is much easier avoiding a confrontation.»
«We need to have Mikhail make a ruling on this issue.»
«I will add my voice to yours and Gregori's. I believe if we do not act soon, it will be too late. We must have more hope for our males. And we have to find a way to produce more children as well as search the world over for lifemates. The only real hope we have left to us is for our women to produce more children.»
Dayan of the Dark Troubadours strode up, obviously overhearing what Vikirnoff said. «Perhaps we should take a page from our enemy's book and open a psychic center where we can interview women without them being aware we are doing so.»
Gregori moved through the giant crystal forest, Mikhail at his side. Both men looked strained and tired. A hush fell across the council hall.
«Any news?» Lucian asked his younger brother.
Gregori shoved a hand through his thick hair, the gesture weary. «There is little we can do now. I am holding the twins to their mother. They want to live. That is something.»
«And Raven?» Lucian prompted.
Mikhail shook his head. «She is trying to hold on. Jacques and I are both holding the baby to her, but they are getting weaker. Soon I will have no choice but to allow the child to slip away. I dare not risk Raven. She says no, but I cannot take chances with her life.»
«If we can aid you in any way,» Lucian offered. «We are more than willing.»
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?»