Dark Illusion by Christine Feehan

right. She gave Anatolie two sons. She was on board with him impregnating Francise. Theirs isn’t a love match. She wants power just as Anatolie does.”
    “She isn’t a very wise woman. They killed Rhiannon and then Francise. Why won’t they kill her when she no longer serves a purpose?”
    “I hadn’t thought of that. In any case, I overheard them talking about the book and how whoever had it would wield a tremendous power and could destroy any species. It was the chance to rid the world of the Carpathians. My brothers, along with my father, had devised a plan. They were developing a creature everyone refers to as a shadow cat. These cats are part illusion, part shadow and part real. They are trained to slip in where no one can go. They’ve been training and practicing with them in other parts of the world away from the Carpathian Mountains because they didn’t want to tip off the prince that they were coming for the book.”
    “You overheard them, broke with your family and set out to warn Mikhail.”
    She met his eyes. “That’s the truth. I don’t understand why you look and sound as if I’m lying about this.”
    “Perhaps because sacrifice seems out of character for you.” Again, he kept his voice mild. There was no point in arguing. He could look into her mind. She had a shield and it was a strong one, but he had no doubt that he could bring it down when he needed to do so.
    She opened her mouth and then closed it, pressing her lips together tightly. Finally, she sighed. “Just because I don’t want to be with a dictator doesn’t mean I don’t do what’s right.”
    “Are you telling me it would be wrong for a woman to save a man? Save a Carpathian male from turning vampire?”
    “You’re twisting my words.”

3
    Isai had the most beautiful sapphire blue eyes Julija had ever seen. They were so intense she was fairly certain they could melt the panties right off a girl—or accuse her of being selfish beyond all things. When he looked at her directly, she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. She supposed from his perspective, she did look selfish. On the other hand, he didn’t know one single thing about her life.
    “Please continue. It doesn’t matter anyway.” Isai motioned in the air with his hand as if dismissing the entire conversation.
    Julija wanted to defend herself, but how? What could she say? She did know about lifemates and what that meant in the Carpathian world. Their world and their rules were far different than the human or mage world. She hadn’t wanted to save him, although she hadn’t thought of it in those terms. More like she wanted to save herself.
    “I can sometimes connect with others if their feelings are overpowering. A Carpathian hunter doesn’t feel his emotions, but they are still there—inside of him—sometimes all the stronger because he can’t let them out. I found myself caught in the mind of a Carpathian hunter who had searched the world over for his lifemate and like you, had gonecenturies looking for her. He found her, but she was dying of old age. She had never married, and by the time he got to her, she was in a nursing home and practically taking her last breath.”
    Just the memory made her so sad she wanted to cry. She pressed a hand over her aching heart. “He was unbelievable with her. So gentle. He held her and pressed kisses down her face. She couldn’t speak but she did open her eyes and look at him before she took her last breath. He took her with him and put her in the ground in some place that was sacred to him. It was a cave. The shadow cat that my brothers had bred was in that same cave.”
    “Could you tell what he was thinking?”
    His voice was strictly neutral, but for some reason, tension coiled in her. She was missing something important. “It’s more like I can feel what he’s feeling and when it gets intense then I see the images. I saw him become alert, but at the time, I didn’t know why. He had planned to stay