This is a crossover story involving the worlds of the Carpathians and Dark-Hunters. The authors, Christine Feehan and Sherrilyn Kenyon deserve the credit for the worlds and their characters. They are my inspiration for writing and I hope to thank them in person for helping me find my writing voice. All I ask is that my characters in this story are not stolen or used in any other story without my permission. I highly recommend reading both the Carpathian and Dark-Hunter series before reading this story. There are spoilers so you have been warned. Please read Dark as Midnight first as it is the first in the two part series. This story is not meant for those that cannot read violence, swearing, detailed battle sequences, gore, and other adult themes. E-mail me comments or leave one here. I welcome all, so long as they are not written in mean spirits.

Prologue

Ten years after the very end of Dark as Midnight

“Caitlin, get back here.” Aura told her daughter, pulling her back. “You are not to run from me while we are here. You are not to worry Uncle Darius the way you do.”

“I didn’t do anything, mom. I only ran after Tynan because he wanted to play tag. Why not yell at him?” Cait asked with a pout. Looking at her twin brother, she stuck her tongue out at him for getting her into trouble again.

“You know they can play all they want while they’re here.” Darius said with a smile seeing how big Cait and Tynan had gotten in the few years it had been since he had seen them last. “Come here both of you.”

“Uncle Darius!” Cait and Tynan said at the same time, running up to him and giving him a hug.

“We got big since last time didn’t we?” Cait asked, giggling when Darius gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“I grew a full foot since then.” Tynan said, trying to fix his hair after it had been messed up. “Cait’s just short now.”

“Am not! I’ll pass you up before you know it!” she argued going after her brother, tackling him to the ground “You lucky there aren’t any other boys we play with cause it’d look bad if your little sister could do this to you.”

“Caitlin off of me.” Tynan said pushing her off and running off to chase her around the property again.

“How long they been like that?” Darius asked with a huge smile. “You brag a lot about them being under control, but I don’t see it.”

“You saw them as babies and they do not behave like this at home.” Liam said, rubbing his lifemate’s shoulders. “What of Lucas? Does he not want to be seen once again?”

Darius’ smile disappeared and looked back at the house, “He doesn’t want to see anyone. He went to London tonight. There is a huge daimon problem there. He apologies once again for missing all of you. Although personally I think he just avoids seeing you because he is as bad as Aura was with the code.”

“Hey!”

“What other reason would he manage to leave town if he was not trying to avoid former friends?”

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Cait stopped when she saw a painting inside of the house through one of the windows and ended up getting tackled to the ground by her brother.

“Got you, Cait.” he said with a smile, but noticed she was looking at something. “You looking at that painting?”

She nodded, seeing that the window was too high for her to climb into, “You don’t think the window is locked do you?”

“I don’t think it would be. Not with only Uncle Darius being here.” he answered, getting up and helping his sister up to her feet. “Want to go in and take a peek? Just help me up so I can help you into the house.”

Cait tried to lift her brother up as high as she could, but he was heavy. Although this wasn’t the first time they had helped each other sneak in some place. They got into a lot more trouble than their parents and aunts and uncles knew about. It was boring having to go to school like human children and they couldn’t keep up with the stamina either one of them had. It came from the f act they were Carpathian.

Tynan climbed into the window and fell with a thud. Leaning out of the window, he put both of his hands down and helped pull Cait into the house. Both of them got up and went to look at the painting over the fireplace. It was of some man they had never seen before, but Cait felt like she knew from somewhere.

“You think that’s mom and dad’s friend we never see when we come here?” Tynan asked, looking at the picture.

“I think so. Dad doesn’t have pictures of Lucas laying around though does he?” she asked very curious to how she recognized this man. “I swear I seen him before, but I don’t know where.”

They both heard the door open and turned around to see that same man standing in the doorway and he didn’t look happy. Cait immediately hid behind her brother out of instinct and hid her face from view. Tynan did his best to make himself look as big as possible.

“Go back by your parents.” Lucas hissed at both children. “You were not to come in here and yet you disobey a simple rule. I do hope Liam punishes both of you for doing this.”

“Dad would never do that.” Cait said looking over Tynan’s shoulder at the guy. Her eyes looked over him, but kept behind her brother.

Lucas rolled his eyes at the little girl’s comment, but knew she was right. Liam would never strike his children or punish them at all. If anything these would be the two most spoiled children alive. He took both of their hands and took them through the house to take them back to their parents.

Cait frowned and pulled her hand away from Lucas, “I only wanted to see the picture and Tynan helped me so I could see it. You don’t have to be mean to us. We can find our own way back to mom and dad. You’re mean. Mom and dad come here all the time cause they want to see you and you make Uncle Darius lie.”

He had no idea what to say to this little girl. She had to get this from her mother. What was worse was that she was right. He let go of Tynan’s hand and knelt down in front of Cait, “Tell you what. You ask mom to see her book from when she was a Huntress and then you’ll understand. Now both of you go on out.”

She looked at him with sad eyes, then gave him a hug, “You shouldn’t be sad. You need to smile more like daddy does with us.”

Lucas watched her and her brother run off out the backdoor to make sure their parents didn’t know they had been inside. That had been the first time he had gotten a hug in the centuries since he had been murdered. That was the light of Carpathian woman, no matter how young they were. She’d make one beautiful lifemate one day.

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“Where did you two go?” Aura asked both of them, as they both gave their father a hug.

“Just running around.” Tynan answered.