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Ferro winced inwardly. They had to tell the kid that he was being targeted by Cornel and Dorin. Sergey couldn’t think past getting Elisabeta back, but his two cousins were set on bringing Josef into their fold any way they could.

Tariq waved Josef toward a chair. “We have some things we have to go over with you, Josef. As you know, the Morrison Center for psychic research has become a front for the vampires to track possible lifemates for Carpathian males. They wanted to get to them before we could. They also found psychic males. They’re recruiting and using them as pawns. Some of the males have been hired to work in my club. Others are being turned into vampires and used as the first wave of their army against us, as you saw when they attacked the other night.”

Josef sat quietly, a feat Ferro hadn’t thought possible for the kid.

His brain is always assessing every possibility, Gary said. It never stops.

Elisabeta agreed. I do not think it is possible for him to slow his brain down. He tries to. When I was working on him, he tried not to think too much about what was happening to him or to the others, but he could not stop himself. He was especially upset with that first time, when he said things to Tariq. They were very unlike him. He went over and over the things he said in his mind to try to puzzle out why he had said them.

Ferro was gifted at reading others, and a young Carpathian should have been easy, but Josef held himself aloof, away from the others. Ferro could guess why. The boy was different and had been his entire life. He hadn’t lost his ability to feel emotions, and the opinions of others had to be hurtful. He often was the smartest one in the room but was overlooked because of his youth. He had to have been frustrated that no one listened to him. He’d learned to school his features into an expressionless mask when he was in the room with ancient hunters who most likely would look down on him. He wore his spiked colored hair and piercings as armor. All the while, he fought for his people in his own way.

The boy has courage. It was a high compliment coming from Sandu.

Ferro nodded his head. I agree. I do not want him walking into the lion’s den. No doubt he will volunteer to go to the club the moment Tariq informs him that Cornel hopes to lure him there with a woman and acquire him.

Gary, merged with the other ancients, gave the mental equivalent of shaking his head. We can’t take chances with him. He’s far too valuable to the Carpathian people. I gave my word to Mikhail that he would be safe. He gave his word to his adopted parents. They nearly lost him once before, and the prince doesn’t want to have to tell them again that Josef is in danger.

Ferro could well imagine that Josef was in a perpetual state of being in danger. The boy was slender but appearances were deceptive. A rod of steel ran through him. His devotion to the Carpathian people ran as deep as every warrior’s.

“Based on the intelligence Elisabeta has provided for us, we don’t believe Sergey is necessarily the mastermind behind the plot to bring Mikhail down. With his older brothers dead, we think Sergey’s cousins, Cornel and Dorin, are working behind the scenes to carry out the original plans. Both are gifted, as were the older Malinov brothers.” Tariq paused, his gaze sweeping around at the men and women sitting at the table in the room.

Josef followed his gaze and then came back to rest thoughtfully on the leader. “They’re planning a major bloodbath, aren’t they?” There was resignation in his voice. “It has to be a diversion. What are they really after?”

The boy was really too smart.

“Sergey hopes to lure Elisabeta there, and Cornel hopes to lure you.” Tariq was honest.

Traian shook his head. “Josef can’t go near that place.”