Lorraine pressed her fingers to her eyes. She was trying to make Adam and Herman into decent people. She needed them to be decent. They changed their minds. Sometimes something sounds as if it could be good, but then when you’re actually in the moment you realize it’s all wrong. People aren’t perfect, Andor.
He leaned down to brush a kiss across her lips. Her heart fluttered alarmingly. She blinked up at him, and he shook his head. I am not passing judgment on humans for weaknesses, Lorraine. I am very cognizant of the fact that you are holding your brother close to your heart and it hurts that so many think of him as a monster. I do not. I do not think these men are monsters. The fact remains, they were here to harm my woman. They will not get close enough to you to do so again.
She was all right with that. She nodded to show she was in complete agreement. “What will happen to them?” She whispered it aloud, afraid the way the intimacy of his voice brushing strokes of velvet along the walls of her mind persuaded her that Andor was right in all things.
“We will take them to the compound and Tariq will decide. He has a couple of other human psychics who worked for Vadim now working for him. They are invaluable in that they recognize other men who have aligned themselves with Sergey. They also have a wealth of memories to tap into.” He glanced up at the surrounding trees, and Lorraine followed his gaze. Several crows watched with beady round eyes. “Why are we delaying?”
“Isai is not back as of yet,” Ferro said. “I reached out to him, but he has not answered. I fear he has run into problems.”
Lorraine caught Adam’s head movement as he turned toward Herman. She narrowed her gaze on them and stepped closer, in spite of Andor’s restraining hands. “What do you know about Isai’s disappearance?”
Herman started to shake his head, and she glared at him. “If you lie, they all will know you do. Your master planned for you both to die hideous deaths. You failed in your mission and now he’s going to be looking to hurt you both before you die. He’s like that. So spill it. Where is Isai?”
Adam shrugged his shoulders. “If he went hunting to the east, a trap was set up to kill one of these men. A campground with a family of five.”
Her heart caught in her throat. Instinctively she reached out to catch at Andor’s arm to steady herself. “You mean children? You knew Sergey was going to use children to bait a trap for a hunter?”
Again, Adam shrugged, and she wanted to hit him. She took another step toward him and Andor circled her waist with his arm, locking her against him. “You wanted it that much? You would exchange the lives of children for your ticket to immortality?”
“For power,” Andor corrected. “For having the power of life and death over others. You chose death for those children and our brother. The thing you might remember, both of you, is that hunters do not die so easily.” He turned to the others. “Reach for Isai collectively. All the brethren have exchanged blood with him. We do not need his voice to find him.”
“Why would he choose not to send for you or answer you?” Lorraine asked.
“He knows that is expected and they have readied the playing field. They have the advantage when they have set the battleground.”
“Then we need to change it up and do the unexpected.” That was a direct quote from her father. When an opponent had had the advantage, and known what one of them was going to do, known how they preferred to fight, her father had always told them to “change it up and do the unexpected.” This situation called for just that.
You are thinking of using yourself as bait again. Andor made it an accusation.
Ferro moved out into the wider meadow, just to one side of where Andor had been so wounded. She couldn’t help but stare at him, knowing he was going to do something huge. Something wonderful. Something terrible. She held her breath.
He shifted. One moment, there was a tall man with long flowing hair down to his waist and the next a giant rust-colored dragon. The dragon was magnificent, very beautiful, its scales gleaming in the moonlight. He stretched his neck long and lowered a wing. Beside her, Andor sighed while the two human males gaped.
Show-off. Andor whispered it under his breath and into his mind.
He tugged at Lorraine’s hand. She was fairly certain she was gaping right along with Adam and Herman. Still, she went with Andor right up to the enormous dragon. Even having seen Ferro shift and knowing it was him, she was apprehensive and more than a little awed. She tentatively touched the scales. They were cool to the touch, hard, but silky smooth, even over the raised bumps she felt within each scale.
The dragon’s color was unique, like hematite iron ore, red with grayish overtones—or the opposite, like now, when they were more red than gray. Ferro’s eyes were the same color. Like flames burning deep under the surface. The dragon’s body looked very much as if a fire burned beneath the scales, the orange and red flames showing through.
Andor climbed onto the extended wing and reached a hand back to help her up. She took a breath and then let him clasp her wrist and pull as she stepped up. Does it hurt to have us walk on you, Ferro?
That is an absurd question.
She laughed. In spite of the tension, her anxiety over the two human men and what was going to happen to them, and the fact that Ferro had just become a dragon, which made her feel a little faint, he was still Ferro.
Andor settled her in front of him on the neck of the mythical creature. She glanced back at her pack and the two men. “I don’t want to lose my parents’ or my brother’s things.” That was a very real fear.
“They will be transported to the compound,” he assured.
Ferro began to flap the giant wings, hopping for a moment on his back legs, and then he was in the sky with a surge of power she felt rumbling beneath her. Once in the cool night air, they began to climb. She clutched the dragon’s neck and pressed back into Andor, her heart accelerating rapidly. It was crazy. Amazing. Impossible. It was a dream come true and a nightmare of insanity. More and more, she was being drawn into the complexity and fantasy of a world she’d never conceived of.
Had Lorraine been the type of woman to read fantasy and go to that type of movie, she might have thought that the trauma of her family’s demise had thrown her deep into her mind and taken her somewhere else, a place she didn’t have to deal with their deaths and the repercussions of how they’d died. But she wasn’t that woman. She’d always been practical. She wouldn’t have believed in the existence of vampires or dragons in a million years.
She tipped her head back to look at the stars as they circled the camp below them. Even up so high, the lights seemed far away, sparkling like diamonds scattered across the deep blue sky. She looked down. One by one, the others shifted, taking the form of dragons, the two human men on the back of what looked like maybe Dragomir.
Ferro led the way. Andor had taken the coordinates of the campground from the minds of Adam and Herman; the humans had set up camp some miles from where Lorraine had been. Below her, she could see the canopy of the forest, trees lifting their limbs toward the sky. Ferro dipped low and set down beside a small lake, shifting the moment Andor and Lorraine leapt from his wing.
Andor had jumped off and then lifted his arms to Lorraine. She didn’t hesitate, landing safe against his chest. If he winced on impact, she didn’t feel it, but she did feel bad that she hadn’t considered it might not be the best idea, jumping on him. For a few minutes, while they were flying through the air, she’d felt elated. Happy. The problems facing them had dropped away with the earth and left her feeling every touch of the wind, seeing every beauty the night provided. The stars overhead had sparkled brighter, and the lake below them had looked like crystal glass, still and untouched. Perfect.
I wanted to show you my night. There is so much more, sívamet. So many beautiful things that in one lifetime it is impossible to see them all. I want to travel with you, take you to places no other has yet
discovered. Caves of crystals. Pools of fresh, untouched water. So much. This will be over soon and we will explore.
Lorraine knew that “soon” to a Carpathian was very relative. They lived several human lifetimes so “soon” might be the span of an entire human life cycle. Still, she wanted to see those things with him. She knew every minute in his company, in spite of the dangers, brought her steps closer to choosing to be in his world with him.
They moved into the shelter of the trees. Ferro shifted a second time, going from the gigantic dragon to a much smaller bird. He chose a crow, and she knew immediately he planned to spy using its sharp eyes and his own acute senses. He took to the air. Several of the others followed, each going in a different direction.
The moment Dragomir’s dragon claws gripped earth, he shifted, dumping both Adam and Herman onto the ground. Instantly, they were whisked into the trees, and sat frozen, unable to move or speak. She didn’t protest. There were children’s lives at stake.
The camp is through the trees east of you. There is a meadow right beside the stream running into the lake. They are there. I smell the taint of vampire, and the grass is brown all around the camp area. Flowers are wilted there as well, Ferro reported.
I believe there is at least one master vampire orchestrating and running this battle, Gary added. He is hidden in the trees, one of two trees. Isai is on the ground not far from the camp. I touched his mind. He has shut down heart and lungs to keep from bleeding out. That was all that was left as a message for us. That and the name Farmington. Does that mean anything to you?
I came across his kills more than two centuries ago, Sandu said. He is very bloodthirsty and likes to make his victims suffer. He called himself Benard Farmington. He liked the name because he stole it from a family of victims. He had been particularly brutal with them.
Lorraine closed her eyes. She couldn’t think of this vampire surviving so long. She knew he’d survived on the blood of human victims.
Carpathians as well, Andor reminded.
Isai wouldn’t have been wounded so severely by lesser vampires, even a group of them attacking him. He was wounded so badly he’d been forced to shut down his heart, just as Andor should have done but couldn’t once she was with him.
Gary, can he be saved? She asked the question she knew none of the others would ask. They were logical about life or death. Either one lived or one died. Worrying didn’t make things better.
I believe so. Gary gave her the human answer.
Lorraine took a deep breath and nodded. Thank you. Can you see the children?
I caught a glimpse of them when the flap was raised, Sandu said. Two boys and a girl. The boys appear to be ten and eleven or so. The girl is more like five. They are very scared and subdued.
Lorraine glanced toward Adam and Herman. She wanted to punch them. Hard. It wasn’t their fault that the family was in danger, but neither of the men, although they’d acted like they’d had a change of heart, had warned the ancients of the danger.
They were hedging their bets. If we lost the battle, they could tell Sergey how loyal they were. If we won, they could fall back on the fact that they didn’t want to invite the puppet into the circle of safety.
I’m beginning to think they were more worried about the puppet eating them alive than giving me to it.
I believe you are correct.
She wished she’d kicked Adam a little harder. Andor took her hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing her knuckles. His lips felt cool and firm against her skin.
“Let us start this. Everyone is in position.”
“How many are there?”
“The brethren counted six pawns. Four underlings and, of course, the master vampire.”
Lorraine stopped in her tracks. “Oh my God, Andor. That’s eleven of them. Eleven. How can we fight so many and protect the campers at the same time?”
Andor put his hand gently over hers. “Take a breath, Lorraine. You know how to do this. You have been trained from the time you were a child to fight opponents larger and stronger than you, some even better equipped than you. We will win because we have no choice. That is what you tell yourself. If we fail, those monsters will kill those children. That is unacceptable.”
She nodded. She knew Andor, like the other Carpathian males, had assessed their chances and knew, with him so wounded and now Isai injured, they would need everyone to aid them. They wanted to win quickly and decisively. The longer the battle raged, the more the odds swung in the favor of the vampires.
“Are you ready?” Andor prompted.
“Yes.”
“If they have a child hostage and try to get you to give up your weapons, the only thing possible to do, Lorraine, is to attack. Giving up your weapons will not save the child. More than likely, they will kill a hostage in front of you after you have complied. I have seen it happen century after century. Vampires live for torture of any kind. They know women, in particular, are very sentimental when it comes to children. Oftentimes it is an illusion that they have a child in their custody.”
“In this case, we know they do have them.” She wanted to be clear on that.
He nodded. “You have to be ready for that tactic. If you do not think you can hold out, you must stay here and allow me to go to them alone.”
“That’s not happening, so just forget it,” she said. “I can do this if you can.” Deliberately, she poured confidence into her tone, when she didn’t feel it.
Ferro will battle the master vampire. Sandu and Dragomir will take on the stronger of the rest. There are four, I believe. Gary, Lorraine and I will destroy the lesser vampires, Andor clarified to all of them. Gary, we will need your healing abilities and your knowledge of humans to work with this family.
I understand.
It was the logical thing to do, Lorraine knew. Each of them had a job to do. Gary was the best at healing and they would need him for Isai, and most likely others. Andor held out his hand to her and she put hers in it, feeling his fingers close around hers, enveloping her smaller hand. Instantly, she felt his strength and that gave her the confidence she needed.
They began their walk through the trees, avoiding the small rolling slope where Isai lay so quietly. They strolled, murmuring to each other, knowing that they were being watched.
“Do I have other family members of yours to meet to get their approval?” she asked.
“The brethren are my family. Dragomir, Isai, Sandu, Ferro and three others you haven’t met as of yet. Fane, who has found his lifemate. We hope to get them to relocate with us. Petru, who is at the compound guarding Tariq, along with Benedek. There were eight of us who stayed there over the years. Several others joined and then left, but these men are my core family.”
She sent him a small smile. “Lots of family, then. And intimidating.”
“They would never harm you, sívamet. They might, however, tell you what to do.”
She laughed, keeping her voice very soft. It took effort not to look around her. The forest felt different. She’d spent a great deal of her life camping. Every summer, her family had camped. Often, during the winter. Her father had liked the wide-open spaces and had also wanted Theodore and Lorraine to be prepared to survive in any type of weather.
She felt at home in the forest, or just about anywhere outdoors. Now, there was a different feel altogether. A frisson of dread crept down her spine. Fear settled in the pit of her stomach. Nothing felt the same, not the birds moving from branch to branch, or the ground beneath her feet. There seemed to be an inordinate number of flying insects.
Squirrels chattered at them in alarm. Little lizards scrambled up the trunks of trees, and snakes slithered through leaves and vegetation on the ground. Andor didn’t appear to notice. He kept walking, and she took her cue from him. Still, it wasn’t difficult to see the way fronds curled back, brown and withered. The way the carpet of g
rass that should have been green was as shriveled as the older leaves and needles on the ground. Trees wept black tears of sap that ran down their trunks and pooled in tarry collections at their roots.
Lorraine found herself holding her breath, trying not to breathe in the noxious air. There was a heaviness to it, a tainted smell, much like rotting eggs—or meat. Her heart skipped a beat.
Do you think they have another puppet waiting? Scaring that family?
He glanced down at her sharply. Why would you ask that? What are you thinking?
I smell one. I can barely breathe with that scent so strong, and it’s getting worse.
Andor inhaled. I scent vampire. They are rotten inside and out. Their bodies are decaying. That is what you smell, but that is not to say they haven’t created another puppet. It is possible.
She didn’t like the way he glanced away from her. He knew there was a puppet close by. If she could tell by the horrible stench, then he could as well. Why don’t you want me to know for certain? I don’t like you trying to deceive me.
I do not know for certain, he protested. No one has caught sight of a puppet, and they are difficult to hide. Still, the odor has permeated the entire area, so I suspect there may be a second one. Or the first was held nearby for some time before being sent to you.
Lorraine’s stomach lurched. She’d rather face a vampire than the puppet. Knowing all along that it had once been human sickened her. Knowing that it wanted to feed on the blood and flesh of another human being horrified her. “Is anyone watching Adam and Herman?”
He nodded. “Ferro sent sentries, animals, to watch over them. We are all needed.”
She had to be satisfied with that. If the master vampire knew they were close—and, of course, he did—he might send someone or something to kill them. As long as they were alive, they might be of use to the Carpathians.
Did Ferro question them?
Of course he did. He extracted a tremendous amount of information from both of them. That was how we knew they were more concerned for their own lives than yours.
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