Skyler. In spite of the pain in his voice, Dimitri sounded commanding. He'd only used that voice on her a couple of times. Did you come after me on your own? Is Josef with you?
She had known this moment would come. She had hoped it would come much later. Pressing her lips together she nodded, even though he couldn't see the gesture.
We have a good plan. Once we free you, none of them can possibly harm us. She infused absolute confidence into her voice. She believed they could rescue him or she wouldn't have had Josef and Paul come with her. She would have come, but she wouldn't have involved them.
It's only getting those hooks closed off and the silver out of your body and then we're home free, she added. You know the Lycans can't defeat you.
Skyler, I want you to turn around and get out of here. I mean it. I'm not asking.
Even if you did ask, it wouldn't happen, Dimitri. I'm coming for you. I'm not the child everyone thinks, and you, better than most, know that. You're mine and these Lycans have no business trying to kill you.
Dimitri, in spite of the pain, and exhaustion, couldn't help the burst of amusement at Skyler's furious rant against the Lycans. She was unique. Special. His own personal miracle. So many people underestimated her. He loved the fire in her. He loved everything about her.
He was proud of her courage and tenacity, in spite of the fact that he wanted her out of danger. He didn't want her anywhere near the Lycans. He didn't trust what the wolves might do if they discovered she was working to free him. Still . . . how could he not feel elated and overwhelmed with her love, that she had dared such dangers to come for him?
He was a Carpathian male, an ancient hunter and his first instinct--his duty--was to protect his woman. Skyler was his other half, and to know that he had put her in danger was far worse to him than the seemingly endless pain he had endured.
You must leave. I cannot have you in danger and survive this.
There was that moment of silence that made his heart stutter. Had she spent too long trying to stop the silver from poisoning his system? Was she unconscious? Even though he knew she was much closer, the distance was still difficult. She had to use so much energy to bridge the void and then twice that to heal him.
He was well aware he couldn't push that poisoned silver from his body the way she had done it. She'd been meticulous, and more, everywhere the silver had burned through him, she'd soothed the terrible burns.
You cannot survive this without me and you know it.
Relief swept through him. She was weak. He could feel her energy level was very low, but she wasn't anywhere near the state she'd been in the last time.
I am grateful that you are removing the silver from my body. Once it is done, I can escape myself. You cannot come any closer.
She made a little sound in his mind, a hmph of annoyance. You cannot unwrap the chains that bind you. If you could, my love, you would have done so weeks ago.
Dimitri was beginning to feel a little desperate. She couldn't stay. He was helpless to aid her if she got into trouble. She was correct about the chains wrapped so tightly around his body. Had it not been for the unusually strong connection between them, he could never have reached out to Skyler. He had tried reaching his brother, Fen, but to no avail.
Sadly, I'm all you've got right now, Dimitri. The three of us. Josef and Paul will do whatever is necessary to help me set you free.
He loved her friends. He'd come to know them through her, and her love of them. The two boys were brothers to her, family, but they were boys, not men, not in the sense of warriors who were experienced in battle. They had no idea what they were facing, and how in the world could they possibly protect Skyler from a pack of Lycans?
He took a deep breath to try to keep still. The burn twisting through his body set him on fire. He could barely force his body to stay under his control, instead of moving continually in an effort to ease the never-ending agony bent on destroying him. He had to admit it was a medieval torture worthy of a Machiavellian punishment.
Skyler, I love you more than life itself. He told her the stark truth in a low, compelling tone. Compulsion wouldn't work on her, but he could use his best, loving persuasive voice. My brother, Fen, will come. He is already on his way. He spoke with absolute confidence. He knew Fen would come for him. I need to know you're safe. More than anything else, I need that. Stay where you are and continue to drive the silver from my body. That will buy the time my brother needs to find me. You can reach him and know the time it will take for him to reach me.
Skyler took her time mulling that over while his heart accelerated with fear for her. She gave a little sigh. The idea is to get in and get out without anyone knowing we are here. If I call to your brother, he will have no choice but to let my father know. Gabriel will come. With him will be Lucian. Maybe others. There could be a war just when Mikhail is trying to make peace with these cretins.
He knew she was right. Her family would come and there would be hell to pay. Worse, if the De La Cruz family found out Paul was with her, they would come, and there would be no stopping Zacarias if one hair was harmed on his nephew's head.
Skyler wasn't going to back down. Desperation set in. He was helpless, chained by silver, hanging in a tree with hooks in his body to slowly poison him. Moarta de argint. He couldn't save her if she was attacked.
How could he stop her? He didn't want her in the hands of the Lycans. Despair swept through him when even in his worst moments he hadn't considered, not for one moment, helping the silver to move through his body faster. He had known he could get the suffering over, but he would never leave Skyler alone, not if there was a chance. But to save her life . . .
Don't you dare even think about leaving me! Pure fury edged the trembling fear in her voice. If you choose to go, I will follow. I won't be understanding about it either, Dimitri. We have a pact, you and I, we made it a long time ago when everyone else wanted to decide our fate. We decide together. You. Me. Together.
I cannot stand the thought of you in danger.
It is only because you suffer . . .
Suffering does not matter. The silver does not matter. Death does not matter. You have no concept of what drives me. I cannot have you in danger.
Her voice changed completely. The fear and anger disappeared. Her tone was musical. Soft. Red velvet brushing over every inflamed nerve ending with a soothing touch. My love, no one, not even an ancient so courageous and strong as you could withstand the lack of sustenance. You need to feed. You have been chained for over two weeks, and you've suffered agonies no one else could have endured. The combination would drive anyone mad.
At times he had felt mad. His mind wandered. Before Skyler had come, he sometimes couldn't think clearly, but . . .
You have to trust me. I am your lifemate and I hold you close in my heart. You're the other half of my soul. Trust me to do this right.
The sad truth was--Skyler had a point. Days and nights ran together. He was left outside and at times he was helpless, caught in the Carpathian paralysis, yet unable to sleep. The sun beat down through the trees, nearly blinding him, burning his skin until he was blistered, but fortunately, the thick canopy--and his Lycan blood--kept him from the death most Carpathians feared.
The silver burned continuously, his insides on fire, his skin and bones feeling as though he was being scalded and scorched endlessly. Hunger beat at him, until he didn't know which was worse--the need for blood, or the ceaseless agony in his body. Now, all that meant little when he knew Skyler was in danger.
Dimitri. The way you feel about me . . . That is the way I feel about you. We belong together and I cannot go away and leave you alone like this. It would break my heart. I would rather risk everything on the chance of getting you back than know you are suffering and I did nothing.
Call Fen. He will come and I'll know you're safe.
He felt her sigh. She was worn. The edges of her mind were stretched thin. She was shivering with cold. He couldn't see where she was, but he could fee
l that much.
My love, you and I both know he will not get here in time. The silver was inches from your heart. Even now, I fear resting, afraid something will go wrong. Let me do this. For you. For us. Let me do this, Dimitri. I can do this.
There was no denying Skyler. He knew he was fighting a losing battle. Both of them needed to conserve strength.
Tell me your plan, sivamet.
He felt her love surrounding him. He tried to keep his body as still as possible, but the silver twisted through, burning along every nerve ending until he thought he might go mad. Before, in the darkness surrounding him during the endless days and nights, he had wanted to end it all, but the thought of what that would do to his lifemate kept him trying to be still to keep the poison from finding his heart. Now, with her love, with her courage, he felt lifted up. How could he not stay alive when he had a woman like Skyler fighting for him?
He felt her hesitation and found himself scowling. Skyler was no "yes" woman, and he loved that about her, but more than anything, he wanted her to be safe. His heart contracted painfully. She was going to do something she knew he would never approve of.
Josef has provided us with the best papers possible, three students conducting a study on wolves in the wild. He used your organization and we look very legitimate. The boys are setting up camp now. It should pass any inspection.
That tells me nothing.
It tells you we have planned this carefully. We don't want a war, we just want you safe and back with us. Tomorrow I'll go walking in the woods and get lost. I'm human. Someone will find me. One of the Lycans. I'll have a turned ankle, Josef is quite good at providing such things. The Lycan will escort me back to the camp if for no other reason than just to check out my story. I will plant a tracking device on him. That will lead us straight back to you.
Dimitri closed his eyes. It sounded so simple. Sometimes the best plans were the simplest, but Skyler would be in the deep forest, far from civilization, where real wolves and Lycans both inhabited the woods. Not all men were good--Lycan or human. Of all people, Skyler should know that.
He kept silent, knowing she did know. She had nightmares often. She was risking her life, along with her hard-won peace of mind and she had to be terrified, but she was doing it for him. The thought made him feel humble.
You would do the same for me.
He was an ancient warrior, she was so young and vulnerable. He could feel how exhausted she was. Under any circumstances, healing was difficult. Given the distance and the fact that she'd been drained of all energy the preceding night, he was surprised she could function at all. There was no use in arguing with her.
If anything goes wrong and you get in trouble, swear to me you will call for Gabriel. He capitulated, but his heart pounded and the silver twisted through his body that much faster. He could feel the burn worming its way through his rib cage.
Have no worries, my love, I will be shouting at the top of my lungs.
Skyler reassured her lifemate, honesty ringing in her voice.
I love you and that doesn't begin to describe what I feel for you. There were no words, Dimitri decided, that had ever been invented that could ever express the all-consuming love he felt for Skyler.
Please be safe, Dimitri. Stay very still. I'm with you, she whispered, tears burning in her eyes as the connection between them abruptly ended.
Skyler hated letting that thread between them go. He was so alone, in such bad shape, far worse than she could have ever imagined. Her Dimitri was so strong, so very powerful, it didn't seem possible that he could be a prisoner, tortured and near his life's end.
She felt tears on her face. She couldn't move, she was just too exhausted, but staring up at the canopy overhead as the branches swayed and danced to the music of the wind, she realized how lucky she was. Dimitri was alive. He was close enough that she could reach him and he could connect to her. They would find a way together.
"Sky, I'm going to give you a few minutes," Josef said, "and then you're going to have to try to eat something. We've got a lot of work ahead of us and you have to be in shape."
She nodded, content to lie in her hammock and listen to the sounds of the forest. The continual drone of the insects seemed familiar to her and yet not at all. Wings fluttered overhead as birds flitted from one tree to the next. Marmots scampered and mice infiltrated the vegetation on the forest floor. The forest was alive with life.
She turned her head to watch as Paul set up a safety zone. There were predators in the forest and, although they had Josef with them, they needed to prepare just in case. She lay in her hammock, thinking about their last line of defense, should everything go wrong. If they were discovered and the Lycans attacked them, it was up to her to provide a safe shelter for them all. Dimitri would be weak. If there was no time to give him blood and heal him, they would be tasked with finding a safe place they could defend while he went to ground to recover.
Paul strode over to her, holding a water bottle. "Here. Can you sit up?" He already had his arm around her back, helping her. "Drink this. We're nearly set up here. Josef has everything in order. Even our findings will stand up under scrutiny. I can't imagine that the Lycans won't buy our cover."
"Josef said the simplest plan was the best, and I think he's right," Skyler admitted. She had to lean against Paul to sit up enough to drink the water. "I'm so tired, all I want to do is sleep." She looked up at him, frowning. "He can't go to ground or get out of the sun. The last time, the distance was so great I couldn't see anything around him or even get a sense of what was happening to him. The pain was so awful, but this time . . ." She trailed off.
"He's strong," Paul assured her. "He'll survive."
"I know how very fortunate I am that he loves me. Knowing he didn't deliberately move and squirm to allow the silver to pierce his heart when he's been tortured all this time just to stay alive for me, is an amazing feeling. I don't know that I could have withstood that kind of agony as long as he has."
Skyler took another long, slow drink. The water felt good on her parched throat. Dimitri hadn't fed for over two weeks. What would that do to him? She looked around for Josef. He was busy with the fire pit. He'd always had a thing about fire.
"If Dimitri hasn't fed in a long while, Josef, what does that do?"
Josef turned slowly, the flames from the fire pit casting eerie shadows. "That's not good, Sky. He'll be starved. It's best that, when we rescue him, I give him my blood first, not you."
She didn't like the sound of that. Josef could be quite adult at times, and he sounded very serious--and concerned.
"Can you get up, Skyler?" Paul asked. "We've got a chair for you and the fire is warm."
"I don't know." That was dishonest. If she tried to stand, she'd fall on her face.
Paul scooped her up without asking, carrying her straight over to the fire and placing her in a chair facing it. "Josef remembered the marshmallows and chocolate," he added.
"Sounds fun," she replied.
Josef came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, putting his chin on the top of her head. "Do you think you're up for this tomorrow? Should we give it another day so that you can recoup?"
He was reluctant to wait, she heard it in his voice. She knew the chances of their plan succeeding went down the longer they waited. If a Lycan discovered their camp before she was "lost" their ploy wouldn't work. She doubted she could get close enough to plant a tracking device without their knowledge if she wasn't injured and needing help. They would have to find another way to track Dimitri back to his prison. She knew she could find him now, with the psychic trail becoming stronger, but it would take time and energy they clearly didn't have. And then there was Dimitri. Anything could happen on his end--and none of it was good.
"I'll be ready," she said. She took the mug of hot chocolate more to appease both of her friends than because she thought she'd drink it. "What I need is to let Mother Earth help heal me. Can you open the soil here for me t
o stretch out in?"
"Baby, you can't sleep in the ground," Josef said. "I can't cover you and you'd be vulnerable to any attack. Crazy woman, you aren't Carpathian yet."
She found herself laughing. "Crazy man, I meant just a few layers. I didn't plan to sleep there. The insect population alone would stop me."
"Worms," Paul added. "They crawl in and out of bodies . . ."
"The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out . . ." Josef quoted an old song children had sung to one another in play yards the world over.
"Stop," Skyler commanded. Just being in the company of her two best friends made her feel lighter. Safer. More grounded. "Eventually I'll be sleeping in the dirt, and I don't want to think about worms or any other bugs crawling over me."
She needed to feel her connection with Mother Earth if her fail-safe plan had any chance of success at all. She didn't want to talk about it yet, not until she was certain she could do it. Everything depended on what she learned there in that ancient forest soil.
Josef kissed the top of her head. "You really are a squeamish little baby sometimes, Sky. Dirt is not a dirty word. You said it with such distaste. Like a girl."
"I am a girl, you goof," Skyler pointed out. She looked down at the chocolate in the mug. Her stomach rebelled again. She was going to need Josef's aid again. "And no girl likes the idea of sleeping in the ground with insects. I am human, after all."
"You aren't exactly human," Josef said, letting go of her. "More like a trippy little alien. By the way, I forgot to tell you, I've really gotten far in that database of human psychics Dominic found in South America. I've gotten past the encryptions and I've figured out the code they were using for each person entered. I'm close to cracking the entire thing. If I do, I can give the names to Mikhail and those women can be protected from the human society trying to kill us, vampires, and anyone else hunting them."
Skyler's stomach lurched. An ugly knot had formed. She looked down and the mug was empty. "Thanks, Josef."
"For the chocolate or the 'trippy little alien' compliment?"
Paul snorted. "Is that what that was? A compliment? You're never going to make it with the ladies, Josef, if you don't get better at talking to them."
"I'm not wasting my swag on my sister here," Josef nudged her foot with his. "I do just fine with the ladies."
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