A wolf managed to claw Gary’s arm as he raced past, leaving four long bloody furrows. Gary didn’t slow down or falter. He ran through the double line of wolves determined to get to Zev before the rogues killed him. The wolf got a second hold on him, spinning him around. Gary stabbed an arrow deep into the wolf’s thigh and broke free, jumping over a downed werewolf and putting on a burst of speed.
He’d broken through the double circle of rogues surrounding the elite hunter and now they were between him and the house.
Jubal let loose with the weapon on his wrist, a strange spinning very sharp tool. The edges of each of the four blades must have been tipped with silver because as the spinning blades struck a wolf, cutting through his arm, the veins in his body seemed to grow rigid and turn color on his skin.
Gary fired off two more arrows, downing two of the wolves in a fighting frenzy over Zev. “Can you get up?” he yelled.
Zev slammed a silver stake into the leg of the wolf pinning him down while the second rogue tore at his belly, determined to rip it open and yank out the insides. Zev threw himself away from the wolf, rather than covering his belly, sacrificing his body by giving the rogue time to rip him open, but giving himself the room to swing his sword, lopping off the wolf’s head.
Blood spurted from Zev’s belly and the wolves behind them seemed to go into a frenzy the moment they scented the weakness in the elite hunter. The headless wolf fell across Zev in a deliberate attempt to pin him to the ground as well as to protect his own heart from being staked.
Gary yanked the body away from Zev, slamming a patch over the deep laceration in Zev’s belly. Clearly the Carpathians were more prepared this time for the way the rogues fought. He followed the body of the headless wolf down to the ground, driving an arrow through the heart, using sheer strength fed by adrenaline.
The moment he bent over to punch the arrow deep, a rogue slammed into Gary’s back, driving him away from Zev and deeper into the front yard. The circle of wolves howled their approval and rushed the two men cutting them off from the house. Now that the three men were separated it would be easier to pick them off.
Zev staggered to his feet, found his sword still in his hand and was already in motion, flowing through the yard toward Gary, while Jubal fought with his strange weapon as well as a silver machete.
Tatijana saw Gary go down under the weight of several wolves and she dove fast, the dragon streaking down out of the sky, her touch delicate in spite of her size and speed. She blew a steady stream of flame across the werewolves’ backs as they bent, ripping, biting and tearing at Gary’s body. Zev swore—she heard him over the howling growls and screams of the burned rogues—as he fought his way toward Gary.
The rogues whose backs had been burned by Tatijana leapt away from the downed man, looking to the sky, more angry than hurt. She tried to pull up fast, knowing the giant leaps they were capable of. One leapt from ground to fence and then was nearly on her.
Out of the corner of her eye, Tatijana saw the dark-haired woman run with long, confident strides over the rooftop and leap to intercept the rogue in midair. She held a knife in one hand and a silver stake in the other. The werewolf and woman slammed into one another hard, the momentum helping to bury the stake deep in the chest of the wolf. He howled, falling, reaching for her, and the woman simply dissolved in the air.
Who are you? Tatijana asked as her dragon streaked for the clouds. And thanks, I’ve had my belly ripped open already by one. It’s no fun. I’m Tatijana.
Of course. Clearly she’d heard of Tatijana and Branislava. I’m Destiny, lifemate to Nicolae Von Shrieder.
Tatijana had met Vikirnoff Von Shrieder and his lifemate, Natalya. Natalya was related to Tatijana—she was Razvan’s sister and a Dragonseeker as well. She guessed Vikirnoff and Nicolae were brothers. Where one was, the other probably wasn’t far behind. She was grateful to see a woman like Destiny joining aggressively in the battle. Tatijana wasn’t a woman to stand by and let others do the fighting if it was necessary. She didn’t know a lot about the policies of the Carpathian people, but it had been impossible over the last two years when others brought blood to Branislava and to her not to become familiar with a few of them.
Can you tell how bad Gary is? From her vantage point, Tatijana’s dragon could usually see far better than any human or Carpathian, but there were so many wolves fighting around him, she couldn’t get a clear look at him.
I’m trying to get to him now, Destiny confirmed. These things are fast. If the Lycans hadn’t joined the fight, we’d be in real trouble. We only had a couple of men here to help defend the children. They hit us only a few minutes ago, but the casualties are high. If it wasn’t for the Lycans, especially the one they call Zev, we’d have a few losses.
They hit the farm at the same time and they targeted Gregori, Tatijana informed her.
Her dragon made another circle high above the combat zone. The fighting was furious in the front, with only Destiny, Zev, Gary and Jubal trying to combat the number of wolves. In the back, there were six Lycans battling a larger force of rogues.
Is Mikhail’s son in the house? Gregori’s daughters? Tatijana was worried the sheer number of rogues would overrun the small defenses they had.
No. Sara’s children. Sara is on bed rest and Gabrielle is there with her. Gabrielle and Shea are in the house to be the last line of defense for the children.
Vikirnoff and Natalya? They had to be somewhere close and yet they weren’t in the middle of the fray. Tatijana couldn’t imagine either of them sitting out a battle.
Destiny ducked under one of the beasts, slipped past another and got to Gary. She plunged a silver stake through the back of the wolf tearing at Gary’s insides. Crouching, she got an arm around his back. He was a mess, his belly ripped open and great chunks of flesh removed from his chest. Once the wolves got a victim down, they tore him apart. Gary made an effort to rise, but he had to clamp both hands over his open belly, and he’d lost so much blood so fast that he was weak. The blood made him slippery and trying to lift him was impossible. The patch didn’t begin to cover the mess.
“Come on,” Destiny hissed. “We’re not out of trouble here.”
They were ringed by snarling wolves. She was bleeding in dozens of places. Zev was in nearly as bad a shape as Gary, and Jubal couldn’t get past the wall of werewolves to get to them.
“Get out of here,” Gary urged. “You can make it through without me.”
“That’s not an option.” Destiny looked to the sky. Tatijana, flame these bastards. I’ve had enough of them. She raised her voice. “Jubal, Zev take cover now!”
With that, completely trusting Tatijana to do as she asked, she took Gary back to the ground. Before she could cover him, he was covering her, hands over her head, his body on hers, pinning her down.
“You’re crazy, you know that,” he whispered in her ear, laughter in his voice in spite of the pain he had to be in.
Without hesitation, both Jubal and Zev hit the ground. Jubal, still close to the porch, managed to roll partially beneath it. Zev went down where he was trusting several wolves would follow him to the ground, which they did, effectively covering his body.
The world around them erupted into flame as the dragon blasted out of the clouds, neck extended, wings creating a windstorm to help fan the white-hot flames as they burst in a steady stream from the dragon’s gaping maw to the ground below. Rogues, half wolf, half man, found fur and hair on fire, and dropped, rolling, desperate to try to put it out.
The temperature in the front yard went from crisp and cold to instant searing heat. The roar of the flames thundered in their ears. The wind rose to a fever pitch as the great wings fanned those flames so that they jumped from one rogue to the next. She hovered overhead another moment or two after she quit spraying fire, her enormous wings acting like bellows and then with a loud trumpet, she once more gained altitude.
“Now, now,” Destiny hissed. “This is our chance.”
Zev leapt to his feet and began slamming home silver stakes, heedless of the flames, uncaring of any injury to himself. Jubal rolled out from under the porch and followed his example, staking as many as possible.
“Use the sword,” Zev called out, tossing his sword to Jubal. “Any that’s been staked, sever the head.”
Jubal caught the sword easily with one hand and swung at the head of a rogue charging at him who had remained relatively unscathed.
Gary made a huge effort and rolled off of Destiny, coming up to his knees, careful to keep his hands over his ripped belly. The rogues were adept at their chosen fighting method—to incapacitate their opponent by eviscerating them. It took only seconds. Gary had saved Zev, but he hadn’t escaped the pack and their relentless, tireless thirst for blood and the kill.
Destiny didn’t think any of them had escaped. Every Carpathian and Lycan had very bad wounds. Once again she got her arm around Gary. He made a valiant effort and struggled to his feet, going completely pale, black blood pouring from his gut. She knew those signs, and they weren’t good. Gary obviously knew it as well, but he said nothing, breathing deep to try to make it through the burning yard, back to the house.
Gregori. We have great need, Destiny called to their healer on the common telepathic path. Gary won’t live out the hour if you cannot make it to us. No other has the skill to save him, not even Shea. She did not say that she doubted even Gregori could save him, but it was in her mind and he would know.
Zev moved with astonishing speed, so efficient and skilled at killing the rogues, Tatijana from above couldn’t help but watch him. He flowed through the yard, making his way toward Destiny and Gary, even as he cut down numerous wolves. Those wolves rolling to put the flames out were in danger from both Zev and Jubal. Jubal wasn’t waiting for the stakes—he sliced through bodies and then staked them as he went.
Tatijana’s dragon had turned the tide in the front yard. She circled back for another view of the furious fighting in the backyard. The wounds were severe. The largest group of wolves had attacked the backyard, probably because there was more cover, trees, brush and even a fence the wolves could use as springboards.
Zev, Gary and Jubal had taken on the entire pack in the front, while most of the Lycan elite hunters were defending the back. Destiny clearly floated between, lending her skills to either side, depending on who needed her the most.
Tatijana studied the scene below her, trying to find where she could come to the aid of the Lycans. The Carpathian woman was small, but she was a powerhouse, mixing it up with wolves, blood streaking her body. Some of the blood belonged to the enemy, but clearly she’d been bitten several times and those claws tore open great lacerations.
Tatijana couldn’t communicate with the Lycans, but she could with the Carpathian woman. This was Joie Trigovise, Traian’s lifemate and Jubal’s sister. Several times it had been Joie who had given blood to both Tatijana and Branislava as they healed their minds and bodies in the rich soil of the Carpathian Mountains.
Joie had a cap of thick glossy dark brown hair. Her features were strikingly beautiful, yet at times she blended in with her surroundings, so, like now, it was difficult to keep an eye on her.
If there is a way to get all the Lycans under shelter, I could flame the werewolves, Tatijana offered. It certainly turned the tide in the front.
Joie didn’t answer right away. She rolled beneath a wolf, slashing at the back of his knees as she gained the back porch, where it looked as if six or seven werewolves were tearing at the back door.
Tatijana heard a child scream, a high-pitched frightened sound and then another younger one began to cry. The pitch of the roof over the back porch prevented her from seeing exactly what was going on or how close the wolves were to breaking into the house, but the cries of the children made her heart pound and spurred her into action.
The female Lycan leapt the wooden railing of the house. “Over there.” She indicated the corner of the porch where three more of the rogues were rushing to gain access.
Her name is Daciana. She’s a heck of a fighter, Joie informed Tatijana as she angled her approach to intercept the three wolves hoping to break into the house with their other pack members.
Are they into the house already? If they were, it was time to let her dragon form go and get into the fray with Joie, Daciana and the other Lycans. The werewolf pack couldn’t be allowed to breach the house and get to the children.
Tatijana knew Shea, Jacques’s lifemate, was inside. She was a doctor, a healer, not a fighter, but she would defend the children. Joie’s sister Gabrielle was in the house as well. She was a researcher, not someone who engaged in battles, but she would fight fiercely to protect the children. Sara had to be inside, Falcon’s lifemate. They had adopted these children and Sara was pregnant with a child. She’d miscarried her first pregnancy and was on bed rest with this one, but no doubt she would fight with the others in spite of everything.
Stay in the sky, Joie said, clearly reading her concerns. “Daciana, we’ve got a dragon on our side. If we can drive these wolves back into the open and get our people under shelter, Tatijana will flame them.”
Daciana glanced upward toward the dragon circling above them. As she did, one of the werewolves leapt from the railing of the porch up to the roof and launched himself skyward at the exposed underbelly of the dragon.
Oh no you don’t. Tatijana hissed the words in her mind.
She’d had her belly ripped open once and wasn’t about to have it happen again. As the wolf rose, his claws outstretched, she swung her neck around, using her wedged-shaped head as a bat to knock him away from her. He sailed end over end into the canopy of the trees several yards away from the house. He landed hard, snarling, raging and grasping at the branches to keep from falling.
He yelled threats at her, shook his fist and began climbing down fast as she swooped over his head. Tatijana knew it was reckless of her, but even inside the dragon’s body, she felt the rush of adrenaline. The little scream of a child, the sound of crying, had gotten to her as the blood and wounds hadn’t.
The werewolf reversed direction with astonishing speed. She didn’t even see him, just the furious shaking of the branches as he rushed back up the tree to the very top of the canopy and flung himself at her a second time. His claws hooked in the dragon’s softer belly just as Zev came over the top of the roof. Tatijana could see the Lycan moving as if he didn’t have a hundred deep lacerations, as if his belly hadn’t been sliced open. He flowed over the peaked roof, his eyes nearly glowing, the metallic gray color so intense they could have been gems.
He never took his gaze from the rogue attacking her, never looked down to make certain his footing on the pitched roof was solid. His eyes were penetrating, piercing, totally intimidating and unblinking, fixed on his prey. He launched the silver stake. It spun through the early morning light, gleaming, spiraling, rocketing toward its target.
Zev continued running over the roof even as he threw the stake, down the other side and then dropping into the backyard. He landed in a crouch right in the middle of the swarm of werewolves, sword in hand, already drawing another stake from his belt.
The stake spinning through the air flew straight and true, slamming deep into the chest of the rogue clawing at the dragon’s soft underbelly, driving through the heart. The wolf went rigid, dropping like a stone from the sky. Droplets of blood followed him down from where he’d torn the dragon open.
Zev fought his way through the wall of werewolves to get to two of his hunters who were fighting back to back, ringed by the rogues. Both were slashed, bitten and wounded, but neither wavered for an instant. Zev joined them.
“Work your way back to the house,” Daciana called to them.
Daciana and Joie cut between the wolves and the back door, each coming in fro
m a different side, presenting a united front and a barrier to the entrance of the house. Destiny burst out of the back door, joining them. She was covered in blood.
Joie frowned. “You all right?”
“It’s mostly Gary’s. He’s in bad shape. I called in Gregori, but I doubt he’ll get here in time.” Destiny’s voice was grim. “Shea’s doing what she can.”
The wolf directly in front of her leapt over her, crashing into a window, shattering the glass. A child’s wail came from somewhere inside. Daciana leapt after the rogue, landing on his back, driving him down to the ground. He was strong, pushing himself up fast with both hands and legs, trying to shake her off of him.
“To the house,” Zev directed his hunters.
“Lykaon is down,” Daciana yelled. “North corner.”
Zev and the two other hunters with him aggressively began fighting their way to their fallen brethren. The other two Lycans both made their way toward the corner as well. Lykaon was on the ground, more dead than alive.
Tatijana could see blood spraying into the air and three wolves tearing at the body. Frustrated, she circled again. If the Lycans would just get to the porch, she knew she could lay down a stream of flames that would take the fight out of the remaining wolves. As hard as they fought, the pack kept the hunters back from their downed comrade.
Tatijana couldn’t stand it. She wasn’t going to sit up safe in the sky while one of the Lycan fighters was being torn apart or eaten alive right under her nose. She dove fast, folding her wings close to her body and sped toward the yard. Trees were close and she was forced to shift to tiny molecules and streak down to the fallen Lycan.
She shifted again just before she landed, her dragon breathing a steady stream of red-orange flames to clear out the wolves as she hovered just above Lykaon. The wolves tearing at him caught fire. The scent of burnt flesh and fur filled the air.
Tatijana was extremely vulnerable on the ground. The moment the wolves were off the body, she gathered the fallen warrior in her front talons and took to the air with him. A dozen rogues leapt at her. Most hit her scales and dropped off, but one flung himself onto her back and sank teeth into her neck—or tried to—the spikes and scales prevented him from harming her.
Dark Lycan (Carpathian) Page 20