He felt Tatijana’s relief. She poured into his mind just for a moment, letting him feel her love before she quickly turned back to her job. Fen eased across the distance separating them until he was beside Zev.
“The others will have to use their swords to cut off their heads. I’m not hacking them off with my knife.”
Zev grinned at him. “What a wuss. All this time I thought you were so tough you carried a spare knife in your teeth just for hacking off heads.” He signaled the pack forward again.
“I trust you have a plan for entering that cave,” Fen said.
“Not exactly. I thought we’d let them come to us.”
Fen raised his eyebrow.
“That blue dragon up there came up with an idea and sent it to me through Branislava. She thought it might be fun to fill the cave with insects. The biting kind. If you’ve got your eye on her, Fen, you might reconsider. She’s intelligent and has sass. You’re old enough to know to stay away from that kind of woman.”
“Not a bad plan,” Fen agreed. His lady did have sass. You could have shared your plan with me.
I had to give Bronnie something real to distract him. He’s too smart for anything else. In any case, I didn’t want you charging in there. You and Dimitri seem to get into trouble every time I turn around. I’m in your mind, wolf man. You planned on leading the charge, didn’t you?
He shared his amusement with her. I’m faster.
You’ve been fighting other people’s battles for too long, Fen, and you can’t stop. You use your body as a shield for the others, and Dimitri is just like you.
That much was true. Dimitri was more like him than he wanted his brother to be. Dimitri was fearless in a fight. Fen would rather have him than any other at his back.
Zev signaled his pack to move forward into place. He nodded to Fen.
We’re ready down here. Do you want to do the honors, my lady? Or should I? he teased, already knowing her answer.
I lived in a cave my entire life, wolf man. I know insects. And what I don’t know I can imagine, Tatijana added with a little laugh.
The wind drifted over them, a soft, gentle touch that sent a ripple through the leaves around them. Above them, the clouds changed shapes as they lazily floated across the dark sky. A slapping sound suddenly disrupted the silence of the night. Inside the cave, a muffled yell, quickly silenced, was heard.
Suddenly at the entrance, men in various stages of shifting began pouring out of the cave, nearly falling over one another, slapping at their clothes and fur. Two stumbled and fell, creating chaos for those still inside. The two downed werewolves were trampled as those inside, desperate to vacate, simply ran over them. Swarms of red ants covered their bodies so that they looked as if their clothes and skin were alive and moving.
That woman is a terror, Zev observed, hardly able to contain his laughter. We may as well go home and let her handle this.
Fen couldn’t help but find the situation amusing. His lady did have a scary imagination, sending revved-up fire ants swarming over the werewolves. Make certain none of us get bit, he warned her.
Don’t be such a baby. She gave a little sniff of disdain, but he felt her laughter. She did have a nasty little sense of humor.
I believe in retaliation, he warned, although his threat was an empty one and they both knew it.
Tatijana laughed softly and he felt her fingers brush down the side of his face.
I brought them out of there, now it’s your turn. And check on your brother, after. Something’s not right.
What does that mean?
If I knew I wouldn’t have said to check on him. Again there was that soft laughter.
Fen shook his head, but he did locate his brother. Dimitri appeared to be like the rest of them, waiting for Zev’s signal to move in on the werewolves. He touched Dimitri’s mind, just to assure himself. Dimitri blocked a merge with him, shocking him, but he turned his head toward Fen and gave him a thumbs-up.
Fen sighed. He couldn’t worry about Dimitri in the middle of a battle with rogues. Fen counted fourteen werewolves exiting the cave. If the Sange rau were breaking the larger pack into smaller units, their numbers were definitely depleted. The units before had been much bigger, twenty-five or thirty.
Zev signaled the hunters forward. They had formed a loose semicircle around the entrance and they went at the werewolves, springing out of the brush to attack. Fen moved fast, using the silver stakes as quickly as possible, wanting to get it over with. It felt like a massacre, the screams and blood and smell of death.
He’d had several lifetimes of hunting and destroying those preying on others. He knew it was the only thing they could do, but it still was difficult at times. The rogues were caught unawares and only a handful managed to fight back. The elite hunters used silver swords to remove the heads before the bodies were gathered and burned. The scent of burning fur and flesh made him feel sick.
Tatijana, did you find any trace of Abel or Bardolf? he asked to distract himself.
Well . . . she hesitated, clearly unsure. When I was flying around the mountain of mist, I felt a sudden shiver, an awareness of danger. It was there for just a moment, but it occurred to me that one of them, or both, could be holed up there. The mountain is above the one where the prince resides and it is possible someone could spy on him from up there. But, Fen, honestly, I don’t know, it was just a weird, scary feeling.
“Zev, Tatijana is going to land and pick me up. She may have found the lair of the Sange rau. I’d like to take Dimitri and check it out,” Fen said.
Zev looked up at that sky. He could see the blue dragon circling above them. “I’ll never get used to that sight. It’s amazing. Dragons.” For a moment he searched the sky, and Fen was fairly certain he was looking for the fiery red dragon. Zev sighed. “I can’t stop you, Fen, but you and I both know, even two of you have little chance of killing one of them. If they’re together . . .”
“I doubt they’ll be together. Vampires don’t trust one another that much. It just doesn’t seem to me like they’d share resting quarters.”
“You’ve got the best instincts I’ve ever seen for hunting them,” Zev said, “and you certainly know more than I do about fighting one. You’ve clearly had more experience, just don’t get yourself killed.”
Fen nodded. “Good luck hunting the other packs. I’ll join you if nothing comes of this.”
Dimitri, let’s go hunting. I’ve had enough of these rogues and their masters invading our homeland.
I was just waiting for you.
Shift to a dragon and I’ll go up with you. Once we’re out of sight, I can stop this pretense. We have to find them, Dimitri. I have a sense of urgency growing in me. I can feel a real battle coming.
Dimitri made his way to a small clearing and shifted without preamble, changing to the form of a dragon, politely extending his wing to his brother. Fen climbed up to the dragon’s back, settling himself before giving the go-ahead. Dimitri was never showy. His dragon was brown, but the spikes were razor-sharp. Beside the red and blue dragons, he looked drab and could be easily overlooked.
Fen knew that was Dimitri’s way. He was nearly always quiet, rarely putting in his opinion, but he was lethal and his dragon would be as well.
Tell me what’s going on with you, Dimitri.
Dimitri’s dragon stayed close to Tatijana as they winged their way through the night sky. Fen, the wolf is present. He’s strong. Very strong. He’s been with me a long time now. He spoke abruptly, without any warning, dropping the bombshell into Fen’s mind.
Fen let out his breath in a little rush. He’d known all along that his brother was well on his way to becoming what he was. Still, the wolf’s presence was undeniable.
He’ll protect you. The more you work with him, the faster you’ll merge, Dimitri.
Long before we came here, I had
already felt him rising. Now, though, he’s different, as if we’re becoming one. All those years we hunted together. You giving me blood. Me using some of the Lycans for a food source when we were hunting with a pack. It never bothered me. I wasn’t afraid of the Lycans hunting me. I figured I could go to ground the way you do.
But now you realize it might not be such a good thing. Fen had realized the same thing some time ago, but he’d suspected it was too late for his brother. A male who spent lifetimes killing and living in darkness was extremely susceptible to the pull of the Sange rau, more so he thought than the Carpathian to the vampire.
There’s Skyler.
There it was. Fen had wrestled with that very problem. Did one have the right to expose his lifemate to such a thing when there was no data on a Carpathian/Lycan cross? The more questions that had been brought up, the less of an answer he had. He’d been selfish giving in to Tatijana’s demands. He had wanted to be persuaded, and he’d let her seduce him into it.
On the other hand, Dimitri would not survive without Skyler. Now, more than ever, he needed her.
I’m sorry I got you into this, Dimitri. Centuries ago, he hadn’t a clue what caused the change, although even then he’d suspected. He should never have gone to Dimitri, but the fight to stay honorable had become nearly impossible.
I went into it with my eyes open. You explained even then what the danger was in exchanging blood. I have to talk to Skyler about this, but before I do, I have to figure a few things out.
Don’t make her decision for her. Tatijana was adamant that she had the right to make her own choice, and I have to believe that’s true.
Skyler’s young.
But she’s powerful. And intelligent. Your instinct is to protect her, but don’t just discount her because of her human age. She’s not yet Carpathian . . . Fen broke off.
There was the real dilemma. Fen hadn’t even considered the real problem. Skyler wasn’t Carpathian. She was human. She hadn’t been converted. If Dimitri converted her with his mixed blood, what would happen? Could he even convert her? Would it work? They didn’t have an answer to that question. As far as they knew, it hadn’t been done.
Now you see.
Still, there are ways around that. Gabriel or Francesca? Fen suggested her parents. He knew even as he made the suggestion that it wouldn’t work. If Gabriel was already insisting Dimitri couldn’t claim Skyler until she was much older, he would never aid Dimitri into bringing his daughter into an unknown, uncertain world. Okay, not either of them, but someone will help us. Perhaps Bronnie. She’s Dragonseeker and I know Skyler has Dragonseeker blood in her. Isn’t her birth father Razvan?
That would be a possibility. There was a grain of hope in Dimitri’s voice.
There’s always a solution, Dimitri. When you’re too close to the problem and it involves someone you care about . . .
Love, Dimitri corrected. I love her with everything in me. I’d rather meet the dawn then expose her to something dangerous.
I hate to be the one to tell you: she was exposed to danger long before you knew she was your lifemate. The moment Gabriel and Francesca adopted her, they brought her into our world. Fen frowned. How did you manage to hold silver with the wolf already in you?
I burned my palm the first time I tried to use it, so I just coated my hands. That way Zev and the others wouldn’t suspect anything.
That was Dimitri. Smart. No fuss.
We’re making the approach, Tatijana warned. Do you want to change shapes just in case? We’re very close to where I felt the warning.
17
Fen touched Tatijana’s mind. She didn’t know. Didn’t realize. The dragon had flown high into the misty clouds surrounding the upper part of the mountain. The dread was there, a feeling of revulsion, the need to leave. Tatijana had spent her life deep under this very mountain, in the ice caves of her father, Xavier, the high mage. She had never seen the outside of the mountain, only the inside. The mage spells were still intact and working to keep every species away from Xavier’s laboratories.
He signaled to her to take her dragon to the ground. Dimitri, you know what this place is, right? The ice caves where she was held are below.
I knew that, but how did you know?
In the old days, Xavier was considered a friend to the Carpathian people. We all studied with him. That was how we first began weaving safeguards. I studied with him for years. No one had any inkling he was plotting against us, Fen explained.
I’m only a century behind you. I studied with him as well, Dimitri said. It was shortly after that he kidnapped Rhiannon of the Dragonseekers and killed her lifemate. Of course we didn’t know Xavier had committed such treachery for some time.
Dimitri settled his dragon beside Tatijana’s and Fen leapt off, landing in a crouch.
I cannot imagine Abel choosing to set up a lair in the caves of Xavier.
What of Bardolf. Although . . . do you think Bardolf would have been affected by the warning emanating from the mist? He would have no idea just how dangerous that entire labyrinth of caves really is.
Dimitri shifted into his own form as did Tatijana. Fen went to her immediately and put his arm around her. He leaned in to brush a kiss over the top of her head.
“Did you feel it?” she asked.
“Tatijana, there is every possibility that Bardolf might have chosen those caves to retreat into. Look at the mountain. Really look at it. Those caves were your prison for centuries.” He held her while he delivered the blow, his mind firmly in hers.
For a moment she rejected the idea, her mind trying to protect her from the memories of the torture and death of so many she’d been forced to watch.
“Breathe, sívamet,” he encouraged. “We’re here with you. Xavier is long gone from this world and can’t hurt you. You don’t have to go in with us to check. You can monitor us from right here.”
Tatijana had heard the screams of the dying, felt the weight of the dead—so many; Xavier had never discriminated between species. The only things that mattered to him were immortality and power. He thought himself above every other species and he wanted to rule. He wanted for himself the gifts each had and would stop at nothing to get them.
She had been forced to feed her blood to Xavier for centuries. When she and Branislava grew too strong and even keeping them anemic didn’t help, Xavier kept them encased in ice in the form of dragons. They were his laboratory wall decorations, forcing them to watch every heinous crime he committed against humanity, Carpathians and every other species. They were helpless to stop him.
He had possessed the body of his grandson and violated women, impregnating them in order for him to find new sources of Carpathian blood. If the child was deemed unsuitable, as in Skyler’s case, he sold them into a life of misery or simply abandoned them. He kept his grandson prisoner as well, torturing him with the foul things Xavier used his body for.
Tatijana could hear her own silent screaming and abruptly stopped, knowing her distress would pull Branislava to her. She had to gain control. Fen was right. She was safe—but he and Dimitri wouldn’t be if they went into those caves. Xavier might be gone, but his traps and evil spells remained behind. She knew every mage spell ever conceived by him, as did Branislava, as well as where most of the traps were in areas visible to where she’d been held, but Fen and Dimitri wouldn’t know.
She lifted her chin. “I’ll go.”
Fen slipped his hand down her arm until his fingers tangled with hers. “Perhaps you could fly your dragon for us and keep guard, just while we explore the outer caves for signs of Bardolf. If he’s not there, there’s no need for any of us to enter what was Xavier’s domain.”
She didn’t know if it was being cowardly, but, relieved, she took that way out. “That makes sense. But, if you think he may have gone in, give me your word that you will call to me right away. There can be no untrut
h between lifemates. I need to face this with you, if Bardolf has gone in. With you and Dimitri, I know I can. If you leave me out and something happens to either of you, I would for all time feel as if I caused it through my cowardice.”
“You have my word, my lady. The moment I suspect, you will know.”
She put her arms around his neck and leaned into him, needing to feel how solid and strong he was. “I know both of you are worried about what the change in your blood will do to a woman and our future children, but in this moment, I’m grateful both of you have the mixed blood. And Dimitri”—she turned in Fen’s arms to look directly into Dimitri’s eyes—“I guarantee you, Skyler would feel exactly the same way.”
Dimitri nodded. “I’m certain of it. Let’s do this, Fen.”
His form shimmered and he took to the sky streaking for the mist that veiled the top of the mountain.
Fen sighed. “You be careful, Tatijana. Don’t think because you’re in dragon form that you’re safe from him. If Bardolf is here and he realizes you’re out there circling around, looking for his trail, he could attack you.”
“You do your job, I’ll do mine. Believe me, even the outside of Xavier’s mountain will have a few traps,” she cautioned. “Try not to trigger any of them.”
He leaned down and kissed her upturned lips, shifting as he pulled back.
He followed his brother up the steep, snow-topped mountain and into the veil of mist. The mountains looked peaceful, ringed as they were with the swirling, dense fog, but the upper peaks were inhospitable. Very little plant life managed to grow amid the boulders and rocks, just a few scraggly flowers and grasses. Above the boulders was the glacier itself.
The locals knew to avoid the peaks, and the few travelers ignoring the mountain’s warnings often were victims of falling rocks or avalanches. The mountain trembled and rumbled continually when anyone set foot on those upper peaks hidden within the white veil of mist.
Dark Lycan (Carpathian) Page 32