Christine Feehan 5 CARPATHIAN NOVELS

by Christine Feehan

  “Naturally Colby and the children will return immediately to Brazil. Juan and Julio will make the arrangements to ship their belongings and horses home.”

  “And King,” Ginny said. “I’m not going without King.” She tugged at her uncle. “And I won’t go without Colby.” She sounded stubborn, a small replica of her sister.

  Rafael raised an eyebrow. “I would never leave Colby behind, little sister. Have no fear of that.”

  “Are you certain about Colby agreeing?” Sean asked again, shocked that she might actually walk away from the ranch she’d spent her entire life on.

  Nicolas turned his head and once again captured the man’s gaze. “Colby wants to come with us more than anything else. She is with Rafael and wishes to make her home with him. Naturally she will take the children with her.”

  “Naturally,” Sean agreed. “If you really are making the offer, Nicolas, you know I’m always willing to do business with your family. I could use the extra acreage and I certainly have enough men to run both spreads.”

  “Colby is never going to agree,” Paul whispered to Rafael. “You know she won’t. She’ll be furious.”

  “You let me take care of that, Paul. The most important thing right now is to get you out of the vampire’s range so he can’t harm you while we are hunting him. I’m going to have Juan help you pack and you and Ginny will leave this morning. We have a private jet and it will take you to our home far from this place. I will bring Colby as soon as possible.” He glanced at Ginny. “And, of course, the dog must go too.”

  “But don’t we need passports? I don’t have a passport. I’ve never traveled anywhere.” In spite of himself, Paul was excited at the prospect of being on a private jet, of seeing another country, of waking up in the morning and not having to work from sunup until sundown. He felt a little guilty, but he was eager to try it just once in his life.

  “I’m not going without Colby and neither are you, Paul,” Ginny declared, glaring at the men in the room.

  Rafael reached a hand out to the little girl. “You are much like your sister, Ginny. She will come. She is with me and must accompany me to our home. There is an indoor horse arena and a swimming pool.”

  “I like my garden.”

  “We have a wonderful garden and you will be able to spend time with your uncles and your entire família. They are all very anxious to meet the three of you. Your dog will be welcomed and you can have as many horses as you like.”

  Paul suddenly tugged at his hand, trying to free himself from Rafael’s grip. He didn’t seem to notice when Rafael tightened his hold and turned his attention completely on the boy. Paul went very still, his eyes glazing over. His body began to tremble and his expression went slack as if he were far away from them.

  Nicolas moved closer to the bed. Rafael kept the physical connection to Paul. The self-inflicted wounds were all healed, but both Carpathians were in the boy’s mind, feeling his emotions and reading his thoughts.

  “What is it, Don Rafael?” Julio asked.

  “Take the child out of here. Sean, put her to bed.” Nicolas gave the order, his voice a powerful weapon.

  Sean Everett obeyed, taking his wife and Ginny with him.

  The Chevez brothers crowded closer to their nephew. “Has the vampire taken him over again?”

  Rafael held up his hand for silence, his features grim. “The vampire is on the move. By rights he should be in the ground. He is badly wounded and the dawn is upon us. He has cloaked the sun with heavy clouds, but he should not be able to travel once the sun has risen. He has truly become far more powerful than most of his kind. Paul is tracking him.”

  “Good boy,” Juan murmured.

  “He is moving underground, not above,” Nicolas said.

  “Why would he be on the move?” Rafael mused aloud. A tightness was beginning to form in his chest. He glanced at Nicolas to see if he shared the sudden dread. Nicolas met his gaze with a dark sober one. “Colby.” Rafael stood abruptly, his expression savage. “He is after Colby.” Rafael’s heart began to pound. Fear clogged his throat. Terror warred with rage.

  “He knows where she lies,” Paul said. He stared straight ahead, his eyes unfocused, but he said the words clearly. “He is making his way to her and he wants me to know he will kill me after he kills her. Then he will kill Ginny.”

  “He will not have the chance,” Nicolas assured him. “Will the safeguards hold?”

  “He is ancient. We invented the safeguards.” Rafael’s hands trembled. He itched to tear out the vampire’s heart. The ground rolled ominously. Outside the building, lightning lit up the sky and the crash of thunder shook the house.

  “He cannot possibly move fast and the light will slow him.”

  “Nothing stops Kirja.” Rafael was already dissolving into a vapor, streaming from the room toward the early morning sky. When he is determined.

  Outside the sky had turned black, matching his turbulent rage. Colby! Wake! He issued the command with tremendous force, the force of a powerful ancient.

  He felt her instant response. Fear slammed into her, into him through her. The fear of being buried alive. He took hold of her with ruthless force, calming her mind. Kirja hunts you. How he does this thing in the early light, I do not know, but it is past the hour he should feel leaden. You are no longer human. You must get past all human fear and know you can do this. You are Carpathian.

  Her reaction was to keep her eyes tightly closed, but a swirl of anger drifted through her. Where’s my brother and get me the hell out of the ground.

  Rafael felt the familiar clenching in his gut, the brush of fire through his veins. Colby had a temper and it always fascinated him, always aroused him. And he knew she would need it—that iron will and determination, the anger that pushed her when others would give up. Paul is safe and Nicolas guards the children.

  I feel the vampire now. He’s burrowing through the soil, like a mole. The ground is screaming. Get me out of here.

  So the early morning light was too much for Kirja, but why wasn’t he leaden as he should be? Rafael tore across the sky, speed uppermost in his mind. Your body is not yet ready to come out of the ground. You need the healing soil, querida. Can you still feel the fire raging in your organs? It is too dangerous.

  He’s close. He felt malignant, violent, a weapon of hate and vengeance so evil Colby shuddered with fear. Rafael, hurry. There was the feeling of urgency in her. She felt something moving over her. An exodus of bugs, running from the malevolence in the vampire, trying to escape him. Insects, they’re everywhere.

  Rafael could hear the hysteria in her voice. It is so like you to face down a bucking bronco yet be frightened of a couple of bugs. He tried to be soothing and calm, when he wanted to rip out the heart of his enemy for putting her through such terror. He forced his mind away from the fear in her and sought to feel how close to her Kirja actually was. The migration of insects meant he was approaching her resting place. The safeguards would slow him down, but Rafael doubted if he could reach her before Kirja had unwoven the spells guarding her.

  Damn you for this. There was a sob in her voice that tore at his heart. I feel like I’m in a coffin. If you don’t get me out of here, I’m going to lose my freaking mind.

  Rafael began to throw barriers in Kirja’s path. A solid wall of granite rock, impossible to break through. He would be forced to go around it and he had to be getting weaker. Whatever he had found to allow him to continue moving after the coming of the dawn could not possibly last long. The Carpathian people would have heard of such a feat and moved to counter it.

  Please, Rafael. Please get me out of here. I swear whatever I did, I’m sorry.

  She was weeping now, clawing at the soil. He could feel her heart pounding, accelerating until he feared it would burst. Her pleas only served to madden him. He wanted to weep with her.

  Colby! Stop it. Stop crying. You can do this. You have to do this. I cannot bring you out of the ground. I want you aware so I can use
you to fight him off if needed. You have power. You will do this. Stop crying and pull yourself together. His voice was a merciless command. He issued a warning, a deliberately harsh decree, rather than soothing her. She reacted exactly in the way he would expect from her. He felt the surge of anger at him.

  The bugs are crawling in my hair, you bastard. In truth she could feel thousands of tiny legs moving over her fast, rushing away from the area and that was nearly as frightening as the insects touching her body.

  She was fighting to stay in control. Rafael began to draw on the minerals from the volcano. He built a chamber of diamonds, first forming a roof over her head, a glittering transparent cavern, just large enough to keep her from feeling as if she were buried alive, and small enough that he could manage it quickly. The diamond fortress would keep Kirja out. Colby would be able to see the vampire, and it might be possible to further harm or even destroy the vampire using her sight.

  What’s happening? Colby touched the hard rock forming rapidly around her. Rafael please. Really, I’m not going to be able to do this. You have to get me out of here. I don’t understand why you won’t take me out of the ground. Is it the birthmark?

  He read the desperation in her mind. Was he burying her alive? Leaving her to die a terrible death? Terror was returning fast. Her pleas were far worse than her anger. He had never felt so tormented in his life. His heart ached, a physical pain, and his belly churned with fury while fear was a knot in his throat.

  You can open your eyes, meu amor. You are safe now. He cannot get past a chamber of diamonds. They are too hard. He is far too weak. When he pushes his way through the soil, I need you to look at him, keep your eyes on him at all times, no matter what he does. Can you do that, pequena? He couldn’t prevent the gentle coaxing note from creeping into his tone. He ached to hold her close to him, to comfort her.

  Colby opened her eyes with slow reluctance, terrified of seeing the dirt and bugs. She was lying in a rich, black soil, but encased in glass. She lifted her arm to touch the wall, shocked at how heavy her limbs felt. Not glass. Crystal? Her breath caught in her throat. Diamonds. He had constructed a fortress of diamond to keep her safe. She wasn’t ready to forgive him, she doubted if she ever would, but at least she wasn’t going to have a heart attack now, if she didn’t look up to see the dirt over the top of her prison. Are you certain Paul is alive? That he’s all right? She would never forgive him for holding her captive beneath the earth when her brother needed her.

  Rafael allowed his memories to replay for her. His love for you and Ginny is very strong. Kirja did not take that into account.

  Colby was caught by a sound. By a feeling of being watched. She turned her head and there he was. Her heart stopped beating, and then began to thump frantically inside her chest. She had never seen such malevolence and twisted hatred on anything or anyone’s face before. The creature no longer appeared human. He had dragged himself through the mountain to reach her with the sole intent of killing her. Spittle ran down his chin, and his eyes glowed a fiery red. He was bloody and horribly burned. His chest had several puncture wounds.

  Kirja reached for her with long, twisted stilettolike fingernails. He attacked the wall with a hard, driving stab, his red-rimmed eyes staring directly into hers. The talon shattered. The vampire screamed. He threw himself against the barrier.

  Colby winced and tried to scoot back from the hideous creature. Only then did she realize she was naked and the undead could see her, vulnerable to his inspection. It made his grotesque leer all the worse.

  He held up a hand, fingers spread wide as he stared at her throat. Slowly, oh, so slowly, he began to close his fingers. She felt the crushing squeeze, closing like a vise around her neck. For one moment she panicked, fighting for air.

  You are underground, buried alive, remember, pequena? You do not need air. I am almost to him and do not want to give away my presence.

  Her lips pressed together. Rafael was right, she was buried alive, something he was damned well going to answer for. She didn’t need air. Let the undead try to strangle her. Deliberately, with defiance, Colby came up on her knees, tossing her long hair as a taunt. She didn’t even care that she was naked. If the damned vampire could resist the terrible lethargy, so could she. Ignoring the way her insides burned like hell, she brought up her chin and her eyes blazed right back at him.

  This was the terrible creature that had tormented her brother. He had tried to kill Rafael, but he was in for the shock of his life. The vampire had never met an honest-to-God cowgirl. “We breed them tough here,” she said as she allowed her fury at everything that had happened in the last few weeks to come together into a raging inferno. “And we don’t lie down for anyone, not even vampires.”

  Flames licked along the dirt floor of the tunnel Kirja had burrowed through to get to her. As if fed by a ferocious wind, the tongues of orange-red sprang to life, leaping high, enveloping the vampire in a whirling firestorm.

  Colby! The command was sharp. Angry.

  The vampire screamed, howled with rage and pain, too weak to continue the battle. He dared not remain longer; his strength was ebbing fast. He scurried through the tunnel, heading away from the hot springs, away from the rich soil that would heal his wounds. He needed a resting place where the hunters would never think to look. They knew he was severely injured and that he would have to have time to rejuvenate. He would need prey close as well as shelter and rich soil. He moved in the opposite direction fast, using every ounce of remaining strength to flee before Rafael could find him.

  Rafael’s reprimand was a slap in the face. Her own rage boiled over. It’s just like you to leave me buried underground, you swine, a sitting duck for your foul-smelling friend, and then dare to yell at me for protecting myself! Colby’s fist clenched. She ached to smash Rafael right in his too handsome face. I hurt so bad I want to throw up. Get me out of here. She stared in horror as the vampire’s broken fingernail began to vibrate, to scrape at the diamond chamber encasing her. I am so not kidding, Rafael. Hurry up. Now his fingernail is alive. It’s scratching at the wall. She didn’t want to be afraid, but the thing seemed alive, determined to get at her. Get me out of here!

  Rafael flinched at the undiluted anger in her voice, at the way it swirled in her body, but at the same time, his blood thickened and heated.

  You’re impossible. I’m in the middle of a crisis here. One you put me in, Rafael, and you’re thinking about sex. You’re perverted. Get me out of here. Colby began to run her hands over the surface of her diamond cage, opposite to the scratching nail, hoping to find a weak spot and crawl out. When she couldn’t, she concentrated once more on focusing her fear and anger on the ghastly thing. It blackened slowly, smoked, and finally burst into flame. Pressing a hand to her wildly beating heart, she sagged against the wall. She just wanted to go home.

  Your world scares me to death. Rafael, I need to see Paul and Ginny. Come get me out of here. She was weary of arguing, tired of being afraid. And her insides were beginning to feel as if someone had taken a blowtorch to them. She wanted comfort. She needed it. She deserved it.

  Rafael wanted to gather her into his arms and hold her forever, but he had to find Kirja and destroy him. He would only have a scant hour or two to find the vampire’s hiding place before his own lethargy would take over. He hardened his heart against the weariness in her. You will remain beneath the ground as I have commanded and go back to sleep and heal properly. It was a decree, a command delivered with hard authority. He issued the order and followed it with a hard push, one that sent her sinking into sleep, but not before he heard her curse him soundly.

  In spite of the gravity of the situation he felt the warmth of joy spreading through him. So this was what it was to have a lifemate. The calm, bleak emptiness of his previous life had been replaced by a roller coaster of emotions. Love yes, but also aggravation, worry, the fiery clash of tempers, and an incredible wanton desire. At least, now, he always knew he was alive.

  He
circled slowly above the ground where Colby lay, looking for signs of Kirja burrowing through the earth, but as always with the ancient vampire, there was no sign of his passing. Rafael shifted into his human form as he dropped to the ground, running his hands over the ground, feeling for a vibration, feeling for the telltale signs of the undead.

  His fingers curled into a fist. He might just introduce Colby to how pleasurable a punishment could become after this mistake. He had to kill Kirja. The vampire would take his revenge and she had eliminated Rafael’s chance of easily trailing the creature back to his lair.

  An owl hooted, a soft cry in the night. The sound beckoned to him, an unusual call from this bird of prey. Not a near miss, not satisfaction, but a calling. Wary, he raised his head and looked cautiously around. Even with his acute vision, it took a few minutes to spot the large owl tucked high in the branches of a fir tree several yards away.

  Rafael straightened slowly. It was no indigenous owl in the tree. The bird regarded him from his position high in the branches. It wasn’t Nicolas—he was with Paul and Ginny, helping to get them ready for the move to Brazil. He would put them on the private jet and get them out of the country, using his hypnotic voice to get them through the red tape quickly.

  “You may as well come out of the tree and tell me what you are doing here.”

  The raptor immediately spread its wings wide and spiraled down, shifting before it touched the ground. A tall man with wide shoulders stood regarding him. “I have not seen you for far too many years, Rafael.” He stepped forward and gripped Rafael’s forearms in the familiar gesture of one warrior greeting another.

  “Vikirnoff Von Shrieder. I thought you had long ago met the dawn.”

  “I have often thought of doing so, but I had my brother to watch over. Nicolae has found his lifemate and now my time grows short. I have one last task to complete before I rest. What of you? What of your brothers?”

  “Riordan has also found his lifemate. There is hope with the knowledge that some human women can be converted. My lifemate, Colby, is human.”