She was so certain she’d held him prisoner with physical and otherworldly bonds, but his words had done something irrevocable to her. She felt everything in her reaching for something in him. Needing him. Wanting him. Somehow those ancient words had bound her soul to his for all eternity, as if they really were two halves of the same whole and his words had somehow put them back together.
“What have you done?” she demanded again when he only watched her through his too-black eyes. “Something about giving me your body and soul and heart. You said that, didn’t you? Answer me, Von Shrieder. What have you done? What did you say?”
“I claimed what was rightfully mine.”
“Translate it.”
Vikirnoff studied her pale face. Her eyes were enormous, her lips trembling. “Do not be so afraid. It is a ritual as old as time and no one has ever been harmed by it.”
Natalya gnashed her teeth together and opted for a blatant lie. “I am not afraid. I’m angry. Whatever you did is some kind of binding spell, isn’t it?”
“You mean like the one you used on me?” His tone was mild.
She felt color flooding her face. “Maybe I went too far,” she conceded. “I’ll take mine off if you’ll remove yours.”
“It cannot be done.”
He didn’t sound remorseful. There was no inflection at all. Her breath hissed out. “I would very much like you to translate what you said into a language I can understand. All spells are reversible if you know what you’re doing. And I know what I’m doing.”
Vikirnoff studied her face. She was lying through her teeth. He could smell her fear. She might not know, but she felt he had said something that was irrevocable, that her life had been changed for all time. “I cannot translate exactly but this is close. The words are said in our language first and then translated aloud for the woman in a language she can understand, although it is binding without doing so. It is roughly this. I claim you as my lifemate.”
Natalya gasped. His voice was sensual, mesmerizing, just as powerful as when he spoke the words in a language she didn’t understand.
Vikirnoff continued. “I belong to you. I offer my life for you. I give to you my protection, my allegiance, my heart, my soul and my body. I take into my keeping the same that is yours. Your life, happiness and welfare will be cherished and placed above my own for all time. You are bound to me and always in my care. That is the closest of translations. Males of my species are imprinted with the ritual binding words before they are born. They are given the ability to bind their lifemate for just the very reasons you have shown this evening.” He lifted his bound hands to her eye level. “You should have more respect for your lifemate.”
“Okay.” She paced across the room. “Okay, hands down. You win this round. Now take it off. Undo it.”
6
Vikirnoff couldn’t pull his gaze away from the angry confusion on Natalya’s face. With every step she took, her entire appearance underwent a change. Her skin began to glow and her tawny hair took on a strange banded quality, almost as if there were stripes he couldn’t quite make out. Her hair moved with energy and light, even in the darkness. Her eyes were also peculiar, the color ever changing. One moment sea-green and vibrant, the next going opalescent and stormy. She actually looked feral, eyes focused on his face, her body all flowing muscles, her steps utterly silent.
“I would not do so, Natalya, even if I had the power.” He could feel very real power building and crackling in the room. She was furious, and maybe, he conceded, she had reason to be. He was not about to allow her to walk out on him, but he’d forgotten she had the nature of a tiger. She was wild and impossible to tame. He should have kept that knowledge close to him and acted more carefully. She was dangerous, he could see and even feel it in her. He waited, expecting anything, breathing away his own rising emotions in an effort to be calm for both of them.
She stalked him across the room. The tension rose between them until it was nearly electric. “I don’t think you’re in any position to say no to me. I could cut your throat right now and there isn’t much you could do about. I’ve killed vampires. To me, you aren’t much different.”
“If that is your wish.”
“You’re such a bastard.” She swung away from him, angrier than she’d ever been in her life. Deep inside her, the tigress fought for freedom, demanding the freedom to rend and tear and remove Natalya’s enemy for all time. “Take it back.”
He sighed softly. “I cannot.”
“I should have left you in the forest to bleed to death or fry in the sun.”
“You could not. You did not want to take me with you, but you could not leave me. That is the truth.” He said it with a mild tone, yet she felt the lash of a reprimand.
“I owe you nothing. I didn’t ask you to interfere and I would never have been injured in the first place if you hadn’t been whining so loud the entire world could hear you.” Her heart was pounding so hard she was afraid it would burst through her chest. She’d fought vampires, yet this man, tied and lying so still on the bed, terrified her in ways she couldn’t hope to comprehend. Her lungs burned for air and her throat felt raw.
Understanding dawned. She wasn’t afraid of him, she was afraid for him. She was terrified of the power and anger rising up together deep inside of her in a furious meld. The tiger unleashed could do things she could never undo. She would not be caged by this man. By anyone. If—if she ever chose a mate, it would be one of her choosing. She forced air through her lungs. Forced her heart rate back to normal. The dark mage blood in her ran deep and strong. She could undo what he’d wrought. In all her years of study, no other had accomplished the things she had. Still, she would not stoop to murdering a helpless man.
“What you did was wrong, Vikirnoff. Whatever reasons you have, they are not good enough to try to take away my freedom.” Looking at him, seeing his dark eyes so filled with pain, she realized the tremendous pull between them had allowed her emotions to become so intense she honestly couldn’t tell his from hers. Almost as if they fed one another everything from anger to passion in one long chaotic roller-coaster ride. He seemed calm, yet when she touched his mind, he was feeling everything just as strongly as she was. And his confusion ran just as deep as hers.
She tilted her chin. “I am not going to discuss this any further with you right now. There is no point.” And there wasn’t. She had faith in herself. He didn’t know how strong she was, but she did. She was certain, with time, she could come up with a reversal spell, once she knew the exact words. He had given her a rough translation, but she would figure it out from what he had said.
“Natalya,” Vikirnoff began. He had no idea if he was attempting an apology, or even why he would want to say he was sorry. He’d upset her, but it was natural for him to stop her from leaving him. “I am not human, nor mage. My species has instincts that must be met.”
“You had a choice, Vikirnoff. Don’t let yourself off the hook by claiming instincts. You’re a thinking person. I was doing something you thought was wrong and you stopped me. That’s imposing your will on me whether you want to think so or not.”
He frowned. “Tying me up and putting a binding spell on me was not imposing your will? I would not have bound you to me without your consent had you not decided you were leaving me.”
There was a sudden silence between them as they both felt the earth shudder. Natalya’s eyes met Vikirnoff’s in understanding. “The sun has set.”
“Yes, it has and the earth is protesting as the vampires rise. I feel the presence of more than one of them.” Wincing, Vikirnoff sat up gingerly.
As if there had never been a binding spell. “As if I spent ten minutes weaving air.” She watched the flex cuffs fall away to lie useless on the floor. She shook her head. What was the point in summoning up anger? She should have known he couldn’t be trapped that easily. She was smarter than that. He was an ancient hunter and far more powerful than she’d given him credit for. Let him underestimate her.
She wouldn’t make the same mistake with him again. “Why didn’t the binding spell work on you?” Better to find out. Knowledge was power and she could see, with Vikirnoff, she would need every edge she could get.
His eyebrow rose at her mild tone. “I was in your mind. As fast as you wove it, I unraveled it,” he admitted. Both hands went to the hole in his chest and pressed tightly. The blood drained out of his face, leaving him pale and sweating tiny beads of blood.
She put her hands on her hips. “Maybe you should lie back down. Do you have the least idea how truly irritating you can be when you’re acting all heroic?”
“I’m beginning to. The vampires have risen and at least one is heading our way. We cannot allow them to come to the inn. You know I will draw them here, just as you will. I am much stronger than I was last evening.”
“Last evening you were near death so that’s not saying much.” She gave a small sigh when she saw him swing his legs over the edge of the bed. He was going to get up and watching him suffer in silence was heartbreaking to her, despite her earlier anger with him. “Please tell me it isn’t that jackass, Arturo, or worse, Henrik. He is dead and gone this time, isn’t he?” She attempted to interject humor into the situation, hoping to distract him.
“Henrik can not rise again. His heart was incinerated.”
“Henrik was a true Freddie. I’ll probably miss him.”
“You seem obsessed with this Freddie person.” Vikirnoff’s gaze captured hers.
Natalya shot him a quick grin. “You sound jealous. Freddie Kruger is a lovely man, king of the late night movies.”
Something in her tone warned him he was being teased. It was an unfamiliar situation for him, but one he thought he’d better get used to. “He isn’t real?” She was trying to get past their argument and he was grateful. His entire body was screaming in pain and he knew he was more than likely headed for battle.
“No. He’s a character in a string of horror movies. I can’t believe you haven’t watched him. What else is there to do at night when the rest of the world is asleep?” Natalya turned away from Vikirnoff’s too-intense gaze. He could melt a woman at fifty paces and sharing a bedroom with him was just too intimate, especially with his shirt off. The man had a chest on him. Even with a hole in it.
Natalya was rather shocked she noticed his chest. And his eyes. And his mouth. He flashed a small grin at her. His smile made him look younger. She desperately wanted to see it again. The unexpected yearning was so strong she fell back on her cultivated flippant attitude and made herself remember she wasn’t about to accept his claim on her. “Your mouth would be perfect if you kept it closed. And, just so you know, the moment the vampires are away from us, you will remove this binding spell, or I will, and you might not like how I do it.” She dragged fresh clothes from the drawers. “I take it we don’t have much time.”
“I do not want Arturo to realize you are friends with Slavica and her family. Vampires take great delight in killing the families and friends of their enemies.” He did not want to start another argument with her over the ritual words. She had been furious, her righteous anger blazing with a dangerous fury. He wanted a chance to think things through before he broached the subject again.
She poked her head around the bathroom door as she wiggled into her jeans. “You sound like that’s said from experience.”
“I have had many experiences with the undead, Natalya, and none of them have been good. This place is overrun with vampires.”
“That’s because I’m here. They always follow me now. They have a for a while, which is strange, considering they left me strictly alone for years.”
“Which would explain why you didn’t know you had to incinerate the heart.”
“It was rather annoying.”
“I can imagine. Do you have any idea why they are after you?”
Natalya pulled her close-fitting shirt over her head and came out to find him immaculately attired. She instantly felt disheveled in comparison. Even his hair was neat and tidy and there was no sign of blood or even a wrinkle on his shirt. He was hunched over, favoring one side, but his clothes were perfect. She shoved her feet into her thick socks and shoes and dragged on her shoulder harnesses for her guns and extra clips. “Arturo said he wanted me to perform a small task.” More than anything she wanted Vikirnoff to lie back down or find a resting place somewhere to heal. She knew it was futile to argue with him so she didn’t bother to try.
Vikirnoff watched her slip a multitude of weapons into loops and compartments in her clothes. He couldn’t help but admire the efficiency of her movements and the familiarity with the weapons. She knew what she was doing and was obviously skilled in the use of each weapon on her person. She was especially skilled with the sword. “You have no idea what the particular task is?”
She shook her head. “But a short while ago, I suddenly developed a compulsion to go to the mountains and find a particular cave.” She said it as matter-of-factly as she could, not with the heart-pounding terror she often felt.
His gaze narrowed on her. Dark. Intent. Speculative. “Compulsion is a very strong word.”
“It’s a very strong compulsion.” She hadn’t told anyone other than Razvan, and then, only in her dreams. From the moment she realized she was under compulsion, she had been terrified of who or what had managed to slip under her guard and take control of her. She studied Vikirnoff’s face. He was in and out of her mind often, yet she was barely aware of him when he shared her mind—and that was disconcerting. She was powerful and she had barriers. What had happened to dull her psychic senses so that Vikirnoff could get past her shields into her mind? It was a question she intended to answer when vampires weren’t hunting her.
He shook his head. “I did not do this thing to you. Allow me to search for the hidden threads. There is always a path back to the sender.”
She gasped and took a step back. “No. I’ve searched and found nothing. I don’t want you running around in my head.”
His expression hardened. “I asked as a courtesy.”
She snapped her teeth together. “Do you do it on purpose?”
“What?”
She yanked her pack to her and added two water bottles. “Irritate the hell out of me?”
“Perhaps it is a gift.”
She shouldered the backpack and stood up, trying not to smile. His tone was teasing, a blend of smoke and sensuality that definitely had melting possibilities, but it was the fact that he tried to tease her that set her pulse pounding. “I’m heading for the mountains. They’ll follow me and stay away from Slavica and her family.” She looked at him. “Are you coming?”
“Of course.”
“Are you strong enough to pack me out of here?” Her chin was up, but there was worry in her eyes. More than worry. Anticipation. Hope.
At last. Something he could give her. He steeled himself for the torment, his answering grin slow in coming. “You want to fly.”
“If you plan on following me around, I may as well have fun and make use of you.” Natalya shrugged her shoulders, trying to look nonchalant, when she was so eager to fly through the sky she could barely contain herself. She had phenomenal athletic abilities, and she was able to shape-shift into one form, that of a tigress, a gift given as her birthright, but she had dreamt of soaring through the night sky most of her life.
Vikirnoff studied her averted face. It was a secret desire she was sharing with him, one she hugged to herself and felt silly for wanting. He stood up and held out his hand. “Well, let us do it then.”
She hesitated before taking his hand. His fingers closed around hers, solid and strong and incredibly warm. His thumb brushed across the back of her hand. She was acutely aware of him as they flung open the door to the balcony.
“Your injuries can’t possibly be healed,” she said as they stepped up to the railing. “Can you do this? We can find another way to the mountain if we need to. The tiger can carry you.”
He pressed a pal
m over the hole near his heart as he let go of his physical self to inspect the damages to his body. Natalya had done a good job repairing the injuries. His body was trying to heal from the inside out. The wounds were still there, raw and painful, but tissue and muscle were knitting quickly. A few days in the ground or utilizing ancient blood and he would be as good as new. He came back to his body and nodded. “I am much better, thanks to you, Slavica and the richness of the soil. How are your ankles?”
She considered misleading him, but didn’t want to risk the humiliation of being caught in a lie. In any case, it might be important. “It’s strange, but I can still feel the creature gripping me. Sometimes I feel as if he’s pulling on my legs.”
“I was afraid of that. I healed the wounds and I searched for poison and bacteria he may have injected into you, but he was more than the undead. I think he marked you.”
She was silent, staring out into the night. She loved nights in the mountains. The air was always crisp and clean and when the weather was clear, the stars sparkled endlessly. “You mean he can track me? Or draw me to him?”
“He may think that, but I don’t. He prepared a trap for you and he must have been studying you for some time before he sprang it. I believe he thinks he can draw you to him with his mark, but I believe he is wrong. I think you’re too strong-willed and would fight with your last breath.”
Although Vikirnoff sounded worried, Natalya couldn’t help but be pleased with his assessment of her personality.
Vikirnoff glanced at the sky. Dark clouds spun and boiled to the north. “I must let Arturo know he has a serious rival for your affections.” He jumped up onto the railing and crouched down. “Do you want to me to carry you, or do you want to ride?”
Christine Feehan 5 CARPATHIAN NOVELS Page 88