Christine Feehan 5 CARPATHIAN NOVELS

by Christine Feehan

  “Those words offend you in some way?”

  “You know very well they do and you probably use them on purpose just to get a rise out of me.”

  “It works very well.”

  “Well, stop. I’m being serious. We’re crawling through this mountain with mutant snakes with big teeth coming through the ground at us, so how about a truce.”

  “I can feel cool air,” he reported. “It has to be coming from a subterranean chamber.”

  “Is it cold enough to freeze snakes?”

  “I will not allow a snake to attack you again. Should one try I will forbid it to do so.” There was laughter in his voice.

  She felt a tug on her heart. She’d never heard him really laugh before. “Ha ha, you’re suddenly a comedian, and not a very good one at that.” She could listen to his voice forever when he sounded like that. She cleared her throat. “Are you going to tell me what you found in my memories? Or was it too awful?”

  Vikirnoff heard the small note of fear. “The memories of your grandfather are very confusing, Natalya. I cannot tell if they are dreams, or actual memories any more than you can. There is little doubt someone has tampered with your memories, but I cannot tell why or how. Any trail of Xavier is dull, veiled or ended abruptly in a dark void. I found little of your childhood with your brother. In fact all of your younger years are fragments of memories. I do not know what it means, but we will find out.” He projected confidence into his voice, knowing she had been disturbed by her lack of recollections for some time. “What happens when you try to remember things?”

  “I feel upset, nervous, you know, and that’s just not like me. I get an instant headache and my stomach hurts.” She knew it was a planted reaction, she had known all along, but it was good to be able to confirm it with someone. More than that, there was comfort in being able to discuss her fears with someone else.

  Vikirnoff paused and glanced back at her. “You have obviously been suspicious that your grandfather has been alive for some time and you believe that he has something to do with your memory loss.” He chose his words carefully. “If he has deceived you and tampered with your memory, why do you persist in believing the Carpathian people are just as evil as the vampire?”

  “I’ve been told all my life Carpathians would murder me just for bearing the symbol of the dragon.”

  “Who told you?” Vikirnoff persisted. “You say all of your life, yet your memories are fragmented. Is it possible the warning is something that was planted in you as well?” He kept his voice as neutral as possible.

  “I am certain my father is the one to tell me this first.”

  “But you do not know, Natalya. The symbol on your body is of a very old and revered Carpathian lineage. No Carpathian would harm a Dragonseeker.” Vikirnoff ducked his head and made his body smaller and more compact. “This tunnel has sharp angles making it difficult to maneuver,” he warned. “Watch your head.”

  Natalya pulled her head out of the way of a low hanging rock. “They wouldn’t? Then why would a hunter murder my brother?”

  “It had to be a vampire posing as a hunter. No Carpathian would harm someone bearing the mark of the Dragonseeker,” he reiterated hoping if he said it enough times she would at least begin to entertain the idea that the warning could have been planted.

  He whistled softly as the hall opened into a larger chamber. “This opens up into a much larger gallery. You’ll be able to stand up straight.” He turned back to help her. The drip of water from every wall was constant. Almost with the rhythm of a heartbeat, as if the caverns were alive. Vikirnoff felt uneasy, feeling the weight of eyes on them, yet scanning, he could find no danger to them. Something guarded the caves, yet he could not ferret out the unseen sentinel with his increasingly powerful probing.

  “My memories,” she said again as she studied the finger-like formations surrounding a large abyss that yawned open in the middle of the chamber. “That looks a long way down.” She lifted her gaze to his face with some dismay. “We’re going down there, aren’t we?”

  “You are the leader of the expedition,” he pointed out. “What direction does your tuning fork indicate?”

  She heaved a sigh. “Down. We have to go down. Into that.” She pointed to the black hole below them. It was icy cold and she shivered. “I need to know now, Vikirnoff, what else did you find?” If Vikirnoff had recovered valuable information that in some way was damaging to her family, she could always remove his memory of it.

  “You believe you can erase my memories?”

  The distaste in his voice was a severe chastisement. Natalya hadn’t meant for him to catch that thought, and it really bothered her that she couldn’t always feel him merged with her. “I don’t mean it like that.”

  “How else if not disrespect? You want my help. You are willing to use me, but you have every intention of tampering with my memories.”

  “I shared my misgivings with you. I haven’t shared that with anyone else.” Natalya sighed. “In all honesty, Vikirnoff, I don’t know what to think anymore. I feel like someone has been running around messing with my head and now you’re there, too. Why can’t I block you out if I’m so powerful and strong? Why am I so vulnerable to invasion?”

  There was real fear in her voice and he didn’t blame her. She was powerful and she should have been totally protected, but something had left her mind open to attack. In spite of the fact that he was angry with her, his heart went out to her. “Have vampires ever been able to draw you to them?”

  She shook her head. “No.” She frowned. “Wait. I’ve noticed I’ve had a much more difficult time with their voices, hearing their real voice and seeing past the illusion they wear recently.”

  “About the same time the compulsion to find the caves began?”

  She looked confused. “I don’t know. My head is beginning to ache again and I’m freezing.” She rubbed her arms in an effort to get warm. “You don’t even appear cold.”

  “I am sorry. I should have been paying attention to your comfort.” Before she could protest, he gathered her into his arms, equipment and all, and breathed on her. At once warmth stole through her body, surrounded her like a great cocoon so that the shivering stopped and her teeth ceased chattering.

  “Much better, thank you,” she said and circled his neck as he stepped off the cavern floor into the dark abyss below them.

  Vikirnoff was acutely aware of her soft body pressed tightly against his, and her misery over their conversation. She was very distressed over her lack of memory and she’d been holding her fears in for years, unable to discuss them with anyone. He brushed a kiss on top of her head in a gesture meant to reassure her.

  Vikirnoff settled them onto the floor of the chamber. They had descended close to two hundred feet. The sound of the dripping water was even louder, a pulsing heartbeat that felt more ominous than right. His gaze slid alertly around the ice-cold chamber, probing every possible place of concealment. He kept a cloak of heat around Natalya to help regulate her body temperature. “I do not like the feel of this place.”

  “Me, neither, but it’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Natalya said. She dug a glow stick from her pack and held it up. “I swear there are veins of gold in here.” She turned in a circle holding the stick high to help illuminate the large gallery. “I’ve never seen such beautiful ice formations. All of these openings lead to halls and more galleries. This is amazing. Like a great crystal palace.”

  Vikirnoff went still. He had heard those words long ago to describe the great cave of the dark mage. A great crystal palace with a burning flame in the center of one room, a palace of gemstones and gold. He stared at the ice formation rising up in the center of the room. Depending on the angle, the formation appeared polished diamond bright, or looked exactly like a brilliant red-orange flame. When Natalya played the light over it, scattered gems seem to glow from the very center of it.

  “Natalya.” There was warning in his voice. He waited until she looked at him. “I think
this is the cave of the dark mage. The one used for study and experiments. I think this is his place of power.” There would be guards. Powerful, deadly guards. He listened to the sound of the water again, the relentless pulse taking on new meaning.

  She bit her lip hard. It wasn’t hard to believe that he was right, and that meant the caves would be strewn with what would amount to landmines. “Even in death, Xavier would never leave his cave unguarded. It would hold too many of his secrets. So what you’re saying is, we’ve stumbled into the lion’s den.”

  “That would be about it.” He moved to cover her, keeping his body between hers and the walls of the cavern. “If he is alive and he was the one to tamper with your memories, why would he lure you here? What would be his purpose?”

  “That is the burning question, isn’t it? The vampires want me, you want me, maybe my dead-or-alive grandfather wants me. I’m just a popular woman.” She shrugged and sent him a faint grin, using humor to keep her courage up.

  His heart reacted, shifting and melting in his chest. He frowned. It was uncomfortable being so susceptible to her. He could not remember a time in his life when sentiment or emotion swayed his judgment. Right now, his every instinct screamed they were in danger and he needed to scoop her up and run for the surface. He could read fear in the depths of her eyes, but she had steel in her and she wasn’t about to leave until she had a few answers.

  He forced down his natural protective inclination and tried to find a way to aid her, one that might get them out of the trap as soon as possible. And he was very certain the cave was a giant trap. “What can you do aside from the obvious charms and skills you have, that might make you so valuable to the vampires? Or to your grandfather?”

  “I have no idea. I’m good with spells. I can find things. I honestly don’t know, Vik.” She sent him a quick look from under long lashes.

  “Vik?” He winced visibly and his eyebrow shot up. “You are not going to call me Vik. I am considering using one of the words you have stricken from my vocabulary.”

  Her eyes sparkled at him. She turned her body in the direction she could feel the strongest tug. “We have to go that way.” She indicated a hallway that was little more than a tunnel.

  He groaned. “How did I know you were going to choose that one?”

  She reached for his hand with obvious reluctance, but needing the contact. “I feel the subtle vibration of power. Do you feel it?” Her voice trembled.

  “Yes,” he answered tersely. “Let us get this done.” He squeezed her fingers in reassurance. “Be careful, Natalya. I will follow you.” He didn’t want to tell her he was certain there were a couple of vampires stalking them. The undead were still a distance away, but he feared she was somehow imprinted with something that drew vampires to her. “Have you been here before?”

  “No, never.” She frowned, searching her memories. “It’s so frustrating to remember bits and pieces. I’ve studied thousands of spells. I’ve read ancient text, and can remember all of it, but I can’t remember where I studied. In my dreams, Razvan would protect me from the teacher. He would be punished when I refused to go work. In my dreams I remember what my grandfather looked like, but I couldn’t describe him to you now. How do I know what is real or not?”

  Frustrated, Natalya turned back to the tunnel to keep him from seeing her expression. What did she know about her childhood? What if everything was a lie? Memories removed and others planted. The idea of it sickened her. “Great.” She couldn’t help feeling humiliated and ashamed that Vikirnoff had seen the inside of her mind and the trauma of a blank void. “I’m a freakin’ robot.”

  “With a beautiful backside,” he pointed out when she dropped to her hands and knees, head disappearing into the ice hall.

  She wiggled her bottom suggestively and grinned back at him, grateful to him for giving her something to laugh about.

  His heart nearly stopped beating and the air left his lungs in a burning rush. She could have lit up the entire cavern with her high wattage smile. Thunder roared in his ears. Deep inside, his demon struggled for release and unexpectedly, desire shot through his body. Not the intense lust he experienced earlier, but something bright and passionate and deep that came, not from his groin, but from his heart.

  “You don’t have to come with me,” Natalya said, forcing the words out as she looked back at him. He had gone so still, his expression carved in stone. How could he want to be mixed up with whatever was happening? The fact was, she was terrified of the cave. Something she couldn’t even remember from her childhood warned her she was in danger and the increasing volume of the dripping water was nearly driving her out of her mind. Every instinct told her to run, but her body and brain refused to obey the command.

  She had longed for a partner, someone to share her life with, but for the first time she needed to be with someone. And not just anyone. Vikirnoff. Not just for his fighting skills, but for the sheer comfort of his presence. And that was almost as frightening as the situation she was in.

  Vikirnoff exuded power and confidence. She couldn’t imagine anyone defeating him, not when he was at full strength. But he wasn’t at full strength. The thought came out of nowhere. She realized that not once had she worried about his physical condition since they’d been in the cave. He wasn’t fully healed. She had seen the agony on his face on more than one occasion earlier, yet he carried himself as if nothing was wrong. Had he been subtly influencing her or was she really that selfish? She groaned softly.

  “I am with you because I want to be. I am not under compulsion, Natalya. And I am fit enough to protect you should there be need.”

  She turned away from him before he could see her reaction to his words—his voice. There was just something about the man that called to her. She crawled through the twisting ice tube until it began to widen and opened into another series of galleries. The ice formations and columns were impressive. Following her instincts she chose one chamber and discovered streaks of old blood along the ice wall. Her own blood ran cold and she stood gaping at the thick, frozen clots clinging to the wall. “This doesn’t look good, does it?”

  Vikirnoff put a hand on her shoulder. She wasn’t used to being touched and she trembled in response, but didn’t shrug him off. “You can see where they put ice picks through him to hold him to the wall.” He touched the frozen blood. “There was a Carpathian being tortured in this chamber.” He examined the entire room. “It was not within the last week. Someone rescued him, human I think, and at least one vampire died here.” He sighed. “Why would a vampire risk coming into the cave of the dark mage?”

  “Secrets? Power?”

  “Maybe. But is it worth the risk? There have to be traps scattered everywhere. The vampires are looking for something. There is no other explanation.” He glanced around warily. “I can feel something watching us, can’t you?”

  She wanted to deny it, but the back of her neck prickled with alarm. “Yes. The vampires think I can help them find whatever they are looking for, don’t they?” Natalya said. “That’s why Arturo said he had a small task for me. He wants me to find something, probably something the dark mage left behind.”

  “Anything Xavier had of power would be deadly to the entire world, not just our species, if a vampire wielded it.”

  “Can you tell where the others got out? The ones that killed the vampire?” She pointed to a solid wall of ice. “Because I want to go there.”

  Vikirnoff examined the wall. “A Carpathian closed a slide tube behind them. I still feel the power lingering.”

  “Can you open the slide?”

  He studied the bluish wall of ice. “Yes.” He knew he sounded grim. He felt the weight of the ice over them, the pressing of their enemies closing in and more than all of that, the certainty that they were going somewhere far worse than where they were. He hesitated, the need to get his lifemate to safety hammering at him. He actually settled his fingers around her wrist in protest.

  Natalya shook her head. “I
really have no choice, Vikirnoff.”

  Swearing under his breath, he found the original opening, the tube slide that led to the lower caverns, and commanded the ice to bend to his will. Even within the cave of the dark mage, he wielded power over the things of the earth. The ice shifted, parting, to once again form the slide leading to the lower chambers.

  “Thank you,” Natalya said. She didn’t have words to express how grateful she was that he didn’t fight her on the issue. She had the same warning bells shrieking at her and she sensed he was forced to fight age-old instincts. His protective nature simply did not allow him to see her in danger without shielding her. And without him, she had no idea how she would have made her way through the ice to the lower chambers.

  “We go in together,” he decreed.

  She sent him a black scowl, just to warn him to back off with the orders, but didn’t mind in the least when he wrapped her in warm, safe arms and climbed into the cold of the ice chute. Vikirnoff pushed off and they slid deeper into the freezing world of blue and crystal ice, spiraling fast down the long, cold tube. His arms kept her from ice splinters and the thicker, jagged crystalline protrusions that hung above their heads. It was breathtakingly beautiful, yet utterly frightening in that she knew the formation was unnatural.

  Natalya felt a little dizzy by the time they reached the bottom and she held onto Vikirnoff until she knew her legs would support her. In a narrow hall of ice they both were able to stand up straight without fear of hitting their heads on the ceiling.

  “Are you all right?” Vikirnoff kept his arm around her until her legs stopped shaking.

  She shook her head. “I feel strange. Afraid. I’m not usually afraid all the time. My heart is pounding so loud it’s hurting my ears. And I feel sick to my stomach. Worse”—she looked up at him as she pressed her hand against her body, low, to the left, just below her stomach—“the dragon burns. A vampire is close.”