Giles and Gerard burst out of the trees as the scent of foul burning flesh mingled with the odor of blood. Giles held a gun; Gerard, a knife. They took in the fact that Kirt was lying on the ground, blood all over his clothes and throat. Keith still clutched his knife but he was unmoving, his eyes wide with shock, his mouth stretched open, a look of utter terror on his face.
Giles already had the gun up and trained on Andre, who was wielding the whip of hot energy to clean the black acid from his arms. Giles fired straight at Andre. Teagan heard her own scream, deep inside the owl's body. She fought the paralysis gripping her, stark fear warring with Andre's command. Forcing herself not to panic, she followed the thread in Andre's mind back to the source of the command.
The first bullet took Andre in the arm, just below his forearm. The second skimmed his left bicep because he moved fast, whirling to one side to avoid the lead coming at him. At the same time, he snapped the lightning and the whip wrapped around Giles's neck, turning his body to ash. Gerard skidded to a halt, his mouth open as his brother dissolved into little curls of blackened soot right before his eyes.
He swore and backed up, right into the hands of the second vampire. The undead gripped him in bony hands and bent his head to sink his teeth into Gerard's neck, all the while keeping his gaze on Andre. He held the human in front of him as a shield.
"Take care not to be too greedy, Bacsa," Andre cautioned. "Your master needs his blood and he will be most unhappy with you if you bring back a dead feast. He likes his blood hot and fresh."
Bacsa was careful to close the wound on Gerard's neck. "I see you have your own messy feast." Deliberately he indicated Kirt and Keith.
Andre shrugged. The lightning whip sizzled.
Bacsa smirked, believing he was safe as long as he had the human shield. He lifted his head and scented the air. His gaze widened and a crafty expression crept over his face. "You have a woman. A lifemate. I can smell her on you."
"Where is he? Your master," Andre asked softly. "You know why he sent the two of you after his food. He knows he cannot defeat me and he sent you as his pawns, fodder to be killed while he slips away. You have been around long enough to know how it works. Where is he?"
Bacsa took two steps back, dragging Gerard with him. "You are wounded. You have a woman. Do not follow and I will allow you to live."
"I will not allow you to live, Bacsa. I am a hunter. I bring you the justice of our people."
Teagan went still. She realized right then that Andre didn't argue--not with anyone. Not a vampire. Not a human. Not with her. He explained things to her, but he didn't argue with her. He told her what he was going to do and the consequences if she didn't listen to him, and he followed through no matter what. It was a very good insight to have if she was going to spend a lifetime with him.
She knew what he was going to do and she wasn't at all shocked when the whip cracked, unfurled and wrapped around Bacsa and Gerard. The vampire screamed. Gerard disintegrated, the blackened ash falling away from the undead. Bacsa's rotted flesh and clothes melted away, leaving him a hideous shell of bloody, burnt bones.
Andre dropped the whip and was on him in a flash, driving his fist deep into the chest cavity, seeking the heart of the vampire. Bacsa shrieked and fought, pummeling Andre's face with bony hands and then ripping at his throat and shoulders with sharp talons. He tried to shift, but Andre's fist was already too deep inside, his fingers grasping the shriveled heart.
Bacsa slammed his bony hand into the gunshot wound on Andre's arm. Teagan raged at her inability to move, to help. She could see Keith crawling across the ground toward Andre, knife still in his fist. His gaze was on Andre, not the vampire, his entire being focused on killing her man.
Teagan found the command keeping her still, right there in Andre's mind. His entire concentration was on taking Bacsa's heart. He blocked out all pain and everything else around him, determined to kill the undead. She fixed her focus on the command, reversing what he'd done. Instantly she felt freedom. She spread her wings and dropped down fast, straight at Keith's face, talons extended.
The talons raked his cheeks, her wings beating hard, striking him repeatedly. Keith fell back, swiping at the bird with his knife, sawing the air back and forth in an attempt to get the owl off of him. He struck the body of the bird on a frantic and very lucky slash. Bright red droplets of blood splattered in the air. At the same time, Andre withdrew the heart and stepped away from the vampire.
Bacsa turned his head toward the bird, his gaze desperate. He lunged and caught the faltering bird by one wing, dragging it to him. Even as he did, Teagan had presence of mind to rake her talons down Keith's face, ripping through flesh and bone, destroying his face as the vampire jerked her to him. His teeth sank deep just as a bolt of lightning slammed into the heart Andre had tossed to the ground.
The moment the heart was incinerated, Bacsa's body shuddered. His bony fingers closed reflexively around the bird, his mouth opening wide in a silent scream. He fell hard, taking the owl with him, so that she landed beneath his toppling body. Teagan felt the dead weight of the vampire pressing her into the ground. The owl's neck was twisted funny and she couldn't move. Black blood dripped onto the feathers of her back, burning right through the flesh of the bird to the very bone.
Panic set in immediately. There was no air to shift back to her normal form. She couldn't even form a picture in her mind she was so afraid the heavy body was smothering her. Abruptly the vampire was lifted from her. She saw the bright flash as the whip of lightning incinerated first the vampire and then Keith as he crawled blindly along the ground, his knife still clutched tight.
Shift. The command came in a tight, hard voice.
The sound was shocking to her, enough so that it snapped her out of her panic. Air rushed back into her lungs. I just saved you and you're angry at me again. I can't believe you. This was terrifying, and in case you haven't noticed, there are dead people everywhere. Dead people and dead things. I'm having a very bad night.
Shift. Now. I am holding the image in your mind for you.
His voice was unrelenting, and Teagan shivered. She was reluctant to face him in human form. Her body hurt and she knew she was bleeding. She had vampire teeth marks in her back, up high where Bacsa had driven his teeth deep. She didn't want to see what her belly looked like and more than anything, she didn't want to face Andre's steely wrath. Not now, not with dead people's ashes floating in the air around her.
Teagan, if you do not obey me, I will force the shift.
Oh, yeah, he was angry with her. And unrelenting. She sighed and complied. She didn't like the idea of him taking control of her that way and she knew him well enough now to know there wouldn't be a second warning.
She found herself crouched beside him, no clothes, because she'd forgotten them. Shivering, she tried to think how to do the clothes, but he waved his hand and she was dressed in the same attire she'd worn all evening--minus her shirt.
Andre caught her wrists and pulled her up and to him. He had already removed the vampire's blood from his arms and chest. Her heart began thudding when she heard the sizzle of the whip. Her entire body began to shake. The sound of that white-hot energy bolt was worse than the black acid burning through the skin of her back and shoulders. Instinctively she tried to struggle, to get out of Andre's hold.
"Quiet, sivamet. This will not harm you. I will hold the necessary temperature in your mind for you. Trust me. You do not want that blood in or on your body."
"I don't want any of this," she replied, trying not to cry. She was not about to be a crybaby in front of him, not when he was angry with her. Still, his voice had gentled and she didn't want that either because then she really might cry, so no matter what, she was in trouble. "I just want to go home."
"I am your home, as you are mine. Hold still. Close your eyes."
She swallowed hard and did as he instructed. She heard the crack of lightning and behind her eyes was a terrible, blinding flash. Her back f
elt hot. Really, really hot. Not burning. The sensation was strange. She didn't like it at all. Then it was gone and with it the pain boiling through her flesh down to her bones. It still hurt, but not in the same way. The moment it was done, she donned a shirt to cover the damage to her body.
Andre put her from him. Again his touch was gentle. She opened her eyes. His chest was a mess. He had a hole in it and his face had a few deep scratches, but there were far worse lacerations on his shoulder and arms, not to mention the two bullet wounds that seemed the least of his worries. He was bleeding profusely from the chest wound and some of the deeper lacerations.
Teagan looked down at her midriff. Andre bunched her shirt in his fist and lifted it so he could see the laceration that went all the way across her front, from rib to rib. Blood dripped steadily and ran down her belly.
Csitri.
There it was. Silk and velvet. Rough. Tender. Turning her stomach upside down. Even her heart did a little strange tremor.
"You are killing me, Teagan. I cannot have my woman in battle." He sighed softly, caught her hips with both hands and bent his head to the slash.
Teagan closed her eyes as his tongue slid so very gently along the wound.
I cannot. I am not the kind of man that can have his lifemate in danger.
Her heart stuttered again. It felt . . . delicious. Amazing. More, his soft confession, a mixture of tenderness, regret and steely determination, took her breath. Went all the way through her to her soul. She heard him. She knew his anger was all about the laceration on her body, the vampire's blood dripping onto her, the undead touching her. In his mind was the specter of his human family, their bodies lying broken all around him, the vampire's hands on his adopted little sister and mother. She heard him. She got him. She knew what that moment had cost him when he saw her in danger.
Teagan pushed at his wild hair with gentle fingers. A caress. "I'm sorry, Andre. I can't stand seeing you in danger. I was so afraid for you. I didn't think you saw Keith creeping up behind you."
He continued to lap at the long, angry line on her midriff. His fingers tightened on her hips. I see everything in battle, Teagan. I have been fighting vampires for centuries. These were easy. The humans I could have stopped even easier. You cannot put yourself in danger. Promise me.
She closed her eyes, her fingers moving in his hair. She couldn't promise him. She couldn't. She wanted to give him that reassurance, but she knew if she saw him in danger again, she would rush to help. That was part of who she was and it wasn't going to change.
"I want to give you everything, Andre. I hate that I brought that memory so close to the surface again, but I can't be anyone but who I am."
With one last swipe of his tongue he straightened and looked down at her with his blue eyes. His palms went to the wound. Both of them. Pressing into her skin, spanning her midriff, taking in every inch. She felt the warmth. The healing. He was good. No, he was better than good, and deep inside, the healer in her watched and remembered his every move.
He turned her around, lifting her shirt so he could examine her back. She felt the slide of his hair. All that silk against her skin. The velvet rasp of his tongue followed. She closed her eyes. The action was sensual. Primitive, but still very sensuous. Her body grew hot and wet.
When he lifted his head and turned her back around to face him, his expression was gentle, not at all angry. "I do not know what I am going to do with you when I must go into battle. Chain you inside a cave perhaps. To the bed. So you will be waiting for me when I get back."
"Um. No. Just no to that one. I wouldn't be waiting with open arms. You try that one and you'll find out how much damage a modern woman can do when she's really annoyed with her man."
Her gaze fastened on his chest. The hole in his flesh. The lacerations. She couldn't tear her eyes from the damage. Everything in her, every cell in her body pushed her to heal those terrible wounds. How he was standing, she didn't know. More, he had taken the time to heal her.
Her hand smoothed over the worst wound. Her body swayed toward him. "I'm fully Carpathian, right?"
His gaze burned over her. She felt it, even though she didn't lift her eyes to his. Hot. He was so hot. Her fingers caressed the edges of the hole there. She instantly felt the reaction in her own body, her cells rushing to the surface to build flesh and take away pain. As if she could share her own skin.
She leaned into him and used her tongue as he had, closing her eyes so she wouldn't see what she was doing, so much as feel. He tasted like she remembered in her dreams. Hot. Masculine. Addictive. More, she knew she had that same healing agent in her saliva and she could do what he had done. She could heal his terrible wounds. She loved being a healer. It was her purpose. It had always been the one thing that made her feel she was worth something.
She'd chosen to study geology because she wanted to study rocks, gems and crystals, know their origins and feel how each could be used. This method was just as instinctive, a tuning of her body to his, just as she had done all her life, but closer. More intimate. She loved this.
Andre's hands came up to her hair. She felt the bite as he fisted bunches of silk in his large hands, but nothing could stop her. She lapped at the wound, taking every care to make certain the healing agent spread and did its work. Her fingers smoothed over the edges, as if she could push her own cells into his skin to build a bridge of tissue. She took her time, even when she heard him groan.
You have to stop. I am as hard as a rock.
I can't stop. Not until I have every single scratch on you healed.
He lifted her into his arms. She didn't stop, not even when she felt the wind in her hair, flowing across her body, and heard it whistling in her ears. She knew he was taking them back to their cave.
Teagan slipped her arms around his neck, using her tongue along his now bare chest, following the worst of the lacerations. Then they were in the dark of the cave and her body was as bare as his. His fingers were between her legs doing all sorts of distracting and delicious things to her body.
She decided she might like being Carpathian after all.
19
Teagan knew she was caught in the middle of a nightmare. The terrible dream couldn't be anything else, because Andre's human family surrounded her. They lay broken and dying all around her. The ground beneath her feet was saturated with blood. A vampire gripped her with bony claws, digging his talons into the side of her neck all the while turning his head to one side, looking away from her, laughing hideously.
She followed his gaze and saw Andre. The look on his face broke her heart. He was on the wall, his body bloody from the four stakes holding him pinned there. No matter how hard he struggled, there was no way for him to gain his freedom. He looked so young, so broken. She couldn't stand that look on his face, the mixture of sorrow, agony, guilt and hatred for the undead. She had to do something.
Teagan reached up with both hands and ripped at the vampire's face. He screamed and screamed. She heard the echo of it resounding through her mind. She realized it was Andre's scream, not the vampire, because Ciprian, Andre's uncle, had twisted his head and sunk his teeth deep into her neck.
She gasped and for one horrible moment realized she had no air. She was buried alive. Panic rushed over her and she dug at the heavy soil, trying not to suffocate, her heart pounding so hard she was afraid it would explode. She kept her eyes closed, terrified of seeing the dirt surrounding her, knowing she had only moments to figure out what to do to save herself.
She was aware of her every frantic heartbeat. Of Andre's body lying still and lifeless, wrapped around her own. Of the feeling of the soil on her skin and the tiny hairs of roots brushing over her. She thought about the open air. How it felt. How she could breathe it in. She wanted the soil gone and both of them out of the earth and onto the bed, totally clean. She built the picture in her mind, putting every ounce of fear, determination, will and strength she had into it.
Just like that, the weight was gone from
her and she felt the blessed fresh air on her face and body. Gasping with relief, she dragged air into her lungs, still keeping her eyes closed tightly. She actually felt the refreshing wash on her skin, much like the sensation of a shower, yet without the water. Even her mouth felt clean.
She became aware of the mattress on her back and Andre's body curled tightly around hers. Her lashes lifted and she stared at the ceiling of the cave, triumph rushing through her. She'd done it. She'd managed to open the earth and get not only herself out, but Andre as well.
Instantly she became aware of hunger beating at her. Dark hunger clawing at her insides until every cell in her body was desperate. At the same time, the burning between her legs started. Not gentle. Not a little. Desperate. Needy. That same dark hunger but in an entirely different way.
Teagan turned her head and looked at the man lying curled around her. In his sleep, he didn't look any younger. If anything, he showed the many battles in the lines of his face. That didn't make him any less attractive. In fact, she thought he was all the more handsome. Her gaze drifted possessively over his long, thick lashes, the hair spilling around him, his straight nose and strong jaw to his wide shoulders.
Andre was a big man physically. Everything about him was big. He seemed to take up an entire room when he walked into it. His chest was thick and heavily muscled. She smoothed her hand over the places where he had been injured. She didn't see so much as a line there. Still, she sent healing warmth along the spots where each wound had been.
She came up on her knees so she could really look at him, this man who was her other half. This man who was beautiful to her. A handful for a modern woman, but still, her man. Her lifemate. Looking down at him, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that she loved him. She wasn't going to have any regrets.
The one thing she'd worried about most was that she'd lose her family again and again over the centuries. Of course she could look at it that way, but she would choose to look at it as a great privilege. She would see future generations of her sisters' children's children. She would learn to accept the circle of life just as Andre had done. Learning that acceptance would take a while, but she would have him to see her through. Andre. Her gorgeous, beautiful man.