The two owls rose higher, turning in a slow circle, moving up into the higher elevations. She could see the mountain rising up above the dense forest of trees. The canopy swayed, drawing her attention back to the leaves, silver against the backdrop of the evening sky. The night was staining the sky a darker blue. A few brave stars sparkled above their heads, and the moon managed to make itself seen against the darker sky.
Shrouding the mountain peaks was a heavy mist that seemed impenetrable. Once again she felt the heavy burden of the monks pressing into her. They had their own music, but it was infinitely sad. Filled with despair and sorrow. Worse, although they radiated it, sending those notes of intense pain into the universe, they clearly weren't aware of it.
Can you tune them out? Andre asked gently. You are taking on their sorrow, sivamet. They would not want that for you, for any woman. They honor women and have their entire lives. They are ancients without the other half of their souls and it is far too dangerous for them to continue looking. They are lost and they know it.
I can help them, Andre. Perhaps give them a few more months or years.
Perhaps, Teagan. You are a miracle so I have no doubt if anyone can do such a thing, it would be you, but not like this. Not taking on their burden.
She didn't know how to tune them out. All that sadness slipping into nature's joyous symphony. The notes weren't at all unharmonious. In fact, they added to the richness of the music she heard. And then . . . there it was. Her stomach lurched and she felt a jarring, as if something vibrated wrong through her insides.
Did you feel that, Andre? He's there. I need to hear more to find his trail and follow it. That one note out of place.
Teagan Joanes was a true miracle. Andre felt the note through her. He would never have discovered a master vampire's lair. Never. They didn't leave blank spots, giving away to the hunter that their presence was close. Not if they were a true master. They were far better at vanishing than that or they never would have survived so many centuries to become a master.
The discordant note grew stronger as the two owls began to narrow in on the jangle of sound, so out of place among the beauty of the song Teagan could hear and had shared with him.
Teagan had been so beautiful, so unexpected, so sexy, waking him up, replacing nightmares with her sweet, sensual body. Giving herself to him. He didn't know what other males had, what went on between lifemates, but he was thankful she belonged to him and that she understood he belonged to her. She had taken him into her keeping in the same way he had her.
He stayed very alert in her mind. She wasn't flying headlong into danger. She felt her way, sharing with him without holding back. She was afraid. Her fear beat at him, but that didn't stop her. It didn't slow her down or make her hesitant. His woman had a backbone of pure steel.
To the right. We need to drop down closer to that area in the mist there, Andre, but I think if we do, he'll know we're here.
Popescu's pawns had used a web inside the fog to find victims. Andre had seen that particular trick used in the past, but it wasn't a well-known one. Not many vampires had managed to acquire the necessary knowledge to do such a thing. It was complicated, and most didn't have the cunning or patience. But Costin Popescu did, and that said a lot about his battle knowledge.
Let me move ahead of you, Andre said. Stay circling right here until I can get a feel for what he has wrought there in the fog. If I can find a way for us to move through it undetected, we will get closer and try to pinpoint his exact location.
Why didn't he leave?
He was either wounded much more severely than I first thought, which I doubt and will not count on, or he is not moving so he does not leave a trail for me to follow. A master will forgo his meals to throw a hunter off the trail. This one is very dangerous, Teagan. He poured a warning into his tone, hoping she understood the knowledge he imparted to her.
I have no wish to encounter him up close and personal, Andre, she assured.
He found himself wanting to smile at the snippy little tone she used. He liked her snippy. He liked the way, when she was nervous, she blurted out anything that was in her mind. He found the trait both funny and endearing.
Neither do I, he admitted. Keep your mind in mine, just in case I find us a way in.
He was using his bossy tone, which he knew she disliked as a rule, but she didn't seem to mind so much when they were hunting vampires.
She made a little sound in the back of her throat. I don't know what I'm doing hunting vampires. That's your territory so be as bossy as you want. Anything else, you might want to consider I've been known to bash people over the heads with frying pans.
You hit a serial killer over the head, he reminded. That was entirely justified. Hitting me would just be mean.
Um. No. What exactly is the definition of a serial killer? Doesn't that label go with multiple bodies stacking up?
He choked on his own laughter. She had a point, but she didn't need to make him laugh when he was entering the web of a master vampire. He had to go delicately, and without a body of any kind that could trip the shimmering wires trailing back to the undead.
Andre shifted, leaving the form of the owl to become nothing but molecules moving through the air. He entered the mist cautiously, feeling for each of the fine filaments that would lead back to the master.
Now you have called me an old dog and a serial killer.
I'm just saying.
The smile was gone from her voice, even though she went along with his teasing. He didn't like that she was afraid for him, and he knew she was. She was in his mind, just as he was in hers, and she knew what he was doing was very dangerous. The vampire's traps surrounded him.
Sivamet. He tried to wrap the endearment in his love. I have done this for centuries. Believe in me.
I do.
She said it fast. Sincerely. Meaning it. But she was terrified for him, just as he had been terrified for her when she'd been so close to the vampire. He had never considered that his lifemate would feel the same intensity of fear for her man as he did his woman when she was in the path of danger, and he didn't like it. He more than didn't like it. His woman shouldn't have to ever feel that kind of fear.
You do, she shot back, revealing she was becoming even more adept at reading his thoughts than she had been at rising. She learned at an outrageous pace. He was going to have to work hard to stay in front of her.
It is not the same thing. Deliberately he made his reply decisive.
She would never convince him, although he knew she would try, that she had every right to worry over his safety as he did hers. For him there would always be a difference. She was his woman. Precious. A treasure to cherish. No matter that she had a spine of steel, she was fragile in his world. She might not think so, but she was. She always would be. It was his duty and his privilege to protect her.
You make me crazy when you think like that, Andre. Of course I am going to worry about you facing monsters. I love you. You're my . . . family.
That was everything. Family, to Teagan, was her everything. Sacred. For her to say that, she was revealing her vulnerability to him. She was giving him another gift and he knew it was huge. He wasn't going to spoil it by arguing with her. He was who he was and he couldn't change his nature. He could find ways to compromise because above all, he wanted her to be happy, but he didn't want her worried or in danger.
I love you, sivamet. You are my heart and soul. She had just given him hers, he needed her to know she wasn't alone in that.
Andre spotted the first filament and elation swept through him. On his own, he couldn't hear the discordant notes jarring nature's symphony, but through Teagan, he knew the vampire was below him and to his right, smack in the middle of what appeared to be solid rock.
I am going to drift as close as I can to that boulder just to my right. Do you see it, Teagan? I think he may be somewhere in that vicinity. I cannot pinpoint his location.
The female owl made another slow circl
e, dropping lower.
Do not touch the mist, he cautioned.
I think I can make a pass just beneath the fog, come down as if I was hunting and missed my prey. I might be able to feel his exact location.
He was grateful she waited for his permission. If she allowed her owl to actually scan the ground looking for mice or any other food source, and then allowed the bird to take over, giving it very little guidance, she would be safe enough. The vampire wouldn't expect a female owl to be any threat to it.
Still, Andre was uneasy. If Popescu hadn't fed in days, he might be just starved enough that he would go after an animal--a bird flying that little bit too close.
Csitri, if he catches you, he would tear you apart with his teeth before I could get to you.
I don't have to get that close. I just need to get below the mist, drop as if I'm hunting and feel the strength of those notes. I can pinpoint his exact location.
Popescu wasn't under the ground, not if those filaments were anything to go by. The master vampire had set his lure and he was waiting--hoping--a victim would come by so he wouldn't have to move. Moving meant leaving a trail. He was staying very still and waiting for the hunter to leave the area, just as he'd done for centuries.
I can do it, Teagan said.
Her fear beat at him, and Andre was grateful he had had the presence of mind to mask her presence just in case they had come across the master vampire. At the same time she felt fear, her determination poured off of her. She wanted this. It made her feel a part of him. Maybe she even needed it.
She wasn't asking to go into battle, just to be of aid, to feel as if she gave him some advantage. It was the most difficult thing he'd ever done, and it went against his nature, but he was in her head and he could see, this was everything to her. By giving his consent--and it said a lot about her that she waited for it even when she wanted to give him this--he knew he would be giving her self-respect. More, he knew she could live with the division of their partnership, if he could concede.
I want you to remember, to always hold in your heart, in your head, what will happen should anything happen to you. I need you, Teagan, far more than you will ever need me. I love you. I have never really had anyone in my life until you. I cannot go back to emptiness. Do you understand what I am saying to you?
He still was uncertain he could give her his consent. He drifted even closer to the boulder where the filaments seemed to lead. He wanted to be close just in case the vampire made a grab for the bird.
I understand that and I also understand what you're giving to me. Her voice was soft. A caress. Filled with love.
Do it then. Feed me the information and then get far away. Into the trees where the owl can hide. I will need you when I am done. No matter how bad the wounds are, take me to ground and I will heal. Do you understand? Get me into the ground.
Absolutely. I won't let you down, Andre. Just stay connected to me, even when you're afraid I'll feel pain. Don't shut me out, because if you do, I'll panic. As long as I know you're alive, and you have a plan, I can stay where you tell me.
Teagan didn't hesitate, but then he knew she wouldn't. She dropped out of the sky, sliding beneath the bank of fog, talons extended toward a mouse rustling in the vegetation.
An actual mouse. Luring the owl in. The mouse wasn't close to the boulder Andre suspected held the vampire. The mouse was near a thin sapling shooting out between two smaller rocks.
Get out of there. Andre called the warning just as the owl veered away from the ground, away from the straggly tree nearly bent double from the winds that often raged over the mountain.
He heard the crash of notes, the cacophony of sound that jarred every cell in Teagan's body. She heard it as she had come in, following his instructions, allowing the owl to be close to the surface. At the last possible moment, when she heard the discordant notes, she had reacted, taking control back.
Andre hadn't expected that, not so soon, but he was grateful as the vampire lunged out from between the rocks, throwing the decoy of a sapling off of him as he reached for the bird.
Andre used his speed, shifting as he rushed through the distance separating them, inserting his body between Popescu and Teagan, slamming into the vampire with the force of a freight train, driving him backward, his fist slamming home, deep into the chest of the undead. The fierce momentum sent both of them tumbling together over the cliff. Andre locked onto the vampire with his free arm, even as he dug through tissue, muscle and bone to try to find the withered, blackened organ that ensured Popescu would rise again and again.
Teagan rose behind them as the two men went over the cliff and landed in the canopy of the taller trees, breaking branches as they fell through to the lower, heavier limbs. She could see Andre clearly, his free arm deflecting teeth and talons, while his fist continued to burrow through the agonizing acid blood. She felt it burning through his skin, right down to his bones, but he didn't stop. Didn't flinch. He kept after his prize, no matter that the vampire leaned forward and tore open his neck.
Her heart plummeted as she saw the vampire gulping at the bright red blood. It took everything she had to do as her lifemate had commanded. She had promised. She felt his agony and fear lived and breathed in her, every bit as terrible a monster as the master vampire, but she held on.
Andre had told her to look inside his mind. See his plan. Know that he had one and he would use it to make the world a safer place. She hid herself in the thickest branches possible, all the while staying in his mind. She kept silent even when she wanted to whisper to him that she was there, she was with him. He wasn't alone in this fight and she would do anything at all to help him.
He had said by staying safe that would help the most and she had to trust that he was right. He had blocked all pain so he didn't feel the damage the vampire inflicted on his body. He didn't seem to notice the terrible rake marks down his chest as Popescu dug his talons into flesh and ripped at it, even gulping some of that in his eagerness to feed on rich Carpathian blood.
The sight sickened her. She had never seen anyone so torn and bleeding. Still, he didn't stop. The resolve in his mind was absolute. He would destroy this vampire to keep it from ever again preying on humans or Carpathians. He wasn't afraid. He had buried his emotions somewhere deep where even she couldn't find them. He didn't feel the raw agony, but she did.
Her stomach churned and for a moment she thought she might actually black out. She knew better. She didn't dare. Andre would be distracted and he was in a fight for his life. More, he was relying on her. He would have tried to move away from Popescu's attack had she not been there to take his back.
The pressure was enormous, but at the same time, she was elated, no--more--she was honored that he would trust her to save his life no matter how badly he was wounded. She swallowed down bile and forced herself not only to watch, but to assess the damage to his body, which lacerations were superficial, which were life threatening.
Coming up with a plan of action that continually changed as the battle raged on kept her mind occupied, and she could compartmentalize the pain. At first she wasn't even aware that she was doing it. She was far too busy mapping out Andre's body and following every single rip and tear. Monitoring his blood supply and helping him to slow the blood loss. She found she could even, because she was entrenched so deeply in his mind, repair some of the damage to his veins and arteries even from the distance.
She wanted to do as he had done and become pure healing energy, but she didn't dare leave her body behind and unprotected, not until she knew the vampire was dead. The two combatants disappeared from her view. The broken branches from the tree they'd hit were blackened, the leaves withered and dried as if all the energy had been sucked out of it--or if it had been poisoned.
She caught a glimpse of the master vampire and Andre under two healthy trees, but one bent toward Andre, branches reaching like two hands toward the back of his head. Vines sprang from the limbs and wrapped around his neck. Her heart in her
throat, she nearly jumped from the tree and spread her wings to get to him, but she forced herself to look into his mind. To stay still. To keep her promise. It was so difficult. She knew she was weeping inside the body of the owl. Her heart pounded and every cell in her body wanted--needed--to get to Andre, but she held herself in check.
His mind was utterly consumed with the battle. He had known Popescu had directed the battle path toward the two trees. He had even known what would happen and he hadn't tried to escape. He still didn't try. Instead, he withdrew his arm from the vampire's chest.
She could see Andre's fist was closed. His arm was mangled, bloody and the flesh was gone all the way to the bone where the vampire's blood had eaten through skin and tissue. The vines whipped around him fast, covering him from his head down his shoulders and arms, pinning his arms to his side.
Teagan heard rolling thunder and lightning forked across the sky.
Sivamet. You know what to do.
Andre dropped the blackened organ at his feet, lowered his head, vines and all, and drove his shoulder into the vampire, driving him backward and off his feet, away from the heart.
Teagan didn't have time to think. She saw the instructions in Andre's mind and she took control of the lightning, dragging a whip from the sky and slamming it to earth. The first pass hit inches from the target, but she steadied her aim, ignoring the vampire tearing strips of flesh from her man, ignoring the nasty teeth ripping into his bones. The whip of lightning hit the small target dead center, incinerating the heart.
Popescu's shock showed on his face. He was certain Andre was helpless to control the white-hot energy pouring from the sky. He turned his head slowly to look toward the trees where Teagan hid. She shivered at the mask of evil, the terrible hatred she saw there. The red, burning eyes went vacant and his body toppled to the ground. As it did, the vines around Andre loosened and then dropped away, no longer under the vampire's control.
She waited until Andre stepped away from the body, until he went down on one knee and dropped his head, sagging. She slammed the whip over Popescu's body and watched it incinerate. She held the energy there for Andre. He didn't move toward it and, heart in her throat, she moved it closer to him. It took him too long to bathe his arms and chest in the heat to burn every drop of vampire blood from his body. As soon as he was done, he let himself sag to the ground.