Dark Carousel

  Tariq wrapped his arm around her to steady her. She pressed closer to him, grateful for the support. She felt each of those women's emotions. The terror. The horror. The need to fight back. Submission. Despair. And then pain. So much pain.

  The babies. She whispered it in her mind. Sharing that with all of them. The screams of the unborn as they twisted in the womb, on fire, burning, the acid eating them from the inside out, in the same way it ate away at the mothers.

  Enough, Tariq ordered. Let go.

  She shook her head. We need to know what they did to that man. What they wanted from him. The head guy . . . vampire . . . whatever . . . likes to talk. He talked to the women constantly, taunting them, making them aware they were nothing in his eyes, only vessels to carry something he wanted. He talked when he hurt them. He talked when he raped them. He would have talked when he tortured the Carpathian.

  Tariq brushed his hand down the length of her hair. The Carpathian tortured is Val Zhestokly. He was in bad shape when Blaze found him. She set him free and Emeline gave him blood. In return, he hunted with us to get her back from Vadim. He is healing at the moment.

  Charlotte shuddered at the thought of what Vadim wanted to do to Emeline. Even to be close to the vampire would be horrible, let alone to have him touch you, or sink his teeth into you. She needed to visit Emeline immediately and offer friendship if nothing else. Emeline needed to know she had friends, people she could talk with.

  She pressed her hand into the table, right over the large spot of dried blood. She knew it was Val's. The man had endured far worse torture than the women. It was as though Vadim and his friends were trying to find out just how much the hunter could endure before he died. Or cried out. He never made a sound. Not one single sound. The vampires systematically cut him almost into pieces. They tore his flesh open, and he didn't respond. Who could do that?

  The torture went on for more than a year--she couldn't tell how long, but it was a very long time. Vadim or other vampires held him in their prison, keeping him so low on blood that his body nearly succumbed from that alone, but they knew how to keep him alive. They used every torture device known, modern and ancient, to break him. He seemed unbreakable.

  Charlotte sifted through the history as fast as possible, gaining an entirely new admiration and awe for the Carpathian hunters. She felt a kinship with Val now that she'd shared his suffering. She didn't know him. She'd never even seen him, not alive and well, just this pale, worn image of him with the lines drawn heavily in his handsome face. His body was covered in scars, old and new. He had the same drifting tattoo she'd caught sight of on Dragomir. She knew she could find the origin of that if she went back far enough, but she had to come forward. She had to find out what Vadim's sudden surge of elation was as she neared the last few weeks.

  You are not safe. Run. Run now before you die in there.

  His voice, that terrible sweet sound, she recognized. Whispering to her. Commanding her. She knew he'd taken aim and thrust the compulsion at her because her head nearly exploded with pain and at the same time, her body spun around of its own accord prepared to flee. Tariq's arm was a band around her rib cage, holding her to him, his breath warm in her ear.

  That is Vadim. Be careful when you answer me--stay on our path. It is different--a subtle difference only, so you must be careful. You are certain you have never been close to him?

  She shook her head, keeping her eyes closed tight, afraid to look around her, afraid that Tariq might suddenly let her go and she'd be facing the threat alone. Vadim Malinov was a far worse threat than Fridrick. She'd sensed Fridrick in the background. He'd taken Carpathian blood a few times and done his share of torturing, but no one was as evil as Vadim, not even his brother, Sergey.

  He has never touched me. Look into my memories. Into my mind. He's not there. I didn't know he existed until I met you. I don't know how he's doing this.

  Kod alte han. Tariq snarled the words, his voice a soft growl that sent a shiver through her.

  What does that mean? She tipped her head up to look at him, hands still on the table, connecting both of them to Val Zhestokly and the Carpathian's suffering.

  Tariq's eyes had gone to pure blue flames. "It means 'darkness curse it.' Swearing in Carpathian doesn't sound as bad as swearing in today's modern language, but believe me, Charlotte, it is."

  She did believe him, mostly because of the way he said it, the tone he'd used. He didn't like that Vadim was in her head and he couldn't figure out how the vampire had gotten there. Keep holding me while I find out exactly what Vadim wanted from Val.

  She didn't wait for Tariq to agree. She moved forward from the past to just a few weeks earlier. She had to reach for the right time she needed, and when she did, she took a deep breath and allowed the walls of the tunnel to grow around her, sealing her in with the memories solidified right there in the blood and wood.

  Vadim approached Val, who was chained in a small, uncomfortable cage like an animal. Clearly the vampire was filled with mocking glee. I have found the right one. The others will die soon. They are too weak and cannot possibly carry my child, the one to destroy Mikhail and his entire lineage. But this one, she has tested very high, and she will soon be here in the States. I've set things in motion already, and I have discovered just how important you are to this project. Do you know what that means, Val? Do you have any idea?

  Vadim waited but Val didn't deign to look at him let alone answer him. Vadim waved his hand to unlock the cage. He reached in with deliberate slowness, wanting his victim to see what was coming.

  The vampire struck hard and cruelly, tearing into Val's throat, his teeth sharp and huge. Chained and weak from lack of blood, from all the torture of whips and chains and knives, Val couldn't do anything to protect himself. He continued to be silent, stoic, completely ignoring the cruelty of Vadim's assault.

  Vadim drank his fill and then shoved the Carpathian away from him, smearing the blood on his lips with the back of his hand. Val made no attempt to sit up straight, remaining slumped against the bars of his cage. Vadim watched him. It burns, doesn't it? The hunger. It eats away at you until you can't think of anything else. That need. Every waking moment it is there with you. You had your chance to join us, but you were too stupid to see the reality of what the Dubrinsky line was doing--becoming weaker and weaker. Draven should have shown you that.

  Val made no acknowledgment of Vadim's declaration. The Carpathian merely looked at his tormentor with no expression whatsoever. Charlotte had never seen a man so ravaged and torn, so tortured, and yet he was stoic. She knew he felt pain because she felt it through her connection to him.

  The more she touched each vignette from the past, the more she understood the players--and Tariq's world. It was violent and dangerous, just as he was. There was also something incredibly beautiful and heroic about the way the Carpathian endured his imprisonment and torture. She couldn't help but admire and respect the man. She knew he was very similar in personality to Tariq. She'd been in Tariq's mind, and now she was sharing both Val's and Vadim's minds.

  Vadim. He was the most narcissistic person she'd ever met in her life. He was a megalomaniac, without a single doubt believing he was smarter than anyone else. He wanted power and believed he deserved having it. No one was greater than him.

  You will always know it was you, Zhestokly, that aided me in bringing down the prince and his lineage. You and your blood. You will live a long time knowing that again and again I will use your blood to kill my enemies and raise my army. The vampire spat at Val, the spittle hitting him full in the face, but the Carpathian made no sound, no movement. He sat stoically in the cage, folded up, unable to move, his heart weak, barely able to pump. She wanted to touch him. To reassure him that he would escape. That the others had in fact come for him.

  Come back to me, Charlotte, Tariq whispered softly in her mind. Again there were the small caressing strokes she was fast becoming familiar with.

  Charlotte shook her head. She wa
s so close to figuring out Vadim. They would need to know every detail in order to defeat him--because someone had to stop him. Someone had to stand up to the mastermind monster and his army of vile followers.

  You've been gone too long. Come back to me.

  There was a hint of steel in the voice, and her first impulse was to go back to him. This place and time were very dangerous to linger in. Tariq had noticed her presence when he was carving his carousel horse. Vadim's attention was entirely focused on Val, but at any moment he could have sensed her presence.

  One more time. I haven't gotten everything yet.

  She didn't wait for Tariq to answer because she knew he would demand she return. She moved to the next vignette, closer to the present timeline. She chose the day they had rescued Emeline in the hopes that it would reveal where Vadim had gone and what he was up to next.

  The terrified screams of a child pierced the air. Evil laughter, a sound that rivaled nails on a chalkboard. She heard the low murmur of the Carpathian's voice for the first time, soothing the child. Talking quietly just beneath the shrieking voices of the vampires surrounding him. To Charlotte's horror, they were bleeding him dry. She recognized Fridrick and Vadim, but there were two others holding cups to the numerous wounds pouring blood from their victim.

  The child--the one she recognized as Liv--sat almost on the Carpathian's lap; he had one strong arm curled around her, his hand over her eyes. His head was bent low to her ear as he whispered to her. Her screams stopped abruptly and she nodded over and over, sinking into him for protection. Charlotte knew there would be none--not for the child and certainly not for the hunter.

  You grow weak, Val. So weak. If you die, there is no hope for these women. These children. Vadim turned to half face the open door leading to the other room. He gestured toward it. They wait their turn. Your blood will feed all of them and you will be the downfall of the prince, his people, and all the humans we intend to kill or enslave.

  Charlotte turned to look and there were seven more men standing there, some grinning at the helpless child and the weakened Carpathian. The men were watching as the vampires licked obscenely at the blood. She recognized one of the faces. She'd seen him before, but where? He appeared entirely human, as did the others. They weren't pale; they didn't have sharp, bloodstained teeth.

  She gasped when the memory came to her. This was the man Daniel and his two companions had staked. She shared her knowledge with Tariq and the others. They were all connected through Tariq.

  The others were in the parking garage with Fridrick, Tariq informed her.

  She hadn't gotten a good look at them. Clearly they were recruits into Vadim's army. She needed to know what he was doing. Where he'd gone. They needed answers. Charlotte tried to get closer to Vadim, to get inside his mind. What was he doing with these human men? They weren't puppets, eating the flesh of children, or begging for the Carpathian's blood, literally licking the floor to get a few precious drops. Those people had once been human, but now they seemed to be programmed by Vadim and the others to do their bidding.

  Human psychics. Males. We never paid attention to them. Vadim and Sergey must be recruiting them. Tariq informed the others.

  Why is he giving them Carpathian blood? Dragomir asked.

  Charlotte was aware that Tariq shook his head in frustration.

  Vadim stepped close to Val, and the child shuddered and turned her face into Val's bare, bleeding chest.

  Hurry, give me your answer now, before it is too late. Charlotte caught the words, Val whispering to Liv.

  I want to be alive, Liv whispered, closing her eyes and turning her head to the side to present him with her neck.

  Val sank his teeth into the little girl's neck and drank. Vadim stepped back, and let out a high-pitched laugh. I knew you'd see reason. Stay alive for your little pets, Val. See how well that works out for all of you. The nasty voice droned on, taunting the Carpathian as the man fed.

  Charlotte couldn't help but be mesmerized by the way Val held the child. Carefully--almost tenderly when she knew he felt no emotion whatsoever. Still, for the child he managed to appear as if he did. Then she remembered Liv's soft entreaty. Don't you want us? The child could more than likely read Val as well, yet she stayed very still, her neck to one side, allowing him to take her blood.

  The moment Val lifted his head, he ignored the others and used a long fingernail to open his chest. At once the child turned her face to the offering. Charlotte wanted to close her eyes. She didn't want to see the way Liv took the Carpathian's blood. It should have been sacrilegious, but instead, she found it incredibly beautiful. Val had offered her life. He tried to make her valuable to Vadim by giving the child his blood.

  11

  Charlotte desperately wanted to break away when she saw the expression on Vadim's face as he stepped closer to the cage Val and the child were held in. He looked . . . evil. Pure evil. His face was a mask of fury. His eyes glowed a demon red. His mouth pulled tight to reveal his teeth, stained and sharp. How could she not have noticed that before? How could she not have seen just how truly a monster he looked?

  She held her breath, shoved her fist into her mouth to keep from screaming. Or maybe she should scream. She could distract him--maybe all of them--and somehow save the child from what she knew was coming.

  You know you cannot. Come back to me, Charlotte. There is no need to see the rest.

  She knew he meant feel it, because when she touched the occupants of the memory left behind in the object, she felt what they did. She wasn't ready to take on four more traumatized children--she had her hands full with Lourdes--but Liv was impossibly brave. There was no way she could abandon that wonderful, courageous child. Not ever.

  She forced herself to watch in silence as Vadim sank his talons into Liv's arm and jerked her hard, dragging her away from Val. Liv started to scream. Her mouth opened and a single shrill wail rose, but the child cut it off abruptly, her gaze shifting to Val's face. He nodded to her.

  Charlotte's heart jerked hard in her chest. She felt the warmth and courage Val sent to Liv. He'd connected with her through a blood bond and he had just assured her that he would do his best to stay with her throughout whatever ordeal she was facing.

  Vadim dragged her past the other two vampires. Sergey, his brother, stabbed at the child viciously with a long sharpened nail, drawing blood. He laughed and licked at his finger, his eyes on Val. Fridrick delivered a kick to Liv as she struggled to get on her feet as Vadim continued to drag her through the seven human males toward the puppet that stood swaying and growling.

  Charlotte looked at the men's faces as Vadim tossed the child to the puppet as if she were a piece of garbage. The thing resembled a human, but there was nothing left in its mind but purpose. Vadim had programmed the monster to do his bidding, but more than anything else, the craving for flesh and blood drove it. The puppet caught the child by the hair and dragged her into the next room.

  None of the men made a move to help the child, but two of them frowned and stared after her, both shifting uncomfortably. They weren't altogether happy with Vadim and his new regime. She focused on them so that any of the Carpathians she was connected with would remember their faces.

  I will not ask you again, Charlotte. You are ice-cold and shaking. You're too far gone. Come back to me now.

  She wanted to go to him, she really did, but she also wanted to reassure Val that he made it out of there. She needed to do the same thing for Liv. The child had to know that rescue was close and that she wouldn't die at the hands of that gruesome puppet. Charlotte forced her body forward, slipping past Vadim to get to the cage where Val was held. Fridrick was at him, tearing at his flesh with horrid teeth, snarling and gobbling blood as fast as he could. Charlotte reached out to Val. She'd never thought of trying to have someone in the past know she was there. They were memories. Not real. But Tariq had known. He'd turned his head and, for one moment, she knew he was aware of her when he was carving the carousel horse. If
he could be aware, so could Val and Liv.

  She turned sideways and made herself as small as possible as she extended her arm, fingers settling delicately around Val's bicep. His flesh felt strange. Cold. Icy cold as if she stood in an ice cave and the cold permeated not only the atmosphere surrounding her but entered her along with every occupant.

  Icy fingers crept down her spine. Very, very slowly, Val turned his head toward her, but he made no sound. His eyes, piercing cold, black as ice in a violent storm. She didn't know if he saw her, but he felt her presence. You will survive this. She used the common pathway she'd picked up from Tariq's mind. So will the child. She needed to give him that reassurance. Liv's survival was more important to him than his own. She didn't know how she knew that, only that she did.

  Instantly, Vadim roared with rage, and Fridrick renewed his frenzied gulping. Sergey turned around sharply in a circle searching for an unknown presence. She let Val go abruptly, afraid she was making things worse for him. Had they heard her as well? Of course. It was a rookie mistake. The vampires had once been Carpathians. Of course they would hear anything said on that particular path. She'd whispered it. Poured truth into it. Now the monsters were alerted not only to her presence but also to the fact that Val survived. She hoped they would eventually think her whispered words had been false.

  She backed away from the cage, careful not to touch any living thing. She needed to get to Liv, to assure her, to make certain the child knew she would be saved. Stepping into the next room, she saw the child on the floor, the hideous puppet tearing at her flesh in a feeding frenzy. Vadim, Fridrick and Sergey rushed past her, Fridrick nearly hitting her as he dashed through the room where a monster was feeding on a child, to the safety of the labyrinth of tunnels. The human men followed, the last two glancing down, slowing, as if they might intervene.