I call upon Algiz, that which gives protection and safe harbor,
I call upon Ansuz, that which reveals what is unseen.
Immediately runes appeared all over the walls, climbing high, up to the ceiling and spreading across it. Her breath caught in her throat. "Zev, he used blood. This is a very dangerous spell. Until I can undo what he's wrought, we don't dare enter."
"Who is he?" Zev asked, his fingers tightening around her nape.
"Only a High Mage could do this. He's here. Close. This is Xaviero's work. He preferred to use the old alphabet to cast, unlike Xavier or Xayvion. I would recognize this anywhere."
"He couldn't have sent an apprentice to do his dirty work?"
She shook her head, fighting to keep her heaving stomach in place. There had never been a doubt in her mind that Xaviero had produced the mage-shadows in the Lycans. She had heard his voice, but he'd been far away--so she thought. He had to have been present in the room to place such a spell.
"No. He was here." Her mouth was so dry she could barely get the words out. She touched her sister's mind to make certain she was safe. He's here, Tatijana. In the Carpathian Mountains. He's killed Arno. Go to ground where he can't enter. The sacred warrior cave perhaps, but get to safety.
She knew Zev heard her, he was merged very deeply with her. She felt him in her mind, pouring strength into her.
"Why would he risk everything and come here himself?" Zev gestured toward Arno's body. "Why kill him and not come after me?"
"He needed to know his enemy. If you've been inadvertently a thorn in his side, pouring water on the fires he's created among the council members and among the packs, destroying rogues and killing his assassins, he will want you dead. He knows now that I'm with you, that by killing one of us, he'll kill us both," she explained.
"How?"
"Arno told him, of course. Arno, no matter how he tried, would never have been able to hold out against the High Mage, any more than Lyall was able to do with me questioning him."
"I can find out exactly what Arno told him, and perhaps even his plans," Zev said. "I can access Arno's memories."
"Don't you think Xaviero knows that? He left the head intact. He wanted someone to come into the room and try to save Arno. The room is a huge, dangerous trap. Arno's brain will be as well. Once we get in there, it will be far better to sever the head and burn the body as quickly as possible," Branislava objected.
"Can you remove the danger?" Zev asked.
She realized he hadn't agreed with her. She turned to look at him over her shoulder, her heart sinking. Zev was a man of integrity. Of loyalty. Of duty. He would find his answers one way or another, and danger wouldn't play a part in whether or not he did his job.
"I can get us into the room," she said slowly, her gaze clinging to his. She didn't want him to do this, but he would, and if he was going down that path, she was going with him.
Gregori came in behind them. "Skyler and Dimitri just told me. Mikhail's on his way."
"No!" both said simultaneously.
Zev sighed. "The mage was here. Xaviero. Branka's certain he killed Arno and has set traps in the room and probably on the body as well."
Gregori looked past them to the walls, ceiling and floor covered in bloody runes. He frowned. "Can you unravel that? Or find a way to counter it? Is there even a spell for that? Maybe we should just burn it all down, Branislava."
Zev shook his head. "You know we need the information Arno can give us. If Branka really can't find a way in, we'll burn it all, but we need information. Anything at all to give us clues to where Xaviero is and what his plans are."
"He wouldn't tell those plans to Arno, knowing you're going to try to access his memories," Gregori protested.
"That's true," Zev said. He slipped his arm around Branislava and held her for a long moment. "But the clues will be in the traps. He won't be able to set them without giving something of himself away. Isn't that how it works, Branka?"
She didn't want to admit he was right. In order to get the information, they needed to face each trap, dismantle it and move to the next one. The more traps, the more information Xaviero would be forced to leave behind, whether he wanted to or not. First, she would have to be certain she had made the room safe and that the information wasn't a red herring planted by Xaviero. No one else, other than Tatijana, knew him that well. She had to be the one facing the mage's work, because she wasn't about to let her sister do it.
"Yes," she answered reluctantly. "That's how it works."
"Is it possible for you to instruct us telepathically?" Zev asked. "You look at his work and then tell us how to unravel it? I'm merged with you, won't I be able to see what needs to be done when you are figuring it out?"
Branislava shook her head. "To pit yourself against a High Mage spell is too dangerous without knowing what you're doing. It's very complicated and detailed, layers upon layers. Anything this dangerous can't be managed that way, Zev, but thank you. I know you're just trying to spare me his presence. Arno will have told him about me. He saw me question Lyall, and no doubt, Xaviero already knows who I am. There isn't any point in trying to hide from him."
Zev stiffened, his arm tightening around her. "If he knows you, his trap will be very specific to you, won't it?"
She shrugged. "That would make sense, but I think more likely, it will be specific to you. Perhaps not the first one, the first snare is set to use Arno's body to lure another victim into the room. If Skyler hadn't been the one to find the body, Xaviero may have done just that. You almost entered the room. He would have triumphed right then."
Mikhail appeared in the hallway behind Gregori. "Arno is dead." It was more a statement than a question. The question was for Gregori, asking what happened.
I thought you were going to keep him away from here, Zev said.
Gregori shook his head and gestured to the runes written in blood covering the walls and ceiling of the room. "He had a visitor. A mage can slip past guards during the day."
There is no controlling Mikhail. He is responsible for the Lycan council and carries that weight heavily on his shoulders. I can only protect him, not control him, Gregori replied to Zev.
I do not envy you your job, Zev said to Gregori.
Gregori looked into the room and the bloody symbols covering the walls. At this moment, I do not envy yours.
"Who specifically was assigned to protect him?" Mikhail asked.
Branislava's gaze jumped to the prince with sudden apprehension. She could feel the change in Zev. His face remained expressionless, but deep inside, there was a small ripple of unease. She hadn't considered who might have been guarding Arno and what happened to him--or that the Lycan would be someone close to Zev.
"One of my best," Zev answered slowly. "Arnau. And he's Arno's son. He's an elite hunter and a member of my pack. His room is right there." He indicated the door just to the left of Arno's sleeping quarters.
Gregori stepped to one side of the door and waved his hand to the prince, as if shooing him aside. Branislava would have laughed at the gesture if the tension wasn't so high. The prince didn't move a step. Gregori thrust his hand toward the door and it sprang wide open.
Arnau leapt through the open space, already half man, half wolf, his muzzle dripping with saliva, madness in his red-rimmed eyes. He had one target and he landed squarely on her, driving Branislava to the floor, his claws tearing at her stomach and his teeth clamping down around her left shoulder, up high, toward her neck.
Zev reacted first, hurling through the air at a blurring speed, both boots hitting Arnau squarely in the ribs, driving the Lycan off of Branislava. The Lycan rolled and came back to his feet, his gaze targeting Bronnie. Clearly for him, there was no one else in the narrow hallway. He made no sound, just attacked a second time, propelling himself forward, closing the distance between them fast.
Mikhail stepped in front of Branislava, a silver stake in his fist. The Lycan used his claws to go up and over the prince, raking flesh from his ch
est and shoulders as he whipped past him. Gregori swore and yanked Mikhail back and away from the mage-maddened Lycan.
Arnau hit Zev squarely in the chest as Zev materialized right where Branislava had been. They stared into each another's eyes. The stake in his fist penetrated right through the chest wall, through muscle and tissue, straight to the heart. Zev put his arm around Arnau and gently lowered him to the ground. He went with him, crouching low.
Arnau tried to speak. Zev nodded several times. His sorrow was palpable, so intense Branislava felt tears burning behind her eyes.
"I know," Zev said softly to Arnau. "Good journey my friend." One hand around Arnau's, he held the Lycan's gaze with his own as the life faded from the elite hunter's eyes.
He stayed beside the body for a long minute, his hand smoothing back the hunter's hair and then slipping his fingers over the mask of death to close Arnau's eyes. He stood slowly, as if the weight of his friend was heavy on his shoulders. Taking a breath, he drew his sword and severed the head from the shoulders in one smooth movement.
There was silence in the hall. Gregori was the first to move. "Mikhail, this will be a long job for Bronnie and Zev. Perhaps it is best if we take care of other matters and allow them to get to it. I've sent for Fen and Dimitri. They work well with Zev, and if their lifemates are present, both are powerful in their own right. The combination of these six could very well defeat Xaviero's plans."
"In other words," Mikhail said. "You'd like to put me in a bubble and keep me safe."
Zev cleaned his sword and put it slowly and reverently back in its scabbard. "We all want you safe, Mikhail. Whatever Xaviero has done here cannot touch you, or he will win." He turned his head, his eyes meeting the prince's. "I'm not willing to let him win. He's taken too many good men with his evil. We have to stop him."
Mikhail nodded. "I agree. Just be careful."
Branislava moved under Zev's shoulder, slipping her arm around him as they turned back to the open door and the body of Arnau's father.
I'm so sorry, Zev. There were no right words. She felt his pain, that intense sorrow he refused to allow others to see. The death of his friend had only increased his determination to destroy Xaviero before he could hurt anyone else.
Zev's only indication that he heard her was a soft brush of his mind against hers. His face didn't change expression and his gaze didn't stray from the room.
"Where do we start?" he asked.
Branislava straightened her shoulders and stepped to the doorway, carefully studying the symbols. "First I have to cleanse the room and drive away the demons he set here. He brought them through the gates of hell. I've seen them do it more than once, and whatever comes through can get trapped on this side."
Zev frowned. "I can't fight what I can't see."
"This won't be that kind of fight," she replied. "You can't physically enter that room without being killed. The demons stand guard as they've been commanded to do and wait for their reward, the flesh and blood of a living creature."
"I've heard of shadow warriors, the dead brought back to serve the mage."
She shook her head. "Shadow warriors were men who fought with honor, and a mage captured their spirit and forced them into service. These are demons, evil beings the mage can't force into service. He makes an exchange with them. In this case, he's trading their service for the chance to taste flesh and blood. Yours or mine, specifically."
Zev ran his hand down his knife as if eager for battle. "Let's get to this. Tell me what to do."
"We're one, our souls tied together, so he believes if he kills one of us, he kills the other," she explained.
"And he's right," Zev confirmed.
"He doesn't know our spirits are tied together. If either of us gets pulled into the other world, which from what I see here, could be their plan, the demons devour our body and our spirit will enter the other world where his brother waits to collect it in the hopes that he can be resurrected."
Zev swore under his breath. "I'm a man who fights what's in front of me, not ghosts," he said, his voice turning gravelly, the growl not far off. "How the hell do you prevent your spirit from entering another realm, or your body from being devoured by demons?"
She reached out and gently rubbed his wrist. "I don't know if that is the plan, Zev," she admitted. "I'm trying to guess and prepare myself for any likelihood. I know they spoke of such things, and the spirit has to be one known to them."
Zev was a man of action, and this fight required finesse, the knowledge of spells and both white and black magic. His breath hissed out, a harsh blast of protest. "He wants your spirit."
"He didn't know I was here until he questioned Arno," she reminded. "But he is an opportunist. I'm just being careful."
She glanced behind her and Arnau's body was already gone, the hall clean as if no violent death had ever taken place. She touched her belly where the claws had raked her. "There can be no trace of blood on me," she added, lifting her fingers to examine the evidence of the Lycan's attack.
Instantly Zev spun her around and really looked at her. "Branka, I'm sorry. I was selfishly thinking of the loss of my friend." He placed his palm over the bite marks on her neck.
Rather than soothe the wound, pain flashed through her body. She jerked away from him, her eyes going wide. "I need Skyler and Tatijana right away," she said and let herself sink down on the floor right in front of the door. "Tell them to hurry," she added.
Fen and Tatijana emerged first, Tatijana going to her knees beside her sister. Her gaze went into the room and she gasped at the sight of the bloody symbols.
Branislava grasped her hand tightly. "I was bitten by Xaviero's servant."
"Arnau was not Xaviero's servant," Zev protested. "He was a good man." He crouched beside his lifemate. "When I tried to heal her with my palm, my touch burned through her. I felt it, Tatijana."
Tatijana and Branislava stared at one another in a kind of horror. Tatijana gripped her sister's hand. "He injected you with demon's bait, didn't he? They'll rush right to you."
Zev wrapped his arms around his lifemate. "Speak a language I can understand."
"We have to get it out of her," Tatijana said. "They'll find her. In this realm or the next, they'll come for her. I know this spell. I saw them all working on perfecting it. We both did. Bronnie, we can get it out of you."
Branislava nodded several times, took a deep breath and settled back against Zev. "Now, Tatijana, you and Skyler. Get her here. Where is she?"
"Dimitri and Skyler were out running the wolves this evening with Ivory and Razvan," Fen explained, his voice so gentle Branislava had to fight tears. "All of them are on their way and should be here soon."
She knew she was emotional. Most of it had to do with Zev's emotion--or lack thereof. He pushed his feelings aside in order to survive the things he had to do, but she felt it, that burning sorrow at the loss of a man he considered family. He blamed himself for not tending to her wounds immediately and for not finding a way to prevent what had transpired. Losing a council member was a huge blow to him. Losing Arnau, a member of his pack, was even more of a personal blow. And now knowing he had waited to heal her and she was infected . . .
"We're here," Skyler said, breathing hard, as if she'd been running. "Ivory, too. What do you need?"
"She's been bitten. Demon bait was transferred into her body," Tatijana explained.
Both Ivory and Skyler looked past the Dragonseeker sisters into the room. Thousands of bloody runes covered the walls and ceiling, while a dark pool of blood covered the floor.
"I can use the bait to draw the demons into the open," Branislava explained. "It's the only way to send them back to where he pulled them from. He's brought them through from hell."
Ivory's fingers sought the cross she always wore hanging around her neck. Her fist closed over it. "I saw Xavier, at least at the time I thought it was Xavier, it may have been one of the others, but I swore the gates of hell opened and he emerged."
Branislava went pale, but she didn't reply. Instead she looked to Tatijana. Tatijana stepped back at once and lifted her arms. Her eyes grew larger, the emeralds darkening to a much deeper hue.
Thurisaz, I call upon thee,
That which can bring chaos, instinctive will,
Help me to draw forth that which will draw forth the darkness of demons,
Born of blood, by the blood I command thee to come forth.
Dark bubbles appeared around the wounds in Branislava's neck and stomach. The bubbles beaded together to form long strands. The strands wiggled and danced, until finally a head appeared on each one. The small creature writhed and squirmed, feasting on the droplets of blood before being suddenly lifted up by a blast of icy wind and driven into the room where Arno's body lay.
Branislava spun around and came to her feet all at once, a blur of motion, her hands up like two weapons. Her breath caught in her throat. Tatijana stood as close as possible. Power leapt between the two women. Branislava could feel the flow of energy pouring from her sister to her. Skyler and Ivory joined with Tatijana and the power was so strong, it was almost too difficult to wield. She felt Zev close, steadying her.
Inside the room, the long, wormlike creatures rushed to feed off the pool of blood beneath the dead body. There was a moment of absolute stillness, and then the chamber came alive. Dark shadows appeared from every direction of the room and one dropping from the ceiling, bodies stretching obscenely, mouths yawning wide as bony, clawed fingers reached greedily to snatch at the demon bait. There were five of them. The shadowed shapes circled the dark worms and the body on the floor.
Branislava waved her hands gracefully, drawing symbols in the air, all the while chanting in a soft, but commanding voice.
That which comes from the dark,
I see you, I know you,
I take back from you the spirit and energy that was stolen,
I call upon Hagalaz, that which can be destructive uncontrolled,
I call forth your energy now, Hagalaz, to use your forces of control.
Branislava's voice swelled with power. She felt the additional boost as Skyler joined Tatijana, feeding her energy to counter the dark spell the High Mage had left behind.
I call upon the spirit of air,
Winds that blow freely,
Bring forth your gales,