Leon crab-walked down the side of the cavern, his features, too, illuminated by the fiery spear incinerating the lesser vampire's heart. He didn't appear as fearful as he should have. The cave filled with the sound of a drumbeat, a call, Leon sending for reinforcements. That told Dragomir that there were other pawns in the web of underground caves. That didn't matter since the other ancients, he was certain, were already dispensing justice to those vampires.
He followed Leon's every move, matching the steps like a dance partner, he on the ground, Leon coming down the side of the cave. Leon's eyes flared, went bright with excitement and adrenaline, a red flame flickering in their depths. Dragomir took that as his warning, spinning to meet the attack of Kaiser. The vampire came at him with dozens of replications of himself surrounding Dragomir. The ancient ducked low and went under the wall of Kaisers, somersaulted and came up behind the one he was certain was the real flesh-and-blood vampire. He'd chosen that one simply because, just once, the eyes shifted toward Afanasiv. It was a small thing, but it was telling.
He caught the head between his hands before the vampire could spin around, wrenched with his enormous strength, snapping the neck bones and tossing the body to one side. Leon waved his hand at the replicas, giving them a kind of life. Each of the bodies, and there were a dozen, turned to face Dragomir.
Afanasiv darted toward Leon as soon as Ravenous's heart was fully incinerated. It took much longer than the mere second with a lightning whip, but the way the cavern was formed, they had little chance of bringing the lightning down to them. He improvised, heating the fiery spear as close to the temperature as possible.
Leon, as if directing a symphony, had both arms in the air and tossed his make-believe army in front of the Carpathian hunter. They rushed him, wicked talons reaching for his chest and face, trying to gouge out his eyes and get to his heart.
Dragomir kept to his task. If he could incinerate the heart, all the replicas would drop. Kaiser's head flopped to his right and then fell back, a grotesque parody of what once had been a Carpathian male. Kaiser didn't seem to need his head to maneuver. He reached up to right it, smiling insanely at the ancient as he did so. The moment he straightened his head, he launched himself into the air, flying at Dragomir's face, scoring with his talons across his eyes to try to blind him.
Dragomir was stoic, accepting the pain and the injury as he slammed his fist into the vampire's chest, using Kaiser's own momentum to penetrate the armor of the bones and muscle. Blood running into his eyes, he stared straight into the vampire's as his fingers closed around the heart and he began to extract it.
Behind him, Leon divided his army, sending several after Dragomir. They crept up behind him as he began to withdraw the heart. Kaiser fought hard, raking Dragomir's chest and leaning forward to bite chunks from his shoulder, trying to reach his neck and the pounding pulse calling to him.
Dragomir suddenly spun, forcing Kaiser around as well, the heart in the ancient's fist, using his chest as a pivot to bring them both around. The attacking replicas raked talons down Kaiser's back, tearing through his flesh to bone. The vampire screamed in agony as he was struck from behind, and Dragomir ripped his heart from his body. He tossed the heart into the air and followed it with a spinning, fiery spear.
All replicas and Kaiser leapt into the air to try to get to the heart. Leon waved his hand to send the spear off course, but Afanasiv launched another right behind the first one. Dragomir followed with several more. Some pierced the bodies flying toward the now-dropping heart. One went straight through Kaiser. He was closest to the withered organ, stretching to reach it. The spear penetrated his back, right at his spine, and came out his abdomen, flames engulfing him.
The spear flying behind the first hit the heart dead center. By the time the spear hit the ground, ashes were already falling to the earth. The replicas faded from sight as Kaiser's body, in flames, dropped to the floor of the cavern.
There was a moment of silence. Leon stepped out from behind the rock where he'd taken refuge again. He smiled at them. "It has been a long time since I saw either of you."
"If you're stalling for time, Leon, you can forget it. I brought others with me. They are hunting your pawns right now." Dragomir was very aware Leon probably already knew that when they hadn't come to his aid. The master vampire was stalling, but his hope was that dawn would break and leave the ancients helpless. They were old and had too many kills to be able to sustain being out during even early morning hours, at least not without severe repercussions.
Leon shrugged and casually touched the rock. One finger. Two. He tapped as if nervous, but Dragomir wasn't fooled. He didn't wait to see what Leon was going to do; he started forward. The cavern trembled. The floor buckled. Dirt ran down the walls, first trickling and then in a steady stream. Overhead, the ceiling creaked and groaned. Dragomir continued his forward momentum as giant fissures appeared in the ceiling.
Scorpions poured out of the rock and swarmed up his legs, viciously stinging with poisonous tails, the strikes penetrating his calves and thighs to inject their venom. Undeterred, he slammed into Leon, his fist hitting the solid wall of the master vampire's chest. Great chunks of rock rained down on their heads. Around them the mountain shuddered and shook as if a great seismic event was occurring.
Afanasiv groaned under the weight of the ceiling as it fell. He stood in the center of the cave, legs wide apart, knees slightly bent, both arms raised, hands palms up to keep the tons of rock from coming down on top of Dragomir as he fought to extract the heart from the master vampire.
Leon calmly raised both hands, his nails lengthening into sharp daggers. He slammed them into either side of Dragomir's neck, burying the nails deep, piercing the artery on both sides. Dragomir didn't waver, not even when Leon slowly pulled the nails loose so the ancient's blood spurted out. Leon opened his mouth to catch the treasured blood. He gulped as his army of scorpions swarmed up Dragomir's thighs.
Get it done, Afanasiv snapped.
It wasn't easy extracting the vampire's heart. His blood was acid, burning through skin to penetrate bone. It felt as if each individual finger was burned off. Dragomir couldn't feel the heart, only excruciating pain as he closed his fist around what he perceived to be the organ. He cut off all ability to feel and kept pulling.
Leon was bathing in blood, rubbing his face in Dragomir's shoulder like a cat might, lapping at the blood as it ran down the neck and shoulder to the chest. He smeared it on his hands and licked his fingers. He didn't appear to notice that Dragomir's fist had retracted from his chest. When several scorpions made their way up to Dragomir's chest and the blood there, Leon waved them away, so they fell off the ancient's body and retreated back to the base of the rock where they'd crawled from.
Dragomir staggered and went to his knees, the venom and loss of blood taking its toll. Leon caught him and eased him to the ground, almost embracing him, holding him close as he licked and sucked at the blood, a frenzy of need, a euphoric high. Dragomir opened his fist and looked down. The heart pulsed there, black and withered, but alive. It jerked in his palm, ready to spring back to its master. Leon was close, but Dragomir shifted slightly, as if offering his neck and the hideous wound there.
Leon made a sound, a kind of greedy triumph. Dragomir tilted his hand and allowed the heart to drop to the ground and roll a few feet from them. His sight blurred. In the midst of the pain, he was all too aware of the sun climbing into the sky. His skin hurt, began to smoke and then blister. Leon didn't even notice his own skin was smoking and blisters were forming just from the presence of the sun. It mattered little that they were underground, the presence of the sun still was felt. Soon the paralysis of their kind would strike all of them.
Dragomir sent a spear from above, spinning straight down so that the point penetrated the center of the heart and flames engulfed the organ. Leon lifted his head, clearly shocked. He smiled and petted Dragomir's head. "You're dead, too. You know that, don't you? I've killed you." He was sti
ll smiling as the second spear hit him.
Dragomir crawled away from the deadly flames, but he didn't get far. Weakness hit. His legs felt useless. He rolled over and stared up at the chunks missing from the ceiling. Afanasiv cautiously allowed one hand to drop so he could begin to weave a holding spell.
Above their heads, the rocks began to reconstruct the interior ceiling. Immediately Sandu and Andor floated down into the cavern.
Sandu crouched beside Dragomir, whistling softly. "You're a mess," he greeted.
"I know." There wasn't much more to say.
Ferro joined them, and it took all of them healing and giving blood, pushing out venom to try to keep Dragomir from succumbing to the vicious wounds. All of them had blisters rising on their skin when they finally gave up working and went to ground for the rest of the day.
Dragomir woke just before sunset. For the first time in his life that he could remember, everything hurt. His body protested the slightest movement. He lay still, absorbing the feel of the soil cocooning him like a warm blanket. He knew he needed the healer. His wounds had been mortal, but he counted himself lucky. Leon, for all his idiocy, was a master vampire and he had endless skills. He hadn't had a taste of ancient blood in centuries--clearly Vadim hadn't shared Val's blood with his lesser underlings. The moment he gulped that first mouthful of ancient blood, his greed overtook all else.
Dragomir knew that was one of the biggest downfalls for master vampires. It wouldn't work on Vadim because he'd used Valentin for years, caging and feeding off him. That blood had been ancient and Vadim wouldn't succumb to the high it would cause in others. Still, it was a difficult way to defeat a vampire, allowing them to inflict mortal wounds and try to drain their opponent dry. He used his mind to move the earth above him. At once he felt the coolness of the night air. Sandu, Andor and Ferro had worked hard on Afanasiv and Dragomir while Nicu cleared the cavern and marked out all the best places one could find healing soil. Dragomir was alone in the chamber where Leon had taken refuge.
He moved slightly, his body stiff. His legs were on fire. His neck throbbed. His arm, right up to his bicep where he'd slammed his fist into Leon's chest, was burned and painful. He was starving. Starving. At that moment, he was grateful he had found his lifemate. No human would have been safe for him to feed from in the state he was in had she not been anchoring him.
Dragomir? I am dreaming, and you are in need. I can't find you and the healer won't allow me to wake and go to you.
He stiffened. His heart nearly seized. Carpathians didn't dream. Well, as a rule they didn't. Throughout history, a few had reported having nightmares, but no one took the phenomenon seriously. Now, his woman, the one Vadim wanted for her visions, could continue to dream after she'd been converted. He didn't know which was more extraordinary--that she could dream or that she could reach out to him in her sleep beneath the earth.
Are you dreaming that I am in need of you? I will always be in need of you, lifemate. You are most important to me.
There was a small silence. He pictured her little frown. He found himself smiling instead of checking his body for levels of pain.
That is a good play on words, but I know you're injured and those injuries are severe. If you allow me to wake, I can send the healer to you.
The healer will soon be on his way to me. I am sending for him. He loved being in her mind. He loved the way she thought of him. Her worry for him. He wanted to be with her. No, he needed to be with her.
Why didn't you send for him on waking?
We have set a trap and if I call to him on the common path, everyone will know I am injured. I am needed to fight, not be bait. I took the healer's blood, but he didn't take mine.
She was silent a moment. He was in her mind and could feel her trying to sort out what that meant.
There must be an exchange to forge a unique telepathic link between two people. Her exhaustion beat at him. He didn't want her to keep talking--or dreaming.
I can't help my visions. This one was of you in a cave and you were being attacked by insects. Scorpions, I think.
He touched his legs, burning with a fire that shouldn't have been there.
You lost a lot of blood.
The pads of his fingers found the puncture wounds in his neck. They felt raw. The rake marks down his back where talons had flayed his back open stung.
Your eyes.
His eyes hurt like hell. He touched the laceration that ran across his both eyes and his right temple.
You are not healing as you should. The earth and the ancients tried to heal you, but they cannot. I dreamt this, Dragomir. My visions are real. I know there is something that horrible vampire did to you, something you're unaware of.
Dragomir took a deep breath and let it out. You're dead, too. You know that, don't you? I've killed you, Leon had told him. Stated it. Dragomir thought he meant no one could heal him or give him blood before the sun rose. Ancients could endure. They did endure. Even burning, the members of the brotherhood did what was necessary to save their own. Leon meant something else, something altogether different.
I need to know exactly where you are. I can reach Blaze and she can reach the healer. Tell me now, Dragomir.
They know. We set a trap. Tell him here. He sent her the coordinates. Maybe they were both wrong, but he didn't think so. He'd never felt like this. He couldn't move. He didn't want to move. Lethargy had crept into his mind. His body felt like a furnace. He forced himself to lift his head enough to look down at his legs. They were swollen and blackened.
He is on his way. Her voice was soothing.
A cool breeze moved through the cavern and flowed over his face and body. How did you do that?
We are connected to each other through my vision. I can change things that have not already happened. I know where you are, I have the picture in my mind and I just added to it.
She made it sound so ordinary, as if anyone could do such a thing. His woman. Well worth the wait. Well worth all those centuries of nothing.
He knew the exact moment when the sun went down, giving the Carpathians back their world. Sandu, Andor and Ferro joined him immediately, shocked that he hadn't risen when they had.
"Nicu and Afanasiv have gone out to hunt. When they return, we'll go," Andor said. "This doesn't look good, Dragomir. I have not seen this before."
"Leave it to Leon to actually find something no one else has done when he's always been so lazy about everything else." Dragomir attempted humor. "The healer is on his way. Be ready. Vadim will send others the moment they can rise. He will not want to lose Leon and his pawns."
"Eugen escaped, Dragomir. He will go to Vadim and tell him we're here," Andor pointed out.
"Eventually. But he won't want to admit he abandoned Leon. He will have found a resting place close. The dawn was breaking when he fled. There's still a good chance Vadim will send a few others to aid Leon." Dragomir closed his eyes, waiting. Feeling Emeline. She held the connection between them in her dream until Gary Daratrazanoff materialized beside him.
Be well, she murmured and faded from his mind.
At once he felt bereft, his mind seeking hers automatically. There was only a void where she had been. She was in the deep healing sleep of their kind--and she needed to be. He just wished he was right there beside her, his body curled around hers.
"Have you seen this before, Gary?" he asked.
The ancients retreated, all but Sandu. He waited in the shadows on the pretense of giving the healer blood should he need it. In truth, he needed to feed every bit as much as the others, but he stayed behind to protect Dragomir and the healer in case Vadim's men got through.
"I know of it, yes."
Which wasn't the same thing. Along with battle experience and all the negatives Gary had endured from the ancients pouring into him, he had their healing experiences. He shed his body and entered Dragomir's without hesitation or any thought of himself.
It took time. Time enough that outside, a battle had raged
. Vadim had sent three more vampires to catch the Carpathians between Leon and his pawns and the ones Vadim ordered to fight. The ancients made quick work of them and brought blood back several times to feed Dragomir, but mostly to keep Gary from succumbing to exhaustion. He worked for hours until finally he deemed he had gotten rid of the poison that had found its way into the bones. The scorpions had stung over and over, puncturing the bone, making tiny holes. Those holes were deep and the venom went right in and spread.
It hadn't been easy, but Gary had managed to turn the tide and rid Dragomir's body of all venom. With ancients surrounding them, Dragomir and Gary returned to the compound, Dragomir to the healing grounds to finally lie beside Emeline. No one knew where Gary chose to sleep, and no one made the mistake of asking.
11
Emeline woke in a bed in her home. She was dressed in a soft gown, red with red roses embossed throughout the material. Before she opened her eyes, she realized she felt no pain. None. She inhaled and drew the scent of Dragomir into her lungs. He always smelled wild. Dangerous. Delicious. She would recognize that scent anywhere. Sliding both hands protectively over her unborn child, she smiled without opening her eyes.
"You're here with me."
"Where else would I be?" The deep timbre of his voice slid over her skin like a caress. "Open your eyes for me." He always spoke softly. She loved the way he did that. His soft was commanding yet gentle.
She lifted her lashes, her gaze moving over him a little anxiously. She knew every wound on his body. She'd seen them in her vision. She'd experienced the battle with the vampires as if she'd been there. That world was so far removed from the one she'd been born into. She thought she was tough being a street kid, but Carpathians were on an entirely different playing field. She would never have had the courage to go there if it hadn't been for Dragomir.
He laid his hand over hers. "Gary checked the baby, and she's doing fine. I'm going to feed you. She needs blood every bit as much as you do."
She winced at the word. Blood. She didn't like the image, and she knew he used the word deliberately to get her used to the idea. She took a deep breath and sat up, looking down at the gown. "Did you do this for me?" She smoothed her hand over the silky material. "It's beautiful. It feels beautiful." She reached up to touch her hair. It fell in a thick braid down to her waist. "You thought of everything."