Dark Legacy

  The healer says three weeks.

  Three weeks it is, then. These are good people, Elisabeta. Let them help you. I know it is new and scary, but you can do this. You're Carpathian. Sergey is a vampire. He's evil. There is nothing you can do to change that.

  I tried.

  He has no soul.

  Abruptly Gary returned, throwing a quick glance at Julija, indicating he'd heard every word exchanged. No doubt he'd been in Elisabeta's head, trying to help her recover faster. He waved his hand, and just that fast, Elisabeta was asleep, far from Julija, far from all of them. He closed the soil over her.

  "I'm Tariq Asenguard," Tariq introduced himself to Julija as they walked through the house, back to the outside. "You're welcome to stay."

  Julija shook her head. I have things to do. Important things. I'll be back, though, if you don't mind.

  Dragomir gave Tariq her answer.

  "We would welcome you anytime," Tariq said.

  Julija held out her hand to Dragomir. It was a pleasure to meet you. She did the same for Gary. Both of you. I would never have been able to free her on my own.

  They watched her leave, walking away, no car, no backpack, just a woman looking frail and battered. Their every instinct was to go after her, but she'd made it clear she wanted to be alone, that she had something of great importance to do, and they had to respect her wishes.

  Dragomir couldn't wait to get to Emeline. He saw her on the porch, talking with Genevieve and Amelia, but her gaze was on him.

  Tariq, the city is destroyed but most of the vampires were not here, Afanasiv reported. They were not in the underground city. Nor in the park. We are on our way back.

  Tariq immediately looked toward the high tower where Matt Bennet, the head of his security force, was stationed. Waiting. Be alert. Have your men ready.

  Dragomir took a careful look around. That shadow in his mind had grown to full-blown dread. Emeline, send the children to the safe rooms. Have Amelia take them in now. You and Genevieve get inside.

  She didn't question him, just leaned over to talk to Amelia and calmly gesture to Genevieve. He was proud of her. Proud that she looked normal if anyone was watching. Amelia stepped off the porch and sauntered over to Danny. Slinging an arm around him, she laughed while she talked. The two of them scooped up Lourdes and Bella, putting them on their backs, and called to Liv to play with them. Liv ran over and they raced to the main house, laughing and calling out to one another as they went. They disappeared behind the door just as Maksim and Blaze arrived. Charlotte followed the children into the house.

  The boom of Donald Walton's new gun reverberated through the night. The night sky lit up with a fiery orange glow. Maksim was in the air immediately, heading toward the lake. The gun from the tower answered, one single shot, a fiery spinning missile fired toward the lake.

  They're coming in from under the water. The underground rivers Emeline showed us, Dragomir said. He has found a way to render safeguards useless in the water. That was a blow. A huge one. The spell had to come from accessing Xavier's mind. That's why the attacks always came from underneath us.

  Dragomir launched himself, taking to the air, streaking toward the lake just as Donald's gun and then Mary's sounded. Both were loud, echoing across the wide expanse of water.

  Dragomir could see creatures climbing out of the black, shiny water. Some shot out of the water into the sky. Matt and his team took aim from the relative safety of the blinds hidden throughout the compound. They could move freely to and from them via the tunnels Tariq had created for them.

  Don't go in the water, Tariq cautioned. I have a surprise for Vadim's army.

  Tariq spotted Vadim emerging, a dark figure, using two others as a shield. They didn't call attention to themselves, but rather tried to move in the deeper shadows to shore. Dragomir realized Vadim was locked on to Emeline's house. He was certain all the ancients were gone, hunting his cities, and lairs, chasing his army out to sea and leaving the compound unprotected.

  Dragomir streaked across the lake, coming at Vadim from behind. He caught him, once again, by the play yard. He struck Vadim from behind, slamming his fist right through his back, utilizing his strength and power, breaking bones and tunneling through tissue to get his fingers around the heart. As if recognizing him as the one who had had the other piece of it, the organ leapt toward him.

  Vadim shrieked in fear and fury. He whirled, shouting orders, caught off guard. His shrieks drowned out the sound of gunfire. The two vampires guarding him swung around just as Dragomir extracted the heart and flung it to one side. Lightning forked across the sky, lighting up Vadim's shocked features. The attack had happened too fast, a blitz he hadn't expected.

  One of the vampires tackled Dragomir, knocking him back from Vadim. Lightning hit the ground just to one side of the vampire's heart. The second vampire dropped protectively to the ground beside the fallen master. Dragomir recognized Sergey.

  Sergey Malinov regarded his brother with sorrow on his face. Surreptitiously he reached out and covered Vadim's heart with one hand while he wrapped his arm around his brother with the other. "I'm sorry, Vadim. We didn't see him coming at us from behind. It's too late now. He has your heart. Give me Xavier's sliver and I may find a way to defeat him. Maybe even stop him from incinerating you." He kept his voice soft and persuasive, gentle, kind even. Filled with grief.

  Vadim shrieked and thrashed. Black blood spilled everywhere. Another scream produced a torrent of spittle. With it came a silver-gray splinter. Eagerly the small piece of the high mage recognized that the other vampire had another small section inside him. It entered him easily via his ear, sliding inside to find the brain, to find that other slice left of such a powerful man.

  "That is good, Vadim. Let me try to stop him," Sergey said. He kept his sorrowful look, even when triumph spilled through him like water over a dam. He looked up and beckoned one of Vadim's idiot pawns closer. Glee filled him. His plans were coming together nicely.

  The vampire hurried to his side.

  "I need help with my brother. With Vadim," he said softly, making certain that Vadim heard. "Dragomir has taken his heart and I must get it back, no matter the cost to me. You watch over him."

  Sergey stood, slipped away and then returned, coming up behind the vampire, who looked left and right, but paid no attention to what was behind him. He slammed his fist deep, extracted the heart, tossed it to one side and called down the lightning himself. He incinerated the heart and then the body before lifting his brother. He immediately employed a vanishing spell over both of them.

  Now he had only to get his most prized possession back. He'd possessed her for hundreds of years. She belonged to him. She was probably terrified without him telling her what to do.

  He shifted, molecules in the air, moving slowly so as not to call attention to himself while the battle raged around him, Vadim's idiot army doing the bidding of a man already gone, already under Sergey's rule, although they wouldn't know it. He'd sent three of his best to kill Dragomir and their new healer, Daratrazanoff. That family was always sticking their noses in where they didn't belong. He reached for Elisabeta, trying to connect with her. There was only emptiness. A void. He nearly panicked. She had to be there, somewhere in the compound.

  There was no entering the house. He could feel the safeguards from a distance away. If she was in there, he would have known. She was part of him. They'd been together for centuries. He took care of her. She wouldn't be able to function without him. He had no choice but to leave, but he would find her.

  Dragomir felt teeth rip down his shoulder and arm. Talons tore chunks of flesh from his chest. He and the vampire tumbled across the ground, hit one of the stone dragons and came to an abrupt stop. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a vampire, Sergey, trap Vadim's heart under his hand, then Dragomir was fighting for his life as a second vampire joined the one trying to kill him. The second one didn't try to wear him down; he went straight for the chest, slamming his fist ove
r and over, creating holes that bled profusely, weakening him.

  He sank his teeth into the first vampire's neck, ripping his jugular out, snapping the bones there before turning to face the second one. Catching the fist as it came out of him, he jerked the vampire hard toward him. At the same time, he snapped a hard punch deep into the chest. The momentum of the vampire's forward lurch helped drive Dragomir's fist deep. His fingers found the heart. As he extracted the wizened organ, the first vampire attacked again, leaping on him, raking with teeth and talons, pounding at his back with desperate fists.

  Suddenly, the vampire was gone and Gary Daratrazanoff was there. He hurled the vampire from Dragomir and followed it up, not fast or slow, just a steady, relentless pursuit. Dragomir incinerated the heart and then the vampire. He looked toward Sergey and Vadim. The air crackled with electrical energy. In the air over the lake. Over the playground. Gary called for it. Lightning lit up the sky, turning the night into day. Dragomir could see ashes where Vadim had been. He knelt there on one knee, studying the ground, trying to make sense of it. Sergey had covered his brother's heart and then incinerated both the heart and Vadim. He'd made his play and taken the crown.

  Dragomir looked around carefully. Gary joined him. "Tariq has lit up the lake and electrocuted every vampire in it. Maksim and the security team destroyed the ones who made it to shore. Vadim must have grown so weak after losing those three splinters and a piece of his heart that he couldn't think clearly and made poor judgments." Dragomir gestured toward the ashes, already blowing away. "Sergey has taken leadership."

  "We knew it would happen." Gary glanced toward the house and the healing grounds that lay underneath. "I reinforced the safeguards, above, below and all around her. Sergey can't get to Elisabeta."

  "He's trying."

  "He'll keep trying. He's addicted to her." Gary sighed and shook his head. "You realize that Vadim had a splinter of Xavier in him. No way would the high mage allow himself to die by lightning. It's in Sergey now. Two of them. He'll have more memories and skills to draw on. He's going to make an even more relentless and powerful enemy than he did when he had Vadim with him."

  Dragomir nodded. "We'll just have to make it too difficult for him to continue to snoop around looking for Elisabeta. The woman deserves peace. You don't think he can wake her and call her to him, do you?"

  Gary shook his head, a slight smile curving his hard mouth. "I thought of that when I put her in the ground and commanded her to sleep. He can't break that spell, not even if the high mage was working fully with him. She will get her rest. But when she rises, Dragomir, she will have problems you cannot imagine."

  Dragomir glanced toward the house where his lifemate waited at the window. She'd done what he'd asked of her and he knew it had cost her, but even with the brief battle they'd been prepared for, she'd stayed clear of his mind, allowing him to fight the vampire without having to divide his attention two ways. He was grateful to her and respected her strength even more.

  I love you. He took a step toward the house.

  Gary put a hand on his shoulder just as Emeline replied. Allow Gary to heal you. You're a mess, and getting bloodstains off the floor is becoming difficult.

  The love in her voice always did him in. He gave her a small salute and went with the healer.

  20

  Don't cheat," Dragomir said.

  "I have a blindfold on," Emeline protested laughing. "How could I possibly cheat?"

  "You could look through the blindfold, but you'd better not," he cautioned, making his voice growl to show her he meant business. He led her down the path, making certain every uneven spot was smoothed out for her. "A surprise means you don't get to see until I'm ready for you to see."

  "You give me surprises nearly every night," she pointed out. "You're spoiling me."

  "You spoil me." He leaned close to her ear, his warm breath stealing into her, pushing a tendril of desire spiraling with heat through her veins. "Every time you get down on your knees in front of me and swallow me down, your eyes locked with mine, my world turns into pure paradise. Then you do that thing with your tongue, and I'm completely lost."

  She couldn't help the soft laughter that spilled out or the liquid heat between her legs responding to his seductive whisper. "I especially like to lick you clean. You always get that amazing look on your face." Deliberately, she was as wicked as possible.

  He groaned. "Don't talk about that. We're out in the open and I'm fairly certain there are dozens of pairs of eyes on us right this minute. Otherwise, I'd lift you up, have you wrap your legs around me and I'd take you right here and now."

  He made her crazy when he said things like that. Now she couldn't think about anything but wanting him. The hand on the small of her back guiding her slid down to her bottom, caressing her right through her skirt. It was thin, but not thin enough. She wanted to feel him skin to skin, not with clothes separating them.

  "I'm giving you a different kind of surprise," he said. "So behave."

  She laughed again and this time she stopped, turned to face him and slid her hand up his chest to find his face. Her fingertips traced the curve of his lip. She didn't want to miss his smile--and she knew he was smiling. She loved when he smiled. She did that. She gave him that. Nothing made her happier.

  "You're the one who started this. You've got your hand on my butt." She leaned in to brush a kiss over that perfect bottom lip. "And you're rubbing."

  "I'll be spanking in a minute," he murmured, but already his hands were in her hair and he was kissing her.

  Kissing her. Like there was no tomorrow. His kiss consumed her. Devoured her. Fed her crazy addiction to him. He had so many kinds of kisses. Sweet. Tender. Gentle. Hard. Wet. Commanding. She loved every one of them. She especially loved these because they were the kind she got lost in immediately. If she was strictly honest, she got lost in all his kisses, but she loved these the best. She gave herself to him when he kissed her like this.

  Her body melted into his and she circled his neck with her arms, leaning into him, letting him take her weight. She was blindfolded, but it didn't matter, she knew he had her. He always had her. She was safe with him. Her heart was safe with him.

  Dragomir lifted his head, rubbed his chin over the top of her head and then trailed his lips down the side of her face to the pulse beating in her neck. "I love the way you smell, Emeline. And the way you taste. Sometimes I can't get enough."

  His tongue slid over her pulse and then his teeth scraped back and forth as if the temptation was too much to resist. Everything in her responded with a wicked invitation. She wanted that bite, so erotic. So beautiful. He'd taken her blood, given her his. They'd made love twice that evening, tangled together on the sheets in her bedroom, sharing the same skin. Worshiping each other.

  "Keep your arms around my neck," he whispered. "Hold tight."

  That was all the warning she got, and then she was cradled in his arms and they were moving through the air. She laughed and buried her face against his chest. She loved his surprises, although, truthfully, he was spoiling her far too much. She couldn't keep up with him. He was good at picking her wish list right out of her head and giving her item after item. She tried to do the same, but most of his wants were about making her happy or keeping her safe, or were very intensely sexual.

  Every evening he talked to the baby, his hands around the little bump, his mouth pressed to her bare skin. He whispered that she was loved and that they couldn't wait to see her. To hold her in their arms. Emeline loved him all the more for that. She never once found a single doubt in his mind. He wanted the baby and thought of her as his. With all the blood exchanges between them, she knew his blood ran in Carisma's veins.

  I still have trouble thinking he's really gone. She knew Dragomir would know who she was talking about just by the trepidation in her voice. He ruled my life for so many years. I was afraid for so long, I keep thinking he set us up, pretended to die just so we'd let our guards down.

  Ca
rpathians don't let their guards down, Emeline. His brother killed him. I saw the ashes.

  Could it be a trick, Dragomir? Sergey killed another vampire and Vadim is still alive?

  There was a small silence. Her heart thundered in her ears. She bit down hard on her lip. She wanted reassurance, not silence, but he didn't lie to her. Not ever. It was a blessing and a curse. Dragomir?

  I am thinking. Is it possible? I took his heart and then was attacked. I saw his brother close to him. Then Sergey wielded the lightning, and Vadim was incinerated. Did I see that it was Vadim? No. I assumed it was. What reason would Sergey have for keeping Vadim alive? There is no feeling between the brothers. They are vampires.

  But Sergey could feel something. Elisabeta gave him emotions and control, didn't she? He has a plan. You said he was actually the one behind Vadim. Now she was terrified. She wanted to pull off the blindfold and look all around her. They were no longer in the safety of Tariq's compound. Dragomir had taken her a distance.

  He set her feet on the ground, but prevented her from removing the blindfold. "Vadim is not going to ruin our lives. I have you, Emeline. If he's still alive, he'll reveal that in time. We can weave safeguards that will not fail to protect our own. Gary found the spell they used to come through the water. They cannot do so again. We will be vigilant. We have a baby coming. We have Tariq and Maksim as neighbors, and the brotherhood is close."

  "Neighbors?" She'd caught that. "What have you done?"

  He pulled her into his body, her back to his front, his arms wrapped around her. "You can remove it now."

  She forced her mind away from the thought of Vadim being alive and reached her hands up to untie the knot at the back of her head. Slowly she brought the cloth down. Straight in front of her was a large sprawling house. It was Mediterranean-style, U-shaped so that there was a large courtyard surrounded on three sides by the house. Trees were abundant as the terrain rolled upward toward the hills.

  "What do you think?"

  "I think you take my breath away," she admitted. "Just when I think you can't get any better, you do. This is perfect. Perfect. When I dreamt of a house, this is what I dreamt. One story, but large, so I could have a big family but still have privacy with my man. I can't wait to see inside."