Dark Illusion

by Feehan, Christine

  Julija knew what was coming. She’d entertained the idea she knew was moving through Isai’s mind. She wanted desperately to stop him from voicing it. Already she could feel the beginnings of sorrow in his mind. She couldn’t stop herself. She had to delay the inevitable, even if it was just for a few minutes.

  How close were the two of you? She wasn’t close to her siblings at all. She’d tried. They hadn’t wanted her, other than to use her for blood. More than once, she was told she was worthless to the family. As she got older, she knew that wasn’t true. She had what they wanted most—an abundance of Carpathian blood.

  He was born nearly a thousand years after me. I met him twice and only by chance. For a long time, before I entered the monastery, I kept tabs on him. From everything I gathered about him, he was a very good man and an excellent hunter.

  Isai’s voice was strictly neutral, but she could feel his emotions. The sorrow was growing stronger. She decided to just get it over.

  You believe he is dead.

  Yes. You lost the connection with him. I cannot feel my connection with him.

  They flew together, Julija pressing closer to Isai in an effort to comfort him. The wind ruffled over her wings, but rather than producing turbulence and noise, the effect was an eerie silence. The construction of the owl’s feathers allowed it to be a silent, deadly predator.

  Do you think Sergey got to him? Anatolie? She didn’t want to think it was Barnabas, but it was possible.

  I think he sacrificed his life, spilling his blood over the book to hide it. He believed me dead. He thought himself the last of our lineage. No one else would have his blood or a connection to him. His lifemate was dead. He knew he would meet her in the next life cycle. He wanted his death to count for something.

  Julija turned the idea over and over in her mind. A blood sacrifice to hide the book? It might work. The book was still in existence and someone could stumble across it, but if Iulian had taken his own life, spilling his blood over the book as he’d died . . . She didn’t know. It might work.

  He would know no one other than the prince would be able to track him, Isai mused to her. Would that do it? Would that successfully hide the book? From Sergey? From your father? From any with the high mage’s mark?

  She wanted to tell him it would. She wanted him to believe that his brother sacrificed his life for all of them and that his sacrifice would count. Be legendary. She remained silent, trying to believe that the book couldn’t call out to the slivers in Sergey’s brain with Iulian’s blood over it. Or that her father couldn’t find a spell that would get past the lock Iulian’s blood put on finding the book.

  The book was magic, and magic left a trail. Those who wielded magic were sensitive to that trail. She thought it was a great idea Iulian had had. His scent would successfully drown out the others, but that didn’t mean the magic inside those bloodstained pages would remain there. Over time, the entrails could leak out and once again call to Sergey or Anatolie.

  Julija? Isai prompted, looking for an answer.

  It would be so much better if the book was destroyed, she said carefully.

  She felt Isai’s sudden weariness. She wanted to reach out and touch him to comfort him. In the body of the owl, she couldn’t do that, so she stroked a caress in his mind.

  Do you know how it can be destroyed?

  No. But I haven’t thought much beyond trying to catch up with Iulian and make certain he wasn’t using the book to get something for himself.

  Such as?

  Bringing his lifemate back.

  Isai’s owl pushed into her, turning her toward the west. They began quartering the area, looking for backpackers, campsites, any place an enemy might be.

  I will admit I had not thought of that, he said. It makes no sense.

  Of course it does, Isai. He waited a thousand years for that one woman and she’s dying when he finds her. Why wouldn’t he think he could bring her back?

  Carpathians do not think like that.

  You don’t think that way, Isai, she corrected. You do not know how he thought. She detested pointing that out to him, but it was the truth. Still, she didn’t believe Iulian had betrayed his people for selfish reasons. It wasn’t in him any more than it was in Isai.

  I want to explore the theory that he took his life, spilling his blood to hide the book. He was alone, and he believed his lineage had ended. How would anyone find that book?

  The obvious answer is accidentally. But there are a few other ways, magic being the most evident. What’s that below us?

  The male owl broke away from the female and circled the area below. It appeared devoid of all life, just flowers and shrubs clinging to rocks, living out the last of their cycle before winter set in fully.

  I do not see anything.

  Look in the shadows. Inside the female owl’s body, she shivered.

  The male made another lazy circuit. Sharp eyes inspected the deeper shadows thrown by large boulders in the silvery moon and multitude of stars.

  Let’s go, she whispered. Right now, Isai.

  As the owl passed over the largest boulder, a streak of gray shot from a crevasse in the granite and hooked savage claws into its body. The cat was that fast. Its weight pulled them both to the rock as it sank razor-sharp teeth into the bird.

  As the bird fell from the sky into the hungry cat’s jaws, a steady stream of what appeared like fog rose back into the sky as Isai escaped into the air.

  Do not panic, little mage. I am perfectly fine. This cat is starving. He is one of your brothers’ cats, and he’s very hungry.

  The shadow cat was enormous, the size of a large panther. The animal was very thin, and its hair was patchy, as if nutrition had been an ongoing problem. A second cat crawled up over the top of the large boulder, slinking toward the feeding cat. The larger cat lifted his head, looked around suspiciously and then backed off its kill. As the female approached, the male made a soft chuffing sound and took another step back.

  Clearly, he’s starving, yet he gives up his food to his hunting partner, Julija said. See why I wanted so much to help them? They’re mostly good to one another. It isn’t their fault that my brothers use them to harm people.

  Those two look far more vicious than the two we have, Isai stated, circling the shadow cats.

  The female crouched down and began to eat. Her eyes had been glowing red, but that vivid color receded, and she looked around her with jeweled amber. Her fur was more black than gray, and the wind ruffled it slightly.

  Those two are called Comet and Phaedra. They are the biggest and most dangerous of his cats. I couldn’t get near them. The female in particular would have taken my head off if she could have.

  She looks docile enough now.

  Julija’s breath caught in her throat. He wasn’t going to listen to her. Isai, please, let’s just get out of here. Anatolie can lay traps in places like this. The cats are programmed to find Carpathian blood. They crave it. Anatolie craves it. So do my brothers, and now, especially Barnabas. It is only a matter of time before they recognize that Carpathian blood is in close proximity to them.

  Do you believe they are looking for you? Me? Or my brother?

  Panic was beginning to fray the edges of her mood. She’d been so ecstatic, now she wanted to run for her life and take Isai with her.

  We cannot leave these two with your brothers. They will harm human life as well as mage or Carpathian. If they are left to run free without direction . . .

  Their direction is to kill. You. Me. Anyone they find. Come on, Isai. Let’s leave here. She directed her owl to circle above the cats, looking for anything that would tell her this was a trap Anatolie or her brothers—or worse, Barnabas—had set for them.

  Take a breath, sívamet, they do not know anything about us. They cannot know we are lifemates.

  She wanted to curl up inside the owl, small and frightened. She wanted to demand Isai listen to her. Mostly she wanted to gather up every molecule that could possibly be he
r lifemate and force him to leave whether he wanted to or not.

  He knows, Isai. Anatolie knows everything. What he knows, Barnabas will know. I believe he has chosen Barnabas as his right hand. He directs and Barnabas carries out whatever it is Anatolie tells him. She kept a wary eye on the feeding cats.

  Then Barnabas is not nearly as powerful as they want you to think. He needs your father’s direction and approval. Had he been intelligent, he would know, like your father, that you were the one with the power.

  Isai kept telling her that. Over and over. He clearly believed that the Carpathian DNA in her body coupled with the mage had given her some advantage over everyone. She wished it was true. She was beginning, in the back of her mind, to believe him. Just a little.

  Sívamet, look to the east.

  She didn’t want to take her eyes off the scene below. Isai needed her as a guard. Still, she did as he directed and saw Belle and Blue running full out, in shadow form, two gray streaks moving in the darkness toward the cats on the bluffs.

  Can you stop them?

  Either one of us can. They will obey orders. I hope they can help us with these two. I have a plan.

  Whatever you’re thinking, don’t. She wanted to shake him. I’m telling you, there is a trap here.

  I believe you. I am not on the ground. I am studying the situation.

  She heard the teasing amusement in his voice and she couldn’t help relaxing just a little bit. He could make her laugh, no matter the circumstances.

  She gave an exaggerated sigh. What is your plan?

  Plan? he echoed.

  A small laugh escaped her. Our kittens are getting closer. What is your idea?

  I am still thinking.

  It will not matter if any of them come for us. I’m going to strangle you, Julija informed him.

  She heard his deeper laugh brush through the walls of her mind. The sound was joyful. She loved that. She hadn’t heard Isai laugh often, and she hugged that moment to herself, savoring it, letting herself have those few heartbeats of time without worry. Without a negative thought.

  She’d been brought up in a world where spells and magic were normal. She found Isai was the true magician. He was magic. She would follow him anywhere.

  The owl suddenly jolted hard, pain spreading through the small body. She heard a loud crack as she fell, tumbling out of control, through the air toward the ground.

  Float. You know how to float. It starts in your head. Float, Julija. Right. Now. Isai streaked toward her.

  Julija closed her eyes to keep from seeing the ground rising toward her fast. In her head, she built the image of a bubble and instantly the velocity of her fall changed, and she was inside a balloon, carried on the wind. Isai snagged her out of the sky and took her balloon down to the surface, the floor of the bluff, a distance from the two cats.

  She emerged from the bubble and waited until Isai was in his human form. He was ruggedly good-looking. Every line. He could have been chiseled from the granite they stood on. She stared at him for an eternity, her heart pounding. “You saved me.”

  He shook his head, a faint smile on his face. “You saved yourself. Your choice was rather unique, but you did that all on your own. You didn’t cast a spell, or weave patterns, either. You just became lighter than air and you floated.”

  He looked so incredibly proud of her. Euphoria hit, but it wasn’t the fact that she really had saved herself, or that she hadn’t needed to add spells or weave intricate configurations in the air, it was that look on his face. No one had ever looked at her like that before. She wanted to etch that look into her mind for all time. She wanted to be able to take it out and examine it later when she had plenty of time.

  “The cats,” she whispered. “Our cats. Why do you want them here?”

  “Look at the two of them, what did you say their names were? Phaedra and Comet? Really look at them. Feel them.”

  She had looked at them. She’d gone into her brothers’ experiment shed every night to try to heal the cats that were injured or hurt. Phaedra and Comet were always locked away. They would hiss and leap at her, hitting the doors of their cages, and she would almost pass out. Venom dripped from their teeth. She would be afraid to even feed them.

  “You need to look at them,” she pointed out. “I love that you have compassion for them, but those two are so far gone.”

  “Why would they be so far gone?”

  “My brothers take turns beating them. They’re kept starved. After I found the shed, I fed the animals food, even them, although getting near their cage was taking my life in my hands. They especially hated me. All the cats did. They could smell my family on me. We have to do something now before Blue and Belle get here. I’m going to direct them away from here.”

  “No, my little mage, let them come. I do not want to leave these cats behind.”

  “Did you not see my owl shot out of the sky? They are coming after us.”

  “They were fishing. Even as the owl dropped from the sky, they couldn’t see you. They may have caught a glimpse of the balloon, but I pulled it out of the sky very quickly.” He turned his head toward the two cats who had run up to them. “Belle. Blue.” He rubbed their heads as they wound in and out between his legs, nearly knocking him over.

  Each time the cats bumped Julija, they rocked her body. They were big animals and once they took their normal forms, they were the size of panthers—healthy ones, and quite formidable. She petted the two cats, realizing she had missed them in the short time they’d been separated.

  “Above us, Julija,” Isai cautioned in a low voice.

  She didn’t tilt her head, but she did lift her gaze and her heart nearly stopped. Comet was crouched in the rocks above them, his body once more shimmering gray. He looked malevolent with his glowing eyes, two red pinpoints of evil staring at them.

  “Isai,” she whispered, “they can do damage in seconds.”

  “Yes,” he agreed. “I want you to think of yourself as molecules—”

  She shook her head. “Absolutely not. I stay right here with you. It happens, or it doesn’t. If he attacks, he attacks both of us.” She wasn’t going to argue with him, but she was shaking like a leaf. She might not have to use spells or weave protections to aid him fighting off the enormous cats, but she was used to it and much more comfortable with the concept.

  “Stay quiet then and let me handle them.” He lifted his hand and waved it casually toward her as if gesturing to her to stay silent.

  She sent him a look that should have withered him right there. “Your bossiness knows no bounds.”

  He inclined his head, a faint smile in his jeweled eyes. “You have no idea, kislány hän ku meke sarnaakmet minan.”

  Julija watched intently as Isai lifted his wrist to his mouth and bit down. At once crimson drops beaded up. He held his wrist out to the large cat crouched above them. Saliva dripped continuously from the cat’s mouth as it glared down at them.

  “Come to me, Comet,” Isai said in a low, compelling tone. It was a whisper of sound, but it carried on the wind and swelled with command. He held up his wrist so that the ruby drops slid down his arm in a trail of red.

  The enormous cat came to his feet and put one giant paw on the narrow trail that led down to where the two sat with Belle and Blue. Isai held up his hand in a wait command to the two cats who watched Comet warily.

  “Aćke éntölem it—take another step toward me. I am Karpatii. Your brother. I offer you life—or death. You choose. Stay where you are and be treated as a cur, kicked and beaten by those who have no aka-arvo— respect. With us, you will be treated as family. You are intelligent, Comet. Choose life or death now.”

  Julija wasn’t certain if she wanted Comet to choose life. He moved one slow step at a time. Above them, Phaedra had taken his place, crouching to watch their every movement, determined to protect her mate. She looked terrible. Her coat was thin and shabby, and when she slipped from her solid form to shadow, there were visible holes in th
e shadow creature. Her brothers had starved the cats almost beyond salvation. They must have done so in preparation for hunting her.

  She shivered and wrapped her arms around her middle as the huge male came closer. Isai sent her a sharp, assessing look. She was grateful that he thought her strong and steady enough to handle the anticipation of the cats’ attack on them, but at the same time, a little protection would have been nice.

  Isai’s blue gaze jumped to her face. “Do you really think I would not protect you? Above all else, Julija, you have my protection and care. If you need to go, or to be invisible, I will aid you to do so, although you are capable of that layer of protection yourself. I suspect these cats would find you. They have some element of Carpathian blood, most likely from the blood they took from you.”

  She jerked her gaze from the female cat crouched above her and turned her head to stare at him. “I knew they gave them blood. But . . .” She trailed off. What was the use? Her brothers were sick individuals, and they had tried to create the ultimate in a weapon. A shadow that could slip in and out of homes, maybe even dreams, kill when they were told to and return cowed to their masters.

  Blue snarled and Isai dropped his hand down toward their cat, offering him the blood trailing down his wrist.

  “In our world, Julija, blood is everything. It is what gives life and what takes it away. Our blood heals. It is powerful. We are nearly immortal because of our blood. Xavier was well aware of this and wanted it for himself. Blood was the one thing that always eluded him. Those he used for supply had to be kept weak and near death. I suspect your brothers, once they saw the power in the cats they bred, were afraid of them. They followed tradition and kept them weak.”

  She swallowed hard. The big male was so close now that Blue’s head went up and he stepped back, his body going to shadow, his eyes glowing hotly as he followed Comet’s every movement. Comet crept closer, his gaze going from Isai’s face, to Blue and then to Isai’s wrist.

  Isai put the temptation of the twin blood trails sliding down his wrist directly in front of Comet. “Trust is difficult when you have no reason,” he said softly. “My little mage had a difficult time trusting me. Belle and Blue did as well. We welcome you and Phaedra to our family. You will remain with us.”