Dark Illusion

by Feehan, Christine

  Knowing her lifemate was at risk enabled Julija to strengthen her resolve in spite of her exhaustion. She fought back against the evil threatening to eat her from the inside out. Everything she’d ever wanted was dangled in front of her as an enticement. Every vanity she might have had. The temptation of having anything she wanted, anything she wanted to do with no repercussions, it was there in her mind, calling to her.

  Julija forced herself to relax into the churning mass of evil. She sank into it, surrendering as if overcome. The moment it closed around her, surrounding her, she threw her magic out. The colors burst through the darkness, consuming all black magic, eating through every spell, ripping power from her brother.

  Now, Isai. Attack now. He is not without tricks and illusions, but his true power is gone for the moment.

  As she sank onto the ground, limp, unable to move or speak aloud, she heard the dark mage shriek in sheer shock and anger. He had never once conceived that she might try to steal his magic from him. Or that she could do such a thing.

  The shadow cats surrounded her, pressing close, turning outward toward any threat, but the birds had disappeared as if they’d never been. The rain was gone. The tentacles fell to their sides and withered. The ferocious wind died down as well as the turbulent tornado it had spawned.

  She waited until she could get to her hands and knees and crawled and pulled her body to the edge of the bluff, so she could see below. She didn’t have any energy left, but if Isai needed her, she would give the last of everything she had for him. Never in her life had anyone ever come to her aid. Not a single time. Isai had done so without any thought for his own safety or the safety of his soul. He’d spent centuries guarding his soul and yet in that moment, he had risked it without reservation—for her.

  Tears leaked out of her eyes, blurring her vision, but she dashed them away and peered over the edge of the bluff to see the man who was her lifemate step out into the open, facing her brother. Her heart pounded, and she tasted fear in her mouth. She wanted to scream to Isai to be more careful. She’d removed most of Vasile’s defenses, but he still had an arsenal.

  Blue rushed to Phantom as Vasile moved out of his useless stronghold to face his opponent. Blue nudged the fallen cat. She couldn’t see if the other male was alive or dead.

  “So you think you have won. Clearly my treacherous sister wants Xavier’s great book for herself,” Vasile said. “She will use you and then kill you as she does every living thing that gets in her way. She’s murderous.”

  Isai didn’t deign to speak. He simply threw his right hand forward and took a step toward the mage. Vasile tried to dodge, but the invisible weapon didn’t emerge in time for him to see which angle it was coming from. A spear materialized from thin air just before it penetrated his flesh, narrowly missing his heart as he lurched sideways.

  He howled in agony as the force of the throw drove him backward. He landed on his butt, hard, the spear vibrating. He ripped at it with both hands, murmuring a hasty spell. At first nothing happened. The spear remained embedded in his body, blood oozing around it. He gripped it harder and yanked, calling out his spell a second time as blood sprayed into the air like a geyser. At his command, the blood stopped, and the wound closed.

  He pushed himself up with one hand, glaring not at Isai, but at the bluff where his sister lay. She met his eyes even from that distance. His hatred was venomous. He knew she had opened his defenses, allowing the Carpathian access to him. If he lived, Anatolie and Barnabas would never allow him to live it down that she had succeeded in stealing his magic from him. He flicked her a malevolent gaze promising retaliation as he began to climb to his feet.

  Isai hit him again, this time the wave almost casual, as he continued to walk forward. He didn’t hurry. He didn’t change stride, even when the mage flung a series of fiery darts at him. Isai waited until the last possible moment before knocking each out of the sky as it came within arm’s length.

  The second spear hit Vasile as he rose, spinning him around, the sharpened tip driving through his throat. His body turned full circle so that he faced Isai directly. Rather than look at the Carpathian, his gaze jumped upward, across the valley to meet Julija’s. His eyes had gone red. Leaked blood. Blood ran down his throat and soaked his once immaculate shirt.

  Her heart accelerated. She recognized the absolute loathing for her. A single sound of fear escaped, and she tried to push back with her hands, to scoot out of sight.

  With his last vestige of strength, rather than make another vain attempt to kill the one destroying him, Vasile turned his malice on his sister. He waved toward the bluff, sending a shock wave across the small valley so it hit the rock hard just beneath the ledge. Isai’s blast hit him as the bluff began to crumble.

  Julija saw Isai turn toward the sound of the rock as it broke away, tumbling far down to the valley floor. Already the cats were leaping away, scattering somewhere behind her, but it was too late to save herself. She didn’t have the strength to crawl, let alone run. She felt the ground give way. Rock. Grass. Dirt. It folded beneath her and then she was falling.

  You are Carpathian. Fly. Her lifemate gave the command.

  Isai was in the air, but he was too far away. Instincts came alive. She knew what to do. She tried to picture an owl in enough detail to save herself, but it was impossible. She was just too tired. The ground was too close.

  Julija felt Isai leap into her mind, taking over. He had never seemed so ruthless or so commanding. So hard. He held the picture for her, forcing her body to shift. The owl pulled up just in time, screeching as it did so, Julija huddled in a small ball somewhere inside. She should have felt like a prisoner because she couldn’t get out even if she wanted to. She should have felt elated that she was alive. She didn’t have the strength to feel triumph, happiness or even sadness that so many had died this night. She just wanted to curl up and go to sleep.

  The male owl joined the female and spiraled downward until they landed on the ground. Isai shifted first and then pushed the command into her brain, the only way for her to come back to her own body. His hands moved over her, searching for any injuries, and then he left her with the cats in order to burn the bodies of the mages.

  12

  So much for trying to be an evolved male. Isai lifted Julija into his arms and looked around him at the pack of shadow cats. They looked almost as destroyed as she did. Emaciated and far too thin, the cats were haunting in their devastation. He couldn’t leave them behind as much as he wanted to get his woman someplace safe and see to her.

  He sank back into the soft dirt there in the valley and looked up at the field of stars. One would never know that a battle had taken place just minutes earlier. Even with Julija’s help, and it had been incredible, walking through a dark mage’s minefield of defenses was a harrowing and dangerous proposition.

  Every few feet, the slightest change in even the wind could produce a new monster to deal with. He’d dealt over and over with them as Julija’s magic had destroyed the layers of safeguards, allowing him to get closer to Vasile. Because the cats were mere shadows, they didn’t trigger any of the mage’s defenses. That was how the shadow cat had managed to get past Gregori and Mikhail’s safeguards surrounding the book to steal it.

  “What are we going to do with all of these cats, Blue? We have a little pack.”

  Blue pushed close to him. Phantom and Sable watched him suspiciously while Comet and Phaedra waited for his orders.

  “Come here to me, Phantom.” He thought it best to let the male feed first to show the wary female that he wasn’t going to harm them in any way. She would do whatever her mate did.

  The instant Phantom moved out of the shadow, out into the open, Sable crouched low in a position to defend him should there be need. Blue shifted position subtly, moving locations just slightly, just enough to protect Isai and Julija. When Blue changed his stance, Belle, Phaedra and Comet did as well.

  Isai couldn’t help but smile to himself. Already, his li
ttle pack was forming strong ties. He had been alone and used to working by himself, and now he was surrounded with . . . family. He would count these cats as part of his family. He used his teeth to open his wrist and offer the bright drops of blood to the starving male.

  Instead of pouncing immediately, Phantom looked at him warily, sensing a trap. “It is your choice, boy,” Isai said. “But you have to make it soon. I intend to take my woman and get her to a resting place. I want to do that fast. The mages have more coming, which you probably already know.”

  The shadow cat looked around him and then at Blue. Blue didn’t move but remained staring with eyes that went from amber to red, glowing there in the darkness, a subtle warning. Step by wary step, Phantom came forward. His entire body shuddered, but he stretched his neck until he could reach the rich offering. The tongue came out, a rough rasp as it licked tentatively at Isai’s wrist. The moment the cat took the first lick, it leapt back, watching Isai, clearly expecting a reprimand.

  Julija stirred in his arms, one hand sliding up his chest. She felt small. Insubstantial. “I do not want you to move, little mage. I am uncertain whether you are the bravest, most courageous woman in the world, or reckless, rash and imprudent. No matter which it is, you have taken years off my life.”

  She rubbed her face against his chest, directly over his heart. “Since you are nearly immortal, it most likely wasn’t that great of a sacrifice.”

  Her tone was teasing, inviting him to share the humor, but watching her nearly fall to her death was still too close. Feeling her body, so light, almost insubstantial, like the cats’, as if every bit of her strength had been drained from her, didn’t make him see much humor in anything, let alone the situation.

  Phantom began licking at the droplets in earnest. He had to feed both cats, Phantom and Sable, before they could get moving. He wanted to find a place to settle before he took care of Julija. They had two blood exchanges. One more and she would be wholly converted. He was certain, because she bore the mark of the high mage, she would always have her mage legacy, but he wasn’t absolutely positive. How could he be? As long as he had been alive, there’d been no precedent set.

  “I think we are going to have a very long talk about your abilities,” Isai finally said to Julija. “This is never happening again.”

  “‘This’ being?”

  “Your helping me. I intend to lock you in the ground, deep where no enemy can get to you whenever danger arises.”

  “Is that what you’re going to do?” She nuzzled his throat.

  There was that hint of laughter in her voice that somehow brought light to his world. The cats had switched places. Sable was drinking the crimson drops while her mate remained on alert. He could see the thin places on their bodies where one could see right through them.

  “That is exactly what I am going to do.”

  “Right now, I would let you,” Julija whispered.

  The weariness in her voice got to him. She was exhausted. He had fought Vasile’s monsters, one by one as they rose in front of him, and he was still fresh, ready to do battle should there be need—all thanks to his woman. She’d borne the brunt of the night’s work, taking down the grid of defense, the layers of safeguards that would have taken Isai all night. Dawn would have come, and he might not have managed to unravel the complicated patterns. Nor would he have pulled Vasile’s teeth the way she had, stealing his magic. That had been the most incredible feat he’d witnessed.

  Stealing magic wasn’t only extremely difficult, it was extraordinarily dangerous. He was so proud of her, and yet at the same time, he wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled. He imagined, if he did that, it would be considered right up there with spanking. His arm tightened around her, holding her to him.

  “I couldn’t watch you as you got closer to him,” Julija confessed in a little rush. There was guilt in her voice. “I had to concentrate, focus wholly on his magic. I knew he would have traps set, but I counted on you being able to navigate them. Was it bad?”

  Had it been? He didn’t think in terms of something being difficult or not. One did what one had to do. He had gone up against monsters for centuries. He shrugged and pulled his wrist from the female shadow cat.

  “I did what I had to do to get to him. I would not have succeeded before dawn came had you not brought his safeguards down. He had erected a complicated barrier that was very effective. Inside of it, he had multiple traps.”

  “The multiple traps are what I’m referring to,” she pointed out.

  He looked down at her. She was very pale. Her eyes closed, the thick fan of dark lashes in stark contrast to her white skin. “I need to find us a place to rest, Julija. Let us take our cats and go.”

  The lashes fluttered, and she managed to open her eyes, although he could see it took effort. The dark chocolate appeared soft, melting. His heart turned over. She looked around at the six shadow cats all sitting close, waiting to see what Isai would do.

  “What are you going to do with them? You’ll take to the sky and they’ll have to run the rest of the night trying to find us.”

  “They all have my blood. They can shift, become shadows on my skin, much like the writing on my back, although I suspect much more insubstantial.”

  “Because they are Carpathian.”

  He nodded. “The mages turned them without realizing it. That is the reason they need blood to survive. They will always need blood. That means, my little mage, we will always need to take care of them and make certain they know the rules. They cannot ever prey on humans or we will have no choice but to destroy them.”

  He turned his attention to Blue. “You make certain they all understand what I am saying to you. I lay down the rules and they are sacred. We do not ever kill when we feed. If that is ever done, it is a death sentence I will not hesitate to carry out.”

  Blue turned his head toward the others, and Isai caught the wave of telepathic energy. He gathered his woman and stood, indicating to the cats to leap on his back. They hesitated, uncertain as to what he meant. He formed the image in his head. There was a woman in the Carpathian Mountains who had a wolf pack. The wolves rode on her as tattoos, part of her skin. Or they provided a long winter coat for her. Few knew they were actual wolves, turned accidentally when they were quite young. He had taken the idea from her. He could travel with his cats as she did, with few ever realizing they were real.

  Blue caught the idea when he turned and showed his tattoos. He was patient. The shadow cats were skittish for a reason. They had no real reason to trust Isai yet, but they put their faith in Blue. Even Comet and Phaedra. Blue leapt onto his back. Claws dug in for a moment, as the extremely large panther-like creature tried to adjust to what was needed of him. He dropped back to the ground and paced for a moment.

  Again, Isai didn’t hurry him, although they were going to run out of night soon and he still had to find a resting place and take care of his woman. Again, he pushed the images of shapeshifting into Blue’s mind as the cat leapt and pressed his shadowy body into Isai’s back as if etched there by an artist. The second attempt was far better than the first. Not perfect, that would come with time and experience, but Blue managed to attach himself successfully.

  Belle stayed back, guarding Isai as Comet tried next. One by one the cats leapt onto Isai. There were many mistakes and claws ripped his skin, but in the end, he wore all six cats on his back. He wondered what it would have been like for the woman to try to teach her wolves to ride on her. How many times had the heavy creatures clawed her and perhaps even bitten her in an effort to learn to shift smoothly?

  Belle had leaned over and licked his face and then done the same to Julija before she’d leapt on his back. That small gesture of affection did something strange to Isai’s heart. Belle and Blue were already working their way into his affections.

  “Hold on to me, Julija.”

  “I’ll try.” She sounded as if she was already falling asleep.

  “You stay awake until I get
you settled.” He took to the air with his little family. Six cats. His woman. His brethren would laugh at him, if they could feel humor. He was not a man like Sandu, who was naturally funny and found humor in everything, even though he no longer felt it. Isai had always been a man more reserved and serious.

  The night breeze was cool on his skin. He had a few injuries where Vasile’s creations had ripped him open, most going for his belly in hopes of eviscerating him. It was a common practice among creatures created by vampires. He found it significant that the dark mage used the same creatures. Puppets. Beings with no souls feeding on the flesh of others. They were promised immortality and used ruthlessly until their purpose ran out and then they were discarded by their makers, cast aside with no concern that they would prey on humans or animals in an effort to survive.

  Which had created them first? Mages? Vampires? Isai knew that Xavier had made an alliance with vampires. That was unheard of, but it had been done. Had he been the one to teach the undead to use puppets to attack during the day when vampires could not? Perhaps. At the moment it didn’t matter. It had been a long night, facing and defeating the ghouls Vasile had waiting in his traps.

  “Those are awful creatures.” Julija gave a delicate shudder. “I wouldn’t want to face one. Why didn’t you reach out to me? I had no idea. I would have tried to help you.”

  “Had you seen them before?”

  He felt rather than saw the shake of her head. His eyes were on the terrain below them. He had taken them high, so he could spot the best potential spot for a resting place, and if he could be truthful with himself, maybe he could get very lucky and see his brother alive and well. He didn’t believe he was alive. He was certain Iulian had sacrificed his life to seal the resting place of Xavier’s book of black magic.