Dark Carousel

by Christine Feehan

  Tariq was first and foremost a Carpathian. He'd already claimed Liv as his daughter. He couldn't help but be proud of the fact that she was already embracing their way of life. She had wanted to kill herself. She'd been so close to taunting the puppets into dragging her from her cage and killing her. Val had stated that he couldn't survive without her, and even at her young age, without really knowing much about the lifemate process, she had endured those hours waiting for them to come for her. She'd trusted that they would.

  Tariq knew Val didn't feel anything sexual for his lifemate, it was impossible, but he would protect her with the very last breath in his body. He wouldn't leave her for long and that meant Tariq had another elite hunter to help guard the compound and his family.

  "She's ours," Charlotte murmured. "She may eventually belong to Val, but for these next few years, she's ours. Call the others to aid us. You convert her, Tariq. Between us, we can keep her safe."

  Tariq nodded. He was weary from the fight and the wounds he'd sustained. He'd cleaned himself up and stopped the bleeding from all injuries, but he needed to heal them. All the Carpathians would be exhausted. Most had injuries, but if Liv needed this now, then it would be done. "I have to hunt, sielamet. I will tell all of them to do the same and then return here. When Val is done, you take Liv while he hunts. All of us need to make certain we're in the best of condition."

  "What about Danny and Amelia? Should they be here?" Charlotte asked.

  "They have the right to be. Danny kept his family together after their parents died, and they believe what happens to one happens to them all. They should be here, but I don't want them to witness the conversion should anything go wrong. The other hunters would be uneasy with them there. I'll explain it to them and how it is best if everyone is focused on Liv and not on them."

  "They'll understand." Charlotte touched his lips with gentle fingers. "I think I like him, although he scares me a little." She nodded toward Val.

  Tariq caught her hand and brought her fingers to his mouth. "I am so proud of you, Charlotte. I know you were scared, but you fought like a pro. Facing those hounds isn't easy for a Carpathian hunter, let alone a newly converted human."

  "I didn't have time to think about it or I would have fainted," Charlotte admitted with a small laugh. "You got the worst of it killing that horrible Fridrick. You never hesitated, not even when the hound began to tear into you."

  She couldn't believe him--covered in the oil, venomous teeth tearing into him, the vampire's acid blood burning through his skin, he'd just calmly kept withdrawing the heart no matter what happened to him. "Did you get all the poison out?"

  He nodded. "I did the moment I got that thing off my back. A hellhound's venom is nasty stuff." He leaned in to kiss her. His Charlotte. He hadn't really had time to tell her how much he appreciated her, how much he loved her. How scary it had been for him to know she was facing the hounds--and yet she'd done it and kept them, for the most part, off his back. Had she not been there for him, Fridrick might have won that battle.

  "Go, honey," she said softly. "The faster you get back, the quicker we can help Liv."

  Tariq took the time to kiss her once more. She was pale, and needed blood as well. She wasn't aware yet that when you expended that much energy you always hunted after to regain it.

  It took him only half an hour to meet with Matt, feed, and then go to Danny and Amelia and explain what had happened. Genevieve took Bella and Lourdes into the play yard to be with their dragons while he took the two older children with him. He was grateful that Donald and Mary joined Genevieve with the two little girls, trying to give them as many normal experiences as possible when their lives would never be normal. Danny and Amelia waited for him in their home, afraid they wouldn't be able to pretend in front of the girls.

  The Carpathians gathered once again on the deck above the mineral-rich soil, and this time, the tension was tangible. Tariq felt as if he were being crushed under a weight of responsibility. If anything went wrong and Liv died, he would never get over the loss--and he would live a very long time. The memory of the anxiety, hope and trust he saw on Danny's and Amelia's faces would be forever etched into his mind. They would never get over it, either, and possibly, they'd never forgive him. Converting a child? He searched his memory. He was centuries old and he couldn't remember it ever being done. He knew it had been--but the children weren't his.

  Charlotte threaded her fingers through his and looked up at him with eyes filled with trust and belief. With solidarity. It's my decision, too, she whispered into his mind, filling him with her. We make this decision together. All of us. It has to be done, Tariq; everyone knows she won't survive otherwise. This is her one chance.

  At once a bit of the weight lifted. He wasn't alone in this decision or even the doing of it. They floated down to the center of the rich bed of soil, where Val cradled Liv in his lap. He continued to stroke her hair back, his fingers gentle as he murmured reassurances to the child.

  Tariq reached for her, and Val instantly shifted Liv's slight weight to him. Her eyes had been closed but when Tariq's arms went around her, her eyelashes fluttered and then lifted. His heart stuttered. His little Liv was nearly gone. Val and Charlotte were both right: if they didn't take this chance, they would lose her.

  Is this what you want, Liv? To come into our world fully? To be our daughter? When I complete the conversion, you will be ours. Charlotte's and mine.

  Her nod was barely perceptible, but it was there. Her gaze shifted to Charlotte. Charlotte smiled at her. "Come here, baby," she whispered. "I'll hold you. Tariq and Val will be right here to keep you safe, and you'll feel all the others just as I did. They'll take away the pain. You'll feel a part of them all."

  Liv's lips parted. She took a breath. "I'm not afraid."

  "Of course you aren't," Charlotte said. "You know Emme would be here, but she has a concussion, a very bad one, and she can't get up."

  Liv nodded and curled into Charlotte. Tariq bent his head to Liv's little neck and took her blood without waiting. She lived in a nightmare world and there was no getting her out of it. It was far safer for her to be where he could protect her at all times. He made the exchange and then opened the earth. Just as he had with Charlotte, he shielded Liv's body from the others as he floated Charlotte and Liv into it, covering all but their heads. He stayed at her head and Val took the other side of her where he could hold her hand.

  Her body was small and she was already more than halfway into their world. It didn't take long for the process to begin. For Liv, it was as if she had a bad flu. For Tariq and Charlotte it was terrifying, painful and seemed to last forever. Val shouldered as much of the pain as possible, and the other Carpathians took on the burden as well. Still, Liv felt every wave of pain, cried out when her body expelled the toxins and began to reshape her organs.

  Charlotte crooned softly to her, rocking her little body beneath the blanket of soil. Val began to sing a lullaby softly to her in his language. "Tumtesz o wake ku pitasz belso. Hiszasz sivadet. En olenam gaeidnod. Sas csecsemom, kunasz. Rauho joNGe ted. Umtesz o sivdobbanas ku olen lamt3ad belso. Gond-kumpadek ku kim te. Pesanak te, asti o juti, kidusz."

  As Val sang, Tariq translated the words for Charlotte and Liv in their minds. Feel the strength you hold inside. Trust your heart. I will be your guide. Hush, my baby; close your eyes. Peace will come to you. Feel the rhythm deep inside. Waves of love that cover you, protect until the night you rise.

  Charlotte had tears in her eyes as Val sang to her child. She was Tariq's lifemate, fully in his world, and this was the first of their children to follow her into it. The sweetness in Val's voice, coming from a hardened, scarred warrior, moved her, just as the love she felt pouring into Liv's mind from Tariq did. She lifted her gaze just once to Tariq's and he saw the answering love. The commitment he needed from her that she was his and she would help him with these broken children and the damaged adults he claimed as family.

  "It is time. I can send her t
o sleep," Tariq said softly after what seemed like an eternity. Converting an adult was bad enough, but to see a child writhing in pain, her stomach cramping and the convulsing that accompanied the transition, was difficult, even shouldering the brunt of the pain among the Carpathians.

  Charlotte kissed Liv's forehead and Tariq smoothed back her hair as he commanded she go into the healing sleep of their kind. Tariq wanted to crush the child to him, but he forced himself to just continue stroking her hair until the terrible fear inside him subsided. Liv was safe. She was in their world and hopefully they could find a way to ease the trauma enough that she could be a happy, healthy child again.

  Val trailed his fingers over her hand. "She is very brave, but I'm grateful that this is over and she survived. She has a will of iron, this one."

  "That is true. She was determined to come into our world. I don't think there's going to be any stopping Liv once she recovers." Tariq had his doubts about Liv recovering--health, yes--but from the things that happened to her, perhaps not. Still, with Charlotte, he would do everything he could to see that Liv lived a happy and healthy life.

  "I am grateful it is over as well, but we're not finished," Tariq said. "We have to destroy every single splinter Vadim carelessly put into the carousel horses and chariots--that's eight of them--and the ones he put into the two male psychics we're holding prisoner."

  "We need to feed after this," Nicu said. "We cannot take the chance that Vadim's splinters will escape us. Some of us have wounds that need attending." He glanced pointedly at Tariq.

  Tariq nodded, wincing a little at the idea of Matt and his men being descended upon by the ancients, especially those from the monastery. He kept a discreet eye on them as they fed from the security detail as well as the two prisoners and the three society members. Only the guards were spared, as no one wanted them to be weakened.

  Dragomir saw to the wounds of all those injured in the battle and then he had to take more blood. Tariq and Maksim stood silently by as he used the three vampire hunters, Daniel, Bruce and Vince, once again. Tariq noted he wasn't gentle, nor was he unkind--he simply didn't notice the three as important in his world. They were truly nothing more to him than a source for sustenance.

  Tariq was grateful when Dragomir joined all the other hunters gathered together, making their way to the other side of the basement, where the workroom contained the cursed carousel.

  "With each splinter destroyed, more of Vadim's power will be taken from him. This is a small victory for us. Vadim is out at sea, unaware that what we do here will begin to diminish his abilities. He will feel it when we destroy them, but I doubt he will realize we have taken a very real strike against him," Dragomir stated.

  "If we can track him at sea," Tariq said, "that might be the place to destroy him. Less mess to clean up in the city."

  Lojos shook his head. "Vadim has a very good detection system. He's out there on the ocean and can see and scan for miles. He's running right now, with Fridrick and Georg destroyed as well as half of his hybrids and most of his puppets. He lost seven lesser vampires, pawns to him, but still needed. It was a decisive victory for us, even though Vadim, Sergey and Fridrick's youngest brother, Addler, remain to build another army."

  "Out of curiosity," Maksim said, "what are we going to do with our resident vampire hunters? Nothing seems to faze them. I took their blood and they still want in. Every hunter has taken their blood, and they haven't panicked or protested."

  "Let's hand them over to Matt and his team to train. If Matt thinks they're up to it then we'll get involved. At least they can be monitored so we can keep them out of trouble," Tariq decided.

  Maksim nodded. "That's a good idea. If we try to train them ourselves, some of the other hunters might decide to join in."

  Tariq raised an eyebrow and the two men looked at each other with faint smiles. It was good to share a little bit of humor after such a harrowing time.

  The Carpathians gathered, forming a circle around the splintered carousel. They wove safeguards around the circle between them and the carousel to keep the splinters from escaping. The safeguards were strong, the strands interwoven by each separate hunter until they blended together with a strength impossible to penetrate. They had never taken a master vampire down this way, destroying him by inches. If Dragomir was correct and the high mage had told him that splintering one's self diminished power, then the hope was that destroying Vadim's splinters would eventually damage his strength as well.

  Tariq lifted his hand to move it in a circle, commanding the chariots and horses to reclaim every bit of wood as well as the blood and splinters of shadow. The horses jerked and rocked, but couldn't escape the powerful command. The dust and debris shifted, swirled and then coated the various horses and chariots until, when they settled, the carousel was completely intact.

  Chains rattled, hovered over the wooden pieces and then hooked into them, lifting them so they could spin off the ground. The Carpathians began to chant, their voices rising, filling the basement with power until the entire carousel shuddered and rocked, cringing to escape the assault on it. Blood began to seep out of the sides of the wooden carvings. Droplets ran down the sides. Dark shadows appeared, several of them, scurrying like tiny parasites in an attempt to flee the attack, moving over the wooden horses and chariots, seeking grooves to hide in, but there was no way to hide from the combined power of the ancient Carpathians commanding them to show themselves.

  Lightning zigzagged through the room. Thunder shook the house, booming from inside the basement. The carousel began to spin faster and faster, as it had done in the yard, but the ancients slowed it down, so that it pushed and fought against the power. Suddenly the lightning forked, slamming hard into all eight pieces, the four horses and four chariots.

  A hideous shriek rose, deafening in the confines of the basement. The carousel turned dark, smoke rising and with it, Vadim's face, swirling in the smoke, eyes wide with shock, mouth open as he emitted the shriek. The face distorted, elongated, wavering in the smoke to slowly disappear. All the while his voice screeched and wailed. His teeth snapped viciously, but there was nothing he could do to stop the relentless assault by the hunters. The splinters blackened, curled up and were reduced to ash. The horses and chariots followed suit until there was only a pile of ashes and silence.

  Matt rushed in, his gun cradled in his arms, his face a grim mask. "What the hell is going on? The two prisoners are screaming their heads off, on the floor with their hands over their ears. The woman, Emeline, is doing the same thing. I tried to get in there to see if I could help her, but she wouldn't allow me inside. Genevieve went to her."

  Tariq sighed. "We'll take care of it, Matt." Blaze. I need you and Charlotte to go to Emeline now. They hadn't considered that anyone with a splinter inside her would feel the loss just as Vadim did. It made sense. The splinters were a part of Vadim, and when any were destroyed, the others felt it. If Emeline trusted them more, she would have told them. She had to have felt it when they removed Charlotte's splinter. "Charlotte and Blaze will help Genevieve with Emeline, and we'll take care of the prisoners."

  He was tired. They all were. But getting rid of the splinters was essential. Vadim would retaliate. He had held off when he knew the two men had betrayed him--and he had to have known instantly--but he thought he could use them in some manner.

  "The two men, Ryan, the blond one, and Andrew, the dark-haired one, had to have a shield similar to Charlotte's," Tariq explained as they followed Matt to the guardhouse. "It allowed them to resist Vadim's command somewhat, just as Charlotte was able to resist Fridrick's."

  Siv sent him a cool glance from his strange, aquamarine eyes. They swirled with colors constantly, blue and green, both vibrant. "If she can resist a master vampire's commands, she will be able to resist yours."

  Tariq hadn't planned on commanding Charlotte to do much of anything unless one counted in the bedroom. Playing was fun, but in real life, he wanted his woman to stand beside him. He want
ed her opinions. He was counting on her advice. He wanted her to go to the club with him and become part of that world he'd created. He hoped other Carpathians would come into their world and perhaps, through his club, find lifemates.

  More, he was working with Josef, the young tech, and the database the Carpathians had taken from the Morrison Center in the hopes of reaching the psychic women before Vadim did. Now he knew he would have to figure out something to do with the men as well. He still had two working for Vadim undetected in his club and that meant finding them. He hoped Andrew and Ryan could help with that, but if not, he was confident Maksim and he would ferret them out soon enough. All in all, they'd done fairly well. They killed two master vampires, several lesser ones and nearly destroyed Vadim's puppets and hybrid army without losing any of their hunters. He'd take that any day of the week.

  Ryan and Andrew lay on the floor, blood trickling from their ears, but both were aware as the hunters entered the room. They looked very apprehensive.

  "We're going to remove the shadow splinters from you," Tariq assured. "You've come this far. You'll have to trust us."

  Both men nodded, and that added two more to his ever-growing family.

  20

  Charlotte left the nightclub with Blaze a little early. She wanted to check on the children before she sprang her surprise on Tariq. Nearly a week had flown by since the battle with Fridrick and Vadim's army. Vadim had disappeared. Even looking at sea, none of the hunters had been able to follow him. Still, she felt it was the calm before the storm. She meant to enjoy every moment they had before things blew up in their faces.

  Tariq had explained to her that it was the Carpathian way of life. Even if had they gotten Vadim this round, another master vampire would take his place. There were always more vampires. There would always be vampires and as a hunter, Tariq would defend those humans and Carpathians alike in his territory.

  Danny and Amelia had opted to wait until the healer arrived from the Carpathian Mountains before being converted. As long as Bella and Lourdes had to remain aboveground during daylight hours, they wanted to as well, just in case, and neither Charlotte nor Tariq wanted to chance converting Bella or Lourdes without a powerful healer present. Charlotte loved the two teens all the more for insisting on staying with the little ones.