yanked Lara/Nicolas up by the coppery curls. He carelessly tossed the child against the cavern wall, smashing her small body without thought.
Xavier was a mass of decomposing flesh, serrated blackened teeth and pitiless silver eyes. Nicolas watched with horror as the monstrous demon stomped the woman repeatedly, her ribs, crushing them, her face, breaking bones, her legs, pulverizing them.
Razvan struggled against the chains, so that they cut into his body and blood ran in rivers to drip onto the ice. He screamed, a hoarse, hopeless yell, bloodred tears streaking his face. «It was me. Don't touch her. I'll do anything. Please. Please.» He fell back weeping, his fists pounding into the ice until they, too, were bloody.
Xavier ignored him, continuing to kick and stomp Shauna's body. «Look at what you've made me do,» he yelled to Lara. «Look at her. Your mother, taking your punishment. You deserve this treatment. You did this. You've made her suffer.» He reached down and yanked the child by her hair, dragging her across the floor to fling her facedown beside her mother. «Steal her last breath, you ungrateful brat. What are you good for except for food? You've killed your own mother.»
He spat on the body and reached into the pocket of his long tunic, pulling out ajar of wiggling white parasites. «My friends will gladly clean upyour mess, although it will take a few days. Feast,» he said and threw the parasites onto Shauna's limp body. The grotesque bugs immediately swarmed over her mother.
Xavier reached down and caught up Lara, his silver eyes glittering with maniacal glee. Laughing, he snapped a chain around her waist, locking it to her father's chain before he hobbled away. She had little room and was forced to sit beside her mother's body while her father rocked and moaned as they watched the parasites slowly consume her.
It could have been hours, or days that Nicolas sat, traumatized by the brutality of the Carpathian's worst enemy. He had thought he knew evil intimately in the centuries of hunting of the vampire, but this was far, far worse. Xavier had murdered his grandson's wife in front of the man and their child. Even more, he forced them to watch the slow consumption of her body by the ravenous parasites. It was no wonder that Lara had flashbacks when she saw them combined with Gregori's unusual eye color. And it was no wonder that her aunts and father had buried her memories deep.
We are with you, Lara, a voice whispered softly.Do not fear, we are near. Do not look at the body on the floor. That is no longer your mother. She has gone to a safe place where the monster cannot reach her .
Nicolas concentrated on the voices as they whispered encouragement, told stories and tried to aid a young child in dealing with the incomprehensible. Without her great-aunts, Lara would have either given up or gone insane. He found himself holding on to their voices, letting the soothing compulsion wash over him as the next vignette of Lara's childhood began.
The fear cycle was always first, he realized. Her spirit traveled up the path of her childhood, inching her way from her past toward the surface-and him. She managed to advance a couple of years before the web of horror entangled her again, effectively holding her prisoner in her memories.
At six she was thin and small, barely fed and alone constantly. She had a tiny cubicle, slept on the ice floor with only a thin blanket and her growing ability to regulate her body temperature. It was difficult for her to sustain heat, and the constant shivering prevented her from gaining much weight. The aunts were the one stabilizing influence, talking to her day and night, whispering of far-off places, teaching her as
much as a child could comprehend and implanting lessons and truths for times when she was older and could possibly grasp the knowledge and wield more power.
He learned they were kept drained of blood as Razvan was, often frozen, encased in ice, that they suffered horribly when thawed and that Lara felt every moment of their agony along with her tortured father's. It was only their voices that kept her sane.
He moved toward the surface with her, cradling her spirit, breathing warmth into her mind in an effort to reconnect with her. He needed her trust and he'd blown it in the worst possible way. He understood that now, understood what it was like to feel small and helpless-and without hope. He understood fully why she had chosen the only way out to her and that he was responsible for driving her to feel helpless all over again.
The moment fear swamped her, coming at her like a tidal wave, he knew she was trapped again in a significant moment of her life. She was aware the moment he stepped in front of her spirit again, surrounding her with his protection, allowing the waves of terror to engulf him.
Don't. Just go, get out while you can. We may never be able to leave this place.
I will not leave without you, Lara. It is my sin, my failing that sent you back here. I will not leave you here. If we stay, we stay together.
And he meant it. He embraced that child's body as she sat crosslegged on the floor, drawing a picture of a dragon on the ice wall. There was amazing detail for a child. Her little fingers grasped the small tine of a fork and carved scales with painstaking care over the dragon's body and long tail. She took her time, humming to herself, lost in her art.
A small whisper of sound alerted her. Lara tensed and slowly lowered her hand from the drawing, looking over her shoulder. Razvan's broad shoulders filled the doorway. His eyes were dark with sorrow, his face ravaged. One moment he looked a handsome man who had seen too much pain, the next his body hunched as if under a terrible burden. His face contorted and his eyes rolled back in his head as he fought some unseen foe.
«Lara, get out. Run, baby. Get out. He's in me, he's taken over my body and I can't throw him out. Go.»
Even as he warned her, his voice changed back and forth, going from concern to cackling. Although it appeared to be Razvan standing in the doorway, Lara smelled Xavier, the rotting corpse of a man who refused to die. Nicolas felt her stillness, the instant pounding of her heart, the terror seizing her mind. She stumbled back on all fours to crouch against the wall.
«What is this?» Xavier/Razvan asked, standing in front of her drawing.
Lara/Nicholas stayed silent, keeping her hands behind her back, fear stamped on her face. Nicolas pushed her behind him as Xavier whirled around and struck him, knocking him off his feet, sending him flying.
«Answer me.» Xavier/Razvan hissed with displeasure.
Lara/Nicolas picked himself up. «My best friend.»
Razvan's face contorted as though he was fighting again. His body shook and a bloodred tear trickled
down his face. For a moment he held out his hand, but abruptly, the fingers curled into two tight fists and he sneered. «Friend? You think those dragons are your friends? Why would such a powerful creature ever befriend the likes of you? You're worthless, totally worthless.»
He cackled, the wicked sound sending chills down Nicolas's spine, and the voice was all Xavier now in Razvan's body. Once again, Nicolas felt that hopeless vulnerability, knowing he couldn't stop this man. He was a six-year-old child, anemic, fragile, alone, with no hope of escaping. As he watched, the dragon on the wall began to pop out, first one clawed foot, stretching and reaching, the talons curling sharply. The head emerged, the eyes blinking for a moment before glowing red. The tail slashed and the dragon broke free, landing on the floor a few feet from Lara.
Nicolas pushed her farther behind him, corralling her spirit and shielding her as he felt her cringe in anticipation. This was going to be bad. He knew it wasn't just physical warfare, this was psychological, a deliberate attempt to defeat all hope, using a childhood make-believe friend that took the form of her comforting aunts against her. Possessing her father's body so that he did the ultimate damage to her, betraying all trust, ensuring she had nothing at all to hold on to. And he couldn't imagine what Razvan suffered, obviously some part of his mind aware of how his body was being used to torment his child.
The dragon swung its head back and forth, eyes spinning and then focusing on the child. It leapt on Lara/Nicholas, hissing and spitting. At the las
t moment Lara/Nicolas spun around and the claws ripped at his back, tearing deep gouges. He went to the floor, curling up in the fetal position as the dragon bit at his legs and slashed at him with its spiked tail.
Possessed as he was by Xavier, her father laughed and kicked at him, encouraging the dragon to spout flames until she screamed and Nicolas screamed with her.
Do not resist. Let him take what he wants from you. The feminine voices were in unison and Nicolas was instantly aware of Lara trying to kick out with her feet, not toward the dragon, but toward her father.
The dragon renewed its assault in a maddened frenzy of teeth and talons. Nicolas felt every shred in his skin, felt the rakes on his back as muscle tore beneath those sharp claws. The bites were painful, but shallow. The worst was the fire, spraying over his head, frying his sensitive skin, raising blisters instantly.
Suddenly impatient, Xavier/Razvan waved his hand and the dragon melted at his feet. He leaned down and jerked Lara/Nicolas to his feet, his teeth ripping open his wrist and sinking down to gulp greedily at the rich blood. Nicolas bit back a grunt of pain as his arm throbbed and burned. His stomach turned over and once again his vision blackened around the edges.
Lara suddenly resisted, swinging her arm in a tight arc and sinking the sharpened tine into Razvan's throat. Xavier screamed and threw her away from him, clamping his hand to his bleeding neck. Lara swept her tongue across her wrist and backed up slowly.
Nicolas wanted to hug her to him. In spite of the pain and the sheer hopelessness of her situation, Lara fought back, refusing to let a monster crush her spirit.
Xavier flew into a rage, spittle running down his face as he ripped her clothing away, his hands weaving a complicated pattern. Water poured down on her from the ceiling, she was lifted from her feet and flung back into the ice. The wall opened to receive her, molding around her back, buttocks and legs, freezing her skin to the ice itself.
Only then did Xavier grow quiet. He placed food and water a distance from her. «If you want to eat or
drink, you'll have to tear yourself from the wall. If you don't, I'll leave you there to rot and send my little friends in to eat your body.»
Nicolas watched him shuffle out, leaving the child in excruciating pain with blood running down her legs, with her back already painful. He wanted to weep, to smash something, to gather her close and hold her against his heart and protect her always. And more than anything, he wanted to kill Xavier.
Again time meant nothing to him. He drifted on a sea of pain until the voices came again. Soft. Insistent. Encouraging. Singing of hope. Whispering endearments. Voices he could latch on to, voices that saved him from complete despair.
He found himself ascending once again toward the surface with Lara's spirit. Her light was a little brighter, but she felt battered and bruised-as did he. He tried to hurry, anxious that she not relive another event. He'd had enough-seen enough-experienced enough. He never wanted to feel that helpless and vulnerable ever again. He shepherded her, surrounding her with warmth and reassurance, feeling her reluctance as they moved closer to breaking free.
Lara was more afraid of him than of her past. She'd already lived through her childhood and survived. He was the devil she didn't know and in their relationship, he had all the power.
I am all you think I am, but I can learn. I will learn. I have many sins, palafertiil, not the least is arrogance, but I am not above admitting my mistakes. Come with me. Come back to me and give me a second chance.
He had accepted-from the first moment he heard her voice and knew that she had saved him-that she was in his care. He had resolved to do the best that he could for her-see to her every physical comfort. He hadn't expected resistance or mistrust on her part, but in truth, it hadn't mattered to him-his heart was not involved and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he could have all things his way. He even believed it to be his right. Somehow in this new night, he knew things were changing. The hard stone in his chest slowly began to beat the same rhythm as hers. He knew he was growing more and more protective, and feeling more and more tenderness toward her.
Something caught at her, jerking her spirit away from him, stalling the process of recovery. He worried now that he had found her too late and she had retreated too far, or had actually embraced insanity to escape the madness surrounding her. He sped after her, following her to the web where her spirit lay entangled by strands of memories rushing together to surround and capture her.
She was a year or so older, her hair bright under the flickering lights. He could see the beginnings of the Dragonseeker legacy woven into the color of her hair, the red glow and blonder highlights. Her eyes were by turns deep sea-green and a brilliant blue. She stood to one side in the great chamber with its cathedral ceilings, hiding behind a column, making herself small, obviously trying to avoid being seen by Xavier and Razvan as they faced each other.
Lara. The voices whispered in her ear.Xavier cannot ever know that you are aware of what he is doing to your father. He would kill you. You cannot tell your father, even to ease his mind, because when Xavier possesses his body, or Razvan is under his command, he will reveal all of your secrets .
If I tell my father I know he doesn't want to hurt me, maybe he will fight even harder. There was hope-and a little defiance in that childish voice.
He will betray you. He will not mean to, but he will be unable to stop himself.
You have been prisoners far longer. Lara was angry now, unbelieving.Xavier can't control you .
Razvan has been tortured, Lara, experimented on, over and over. His health and strength are gone. Xavier uses you against him. Xavier still doesn't understand the power of your blood. Once he does, there will be no chance of escape.
Nicolas felt the stubborn streak in Lara. She didn't answer her aunts, refusing to deceive them with an outright lie, but determined that she would go to her father and confess she knew Razvan was being manipulated against her.
As if sensing Lara's stubborn will, the aunts tried again, speaking in perfect unison, their voices soft and melodious. Nicolas recognized the threads of a compulsion woven into the pitch. Both women were weak and the suggestion wouldn't work on a stronger mind, but Lara wasn't healthy and her spirit had been beaten down.
Lara, you cannot give any information to your father that Xavier would use against him. Razvan wouldn't want you to. He has sustained Xavier all these long years and fought against him because his Dragonseeker blood is strong. Xavier knows he will soon give out and must find a replacement. If now, when he is at his weakest, you give him information that Xavier could harm you with, he will feel he has lost all honor.
The child that was Lara squeezed her eyes closed, not really understanding the whole of what the aunts were telling her, but she knew she couldn't reassure her father that she understood Xavier either possessed his body or forced him to comply using a combination of drugs and magic with his orders.
Nicolas felt Lara slip further away from him, the overwhelming despair she was feeling stronger than ever. She stared at her father with a wistful expression. He had a strong urge to pull her into his arms and hold her close, but he had no real body and she still didn't trust him. He understood why now. He understood her need for control and freedom. And he understood her absolute repugnance of anyone taking her blood.
Razvan looked weak, his once handsome face ravaged by pain and suffering. The lines were etched deep and the chains wrapped around his legs and arms had permanent burn scars from the vampire blood they were coated in. He sagged against a column, not even fighting to get away from Xavier, who took a small vial from his tunic pocket. Nicolas felt Lara tense, her small spirit shrinking back.
Interested, he stepped in front of her to block her, ready to take the brunt of whatever had happened at the age of seven. Xavier clearly experimented on Razvan and he was learning all sorts of pertinent information not only about his lifemate, but things that would be useful to the Carpathian people. Nicolas now wished he cou
ld stop Dominic from proceeding with his plan. If Xavier had felt compelled to try his experiments on Razvan because he had Dragonseeker blood running in his veins, Dominic would surely be a huge prize. Most of the experiments seemed to be centered around controlling the Carpathians or finding a way to imprison them yet still keep them alive.
For the blood. Lara's voice whispered to him, in her adult voice, not the child's.He wants your blood in the same way you want it from your sources. He will hold you prisoner and drain you dry. You would be nothing but a food source to him .
He softened his tone to tenderness, his heart reaching out for hers.Lara. I do not want you for your
blood. Come back to me. Am I really worse than this place in your past ?
For a moment he thought he had won this first battle, but then Xavier moved and the child was back, shuddering as her father was. She shrank back behind the column as Xavier hobbled across the floor of the ice cave, holding the vial in his gnarled fingers.
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