«Sergey,» Ivory whispered.
The vampire winced visibly at the sound of her sweet, pure voice. He stood a long moment in silence, his looks subtly changing. In the blink of an eye his teeth were not long, pointed and stained, but white and straight. The face was fuller and the eyes had gone dark. The ghoul moved and the vampire merely flicked a hand toward him to freeze him where he was. Even the wolves didn't move; they were statues, staring at the woman and the vampire as they faced one another.
«Ivory?» The voice grated. He cleared his throat. «Ivory?» he repeated and this time the tone was beautiful. Gentle. Affectionate. His hands came up to cup the shaft of the arrow where black blood dripped down his chest. «You are alive.»
Her hands trembled and she took a breath. One. Just held it and then released the air in a long gasp as if she was fighting to breathe. Her gaze dropped to the arrow in his body, the blood slowly dripping down his shirt and welling around the entry wound.
«Yes,» she whispered. «I am alive and my soul is intact. How is it that you, my beloved brother, would join the ranks of the evil ones who would destroy your sister? Answer this for me.» Each word was squeezed painfully from her heart, constricting her throat, threatening to strangle her with raw grief and the terrible sense of betrayal.
Ivory's throat was clogged with tears. She doubted she could say another word without bursting into sobs. She refused to look away from the vampire, not even for a moment, although it was much more difficult to think of him as an enemy when his form was so dear and familiar. She longed to fling herself into the comfort of his arms and rest her head against his shoulder, crying for her lost past.
She sought the path she might best use to warn the human. Take the boy and slip away. Get far from this place. I am not certain I can defeat this one in battle.
Sergey. He'd been a genius fighter. Few compared. Now he had centuries of battles with some of the best Carpathian hunters, not to mention the vampires that he'd defeated to add to his experience. She tried not to see the sly, cunning intelligence slipping into the depths of his eyes. She didn't want to believe her first vision of him. She had avoided her brothers once she'd confirmed the whispered rumors.
Gary caught Travis by his upper arm and began to slowly ease him back into the woods. The vampire's head turned slowly toward them, and for a moment that soft, dark color was ringed in red and glowed at them like a feral animal.
«Do not look at them, Sergey,» Ivory snapped. «Or should I call you han ku vie elidet-vampire, thief of life.»
His gaze flicked back to her and he looked sad. «You are my beloved sister . . .»
«Do not call me beloved when you betrayed me. You are in league with those who would have stolen my life.»
«They have been brought to justice.»
«Have they?» She stood, tall and straight, the moon gleaming off her blue-black hair. «You cannot lie to me, Sergey. Others perhaps might believe you, but I have hunted the vampire for many centuries now and I know the ones who took me to the meadow of our father and chopped my body into pieces and left them for the wolves. I know they live, so do not tell your pretty lies to me.»
«Did they really do that to her, Gary?» The boy sounded fearful with his loud whisper.
She caught a glimpse of the man holding the boy closer, trying to soothe him. Each time they moved, the ghoul stepped with them in a macabre dance of death. Every time the ghoul shifted, the wolves circled and darted toward him, teeth bared.
«Leave us, Sergey,» Ivory said, «and take your kuly with you.»
«What is kuly?» Travis asked.
She turned her head toward the boy, but she kept her gaze on the vampire. «It is a worm that lives in the intestines, a demon who possesses and devours souls. So really, that is what Sergey is, as he possesses that worm's soul.» With her chin she indicated the ghoul.
«I need a weapon,» Gary hissed at her.
Ivory sighed. What man would run into the forest chasing a ghoul who had taken a child without a weapon? At least neither was hysterical, and that was a plus when she needed every ounce of concentration she could have. In any case, there was no use whispering; any vampire, let alone a master vampire, had excellent hearing.
«You have forgotten your manners, Ivory,» Sergey reprimanded, looking more sorrowful than ever. He dragged the arrow from his body, watched it disintegrate in his palm and dropped the metal scraps in the snow. «Your arrow nearly pierced my heart.»
Ivory marked where the pieces fell. «If you still had a heart, those who desecrated my body would have been brought to justice. Instead, you torture a child with your pathetic puppet. Take your servant and go, Sergey. You do not want to fight me.»
He laughed, a soaring wicked sound that seemed to fill the skies around them. The trees shivered, shaking the snow from their branches so that ice crystals were flung into the air. The vampire lifted his head and coughed hard. As the icy flakes hardened and changed form, raining down, Ivory threw out her hand and the snow turned to vapor, a great gust of wind blowing it back into Sergey's face.
He coughed again and gagged, choking, holding one hand to his mouth. Behind his palm she could make out a small trickle of blood, then crimson drops stained the snow below him. He coughed and more blood spilled. Above his hand, his eyes glowed bright red and she heard the child give a strangled, frightened cry.
Keep his face against your chest, she ordered Gary. He put his parasites in the snow and they can be lethal. You cannot allow the boy to breathe them in.
Sergey spit into the snow, staining the pristine white powder with tiny wiggling wormlike creatures. «I am losing patience, Ivory. You must join with me now.»
She felt her body respond to the sweet compulsion in his voice. Her fingers closed tighter on the crossbow. «Do you believe I am still that young girl you last saw? I do not respond to compulsion.»
He opened his arms. «Come to me, sister. You belong here, with us. We fight against the prince-for you. But for the cowardice of his father, but for the sickness in his lineage, none of what happened to you would have. He sent you away, knowing there was danger to you, against the wishes of your brothers. Would you fight for his son? Would you join with the brother of the man who set in motion a war?»
Was he maneuvering closer? She couldn't tell. His body swayed when he talked and she couldn't tell if he was using that to inch forward, not with the snow swirling around her head. Each time the ghoul moved, the wolves reacted, but their attention was centered on the puppet, leaving the master to her. Her vision seemed a little hazy. Or maybe it was her mind. When he talked, his voice conjured up images she kept buried deep in order to keep her sanity. She could distance herself and remember that moment when all was lost and Draven had handed her over to the vampires with a smirk on his face. He'd caught her face in his hands and kissed her. She'd had the satisfaction of biting him hard, nearly tearing off his lip. He'd punched her hard enough to make her lose focus, just as she seemed to be doing now.
Sister! Raja snapped at her.
Sister! Sister! The rest of the pack took up the cry.
Ayame lifted her face to the sky and howled, the sound piercing through Ivory's brain. She blinked. The blood spots in the snow were no longer there, or if they were, she couldn't see them because the undead had glided forward just those scant few inches. She could feel the crossbow in her hand, still loosely pointed at her brother. Her hands trembled. She'd battled a master vampire once or twice in the intervening years, and she'd barely escaped with her life.
She knew Sergey had been considered one of the Carpathian's greatest hunters long before he'd ever turned.
«Back off,» she ordered. «You do not want to do this.»
«My patience grows thin.» Sergey snapped his fingers. «This child is the beginning. We will have the others soon and they will either join us or die. Once hope is gone, we will have little trouble picking off the Carpathians. You belong with us in this. Come here to your brother and feed. I offer you
everything.»
She noticed he could barely sustain his pleasant tone, one more indication of how far gone he was. Too many years as a vampire had left his memories of better days tattered. The slow rot had claimed even the recollection of what love had been, what family meant. She had run out of time, hoping that by stalling him the Carpathian hunters would feel the dark power so close to their realm. And if the boy was really part of the Carpathian world, where were his keepers?
«My heart and body died a long time ago, Sergey, and now you so graciously offer me the death of my soul. I choose to remain true to the teachings of my brothers.»
«We were wrong to follow the prince. He was unworthy. He allowed his son to destroy all that we held dear.» He stretched his hand to her again, beckoning with his fingers. «Maxim dwells in the land of the shadows. As does Kirja, both slain by villainous Carpathian hunters, betrayers of their own people. Ruslan and Vadim need to see their beloved sisar-sister.»
Her heart contracted. The pull of the past was strong. She fought the memories, the compulsion, shaking her head to ward off the lure. She didn't change position as she looked guilelessly up at her beloved brother. Her finger squeezed the trigger on her crossbow, releasing the arrow. She tossed the bow to the human male and rushed Sergey, snapping the coated arrowheads hard in a straight line up his chest.
It was an act of desperation to attack a master vampire, but she couldn't wait for his strike. Go! Take the boy and run. My pack will hold off the ghoul to give you a chance. She hoped Gary understood that his chance was slim and he shouldn't waste it. His first priority had to be the life of the child-especially when Sergey admitted they planned to turn or kill the boy.
She didn't look to see if Gary obeyed; her entire being concentrated on Sergey. The arrowheads would keep him from shifting, but then, it didn't look as if he had any intention of shifting. He waited for her with that small half-smirk on his face.
The ghoul jerked up and lumbered forward. The wolves sprang and he tried to smash their bodies together as they tore at his dead flesh.
Gary picked up Travis like a football, tucking the boy under one arm while he grasped the crossbow in the other and raced back into the shelter of the trees, weaving his way through the brush to present a more difficult target.
Lightning slammed from sky to earth, strike after strike as the vampire sought to stop him, slowing the man, forcing him to fall several times in the snow. All the while, Sergey stood his ground, his glowing eyes burning, pitiless holes, glaring at Ivory as she rushed him, sword drawn.
At the last moment, before that tip of a sword could sink into his flesh, he moved so fast he blurred, raking across her face with poison-tipped claws, creating gouges in her skin. She traveled beyond him, somersaulting into the soothing icy powder, coming up on one knee behind him and hurling a much more lethal star toward the back of his neck. It caught him as he spun to face her, a lucky break, the spinning points slicing through the side of his neck, cutting through the jugular.
Black blood sprayed across the snow and all pretenses of civility and sibling affection was gone in an instant. Sergey threw back his head and howled, the sound excruciating, an energy wave that blasted everything in its path, knocking her back and setting the wolves whimpering.
Ivory landed flat on her back, the air rushing from her lungs, leaving her gasping. Automatically she rolled several times, saving her life. Jagged bolts of lightning hit the ground where she'd been and followed her across the snow, leaving great gaping holes where each white-hot strike landed.
She came to her feet a short distance away, blurring her body and sending replicas of her form at him from every direction, rushing in, slamming the sword deep into his chest. Before she could twist the hilt or withdraw, he sank his teeth into her shoulder, clamping his mouth down around the thin bone and grinding. She screamed as pain burst through her, radiating outward, her flesh burning away from the acid blood pouring over her.
«Mmm, sisar-sister, you taste delicious,» he whispered, a contemptuous smirk in his voice. «I have not tasted Carpathian blood in a long while. Perhaps I will keep you to myself instead of sharing your delightful taste with my brothers.»
Ivory clawed at his face, trying to gain enough leverage to get him off her. She dared not take the wolves off the ghoul, afraid the child wouldn't get away. Her knee came up into Sergey's crotch, the heel of her boot raking down his leg to smash into the side of his knee. His bite deepened, tore at her flesh as if he were trying to consume her.
She fought to stay conscious through the pain, drawing both hands back and smashing her fists to either side of his jaw, driving through bone. His mouth blew open in a screaming gasp and he lifted his head.
Gary fired the crossbow, hitting the vampire in his right eye.
The boy? Ivory gasped as she dropped to the ground, blood pumping from her mangled shoulder. She dissolved as Sergey reached for her, his claws going through vapor. Droplets of blood followed her across the snow as she streaked away from Sergey.
Gary backpedaled when the vampire snarled and turned to look at him with one glowing eye. «I sent him back to the village. I couldn't leave you behind.»
«You will wish you were never born,» Sergey promised him and reached up to yank the arrow from his eye. Black blood poured down his face. The vampire didn't bother to wipe it away; instead he bared his savage teeth at the human.
Ivory materialized over the ghoul, slicing through his neck with one hard stroke, sending the head bouncing obscenely across the slope. The wolves pinned the thrashing body to the ground, holding him there while she gathered energy from the sky.
Move! Already she hurled the bolt toward the soulless creature, striking just as the wolves leapt back, in a move they'd perfected countless times.
Orange-red flames erupted, turned black, a foul stench filling the air as the carcass burned. Ivory kicked the head into the flames and faced the vampire over the rising fetid smoke. Her sides heaved for air; her body was covered in her blood-and his. Trails of blackened flesh streaked her shoulder and went down her arm, but she faced him stoically, with one eyebrow raised.
«You look a little worse for wear there, brother,» she commented. «You must be getting old and feeble to allow a human to creep up on you like that.»
As she spoke she circled around to try to put her body between Sergey and the human male. The man had risked his life for her and he was still standing there, waiting for another shot, when he had to know that her crossbow wasn't going to take down a master vampire. She'd rarely had dealings with humans, but she had to admire his courageous stand, even though she feared for his life.
«One of mine for one of yours, little sister,» Sergey hissed, his body suddenly moving with blurred speed.
Even with her specially coated metal in him, she could barely follow his path, the master vampire moved so quickly. She saw him grasp little Farkas and slam the wolf 's body over his knee. There was an audible crack and the animal screamed. Cackling, Sergey threw the wolf away from him so that the body hit a snowcapped boulder where the animal lay broken and panting in pain.
The metal arrowheads fell to the ground in pieces, and already the vampire's body was regenerating, while her own grew weaker from blood loss. She dared not close off the wound and trap parasites in her where they could take hold. For a moment she just faced her brother, trying to decide the best way to get luck on her side-it was the only possible chance she had of defeating the vampire.
The air around them charged with electricity, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She felt the compression in her lungs and thought it was the undead attacking, but he stepped back, giving a wary glance right and left and then upward toward the sky.
«Another time, Ivory.» Sergey raised his hands and the ground erupted into violent upheavals, sending both Gary and Ivory pitching forward. Gary went down headfirst and Ivory leapt to try to cover him against whatever form Sergey's latest aggression would take. Snow burst into t
he air in a spinning cyclone so that everything went white. She felt the impact of his blow on her left side, slamming her down and over the male. The blow might have killed a human; as it was she felt bones crack under the force.
Ivory rolled and rocked forward, allowing the momentum to take her to her feet in a half-crouch, ignoring the waves of pain coursing through her body. She turned in a circle. Sergey was gone. There was silence, broken only by heavy, ragged breathing. Ivory sagged, the strength leaving her body in a rush.
On hands and knees she crawled to Farkas as the other wolves circled around them. Ivory gathered the wolf into her arms, judging how much time she had to heal him. She was definitely weak and needed blood.
Gary pushed himself to his feet. «Are you all right?»
«Yes. Thank you.» It came out stiffer than she intended. «How did the ghoul get that child? Why was he not kept safe?» She cast him a swift look of reprimand, her hand stroking gently along the back of her wolf, finding the breaks along the spine.
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