She led me around to cut them off. It wasn’t long before we were in front of Radek and Val. Slowing down, we found a place to hide and waited for them. We were downwind and hidden in the bushes. The tip of my tail was twitching with the thrill of the hunt. My paws were beneath me as I crouched down, my underbelly brushing the forest floor and my muscles vibrating as we waited. They were trotting through the woods as they passed us. Val looked right at me, but Radek seemed to be oblivious. Val wouldn’t give us away I was sure. He seemed to be enjoying this too much.
My paws were soundless on the snow covered ground and so were Jenna’s. We followed them. The smell of deer hit my nose and made my mouth water. I was hungry. I watched as Radek became completely focused on the prey. I knew that right after he made a kill would be the perfect time to pounce. We followed behind silently and waited.
There was a rock that would do perfectly. I made my way there with Jenna trailing me. We took up our position on the edge of the clearing where a herd of deer were pawing through the snow and ice to get to the blades of grass. A hush came over the forest. The heads of the deer popped up. They froze, looking around for the danger that they sensed.
Then Val and Radek appeared. They each leapt for a deer, taking them down. As the other deer scattered, I positioned myself closer to Radek. There was a bunch of downed trees near him. I crept up to the top of them. Radek had his back to me so he didn’t see the movement. My muscles bunched beneath me in preparation for the attack.
I leapt and landed on his shoulder, driving him to the ground with my paws. He rolled instinctively, but I was already off of him. He leapt for me, but missed as I dodged his attack. I was far more agile, which made up for my smaller size.
I heard Val snort his amusement. Radek had lost the bet and he was going to make me pay for it. This was the most fun I’d had in a long time. He crouched down, his legs underneath him, waiting for me to come close again. I was relying on my speed. He had some of his own though. I had just caught him off guard earlier. I should’ve known that wouldn’t happen again. I leapt for him, but he was ready for me and moved at the last second. He had me pinned before I could realize what had happened. I tried to throw him off, but he weighed more than me.
I finally relaxed in defeat. I was breathing hard and so was he. He let me up slowly. I rolled in the snow for a moment, enjoying the feel of it against my fur. When I stood up, he motioned me over so I could share in his kill. I noticed when I looked around that Jenna and Val had eaten the other deer. It was in no way enough food to feed the four of us, but this outing was not about that. It was about just being free and having fun.
I had an idea, so I nudged Radek and glanced at Val, who wasn’t paying much attention to us at the moment. Radek picked up what I was thinking and nodded. We silently slipped into the trees and waited.
Jenna noticed that we’d disappeared first. I watched as she glanced around. She really did make a pretty wolf, her fur glistening with snow. I was glad that Jenna’s instincts were kicking in. She was turning circles. I could tell it wasn’t in fear, but just to try to see where the attack would be coming from. We weren’t aiming for her though. Our prey was much bigger and harder to catch.
Radek and I split up. We were moving through the trees soundlessly. I was keeping track of Radek and knew when he was in position. We were going to come at Val from two angles. I was going to let Radek break the tree line first. Then I would come at Val from the other side. I was crouched, the tip of my tail twitching in excitement. I was focused on the ground about three feet from Val.
I heard Radek make a break for it and saw Val focus on him. I put on the speed. Jenna was running in the opposite direction to get out of the way. I ran full out, my lungs taking in large amounts of air. My paws barely touched the snow as I barreled across the field. I slammed into Val with full force, sending him into the ground. My big problem came when he rolled. He caught me with one of his giant paws and rolled on top of me. That is when Radek collided with us and the three of us went rolling through the snow. I could feel that I was going to have a few bruises. Somehow Val managed to toss me into Radek. It hurt when I collided with his solid body. We stood up and circled each other.
It was still a game, no one was serious, and it was fun. I caught sight of Jenna out of the corner of my eye. I hoped that Radek would follow my lead as I maneuvered Val toward Jenna. Jenna tilted her head at me when I glanced at her. She crouched low in the snow, seeming to understand what I wanted her to do.
Radek helped me get Val closer to Jenna. She leapt up when Val was a few feet from her and grabbed his tail between her teeth. He swung around toward her just as Radek and I pounced on him. Our combined weight did the trick – he was down.
Val growled at us from the ground and we let him up. He batted Radek in the shoulder gently with his paw. They wrestled for a few minutes, then finally Val motioned to us that it was time to leave. We went together through the trees back to the car. Once back, we shifted and dressed. Jenna and I were laughing as we collapsed into the back seats.
“You should have seen your face, Val, when Jenna bit your tail.” I was laughing so hard there were tears streaming down my cheeks. “I thought your eyes would pop out of their sockets.” Val was laughing too. It felt good that everyone was in high spirits.
“It’s been a long time since anyone has bested me. I should have known you two would turn on me,” Val said with a grin. “Now you, little wolf, you surprised me.”
“I believe I won the bet with you, Radek,” I reminded him.
“That you did. How are you planning on collecting the debt?” he asked. He didn’t sound too worried.
“I’m sure I’ll think of something,” I said, not really knowing how I was going to collect on that debt. The few ideas that came to mind were not something that I wanted to explore right now, or to share with the group. I pushed those thoughts out of my mind.
We relived the whole outing all the way back to the house. The sun was just breaking the horizon when we got back. Dante was back and most likely asleep in the dark room. I could smell him when we entered.
Chapter Twelve
We were all sitting around the table deep into a poker game by the time Dante joined us. He shook his head while pulling out a chair and sitting next to me. I looked over the table. Val was winning, but I wasn’t far behind. My pile of pretzels was almost as large as his. I had to say I was a little proud of that. Radek’s pile was around the same size as mine and poor Jenna barely had any left at all.
“Well good evening, Dante,” Val greeted him without looking up.
“Welcome back to the land of the living, brother,” Radek said, smiling at his brother’s expression.
Dante returned the smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. All the good feelings that been building from the fun I was having started to disappear.
“I hate to break up the game, but we have work to do,” Dante said.
“Okay, so where are we going to do this?” I asked. I was hoping my voice and expression didn’t give away my fear.
“We can put one of the other beds in my room.” He paused and glanced at Radek as he continued, “Natalya and I’ll need to be touching until I break the connection between us. Radek may be out for a while, but it shouldn’t be too long. I have no clue when Natalya will wake up from this. I should be up tomorrow evening.”
“Well then let’s get started.” I was impatient and couldn’t stop my foot from tapping on the floor. If I’d had my tail it would have been twitching.
“Father, Jenna, it might be best if you stayed down here,” Dante said.
Val seemed to understand the situation so he just nodded. Dante, Radek and I filed up the stairs. Radek and Dante brought in one of the mattresses. There wasn’t much room left in there, but according to Dante we would all be unconscious anyway. At least I could say I slept with two hot guys, I joked to myself.
“You’re first, Dek. Unfortunately, for the amount of blood that I ne
ed, I’ll have to take it from your neck. The same goes for you, Natalya.” Dante wasn’t looking at either of us.
“Fine, let’s just get it over with,” Radek said.
He went to the far bed and laid on it. I sat next to him and grabbed his hand. Dante kneeled on the floor. Radek looked directly into my eyes as his brother latched onto his throat. I refused to look at Dante while he fed on Radek. I focused on Radek’s golden brown eyes. I saw him flinch and knew by the smell of his blood that it had begun. I didn’t want to think about it. As his eyes glazed over, I had a moment of panic. Then his eyes closed and I could tell that Dante had stopped.
“Are you all right?” Dante asked gently. “I made him go to sleep so that he wouldn’t have to watch it be done to you.”
I thought about that for a second. “I understand.” He was sparing Radek the sight of seeing him feed on me. I could see the love he had for his brother as he glanced at the sleeping Radek.
“Good. Come on, I want to be done with this before he wakes. He won’t sleep for long,” Dante said softly and with a slight smile.
He sat down beside me, rolling me toward him. Then with an icy finger he lifted my chin to expose my neck. I could feel my pulse quickening. His breath was soft against my skin. He smelled good, almost like chocolate. That gave me pause. He smelled different. I almost lost it then and panicked.
“Relax. This won’t hurt at all. You will feel almost nothing,” Dante’s voice was low and soothing. There was a hypnotic quality to it.
I felt myself go into a trance. My heart was pounding fast. I felt a slight pressure against my neck and that was all. Just before I lost consciousness, I felt something wet on my lips. Then something pressed against my mouth. It tasted metallic. It registered in my head what it was, blood. I fought it for a moment, but a voice, one I trusted, said to swallow, so I did.
The next thing I knew I was in a moonlit garden and Dante was standing beside me. I looked around; the colors were muted. It was like I was looking through filtered lenses. The shrubs and trees had a green tinge and the colors of the many flowers distorted to shades of grays, whites and black. There were only hints of the true colors. The stone walls were covered in ivy that looked black and dead.
“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” he said with a cautious smile.
“Where are we? And did I just drink your blood?” I asked. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it, but from the look on his face I wasn’t about to tell him that.
“Yes, that was a necessary part. I assure you that you won’t turn into a weretiger vampire or anything. My guess is that we are somewhere in your mind. This is where it gets a bit crazy,” Dante said with a little laugh.
“I thought you said I would see your memories and all that.”
“That should come later. We first have to figure out where the vamp is hiding, so to speak. You should know where it is. Think about a path that would lead to it. It is kind of like having a dream that you can control.”
I did as he said and a path lit up in bright blood red. It looked out of place with all the muted colors surrounding us. “Cool,” I exclaimed. This was a little fun.
“Hold my hand, and don’t let go for any reason. We need to be connected for this to work.”
“Got it. This is real trippy,” I said, looking around at the strange plants surrounding us. They were so thick that I could not see through them to what lay beyond.
His laugh echoed loudly. “It is, isn’t it?”
“Is this what it was like when you and Gregory did that thing?” I was curious.
“Similar,” he answered vaguely. We moved along the path. What seemed like a few minutes later Dante said, “Well, Radek is awake.”
“You can tell?” I asked.
“For now. When we get where we are going you’ll have my complete concentration,” he assured me.
“So what’s he doing?” I asked. I wanted to keep my focus on something other than the fear.
“Since you’ll find out soon enough, I might as well tell you. He’s grumbling about me getting my cold dead hands off of you.” He laughed.
“Huh?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“He’s just pissed that we’re in bed together. No need to worry; I’m not doing anything inappropriate. I’m unconscious as far as he knows anyway.” He shrugged.
“That’s kind of funny,” I said, laughing.
“Oh it is.” Dante’s face grew serious and he pulled me to a stop. “That right there.” He was pointing to a brightly glowing white wall. It was completely different than anything we had seen so far.
“This is so weird,” I mumbled.
“I agree,” he whispered. “If we can manage to get through that, we’ll break his hold on you.”
I heard a little trepidation in his voice. Great, how reassuring, he was nervous.
“You make it sound so simple,” I told him.
“The concept is, really. As I understand it, you shouldn’t feel a thing until we get through. I’ll be the one doing all the work, bringing you along with me. Whatever you do, just keep walking – don’t stop for any reason and don’t let go of my hand. Are you ready?”
“I guess so, since you’re doing all the work.” I tightened my grip on his hand, linking my fingers with his.
“Here we go then.”
We stepped toward the wall and were plunged into the blinding white light. I could feel a tug on my hand that Dante was holding. It was like something was trying to break my grip. I concentrated on what he had told me and kept walking.
I felt a rush of power hit me. It was Dante’s power emanating from him. It was suffocating. Just when I thought I couldn’t take anymore, everything froze. The light exploded around us, breaking into tiny crystals. Then everything went black. It was like all life was sucked out of the world. I knew we were still holding hands, but that was all I could find with my senses. I wouldn’t even have known he was there if we weren’t holding hands.
It felt like the calm just before a large storm breaks. Then everything hit me at once. The force of it brought Dante to his knees. I forgot about him as I too fell to my knees. The flashes of images and memories hit me hard. We must have broken through. It was an assault on the senses hitting me in waves. Smells, sights, touches – every memory either one of us had blended together until I couldn’t tell which images belonged to me and which belonged to him.
Finally it faded out, and I laid there panting in the dark. There was no light or color – it was complete blackness. I heard Dante’s rapid breathing next to my ear. It was strange as vampires don’t really need to breathe at all. I couldn’t really concentrate on that right now due to the confusion my senses were still experiencing. The memories started to straighten themselves in my head slowly.
“This is crazy,” Dante’s voice echoed in my head.
“Oh my gosh,” I said. My head was spinning and I felt ill.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. That was a trip.” It came out in a choked whisper.
“Good. I’m going to leave you now. Just remember our minds are linked for now. You’ll figure that out when things settle down more. Dek is right there and I’ll be here too. Don’t get stuck in your head and if you need help just call out. I’ll hear you. I need to rest now.” His voice was strained. I knew that it had affected him just as much as it had me.
“Okay. What have I done?” I put my head in my hands. I knew I was still in my mind so this was just weird.
Dante put his hand on my head and said, “Nothing that can’t be fixed. Look at me, Natalya.” He waited for me to look at him. I could just make him out in the darkness that surrounded us. “You’ll not be judged by any of us. Everyone makes mistakes. We’ve all done things we wished we could undo. Remember, we’re here for you. We’re your family now. I really have to go and rest now. Dek won’t leave you for any reason right now. When I can I’ll be back to help you sort this mess out.”
I nodded my head. He
smiled down at me and disappeared. I could still hear his mind in the background. It wasn’t loud enough to understand, but it was oddly comforting. Then the warmth hit me and I slept.
* * *
I knew I was dreaming. I also knew that the dreams weren’t really dreams, but memories. As they were being sorted in my head I was able to tell which were Dante’s and which were mine. His were intriguing; mine were just plain scary.
My mind kept hitting on one particular memory, but I couldn’t quite make it out. Knowing that Dante would discern what I’d done made me a little scared.
I’d been sent to kill Val.
A picture formed in my mind. He was a vampire. I knew him and hated him: Andrei. He was tall like Dante. In fact he looked a lot like Dante. I could see the similarity in the facial features.
A new image passed through my mind. This time I was somewhere in what I think was China. I was studying to fight. The others were like me, shifters. The images of the other students came and went. Name and faces filtered through my mind.
I felt the pull of the control that Andrei had had on me. I didn’t understand it, but I was duty-bound to go back to him. Anything he said I’d had to do. I hadn’t had a choice.
The face of the first person he’d forced me to kill was etched into my memory. Maybe even my soul. It wasn’t until later that I’d figured out that he was just using me to get people out of his way. I was his toy and I had no say in the matter. Every time I’d tried to get away, he would find me and bring me back. I couldn’t say no. I didn’t know how he’d done it, but I was his for life. At least that’s what I’d thought.
Now I knew better. He would never control me again. I owed Dante more than my life. There was no way to repay what he’d helped me do. The memories only went back so far though. I couldn’t remember anything before I was maybe five or six. I tried and drew a blank. It was like something was blocking me. Yet Dante had said I would remember everything.
Seizing Darkness (Fur, Fangs, and Fairies) Page 13
