Dimitri staggered back, pain etched into his face. He righted himself and the pain was wiped from his expression. He held up his hand for the silver sword. Fen tossed it to him and went back for Zev.
Fen spared a quick glance toward the two halves of Bardolf’s body. Already the hands and legs were dragging the pieces closer together, digging in the dirt to reach each half.
Tatijana, flame the Sange rau cut in half. Burn that carcass before it’s too late.
Even as he told her, the two severed halves merged and instantly disappeared into the mist. Cursing in his native tongue, Fen snapped another neck. Dimitri charged the thrashing werewolves, one hand holding his belly together, the other slashing through bodies with the silver sword.
A sharp call from the sky had the werewolves retreating, fighting their way past Dimitri while Fen fought off any of them trying to finish off Zev. The pack was gone into the mist almost instantly and silently. Only those with the silver stakes in them lay on the ground.
Dimitri folded in half, went to his knees and sank into the dirt a distance from Fen. Fen caught up the silver sword and cut the heads off the staked werewolves before turning to his brother.
Zev half sat, blood running down his face and chest in steady streams. Fen shifted back to completely human form as he bent over Dimitri. His brother was in bad shape. He’d had the brunt of the attack, the pack pouring out of the forest straight at Fen. Fen had gone after the Sange rau while Dimitri and Zev had drawn the others to him to give Fen his chance at destroying the ultimate threat.
Tatijana. See to Zev. Dimitri is close to passing.
He would save his brother first, no matter how valiant the Lycan had been. He had told Dimitri of his fear that there was such a powerful predator closing in on their homeland, and it was Dimitri who had paid the price because he believed his brother’s suspicion in spite of the lack of proof.
Tatijana might have healing skills, but he couldn’t take the chance. Better that she practice on the Lycan than Dimitri.
Hang on, ekäm—my brother, Fen whispered telepathically. He had to maintain his link with Dimitri at all times so that the light of life would not leave his body. Tatijana, I have need of you now. Shield us from Zev’s sight. He cannot see what I do.
There was so much blood lost. Far too much. He felt her presence almost immediately. Tatijana. His own private miracle. She brushed her hand along his shoulders as she moved toward Zev.
Mist stands between you and the Lycan.
Thank you, my lady.
Fen didn’t hesitate, but plunged his hands into the jagged opening of Dimitri’s belly, searching for the main source of the blood pumping from his brother’s body.
I will not be aware of my surroundings. You are our only protection, he warned Tatijana.
I’ve got your back.
Believing her, he didn’t wait for her reply. He didn’t have time. He had to trust that she would be alert for the return of the pack. He doubted if the rogues would return, their alpha was nursing his own wounds and would need to heal himself before he could kill again, but it was always possible.
He shed his body fast, becoming healing light, pure spirit to sink into his brother. I am with you. My soul calls to yours, he whispered.
He traveled through Dimitri’s body to the mass of destruction in his belly. The werewolves had clawed and bitten, tearing great chunks from his body. The first thing he had to do was repair the damage to arteries and veins and stop the flow of blood. It seemed Dimitri’s entire belly was filled with blood and nothing else.
Ot ekäm ainajanak hany, jama—My brother’s body is a lump of earth, close to death.
It had been long since he’d used the great healing chant, but this was no small wound. If he was to succeed he would need time, patience and blood. Powerful blood.
That light in Dimitri was very dim, moving down the tree of life, far away from Fen. Fen redoubled his efforts. Time was running out fast. He found the places where teeth had bitten through the lifelines in Dimitri’s body—so many places—the damage far worse than he’d seen in centuries. Dimitri had given much to give him the time to keep Tatijana from the Sange rau.
He resisted the urge to hurry, taking his time to repair each severed or torn artery or major organ with great care. As he performed the task he continued to chant softly in his mind.
“We, the clan of my brother encircle him with care and compassion. Our healing energies, ancient words of magic and healing herbs bless my brother’s body, keep it alive.”
When he was certain he had done enough of the repairs that Dimitri’s body would hold blood, he tore at his own wrist with his teeth and pressed the wound to Dimitri’s mouth. Dimitri made no attempt, even when Fen dripped the blood into his mouth, to take it in. Often times, a warrior so badly wounded, when he’d lived long centuries holding darkness at bay, preferred to slip away, but Dimitri had someone to live for. He’d told Fen of his lifemate, too young to claim, surviving a horrendous childhood. Fen had no compunctions against using the information Dimitri had confided.
Drink for your life and the life of the girl you told me about. Young Skyler who has suffered so much and deserves happiness. Do not let that happiness end here, my brother.
The light had retreated so far Fen feared he was too late. You are strong, my brother. Think only of your unclaimed lifemate. She will live out her days sad and lonely without you. Come back.
The dim light halted. Faltered. Stayed still. He felt the smallest movement at his wrist and instantly aided his brother in swallowing the liquid of life. Even as Dimitri took in blood, Fen knew it wouldn’t be enough. He was weak himself from blood loss. Healing took tremendous energy. He would have to feed quickly and return to draw his brother’s life light back. He gave Dimitri as much blood as he dared before returning to his own body.
The act of being in two places at one time, feeding his brother and healing him, aiding him in sending the blood through his body took a tremendous toll. Normally, with a wound so grievous, there were many Carpathians participating in the healing ritual. Fen had to remain a Lycan in Zev’s eyes. There was no controlling Zev’s mind. Tatijana could shield them using the mist, but at all times, Zev had to believe that Fen was Lycan, not a mixture of wolf and Carpathian.
He rose quickly, staggered, regained his footing and, after making certain the mist remained thick enough to hide his actions, took to the trees where the two drunken humans were cocooned in the shield Tatijana had provided for them. Before using them to replenish the blood he’d given his brother, he drove as much alcohol from their systems as possible through their pores. As a rule, Carpathians rarely touched tainted blood, but this was an emergency and he’d take anything he could get.
He took even more than he needed, knowing Dimitri would need much more. Tatijana, how long before you can aid me?
I put him into a healing sleep with his permission, but he won’t be in it long.
Bring down the lightning and burn the bodies. Make certain you get every last bit of fur and hair. Do not remove the silver spikes from their hearts otherwise they can regenerate. Let the fire burn everything and we’ll recover the stakes after that. Once that’s done, come help me. I need to find my brother in the other world and guide him back. He’s stuck between two places.
He caught Tatijana’s shocked gasp. Both knew it was difficult to bring someone back when they were so close to death. The only thing that had stopped Dimitri was knowing what his unclaimed lifemate would suffer without him.
Fen hurried back to his brother and knelt down, this time mixing his saliva with dirt, rich with Lycan blood, and packing it into the worst of Dimitri’s wounds. He took a deep breath and once more left his body behind to become pure light.
He took up the great healing chant of his people from centuries earlier. He spoke in his native tongue, using his most charismatic, commanding, per
suasive voice.
“My brother’s soul is only half. His other half wanders in the netherworld. My great deed is this: I travel to find my brother’s other half.”
Tatijana sank down beside him. “We dance. We chant.” She pulled the words of the mystical song from his mind. “We dream ecstatically.”
“To call my spirit bird and to open the door to the other world,” Fen continued.
He felt the cold of that other place. He’d been there more than once after a battle, but Dimitri had traveled farther than he ever had to the other side.
“I mount my spirit bird and we begin to move. We are underway.” He suited action to words. He was going down that long tree into the dark and cold to find Dimitri and bring him back whole. “Following the trunk of the Great Tree, we fall into the netherworld.”
His very breath felt like ice. “It is very, very cold.” Worse than cold. He’d never been this far into the other world before. He could hear wailing in the dark. Teeth gnashing. He continued, unmoved by what might be stalking him in a place he had no business being in.
He was connected to Dimitri. They were brothers and their minds were tuned to one another. “My brother and I are linked in mind, heart and soul. My brother’s soul calls to me. I hear and follow his track.”
As he approached that dim light he knew to be Dimitri’s, another approached as well. Something dark and terrible. Something familiar. Something also calling softly, sweetly to Dimitri. “Encounter, I, the demon who is devouring my brother’s soul.”
Fen knew that sweet, deceiving voice all too well. He would recognize it anywhere. Fen was oldest, Dimitri youngest, but in between there had been Demyan and almost from the beginning, Demyan had shirked duty. He’d been a man of little honor, and it was no surprise to Fen when he had, early on, chosen the path of the undead. Still, it was difficult to discover that his own brother had chosen to give up his soul and become the undead.
After that, Fen had checked on Dimitri often. Over the long centuries, he’d learned that his youngest brother was a force to be reckoned with and he never swerved from his duty, no matter how difficult. It had been Dimitri he had turned to when he realized he was both Lycan and Carpathian, and it had been Dimitri who had provided a sanctuary where he could go when he needed rest and healing. Fen had been the reason Dimitri had chosen brotherhood with the wolves in the wild by setting up sanctuaries for them.
Demyan called to Dimitri’s weary soul, promising him rest. Peace. No pain. Demyan was so busy focusing on ensnaring Dimitri’s light that he never saw Fen coming at him through the darkness. He never suspected Fen would travel so far after his brother.
Anger swept through Fen. Shook him. To think that Demyan had waited all this time, crouched in the darkness, still refusing to accept his responsibilities, waiting for one of his brothers to come in death, angered Fen more than he ever thought possible. Dimitri had fought long with honor in the world, and now, when he was at his most vulnerable, the light in him slowly fading, his own brother planned to steal that honor.
Furious, Fen struck out of the darkness, just as Demyan reached for Dimitri’s flickering light. Dimitri must have sensed danger, even so near death. The spirit light jerked inches from Demyan’s outstretched greedy fingers. Fen caught at his disgraced brother, and wrenched him backward. Demyan felt insubstantial, yet he cried out, a long wail of terror when he spun around and saw his oldest brother Fen ready to do battle.
Nenäm ; o kuly torodak.—In anger, I fight the demon.
He whispered the words into Dimitri’s mind. Into the mind of Demyan. He spoke the greater healing chant in the language of the ancients.
O kuly pél engem.—He is afraid of me.
He stared into Demyan’s eyes. You should fear me. How dare you think to steal our brother’s soul.
Tatijana, call down the lightning, give it to me, Fen whispered into her mind. He felt her immediate reaction, the hot energy sizzling through her.
Staring into Demyan’s eyes he repeated the next line of the healing chant. Lejkkadak o salamaval.—I strike his throat with a lightning bolt.
Demyan tried to run but it was too late—the lightning bolt followed Fen down the tree of life and struck with precision at Demyan. For a moment the world below lit up and Fen could see the other shadowy beings, red greed-filled eyes, watching nightly as pure souls of light passed beyond their reach. They waited, as Demyan had, for one who would recognize their voice and was not yet into the next realm, one so near death, but not yet dead.
The creatures had drawn close—too close—drawn not by Dimitri’s waning light, as they could not call to him, but pulled by the scent of Fen’s blood. He had open wounds he had not yet cared for. How bad the wounds were he didn’t know, nor at that moment did he care.
The spear of lightning sizzled through the darkness and Demyan fell back as did the other hungry creatures, blinded by the shocking white sword of pure electrical energy cutting through absolute blackness.
Fen caught the paperlike form of Demyan in his powerful hands. With the force of both Lycan and Carpathian, Fen held his disgraced brother still, face-to-face, looking into his eyes. “I break his body with my bare hands.”
Demyan shook his head, knowing what came next in the healing chant, but no sound escaped. There would be no mercy. Fen had none for him.
“He is bent over and falls apart.” As Fen chanted the words, he wrenched the paper figure in two, tore him into shreds and let the pieces fall. “He runs away.” He whispered the words into darkness as Demyan shrieked and wailed, trying to recover the pieces and shrink away before the creatures hovering close turned on him with all their greedy hunger.
Fen turned back to Dimitri’s waning light. The life force was almost gone. “I rescue my brother’s soul,” he said, continuing the healing chant.
As he neared his brother’s life-light, surrounding him with his own much brighter, stronger light, he heard a soft female voice, not Tatijana’s, whispering to Dimitri.
Don’t leave me. Stay. Stay with me. I know you’re weary. I know you’re hurting. I know I’m asking for so much, but don’t go without me. Dimitri. My love. My everything. Stay.
The soft plea was so intimate, Fen felt guilty hearing her. Skyler. Dimitri’s young lifemate, fighting for him across the continent. How strong was she that she could reach so far? Very few Carpathians could reach such a distance. A human. A child by the terms of Carpathian society. Yet she fought for her lifemate as courageously as any fully grown Carpathian would do.
The light grew a bit stronger, as if for her, Dimitri made a valiant effort.
Skyler must have sensed Fen’s presence. He felt her suddenly go still, studying him. Assessing him. She didn’t feel like a child to him, she felt like a woman. A warrior. One prepared to do battle should it be necessary. She clearly weighed him, friend? Foe? He actually felt her ready herself to do battle, and her strength was enormous and unexpected.
I will bring him back from this dark place. I am Fenris Dalka, Dimitri’s eldest brother. I will not leave him in this place of darkness. I have fought long and hard for him. He will not die this night.
She was silent a moment, assessing not his words, but the feel of him. She was indeed, strong. He liked her. She was a fitting lifemate to a warrior who had survived centuries hunting the undead and keeping darkness at bay.
Thank you, Skyler said simply.
He felt her move through Dimitri’s mind, brushing up against that fading light, stroking caresses, giving strength to him. She faded away, the distance too far to maintain for long.
“I lift my brother’s soul in the hollow of my hand,” he whispered, holding Dimitri’s life close to him. “I lift him onto my spirit bird. Following up the Great Tree, we return to the land of the living.”
Fen came back into his own body, swaying with weariness. He looked around him. Time had passed and he
hadn’t known. He shivered. The ice of that place, even for a Carpathian, got into one’s bones and stayed. Tatijana had held the mist. He could hear Zev calling out to her. His voice sounded stronger.
“Give me another minute. We’re trying to save Dimitri,” Tatijana said. “The rogues have not returned. I’m aiding Fen in closing these wounds.”
She waited for Fen to turn his head and look at her. Immediately she knelt beside him and put her hands on his shoulder, leaning in close to expose the beautiful line of her throat to him. His heart clenched. Even there, under such dire circumstances, Tatijana was calm, thought ahead, and provided for him.
Fen didn’t hesitate. He enfolded her close to him, stroked his tongue once over that pulse calling so strongly to him and then he sank his teeth deep and drank. He had used up precious energy in his fight to save Dimitri, to bring him back from the brink of death. He needed to give Dimitri more blood and continue to heal his wounds before putting him in the welcoming earth.
Tatijana cradled his head as he drank. Stroked his hair. Her fingers caressed his temples. She tasted like heaven. Like a miracle. He had never considered taste before. She lingered on his tongue and filled every vein with a rush. He felt her spreading through his body claiming every part of him, organs, bone, tissue. All of him. Strength burst through him at the influx of ancient Carpathian blood. She was from a strong linage and she gave to him freely. He was careful to close the small wound on her throat, to heal it so that Zev’s sharp eyes wouldn’t discover his secret.
“You have many wounds of your own, Fen,” she said, kneeling beside Dimitri. She closed her eyes and put her hands over the lesser lacerations while Fen concentrated once again on his brother’s open belly.
“As do you, my lady,” Fen said, looking her over with sharp eyes.
“I healed most of them while I was in the air,” she said. “Have no worries about me. Keep Dimitri alive.”
Fen leaned over Dimitri, one hand hovering over the open gashes while he fed his brother more blood from his other wrist. Drink freely, my brother. And then you can rest.
Dark Lycan (Carpathian) Page 6
