Christine Feehan 5 CARPATHIAN NOVELS

by Christine Feehan

  Colby felt sick that she had to do the same. She was somehow related to the man. Once, he’d been just like Paul, innocent, until the vampire had taken a hold of him.

  Not so innocent, Rafael denied. His mind and memories are rotten. Stay still, he is suspicious. Paul does not move as you do and he is noticing something is not right.

  Ernie suddenly cursed aloud, tossed the cigarette to one side, and lifted the rifle to his shoulder, aiming at Paul.

  Colby tucked her rifle into position, finger on the trigger. She was an excellent shot, but she’d never killed anyone before. With a sinking feeling, her finger began to tighten. She knew she didn’t have a choice. The sun blinded her, coming out from behind the cloud and striking her in the face. It was all she could do not to cry out in pain as thousands of needles seemed to penetrate her eyes. She blinked rapidly to clear her vision, desperate to get off a shot before the stalker could hurt Paul.

  “Paul! Get down!” She screamed the warning, knowing she was giving away her position, but uncaring.

  Ernie immediately turned toward the sound of her voice and fired off several shots. The bullets whined through the air, thudding into the dirt feet from her. Colby squeezed the trigger, half blinded by the sun but determined to lay down covering fire for her brother.

  Simultaneously, she heard the rifle fire from two other guns and knew Julio and Juan were doing the same. The vampire’s servant slipped back into the trees, crawling on his belly through the brush toward his horse. Colby caught glimpses of him, but couldn’t get a clear shot. Her heart nearly stopped when Rafael stepped into her line of fire, his back to her. Fresh blood was a giant pool on the back of his shirt.

  No! No, Rafael. He was too weak. She could feel the terrible drain of energy. Nicolas! Oh, please, tell me what to do! She screamed for his brother in her mind. Colby got her feet under her and ran, clutching her weapon, determined to help Rafael. She could see Juan and Julio sprinting down the slope, converging from two directions, trying to get to him. She hit something solid and fell backward, finding herself seated on the ground, a barrier blocking her. She could touch it, but she couldn’t see it.

  Ernie lumbered to his feet, his red-rimmed eyes swollen nearly shut, but his head snapped around as he located his target. He brought the gun to his shoulder, although Rafael was only an arm’s distance from him. Rafael caught the barrel and twisted the weapon from the man’s grasp, tossing it away.

  The vampire’s puppet screamed, a ghastly sound of rage and hatred, and rushed Rafael like a linebacker. He managed to wrap his arms around Rafael, sinking his teeth into the hunter’s chest and his fists into the wound in his back. He tore a chunk of flesh from over Rafael’s heart and spit it out.

  Colby tried the rifle, shooting at the barrier, hoping to shatter it, but it remained in place. She could only watch in horror as the mutated human tore at Rafael a second time.

  Rafael didn’t flinch away, but rather caught the man’s head in his hands and wrenched hard. The sound of Ernie’s neck snapping was loud in the early morning air. Colby drew air into her lungs in relief, but to her horror, Ernie didn’t fall. Rafael shoved him backward. The zombielike creature lurched forward, his head twisted at a peculiar angle. He roared, spewing spittle as he attacked.

  Colby’s heart pounded in her chest. Her fists gripped the rifle so hard her hands went numb. She’d never felt so helpless in her life.

  Surprisingly, the vampire’s servant was fast, but Rafael sidestepped, slamming his fist deep into the man’s chest. He stood there, eye to eye with the puppet, his hand buried deep, then he withdrew it. The sound was loud in the still morning air, a sucking sound that made Colby sick. Rafael stood there with Ernie’s heart in his hand, blood running down his arm. The body swayed and folded in on itself in slow motion.

  Colby turned her head away from the sight, her heart slamming in her chest. She didn’t belong in a world where men tore the hearts out of chests and bit each other in the neck and turned human beings into cannibals and puppets. She felt faint and dizzy, pressing her hand to her forehead, wiping the beads of sweat away.

  I am sorry you had to witness such a destruction of life, meu amor.

  Rafael’s voice brushed along her nerve endings, a sensuous touch of velvet over her skin, in her mind. Seducing her senses. She shook her head, wanting to think clearly. Needing to think clearly. Part of her felt she might be going insane.

  A flash of lightning drew her attention. Rafael drew from the sky the same orange-red ball of energy that Nicolas had manipulated, incinerating the man who had once been a human being. He tossed the heart to the ground and did the same to it, also bathing his hands and arms in the energy.

  He took a step toward Colby and staggered. Gasping, she slammed at the barrier with the rifle butt. “Get it down now!” Her third swing met with no resistance and she ran to him. “Damn you! Don’t you ever do that again. Don’t you ever take away my choices like that. I could shoot you myself.”

  Juan and Julio were nearly to them. “Find Ginny,” she yelled and caught at Rafael. “You take my blood right now. This second.”

  He shook his head. “It is too dangerous, meu amor. I need too much. Hunger claws at me. I could hurt you. I will not take the chance.”

  Colby was so angry adrenaline surged through her bloodstream. She yanked the knife from her belt and slashed her wrist. “Damn you, don’t say no to me.” It hurt like hell, and turned her stomach over so she had to fight against the waves of nausea. She thrust her arm to his mouth. “Take the blood before I pass out or get so mad I stab you and finish the job.”

  The smell of blood hit him hard, and before he could stop himself, Rafael grasped her wrist and latched on. The adrenaline-laced blood hit him like a fireball, rushing through his system, giving him a false high instantly. He gulped at the liquid, his cells crying out for sustenance. The red haze spread through his mind and the beast rose up, roaring for more. His ravaged body demanded the means of regeneration and the blood poured into him, hot and sweet and addicting.

  She felt the drain, actually felt the blood rushing from her body into his. Her wrist burned and throbbed and she could feel the puncture of his teeth. She couldn’t prevent the involuntary tug as she tried to get her hand back. His grip tightened painfully, fingers digging into her skin with bruising force. Colby closed her eyes and tried not to look or feel anything at all.

  Stop him. Nicolas’s voice was so distant and faint Colby could barely catch it. Force him to stop before it is too late.

  “Rafael.” She yanked at her wrist hard, trying to break loose from his grip. “Let go of me. You’re hurting me.” Her legs went out from under her and she sank down.

  “Don Rafael.” Juan Chevez shoved the barrel of his rifle beneath Rafael’s jaw. “Let her go or I will shoot.”

  There was a moment of silence. Colby’s heart pounded. Inside, she could hear herself screaming a denial. She’d rather be dead herself than lose him, but fear lived in her as Rafael stroked his tongue across her wrist and lifted his head to look at Juan. There was death in the black eyes and little else.

  Colby’s arm fell free of his grip. Before she could think she leapt to her feet and shoved the rifle away from Rafael. “No, Juan. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.” She tried to touch Rafael’s mind, but she could only hear a strange roaring and, very distantly, a wrenching cry of sorrow. Rafael’s fingers wrapped around her throat. Time stopped. Her heart beat too fast and the air rushed from her lungs.

  Without warning Rafael collapsed, going down hard and taking her with him. He was gone from her mind. Colby frantically took his pulse. “Is he dead? Juan, there’s no pulse. He can’t be dead.” She tried to roll him over to give him CPR.

  Juan stayed her with a hand on her shoulder. “It is the sun. He is too weak and he must be protected, put in the ground. We have to attend his wounds as best we can and cover him with earth. When Don Nicolas rises this evening, he will take him somewhere safe.”

 
; She lifted Rafael’s head and to her shock, his black eyes stared at her, filled with intelligence and remorse. He seemed paralyzed, unable to move. His heart and lungs appeared not to be working, but he was alert. “Should I pack his wounds like I did last night?” She didn’t want to look into Rafael’s eyes and she didn’t want to touch his mind.

  While Juan dug a place in the cool earth near the pond, she packed the wounds with soil and her own saliva. He never spoke and she felt numb. His wounds were terrible. It didn’t seem possible for anyone to recover from such a thing. She hated helping Juan roll him into the shallow grave and had to look away when his body was covered.

  Colby staggered to her feet and began to run through the brush, uncaring that the jagged branches and prickly thorns tore at her skin and clothes. She needed to find Paul and Ginny. She needed to be with someone sane, someone normal. Her mind couldn’t accept what Rafael could do. He should be dead, yet he had ripped out a heart with his bare hands. He had nearly killed her and might have killed Juan. Instead of taking him to a doctor, she had packed the gaping holes with dirt and saliva and buried him on her ranch.

  Paul and Ginny sat in the small grove of pine trees, Julio standing guard. Both looked tired and dirty and so familiar she burst into tears.

  Rafael couldn’t comfort her, locked beneath the earth, his body already leaden and his heart ceasing to beat. He could hear her crying, knew he had nearly killed her and that she knew it as well. Juan had obeyed him, putting her protection above all else, and for that he would always be grateful. He was so close, the monster growing in him when the ritual words should have made him safe. Had he waited too long? He wanted to reach out to her, hold her, kiss the tears from her face and reassure her he would never harm her, but he no longer knew if that was true. Lying beneath the earth, he found his anguish over Colby hurt far worse than any of his physical wounds.

  Aboveground, Colby clung to Paul and Ginny, desperate to get them away from a world she didn’t understand. Ginny began to tell her all about her frightening experience, following the sound of a hurt animal and being trapped in a deadfall. The sound of her voice did nothing to help the terrible dread that invaded Colby’s heart.

  14

  “We’ve got work to do,” Paul shouted, hitting the flat of his hand on Colby’s bedroom door. “Are you going to lie in bed forever? Half the day is gone! Julio drove Ginny to visit the Everetts and Juan’s already bringing in the hay. Let’s go!”

  Colby threw back the covers, her hands shading her eyes. With each passing day her sensitivity to the sunlight seemed to get worse. She showered quickly in cool water, trying to make the terrible heaviness that invaded her body disappear. Three nights had gone by since Rafael had been left to heal in the ground, three days and nights of sheer hell. She tried to sleep during the day, from ten in the morning until about four in the afternoon. It should have been a relief, but she was plagued with endless nightmares. She had even visited the area where she and Juan had buried him, but he was gone, taken somewhere else by his brother to heal.

  Colby had dream after dream of Nicolas drawing the vampire’s blood from Paul’s body. It was a ghoulish nightmare that left her shaky and frightened. The moment she closed her eyes, she could see blood pressing through Paul’s pores, and some sort of parasite in his bloodstream, wiggling like worms over his body. When she wasn’t dreaming of Paul, she dreamed of Ginny lying in a shallow grave, her eyes wide open and accusing. Sometimes she had dreams of Rafael smiling at her as he ripped her throat open with his teeth. Most of the daylight hours she lay in her bed, waiting for the lethargy to pass, trying not to think of Rafael and how terribly hurt he was. She prayed for undisturbed sleep, her mind always racing to find a way to keep her sister and brother safe.

  She often woke up crying, her heart a painful ache in her chest, her mind numb with grief. She was sick to death of grieving and being afraid. And she hated the way everyone watched her, as if she might do herself harm at any moment.

  “Come on, Colby, you’ve got to wake up! You told me to get you up no matter what, so haul it out here.” The kitchen door banged hard and Colby winced. With Ginny visiting at the Everett ranch with her new friend, Paul’s dishes from breakfast and lunch were in the sink. Just the sight of the partially eaten food as she made her way slowly through the kitchen made her nauseous. Her body hated to work this time of day, no matter how much she willed it to be normal.

  Colby could barely cope with the separation from Rafael. Half the time she felt as if she were going crazy. Nicolas reassured her through the long nights, and the Chevez brothers reassured her during the day. She was certain Nicolas was sharing her mind, helping her through the waking hours, and it felt like an invasion whenever she thought about it too much. She silently screamed for Rafael, thought of him, needed him; and having another person know just how obsessed she was with him was humiliating. She could barely function she was so grief-stricken.

  Rafael had a lot to answer for. How the hell did he expect her to run a ranch and take care of two children when she was such a mess? She might need to see him, but she dreaded the moment she would have to face up to him and tell him it was over. It had to be over. She couldn’t live in his world. It was far too dangerous and violent.

  She stumbled across the yard to the corral where Paul held the bridle of a mean-looking bay. She was so sensitive to light now, she wore sunglasses to protect her eyes even in the evening. It took courage to face the light and she found herself wondering how Rafael had managed to stay with her when the stable had burned, and worse, when Ginny had gone missing. He must have been in agony. She was only partway into his world and it felt as if a thousand needles were poised to stab her eyes.

  She watched the horse dance nervously, its eyes red-rimmed and suspicious. Paul already had the saddle on him. Colby had always believed in going for the meanest horse first and Paul was obviously following her philosophy to the letter.

  “You have him?” Colby looked at the animal, at the way it was throwing its head, the way the eyes were regarding her with wicked intent. She tried a soft whisper, her mind seeking to soothe the animal, but it shook off her usual calming effect.

  “I’ve got him,” Paul reassured her.

  Taking a deep breath, she swung into the saddle. The moment her weight eased into the leather, the animal exploded wildly, violently, head plunging, rear rising, shrieking angrily. It went stiff-legged, rising high and slamming to the ground with bone-jarring strength, whirling like a demon possessed. Without being fully set, Colby had no chance to keep her seat. She was launched like a missile, her slender body slamming into the hitching post. She crumpled and landed in the dirt facedown.

  “Colby, look out!” Paul’s hoarse cry sent her instinctively rolling toward the safety of the fence, hands up to protect her head. The ground shook under the pounding hooves as the animal reared and struck at her repeatedly. One slashing hoof struck her right thigh as she made her escape.

  Instantly there was the echo of two cries in her mind. Rafael. His voice was a soothing balm and worth any price. He was alive. And Nicolas, reprimanding her yet again.

  Her entire leg was numb. She lay still, staring up at the dusky sky, trying to get control of her racing heart and rapid breathing. Although it was late afternoon, she could feel the last of the sun’s rays burning on her skin and her body still felt sluggish and drained. She should have waited another half hour or so before attempting her work.

  “God, Colby.” Actual tears were in Paul’s eyes as he flung himself down beside her. “You’re bleeding bad—tell me what to do. I don’t know what to do.”

  Colby pushed herself very gingerly up on one elbow to stare at the ugly gash soaking her leg with blood. She swore softly, fighting off nausea. “I’m going to live, Paulo, but it’s going to need stitches.” She clamped the edges of the wound together, forced herself to press hard. “Go get a couple of towels and a tray of ice. You’ll have to drive the truck into town. Call ahead and tell Do
c Kennedy to wait in his office—I don’t want to go to the hospital and run up another bill.” She bit the words out between her teeth. Her leg had gone from numb to a burning torture.

  Paul ran for the house. Colby’s face was so pale she looked like a ghost. He would never forget, as long as he lived, the sight of her small slender body so fragile in the dust under the huge, maddened animal, the sickening sound of a hoof meeting flesh. He tore open the refrigerator, caught up the towels and the truck keys, made the hurried, breathless call, and was back at Colby’s side in minutes.

  “Does it hurt much?” he asked anxiously as he watched her apply the ice to the wound. In all her injuries, Paul had never seen so much blood on his sister. It was bright red and Colby was pressing very hard, her teeth biting deep into her lower lip.

  She managed a lopsided grin, pushing at the hair tumbling around her dirt-streaked face. The action left a smear of blood on her temple. “You’ll need to help me, Paulo, my leg’s kind of numb from the shock of the blow.” She was gritting her teeth, wishing it had stayed numb, but it was better than telling him she was going to pass out from the pain and blood loss. “Bring the truck close and I’ll be able to get in.”

  Colby. Her name came out of nowhere, soft and beautiful, wrapping her up in safe arms. Tears burned in her eyes at the caress of Rafael’s voice in her mind. She ached for him. Missed him so much. Just hearing his voice made her feel complete.

  I’m okay. You still sound tired. Are you supposed to be waking yet? Rafael sounded far away and it was an obvious effort to reach her. It made Colby feel treasured that he would try. She knew his wounds weren’t fully healed and that his hunger raged in him, but he reached for her anyway. She hated the melting sensation, when she was so angry with him for causing her problems. She didn’t want to need to hear his voice or feel his touch. And she didn’t want to think of the violence he was capable of.