Dark Song

20

Ferro wasn’t about to wait for Cornel to decide to launch an all-out war on Tariq’s popular nightclub. The paramedics had already taken the waiter from the underground bar, and the music was once again pounding a bruising heartbeat through the club, signaling to everyone to start up the fun. Josef slung his arm around Linda’s neck and started to walk her toward the dance floor.

She halted and stamped her foot, the syringe hidden in her clenched fist at her hip as she posed, pouting. “I just want to be alone with you. Is that too much to ask?”

Josef leaned into her, one hand wrapped around her wrist, controlling the fist clutching the syringe. He put his lips next to her ear. “Yeah, babe, especially when you plan to drug me and let your friends cart me off in their waiting chariot.”

Linda’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth to scream. Josef smiled, holding one finger up, shaking his head and drawing the finger across her lips. Abruptly all sound was cut off. She looked panic-stricken as she attempted over and over to cry out. Nothing emerged from her throat, not even a simple croaking noise. Josef grinned at her and escorted her to the table, sitting down and pulling her onto his lap.

What is the signal that Linda has Josef ready for transport? Ferro asked Elisabeta.

She is to open the exit door herself.

Ferro had been certain she would be taken or killed right there. There would be no advantage to the vampires in sparing her. She was a pawn, nothing more, a pretty girl they had picked up and programmed, thinking she was Josef’s preference when it came to women.

Josef’s amusement moved through his mind. I will switch places with Linda. She will sit here docilely like the good Carpathian boy under the influence of the drug that shouldn’t work. I really want to see what they put in that drug. It should be interesting. I can open the door. When they come at me, I hope all those moves you’ve been teaching me work. In the meantime, you can maneuver around and get the master vampire.

Ferro didn’t think Edward Varga was much of a master vampire. He was planning on leaving the pathetic monster to Josef’s guardians. Somewhere, hidden out of sight just on the other side of the exit, were Traian and Joie. Traian wasn’t in the least bit happy that vampires had tried to kidnap his charge right out from under his nose.

Dayan and Barack will aid Traian, destroying Varga and his servants when Varga attacks you, Josef. You let them handle the master vampire. You can hone your skills on a lesser servant or perhaps a newly made vampire at a later time when I am with you, but not a master vampire. There is no need to prove anything to anyone, least of all to yourself. You are too valuable to our people to lose in a battle where we have many warriors available. Do you give me your word of honor that you will do as I have said?

I have no intentions of losing my life to a vampire, Josef said immediately, shedding his appearance even as Linda became Josef sitting at the table, slightly slumped in his chair, looking a bit drunk. Josef, now looking the part of a redheaded woman, stood, leaned down and brushed a kiss on the forehead of the man, glanced toward the wall and gave Ferro a cocky wink.

He is very clever, Elisabeta observed.

Ferro sighed. I am centuries old, Josef, not born yesterday. You take one more step toward the door without giving me your word and you will not take another.

Josef halted abruptly. I’m not stupid, Ferro. I have no intention of fighting anything. I’ll open the door and let Dayan, Barack and Traian do all the work.

Ferro caught the faint trail of shame in the boy’s mind. You are not being relegated back to being a child. I do not think of you that way. There are women in that club. Our women. Human women. O jelä peje terád, Josef. He swore in his native language. You are a valuable asset Cornel has already devised a plan to kidnap. Why am I even bothering to explain this to you?

He caught a glimpse of a smile in his lifemate’s mind, and at once all annoyance was gone. He understood now why Josef’s reputation had preceded him, although he didn’t think it was truly deserved. The boy was a good kid; he just needed a little guidance. And a firm hand. A much firmer hand than anyone had ever given him, probably because he managed to squirm out from under it too fast.

Josef sauntered over to the door, took a firm grip on the bar and shoved down to open it. The door was heavy and he had to step outside. The moment he did, a man with stained teeth exposed through loose, salivating lips caught at his long red hair and dragged Josef to him, spinning him as he did so, exposing his neck. Ferro recognized Varga trying to feed off the woman he thought he controlled. Two others came close but the master vampire paused long enough to kick at them and indicate for them to get inside and collect their intended victim.

Before Varga could sink his teeth into Josef’s neck, Josef shocked Ferro by slamming his fist deep into Edward Varga’s chest and wrenching his head to one side, avoiding the long teeth seeking his blood. That small split second allowed Traian to come in behind the vampire so that when Josef drove his fist into the front of the chest wall, the force of the blow helped send the vampire straight back into Traian’s fist.

They know. They are here, Elisabeta warned.

Ferro didn’t wait to see the outcome of the battle between Varga and Traian. He had to believe that the Carpathians stationed in the underground caverns could protect those there. He had to find the master vampires and destroy them. Once they were gone, any lesser vampire breaking through into the nightclub would no longer have direction and would be easier to kill.

We need the location of the master vampires, Elisabeta. Let the hunters do their jobs now. Drop everything else. You cannot be distracted. He wished he was with her to shield her from what they all knew they couldn’t completely prevent.

On the private path between brethren, he reached for Isai. Let Julija know she will have to do her best to keep Elisabeta from feeling the full effects of the vampires tearing into the humans. Once Cornel or any of them are aware she is aiding us, they will know she is too sensitive and they will order their servants to be as cruel and as messy as possible.

Ferro was grateful to be out of the underground and into the night. He could smell the ominous threat in the air. Overhead, the clouds churned a dark twisting mass of gray and black threads, blotting out the moon and stars as if they’d never been. When he inhaled, he smelled rotting flesh. Grating noises hurt his ears. Shrieks and talons scraping at windows told him vampires were trying to get into the nightclub.

The waiters in service to the Malinovs had been contained by the Carpathians the moment the notice was given. They couldn’t open doors or invite the vampires in. That didn’t mean any number of the guests inside couldn’t do it. Sooner or later, someone would. The moment that happened, the vampires would begin to feast. After the first blood spilled, it would turn into a frenzy for the servants of the master vampires they’d deliberately kept so hungry.

Elisabeta? We need direction, he prompted.

She hissed at him—actually hissed at him. His beloved, sweet, docile Elisabeta was definitely coming into her own. He would have smiled but she would have known.

This is not easy. They have to move in their minds. They are hidden, buried deep in their disguises. I have to discover them, see them through those disguises. It takes patience and attention to detail.

He did smile. He had used words very similar when he was giving her lessons in shifting or flying. He’d made her practice hundreds of times. She was taking not just him but many centuries-old ancients to school. She might pretend she thought it was just her lifemate she was talking to, but she knew those he was connected to were listening and he was sharing with others.

Forgive my impatience, piŋe sarnanak.

At once he felt her instant horror that she had come close to rebuking him. She hadn’t considered that any others might hear them. No, Ferro, please forgive me. I feel stretched in so many directions, trying to reach out to find them, and I was not thinking.

He gentled his voice, cursing the entire situation, wishing he was a gentler man. You are doing fine, sívamet.

He was moving with the wind, letting his body drift toward the heaviest cover. There was a massive parking garage. There would be plenty of victims for the vampires to prey on there, but he doubted if any of the master vampires would want to be caught with concrete and stone hanging over their heads. They would want to be very close to the nightclub itself. Cornel in particular was certain the piece that he thought would aid him to rule the Carpathian people, or destroy them, was hidden somewhere in the building. Where? Where would he think Tariq would keep such a valuable item? His office? That just seemed too easy.

In the landscaping at the back entrance where the patios are on the ground level. There are heavy bushes there. Elisabeta seemed tentative, as if she’d lost her confidence.

Ferro couldn’t pour himself more fully into her mind without risking giving her away to Sergey or one of the others. He detested using her. The ancients were used to hunting their way. They shouldn’t need his woman to spotlight their quarry for them.

Sandu, Benedek and Isai had spread out, drifting like Ferro with the wind, looking to spot a single sign of the master vampires hidden in the city structures, the cars and parking garages, rather than the forests and mountains that were their normal hunting grounds.

Sedrick is in the patio itself. He has made himself part of the roof. Ivy grows along the overhang and hangs down the supports. Are any of you close enough to see if the leaves have withered? Elisabeta sought confirmation that she was correct.

Benedek answered immediately. I will work my way around to the patio, little sisar.

Ambrus has concealed himself just to the left of the underground club exit door, closest to the trees. He is working to bring down the safeguards over the door of the nightclub, not the underground club. While he works, he is in communication with someone inside. She was silent for a moment.

Ferro, as did all the others, felt the brush of pain, as if an electrical charge passed through their minds. He went very still. Elisabeta? Is Ambrus aware of you? Does he know that you are tracking him?

He is very powerful, and each time I touch his mind, he is wary. I told you, his instincts are more animal than human. He senses a presence, but has no idea who or what that presence is. He sent out a probe. I was slow in shielding all of you from his investigation. It can sometimes be painful. I am used to it and forgot you would not be. I apologize.

Elisabeta’s admission set Ferro’s teeth on edge. That sweet, gentle voice admitting that she knew Ambrus’s probe would be painful meant she had often reached for his mind and felt him trying to find if an enemy really might be close. Could he trust his senses? She didn’t flinch from the pain because that would give her away. Sun scorch the woman, she was going to be the death of him, not some master vampire. She was going to tear out his heart.

Ambrus, yes, Elisabeta, I see him now. He is very busy, Sandu said. He has two servants with him, guarding his back.

His servants are like him. Elisabeta was quick to give out the information. Instinctive, like animals. Fierce in battle. They always go for the belly and genitals. If you have spotted two, there will be three others concealed nearby. Ambrus hunts with a pack. He is the one I would consider the most dangerous in battle. Cornel is the strategist. He can plan a war, but Ambrus is the fighter. His servants are close to having the skills of a master vampire without being one.

Ferro didn’t like the sound of that. Sandu wouldn’t hesitate to take on Ambrus and his pack of servants. He was an ancient and they did one thing—they destroyed vampires. He had no lifemate and no reason to continue his existence. Ferro chose to make his stand with Sandu. Sergey was not going to escape him again, not unless he was dying or dead, but he had to make certain Sandu had a fighting chance to survive.

Ferro. Her soft little protest trembled, but Elisabeta pulled it together for him. Addler is sending two of the newly made vampires to the door of the nightclub. He is watching to see what happens. A couple just drove up in a car. He wants to use them as bait. The vampires will tear them to pieces.

He heard the trepidation in her voice. How many servants does he have left? He knew the master vampires had counted on their servants coming through the city, but the hunters had quietly wiped out most of them.

Only two. He is very upset. He has two servants but also two of the newly made vampires with him as well.

That meant that the Carpathian numbers were growing as the hunters were tracking the last of the servants of the master vampires to the nightclub. That was a plus.

I have Addler in my sight as well as the vampires and the couple. Have stopped the couple from getting out of their car. They are driving away, Petru reported.

All of them felt the buildup of energy in the air as Addler attempted to force the couple to turn around. Both newly made vampires took to the air to fling themselves at the windshield. Petru waved his hand and both dropped from the sky, feathers bursting from their shrunken bodies so that they appeared to be nothing more than two owls. As he did so, lightning forked across the sky and thunder crashed.

Lightning had been lashing the city for what seemed nearly a quarter of an hour as the storm stalled, bringing heavy roiling dark clouds, thunder and an endless electrical show that kept everyone off the streets. A series of lethal sizzling bolts hit dead center on the roof of the extremely popular Asenguard Nightclub. Sparks flew in every direction, rising into the air, a colorful display rivaling that of fireworks.

Over and over the jagged lightning bolts continued to hit in exactly the same spot. Each hit was precise, as if directed by laser beam.

Elisabeta tried not to wince each time a bolt struck. The weaves of protection held, but that didn’t stop the shaking of the building from the strength of the blow. Each time the rocking was so strong it nearly knocked the three women off their feet.

“That is Cornel, knocking politely,” she announced solemnly as they clung together.

Lorraine and Julija burst out laughing with her. Elisabeta found herself amazed that she could be sharing laughter when the night was lit up with bolts of lightning aimed specifically at the rooftop where the three of them were standing.

“How very polite of him,” Julija said. “I suppose we should be just as eloquent in our response to him.”

Lorraine and Elisabeta automatically stepped back to give Julija room. She was from a powerful Carpathian lineage, but she was also a direct descendant of one of the most powerful mages in the world. She lifted her hands and began to weave her spell, concentrating on that small pinpoint where the tip of the bolt was directed with each strike.

Julija timed her response so that when Cornel slammed his next attack onto that weave of protection in order to penetrate it, her spell countered his. A blue ring whirled around the tip for one brief flash and then rushed up the jagged electrical bolt, seeking the sender.

The strikes abruptly broke off and black smoke trailed through the sky. A thick, noxious vapor poured into the air, smelling of rotting and decomposing flesh.

“Cornel,” Elisabeta said, a little shocked. “Julija, you not only incapacitated him for the moment, but you brought him out into the open.”

“As I meant to do.” Julija spread her arms wide to encompass the sky, taking in as much of the dark, spinning clouds as possible. “I reversed his intentions. It won’t last long but it should give you enough time to find his heart.”

Elisabeta closed her eyes and sent her mind seeking Cornel’s while Julija began to move her hands gracefully, murmuring her powerful spell as she did so. Cornel was stunned almost beyond comprehension. He had no idea what had happened to him and he was incapable of protecting himself. His heart, a black, withered organ he protected by moving it continually around his body, was still for the first time in many centuries while he was awake. She found it near his belly, a shriveled lump. Immediately she directed Julija to the target.

Lorraine held the whip of lightning, ready for Julija’s magic to penetrate the inevitable shields the master vampire would have around him while Elisabeta pinpointed the target with absolute precision. Julija struck at the shields and Lorraine simultaneously sent the bolt of lightning straight at the master vampire’s heart.

The white-hot sword hit an impenetrable shimmering barrier, sending a tower of sparks high into the air, thunder crashing, roaring so loud it threw all three women to the ground. Fireballs rained from the sky, a meteor shower of bright, hot spinning orbs pounding down on the roof, aimed directly at the heads of the three women. A dark shadow swept back and forth over them, wings spread wide, mouth open wide spouting a long, steady stream of fire at them.

“Dorin,” Elisabeta said, trying to get her hands under her to get to her feet. The building kept rocking, as if an earthquake had seized the ground and was desperate to split it in two. “He threw that shield up to protect Cornel at the last second.”

She subsided onto the roof, letting her exhausted body have a reprieve. They weren’t going to get a second chance at Cornel and all three women knew it. He was too intelligent to stay around when his servants had been attacked, the nightclub was protected and he had been injured. He could leave, regroup and fight another day.

Cornel is injured and is near the trees just north of the parking garage. She passed the information on to the hunters. He is trying to escape. Dorin is protecting him along with their combined servants. They have called to Sergey and Ambrus and the other master vampires to leave with them.

The three women sat together, heads back, looking up at the dark, malevolent clouds, linking their minds together, using the pathway through Elisabeta to follow the various battles.

“Ambrus, I see that you desire to dance with the devil this rising,” Ferro greeted as he strode up the intricate paved walkway leading to the door the master vampire was attempting to open. “I must confess, I thought you had a liking for the forest, as I do. This city is too closed in for my taste, and these buildings feel as if they are nothing but heavy weights hanging over my head where I cannot breathe.” He kept his voice friendly.

Ferro had removed all traces of Elisabeta’s scent from his body. He kept her from his mind on the off-chance that Ambrus had found a way to read Carpathian hunters. He ignored the two servants who pressed close, inhaling deeply, drawing the scent of rich, ancient blood into their lungs as he passed them by. It was very necessary to keep Ambrus and his servants’ attention completely centered on him. He wanted the master vampire confident that he could take him at any time. The vampire had three more servants in hiding, waiting to spring his trap. He would want to kill Ferro before he joined Cornel in what he saw as defeat.

“Ferro,” Ambrus greeted in return. “It is good that it is you. Someone worthy at last. So many with no skills have challenged me in the last half of the century that I thought maybe there were none left.”

Ferro shrugged. “A few. We were in the monastery, but the call came upon us and we had to answer. You know how it is.”

“The call?” Ambrus prompted, gliding a step closer. His eyes had taken on a red glow. His arms dropped low, giving him the appearance of harmlessness, his fingers spread wide, but his nails had lengthened just a tiny bit and sharpened to lethal points. He tapped his index finger on his thigh, a subtle sign few would catch.

“Two women came to the monastery. Both had gifts and were able to tell the brethren that our lifemates were alive in this century. Naturally, we once more set out looking.”

Ambrus lifted one hand to his angular jaw and scratched. “You still believe in such a myth, Ferro? That is how the prince keeps you tied to him. You should know better. I always thought you smarter than that.” The finger tapped again.

Behind Ferro and to his right, a leaf whispered as something brushed against it. Ambrus slid his foot an imperceptible quarter of an inch forward, much like the stalk of a leopard.

“I believe because I did find her, Ambrus. It is no myth. You know Andor found his lifemate. I have found mine.”

Ambrus froze. He shook his head slowly. “This is impossible. Not for one such as you. They say Zacarias De La Cruz also found a lifemate. We all know this to be impossible. It is simply a trick to make us believe the Malinov brothers lied to us.”

“What would I gain by telling you I have found my lifemate?”

A look of absolute cunning crept over Ambrus’s heavy features, giving him that animalistic look that further warned Ferro that this man thought and fought with the skills of both hunter and animal. “It matters little your intention, Ferro. You walked into an ambush and I bid you good luck surviving, although you seem to have proven your skills in battle time after time these long centuries. It will be interesting to see how you fare against my pack of very hungry dogs. I like to keep them on edge so they fight all the harder for their reward.”

Ferro smiled, started to give a small courteous bow, and Ambrus attacked, rushing him. Simultaneously, the master vampire’s two servants converged from either side, talons like the harpy eagle reaching for his belly and eyes to rip and gouge. Three more of the pack leapt down from above, straight at his back and head, their intention to drive him forward onto their master’s fist so he could wrench the beating heart out of Ferro’s chest and be done with the fight before it ever truly began.

Ferro, the bait to draw out the entire pack, dissolved into mist and went down, not up, going low between the legs of the master vampire and coming up behind him. Sandu, Petru, Fane, Aleksi and Dragomir surrounded the master vampire and his pack. The last three ancients, all brethren from the monastery, had arrived to join in the hunt against the master vampires.

Ferro slammed his fist straight through Ambrus’s back. Ferro was a big man and enormously strong. The blow shattered bones and drove through muscle, half turning the vampire toward him. Ambrus tried to reach him with his arms, curling back toward his opponent while all around him his servants fought for their lives against battle-experienced Carpathian hunters.

These were not men concerned with ego or whether or not anyone noticed how many individual kills they made, or even if they fought the most difficult of the vampires. They simply sought to remove the vampire from the world. That was the sole purpose of the Carpathian hunters.

Plants erupted beneath Ferro’s feet, long, hungry, eel-like tubes with teeth, latching on to his legs, attempting to drag him beneath the ground, wrenching at his body so hard the creatures yanked him away from Ambrus, allowing the master vampire to stagger free. Black acid coated Ferro’s arm and hand, eating at his flesh, while the hungry creatures sawed at his legs, continually trying to pull him back toward their wormhole.

Ferro reached toward the sky with his uninjured hand and lightning responded, slamming into the creatures’ bodies right where they emerged from the hole, slicing them cleanly in two. At the same time, he bathed his injured arm in the spray of white-hot energy, cleaning the acid from it, removing the vampire’s blood to prevent it from eating its way to the bone.

As the creatures dropped away from his legs, Ferro snapped the lightning whip at Ambrus’s head, dropping loops of sizzling-hot energy around his neck, leashing him to prevent him from shifting and getting away. With a snarl, Ambrus turned back to face him, the coils of lightning slipping around his entire body, spinning, holding him in place, exposing him as he truly was, not as he preferred to appear.

Rotted flesh hung off skeleton bones. What seemed a fit body was no more than an illusion perfected over centuries. Ambrus might not appear to be as vain as any other vampire, but clearly he wanted to appear to the others as a mountain of a man with a muscular, battle-scarred body. That was worth noting—that Ambrus had included scarring when forging an appearance. He hadn’t made himself as the Astors had, flawless and handsome.

Instead of the long hair of the traditional Carpathian warrior that Ambrus favored, his skull had great scaly patches of some gooey substance that oozed from inside his brain to dribble in a steady stream down his head and trickle out of holes where his ears should be. His eyes were sockets of flaming red. He had no nose, only twin sunken holes, and his mouth was filled with jagged, pointed teeth so stained with blood they appeared black.

Elisabeta, in all the centuries Ambrus has appeared to the Malinovs, has he always appeared as you have seen him? With this image? He showed her the copy of a very fit Ambrus, trying to spare her the true rotted soul of the vampire.

Within the coils of the lightning whip, Ambrus began to sway back and forth, murmuring to himself, his long, bony fingers tapping a rhythm on his thin, emaciated leg.

Always.

As the coils dropped from Ambrus, Ferro flicked his hands casually toward the vampire, surrounding him with mirrors, above him, below and completely circling him. There was nowhere the vampire looked that he didn’t see himself reflected back in his true, hideous state. He stretched his thin lips in a wide protest, screaming in horror, throwing up his arms to cover his eyes while maggots and a wealth of parasites tumbled from his mouth and throat to spew against the reflective glass.

Ferro slammed his fist deep into the chest wall, breaking through the brittle bones without the armor of Ambrus’s woven muscle and dense bone he most likely threaded with other things to make it much more difficult for a Carpathian hunter to get to his heart. His fingers sought the withered organ, but it wasn’t where it should have been.

He has moved it lower, to the base of his spine.

Ferro didn’t hesitate. He withdrew his fist and slammed into him a second time, searching for the heart, fighting to get to it. Ambrus was already recovering from the momentary shock of seeing his true image after centuries of convincing himself of what he looked like. The master vampire leaned forward and bit down viciously into Ferro’s shoulder, tearing great chunks of his flesh from his body, and gulped at them, gulped at the rich, ancient blood that would give him a burst of strength.

The vampire tried to turn his head so he could sink his teeth into Ferro’s neck and get at the jugular. Ferro continuously whirled in a circle, driving Ambrus backward into the mirrors so the glass shattered, driving the shards into the bones, keeping the master vampire from being able to shift or get his bearings. Ferro was too fast and too strong, holding off the vampire’s teeth as his fist dug for the heart against his spine.

Ambrus retaliated, turning his hands into knifelike weapons, plunging them over and over deep into Ferro’s chest, driving straight for the Carpathian’s heart. Ferro heard Elisabeta’s gasp and cut off all contact with her immediately, stoically accepting the pain. It was a battle. Hunters expected to be wounded. They had to be close to extract the heart, and that meant the vampire would be able to rend and tear at their bodies. That was drilled into them from the time they were young boys. It was one of the reasons he didn’t want Josef hunting the undead too soon. The boy might have the courage and the knowledge, but he didn’t yet have the body to be torn into pieces and survive the experience.

The moment Ferro had the heart in his palm he closed his fingers around it and ripped it from the master vampire’s body, turned and flung it high into the air. Lorraine!

It would be the last thing any vampire would expect. Ambrus would try to steal the lightning from him, and he raised his hand as if wielding the whip as it blazed through the dark sky. Lorraine targeted the tiny wizened organ, impossible to see because Ferro had thrown it so high, but tied to him through their soul bond, she tracked that blackened target.

Ambrus triumphantly reached for the sky, hands wide in an effort to snatch the lightning bolt from Ferro, but the sizzling, white-hot whip danced through the air, crackling ominously, heading with unerring accuracy right to that tiny object. Ferro dropped his hands to his sides and regarded the master vampire who shook his head in denial, unable to believe what he was seeing. The tip of the whip hit the heart, incinerating it, so that black, noxious smoke billowed up for a moment and then was cleaned in the bright hot burn of the electrical current. Ambrus stood swaying, head tilted toward the sky. He was still standing that exact way when the whip of lightning hit him and he turned to that same black ash, burning until there was nothing at all left behind.

Something heavy hit his body, nearly knocking Ferro down, and he reacted, spinning, catching at one of Ambrus’s servants as he tried to dive into the air to get away from Petru. Ferro blocked the snarling beast of a vampire from the air by throwing his body fully in front of him. The vampire immediately attacked, raking at him with claws and snapping viciously with teeth while hurling dozens of poisonous arrows behind him in an effort to keep Sandu from approaching from that direction.

Most of the lesser vampires were trying to follow Cornel and Dorin in their orders to retreat, taking to the air, but there were too many hunters pulling them out of the sky or tracking them on the ground. There was nowhere to hide. The few that had nearly made it into one of the clubs because a door had been opened had been immediately stopped by one of the hunters inside. The Carpathians had too many experienced warriors waiting for them, an impossibility to fight against. Retreat was the only reasonable solution, and when the vampires tried to flee, they were set upon immediately.

Ferro managed to slide out from under the raking claws as if giving the vampire a way out, and then as the creature redoubled his speed, it impaled itself right on Sandu’s outstretched fist.

“Traian and Josef killed Edward Varga,” Tariq reported. “Benedek disposed of Sedrick. Petru killed Addler, and Ferro destroyed Ambrus. Cornel and Dorin Malinov managed to slip away, but that doesn’t surprise me.” He looked around him at the Carpathian warriors with various wounds as they aided one another, giving blood and helping one another to heal. “While some of us are making certain there are no traces of the vampires at the clubs and the male psychics are either free of all influences or they met with very sad accidents, we are not yet finished. Ferro says Elisabeta can call Sergey back to her. If she can do this, we can destroy five of the seven master vampires and most of their army in one decisive blow this night. Sergey is very dangerous with the knowledge he carries in his head from his brothers and the high mage. Can Elisabeta really call him to her, Ferro?”

Ferro nodded his head decisively. “Yes, absolutely she can. He will be unable to resist answering her. He will come.” Gary was working on healing him. Three of the ancients had replenished his blood. All of them would need to be in their best shape of the night. Even better than they had been if they were going to win this next battle.

“Call to him, Elisabeta. Bring him to you. Sergey is unable to resist your call.” They stood together, Ferro and Elisabeta, at the very edge of the meadow. Before them was a long expanse of grass and flowers. The flowers looked asleep, petals closed, while the clouds moved across the sky overhead.

Her long lashes lifted, her dark eyes liquid with tears. She gave a small shake of her head, resisting his command for the first time. “You are injured, Ferro. He may not be the most intelligent of the Malinov brothers, but he makes up for it in both cunning and cruelty. He will smell your blood and crave it. That will spur him to greater heights of viciousness.”

“Call to him, minan piŋe sarnanak.” He was implacable.

“He has a sliver of all of his brothers in him. He has not one but two of Xavier, the high mage, within him. If you defeat him, the moment you extract his heart, all of those slivers will desert him and seek a host. They will scatter, tiny, very dangerous shadows impossible to track. They will find human hosts, possibly children. Each sliver is evil and will corrupt their host and lead them back to the nearest mage or vampire.”

The plea in her voice shook him. The liquid in her eyes spilled over and tears tracked down her face. Ferro wrapped his arm around her and pulled her beneath his shoulder.

“You should know me by now, sívamet. Would I go into battle without knowing what I face? I saved Sergey for last because I know what he holds. He cannot live. He will never stop trying to find a way to get to you. Bodies of innocent men, women and children will be nailed to the gates of the compound each rising. We cannot have that. Eventually, your kind heart will break and you will go to find him. Where is your faith in me? Your trust? More importantly, minan päläfertiilam, where is your belief in us?”

Elisabeta’s dark eyes drifted over his face. “You look so worn, beloved.” She sighed. “If you wish to do this, then we do this.”

He waited, letting her feel their combined strength. Their power. It rolled over the meadow, filling the air, impossible to contain. She had to feel it the way he did. It wasn’t his power alone, it was hers as well—the two of them together.

She straightened her shoulders and nodded. “You have a plan. I know that you do. Tell me what you want me to do once he arrives.”

She knew Sergey would come. Like Ferro, she had no doubt. Ferro smiled down at his little songbird who had finally escaped her cage and yet, with the cage door wide open, she had chosen him, chosen to stay with her centuries-old lifemate.

“You know the plan, piŋe sarnanak, we have practiced it a thousand times.”

Master. Elisabeta whispered the call in her mind, keeping her voice thin and fearful. Can you hear me? I have little time. He is not aware.

At once there was a stirring. A black malevolent presence poured into Elisabeta’s mind, thick like an oil, clogging every pore. Over the centuries she had developed false walls so that the master vampire believed he could search her mind and know what she had been up to. With the exception of having access to her lifemate’s soul, he believed he controlled her completely, when she had slowly built compartment after compartment, pushing him further and further out.

Now he saw only what Elisabeta wanted him to see. Terror. Fear of her lifemate. Of the Carpathian people. Of their demands on her. She understood nothing of their lives and they made fun of her behind her back because she didn’t know how to do anything for herself. Her lifemate was ashamed of her.

Why do you bother me? Sergey sounded disdainful.

Elisabeta hesitated. Retreated. The old Elisabeta would never have answered him or begged him to take her back. She would have been too terrified of the consequences of speaking to him.

He is drawing closer, she cautioned Ferro.

In the meadow she stood, appearing shaky, one hand half covering her face, taking several steps back into the deeper concealment of the trees, bending forward as if to peer out, looking up at the sky hopefully.

Why would he be unaware of what you are saying to me? Sergey demanded.

He was gone for a long time this rising. When he returned, he was wounded very badly. They called for the healer and several of the ancients to give him blood.

Does he come alone? Ferro asked. That would be so arrogant but so like Sergey, thinking he could secret Elisabeta away once again. Cornel and Dorin wouldn’t know she was back with him and he would forever have the advantage over them.

He has two very minor vampires with him. They are circling around the meadow to ensure that I am alone. His intention is to slay them both after he takes me back with him.

Sergey made a show of sighing heavily. Very well, then. I will take you back, but you will be punished. Walk out into the middle of the meadow. My servants will collect you and bring you back.

Elisabeta froze. Retreated further into her mind. Shook like the little mouse she was.

I command you to do this. Walk out into the meadow now or I will leave you to those people. I have no time for your stubbornness.

She didn’t move. She didn’t speak. She simply shivered, a small ball of absolute terror as only Elisabeta could be. She was so magnificent, Ferro wanted to kiss her senseless. Sergey would never leave her there. As a lure, she was absolute perfection, too scared to move. The master vampire was too close to his obsession. He needed her with every breath he drew, and there was no way he was going to allow her to slip through his fingers.

The two servants of the undead flew toward the forest where Elisabeta had entered. She immediately shifted, just out of sight, rising to the branches, a small female owl, while a young woman in a flowing cape seemed to be running into deeper forest, away from the meadow. She was barefoot, and her dark hair tangled on brush, slowing her down so that the servants caught glimpses of her, just enough to keep them following.

Elisabeta, stop this game at once. Come to me.

Where are you? Her voice was very tentative. I do not want to speak to those men or have them touch me. You never allowed it. Never. How do I know it is you?

Ferro found himself smiling. That was a good point. Sergey couldn’t dispute that. Elisabeta was very clever.

I am waiting in the meadow, just as you asked. Hurry. Dawn is approaching and I tire of your tantrums.

Elisabeta allowed her first real, although tentative, excitement to spill into her mind, that Sergey might really be coming for her. Deliberately the leaves rustled by the entrance and she froze. Where are those men? She let fear spill into her voice and mind all over again.

They cannot get to you. Hurry, Elisabeta. Sergey came into view, hovering just above the ground, building safeguards to surround the entire meadow with just a small path for her to travel. They cannot enter. Only you. Step inside and I will close the safeguards behind you. Once I have you, we will leave this place. The one who claimed you will not be able to follow, either.

Sergey’s servants following the elusive shadow of Elisabeta were being tracked by Carpathian hunters. The moment Ferro gave the word, they would be taken down.

Appearing almost small in her cape, although she was tall, like all Carpathian women, Elisabeta looked all around her before she stepped from the shadow of the forest and set foot into the meadow, allowing Sergey to weave the safeguards behind her to lock her there with him.

He beckoned to her impatiently with one long finger. At the end was a wicked-looking nail. “Come to me now, Elisabeta.” He snapped his fingers. “We have to leave this place.”

Ferro shifted as he approached within a few feet of Sergey. Ferro’s appearance revealed the wicked wounds from his battle with Ambrus. His clothes were torn and showed bloodstains.

“I see she called you. She fears a new life, but she will get used to it in time.”

“What have you done with her?” Sergey demanded.

Elisabeta let out a small moan and presented an image of rocking herself back and forth, of being very small, curling into herself as if terrified. Ferro glided a little closer, covering the smallest of limps, one arm tight against his ribs.

Sergey flung up his hand, weaving replicas of himself and sending them spinning in a wide circle around Ferro. The ground shifted and rolled, sending the Carpathian tumbling to his knees. Above their heads, within the safeguards, thunder roared and the swirling black clouds opened up to dump acid rain on them. Sergey moved in fast to kick at Ferro’s chin, determined to knock him on his back so he could more easily extract the heart. He also wanted as much of the Carpathian male’s body exposed to the painful acid as possible.

Ferro caught his ankle, twisted and took him down with his enormous strength, caught the stake Sandu threw to him and slammed it straight through Sergey’s heart, pinning him to the consecrated spot in the meadow. Smoke rose as the vampire’s skin burned. He screamed horribly. Ferro waved his hand to stop the rain.

Elisabeta, take down his safeguards above. We will need the lightning. Strengthen the ones we wove in the ground so the slivers cannot burrow.

The ground is both hallowed and safeguarded, Ferro, Elisabeta assured. I am removing the safeguards above you now.

The grasses disappeared as if they’d never been to reveal the wide expanse of bare dirt, all of which had been sanctified. Ringing the entire prepared circle were the ancients, waiting, all eyes on the writhing, fighting master vampire as Ferro held him down with the sacrosanct wooden stake. He had to use both hands. Black blood bubbled up around the wood. Benedek held the legs of the vampire as Sergey kicked and drummed his heels into the dirt.

The master vampire spit his hatred at Ferro. His red inflamed eyes promised retaliation, flames burning in their depths. At times they glowed silver or brown or green, malevolent, promising torturous, painful death. He tried to dig claws into Ferro, to tear skin off his ribs and arms, anything to get him to remove the stake.

Minutes passed while they waited. The ancients wore the expressionless, stoic masks of the hunters. They didn’t pass judgment on the creatures they were forced to hunt and destroy. They rid the world of their presence because they had no other choice. They waited now in silence, all eyes on the writhing master vampire.

Maggots and parasites oozed from his pores, abandoning the undead’s body. More and more he appeared a rotting, decomposed corpse. The moment the parasites or maggots hit the soil, they burned into white ash so that soon, the vampire’s shape was drawn with a pile of ash much like a chalk outline surrounding him.

Each of Sergey’s four older brothers had placed a sliver of themselves in their younger brother. He also had two slivers of Xavier, the high mage. Those slivers would abandon him when it became apparent their host was not going to survive. The ancients simply waited while Sergey hissed and screamed his hatred. While the hallowed ground under his body burned and seared his back and skull. While the sanctified stake spread purity through his insides, forcing out every corruption.

Without warning, six tiny shadows emerged from Sergey’s ears, rushing in all directions, each seeking the safety of the darkness and the higher grass several yards away. The slivers were so tiny they were nearly impossible to see, even with Carpathian vision, but for the plume of smoke rising from each as the hallowed soil burned them, marking each abomination as it made its desperate run.

Lightning forked across the sky in a dazzling display, seven whips arcing above their heads. Six jagged spears slammed to earth with deadly accuracy, each striking one of the fleeing slivers. Hideous shrieks tore through the night, a frightful cacophony that rose in strength. Faceless skulls with wide yawning empty holes for mouths appeared in sheets of rising black smoke. Venomous silver eyes glared for a brief moment and then flames consumed them, burning them to ash.

Ferro jerked the stake free in one swift movement and the remaining white-hot lightning whip hit Sergey’s heart with deadly accuracy. The master vampire stared up at him with unrelenting hatred until there was nothing but the rotted corpse left, and then that, too, was gone. The ancients stood for a brief moment, heads bowed, before they cleared the land of all traces of the vampires and made their way back to the compound, just beating dawn.