«I had hoped you would join us.» Maxim greeted him.
«I always oblige.» Gregori circled to the right.
Everything is connected! Natalya's voice was filled with excitement. Tell the prince. It is all connected. When the barrier falls, so will all of his other shields. All of you will be able to shift and use whatever works to win this battle.
Bring it down now, ainaak enyem, or none of us will survive the next ten minutes.
Maxim stepped even closer, matching Gregori's steps as if dancing with him. All the
while that small ugly smile of contempt played over his thin lips. As Gregori slammed his fist deep, Maxim twisted slightly, taking the punch, trapping the hunter's hand in his body, his ribs squeezing sharply, acting like a guillotine. Gregori's face blanched and he dragged his arm back without his hand. A fountain of blood poured out. All of the Carpathians could hear Gregori's lifemate's scream of agony reverberating through their minds.
Maxim plunged his own fist into the hunter's chest cavity, driving through bone and muscle to reach the beating heart of the prince's second-in-command.
«It's down! It's down!» Natalya cried and whirled to join the battle.
«Stop.» The single word was issued with such authority and power everyone stilled. Mikhail stepped close to Gregori. «Release him, Maxim.»
«I am going to tear out his heart.» The fingers dug deeper, ripping at arteries. «You have far too high an opinion of the Daratrazanoff family as your second-in-command, Mikhail. You would have been better to look to the Malinov family.»
Gregori, instead of making a second attempt to get at the master vampire's heart, reached back toward Mikhail. His torn body shuddered. The only thing keeping him standing was the fist burrowing around his heart. He made no sound, but he reached for his prince with his bloody stump of an arm.
Mikhail stepped forward and gripped Gregori's wrist, cauterizing the wound as he leaned close and sank his teeth deep into his jugular.
There was a stunned silence, broken only by Maxim's scream of rage as he dug frantically, trying to remove the hunter's heart. Mikhail's other hand caught Maxim's forearm and pulled as he swept his tongue across Gregori's neck to close the pinpricks. When Mikhail lifted his head, he looked different. His skin glowed a warm golden color. He forced Maxim's arm out of Gregori's chest and the hunter fell to the ground, clutching his mangled body.
Mikhail stepped away from the other Carpathians, his arms outstretched, his eyes closed, his mind reaching, drawing, expanding. Streaks of light flashed from Mikhail to Gregori, to Falcon, Dominic and Jacques. The bands of light connected Raven, Sara and Natalya, leapt to Vikirnoff and Manolito. The power swelled until the earth vibrated with it.
Natalya felt the connection of all Carpathians, near and far, ancient and new, vampire or hunter. Every skill, every talent, every bit of knowledge poured from their minds into a single person. She blinked rapidly in astonishment as Mikhail's feet left the ground. Blinding light shot from his fingertips, from his mouth and eyes, streaking across the army of clones, shattering them, so that they fell empty and lifeless all around the master vampire.
The lesser vampires began to burn, skin smoking and melting, faces distorting. They ran
in circles howling in fear.
Maxim tried to shift, sliding back to his shadow spirit, a form he often used to move quickly and without being seen, but Mikhail's light was too strong. There in the dark of night, there were no longer any shadows to slip into. The light struck his face, his skin and small holes began to form, little pinholes enlarging slowly all over his body. He roared his hatred. He thrashed, spewing insects and acid, fighting to get away from the light.
Mikhail only rose higher, shedding more light, until even the eyes of the hunters burned and they had to shield their eyes. Maxim's skin began to split and peel. Long strips fell to the ground and sizzled under the heat of the unbearable light. His long pointed nails curled and turned black. Noxious smoke poured from his body and rose upward, absorbed by the light and Maxim shrieked louder, raising his arms in an effort to take back his fading spirit.
The vampire's chest split apart and worms poured out of his body, the blackened, wizened heart spilling into the radiant light. Maxim stretched his arm toward the organ. The heart tumbled back toward the vampire, but it was already beginning to smolder. The organ burst into flame and the vampire could only watch in horror. His hair, skin, even his teeth began to smoke.
Gregori stirred and with an effort, dragged himself over to Mikhail. The hunter staggered to his feet and reached his one good hand toward his prince. Mikhail caught it. The light arced between, surrounded them and for one long moment shone through them. When Gregori pulled Mikhail back to the ground, Gregori's hand had already regenerated.
Mikhail walked over to Maxim and stared into the red eyes. «My opinion of the Daratrazanoff family will always remain the same.»
Maxim slid to the ground in a puddle of melted flesh, the eyes staring up at Mikhail and Gregori. Black smoke drifted up from the pupils. Tiny flames burst through the smoke to incinerate the last of the vampire. There was a long silence. A wind rose and cleared away the stench of blood and battle.
Natalya let out her breath slowly and reached for Vikirnoff's hand. «Okay,» she said. «He can have the book.»
Chapter 20
Vikirnoff stood shaking his head, his narrowed gaze on Natalya as she leapt over a boulder, danced through a small creek, all the while wielding her lightning sword in and out of the trees fighting imaginary opponents. «Nothing is safe anymore. You have lost your mind.»
Her laughter floated back to him, touching him, warming him. «I'm practicing to be one of the three Musketeers. Or better yet, Luke Skywalker. I could see myself being Luke Skywalker. Totally.»
«Why not Princess Leia?»
Natalya stopped and spun around, mouth open in astonishment, her sword pulsing with light. «You've seen Star Wars?»
He folded his arms across his chest and grinned at her. «I believe everyone has seen Star Wars.»
Natalya held the lightning sword in the air and grinned. «No wonder you all thought of making these swords. They negate the need for hairspray and flamethrowers.»
«I have never needed either.» He indicated the pulsing blade of the sword with his chin. «We use lightning. It is much more lethal to reshape it.»
«I didn't have that advantage.» She stared hard at the sword and it wavered, but didn't disappear. «Bloody thing annoys me when it doesn't mind.»
He shook his head, laughter warming his eyes. «You are trying too hard. Picture it gone. It is not quite the same thing as using a spell. You always think first of spells.»
It was true, Natalya knew, but it was still aggravating. Vikirnoff had awakened her with kisses, made love to her several times and even provided blood for her. She found it amusing that he had gone hunting without her, not wanting her to feed from another man. Perhaps she felt the same way about his taking blood from a woman, but she wasn't going to admit that to herself-or him.
She concentrated on the sword and thankfully it disappeared. She had a tendency to get violent with weapons if she happened to have a bad practice session. «You know, Mr. Smug, it might be good for you to practice a bit every now and then. I thought your skills with a sword were a little rusty. You rely too much on other things and when the melting vamp, which was disgusting by the way, took your toys away, all of you bad boys had a bit of difficult time. It was a good thing I was there to save you.»