Gregori nodded. “You added a touch of your own. You have grown these years, Aidan. Come here to me.” He turned his head then, his strange, pale eyes a compelling silver, his voice low and mesmerizing.
Aidan moved forward despite Alexandria’s low cry of alarm. She didn’t believe the other Carpathian was evil, but the healer believed his soul was already lost. That made him unpredictable.
Don’t go near him! He’s so dangerous, Aidan, and I can feel your weakness. It’s his voice. Can’t you tell that his voice is calling to you? He is a great man,
cara.
Trust my judgment
, her lifemate reassured her.
Gregori touched Aidan ever so lightly, but the hunter felt heat spreading throughout his body. The healer closed his eyes and sent himself seeking outside his own body and into Aidan’s. At once the ancient tongue of their people echoed in the air, through their bodies, a healing ritual as old as time. Aidan felt the pain moving from his body, pushed aside by the greatest healer of them all. The chant went on for some time, but Alexandria continued to share his mind, firmly refusing to relinquish her rightful place. She knew Gregori could feel her presence, was aware that he could read her distrust of him, but she was more concerned with Aidan’s safety than with Gregori’s feelings.
Gregori slowly returned to his own body, the strain of the healing process revealed by the lines etched into his face. But he casually tore his wrist with his teeth and held out the offering to Aidan.
Aidan hesitated, knowing Gregori was offering far more than nourishment. He would now be linked to Gregori, able to track him at will, should there be the need. The thick wrist dripping precious ruby droplets pressed closer to his mouth. With a sigh, Aidan gave in to the inevitable. He needed sustenance, and Alexandria waited at home, needing it also.
“It is beautiful, this land, in its own way, is it not?” Gregori did not wait for Aidan’s reply or indicate in any way that the blood loss was affecting him. “It is not wild and untamed like our mountains, but there is promise here.” He did not wince as Aidan’s teeth sank deeper into his skin.
Strength such he had not known in years poured into Aidan’s body. Gregori was an ancient, his blood far more powerful than that of men of lesser years. The nourishment revived Aidan instantly, took away pain and weariness, and brought a vitality he had not previously experienced. He closed the wound carefully, meticulously, with great respect.
“I am in your debt, Gregori, that you have aided me this day,” he said formally.
“You did not need my aid. I only made things easier. Your safeguards for the child would have bought you the necessary time even without the fog. And you had enough strength to survive the sunlight in your disembodied state even without me. You owe me nothing, Aidan. I have been lucky in my life to have a few men I could call friend. You are one.” Gregori sounded as if he were already far away.
“Come to my home, Gregori,” Aidan insisted. “Stay for a while. It might help to ease you.”
Gregori shook his head. “I cannot. You know I cannot. I need the wild places, the high reaches, where I can feel freedom. It is my way. I have found a place many miles from here. I will build there to await my lifemate. Remember your promise to me.”
Aidan nodded. He felt Alexandria moving in his mind, offering closeness, comfort.
“See to the child, Aidan, and your woman. Even from this distance, I sense her anxiety for you, for the boy. And she needs to feed. Her hunger beats at me. Do not waste your time worrying about me. I have taken care of myself for centuries.” Already his solid form was wavering, shimmering, dissolving into droplets of mist. His voice came back, disembodied, strangely hollow, yet still beautiful. “That was quite a feat you performed today, and in broad daylight. Few can do what you did. You have learned much.”
Aidan watched him disappear, the mist streaming into the surrounding forest until it, too, was gone. Gregori’s acknowledgment of his achievement made him proud. He felt like a child receiving praise from a revered parent. And since it was from masterful Gregori, who chose to live alone and befriend but few, he felt especially honored.
Very carefully, with infinite patience, Aidan unraveled the safeguards around Joshua, then gently lifted the boy from the trunk. Blackened snakes fell onto the ground, scattering around Aidan’s feet. He had much work to do, but he could no longer bear leaving the boy in that awful trunk with the creatures of the vampire’s making.
Aidan carried Joshua to a grassy knoll beneath a pine tree and laid him on the ground, tenderly brushing back his blond curls.
He is fine, Alexandria, just sleeping soundly as I commanded. I will wake him when I return him home. Then we can deal with what he saw. Just hurry. I want to see him, hold him in my arms. And Marie can scarcely believe me when I tell her Joshua is out of danger.
There was eagerness in her voice, but also fatigue, indicating her waning strength.
Worried, Aidan left the boy sleeping peacefully while he returned to the revolting battleground to complete the distasteful task of destroying the vampire for all time. The separated heart and the body, along with all the tainted blood, had to be burned to ashes.
Looking skyward, he built the electricity, weaving the veins of lightning and increasing the friction until it arced and crackled. He directed a bolt to the vampire’s body, spinning a ball of fire from the resulting sparks. The vampire’s body writhed repugnantly, the stench rising to fill the night air. A few feet away, the heart seemed to move, a subtle, deadly pulsating that gave Aidan pause.
Uneasy with the unknown phenomenon, Aidan directed the flames at the heart and incinerated it quickly, reducing it to a handful of ashes. The body contorted grotesquely, nearly sat up, and a long, mournful wail rose on the wind. The sound was hideous, and as it faded into the night, the notes changed to ugly, taunting laughter.
Immediately, Aidan swung around, his golden eyes restless, searching the land, the trees, the sky for a hidden trap. His body was still, listening intently for any betraying sound. In his mind, Alexandria was holding her breath. And then he heard it. A soft, insidious rustling. Stealthy. Furtive. A brush of scales sliding through pine needles.
Joshua!
Alexandria’s burst of revelation, of horror, came on the heels of his own.
He moved with supernatural speed, faster than he had ever moved in the centuries of his existence, crossing the distance to the grassy knoll where he had left the child. His hand found the snake, grasped it, and jerked it away from its goal. The thing hissed and coiled around his arm, desperately squeezing his muscles, sinking fangs into the fleshy part of his thumb. It bit again and again, injecting poison into his body, its every instinct commanding it to carry out the vampire’s revenge. Aidan tore the snake apart, flinging it into the flames consuming the body of the undead. Noxious fumes rose into the air, green gases that spun and whirled, then disappeared into the black smoke.
Aidan sank down beside Joshua and pulled the child into his arms. He made a slow, careful inspection of every inch of skin to assure himself the boy was unharmed. He waited for a reaction from the snake’s venom. Within minutes, his lungs began to fight for air, and he felt nauseated, but it was not nearly as bad as he expected, considering the venom was aided by the vampire’s hatred. It took him a moment to realize it was Gregori’s blood that was neutralizing the poison’s effects. He could feel the struggle taking place in his body, but Gregori’s blood was far stronger than anything the vampire could produce. Within minutes, Aidan was fine, his heart and lungs as strong as ever, the venom oozing out of his pores.
He lifted the boy into his arms and launched himself into the air, Wings spreading as he made his way across the sky toward his home and his waiting lifemate. He had hardly landed on the third-floor balcony before Alexandria was attempting to pull the child into her arms, laughing and crying at the same time.