He had never admired someone so much in his life. She did what had to be done with no thought for her own safety. She was matter-of-fact about emerging into another storm of flesh-eating bats after her body had been torn up by the creatures. He couldn't feel the least reluctance in her, and something inside him opened and embraced his true destiny. He was meant for this woman. He was a match for her-her other half. He was born Dragonseeker, a warrior, not the evil monster Xavier had tried to shape.
Elation burst through him as he tore through the blackened ring of dirt, emerging into the midst of snapping teeth and fire raining from the sky. He had never felt so alive or free. He caught a bat in each hand and knocked their heads together, flinging them aside, and he was attacked from all sides, the sheer weight of bodies trying to knock him over as they did their best to eat him alive.
«Cover Gary. Cocoon yourselves in an airtight, heat-resistant bubble,» Ivory said, then flipped a grenade to Razvan.
There was something very satisfying in being her partner. She hadn't included the other hunters or the prince in her fight. He was her lifemate, her partner, and although he didn't have their experience, she trusted him far more than she did the others, and it was the first time since he had been apart from his sister that anyone had ever given him trust.
«Warn any coming to your aid to stay away. This is the only way I know to kill a colony.» She knew they had seen the plume of fire bursting from the ground and probably even felt the heat. «This will be like nothing ever felt.» Her gaze leapt to Gary in the midst of the melee. Gary was valiantly fighting. It was obvious he had been around the Carpathians, and even the wicked creatures did little to shake his faith in his friends.
«She is getting torn apart,» Razvan snapped. «Do as she says now.»
The sight of her with the bats slicing through her arms and legs was more painful than he expected. He fought his way to her side and faced her. «Pull the pin and count.»
«Cover them, Gregori,» Ivory reiterated. «No one breathe. You will have to do that for Gary. If you can, get any wildlife away from here.»
«Do it,» Mikhail commanded.
They pulled the pins and the gas hissed into the air. Razvan didn't look at the others, only at Ivory with her brave, calm face and the wolves fighting from her back. He didn't even feel the teeth slicing deep or see the bloody carnage the bats were leaving on the snow, he only saw and felt her. She gave him a half-smile, her eyes soft as they counted and lobbed the grenades into the center of the writhing mass and both dissolved.
He knew what to expect, but still, the explosion seemed worse now that it wasn't contained in a hole in the ground. A mushroom cloud of orange rocketed into the sky. The blast rocked both of them, the force blowing them back and away. The pressure raced through their bodies, feeling like great stones weighing on their chests.
There was a feel of power to shifting, an enormous rush to battle when one was in control of one's own body. Nothing dimmed that elation, not even the exploding trees or the masses of incinerated bats raining from the sky or the stench of foul flesh burning. For the first time in his life, he really felt as if he had done something that made a difference. Because of her-Ivory. He waited while the heat streamed around them, cooking everything in its path, his mind occupied with the woman who knew so much about Xavier.
Was it possible that she might be the key to ridding the world of such a monster? Was there actually a chance? The world around him was on fire, and yet for the first time in centuries, he felt hope. The roar of the flames and the snapping and crackling of the inferno mingled with the last gasping shrieks of the hideous creatures, and he could only hear her soft whisper in his head.
Life can have unexpected high moments.
A sharing. He recognized her willingness to share a small piece of who she was with him. Her love of battle. She loved the fight, the careful study of the enemy, the planning and preparation, the rush of adrenaline when her well-trained body and brain responded like a ballet dancer performing precise, complicated steps and emerging victorious. The feelings flowed from her into him, filling him with her, with her sense of purpose, with the realization that no other knew this complicated, talented woman the way she was letting him.
That realization humbled him, yet bolstered him at the same time. He had never felt as if he could measure up. He hadn't been strong enough to defeat Xavier, or even to get away or to save his child or his aunts. This woman, his lifemate, strong and enduring, offered him, at the very least, friendship.
You are right about those unexpected moments. It was definitely an unexpected high moment. While wind generated from the blaze roared around him, while heat blasted through his body and the world went up in flames, purging the last of the mutated bats, he felt at peace. He felt whole. And he was happy.
He felt her small, shared smile and held it to him, secreting it away in his heart-the heart she had given back to him.
When you go back to your natural form, I will be singing the revealing spell. The four splinters that were removed from you will need a host, and the bats are dead. He will have fled their bodies, Ivory cautioned. He will be looking for another host. Warn Gregori to watch the rest of them.
Of course. Vigilance was everything now. This was a chance to destroy a small part of Xavier. Even if it took one piece at a time to rid the world of him, it would be well worth it.
Razvan took his natural form and signaled to the others to do the same. «She is using the revealing spell. Watch for Xavier's dark spirit,» he warned them.
Ivory shimmered into her physical form, watchful, already singing the revealing chant, sending the notes scattering across the charred field and into the sky. It was still raining debris. Smoke and ash swirled together and drifted on the slight breeze. Snow drifted from the heavy clouds, mixing with the falling remains, nature already attempting to cover the signs of battle.
I call to me all that is good to aid me in my desperate plight.
I plead for the song that I may sing to reveal evil stalking the night.
Light of sky, burning bright, find that which is dark and bathe it in light.
Evil one, I call forth the blight you left behind.
Light spilled across the remnants of the battlefield, illuminating four dark shadows sliding among the dead toward the small group of Carpathians shielding Gary. Gregori threw out his hand, fingers spread wide, and lightning jumped, sizzling and cracking, toward the four fragments. Three burrowed into the ground, but the tip of the whip slashed into the fourth, incinerating it.
The ground rolled and pitched. A shriek rose. Black blood bubbled up from the ground and a noxious smell burst from the center of the ooze. The shriek rocked the trees, sent leaves trembling. Gary put his hand over his ears to muffle the hideous sound.
Gregori tried following the remaining shards with the lightning tip, sinking strike after strike into the ground, but with no results. There was no following them into the ground itself. Three small slivers would be impossible to track, and all of them knew they would eventually find their way back to Xavier.
Ivory swayed with weariness. «The dawn will break soon, Razvan. I need to rest. Do you come back with me or stay?»
It was almost a challenge, he decided, studying her face. She didn't know if she wanted him to remain with her or join the others. He touched her mind and realized she had not been in company for so long that she found the contact with him-and so many others-overwhelming.
«We would be happy to provide you with shelter,» Mikhail offered. «We have several safe resting chambers.»