She moved back into her own body, her eyes meeting her lifemate’s, her expression grave. “Gunnolf planned to murder you, Zev. There are at least three compounds left behind in your system to kill you. Your Lycan blood is trying to regenerate tissue and muscle and your Carpathian blood is trying to remove the intruders, but you won’t be able to do so on your own.”
Fen reached out and took her hand, threading his fingers through hers. “We knew it was bad,” he told her gently. “Nothing has stopped the bleeding. Can you get it out of him? I have some skills as well. Between the two of us, we should be able to clean him up.”
“Vlad can give him blood,” Byron said. “Once you stop the bleeding.”
“I can, too,” Paul volunteered.
“If he gives me blood, would I be considered part of Zacarias’s family?” Zev asked. “That might be safer.”
“I think Gabriel is going to be one who comes in like the avenger,” Byron said. “I’m getting a few rumblings. Razvan, Skyler’s birth father, is on his way with Ivory, his lifemate. They just reached out to me. None of them are happy about any of this. Razvan informed me that there was an assassination attempt on the members of the council.”
Zev swore under his breath. “This is far worse than I thought. This isn’t just happening here then. I was afraid of that. There are council members in a safe location as well. It’s a precaution taken when there is danger to any of them. That way there is stability should any one of them die. There is always a continuity, older members with any necessary new members. Were any of them killed or injured? I sent my best people with them.”
“Fortunately, cool heads prevailed,” Byron informed him. “Razvan wasn’t there when the assassins struck. Apparently, they tried to kill Gabriel and Francesca as they turned away. Zacarias stopped them, and both Mikhail and a senior member of the council persuaded the others to stand down after a brief but apparently ferocious battle. Twelve Lycans were killed, but they appeared to be for the other side, whatever that is.”
Zev swore again. “I need to get there. If a single council member is murdered in the Carpathian Mountains, whoever is behind this has won.” He half sat up as if he might go right then.
Fen held up a restraining hand. “Did you forget the poison? The anticoagulant? Were you planning on taking a body along with you to supply you with blood?”
Zev looked pained, rolling his eyes, shaking his head. “When did he get to be such a comedian, Tatijana?”
Tatijana pinned Fen with a glare, although amusement lurked in her eyes. “I have no idea, but you really are in trouble here. Sober up, wolf men, both of you, we have to get this arm taken care of.” She looked over her shoulder. “Vlad, I’m going to need you. He’s still losing too much blood.”
“Did she just call us wolf men?” Zev asked, one eyebrow shooting up.
“Were lucky it wasn’t wolf boys,” Fen pointed out. “She throws that in upon occasion.”
“Zev, lay back and just relax,” Tatijana advised. “Fen and I are both going to work on you together.” Her eyes met Fen’s. “You go after the poison, and I’ll work on the anticoagulant.”
Fen nodded, knowing she was particularly worried about the wound. There was no keeping anything from Zev. He knew, probably because he’d been wounded a thousand times in battles. He was a wolf with a body that regenerated quickly. If his arm refused to stop bleeding and he felt weaker even after the infusion of blood, he would know.
Fen shed his body, becoming white, healing energy, his spirit traveling quickly into Zev. The blood of both Lycan and Carpathian was present, although the Lycan was still stronger. Probably, had they not given Zev so much blood over the last few battles, he would have gone several years without realizing he was slowly transforming.
He moved through the body, inspecting the bones for any trace of poison. Tatijana had provided a clear image in his mind, but already the tiny blisters were spreading from the arm to the shoulder and along the collarbone. He went to work extracting the poison, slowly driving it out of the body. Some of the venomous dots were so minute, it was difficult to spot them.
He felt Tatijana’s presence, but only the heat of her energy, as she began her own work on separating the anticoagulant from the tissue and muscle surrounding the wound. Someone had worked on the formula to coat Gunnolf’s knives and daggers, probably his sword. Fen should have thought to collect the weapons so they could find out exactly how it was done.
If the faction of Lycans who wanted war were using poisonous weapons, then the Carpathians and any allies had to quickly find a way to counteract the formula used. He pushed more of the beads from Zev’s bone, driving the venom from Zev’s body. There was no trace of silver in the poison that he could find, so he was positive a Lycan had worked out the compound. An enemy would have added that component as well, but a Lycan, even a treacherous one, would not want to get anywhere near silver.
He studied the line of drops. He’d seen something similar recently. Had a mage helped with the chemistry required? The idea of a mage and Lycan alliance was, frankly, quite terrifying. Once the crimes of Xavier, the high mage, were known throughout their world, most of the other mages had scattered, not wanting to be associated with him, but that didn’t mean they weren’t around. Xavier had exploited them and murdered them for his own experiments just as he had every other species. No one had been sacred to him—not even his own flesh and blood.
Fen had no idea of time passing as he meticulously removed every tiny drop of poison from Zev’s body and then went back to work at healing from the inside out. Tatijana had already done her part and was working to repair the enormous slice as well. They finished together, and nearly fell into their own bodies.
“He needs blood,” Tatijana told Vlad. “I’ll give him more just before we go to ground.”
“I want to make certain all of you understand that when you rise hungry tomorrow, and you will, especially after donating all this blood,” Fen said, “that most likely anyone you come across will be Lycan. Ingesting their blood will eventually change you. Mikhail talked to all of you about the problems.”
“He didn’t talk to me,” Zev said, and lifted his head to feed from Vlad’s extended wrist.
“We don’t have enough answers to all the questions we asked,” Fen said honestly. “Like how a woman is affected, or a child, should we choose to have one. How a Carpathian can convert another. More, we continue to mutate the longer we live with such a mixture.”
“You people should come with a warning label,” Byron told Zev.
Zev flipped him off. Behind them, Paul snickered and Josef began to laugh. Flipping others off was not an accepted practice among the Carpathian ancients, or even those considered old, like Byron.
Byron stifled a grin and turned around with a sober, very serious expression. “Josef, I believe Tatijana told you to go to ground.”
Tatijana stirred, and Josef quickly waved his hand to open the ground before she could reprimand him. He floated down and the rich soil quickly filled in over him, covering him completely.
Byron shook his head. “That boy is certainly courageous, but I have to tell you, Vlad, he’s a handful.”
“We never know what he’s going to do or get into.” Vlad sent Paul a quick frown over his shoulder. “We were happy when he was hanging out with Paul and Skyler because we thought—wrongly—that they were a good influence on him.”
Paul sent him a smug smirk. “We pulled it off, though. All of us.”
“I wouldn’t look so happy,” Vlad advised. “Your uncles are on their way. They’ll be here before dawn.”
The smile faded quickly from Paul’s face. “Uncles? As in all of them? Rafael? Zacarias, too?”