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“I’m looking for a good place,” he admitted, letting his gaze linger on her curves. The front of the catsuit was a sharp vee that stretched to accommodate her generous breasts.
She stepped closer to him so that her potent perfume reached him. Surrounded him. Cocooned him in the alluring fragrance. She was a web of temptation, drawing him to her.
Isai let her come close enough that she was able to run her hand up his chest and look up at him with her wide, blue eyes. She parted her crimson lips. He bent his head toward her and at the last moment, shifted just enough to lock her to him and sink his teeth in the pulse beating so steadily in the side of her neck.
She cried out, a call for help that sounded more like a muffled demand, but he ignored it, drinking his fill, taking as much from her as possible before dropping her to the ground without closing the twin holes. Blood trickled down her neck to stain her catsuit at the shoulder.
“How dare you,” she snapped and tried to scramble to her feet. She had both hands up as if to ward him off, but she was beginning to weave a pattern. Her strength was gone so she couldn’t get to her feet, but it didn’t stop her mumbling insults while her hands created a weave.
“No, Crina, how dare you,” Julija said, striding into the camp. Her hair looked as if it had taken on a life of its own, crackling with electricity. “You know he’s mine and yet you tried, pathetically I might add, to seduce him.”
She lifted both hands and pushed air toward Crina’s uplifted arms. At once electricity leapt from her palms to Crina’s arms, snapping and crackling as the sparks bit into her stepmother.
Crina dropped her hands and yelled profanities, glaring at Julija. “You’re going to pay for that.”
“What are you even doing here?” Julija looked around cautiously. She would never, under any circumstances, come here alone.
15
Julija, get off the ground. Isai was uneasy. She thought in terms of mages. It was very possible that Crina was in league with Barnabas, even probable, but so far, Sergey had not made his presence known. There was no way the slivers of Xavier had not felt the call of the book. Every vampire and mage for hundreds of miles would have felt that call, at least that was Isai’s way of thinking. So far, no one had felt the call of the book, not even Julija, and she was actively looking for it.
Julija floated into the air, keeping her gaze fixed on Crina. She noted that her stepmother was tapping her finger in a steady rhythm against her thigh. Julija zapped her immediately, sending little sparks embedding into her fingers. Crina yelped and glared at her, putting her fingers in her mouth.
“Calling for your friend will do you no good,” Julija said. “But call away. We will be more than happy to get rid of him as well.”
Crina’s head went up, glaring, her blue eyes filled with rage. “You always were so smug, Julija. Anatolie thinks you can do anything. You’re so powerful. What a crock. My sons are a million times more powerful than you will ever be. Anatolie just refuses to see that because he fears them. He knows that they will take all power from both of you.”
“They’re dead, Crina. Both of them. They came after me and I destroyed them.”
There was absolute silence. Crina stared at her, for the first time looking truly shocked. She shook her head. “That can’t be. You’re lying to me.”
“I’m not. I also removed Barnabas’s little surprise bomb from the shadow cat. Your lover didn’t do a very good job of securing it.”
“You’re lying, Julija. You could never defeat Vasile or Avram.” Her voice began to swing out of control.
“They are dead,” Isai said.
A peculiar noise much like the high-pitched shriek of a flock of birds or large bats moving fast through the air could be heard in the distance.
Crina smirked. “You’d better hope that you’re lying, Julija, although I can’t imagine that he would spare you.” She lifted her hands fast into the air and tried to shout a death wave.
Isai inserted his body between Crina and Julija with lightning speed, clapping his hands to reverse the direction, sending the shock wave straight at her. Her mouth was open, and the wave rushed down her throat, turning her insides to jelly, melting everything from organs to bones. A look of horror came over her and then her face collapsed in on itself. Her body followed suit, so that she looked like a shriveled paper doll.
Julija turned her face away. “Isai.”
“We have to go,” he said abruptly. He didn’t wait for her to shift. This was no training lesson. He caught her up and took to the sky. They needed shelter and he had marked but two places, neither of which he’d had time to examine. Inwardly cursing, he flew fast. There wasn’t time to think of the cats, he could only silently send out a call to them, warning of immediate danger.
Julija didn’t protest or fight him. She closed her eyes and lay quiet in his arms. She felt small, weightless but feminine cradled against his chest. Isai covered them with a concealing spell as he took her away from the lake where his brother had ended his life. There was no way to save the two hapless campers, both of whom he’d liked, not unless he got his woman to a safe place. He hadn’t spent that much time with them, but they’d seemed genuinely nice people. If their bodies were found, the conclusion would be they had been attacked by wild animals.
He swore in his language. He was a Carpathian hunter first and foremost, and to leave a battleground when there was a master vampire to hunt went against everything he believed in.
He is part mage now.
Julija’s voice startled him. She was merged with him and knew his thoughts. That shamed him. He didn’t want her to ever think he was upset because he protected her. Explain.
The first crack was far too wide and easy for a vampire to spot. He couldn’t secret Julija there and expect her to be safe.
He has slivers of Xavier in him. To look for the book, he has to bring those to the forefront. Sergey won’t feel the book on his own.
It calls to all evil.
No, Isai, it doesn’t. Xavier would like you to think that, but if that was so, my father and brothers, Barnabas and Crina would have known where the book was. They followed me thinking the book was in my possession. Remember, I went to the Carpathian Mountains and someone stole the book from the shadow cat. The shadow cat was killed. They had no way of knowing who stole the book. When I left the Carpathian Mountains, the order was sent out by the prince to find me. What would you think?
He turned that over in his mind just as he found the second crack in a large outcropping. This one was close to the ground, not up high near the top of the rock. The crack was so tight that at first, he wasn’t certain it was actually an opening that led anywhere. He had to get her under cover before the bats reached them.
He took a breath and waved his hand toward the crack, murmuring to the earth to open for him. The crack widened enough that he could shift their bodies to paper-thin, so they could pass through. He had no idea what was inside, and he didn’t like that with Julija there, but it was better than exposing her to the bats that Sergey had sent.
Once inside, he began to close the crack and she caught at his shirt. “No. The cats. They’ll be coming after us fast. If you shut them out, they’ll be exposed to the bats.”
He doubted if the bats would be able to see the cats as more than mere shadows. Blue, I did not leave a trail. He sent an image to all the cats of where they were. You cannot reveal our hiding place. If it is not safe to join us, wait. Pay attention to anything moving over your head or under your feet.
“They’ll let us know when they are close,” he assured and set her on her feet. He waved his hand and sconces immediately lined the chamber, illuminating the small cave. There was little room compared to many of the caves he’d used as resting places. This looked about the size of a small bedroom. Or a sitting room. He could change it at will. Right now, he just needed a place for Julija to be safe while he went after the master vampire.
“Listen to me, Isai. I know wh
at I’m talking about. Sergey can’t find the book on his own. There is no trace of it or Iulian. I didn’t feel the book, that’s not what brought me here. I followed Iulian. I was connected to him from that brief time when he was losing his lifemate. It was Iulian that brought me to this place, not the book. He’s masked the book. I don’t know for how long, but Sergey won’t be able to find it, not even if it tries to call to Xavier.”
“That is a huge jump, Julija.” He began to weave safeguards, changing them in the way the brethren did so that no trace of Xavier’s teachings showed. Sergey would not be able to get to her.
“I know it is true. Isai, you aren’t really going after him by yourself, are you?”
“There are two innocent men out there. I can’t just let them die.” He spoke more harshly than he intended. Any fight with a master vampire was dangerous. Sergey, perhaps, the most dangerous of all.
“Stay connected to me. He will try to bring Xavier to the forefront and use his mage illusions. I can counter every one of them if you just allow me to see what he’s doing and saying.”
She was terrified of Barnabas, but not of Sergey. That spoke volumes to him. She watched his every move intently, so she could replicate the safeguards as needed.
“Do not leave the safety of this place, Julija.” He made it a decree, uncaring if that made him a chauvinist in her modern woman eyes. “I cannot have my attention divided between your safety and destroying such a powerful being.”
Julija nodded. “Just don’t break our merge, even if it is getting bad, Isai.”
He turned from her and started toward the opening. She caught his sleeve. “Promise me. Give me your word.”
“Unless there is no other choice,” he agreed. She would have to live with that. He would do his best to keep his word, but if Sergey managed to defeat him, he wouldn’t allow Julija to experience his death.
Blue, Comet, if you reach the cave, you take care of her. He gave the order as he took to the sky in the shape of mist.
Sergey would find his treacherous ally, Crina, dead in her tent and he would be angry. He didn’t like to lose. Julija had slipped out of his hands several times. If she was right and the vampire wasn’t able to hear the book’s call any longer, then it would be more important than ever to acquire Julija if he thought she could find it.
Isai had watched Crina’s face carefully when Julija had accused her of being Barnabas’s lover. It had been true. He had no doubt that both Barnabas and Crina could be in league with Sergey. Both wanted power. Crina had no love for her husband, Anatolie, nor apparently, he for her. Theirs had been a match all about power. When Anatolie hadn’t given her what she wanted most, it seemed she had aligned herself with Barnabas.
Barnabas appeared to be everywhere. Who was he really? What was he doing in every mix? Was he more powerful than Anatolie? Isai hadn’t considered that before. Now he had to answer the question of who Barnabas truly was and what kind of real threat he would be.
The sound of the bats rose to a fever pitch and a man’s voice cursed. The bats had found the two campers. He doubled his speed, streaking through the night sky to try to make it to them before the vicious bats had devoured the two. They wouldn’t have been afraid. Most likely, they’d even stepped out of their tent to witness the large, unusual migration.
There were seventeen species of bats in Yosemite, but these weren’t any of those. These bats were servants of Sergey, mutations originally conceived of by Xavier. Xavier had used them as guardians of his caves. They were vicious and craved blood and flesh. Highly dangerous, they ate the flesh right off the bone while their prey was alive. He would have to find and kill the colony if he survived this night.
He dropped down from the sky like a bullet, throwing up a shield as he landed right in the middle of the melee. The blond, Mike had been his name, fought with a hatchet, swinging at the creatures attacking from all directions. Josh used a small machete, slicing through heads as the bats walked upright on their wings, looking macabre. More filled the air, darting in to take great chunks out of their skin.
Let me see them, Julija demanded.
Isai joined the two men, maneuvering them under the shield so it was impossible for the bats to get to them from above. They had to come at them from either direction, but there appeared to be a sea of them surrounding them.
“What kind of bats are these?” Josh demanded, wiping blood from his face and then going back to swinging the machete.
Isai didn’t worry about what either man might think. He used his superior speed to fight off the bats. Even so, they were overpowering, more and more coming at them.
There are too many of them, Julija. I either have to try to fly the two men to safety or burn these creatures. I have seen these swarms before in memories given to me. They must be burned in order for us to survive. He was calm. There was a solution. If necessary, he would try to outfly the colony of mutated bats.
Are you able to burn them without aid?
He had seen it done through the memories of others. It wasn’t easy. He had no device such as the one he’d seen used. It was the temperature he needed, even more than the flames. I believe I can, sívamet. Do not try to aid me. If Sergey is near, I do not want him to find you.
While he puzzled out what to do, the three of them went back-to-back to protect themselves from the onslaught of lethal teeth and claws.
“I am going to have to burn them. It is the only way to stop them from coming,” Isai informed the two men.
“Tell me what to do,” Mike said readily. He was bleeding from dozens of places, his breath coming in gasping pants.
“I’m in,” Josh agreed. “These mothers are going to eat us alive.”
Isai didn’t waste time with explanations. He called up to the weather, stirring the clouds, sending cold air to each cloud so the top was freezing, forming small ice chunks within it. Because he kept the clouds moving, the ice pieces bumped into one another repeatedly, causing electrical charges.
“Work your way behind me and cover your eyes. You do not want to go blind on top of everything else,” he cautioned.
He took the forefront, slicing through necks as the bats came at him in force. He called down the lightning, strike after strike, using the white-hot sparks as a laser, mowing down the swarm of bats. Flashes of light in the darkness lit up the sky so that it looked like a bizarre dance of dazzling whips. The air smelled of roasted meat and burnt flesh. The bats had a peculiar, putrid smell.
Wave after wave of bats kept coming, as if they had been programmed and couldn’t stop flinging themselves into harm’s way. Do you have any feel for these creatures? Who might be directing them? Does it feel like Sergey? Do you have his scent?
Every mage wielding magic had a particular scent or identifying marker. It was in the way they cast their spells. Wording, patterns, movement, stillness, all could identify a particular mage at work. Sergey wasn’t mage, but with the slivers of Xavier inside him, it was very possible he could cast the way Xavier did. He had access to those memories.
Not Sergey, Julija decided after a few moments. More like— She broke off abruptly.
Julija?
This feels like Barnabas, but just a little different. The same but older. Much older.
Isai searched his memories for one that felt the way the flow of mutant bats did. The ranks were thinning now, but some still crawled over the dead, charred bodies of those in their colony, using their wings to do so, staring with dark beady eyes.
There had been a student of Xavier’s. He’d been very close to the high mage, as close as any student could get. He was very much like Xavier, cruel and indifferent to those around him, yet brilliant and a very dedicated worker. He paid little attention to other students at the school and in truth, he seemed more of an aide than an actual student. Some thought him a companion of Xavier’s and there was plenty of sly speculation, although no one dared to ask him outright.
What name had he gone by then? It was so long ago,
and Isai had long given up those memories. He worked to pull it from his mind. Barna. The mage had gone by the name of Barna, the Hungarian version of Barnabas. Could Julija’s Barnabas be the same Barna from long ago? If so, Isai couldn’t believe that he would be working for Sergey or anyone else to recover the book. He would want it for himself.
Julija, do you recall Barnabas taking your blood at any time?
He lashed at the last of the bats. There were a few still moving under the burned and charred bodies they would have to kill with machetes, but he felt as if the tide was stemmed. “Josh, Mike, you can open your eyes. If you wade through them to find any alive, watch yourselves that they do not bite you.”
That was his favorite thing to do. He felt her steeling herself to tell him. He took my blood often, and at night, when we were alone, sometimes he would tie me up and cover my mouth so I couldn’t call out and he would cut me and lick at the blood. He especially liked to do that when he was using my body for sex. She stumbled over the last, but she told him the truth.
Isai found more and more respect and admiration for his woman. She didn’t hold anything back, no matter the cost to her, not when she thought it might help him.
You said he was a teacher. Is he friends with Anatolie? Did you have the feeling they went way back?
They definitely knew each other very well, that’s why it was so disgusting when I realized he was sleeping with Crina.
Isai thought that over. If Xavier had raised his oldest son in secret, while the rest of the world thought him dead, he would have needed help. Someone had taken care of Anatolie while he was young. Xavier would never have cared for a child. He might have used female mages, but someone had to be consistent in the child’s life. Who was the dependable person in Anatolie’s life, because Isai would bet it wasn’t Xavier.
He kept his eye on Josh and Mike as they kicked dead carcasses aside and chopped down at the still lethal, half-burned animals as they lay dazed yet still trying to snap with teeth and tear with claws.