Tomas moved up in front of Emeline.
Stay close to him, Maksim warned the two women, startling Emeline with telepathic communication. Do not speak aloud or even attempt an answer in your head. He is seeking you.
Something dark and oily slid by, jerked to a halt, and for the first time, Blaze saw him. Her heart nearly stopped beating in her chest. She could see why Emeline had been so terrified from the moment she had escaped this monstrous beast. At first glance, he looked to be a handsome, courtly man in a dark business suit. She stared at him intently and saw through the illusion. It took everything she had in her, every ounce of courage, not to scream.
This was her first real look at the undead. He was far worse than anything Hollywood could ever have conceived. His skin was white, pasty white. His gums had receded, leaving jagged teeth clearly stained with blood. His flesh appeared to be falling off his skull, with small tears where tiny parasites wiggled. His hair hung long in tufts and dank, dirty strands. Bald spots showed through the thin, frizzy threads, and she could see the same wiggling parasites boring through unsightly holes.
His eyes glowed red and his teeth snapped together. "I smell you," he hissed as he reached long arms with bony fingers toward Emeline.
Tomas, the Carpathian guard closest to her, leapt to protect her, to insert himself between them as Blaze threw her body against Emeline"s, pushing her forward and out of the vampire"s reach. The terrible talons settled around her wrist, jerking her toward the undead. Tomas"s body blocked hers from Reginald c.o.o.nan.
Blaze screamed as the razor-sharp nails cut her wrist, burning her skin with an acid-like substance. Blood sprayed into the air. Tomas. .h.i.t Reginald hard, driving him backward into the crowd. The vampire kept possession of Blaze"s wrist, his talon sawing deeper, opening the laceration wider. Maksim slammed his fist deep into the master vampire"s chest, seeking the heart.
Reginald screamed, still dragging Blaze backward, falling toward the crowd. The crowd could see his monstrous appearance as he leaned down and drove his teeth deep into Blaze"s shoulder, just missing her neck. Chaos erupted; people stampeded for the exits, knocking one another down and trampling the fallen.
Blaze felt the vampire elevating their fear. He twisted and raked Maksim"s face and throat with his claws. Swarms of parasites raced up Maksim"s fist and arm, eating the flesh, as he tried to burrow deeper into the vampire"s chest. It was impossible with the undead twisting and ripping at Blaze"s shoulder with his teeth as he did so. Maksim had no choice but to protect her. He withdrew his fist and used both hands to knock the vampire off of her, sending him flying across the room.
Behind them, Emeline screamed. The sound was chilling, filled with sheer terror. Blaze turned her head, trying to spot Emeline through the stampeding crowd. She caught glimpses of Lojos fighting with something every bit as evil as Reginald. The thing, once Carpathian, was now as monstrous as the master vampire, maybe more so, and it had Emeline locked in front of it, holding her as a shield by driving four talons from each hand into the flesh and bone of her rib cage.
Emeline hung suspended in the air, the razor-sharp stiletto knives embedded deep. She thrashed and fought, but the vampire backpedaled through the crowd, holding her off the ground by the blades as he deliberately stomped and kicked men and women lying on the floor like so much litter.
Reginald flew through the air, a dark shadowy figure above the crowd, descending straight toward Blaze, his arms lengthening as Maksim leapt to intercept him. Blaze"s wrist continued to spray blood. She felt burns right down to her bones, as if, when the vampire ripped her wrist open, he"d dumped acid into the wound. She could see the arm snaking around Maksim, although the two bodies collided in midair. Hastily she drew a knife from her belt loop, heedless of the blood loss. As the arm approached, the bony fingers stretching to reach her, she sliced down and across, putting every ounce of strength she had into the attack.
Reginald couldn"t actually see her because Maksim and he fought viciously, tearing at each other"s chests. She leapt back the moment the blade went through flesh and bone, severing the hand. Reginald screamed horribly. Black blood sprayed the room, bubbling on the floor and fallen bodies, burning right through everything. She hadn"t expected the hand to fall, but she had a newfound strength she couldn"t explain.
The hand didn"t remain stationary, but began to roll in an attempt to get back to its owner. She stumbled, terrified at what these creatures were capable of. Emeline"s screams drew her attention away from the fear. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw Emmy still suspended in the air by the razor-sharp talons driven into her ribs.
Trusting Maksim to deal with the vampire, Blaze ran toward Emeline, leaping over fallen bodies, ignoring the cries of those being sprayed by acid-like blood, and whipped out a gun. She was a crack shot even on the move. She"d been practicing since she was three years old. She fired five shots in rapid succession at the vampire suspending Emeline in the air. She hit both eyes, his nose, and drilled two more bullets into his gaping mouth.
Instantly the knives dissolved, and Emeline dropped to the club floor, Lojos cushioning her fall. He clamped both hands hard to the sides of her body and lifted her into his arms. Now that Emeline was safe, the adrenaline left Blaze"s body and she found herself sitting abruptly. Right there in the middle of the floor. A chill swept through her body. She felt numb, and cold. So cold.
"I am going to lift you," a man"s voice said.
She could barely lift her head. He reached over her shoulder and removed the gun from her hand. She couldn"t keep a grip on the stock, even if she could summon the will to do so. The gun slipped from her nerveless fingers, and then he clamped his hand around her wrist. Hard. Like a vise. It hurt. Burned.
"I am Tomas." Maksim, we have to go now if your lifemate will live. Let him go. Mataias will track them. She"s lost too much blood. Far too much.
Blaze found her head too heavy to keep upright and she let it fall against his chest. Emeline was gone, carried out by the man called Lojos that Maksim trusted. She had no choice but to trust him as well. Tomas hurried out with her, and she felt Maksim pouring into her mind. Strong. So strong.
Do not leave me, Blaze.
Tomas rushed through the door, leaving the club behind, and she must have been dreaming because she swore they were moving through the air, the wind rushing past her head. Still, the cool breeze didn"t clear the fog from her mind. She remained confused. She clung to Maksim"s mind, although it was Tomas holding her, keeping her from tumbling back to earth.
I am with you, sufletul meu. I will always be with you. I have no choice but to bring you fully into my world, or I will lose you, Blaze. Give me your consent. You have lost too much blood. You already are walking mostly in my world with me. Come wholly to me. Give yourself to me. You will be like me, and together we will find the undead who ordered your father"s death.
He didn"t need to entice her into his world. She"d already made up her mind. Only Emeline held her where she was, and Emeline seemed to know and accept the Carpathian world of the undead far more than she did. In any case, it was Maksim fading in and out, not her.
She tried to rea.s.sure him, but the effort seemed too much and she was cold. They shouldn"t be rushing through the clouds, so far from earth, because she just couldn"t get warm.
ELEVEN.
MAKSIM CAUGHT UP with Tomas, slid his arms around Blaze and took her from the ancient Carpathian, making the switch right in the air. Make certain her friend is safe and attended to. Blaze definitely needed blood and she needed it fast. He could feel her slipping, but Tomas had stopped the blood loss and sealed the tear so she wasn"t losing any more.
Maksim used one nail, even in flight, to open a line for her. He pressed her mouth to the ruby beads. She didn"t need to be prompted or pushed. Blaze fed. She took his blood and she did it without hesitation.
Lojos says her friend has also lost a lot of blood, Tomas informed him.
Maksim was grateful Tomas stayed on his flank, protecting his lifemate. The vampires in the bar had acted out of character. Their focus had been to acquire the two women. Emeline, for certain.
Give her blood if she needs it. Keep her alive. Lojos, do not let her out of your sight until we figure out what is going on and why they want her.
This one is a powerful psychic. I can feel the energy pouring off of her, Lojos interjected. She does not like my touch and wants away from me. I do not feel her fear so much as her distaste.
Keep her alive, Maksim reiterated, although if she were psychic, each of the men would be very aware of the fact that she could be a lifemate to another Carpathian, and they would guard her with their lives.
He poured himself into Blaze"s mind while she fed, filling her with his warmth, rea.s.surance and strength. She stirred, letting Maksim know she was aware of him, but she didn"t speak. She let him fill her, not trying to hold barriers between them, accepting him in her mind, allowing him to take control. He knew the things that drove her. He knew the good things about her as well as the bad. He knew the strengths and weaknesses of her character.
She took his blood, knowing full well she was taking that last step into his world. He only had to take her blood for the exchange, and the conversion would begin. He hoped to finish that quickly-as soon as he got her to his home.
He loved that he knew her far more intimately than anyone else on the planet. Her father had shaped her character very early on. She was a fighter. A warrior. She was soft inside, but she had a core of strength that was unbelievable. She was skilled and already she was moving through his mind each time they shared telepathy, in order to acquire his skills as a hunter of the undead.
Enough, Blaze. He couldn"t be too weak when he converted her. He would have to help her through what he"d heard was an extremely rough ordeal. His lifemate would die as a human and be reborn a Carpathian.
She obeyed him, again without hesitation, as if she knew how important this night was, and that he had to be at the top of his strength. Her tongue slid across the opening over his heart, and his body shuddered with the pleasure the tiny gesture brought.
He took her toward the river, where Tariq Asenguard had a huge compound. Maksim"s home lay behind the larger estate. He had less acreage because he didn"t need it, not so close to Tariq. They were neighbors, and few trespa.s.sed on their properties. The Asenguard property was set well back from the tall, iron fence, with its scrolls and sharp spear-like points at the top. Climbing over the fence was nearly impossible, and with the safeguards, humans avoided the place.
He tightened his hold on Blaze. She had agreed to come into his world completely. He searched carefully in her mind for any hesitation, and he found none. She believed in him. She could read his mind in the same way he could read hers. She didn"t understand their connection, not like he understood it, but she accepted it. He began the descent at the back fence of Tariq"s property. The forest was thickest there, a dark grove of trees, unexpected on the edge of the city.
Something came out of the sky just to his left, entering his vision from the south, over the river. It dropped from the clouds, plummeting fast and streaking right toward them. Tomas put on a surge of speed to intercept. The missile went through him with such force it continued on to strike Maksim in the calf. Fire burned white-hot through him, and instantly thousands of needles pierced his flesh and entered his bloodstream.
Tomas grunted and began to drop, forcing Maksim to get beneath him to stop his descent. He managed to wrap one arm around Tomas. To his shock, Blaze stirred, seemed to comprehend the danger, and she reached out and took hold of the Carpathian hunter with her one good arm.
Tariq, we are under attack. Where are you and Mataias?
Maksim"s voice was as calm as ever, but he knew the situation was dire. Tomas was in bad shape. The spear of fire had cauterized the wound, but it had also injected both of them with something poisonous. Blaze needed blood. A lot of it.
I have your blood in me, she reminded. I can feel it working to keep me alive. Tell me what to do for both of you.
They were close to the ground. Even if he burrowed deep, he knew they wouldn"t have been attacked in the air if there weren"t something worse waiting on the ground. He had no choice with Tomas so injured.
They will come at us, Blaze. Tomas has put himself to sleep. He will be unprotected and very vulnerable. I do not know what poison has been used, but I can already feel the effects.
Who are "they"?
Two master vampires attacked in the club. They will have lesser vampires and human puppets serving them.
Any special way to kill a human puppet?
They are hard to kill and once you have, you have to burn them. The heart of the vampire must be removed and incinerated for him to die.
He felt the steel in her. Yes, his blood was bringing her back but she was already a warrior, prepared to take on whatever came at them and protect both Tomas and Maksim should it be necessary.
I don"t have the strength to punch through their chest to get at the heart.
If you find yourself that close, Blaze, use a knife, go in fast and use a circular motion to cut out a path. Get back, dart in a second time and keep at it. They cannot get their hands or teeth on you. Their blood will burn like acid.
She nodded, taking a grip on Tomas with renewed strength. He felt it now, the Carpathian blood moving through her to continue the change it had already begun. He didn"t have time to worry that the conversion might start before the actual third blood exchange, but it stood to reason that the first-time exchanges had already prepared her body"s organs.
Maksim floated them to the ground, waving his hand to open the earth beneath them so he could fit Tomas"s body in the healing soil. He needed more than the earth might give him, but they didn"t have time.
Two of them, he warned Blaze.
She nodded, stepping out of his arms, turning her back on him, hands moving up into position with her weapons.
There is another in the tree just beyond the fence, she said.
That one is vampire, he informed her. I will see to him. The others are human, yet not human. They live on human flesh now. They seek blood. They will be ravenous and try to come at you with teeth to tear through your body to get at the blood.
Blaze laughed aloud, the sound unexpected in the circ.u.mstances. "Lovely," she said, facing the two puppets as they came out of the trees close to them.
She studied the two creatures shuffling their way toward her. They were like most puppets Maksim had seen. A vampire had promised immortality and had taken their blood numerous times, feeding on them, bringing them to the point of death over and over. Sometimes they fed them a little of the burning blood they desired, but mostly, they corrupted the mind until it was rotting and so far gone they could only follow their master"s orders and hunt desperately for blood and human flesh to consume.
The burning obsession for blood and flesh was so strong in puppets, they salivated constantly. Long strings of saliva fell from the corners of their mouths as they shuffled forward, growling and snarling, red-rimmed eyes focused on Blaze. Hair hung in matted messes. Both had stains of old blood on their faces and clothing. They smelled like rotting flesh.
Blaze didn"t move. She kept her body solidly between the two puppets and Tomas, who lay as if dead in a shallow grave. Maksim had poured as much soil over him as possible in the short amount of time they had, but even with that, without blood and the necessary healing saliva and the removal of the poison in his system, he wouldn"t survive for long. The soil, at least, would give him a fighting chance.
I am ten minutes away from you, Tariq informed them.
I am about the same, Mataias added.
Maksim touched Blaze"s hip. Stay in my mind. If I go down, get out of here.
That will never happen, she stated firmly, glancing at him over her shoulder.
He caught just the flash of her green eyes, but she meant what she said, and there would be no arguing with her. His woman would stand. Even if the odds were totally against her.
We should get this done fast then.
She didn"t hesitate. She launched herself at the two puppets, streaking toward the lumbering humans, a knife in either hand. She was fast. She"d been fast before Maksim had given her blood, but with each exchange, she got faster and stronger. She moved so fast the vegetation under her feet whirled into the air and nearly covered her pa.s.sing. She was between them, the blades flashing, sinking deep into their throats, twisting and turning and back out as she ran on past and stopped just behind them.
Maksim launched himself into the air, going for the lesser vampire who thought himself hidden from view. The vampire hit him, twisting at the last moment out of the tree, so they collided in the air. He drove the vampire back against the trunk, impaling him on a broken branch. The vampire tore at his neck and chest with sharp talons and teeth, desperate to pull his body off the wooden stake.
The vampire tore a chunk of flesh from his body and gulped at the blood. Instantly he spat, snarling, pulling back, recognizing the poison in Maksim"s system. His expression turned sly.
"You"re already dead," he hissed.
"So are you," Maksim said and plunged his fist deep into the vampire"s chest, driving a hole deep. The acid burned through his arm right down to the bone. He straightened his fingers, staring into the hideous red eyes, unflinching as his sharp nails dug deep to find the rotting heart.
The undead thrashed harder, trying to free himself. There was no way to shift with Maksim"s body pinning him against the broken branch and his arm buried deep. Slowly, Maksim extracted the heart, the sucking sound terrible, matching the shrieking protests of the vampire.
Maksim tossed the heart into the air and drew down the lightning, hitting the shriveled organ as it raced toward the ground. He threw himself backward, away from the flailing undead. He landed unsteadily, his legs unexpectedly giving out. Still, he had the presence of mind to send a fork of lightning straight to the vampire where he hung from the stake in his back. The body was instantly incinerated.
Maksim tried to rise to go to Blaze"s aid. The two puppets were bleeding profusely from a half dozen places, each cut so deep that the slashes should have been a kill, but the vampire"s wishes prevailed at all times. They moved like zombies already dead. Still, their bodies continued to work in spite of the blood loss.
"They aren"t going down," Blaze stated unnecessarily.
Maksim hit the ground hard and dragged himself to where Tomas lay. He covered the other Carpathian"s body with his own.
Try fire.
She nodded, lifted her gun, fired two shots into the closest puppet, taking his vision and then doing the same with the second.
Slow your heartbeat, Maksim, so they can"t hear it. They"ll have to use sound and smell to find you. You can mask that.
He wasn"t certain if that was the truth. The poison was fast acting. He could slow his heart, or stop it altogether, slowing the spread of the poison, but that would leave Blaze without even the aid of his mind.
Reinforcements will be here in a couple more minutes, Maksim. Do it.
Blaze moved quickly to the right and then sprinted, running in circles around the two puppets to disorient them so they wouldn"t know the position of the two Carpathian hunters. She kept an eye on Maksim, willing him to do as she"d asked. She needed him to slow his heart and the poison until the two other hunters arrived and helped.
Hurry, she whispered. Maksim had been moving fast, expending energy. The poison had plenty of time to do damage.
She ripped at her shirt and wrapped it around a very dry fallen branch, forming a makeshift torch. It took two strikes of the match to get the thing burning. The two puppets had homed in on the sound of her heart beating. She let them come in close to her, and then moved back a few steps in order to draw them farther away from Maksim and Tomas.
They followed her one step at a time, their growls deep and constant. Blood ran down their faces from the holes where their eyes used to be. The sight turned her stomach. Bile churned and filled her throat, but she held her ground and let them shuffle closer. The first puppet stretched out his arms toward her. The flames weren"t burning enough and she slashed with her knife, cutting deep. The creature didn"t howl. His mouth opened wide in a silent scream, but the deep cut didn"t deter him in the least from continuing to come at her.
It was all she could do not to throw the torch before it was truly burning. The creatures seemed unstoppable. No matter what she did, they kept coming. Taking a deep breath, her hand burning, she counted slowly in her mind and then moved in fast, touching the flames to the puppet"s shirt, his matted hair and his jeans.
The hair and shirt caught fire and she jumped back. The creature continued to shuffle forward, straight toward her, on fire. She needed wind. Something to fan the flames. Her own torch burned hot, almost too hot to keep a hold of. As if hearing her desperate thoughts, the wind shifted, fanning the fire so that flames leapt high, engulfing the puppet.
He kept coming toward her, but now he was a wall of flame. The stench was horrible. She stared in horror, unable to think of anything else to do to kill the mad-driven creature desperate to carry out his master"s orders. She stumbled backward, keeping an eye on the other puppet that had shuffled dangerously close. Maksim and Tomas lay just beyond her, and she couldn"t leave them exposed. She couldn"t give much more ground, or the flaming torch of a puppet would be right on them.
Blaze took a deep breath, threw her small torch at the other creature. It hit his shirt, and the wind followed, fanning flames. She didn"t have time to see if she"d accomplished her goal. The fiery flames were close enough to her now that she felt the heat. She ran straight at the puppet engulfed completely in fire. Launching herself into the air, she kicked out with both feet, hitting him squarely in the chest.
The heat was intense, so intense, she knew her jeans had melted in a couple of spots right into her shins and calves, but the puppet fell back and writhed on the ground. Hideous noises escaped. He began to drag himself across the ground toward the two Carpathian hunters lying motionless. The other puppet seemed to have homed in on them as well. His chest and hair were on fire, but only smaller flames crackled, the fire just beginning.
Blaze did the only thing she could think of. She used the knife on herself, slicing across her palm and flinging the blood at the two desperate puppets. The droplets of blood spun in the air between them, as if they had a life of their own. Blaze took a cautious step to the right of the Carpathians. Both puppets turned toward her. Elated, she took a second step, and both turned completely toward her.
Step by step she led them away from the poisoned Carpathians. She kept breathing deep, deliberately slowing her heart so she wouldn"t panic. The one dragging himself on the ground repulsed her, even terrified her. She couldn"t stand the sight of the living torches following the blood trail she continuously flung into the air.