Dark Wolf

2

Paul Jansen gathered Skyler into his arms and hugged her hard. He was taller than she remembered, his shoulders wide and chest deep. He’d filled out and looked more of a man than a boy. He worked hard on his family’s ranch and it showed in his deep tan, strong build, defined arms, and confidence. He looked older than his twenty years, responsibility weighing on him.

Skyler hugged him back just as hard. “Thank you for coming. I wouldn’t have asked you if I wasn’t so desperate.”

He held her at arm’s length, looking her over carefully, a small, affectionate grin on his face. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world. We made a pact a long time ago, the three of us, if any one of us was in trouble, we’d come running. I’m glad you called me.”

Josef caught his forearms in the traditional Carpathian greeting between warriors, shocking Skyler a little. There was nothing traditional about Josef, and when he used any of the ancient rituals it always surprised her.

“Good to see you, brother. It’s been too long. They don’t let you get off work very often, do they?” Josef said.

Paul hugged him in the more traditional human way. “I look after my sisters, especially Ginny. The De La Cruz brothers and their lifemates have enemies, and there’s a ranch to run and Ginny to look after during the day.”

“You always did work too hard,” Josef commented, hugging him back. “It’s good to see you. Talking online doesn’t cut it. How is your sister? She’s growing up fast.”

“Ginny is amazing with horses, just like Colby always has been. She’s beautiful, too, which means I have to watch all those ranch hands and make sure they don’t get any ideas.” Paul grinned, but there was no amusement in his eyes.

Skyler had to smile. Most Carpathian hunters were tough as nails and then some, but Paul’s sister Colby had married into one of the roughest families of all. She was a lifemate to Rafael De La Cruz. There were five brothers and all of them were considered extremely lethal, some of the most feared predators on the planet. Clearly, Paul had already learned a lot from them. She had no doubt that he’d learned to defend himself as well. He fought vampires and did a man’s work on the ranch, running things while the Carpathians slept during the day.

“Josef, load your coffin into the truck, please,” Skyler told him. “We’ve got to keep moving. We need to be on the road just in case someone comes looking for one of us.”

Paul looked over the ornate coffin and then burst out laughing. “Look at that thing. Josef, you’ve been having fun, haven’t you?”

Skyler rolled her eyes. “Don’t encourage him. You have no idea. He actually put the cause of death as a broken heart in the official documents. Can you believe that?”

Paul laughed harder. “I would expect nothing less.” He ruffled Skyler’s hair. “You grew up beautiful. Who knew?”

Josef scowled at him. “You see her nearly every day on FaceTime or Skype. She looks the same way she always looks. You, on the other hand, have grown your hair out. You’re even beginning to look like the De La Cruz brothers. Are you crazy?”

Paul shrugged and pushed his cowboy hat back on his head with one thumb. “Everyone is a little afraid of the De La Cruz brothers. I don’t mind in the least being associated with them. It automatically makes me a badass.”

Skyler found herself laughing—and relaxing—for the first time in days. She’d forgotten the easy camaraderie she shared with Paul and Josef when they were together like this. She loved them both and knew they felt the same way about her. Both might tease her about Dimitri, but they held him in great respect. They wanted to find him every bit as much as she did.

Josef was worried that she might not know the consequences of their actions, but she knew all too well. How could she not? She was lying to the people she loved. And she knew, without a shadow of a doubt that the De La Cruz family would protect Paul just as Gabriel and Lucian would her. The De La Cruz brothers had been a long time away from the Carpathian Mountains, and they were a law unto themselves. They were loyal to the prince, but at the same time, it was the eldest, Zacarias, who governed their actions. He would never, under any circumstances, allow one of his family members to be in jeopardy without coming to his aid.

She had thought a lot about what she was doing. Paul was important to her and he knew it. They had discussed openly what the De La Cruz brothers would do should the plan fail and they all get in trouble. The De La Cruz family had more to lose than any other. MaryAnn and Manolito De La Cruz would be hunted and killed, just as Dimitri would be, if the Lycans had their way at the summit taking place soon in the Carpathian Mountains. They were considered the dreaded Sange rau—literally bad blood—a mix of Lycan and Carpathian.

She watched Josef float his coffin into the back of the truck. He was astonishingly adept at moving objects. She could do it, but not as easily as he did. Josef had gone through an awkward phase, but he had certainly come out of it and was smooth and adept at using his Carpathian gifts. He was considered a child in the eyes of the centuries-old Carpathian males. Carpathian children weren’t considered adults until they hit their fiftieth year.

The Carpathians were just beginning to understand his genius with technology, especially computers. There was little he couldn’t do, nothing he couldn’t hack, and no program he couldn’t write. She was fairly certain they still didn’t recognize the enormity of his abilities and what it meant for their people. Carpathians were very intellectual, but she knew Josef was a true genius, miles ahead of most people in any species.

Paul and Josef were outsiders in their own world, just as she was, to a much lesser extent. She lived with Carpathian parents who treated her lovingly, but she wasn’t Carpathian. Paul also was surrounded by Carpathians, but he had to live in a human world, even if he didn’t fit there anymore. He’d seen vampires, had even been possessed by one. And then there was Josef. Her gaze fell on him. Flamboyant. A rebel. Yes, he was both of these things, but he was also loyal, brilliant and someone who could always be counted on.

Her heart had always gone out to him. She couldn’t deny that she loved him, so of course Dimitri knew. He knew everything about her. Long ago she’d opened her mind to her lifemate. At first she’d allowed Dimitri entrance into her mind with the vague idea he’d see, after her terrible childhood, that she could never be what he wanted her to be. He had been then what he was now. Absolute. Calm. Implacable. Certain. Loving.

He was a man nearly impossible to resist. Well. Okay. Her resistance to the idea of being his lifemate had faded completely. She just needed a little time to build confidence in herself that when the time came she would be able to be a full partner to him.

Skyler bit down hard on her lip, wincing a little when it hurt. She wasn’t there yet, not the physical part, but that didn’t matter, nor would it ever if he didn’t survive.

Josef’s teasing nudge nearly sent her flying. He groaned. “There she goes again, off to la-la land. She’s taken to doing that lately, Paul. You’ll be talking to her and she seems like a normal person and then she gets that hokey, moon face, all gooey-eyed and goofy and she drifts off somewhere. I think before we do anything else we need to get her to a doctor and fast.”

“Oh, you’re going to need a doctor.” Skyler retaliated with a swift kick to his shins, and as he turned to flee, she leapt up on his back, pretending to punch his ribs.

“Help, help, she’s gone mad.” Josef spun in circles as if trying to get her off his back, all the while holding her safely to him.

“Come on, you goofballs. We can’t be certain someone hasn’t figured out yet that Sky is not where she said she’d be,” Paul cautioned. “All either Francesca or Gabriel has to do is try to touch base with her.”

Josef stopped his wild spinning and bent his knees to ease Skyler to the ground. He glanced around him, suddenly wary.

“I don’t think they’ll find us this fast, bro,” Paul said.

“No. Not Francesca and Gabriel,” Josef said, stepping in front of Skyler and sweeping her behind him with one arm. “But something has.”

“I can help,” Skyler hissed. “I’m very adept at all kinds of defense.” She peeked around Josef. She had met and faced all kinds of monsters and they scared the hell out of her, but she wasn’t about to show fear to either of her friends—not when they were risking their lives in her rather desperate plan to take Dimitri back from his captors.

Paul closed in on the other side. “Pipe down, lunatic, at least let us see what’s coming at us.”

“The coffin’s in the truck, do you want to try to just drive away?” Skyler suggested hopefully.

“I’d rather meet them out in the open,” Paul said. “Josef?”

Josef held up his hand, fingers spread wide. “Five of them. Punks. They saw the customs guy close up shop and they like to come see what might have been left behind. Two of them are pretty high. All of them have been drinking. No vampires.”

Skyler caught Josef’s arm. “Let’s just go then. Five humans with knives and chains and maybe guns can still slow us down. Let’s get out of here.”

“I don’t think they have any intention of letting us take the truck, Sky,” Josef said. “They’ve got their eyes on our ride.”

Skyler sighed. Josef and Paul were spoiling for a fight. They both had pent-up energy as well as suppressed anger toward their prince and the other hunters. If she was being entirely truthful, she did as well. She was angry. Furious. Dimitri deserved so much more loyalty than his people were showing him. All three of them had been kept out of the loop, too young to count, when the very person who was her other half was in danger. It wasn’t right. She was Dimitri’s lifemate and at the very least, she should be kept informed at all times, not dismissed as if she were a child and wouldn’t understand.

She took a deep breath, knowing that the only one of the three of them who looked as if they could handle themselves was Paul. Josef, they would dismiss. He was tall and lanky, but hadn’t developed the outward muscle that might impress a group of toughs like the ones posturing. Josef, of course, was the one that everyone should be afraid of, but he looked like the techie he was.

She listened to the trash talk and gave a little sigh. The world sometimes seemed the same everywhere she went. London, South America, the United States, even her beloved Romania had the same types that would much rather rob than earn.

You’re too soft, Sky, Josef said. They’d kill you for those chic boots you’re wearing.

The worst part of it was Josef was probably right. He could read their thoughts. She could, too, if she chose, which she didn’t. Sometimes she just wanted to pretend that most people were really good, like Gabriel and Francesca, not the monsters she’d known as a child. Living in a world where she knew vampires and monsters existed didn’t help her fantasy.

The smell of the five approaching them reached her first. Two were definitely on drugs. The reek of alcohol was strong, not a good sign. Her experience with alcohol wasn’t the best. Men who were drunk definitely had an enlarged sense of bravado and very impaired judgment. Most likely, these five would think they could do anything.

She watched them come close, noting the two hanging back were clearly drunk. They couldn’t walk a straight line, but one had a gun. She could see him stroking the barrel, and to her, he appeared the most dangerous. She kept her gaze glued to him.

“Well, look what we found?” the self-appointed leader said. He pointed to Skyler and crooked his little finger. “Come here.”

Josef smiled at them, deliberately showing his longer, sharper teeth. “You’d better leave while you have the chance.”

“No one’s talking to you,” the leader snapped. “Get over here,” he added, his hand on his knife.

“She’s not going anywhere,” Josef said, his eyes taking on a red glow. “I’m giving you one last warning, although I am a little hungry. I just woke up, but you all reek of alcohol and I’m opposed to drinking on so many levels.”

“Look at that ride, Gustoff.” The one directly to the right of the leader indicated the truck. “And a cool coffin. I want that.”

“That’s my bedroom,” Josef said. “And I didn’t invite you in.”

Gustoff had had enough of dealing with Josef. He drew his knife and immediately the others followed suit. Skyler wasn’t so much worried about the knives as she was the gun the drunken man pulled. He pointed it straight at Josef. She concentrated on the object. The gun seemed to take on a life of its own. Slowly the smirk faded from the drunk’s face as the gun began to turn on him. No matter how hard he tried to turn his hand back, the gun kept coming around until it was pointed at him.

“Gustoff!” he exclaimed.

Gustoff glanced over his shoulder. “Stop messing around.”

“I’m not,” the drunken man insisted. His hand shook. He tried to open it, but his palm was firmly latched around the gun, his finger locked on the trigger. “It’s going to shoot me. Do something.”

Gustoff scowled. “Petr, help that idiot.”

Petr sprang into action, grabbing at the gun. He couldn’t budge it, nor could he remove the drunk’s hand from it.

Alarmed, Gustoff turned back to Josef, his knife in front of him, blade up.

“Hey, don’t look at me, that’s all her,” Josef said, indicating Skyler. “She’s got a mean streak. Me, I’m the nice one.” As he spoke buttons began popping off of Gustoff’s shirt. The seams of his jeans split.

Paul snickered as the pants fell down around Gustoff’s ankles. “Nice one, Josef.”

“Get them!” Gustoff shouted, furious.

The others rushed them, knives drawn. One swung a heavy metal chain. Skyler stepped back behind Paul and Josef, extending her concentration to the other weapons. This time she changed the temperature so that even as the drunken fools wielded them, the knives and chain began to grow warm and then hot.

Paul slammed his hand down hard on the wrist of the one coming at him, gripping the knife hand and turning it up and to the side as he stepped forward. The man went down hard, an audible crack signaling a broken wrist. Paul kicked the knife away and delivered another kick to the man’s head.

Two rushed Josef. He dissolved just as they reached him, leaving them standing looking at one another. One of the two had been swinging his chain, but now the metal links glowed red in the night, a bizarre streak of fire spinning over his head. The chain was suddenly wrenched away from behind and just as fast looped around the man’s body. He screamed as the burning hot links touched his skin.

The remaining man spun around, trying to find Josef, nearly hysterical with fear. The metal of his knife began to glow as the temperature rose. He opened his hand fast and the knife fell to the ground.

Paul was on him immediately, smashing his fist into the man’s mouth, driving him backward. He followed up his advantage with a front kick to the stomach, using his steel-toed boots.

Josef emerged out of thin air directly in front of Gustoff. The leader stabbed at him, but Josef caught his wrist in a deadly grip and spun him around, so that his arm was locked around Gustoff’s throat. He was enormously strong, his grip unbreakable. He bent his head to Gustoff’s pounding pulse.

“I haven’t eaten in a while,” he whispered. “And I need blood to survive. Too bad you came along and didn’t heed my warning.”

He sank his teeth deep into that drumming beat, allowing Gustoff to feel burning pain. Fear laced his blood with adrenaline, helping to wipe out the bitter, disgusting taste of alcohol. Gustoff screamed and screamed, horrified at the vampire draining him of his life force.

His band of toughs went rigid, just watching in absolute terror.

You’re always so good at theatrics, Skyler said, trying not laugh. You’re putting on quite the show for them.

Josef’s eyes were all red now, glowing like twin embers in the dark. He enhanced Gustoff’s looks, making him grow paler with each passing moment. His body appeared to begin to convulse. Josef dropped him to the ground. Two thin trickles of blood ran from his mouth to his chin.

Skyler rolled her eyes. I can’t keep this gun pointed at him forever.

Josef suddenly turned his head toward the drunk who held the gun. His gaze fell on the man. “You look tasty.”

“I’m not. I’m not.” The drunk shook his head and tried to stagger back.

Josef waved his hand, and the drunk couldn’t move. Josef floated to him, taking his time, making little swimming motions with his hands.

Oh for heaven’s sake. Must you? Skyler demanded.

Paul bent over laughing. When one of the men on the ground moved, he delivered another kick, but even that didn’t deter his amusement over Josef’s antics.

Yes, my little dove. I must. What’s the fun in being Carpathian if you can never actually scare the crap out of someone?

Josef, you have a mean streak in you.

Josef reached the drunk. He held out his hand for the gun. The drunk extended his arm and to his shock, the gun dropped into Josef’s palm.

“Thank you,” Josef said with a little formal bow. He removed the bullets and then crushed the gun in his fist.

Paul slipped into the driver’s seat. “Come on, Skyler, let’s get out of here.”

She took the little jump seat in the back. Josef was tall and would need the legroom to stretch out. Paul started the truck and drove around the five men, leaned his head out the window, and called to Josef.

“Come on, man, let’s go.”

Josef waved him away and turned back to gather up the weapons. One by one he destroyed them. Next he waved his hands toward the men and their clothing disappeared, leaving them naked on the ground.

“It’s a little hard to rob and kill when you’re bare-butt naked, now isn’t it? I’ll be watching you. You don’t want me coming back.” Laughing, he took to the air, streaking after the truck.

He was still laughing when he materialized in the front passenger seat.

Skyler smacked the back of his head. “You took their clothes, didn’t you?” she said for Paul’s benefit. Paul was becoming more adept at telepathic communication, but he couldn’t merge his mind and read thoughts as she could do with Josef, although he was learning very fast.

Paul snickered and held up his hand to give Josef a high five. “Oh, yeah, I’d like to see them slinking home in their birthday suits.”

Both men erupted into laughter.

Skyler rolled her eyes, trying hard not to laugh with them. “You’re impossible, Josef. Those men are going to have to make it through their neighborhood without a stitch on.” She pressed her palm against her mouth, but laughter spilled out anyway.

Paul’s eyes met hers in the rearview mirror and Josef turned in his seat, his eyes sparkling with amusement. All three of them burst out laughing.

Skyler had forgotten what it was like being with them. At college, she’d made a few friends, but she was guarded with them at all times—she had to be. At home, Gabriel and Francesca were loving and wonderful parents. Her baby sister, Tamara, was the most adorable child in the world and she couldn’t imagine life without her, but she couldn’t be honest with them about her relationship with Dimitri.

She wasn’t Carpathian and she couldn’t wait until she was fifty years of age to be with her lifemate. She was human. Without Dimitri, she might not have gotten through many of the long nights where she woke with sweat covering her body and the memories of men pawing at her, hurting her, beating and using her. She’d been a child, but that hadn’t mattered to them.

She’d learned to keep her screams silent, internal, and when she had nightmares, she did the same thing. Dimitri always heard her. Always. He came to her in the dark of the night, at her worst moments, surrounding her with unconditional love. He never asked her for anything. He never demanded his rights or threw it in her face that he suffered because she wasn’t able to fully be his lifemate.

And he did suffer. As the years had gone by, Skyler was more adept at accessing his mind and memories. She saw clearly the terrible darkness crouched like a monster, whispering in temptation, trying to destroy him.

Dimitri. Beloved. I’m so afraid for you. I’m holding you close to me, pretending that I’m certain you’re alive, lying to my closest, dearest friends, but in reality I can barely breathe. The terror of being without you feels so close—so real.

She waited there in the darkness, grateful for the backseat in the truck, grateful that Paul and Josef fought over the music and thought her asleep. She kept her eyes closed and her breathing even, but her heart pounded too hard, raced too fast and surely, at least, Josef could detect that. If so, he was polite enough not to call her on her pretense.

The silence stretched. There was no answer. Dimitri, even in his worst moments, once even during a battle with a vampire, had always sent her reassurance if she reached for him, however brief it might be. The silence was cold and lonely and absolutely terrifying to her. She’d lived too long in a nightmare with no way to escape until Francesca had found her. But still, her nights had always been spent trapped in those earlier years, repeating and repeating until she thought she might go insane.

Francesca had done everything she could think of to help alleviate the nightmares, including giving Skyler Carpathian blood. She took turns with Gabriel sitting by Skyler’s bed when the nightmares were so bad Skyler could only scream, recognizing no one. They’d called in healers. Nothing worked—until Dimitri. There was only Dimitri to stand between her and her past. Now that shield was gone and as hard as she tried, she could not reach him.

Terror gripped her. Sorrow. Despair. There was no way to go on if Dimitri wasn’t in the world. Her knight. Her other half. She took a breath and reached again, pouring everything she felt, everything she was into her urgent plea.

My love. If you think to protect me from something terrible, it cannot be worse than thinking you’re dead. I need you. Your touch. Even if it’s just for one moment. I can’t breathe without you. I need to know you live and there is hope for us.

The burst of pain was sheer agony. Her body went rigid. Convulsed. The air was driven from her lungs in one long scream that abruptly ended when her air supply did. She couldn’t think, the pain turning every nerve ending to fire. Her fingernails tore at her skin, trying to ease the burn.

She was barely aware of the truck stopping, of Josef lifting her out of the backseat to lay her in the grass. Paul held her hands down to prevent her from tearing her skin open.

“Breathe,” Paul demanded. “Right now, Skyler. Take a breath.”

She had asked for this, and if it was this bad for her, so far from him, what must it be like for Dimitri? She forced air into her lungs. There was no way to push away the pain. Her connection to Dimitri ran too deep.

She looked to Josef. He was Carpathian and he was strong when he wanted to be. She knew what she was asking, pleading with her eyes for aid.

“Paul,” Josef said softly, “she’s found Dimitri and it’s bad. I have to help her. That leaves you to guard us, get us back in the truck when it’s over and give me blood.”

Paul nodded. “I’ve got this, just help her.”

Josef didn’t waste time. “I’m all yours, Skyler, take my strength and energy freely. Wherever he is, help him.”

Skyler didn’t dare take a break and then try to overcome that mind-numbing pain again. It took nearly everything she had to stay conscious while she followed the thread back to Dimitri. If Josef hadn’t been with her, it would have been impossible. He was a great distance away. The Lycans who had taken Dimitri had managed to move him very quickly out of the country. They left no trail behind; Josef had managed to get that information for her.

She knew that the agony she was feeling was nothing in comparison to what Dimitri was going through. He would shield her, trying to block as much pain as he could when he reached for her to let her know he was alive. She felt him retreating from her, breaking the merge to stop her from feeling pain.

Skyler used every ounce of strength and discipline she possessed. She had been forged in the fires of hell as an infant. Honed in those same fires as a young girl. She was Dragonseeker. A daughter of Mother Earth. In her own right she was a powerful psychic. She refused to lose the thread leading to her lifemate. He wasn’t going to last long, not with that kind of torture—and they were torturing him. Skyler set her mind on one thing only—staying with Dimitri, following that faint trail back to him.

The path was broken, fading away, very faint, but she could follow it, those psychic footprints she was so familiar with. Pain ripped through her until every nerve ending was inflamed and burning. She had to turn her head to vomit, the pain excruciating.

She tugged at her hands, silently telling Josef she was under control and to let go. The moment he did, she pushed her fingers into the soil. That act alone gave her more strength. More determined than ever, Skyler reached again for the fading trail leading back to Dimitri.

She saw the way in colors as she always did, long silver streaks like a comet, only this time those streaks were edged bloodred. Dimitri had once told her he knew of no one else who could see a psychic trail in the same way she did. Bitter cold slipped into her mind. Her body continually shook. She drew on Josef, all that wonderful strong psychic energy he possessed and so freely and generously gave to her.

Csitri. Little one. You cannot be here.

She nearly sobbed. Tears collected in her throat until the lump threatened to choke her. His beloved voice was ravaged and raw.

There is no other place for me. There is only you. Be still and let me examine you. She found it more of an effort to speak to him; the pain, so close to him, was overwhelming.

I don’t want this for you.

She knew that already. He would protect her from any hurt if he could. The biggest threat to her would be to lose him—and that was not going to happen. She took a deep breath, her fists curled tightly in the soil as an anchor, and she sent her spirit into his ravaged body.

Dimitri was being attacked from so many directions it was difficult to find a starting point. Long thin streaks of silver inched through his body like deadly worms, tracer bullets, she thought at first. Had he been shot numerous times with silver bullets? She followed the path of one of those lines back to the source.

Her heart stuttered in her chest. For the first time she faltered. Hooks. He had hooks of silver in his body, great terrible claws shooting out their deadly poison into his system. The silver inched its way through his veins and muscle, spread along his bones, threading its way to every organ, always seeking his heart. The slow spread of silver throughout his body was deadly to the Lycan in his blood.

She chose the line closest to his heart. The silver seemed to be liquid, tiny beads of it stretching through his body. Very small, the threads appearing as veins. She experimented with bringing her spirit close to the end of it. The silver trail flinched back. She didn’t dare melt it because it could run through his body even faster. There were so many hooks. The problem seemed impossible.

She pushed aside anxiety and near panic as the emotions rose so sharp and ugly. She was thinking as a Carpathian, but what of that other side of her? Razvan was her father, and he had mage blood. His father was the most powerful mage ever known. Surely she had mage blood as well. That was the very reason her grandfather had rejected her and sold her to another man. He believed she didn’t have the Carpathian blood he needed to be immortal. It was possible she could use that other side, often ignored because she didn’t want to remember it was part of her heritage.

Tiny silver threads, so deadly and bright,

I call upon the earth to steal your might,

As you were created, I shall undo.

I call on your makers and take on your hue.

Skyler moved forward, closer to the silver threads, concentrating on the end as she stretched her spirit, extending her white light to touch the fine end.

That which was created shall now become mine,

Chlorine, sulfur, antimony and arsenic I bind.

Chlorine that holds the color of green and gold,

I take on your energy and now so do I hold.

She called on the things of the earth. She was a daughter of the earth, bound to its properties. Mother Earth had always come to her aid when she had need. She felt that connection now and drew on it.

Sulfur, oh brimstone with life-giving gifts,

I breathe in your essence and take of your gifts,

Antimony, sweet metal, I take on your shine,

And weave now a barrier that none may unbind,

She was the granddaughter of the most powerful mage the world had ever known, and his blood, whether she liked it or not, ran in her veins. Right now, in this moment of terrible crisis, she used whatever gifts had been given to her gratefully.

Arsenic sweet arsenic so lethal and gray,

I call on your power to shift poison away.

Silver I touch, silver I wind,

Silver I release back to your source.

To her utter astonishment the silver vein began to actually move backward.

It’s seeping out my pores. Dimitri gave a gasp, desperate to suppress the pain, to block it so Skyler couldn’t feel the burn as the silver seemed to eat through his entire body, flame through his very skin, to drop away onto the ground below him.

She followed that thin line of silver back to the source. The hooks the Lycans had placed in his body were actually tubes of silver beads. The tiny beads at the tip of the hook where it was inserted into the body eventually heated from body temperature, turning the bead to a liquid form. The bead dropped into the body and began to stretch out, reaching for the heart. It took thousands of those beads to form the network of deadly veins. It was an ugly way for anyone to die.

Skyler focused on the hook, searching her mind for a way to stop the flow of venomous silver into Dimitri’s body.

Hooks of silver, curved and sharp,

Inserted in flesh to poison the heart,

Iced brimstone and fire I call you now forth.

Come out and heat this evil source.

Skyler focused completely on the tips of the hooks, determined to close the hollowed, opened end so that there was no way for that terrible silver to continue poisoning Dimitri’s body.

Take what is open and seal it now closed,

So no more that is poison can seek what is exposed.

Take what is liquid and give it a form,

Sealing away all, so it no more can harm.

Skyler knew she couldn’t hold the bridge between them for long. There was no way to remove all the silver spreading through his body in the time she had before she collapsed. She had chosen the longest lines, the ones most threatening, and meticulously pushed them back to their source and then through Dimitri’s pores. One by one she removed those thin, deadly threads as fast as she could.

Skyler. Come back. You have to come back now! Dimitri, send her back to us now! She’s lost. She’s too far away and stretched too thin.

She heard the call as if from a great distance. Josef, she recognized, and his voice was filled with fear.

Sívamet.

Dimitri’s tone was tender, gentle. Filled with love. Surrounding her with warmth when she was so cold. Icy cold.

You must go back. Now, csitri, I cannot lose you. When you are strong enough, come back and finish what you’ve started.

She had removed a lot of the silver, at least half, but that didn’t lessen the agony he was in. The thought of abandoning him when he needed her was absolutely abhorrent. She told herself one more thread—just get one more out of him.

She felt Dimitri’s spirit brush up against hers and then he thrust her away. The momentum pushed her from his body, back onto that ice-cold psychic path. The path itself was so broken and torn she felt very confused. She looked around her somewhat helplessly, not understanding what was happening to her.

I swear if you don’t come back, Sky, I’m going to throttle you.

Josef sounded desperate. She felt lost and alone there in that cold stream. She reached for his familiar voice, using it as a guide.

She found herself back in her own body, so cold she couldn’t stop shaking. Josef bent over her, hissing his anger, pressing his wrist to her mouth, glaring at her. His skin was paler than ever, almost stark white. If she could have lifted her hand to his face she would have been able to trace each line of fear stamped into it. She tried to turn her head away from his wrist, but he clamped it over her mouth and stroked her throat, forcing her to swallow.

Paul brushed back her hair with gentle fingers. Her hair was damp, as if she’d just stepped out of the shower. She couldn’t stop shaking, although Paul’s coat lay over her. The Carpathian blood Josef pushed into her system was hot inside her, beginning to thaw out her body after that terrible cold. Josef closed the laceration on his wrist and flopped down beside her there in the grass. He slipped his arms around her, trying to heat her with his body.

Paul lay down beside her as well, using his body to help warm her. “Look at me, Skyler,” Paul instructed. There was fear in his voice as well. “Are you back with us?”

“He’s somewhere in Russia,” she managed. Her voice was hoarse and sounded far away. “In the forest. It’s worse than I ever imagined.”