Gregori, the prince’s primary guardian, would be the first to grasp the enormity of what they were up against. His natural instincts already made him suspicious and wary of Fen. Fen didn’t blame him any more than he could blame Zev, who was the Gregori of the Lycans. He was directly responsible for the welfare of the council and it was his duty to keep the Lycan people safe no matter what part of the world they resided in.
Rough is the only way with werewolves. You can’t ever underestimate them,
Fen answered Gregori.
This pack is well organized. Too well organized.
That is so, but the master is not here. I would know. The
Sange rau
has left this battle to those he commands.
Fen knew Gregori would catch the worry in his voice.
The fighting near the corrals was fierce. Gregori was wounded, and yet he displayed no emotion when he answered. He could have been having a picnic in a park instead of fighting for his life.
You believed this master would be close.
I had hoped.
Fen thought Abel might throw Bardolf under the bus in order to weaken the Carpathian fighters. It would be a sound strategy, especially given the endless supply of rogues he’d acquired along the way to do his bidding.
I need to find the one who has their master’s ear. There is a way I can perhaps get information on either Abel or Bardolf, maybe both. At least find out what they are up to. It’s risky, but if I get what we need, well worth it.
He felt Gregori’s instant rejection of the idea. Tatijana echoed him with her distress.
How risky? We will need you to continue to educate our fighters . . . obviously.
From where Fen was, he caught occasional glimpses of Gregori. The werewolves had definitely targeted him for termination. Fen’s vision narrowed as he watched for a moment, the way the wolves circled Gregori. The prince’s guardian had been made known to them. He’d been involved in the fight earlier, but why such sacrifices? The bodies of werewolves lay sliced and staked around the prince’s guard, and yet still they came after him.
The nagging fear in Fen began to blossom into urgency. Something else was going on here, and he was missing it.
I think it’s worth the risk. I need to know that you and the others can finish this.
We’ve got this,
Gregori assured, even as he fought off two more wolves driving straight at his throat and belly. He knew how they fought now, gutting their prey and tearing great chunks of flesh away to make their victims weak from blood loss.
Zev and his hunters will come quickly,
Fen advised.
It’s important that all Carpathian hunters know the difference between Lycan and werewolf.
Gregori ducked a leaping rogue, so that the creature sailed over his head and right onto Andre’s flashing blade.
All of us know exactly what the Lycans look like. We have their scent as well. Each of us visited the inn where they were staying. There will be no mistakes,
he said with certainty.
The elite may sense my presence, but they cannot identify me. I doubt they are that sensitive in the midst of blood and death, but Zev is more than elite, he is their best. It is possible.
Fen had already located his entry point. He needed to use the ground so whoever was directing the battle from his safety zone wouldn’t see him coming.
Gregori grunted in pain, quickly cut off, as a great beast landed on him, driving him to the ground. The moment he was down a frenzy was triggered among the rogues. They threw themselves at him, piling on in spite of the other Carpathians racing to Gregori’s aid. The Carpathian hunters realized Gregori was the prime target and they redoubled their efforts to fight their way to him. It was Jacques who cut the head from the wolf tearing the flesh from his back and Nicolae who sliced through the one burrowing beneath him to rip at his belly.
The moment Fen saw the others going to Gregori’s aid he whirled around and indicated the ground in the middle of the field where the werewolves had tried to surprise the farm.
I need a tunnel to follow back to the original source without him seeing. I’ll cast an illusion while you burrow quickly for me.
Tatijana waited until Fen sent images of her and her lifemate rushing to aid Gregori, entering the intense fighting near the corrals. The moment the illusion was strong and intact, she shifted to her dragon, trusting Fen to keep her from being seen. Tatijana’s dragon followed the trail beneath the soil, burrowing through the earth fast, leaving behind a nice-sized tunnel for Fen to follow in.
Fen left the Carpathian warriors to it. He had one purpose—to track the attack back to its source. He had to find the captain directing the battle, and that meant trusting that the Carpathian warriors would defeat the werewolves at the farm.
Tatijana had paid great attention to detail and the weapons the Carpathians had made were truly exceptional. The Carpathians had shared the information he’d given them on the rogue wolves attacking in packs and they were prepared for the fight. They’d lured the pack to Costin Eliade’s farm and coordinated the defense. They’d done everything they could do to decimate the pack and give Fen the chance to find the lair of at least one of the
Sange rau
.
He knew without a doubt that with two
Sange rau
so close to the prince, it was only a matter of time before disaster struck. Fen plunged into the hollow tunnel Tatijana’s dragon had carved out and moving with his Carpathian/Lycan speed began the race to ferret out the hiding place of the pack’s captain.
Tatijana, nothing is adding up. The
Sange rau
should have led their pack away from Carpathian territory immediately on realizing they were so close.
She was quick on the uptake, following his train of thought.
You believe they have an agenda.
Absolutely. I’ve gone over it a million times. There are only three reasons I can think of that would keep them here. The best would be if either Abel or Bardolf or both were badly wounded and couldn’t leave. But that wouldn’t explain sacrificing a good part of their pack.
The dragon burrowed back toward the surface once she hit the beginnings of the marsh.
So something much more sinister.
The drive for a lifemate doesn’t always end when a Carpathian turns vampire. I’ve seen cases where they believe a woman would somehow restore their soul and yet they can keep to their ways. Abel may have returned with that idea in mind.
Tatijana already knew him far too well.
But . . .
That might be a secondary issue, but more likely Mikhail is the intended target. Did you see the wolves going for Gregori? The prince and a Daratrazanoff have a special bond that creates an unstoppable power. Gregori was specifically targeted.
No matter the reason, the
Sange rau
had to be dealt with. None of them could afford any more time passing before ferreting the masters out and destroying them.
You’ll get them,
Tatijana said firmly, every confidence in her voice.
Fen wished he had that same confidence. The nagging worry had grown to a full-blown alarm going off. He
had
to find the captain directing the werewolf pack’s attack on the farm.
The tunnel beneath the ground ended abruptly in the marsh. Reeds choked the water. Waterfowl ducked heads beneath the surface and rose to flutter wings peacefully, as if no abomination had passed near them. There was no telltale shriveled greenery to mark the way of a vampire, but then he hadn’t expected any. He had known all along neither Abel nor Bardolf would be close.
That nagging, growing alarm blared at him. He reached for the prince’s guard.
Gregori, I need to know where the prince is.
He got the immediate impression of fierce battle. The Carpathian hunters, despite as many as there were and with the traps set for the rogue pack, had not found it so easy to destroy a ferocious and well-trained pack on the offensive.
He is safe.
The voice was clipped. Gregori would not disclose the location of the prince to anyone. Fen could tell by that implacable tone. Gregori was severely wounded. He would need care and blood and the ground to heal him. If the pack couldn’t kill Gregori, wouldn’t this be the next best thing? Wounding him so badly that he had no choice but to go to ground? The alarm, rather than quieting with Gregori’s assurance blared even louder.
The children?
he persisted.
They are safe.
Gregori was terser than ever.
Fen cursed in his native language.
Tatijana, with the main force of Carpathian warriors concentrated here on the farm, the prince, and the all-important children are left with little protection.
Gregori would never leave them without protections,
Tatijana said.
He’s overboard when it comes to the prince’s protection. He doesn’t even listen to Mikhail at times. He would never leave the prince unguarded with a rogue pack near. And don’t discount the women. Your
Sange rau
and the Lycans might, but many of them are good fighters.
Fen didn’t reply. He wasn’t about to tell her he didn’t find the information reassuring. He emerged out into the open, although he took care to mask his presence. He stood on the edge of the swamp, taking a careful look around, seeking the best vantage point above them, where the captain directing the battle would be able to see the entire farm.
Tatijana shifted into her human form and slid beneath his shoulder, standing close so that her scent enveloped him. It always amazed him that the huge blue dragon could be his lifemate, this woman with her shapely figure in human form.
“Can you find the location of the prince?”
She shook her head. “No one, not even Dragonseeker, can get into Gregori’s mind.”
“Then we’ll have to do this the hard way.”
The way he said it alerted Tatijana instantly. “What are you planning?”
He sighed. She wasn’t going to like it. He didn’t like it, but he felt there was no other choice. “The pack was sent out, but neither of the two main leaders came here with them, not even to ensure the orders were carried out effectively. That tells me Bardolf and Abel have plans far beyond the destruction of Costin Eliade’s farm. And we need to know now what that is.”
Tatijana tipped her head up to look at him. She was already in his mind, but she didn’t understand what it was he planned to do. “I don’t like where this is going,” she admitted, looking him straight in the eye.
He slipped his arm around her. He didn’t like where it was going either. “I think Abel or Bardolf plans to hit the prince while the pack distracts the Carpathians and Lycans by hitting the farm.”
There was a small silence while she turned the idea over in her mind. “That would mean they would know about the trap at the farm and deliberately sacrificed some of their pack as a distraction.”
“Or they didn’t know it was a trap but sent them to devastate the farm no matter what, believing warriors would come to defend it. Certainly the elite Lycan hunters will come,” Fen said, but he didn’t believe that was the case.
Abel was Carpathian. He knew how Carpathians thought and how they fought vampires and other enemies. Abel also knew Lycans, or at least rogues. He’d always been known for his intelligence. He’d orchestrated the attack. Fen would bet everything he was on that.
Across the marsh, a boulder jutted out from the mountain. He was certain he would find the wolf put in charge of running the attack on the farm. He indicated the spot to Tatijana. “Over there, that’s where we’re going to find him. I’ll need you to stay close to me, but out of his sight at all times, even when you think he’s dead.”
Tatijana frowned at him, placing a cautionary hand on his arm. “Are you going to tell me what you’re going to do?”
“There has to be something more at play here then a rogue pack overrunning a farm in retaliation for my interference. Bardolf might make the mistake of underestimating the Carpathians, he was Lycan before he embraced the vampire, but Abel was not only Carpathian, but a successful and a valued vampire hunter. He would know what he was running into by coming here.”
“That would mean he’s deliberately sacrificing the rogue pack.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense, Fen. I just think you’re wrong.”
Her tone of voice told him she wasn’t certain of the truth of what she was saying aloud. She wanted him to be wrong, but none of it made sense to her. She was also very aware he had sidestepped her earlier question.
“We don’t know how big this pack is. I think we’re dealing with an enormous pack and if so, he’s got pawns to spare. He sent out twenty-five or thirty to the farm, figuring he might lose over half. What are the others doing? Where has he sent them? These wolves were a sacrifice for a greater end. There is no other explanation.”
“You have to tell me what you’re going to do.” For the first time, fear crept into Tatijana’s voice. She tightened her fingers around his arm. “Fen, don’t throw your life away.”
“Gregori isn’t going to reveal where the prince is to anyone else, certainly not to me, and I don’t have time to try to persuade him. He doesn’t yet understand the difference between a vampire and the
Sange rau
. The combination of mixed blood adds to the cunning and intelligence as well as physical capabilities.”
Now she was really alarmed. Her green eyes grew multifaceted, brilliant with color. He had no words to reassure her. Instead he bent down and brushed a kiss along the corner of her mouth.
“Bardolf believes he’s in a full partnership with Abel, but there is no such thing among vampires, and ultimately, Abel and Bardolf are both vampires. Abel will sacrifice Bardolf in a heartbeat.”
“You’re telling me these things in case you don’t survive. I’m your lifemate, Fen. My fate is tied to your fate. I will follow wherever you lead.”
He shook his head. “The prince must not die. Above all else, Tatijana, every Carpathian must put the life of Mikhail Dubrinsky first. Our kind will not survive his passing. Not at this time. If something happens to me, you must convince Gregori it is Mikhail they will try to kill. Everything else they do is secondary, no matter how it looks.”