She’s excited. She really does need this. When you’ve never been in the open before, or around others, it’s easy to stay away and hold yourself tight, not move for fear of falling, so to speak.
Tatijana spotted a small opening in between two massive boulders. Brush grew right up to the side of the mountain and those jutting boulders, but right between them was an opening, a dirt floor no more than two feet by two feet. If there was an actual cave there, it would make a perfect den for wolves. The werewolves might be attracted to such a place.
She sent the image to Fen.
Is there a cave here? What other signs should I look for?
There’s definitely a cave there,
Fen said.
I’d marked it earlier as suspicious, but when I checked it out, there was no one there. That doesn’t mean the pack hadn’t targeted it as a possible place to hide if they needed to lay low for a few days. If they’re there, even a small number of them, look around in the surrounding brush, they’ll have at least two lookouts outside. They’ll be concealed well. Think wolves. The werewolves think like their animal counterparts in terms of protecting their pack.
Tatijana didn’t want to drop lower, especially if the rogue pack had lookouts that might spot her. She moved from cloud to cloud, appearing to be drifting with a slight wind. Her dragon’s eyesight was very keen. She could see miles away if she chose to use the superior vision.
At once the look of the world changed around her. It was a little disorienting to concentrate on such visual acuity, but her dragon was quick to pick up movement. Below them and just to the south, she spotted the leaves of a bush waving against the wind. Once her dragon had found a potential target, she stayed high in the air, drifting, her dragon only occasionally having to circle back.
The third circle confirmed there was a creature, half wolf, half man lurking in the brush.
I see one of the guards. He’s in the form of half man and half wolf.
That’s what we’re looking for,
Fen said.
Send me the coordinates and just keep an eye on them until we arrive. If any come out of their hiding spot, count so we get some idea, but do not, under any circumstances engage with them.
“We’ve got one of the units,” Fen said. “Let’s go.”
Eight Carpathian males had agreed to transport the elite hunters to cut down on time as well as the chance of the
Sange rau
spotting them.
They took the form of giant birds and, although the hunters looked at one another as if they might balk, the moment Fen and Zev stepped forward and swung onto their bird’s backs, the others followed suit. They were hunters and there was a rogue pack to destroy. That job came before anything else, even fear of the unknown.
The Carpathians took them in soundlessly, dropping out of the sky a distance from the cave to allow the elite hunters to get their feet on the ground again. Jacques, Vikirnoff and Nicolae went with Lykaon, Arnou and Fen, spreading out a couple of feet apart to the left. Falcon, Dimitri and Tomas went with Zev, Daciana, Convel and Gunnolf to the right, again spreading out so that they made less noise as they stalked the rogue pack.
Dimitri, the lookout on that side is just a little over nine meters from you, to your left. He hasn’t spotted you yet,
Tatijana warned.
Take care that you don’t do anything to tip Zev off that you’re anything but a Carpathian,
Fen warned hastily, cursing himself for not maneuvering Dimitri to stay in his group.
Dimitri didn’t answer him. Instead, he held up a clenched fist. Immediately all members of his hunting party dropped low and stayed completely silent. Dimitri went to his belly and shifted to a small squirrel, covering several meters before determining he might give off too much energy the werewolf would pick up.
He halted, assessing the situation. He wanted a silent kill so the lookout couldn’t warn his fellow guard or those hiding inside the cave.
You no longer give off energy,
Fen reminded.
You haven’t for a long time. After these last two nearly mortal wounds and all the blood given to you, you’re more mixed than Carpathian. He won’t feel you coming.
Dimitri took his brother at his word. The little squirrel easily made his way through the brush until he nearly ran into the werewolf’s foot. Just as the wolf looked down with greedy eyes, Dimitri shifted, driving the silver stake straight through the heart of the rogue. Simultaneously, he silenced any cry the man could give, by simply cutting off his windpipe. He eased the body to the ground.
It’s done. Can you get to the other one, Fen?
I see him. Going after him now.
Above their heads, Tatijana stayed in the clouds. She watched Fen creep forward, easing his body through the brush. She knew there wouldn’t be a whisper of movement and he knew exactly what he was doing, but still, she wanted to plunge down and wipe out the threat to her lifemate. Her bond with Fen seemed to be growing with every passing hour. She didn’t think it could get any stronger, but her love for him just seemed to deepen.
Fen palmed the silver stake. Insects sang all around him, undisturbed by his presence. He took a breath and let it out as he eased closer. He smelled the rancid odor of the werewolf. The rogue hadn’t washed and old decayed meat and blood clung to his fur.
Don’t move. Don’t move.
Tatijana’s warning froze him.
Dimitri, another coming your way as well. I think the guards are being changed.
Fen allowed his gaze to encompass the pack spread out behind him. Lykaon’s fist was clenched, a sign for them all to freeze. Apparently that had been meant for him as well. He preferred the Carpathian form of communication between hunters. Telepathy made things so much simpler.
Fen, he’s going to walk right over the top of you. Do you want me to help?
I’ve got this, sívamet. No worries. Just sit tight. Dimitri? Can you take the second guard out?
Yes. They’ll come looking when the first two don’t come back,
Dimitri pointed out.
That will be to our advantage.
Fen glanced around to see if any member of the pack could see him. He would have to use the speed of the
Hän ku pesäk kaikak
—Guardians of all—if he was going to kill both guards and keep them silent as they died.
Zev was the only one within eyesight of him to see his blurring speed.
Tatijana, have Bronnie distract Zev just for a moment. I need enough time to take both guards out simultaneously.
She’d better be quick. I’m running out of time.
He could hear the other werewolf breathing in short, ragged pants. He’d been injured recently and hadn’t completely healed. Fen could smell the wound. He kept his eye on Zev even as he planned the moves out in his mind.
He could reach out and touch the first guard. The second was two steps away, cursing as he got hung up on a thorny branch. The moment Zev looked away, Fen rose up fast, slamming the silver stake through the rancid werewolf’s heart with his right hand, silencing him as he did so. He turned, using his left hand to take out the second guard. The rogue never actually saw him, he was too busy trying to get brambles out of his fur when the stake went through his heart.
He felt Tatijana’s relief. She poured into his mind just for a moment, letting him feel her love before she quickly turned back to her job. Fen eased across the distance separating them until he was beside Zev.
“The others will have to use their swords to cut off their heads. I’m not hacking them off with my knife.”
Zev grinned at him. “What a wuss. All this time I thought you were so tough you carried a spare knife in your teeth just for hacking off heads.” He signaled the pack forward again.
“I trust you have a plan for entering that cave,” Fen said.
“Not exactly. I thought we’d let them come to us.”
Fen raised his eyebrow.
“That blue dragon up there came up with an idea and sent it to me through Branislava. She thought it might be fun to fill the cave with insects. The biting kind. If you’ve got your eye on her, Fen, you might reconsider. She’s intelligent and has sass. You’re old enough to know to stay away from that kind of woman.”
“Not a bad plan,” Fen agreed. His lady did have sass.
You could have shared your plan with me.
I had to give Bronnie something real to distract him. He’s too smart for anything else. In any case, I didn’t want you charging in there. You and Dimitri seem to get into trouble every time I turn around. I’m in your mind, wolf man. You planned on leading the charge, didn’t you?
He shared his amusement with her.
I’m faster.
You’ve been fighting other people’s battles for too long, Fen, and you can’t stop. You use your body as a shield for the others, and Dimitri is just like you.
That much was true. Dimitri was more like him than he wanted his brother to be. Dimitri was fearless in a fight. Fen would rather have him than any other at his back.
Zev signaled his pack to move forward into place. He nodded to Fen.
We’re ready down here. Do you want to do the honors, my lady? Or should I?
he teased, already knowing her answer.
I lived in a cave my entire life, wolf man. I know insects. And what I don’t know I can imagine,
Tatijana added with a little laugh.
The wind drifted over them, a soft, gentle touch that sent a ripple through the leaves around them. Above them, the clouds changed shapes as they lazily floated across the dark sky. A slapping sound suddenly disrupted the silence of the night. Inside the cave, a muffled yell, quickly silenced, was heard.
Suddenly at the entrance, men in various stages of shifting began pouring out of the cave, nearly falling over one another, slapping at their clothes and fur. Two stumbled and fell, creating chaos for those still inside. The two downed werewolves were trampled as those inside, desperate to vacate, simply ran over them. Swarms of red ants covered their bodies so that they looked as if their clothes and skin were alive and moving.
That woman is a terror,
Zev observed, hardly able to contain his laughter.
We may as well go home and let her handle this.
Fen couldn’t help but find the situation amusing. His lady did have a scary imagination, sending revved-up fire ants swarming over the werewolves.
Make certain none of us get bit,
he warned her.
Don’t be such a baby.
She gave a little sniff of disdain, but he felt her laughter. She did have a nasty little sense of humor.
I believe in retaliation,
he warned, although his threat was an empty one and they both knew it.
Tatijana laughed softly and he felt her fingers brush down the side of his face.
I brought them out of there, now it’s your turn. And check on your brother, after. Something’s not right.
What does that mean?
If I knew I wouldn’t have said to check on him.
Again there was that soft laughter.
Fen shook his head, but he did locate his brother. Dimitri appeared to be like the rest of them, waiting for Zev’s signal to move in on the werewolves. He touched Dimitri’s mind, just to assure himself. Dimitri blocked a merge with him, shocking him, but he turned his head toward Fen and gave him a thumbs-up.
Fen sighed. He couldn’t worry about Dimitri in the middle of a battle with rogues. Fen counted fourteen werewolves exiting the cave. If the
Sange rau
were breaking the larger pack into smaller units, their numbers were definitely depleted. The units before had been much bigger, twenty-five or thirty.
Zev signaled the hunters forward. They had formed a loose semicircle around the entrance and they went at the werewolves, springing out of the brush to attack. Fen moved fast, using the silver stakes as quickly as possible, wanting to get it over with. It felt like a massacre, the screams and blood and smell of death.
He’d had several lifetimes of hunting and destroying those preying on others. He knew it was the only thing they could do, but it still was difficult at times. The rogues were caught unawares and only a handful managed to fight back. The elite hunters used silver swords to remove the heads before the bodies were gathered and burned. The scent of burning fur and flesh made him feel sick.
Tatijana, did you find any trace of Abel or Bardolf?
he asked to distract himself.
Well . . .
she hesitated, clearly unsure.
When I was flying around the mountain of mist, I felt a sudden shiver, an awareness of danger. It was there for just a moment, but it occurred to me that one of them, or both, could be holed up there. The mountain is above the one where the prince resides and it is possible someone could spy on him from up there. But, Fen, honestly, I don’t know, it was just a weird, scary feeling.
“Zev, Tatijana is going to land and pick me up. She may have found the lair of the
Sange rau.
I’d like to take Dimitri and check it out,” Fen said.
Zev looked up at that sky. He could see the blue dragon circling above them. “I’ll never get used to that sight. It’s amazing. Dragons.” For a moment he searched the sky, and Fen was fairly certain he was looking for the fiery red dragon. Zev sighed. “I can’t stop you, Fen, but you and I both know, even two of you have little chance of killing one of them. If they’re together . . .”
“I doubt they’ll be together. Vampires don’t trust one another that much. It just doesn’t seem to me like they’d share resting quarters.”
“You’ve got the best instincts I’ve ever seen for hunting them,” Zev said, “and you certainly know more than I do about fighting one. You’ve clearly had more experience, just don’t get yourself killed.”
Fen nodded. “Good luck hunting the other packs. I’ll join you if nothing comes of this.”
Dimitri, let’s go hunting. I’ve had enough of these rogues and their masters invading our homeland.