Staring into the vampire’s eyes, Traian ripped the shriveled, blackened organ out and tossed it aside. “You lose, Valenteen. You are dead.”
“Not yet,” Valenteen’s teeth snapped around Traian’s neck.
T
raian felt stabbing pain as teeth sank into his neck and the fist continued burrowing through his chest toward his heart. No master vampire would go down so easily. Already the rotten heart rocked to the summons of its growling, snarling master and began to slither across the floor to its host. Traian staggered under the weight of the heavy body trying to bring him to the ground. Insects abandoned the room to rush to the aid of their master. Bats darkened the hallway, rushing from the bedroom abandoning the two men they were trying to drain of blood, to serve Valenteen.
Gary and Jubal both stumbled to their feet, half blind with blood dripping from hundreds of bites, bodies swelling from insect bites, both trying to make their way to aid Traian. Gabrielle burst from the bathroom, sweeping up the shotgun as she ran, turning it as she would a baseball bat and as Valenteen lifted his head to spit blood in Traian’s face, she slammed the butt of the shotgun full force into the vampire’s face, driving him back and away from Traian.
“Get off of him!” She followed the vampire, hitting him a second time just as hard, with just as much adrenaline as the first strike. She stepped in Joie’s blood and slipped. Instantly she dropped to her knees beside her sister, hands clamping around her torn neck in an effort to slow down the bleeding. “Jubal! Help me.”
The hand groping for Traian’s heart fell free as Valenteen fell backward. Traian went to his knees as the bats went into a frenzy, eager for the hunter’s blood. Jubal tore handfuls of bats from Traian. Gary did the same. At Gabrielle’s cry, Jubal turned to see his youngest sister lying in an alarmingly large pool of blood.
Traian, still kneeling, covered in insects and biting bats, a hole torn in his chest, ignored all of it, blocking out pain and weakness from blood loss. He lifted his hands toward the hole in the ceiling of the bedroom. In answer, the clouds roiled with energy, silver streaks edging each of the spinning, dark fountains. Lightning forked in the sky, spun until it was a bright white sphere, hurtling down from the heavens like a streaking comet.
Valenteen shrieked and threw himself toward his heart, grasping at it with his outstretched hand. Gary slammed his booted foot down on his wrist to prevent him from reaching it as the spinning white-hot ball of lightning struck the heart, incinerating it. Valenteen grasped Gary’s ankle in his talons, driving them deep, digging through flesh to try to get to bone in an effort to force him to move.
“Get away from him,” Traian ordered, his voice hoarse. “If I destroy his body, his servants will leave as well, but you have to get back.”
Gary jerked a long-bladed knife from inside his loose jacket, took a breath and slammed the blade as hard as he could across the wrist of the vampire, the edge going through skin and bone. The hand fell away from the arm and he leapt back. Valenteen shrieked and the bats and insects renewed their frenzied biting, swarming over Traian, trying to drive him to the ground.
With a tremendous effort, Traian reached for the lightning once more, commanding a single bolt through the hole in the above bedroom floor to strike the body of the master vampire. Valenteen’s body began to incinerate, exploding outward with wiggling white parasites, spewing ash and cinder. His mouth gaped wide, teeth bared, fiery eyes promising retaliation and then that too was gone. Only the hand remained, the talons digging long lines in the floor as it tried, with one last effort of pure malevolence, to get to the Carpathian hunter. The lightning forked, jumping to the hand to incinerate it as well.
The moment the last remnant of Valenteen had been reduced to ashes, the bats and insects fell away from Traian to flit aimlessly through the halls as if, without the direction of their master, they had no idea what to do.
Traian bathed his hands and arms in the energy, removing the acid burning his flesh before he attempted to stagger over to Joie. Joie lay on the floor in the hallway, watching him with a kind of awe. She couldn’t talk because of the wound in her neck and loss of blood. She was barely conscious but seemed to know they were all there. Her fingers moved a little against Gabrielle’s thigh as if to reassure her.
“Your wound must be attended first,” Gary told Traian. “She’ll need to be brought over and you cannot do that without strength. Jubal, we’ll need soil. There’s a bag in my closet. Get it as fast as you can.”
Jubal nodded and forced his body, covered in bites and throbbing in pain, to move. He tore open the door to the closet to find the bag of rich Carpathian soil.
“I don’t understand how they could get in from above us,” Gabrielle sobbed, pressing harder on Joie’s wound. “Do something, Traian. I can’t stop the bleeding.”
“Whoever had the room above mine must have allowed the vampire in,” Gary explained. He very casually sliced a long line in his wrist and held the welling blood out to Traian. “Drink now. You’ll need more later. You know what you have to do here, if she’s going to survive.”
“What?” Gabrielle demanded. She took a breath and looked from one man to the other. “Tell me what we have to do. Don’t let her die, Traian.”
“Pour a handful of soil into that bowl and bring it here,” Gary instructed Jubal.
Traian drank from the man’s wrist, his eyes on Joie, his mind in hers.
Stay with me, sivamet—
my love
. You must give yourself into my keeping.
Joie tried to smile at him in reassurance. She was cold, very cold, but she didn’t hurt anymore. She knew she was drifting away from all of them. Gabrielle, her beloved sister, trying so frantically to close the wound, Jubal, hell-bent on action to save her, and Traian . . . Traian. She didn’t remember if she’d told him she loved him. She’d never thought it ever possible that she would find a man to love. She regretted that she hadn’t had time with him.
You will stay with me.
This time it was a command.
Traian closed the wound on Gary’s wrist with a small nod of his head in thanks. He buried his face against Joie’s torn throat, using his own healing saliva to close the wound. She needed blood and soil, but more, she needed strength to get through the conversion and they had very little time.
“Carpathian soil,” Gary said, taking the bowl from Jubal’s hand. “We’ll need your saliva to mix this. I have to plug that hole in your chest.”
Traian glanced down at the mess of his chest. He had scarcely been aware of his wounds, blocking all pain until he could ensure Joie’s safety. He obliged Gary, mixing his healing saliva with the mineral rich soil of his homeland. Gary hastily made a paste, noting Gabrielle watched his every movement carefully.
“You’ll have to sit up for me,” Gary said. “I’ll put this in your chest and then on her neck. You’ll need to go inside her to heal from the inside out to stop her losing any more blood before you convert her.” He spoke the obvious to the Carpathian so that Joie’s siblings would understand what was about to take place.
Traian nodded tersely. “Hurry. Her spirit is moving away from me.”
Gary packed the wad of mud tight into the hole in Traian’s chest under Gabrielle’s watchful gaze.
“He has a healing agent in his saliva,” Gary informed her as he worked. “Teeth can inject the anticoagulant needed to keep the blood flowing and saliva can heal it. Combined with their natural soil, it is a better healing agent than anything we’ve got for them.”
“Joie isn’t Carpathian,” Gabrielle said. “The risk for her to get an infection could be very high.” There was more question than statement in her observation.
“Traian will have to bring her across to his world. She’s more than halfway there,” Gary said as he packed Joie’s wound. “He’s holding her to us through sheer will, which is why I’m explaining all this to you, not him. He can’t expend energy talking.”
He looked around him. They were in the hall with a good part of the inn damaged and people milling around in shock. Mirko Ostojic rushed down the hall toward them, a shotgun in his hands. Behind him, Slavica, his wife, and their daughter Angelina herded the guests away from the area.
“Tell us what to do to help,” Mirko said.
Gary answered him. “Tell your guests that the storm damaged this part of the inn and the noise was thunder and lightning hitting the roof and going through to the first story. You have to keep them away from here, Mirko. The bats living in the eaves in this area came in, frightened by the lightning.”
The innkeeper nodded and indicated Jubal and Joie. “Should I send for a doctor?”
Gary shook his head. “We’ve got this under control.” He turned his attention back to the Carpathian hunter as the innkeeper went back down the hall. “I’ll protect your body while you do your best to heal her wounds, Traian,” he said. “Mikhail is sending Falcon.”
“No,” Traian shook his head adamantly. “Tell Falcon to stay with the prince. There is another master close by, looking for a chance to kill Mikhail. Above all else, Falcon must protect him. We must do this ourselves.”
Gary sighed. “So be it. Jubal, get on the other side of the hall and keep everyone away from us. No more than twenty feet in.”
Traian blocked out all sound. Gary had shown remarkable knowledge of their ways and he had no other choice but to trust him. Still . . .
Jubal, I will be out of my body. I do not know this man enough to put Joie’s life in his hands. Keep watch.
Will do. Just save her.
Jubal glanced at his sister. “Gabrielle, come here by me.”
“I want to see what he’s doing,” Gabrielle said. “I’m a doctor.”
“I need you here,” Jubal reiterated firmly.
Gabrielle squeezed her sister’s cold hand. “Save her, Traian,” she whispered and reluctantly climbed to her feet to go to her brother.
Jubal touched her shoulder gently in reassurance.
Tell me if anyone comes toward us. I’m going to keep an eye on Gary, just in case. I don’t know what’s about to happen, but Traian will be in some danger and he wants my protection.
Gabrielle gave him the briefest of nods. It was obvious she didn’t want to take her eyes from her sister, but Jubal made sense. She liked Gary, but she didn’t know him. They had thrown their lot in with Traian and only he appeared to be able to save Joie’s life.
Traian blocked out everything, the wreckage of the room, the few remaining insects buzzing around, the bat clinging to the ceiling and the three humans surrounding him. There was only Joie and her cold body, her life slipping away. He had to repair the damage done in order to give her the strength needed for the conversion. He left his own body, a mere shell, damaged and bleeding, behind, to become pure spirit. His body was unprotected. He had no choice but to rely on Joie’s brother, Jubal.
He entered Joie’s body as white healing energy, reaching for her spirit to lock her to him so she had no chance to slip away before he completed the complicated task of healing her from the inside out.
Her neck was the worst, the artery needing to be sealed before anything else. It took time, precious time he didn’t have. It was more difficult than he had thought to keep from being in the present, aware of time ticking away and her spirit sliding further from him as he worked.
She will die. You think you won, but I have killed you both.
The voice of the third master vampire slipped into his mind. The undead had taken his blood in the cave and could reach him when he chose. The voice, after seeing him, nearly convinced Traian the unknown master could be one of the Malinov brothers. He didn’t have the strength to fight the vampire and save Joie at the same time.
Unexpectedly, it was Jubal who placed himself as a shield between Traian’s mind and the vampire.
You’re a coward, hiding behind insects, those supposedly less powerful than you and a few bats. You didn’t capture the Carpathian hunter, your little army wore him down, but in the end he defeated them and drove you away. You can’t do a thing to him and you know it. All you have is your empty threats.
Behind the shield Jubal gave him, Traian worked quickly. The vampire sent waves of doubt and distrust, trying to build a wall between the Carpathian and the human. When he realized it wasn’t working he studied the human.
Mage-blood.
He spat the accusation.
You have gotten a hold in his mind. How very clever of you. You are nowhere near as strong as I am. I have only to get a hold of you and he and all who are under his protection will be mine.
Jubal laughed.
I don’t really believe in you. You’re a maggot, nothing more. It’s a little difficult to take you seriously when you’re nothing but a voice threatening mayhem, but never really doing anything.
“You’re playing a very dangerous game,” Gary cautioned. “If you’re doing what I think you’re doing, Jubal.” He could feel the energy building around Jubal and read the concentration on his face.
Jubal didn’t glance at him. He kept his eyes fixed on Traian. The Carpathian grew pale before his eyes. He could actually feel the energy draining from the hunter and was determined that the vampire didn’t feel it. He kept disdain uppermost in his mind. It wasn’t that difficult. If this was the master vampire commanding all the others, he didn’t have the courage to fight his own battles. He thought himself the brains and sent his army, but in defeat, he retreated, running away because he wouldn’t fight unless he had a distinct advantage.
I will face you,
the vampire offered.
Come out into the night alone without your friends. We shall see who survives our meeting.
Jubal laughed softly.
And leave you the ability to worm your way into the hunter’s mind when he is far too busy to bother with your endless empty threats?
Black rage was thrust into Traian’s mind, battering at Jubal. Jubal kept his eyes on the Carpathian. If the man got any whiter he was going to be translucent. Jubal wanted to follow the path of Traian’s mind to see what he was doing to Joie, but the vampire was strong and all he had to defend Traian was sarcasm, keeping the undead’s attention on him rather than pursuing his attack on Traian.