Gregori began to chant. The words were in the ancient language, a healer’s greatest command, greatest gift, to force out the darkness of evil from Razvan. His voice was powerful, vibrating through both Razvan and Ivory, a tool of immense strength.
Kuuluam hän ku köd és hän ku Karpatiiak altenak—I take that which is dark and banned
.
Saam te Szavéar—I name you Xavier
.
It éntölam kuulua ainadet—Your body I now claim and command
.
Ottiam sa éset veriet és luwet—I see the sinew, blood and bone
.
Muonìam ainadet belső és kinn—From its core I hold and hone
.
Muonìam ködaltepoårak, it poårak juttam—I command these abominations, these fragments left I now bind
.
Totellosz sarnaakam, kaδasz kontalik, kaik kaδasz—Do my bidding, go from this warrior, leave nothing behind
.
The splinters did their best to struggle against his commands, but they were too fearful of the light. Each time his energy touched on them, they smoked and withered more.
Get back to your body, Ivory
. They were both at risk as the slivers of Xavier’s blackened and malevolent soul fled Razvan’s body to seek another host.
Ivory and Gregori merged their spirits back in their bodies as Razvan rose over them, protecting them in that first disorienting moment. The ground rumbled ominously. Dirt spewed up like a geyser. The sky darkened overhead. For one moment they could hear the rustling of the leaves on the trees, and then a swelling noise like a wall of rushing water.
Within moments the clouds and a sliver of the moon were wiped out under the heavy migration of huge bats. The bats neared, showing dripping fangs, some landing on the ground in a circle around the group, using their wings to walk. Others flew at their faces, teeth gnashing together.
The earth opened up right beneath Razvan and a giant worm burst from beneath, jaws open, serrated teeth clamping around Razvan’s ankle. For a heartbeat, the thirty-foot worm hovered, with Razvan locked in its teeth, and then it slid back beneath the ground, the dirt pouring in after it.
6
I
vory drew a wicked-looking, circular, crystal-centered weapon and held out her arms. “Now,” she called to her pack.
The wolves leapt into the air, diving for her back. Ivory was already plunging, straight down, hands in front of her face like a modern-day Olympic diver, changing form as she went, pushing through the dirt to follow the path of the large worm dragging Razvan deep.
Look to me. At me. I am with you
.
No! Go back. He cannot have you
.
Nor can he have you
. Ivory blocked out everything happening on the surface. Gregori would fight his way clear of Xavier’s mutations and get the prince free; he had to. She had one duty, and that was to her lifemate—keeping him out of the hands of the high mage.
I cannot shift and get away
.
You have seen the worm, bred to travel through the earth. Once his teeth meet in the middle, he holds your form
. She knew. She’d extracted that very venom to use with her own combination of chemicals to make the coating on her weapons to prevent vampires from shifting.
He cannot have you. Do not struggle. Stay very still so it injects less poison. Keep your mind in mine. You have to trust me
.
She felt him holding himself utterly still. It had to take a great deal of courage not to fight the worm dragging him deeper beneath the earth. It was easier for the worm to go through its tunnel, already carved through the layers of soil as it headed back to its master to deliver its prize. Razvan had to know where and to whom the worm was taking him, yet he ceased fighting.
Razvan had never been able to trust anyone once his father had died and his sister was lost to him. To give her that—to put his life, no, his soul in her hands—had to be nothing short of a rebirthing by fire because never before had he put his very soul into someone else’s keeping.
I trust you
.
It would take trust. Fighting a worm was extremely dangerous. Practically everything about the worm was venomous. The spikes that ran along his body to dig and propel himself forward and back through the tunnel, and the barb on the end of his lashing tail, all contained the same poison as the fangs and double rows of serrated teeth. The tail itself could break every bone in a warrior’s body. The hide was tough and could slice through a hand or arm if brushed against.
Close your ears, Razvan. You cannot listen. The sound will be bothersome to you
. It was the only way she could think to describe it, but she had to slow the worm down, disorient it. With the tunnel already dug, it could warp time with alarming speed.
When it releases you, you will have only seconds to push the poison from your body so you can shift. You have to be ready. Seconds only
. She had to trust that he would feel the urgency in her and obey.
Knife in one hand, arms outstretched toward Razvan, eyes locked with his, she began to chant.
I call to the element of air used for sound
.
Drum to the heartbeat of evil that digs through the ground
.
Pitch, harmonics, combine and align
,
Fight by attaching to warp evil’s mind
.
The notes she used were pitched to vibrate and disorient, triggering vertigo and time loss in the worm. The earth responded to the discordant notes of her command. The cadence of her song continued, but Ivory’s tones altered, changing the vibrations of the earth so that they became in tune with the surrounding soil, drawing it inward so that it began to collapse and fill the tube. The wave of sound moved through the earth. The ground shuddered, trembled. Dirt rained in all around them.
Keep looking at me
. Ivory kept moving toward Razvan, propelling herself down the long, wide hole.
Remember, push the poison out fast when the worm releases you
.
She had shifted form and was nothing but molecules traveling at a high speed but still not fast enough to catch up.
Keep your arms outstretched above your head, toward me, toward the surface
.
More soil tumbled into the tube. A clap like thunder roared down the tube behind the worm and the creature hesitated. It was enough for Ivory to close the gap between them, her hands materializing. She shoved the weapon into Razvan’s right hand and caught his left wrist. At once she began to sing again, this time the notes resounding through the earth. The sound was painful, crashing through their bodies and minds, turning their insides to jelly.
The worm completely stopped moving, opening its mouth wide in a scream that reverberated through the ground, releasing Razvan at the same time.
Now! Now! Shift when you can, holding the weapon. Follow me in
. Fearlessly, Ivory became vapor only, streaming inside the giant opening of the worm’s mouth.
Razvan pushed the poison from his body, ignoring the wrenching pain, closing off his mind to anything but following her. He felt the disc in his hand vibrating as he shifted and knew he still held it, which meant it was no mere illusion, but was constructed of natural earth and gems. He followed her without hesitation, past the double rows of serrated teeth, past the dripping fangs and pockets of thick amber venom, down the very throat of the beast.
Touch nothing inside; not the walls, nothing
.
These worms have two vulnerable spots, and both of them are deep inside Even going for their eyes does nothing. Look for scar tissue inside the throat—you will know it when you see it. Everything else is coated. The spot is where Xavier attaches himself to give instructions. The second place is much deeper and much more perilous to find
.
Razvan didn’t want to know how she’d discovered this information, but there was no doubt in his mind it had been hard-won through first-hand experience. She was too confident in her assessment, and her voice was tight with tension.
He scanned the walls of the worm’s throat. Bumps and ridges in dark purple and black covered the membranes above and all around them. The worm pitched and bucked, fighting to get out of the collapsing tunnel, making it doubly difficult to avoid accidentally skimming along the wall. Venom dripped from the ceiling, raining down around them. As vapor, it was easier to avoid the drops.
There! Above and to your right, on the roof of his throat
. Razvan spotted the small circle and recognized the stamp of Xavier. Welts and splotches made tiny rings and whorls, damaged for all time after contact with the mage.
We will only have seconds to get out again. The disc is iolite, a violet stone that enhances vision on the astral realm. Follow what I do and then move fast out of here
.
Razvan realized there was a thin thread of blue-violet light emanating from the disc. Ivory took her normal form, hovering in the center of the worm’s throat, dodging the strings of poisonous saliva. Hairy fibers sprang into action, reaching like tentacles toward the heat source. Ivory grimly eluded them and, using deadly aim, struck hard and fast with the light, using it like a spear or a laser, penetrating into the worm’s tough wall, anchoring deep. She let go of the disc and it followed, slamming hard into the ring of scars.
Razvan mimicked Ivory’s actions, releasing first the light and then the disc within a heartbeat of hers. Light burst from the two discs and lit up the walls of the throat, bathing them in a violet wash. Sound came next, high-pitched, the notes threatening to shred all reason, so that Razvan hastily muted the sound.
Ivory was already streaming back toward the mouth of the worm. The huge, cavernous body thrashed back and forth, rolling and bucking harder than ever.
Hurry
. The urgency in her mind convinced him to double his speed as nothing else could. Behind them, the violet light spread like a cancer, staining the venomous throat bluish-purple. Steam rose.
Ivory hovered just behind the double rows of teeth.
Be ready
.
Razvan had no idea what he was ready for, but the worm seemed more unstable than ever as all around them smoky blue-violet vapor curled, pouring from the two discs. He heard Ivory mentally counting, concentrating hard. Deep in her mind, he felt the exact moment she began to burst forward.
The worm opened its mouth to cough. The throat contracted, muscles squeezing down behind them, closing the gap as they shot from inside the worm.
Move. Move
. Ivory didn’t slow down, but kept driving through the soil, back up toward the surface.
Razvan followed, amazed at her skills, at her knowledge of the enemy and at the fast, efficient and utterly calm way in which she went about destroying it.
When we surface, the bats will be attacking. Come up near the prince to add to his protection. All of Xavier’s twisted abominations will be fighting to get to him
.
Around him he could feel the unstable ground quivering, rolling, as the worm thrashed and fought, sending shock waves undulating deep beneath the earth. The ground sank all around them, falling in on itself.
Faster
. Ivory hissed the command in his mind.
Take the lead
.
She might be one of the best warriors he’d ever encountered, and by far the most knowledgeable dealing with Xavier’s army, but he was still a Carpathian male and her lifemate. She wasn’t going to be protecting his back, not when he could be protecting hers.
Keep moving. We are close to the surface
, he informed her.
Whatever is up there is not as bad as the evil Xavier had inside of me. Watch yourself
.
He will go for the prince
, Ivory reiterated.
The one sure way to destroy the Carpathian people is to destroy the prince
.
Razvan burst through the surface, emerging into a night filled with the sound of battle. Thunder cracked and lightning streaked across the sky, slamming into earth as bolts hammered into the crushing crowds of bats swarming over the ground. It looked like a living sea, bats walking on their wings, baring teeth at anything in their path. Flesh eaters, he’d seen the mutations in the caves Xavier occupied, placed there to guard, to sound the alarm and to provide blood from the animals they killed and dragged to the lairs.
Ivory emerged from the ground, shrugging, arms outstretched. The wolves leapt from her back and into the midst of the bats, snapping necks as they grabbed and shook their prey, fighting their way through the mass to the circle defending the prince. Ivory followed them, drawing one of her many homemade weapons, tossing it to Razvan and pulling another.
Razvan discovered the strange gun fired light, not bullets. He had never participated like this in a battle, with blood spraying across the snow. But he didn’t hesitate, staying in Ivory’s mind. She was a warrior through and through, wading through the bats, kicking them aside, spraying the bright light fed by a diamond across a wide path, severing heads.
“Keep the spray level with their necks,” she advised, and then called out, “Gregori! We’re coming in.”
One of the bats seized Razvan’s calf and tried to tear open his leg. Blaez, the second largest wolf, caught the malicious creature in strong jaws and ripped it away from Razvan, tossing the bloody body into a group of bats that tore into it with a viciousness that reminded him of Xavier.
Gregori slammed bolts of lightning into the center of the bats, opening the way for them. Razvan followed Ivory through the sea of bats, staying close to protect her back, his gun spewing the blade of light behind them in a wide arc. When the wolves hesitated, preferring to stay to the outside, Ivory hissed a command.
You will get eaten alive. Come!
She held out her arms and the wolves leapt over the mass of furry bodies and merged with her back.