Dark Destiny (45 page)

Destiny, merged deeply with Nicolae, watched in horror as the hideous brew raced for his heart.
Sleep
! Without preamble, using their strong blood bond, she shut down Nicolae's heart and lungs instantly, trapping the blood in his veins, preventing the sludge from reaching its objective. She stayed hovering there, watching the nearly blinding light moving through Nicolae's body, aware of the intense heat. There was no feeling of censure from the healer, nor did Gregori hesitate or become distracted by her interference.

The blood congealed into a thick, pulsating mass. Destiny could see pinpoints of hemorrhage and masses of lesions. Internal organs were slightly misshapen, and colonies of toxins were scattered throughout Nicolae's system. She realized the tainted blood was willing to fight for possession of the host body.

The healer was undaunted, moving unerringly toward the thick clots of infestation. To Destiny's horror, something thin and black moved within the pulsating mass. Tiny creatures, living parasites. She wanted to scream and scream. The need was so strong, she pressed her hand to her mouth to keep from diverting the healer from his task. Those hideous creatures lived inside her, she knew, and she had infected Nicolae. The idea was repulsive. Disgusting. She had lived with the creatures for years, never fully realizing how abnormal they were until she saw them infesting Nicolae's body.

Nicolae stirred. His heart beat once, twice. The horrible wriggling creatures massed as if eagerly awaiting the movement of blood.

Your distress is calling to him. Calm yourself
. Gregori connected through the mind merge Destiny had with her lifemate.
He can do no other than come to you if you need him. You are Carpathian, woman, not vampire. Do not allow him to awaken
.

The voice, more than anything else, calmed her. She forced air through her lungs, beat away despair and horror, soothing Nicolae back to the Carpathian sleep. Her fingers bunched in his hair, her only lifeline to sanity. She couldn't think about what lived and squirmed inside her. What she had passed to Nicolae. Unclean. She was unclean.

Focus
! The voice was firm.
I need your help with this
.

Destiny would do anything to rid Nicolae of the tainted blood. She pushed her revulsion and emotions as far from her as she could and concentrated on the bright light. Gregori was moving steadily toward the series of thick clots. The ugly masses erupted with swarming tiny black wormlike parasites. Several attacked, throwing their wriggling bodies at the light as if they might consume it. The hideous things hit an invisible barrier and were instantly destroyed.

Pandemonium broke out. Light exploded, a laser show of bright white, obliterating everything in its path. Time passed as the healer meticulously began to hunt the parasites and destroy them, herding them inevitably toward the ancient blood lying dormant in the veins. As he chased them, Gregori obliterated colony after colony.

Destiny couldn't believe how long he worked, examining every inch of Nicolae to ferret out the infestation. The healer had to examine every artery, every vein, networks of blood vessels.

It was then Destiny became aware of the chanting of familiar words. Savannah and Vikirnoff lifted their voices in the age-old healing ritual. The light was fading, blurring around the edges and turning almost transparent.

Gregori's spirit emerged from Nicolae's body. The healer was swaying with weariness, so pale he was nearly gray. Destiny bit her lower lip as she watched Vikirnoff offer his wrist to the healer. She knew Nicolae's brother was offering his life. He had no lifemate to anchor him to the world. Giving Gregori his blood would create a bond between them. Gregori could easily track him should there be need. It was a selfless act, and one that unexpectedly rugged at her heartstrings.

She sat quietly, rocking back and forth, stroking Nicolae's hair, not wanting to look at Gregori or his lifemate. Destiny hadn't known the ugly truth about her blood. Nicolae had been infected only a couple of risings. She had been infected for long years. She had never realized that the parasites had been passed to her from the vampire who had taken her as a child. She hadn't known what was normal and what wasn't.

The healer was not finished with Nicolae, and yet he was already swaying with weariness, his great strength drained. It seemed an impossibility that he could heal her after so many years of being infected.

Gregori took a great deal of blood, leaving Vikirnoff weak. Destiny saw the ancient warrior stagger as he turned away.

"You must feed well. Nicolae will need your blood," Gregori instructed.

"I will go quickly, but perhaps you should wait for my return before going in again," Vikirnoff suggested. "I do not want to leave you and the women vulnerable to an attack."

"I do not think I have time to wait if I am to do this thing. His brain and every organ must be cleansed." Gregori sprinkled the rich Carpathian soil over Nicolae, opened his palms and placed some in his hands. "Return as quickly as you can," he urged.

"Is it possible to do this?" Destiny asked. "Did you know those things were there? Have you ever encountered them before?" She didn't want it to be just her, that she was the only one tainted. "If Nicolae's body is so infected, what must mine be like?"

Gregori's peculiar eyes moved over her face, leaving behind a strange, warming calm. "No, I had no idea they were there. Certainly Alexandria had no such creatures in her blood when Aidan performed the healing ritual. This is far different, but I have no idea why. I will heal Nicolae, Destiny, and I will heal you. The vampire will not claim a victory here." He spoke with complete confidence. Destiny couldn't tell whether he believed his statement or not, but his words gave her a semblance of hope.

Without further hesitation, Gregori once more shed his physical body to become the healing light of his kind.

Destiny was aware on one level of Vikirnoff leaving the chamber, but she concentrated on watching Gregori's meticulous assault on the vampire's blood. The organs were harboring a few tiny, immature parasites. They seemed capable of tremendous damage, tunneling into the organs, burning as they did so.

The healer dispatched them wherever he found them, cleansing the organs and carefully reshaping them. Destiny watched with awe, respect for the man growing as he worked. She was aware of the difficulties, the amount of strength it took to be outside one's body. She began to understand that the form of energy he was utilizing to heal was nearly impossible to maintain for any length of time. She was witnessing a miracle.

She was so engrossed in what he was doing, she nearly failed to notice the sudden stirring of the remaining creatures in Nicolae's blood. They leapt, almost with excitement, wriggling like frenzied maggots. A dark shadow slipped across her soul.

The vampires are here, in this place with us
, she told Gregori. She could not reach Vikirnoff without Nicolae. Her lifemate lay as still as death, and even if she awakened him, he would be drained of all strength, helpless. Gregori was in his brain, continuing his careful, meticulous healing.

I dare not stop; he would not survive
.

I can hold them off
. She spoke with complete confidence.
You keep my lifemate safe and I will keep yours safe
. It was a threat as well as a promise. If Gregori pulled out before he finished, Nicolae would die of a brain hemorrhage.

Gregori's instincts were to save his lifemate from the vampires first, yet he would give Destiny an opportunity to protect them all. He had been immersed in Nicolae's mind, read his many battles, his brilliant strategies, and knew he had passed his skills on to Destiny. Gregori could just as easily read the battles Destiny had fought. He was determined to give her the chance to save her lifemate by keeping his Savannah safe. If Savannah were in imminent danger, he could do no other than act in her behalf, but he was willing to allow Destiny to do what she did best, destroy the vampire.

Destiny understood that reasoning and accepted it, just as he accepted her own determination to save Nicolae.

Savannah was already moving to place her small body between the danger and her lifemate and his patient.

Destiny leapt upon her, one arm circling her throat, claws emerging to press tightly into her delicate skin. "Trust me." She mouthed the words against Savannah's neck, praying the healer would realize she was buying them time. Vikirnoff would be in the city now, taking much-needed blood. He would return with all haste.

"Brethren!" a vampire called. "Come to me in haste. I have the daughter of the Prince as a gift to buy my way into the alliance. Hurry before the other hunter returns and this one regains his strength. He is stuck in the body of the other. Our blood is strong and holds him there."

Savannah struggled, looking as helpless as she could. Destiny dragged Savannah's arm behind her back and placed a dagger in her palm, their bodies concealing the weapon between them.

The first intruder erupted from the ground, spewing dirt in a dark cloud as he rose. A second scaled the cavern wall, much like a human lizard, clinging to the rock above their heads. Destiny watched them, her mind assimilating the threat, choosing quickly which of the two was the more experienced and more dangerous.

"Take her," Destiny invited, thrusting Savannah toward the lesser vampire. "I'll kill the healer." She did a back-flip, raced up the wall toward the creature overhead, trusting Savannah to make the kill.

Savannah had never hunted the undead. Gregori had been adamant that she not ever place her life in danger, but she had been in his head enough to know what to do. She acted at once, without hesitation, stumbling forward as if unable to control her momentum. The vampire's fetid breath scorched her face. She felt his hands on her shoulders, reaching to yank her to him. And she went, the dagger concealed along her wrist. At the last possible second she plunged the razor-sharp instrument deep into his chest, straight into his heart.

Blackened blood poured over her hand, burning abominably. The vampire screamed, stumbling backward, his hands going to the dagger. Savannah leapt away from him, careful to keep her body between her lifemate and the undead.

Destiny reached the other vampire as he paused to witness the capture of such a prize as the Prince's daughter. He saw her coming too late to move, or shape-shift, relying on attack instead. They came together in a furious assault, bodies slamming together.

They fell to the cavern floor, only inches from the wounded vampire, both scrambling to regain their footing. Destiny threw herself into a scissors lock, weaving her legs through the vampire's and twisting as they both came down again, dropping him to the ground and pinning him there. She drove her fist deep, needing victory fast. She could see the wounded vampire pulling the knife from his chest. Worse, she felt the presence of another one, the ancient one. Pater had arrived.

"Get out, Savannah," Destiny instructed harshly.

Savannah leapt over the writhing vampire, trying to avoid the spewing blood, kicking him hard in the head so that he dropped backward like a stone. Her tactic gave Destiny the precious time she needed to extract the heart from the chest of the undead she had pinned. She threw the withered organ a distance from her and was already on the wounded one, straddling him, holding him down to take his heart.

Savannah built the necessary energy to incinerate the first heart, successfully completing the kill. As she turned back, she saw a black shadow loom above Destiny, one hand drawn back, the discarded and bloody dagger in his hand.

"Look out!" She had been about to direct the orange ball of flame at the body of the vampire, but turned it toward the shadow instead.

Destiny had managed to close her fingers around the heart of the wounded vampire, jerking hard as he thrashed and raked and battered her, fighting tooth and nail for his life. At Savannah's warning, she flinched sideways, still drawing the heart toward her, recognizing the danger but needing to finish off the vampire before he could regenerate or get away.

Pater plunged the dagger downward just as Destiny shifted, and the ball of energy, flaming red and white-hot, seared his shoulder, ruining his aim. The blade missed her back completely, slicing through her arm up high so that the heart fell from her suddenly nerveless fingers. It rolled away from her almost to the feet of the ancient undead.

Pater stared at the obscene organ; then his eyes went to Destiny's pale face. He hissed, a deadly promise of retribution, and instantly was gone.

Destiny clamped her hand over the gushing wound and looked at Savannah. "Destroy the heart and the vampire. I'm going after him. Vikirnoff will be here any minute or Pater probably wouldn't have left. Be certain to cleanse your hands or you'll blister and burn. You don't want to take the chance of getting any of that blood into your system."

Before Savannah could reply, Destiny had shifted shape, streaking through the network of caves to follow Pater. She knew where he would go. She knew what he had in mind. Nothing could stop her, not even the echo of Nicolae's cry of protest in her mind. Destiny had weaknesses the vampire could exploit, and every one of them was in the city. He would go after the people she had befriended.

She made no effort to hide her pursuit, hoping Pater would double back on her and attempt an ambush. At least that would keep her friends safe. It was three in the morning and most people would be asleep in bed, thinking themselves safe.

Destiny, return to me at once.

Nicolae was extremely weak. Gregori could not provide for him. Destiny was uncertain whether Gregori had managed to complete the healing ritual, in any case, she could not leave unsuspecting humans to a vampire.

Nicolae knew it and sighed.
Vikirnoff is replenishing us. You will have aid soon enough. Do not be careless
.

Before she could answer, she heard the call. A summoning. The power in the voice was awesome. Pater was an ancient, a powerful vampire, and his voice was thrown out over the neighborhood, calling sweetly to her friends. The compulsion in his voice slid down her spine like a shiver of fear.