Dark Ghost (35 page)

I am not human. Human laws do not apply to me. I am Carpathian and I am the wielder of justice in my world.
 

Yikes all over again. He wasn’t kidding. He was planning on killing all four men. Maybe. “Can’t…”

Sound carries. Stay quiet. Let them follow my footsteps.
 

They’re human. Can’t you leave them to the human law?
 

Humans haven’t dealt with them. I will not allow them to torture and kill another woman. They have a taste for it, and Giles has declared himself the leader now. He gets off on hurting others. You should have known they were approaching and you should have read their intent.
 

Okay. Now they were getting to the anger part. He wasn’t angry because she’d been idiot enough to think he might be Armend’s friend. No, he was angry with her because she hadn’t used her new very acute senses as a warning system.

And you did not reach out to me, Teagan. Immediately, when you knew you were in trouble, you did not call to me.
 

She hadn’t. She didn’t know why. But she hadn’t, and he had every right to be angry over that.

I didn’t, did I?
That confused her. She felt safe with Andre. She hadn’t panicked. She was afraid, but fear lived and breathed in her all the time. She felt the coiling in his gut relax.

No, csitri, you did not alert me. Had I not been monitoring you at all times I would not have known you were in trouble.
 

He was monitoring her at all times? She liked that. She shouldn’t. She was an independent modern woman who could handle herself in tough situations and had, many times. She didn’t rely on others to fix her problems, especially when she was traveling. She relied on herself, which was probably why she hadn’t thought to reach out to him.

From now on, you rely on me just as I will be relying on you. Always, always stay alert and scan your surrounding area,
he counseled.
Read the minds of those around you.

That is totally invading people’s privacy.
 

The world you live in now, sivamet, is dangerous. Humans wish to kill us. Even your own grandmother would put a stake through our hearts if she knew what we are. You know that is true. You have to learn to be vigilant and you have to learn to rely on me. The moment you sense trouble, real or not, you reach out to me.
 

She bit her lip. He was right about her grandmother, with her Internet vampire-hunting kit. There was a special device that shot wooden stakes out of it, which was very cool by the way. She’d seen Grandma Trixie practicing on targets in her backyard. Teagan hadn’t told her sisters, fearing they would lock her grandmother up before she could cure her mental illness.

She sighed. Now she had another problem. Her grandmother wasn’t as crazy as they all thought, but she might have to convince her that she was.

Tell me you understand.
 

Teagan hesitated. She was beginning to realize the idea that she had of Andre being a sweet, gentle man was maybe just a tad off. He preferred to eliminate threats by
dispatching
them. As in killing them.

Teagan.
 

That was silk and velvet and rough, but it was a warning. He wasn’t fooling around and being all sensual and sweet.

Um. Tell me whenever I am threatened you will not dispatch people. Promise me.
She needed to at least bring him into the present century.
You are not a wild man, living in the caveman era.

I cannot give such a promise. I am a Carpathian male. A hunter. And you are my lifemate. As your lifemate it is my duty and privilege to keep you from harm at all times.
 

She huffed out her breath.
Taming you is not going to be quite as easy as I envisioned. You are stubborn and maybe just a little too old. You know the old adage about teaching old dogs new tricks.

There was a moment of silence. She glanced up at him. His blue eyes glittered down at her. She wasn’t certain of his mood. One moment he’d been furious. Scary. Next he was luring not so innocent prey to him – and they were prey. He had targeted Giles and his crew and meant to
dispatch
them. Now he was looking at her as if he was torn between laughing or throwing her on the ground and having wild sex with her. If she had a choice, she’d take the wild sex
and
his laughter. Once in a while he smiled. He didn’t laugh except that one time.

Teagan.
 

Her sex clenched at the sound of his voice sliding into her skin. They were out of the village. She could see the trees every once in a while as the fog swirled, opening a view and then closing it. He took her right into the forest and began to work his way to higher ground, using long, ground-eating strides. Still making noise. Breaking twigs on purpose. Not taking to the air. Still throwing out his lure. From the sounds behind them, the four men were taking the bait.

Are you calling me an old dog?
 

I would answer that, but anything I say could get me into trouble.
 

You have no idea.
 

His voice was that sound that took her breath and her bones. It was a promise, and she didn’t know whether to try to run or to cling to him. Either way, her body was thrilled.

A
ndre climbed the mountain fast, taking a deer trail, one that was well-used and easy to navigate even in the fog. In his arms, Teagan shivered, but he knew it wasn’t the cold. She didn’t understand him or his ways. He got that. He got that she lived under a different set of rules, and his world was very scary to her. He didn’t like her afraid, but there was little he could do about that at the moment.

They were in far worse trouble than any human could give them, even humans trained in the art of killing his species or vampires. He tasted the threat in the moisture. Felt it in the soft breeze blowing toward them. Smelled it in the faint stench rising through the trees. Vampire. The undead was hunting and he’d come down from the mountain, heading for the village.

Andre allowed his senses to flair out into the night, seeking more information, but much more carefully. He muffled the sound of his boots on the ground. Kept the snap of twigs and the rustle of leaves from the air surrounding them. That would leave only the noise of the humans as they hurried along the trail, occasionally cursing. One wanted to go back and track them in the morning. He protested over and over in a whiny voice. Even though he’d only heard the voices over a radio, he recognized the one called Keith.

What’s wrong? Aside from the fact that you want to commit a felony. Maybe four of them, and I’ll have to visit you in some forgotten, horrible prison filled with rats and sewage where they torture the occupants just for fun.
She gave a delicate shudder.
What else are you preparing for?

Teagan was very sensitive to him. She was already beginning to read not just his moods, but when he sensed danger. He wanted her to be able to do that herself.

Be still. Completely still. Close your eyes if you have to, but feel. Do not think. Just feel your surroundings. When you feel everything close to you, allow your senses to expand outside yourself. Outside the landscape close to you. Go above you. Below you and all around you.
 

Andre willed her to understand. For all her nonsense – the things she blurted out which he loved – she was highly intelligent. And sensitive. To him, before he’d ever brought her fully into his world, she felt as if she was already partway in it. He’d never heard from a single male who had a lifemate that they felt that. There was something a little different about Teagan. She was human through and through. She wasn’t Jaguar, or Mage, or Lycan She was fully human. Yet her gift of healing was incredibly strong and so was that tuning fork of hers, she just needed to refine it a bit.

She didn’t argue with him. That was another thing he was grateful for. It wouldn’t have mattered if she did. When they were in danger, he would have covered it, stopped it immediately and taken over. That was his way, but he was glad he didn’t have to. He was glad she’d listened to him when he’d laid down the rules of his world. He didn’t want her to ever be afraid of him, but above all, her protection came first.

Her hands tightened on his shoulder, and when he glanced down, Teagan’s eyes were closed. He was in her mind, a shadow, no more, monitoring her, making certain she was all right. He felt that reach. Tentative at first, but she’d been in his mind and she was already learning. She might not have identified what he was doing immediately, but she knew how to do it. She learned that fast. She sent her senses reaching out into the night.

Mistakenly, she concentrated on the threat that was coming up behind them. The four men following them had split, two working their way around to try to cut them off. The other two had gained on them because, before Andre felt the threat of the vampires, he wanted them to catch up.

Teagan found the location of all four men. She didn’t stop there. He found himself smiling inwardly. She was afraid, just as she said she’d be, the fear inside of her, but that didn’t stop her. She allowed herself a brief moment when she identified those following them and knew they were closer, but she continued to follow Andre’s instructions, reaching out into the night.

Tell me what you know.
 

She gave a little shudder.
Belowground are insects and worms. A few ground squirrels. Not much in the way of animals. Giles and Gerard are behind us, maybe the distance of a football field. Their cousins are coming up on our right, almost parallel with us.

He waited, his chin dropping down to nuzzle the top of her head. A part of him was still smoldering inside that she hadn’t called out to him when she recognized she was in danger. He didn’t like that and he intended to address the issue when they were in a safe place. He pushed that aside and let himself feel pride in her. She learned fast.

He knew the exact moment she allowed her senses to rise above them. Into the mist. Into that dense fog that pressed down on the forest and mountain. Her breath caught in her throat, and she clutched him tighter as she buried her face against his chest.

A vampire.
 

You missed one. There are two. I doubt either are the master. They are not covering their tracks. Both are on the way to the village. They are hunting victims.
 

He felt her fear. The panic rising. Her feeling of terror nearly overwhelmed him it was so strong, but along with it, he felt something else. Sheer, utter determination. A will of absolute steel.

We can’t let them get to the village, Andre. They’ll kill someone. Maybe more than one innocent person.
 

He had no intention of allowing the vampires to get to the village. He was a hunter. He sought out and destroyed the undead. That was who he was. What he was.

I am going to draw them to us. You will have to trust me, Teagan, and do everything I tell you. I am going to bring Giles and his friends to us as well.
 

Teagan went still. She had known, even before she said something, that Andre wouldn’t allow the vampires to reach the village where they could kill any number of innocents. She bit her lip. This was certainly one of those moments to prove the old adage,
Be careful what you wish for
. Still…

I left my grandmother’s off-the-Internet vampire-hunting kit in the States, so you might want to take them on all by yourself. Giles and his slimy friends, I can help with. In fact, I’m all about helping with them.
 

You are all about sitting quietly and waiting for your man to clean up the neighborhood.
 

Teagan bit her lip. She wasn’t really all about that. She believed in pulling her own weight, and six to one weren’t the greatest of odds. She didn’t reply. Andre took it for granted that she would obey him. He did that a lot. She figured sooner or later he would catch on that she wasn’t good with authority figures. He could deliver his commands in his low, sexy voice, but that didn’t mean she would obey them.

Andre stopped under some trees where there was just a small clearing forming because a large tree had come down and hit another, dropping both to the forest floor.

Shift to an owl. I want you in that tree and very still.
 

Teagan blinked as Andre set her on her feet. She looked up the tall tree, at the thick branches.
You want me to hide away while you face all this alone, because I don’t think I can do that.

His hand slipped into her hair, bunched there, exerting pressure until her head tipped back. He kissed her. Hard. Long. Delicious. As if they had all the time in the world. Even as he kissed her, she knew he was still scanning the area around them and he knew the exact position of all six threats. She didn’t bother to scan, she enjoyed the kiss. A lot.

Do what I say. I do not want to have to worry about you.
 

Well. She felt a lot more in the mood to do anything he said after that kiss. She had to admit to herself that she was maybe a
lot
bit of a pushover when it came to Andre and his sexy side.

She stepped away from him and held the image of the owl in her mind. She’d already done this once, so it wasn’t nearly as difficult the second time. One moment she was Teagan and the next she was the owl, spreading her wings to get the feel of them.

Next time, instead of a bird, I’m going for sex kitten. Lots of curves.
 

You already are a sex kitten. Now get into that tree. Keith and Kirt are very close,
Andre announced.
Get up in the thickest part of the tree and stay there.

She liked that he thought she was already a sex kitten. Wow. She knew he was telling the truth because she was in his mind and he spoke matter-of-factly, as if his mind was elsewhere and he could only be honest.

Teagan.
 

She did a full body shiver right there inside the owl. Well, she’d definitely have a ringside seat. She took to the trees, rising fast, her wings silent. She found a branch that was slightly under several larger ones and she perched there, her talons gripping the bark so that she could peer down and see the little clearing and much of the surrounding trees.

Teagan could feel the vampires, much closer now. The air had turned foul. Oppressive. She could barely breathe. She was shocked that the human men couldn’t feel the difference in the air. Each time she drew in a breath, her lungs hurt. Burned. Felt raw, almost as if they pushed the air out as fast as possible to avoid contamination.

From her vantage point she saw the two men creeping through the trees, trying to sneak up on Andre. He had his back to Kirt, and Keith approached from the front. Kirt was much closer, moving into position for the attack while his brother kept Andre’s attention.

Andre, behind you.
 

No distractions. Do not help me.
 

He didn’t turn around. He just barked orders at her.
Sheesh.
Try to do someone a favor and they just got mad. Kirt was nearly on him now, and she could see the knife in his fist. Keith broke through the brush right in front of Andre, also armed with a knife. Andre whirled around fast, slashing across Kirt’s throat with his open hand, his nails long and sharp. Blood spurted. Andre spun again and met Keith as he rushed in, knife low, blade up, going for the softer parts of the body. Andre slapped the knife away with blurring speed, so fast Teagan couldn’t actually see his palm hit Keith’s wrist, but she heard the smack and saw the knife go flying. Andre’s hand continued in motion, going from where he’d deflected the blade away from him, up to Keith’s throat.

Teagan’s heart stuttered to a halt. There was blood everywhere. Droplets hit the fog and she knew Andre was calling to the vampires, using their assailants as bait to bring in the undead, to draw them away from the village. With hunger clawing at them, the vampires would never be able to resist the lure of the scent of fresh blood.

Andre flowed around the two men, fluid and breathtaking, no wasted motion whatsoever. Teagan felt as if she watched a brutal dance of death, primitive and savage. She shouldn’t have been caught up in the beauty of Andre’s every move. She should have been horrified – and terrified. She wasn’t.

There was no anger at all. He didn’t hurt Keith and Kirt out of a personal vendetta. They came after him and after his woman. It was a logical conclusion. At the same time, he could use them to keep the vampires from invading the village and murdering an innocent. She knew all that because she was still in Andre’s mind and she saw his strategy.

There was nobility in how Andre lived his life. He had honor and integrity. She saw the warrior, the true warrior, willing to put his life on the line for others – always. He was a fierce fighter yet absolutely cool and calm. She moved through his mind and couldn’t find one single thing that might raise his blood pressure. No fear.

No fear.
He had told her he hadn’t felt fear in centuries. Not since he was a seventeen-year-old boy. He hadn’t been exaggerating. He was telling a strict truth because he really didn’t feel fear. Not in battle. Not when he knew two vampires were coming – that he was luring them to him in order to keep them from a village of innocent men, women and children.

She could never have explained how she felt to anyone, not even her beloved grandmother, but the moment she saw Andre in action, moving so fast, his body in motion, as graceful as any ballet dancer and as lethal as any tiger in the wild, she knew she would always love him. The moment she realized she had been the one to bring fear to him after so long on earth, there was no way to resist him.

She fell hard. She would always crave him. Always belong to him. Always, always love him. Maybe it was wrong to be so madly in love with him, when he was killing someone, but it was the sheer poetry of it. She couldn’t take her eyes from him. She almost didn’t see the two men staggering around, or the blood running down their necks while Andre stood to one side, not looking at them, but keeping his attention on their surroundings.

Deep inside the body of the owl, she suddenly felt a pull. A tuning. A discordant note out of place. There was harmony in nature and at that moment she realized she was always aware of it, aware there was music, a symphony, everywhere she went. She needed that symphony and she sought it out, climbing and hiking around the world so her body became part of nature’s orchestra.

Now, that jarring note hurt. Sickened her. She nearly shifted to her own form in order to press her hand to her stomach in an effort to fight the bile rising. She forced herself under control, but used the owl’s superior range of vision to look around her. She saw nothing out of place. Not one thing, but the note became jangled. Insistent. The owl went utterly still. A strange clicking noise, one with an offbeat pattern began in the trees surrounding them as if the branches were rubbing together in the wind. She knew better. That clicking was the drumbeat to the harsh, inharmonious notes that jarred in the beauty of the symphony nature created.

She pushed further into Andre’s mind, a gentle flow, conveying the information to him. He didn’t look her way, but she felt him stroke a caress through her mind.

My woman. Looking out for me.