Blood Awakening (24 page)

Nachari
, Marquis muttered, using their
private family bandwidth just to be absolutely certain no Dark One could hear.
Can
you do what Salvatore did on the bed? Separate your body and your soul into two
different places so that it appears as if you’re still standing where you are?

Nachari sounded uncertain.
I don’t know,
brother. I was able to unravel the spell he used, so I might be able to
duplicate it, but even my training does not approach such power. Can you buy me
some time?

Marquis grunted and turned to Zarek. “Salvatore is
dying.” He gestured toward the bloodied, broken vampire on the floor. “He is
too badly wounded to use his venom to regenerate.”

Zarek snorted and assessed his older brother. “Don’t
play games with me, vampire. His heart and head are still intact. We can bring
him back no matter how much blood he loses.”

Marquis smiled a wicked grin. “Perhaps, but you
cannot take the princess’s life and save your brother faster than I can kill
either him...
or you
.” He looked at the other Dark Ones, each soldier
glaring at him from behind a set of soulless eyes. “Not even with your
warriors.”

Julien, Ramsey, and Nachari remained as ready as
ever.

Although they may have momentarily stood down, the
heat in their eyes told him everything he needed to know: They were not only
ready to react at the drop of a dime, but each male had already planned an
offensive against their dark counterpart.

Zarek’s arm tightened around Ciopori’s waist, but
he didn’t speak. He was obviously considering his options.

“Just how did you think this scenario was going to
play out, Zarek?” Marquis pressed, refusing to give him a moment to regain his
bearing. “Think about it: Whose life are you willing to relinquish today? Yours?
Or Salvatore’s? Because there is simply no way you both walk out of here
alive.”

Zarek exhaled a long, slow hiss, sounding more
like a snake than a man. He nodded at one of the dark soldiers. “Go to
Salvatore and give him your venom.”

The male hesitated, looking a little annoyed, like
it either wasn’t his job or he didn’t care that much about the dying vampire. “He’s
your brother.
Why don’t—”

“Do not forget that he sits on the council!” Zarek
snarled. “You would be wise to extend your service now...while you can.”

Marquis watched as the two males eyed each other
with a bit of disdain.
Interesting.
The discord was certainly worth
keeping in mind, but then again, it was to be expected. The Dark Ones were
without souls or conscience; ultimately, their loyalty to each other was tied
to family—blood—and an obvious adherence to hierarchy in order to survive as a
group. As these males were clearly not family, hierarchy was Zarek’s only
leverage.

And apparently it worked.

The male soldier reluctantly turned away from the
visual stand-off and went to Salvatore’s side. Marquis adjusted his own body, careful
to keep the soldier in front of him at all times, seething as he watched the
male release his incisors and inject Salvatore’s wounds, one by one, with healing
venom. The ancient sorcerer would regenerate quickly.

I’ve got it!
Nachari exclaimed, careful to
keep his gaze focused ahead.
I cannot create two entities that are both
solid enough to interact with matter, but I can leave the illusion of one body
in one place, while using astral travel to go to another.

Marquis considered his brother’s words.
Yes,
but can you leave the ethereal body where you stand and take the corporeal body
across the room?

Nachari sighed.
That would be difficult. Why? Do
you want me to try and take Zarek down while he still holds Ciopori? If that’s
the case, wouldn’t it be easier to just dematerialize?

Marquis grunted.
No, that’s far too risky. Our
dark brothers are as fast as we are. I was thinking about the crib.

Nachari scanned the room with his energy rather
than his eyes, careful not to alert his enemy.
Oh...wow.

Marquis nodded, faintly. There was a raised temperature
in the crib, which meant there was an infant sleeping inside.

Nachari bristled. He bit his bottom lip so hard he
drew blood, and his expression turned to stone.

Yes
, Marquis thought,
Nachari gets it
now
: The infant sleeping in the crib was the child sired by Valentine—with their
brother’s wife, the child Valentine had raped Dalia, and ultimately killed
Shelby, to father.

Nachari’s psychic voice betrayed his
barely-restrained fury.
I can maintain my image here for about two or three
seconds after I dematerialize. By then, I will already have the infant in my
arms.

Marquis looked over at Salvatore, who was already
struggling to his feet.
Do it!

Just as Nachari promised, he maintained a solid image beside his dark
counterpart as his body dematerialized across the room. Before anyone could register
his ruse, he reached into the crib, seized the baby, and locked his jaw around
the infant’s neck, his four-hundred years of discipline the only thing keeping
him from destroying the evil spawn right then and there.

The child squealed, and both Zarek and Salvatore spun
around to face the crib. “Stop!” they cried in unison, the ancient sorcerer’s
sudden vulnerability exposed in his faltering voice: “Nachari, stop!”

“Move and my brother will rip that little demon’s
head off,” Marquis snarled.

Nachari hissed, fangs trembling, as he clearly
fought the impulse to slay the child, holding it instead like a mother cat
transporting a kitten.

Now standing fully upright, Salvatore held up his
hands in a plea for caution. “Do not be impulsive, wizard. We may all leave
this situation with what we desire, yet.”

Good
. Marquis shifted his weight. The child
meant as much as he believed he would. Marquis spun around in one fluid motion,
struggling to restrain his own rage as his smoldering eyes met Salvatore’s once
again. “Perhaps we make a trade then? The princess for the demon?”

“You touch him, and I will rip her heart out!” Zarek
roared, unable to keep his cool. “Or worse!” He ripped at the thin material
that was covering the princess from the waist down and unbuttoned the fly of
his jeans with one hard tug. “How fast do you think I can enter her and release?”
He laughed and glared at Marquis. “Will you be the one to put her down,
warrior, when she’s pregnant?”

Marquis understood the threat for what it was:
severe.

The sons of Jaegar were not given the
four
mercies
allotted the sons of Jadon when the Blood Curse had been handed
down so many centuries ago. The Dark Ones did not have
destinies
. They
could not love or father children with eternal mates. And the women they did
impregnate died a horrendous death in the process of giving birth. Pregnancy
was a torturous death sentence.

Provoked by Zarek’s threat, Nachari grasped the
baby’s ankle and twisted, leaving a broken foot hanging off the leg by a tendon.
The child shrieked an ear-piercing howl that echoed throughout the room.

Zarek threw back his head and roared. He bit down
hard against Ciopori’s shoulder, and the princess cried out in turn.

Nachari crushed the baby’s leg and snarled in
response, his teeth bearing down hard against the kid’s throat. The situation
was quickly escalating out of control, yet Marquis resisted the urge to censure
his brother. He knew the standoff was necessary. Zarek had to understand: If he
raped the princess, the child was as good as dead.

Nachari pushed the envelope a step further by biting
down on the infant’s neck until he drew blood.

“Derrian!” Zarek shouted, kicking Ciopori’s legs
apart with his knee.

Ciopori choked on her outrage. She was fighting to
hold back tears.

“Enough!” Salvatore thundered, glaring at his
little brother. “Button your pants!” He snapped his head to the side and glared
at Nachari. “Relax on the baby’s neck, my friend. My brother is temperamental.
Let’s not get hasty.”

Nachari relaxed his jaw but continued to glare at
Zarek, the threat crystal-clear in his eyes.

Marquis looked at Salvatore then and an
understanding passed between them.

Salvatore was not willing to trade Derrian’s life,
not even for Ciopori. And Marquis would not risk the life of the princess he
loved for a vengeance that could always come tomorrow.

“Can you control your males?” Marquis growled,
needing to know what he was dealing with.

Salvatore sneered. “Of course. Can you?”

Marquis refused to dignify the question with an
answer. Rather, he surveyed the room and rapidly weighed potential tactics: As
it was, Zarek was positioned toward the door with Ciopori, whereas, the crib
was toward the back of the lair to the right of the bed. “Move your males to
the back of the room, but keep a safe distance from Nachari. I want their backs
against the wall,” Marquis snorted. “And in return, I will move mine toward the
door, but a safe distance away from Zarek.”

Salvatore surveyed the room, his eyes missing
nothing. After a short pause, he nodded. “Do it.”

The three dark males slinked noiselessly to the
back of the lair like a pride of angry lions, their tense muscles twitching in
grudging retreat.

“Ramsey! Julien!” Marquis ordered.

The tracker and the sentinel took perches by the
busted door, their hands still fingering their weapons.

Salvatore smiled then, a thinly veiled smirk of
contempt. “Now, how shall we exchange our…loved ones?”

Marquis took a calming breath. He knew the moment
they left the lair with Ciopori, all hell was going to break loose in the
colony, so they not only had to make a clean exchange, but buy some time as
well. As a warrior, there was nothing he wanted more than to go to his death slaughtering
as many Dark Ones as he could, but that wasn’t his objective.

Ciopori’s safety was.

Salvatore shrugged his shoulders. “Surely you do
not expect me to trust this wizard”—he gestured toward Nachari—“anymore than I
can expect you to trust Zarek.”

“No,” Marquis grumbled. “Trust is not something
the two of us share; however, strategy is another matter. As you must realize,
we will require a head start to get Ciopori safely out of the colony. That means
we cannot allow any of you to call directly for help—or to pursue us. In
addition, we must have some assurance that Zarek will not renege on our
agreement and hurt the princess during the exchange—”

“Nor will Nachari hurt my nephew!” Salvatore growled.

Marquis nodded impatiently, trying to contain his contempt.
“I will have my warriors exit the lair before we make the exchange. This way, they
pose you no threat. They will notify me when they are free of the colony so
that I know they made it out safely—”

“There’s no way in hell we’re leaving you and
Nachari in here,” Ramsey bit out, indignant.

Marquis waved his hand to silence the male. “You
will do as you are ordered
under my command
.” Without pausing to look at
the sentinel, he continued speaking to Salvatore: “This should be acceptable as
you realize my objective is to get out safely with the princess, not to come
back and fight with you and Zarek. This removes two threats to you and two
concerns for me.”

Salvatore regarded him warily, and Marquis sighed.
He looked at Ciopori and swallowed his pride, wondering if the princess had any
idea how much he loved her. Did she have any idea what a sacrifice it was for a
warrior to make such concessions? Under any other circumstances, he would have
rather died here in the lair—and allowed his men to die as well—before
submitting
anything
to the likes of Salvatore Nistor.

“Search my mind, Dark One,” Marquis bit out, “and
know that I speak the truth.”

Salvatore’s shock was palpable, and Marquis winced
as the evil sorcerer penetrated his psyche and stripped his thoughts.

“Satisfied?”

Salvatore grunted. “You may do the same.”

Marquis shook his head. Unbeknownst to the ancient
son of Jaegar, he had already pierced his mind to read his intent. Despite all
of Salvatore’s years of black magic, the fool was still no match for Marquis’s
cunning...or skill. “No need. You will not let Derrian die.” He gestured his
confidence with his hands. “I have seen your
affection
for your family.”

“Very well, then. What is your plan?”

Marquis studied the Dark One’s eyes. The whole scenario
was killing him, too. “First, you will have your soldiers slash their wrists
and bleed out to the point of weakness before sealing the wounds, so they pose
no threat to me and Nachari. With all of our soldiers removed from the
equation, you and I will take positions—at the same time—behind Nachari and Zarek,
each of us behind our own brother.”