Dark Curse (43 page)

"Did you ask them if they wanted food tonight?"

"Each meal we've asked and they've declined."

Lara was very uneasy with Slavica's answer. Terry might not feel like having food, but Gerald should be starving. "I'm going to check on them." She crossed to the stairs and began to climb, Slavica keeping pace.

"Would you like me to go with you?"

Lara bit down on her bottom lip. Her apprehension grew.
Nicolas? I'm here at the inn, but when I asked Slavica about Terry and Gerald she said
. . . What could she say? They'd refused a couple of meals. It was very possible Gerald would turn down one meal, but three? More than three?

Wait for me. I am not far from you and I will come back.

She felt silly standing at the top of the stairs facing the hall with the innkeeper looking at her as if she wasn't quite bright.

"What's wrong?" Slavica asked.

"Nothing. I think I forgot my key." Color rose as she told the ridiculous lie. She rubbed her palm over her left side, down low. The spot burned a little.

"Won't they let you in if you knock?" Slavica asked, moving briskly down the hall toward the door.

Lara dragged her feet. "Maybe I'll wait for Nicolas. He was going to stop by and Terry and Gerald will want to see him."

Slavica started to turn back toward her, but stopped abruptly, wrinkling her nose. "What is that terrible smell?"

A cold finger of fear raced down Lara's spine. "Slavica, come away from there," she said softly. Her side burned hotter, that small telltale dragon that warned her when the taint of evil was close. She held out her hand, lowering her voice even more. "Hurry. Right now."

Slavica reacted to the urgency in her voice, not stopping to ask questions, but hurrying back toward Lara. Lara caught her arm and yanked, an instinctive, primal gesture, nearly throwing the innkeeper onto the top of the stairs. It saved Slavica's life.

The door splintered outward, shooting spears of sharpened wood into the hall where Slavica had been standing. Gerald emerged, his face twisted into a grotesque mask. Blood tracked like tears from his eyes and trickled from his nose and mouth. He tore at his chest with his fingernails, gouging trails of flesh in madness.

Horrified, Lara stepped in front of Slavica. "Get downstairs. Don't let your other guests up here. He's infected."

He was deranged. The madness in his eyes told her that. He looked around him with a blank stare until he spotted them—spotted her. At first she thought he recognized her, but then he sniffed the air like a dog.

She reached to her belt to find the comforting hilt of her knife with trembling fingers. "Go, Slavica. I don't know if I can stop him."

Gerald growled and hissed, his eyes glowing red-hot. He turned toward her, stumbled and raked his fingers along the wall, gouging huge chunks of wood from the polished surface. Her heart jumped.

Nicolas. Now would be a great time for you to show up. You know all that crap about women fighting vampires? I'm on your side.

This was her friend. She didn't want him dead. She wanted him fixed. When Terry had ripped out the snake's head, blood had splashed all over the car. Gerald must have had an open wound somewhere and parasites had entered. She hadn't thought to have the healer check him, she'd been so disoriented from that long-forgotten foul stench. The odor permeated Gerald. The infection had spread rapidly or…

Her stomach lurched. She moistened her lips. "Gerald? Where's Terry?"

Gerald lumbered toward her, his steps jerky and plodding. His head tilted to one side, a cunning, animalistic expression crossed his face. "Worthless traitor," he hissed.

Spittle sprayed into the hall and she couldn't help but follow the droplets with her gaze, fearing the tiny parasites would be strewn all over the floors and the entire inn would be infected. She had visions of zombies breaking through walls and eating people.

Slavica caught her arm and tugged, slowly backing down the stairs. Lara didn't want to be on the staircase, but she didn't have a lot of fighting room.

Gerald wrinkled his nose and sniffed the air more. Growls emerged from his throat, a rumbling challenge. The dragon mark burned hotter. She gripped the knife.

"Gerald!" She said his name sharply, trying to find the man inside the beast.

He blinked rapidly, tilting his head to one side, his body tensing. She gripped the knife harder and set herself on the balls of her feet. She couldn't let him get downstairs where many of Slavica's guests had gathered for dinner or drinks.

Gerald suddenly moved, lightning fast, a blur of preternatural speed that scared the hell out of her. She leapt to the side, over the banister and onto the landing, barely escaping his slashing claws. Slavica nearly fell backward down the stairs, stumbling and then recovering, back-pedaling as fast as she could to get out of reach.

Screams broke out below them as guests looked up to see a wild-haired man covered in blood lunging at the two women. Two of the men rushed up the stairs to try to help.

"Stay back!" Lara called out, terrified someone else would be infected. "Gerald, who am I? Try to remember who I am and who you are."

They'd been colleagues and friends for several years, had gone caving together in some of the most dangerous caves in the world, relying on one another and forming a family of sorts.

"Gerald." Maybe if she said his name enough times, it would jog his memory.

He has no memory. Get out of there. The parasites have consumed his brain. I mean it, Lara, get away from him.

Nicolas strode up the stairs, waving a hand to calm the group below, blurring the scene so no one could quite see what happened. He had scanned Gerald and Terry the moment he set foot in the inn. Terry was dead and Gerald was the walking dead.

"Don't kill him," Lara pleaded. "There has to be a way to save him."

Nicolas caught her around the waist and shoved her behind him. "He's already dead, Lara, and he's programmed to find and kill you."

Gerald sniffed the air again, looking confused with Nicolas blocking access to Lara.

"He's my friend. You can't know that."

"He's not your friend. Go now. Wait for me outside."

"But…" She couldn't just walk away and give up. "This is my fault. I should have checked on them."

Hands dropped to her shoulders. Startled, she swung around, the knife in her fist. Gregori shook his hand and took the weapon. "Let us handle this, little sister. The fault does not lie with you. I should have checked him."

Lara backed down the stairs. The Carpathian males had a difficult time detecting the parasites, but she should have scented the taint of Xavier. She
should
have sensed it, but she'd been too busy feeling sorry for herself. She wiped at the tears streaming down her face. She hadn't achieved any of her goals since her arrival. She'd only managed to get her friends killed. She hadn't recovered the aunts. Their bodies were still locked away in the labyrinth of horror where Xavier had ruled.

She couldn't leave, couldn't look away. She owed it to Gerald to be with him, to stay while they destroyed the mass of parasites eating him from the inside out. Nicolas turned his head slightly to glance over his shoulder at her. She saw his long hair swing out and then—nothing at all. They were gone.

She stood staring up the staircase, one hand pressed to her mouth, trying to push back the sobs welling up. She'd lost her friend. Both of them. Lara backed away from the stairs into the lobby. Gregori and Nicolas could deal with the memories of Slavica's guests. She needed air fast. And she was going to the caves with or without Nicolas. She was going to find the bodies of her aunts and bring them home.

The cold air hit her face and it was only then she realized she was outside with Slavica standing beside her, a look of concern in her dark eyes.

"I'm sorry about your friend."

Lara ducked her head. "None of us had any family, so we kind of hung together. And we shared a love of caving. I can't believe this happened."
Nicolas, is Terry dead
?

I am sorry, fél ku kuuluaak sívam belso. Gerald killed him. We have to insure that all the parasites are destroyed.

Lightning arced across the sky, zigzagged and lit up the clouds in a fiery display before slamming down to earth. For a half-second the inn lit up and then everything went dark again. Lara stood beside Slavica with an occasional snowflake drifting past her.

"You aren't terrified by all this," she said to the innkeeper.

Slavica shrugged. "Life can be frightening if you dwell on things you can't control. I choose not to be afraid if I can help it. Mikhail will see that my guests are safe, or at least as safe as we can keep them when the undead walks the night. Most outsiders think it is superstition when we caution them, but locals know such things walk among us."

"I wish I'd been more careful. I should have been more careful."

She didn't realize she was weeping until Nicolas turned her into his arms and pressed her face against his chest. She caught a glimpse of Gregori before she closed her eyes and let herself cry for the loss of her two friends.

"The inn is no longer contaminated and there is no evidence of any problem, Slavica," Gregori said. "Your guests will not remember anything took place."

Slavica nodded and went back inside, leaving Lara clinging to Nicolas.

Nicolas stroked his hand down her hair. "I'm sorry, Lara. I should have checked your other friend."

Gregori added his own apology.

Lara lifted her head and looked up at Nicolas. "I can find a new entrance to the caves. I want to go now—tonight. I need to go, Nicolas."

He nodded. "Then we will go tonight."

"You cannot," Gregori protested. "You have a higher purpose."

She lifted her chin at him. "I came here for one purpose and that was to find my aunts, and I'm going to do it, with or without help. I've tried to help Francesca learn how to recognize Xavier's touch…"

"But she's unable to do so," Gregori pointed out.

Nicolas dropped his arm around Lara's shoulders. "She needs to do this and she has more than done her duty to our people, Gregori. In any case, what we find there may be invaluable. If Lara can recognize the source, we can stop our women from miscarrying for good."

Gregori sighed. "There is truth in that."

"She goes," Nicolas stated.

Chapter 17

Nicolas studied the snow-covered mountains rising sharply above them. Ringed in swirling mist, the mountains appeared a peaceful place of cold beauty, but he heard the soft: voices murmuring continually, and felt the steady flow of energy, a force field subtly sending out signals tuned to brain waves.
Stay away. Fear this place. Forget this place
.

Even the locals avoided the mountain. The upper peaks were inhospitable. Nothing grew but a few straggly plants in the midst of boulders and once you climbed past the boulders, there was the glacier itself. Unwary travelers who braved the uneasy, disturbed feeling often found themselves victims of falling boulders or a heavy avalanche. The mountain shook and rumbled the moment anyone dared set foot on it.

He walked along the base, studying it from every angle, looking for anything that might conceal an entryway. Natalya, Vikirnoff and Lara spread out several yards apart and did the same, all of them careful not to get too close and trip any hidden traps or alarms that would trigger the mountain to protect itself.

"What do you think, Lara?" he called.

The wind whipped his words away from the mountain, slamming his voice back down his throat. It was an aggressive move and he'd been unprepared for the attack. They weren't actually on the mountain. He exchanged a long look with Lara.

She nodded her head and moved toward him. Nicolas signaled to Natalya and Vikirnoff to watch above their heads and below their feet, in the ground itself. Lara placed her feet carefully, all the while scanning along the snow-covered ground for the slightest movement.

If we triggered an alarm, then we have to be close to an entrance. It will be something ordinary, easily overlooked, but simple.

Nicolas spotted a crack that ran the length of the overhang at the base of the mountain. The line was narrow, tiny really, no more than an inch thick running just under the overhang, nearly hidden in the shadow of the limestone cliffs. He scanned along the crack, inch by inch, but couldn't see where there could be an opening.

From the air, Nicolas had noted the pattern of rocks, which looked, with its ice cap, like an undulating sea of blue beneath the glacier—a sure sign that far below melt-water had carved canyons and formed large ice caves beneath the surface. He might know a labyrinth of chambers was beneath the mountain, but finding a way in was difficult.

It's here
, Lara said with confidence.
Very close
.

Now that she knew she was in the right area, she knew what to look for. No, not look. "Feel" for. Scent. Xavier had sealed the entrances, but they were there and she shouldn't be looking for an opening, she should be following the taint of evil, just as she had when she searched the women's bodies for mutated extremophiles.