Dark Promises (Dark #29) (6 page)

He forced his eyes to shutter, to reduce the vivid colors enough that he could rise without the lurching, disorienting feeling that was so disturbing. Her voice rose outside the gates, carried to him on the wind. Soft. Pleading. Tears in her voice. A man's murmur followed. Rage hit him. Deadly. Dangerous.

Help! What's happening? What's wrong? Help me!

Emotion was something he didn't even remember, and the intensity was overwhelming. He could barely contain elation at finding his lifemate, and fury that another man hurt her enough to make her cry. The storm inside him was violent, relentless and demanding. He did his best to tamp it down. He had to be in control. He was far too dangerous not to be.

Aleksei took to the sky, something he hadn't done in a very long while, whirling like the mist, carried on the sudden forceful wind. His lifemate's screams tore at him, sent streaks of pure rage rushing through his bloodstream. He had never heard the fear and anguish in anyone's voice as he did in hers, and it ripped him apart, ripped away the last veneer of civilization, leaving him solely what he'd always been—a predator at the very top of the food chain. There would be no escaping him. Not for her. Not for the man who caused her tears.

From the air he saw the woman he knew belonged to him and the man she faced with tears running down her face. She was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Her back was against the gate, both arms stretched above her head, wrists bound by the guardians. Another binding circled her slim waist. She wore a man's garb, something he didn't care for at all, especially when another man was looking at her as if she was his entire world. It was too form-fitting, revealing her luscious curves. The plants Fane used as safeguards to protect those in the monastery had done their job, recognizing this woman belonged and holding her. Should any approach her, the vines would protect her.

He immediately noted Andre was there with his lifemate—a woman he recognized from a few days earlier when she had tried to heal Andre after he'd battled a master vampire. Fane, keeper of the monastery, had given them aid, but Aleksei and two others had stayed close to protect them.

The stranger stepped toward Aleksei's lifemate and something animalistic in him roared a protest. He dropped from the sky to insert his body solidly between the stranger and his lifemate.

“You dare to touch my woman? My lifemate? You dare such a thing?” He switched to English, realizing they had been using that language. “I am Aleksei, and the woman is
mine
.”

Aleksei was utterly confident in his skills but he was surprised and a little taken aback to recognize the man—his enemy—was a Daratrazanoff. There was no mistaking one from that lineage or the power emanating from one of them. He had never known a Daratrazanoff to be a man without honor, but to try to take another man's lifemate was a crime punishable by death—even for those second-in-command to the prince.

He exploded into action, and he was fast. These last years in the monastery could never take away the speed and experience of his centuries of battle. To keep fit and in practice, each evening the ancients gathered to fight, using weapons and hand-to-hand combat. They stayed sharp that way, and it helped to occupy their minds.

He knew he was risking his honor to go into battle; that risk was the very reason he had entered the monastery in the first place. He was far too powerful. Had lived too long. He would be a vampire few could kill. This was his lifemate, and he would defend her with his last breath even if he risked the ultimate dishonor.

Gabrielle screamed and fought the vines holding her in place. Andre barked a command to Teagan and she disappeared, obeying him instantly. Gary was only barely aware of those things. His attention was centered on the raging beast claiming Gabrielle. The man was tall and strong—abnormally so, even for a Carpathian. His shoulders were broad, his chest heavily muscled. His eyes glowed red, vicious, predatory. He hit like a jackhammer, slamming his fist straight at Gary's heart, his white teeth exposed. His teeth showed his state of mind and it wasn't good.

Gary dissolved fast before the fist could penetrate his chest. He came
up behind the Carpathian, reaching to circle his neck with his arm, to lock around him in an effort to break his neck. Thick black hair spilled down the intruder's back, and the hair went wild, became alive, slashing ropes of razors that cut flesh when touched.

Around him, Gary could feel the frenzied energy spilling out in every direction. Gabrielle, nearly hysterical, desperate to be free, terrified for him. Terrified of the predatory creature that had attacked him. He could feel the energy pouring off the stranger, so broken, so far gone, the darkness in him absolutely crushing. Surprisingly, Gary's own emotions were much easier to control in the face of the threat.

He had no idea who Aleksei was, but so far, Andre hadn't made a move toward them, which he would have had the crazy ancient been a vampire. Still, Gary wasn't about to allow anyone to hurt Gabrielle, and this man had to be responsible for the vines holding her prisoner. She'd been jerked backward a good fifteen feet and slammed hard against the monastery gates.

With Aleksei's razor-blade hair, Gary had no choice but to release him and jump back. He needed to keep his distance and use modern weapons. This was an ancient Carpathian, possibly a vampire, and no matter how much power and knowledge Gary possessed, he didn't have this hunter's experience. He needed to use intellect to defeat him, not brawn. He was outmatched and he knew it, and that meant he had to press and press until he was completely played out. The one thing he couldn't allow his opponent was time.

He leapt back and pulled his weapon. He'd been developing ways to fight vampires since he'd first become Gregori's friend. He'd perfected several. He flew back, his body now protecting Gabrielle, as he drew and fired his weapon. Aleksei simultaneously whirled and came at him, his features sheer stone, eyes blazing with fury.

The small gun was lightweight and fit in the palm of Gary's hand. To kill a vampire wasn't all that easy. One had to extract the heart and incinerate it. The gun rapid-fired several lethal circular bullets—claws of steel. The discs, high velocity, were sharp enough to penetrate through flesh and bone and designed to burrow deep.

Once fired, the disc locked on to a target—the withered low-level beat of the undead's heart—surrounded the organ and clamped down. As soon
as the claw had the heart in its grip it emitted a high-pitched screech that signaled, even during a loud battle, the heart was ready for extraction. The second trigger on the gun activated the extraction. The entire process took the same amount of time it took to fire a bullet.

The disc hit true. Aleksei stumbled back under the impact, his hands going to his chest. Gary fired a second disc as Aleksei reached into his own chest to pull the claw from inside his body. The ancient didn't make a single sound. Not one. He didn't even blink. If he felt pain, he didn't show it, but he did dodge the second disc with blurring speed, coming at Gary so fast there was no time to move, no time to think of anything but survival. All the while Aleksei rushed, his hand continued to remove the claw from his chest.

Aleksei had no time to puzzle out the reason his lifemate continued to cry out for his opponent's safety. He couldn't take the chance that Gabrielle would be hurt in the battle, and a Daratrazanoff was between them. Close to her. Far too close to her. He felt Andre moving in his mind, telling him to stop, but that didn't make sense either. Andre knew that a lifemate was never to be touched by another man. Never. To break that sacred rule was punishable by death, no matter the lineage of the offender.

As he whirled toward Gary, using both speed and movement to prevent the crazed Carpathian from using his weapon, Aleksei sent the wind rushing around them, driving the man away from Gabrielle with a series of fireballs aimed at him raining out of the night sky. The two combatants came together in a fury of blazing fire. The flames came out of the wind, firebombs dropping to surround them, to hold the two in the center, moving them back away from Aleksei's lifemate. He was careful that the fireballs were well away from her, but the flames prevented Gary from getting near her.

“Stop them, Andre,” Gabrielle shouted, terrified for Gary. She struggled against the vines, and the more she struggled, the harder the tough wood bit into her skin, until blood began to trickle down her arms. “He's going to kill Gary.”

She could see nothing now but the wall of flames. Strangely the fire wasn't in the least bit hot to her skin. Still, not seeing what was happening between the two men was far worse than witnessing it.

“I cannot,” Andre said quietly, and indicated something to her left and then to her right.

Gabrielle turned her head, and her breath left her body in a rush. For a moment she went still, her heart pounding so hard it nearly came out of her chest. There were others. Others like the one called Aleksei who had claimed she belonged to him. She felt their darkness. It was oppressing. Frightening. Sad. So sad that even in the midst of her fear for Gary, she felt the weight of their sorrow pressing down on her.

She could see they were watching the combatants intently, and they also were very aware of the blood trickling down her wrists. They could smell it. Sometimes eyes would move over her and then become riveted on her wrists. Terror mounted. If Gary didn't save her, these horrible ancient Carpathians were going to feast on her. Devour her. Drink her blood until there was nothing left of her.

“Gary.”
She whispered his name. Her only salvation. Her love. Her fear. “Please, God, help him.”

She didn't care if every one of these horrible ancients ripped her to pieces. If Andre wouldn't help Gary, then she would. She turned her head and stared at the bracelet on her wrist. She'd seen her brother Jubal's bracelet become a weapon. He did it by tuning himself to the metal. It worked only for him.

Gabrielle closed her eyes and tried to block out what was happening around her. She concentrated on the delicate links of metal surrounding her wrist. At once she heard the low hum that she'd noticed before. Instantly she locked on to that and sent her own command. She needed the vines gone. Right. This. Moment.

Gary Daratrazanoff hit him with the force of a freight train, driving him back toward the wall of flames. Aleksei dissolved and came up behind Gary, re-forming, catching at his head and wrenching with enormous strength to break the neck. Gary shifted out from under him, becoming a huge, powerful python, coiling around him fast, the head eye to eye, the constriction deadly.

Aleksei didn't fight it; instead, he shifted his body to that of a python as well, a feat many Carpathians weren't able to do. Few could shift when they were being held captive in any form. The two snakes coiled and thrashed, upright, standing on their tails, facing each other with big, angry, curved teeth. Once those teeth sank in, it would be difficult to extract them, even in his present form.

The head of the python came close and, without warning, small, wiggling snakes erupted from its mouth, leaping to fill his. Aleksei allowed the rain of fire to stop in order to combat the multitude of snakes leaping at him, trying to get inside his body. He turned his snake's head to buy a couple of seconds, all the while following the beat of the heart inside the snake. There was always a heart, no matter how one tried to protect it. No matter how withered and black it had become.

He concentrated on the sound until he pinpointed it perfectly and then he shifted, one hand shooting out from his python's body to slam into Gary's python, his fist penetrating deep.

Gabrielle screamed, the sound piercing the night. A wail of utter despair and terror. Her terrified screams filled his mind. Filled his heart and soul. Still, to fight a Daratrazanoff with the kind of power and skills they had, he would have to shut her terror out. He couldn't feel anything at all. Nothing. Only the power running through his body. The confidence born of centuries of battles. He knew fighting and killing this man was dangerous to him as well. One more kill, even with his lifemate to anchor him, could send him over the edge into madness. He was in the monastery to prevent having to hunt and destroy lives—even the undead.

Once he penetrated the chest cavity, he shifted, and to his shock, Gary shifted as well, something extremely difficult under the circumstances, but it didn't matter. Aleksei had him now. He knew it. And then Gary's eyes held triumph, and Aleksei knew he was fighting something altogether different than the vampires he had fought over the centuries.

Gary's fist smashed through his chest toward his heart, coming from an altogether different direction, and the form in front of him simply disintegrated. Gary had deliberately misled him with the python, with the heartbeat. A genius in battle. Now it really was life or death, and Aleksei had no intention of dying now that he had found his lifemate.

Genius didn't mean experience in battle. Aleksei slammed his head into Gary's forehead, shifting just enough to put a sledgehammer there. Gary fell back and down, and Aleksei went down to one knee, his fist going in for the kill. Something hit him from behind and he caught the attacker with one arm behind his back, circling the small waist and nearly hurtling the featherlight body toward the gate of the monastery. At the last moment he
realized his attacker was his own lifemate. Simultaneously he heard the low protest of his brethren and Andre's sharp command to stop.

He set Gabrielle down gently and rose slowly, shocked at her behavior. He could see that his brothers were stunned as well—all but Andre, who appeared to stare at her with compassion. Her wrists were bloody and he could smell her, the faint, almost elusive feminine scent that called to every cell in his body.

She had
betrayed
him. With another man. The man she was trying to protect. The man that wasn't him. No Carpathian woman would do such a thing. She stood there, staring at him with huge, frightened eyes. He knew why. Everyone knew why. There was absolute silence. Even the wind held its breath while he decided whether to kill her, or keep her. She didn't deserve to live, and neither did Gary Daratrazanoff. He had been betrayed by his own kind. By a family he knew and respected.