Dark Challenge. Christine Feehan. Dark Series – book 5

Barack’s head swung around, red eyes glowing fiercely. For a moment his eyes switched between red and black, as if the man fought the beast within for their shared body and mind. “I am not your brother, little one,” he hissed, struggling to overcome the killing rage.

For a moment Syndil hung her head, as if his words denying their relationship had cut her deeply. Then she stepped closer to him, so that her soft body brushed against his larger frame. Barack’s hands immediately, instinctively, spanned her small waist and lifted her away from the thick pool of blood spreading across the floor. The moment he released the vampire, the body of the undead fell, thrashing around, head flopping and talons digging long, deep furrows into the wall.

“Barack, do not touch Syndil’s skin with tainted blood on your hands,” Darius cautioned with his black-velvet authority.

Julian was already gathering energy into his palms, taking it from the electricity in the air itself, rolling it into a ball to send it flaming into the vampire’s pulsating heart so that there was no chance of the undead rising again. The sparks then jumped from the incinerated organ to the blood, reducing the thick pool of curling black ashes.

Barack reluctantly allowed Syndil’s feet to touch the floor far from the hideous scene. He was breathing hard, struggling to gain control of the beast within, ashamed that Syndil should see him so out of control. At Julian’s gesture he held out his hands so that the flames danced for a moment over his stained skin, burning the tainted blood from his hands and arms. Barack took possession of the white-hot ball of energy and ran it around Syndil’s waist where he had touched her, cleansing her of any tainted blood staining her clothes. He tossed the fire back to Julian before turning his entire attention to the woman who had shown so much courage.

“Are you hurt?” Syndil asked him softly, ignoring the other two Carpathians as if they didn’t exist. Her fingertips brushed Barack’s arm, and she tried not to show how his denial of their relationship distressed her. If he chose, after all these years, to reject the ties between them, she was not going to let him see how bad it made her feel. She could only suspect it was because Savon had raped her, and Barack could not accept her anymore. Perhaps he thought she had brought the assault on herself in some way. Barack had not been the same since the attack on her. He had spent a great deal of time in the ground avoiding her and the others. Now he seemed sober and stern, so unlike his earlier, easygoing self. He watched her like a hawk, almost as if he didn’t trust her, or as if she were a fledgling not to be trusted to care for herself properly. She wanted to weep and run off and hide again, but something in her refused to leave Barack in such a state, with so many lacerations.

Syndil lifted her chin but refused to meet his eyes. “Let me heal you, Barack. It will take but a few minutes.”

Finally he took her elbow and led her away from the other two men. Julian and Darius watched them walk off. Julian glanced down at the body of the vampire and then up at Darius. “I guess we have clean-up duty.” He directed the flames toward the undead. As he always did when the vampire destroyed was not the ancient he sought, he experienced a deep letdown.

But this time he wasn’t alone. From the concert hall Desari sent him warmth, love, her beautiful, haunting voice wrapping him up and holding him close to her heart.

Darius had been ensuring they were alone in the hallway, keeping humans away while Barack destroyed the vampire. “Barack has never before fought the undead. He has never even shown interest in hunting. Yet he was here before either of us.”

Julian nodded thoughtfully. “Is it really a surprise?”

Darius shrugged his broad shoulders. “Barack has always stayed close to Syndil. He often protects her. As young children they were inseparable. Lately, though, she is so withdrawn that no one can get close to her, not even Desari.”