Far off, or maybe in her own head, she heard his voice. Do not let go, Destiny. Do not let go! She was unclear what he meant. She wasn’t holding on to anything, but there was desperation in his voice, a tone she’d never heard him use, so she tried to stay focused on him.
Pater loomed over her, his gray features grim, a hint of his terrible anger showing in his red-rimmed eyes. “You should have joined with us. You are going to die a hideous death.” He hissed the words at her, spittle ruining his civilized facade.
“That’s no surprise. I lived a hideous life.” She tried to say the words to him, but her throat was torn and raw, and no real words emerged. When she blinked to clear the haze from her eyes, Pater was gone, perhaps never really there.
Nicolae and Vikirnoff materialized on either side of her. Nicolae had a red streak down the left side of his face and an angry-looking wound on his chest. He lifted her into his arms as Vikirnoff guarded his back. She wished she could wipe away the anxiety on Nicolae’s face, but no sound would come out of her throat and she couldn’t find the strength to lift her hand to smooth away the lines of worry. She sighed softly, recognizing that something was terribly wrong, but it didn’t matter to her. Destiny simply closed her eyes and let Nicolae take her away as he had always done, soaring high above the city into a dream world where there were no more monsters.
Nicolae kept his mind numb, blank, streaking through the sky toward their lair. If the undead gave chase, Vikirnoff would protect Destiny and him, guarding their back-trail as they hurried to safety. He should have known she would do such a thing. He should have known she would not be able to deal with the idea of being responsible for his life… or his death.
She had no such thought in her head. Vikirnoff was the voice of reason.
Anger flooded Nicolae’s body, took over his heart and head. How would you know? Why do you think you know her better than I do?
Because I do not think of her day and night, my every waking minute. I saw her defend the human. She was hunting as she believed she should. Nothing more. Nothing less. Vikirnoff was not in the least disturbed by Nicolae’s outburst. Nothing seemed to provoke him these days. Do not take that away from her.
Nicolae was immediately ashamed that he had taken out his fear on his brother. I am sorry I was harsh.
Were you? I had not noticed.
Nicolae glanced at his brother’s impassive face as they settled to ground deep within the earth. There was no humor, nor hint of reprimand; Vikirnoff really hadn’t noticed his momentary anger. And that worried Nicolae. He packed Destiny’s wounds with his own saliva and the healing earth, chanting softly as he worked. “She’s lost far too much blood.” He examined the wounds, nasty rips and bite marks, great gaping holes. The vampire had sought to destroy her as painfully as possible.
“That is good for our purposes, Nicolae,” Vikirnoff said. “Instead of killing her outright, they tried to prolong her death, to torment her.” He was collecting herbs from a small cache they had stored in the underground chamber. It took only seconds to light the flames of aromatic candles.
“Her enemies do not know her.” Nicolae’s voice was soft, filled with emotion held tightly in check. “She has lived with pain every moment of her existence. This is nothing to her.” He blinked back unexpected tears as he carefully wiped her face clean. The wounds on her throat and shoulder were horrible to see. “This is nothing to her,” he repeated. His hands were gentle on the gaping wounds in her throat. He leaned close to her, put his lips to her ear. “Stay with me, Destiny. I will follow where you lead this time. Let it be here, in this time and place. Stay in this world.”
Nicolae allowed his body to drop away from him, transforming himself into an immaterial instrument of light and energy. It was much more difficult to shed the emotional storm that whirled within him. He needed to be calm and steady to save her. To heal her wounds. This was the most important task of his life. Her torn, mangled flesh was a mess, and, as always, the vampire had left behind a poison that would quickly destroy the cells around the area of the bites. The decay was spreading quickly.