He hissed, an ugly, frightening sound, a promise of brutal retaliation.
Sara frowned at him, sudden knowledge in her eyes. “You need me to find something for you. Something you can’t do yourself. You killed everybody I loved, yet you think I will help you. I don’t think so. Instead I intend to destroy you.”
“You do not have any idea of the pain I can inflict on you. The things I can make you do. I will derive great pleasure in bending you to my will. You have no idea how powerful I am.” The vampire’s parody of a smile exposed stained, jagged teeth. “I will enjoy seeing you suffer as you have been a plague to me for so long. Do not worry, my dear, I will keep you alive a very long time. You will find the tomb of the master wizard and the book of knowledge that will give me untold power. I have acquired several of his belongings, and you will know where the book is when you hold these items. Humans never know the true treasures for what they are. They lock them up in museums few people ever visit, and none see what is truly valuable. They believe that wizards and magic are mere fairy tales, and they live in ignorance. Humans deserve to be ruled with an iron fist. They are cattle, nothing more. Prey only, food for the gods.”
“Perhaps that is your impression of humans, but it is a false one. Otherwise how could I have evaded you for fifteen years?” Sara asked mildly. “I am not quite so insignificant as you would like me to believe.”
“How dare you mock me!” The vampire hissed, his features contorting with hatred as he suddenly looked around warily. “How is it you are alone? Are your keepers so inept they would allow you to walk around unprotected?”
“Why would you think they are not guarding me? They are all around me.” She sounded truthful, sincere.
His eyes narrowed and he pointed one daggerlike fingernail at her. Had she denied it, he would have been far more wary, but she was too quick to give the hunters away. “Do not try my patience. No Carpathian hunter would use his lifemate to bait a trap. He would hide you deep in the earth, coward that he is, knowing I am too powerful to stop.” He laughed softly, the sound a hideous screech. “It is your own arrogance that has caused your downfall. You ignored his orders and came out into the night without his knowledge or consent. That is a weakness of women. They do not think logically, always whining and wanting their way.” His dagger-sharp finger beckoned her. “Come to me now.” He used his mind, a sharp, hard compulsion designed to hurt, to put tremendous pressure on the brain even as it demanded obedience.
Sara continued to sit serenely, a slight frown on her soft mouth. She sighed and shook her head. “That has never worked on me before. Why should it now?”
Cursing, the vampire raised his arm, then changed his mind. The vibration of power would have given him away immediately to the Carpathian hunters. He stalked toward her, covering the short distance between them, his strides purposeful, his face a mask of rage at her impertinence.
Sara sat perfectly still and watched him come to her. The vampire bent his tall frame, extending his dagger-tipped bony fingers toward her. Sara exploded into action, only it was Falcon’s fist slamming hard into the chest cavity of the undead, as he returned to his true form. As Falcon did so, the vampire, with a look of sheer disbelief, stumbled back so that the fist barely penetrated his chest plate. Overhead, Jacques, in the shape of the owl, launched himself from the branches and flew straight at the undead, talons outstretched. The small fox grew in stature, shape-shifting into the tall, elegant frame of a male hunter, and Mikhail’s hands were already weaving a binding spell to prevent the vampire from shifting or vanishing.
Pressed from the air, caught between the hunters and unable to flee, the vampire launched his own attack, risking everything in the hopes of defeating the one Carpathian whose death might force the other two to pause. Calling on every ounce of power and knowledge he possessed, he slammed his fist into Falcon’s elbow, shattering bone. Then he whirled away, his body replicating itself over and over until there were a hundred clones of the undead. Half the clones initiated attacks using stakes or sharp-pointed spears; the others fled in various directions.