Christine feehan - Dark Slayer 20

Shea whirled around. «I can't believe you have done this,» she greeted. «How did you discover this? These life-forms are foreign to me. I've never seen them before. What are they? Where did they come from?»

Gabrielle looked up. «They seem to be abnormally high in iron.» She stood up and crossed the room, a graceful woman. «I have studied all kinds of organisms and this is new to me as well.»

«Which is why I was concerned with just dumping them in the soil,» Ivory explained. «They will spread, and I believe they will eventually destroy all the mutated microbes, but I have not had enough time to determine what else could happen. I do not know the effect on humans or any other species. Plants. Insects. I have no idea.»

«They don't touch the normal microbes,» Shea said. «You're right, we have to be cautious, but I think you may have found our answer. We need you to work with us.»

Ivory forced herself not to back away from the group. She was unused to being the center of attention and certainly was never in such close proximity to people crowding her.

Razvan. She reached to him for reassurance. The moment she did, she was annoyed with herself. She had become dependent on him.

His soft laughter eased the knots in her stomach. He was there instantly, flooding her mind with warmth. As you should be dependent on me. There is still a part of you that would like to run from me.

That is not true. Well, it might be true, but she wasn't admitting it to herself. She was braver than that.

His voice softened. Went tender. I am always with you, Ivory. In your heart and mind. We share the same soul. Always, o jela sielamak-light of my soul.

Ivory forced a smile as she looked at the research team gathered around her. «I will help as soon as I have tried these reversing spells. Before I try this on Syndil, I want to try it on mutated microbes in the soil. If I can come up with a spell to reverse what Xavier has wrought, then I can teach it to all of you. Any Carpathian should be able to use it. It will be a temporary solution until the new organisms do their job and cleanse the soil. And until we can go to the source of the microbes and destroy it for all time.

«The spell will not reverse the mutation,» Ivory warned. «It is only designed to reverse Xavier's dark command. We cannot really tell if it will work until we use it on someone the microbe is already attacking. I need to make certain this will not harm the living, especially a child. I am a little reluctant to try it on Syndil even now.»

A sudden hush fell over the room. Ivory's skin prickled. The hair on the back of her neck and on her arms stood up. Her breath caught as an unfathomable anguish gripped her by the throat. Around the room, she saw the others freeze in their tracks, their eyes widened in horror. Syndil gasped and began to weep. Shea's face lost all color. The test tubes in Gary's hands began to shake while the glass slide in Gabrielle's numb hand fell and shattered on the floor.

For a moment time seemed suspended. Except, Ivory knew it couldn't be true, because she could feel the rapid thud of her heart, pounding inside her chest like a drum. If time had stopped, so, too, would her heart-wouldn't it? Dazed, uncomprehending, yet fighting an inexplicable urge to weep, Ivory reached blindly out to Razvan and felt the solid connection as his fingers closed around hers.

A broken, anguished cry shattered the stillness. Help me! All healers to the cavern! We are losing them.

Gregori, the impervious. Gregori, the all-powerful. Ivory trembled to hear him so desperate, so frantic, and it was clear the others were equally as shaken. Gabrielle and Shea dropped their materials and bolted for the door.

Syndil started to follow, but Ivory grabbed her arm. «What is it? What's happening?» She knew. She didn't want to know. The outpour ing of grief gripped her heart, shredding it, and she knew she was feeling Gregori's emotions.

Tears had filled Syndil's eyes and begun to spill down her cheeks. «We're losing the babies. They cannot stop the birth.»

«God help them.» Ivory covered her mouth with one hand. Her knees were weak and rubbery and she leaned back into Razvan, gripping his arm to keep steady. They had come too late. Far too late. No matter what they learned now, they had not saved the fragile babies.

Vapor shimmered in the room and then Mikhail was there, his powerful presence filling the small space. «We have great need of you now, Ivory. They are slipping away. You are the last hope for my granddaughters.»

«But I have never even tried it on soil, let alone a child,» she protested, her stomach knotting. Razvan. She breathed his name as her talisman.

You will do this.

She shook her head. «Not on an infant. An untried spell. I will have to summon the dark magic in order to reverse what Xavier has wrought. Anything could go wrong.»

Mikhail's face hardened. «It has already gone wrong. You must.»

She forced down the lump threatening to block her throat, grateful for Razvan's supporting arm. «Mikhail . . .» She broke off, swallowing hard. «There's no guarantee this will work-or even that I will not harm them more. Xavier is a powerful adversary. So much could go wrong.»

«You must do this if we have even a small chance of saving them.» Mikhail was implacable. «Everyone believes you are our best hope. Gregori asks this of you.»

Gregori. The man who had fearlessly gone after the four shadow fragments Xavier had placed in Razvan to allow his possession. Gregori hadn't flinched. But infants . . . Ivory shook her head, swallowed hard and sighed.

You will do this, Razvan repeated with complete confidence.

«So be it,» she whispered, hoping Razvan's calm would rub off on her.

«Make whatever preparations you must, but hurry,» Mikhail urged. Then he was gone.

«Razvan,» Ivory said, her voice hoarse with grief and worry. «You know how evil Xavier's spells are. I cannot go into a sacred birthing chamber and call forth the darkness. Anything can happen.» Even as she protested, she used magic for cleansing, rather than her ritual bath, as time was of the essence.

«Nothing you have ever accomplished has been easy, fel ku kuuluaak sivam belso-beloved-but you have done it. This is too important not to try.»

She leaned into him for the briefest of moments and then, gripping his hand, rushed to the birthing cave. The swell of voices held heavy grief, swamping her senses. The crowd parted to allow her through, and her heart pounded. Ivory felt as if she couldn't breathe with so many Carpathians gathered around Gregori and his lifemate, pressing close, as if by their nearness they could in some way keep the babies from slipping away to the next life.

«Gregori! « Savannah screamed her lifemate's name as her body expelled the first tiny life into his hands. She panted heavily as she watched him breathing for their child. «Is she alive? I can't feel her, Gregori. Please tell me she lives.» She buried her fist in the soil as another wave of pain ripped through her.

«I've got her,» Gregori said, but his voice was distant. Filled with grief.

Razvan, I cannot bear to see them lose these children.

Francesca stepped close as Savannah's body shuddered again, her face rippling with pain. Francesca's hands guided the second baby into the world. At once her face went distant, as she, too, breathed for the infant.

You can do this, Ivory, Razvan whispered in her mind, his voice gentle as she stood before Gregori and Savannah and the tiny babies laboring for life. You were born for this moment.

I was born to slay vampires and destroy Xavier. Not for this. Never this.

Like everyone else, she was spellbound, watching Gregori, bloodred tears tracking down his face, holding his tiny daughter in his arms while Shea poured the small stores of soil that Ivory had brought with her into the incubator, on top of existing layers of soil Syndil had already cleansed in preparation for the birth of the twins.