Christine feehan - Dark Slayer 20

He will not give up his fortress easily, Razvan predicted. He has fewer and fewer places to go. He has not had time to fully make this one secure. This is our best chance whether he knows we are coming or not.

Ivory refrained from saying Xavier was expecting two hapless hunters who had inadvertently stumbled upon the bats and probably was joyfully preparing for feasting on Carpathian blood.

Hurry, Ivory, they attack Natalya.

Xavier will order his guardians not to slay them-at least not to slay her. He will want her blood for himself, which gives them a slight advantage, she reassured.

They were close to the bottom of the long tube and could see the bats now. Hundreds of them, with black furry bodies and razor-sharp teeth, claws tipping the toes of their feet and their wings spiked at the tips. Swords swept violently through the mass of bats, slicing heads and bodies, but the sheer numbers were overwhelming. Vikirnoff and Natalya stood back-to-back, faces grim, blood streaking every exposed bit of skin. Both Razvan and Ivory had felt the tear of teeth shredding flesh from their bones and, at the sight of the Carpathians, the haunting memories rose up to taunt them.

Coming in, Ivory warned, using the more ancient common telepathic path that Vikirnoff would recognize. What we are going to do is change the composition of air using our homemade grenades. The fire will burn hot, very intense, and you cannot draw this chemical into your lungs. You will want to panic and go toward the surface, but the fire will race upward, she warned, giving them nearly the same instructions as she had given Razvan when she'd first used her chemical grenades with him.

Razvan reached for his sister, feeling her startle when he used their much older connection, one they had made as children. Fight your way out of the center but stay away from the walls. When we materialize we will use the chemical, and then change back to vapor; do the same instantly, but remember, you will still feel the intense heat.

I understand, Natalya sent back.

Razvan tried not to see the mass of bats attacking her. She looked fierce, her grim face a mask of concentration, her hair striped with the colors of a tigress.

Razvan positioned his body face-to-face with Ivory's. As soon as they materialized, he knew from previous experience, the bats would attack, ripping and tearing at their flesh. Ready, kont o sivanak-heart of a warrior?

Let us get it done, Ivory responded, as calm as always in battle. She could handle nearly any circumstance when it came to fighting without panic; yet when it came to emotion, she wasn't so good at hiding her nerves and vulnerability.

One more thing, fel ku kuuluaak sivam belso-beloved, I love you more than life itself. Now, Razvan added.

She wanted to hold him. Wanted to say it back to him. But he was already materializing and she had to match his rhythm. She burst onto the chamber floor, noting that Razvan's body, while protecting the front of hers, was angled to shield his sister.

The moment they donned their flesh-and-blood bodies, the bats went into a feeding frenzy, the scent of prey driving them insane. They ripped and tore, hurling their bodies at the Carpathians. The wolves roared, heads emerging, paws digging, ready to leap.

Stay! Stay! Ivory ordered frantically.

Raja and Blaez subsided, calling orders to the rest of the pack, although they snapped at the bats, grabbing heads and shaking, snapping necks even as the bats' claws shredded skin. Razvan and Ivory pulled the pins simultaneously. They had only five seconds to get rid of the canisters.

Ivory lobbed her grenade directly into the center of the chamber amid the sea of fighting bats. Some pounced on the canister, trying to bite through it with sharp teeth.

Razvan pulled back his arm to throw, and at least a dozen bats, drawn by the scent of Dragonseeker blood, leapt on him, the weight of their bodies pulling his arm down as he went to throw the oval-shaped canister.

Vikirnoff leapt forward, swinging his sword, sweeping it across the lot of them, missing Razvan by a paper-thin margin. Razvan sucked in his breath as the bodies toppled from his arm, leaving behind torn flesh. More rushed to feed on the open wounds, but he had already let the canister go.

Now! Now! Razvan warned his sister.

All four Carpathians dissolved into vapor. The chamber rocked with the explosion, the air raining bodies of bats and chunks of rock, ice and rotted carcasses, both human and animal. The flash of light was so bright it pierced their eyes despite them being in a different form. The intense heat ate through their natural shields as the composition of air changed to gas. Fire raged up through the chimney, burning through the holes and cracks in the rock, voracious for the air outside.

The ice melted, turning to boiling, hissing steam as the fire raged with orange-red rolling flames, flashing through the bats' burrows and roaring out and through every crack. The external pressure was so extreme, the molecules of their bodies threatened to collapse inward, imploding like the bodies of the bats. All around them, the mutated creatures erupted into hot flames, exploding as if a bomb had touched them, or simply coming apart.

The noise rushed over them, the thundering violence of a volcano erupting as the fire created its own wind so that it howled through the chamber, looking for hapless victims. The inferno was a fiery hell from which there seemed no escape. Vikirnoff and Natalya stayed only because Razvan and Ivory did, resisting the urge to try to rise to the surface and outrun the conflagration. The rock walls of the chimney blazed an ominous red, but the flames died out, leaving a hideous, blackened flood behind.

Burned carcasses and debris floated in the water pouring down from the melted ice and snow. Ivory led the way out through the chimney and away from the foul stench, taking care to avoid the glowing walls. They turned a corner and the tunnel widened into a large chamber. Ivory held up her hand, halting. The others crowded around her.

«What in the world made you decide to go down the bats' hole?» she asked. She didn't need to look after Razvan's sister, especially if the woman and her lifemate were foolish enough to go chasing Xavier's guardians into their burrows.

Razvan put a restraining hand on Ivory's shoulder, recognizing the cool contempt in her voice. She was standing up for him against the two people who she felt should have believed in him. Some of their wounds were not made by the carnivores.

Ivory took a breath and instantly regretted it as she drew the stench of burnt flesh into her lungs. Now that she took a good look at the two, she recognized the wounds on Vikirnoff. «The undead.» She answered her own question. «You followed a vampire.»

Vikirnoff nodded. «A master vampire. He dropped into the hole. We knew what we faced, but believed we had a good chance to get through the bats, given they had a fresh kill. They rarely get too far from it without feeding first.»

She was grateful he knew that much about the bats. «Xavier has taken up residence here. It is not a place you want to be.»

«Did you come here looking for us?» Natalya asked, gripping her sword tighter and looking around the ice cave. «I should have known the moment I came in that Xavier would be drawn to this place.»

«You were occupied elsewhere,» Razvan pointed out. «You can get out through the tube. That entrance should be clear now.»

Vikirnoff and Natalya exchanged a long look. Vikirnoff cleared his throat. He refused to look away from Razvan. «I will be the first to admit I was wrong about you, Razvan. Natalya suffered greatly when she believed you had turned vampire and had allied yourself with Xavier. We both realize Xavier possessed your body and wanted the world to brand you traitor.»