Christine Feehan - Dark Demon 16

Natalya recovered her pack and checked her weapons, avoiding looking at the blackened remains of the serpents. «I'm the one under compulsion. Maybe someone brought me here to kill me.»

«Too much trouble, Natalya. Why not make it easy and kill you when you are asleep somewhere? Why lead you to the mountains, to this particular cave?» Vikirnoff stuck his head in the crack. «This is very narrow, but it widens a bit once past this section.» He thinned his body and crawled inside the jagged crack.

Natalya glanced at the sky as the wind rose in a shriek of rage, of protest. Clouds boiled angrily and inside their depths she could see dark figures moving. Smoky. Gray. Transparent. She closed her eyes briefly and sent up a silent prayer the clouds were not

spawning shadow warriors for her to fight again. She'd been very lucky in sending the warrior back to realm of the dead, but it didn't mean it would happen again. She knew in the realm of magick spells could be altered easily.

«Hand me your pack.» Vikirnoff reached back for it.

«I'll carry it. I prefer to have everything I need close.» Natalya followed him into the cave. It was so narrow, the sides scraped her back as she slipped through the opening and made her way into the slightly larger hall. Although the tunnel was wider, she had to stoop, then crawl, as she followed Vikirnoff deeper into the cavern.

Behind them the rocks rolled out of the pattern and scattered around the cave entrance. The jagged crack slammed closed with a grinding of rock, leaving them trapped inside the mountain. Natalya treated Vikirnoff to a litany of curses.

«Can you see?»

«I have excellent vision in the dark,» she replied. The ceiling dropped lower and lower until she had no choice but to move forward on her stomach. «Those snakes had just better stay outside.» She was so thankful he was there with her. Her nerve endings still prickled with awareness of the spiked teeth coming so close to her hand.

«We will be all right,» he assured.

«I didn't say anything,» she objected.

«Your heart is pounding. Listen to the rhythm of mine and match the beat.»

Natalya did so, allowing her heart to settle into a more natural rhythm. «You didn't tell me what you found in my memories. I dislike not being in control and I can't overcome the compulsion to come to this cave. Believe me, I've tried. I'm a firm believer in avoiding trouble if at all possible and this place is definitely trouble, but I couldn't stop myself from coming here. That really disturbs me.»

«I have to agree, I do not like it either, but I feel the need very strong in you. It is why I did not forbid you to do this.»

She ground her teeth together. «If I were you, I'd choose my words very carefully. I'm behind you with a knife in my hand. If you plan on spending any time at all around me, strike words like 'forbid' and 'allow' from your vocabulary.»

«Those words offend you in some way?»

«You know very well they do and you probably use them on purpose just to get a rise out of me.»

«It works very well.»

«Well, stop. I'm being serious. We're crawling through this mountain with mutant snakes with big teeth coming through the ground at us, so how about a truce.»

«I can feel cool air,» he reported. «It has to be coming from a subterranean chamber.»

«Is it cold enough to freeze snakes?»

«I will not allow a snake to attack you again. Should one try I will forbid it to do so.» There was laughter in his voice.

She felt a tug on her heart. She'd never heard him really laugh before. «Ha ha, you're suddenly a comedian, and not a very good one at that.» She could listen to his voice forever when he sounded like that. She cleared her throat. «Are you going to tell me what you found in my memories? Or was it too awful?»

Vikirnoff heard the small note of fear. «The memories of your grandfather are very confusing, Natalya. I cannot tell if they are dreams, or actual memories any more than you can. There is little doubt someone has tampered with your memories, but I cannot tell why or how. Any trail of Xavier is dull, veiled or ended abruptly in a dark void. I found little of your childhood with your brother. In fact all of your younger years are fragments of memories. I do not know what it means, but we will find out.» He projected confidence into his voice, knowing she had been disturbed by her lack of recollections for some time. «What happens when you try to remember things?»

«I feel upset, nervous, you know, and that's just not like me. I get an instant headache and my stomach hurts.» She knew it was a planted reaction, she had known all along, but it was good to be able to confirm it with someone. More than that, there was comfort in being able to discuss her fears with someone else.

Vikirnoff paused and glanced back at her. «You have obviously been suspicious that your grandfather has been alive for some time and you believe that he has something to do with your memory loss.» He chose his words carefully. «If he has deceived you and tampered with your memory, why do you persist in believing the Carpathian people are just as evil as the vampire?»

«I've been told all my life Carpathians would murder me just for bearing the symbol of the dragon.»

«Who told you?» Vikirnoff persisted. «You say all of your life, yet your memories are fragmented. Is it possible the warning is something that was planted in you as well?» He kept his voice as neutral as possible.

«I am certain my father is the one to tell me this first.»

«But you do not know, Natalya. The symbol on your body is of a very old and revered Carpathian lineage. No Carpathian would harm a Dragonseeker.» Vikirnoff ducked his head and made his body smaller and more compact. «This tunnel has sharp angles making it

difficult to maneuver,» he warned. «Watch your head.»

Natalya pulled her head out of the way of a low hanging rock. «They wouldn't? Then why would a hunter murder my brother?»

«It had to be a vampire posing as a hunter. No Carpathian would harm someone bearing the mark of the Dragonseeker,» he reiterated hoping if he said it enough times she would at least begin to entertain the idea that the warning could have been planted.

He whistled softly as the hall opened into a larger chamber. «This opens up into a much larger gallery. You'll be able to stand up straight.» He turned back to help her. The drip of water from every wall was constant. Almost with the rhythm of a heartbeat, as if the caverns were alive. Vikirnoff felt uneasy, feeling the weight of eyes on them, yet scanning, he could find no danger to them. Something guarded the caves, yet he could not ferret out the unseen sentinel with his increasingly powerful probing.

«My memories,» she said again as she studied the finger-like formations surrounding a large abyss that yawned open in the middle of the chamber. «That looks a long way down.» She lifted her gaze to his face with some dismay. «We're going down there, aren't we?»

«You are the leader of the expedition,» he pointed out. «What direction does your tuning fork indicate?»

She heaved a sigh. «Down. We have to go down. Into that.» She pointed to the black hole below them. It was icy cold and she shivered. «I need to know now, Vikirnoff, what else did you find?» If Vikirnoff had recovered valuable information that in some way was damaging to her family, she could always remove his memory of it.

«You believe you can erase my memories?»

The distaste in his voice was a severe chastisement. Natalya hadn't meant for him to catch that thought, and it really bothered her that she couldn't always feel him merged with her. «I don't mean it like that.»

«How else if not disrespect? You want my help. You are willing to use me, but you have every intention of tampering with my memories.»