Christine Feehan - Dark Demon 16

For a moment Natalya's hair and skin banded with stripes and her eyes glowed a stormy opaque. «He was able to get through the safeguards and he hurt you, didn't he? To punish me because I won't come to him when he insists.»

«Show me the new one. Show me what you're using now.»

Razvan was fading from her and Natalya couldn't stop him. Grief intruded. Not for her brother but for Vikirnoff. Her need to touch Vikirnoff's mind, just to know he was alive, was safe. She ached for him, her mind reaching… reaching… but he wasn't there-only a dark pitiless void she seemed to be tumbling into.

«Natalya! The safeguards.» There was desperation in Razvan's voice.

«I told you to take them.» She was so distracted. She needed Vikirnoff. Where was he? Why wasn't he answering her call? Could he be dead?

«No! I'm dead. The hunters killed me and you haven't made me safe. Why won't you make me safe, Natalya? I need the safeguard…»

Natalya woke with a start. Her head was pounding and she looked around trying to remember where she was and what she was doing. Past and present always seemed to come together with a vengeance in her dreams. It was disorienting. She sat in the middle of the floor, knees drawn up, rocking back and forth, with tears streaming down her face. The television was on, but she had no idea what she'd been watching. She didn't remember summoning a dream of her childhood, but she must have just before she'd succumbed to exhaustion. Swearing under her breath, annoyed by her lack of control, she forced herself to look around the room. She should have remained alert, not given in to sleep when enemies surrounded her.

Rubbing her ankle, Natalya looked at the heavy drapes drawn to block out the light. Her

eyes and skin still burned, so she was certain the sun hadn't set yet. She tried to focus on the television, but she couldn't seem to think straight. She loved really old movies with bad special effects and she'd found a channel that played them, but she couldn't seem to keep her mind from straying to Vikirnoff. And that was just plain making her angry.

She gave it up with a little sigh, switching off the set and kicking at the rumpled bed. There had been no maid service in the room and it was still a mess from when Vikirnoff was there. The pillow held his scent and she buried her nose against its softness, inhaling deeply before hugging it to her. «Damn you, Vikirnoff Von Shrieder.» She felt better condemning him out loud.

Usually dreams of her childhood with Razvan soothed her, but grief was inches from her, clawing at her, threatening to choke her. Not grief for her twin brother, long gone from her, but grief for a man she'd barely met. But she knew him. She'd been in his mind and she knew what kind of man he was. Her soul had touched his. Where was he when she needed him so desperately?

«I'll be damned if your stupid binding spell gets the better of me.» He was alive. She knew he was alive. It didn't matter that she had reached out to touch his mind a hundred times over the last few hours and found a dark void, she would not give in to such fantasy. He was merely sleeping the rejuvenating sleep of his kind. She knew what it was, she'd actually studied the healing properties of the various soils in one of her many frenzied periods of gathering information to fill the long, empty hours of her life.

«Maybe I'll have to go to your cave and sit there waiting for you to wake up while I work on the spell to unbind us. Because I don't like this feeling.» Emptiness was a hole eating her alive. «Entolam kuulua, avio palafertiilam. I can figure this out. It isn't that difficult.» She pressed her hands into her churning stomach.

A soft rap on the door startled her. Natalya spun around, looking wildly for her weapons. They were always at her fingertips. Was she so far gone that she'd let her guard down? Vampires might not be able to attack during daylight hours, but they were masters of puppets, ghouls created to do their bidding. And there was always Brent Barstow skulking around. She wasn't in the least bit fooled by his casual attitude. The man was up to no good and that put him in league with the vampires as far as she was concerned.

«Who is it?» She stood to the right of the door, gun in hand, finger on the trigger, safety off. The safeguards should hold, but she believed in being prepared. The tigress rose close to the surface, allowing her to utilize the incredible gift of scent. A man and woman, no sweat to indicate fear or danger, but she didn't let down her guard.

«Jubal and Gabrielle Sanders, ma'am. Your lifemate sent us to watch over you.»

Natalya let her breath out in a long, slow hiss of annoyance as she sagged against the wall. You're an idiot, Vik, sending them here. You know damn well I'll be trying to take care of them instead of the other way around. He couldn't hear her, but it gave her satisfaction to

say it. «I told him I didn't need a baby-sitter, thank you very much. He's flattering himself to think I might miss him.»

«Ma'am. We can't very well stand out here in the hall talking through the door.» There was a small silence. «Well, okay, we could, but we're going to attract a bit of attention eventually.»

«You could just go away,» Natalya said hopefully.

«We have orders from the prince, ma'am. We can't leave.»

«If you call me ma'am one more time, I may just shoot you right through the door,» Natalya said. She sighed. «Just a minute.» It took several minutes to remove the safeguards from the door. Staying to the side, gun rocksteady she took careful aim at the entrance. «Come on in.»

The man entered first. He was tall and stocky with wide shoulders and dark wavy hair. He grinned at her and raised his hands into the air, stepping aside for the woman to enter. Natalya noted he stepped to place his body between the gun and his sister. «This is my sister, Gabrielle. I'm Jubal Sanders. Basically, we're human in-laws to Traian.»

Gabrielle closed the door and slid the bolt into place. «Slavica, the innkeeper and her husband can vouch for us. Slavica and her daughter sometime help us watch Falcon and Sara's children. The children are human and can't go to ground so they need caretakers during the daylight hours.»

«I don't need Slavica to vouch for you, I can read your mind.» It was a lie. The brother and sister had very strong barriers, shields Natalya was certain the prince or Falcon had helped to construct.

Jubal's smile widened at her as if he knew she was lying. «Are you going to shoot us, because I'm beginning to feel like I'm in one of those gangster movies?»

«I'm still deciding,» Natalya said. «I haven't killed anyone today and I don't want to make that a habit. I have to stay in practice.»

«Well at least introduce yourself before you shoot me,» Jubal said, looking around the room, his eyebrow arching upward.

Natalya followed his gaze to all the scorch marks and blackened pieces of cardboard. «Natalya Shonski.» She slid the safety into place on the gun and waved them to chairs. «Thanks for coming, but I'm fine. I don't fall apart all that easy.» She was turning into a first-class liar. Her insides were raw with grief and there was hole burning its way through her throat. She managed a smile. «Vik tends to worry over the silliest things.»

Gabrielle looked around the room, trying to ignore the burn marks everywhere and focus on the brightly colored tapestries. «When we first came here, we stayed at this inn. Our

room had beautiful woven rugs, all in earth tones. This is very red.»

«Isn't it though? I wanted the television and the bathroom so I went with bright,» Natalya explained. «I really feel uncomfortable with putting the two of you out by making you stay with me.»

Jubal shrugged. «You're much easier than the kids. Sara has a million of them. They run me ragged. Okay, the question has to be asked. I'm sorry if this isn't considered polite, but what have you been doing in here?»