Christine Feehan - Dark Demon 16

She jolted into full consciousness with the sound of her cry still echoing in her ears. Tears spilled from her eyes and her breath came in great anguished sobs. «This can't be happening. This can't be happening.» She pressed the back of her hand against her trembling mouth. Her stomach lurched and she crawled away from Vikirnoff on her hands and knees and was sick in the corner of the cave.

He woke instantly, moving with his preternatural speed, kneeling beside her, hand on her back, his body pressed against hers. «What is it? Tell me what has caused this distress.» Only an hour or so had passed, and the lethargy did not have him in its grip.

«A dream.» She sank into him, shivering with cold, wanting his arms around her. «Only it wasn't my dream. It hasn't been my dream for a long time only I didn't know. I didn't understand.»

Vikirnoff wrapped his arms around her tightly, pulling her into the shelter of his body. He rocked her gently, feeling her pain, a terrible hurt that couldn't be comforted. «Tell me, ainaak enyem.» His voice was infinitely gentle.

Natalya was grateful he didn't probe into her mind. She felt raw. Betrayed. Ashamed. Was it the legacy of her mage blood? Was it possible her whole family was so tainted? A small sob escaped before she could choke it back. She huddled closer to Vikirnoff while he rocked her, stroking her hair and holding her close to him.

«He's alive.»

«Xavier? We knew that.»

She shook her head, tightened her fingers around his wrist, needing to hold onto his solid strength while her world shattered around her. «Not Xavier. Razvan. He's alive. He's the Troll King.» Her hand crept down to rub her ankle. «And that means he's in league with Xavier and Maxim. He's in league with vampires.»

Vikirnoff brushed the top of her hair with a kiss and rubbed his cheek against the back of her head in an effort to soothe her. «How do you know this?»

«Remember when we were in the cave and Maxim attacked me, was able to get into my head so easily? My safeguards were gone. You replaced them, not me. You wove a different thread through my mind, not one I've ever used.»

«How does that make him alive?» Pain radiated off of her in waves but all Vikirnoff could do was hold her, feeling utterly helpless in the face of her anguish. All of his centuries of education, all of his vast power could not prepare him for this moment when she needed him the most. He could only hold her to him and feel her terrible grief.

«My dreams have always been of my childhood with him. It was the only time we were together. We separated to be safe from Xavier, but we'd meet in our dreams and share information. We did that for years. After he died, I summoned the dreams and they would repeat and it would comfort me. But somewhere along the line the dreams started changing. I don't even remember when. We would talk about things pertinent now, in this time. I just assumed it was because I was lonely and I wanted to share my thoughts about things so the dreams changed to suit me.»

«That's logical, Natalya. Things occurring during the day that prey on our minds often will creep into dreams. At least that's what I've read.»

She shook her head, her eyes dark with pain. «It wasn't like that. He would ask me questions about experiments just like in the old days, but these were new ones.»

«The challenges. You said you were challenged to make things work. I thought Xavier challenged you.»

«It was Razvan. Razvan has been using me, for I don't know how long. It's why I can't remember things. Not Xavier. He didn't have my blood.» A sob escaped, torn from her throat, the sound piercing Vikirnoff like a knife. «When I was a child, Razvan protected me from Xavier. He took the punishments and he went to the laboratories. He came up with ideas, but I figured out how to do them and gave Razvan the information. It was how we prevented him from receiving Xavier's punishments. Xavier thought Razvan was the one who had the natural abilities. We tricked him for years into thinking that.» She wiped at the tears running down her face; the pain was so deep she felt as if her brother had torn out her heart. She pressed her hand there, trying to still the agony.

«And you believe somewhere over the last few years, Xavier managed to recruit Razvan to his side?» Vikirnoff kept his voice strictly neutral. Natalya was so devastated and he was helpless in the face of her suffering. He snapped his teeth together hard, rage building in spite of his effort to be calm. His arms tightened. He wanted to take away all of her pain, protect her from any further hurt, but Natalya was not a woman to wrap in cotton. She would face this in her way. On her own terms.

«He had to have. I don't know how. I don't even know why. Living a long time without happiness sucks. Why would either of them want that?»

His arms tightened, sheltering her even closer to him. «I have no idea. But are you certain, Natalya? Is it possible you really were discussing your everyday thoughts in your dreams?»

«You provided the safeguards and he couldn't reach me. He couldn't track me. That's why the Troll King didn't show up when you were fighting the vampires. It was so strange that he wasn't there.» She raked her fingers through her hair in sheer agitation. «That bugged me. He'd been there every other time. He didn't have the advantage of being able to read my mind. He couldn't find me.»

«Because I used a completely different safeguard, one unfamiliar to him.»

«That first morning, after the Troll King marked me and I brought you to my room, he knew. You were already able to get past all my shields, which by the way, are incredibly strong, but Razvan had removed them. That's how the shadow warrior was able to get in. I set the safeguards in the room, not you. And that's why I didn't sense him in the ground, even when he was attacking me in the cave.» Again she rubbed her ankle. «I was only aware of the actual attack after the poison was already on my leg.»

«And when we were running down the stairs in the cave, I sensed him running parallel to us, but he confused you, making you believe he was under us.»

Natalya nodded her head, trying not to shake with the sudden cold settling into the very bones of her body. «He's alive, Vikirnoff. And he's orchestrating something very bad here.»

«And he and the vampires want the book your father stole. Xavier and Razvan need the book to complete their plans.»

«But my father hid it from them. And Razvan knows I can touch objects and see things so they've been waiting until the right moment to acquire the book in order to proceed.» She pressed her fingertips into her aching temples. «I provided them with the way to do this.» She tapped her ankle. «Razvan challenged me and I made it happen. He used my own work against me. How ironic is that?»

«I am sorry, ainaak enyem, I know how much you love him.» He held her tightly, breathing for her, feeling the pain knifing through her heart and praying he wouldn't have to

be the one to kill her brother.

«I know I'm right, Vikirnoff. He'll come after us with everything he has now. He knows that I know. I didn't mean to give myself away, I was just so shocked.» She spread her hands out in front of her. «I'm so sorry. If only I'd thought to play along with him. I could have gotten us information.»

Vikirnoff took her hand, pressed a kiss into her palm, her knuckles, the tips of her fingers. «Do not apologize. Not now, not ever. Your reaction is entirely justified.»

«But he'll try to kill you.»

«He has been trying to kill me.» He smiled against the nape of her neck. «You thought about killing me. I seem to bring that out in people.»

She tried to smile, appreciating that he would make such an effort with her, but she couldn't get past how obtuse she'd been. «I should have handled it better.»