Christine Feehan: Dark Descent (Dark Series - Book 11)

Traian!

She reached out to him. Touched him. Felt his immediate reassurance. He had not discovered the resting places of the vampires. They had not gone to ground in the cave of the wizards.

“Joie?” Gabrielle touched her hand. “Are you all right?”

Joie looked across the table at her and managed a smile. “I just wish I was with him.” She didn’t need to say his name.

A dark shadow passed over the inn, moving fast, so that for a moment silence fell in the dining room and people looked at one another uneasily. Gary reacted instantly. He caught Gabrielle’s wrist, rising so fast his chair fell backward. “Come with me, right now.” He tugged Gabrielle to her feet and began to weave his way through the tables, dragging her with him.

Jubal looked at his meal with regret as Joie smacked the back of his head. “It might be your last meal if you don’t move it,” she cautioned.

“It might be my last meal anyway,” he groused. But he was on his feet and rushing after Gary and Gabrielle.

“Call him back, Joie,” Gary ordered over his shoulder. “Call Traian and get him back here. We don’t have much time.”

Joie didn’t hesitate. There was too much urgency in Gary’s voice.

Traian. They are here. The undead are here at the inn. Gary says it’s urgent that you return as quickly as possible. Do as Gary says. He will know what to do until I am able to return. They cannot get their hands on any of you. Go for the heart if you have to defend yourself. They often inject poison into the bloodstream, and they are great deceivers and shape-shifters. But ego is their weakness. One of their few weaknesses.

Gary shoved open the door to his room. “Quick, get inside and stuff everything you can find in the cracks around the doors and windows.” He tossed Gabrielle shirts as he hurried to the door leading to the verandah. “We’ll have to hole up in here. They’ll try to call us out, using compulsion. Jubal, there’s a small CD player on the desk. Pick some obnoxious music from the collection and turn it up loud. Very loud.”

Joie locked the doors behind her and shoved the dresser against it. “The keyhole, Gabrielle—stuff something in that as well.” If vampires could do what she had seen Traian do, stream through tiny spaces as vapor, she didn’t see how they were going to keep them out. “So why are they here?”

“Most likely because you are,” Gary answered. “The surest way to bring a Carpathian male out into the open is to go after his lifemate. They’ll want one of you to invite them in. If you hear a voice talking sweetly, it is a deceiver. Put cotton in your ears, put your hands over your ears. Do anything to keep from listening. If one of you observes another going to the door or even talking, inviting someone into the room, stop him, even if it means knocking him out.”

Shadows passed across the window, moving back and forth as if searching for something. The wind picked up so that the tree branches scraped against the inn with a sickening screech. Clouds spun and boiled, casting hideous apparitions across the moon. A stain spread across the sky, slowly blotting out the stars, creeping insidiously until nearly all light was extinguished. The wind howled against the windows, slammed into the verandah door, carried with it voices. Soft. Cunning. Sweet and enticing. Pleading voices. Cries for help. A woman called out just beyond the door, begging for entrance, her voice rising on the wind.

“Joie?” Gabrielle looked to her sister for guidance.

Gary was close to her and he put his arm around her protectively. “Traian will be here soon. We can hold out until then.”

Jubal cranked up the CD player so that it blared loudly. Something grabbed the door handle and shook it so hard, the door rattled and splintered. Joie leapt to place her body between the door and her brother and sister. “Gary, get them out of here,” Joie ordered.

“Believe me, we’re safer inside this room than anywhere else right now. And there’s less danger if we stick together,” Gary said. He took up a position at her side. “Jubal, watch the windows. If you see anything that looks like smoke or fog trying to get in through a crack, you have to stuff in a shirt, the blankets, anything at all to keep it out.”

The door was struck again from outside, hard enough to shake the frame. Gabrielle clapped her hand over her mouth to keep from crying out.

“You can’t come in,” Gary said, not raising his voice. “You have not been invited and you can’t gain entrance into this room.”

Maniacal laughter greeted Gary’s calm words. A great weight thudded against the door and began a steady pushing. The wood began to bulge inward.

In the shape of an owl, Traian streaked across the darkened sky. Joie had no hope of fighting off a master vampire, even with Gary’s vast knowledge of the undead. The most they could hope for was to delay the vampires until he arrived. The wind increased in speed so that gusts hurled branches and twigs into the air like missiles. A funnel cloud whirled and spun ominously, from ground to sky, a dark, turbulent monster leaping with greedy outspread fingers toward him. He flew into an invisible barrier, hit the obstacle hard and plummeted toward the ground below.

The black mass stretched wide, forming a ghastly head with a gaping mouth and long, bony arms, reaching for the body of the owl as it tumbled toward the ground. Traian shifted into dark droplets of vapor, merging with the black mass, spreading thin to avoid detection. The tornado dropped from the heavens as if it had never been, leaving behind an eerie calm and a clear sky.

A tangle of silver fell from the tree branches, a fine solid blanket of woven strands. Traian was already shifting again, landing in a crouch on the ground. The silver hit his arm but slid off, landing inches from his feet. Pain streaked through his body. Angry red welts rose immediately on his skin where his flesh had come into contact with the glittering silver. Thousands of stinging insects flew at his face, a solid wall of them, programmed to find and attack. Traian dissolved to avoid them, sliding back into the forest to cling to a tree branch in the shape of a frog.

He reached out with his senses, trying to locate his opponent. Master vampires rarely revealed themselves, especially in battle. Traian knew the undead had deliberately drawn him back to the inn with the hope of trapping and destroying him.

I am in a fight for all of our lives. If you can avoid a confrontation, do so. If not, always go for the most dangerous vampire and go for the heart. Nothing else will put them down. Delay. Stall. Try to avoid a battle.

He waited, his heart beating a little too hard, fear eating at his mind until she answered. Her voice was calm and steady, even confident.

Don’t think about us little mortal people, Traian. We can handle the dead guys. You just don’t get a single scratch on you or I’ll be upset. And you’ve never seen me upset.

The relief nearly overwhelmed him. She was unhurt.

I have learned the real meaning of fear. Always, I have gone into battle with nothing to lose. I do not much care for the feeling. Well, it’s mutual, Traian, so don’t go feeling sorry for yourself. I’ve got the ugly guys at the door, so I’m going to have to let you go.

Joie made him want to laugh. She sounded like she was talking to him on the phone and a neighbor had dropped by to borrow a cup of sugar.

Do not get overconfident.

He couldn’t help cautioning her, although he knew it would annoy her.

A walk in the park. You worry about yourself.

He could see the insects scattering, returning, flying through the trees in search of any sign of him. And the bugs always returned to swarm around the same rotted trunk of a fallen tree.