Dark Song

“The call?” Ambrus prompted, gliding a step closer. His eyes had taken on a red glow. His arms dropped low, giving him the appearance of harmlessness, his fingers spread wide, but his nails had lengthened just a tiny bit and sharpened to lethal points. He tapped his index finger on his thigh, a subtle sign few would catch.

“Two women came to the monastery. Both had gifts and were able to tell the brethren that our lifemates were alive in this century. Naturally, we once more set out looking.”

Ambrus lifted one hand to his angular jaw and scratched. “You still believe in such a myth, Ferro? That is how the prince keeps you tied to him. You should know better. I always thought you smarter than that.” The finger tapped again.

Behind Ferro and to his right, a leaf whispered as something brushed against it. Ambrus slid his foot an imperceptible quarter of an inch forward, much like the stalk of a leopard.

“I believe because I did find her, Ambrus. It is no myth. You know Andor found his lifemate. I have found mine.”

Ambrus froze. He shook his head slowly. “This is impossible. Not for one such as you. They say Zacarias De La Cruz also found a lifemate. We all know this to be impossible. It is simply a trick to make us believe the Malinov brothers lied to us.”

“What would I gain by telling you I have found my lifemate?”

A look of absolute cunning crept over Ambrus’s heavy features, giving him that animalistic look that further warned Ferro that this man thought and fought with the skills of both hunter and animal. “It matters little your intention, Ferro. You walked into an ambush and I bid you good luck surviving, although you seem to have proven your skills in battle time after time these long centuries. It will be interesting to see how you fare against my pack of very hungry dogs. I like to keep them on edge so they fight all the harder for their reward.”

Ferro smiled, started to give a small courteous bow, and Ambrus attacked, rushing him. Simultaneously, the master vampire’s two servants converged from either side, talons like the harpy eagle reaching for his belly and eyes to rip and gouge. Three more of the pack leapt down from above, straight at his back and head, their intention to drive him forward onto their master’s fist so he could wrench the beating heart out of Ferro’s chest and be done with the fight before it ever truly began.

Ferro, the bait to draw out the entire pack, dissolved into mist and went down, not up, going low between the legs of the master vampire and coming up behind him. Sandu, Petru, Fane, Aleksi and Dragomir surrounded the master vampire and his pack. The last three ancients, all brethren from the monastery, had arrived to join in the hunt against the master vampires.

Ferro slammed his fist straight through Ambrus’s back. Ferro was a big man and enormously strong. The blow shattered bones and drove through muscle, half turning the vampire toward him. Ambrus tried to reach him with his arms, curling back toward his opponent while all around him his servants fought for their lives against battle-experienced Carpathian hunters.

These were not men concerned with ego or whether or not anyone noticed how many individual kills they made, or even if they fought the most difficult of the vampires. They simply sought to remove the vampire from the world. That was the sole purpose of the Carpathian hunters.

Plants erupted beneath Ferro’s feet, long, hungry, eel-like tubes with teeth, latching on to his legs, attempting to drag him beneath the ground, wrenching at his body so hard the creatures yanked him away from Ambrus, allowing the master vampire to stagger free. Black acid coated Ferro’s arm and hand, eating at his flesh, while the hungry creatures sawed at his legs, continually trying to pull him back toward their wormhole.

Ferro reached toward the sky with his uninjured hand and lightning responded, slamming into the creatures’ bodies right where they emerged from the hole, slicing them cleanly in two. At the same time, he bathed his injured arm in the spray of white-hot energy, cleaning the acid from it, removing the vampire’s blood to prevent it from eating its way to the bone.

As the creatures dropped away from his legs, Ferro snapped the lightning whip at Ambrus’s head, dropping loops of sizzling-hot energy around his neck, leashing him to prevent him from shifting and getting away. With a snarl, Ambrus turned back to face him, the coils of lightning slipping around his entire body, spinning, holding him in place, exposing him as he truly was, not as he preferred to appear.