Dark Song

She couldn’t answer. She didn’t know how to answer. She felt his withdrawal and then she was alone. He was gone from her mind, and she’d never felt so isolated as she did in that moment. She’d been alone for hundreds of years and with him only for that rising, and yet having him merged with her, even staying in the background, made her feel safe. She hadn’t known how much he was giving her until he was gone.

His physical presence was gone as well and she found herself sitting alone in the chair. She kept her eyes closed tightly and her hands clenched so tightly on the arms of the chair her knuckles hurt. She knew when his brethren merged with her, but it didn’t alleviate the terrible emptiness she felt. They shifted almost as one to the back of her mind and stayed so still she couldn’t feel them in her. She didn’t want to feel them there. They weren’t Ferro.

Her heart began to accelerate. She tasted fear in her mouth. Thunder roared in her ears. There was no understanding the passage of time because each second without Ferro was like years moving at a snail’s pace.

The sound of ugly laughter crept into her mind, one slow note at a time, as if the sender wanted to prolong the agony of suspense. The noise was grating and harsh, scraping deliberately along nerve endings, a vile, sickening sound meant to hurt—and it did.

He fears me, Elisabeta. Your magnificent lifemate runs like a coward from me, leaving you behind to face your punishments. You have accrued so many now with your stubbornness. Your friend Julija. The mage. I will tear the child from her body first and feed it to my puppets while you watch. While she watches, knowing you caused her the loss by your stubborn behavior.

Sergey sneered and threatened by turns, his voice quickly deteriorating more and more into a growling animalistic noise that could barely be recognized.

Elisabeta put her hands over her ears to try to drown out the ugly threats that kept getting worse and viler if she could even make them out, but it was impossible because they were coming from inside her head. In desperation, she reached out, hoping her lifemate had told her the truth.

Ferro. She couldn’t say anything else. Just his name.

Instantly, he poured into her mind. Strong. An untamed warrior. Utterly confident and invincible. He filled every lonely place in her mind, every tiny crack Sergey might think he could slip in and hide. He strode in, bigger than life, taking over, a fierce hunter few dared to cross. As Ferro merged with her, his brethren joined them, tracking the master vampire as he rushed to try to evade them, throwing himself out of Elisabeta’s mind.

Ferro and the other hunters followed. “He is in the room. He cannot leave with the safeguards intact. Be careful, he can strike at us, even from a distance. We need to shed light on him. It is only a small replica of him, but it is enough to diminish him if we destroy it. I will shield Elisabeta.”

She knew Sergey would try to hurt her by going after Ferro. She was so grateful she had insisted Julija leave the house. By weaving the safeguards, they had contained Sergey’s shadowy replica there in the room. She couldn’t stop shaking, her gaze darting around the room, forgetting to be overwhelmed by the amount of space.

The Carpathian males waved their arms to cast a brilliant light throughout the entire room, leaving no corner with so much as a shadow in it. Ferro stood in the center of the room as the ancient warriors spread out. He spread his arms wide, encompassing the entire room.

“Muonìak te avoisz te.” His deep voice was commanding, pouring centuries of sheer strength and control into his tone. Few could actually command a vampire to reveal himself, let alone a master vampire, but it was impossible to ignore Ferro’s absolute authority.

At once a dark shadowy form began to creep toward Ferro, stretching across the wall and then the floor in the shape of a tiny insect that began to grow as it slid down the wall and touched the hardwood floor. At once, Sandu, Dragomir and Andor hurled wooden darts carved from ancient wood, pinning the shadowy feet to the wall.

The figure’s mouth gaped wide in a silent scream. The empty eye sockets turned toward Elisabeta where she huddled as small as possible in the chair. Ferro took one step to place himself between the shadow figure and his lifemate so that it was impossible for the thing to see her. Benedek, Petru and Nicu formed a wall behind Ferro, standing shoulder to shoulder, making it doubly impossible for the shadow to even lay eyes on Elisabeta.