He brushed a kiss along the top of her head. “Vampires make puppets. Fen refers to them as ghouls but we’ll call them zombies just for you.”
“Let’s go hunt the assassins. They’ve got Dimitri and Skyler pinned down.”
“Dimitri doesn’t strike me as the type of man to ever be pinned down,” Branislava replied with a little sniff of disdain. “By the time we get there, he’ll have taken care of business.”
They hurried through the forest toward the coordinates Dimitri sent them. As they approached the area, they slowed. Zev was pleased that Branislava did so entirely on her own, not waiting to take her cue from him. More and more, he found he was comfortable with her hunting with him.
He signaled her to go low. He went high, making his way into the canopy of the trees like a large lizard clinging to the bark. His body took on the coloration of everything around him so that he blended perfectly with his surroundings. Smelling blood, he wasn’t at all surprised to find the first body lying at the base of a wide tree trunk. The head sat on the chest and a silver stake stuck straight up through the chest. The arm of the dead Lycan was turned up, exposing the small intricate circle on the inner wrist. This man had been a member of the Sacred Circle, a religious-like sect many of the Lycans believed in.
Nice work. Have you located his partner?
Not yet. I’m working on that.
I’ll move clockwise. Branka’s on the ground searching in the same direction, using a grid pattern.
Skyler will take the opposite way to Bronnie, Dimitri said, reluctance in his voice.
Zev!
Branislava broke in, her voice wavering with distress, but she kept their path shrouded from the Lycans and he couldn’t help but be proud of her.
The wolf pack is returning. The alpha almost stepped on me. I tried to send him away, but he smelled blood.
Zev cursed under his breath. The last thing they needed was to mix in a healthy, territorial wolf pack that could be used against them.
Do your best to warn them of the danger. That was all they could do. If the wolf pack didn’t listen, it was on their alpha, not Branislava, although he knew she would blame herself if something happened to the other wolves. He mentally braced himself for the event that she would want to save them and he would have to tell her to let them go.
Zev moved to the next tree via the long, sweeping branches touching the tree he was in. He took a careful look around. His breath caught in his throat. His heart gave a wild leap of fear. Skyler was a good distance away, lying prone in the vegetation, a few bushes covering her, but she was exposed and a good sniper could easily kill her.
Skyler, take cover, he warned abruptly, fear skittering down his spine, everything in him straining to protect her, but even his incredible speed, leaping from branch to branch was not going to get him there in time.
A shot rang out and her body jerked. A small red geyser went up in the middle of the back of her head.
6
Zev expected to feel her death, just as all Carpathians had the first time she had been killed by the Lycans, but there was nothing at all, only emptiness.
Another shot rang out and then a third, both bullets going into the body on the ground. Clearly she was already dead, but the sniper wanted to make certain. Even as Zev watched in a kind of horror, Skyler’s body jerked, the arms stretching out stiffly, the feet drumming the ground. She rose with multiple twitches and lurches, coming upright eventually, her raised arms stiffly out in front of her.
Her body turned as if it were a compass pointing the way to her killer. She lurched forward. Blood ran down her face through the exit wound in her right cheek. More blood stained the front of her vest. Each step she took was laborious, her body shaking with spasms and twitches. Her eyes went wide and round.
Zev’s churning gut settled and he passed a hand down his face, scrubbing away the fear of losing Skyler to replace that intense emotion with sheer laughter. Skyler watched movies with Tatijana, didn’t she?
It was nearly impossible to tear his gaze away from the spectacle of horror as Skyler continued her arduous journey through the forest toward the tree where the sniper had lain in wait for her. Another bullet hit her in her left eye. Her head jerked backward and stayed in the position for a few seconds while her feet stumbled back rapidly in an effort to regain her balance.
The brush to Skyler’s left parted, and Branislava emerged, her face slack, mouth drooping, arms raised in front of her. She had the same jerky steps as Skyler had, as she reeled forward. Part of her arm fell to the ground and some of the flesh on her face sloughed off. She didn’t look right or left but wobbled in the direction Skyler had been pointing out.