Her hand cupped his cheek, her thumb feathering a caress over his lips. “The hounds are at the front door.”
His mouth skimmed hers. “You be careful, Destiny. Do this right. You do not have much time. I will need you on your feet and ready to go. They must be kept from this chamber if possible. I will meet them above.”
“Go.” She squeezed his fingers, let her hand fall away. Nicolae was already dissolving, streaming away from her and up the chimney to burst into the night sky. He would go out to meet their enemies. His lifemate’s blood was a bright beacon summoning the undead straight to their location. It was his job to keep them away from her until she was able to move and hunt on her own.
Destiny wasted no time, and he could detect no fear in her as once more she allowed her body to slip away. She became light and energy, marshaling her waning strength to fight the army of invading microbes in her bloodstream. Nicolae remained a shadow in her mind, ready to give her strength should there be need, ready to aid her in any way.
He climbed high, taking stock of his surroundings. He hoped the vampires would be careless in their attack, certain he was too busy with Destiny to go on the offense. This had been a carefully prepared battle, and Nicolae was certain Pater was behind it. Pater was determined to bring the vampires together, uniting them against the hunters.
It might work if they can keep from killing one another, Nicolae observed.
Vikirnoff thought it over.
I did not believe there was a vampire powerful enough, not even an ancient, to accomplish such a thing as uniting vampires to a common purpose, but our enemy seems to have managed such a thing here.
It has been done before, but not with ancients. Always there has been one who has power, the rest only sacrificial pawns. This bodes ill for our people. Nicolae hid his being in the tiniest of molecules, spread out across the sky in the roiling clouds. Vikirnoff was in his mind, and deeply merged with Destiny also, waiting to lend his strength when there was need.
Destiny was unaware of either of them. She concentrated entirely on her own war, trusting Nicolae to fend off the undead until she could join him. She recognized she had lost too much blood through the many bites on her skin. The compound in her body was wreaking mass destruction, mutating her cells at a rapid rate. She noted the wiggling parasites that were always present in her bloodstream, familiar to her, but somehow abhorrent. Even they tried to hide from the attacking poison. She searched quickly through her bloodstream, found natural antibodies and began replicating them, hastily throwing her own army at the microbes to slow down their reproduction and give herself more time to come up with something to destroy them permanently. She glimpsed a bubble, nearly hidden behind the swarming cells. It was reddish-black, a large clot rolling in the wake of the microbes. She could fight the mutant cells, programmed to attack the surge of energy she radiated, but she had the feeling the real demon was that unknown mass.
She ignored the lesions forming on her organs everywhere the poison touched. She ignored her tainted blood, burning and scalding so that the walls of her veins seemed thin and weak, ready to burst. In places they bulged alarmingly, just as some of her organs did.
What weapons did she have to fight such a thing? Energy. Light. She stopped wasting her time creating antibodies that merely slowed the army of mutants. She waited, watched the surging swarm of cells bent on enveloping the essence of her life.
Destiny held her position, aware of time slowing down. She felt no one near her, heard nothing, not even the beating of her own heart. Her entire focus was on that mass of malignant cells. She waited, gathering her energy until it was white-hot, a pinpoint laser, zeroing in on the deadly microbes. She allowed her power free rein, and it became a concentrated lethal pulse of energy, so great she knew it wasn’t all her own.
She couldn’t let the knowledge distract her. She was watching the cells shrivel and die, watching as the thing behind them appeared clearly for the first time. It was only about the size of a walnut, lodged in her stomach. Her heart stuttered. She couldn’t use fire or heat with this. It was some kind of explosive chemical waiting for a detonator. The chemicals had been attached to the first compound injected into her body through the teeth as they bit into her flesh. When the cells mutated to the second generation, the chemicals had rushed through her body from every direction to bond together as they were meant to do. She had been made into a living bomb, aimed and directed straight at Nicolae should he attempt to heal her.
Destiny inhaled sharply, knowing Nicolae was with her now, seeing what she was seeing. Fearing as she was fearing.
Do what you have to do, Nicolae. I will find the answer to this.