Dark Promises(117)

Aleksei hit him hard in the chest, his fist driving deep, impaling Mazur, lifting him into the air so his body weight added to the blow, helping to embed Aleksei’s fist and arm deep into the chest cavity. The blow was so strong his fist traveled through muscle and bone, straight to the shriveled, blackened heart.

Gabrielle gasped as black blood poured down over Aleksei’s arm and his skin actually smoked and burned as if the substance was acid. Aleksei didn’t so much as wince. Denny crawled away toward the darker shadows of the mountains. Vaugn whipped out a knife and rushed Aleksei.

It took every ounce of discipline she possessed to remain where she was. Aleksei! She tried to warn him, but she felt the blade sliding into his back. Ice-cold. Fiery hot. She could see Vaugn behind him, but she couldn’t see what he was doing, not from where she was. She could only see Aleksei’s arm being charred to the bone, the smell of burning flesh filling her lungs.

She pulled in a ragged, gasping breath, and gave up fighting her instincts. She couldn’t help him with the master vampire, but she could with Vaugn. She tried to move and nothing happened. Nothing. Her feet were planted firmly, as if they’d taken root. She couldn’t move at all. Her heart contracted with fear. Her stomach knotted. She might have to stand right there and watch Aleksei be slaughtered.

He whirled around, still holding the master vampire straight up in the air, his fist and forearm buried deep in the vampire’s chest. Mazur shrieked horribly, the sound reverberating up and down the streets of the village, a hideous noise that hurt ears. He sounded like a wounded animal, and yet he raked and clawed at Aleksei’s face. Somehow Aleksei avoided the wicked talons much of the time, although several times they scored deep furrows not only in his face, but also his shoulder. Clearly the vampire was trying to gouge out Aleksei’s eyes and rip open his neck.

Aleksei swung around to face Vaugn, who was still stabbing at his back, and as he did, he threw the master vampire into the man with the knife. The blade went into the vampire, straight into his back. The force of the throw buried the knife to the hilt and sent both vampire and Vaugn tumbling together several feet away from Aleksei.

Aleksei’s arm emerged from the chest wall. In his fist was the blackened heart of the vampire. Immediately he dropped it and held his burned arm toward the sky. Lightning sizzled. Forked. Streaked down to slam into the heart, incinerating it. Even as he did so, Aron Mazur was up on his feet, rushing Aleksei, slamming into him, his monstrous teeth driving into Aleksei’s shoulder, ripping and tearing.

The vampire suddenly stiffened, his mouth stretched wide in another scream, although this one was silent. He crumbled to the ground and the whip of lightning struck his body, turning it to ash. Aleksei casually bathed his body in the white-hot energy and then looked toward Vaugn.

Gabrielle went to her knees and was sick, over and over again. Dry heaving, gagging, her stomach protesting what her mind couldn’t deal with. She still couldn’t move her feet and she was fairly certain Aleksei would be furious with her, but at that moment she didn’t care. Her world crumbled around her. She had thought she could do this, live with him in his world, be what he needed her to be, what she wanted and needed herself, but she knew she couldn’t. She could never, ever be a true lifemate to an ancient warrior like Aleksei—and clearly he knew that.

Vaugn stared in horror at the ashes on the ground, at the whip of lightning and Aleksei, who hadn’t even changed expression. He tried to push himself up off the ground to run, but he couldn’t move, somehow frozen to the spot. He watched in absolute horror as the lightning burned bright. Thunder rolled. He couldn’t stop looking as the whips of white-hot energy took on renewed life, forking out, reaching with burning greed right toward him. He didn’t scream. He didn’t have time. His hand had gone up in protest. He opened his mouth, but the whip had already reached him. He didn’t even feel the burn. He was simply gone as if he’d never been.

Immediately, Aleksei turned to Gabrielle, his eyes still burning with a kind of menacing fury. She knew the instant he released her, but she didn’t move. She was still heaving. Still gagging. The smell of burnt flesh permeated the air. She watched as Aleksei went to Izaak and gently put his hands on the sides of the man’s head. She saw him leave his own body, making himself completely vulnerable as he went into Izaak’s mind to heal it and remove all memory of what had taken place.

Aleksei gently laid the man down on the bench and planted memories of a great night with friends at the pub in him. As soon as he was certain the man would be fine, he waved his hand to clear the air of all scent of battle as well as cleaning the ground of all evidence. Only then did he lift the barrier between the pub and the outside world he had hastily erected so no sounds of the battle could be heard inside.