The vest stirred as though alive, the fabric parting as if torn and then smoothly going back into place. Razvan rushed him, following the arrows. Sergey tried to shapeshift, but the coating on the arrows prevented him from doing so. Razvan punched through the vest. The moment his flesh touched the fabric, the threads came alive, winding around his fist, racing up his arm toward his shoulder and face. Tiny parasitic worms with sharp teeth, ripping and digging into his flesh. He stepped back, trying to sweep the creatures from his body. Sergey flung himself at Razvan but the wolves interceded, slamming into the vampire with full force, driving him over backward and going for his throat.
Ivory never moved. Never looked back. She had one purpose, and he was in front of her. The tigers snarling at one another, the battle raging behind them-none of it mattered, only Xavier, only the man lifting his staff with hatred on his face and his gaze fixed on Razvan. She knew he would go for her, not Razvan. He wanted her lifemate to suffer for his perceived betrayal, for the Dragonseeker blood that had held out for centuries against him. For his escape and his newfound strength and power. Razvan was the symbol of everything he hated. And she was Razvan's lifemate.
As if in slow motion, she saw him bring the staff across and down his body. Time slowed down, her world narrowing. The end of the staff began to glow bright as he pointed it at Razvan. Ivory noted the red eye in the center of the crystal fixed on her, not on her lifemate. She felt power move inside of her. Everything she was. Everything she had ever been. Was it enough?
Razvan poured everything he was into her, leaving the pack to deal with Sergey while they merged, trusting Vikirnoff to guard their backs along with the wolves. Trusting Natalya to lead the tiger away from them.
The staff glowed bright orange-red. Ivory lifted her hands, palms facing the wizard. A flash of bright light hurt her eyes as the crystal shot out a bolt of energy directly at her. Razvan stepped up beside her, lifting his hands to the exact same height as hers.
I call to Hell's Gate, Ivory chanted.
Let lightning strike, Razvan invoked.
I call to the power that which is light, Ivory chanted.
Take form from this darkness, Razvan invoked.
Let angels walk forth, Ivory pleaded.
Opening their arms, draining evil's force, Razvan chanted.
Take that which is heart's blood. Power filled Ivory's voice.
Straining it pure. Razvan merged completely with Ivory.
They chanted together: Let it only abide in one that is pure.
Already weak without Carpathian blood to sustain him and from her previous spell, the combination of Razvan and Ivory together was too much for Xavier. The dark blood in the center of the crystal exploded outward and Xavier clutched his heart. Blood burst from his chest. Snarling, cornered, terrified he was losing his final chance at immortality, the mage used his last, most secret weapon. He dropped his staff, clutched his chest in an effort to stem that black, bubbling blood and unleashed his wrath on the Carpathians.
The sun burst overhead. Bright. White-hot. A turbulent, seething, volcanic mass. Winds roared, tearing through the ice caves as the heat blasted them from all sides, melting the ice faster than anything possible. Water poured down on them, searing, boiling water. Steam rose, but as the orange-red ball spun, it flung threads of fire. Dazzling light radiated through the chamber.
Skin smoked. Blistered. Melted. Sergey screamed and tried to dissolve again, and this time the arrowheads fell from his chest as his acid blood ate through the coating. The two fragments seeped into his pores just as he shifted.
To my back! Ivory ordered the pack, holding out her arms.
The wolves leapt for safety as the water rose fast, rushing through the chamber, boiling everything in its path, including the saber-toothed tiger. The Carpathians shifted to vapor, their only hope of escaping, just as Sergey had done, but even in that form, the sun burned the molecules that made up their forms.
Ivory flowed toward Xavier as he crawled along the edge, leaving a trail of black blood behind. The blood bubbled and burned into the fast-melting rock. He opened a crack that was spewing water wide enough for his body to pass through, but she was on him, her hands coming out of the vapor. The burns went to the bone, her skin dissolving first into a mass of blisters and then melting. Still, even with her bones, she held him, preventing his escape.
Razvan's fist came out of the vapor, suffering the same fate as Ivory, the skin burning off as he slammed it deep into Xavier's chest and extracted the burst heart. He threw it into the raging fires and then followed it with the body.
The four Carpathians streaked out of the rapidly collapsing cavern using Xavier's escape route. The spinning mass of heat and light stayed behind them as they shot down a tube and into the cool darkness of the caves. The mountain rumbled ominously as they made their way through the tunnels to the outside hills.