The Red Lily (Vampire Blood #2)(82)

"Please," he begged again. "Please don't take her from me."



       
         
       
        

He cradled and rocked her in his arms as a torrent of wind swirled around them, crashing through the trees and pouring down a shower of sable-silver leaves, mourning the loss of the fair lady of the wood. Nikolai crushed her to his chest and wept. And the forest wept with him.

Sienna was dead.





Chapter Twenty-Four

Nikolai heard and felt nothing but his own grief. Immersed deep within himself and his heart-piercing loss, he jumped when something cold and wet touched his cheek. He looked up into the electric gold eyes of Duchess, the snow-white hart wolf. She nuzzled Sienna.

The wolf's mate, Luca, full black and fierce, stood on Nikolai's left. Her brothers, Hugo and Kai, stood to his right. For the first time, they did not bare their teeth in menacing show or warning. Rather, they looked on him with what he could only surmise was empathy. Strange, these beasts of the forest were more than animals. He'd always known it. And Sienna had always told him so. An eerie tingle prickled over his skin as if the air itself had changed, whispering of magic and mystery, something he could not detect with his acute vampire senses.

Duchess turned to leave but caught his gaze over her shoulder. Then Nikolai heard an echoing voice in his head. A lovely, melodious feminine voice.

"Nikolai. Bring Sienna. Follow me."

He stared at her in disbelief as she trotted ahead. When he didn't move, the biggest of her brothers, Hugo, stood at his side and snuffed. The beast was the largest of the four, his size and demeanor intimidating. Yet he seemed to be trying to encourage Nikolai, not intimidate. Duchess stopped on the path again and swiveled her head toward him. The voice came again.

"If you love Sienna, then stand with her and follow me."

No mistake. The voice was somehow that of the she-wolf. But in his head.

He lifted to his feet, hefting Sienna close, her lifeless body heavy in his arms and her sweet head lolling against his chest. He did not understand where they were going or what they wanted, but it was apparent he was now receiving a guardians' escort as the two brothers flanked him and Luca walked behind, watching the woods for danger.

"Faster, lieutenant. While Sienna's spirit still hovers nearby."

Nikolai was thrown off balance by her words. But when she started to lope through the woods, he kept pace, even while his own body sagged with fatigue from the long journey and from his gut-wrenching loss. But he did not falter. Soon enough, the five of them were at a full run, still slower than Nikolai could move with his supernatural abilities, but fast.

They wound away from her cottage, which puzzled him. He thought perhaps they wanted to see her home, where they'd always protected her. Instead, they led him deeper into Silvane Forest, farther into the heart of the wood where only black oaks grew in dense abundance. Thick-trunked giants sprouted everywhere, their gnarled roots jutting out of the earth. The charcoal branches were nearly naked now, the ground carpeted in black and silver leaves. 

An unknown force shook Nikolai to the core. He stopped running, sensing a vibration in the air. No, not just the air. In the earth, too. A rhythmic tempo pulsed all around him, as if the forest had its own heartbeat.

"What is this place?" he asked Duchess, who had circled back next to him.

Her golden eyes were fire-bright. She crossed over into an open circle within a round of black oaks that was somehow filled with soft-tufted, spring-green grass on the verge of winter. Impossible.

Duchess walked forward, as did her brothers and her mate. The white she-wolf began breathing heavily, puffing out great white breaths as if she were choking on her own breath. She crouched on the ground, whining. Nikolai took a step forward, thinking she was injured and needed aid. Then the other three followed suit, growling rather than whining as their bodies trembled unnaturally.

"What-"

Before he could finish his thought, Duchess shimmered in a way that looked like a vampire did when they moved in a blur. Her white coat vibrated, and she opened her mouth as if to howl but no sound came out. Then a succession of cracking rippled down her body. Within a blink the wolf was gone and in her place crouched a woman. She paused, sucking in a lungful of air, then quietly stood to her full height and stared at him-a stunning vision with wispy white hair down to her naked thighs and sharp predator's eyes. Black-inked tattoos contrasted with her pale skin, sweeping in sharp lines and a swirling pattern just beneath her collarbone and over her shoulders, sliding down her sides to her hips.