Dark Wolf(27)

Mother of my blood,

I call upon you,

Surround me, cloak me,

Abolish this pain,

So that I may continue.

Drawing several deep breaths, Skyler continued to follow the path.  Twice, it veered away from where the pull to Dimitri was the strongest,  but she trusted the earth to guide her and she kept to the path. Both  times, she caught a glimpse of a small cabin sheltered beneath trees.

Then she saw him. She hadn't prepared for that sight either. Nothing  could have prepared her. He was still a distance from her, hanging by  hooks and nothing else from a thick tree branch. The sight was  sickening. His body was blackened, burned from the silver chain that  literally ate into his flesh. His neck had at least three loops around  it, his forehead one. But his body was chained all the way down so that  he appeared to wear a robe of silver.                       
       
           



       

His face was so ravaged with pain, she wanted to cry. There were dark  circles under his eyes. His skin was pulled tight around his skull, his  cheeks hollow. Clearly they had been afraid to unwrap the chain long  enough to cut away his clothing, so they'd just slipped a knife inside  and along each winding wrap slashed at the material in an effort to keep  the silver in contact with his skin. They hadn't cared whether or not  the blade of the silver knife had cut open his flesh. She could see  where he had bled in hundreds of places onto the chain.

She wanted to drop to her knees, cover her face and sob. How could one  living being do such a thing to another? How much would you have to  hate? Shaken, she pressed her hand to her mouth and forced herself to  study him.

She could see where the hooks tore into his body and held him prisoner.  Twelve of them, six down each side. She knew each location because blood  welled from beneath those chains and smeared over them. Tiny beads of  blood dotted his forehead and ran down his face. He stayed as still as  possible, but the pain had to be excruciating, even without the silver  traveling through his body toward his heart.

My love. Her voice wobbled. She choked on the lump in her throat. She knew it was bad, yet she hadn't imagined-this.

He didn't move or give away that she was so close. He kept his eyes closed. His head down. But she felt his love.

I shouldn't have waited. The moment I heard, I should have set out after you.

You are here now. Can you feel them watching me? He meant it as a warning. There is someone always watching.

I feel them. I have come prepared for that. In all our conversations  over these last years, I did pick up a few things from you. And Josef is  a mini-general. He is very good at planning a battle, even one such as  this, where we hope to escape unnoticed.

He didn't ask her how. He knew she had a plan and he gave her the trust  she deserved. She'd gotten to him against impossible odds.

She stayed in the shadow of the brush, a few meters from Dimitri. This  night, she would be the very thing she'd always despised in herself.  This night, she had to rely on the mage-the hated mage-that she now  found she embraced with all of her heart. It was the mage in her that  would save Dimitri.

Digging her feet deeper into the soil, she raised her hands in front of  her, keeping movements small and called on the four elements.

I call upon Air, breathe forth a tempest of might.

I call upon Earth, bring forth your trembling might.

I call upon Fire, bring forth your flames.

I call upon Water, wash away that which remains.

At once the wind increased, short little microbursts that shook the  tallest of the trees. An ominous crack was loud in the silence of the  night. The top of a very heavy tree came crashing down, right on a cabin  some distance away. Branches and trunks plunged through the thin roof  and landed in the small confines, one of the branches landing directly  in the fireplace. Flames shot up the branch, and reached the trunk just  as another burst of wind fanned the blaze.

Shouts came from every direction. The earth beneath her shook with  footsteps as the Lycans converged on the conflagration. The cabin went  up fast, and they had to hurry to keep the fire from spreading to the  neighboring trees and other huts. Many of the little structures used  dried branches and needles and mud for a roof.

When she was certain every Lycan was engaged in saving their camp, she  turned her attention to the hooks. She had to get him down first.

That which is hooked and made to hold,

I unmake your properties so you release and unfold.

Air, I call upon you, float him gently down.

Keep us safe from all sight and sound.

I call upon Earth, take him into your arms,

Surround him, protect him, keep him from harm.

Fire I call you, cauterize his wound.

Burn that which is bleeding, so it may not seal our doom.

Water, I call thee forth, your healing might,

Wash away that which is blood

So there is no scent,

No sight.

Dimitri's body nearly dropped to the ground, but she was able to send a  cushion of air beneath him to float him down. Skyler didn't let the joy  sweeping through her take control. Removing the hooks from his body had  been the easy part. Now there was that terrible chain embedded in his  very skin. He lay helpless in the thick grass, the chains wrapped tight,  biting into flesh and in some spots, bone.

She pressed her lips together hard. She needed to draw on her courage,  not think about what would happen after she removed the chains. She  wasn't positive Dimitri would even be able to walk, let alone help if  they ran into trouble.

She took a deep breath, let it out and made her try.

Chains of silver bedded within,

Chains of silver under tissue and skin,

Chains of silver connected to bone,

Chains of silver now may you be undone.

Skyler felt her heart begin to accelerate into panic. The chains were so  deeply embedded in his flesh they'd become a part of him. Nothing  happened. What if she couldn't do this?

They loosened.

The calmness in Dimitri's voice steadied her. He sounded the same. Her  Dimitri. Cool under fire. A rock. Skyler nodded her head, took another  deep breath and tried again.

Chain of silver buried deep within,

Chain of silver wrapped like a serpent's skin.

Chain of silver that cuts to the bone,

I seek out your making so that you will now be known.

I trace your pattern and follow your path,

Removing your roots as I seal and cast.

In each valley and burn I insert a balm,

So that your poison is ceased and can do no more harm.

Skyler forced herself to go slow, to plan every movement methodically.  She couldn't afford to draw any attention their way. The wind fanned the  flames, but she hadn't wanted to risk a forest fire, so the Lycans were  putting it out fairly quickly. She glanced at the flames and waved her  hands so that the fire jumped to a second cabin, the roof exploding into  orange-yellow flames as the chains fell away from Dimitri's body,  revealing the horrible extent of his burns.

Kneeling beside Dimitri, she put her wrist over his mouth. Now, right  here, take my blood. We only have a few minutes. I need you to do this.

He was so weak. She felt his fear beating at him. Hunger was terrible,  dominating his every thought now, beating in his veins, through his  starving heart. Her blood was potent for him, the blood of his lifemate.  It would tempt him as no other. He feared loss of control. His mind was  already wandering, the pain mixing with the hunger until sometimes he  wasn't certain where he was or what was happening around him.

Dimitri, feed now. If they find us, they will kill me. Skyler used the one thing she knew would get through to him.

He took her wrist gently. His thumb brushed over her pulse, the movement  so light, but she felt that soft touch through her entire body. His  lips, cracked and dry, feathered over her skin, right where her pulse  leapt. She had expected his teeth to sink in and tear at her, but there  was love in his touch-seduction even.

Dimitri lay there on the ground, his burned body nearly paralyzed after  hanging in the tree so long and his mind barely comprehending that he  was free of the hated silver. He was starving, yet he took great care  not to frighten her-or hurt her. She framed one side of his face with  her free hand, her palm against those terrible burn marks, trying to  soothe away the pain.

His teeth sank into her wrist. For one moment there was blazing pain and  then the sting was gone, instantly giving way to something else.  Something she hadn't expected. Josef had taken her blood, and it was  purely a necessary function. Neither felt anything when he'd done it.  This was so different-and unexpected.

Skyler smoothed back hair from his tortured face and then leaned down to  brush kisses over the burned and blackened skin where the chain had dug  into his forehead. She had never voluntarily kissed him. Not once in  all the years they'd been talking together. He'd kissed the top of her  head, and sometimes the corner of her mouth or her chin, but she'd never  made a single move to do something she considered intimate.

She thought her kisses would feel healing. She thought she would give  him comfort and it would feel that way to her. It was kiss him or cry.  Her beautiful Dimitri, so ravaged by hatred when he was capable of so  much love. When she brushed those kisses along the line where the silver  chain had been, she felt more than just comforting, more than healing.  She felt an overwhelming love that seemed, for the first time, to  transcend the physical.