Dark Wolf(33)

They winced at his tone, looking at one another. The Lycan guards  reached for their weapons. Gregori caught Mikhail and all but shoved him  back. Lucian stepped up beside him so they presented a solid wall  between the Lycans and their prince.

It was Rolf who pushed past his own guards and stood without any weapon,  facing his accusers. "I have no knowledge of what is happening.  Clearly, you are aware of something tragic taking place. We came here in  good faith. We have not committed any crime against your people, and we  certainly do not kill children."

Mikhail moved past his own bodyguards, although both stepped up beside  him, prepared, he was certain, to kill everyone in the room if they made  a move toward him. He could barely stand the look of such grief carved  deeply in Gabriel's face. Francesca's weeping broke his heart, yet there  was the ring of truth in Rolf's voice.

"Skyler, Gabriel and Francesca's daughter, is lifemate to Dimitri," he explained.

"I heard her," Francesca said, lifting her face from Gabriel's shoulder.  She pushed back her long dark hair and took a step toward Rolf-a very  aggressive step.

Like all Carpathians, man or woman, she held great power. Mikhail might  be able to keep the men under control long enough to get to the truth,  but a grieving woman who had lost a child was something else altogether.

"I saw. Dimitri hung in a tree by hooks, silver winding its way to his  heart. You lied to us. You told us he was safe, but even while you sat  here charming us all, you were killing him, torturing him, death by  silver you call it," Francesca accused.

She took another step toward the Lycan. Gabriel put a gentle hand on her  arm, but she shook it off. "She set him free, and your army chased  her."

"Paul was with her," Nicolas said. "He's been shot as well."

"With silver," Francesca said. "They riddled her body with silver."

Rolf frowned, shaking his head. "They wouldn't. I'm telling you no  sentence was ever passed on Dimitri. He was to be held safely."

The other council members looked at one another, expressions puzzled or alarmed.

Francesca took another step toward Rolf. "She was nineteen years old. Nineteen."

The door burst open and a couple stood together in the doorway.  Mikhail's heart sank. How could he possibly prevent a war between Lycan  and Carpathian? Razvan of the Dragonseekers, birth father to Skyler, and  his lifemate, Ivory, stood shoulder to shoulder. Paul was a De La Cruz.  Skyler was Daratrazanoff and Dragonseeker. To harm either of them would  set lethal predators relentlessly pursuing the perpetrators of the  crime. There would be no stopping the families.

"We did not do this," Rolf said again, this time looking directly at  Francesca. "I swear to you, give you my word of honor, we did not do  this."





"She's not dead," Josef yelled. "She can't be dead. Go after her,  Dimitri. You have to go after her." He scrambled on all fours to get to  Dimitri's side. "She's Dragonseeker. She's strong. Go after her."

Paul dragged himself to the other side of Skyler and Dimitri, one leg  useless to him. He nodded his head. "She'll fight for life with the same  determination she fought for you."

Skyler lay lifeless in her lifemate's arms. Dimitri took a deep breath.  He was bleeding from several wounds himself, the silver twisting through  his body, burning with terrible intensity, but nothing could rival the  grief and rage rising like a firestorm out of control. The madness was  close-too close. He could feel darkness swirling inside him, the edges  turning a fiery red. He took another breath, fighting back the emotions  that threatened to dishonor him.

"If I can get her spirit and bring her close, you have to convert her,  Josef. I cannot do both," Dimitri instructed. His voice was raspy,  hoarse, fear for Skyler choking him.

He shed his body fast, becoming pure spirit, a white light that entered  her body and rushed down the tree of life after her fading spirit. He  knew her so well. Every expression. The sound of her laughter. The way  her eyes changed color and her hair banded with color, even when she  dyed it. He knew her heart and soul. That steel spine that made her so  formidable. Most of all he knew her love.                       
       
           



       

I cannot lose you. Your soul is tied to mine. We are one, csitri. Where  you go, I will follow. Stay where you are, hold on and let me come get  you.

There in the darkness he felt her. There was no light to guide him, but  he would know the feel of her anywhere. That soft, gentle nature, the  one that surrounded him and held him to her when all else was lost. She  had come for him in his darkest hour. His lady. His Skyler.

His spirit moved downward along the trunk of the tree of life, passed  the upper branches. Once below them, he couldn't feel her anymore. For a  moment panic nearly threw him back into his own body, but then he  settled, calling on centuries of discipline. Hunting her in the cold and  dark required calm, not panic, and he refused to lose her when he knew  she was still there-somewhere.

Dimitri rose slowly, this time allowing the sense of the Guardian to  emerge. The instant he did he became aware of everything there in the  dark. Souls crying out. Those without souls crouched in the dark waiting  for an unsuspecting traveler who knew them. The bitter cold coming from  deep below, rising to infuse everything in its path with ice.

Yet above him and just to his left, there was a pocket of warmth between  two branches, almost as if something had been caught there, or had  clung there. He moved fast, surrounding that warmth with his light,  holding it captive, recognizing the feel and strength of her  unconditional love for him.

Päläfertiilam. Lifemate. Hän ku vigyáz sívamet és sielamet-keeper of my  heart and soul. Give yourself into my keeping. Let me hold you close  while Josef brings you fully into my world. To do this, you must have  absolute trust in me. I will need to possess your body.

She was too far gone. She would never be able to take Josef's blood even  with his aid. He wasn't even certain if the conversion could be done.  Possession was forbidden, a tool of the mage world or the vampire, but  he could see no other way.

Skyler could not respond. He couldn't even see a faint flickering light,  but her warmth increased to the point of true heat. He took that as a  yes. He divided his spirit, a dangerous move when his own body was  burning from the inside out. Nothing mattered to him but saving his  lifemate.

He came back into his body disoriented and shaking. A part of him had  remained in the nether world. "Paul, she is a daughter of the earth. We  can't heal these wounds in time, but Mother Earth may do so. Get the  richest soil and press it into each of the bullet holes. Josef, take her  blood, enough for an exchange."

"But . . ." Josef and Paul exchanged a look of disbelief.

"Just do it. Then give her your blood."

Dimitri didn't wait for them to agree with his plan. He took possession  of Skyler's lifeless body. The fit was strange and wrong. Her eyes  snapped open and she looked at Josef.

Josef fell back away from Skyler. He recognized those ice-cold blue  eyes, and they weren't Skyler's. If he did as Dimitri asked, would she  rise a puppet? The undead? He shook his head at the idea. There was no  darkness in Skyler, not even with her powerful mage blood. He knew her.

He leaned down and sank his teeth into her neck, taking in the powerful  combination of her lineage. He had taken her blood many times before  when he was caught out away from others and needed to feed, but she was  different now. More potent. There was even a different taste to her. He  didn't know if he was feeding from Skyler or Dimitri or a combination of  both.

When he was certain he had taken enough for an exchange, he tore at his  own wrist and pressed the laceration to Skyler's mouth. Her movements  were jerky, stiff even, as if she had little control over her own body.  Her tongue tentatively swiped over the wound and then she began to  drink, a small movement, barely there, increasing in strength.

Shocked, Josef gave her as much blood as he dared, not understanding  what Dimitri was doing. He knew healers could retrieve spirits that  hadn't gone too far into the other world, but he'd never seen this done.  Conversion was hard on a body. One species didn't easily allow another  to take over. But possession? Such an abomination was forbidden. One did  not take over the body of another.

At this stage, Skyler was still human. Pressing dirt, no matter how  rich, into her wounds couldn't possibly heal her. Still, Paul did as  Dimitri instructed and so did Josef. What else could they do?

Around them, the Lycans had gone wild, desperate to get through the  transparent shield Skyler had erected. They tore at it with bare claws.  They bit at it, fired bullets into it, and even hacked at it with  swords. The shield held. Lycans climbed the trees surrounding the  clearing and the strongest of them made large leaps in an effort to get  over the shield. Most dropped to the ground, but two landed above their  heads, slamming their bodies hard into the transparent ceiling. More dug  at the ground in a feverish, frenzied effort to tunnel beneath the  shield to gain entry.