Dark Wolf(40)

We're in trouble, Zev. He's got an army surrounding your fighters, Fen announced.





11





I think we're nearly in the clear, Skyler, Dimitri whispered softly into  her mind. You're so amazing. Thank you for giving me your trust.

That light right in the center of the warmth he had surrounded and  protected so diligently there in the nether world glowed just a bit  brighter. She hadn't retreated. She'd fought to stay with him. She just  had to hang on a little bit longer.

He sensed how weary she was. She had accepted the pain, allowing it to  flow through her, not once trying to fight or resist. They were bound  together, intertwined tightly, both feeling the pain rising like a wave  and crashing over them. He concentrated on breathing for both of them,  pushing air through her lungs, through his lungs.

If this lasted much longer he would lose her. Fen has arrived. He is  somewhere close. I know, because Tatijana-your sister-kin-heals my body  even as I am with you in yours.

The pain was worse than ever, robbing him of breath, of the ability to  think for a long moment. He couldn't compartmentalize it for her. He  couldn't distance either one of them from it. The agony really was as  bad or worse than the silver snaking its way through his system, burning  him from the inside out. Her body shuddered with the memory of it.

Strangely, instead of dimming, the light in the very center of her  warmth stretched out, spreading through the darkness there in the icy  cold world, reaching for his light. Comforting him? Only Skyler, on the  very edge of death, already in another world, would think to reach out  to him. She had come for him when he thought there was no hope. Against  all odds, she had stayed for him, when he doubted any other would have  done so under the circumstances.

The wave subsided, and he sensed that it was the right time to attempt  to reunite body and spirit. Dimitri surrounded Skyler's warmth and began  to move very slowly away from the icy darkness.

Come with me now, csitri. Your spirit cannot be away from your body for too long. I must take you back.

His light moved, but that small warm consciousness that was Skyler  didn't. She stayed hovering in the limbs of the tree of life. The moment  his spirit ceased to touch hers, the light in the very center of her  warmth dimmed and then flickered on and off as if she couldn't keep the  spark going without him.

His heart jerked. He had nearly lost her. He forced calm. He needed to  be confident and sure. Skyler needed to know she could rely on him  through anything. Once again he surrounded her with his light, stopping  to examine what held her in the nether world.

Just a few more minutes in the dark and cold, Skyler. I'm with you. You  aren't alone, he assured her. She never would be again. If she couldn't  make it out of the darkness with him, back into her own body, he would  go with her to light her way to wherever the next life was.

Her spirit seemed caught in the branches and he had to pause to figure  out how to get her free. It was only then that he realized Skyler had  somehow attached herself to the branches. She was a daughter of the  earth and the tree of life had recognized her great need.

Release her to me, Dimitri murmured softly. I give thanks to you for holding her for me, but we need her back in our world.

He didn't have the skill Skyler did when it came to communicating with  all things earth, but he had sincerity. He opened himself up to attack  from the greedy creatures waiting below in the darkness, crouched, just  waiting for an unsuspecting soul to drift down, unaware of the danger  lurking in the dark. He knew what was down there, but still, he wanted  the tree of life to understand his great need.

The moment he opened his mind there in the nether world, he heard and  felt the blast of greed and hatred coming at him from every direction.  He remained where he was, his light surrounding Skyler's warmth, between  the upper branches. Below him, he detected the sounds of the living  dead clawing their way up the tree toward him.

He was Hän ku pesäk kaikak, and he would not falter. His spirit was  bright, and he had newfound hope that his lifemate would not leave him.  Tatijana, a Dragonseeker and sister-kin to Skyler, was above ground,  guarding their bodies. He felt her strength and her brightness, that  white-hot light of healing.

Skyler, sívamet, my heart and soul, come back to me. The worst is over.  Let me help you return to the land of the living. He kept his voice  calm, soothing, refusing to hurry her, or frighten her.

He had committed an unpardonable sin in possessing her body, but he felt  no remorse. He had gone through the conversion, ensuring, if he could  bring her back, that her Carpathian body waited and would heal naturally  beneath the earth.

They were bound together, soul to soul. After what he had done, they  would be bound mind to mind. She had trusted him, given her permission,  but she hadn't known the consequences. He hadn't been able to give her  up and he'd chosen for both of them. She would be as he was  eventually-mixed blood-and their minds would be forever connected.

That should have been the worst of the sacrifices, but she would have to  live with the knowledge of every single kill he'd ever made. The sorrow  and guilt of hunting friends would weigh on an empath like Skyler. She  would know his every dark secret, all those endless years after he had  discovered he had a lifemate. He had fought the crouching darkness on  each rising, but still, she would know how truly difficult it had been.  He wouldn't be able to shield her from those terrible nights. Most  lifemates left those memories alone; she wouldn't have that choice.

The tree vibrated, a subtle movement, and then shook a little harder as  if attempting to dislodge her. He felt her warmth push against his  light, and then into it. The moment they merged, he began the climb.

That's my girl. There's nothing to fear. Except perhaps an entire Lycan  army surrounding them, but he refused to think about that. Tatijana's  presence meant Fen was there. Fen would fight with his last breath to  save them. He would have brought others with him.

He still felt Skyler's warmth and the small light that was her very  essence flickered valiantly, but she needed blood and she needed to go  to ground-if he could get her back into a body her spirit might not  recognize after the conversion.

I don't know if I've ever told you how beautiful you are to me. Not just  your looks, but what I see inside of you, and that was before I knew  how courageous you were. You came for me, Skyler, and even when I was  foolish and tried to turn you away, you refused to give up on us.                       
       
           



       

He wouldn't give up on her. He was prepared to do anything, fight any  battle. No matter if the act was forbidden or not, if he could get her  back, he would humble himself, put himself in any kind of jeopardy or  fight any battle to save her.

Can you hear me, csitri? You cannot leave me. I have such need of you.

He felt no shame in pleading. She showed no outward signs of growing  stronger. Her light was exactly the same, but it was there. She couldn't  have lost her way in the other world as some souls had done, because  she had been anchored to the top branches of the tree.

Dimitri didn't yet know if she had pleaded her cause and asked for aid,  or if the tree recognized her as a daughter of the earth and had stepped  in to save her. He wanted to believe, even in her dying moment, Skyler  had thought to secure herself to those upper branches in the certain  knowledge that he would come for her.

They floated together to the very surface. This was his moment. Could he  bring her warm spirit and faltering light back into her body? He kept  his movements gentle, his voice calm. He didn't want her to feel fear or  experience any more trauma than she already had. If he could stay calm  and instill his belief that both of them would be fine, she might take  this transition as entirely natural and not try to retreat from him.

She had been more than aware of her body dying, of the pain of  conversion, but she hadn't let go. She had stayed with him, clinging to  life when it should have been impossible. He was beginning to realize,  with Skyler, all things were possible.

I have always been secretly amused that others continually  underestimated you, my love, he confessed, but I have found these last  few nights have taught me that even I underestimate you and your  strength.

For the first time, he felt the familiar stirring in his mind, that  beloved touch that signaled the love of his life had ever so gently  merged with him. How she found the strength when there was so little  blood left in her body, he didn't know.

Dimitri.

His body came to life. His heart. His soul. That gentle touch, the brush  of her voice across the scars in his mind held so much love he ached  inside. She set up cravings with her soft gentle ways. Hunger. She found  a well of tenderness in him that had been buried and forgotten for  centuries.