"Give me a second and then we'll try standing."
"Once we're up, we've got to make it to the fortress," Fen cautioned. "Tatijana can only shield us from so many positions. If they put snipers in the trees . . ."
Zev nodded. "I feel them. They're surrounding us." He looked at Fen. "That's how I knew I was becoming something different. I felt the others sometimes when I shouldn't have. Lycans don't give off energy."
"They do, but they contain it," Fen corrected. "As your body becomes a Guardian, your senses grow even more acute."
If Zev was at the point where his awareness had grown to such an extent, it might be enough to allow him into Skyler's shelter. Weeks earlier they'd been in several battles together. Tatijana had given Zev blood. Other Carpathians had. It was possible those last infusions had pushed Zev into the actual transformation. No one really knew when it happened.
Going from Carpathian to Lycan was easier to know because the wolf was a dead giveaway. One slowly became aware of his presence. A Lycan already had the wolf in him. There was no way to realize what was happening until it was far too late. If Zev suspected he had become a mixed blood, he more than likely was.
Something smacked into the shield Tatijana had provided, a bullet splintering the transparent armor so that it spiderwebbed outward into a starburst pattern.
"I think we just ran out of time," Fen said. He leapt to his feet and reached down for Zev.
Zev was game, Fen had to hand it to him. He struggled up as Fen pulled him into a standing position.
"I'm good," Zev assured. "The dizziness is beginning to pass."
That was probably bull, but Fen wasn't about to argue. A second bullet joined the first, and then a volley rang out. He got his arm around Zev and they sprinted for the shelter. Fen heard the bullets hitting the shield from every direction. There had to be at least five shooters-all marksmen if the bullet patterns were anything to go by. Each would have been a hit in the head. Whoever was running Gunnolf's army had recruited some sharpshooters.
Once they reached the shelter wall, that rippling transparency that held out Lycans and bullets alike, Fen stepped back to allow Zev to go through first.
"What do I do?"
"You just walk through. If you make it, you're in, if not, I don't know what happens to you."
"You haven't been inside?"
"No, but Dimitri is in there and he's like us."
Zev took a deep breath, let it out and took a step. The wrench to his bones was horrendous, a twisting, yanking sensation ripping at him that drove the air from his lungs and seemed to pull apart muscle and tissue. His heart accelerated, beating so hard his chest hurt.
He would have pulled back but he knew Fen would stay with him, continuing to risk his life. They wouldn't stand a chance outside the fortress, either one of them. Not alone. He plowed forward while his cells screamed and his body felt torn into pieces.
Suddenly he was free of the sensation, falling to the ground, able to breathe again, his heart slowing to a more normal pace. He rolled over, coughing, pulling air into his burning lungs. He kept his gaze fixed on Fen. Fen had been mixed blood for centuries. He was truly half Lycan and half Carpathian. There was no doubt in his mind that Fen experienced that same wrenching, tearing apart of his body when Fen fell to the ground beside him, breathing just as hard.
"Just who is this girl who managed to construct this thing?" Zev asked.
Fen would have laughed if he could get enough air to do so. His body still felt as if it had been jerked in a thousand different directions. How did one describe Skyler? "She looks like an innocent angel. That's how my brother describes her. Her name is Skyler."
Zev brought his hand to his forehead. "I met her. In the forest. She was lost, she said. She had a sprained ankle and couldn't find her way back to her camp."
Fen did laugh then. He couldn't help himself. "She totally suckered you."
"She's human."
"She's Skyler, Dimitri's lifemate. The Lycans took him, and she took him back."
Byron approached them with a hint of caution. He smiled, but his eyes were flat and cold. "Tatijana told me you were bringing him inside, that he was injured very badly. Does he need blood?"
"Yes," Fen said. "And I want Tatijana to take a look at his wound."
"I'm right here," Zev reminded. "I'm Zev. Zev Hunter. It seems my own people want me dead so Fen invited me inside."
"I'm Byron Justicano," Byron introduced himself. "Josef is my nephew. He and Paul helped Skyler rescue Dimitri."
"Brave kids," Zev said. He nodded toward Paul, who lifted a hand and gave him a faint grin. "Good actors, too. They fooled me." He huffed out his breath in disgust. "I carried that girl all the way back to her camp. She never gave herself away, not even for a second. I was suspicious, of course, because of the timing, but not of her, just that the camp was there when we'd made certain no one would be in the area."
Fen and Byron exchanged a small smile. It seemed it wasn't only the Carpathians who had underestimated Skyler, Josef and Paul.
"I'm sorry she's dead," Zev said. "She flung herself in front of Dimitri just as a dozen Lycans fired. Most of the Lycans obeyed when I told them to stand down, but Gunnolf's faction was determined to kill Dimitri. She just got in the way."
"She's not dead," Byron said.
Zev frowned and looked around him. The shelter had transparent walls and ceiling, he could see the occupants easily. Tatijana and another man seemed to be working on a younger man's wounds. He had spiked blue/black hair and was very pale. Paul lay on the ground close to him, looking back at him. But there were no others in the fortress besides Byron and Fen.
"Dimitri put her in the ground to heal," Fen explained.
"I thought she was human," Zev said, puzzled. "You are confusing me, and I'm already a little disoriented."
"She will rise fully Carpathian," Fen clarified. "Dimitri was able to save her."
"After seeing her wounds, I don't see how it was possible," Zev said. "Even from a distance, she looked dead or dying."
"Her father is Gabriel Daratrazanoff," Fen said. "Her adopted father."
Zev's breath caught in his throat. If it was possible for him to go any paler, he managed it. "The legend? Gabriel and Lucian? The twins? Every Lycan young or old has heard of them. I don't suppose there's any hope that they aren't heading this way, because where one is, so is the other."
"None at all," Fen said. "Gabriel and Lucian are hoping to make it before dawn."
Zev closed his eyes. "This is getting worse by the minute."
"I haven't told you the worst," Fen cautioned.
Zev groaned softly. "Just get it over with, Fen. What else?"
"Have you heard of a Carpathian by the name of Zacarias?"
Zev's eyes flew open. He even sat up again. "Are you kidding me? No Lycan goes near South America if they can help it. It's been done, but rarely. No one wants any part of him or his brothers. Of course we've heard of him. He's the boogeyman we scare our children with."
Fen indicated Paul with his thumb. "That's his nephew."
"Fen." Zev brushed his hand over his face. "How are we going to prevent a war? You know not every Lycan here at this camp is guilty. You know that. All of them, me included, were duped into thinking the council had sentenced Dimitri to death by silver. In a way it made sense, they could deny they had killed him because he would move continually until the silver reached his heart. Technically, they could claim he killed himself."
"That's bull," Fen snapped, his eyes beginning to glow. He even felt his teeth lengthen just a little.
Zev frowned at him. "Don't go vampire on me. I'm just explaining how it appeared from a Lycan point of view. I tried calling the council members but none of the phones worked. Looking back, Gunnolf and his followers must have been jamming the cell phones."
"You would have let him die," Fen accused. "My brother."
Zev nodded. "I thought about killing him myself, to stop his suffering," he admitted. "I have a sworn duty to uphold the rulings of the council whether I agree or not." He drummed his fingers on his leg. "Truthfully, I considered, for the first time in my very long existence, going against them. Not only was the ruling unjust, but it seemed suicidal. Council members were negotiating with Mikhail for an alliance-and they wanted it. They were in favor of it. Or most of them."
"Most?" Fen echoed.
"Majority rules on the council, and all Lycans abide by the laws. The alpha enforces the laws within individual packs, but no pack would ever go against a council ruling."