Dark Wolf(73)

The stake had torn through layers of muscle and organ. There were  splinters throughout the wound and the tip had actually penetrated  through Zev's abdomen, as well as crashing through two ribs. How he  managed to stay alive, she had no idea. For a moment she hesitated, not  knowing where to start. His body was a mess.

Dimitri. He had been with her all along, merged deep, so much a part of  her. His belief in her always gave her confidence and she needed that  now.

Save his life, Dimitri said. It's what you were born to do. Save him, csitri. He is needed in this world.

Just the sound of his voice soothed her, righted her world, and she  began, choosing the edges of the great hole to start closing that  terrible gap.

Dimitri let go of the merge he'd been holding with his lifemate. She had  her work to do and he had his. He couldn't think of anything else but  finding and destroying the two snipers with their long list of targets  to assassinate. It wouldn't be intelligent to divide himself when he was  hunting anything as deadly as the Sange rau.                       
       
           



       

Staying in the form of dust particles, he started his search at the  bullet hole in the shattered shield Fen had thrown up to protect them.  Taking his time, using the patience of a Carpathian hunter, he traced  the trajectory of the bullet across a fifty-foot open space back toward  the village.

He was unhappy with the direction. The thought of the Sange rau loose in  the village with unsuspecting humans was frightening. Lycan soldiers  attacked the Carpathians where they found them, but they seemed to be  avoiding killing the humans in the village as far as he could tell.

It was obvious to him that the Carpathians had learned from their  earlier encounter with a rogue pack that fighting one-on-one would do no  good with Lycans. The warriors had formed their own packs, Lucian and  Gabriel directing them, and they were meeting the wolves on equal terms.

The skies roiled with clouds. Thunder rolled and boomed. Bolts of  lightning flashed from ground to sky and back down. The sound of gunfire  and screams of pain filled the night. The scent of blood was heavy in  the air. War.

Dimitri felt an overwhelming sadness steal over him. He had seen too  much death. Too many shattered lives. Over what? The blood that ran in  his veins? This kind of violence, the treachery involved in conspiring  to murder the council members who had come to try to form an alliance  with another species, was abhorrent to him.

He kept moving through the houses and shops, until he came to the  rooftop of the church. There was a kind of irony in the fact that the  sniper had chosen a place of peace, of worship, to attempt to commit  murder.

There were no casings left on the roof, but Dimitri was Hän ku pesäk  kaikak, and even though the sniper was Sange rau, he was newly made. The  wolf in their assailant was very strong and Dimitri caught the scent  stamped into the roof. Once he had the actual scent markers of the  sniper, he could follow the trail much easier.

This one had slipped down the side of the building and had mingled with  the people running to barricade themselves in their homes or shops. He  avoided the Lycans as well as the Carpathians, using buildings for  cover. That alone told Dimitri the Sange rau was newly made. He didn't  have the first clue about what a Carpathian could or couldn't do. He was  using his Lycan senses and military training to get him through the  village without being seen.

He had another target. That was the only answer as to why the sniper was  circling back around toward the rubble of a building. He didn't attempt  to join in the fighting, or help the other Lycans out in any way. They  probably didn't even know he was there.

Fen, he's coming back around toward you. I think this is the one Zev  called Hemming. He's very good, but he has no clue what a Carpathian is  or what he can do. All of his training is military or Lycan. If he is a  true mixed blood, how can that be?

That's a good question. Do you have any idea where the second sniper is?

I traced a bullet path to the rooftop of the church, but only one had  been there. You'll have to use the same method I did. This one must have  a target or targets still inside the building. He's absolutely  relentless and determined. Nothing is slowing him down or deterring him,  Dimitri replied.

Fen swore. Zev is in bad shape. We haven't moved the council members  because we have no idea if any of the other guards are planning to make a  move against them. Skyler, Tatijana and Branislava can't leave, not  until they lose the battle for Zev's life, or heal him enough to put him  in the ground. That leaves the second sniper anywhere, capable of doing  damage to anyone.

Dimitri hissed out his irritation. We'll have to trust that Gregori can  do his job, if the prince is a primary target. We have to go after this  one. He's too close to our women and the council.

I'll warn those here. Keep closing in on him.

I am. Fen, is it even possible for Zev to go to ground?

There was a long silence. Fen sighed. I don't know, Dimitri. At this  point, I don't think any of us know what's really possible or what  isn't.

Dimitri increased his speed, following the scent of the Sange rau. He  doubted the vapor trail speeding through the air would draw attention,  not when those on the ground were trying to save themselves. The  fighting was more sporadic now. Bodies lay on the ground, most with  severed heads and stakes through the heart. If there were any dead or  dying Carpathian warriors, Dimitri didn't see them.

Lucian and Gabriel were skilled at warfare. They had engaged in a  thousand battles over the centuries and few were better strategists. The  moment they knew Lycans had taken Dimitri and then later, when Skyler  was thought to have died, they had acquired every bit of information  possible on how Lycans conducted warfare, from early centuries to modern  times. They were more than prepared to meet them in battle.

Telepathy helped as well. The Carpathians were able to speak to one  another mind to mind. They kept in constant communication, relaying  information from one part of the village to another. So far, Dimitri  hadn't heard that the prince's home had been attacked.

Dimitri slipped around the corner of the building closest to the meeting  hall that had been destroyed. The sniper was just ahead of him,  creeping stealthily through the rubble to gain the wall that was  partially down. The wall had holes blown out of it. The roof had  collapsed and a good portion of the wall itself had crumbled from the  force of the blast.

Hemming didn't go to one of the holes to peer through as Dimitri  expected him to do. Instead, the sniper leapt up to one of the remaining  larger pieces of the wall itself. He crouched low, his case with his  equipment in his hand. The smooth jump onto such a precarious structure  warned Dimitri not to underestimate the wolf.

The low murmur of voices chanting the Carpathian healing ritual reached  him. He could hear even the warriors in the midst of battle, chanting  with the women and children. They had banded together to try to save  Zev, a warrior all of them respected. They considered him one of them,  and losing a single Carpathian, whether mixed blood or no, was  unacceptable.

Those inside were busy attempting to save a life, while the sniper  outside was setting up to murder them. Hemming crouched low and leapt  once again, landing nimbly on the roof. For a moment it looked as if the  roof might collapse under his weight, but the rubble held together in  spite of the damage.

Dimitri slipped up behind the sniper as he bent to open his case. When  he materialized directly behind the Sange rau, he set one foot down for  an anchor as he caught the wolf's head in his hands, whirling around to  pull the head over his shoulder in an impossible position.

The roof shifted out from under him, throwing him off balance just as a  shot rang out. Dimitri's heart jerked in his chest. This man was not  Hemming. He should have known the newly made Sange rau was bait to draw  him out. It had been far too easy to track him.

Dimitri leapt into the air, still holding the wolf in an unbreakable  lock, deliberately hitting the roof hard as he landed, snapping the  sniper's neck and going straight through the flimsy roof. He landed on  the floor in the middle of debris and rubble, the sniper cushioning his  fall. Palming a silver stake, he slammed it through the chest of the  assassin and leapt away from the body.

As he did so, a second bullet whined passed his ear and lodged in the far wall. "Stay down," he cautioned.

The three women and Arno paid no attention to him, their entire concentration on the man lying in front of them.

Fen, he's on me and the women are in here with Zev. I'm going to get out  of here, show myself for a moment to make certain he targets me and not  them. This has to be the real Hemming, the one Zev spoke of who was  such a tremendous marksman. The other was bait.

And now you're making yourself bait.