Dark Wolf(82)

He frowned, nuzzling her neck. "So far, no. Sange rau is rogue wolf and  vampire. A rogue wolf can walk in daylight of course, but a vampire  cannot. Fen says he can be out in the sun longer than he's ever managed  it, but he still burns if he stays too long. I was out in the sun when  hanging in the trees. Fortunately, the sun never really penetrated the  canopy and fell across my body, but I still blistered. Had I been fully  Carpathian that may have killed me. I don't know. Our Carpathian blood  will always be Carpathian blood and the Lycan blood will always be  Lycan. It's our ability to utilize the gifts of both species that seems  to increase. With that may come the ability to walk in the afternoon  sun, but it's too soon to predict that."

"Were you listening to Arno's voice when he talked about mixed bloods?" Skyler asked, turning over to face him.                       
       
           



       

His fingers traced her frown. "Yes."

"Not just his words, but the passion and loathing in his voice? He's a  good man, Dimitri. He thinks of himself as a good man. He tries to do  his best, tries to do the right thing, and yet he was so adamant that  anyone with mixed blood needed to be exterminated. He believes that,  deep down in his heart and soul. He even recognizes the difference  between Sange rau and Hän ku pesäk kaikak but he wants them all dead."

Her distress ate at him. He stroked back the wild mess of hair. He liked  her hair messy. She looked as if she'd just thoroughly been made love  to. "I know, csitri. Don't let it get to you. We have no control over  others. If we're lucky, maybe in time just being around us, he'll feel  differently. The council members have voted to stay to attempt to come  to some agreement. I believe a couple of the others have opted to come  as well, although I don't know that for certain."

"He really worked hard to save Zev's life. He knew Carpathians were  giving him blood, but he didn't object or try to stop us." Skyler bit  her lower lip. "Right then, he was so torn. Zev saved his life. Had he  not covered Arno's body with his own, Arno would be dead. Zev should  have been. Fortunately he had enough Carpathian blood mixing with his  Lycan blood that he held out until help came."

Dimitri leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose. "In the form of  my amazing and talented lifemate. From what Fen and Tatijana told me,  you were incredible."

"It took all of us, but it certainly has made me curious to know more  about my birth mother. I feel her sometimes, guiding me when I lose my  way healing someone. She's a force inside of me, unexpected and rare,  but she sometimes comes to me. I can't remember her healing people, but I  dream of it sometimes. I think it's possible I was there with her when  she helped others. I had to be very young, maybe a toddler, and she  showed me what she was doing."

"I could find those memories for you," Dimitri offered.

Skyler squirmed uncomfortably. He knew everything about her past, the  fact that as a child she'd been sold to men, but he would have to get  past those memories to find the ones of her mother. As much as she  wanted to know as much as possible about her birth mother, she wasn't  ready for him to replay those monstrous memories.

"Sometime. When things aren't happening so fast for me," Skyler said.  "There have been so many changes, and sometimes I feel overwhelmed. I  know everything could blow up any moment between Lycan and Carpathian  and the thought terrifies me. I'm still getting used to being fully  Carpathian and learning everything that goes with that." She smiled at  him. "And there's you. The love of my life. The intensity of us is a  little disconcerting at times."

He gathered her up, nuzzling the top of her head. "Dawn is breaking and  you need sleep. We've got another big day ahead of us. Ivory and Razvan  want us training hard all day, every day so that the pups accept us."

"When they first called them pups, I thought they would be little things, but they're huge," Skyler said.

"Do they intimidate you?"

She shook her head. "Not anymore. When I first saw them, they did. I  think they accepted me because I must have some of Razvan in me. They  certainly recognized the alpha wolf in you right away."

He growled in her ear as he opened the floor and floated down to the basement. "Of course they did."

"Very funny. I don't find you intimidating either." She sniffed for emphasis.

He laughed. "After watching Ivory show you how to use the crossbow and  throwing wedges she has, I think I'm becoming a little intimidated by  you."

She grinned at him. "I am getting good at it. I actually love it.  Especially the wolves. In my wildest dreams I never thought I'd have my  own wolf pack like Ivory and Razvan do."

They both dissolved and slipped through the cracks in the stone floor to  the ground below. Dimitri opened that for them as well. Skyler was too  excited by the prospect of renewing her training with the wolves the  following evening to have her usual brief moment of fear as they floated  into the rich, welcoming soil.

Dimitri wrapped her in his arms, as he did each dawn, holding her close,  commanding her to sleep before he settled the earth over them and  secured their safeguards for the coming day.





22





Mist rolled in, long white fingers stretching through the forest and  curling around thick tree trunks. The dense vapor muffled sound and lent  an eerie quality to the woods. Out of that heavy fog stepped a woman.  She went still, nearly blending into her background. Very slowly, she  crouched low to place her hand on the forest floor, feeling the very  heartbeat of the earth, checking for information, for sounds or  vibrations of an enemy.

She was small, her long blond hair woven into a thick, intricate braid  that reached her waist. She wore black pants that rode low on her hips  and were tucked securely into black boots. Her sleeveless vest left her  midriff bare. The vest had three sets of steel buckles with tiny crosses  embedded in the metal, looking ornamental on the squares.

She carried a crossbow in one hand, a silver sword hung on her left hip  and a knife on her right. A quiver of arrows was slung across one  shoulder, some tipped in silver. Down both legs of her trousers were  loops containing many sharp-bladed weapons. A low-slung holster on her  hip housed a pistol as well as rows of very small, flat but extremely  sharp arrowheads.

She was patient, taking her time, her palm flat on the ground, absorbing  the news of the night. It was cold, but she didn't feel the chill in  the air, or the mist as it gathered around her. She closed her eyes  briefly, allowing her senses to see for her. Very slowly she rose,  turning to her left. There, where the fog was most dense, where the  trees were the thickest, her quarry lay in wait to ambush her.

She seemed to glide over the forest floor. Even the brush parted for her  so that there was no whisper of movement as she made her way cautiously  toward that thick stand of trees. As she approached, she felt the first  stirring on her back, a small brush of fur, warning her.

Elation swept through Skyler. She continued forward a few more feet and  then whipped around, her fingers already pulling the arrowheads free and  snapping them with tremendous strength as she ran toward the grotesque  vampire emerging from the trunk of a twisted dead fir tree. Though dead,  the tree shuddered and shook as it expelled the foul creature from its  depths.

Six arrowheads went up his leg, lodging deep, the formula coating them  preventing the vampire from shifting into another form. She ran forward  with her sword. His torso and head disappeared as did his feet, lost in  the thick fog. Only one of the vampire's legs remained behind, a  strange, almost laughable sight.

Cursing in a very unladylike manner, Skyler halted her attack. "I can't believe I made such a stupid mistake."

The leg disappeared as if it had never been. Ivory and Razvan  materialized in front of her. Dimitri wrapped a comforting arm around  her.

"You listened to your wolves," Ivory said. "But the arrows have to go  from belly to shoulder if you want to be able to take the heart."

Skyler couldn't help but smile. "Frost warned me. I was so proud of him.  I actually knew it was him and not Moonglow. I can tell the difference  between them now."

Frost had a beautiful silver coat, thick and unusual, tipped in white so  that he appeared to be covered in frost. The lone female was a  beautiful specimen, her pelt so silver she glowed like the moon. Ivory  had named her Moonglow, but most of the time they called her Moon. Both  rode on her back as tattoos, so that she had eyes and ears on both sides  and behind her, aiding her on the hunt.

She was grateful the four pups had accepted Dimitri and her as their  pack leaders, the alphas they looked to. She knew it was Dimitri's calm,  decisive manner and firm leadership that had captured the pups'  attention, but she was getting better every single day.