Dark Wolf(84)

Razvan nodded, his gaze on his daughter's face. "Thank you. I know what  you did was extremely difficult, no matter how many times you say you  had help. The toll it took on you showed for many days after. If Bronnie  lives, it is due to your continued healing of Zev's wounds."

Color rose in Skyler's face and she moved closer to Dimitri. She was  very glad she finally had a relationship with her birth father and that  she could do something to make him proud of her.

"Are you ready for another run at this?" Ivory asked. "This time you  should hunt together and when you find your prey, release the wolves and  coordinate the attack on the vampire with your pack to give them  hunting experience with the undead."

Skyler's heart jumped with pure joy. "I'm ready." She looked to Dimitri.

He leaned down, uncaring of their audience, and found her mouth with  his. He took his time kissing her, allowing himself to get lost in her  for just a moment. He lifted his head, his eyes dark with desire. Very  slowly he smiled down at her. "Let's do this then."

Skyler went up on her tiptoes and kissed him back. "I'm with you." She always would be. Right there, by his side.





Keep reading for an excerpt from the next exciting Carpathian novel by Christine Feehan





DARK BLOOD



Available September 2014 from Berkley Books!





Sound came to him first. A low drumming beat growing louder. Zev Hunter  felt the vibration of that rhythmic booming throughout his entire body.  It hurt. Each separate beat seemed to echo through his flesh and bone,  reverberating through his tissue and cells, jarring him until he thought  he might shake apart.

He didn't move. It was too much of an effort even to open his eyes and  figure out what that disturbing, insistent call was-or why it wouldn't  go away. If he opened his eyes he would have to move, and that would  hurt like hell. If he stayed very still, he could keep the pain at bay,  even though he felt as if he were floating in a sea of agony.

He lay there for a long time, his mind wandering to a place of peace. He  knew the way there now, a small oasis in a world of excruciating pain.  He found the wide, cool pool of blue inviting water, the wind touching  the surface so that ripples danced. The surrounding forest was lush and  green, the trees tall, trunks wide. A small waterfall trickled down the  rocks to the pool, the sound soothing.

Zev waited, holding his breath. She always came when he was there,  moving slowly out of the trees into the clearing. She wore a long dress  and a cape of blue velvet, the hood over her long hair so that he only  caught glimpses of her face. The dress clung to her figure, her full  breasts and small waist, the corset top emphasizing every curve. The  skirt of the dress was full, falling over her hips to the ground.

She was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Her body was graceful,  fluid, an ethereal, elusive woman who always beckoned to him with a soft  smile and a small hand gesture. He wanted to follow her into the cool  forest-he was Lycan, the wolf that lived inside of him preferred the  forest to the open-but he couldn't move, not even for her.

He stayed where he was and simply drank her in. He wasn't a man clever  words came easily to, so he said nothing at all. She never approached  him, never closed the distance between them, but somehow, it never  mattered. She was there. He wasn't alone. He found that as long as she  was close to him, the terrible pain eased.

For the first time though, something disturbed his peaceful place. The  booming beat found him, so loud now that the ground lifted and fell with  an ominous, troubling thump. The water rippled again, but this time he  knew it wasn't the wind causing the water to ring from the middle of the  pool outward. The drumbeat throbbed through the earth, jarring not only  his body but everything else.

The trees felt it. He heard the sap running deep in the trunk and  branches. Leaves fluttered wildly as if answering the deep booming call.  The sound of water grew louder, no longer a soft trickling over rocks,  not a steady drip, but a rush that swelled with the same ebb and flow as  the sap in the trees. Like veins and arteries flowing beneath the very  earth surrounding him, making its way toward every living thing.

You hear it now.

She spoke for the first time. Her voice was soft and melodious, not  carried on the wind, but rather on breath. One moment she was on the  other side of that small pool of water, and the next she was sinking  down into the tall grass, leaning over him, close to him, her lips  nearly skimming his.

He could taste cinnamon. Spice. Honey. All of it on her breath. Or was  it her skin? His Lycan senses, usually so good at scent, seemed  confused. Her lashes were incredibly long and very dark, surrounding her  emerald eyes. A true emerald. So green they were startling. He'd seen  those eyes before. There was no mistaking them. Her bow of a mouth was a  man's perfect fantasy, her lips full and naturally red.

The booming continued, a steady, insistent beat. He felt it through his  back and legs, a jarring pulse that refused to leave him alone. Through  his skin, he seemed to follow the path of water running beneath him,  bringing life-giving nutrients.

You feel it, don't you? she insisted softly.

He couldn't look away. Her gaze held his captive. He wasn't the kind of  man to allow anything or anyone to ensnare him. He forced his head to  work-that first movement that he knew would cost him dearly. He nodded.  He waited for the pain to rip him apart, but aside from a little burst  through his neck and temples that quickly subsided, the expected agony  never came.

What is it?

He frowned, concentrating. The sound continued without a break, so  steady, so strong and rhythmic, he would have said it was a heart, but  the sound was too deep and too loud. Still, it was a pulse that called  to him just as it called to the trees and grass as if they were all tied  together. The trees. The grass. The water. The woman. And him.

You know what it is.

Zev didn't want to tell her. If he said the words, he would have to face  his life again. A cold, utterly lonely existence of blood and death. He  was an elite hunter, a dealer of death to rogue packs-Lycans turned  werewolves and preying on mankind-and he was damned good at his job.

The booming grew louder, more insistent, a dark heralding of life. There  was nowhere to hide from it. Nowhere to run even if he could run. He  knew exactly what it was now. He knew where the sound originated as it  spread out from a center deep beneath him.

Tell me, Hän ku pesäk kaikak, what is it you hear?

The melodic notes of her voice drifted through his pores and found their  way into his body. He could feel the soft musical sound wrapping itself  around his heart and sinking into his bones. Her breath teased his  face, warm and soft and so fresh, like the gentlest of breezes fanning  his warm skin. His lungs seemed to follow the rhythm of hers, almost as  if she breathed for him, not just with him.

Hän ku pesäk kaikak. Where had he heard that before? She called him that  as if she expected him to know what it meant, but it was in a language  he was certain he didn't speak-and he knew he spoke many.

The drumbeat sounded louder, closer, as if he were surrounded on all  sides by many drums keeping the exact beat, but he knew that wasn't so.  The pounding pulse came from below him-and it was summoning him.                       
       
           



       

There was no way to ignore it, no matter how much he wanted to. He knew  now that it wouldn't stop, not ever, not unless he answered the call.

It is the heartbeat of the earth itself.

She smiled and her emerald eyes seemed to take on the multifaceted cut  of the gems he'd seen adorning women, although a thousand times more  brilliant.

She nodded her head very slowly. At long last you are truly back with  us. Mother Earth has called to you. You are being summoned to the  warrior's council. It is a great honor.

Whispers drifted through his mind like fingers of fog. He couldn't seem  to retain actual words, but male voices rose and fell all around him, as  if he were surrounded. The sensation of heat hit him. Real heat.  Choking. Burning. His lungs refused to work, to pull in much-needed air.  When he tried to open his eyes, nothing happened. He was locked in his  mind far from whatever was happening to his body.

The woman leaned closer, her lips brushing against his. His heart  stuttered. She barely touched him, feather light, but it was the most  intimate sensation he'd ever experienced. Her mouth was exquisite.  Perfection. A fantasy. Her lips moved over his again, soft and warm,  melting into him. She breathed into his mouth, a soft airy breath of  clean, fresh air. Once again he tasted her. Cinnamon. Spice. Honey.

Breathe, Zev. You are both Lycan and Carpathian and you can breathe anywhere when you choose. Just breathe.

He was not Sange rau.

No, not Sange rau, you are Hän ku pesäk kaikak. You are a Guardian.