Dark Carousel (Dark 26)

"No one could have foreseen this." Dragomir all but growled it.

The others echoed the sentiment, absolving him, but did it really matter? There was no absolution. He had allowed her to go into a situation alone and unprotected. There was no feeling better about it, no loss of guilt or anger or fear. Terror. It was there. Grabbing him by the throat and crushing him under its weight. He couldn't lose her. Not now. Stay with me. Stay for me. I need you, Charlotte.

Tariq waved a hand and opened the soil, giving himself plenty of room. He floated, Charlotte cradled in his arms, down into what appeared to be a double grave at least eight feet deep. The minerals sparkled when the faint lights on the ceiling overhead illuminated the dark loam. Up on the decks above the soil, the Carpathian hunters formed a circle around the opening and began to chant. Hand and arm movements were coordinated, reversing what Vadim had done centuries earlier.

Charlotte tried. For him. He felt it. The rising of her spirit just briefly. The smallest of flickers, and then her light faded.

Tariq didn't waste any time. He sank his teeth into Charlotte's neck, that pulse that should have been tripping with fear, but was barely there. He took her blood fast. She didn't feel the bite or the drawing, so he didn't try to soften the effects. He just took enough for an exchange, watching her the entire time.

Her eyelids were so fragile, almost transparent under the fog of ice, eyes moving continually behind them. Her lashes were long and thick, lying in twin crescents against her pale skin. She shuddered. Labored for breath. Wheezed. He reached for her spirit even as he drank, surrounding that small fading light so that she couldn't escape him. His blood didn't warm her body as it should have. He'd encased the splinter, making certain it couldn't break free, but it was using her bone marrow as a resource to continue to infect her.

Between the splinter and the safeguards, Charlotte was in trouble. The moment he'd taken enough blood, he swept away his clothing and used his fingernail to tear a laceration over his chest muscles. Immediately he cupped the back of her head in his hand and pressed her mouth to the ruby beads bubbling up. Drink, sielamet. Drink for both of us. He pushed command into his voice, cursing that he'd allowed her to stay too long in the tunnels. She had no sense of time passing there, but he'd known she was getting close to her limit. He hadn't banked on Vadim's safeguards from centuries earlier, working to destroy her.

Her mouth barely moved. He scowled and pressed her closer, taking her mind from her, uncaring in that moment that he might have to face her later if she objected. Ruthlessly he forced compliance, even when her body was far too tired to obey. She had no other choice than to do exactly as he commanded. Her mouth began to move against him, drawing out the vital blood that would sustain her life and ensure that nothing would take her from him. Hot rich blood that would fill her organs, heat and reshape them. Change her. Transform her. Save her.

Don't let it be too late. Let me have her.

While she fed, he removed their clothes with a simple wave of his hand and encased both of them in the rich soil, burying all but their heads so that the earth could do its job and care for her, warm her. Bring back heat into her freezing body. When he was certain she'd taken enough blood for their third exchange, he held her close, using his own body heat, slipping into her body with his spirit to facilitate her body's ability to bring her temperature up.

Inside her, he found . . . ice. He'd been standing with her, his arms around her. The other Carpathian hunters had been touching her--hands on her--but they couldn't go where she led. It had happened so fast. Without warning. They could see the events unfolding in their minds, but they weren't present and couldn't know that Vadim had woven so foul a safeguard. The memories held in the wood took Charlotte with them back to wherever they were born. That journey was dangerous, and if she stayed too long, she was without the ability to stay warm. The safeguard was simple enough in that it played on the weakness of the recipient. Already cold, Charlotte became freezing. More, the woven spell compounded the effect, twisting the internal organs into icy, frozen lumps.

The chants of the Carpathian males rose and Blaze joined them, standing beside her lifemate, Maksim, her voice adding a feminine note to the deeper voices rising in an effort to save Tariq's lifemate. Val Zhestokly arrived, looking pale and even staggering a little, the signs of torture still very evident on his body. He wasn't alone. To Tariq's horror, Liv was with him, holding his hand. Standing on the very edge of what to the child had to look like a grave. Tariq closed his eyes. This was going to be bad. So bad.

16

Taking a deep breath, Tariq opened his eyes to look at the child. "Csecsemo--baby--you cannot be here. This could go very, very wrong."

"I would not have brought her if the message was not important, ekam--my brother," Val said, his voice rusty and without any emotion.

Tariq sighed. "You understand this is going to be bad. We could lose Charlotte."

Liv stared down at him with her haunted eyes, shaking her head. "Emeline said to do exactly what you're thinking. She does need all of us. Every single one of us. I told the others to help. Emeline said it's the only way to save her, Tariq, and we need her. We need you. None of us will survive without you."

He groaned softly, smoothing back Charlotte's hair. "Don't say that, Liv. You have Danny, your sisters and Emeline. You have Val. The connection is strong between you. He woke at your call."

A shudder ran through Charlotte's body when she'd lain as if dead. A block of ice in his arms. No longer shivering. Her spirit merely a faint, flickering light he'd surrounded and kept from moving down the tree of life. He whispered to her. In her mind. In her ear. Softly. Lovingly. Letting her know she wasn't alone.

I am with you always, sielamet. Keeper of my soul. Of my heart. Where you go I will follow.

A frown flickered over her face. Her eyes moved back and forth behind her eyelids. A small shake of her head. Children. They were there in her mind, a worry that they couldn't do without him.

I cannot survive your passing with honor, Charlotte. He gave her the stark truth. I must follow or become the very thing I have hunted for centuries. Dishonor. Forcing his fellow hunters to find and destroy him. He was ancient. Experienced in battle. They would have trouble, and he could as easily kill them as they could him. The idea . . . He shook his head. I go where you go, sielamet. Always.

"Tariq, we can save her," Liv reiterated. "I know we can. Emeline knows things. She sent for me. She said you know what to do. We have to band together. One mind. All of us. We can do it."

"Csecsemo, she must go through the conversion. It is . . . difficult. I cannot take away the pain and she is very weak. It is not good for you to be here, to see this."

Liv stuck her chin out, her fingers wrapped around Val's hand so tightly they were white. "I know I'm ten. I know that, but I have gifts, and I know what is truth in someone's mind when I touch them. I know what is in Emeline's. She sees reality in dreams and she told me. She told me to run and get Val. She said to tell you that you were right to call everyone in even though it feels wrong. She said modesty or bravery isn't important, just easing the conversion for her. You were right all along in your thinking for the children. She said that all the Carpathians and I needed to connect our minds with yours. Charlie needs to be in the soil, just like you have her. She said, 'Hold on to her, Tariq.' And then she said this is how to convert the others and me--all of us together--and you were the one who knew it; you were just afraid of losing any of us, but it has to be done."

He'd lost control of his woman and she was dying. Now, he'd lost control of his child. Little brave Liv. Ten years old. She could already hear everything on the telepathic common path they all used. She was old beyond her years and far too young for the terrible things that had happened to her. Things he couldn't prevent.

He had to trust Emeline to know what she was talking about. He had to believe that she would never risk Liv. Never. She was trying to save the child as well as Charlotte,

although he would have preferred she come herself or talk to Amelia. He glanced up at Maksim.

Maksim raised an eyebrow, but Blaze nodded several times. "Emeline would never tell Liv to be here if it wasn't important, Tariq."

He didn't understand why Liv had to be a witness, but Charlotte's body suddenly writhed in his arms and he could think only of saving her. The soil kept her from moving or thrashing, but the wave of pain was so sudden, so intense, he was certain of its own accord her body would have curled into the fetal position. He turned her on her side, his arms holding her against him, the soil packed tightly to hold her fragile body in place while the blood reshaped her organs and got rid of the toxins.

All along, Tariq had been trying to think of a way to aid the children in their conversion. He'd thought of--and discarded--several ideas, but his mind kept returning to the idea of all the Carpathians together aiding the children as the conversion took place. They were far more powerful as a whole. No one had thought to try it.