"That's different."
Tariq threw back his head and laughed. "Go feed, my friend and brother. Emeline will be fine. She has been in our world. Blaze is her best friend and sister. They talk. Blaze is a warrior, Emeline is not. Blaze is suited to Maksim. Emeline is suited to you. My Charlotte is perfect for me. That is how it works. You will do your best to make her happy, and she will do her best to make you happy. Go, Dragomir, before you talk yourself into running for the monastery. I can assure you, most modern women, if you act like you don't want them, will shrug their shoulders and take their hurt in the opposite direction."
"I would not run from her. If I returned to the monastery, she would go with me."
Tariq laughed again. "Go start our little charade. Feed and then destroy the lair and hopefully any vampire you find in it. I will check on the children, isolate each of them from the others and make certain Amelia cannot escape the gilded cage we put her in."
Dragomir took to the sky with Tariq's laughter echoing through his mind. Sandu and Andor flew on either side of him. Ferro, Afanasiv and Nicu flanked him. He wanted the others there, Petru, Benedik and Isia. He sent out a call to the others in the brotherhood, hoping they would come. He wanted them to see that he had a lifemate and they were right to search for theirs.
10
Dragomir fed well, knowing he was heading for a fight. The lair that had been found was a good distance from the compound, in the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. There were more than one hundred miles of hiking trails. Camping sites and picnic areas made it a smorgasbord for vampires. Up in the highest peak, a crack appeared in a large jutting boulder. It was barely a half of an inch wide, but ran about five feet long in a jagged pattern almost to the very foot of the boulder.
He stood facing it, the other ancients spreading out, feeling the air, the ground, listening and scanning. There was a compulsion embedded in the rock face that warned people away from the area. Anyone feeling it would just turn and leave. That had alerted Andor to the fact that the lair had to be close.
Anywhere one went in a forested area, there was the continual drone of insects. Here, it was eerily silent. There was a feeling of impending violence, of an unseen watcher. The ground shifted subtly under his feet, a built-in snare just in case the compulsion to leave didn't work. He crouched low to run his hand along the soil.
There is something here. A trap beneath our feet. It feels like the ones used a few centuries ago by the Astors. Fridrick and Georg. They had a few kin that ran with them as well. When the Malinovs turned, they also chose to give up their souls. Do any of you recall the others in this family and the traps they preferred to use?
The brotherhood had long ago formed their own telepathic paths. They didn't need to use the more common Carpathian path--the one any vampire would hear. The sun hadn't set, so any vampire inside the lair would be still bedding down and setting more safeguards.
They liked to use the local habitat so everything always looked natural, Afanasiv answered. There were at least three others. Cousins, I think. My memory is dim.
Karl, Leon and Raban. They all went from the Carpathian Mountains to Germany. They took German names to fit in, better to terrorize the people there, Ferro added to the bank of information.
Dragomir ran his hand, palm down, with exquisite gentleness along the top of the soil. There was no grass. He found a small, withered bush just to the right of the boulder. The plant had shrunken away from the foul, unnatural being that had trampled the dirt near it. He felt something, a small electric shock almost, leaping toward his palm. None of the other ancients had boots on the ground. Only Dragomir had allowed his feet to touch the soil.
They used insects. Swarms of them, stinging and biting. They enhanced the beetles or whatever it was they found in the earth, giving them poisonous venom and nasty stings, Nicu added. They have scorpions here. He could use them. Enhance them.
That would be like any of the Astors. They liked drama, Dragomir said. Be ready, let's see what he has. He stood, walked first left and then right, paced back and forth, so that the vibrations would disturb the insects and trigger the trap.
Behind you. The warning came from Sandu.
Dragomir took to the air, turning to see the ground erupting with hundreds of scorpions. They rose to the surface, climbing on one another, covering the soil so it looked like a living, moving carpet. Tails raised high, stingers in position for a strike, they were agitated, looking for prey. None of the ancients moved. They knew that the trap had to have been triggered multiple times by wildlife in the area. The vampire would expect his allies to feed. He wouldn't be suspicious because something had disturbed his first line of defense. Still, one might expect him to check since the sun hadn't yet risen.
Dragomir and the other ancients shimmered into transparency and then disappeared, becoming nothing but molecules in the night air. They waited, aware of the minutes ticking away. Dragomir was certain there would be no going back to the compound before the sun rose. That meant he had to rely on Tariq to keep Emeline safe from Amelia. While he waited, he replayed everything the Carpathian had said to him. Tariq might love Amelia, but he wasn't blinded. The sliver of evil Vadim planted in her would take her over. It wouldn't be Amelia trying to harm the others, it would be Vadim. Tariq wouldn't give in to sentiment, not even for his lifemate.
A steady stream of yellow vapor slipped out of the crack in the boulder, just as a small mule deer stepped close to the swarm of scorpions. They rushed at it. The deer shrieked as one stabbed it with its stinger. Others tried to run up its legs. The deer whirled around and ran a few feet only to drop. At once the other scorpions were all over it. The yellow vapor retreated into the crack, clearly satisfied.
Dragomir moved back into position at the boulder, while the others spread out, all in the air, keeping their boots from touching the surface and adding to the frenzy taking place just a few feet away.
Anyone remember the safeguards the Astors relied on? Even if they've changed them, they will use the base form. They were always on the lazy side, Dragomir said.
You remember, Sandu said. You're testing us, like you always do, being an ass.
Someone has to keep you sharp.
I believe I kept you sharp in the training area.
Sandu was correct, he had taught all of them many lessons with various weapons, over and over. He was incredibly fast. Not as fast as Nicu, who moved like lightning in a fight. It was almost impossible to see him because he moved so fast he was a blur, but Sandu could anticipate almost every move an opponent would make.
Dragomir was grateful he had the ability to find humor in everything again. He'd forgotten humor and how much it could change one's mood. Sandu was telling them all the strict truth. A fact. But the play on words made it humorous without the ancient meaning it that way.
I sent for the others. Benedik, Petru and Isia, Sandu added. I had forgotten what it was to chase the vampire, and a war is shaping up here.
I did as well, Andor admitted.
The others nodded and Dragomir had to smile. He had also sent for the others in the brotherhood. It scares me that we all think alike.
We've been together too long, Ferro pointed out with a small shrug.
Dragomir got back to the task at hand. They always used the first safeguard, Alycrome taught us. Alycrome had been the high mage for many years before Xavier, his son, had taken over. Alycrome had insisted they follow their instincts and develop safeguards of their own, but many had problems completing that task. Weaving strands was easy enough; making them complicated, so difficult that others couldn't unravel them, was something else again.
Dragomir and the other ancients lifted their hands into the air and began a reverse of the oldest safeguard known to their people. It had been a simple one, not at all complex like the ones used in the centuries following. Sure enough, as their hands and fingers played out the symbols, the air around them once more shimmered and the barrier was revealed. It lay heavy around the boulder, a wide ne
t blanketing the rock, preventing anyone from entering.
The next layer looks simple enough, Ferro said. That's just a retaliation spell. It's barely finished.
Dragomir looked at the weave moving in and out of the first strand, the foundation of the spell. It was sloppy work. Someone had thrown it up hastily. These vampires hadn't been chased by hunters in a long while and they were feeling safe. Secure. Vadim had given them that false sense of security.
Classic seven weave, Ferro volunteered. Not well done and nothing original.
Ferro was right. It was ridiculous that the vampire had even bothered to safeguard the area. Dragomir took the next two strands down. The ancients surrounding him scanned the air continually, looking for hidden traps. That was always the worry. The vampire had made it easy to draw a hunter in.