Chapter 4
"Great battle," Zev greeted as Fen came out of the thinning mist toward him. Zev half sat, half laid on the ground, his back against a tree.
"You look a little worse for wear," Fen said.
Zev was covered in wounds from teeth ripping at him and claws tearing him open. He was obviously in pain, but stoic about it.
"You might want to take a look in the mirror yourself," Zev suggested with a show of his white teeth.
By the way he didn't move, Fen knew Zev was in bad shape. Like Dimitri, he had taken the brunt of that last attack in order to give Fen time to save Tatijana from the Sange rau.
"Honestly, I'd rather not. Tatijana dealt with the carcasses. I still have to get those two home." Fen jerked his head toward Enre and Gellert still shielded in the tree. "I have to admit, I'm tired." He sank down, his legs a little rubbery. He'd given a great deal of blood to Dimitri and he hadn't attended his wounds.
"You knew he was here, didn't you? The abomination? You tracked him here."
Fen shrugged. He didn't mind Bardolf being called an abomination. The undead had chosen to give up their soul, but he knew that Zev would think Fen was Sange rau-bad blood as well, if the Lycan knew the truth about Fen's own mixed blood. Fen respected Zev, so it was just a little disconcerting. "I suspected. I came across the rogue pack and thought I'd better try to do damage control, pick them off one by one if possible. But then I saw the destruction, and even for a rogue pack, it seemed too brutal."
"I didn't know," Zev admitted. He sounded disgusted with himself. "I should have suspected. You called him by name."
"My pack was destroyed by the Sange rau, years ago, and I went to a neighboring pack," Fen explained. "Bardolf was the alpha. He was . . . brutal with the younger members. I had a hard time with him and knew I wouldn't be able to stay long."
Zev looked a little amused. "I can imagine. You're pure alpha. One would think you would have a pack of your own." There was a mixture of speculation in his voice as well as the laughter.
"A few months after my pack was destroyed, Bardolf's pack was attacked by the same Sange rau that had killed most of my pack. The demon wreaked havoc, killing everyone in his path. He targeted the women and children first and then began killing the men. Bardolf's mate and his children were killed in the first attack. Bardolf went a little crazy and went hunting on his own while we were burning the dead. No one noticed at first that he was missing. We tracked him to a cave deep in the mountains."
Fen leaned his head back against the tree trunk and closed his eyes as Tatijana knelt beside him. Rather than the battle with blood and death, she smelled of the forest, fresh rain and wild honey, that elusive scent he found enticing. She passed her hands over his face. At once a soothing calm came over him. He looked at her face, so beautiful, her skin flawless, her lashes long and feathery. She smiled at him, lighting up her glittering emerald eyes.
"You need healing, Fen," she said gently.
"So do you, my lady," he answered, his fingers finding the wound on her shoulder.
The wind ripped through the trees, sending a shower of leaves and swirling fog rushing between Zev and Fen, hiding the glow of warmth and Fen's mouth moving over the wound with healing saliva.
"It's nothing," Tatijana said aloud for Zev's benefit. "Let me see to your wounds. They're far worse. I will have to go to ground soon and any injury will heal fast."
Fen couldn't help but be proud of her. She never missed a cue. As far as Zev was concerned, Fen was Lycan. Tatijana had gone a long way to keep his secret safe. She bent over his wounds, her body partially hiding her actions from Zev, but Fen wasn't too concerned. Carpathians were known for their healing abilities.
Her tongue stroked over the wound. His body clenched, reacted unexpectedly. Her eyes had closed, and she looked so incredibly sensual she took his breath away. He'd never thought in terms of sensuality, that was a new experience for him, and he was a little shocked at how intense his reaction to her was.
For me as well.
Her voice was soft, brushing along the walls of his mind, almost with the same sensuality as her tongue. She didn't attempt to hide her wonder or her need from him.
"You said you'd tracked Bardolf to a cave in the mountains," Zev prompted.
Fen couldn't help himself. He touched Tatijana's face with gentle fingers. She smiled, but she didn't stop her work. She took soil from between them, where Zev had no chances of seeing what she was doing, and mixed it with saliva to press into the worst of the bite marks and lacerations.
"What was left of his pack went with me to find him-to aid him. There weren't very many of us, and we had wounded along so we couldn't go as fast as we would have liked. We didn't dare leave them alone, not with the Sange rau so close, and none of us wanted to take the chance of Bardolf finding him and taking him on alone. I couldn't leave them to go ahead. I knew none of them had the skills to deal with a monster like we would be confronting. That gave Bardolf a good head start on us."
Fen was tired. Much more exhausted than he had been in a long, long while. Fighting in the other world, without his body and only using his mind and spirit, had been draining. Tatijana seemed to know, her hands moving over him with sureness, taking on some of the burden. Zev shifted position and groaned softly. It occurred to Fen that Tatijana had performed the same healing rituals on the Lycan.
Not the same, she denied. Her breath was warm against his skin as she knelt up and pushed the hair from his face to find a particularly nasty claw rake.
His body tightened unexpectedly. No, it's not the same, my lady, he agreed, filling her mind with his warmth. It was the only thing he could give her without betraying who he was.
He glanced at Zev before he could help himself, afraid to put Tatijana in any more danger. He was tired and it would be easy enough to make mistakes.
Zev's eyes were closed. Lines were etched into his face. He looked every bit as exhausted as Fen felt.