Fen laughed softly. "We're in great shape, Zev. I'm not looking forward to another dance with this bunch, at least not tonight. Aside from getting our two drunken friends home safely, there's a body in the forest the rogues killed. Tatijana and I found it on our way to the village. That's what brought us running back."
Zev stirred as though he might rise. Tatijana whirled around and held up her hand to stop him. He groaned and subsided.
"I don't know what the healing rate is for Lycans," Tatijana said, "but it isn't this fast. If you don't want those wounds to open again, give yourself a few minutes. I'll get you back to the inn so you can rest. Let me take care of Fen first. But don't you dare move."
Zev laughed. "Are all Carpathians as bossy as you?"
Tatijana gave a little sniff, her eyes alight with amusement. "Only the women. We have to be. Our men are difficult, you know. We have no choice." She turned her emerald eyes back on Fen. Laughter made the green facets glitter. She looked more beautiful than ever.
"If your men don't treat you right, they don't have brains in their heads," Zev said. "You're a beautiful woman, Tatijana, and hell on wheels in a fight. You didn't even flinch."
Fen felt himself go still. He looked around Tatijana to Zev. The man clearly wasn't flirting, just stating a fact. Everything in him settled, when two seconds before, he'd been coiled and ready.
Tatijana nudged him. "Pay attention, wolf boy."
Zev snickered. "That's a good one. You fight like the elite."
It was a probing question delivered in a casual tone.
Fen forced a smile, showing strong white teeth. He'd lived as a Lycan so long it was second nature to him now. He wouldn't make a mistake, not unless Tatijana was in danger. He thought like a Lycan. Zev was cunning, intelligent and fierce, a very skilled fighter. He had walked into their circle and told them to leave, and had they, he would have fought the entire rogue pack alone.
"I've been around and without a pack, I tend to hunt more than most," Fen admitted carefully. "Once I suspected Bardolf was running the rogue pack, I've spent most of my time tracking them, trying to pick them off one at a time." He shot Zev a grin. "They've turned on me a couple of times and I got my butt handed to me."
Zev studied him, eyes too old-too shrewd. "I doubt that. But you've seen your share of battles. You're every bit as skilled as I am, maybe more, and that's saying a lot."
He hadn't hid as much from Zev as he would have liked. Zev was one of the elite, and they were few. They were born that much faster, that much stronger and that much more intelligent than the rest of the Lycans. They regenerated at much more rapid rates. When a pack discovered a child with such attributes, he or she was sent to a special school for education.
"You must not have been very old when your pack was destroyed," Zev ventured.
Tatijana sank back on her heels. "There you go, gentlemen. Both of you should live, although next time I suggest you move just a little faster. If you notice, I have very few bites on me." She flashed a saucy grin at them both.
You healed them, my lady, and that is unfair, he teased her privately.
The Lycans looked at one another and then both of them laughed. The tension between them seemed to evaporate with Tatijana's observation.
"Finish telling me about Bardolf and the cave," Zev prompted again. "If you really think that he's the alpha for this pack, I need to know everything about him."
"We found massive amounts of blood. Scorch marks. A sign of a terrible battle. No bodies, but we knew Bardolf had met up with the Sange rau. All of us believed Bardolf had been killed by him, but there was no body."
There was a small silence. Zev shook his head. "The others believed Bardolf died that day. You knew he was still alive." He made it a statement.
"Bardolf did die that day, whether he appears to be intact or not. He tangled with the Sange rau and somehow he became just like the one he fought. I wasn't certain, but the more I studied the battlefield, the more it looked wrong to me. Staged. The burn marks, the withered plant life, blood everywhere, but no body. Something wasn't right."
Very slowly, Fen could feel his strength returning. Tatijana's powerful blood and healing magic was already working miracles and soon, his Lycan blood would kick in to aid in even faster healing.
"Where are you staying, Zev?" Tatijana asked. "I can take you there. Have you ever ridden on a dragon?"
"I can't say that I have," Zev admitted. "I've been around a few Carpathians over the long years, but only to hunt with them and not once was any of them polite enough to offer me a ride home." He flashed a tired grin. "Of course, they weren't nearly as beautiful as you are, and I might have had to object to them insinuating I couldn't make it home on my own."
"Of course you could," Tatijana said. "But I'm not turning down an escort."
You are amazing, Fen said. Zev has a lot of pride.
He's hurt pretty bad. Even with his blood, and mine, it will take him several days to heal.
Alarm spread. Is he aware you gave him blood?
Centuries ago, the Lycans didn't know what caused the combination of Lycan/Carpathian. Or for that matter, Lycan/Vampire. Clearly the Lycans didn't distinguish between the two. They saw both as a powerful threat. So few crosses had been made that maybe the Lycan council still was unsure, but they must have guessed. They had access to laboratories and they studied and researched. Most likely they had to suspect a mixture of blood in this century.