Her body jerked again. Hard. Hard enough to tear her from his arms. She screamed as she flew backward, slamming into the thick wooden gates of the monastery. Vines, like snakes, circled her wrists and drew her hands above her head. More vines wrapped around her waist, pinning her to the massive wall, holding her there, a prisoner.
She screamed again, her eyes on him. “Help! What’s happening? What’s wrong? Help me!”
A voice woke him. A soft musical murmur. Sound. Melodic. The notes pushed through the darkness of his mind. Silvery notes that left a small trail in their wake. He could almost see them, tiny, narrow streams of liquid silver penetrating the dense sheet of unrelenting darkness. The streaks left trails through his mind, much like a comet. The light spread. Sank deep.
Aleksei waved his hand to remove the soil surrounding him. The musical notes went from silver to gold. Gold. Not gray. Not a dull, dingy white. Gold. Silver and gold. He could see the notes dancing through the sheet of darkness, bursting like stars, ripping the sheet to shreds. Each note tore more of the dark from his mind, letting in the light until the backs of his eyes burned.
He blinked rapidly and looked around slowly, his eyes hooded, lashes fanning down to protect his vision. The carefully cultivated plants were in bloom and he could see the riot of colors. So bright. So vibrant. His eyes burned and the intensity of the colors caused a lurch in his belly. Disorienting. Still. Colors.
He took a deep breath and drew in the air she breathed. His lifemate. She was close. Right outside the gates. He heard her, that soft murmur. Plea. She was arguing with someone. He drew her into his lungs. Deep. Deeper. Holding her right there with the miracle of silver and gold notes burning through his shredded soul. Cauterizing. Attempting to repair the damage done by centuries of killing. Of being alone, hoping and then losing hope. The darkness didn’t win and yet it had—until now.
He forced his eyes to shutter, to reduce the vivid colors enough that he could rise without the lurching, disorienting feeling that was so disturbing. Her voice rose outside the gates, carried to him on the wind. Soft. Pleading. Tears in her voice. A man’s murmur followed. Rage hit him. Deadly. Dangerous.
Help! What’s happening? What’s wrong? Help me!
Emotion was something he didn’t even remember, and the intensity was overwhelming. He could barely contain elation at finding his lifemate, and fury that another man hurt her enough to make her cry. The storm inside him was violent, relentless and demanding. He did his best to tamp it down. He had to be in control. He was far too dangerous not to be.
Aleksei took to the sky, something he hadn’t done in a very long while, whirling like the mist, carried on the sudden forceful wind. His lifemate’s screams tore at him, sent streaks of pure rage rushing through his bloodstream. He had never heard the fear and anguish in anyone’s voice as he did in hers, and it ripped him apart, ripped away the last veneer of civilization, leaving him solely what he’d always been—a predator at the very top of the food chain. There would be no escaping him. Not for her. Not for the man who caused her tears.
From the air he saw the woman he knew belonged to him and the man she faced with tears running down her face. She was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Her back was against the gate, both arms stretched above her head, wrists bound by the guardians. Another binding circled her slim waist. She wore a man’s garb, something he didn’t care for at all, especially when another man was looking at her as if she was his entire world. It was too form-fitting, revealing her luscious curves. The plants Fane used as safeguards to protect those in the monastery had done their job, recognizing this woman belonged and holding her. Should any approach her, the vines would protect her.
He immediately noted Andre was there with his lifemate—a woman he recognized from a few days earlier when she had tried to heal Andre after he’d battled a master vampire. Fane, keeper of the monastery, had given them aid, but Aleksei and two others had stayed close to protect them.
The stranger stepped toward Aleksei’s lifemate and something animalistic in him roared a protest. He dropped from the sky to insert his body solidly between the stranger and his lifemate.
“You dare to touch my woman? My lifemate? You dare such a thing?” He switched to English, realizing they had been using that language. “I am Aleksei, and the woman is mine.”
Aleksei was utterly confident in his skills but he was surprised and a little taken aback to recognize the man—his enemy—was a Daratrazanoff. There was no mistaking one from that lineage or the power emanating from one of them. He had never known a Daratrazanoff to be a man without honor, but to try to take another man’s lifemate was a crime punishable by death—even for those second-in-command to the prince.
He exploded into action, and he was fast. These last years in the monastery could never take away the speed and experience of his centuries of battle. To keep fit and in practice, each evening the ancients gathered to fight, using weapons and hand-to-hand combat. They stayed sharp that way, and it helped to occupy their minds.
He knew he was risking his honor to go into battle; that risk was the very reason he had entered the monastery in the first place. He was far too powerful. Had lived too long. He would be a vampire few could kill. This was his lifemate, and he would defend her with his last breath even if he risked the ultimate dishonor.
Gabrielle screamed and fought the vines holding her in place. Andre barked a command to Teagan and she disappeared, obeying him instantly. Gary was only barely aware of those things. His attention was centered on the raging beast claiming Gabrielle. The man was tall and strong—abnormally so, even for a Carpathian. His shoulders were broad, his chest heavily muscled. His eyes glowed red, vicious, predatory. He hit like a jackhammer, slamming his fist straight at Gary’s heart, his white teeth exposed. His teeth showed his state of mind and it wasn’t good.
Gary dissolved fast before the fist could penetrate his chest. He came up behind the Carpathian, reaching to circle his neck with his arm, to lock around him in an effort to break his neck. Thick black hair spilled down the intruder’s back, and the hair went wild, became alive, slashing ropes of razors that cut flesh when touched.
Around him, Gary could feel the frenzied energy spilling out in every direction. Gabrielle, nearly hysterical, desperate to be free, terrified for him. Terrified of the predatory creature that had attacked him. He could feel the energy pouring off the stranger, so broken, so far gone, the darkness in him absolutely crushing. Surprisingly, Gary’s own emotions were much easier to control in the face of the threat.
He had no idea who Aleksei was, but so far, Andre hadn’t made a move toward them, which he would have had the crazy ancient been a vampire. Still, Gary wasn’t about to allow anyone to hurt Gabrielle, and this man had to be responsible for the vines holding her prisoner. She’d been jerked backward a good fifteen feet and slammed hard against the monastery gates.
With Aleksei’s razor-blade hair, Gary had no choice but to release him and jump back. He needed to keep his distance and use modern weapons. This was an ancient Carpathian, possibly a vampire, and no matter how much power and knowledge Gary possessed, he didn’t have this hunter’s experience. He needed to use intellect to defeat him, not brawn. He was outmatched and he knew it, and that meant he had to press and press until he was completely played out. The one thing he couldn’t allow his opponent was time.
He leapt back and pulled his weapon. He’d been developing ways to fight vampires since he’d first become Gregori’s friend. He’d perfected several. He flew back, his body now protecting Gabrielle, as he drew and fired his weapon. Aleksei simultaneously whirled and came at him, his features sheer stone, eyes blazing with fury.
The small gun was lightweight and fit in the palm of Gary’s hand. To kill a vampire wasn’t all that easy. One had to extract the heart and incinerate it. The gun rapid-fired several lethal circular bullets—claws of steel. The discs, high velocity, were sharp enough to penetrate through flesh and bone and designed to burrow deep.
Once fired, the disc locked on to a target—the withered low-level beat of the undead’s heart—surrounded the organ and clamped down. As soon as the claw had the heart in its grip it emitted a high-pitched screech that signaled, even during a loud battle, the heart was ready for extraction. The second trigger on the gun activated the extraction. The entire process took the same amount of time it took to fire a bullet.
The disc hit true. Aleksei stumbled back under the impact, his hands going to his chest. Gary fired a second disc as Aleksei reached into his own chest to pull the claw from inside his body. The ancient didn’t make a single sound. Not one. He didn’t even blink. If he felt pain, he didn’t show it, but he did dodge the second disc with blurring speed, coming at Gary so fast there was no time to move, no time to think of anything but survival. All the while Aleksei rushed, his hand continued to remove the claw from his chest.
Aleksei had no time to puzzle out the reason his lifemate continued to cry out for his opponent’s safety. He couldn’t take the chance that Gabrielle would be hurt in the battle, and a Daratrazanoff was between them. Close to her. Far too close to her. He felt Andre moving in his mind, telling him to stop, but that didn’t make sense either. Andre knew that a lifemate was never to be touched by another man. Never. To break that sacred rule was punishable by death, no matter the lineage of the offender.
As he whirled toward Gary, using both speed and movement to prevent the crazed Carpathian from using his weapon, Aleksei sent the wind rushing around them, driving the man away from Gabrielle with a series of fireballs aimed at him raining out of the night sky. The two combatants came together in a fury of blazing fire. The flames came out of the wind, firebombs dropping to surround them, to hold the two in the center, moving them back away from Aleksei’s lifemate. He was careful that the fireballs were well away from her, but the flames prevented Gary from getting near her.
“Stop them, Andre,” Gabrielle shouted, terrified for Gary. She struggled against the vines, and the more she struggled, the harder the tough wood bit into her skin, until blood began to trickle down her arms. “He’s going to kill Gary.”
She could see nothing now but the wall of flames. Strangely the fire wasn’t in the least bit hot to her skin. Still, not seeing what was happening between the two men was far worse than witnessing it.