She was terrified of Barnabas, but not of Sergey. That spoke volumes to him. She watched his every move intently, so she could replicate the safeguards as needed.
“Do not leave the safety of this place, Julija.” He made it a decree, uncaring if that made him a chauvinist in her modern woman eyes. “I cannot have my attention divided between your safety and destroying such a powerful being.”
Julija nodded. “Just don’t break our merge, even if it is getting bad, Isai.”
He turned from her and started toward the opening. She caught his sleeve. “Promise me. Give me your word.”
“Unless there is no other choice,” he agreed. She would have to live with that. He would do his best to keep his word, but if Sergey managed to defeat him, he wouldn’t allow Julija to experience his death.
Blue, Comet, if you reach the cave, you take care of her. He gave the order as he took to the sky in the shape of mist.
Sergey would find his treacherous ally, Crina, dead in her tent and he would be angry. He didn’t like to lose. Julija had slipped out of his hands several times. If she was right and the vampire wasn’t able to hear the book’s call any longer, then it would be more important than ever to acquire Julija if he thought she could find it.
Isai had watched Crina’s face carefully when Julija had accused her of being Barnabas’s lover. It had been true. He had no doubt that both Barnabas and Crina could be in league with Sergey. Both wanted power. Crina had no love for her husband, Anatolie, nor apparently, he for her. Theirs had been a match all about power. When Anatolie hadn’t given her what she wanted most, it seemed she had aligned herself with Barnabas.
Barnabas appeared to be everywhere. Who was he really? What was he doing in every mix? Was he more powerful than Anatolie? Isai hadn’t considered that before. Now he had to answer the question of who Barnabas truly was and what kind of real threat he would be.
The sound of the bats rose to a fever pitch and a man’s voice cursed. The bats had found the two campers. He doubled his speed, streaking through the night sky to try to make it to them before the vicious bats had devoured the two. They wouldn’t have been afraid. Most likely, they’d even stepped out of their tent to witness the large, unusual migration.
There were seventeen species of bats in Yosemite, but these weren’t any of those. These bats were servants of Sergey, mutations originally conceived of by Xavier. Xavier had used them as guardians of his caves. They were vicious and craved blood and flesh. Highly dangerous, they ate the flesh right off the bone while their prey was alive. He would have to find and kill the colony if he survived this night.
He dropped down from the sky like a bullet, throwing up a shield as he landed right in the middle of the melee. The blond, Mike had been his name, fought with a hatchet, swinging at the creatures attacking from all directions. Josh used a small machete, slicing through heads as the bats walked upright on their wings, looking macabre. More filled the air, darting in to take great chunks out of their skin.
Let me see them, Julija demanded.
Isai joined the two men, maneuvering them under the shield so it was impossible for the bats to get to them from above. They had to come at them from either direction, but there appeared to be a sea of them surrounding them.
“What kind of bats are these?” Josh demanded, wiping blood from his face and then going back to swinging the machete.
Isai didn’t worry about what either man might think. He used his superior speed to fight off the bats. Even so, they were overpowering, more and more coming at them.
There are too many of them, Julija. I either have to try to fly the two men to safety or burn these creatures. I have seen these swarms before in memories given to me. They must be burned in order for us to survive. He was calm. There was a solution. If necessary, he would try to outfly the colony of mutated bats.
Are you able to burn them without aid?
He had seen it done through the memories of others. It wasn’t easy. He had no device such as the one he’d seen used. It