embedded in his body, blood oozing around it. He gripped it harder and yanked, calling out his spell a second time as blood sprayed into the air like a geyser. At his command, the blood stopped, and the wound closed.
He pushed himself up with one hand, glaring not at Isai, but at the bluff where his sister lay. She met his eyes even from that distance. His hatred was venomous. He knew she had opened his defenses, allowing the Carpathian access to him. If he lived, Anatolie and Barnabas would never allow him to live it down that she had succeeded in stealing his magic from him. He flicked her a malevolent gaze promising retaliation as he began to climb to his feet.
Isai hit him again, this time the wave almost casual, as he continued to walk forward. He didn’t hurry. He didn’t change stride, even when the mage flung a series of fiery darts at him. Isai waited until the last possible moment before knocking each out of the sky as it came within arm’s length.
The second spear hit Vasile as he rose, spinning him around, the sharpened tip driving through his throat. His body turned full circle so that he faced Isai directly. Rather than look at the Carpathian, his gaze jumped upward, across the valley to meet Julija’s. His eyes had gone red. Leaked blood. Blood ran down his throat and soaked his once immaculate shirt.
Her heart accelerated. She recognized the absolute loathing for her. A single sound of fear escaped, and she tried to push back with her hands, to scoot out of sight.
With his last vestige of strength, rather than make another vain attempt to kill the one destroying him, Vasile turned his malice on his sister. He waved toward the bluff, sending a shock wave across the small valley so it hit the rock hard just beneath the ledge. Isai’s blast hit him as the bluff began to crumble.
Julija saw Isai turn toward the sound of the rock as it broke away, tumbling far down to the valley floor. Already the cats were leaping away, scattering somewhere behind her, but it was too late to save herself. She didn’t have the strength to crawl, let alone run. She felt the ground give way. Rock. Grass. Dirt. It folded beneath her and then she was falling.
You are Carpathian. Fly. Her lifemate gave the command.
Isai was in the air, but he was too far away. Instincts came alive. She knew what to do. She tried to picture an owl in enough detail to save herself, but it was impossible. She was just too tired. The ground was too close.
Julija felt Isai leap into her mind, taking over. He had never seemed so ruthless or so commanding. So hard. He held the picture for her, forcing her body to shift. The owl pulled up just in time, screeching as it did so, Julija huddled in a small ball somewhere inside. She should have felt like a prisoner because she couldn’t get out even if she wanted to. She should have felt elated that she was alive. She didn’t have the strength to feel triumph, happiness or even sadness that so many had died this night. She just wanted to curl up and go to sleep.
The male owl joined the female and spiraled downward until they landed on the ground. Isai shifted first and then pushed the command into her brain, the only way for her to come back to her own body. His hands moved over her, searching for any injuries, and then he left her with the cats in order to burn the bodies of the mages.
12
So much for trying to be an evolved male. Isai lifted Julija into his arms and looked around him at the pack of shadow cats. They looked almost as destroyed as she did. Emaciated and far too thin, the cats were haunting in their devastation. He couldn’t leave them behind as much as he wanted to get his woman someplace safe and see to her.
He sank back into the soft dirt there in the valley and looked up at the field of stars. One would never know that a battle had taken place just minutes earlier. Even with Julija’s help, and it had been incredible, walking through a dark mage’s minefield of defenses was a harrowing and dangerous proposition.
Every few feet, the slightest change in even the wind could produce a new monster to deal with. He’d dealt over and