Dark Carousel (Dark #30) - Christine Feehan Page 0,140

spun around and around, like a madly whirling carousel out of control, the other horses following suit. The chariots joined them. Liv led them through the house, still whirling so that the child had to clutch the horse’s neck to stay on its back.

Liv screamed. She clearly had come awake now, but was unable to get off the horse. She tried, struggling wildly, terror on her face. Beside him, Charlotte stirred, her eyes opening, horror already spreading through her.

Liv. Her voice was surprisingly calm. She used the pathway through Tariq’s mind to get to the child. Hold on and try to relax. Just hold on. It’s moving too fast to try to jump off, honey.

The calm in Charlotte’s voice penetrated and Liv stopped screaming and bent over the neck of the horse, her arms and knees tight around the wood as the horse burst out of the house and into the open.

Tariq began to press the green buttons on the panel at his fingertip. There was a bank of them. One was for Danny’s bedroom. Others were for Emeline’s room, Amelia’s, Bella’s, Lourdes’s, Genevieve’s and the Waltons’.

Get in your bedroom, Emeline. It was one of the few times he’d ever used the Carpathian path to Emeline. Blaze and Maksim had ensured she had it so she could communicate with them all, but she despised anyone in her mind, so out of respect, they avoided talking to her telepathically. Emeline turned and ran back inside. He could only hope that she did as instructed.

Donald, get Mary into the bedroom. He could see the older couple running for their house. They’d been told what to expect if the compound came under attack. This was the only way he had of protecting them against humans as well as the monstrous puppets Fridrick, as general of Vadim’s army, would send against them.

One of the green buttons activated the lift that sank each room into the ground, making it a sealed panic room that was inaccessible to any outside source. The floor covered the opening so that it was impossible to know the room was underground or that there was a room at all. Josef had thought the idea up and at the time, Tariq thought him a little fanciful, but it was a sound idea and one that would keep the occupants of the compound from harm.

He could see on the monitors as each member of his family was dropped beneath the surface so they were safe underground and impossible to detect. The rooms were sealed with good airflow and amenities, even a bathroom, just in case the stay was longer than expected.

Danny and the girls could move from room to room; they were all connected once below the surface. At the moment, they were still peacefully sleeping and unaware. Genevieve’s and Lourdes’s rooms connected. Like the other children, they slept, the push Tariq had given them still holding. Donald and Mary were on their own. He saw that they were safe beneath the ground, but he couldn’t see Emeline. He hadn’t put cameras in her home. She’d insisted she wouldn’t stay if he did. He could only hope she’d obeyed the order and that she was afraid enough of Vadim that she didn’t hesitate.

His gaze went back to Liv. Charlotte’s gaze had never left her. The child was calmer because both Tariq and Charlotte were in her mind, anchoring her, soothing her and more importantly, keeping Vadim and his commands at bay. There was nothing to be done about the wildly spinning horses. Already, Tariq could feel the buildup of energy as the horses and chariots spun madly.

The horses were now in the center of the compound and had formed a complete carousel, they and the chariots acting as if they were suspended from chains and whirling faster and faster so that Liv’s steed was forced outward by the centrifugal force. All around them the explosions kept coming, bouncing off the safeguards so that none penetrated the fortress Tariq had created.

Liv clung to the horse as it swung out so fast and hard that it appeared to be on its side as it whirled madly. In the middle of the carousel, a dark force began to rise, a cloud, spinning just as fast. In the center and flashing through the darkness were streaks of fire, of lightning.

Tariq swore. Vadim always prepared for everything. He overprepared. It was a characteristic his brothers had often given him a bad time about, but now that preparation