Dark Carousel (Dark #30) - Christine Feehan Page 0,156
malevolently. She hadn’t killed this one, only made it very, very angry.
Charlotte backed up, tripped and went down hard on her bottom. She slashed at the monstrous hound with the sword, drawn a bit awkwardly from the scabbard. The blade sliced through the massive throat and black blood poured onto the ground. At once the asphalt smoked and hissed.
Everything happened so fast she didn’t have time to be afraid. She had to keep moving or the thing was going to kill her. She couldn’t get up. Her feet slid in the oil that was splashed on the ground and she couldn’t get a good purchase on the asphalt. Then Dragomir was there, shooting the beast in the eye with an arrow and slamming a bolt of lightning into the carcass before it even hit the ground.
He yanked her to her feet and both turned to find Tariq, torn, bloody and triumphant, the three-headed hellhound at his feet.
Val fought his way through the wall of puppets. Fridrick would sacrifice them to stop the hunters from getting to Liv before the hybrid could kill her. He kept his gaze glued to the cage, where the child lay curled in a tight ball, in the fetal position, her hands clamped over her ears and her eyes shut tight. There was blood on her clothes, up high by her shoulder. Some in her hair. A steady stream of tears tracked down her face, but she wept silently.
He slammed his fist through a puppet and shoved him off, uncaring that the blood was vampire enough that it burned like acid. A hybrid tried to stop him, to delay him, by swiping at him with a machete. Still not taking his gaze from Liv, Val hurtled the huge wall of muscle and flesh out of his way. Already the hybrid closest to the cage had yanked at the lock, breaking it and flinging it aside. The giant of a man reached in with his huge hands, caught hold of Liv and dragged her out of the cage.
Liv didn’t struggle. She squeezed her eyes closed tighter and lay limp while the hybrid shook her like a rag doll. He wrapped one hand around her throat, and then Val was on him, seizing his head between his hands and wrenching hard. There was an audible crack and he caught Liv before she fell to the floor.
“Keep your eyes closed, csecsemõ,” he ordered. “Pesäd te engemal.” He switched to English. “You are safe with me, kislány.” He crushed her body to his chest and began to make his way through the heavy fighting toward the door. One big hand kept her face firmly pressed to his chest while he raced through the warehouse toward the door Tariq and Dragomir had cleared. Around him the battle raged with the ferocious fury of the Carpathian ancients.
Lesser vampires snapped and postured at the Carpathian hunters, but they were out of their element and they knew it. Val didn’t bother to look at them as he took the child out of that hellhole and into the night. Whips of lightning rent the air and struck the asphalt again and again as Dragomir and Tariq cleaned the parking lot of hellhounds, vampires and tainted, venomous blood.
Charlotte stood off to one side, a bow slung over her shoulder and a sword in her hand. She looked a little worse for wear, hyssop oil all over her. She glanced up as Val strode out of the warehouse with Liv in his arms. Her face lit up, relief softening her features.
“Val, you have her.”
Tariq swung Charlotte into his arms as he and Dragomir closed ranks behind Val. They took to the sky, leaving the mop-up to the other hunters. Liv was in need of care immediately.
I didn’t get a chance to see her, Charlotte lamented. She’s hiding her face against Val. I don’t know if they hurt her physically. They certainly had harmed her emotionally. Liv was at her limit. She’d looked so small and fragile next to the hunter with his roped muscles, scars and monastery tattoos. Still, he’d looked gentle as he held the child, as gentle as a man such as Val could look.
Val says a few scrapes, but mostly they frightened her.
Tariq could hear Val whispering reassurances to Liv in their language. He wouldn’t be at all surprised if Liv understood him. She seemed able to assimilate languages fast, another gift. She didn’t answer him, remaining so silent that it worried him.