Dark Legend Page 0,103

going anywhere with you," Francesca said quietly. She pressed a hand to her stomach protectively. He would force her to accept his tainted blood. It would run in her veins, it would contaminate her child. She screamed again silently, using every ounce of self-control she possessed not to call out to Gabriel. Her only chance was for Gabriel to defeat his enemies and rescue her. But her baby, it would be far too late for her child. Vampires deceived themselves into believing that if they found a woman of the light, their souls might be restored. They sought Carpathian women and human women with psychic abilities in the hope of regaining what they had chosen to lose.

She would have to make the decision to sacrifice Brice to this thing; eventually she would have no other choice. It would be Brice or her daughter. Inadvertently her hand tightened around Brice's wrist as if she could anchor him to her. She kept her mind firmly away from thoughts of Skyler and disciplined herself to keep from calling out frantically to Gabriel. He would come to her as soon as he was able. It was up to her to stall the vampire.

"Do not anger me, woman. I am far more powerful than that one who claims you. An unknown upstart who believes he is a hunter. I know every hunter and this one has no reputation. I am an ancient. Do not think he can save you."

He didn't know who Gabriel was.

She held that realization to her. It was ammunition, might have shock value when she needed it most. His head was beginning to move from side to side, a slow reptilian motion that was curiously hypnotic. Francesca knew better than to focus her attention too closely on the movement. Something about it fascinated her, yet at the same time repelled her. That was warning enough. He blinked his hooded, blood-red eyes just once.

She blurred her image and that of Brice, jerking the human with her as she sped with preternatural speed just as the vampire struck, grabbing for her with his clawed hands. She felt the wind of his strike as he missed her by scant centimeters. The creature shrieked his anger, whirling in a cloud of dirt and twigs, a powerful dust devil towering high, blackening the air around them.

Francesca's heart was pounding in alarm. She had succeeded in angering him. There was no telling what he might do to her now. Overhead the storm clouds were gathering, a dark ominous portent of things to come. Lightning arced from cloud to cloud while all around her the skies darkened until every star was blotted out, until the moon was nothing but a memory.

The vampire hissed again, a deadly sound while the wind whipped at his tattered clothing and raked the lank hair hanging around his skull-like face. "You will be punished for that. I will have this human, and his dying will be long and painful. I will destroy everyone who has ever meant anything to you."

Francesca's heart was pounding frantically and she took a deep breath to calm herself. Inside she felt her daughter leap in fear. Immediately she covered her womb with her two hands as she faced the beast. He was undulating his head again, a rhythmic motion designed to be hypnotic. He attacked again in a blur of motion and Francesca waited until the last possible second to escape, towing Brice with her. Before the vampire could reach her, something inserted itself between them so that the undead was forced to halt his attack. With a howl of rage, he jumped backward.

Between her and the vampire a form shimmered, solidified. For one heart-stopping moment she thought it was Gabriel. The figure was tall, broad-shouldered, with the same long black hair and hauntingly perfect features as her lifemate. His eyes were black and empty, although Francesca could occasionally see the beginnings of small red flames smoldering deep within the empty depths. Power clung to him as if he were power come to life, power personified. He moved with a flowing grace, yet when he stopped, he was as still as the very mountains, a part of the earth itself. He was like Gabriel, yet unlike him. He bowed to her, a courtly, prince-like gesture, before turning his attention to the vampire.

Francesca's breath stilled in her body. This was Lucian. It could be no other. Gabriel's twin and a vampire without equal. Her heart began to thud painfully in