Dark Slayer Page 0,33

and learn.

The prince understood. How could he not, when he knew so much more than everyone else? How could he not, when his reasons for doing everything were to serve his people. He had known that she hungered to do more than sit in her home and wait for her lifemate. She wanted to be something, to do something. The prince understood and helped her as she had known he would.

Something twisted inside her stomach. For a brief moment she couldn't feel the throbbing pain in her ribs or the terrible agony of her shoulder, not even the burn from the acid blood or sharp stabbing of the parasites as they bored into her cells. It had never occurred to her in her naivete that the prince had another agenda altogether-that he wanted to get rid of her, send her away because he knew his sick and twisted son would never leave her alone, and that her brothers or the De La Cruz brothers would kill Draven. Instead, she had happily gone off, believing the prince, in all his wisdom, knew so much more than her own family. She'd felt so grown up, so validated. She'd been hopelessly young and trusting in those days.

You have to hurry. I cannot hold out much longer.

She didn't know if her weakness was as much physical as mental. Seeing her brother had shaken her more than she'd realized. She'd vowed to avoid them and hadn't prepared herself mentally for seeing Sergey in his state of evil. He had changed his appearance when he recognized her, giving her a glimpse of her past, of a beloved man who'd held her and rocked her and spent hours teaching her to fight.

It had made her physically ill to shoot him with an arrow. She thought she had successfully separated the past from the present in her mind, but seeing him in person wasn't the same as thinking about him abstractly.

I am coming to you. Stall for time. Use the wolves if you must.

"Allow our healer to help you," Mikhail said, his voice dropping another octave, becoming almost hypnotic.

She couldn't help but feel the pull of that pure voice, even though over centuries she'd trained herself not to fall prey to sound. Farkas pressed closer to her legs, his body trembling. He was in the same shape as she was.

"I have no need of your help, Dubrinsky," she said, her voice haughty. "I neither ask nor want anything from you or anyone connected to you."

Gregori's breath came out in a long, slow hiss.

Her gaze jumped to his face, to the storm gathering in his eyes. If an attack came, it would come from him. She was weak from blood loss and pain, and was running out of time. "You evidently have never learned, in all your years of existence, how a voice can be sweet and pure to the ears, yet hide the truth behind the mask. My brothers chose the path of evil, but they were not wrong in their judgment of the Dubrinsky line. The prince you follow is not at all what you believe him to be."

Her gaze flicked to Mikhail, holding absolute, utter contempt. "You cannot deceive me, karpatii ku kod-liar, I am only fooled once, and your father was a champion. I wish to leave. Are you holding me prisoner?"

There was a small silence and Gregori slowly shook his head. "Do you believe you can fight all of us and emerge the victor? You are a woman, a Carpathian woman without anyone to protect her. I am sworn to carry out my duty whether you wish it or no."

Ivory took a breath, and let it out. Be ready, Raja.

The pack bared teeth and faced the threat of the Carpathian males without flinching.

Gary moved then, deliberately placing his body in front of hers, standing between her and the guardian of the prince, ignoring the threat of her pack.

"Please," he said. "No one wants to take you prisoner. I'm offering my blood freely to you. My life for yours. I'm not certain of the formal words, but if you take what I offer, we'll know you'll at least have a fighting chance should you run into another vampire. No one wants to imprison you."71

"She is infected with the vampire's blood," Gregori explained. "The parasites have to be removed."

"I am well aware of the infestation," Ivory retorted. "I am perfectly capable of healing myself."

Another male and female materialized just beyond the prince, and Ivory heaved a