Dark Slayer Page 0,83

of her, distancing himself to prevent Xavier from discovering her, but there was need in her that he'd never seen before. She'd been injured. He remembered that much. Horribly injured. He didn't feel as if he had much strength left, but what he had, he would gladly give to her.

Ivory?

I am here, Razvan, with you. In you. I hold you tight, my heart to yours, my soul to yours. Do not leave me. Give me your word. No matter how terrible it gets, give me your word of honor that you will stay with me.

If you need me.

I will always need you.

He could barely conceive of the pure honesty in her voice. Could she really have need of him? He would never, no matter how difficult the circumstances, turn away from her should she need him. I will be with you always, Ivory, if it is within my power.

Her voice came again, close, gentle, that warmth that seeped into the coldest marrow of his bones and heated from the inside out. Rest, then, fel ku kuuluaak sivam belso-beloved. Gain strength, but hold strong and endure for me.

It was no small task she asked of him. He allowed the pain to consume him, to wash over and into him, to become part of him. It was the only way to survive. His will-and acceptance. He would survive for her.

He woke again after an indeterminate amount of time had passed. Like all Carpathians, he knew the difference between night and day; even deep beneath the earth he knew it was dark and the moon was full and high. Sound had awoken him. Summoned him. Voices raised in the ancient tongue-the healing chant rising and falling with both male and female voices lifting toward the night sky, burrowing deep into the richness of the soil to find his shattered body to surround him and provide strength and healing power.

He felt the presence of a male, white-hot energy surging through him, burning together parts that had been torn apart. Excruciating pain burst through his body and he heard his own cry, the sound strangled and anguished. Ivory echoed his cry, her voice resonating with suffering. He tried to move, to get to her, and at once gentle hands stopped him.

You cannot move. Stay very still or you will undo what small repairs have been made.

Ivory? Razvan recognized the healer's voice. Save her first. I heard her distress.

She is merged with you, holding you to this earth, and she feels what you feel. Do not move, just let yourself sink into her, hold tight to her.

Gregori came back into his own body swaying with weariness. Small droplets of blood beaded on his skin and he actually slumped against Mikhail, unable to hold himself upright after the healing session. "How is it they live?" he asked the prince. "It is impossible, yet they survive. Each night I come to them, I expect to find them dead, yet they still live. How is it they endure? No one can live through such pain, yet this is not the first time for either to suffer such torment." He opened his eyes and looked at his friend. "It is difficult for me to feel and see the absolute suffering the two of them endure."

Mikhail laid his hand gently on the healer's shoulder. No healer could be of Gregori's caliber without being empathic. Each time he shed his body and joined the couple to speed the healing of those terrible mortal wounds, he felt what they did.

"You are saving their lives."

Gregori shook his head. "I am aiding the swiftness of recovery, Mikhail. There is a difference. They have wills such as I have never seen in any Carpathian, male or female, in all my years of healing. Believe me, it is only their sheer will keeping them alive, not me."

Mikhail's voice was comforting. "Take my blood to revive you and then go home to Savannah and allow her to soothe you. Night after night, subjecting yourself to their agony is wearing on you. You cannot continue without some respite."

"As long as they continue, so will I." Gregori looked up at his father-in-law, his face lined with weariness. "His body is actually knitting itself back together again. Three of the six spear wounds should have killed him, along with the sheer volume of blood loss, but somehow the earth itself is putting them back together."

"Along with your blood and care."

Gregori shook his head. "I do not understand what I am seeing