Dark Sentinel ('Dark' Carpathian Book 32) Read online

  Had Lorraine been the type of woman to read fantasy and go to that type of movie, she might have thought that the trauma of her family’s demise had thrown her deep into her mind and taken her somewhere else, a place she didn’t have to deal with their deaths and the repercussions of how they’d died. But she wasn’t that woman. She’d always been practical. She wouldn’t have believed in the existence of vampires or dragons in a million years.

  She tipped her head back to look at the stars as they circled the camp below them. Even up so high, the lights seemed far away, sparkling like diamonds scattered across the deep blue sky. She looked down. One by one, the others shifted, taking the form of dragons, the two human men on the back of what looked like maybe Dragomir.

  Ferro led the way. Andor had taken the coordinates of the campground from the minds of Adam and Herman; the humans had set up camp some miles from where Lorraine had been. Below her, she could see the canopy of the forest, trees lifting their limbs toward the sky. Ferro dipped low and set down beside a small lake, shifting the moment Andor and Lorraine leapt from his wing.

  Andor had jumped off and then lifted his arms to Lorraine. She didn’t hesitate, landing safe against his chest. If he winced on impact, she didn’t feel it, but she did feel bad that she hadn’t considered it might not be the best idea, jumping on him. For a few minutes, while they were flying through the air, she’d felt elated. Happy. The problems facing them had dropped away with the earth and left her feeling every touch of the wind, seeing every beauty the night provided. The stars overhead had sparkled brighter, and the lake below them had looked like crystal glass, still and untouched. Perfect.

  I wanted to show you my night. There is so much more, sívamet. So many beautiful things that in one lifetime it is impossible to see them all. I want to travel with you, take you to places no other has yet discovered. Caves of crystals. Pools of fresh, untouched water. So much. This will be over soon and we will explore.

  Lorraine knew that “soon” to a Carpathian was very relative. They lived several human lifetimes so “soon” might be the span of an entire human life cycle. Still, she wanted to see those things with him. She knew every minute in his company, in spite of the dangers, brought her steps closer to choosing to be in his world with him.

  They moved into the shelter of the trees. Ferro shifted a second time, going from the gigantic dragon to a much smaller bird. He chose a crow, and she knew immediately he planned to spy using its sharp eyes and his own acute senses. He took to the air. Several of the others followed, each going in a different direction.

  The moment Dragomir’s dragon claws gripped earth, he shifted, dumping both Adam and Herman onto the ground. Instantly, they were whisked into the trees, and sat frozen, unable to move or speak. She didn’t protest. There were children’s lives at stake.

  The camp is through the trees east of you. There is a meadow right beside the stream running into the lake. They are there. I smell the taint of vampire, and the grass is brown all around the camp area. Flowers are wilted there as well, Ferro reported.

  I believe there is at least one master vampire orchestrating and running this battle, Gary added. He is hidden in the trees, one of two trees. Isai is on the ground not far from the camp. I touched his mind. He has shut down heart and lungs to keep from bleeding out. That was all that was left as a message for us. That and the name Farmington. Does that mean anything to you?

  I came across his kills more than two centuries ago, Sandu said. He is very bloodthirsty and likes to make his victims suffer. He called himself Benard Farmington. He liked the name because he stole it from a family of victims. He had been particularly brutal with them.

  Lorraine closed her eyes. She couldn’t think of this vampire surviving so long. She knew he’d survived on the blood of human victims.

  Carpathians as well, Andor reminded.

  Isai wouldn’t have been wounded so severely by lesser vampires, even a group of them attacking him. He was wounded so badly he’d been forced to shut down his heart, just as Andor should have done but couldn’t once she was with him.

  Gary, can he be saved? She asked the question she knew none of the others would ask. They were logical about life or death. Either one lived or one died. Worrying didn’t make things better.

  I believe so. Gary gave her the human answer.

  Lorraine took a deep breath and nodded. Thank you. Can you see the children?

  I caught a glimpse of them when the flap was raised, Sandu said. Two boys and a girl. The boys appear to be ten and eleven or so. The girl is more like five. They are very scared and subdued.

  Lorraine glanced toward Adam and Herman. She wanted to punch them. Hard. It wasn’t their fault that the family was in danger, but neither of the men, although they’d acted like they’d had a change of heart, had warned the ancients of the danger.

  They were hedging their bets. If we lost the battle, they could tell Sergey how loyal they were. If we won, they could fall back on the fact that they didn’t want to invite the puppet into the circle of safety.

  I’m beginning to think they were more worried about the puppet eating them alive than giving me to it.

  I believe you are correct.

  She wished she’d kicked Adam a little harder. Andor took her hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing her knuckles. His lips felt cool and firm against her skin.

  “Let us start this. Everyone is in position.”

  “How many are there?”

  “The brethren counted six pawns. Four underlings and, of course, the master vampire.”

  Lorraine stopped in her tracks. “Oh my God, Andor. That’s eleven of them. Eleven. How can we fight so many and protect the campers at the same time?”

  Andor put his hand gently over hers. “Take a breath, Lorraine. You know how to do this. You have been trained from the time you were a child to fight opponents larger and stronger than you, some even better equipped than you. We will win because we have no choice. That is what you tell yourself. If we fail, those monsters will kill those children. That is unacceptable.”

  She nodded. She knew Andor, like the other Carpathian males, had assessed their chances and knew, with him so wounded and now Isai injured, they would need everyone to aid them. They wanted to win quickly and decisively. The longer the battle raged, the more the odds swung in the favor of the vampires.

  “Are you ready?” Andor prompted.

  “Yes.”

  “If they have a child hostage and try to get you to give up your weapons, the only thing possible to do, Lorraine, is to attack. Giving up your weapons will not save the child. More than likely, they will kill a hostage in front of you after you have complied. I have seen it happen century after century. Vampires live for torture of any kind. They know women, in particular, are very sentimental when it comes to children. Oftentimes it is an illusion that they have a child in their custody.”

  “In this case, we know they do have them.” She wanted to be clear on that.

  He nodded. “You have to be ready for that tactic. If you do not think you can hold out, you must stay here and allow me to go to them alone.”

  “That’s not happening, so just forget it,” she said. “I can do this if you can.” Deliberately, she poured confidence into her tone, when she didn’t feel it.

  Ferro will battle the master vampire. Sandu and Dragomir will take on the stronger of the rest. There are four, I believe. Gary, Lorraine and I will destroy the lesser vampires, Andor clarified to all of them. Gary, we will need your healing abilities and your knowledge of humans to work with this family.

  I understand.

  It was the logical thing to do, Lorraine knew. Each of them had a job to do. Gary was the best at healing and they would need him for Isai, and most likely others. Andor held out his hand to her and she put hers in it, feeling his fingers close around hers, enveloping her smaller hand. Instantly, she felt his strength and that gave her the confidence she needed.

  They began their walk t
hrough the trees, avoiding the small rolling slope where Isai lay so quietly. They strolled, murmuring to each other, knowing that they were being watched.

  “Do I have other family members of yours to meet to get their approval?” she asked.

  “The brethren are my family. Dragomir, Isai, Sandu, Ferro and three others you haven’t met as of yet. Fane, who has found his lifemate. We hope to get them to relocate with us. Petru, who is at the compound guarding Tariq, along with Benedek. There were eight of us who stayed there over the years. Several others joined and then left, but these men are my core family.”

  She sent him a small smile. “Lots of family, then. And intimidating.”

  “They would never harm you, sívamet. They might, however, tell you what to do.”

  She laughed, keeping her voice very soft. It took effort not to look around her. The forest felt different. She’d spent a great deal of her life camping. Every summer, her family had camped. Often, during the winter. Her father had liked the wide-open spaces and had also wanted Theodore and Lorraine to be prepared to survive in any type of weather.

  She felt at home in the forest, or just about anywhere outdoors. Now, there was a different feel altogether. A frisson of dread crept down her spine. Fear settled in the pit of her stomach. Nothing felt the same, not the birds moving from branch to branch, or the ground beneath her feet. There seemed to be an inordinate number of flying insects.

  Squirrels chattered at them in alarm. Little lizards scrambled up the trunks of trees, and snakes slithered through leaves and vegetation on the ground. Andor didn’t appear to notice. He kept walking, and she took her cue from him. Still, it wasn’t difficult to see the way fronds curled back, brown and withered. The way the carpet of grass that should have been green was as shriveled as the older leaves and needles on the ground. Trees wept black tears of sap that ran down their trunks and pooled in tarry collections at their roots.

  Lorraine found herself holding her breath, trying not to breathe in the noxious air. There was a heaviness to it, a tainted smell, much like rotting eggs—or meat. Her heart skipped a beat.

  Do you think they have another puppet waiting? Scaring that family?

  He glanced down at her sharply. Why would you ask that? What are you thinking?

  I smell one. I can barely breathe with that scent so strong, and it’s getting worse.

  Andor inhaled. I scent vampire. They are rotten inside and out. Their bodies are decaying. That is what you smell, but that is not to say they haven’t created another puppet. It is possible.

  She didn’t like the way he glanced away from her. He knew there was a puppet close by. If she could tell by the horrible stench, then he could as well. Why don’t you want me to know for certain? I don’t like you trying to deceive me.

  I do not know for certain, he protested. No one has caught sight of a puppet, and they are difficult to hide. Still, the odor has permeated the entire area, so I suspect there may be a second one. Or the first was held nearby for some time before being sent to you.

  Lorraine’s stomach lurched. She’d rather face a vampire than the puppet. Knowing all along that it had once been human sickened her. Knowing that it wanted to feed on the blood and flesh of another human being horrified her. “Is anyone watching Adam and Herman?”

  He nodded. “Ferro sent sentries, animals, to watch over them. We are all needed.”

  She had to be satisfied with that. If the master vampire knew they were close—and, of course, he did—he might send someone or something to kill them. As long as they were alive, they might be of use to the Carpathians.

  Did Ferro question them?

  Of course he did. He extracted a tremendous amount of information from both of them. That was how we knew they were more concerned for their own lives than yours.

  What more use would they be if Ferro got all the information already? She could see the tent now. It was pitched out in the open away from the trees. She stared at it, trying to will the occupants to move around. A grown man sat in front of a fire pit that he’d dug and carefully stacked rocks around. He kept glancing toward the forest and then toward the tent. His wife sat beside him and it looked as if she was crying. The man put his arm around her and leaned close to speak to her.

  Sergey has recruited others like them, and we need to be able to identify the human males. If they get jobs in the nightclubs or try to infiltrate Tariq’s security force, they could do a lot of damage.

  Andor gripped her hand, swung it up to his mouth and pressed a kiss to the inside of her wrist. “Ready, csecsemõ? Stay close—if necessary, we will be back-to-back. We will get the prisoners free and the others will deal with the remaining vampires.”

  “I’m ready.” She had to steel herself in order to face the puppet—and she was certain that smell meant that one was close, probably in the tent.

  Gary?

  Drifting on the wind. I want to get close enough to know what is happening inside. Give me another moment or two.

  Lorraine closed her eyes and tilted her face up to feel the wind. It was drifting in the direction of the tent. No more than a slight breeze, it was cool and felt nice on her warm face. She waited, her heart pounding.

  Good, the flap is still up. Children inside. Puppet is there, and even while I watched, the vampire had to stop it from taking more bites out of the oldest boy.

  More bites. That meant the puppet was already trying to feed on the child. That sickened her, but it also steadied her. She wasn’t standing around waiting while some horrible creature was terrifying a little boy. They had to get the other children and their parents to safety so Gary could help the oldest child.

  “Let’s go, Andor.”

  He began their walk out of the forest. They strolled together, hand in hand. The pair at the fire pit saw them immediately, and the male shook his head several times, trying to warn them off. He even used a hand signal, waving them off, attempting to communicate danger. They kept walking. The mother jammed fingers into her mouth to keep from sobbing aloud.

  “Hello,” Andor called. “We were hoping to find fellow campers nearby. We smelled your fire.”

  And your puppet. Lorraine pressed down the small bout of hysteria that wanted to well up in spite of her resolve.

  The man tried again with a small shake of his head, but he gestured toward the fire. “Welcome. We’re just about to start cooking dinner. You’re welcome to eat with us.”

  Andor indicated to Lorraine to keep the couple between her and the tent at all times. They’d gone over that safety issue already, so she knew what to do, but she nodded her head to reassure him.

  “Thank you,” she called out aloud. “We’d be happy to join you. We didn’t bring anything to contribute, though.”

  “We have plenty,” the man assured.

  Andor kept walking, although Lorraine halted a little distance from them, pretending to tie her hiking boot. She stayed crouched low, giving her ample opportunity to study the ground around the tent. Insects crawled on the brown shoots of grass, looking a little drunk. They moved in circles, and some fell over as if they couldn’t get their legs to work properly.

  “I am Andor, and this is my girlfriend, Lorraine.”

  Lorraine was shocked. He hadn’t even hesitated. He sounded smooth and very modern, although he hadn’t used a contraction the way most people would have. She looked up from her shoe-tying and waved.

  The man stepped forward to shake Andor’s hand. “I’m Neil Bennet, and this is my wife, Carol.” He leaned closer. “You have to leave now. Get your girlfriend out of here. There’s a madman—”

  A bellow of rage and a child’s high-pitched scream had Neil swinging around toward the tent. His wife tried to run toward it and he caught her around the waist, just as the canvas shredded and all of them saw the three children, two huddled together and one struggling as a puppet tore at a shoulder with jagged teeth.

  What appeared to be a man stood slowly. “You were told not to warn them,” he sa
id as he came forward. “You knew the sacrifices.” He gestured toward the puppet and the thing began to drag the boy away.

  Carol and Neil both tried to get to their son, but the man held up his hand and both jerked to a halt. He smiled, showing his teeth. They were dark, stained with blood. He bowed toward Lorraine and Andor. “I am Jannik Astor.”

  I recognize the name. Fridrick and Georg took the name Astor. They turned with the Malinovs. Several cousins turned with them. This must be one. Andor filled her in on Carpathian sharing pipeline.

  We have to stop the puppet, he’ll kill that little boy.

  Gary will free the child. Concentrate. I am going to move the two children farther away from this Jannik. I have to be subtle. Hold his attention. Let me get closer again to the father.

  “Jannik,” Lorraine said, moving out from behind Andor.

  She kept back, so that the couple was still between her and the vampire, but she stepped out just enough to be seen. She needed his attention focused on her. The vampire thought he had the upper hand and would be able to get Andor and Lorraine to do anything he wanted in order to keep the other two children safe. “No doubt, you already know my name. Has your master told you to bring me to him?”

  The vampire’s eyes glittered a deep red when she’d mentioned his “master.” Apparently, he wasn’t quite as happy serving under the leadership of Sergey. He had thought his master was Sergey’s brother Vadim, and that was a far more distinguished master, so much so that the vampire’s expression told her he was far from pleased to be reminded. She knew, from all the times she’d looked into the warriors’ minds, that vampires were vain.

  “Sergey Malinov is a worm. Do you know what the ancients call him right before they laugh? He is known as kuly. In case it has been long since you spoke your own language, that means intestinal worm. Or better yet, a tapeworm. Or a demon who possesses and devours souls. He probably prefers the last to what he truly is, which is an intestinal worm.” She kept her voice low and even. Low, so that Jannik had to listen with all his concentration. “You must detest working for a tapeworm.”