Dark Curse 19 Read online

  Terry grasped one of the heads to pull it out.

  «No!» Lara protested. «Leave it. We have to get out of here right now.»

  «It burns like acid,» Terry complained. His face was pale, nearly as white as the covering of snow, but beads of sweat dotted his forehead.

  Lara shook her head. «We have to get off this mountain now. And you can't take chances until I can look at it.»

  She took his arm and signaled to Gerald to grab his other one. They steadied Terry between them and began to hurry from the slope to the well-traveled path off to their right.

  «What was that?» Gerald hissed, his eyes meeting hers over Terry's head. «Have you ever seen a snake like that before?»

  «Was it two-headed?» Terry asked. Anxiety made him hyperventilate. «I didn't get all that good a look at it before it struck. Do you think it's poisonous?»

  «It isn't attacking your central nervous system, Terry,» Lara said, «at least not yet. We'll get you back down to the village and find a doctor. I know a few things about medicine. I can treat you when we get to the car.»

  The mountain rumbled ominously, shivering beneath their feet. Lara glanced up at the swirling white mists. Above them, spiderweb cracks appeared in the snow and began to widen.

  Gerald swore, renewed his grip on Terry and started sprinting along the thin, winding trail. «It's going to come down.»

  Terry gritted his teeth against the pain radiating up from his ankle. «I can't believe this is happening. I feel sick.»

  Lara kept her eyes on the mountain behind them as they raced, dragging Terry every step of the way. «Faster. Keep moving.»

  The ground shifted and rolled and small fans of snow slid in artful patterns toward the slope below them. The sight was dazzling, hypnotic even. Gerald shook his head several times and looked at Lara puzzled, slowing down to look around at the undulating snow. «Lara? I can't remember what happened. Where are we?»

  «We're about to be creamed by an avalanche, Gerald,» Lara warned. «Terry's hurt and we've got to run like hell. Now move it!»

  She put every ounce of compulsion and command into her voice that she could muster on the run. Fortunately both men obeyed, concentrating on getting down the steep slope as quickly as they could and asking no more questions. The safeguards protecting the cave were not only lethal, but they confused and disoriented any traveler stumbling across them. The warning system usually was enough to make people so uneasy they left the area, but once triggered, the safeguards fought to erase memories or even kill to protect the entrance to the cave.

  It was definitely the place she had been looking for. Now she had to survive in order to come back and discover the long buried secrets of her past. Gerald stumbled, and Terry screamed as the snake head slammed against a particularly dense pile of snow and ice, shoving the teeth farther into his flesh.

  Lara felt the mountain tremble. At first there was silence and then a distant rumbling. The sound increased in strength and volume until it became a roar. The snow slid, slowly at first, but picked up speed, churning and roiling, rushing toward them. Lara forced down panic and reached into the well of knowledge she knew was deep inside of her. Her aunts had never appeared human to her, but their voices had been, and the immense wealth of information they had collected over centuries had been stored in Lara's memories.

  She was Dragonseeker, a great Carpathian heritage. She was human, with courage and strength of the ages. She was mage, able to gather energy and use it for good. All of her ancestors were powerful beings. The blood of three species mingled in her veins, yet she belonged in none of those worlds and walked her chosen path-alone, but always guided by the wisdom of the aunts.

  She felt strength pour into her, felt the crackle of electricity as the sky lit up with lightning. Once more

  looking over her shoulder, she sent a command to the wilds of nature to counteract the protective guard the dark mage had used on the mountain.

  I summon thee water ice, fit to my hand, provide me with shelter as I command.

  Snow stopped movement abruptly, spray in air, frozen in place, curled over their heads like a giant wave motionless in midair.

  «Run!» Lara shouted. «Go, Gerald. We've got to get off the mountain.»

  Night was falling and the avalanche was not the worst they might face. The wind had stilled, but the voices remained, shrieking warnings she dared not ignore. They gripped Terry and half ran, half slid down the steep slope. Above their heads, the heavy mantle of snow had formed a wave, cresting over them, motionless like an ominous statue.

  Terry left behind streaks of blood as they skidded over the icy surface. They were sweating profusely by the time they made it to the bottom. Locating their car was an easy task. In this particular area of Romania, most of the locals used carts with tires pulled by horses. Cars weren't a common sight at all and theirs, as small as it was, looked far too modern in a place centuries old.

  Gerald dragged Terry through the meadow to where the car was parked beneath some naked branches. Lara turned back toward the mountain, let out her breath and clapped her hands together three times.

  There was an odd, expectant pause. The wave rolled, snow dropped. The mountain slid, raising a cloud of white spray into the air.

  «Lara,» Terry gasped. «You have to get these teeth out of my ankle. My leg burns like hell and I swear, something's crawling inside of me-inside my leg.»

  He sprawled on the small backseat, his skin nearly gray. Sweat soaked his clothes and his breathing came in ragged gasps.

  Lara knelt in the dirt and examined the hideous heads. She knew what they were-hybrids of the dark mage, bred to do his bidding. She'd seen the beginnings of them in her nightmares. The snakes injected a poisonous brew, including tiny microscopic parasites, into their victim's body. The organisms would eventually take over his body and then his brain, until he was a mere puppet to be used by the dark mage.

  «I'm sorry, Terry,» she said softly. «The teeth are barbed and have to be removed carefully.»

  «Then you've seen this before?» Terry gripped her wrist and held her close to him as she crouched beside the open door of the car. He was sprawled across the backseat, rocking in pain. «I don't know why, but the fact that you know what they are makes me feel better.»

  It didn't make her feel any better. She'd been a child, dragged into a laboratory. The sights and smells had been so hideous she'd tried to forget them. The stench of blood. The screams. The grotesque tiny worms in a putrid ball, wiggling in a feeding frenzy, consuming blood and human flesh.

  Lara took a deep breath and let it out. They didn't have much time. She needed to get Terry to a master healer who could handle such things, but she could slow the deterioration down.

  Gerald looked around him, then back up at the mountain, now quiet and still. White mists swirled, but the voices were gone. Overhead the clouds grew heavier and darker, but the mountain looked pristine-untouched-certainly not as if anyone had climbed it and been attacked.

  «Lara?» He sounded as puzzled as he looked. «I can't remember where we were. I can't remember how these snakes attacked Terry. Don't snakes need warm weather? What's wrong with me?»

  «It doesn't matter right now. What matters is getting these teeth out of Terry's leg and getting him to the inn where someone who knows what they're doing can help him.» Someone with natural healing skills, more than doctor's skills. If they were in the vicinity where she had been held as a child, then it stood to reason someone would know how to treat a mage wound.

  She closed her eyes to block out the sight of Terry's gray face and Gerald's anxious one. Deep inside, where that wealth of knowledge lay, she found her calm center. She could almost hear the whisper of her aunts' voices, directing her as the information flooded her mind. The curved fangs had a barb at the tip.

  Severed head that now does bite, fangs be removed with heat and light. Draw the poison that would remain, holding the harm, stop the pain.

  «There might be someo
ne much better at taking these out,» Lara said. «We can get you to the inn fast and the couple who own it might be able to find someone for us who has dealt with this before.»

  Terry shook his head. «I can't stand it, Lara. If you don't take them out now, I'm going to rip them out. I really can't stand it.»

  She nodded her understanding and reached beneath her jacket for the knife on her toolbelt. «Let's get it done then. Gerald, get in the backseat on the other side and hold Terry's shoulders.» More than anything, she didn't want Gerald where some of the tainted blood might spatter onto him. The tiny microorganisms were dangerous to everyone.

  Gerald obeyed her without question and Lara studied the first snake head. The hybrid was part plant, part living animal and all frightening. It was meant to take over a person, no matter what the species, and bring them under the dark mage's control. It hadn't been just Carpathians and humans he had tortured, but his own people as well. No one, not even his own family, was safe, as Lara could attest to.

  She closed her eyes and swallowed hard, slamming the door on memories that were too painful, too frightening to remember when she had such a complex task before her. She had rarely used her healing abilities on anyone else in the last few years. In her childhood, she'd made the mistake several times, traveling with gypsies. She'd knit broken bones. Healed a wound from a blade that would have killed a man. Removed harmful bacteria from children's lungs. At first people would be grateful, but inevitably they would come to fear her.

  Never show that you are different. You must blend in wherever you are. Learn the language and the customs. Dress the way they dress. Speak as they speak. Cloak who and what you are and never trust anyone.

  She liked Gerald and Terry-very much. They'd worked together for several years, but she'd been very careful never to intrude on either of them, or to show them that she was different in any way.

  «Lara.»

  Terry's pleading voice forced her thoughts to the task on hand. She steadied herself and gave him a reassuring nod. They were used to following her lead and it was natural to look to her now. She took another breath and let it out, pushing down the revulsion welling up.

  The words to the healing chant rose out of that same bank of knowledge and she repeated them under her breath as she slid the razor-sharp knife beneath Terry's skin and found the barb.

  Kunasz, nelkul sivdobbanas, nelkul fesztelen loyly. Ot elidamet andam szabadon elidadert. O jela sielam jorem ot ainamet es so?e ot elidadet. O jela sielam pukta kinn minden szelemeket belso. Pajnak o susu hanyet es o nyelv nyalamet sivadaba. Vii, o verim so?e o verid andam.

  The ancient Carpathian language she'd learned as a child came easily. She might be rusty, having never used it other that to murmur it to herself before she fell asleep, but the words, spoken in a chant, were always soothing to her.

  As she whispered the healing words, she blocked Terry's pain. The fang was wicked-and nasty. It curved into the skin growing wider, digging deep, and at the end, near the point, was a small barb, curving in the opposite direction. She had to slit the skin carefully to allow the points on either side to become loose enough to slide out without further damaging Terry's leg.

  At first she used her human sight, blocking all other ability to see until she had the barb out. Only then did she allow herself to look with the eyes of a mage. Tiny white worms writhed and burrowed, swarming to the cells to reproduce as quickly as possible. Her stomach lurched. It took tremendous effort to shed her awareness of her own thoughts and physical self and become a blaze of healing white light pouring into Terry's wound to burn the organisms as quickly as she found them.

  The wormlike creatures tried to hide from the light, and they reproduced quickly. She tried to be thorough, but Terry squirmed and moaned, distracting her, all at once reaching down to his other ankle, trying to yank the snake head free.

  She found herself abruptly back in her own body, for a moment disoriented and panic-stricken. «Terry! Leave it. I'll take it out.»

  She was too late. He screamed as he yanked at the foul snake's head, tearing it loose from his ankle. The barb ripped through his skin and muscle. Blood sprayed the backseat of the car and shot across the seat, splattering Gerald's chest.

  «Don't touch the blood with your hands!» Lara yelled. «Use a cloth. Get your jacket off, Gerald.»

  She clamped both of her hands over the wound, pressing hard, ignoring the burning pain as the blood coated her skin, burning to the bone. She fought past her own fear and panic to reach for the cool, centered place inside of her, calling healing light, burning white-hot and pure to counteract the acid of the snake blood. The way her birthmark was burning there had to be vampire blood mixed in the foul brew.

  Gerald ripped his jacket open and threw it away as the material smoldered with a grayish smoke.

  Terry grew quiet as Lara sent healing light streaking through his body to the gaping wound in his leg. Bleeding slowed to a trickle and the tiny wormlike creatures retreated from the spreading heat Lara generated. She cauterized the wound, destroying as many of the parasites as she could before bathing her hands and arms in the same hot energy.

  «Did you get any blood on you, Gerald?»

  He shook his head. «I don't think so, Lara. It felt like it, but I wiped my hands and face and there aren't any smears.»

  «Once we get Terry to a healer, take a shower as soon as you can. And burn your clothes. Don't just wash them, burn them. Everything.»

  She backed out of the seat, helping Terry to swing his legs out of the way of the door so she could close it and rush around to the driver's side. Terry's coloring was terrible, but more important, she didn't like the way he was breathing. Part of his distress could be shock, the shallow, too fast breathing of panic, but she feared she hadn't stopped the parasites from assaulting his body. He needed a master healer immediately.

  She drove as fast as she could over the narrow, pitted mountain road, sliding through some of the sharper turns and bumping over the muddy holes. Dirty water sprayed into the air as the car fishtailed through mud and snow. All around them, the peaceful countryside seemed a sharp contrast to their terror and desperation.

  Haystacks and cows surrounded them. Small thatched houses and horse-drawn carts with huge tires gave the impression of stepping back in time to a much slower paced and happier era. The castles and abundance of churches lent the area a medieval look, as if knights on horses might come charging over the hills at any moment.

  Lara had traveled all over the world searching for her past. She remembered little of her journey from the ice cave and once the gypsies had found her, she'd traveled all over Europe. Passed from family to family, she'd never been told where they'd found her. Coming to the Carpathian Mountains had been like coming home. And when she had entered Romania, shefelt at home. This place was still wild, the forests untamed and the land alive beneath her feet.

  The car slid around another corner and they were out of the heavier forest and into the peat bogs. The trail narrowed even more, winding on solid ground while the smell of the bog permeated the air around them. Trees swayed and drooped under the heavy weight of snow. Lights in the distance heralded farms and for a moment she thought to stop at one of the nearest ones for aid, but Terry had been bitten by a mage-bred snake carrying vampire blood. Healing a mage wound was difficult enough, but a hybrid with vampire blood-that required skills far beyond her knowledge or that of a human doctor.

  Their one hope lay with the innkeepers. The couple had been born and raised in the area and had lived their entire lives there. Lara couldn't imagine that they wouldn't have some knowledge of the danger lying beneath the mountain. Over time, it became difficult to tamper with the same memories. And there had been something about the inn-something that had drawn Lara to it. A suggestion of power, as if perhaps there was subtle influence at work, encouraging tourists and visitors to stay at the homey, friendly inn.

  Lara had allowed herself to be susceptible to the flow of power because
it was the first time since the dragon had shoved her onto the upper cavern ledge that she had encountered the light, delicate touch of flowing energy. She had forgotten what it was like to bathe herself in the crackle of electric power, to feel it surrounding her, flowing through every cell until her body hummed with it. The inn and entire village gave off the amazing feeling, although it was so subtle she had nearly missed it.

  «Lara,» Gerald called from the backseat. «My skin is starting to burn.»

  «We're almost there. Go in and take a shower first thing.» She didn't want to think what Terry was suffering. He was very quiet, other than making a soft moaning sound. «Gerald, when we get to the inn, we'll need to talk to the owners and ask who the village healer is.»

  «The owner's name was Slavica and she seemed very nice.»

  «Hopefully she's very discreet as well. She certainly seems to know everyone.»

  «Wouldn't it be better to ask for the nearest doctor?» Gerald asked.