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  He waited just inches from the surface, moving his fingers and then his wrists. Moving his toes and then his feet, all the while cognizant of countering the activity so the evil spreading so maliciously through the ground wouldn't detect his movement. He was part of the earth itself and the soil would never betray him. When a strand of the evil got too close to him, the dirt shifted just enough to carry it away.

  He didn't know impatience, just the fierce need to go into combat. He began mapping out the surface in his head, finding each person above the ground, needing to know where they were. Five children. Two adult females. All were human with the exception of one child. The children were laughing, unaware of the danger to them. One female was sleeping deeply, put under by the corruption of the child's sleeping spell. It wouldn't be so easy to wake her now. The other female . . .

  She was aware of the danger and struggling to wake. She had to be unbelievably strong to fight that spell. She was the target--Emeline. Of course. When Vadim had taken her captive, he'd taken her blood, and now he whispered to her day and night, trying to wear her down and force her to come to him, or at least that was what she had told Blaze. Why would Vadim want this particular psychic woman? What made her different?

  Dragomir should have thrown out his rule of not getting close to humans rather than just making an exception for the security team. If he had, he could have solved the puzzle by simply taking the information from her head. Tariq, Maksim and the others had become too soft with the humans, inadvertently giving vampires the advantage. They didn't make decisions based on safety, but rather what the humans would accept in their new, modern world. That made no sense to him, and it never would. One used any and all means possible to defeat evil. There wasn't worry about sensibilities or wording a request correctly so it didn't come out like an order. He sighed. He didn't fit and never would. He defeated evil, and new rules of etiquette be damned.

  He sent Emeline a little "push" to counteract the spell. Feeding her a small boost of power had to be done with a delicate touch. He couldn't make it a command because just as he could read Vadim's signature, Vadim would be able to read his. He wasn't certain what was important about the woman, but merely the fact that she had resisted that dark spell enough to try to fight it, that she recognized the darkness woven into the child's spell, meant she was incredibly strong psychically.

  Few fought Vadim and won. Emeline's battle with him was ongoing, which meant she'd been strong enough to resist him this long. In his opinion, Tariq and the others should have taken the memories from her, given her blood to reinforce her strength and power. It didn't matter that she'd chosen not to allow them to give her aid. They should have healed her. She endangered the entire community. In the end, if Dragomir didn't stop him, the vampire would reacquire the woman and perhaps destroy everyone else in the compound.

  He waited just beneath the surface, rich loam covering his body, sending him signals that told him he wasn't the only one on the move. Evil was also waiting for the sun to set. Even before the last rays had faded, he heard the opening attack. The laughter of children turned to screams. The sound of explosions was loud as fireballs hit the ground all around the play yard. He couldn't wait. The sounds of children crying and screaming in alarm drove him from the safety of the earth. He couldn't leave them to their fate.

  Matt, do not give your position away, but get your men in position to aid those in the play yard. I'll tell you when I want you to open up.

  Copy that. Matt's voice was devoid of emotion, but firm, indicating a man ready to go into battle.

  Dragomir's skin smoked and blistered as he rushed toward the sky and the two injured dragons tumbling toward the ground. How the boy and girl hung on, he didn't know. The dragons, one orange and one brown, were large and they fell end over end, and then rolled like barrels, leaving a trail of blood in the sky. He saw everything on a dull grayish canvas, so that the various colors were identified only from the way he'd marked the variety of gray over the centuries.

  On the Carpathian telepathic pathway, he sent out the distress call. Rise. The battle is on us. Come to us now.

  The clouds flickered dark and then flashed, illuminating with a yellowish-orange glow as lightning forked through them. The glow grew brighter, turned a fiery red, and a mass of whirling hot magma streaked through the sky, raining down on the play yard. One mass barely missed the brown dragon as Dragomir yanked the beast out of the way and floated it gently toward the ground. He caught the orange dragon, removing the girl from it with one arm while he directed the creature to the ground beside the brown dragon. He threw a shield over the boy and girl and their beasts.

  "Don't put your dragons away until I give the command." He forestalled all arguments with a glare. "Get to the sleeping woman. You and your brother. Drag her if you have to, but get her under cover." He caught the girl by her hair and forced her to look him in the eye. "Do you understand? Wait until I give the command to remove the dragons."

  She nodded. She looked terrified, her face white. Her gaze left his face and went to the children above them, small children, not more than two or three.

  "I'll get them," he promised.

  "Please," she whispered.

  For some odd reason that little breathless plea affected him. Nothing usually did. He didn't feel emotion. He didn't even hear the whispers of temptation to kill for the rush, but that soft entreaty stirred something foreign in him, something he didn't recognize, nor did he have time to analyze it, although it was alarming. Chaos reigned all around him. Children screaming, dragons taking them higher toward the dangerous clouds, below him, Emeline running, calling out over and over, her voice penetrating right to his soul.

  All around him the fiery streaks fell, seeking targets. He dodged one and realized by the trajectories that they were aimed specifically at the children. Vadim was attempting to kill five human children. Dragomir gave a small push to the teenage girl so that she stumbled toward her brother. He indicated the sleeping woman and turned just as Vadim burst through the ground almost at the feet of Emeline. Vadim was so focused on her that he didn't appear to know Dragomir was anywhere close. Either that or it didn't matter to him, in which case, the entire lot of them were in deep trouble.

  Emeline froze, staring in horror at the vampire. He appeared to be perfect by human standards, lean and fit, with flawless pale skin and white teeth. His hair was cropped short and he wore the modern clothes that befitted the time. The expensive suit hung on him as if made for him--and of course it had been.

  "At last, my dear. You should have come to me when I called you. Now you've left me no choice but to punish you."

  The smile was gone and he took one step and caught her by the hair, bunching the long tangles in his fist and jerking her head close to his. "You will pay for your disobedience. Every one of those children will die."

  Emeline's terrified gaze found Dragomir, and then went back to Vadim's face. "I'll go with you. Just don't hurt them."

  At the sound of her voice, Dragomir found his eyes watering, burning fiercely as a kaleidoscope of colors burst in front of him, exploding into a whirling wheel of vivid brightness that nearly blinded him. Instantly he was sick and disoriented, his balance off. For a moment he thought it a new weapon Vadim had thought out, and he stopped in midstride, unable to function.

  "It's too late to bargain now. Had you come to me any of the thousands of times I commanded you, I would have spared them. Not now. Now you need a lesson."

  She kicked the vampire hard, driving her heel into his shin and following it with an elbow to his ribs. It had to hurt. Vadim held her by her hair, but she didn't stop. "I won't let you," she bit out, still fighting.

  The words were like a dagger piercing right through Dragomir's soul, slicing it open so all the inky darkness poured out. At the same time, brilliant light rushed in, leaving him shattered. Emotions whirled through his brain, vying to be front and center, a million of them. Shock. Regret. Guilt. Elation. Sorrow. Burning rage
.

  He couldn't function like this, sick and disoriented with the nauseating colors and the vivid emotions swamping him. "Stop." He whispered the word, but it carried on the wind slashing at them. He couldn't move or think with the terrible burden of color and emotion after centuries of . . . nothing. It was too much, too soon, too fast. "Stop talking."

  She turned her head toward him. Their eyes met, and he felt the impact all the way to his newly healed soul. He had a few moments to contemplate how ironic it was that he would find her now, in the clutches of a master vampire, when he'd finally made up his mind that he could not be the lifemate needed for a woman of this century and could never claim his lifemate.

  The sky above them erupted with four vampires. Three went after the children while one dropped toward the Asenguard property. These were Vadim's first line of defense, his pawns. For a short while, newly created vampires lost their abilities to fight as they had as hunters. Vadim recruited them when they were at their weakest. They were given young people to drain of blood, to feel the life drain out of them. The rush was like the high one received from the best drug. It took a year or two before the newly made vampire could begin to draw on his centuries of experience fighting a hunter.

  Vadim turned his head slowly to look at Dragomir. He spun around to place Emeline between them, one hand at her throat, his fingernail, suddenly long and razor-sharp, pressed against her jugular. "You know me; you know I will kill her."

  He would under normal circumstances, but these weren't normal. "You know me; you know I do not care what you do or who you kill. I have one purpose, and that is to destroy you." Dragomir didn't look at the woman he'd searched for through long, empty centuries. Emeline--his lifemate. She'd kept her voice from him, probably knowing she couldn't live with an ancient such as him. He kept his heart from pounding in terror that she was in danger. He kept his breathing even, as if the possibility of her death didn't affect him one way or the other.

  "An innocent? You would allow an innocent to die just to get me?" Vadim spat the words at him, but this time, there was a hint of fear in his eyes. "Six innocents? Because they will kill the children. Nothing will stop them. Certainly not you." The last was said with a sneer.

  Emeline had remained silent, no longer fighting the vampire. She chose that moment to stir, to draw his attention. She looked . . . ravaged. Her body was thin, her skin so pale it was almost gray. Her hair was long and disheveled, hanging in tangles to her waist. It didn't matter. She looked like the most beautiful woman in the world to him. He realized the power of the call between lifemates. He would be willing to do anything for her.

  "Save them," Emeline whispered. "The children. Please."

  If he engaged with Vadim, the children were dead. He could see Liv, the ten-year-old, urging her dragon between the two youngest and the vampires and fireballs raining from the clouds. The child had guts. He had a split-second decision to make and it was a terrible one. His every instinct, honed by more than a thousand years of hunting the vampire, told him to go after the master vampire. He had at last found his lifemate and his instincts told him to save her.

  His gaze returned to Emeline's face. Her eyes, so beautiful. Haunted. Frightened. Determined. The pleading in her voice, on her face, was all about the children. Human children. He'd never really associated with them until he'd come to Tariq's aid. Now, it was either his lifemate, or what she wanted most. The seconds were ticking away.

  "Live." He snapped the order and leapt into the sky. Now, Matt. Take Vadim's head off. It won't kill him, but keep at it. Just do not hit Emeline. Do whatever it takes to delay him leaving with her, even if only by a few seconds. Buy some time. The others are coming.

  Dragomir didn't look down. He shut off all emotion and tried to force his eyes to see in shades of gray rather than in color. The vivid, bright reds and oranges of the fireballs were distracting, making his stomach churn unexpectedly. He avoided the raining fireballs as best he could as he streaked toward the two younger children. They looked tiny on the backs of the dragons, both sprawled forward, arms around the spiked necks, pale faces buried against the scales.

  One of the lesser vampires had one side of his face drooping, as if he couldn't quite figure out how to put his mask on properly. He dove at the blue dragon, forcing it to swerve, nearly throwing its little passenger off its back. The child gave a cry of terror as the claws just missed grabbing her. Instead, they raked down the blue scales. The dragon took a swipe with his long, spiked tail. It didn't hit the droopy face, but it solidly hit the second vampire making his way around the dragon to be able to attack the child from the other side.

  The vampire shrieked his fury as the spikes opened his flesh and droplets of acid blood leaked out. He lunged toward the child, as if the dragon hitting him was her fault. Vadim had told Emeline he would kill all five children and his servants wouldn't stop until his order was carried out. Dragomir reached the child just as the two vampires simultaneously attacked her, coming in from either side of the dragon. The big beast swung its neck around, the wedged head rushing straight at the vampire he'd already hit with his tail, mouth open, fire pouring out. The flames engulfed the vampire and the undead screamed and plummeted toward the ground below.

  The second vampire reached for the child, fingernails long and curved like the huge talons on a harpy eagle. The little girl screamed and screamed, the sound grating on Dragomir as she threw herself to the opposite side of the blue dragon, away from the vampire. Her hand slipped, and she shrieked again as she dropped into space. Dragomir caught her in his arms. Instantly she began to fight.

  He didn't bother to reassure her; he didn't have time with two vampires rushing him and the burned vampire streaking toward them. The other two girls were still in danger. He took over her mind, calming her, learning this child was Lourdes and she was three. He forced obedience, shifting her to his neck, so that she hung around him like a necklace, her legs trying to fit around his broad chest. Lourdes clung, a little monkey, but her position allowed his hands and legs freedom to be used as weapons.

  He dropped below the two vampires so they smashed together with a wild yell, each swinging viciously at the other as he streaked through the sky toward the second little girl. She looked so scared his heart clenched unexpectedly in his chest. He hadn't ever held a child, or even been near one, not a live one. This little girl was tiny, clinging to the dragon, who twisted back and forth in an effort to keep his rider from being taken.

  In the past, Dragomir had come across a village that had been raided and children's bodies were scattered everywhere along with their parents'. He hadn't been able to feel, or remember emotion; now seeing these two little girls and the third one, Liv, the child they'd turned Carpathian, acting so bravely, he felt far too many emotions rushing in, threatening to take over. It could have been overwhelming if he'd let it.

  He was ruthless with himself in the same way he was with others. Saving these children and ultimately Emeline was his goal, not figuring out his emotions. Time had slowed down, but he was very aware of the seconds ticking by. Any Carpathian hunter in the vicinity would come. He'd been fighting for two minutes. He only had to hold on for another three to four. But in a battle with a master vampire and his army, that was a lifetime.

  Liv, the ten-year-old, turned her dragon to cut off four new vampires who had materialized in the air and were heading for the younger child on the red dragon. Liv's green dragon spit fire, missed the first two vampires but set the one nearest it on fire. The blaze covered one side of him from his toes to his scalp, forcing him to streak toward the ground to try to put out the fire.

  The other vampire, the one that had been burned by the blue dragon, dragged himself toward Danny and Amelia, who, below him on the ground, tried valiantly but futilely to wake Genevieve before the vampire could get to them. Vadim dragged Emeline by her hair away from the center of the play yard and out from under the canopy protecting it from the weather. Danny hesitated, torn between trying to
help Emeline and obeying Dragomir's orders to get Genevieve to safety.

  Matt Bennett took the shot, his aim perfect, the high-caliber bullet tearing into Vadim's skull, shredding it so that it burst apart like a ripe melon. He screamed, even as his head flew apart, the sound rending the air so that the buildings shook. Emeline dropped to the ground and rolled away from Danny and Amelia to draw the vampires away from the two children. Then she was on her feet and running back toward her house.

  Vadim howled, his headless body whirling around as his head bounced on the ground, mouth wide open, the sound reverberating macabrely through the compound. He stretched out his arms to call back his shattered skull. The moment it settled on his body, Matt fired, destroying it all over again. The mouth screamed and the headless body pointed toward the "eagle's nest," the tall tower in the far corner where Matt was taking aim at the vampire closest to Danny.

  Dragomir had already shielded Matt's position, but he reinforced it before Vadim could retaliate with the bomb he hurled toward the tower. It exploded, fire ringing the tower harmlessly and dropping away. Emeline made it across the play yard before the lesser vampires cut off her retreat.

  Dragomir shut off the bombardment of feeling as he commanded Lourdes to move to his left, as he passed the large red dragon, scooping the little girl from the back of the beast. She reacted in much the same way as Lourdes had, kicking and screaming until he cut her off with a single mind command. The moment their minds brushed against each other, Bella relaxed and clung to him just as Lourdes had.

  Liv circled him, her green dragon weaving in and out of the vampires. The dragon was extremely fast and able to make incredible turns for such a big beast, almost reversing itself in midair. Dragomir could understand the appeal of a dragon, and if he ever had a child, he'd make certain his son or daughter had such a creature to help guard them.