Carpathian 02 - Dark Desire

and focused, sending himself outside his body.
    Shea could actually feel the pain melting away, leaving Jacques whole and calm. The healer's power was extraordinary.
    She wanted it, felt it moving within her, rising to follow where the healer's light led.
    Gregori's voice broke the spell. "You must have accepted his offer. The poison was in the betrayer's blood."

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    "What prevents the betrayer from being paralyzed?" Mikhail hissed it, a venomous sound that sent a shiver through Shea. There was something very lethal about all these men, something far different from their human counterparts. They accepted violence as easily as the animals in the surrounding forest did.
    They were predators. It was in the way they moved, in the way they held themselves, in their very thoughts.
    Gregori made a slow circle of the porch. Shea found it interesting that all three men had positioned their bodies between the dawn and the women. "There are ways, but we have no time for such a discussion, for we must act now if we are .to do this. Raven, while you were connected to Byron, could you get a sense of direction, anything at all?"
    "He was not alone. He was somewhere underground, a cave maybe. It was damp, musty. He was not so very far from us." Raven looked up at Mikhail with sad eyes, afraid she had not come up with the information they needed to find the Carpathian in time. One day in the company of the two human butchers and Byron was surely going to die a hideous death. Mikhail laced his fingers through hers, brought her knuckles to the warmth of his mouth in understanding and unity.
    "The cellar, Jacques," Shea suddenly said, excited. "They took him to the cellar. They can't know this land very well, and they would go where they had already been successful. I know what they're like, very arrogant, particularly the one called Don Wallace. It would be just like him to use the same place, thinking he was thumbing his nose at all of you."
    "It would be damp and musty all right, but they would find Jacques' coffin gone. They would know the place had been disturbed recently," Mikhail argued thoughtfully.
    "True, but wouldn't the vampire tell them Jacques is alive? He saw Jacques and me in the forest earlier with Byron," Shea said. "They would feel safe because you're all supposed to be under cover during the day, I'm telling you, this is exactly the kind of thing a man like Wallace would do. He believes you're all vampires and can't move in the daylight hours."
    "This Wallace," Mikhail said softly, "he is the nephew of Eugene Slovensky, enemy to all Carpathians.
    We have met briefly before. I believe the young lady is correct. He believes he is smarter and more cunning than we."
    "Aidan would have done our race a huge service had he killed him when he had the opportunity,"
    Gregori observed. "We were hard-pressed that night, with Mikhail injured and Raven in the hands of madmen."
    "Maybe this Aidan had already turned?" Shea speculated.
    Gregori shook his head slowly. "He had not turned then, nor has he turned now. He is powerful, such as Mikhail and I. The world would know if one of our stature had become the most feared creature of all.
    No, it is not Aidan. In any case, he has a twin brother, one even more powerful, who would know instantly had Aidan turned." Gregori's voice was low and smooth, filled with certainty.
    Shea shook her head to rid herself of the hypnotic effect. Gregori's power frightened her. His voice alone could do just about anything, produce any reaction in any of them. No one should have that kind of power.
    "So why can we not detect the vampire when he is near?" Mikhail asked no one in particular. "I have scanned the area and can detect none of our kind, not even Byron."

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    "Shea was able to detect the vampire when I could not," Jacques said. "I was not certain I believed her at first, but I could feel as she did when we merged."
    Shea lifted her chin in challenge. "Do you think you can explain how all this was done, healer? How anyone could have done it?"
    Gregori turned the full power of his magnetic silver eyes on her. "I can make the earth shake beneath your feet and bring lightning from the sky to do my bidding. I can close off your airway with a thought. I am all things from a mouse to a wolf running free. Is this not enough for you to believe?" he