Carpathian 04 - Dark Magic

I was right."
    Gregori could smell the man's fear, his agitation. He perched casually on the wall beside Carter with his easy, lazy grace. "I told you we would meet again soon. I always keep my promises," he replied softly.
    The voice seemed to slice right through the reporter's mind. Wade rubbed his pounding temples. He had never been so afraid, never so excited. The real thing was sitting right beside him. He fumbled in his Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    pocket for reassurance, felt for the dart gun. "Why did you decide to show yourself to me?" He tried to keep his voice from shaking.
    Gregori smiled at him. There was no humor in that smile, just a white flash of gleaming menace. The cold silver eyes were unblinking, like those of a great jungle cat. Carter found it unnerving. "You disturbed my wife," Gregori answered softly. His voice was beautiful, hypnotic.
    Carter shook his head to banish the sluggishness from his brain. "Do you really think you're so powerful that you can get away with killing me?"
    Gregori's muscles rippled, a hint of his enormous strength. "Do you really think I am not?"
    "I would never have confronted you without support. I'm not alone," Carter blustered. He was fighting to get the dart gun from his pocket, where it was stuck.
    "There is no one else here, Mr. Carter," Gregori corrected. "Just the two of us. I thought I might have a look inside your head." His tone had dropped an octave, was soft and persuasive, impossible to resist.
    Sweat broke out on Carter's forehead. "I won't let you," he objected, but he found himself leaning forward to look into the molten silver eyes. He was supposed to be protected against a mind invasion!
    All in the society were protected. Vampires' voices couldn't affect them; the eyes couldn't put them in a trance. No one could read their minds or take away their memories. All of them in the society had undergone extensive hypnosis to resist such an abomination. And they had worked on a formula for more than thirty years. Scientists, good scientists, who had the benefit of vampire blood to work with.
    Gregori pushed through the surprisingly strong barrier to inspect the man's mind. He could see the culmination of the secret society's research, their eagerness to find a new specimen. They had extracted blood from several of the victims they had tortured and mutilated some thirty years earlier. Gregori inhaled sharply. They had a drug they were certain could be used to incapacitate their victim, so that they could imprison what they believed to be vampire and study and dissect it at their leisure. The society was larger than any of his kind had believed.
    He released the reporter's mind, deliberately allowing the man to know he had been extracting information. Carter swore obscenely and brought up the dart gun. The needle pierced Gregori's skin right above his heart. He felt the penetration, felt the instant release of poison into his blood.
    Gregori ! Savannah's distressed cry was in his mind. Let me come to you . She was trying to free herself from the invisible wall he'd erected around her, fighting his safeguards.
    Be calm , ma petite. You think I did not deliberately allow this imbecile to inject me with poison? I am the healer for our people. If they have something that can harm us, I must find an antidote .
    Savannah pounded on the invisible barrier to get to Gregori. She could feel the hot tears gathering in her eyes, the terrible fear threatening to overwhelm her at her own helplessness. The poison was painful, crawling through Gregori's system, paralyzing him. Cramps and sweating, muscles clenching and locking.
    She felt it with him and raged at her inability to get to him, to be able to help him, as was her right.
    Gregori remained as calm and impassive as ever, studying the chemistry of the compound, as interested as any scientist. He was barely sparing the jubilant reporter any of his attention. He had gone seeking inside his own body, flowing through his own bloodstream to follow the path of the spreading poison.

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    Carter was nearly jumping up and down. If it had not been for his precarious perch, he would have. Of course, he had no idea how he was going to get such a big man into the car and back to the laboratory.
    He would have to call for help. But otherwise it had been so easy. The lab techs were right. The poison was