Carpathian 09 - Dark Guardian

mountain, Lucian stirred awake.
    He moved the soil above him easily and stretched with lazy pleasure, his fingers unerringly finding the silken strands of Jaxon's hair. She lay perfectly still, her face pale, no discernible heartbeat in her body.
    Gently he extracted himself from where their bodies lay entwined. He floated to the surface and stood quietly for a moment, debating. He did not want her to awaken and find him gone while she lay buried in the earth. She was not ready for such an experience. Yet his command had sent her to sleep, and she should not wake until he gave the order. Technically. A ripple of unease touched his mind. Jaxon was strong and intelligent, a force to be reckoned with already, and she was but a mere fledgling. She had proven to him time and time again that she always did the unexpected.
    He turned his head slowly, his mind settling on the battle plan. The most important thing to do was to find the master vampire's lair. Now, before the sun had a chance to set, he would be locked in the earth. He would know Lucian was hunting him, and the vampire would be snarling beneath the mountain, counting the seconds until he was released. As Lucian moved upward through the caves and tunnels, he intensified the storm, stalling it over the mountains to aid him in his quest. With the clouds so dark and full, his eyes could take the light without the help of dark glasses.
    He exploded into the sky just as the clouds burst open and rain poured down in silvery sheets. He began his search, sending his senses miles throughout the sky to scan the surrounding area.
    The vampires themselves would be difficult to detect. Small things were more likely to give them away: an inordinate amount of insects, bats uneasy within their normal setting, a multitude of rats gathering together. The vampires would be spread out and unknowing of each other's lair. The master vampire would secret himself far from the others, not trusting his safety to anyone. The undead thrived on the pain and suffering of others, were wholly evil and capable of nothing but deceit and treachery. They would never trust each other with such important information as the location of their resting places.
    He found a faint taint of power in the mountain to the north of his position. It was an indication of one of the lesser beings. No ancient would make such a mistake. Lucian proceeded away from the area to widen his search. A slight disturbance among the bats gave away the second vampire. He was using a cave high up in the southern tip of the mountain. He turned his attention to the west and east.
    Jaxon was aware of nothing at all. But then a dark, oily thickness, insubstantial really, began to penetrate the layers of earth to find its way down to her. It seeped into her pores and saturated her mind, moved through her body to take possession of her heart, squeezing hard like a hand massaging. One beat. A second. Jaxon woke with sweat pouring from her body, with heavy earth surrounding her. She could feel every inch, every foot of soil and instinctively knew precisely how deep she was buried.
    Lucian knew the exact moment Jaxon awakened. He was truly astonished by her built-in radar system, by the intensity of their connection, that allowed her to override his command to sleep. Admittedly he was not using his full power, but Jaxon was not his puppet, and he would never treat her like one. He waited, a quiet shadow in her mind to see her reaction. If it was necessary, he could strike swiftly, taking control of her.

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    At first the sound of her heart was like thunder in her ears, such a roaring it was nearly deafening. Her throat was closed, suffocating her. There was no air to breathe; she was buried alive. Instinctively she brought up her hands to try to scratch her way out of her grave. Her mind was a chaos of screams and panic and fear. But the thick, oily darkness invading her soul was overpowering, pushing aside even her panic. Something was out there, malevolent, dark and evil, something lurking in wait for… Lucian .
    Her heart stopped for a moment, then began to beat. It was hot beneath the earth, but her mind was still and calm, able to function and compute. There was a way to move this dirt. Not move through it, but actually move it. Lucian had done so when she first discovered they slept beneath the earth. What to do?
    She needed to think it through. It took