Carpathian 09 - Dark Guardian

Carpathians know this."
    "I know only that he calls himself Lucian and says I am to stay with him always. He doesn't treat me the way I thought he would."
    "Tell me what your name is."
    "Jaxon." She moved away from him, shifting to one side and back to maintain distance as he glided forward. She moved with grace, with feminine, sensuous gestures that kept the vampire's attention centered directly on her. Her stomach was knotting, clenching and unclenching. She made a concentrated effort to keep her hands at her sides. She felt Lucian in her mind, strong and powerful and completely confident. There was no way she could be anything but confident herself. They were one being, one mind, and one heart and soul.
    "Who are you?" Jaxon sounded excessively flirty. She felt Lucian wince and stopped herself from smiling.
    The vampire bowed again, his manner as courtly as ever. "I am Sir Robert Townsend."
    Jaxon widened her eyes to stare up at him in feigned awe. "You're a knight? For real?"
    Overhead, the tree branches shook and trembled. From the top of the trees a second male descended.
    This one was as tall and thin and pasty as the legendary Dracula had been described. When he smiled, his teeth appeared jagged and stained. His eyes were flat and cold yet glowed a fiery red. His gaze was on the other vampire. "Good evening, Robbie. I hope you are not regaling the young lady with your lies, trying to impress her with false titles."
    A slow hiss escaped Townsend's throat. Red flames began to dance in the depths of his eyes. "Leave this place, Phillipe. You are not wanted here. The lady and I are talking. Go and find yourself your own woman."
    The newcomer smiled, a grim challenge, very clearly a warning. "I have tolerated your presence, Robbie, only because you could be of use. But now I have what I have searched for, and you are more trouble than you are worth. I say to you, be gone."
    Townsend hissed again, a growl rumbling deep within his throat. He took a step closer to Jaxon. She Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    was careful not to be caught between them. It would be difficult to defend herself against two of them; she would much rather face one at a time. Her insides were trembling with the realization of the monsters she was facing. Not human . They were evil, two of them stalking her and a third somewhere unseen.
    Close. She could feel he was close.
    "The woman has come here to be with me, Phillipe, not with you. I have put up with your ridiculous ego for far too long."
    Jaxon sent Sir Robert Townsend a dynamite smile, lashes sweeping down. The tip of her tongue came out to moisten her bottom lip, calling attention to its lush fullness.
    Phillipe snarled and leaped at the younger vampire, flying through the air with incredible speed, faster than Jaxon expected. She had seen the memories in Lucian's mind, but the real thing was terrifying. The two vampires came together in a clash of fangs and claws. The sight was horrifying. As they fought each other, they continually shifted shape, one animal after another, hideous growls issuing from their throats.
    Jaxon stayed very still, unable to look away from the two writhing bodies covered with fur and rippling with everything from barbs to horns. It was something out of a horror film. Blood sprayed in wide arcs.
    Instinctively she leaped back out of range of the poisonous liquid. She bit her lip hard, focusing on the pain to keep herself from being mesmerized by the scene.
    The only warning she received was the sudden slamming of a vise around both her ankles, and abruptly she was being sucked beneath the ground. Without conscious thought Jaxon dissolved into droplets of water. Afterward neither of them knew who had done it, Lucian or Jaxon, only that evaporation had been uppermost in her mind, in their mind. Jaxon shot into the sky, streaming upward into the bank of thick mist and fog Lucian had immediately provided for her to merge with. From her vantage point she watched the battle unfold, watched as Lucian materialized for a brief second only to dive beneath the soil and move like lightning through the earth toward the fleeing master vampire.
    The two lesser vampires were raking each other with teeth and claws. Crimson blood was spraying in all directions. Overhead, lightning arced from dark cloud to dark cloud and then slammed to earth in jagged bolts At once Jaxon smelled charred flesh and saw sparks erupting all around the