Carpathian 09 - Dark Guardian

tainted being as it pushed its way through. She actually felt the dirt under her feet shift and knew the vampire was racing toward her to get to the surface far away from Lucian.
    Jaxon went skyward, sending a sheet of fire sweeping the ground, flaming everything in its path. She knew she scored by the shriek and noxious odor that followed, then the sudden silence, as if the thing had burrowed back into the earth. Just to be on the safe side, she directed down flames as long as she could before sheer exhaustion sent her reeling to earth.
    Something was wrong. Lucian had pulled away from their mind merge. She was left alone in the silence of the storm. Too tired to move, Jaxon couldn't summon the necessary energy to join with Lucian.
    Without warning, tentacles erupted all over the ground, great spiked arms like those of an octopus but sharp and pointed like spears. They broke the surface everywhere, reaching, writhing, searching for her.
    Jaxon leaped up, sheer terror lending her the strength to move, when one wrapped around her ankle. She stared down at it in horror. Even as she did so, the appendage withered, shrunk, and fell harmlessly away from her.

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    Jaxon whirled around and almost ran right into a tall, gaunt man. He was youthful at one moment, ancient the next. He looked handsome, then hideous and evil. He smiled at her. "I trust you are finished with your pitiful attempts to harm me. It is impossible. I am much too powerful. In the end, my dear, you will pay for your sins against me." His voice was pitched low. It might have seemed beautiful to other ears, but to Jaxon it was an assault.
    She moved slowly, keeping her hands down and at her sides. She had to avoid the searching spearlike arms yet keep her gaze fixed solidly on her enemy. And he was her enemy. As sweet as his voice sounded, as gentle as his face tried to appear, Jaxon knew this was a monster without honor, without soul. She tilted her chin, her body as still as the mountains around them. Inside herself she found a calm, tranquil pool and simply stayed there while the shell that was her body faced the vampire.
    He smiled at her, his teeth gleaming like needles. "You think that he will come for you, but I have ensured that he is trapped for all time beneath the earth. You will do as I say, and I will take that into account in my dealings with you." His voice was mesmerizing, powerful.
    Jaxon kept her eyes fixed on him, the tension all at once draining from her body. She began to laugh softly. "You can't possibly believe that your voice can make me believe the impossible, can you? Lucian is not trapped in the earth. He is everywhere, all around you." She waved an arm, and the ancient hunter sprang up at every point, east, west, north, and south. He was in the clouds above their heads and leaning against the rocks with lazy indolence. Lucian, tall and handsome, his black eyes glittering.
    The vampire whirled around, his long black cape swirling like a magician's. Jaxon took the opportunity to put a little more distance between them. The large head of the undead began to undulate in a reptilian manner, a long, slow hiss escaping him, betraying his anger. The red-rimmed eyes settled on her like a suffocating cloak of malignancy. "You think to frighten me with your childish tricks." He waved his arms, and the images faded away as if they had never been. Even as he did so, scorpions erupted out of the holes the octopus arms had made. Scores of them blackened the earth, making the surface of the soil itself seem to be moving toward her. She could hear the clicking as the horrible insects rushed at her.
    Jaxon tried to leap skyward, but something oppressive forced her back down. It seemed there was no escaping the swarm coming at her, their stingers poised and ready. For one beat her heart slammed painfully in her chest, and then she relaxed, smiling sweetly at the vampire. "We are reduced to this then?"
    She waved a hand, and the thick onslaught of scorpions wavered, began to turn on one another, and thrust their stingers into one another. "It's amusing but rather silly."
    "Come to me." He held out his hands to her.
    Jaxon's eyebrows shot up. "Just like that? You think to win so easily? I don't think I want to make it that easy. You would never fully appreciate me." She was trying to ignore the stains on his daggerlike nails.
    The sight of the dark brownish color turned her