Carpathian 10 - Dark Symphony

wound with it. The
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    Dark Symphony
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    bullet exited and tore a hole through his back. Your shoulder is injured as well.
    "I'm going for help, Antonietta. We'll need the doctor," Paul said decisively. "I think you were shot, too."
    She didn't notice, she concentrated on the voice. Tell me what to do. She had to believe that distant voice. Who are you?
    Jacques. Byron has family in the area. If you can get him out of there into the open, they will come and care for him.
    I want to care for him. But Antonietta was already on her feet, tugging at Byron's dead weight, trying to drag him down the tunnel. The dog caught at Byron's jacket, adding his strength to hers.
    "What the hell are you doing?" Paul demanded. "He's dead, Antonietta. We have to get you medical attention."
    "Just help," she snapped. "Don't say anything, or I may pick up that gun and shoot you myself! I can't believe you brought that thing into my home."
    "I have people after me," Paul admitted, reaching down to help pull Byron along the floor. "I got into some trouble with some people I owe money to. They aren't the kind of men you want to meet up with without a gun."
    "I thought you quit gambling, Paul."
    "Aren't we going the wrong way? We're going downhill, toward the cove."
    "That's right."
    "You aren't going to just dump the body, are you, Antonietta? I mean, grazie, but we have to inform the authorities. I could have killed you, too. We have to give them the body, well, we should give them the body, but if it was found in the sea, or never found—"
    "He isn't dead," she said between her teeth. "Shut up and concentrate. We have to get him outside."
    "You aren't making sense, Antonietta." But Paul continued to help pull the body down through the maze of tunnels until he could smell the sea.
    It took hard work, but between Antonietta, Paul, and the borzoi, they managed to get Byron outside. The rain was falling steadily, sheets of it, so that they were instantly soaked through. The wind whipped at them.
    "Find me soil, Paul, rich soil, not sandy sod. I want good soil."
    Paul muttered and shook his head, but he did as his cousin wished, taking off his shirt to heap the soil from the beds the gardener had planted just above the cove. He was well aware Antonietta had remarkable powers as a healer, but even she couldn't bring back the dead. He rushed back to her side and knelt to watch as she packed the wounds, front and back, with the soil. "If you did manage to bring him back, he'd just die again with gangrene."
    "That's not funny." Antonietta wanted the reassurance of the voice again. We're outside, near the cove. I've packed the wounds with soil, but he isn't responding.
    Call to him. He will hear you.
    Antonietta didn't hesitate. Her insides were churning, and she wanted to scream and scream. To let the wind carry her horror and the fear held so tightly in check out over the sea and away from her. She never wanted to feel so afraid, so empty and dead again. She leaned close, sheltering his face from the rain. Byron. Byron, open your eyes. Her hand trembled as she stroked back his hair in a small caress. Don't leave me now that I've just found you. Wake up before I begin to weep and scream and plead like a ninny. I'm really afraid, and I need you.
    Byron became aware of many voices. At first he couldn't sort them out. There was chanting in the ancient tongue. Antonietta, summoning him imperiously back to her. Someone
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    9/13/2007

    Dark Symphony
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    was yelling his name. He identified his sister Eleanor's voice. She sounded close to him, yet he knew she was far away. A man's voice called to him calmly yet with command.
    Jacques. Byron was certain he was hallucinating. He hadn't spoken telepathically with Jacques in years. "Maybe I really am dying." He muttered the words aloud to test his voice.
    "No you're not! I refuse to allow it," Antonietta replied firmly. The relief was so tremendous she felt ill.
    Pain spread through him, and before he was fully aware, through her, so that she gasped and caught at him. "You need a doctor desperately.