Carpathian 16 - Dark Demon

sounded frantic. I know your kind can do that.
    Hurry !
    They are innocents, under the command of the undead. It would destroy the entire pack.
    Go while you can. The other rises from beneath the earth. I feel its triumph.
    She screamed in frustration and sheer exasperation, the sound only in his mind. Fire rained from the sky. Hot embers like glowing orange arrows, streaking down to find live targets. You are the most stubborn, idiotic man I've ever had the misfortune to run across.
    Finish him now !
    Vikirnoff had the impression of her grinding her teeth together. She was furious as she drove off the wolf pack, with the one exception being the male attached to his calf. Ignoring the excruciating pain, he settled his fingers around the vampire's shriveled heart and wrenched it from the body. Arturo's shriek became high-pitched and vengeful. The wolf began to saw frantically at Vikirnoff's leg and the vampire sprang after the blackened heart as Vikirnoff tossed it to the ground, calling lightning to incinerate it.

    The ground opened and the heart dropped through the widening fissure. A furred arm stretched, the bony fingers seizing Arturo to drag him beneath the earth. Before Vikirnoff could follow, the crevice slammed closed. Lightning slammed into the ground in the precise spot where the heart had been, but it was too late.
    Vikirnoff caught at a tree branch as he plummeted toward the forest floor. He hung there for a moment, fighting to breathe when his body felt torn apart, weighted down by the wolf still hanging on to his leg. His leg was so slippery with blood, the animal finally fell to the ground and began to leap over and over at him.
    Vikirnoff's hand and arm burned from the acid of the vampire blood and his fingers were slippery. He could see blood pooling below his body and it seemed a tremendous amount.
    Unexpectedly weakness rushed over him and he felt himself falling straight toward the open jaws of the wolf below him.
    A rush of flames sent the animal howling and tumbling backward away from him. He landed hard and looked up at the face of a very exasperated woman. Natalya leapt from the tree and landed beside him, crouching down to do a quick examination of his wounds.
    "You're a mess."
    "How did you send fire like that?"
    "I followed the instructions in your head," Natalya said. "You have a tremendous amount of information in your brain. I wish I'd known about incinerating the heart. It would have helped. Can you stand up?" He was horribly wounded. She told herself to leave him, but his body had been far too ravaged in her defense.
    "Of course." He had lost too much blood and dawn was fast approaching. "You need to get out of here."
    "Don't bother giving me orders," Natalya said. "I've always had a problem with authority figures. I'm getting you somewhere safe and then I never want to see you again."
    "That will be a little difficult." Vikirnoff made an effort to rise. He was far weaker than he imagined. If he took his lifemate's blood, he would have the necessary strength to get them both to safety.
    Natalya leapt away from him, hand on her sword. "Don't you even think about taking my blood. If necessary, I'll sit here and wait until you become so leaden you can't move before I'll touch you. I'm not the blood donor type." She pinned him with her gaze. "Not now, not ever. If and that's a big if, I ever give it to you, it will be voluntarily. Don't ever think of taking it by force."
    Vikirnoff forced his body into a sitting position, his back against a tree trunk. "You have a grudge against my people." He sounded distant, faraway, even to his own ears. The vivid colors around him, faded in and out, blurring until everything ran together. He knew it was necessary to shut down his heart and lungs to prevent further blood loss, but his lifemate wasn't yet safe. "Go, Natalya, go now." He said the words aloud, or maybe they were in his mind, but he was already slipping into unconsciousness.

Chapter 3
    "Damn it," Natalya whispered fiercely as she gathered the fallen hunter into her arms and looked around her, feeling desperate. "Don't do this." Over the years Natalya had tried to gather information about the Carpathians, partly because she knew she carried their blood, but mostly because she believed knowledge gave her advantages. She was fully aware they needed rich earth to heal. She used it on her wounds upon occasion. "I can't even pack your wounds with soil. The vampires have ruined the earth around