Carpathian 16 - Dark Demon

stood in the hall surveying the damage. "There was very little for me to do," Falcon said. "You seemed to have everything under control so I just directed the guests elsewhere and held down the volume."
    Natalya gave him a small shrug. "I was really pissed at them. I'm Natalya."
    "Falcon. I understand you are of the Dragonseeker line. You have Rhiannon's eyes. She was well-respected and much loved. It is an honor to meet you."
    Two women materialized just to the left of Falcon. One had dark hair and incredibly blue eyes. She smiled at Natalya. "Thank you for your help. I'm Raven Dubrinsky." She indicated the other woman who had a wealth of thick chestnut hair and enormous violet-blue eyes. "This is Sara, Falcon's lifemate. I wish we could have met under better circumstances. Gabrielle is dear to us and we don't want to lose her."
    "Vikirnoff isn't about to let her die." Because she'd asked him not to .
    "It takes three blood exchanges to convert her," Raven said. "I am very afraid we'll have to space out the exchanges to give her the strength needed for the conversion and I'm not certain we have that kind of time. This is very risky."
    "They have need of you inside. Raven," Falcon said. "Gabrielle is bad. Vikirnoff is holding onto her by a thread. You will have to see what you can do to help. Sara, they want you to work on the damage done to her kidney."
    "What about the mess?" Sara looked around the blood-spattered hall. "We can't just leave it. Mirko and Slavica will lose all of their business."
    "I will take care of this," Falcon assured her. "Perhaps, Natalya, you and Jubal would be willing to escort the Ostojic family to their residence and make certain they are safe. I will remove the memory from the daughter and distance the trauma of it for Mirko and Slavica.
    Mikhail will want to speak with them after he has finished with his task."
    "Sure, no problem," Natalya said. She waved the Ostojic family past the carnage on the floor. Jubal led the way down the stairs while she guarded them from the rear. "Is everyone all right?" she asked.
    Angelina bit back a sob and nodded, her eyes enormous. "I'm just scared. They didn't hurt me."
    Slavica kept her arm firmly wrapped around her only child. "They beat Mirko, but he told them nothing." Anger crept into her voice. "They put a gun to our Angelina's head."
    "Falcon will make certain she doesn't experience any permanent trauma," Jubal said.
    "You know they can do that. I'm so sorry this happened, Slavica."
    "It is not the fault of our friends, or you. These people are madmen and they came to our inn to spy."
    Natalya reached out to rub Angelina's arm, distressed by her quiet weeping. She hesitated, patted the girl and dropped her hand abruptly. "You were very brave. We have to walk downstairs and go through the big hall to get to your residence. Can you act like nothing is wrong? I'm sorry, I don't have the ability to make people look the other way."
    Angelina nodded her head. "I can do it."
    Jubal glanced over his shoulder at the girl's silent father. "Mirko, are you all right?"

    "I am very angry."
    "I'm angry, too," Jubal agreed.
    "I'm sorry about Gabrielle. I hope they can save her life."
    "I'm sorry about what they did to Angelina," Jubal replied. "I hate that we all have to worry every minute of every day that some psycho is going to try to kill us because Mikhail and Raven are our friends and Joie and Traian are family."
    "We accepted the risk when Mikhail gave us a choice to know him for what he is,"
    Mirko said. "I still cannot believe they threatened my daughter." His fingers curled tightly into fists. "They threatened my family."
    "Well, they're dead now," Natalya said cheerfully. She gestured toward the few people wandering through the downstairs room and lowered her voice, keeping a smile firmly in place. "Slavica, thanks for the warning earlier. If you hadn't mentioned nightly chocolate, I might have opened the door without being prepared."
    "I was about to take the hairspray to your room and just as I opened the door to go into the hall, they shoved me back inside. Fortunately they didn't realize the package was for you and I could tell them I was about to go to the kitchen for your chocolate."
    "You got my hairspray for me? Thank you! I hope you got as many cans as you could find."
    "I bought out the store, just as you instructed."
    "You can't wait to play with that stuff, can you?" Jubal laughed.
    She grinned at him. "Well, okay, maybe that's true. I