Carpathian 17 - Dark Curse

She made one last desperate push to regain the surface, to find her spot of entry.
    Gasping, she inhaled sage and sweet grass. \"Now, Natalya, now!\" She slumped to the floor of the chamber, in the dark, fertile soil, exhaustion gripping her body and the echo of her childhood nightmares resounding in her mind.
    Natalya crouched over Raven, her body as still as a tigress, unmoving, every sense alert, trained on her prey, waiting-waiting. She struck quickly when she detected a faint trace of mage and the taint of dark art. Her weapon was an egg. She rolled it carefully over Raven\'s wound, drawing the microbe into the center of the egg.
    Lara couldn\'t talk, but she sent Natalya a warning using the common Carpathian path her aunts had taught her. Watch out, it\'s nasty. Don\'t let it sting you .
    Already the egg was rocking, darkening in color, the microbe sending waves of hatred and despair out into the chamber. A mixture of the foul stench of decomposing flesh and rotten eggs assailed Lara, deepening the feeling of being back in the ice cave. In spite of the heat rising from the chambers beneath them, she shivered with cold, and icy fingers of fear traveled down her spine.
    The smoke and incense quickly absorbed the negative energies. Natalya, mindful of the lashing stinger, rushed the new host from the cavern. She called for an electrical storm so that for a moment the night sky lit up as she called down the lightning to incinerate the microbe held within the egg.
    Lara rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. Gentle hands touched her face and body as the women searched Page 156

    Christine Feehan: Dark Curse
    for injuries. She didn\'t have the energy left to tell them it wasn\'t her body that needed to be healed, but her mind. She pried open her eyes and watched as Francesca examined Raven.
    Did we get it? Is the baby all right? She didn\'t have the energy to speak aloud.
    Natalya strode back in, going straight to Lara, taking her hand.
    Raven closed her eyes and touched her son\'s mind. Her hands fluttered over her stomach, rubbing gently.
    \"He\'s at peace. Finally, he\'s at peace and I feel different. I don\'t think my body\'s trying to reject him.\"
    Francesca immediately sent herself outside her own body, to go seeking in Raven\'s. A smile of joy lit her face. \"This is a miracle. Shea, her blood pressure is fine, there are no more contractions, she isn\'t bleeding, and her body isn\'t treating the baby as a foreign invader and trying to dispose of it.\"
    Lara closed her eyes, pressing both hands to her pounding head. She wanted to weep and laugh at the same time. She was happy she\'d been able to find the microbe, but now childhood memories beat at her, images of blood and torture and screaming men and women. More than that was the feeling of utter hopelessness, a seed planted from long ago that she could barely rise above. Her self esteem plummeted, the insidious thread of dark magic preying on her mind.
    She didn\'t want Raven to know what the journey had cost her, but she felt sick to her stomach. Too many doors had opened along the way, and remembering wasn\'t a good thing. There had been a reason her aunts built a barrier to protect her and the shield seemed to be in shreds. She needed to be alone, far from everyone else where she could pull her fractured mind back together. The problem was-she was too weak to rise.
    Around her, voices rose in excitement. Shea and Francesca whispered in consult, their body language animated. Raven\'s child was safe and the culprit had been found. The other women rejoiced and Raven wept with happiness.
    \"What about my daughters?\" Savannah\'s quivering voice quieted the room. \"Do I have one of those things in me attacking the girls? Is that why I\'m having contractions and bleeding?\"
    Gregori! I need you. Her cry was heartfelt, a mother\'s instinctive need to protect her children.
    Lara stilled, her heart beginning to hammer inside her chest. She knew what was coming, but she couldn\'t .
    There was no possible way with her mind so fragmented that she could go back and face her childhood a second time. Without conscious thought, instinctively her traumatized mind reached out to Nicolas.
    Nicolas. Hurry. I fear I\'m lost.
    \"Lara?\" Raven asked. \"Does Savannah have a parasite in her body attacking the girls?\"
    For a moment she was paralyzed, her mind frozen, refusing to process information. She was still that child in the cave with Xavier standing over her telling her