Carpathian 17 - Dark Curse

her.
    Nicolas kept his smile to himself. She thought she was hiding her displeasure, but her hair swirled with bands of color, red and blond streaks. The red came out when she was upset or angry and right now her hair was streaked with flame. The color of her eyes had gone from green to glacier blue, glittering like ice at him, but she said nothing, simply stepped back as if she was obedient and sweet.
    He bent over the mutilated ankle. There was nothing sweet about his woman. She might hide her true nature from the others, but she was a little tigress with claws and fangs, ready to do battle when situations warranted.
    His life had gone from barren and gray to exciting in the blink of an eye. Her reaction to his high-handedness made him want to find something else to do to make her hair crackle and her eyes glow at him.
    There were masses of parasites in Terry\'s system and Nicolas frowned as he focused on the clogged blood. He glanced at Mikhail. Have you ever seen anything like this before ?
    Not to this extent. I have sent for Gregori. He is our greatest healer and is this man\'s only chance at survival intact. Mikhail glanced back at Lara, deliberately including her in the conversation. I am sorry. I know he is a friend of yours .
    Lara\'s stomach knotted. She pressed a hand to it. This was her fault. She had taken Terry and Gerald with her to find the cave, because she hadn\'t thought it was real. She had begun to doubt herself. Somewhere deep inside, she had suspected the cave might really be there when she had first gone for a permit after studying the mountain\'s geology. There had been an excitement she couldn\'t suppress and she should have known she was on the right track. If she had believed in herself more she wouldn\'t have exposed her friends to such danger.
    Can you save him ?
    It wasn\'t that Mikhail and Nicolas exchanged a look, both were bent over Terry\'s ankle, examining the wound, but she felt something pass between them. It wasn\'t words, not even on a private telepathic path, because Nicolas was keeping his mind open to hers.
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    Christine Feehan: Dark Curse
    Vapor poured through the open window, a steady stream of white mist filling the room. At once the air was electrified. Lara felt the hair on the back of her neck rise. She stepped back, away from the window toward the door. She shouldn\'t have worried, Nicolas was there immediately, inserting his body between her and the mist and for once, she wasn\'t offended. She wanted nothing to do with whatever was coming in through the open window.
    Energy was something a mage learned to manipulate from birth. She had seen many young mages working on using whatever was available to them for simple or complex tasks. In the years of observing studies and experiments, she rarely had felt the amount of energy pouring into a room, and never had power been seeking another like a magnet and surrounding that one person as it was now. The vapor continued to stack into the shape of a large, transparent man, but the energy raced toward the prince, seeking him out, bathing him in large waves-giving him untold power.
    Nicolas, Terry and Gerald didn\'t seem to notice anything at all. Maybe it was just that she\'d always been sensitive to the presence of energy because, as a child, it had been her warning that she was about to be dragged from her chamber and her flesh torn, her blood consumed. She shivered, feeling queasy.
    Pressing a hand to her rolling stomach, she backed away from the prince and the man shimmering with transparency. Her skin crawled. Her wrists burned. She felt the sensation of spiders crawling over her skin.
    Lara brushed them away, coming up against the wall. The temperature in the room dropped significantly and she couldn\'t stop shivering with cold.
    The stranger swung around to look at her, his eyes slashing steel. \"Dragonseeker,\" he said aloud. \"The blood runs strong in her.\"
    Bile rose. She choked, barely able to drag in enough air. The walls of the room undulated, curved, formed tunnels, thick and blue around her.
    \"Gregori, we do not have much time,\" Mikhail said.
    Fear became a monster, blossoming, growing, building inside her until she could barely see straight. She floor shifted under her feet. So much power. The scent of decayed blood so strong. The man on the bed was beyond screaming now, moaning continuously.
    Gregori nodded, but those silver eyes continued to bore into Lara, shredding her guards, her very carefully