Carpathian 17 - Dark Curse

wrist. \"You\'re going to kill the baby.\"
    Razvan jerked back. Tears spilled down his face. \"I\'m sorry. I\'m so sorry, Lara. Shauna, this isn\'t safe. I can\'t stop myself anymore. I\'m becoming like him.\"
    \"No you\'re not,\" Shauna said fiercely. \"You\'re not like him. You\'ll never be like him.\" She rocked the baby back and forth trying to sooth her.
    Razvan leaned over and closed the wound with a swipe of his tongue. Nicolas knew the healing saliva wasn\'t quite right, wasn\'t quite able to numb the flesh or heal properly, which was why the little wrist had scar tissue everywhere and why Lara felt the pain of each bite as if knives were ripping at her.
    \"Hurry now. She must go. He\'ll be coming any moment.\"
    Razvan inched his body aside to reveal a hole in the ice. Where the ice had been white or bluish in color, it was now red with pink edges. He had tunneled into the wall of ice using his own warm blood to carve a tiny passageway.
    Shauna hugged the child to her, squeezing tight, sobbing quietly as she did so. Abruptly she thrust the girl into the tight channel and shoved her. \"Go. Hurry. Follow the water out.\"
    The ice pressed down on the little body, scraping at skin. He felt the lacerations and tears as he scooted forward. There was no turning around. When he tried to scoot back rather than go into that smaller, darkened warren with the scent of blood heavy in his nostrils, his body simply wedged in tighter. Panic began to take hold. Nicolas fought to shift, to become smaller, anything to get out of the tunnel. The heavy ice weighed down on him. Above and all around him, the ice creaked ominously as the heavy pressure constantly shifted the walls.
    Nicolas couldn\'t draw air into his lungs, his head was buzzing from lack of oxygen. He felt as if he was suffocating. He knew Lara was experiencing the same reaction and he was totally helpless to come to her aid.
    He felt overwhelming tenderness for Lara the adult who had suffered as a child, and rage and aggression, at his own impotence in protecting her from reliving it. He tried to pound at the ice, using sheer will to break her free, but there was no escaping the tight space. He only bloodied his fists.
    For the first time in his life he experienced claustrophobia. He felt trapped with no way out. His enormous strength didn\'t work. No magic spell saved him. He couldn\'t weave energy and use it. No matter how hard he tried to use sheer force to crack the ice and break out, he was in a three-year-old female body that didn\'t have Page 77

    Christine Feehan: Dark Curse
    his powers. It was impossible.
    Lara\'s spirit stirred. Merged so deeply together, it was nearly impossible to tell where one started and the other left off. Their souls were bound together. Go . Her whisper was weak. There is no need for you to live this with me. I survived it before, I will again .
    He wasn\'t certain that was true. She barely was alive, and in any case, there was no way he would abandon his life mate to relive whatever experiences she must in order to come back to him. He had thrown her into the past and he would shield her with everything he had in him in order to protect her from the worst of her memories. No matter what it took, he would stand in front of her. Rest, o jelä sielamak. Light of my soul, I will not abandon you here . The tenderness in his voice surprised him, as did the ache in his heart.
    Something sharp pierced his ankle, stabbed deep, all the way to the bone. His body suddenly jerked backward.
    Ice tore the skin from his shoulders and hips, from his arms. He tried to kick back to remove whatever had penetrated his ankle, but all that did was cause excruciating pain. His body was ripped backward through the tunnel fast, peeling the skin from his body as he was pulled back through to the ice chamber.
    He fell onto the chamber\'s hard floor, horror filling him as he saw the most monstrous of creatures-Xavier.
    Shauna lay on the floor, blood seeping from her mouth and nose. Already dark bruises stood out on her skin.
    She reached for the little girl, but Xavier kicked the woman away and yanked Lara/Nicolas up by the coppery curls. He carelessly tossed the child against the cavern wall, smashing her small body without thought.
    Xavier was a mass of decomposing flesh, serrated blackened teeth and pitiless silver eyes. Nicolas watched with horror as the monstrous demon stomped the woman repeatedly, her ribs, crushing them, her face, breaking bones,