Carpathian 17 - Dark Curse

arranged in a pattern at the foot of the outcropping.
    \"Something out of place,\" she murmured aloud.
    Instantly the wind wailed, the sound rising to a shriek as it rushed toward her, blowing debris into the air so that it shot at her like small missiles.
    \"It\'s the rocks. See, they should be arranged differently.\" Lara leaned down and pushed the small pile of rocks into a different pattern.
    At once the ground shifted beneath them. The mountain creaked in protest. Bats took to the air, pouring out of Page 8

    Christine Feehan: Dark Curse
    some unseen hole a short distance from them, filling the sky until it was nearly black. The dark crack along the outcropping split wider. The mountain shuddered and shook and groaned as if alive, as if it was coming awake.
    \"We shouldn\'t be here,\" Terry nearly sobbed.
    Lara took a deep breath and held her palm toward the narrow slit in the mountainside, the only entrance to this particular cave. Power blasted out at her, and all around she could feel the safeguards, thick and ominous, protecting the entrance.
    \"You\'re right, Terry,\" she agreed. \"We shouldn\'t.\" She backed away from the outcropping and gestured toward the trail. \"Let\'s go. And hurry.\" For the first time she was really aware of the time, the way the gathering darkness spread like a stain across the sky.
    She would be coming back early morning-without her two companions. She had no idea what was left in the elaborate ice caverns below, but she wasn\'t about to expose two of her closest friends to danger. The safeguards in place would confuse them, so they wouldn\'t remember the location of the cave, but she knew each weave, each spell, and how to reverse it so that the guards wouldn\'t affect her.
    Ice caves as a whole were dangerous at all times. The continual pressure from overlying ice caps often sent great frozen chunks of ice blasting out of the walls, fired like rockets, capable of killing anything they struck.
    But this particular cave harbored dangers far outweighing natural ones and she didn\'t want her companions anywhere near it.
    The ground shifted again, throwing all of them off balance. Gerald grabbed her to keep her from falling and Terry caught at the outcropping, fingers digging into the widening crack. Beneath their feet, something under the ground moved, raising the surface several inches as the creature raced toward the base of the rocks Lara had realigned.
    \"What is that?\" Gerald shouted, backpedaling. He thrust Lara behind him in an effort to protect her as the dirt and snow spouted into a geyser almost at his feet.
    Terry screamed, his voice high-pitched and frightened as he tipped over backward and the unseen creature raced toward him beneath the earth.
    \"Get up! Move!\" Lara called, trying to get around Gerald\'s sold bulk, to throw a holding spell. As he swung around, Gerald\'s backpack knocked her off her feet and sent her rolling down the steeper slope. Her birthmark, the strangely shaped dragon positioned just over her left ovary suddenly flared into life, burning through her skin and glowing red-hot.
    Two dark green tentacles burst from the snow-covered ground, slick with blood, the color so dark it nearly was black, emerging on either side of Terry\'s left ankle. The sound of bubbling mud rose along with a noxious, putrid stink of rotten eggs and sulfur, so overpowering the three of them gagged. The bulbous tops of the tentacles reared back, revealing coiling snake heads that struck with brutal speed. Two curved, venomous fangs clamped from either side through Terry\'s skin nearly to the bone. Terry screamed and flailed in terror as his blood dripped into the pristine snow. The small gap in the ground began to widen into a larger hole a few feet from Terry. At once, the tentacles retreated toward the hole, slithering across the surface, dragging Terry by his ankle. His screams of fear and pain grew louder, shrill and panicked.
    Gerald flung himself forward, gripping Terry under his arms and throwing his weight in the opposite direction.
    \"Hurry, Lara!\"
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    Christine Feehan: Dark Curse
    Lara scrambled to the top of the slope. The mist whirled and thickened around her, making it difficult to see.
    She spread her arms as she ran, gathering energy from the darkening sky, uncaring that her companions might see, knowing she was Terry\'s only chance for survival. Never once since leaving the ice caves had she used the knowledge inside of her, the wealth of information