Carpathian 17 - Dark Curse

been looking for. Now she had to survive in order to come back and discover the long buried secrets of her past. Gerald stumbled, and Terry screamed as the snake head slammed against a particularly dense pile of snow and ice, shoving the teeth farther into his flesh.
    Lara felt the mountain tremble. At first there was silence and then a distant rumbling. The sound increased in strength and volume until it became a roar. The snow slid, slowly at first, but picked up speed, churning and roiling, rushing toward them. Lara forced down panic and reached into the well of knowledge she knew was deep inside of her. Her aunts had never appeared human to her, but their voices had been, and the immense wealth of information they had collected over centuries had been stored in Lara\'s memories.
    She was Dragonseeker, a great Carpathian heritage. She was human, with courage and strength of the ages.
    She was mage, able to gather energy and use it for good. All of her ancestors were powerful beings. The blood of three species mingled in her veins, yet she belonged in none of those worlds and walked her chosen path-alone, but always guided by the wisdom of the aunts.
    She felt strength pour into her, felt the crackle of electricity as the sky lit up with lightning. Once more looking over her shoulder, she sent a command to the wilds of nature to counteract the protective guard the dark mage had used on the mountain.
    I summon thee water ice, fit to my hand, provide me with shelter as I command.
    Snow stopped movement abruptly, spray in air, frozen in place, curled over their heads like a giant wave motionless in midair.
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    Christine Feehan: Dark Curse
    \"Run!\" Lara shouted. \"Go, Gerald. We\'ve got to get off the mountain.\"
    Night was falling and the avalanche was not the worst they might face. The wind had stilled, but the voices remained, shrieking warnings she dared not ignore. They gripped Terry and half ran, half slid down the steep slope. Above their heads, the heavy mantle of snow had formed a wave, cresting over them, motionless like an ominous statue.
    Terry left behind streaks of blood as they skidded over the icy surface. They were sweating profusely by the time they made it to the bottom. Locating their car was an easy task. In this particular area of Romania, most of the locals used carts with tires pulled by horses. Cars weren\'t a common sight at all and theirs, as small as it was, looked far too modern in a place centuries old.
    Gerald dragged Terry through the meadow to where the car was parked beneath some naked branches. Lara turned back toward the mountain, let out her breath and clapped her hands together three times.
    There was an odd, expectant pause. The wave rolled, snow dropped. The mountain slid, raising a cloud of white spray into the air.
    \"Lara,\" Terry gasped. \"You have to get these teeth out of my ankle. My leg burns like hell and I swear, something\'s crawling inside of me-inside my leg.\"
    He sprawled on the small backseat, his skin nearly gray. Sweat soaked his clothes and his breathing came in ragged gasps.
    Lara knelt in the dirt and examined the hideous heads. She knew what they were-hybrids of the dark mage, bred to do his bidding. She\'d seen the beginnings of them in her nightmares. The snakes injected a poisonous brew, including tiny microscopic parasites, into their victim\'s body. The organisms would eventually take over his body and then his brain, until he was a mere puppet to be used by the dark mage.
    \"I\'m sorry, Terry,\" she said softly. \"The teeth are barbed and have to be removed carefully.\"
    \"Then you\'ve seen this before?\" Terry gripped her wrist and held her close to him as she crouched beside the open door of the car. He was sprawled across the backseat, rocking in pain. \"I don\'t know why, but the fact that you know what they are makes me feel better.\"
    It didn\'t make her feel any better. She\'d been a child, dragged into a laboratory. The sights and smells had been so hideous she\'d tried to forget them. The stench of blood. The screams. The grotesque tiny worms in a putrid ball, wiggling in a feeding frenzy, consuming blood and human flesh.
    Lara took a deep breath and let it out. They didn\'t have much time. She needed to get Terry to a master healer who could handle such things, but she could slow the deterioration down.
    Gerald looked around him, then back up at the mountain, now quiet and still. White mists swirled, but the voices were gone. Overhead