Carpathian 20 - Dark Slayer

is dark and banned .
    Saam te Szavéar—I name you Xavier .
    It éntölam kuulua ainadet—Your body I now claim and command .
    Ottiam sa éset veriet és luwet—I see the sinew, blood and bone .

    Muonìam ainadet belsÅ‘ és kinn—From its core I hold and hone .
    Muonìam ködaltepoÃ¥rak, it poÃ¥rak juttam—I command these abominations, these fragments left I now bind .
    Totellosz sarnaakam, kaÎász kontalik, kaik kaÎász—Do my bidding, go from this warrior, leave nothing behind .
    The splinters did their best to struggle against his commands, but they were too fearful of the light. Each time his energy touched on them, they smoked and withered more.
    Get back to your body, Ivory . They were both at risk as the slivers of Xavier’s blackened and malevolent soul fled Razvan’s body to seek another host.
    Ivory and Gregori merged their spirits back in their bodies as Razvan rose over them, protecting them in that first disorienting moment. The ground rumbled ominously. Dirt spewed up like a geyser. The sky darkened overhead. For one moment they could hear the rustling of the leaves on the trees, and then a swelling noise like a wall of rushing water.
    Within moments the clouds and a sliver of the moon were wiped out under the heavy migration of huge bats. The bats neared, showing dripping fangs, some landing on the ground in a circle around the group, using their wings to walk. Others flew at their faces, teeth gnashing together.

    The earth opened up right beneath Razvan and a giant worm burst from beneath, jaws open, serrated teeth clamping around Razvan’s ankle. For a heartbeat, the thirty-foot worm hovered, with Razvan locked in its teeth, and then it slid back beneath the ground, the dirt pouring in after it.
    6
    Ivory drew a wicked-looking, circular, crystal-centered weapon and held out her arms. “Now,― she called to her pack.
    The wolves leapt into the air, diving for her back. Ivory was already plunging, straight down, hands in front of her face like a modern-day Olympic diver, changing form as she went, pushing through the dirt to follow the path of the large worm dragging Razvan deep.
    Look to me. At me. I am with you .
    No! Go back. He cannot have you .
    Nor can he have you . Ivory blocked out everything happening on the surface. Gregori would fight his way clear of Xavier’s mutations and get the prince free; he had to. She had one duty, and that was to her lifemate—keeping him out of the hands of the high mage.
    I cannot shift and get away .
    You have seen the worm, bred to travel through the earth. Once his teeth meet in the middle, he holds your form . She knew.
    She’d extracted that very venom to use with her own combination of chemicals to make the coating on her weapons to prevent vampires from shifting. He cannot have you. Do not struggle. Stay very still so it injects less poison. Keep your mind in mine. You have to trust me .
    She felt him holding himself utterly still. It had to take a great deal of courage not to fight the worm dragging him deeper beneath the earth. It was easier for the worm to go through its tunnel, already carved through the layers of soil as it headed back to its master to deliver its prize. Razvan had to know where and to whom the worm was taking him, yet he ceased fighting.
    Razvan had never been able to trust anyone once his father had died and his sister was lost to him. To give her that—to put his life, no, his soul in her hands—had to be nothing short of a rebirthing by fire because never before had he put his very soul into someone else’s keeping.
    I trust you .
    It would take trust. Fighting a worm was extremely dangerous.
    Practically everything about the worm was venomous. The spikes that ran along his body to dig and propel himself forward and back through the tunnel, and the barb on the end of his lashing tail, all contained the same poison as the fangs and double rows of serrated teeth. The tail itself could break every bone in a warrior’s body. The hide was tough and could slice through a hand or arm if brushed against.
    Close your ears, Razvan. You cannot listen. The sound will be bothersome to you . It was the only way she could think to describe it, but she had to slow the worm down, disorient it.
    With the tunnel already dug, it could warp time with alarming speed. When it releases you, you will have only seconds to