Dark Slayer - Christine Feehan [19]
Hearing Razvan confess to the betrayal of his own sister and aunts, of his child, she had thought to aid him to find the dawn, even though it would mean condemning herself. But once inside his mind, she realized more than he did the centuries of struggle, of fighting to protect everyone around him from a monster. And he had held out in spite of torture and starvation and anything else she could ever conceive of.
In some ways it scared her to think what his will and determination would be when he was at full strength. Never once during the time Xavier held him captive had he been at full strength. He’d been a youth when Xavier had taken him, and even then, as a mere boy, he’d protected his sister. He didn’t consider himself good with spells—his sister was a far better mage—but he was Carpathian male through and through, strong and protective and unflinching in his fight, no matter how weak he had grown.
Hear the blood rushing in my veins. It flows like the tide itself, like sap in the trees, nectar of life, flowing for you. Can you smell it? Do you feel your body crying out for life?
She drew a line across her breast, one of many lines, but this one welled bright red blood. Shifting him again, she pressed his mouth to her. There was a heartbeat. Two. Everything in her stilled. Veri olen elid—blood is life. Saasz hän ku andam szabadon—take what I freely offer. She put every ounce of compulsion she had into her soft entreaty.
She felt him stir. His tongue licked over the raw wound and her womb clenched. Teeth sank deep, a biting, burning pain that gave way to a rush of heated pleasure.
She stroked back his hair and began to chant the Carpathian Lesser Healing Chant. Her voice rose, soft and melodious, filling the chamber with the rich gift of song.
Kuńasz, nélkül sivdobbanás, nélkül fesztelen löyly—You lie as if asleep, without beat of heart, without airy breath.
Ot élidamet andam szabadon élidadér—I offer freely my life for your life.
O jelä sielam jorem ot ainamet és soŋe ot élidadet—My spirit of light forgets my body and enters your body.
O jelä sielam pukta kinn minden szelemeket belső—My spirit of light sends all the dark spirits within fleeing without.
Pajńak o susu hanyet és o nyelv nyálamet sielametsívadabat—I press the earth of our homeland and the spit of my tongue into your soulheart.
Vii, o verim soŋe o verid andam—At last, I give you my blood for your blood.
Weary, Ivory closed her eyes. She dared not give him more blood than she was able. One healing session and one feeding was not going to be nearly enough. A week, a month... time mattered little, but she would heal him. For now, she’d done all that she could do.
Find peace, Dragonseeker.
Pressing her hand to his mouth, she whispered for him to stop before placing him in the deep, rich loam of her bed. Calling to her pack, she signaled them to take their places around her lifemate—claimed or not—and she pressed close to him before allowing the dark soil to engulf them, her protections around their bedchamber the strongest she knew.
3
The search for Razvan had been intense over the past three weeks. Ivory crouched below the snow-covered slope, raising herself just enough to study the forest beneath her. She couldn’t see anything, but the wind had shifted enough on its own to bring her the scent of blood and death. Along with that scent came the soft sobbing of a child.
She had been careful to feed far from her lair, but then her travels had taken her closer to the Carpathian world where Mikhail Dubrinsky, the prince of the Carpathian people, and his legendary guard, Gregori, made their homes. There seemed to be far more Carpathians than the last time she’d been this close. That meant, when she hunted for food enough to feed her pack, she