Dark Lycan (Carpathian)

Zev studied Fen’s face. “Dimitri and Tatijana are Carpathian, but you are Lycan.” It was a statement, the tone strictly neutral.

There was no hint of distrust in Zev’s voice, but Fen knew Zev was suddenly very suspicious of him. Why would a Lycan be friends with two Carpathians? There was no way not to notice the resemblance between Dimitri and Fen. Zev was an elite investigator, which meant he had gone from an elite hunting pack to pursuing rogues on his own for the shadowy government behind the Lycans. He seemed more than confident.

“Have you any idea of the size of the pack?” Fen asked.

Zev nodded. “It’s large. The largest I’ve ever run across. I’ve been tracking them for months.”

“Dimitri counted thirteen, and that was just with a single pass.”

“It’s more like fifty to seventy. I’ve identified that many individual tracks, and I’m not certain that’s all of them. They tend to divide, each unit hunting separately and then coming back together.”

“That’s why they’ve been able to do so much damage,” Fen said.

Zev shot him a quick glance. “You’ve been tracking them?”

Fen nodded. He wasn’t about to admit that he thought Zev was wrong, or at least partially wrong. He was fairly certain the rogue pack killed often, but a vampire either trailed them, doing far more of the brutal destruction than the pack had done, or traveled with them as a Lycan. The vampire was intelligent. He covered his tracks well, making certain the pack took the blame for his work. Of course, that was conjecture, Fen had no real proof.

“I ran across their kills a few weeks back and trailed after them,” Fen admitted. Dimitri, they’re coming at you from your left. Three of them. Tatijana, go to mist or take to the skies. You’ve got two targeting you. They’ll rush you from opposite sides and they’re unbelievably fast.

Mist swirled, a thick gray fog. The wind rushed through the trees and the rogues were on them, tall wolves running at them on their hind legs, each leap crossing thirty feet or more with blurring speed. The wolves poured into the circle from every direction, a silent, eerie attack made all the worse by their red glowing eyes, shining through the mist.

The three wolves leapt at Dimitri before he could move, or dissolve, all three sinking their teeth deep, ripping through muscle right down to the bone. Claws dug at his belly, trying to slash him open.

Claws raked Tatijana from her shoulder to her hip, even as she tried to turn to mist. They got to her far faster than she ever conceived possible. Fen rushed past the ones coming at him from every direction, his speed and momentum allowing him to knock over the one directly blocking his path to Tatijana. As he passed the werewolf, he slammed the silver stake deep into the chest wall. The sound of the rogue’s heart was his beacon. The werewolf went down, and he kept going, blowing past the other three as they tried to close in on him.

He reached Tatijana, pulling one werewolf off her, spinning him around and staking him through his heart so hard he nearly drove the silver dagger all the way through the man. Tatijana punched the second werewolf hard in his throat as he drove teeth, dripping with saliva, at her face. She used the enormous force of the Carpathian hunter, staggering the werewolf. As he stumbled back, she dissolved into mist and tried to take to the sky.

Droplets of blood mingling with the mist led another werewolf straight to her. He leapt high and hooked claws into her dissolving ankle, yanking her down to the ground. Fen caught the movement out of the corner of his eye as two others tried tackling him. He felt the burn of teeth snapping down, the bite pressure, an enormous tearing at his calf and thigh. He ripped both wolves off of him, knocking their heads together with tremendous force, just needing a few seconds to get to Tatijana.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Zev, in the form of a huge Lycan, half man, half wolf, whirling in the midst of several werewolves, his body torn and bloody, but he moved with grace and precision, ducking attacks, coming up under one of the werewolves to plunge a silver stake in his heart and whirling away again.

Fen caught the werewolf who had his claws in Tatijana’s ankle, snapping his neck and yanking Tatijana back up to her feet in one smooth motion.

Go, he hissed. Take to the air.

A werewolf landed on Fen’s back, sinking teeth into the nape of his neck. Tatijana put on a burst of speed, darting into the skies, shifting as she did so, taking the shape of a blue dragon. Fen shifted into the shape of a Lycan, using the strength and muscular form to throw off the werewolf ripping at his body.