Dark Lycan (Carpathian)

There was a short silence. Pain exploded in her skull—Gregori’s pain—quickly cut off. Fen does not have to worry. Mikhail is completely protected. There was utter confidence in Gregori’s voice.

Mikhail’s guardian would check anyway, no matter how arrogant or confident he sounded. Tatijana knew Gregori would fight his way to Mikhail with his last breath.

The Sange rau sent another group of rogues to attack the village, specifically targeting women and children of our kind.

Again there was a short silence, but this time, Gregori kept the pain from his terrible wounds from touching her. I wondered why the Lycans didn’t show up. They must be defending the village.

Of course. She’d been in Zev’s mind. He was every inch the man Gregori was. His confidence. His abilities. His complete determination to defend others. He would definitely wade straight into battle and shield human and Carpathian alike.

As she approached the outskirts of the village, she felt the disturbance almost immediately. The scent of blood was overpowering. She shifted into her dragon form flying high enough, she thought, to keep any rogue from leaping on her as she circled the battle scene.

She spotted Zev in the middle of what looked like twenty werewolves. He was whirling around in a circle, his silver sword crimson red, his long hair flying as he cut a path to a single dwelling that appeared under siege. His long coat flared out as he spun, the sword never stopping, his boots placed perfectly and fluidly as if he was dancing, not in deadly peril. He seemed to flow, confidence in every line of his body. He looked almost beautiful there in the early morning light. Had it not been for the blood spraying through the air, she would have thought she was watching a ballet.

Around the back of the house, four others fought with swords and silver stakes, while another was on the rooftop of the house. That was a woman, and her form was every bit as good as her male counterparts. A sixth Lycan was down in the corner of the yard, two rogues tearing at him. Two Carpathian women were fighting their way to him.

Use the silver stakes, Tatijana advised the woman with thick dark hair who slammed her fist into a werewolf’s face, driving him back and off her. Tatijana was amazed at the woman. Clearly Carpathian, she was used to fighting vampires, it showed in every line of her body. Women rarely fought the undead, not like this woman. Tatijana wanted to meet her immediately.

The clouds above had gone black and lightning veined the one directly over the house. Destiny Von Shrieder glanced up to make certain the blue dragon was out of harm’s way. Dragonseeker, I’m about to bring down the lightning.

Tatijana circled back around, giving the dark-haired woman plenty of room. From her vantage point she could see the fierce fighting in the front of the house where Zev fought alone. Out of the house came two men. She recognized both of them. Gary Jansen and Jubal Sanders rushed without hesitation into the mass of werewolves attacking Zev. Gary shot a crossbow with silver arrows very accurately, firing rapidly while Jubal used some strange weapon she’d never seen before.

The two humans were fast and confident, and had obviously seen battle before. The werewolves outnumbered them and were extremely fast, ducking the flashing sword Zev wielded and using the house itself as a springboard to leap onto their backs in an effort to take them to the ground. Zev seemed to be directing the two men in their efforts, but their constant movement prevented her from aiding them. She couldn’t flame the werewolves without harming the defenders.

The rogues were extremely aggressive. One lit a torch and flung it at the house. Zev cut him down, but two wolves waiting their moment leapt from the roof and landed squarely on his shoulders, their combined weight driving him to the ground. Immediately the rogues surrounded the fallen Lycan, determined to kill him fast.

Gary hit one of the wolves in the head with a silver arrow, and then smashed another out of his way with the crossbow as he ran toward Zev.

“Go, go, keep going,” Jubal called out. “I’ll cover you.”

The wolves leapt on Zev, tearing at him, biting great chunks of flesh from him. One very aggressive rogue went for the kill, going for Zev’s throat, while the others seemed determined to eat him alive. Zev fought back, using silver stakes and a shorter knife, but the rogues quickly pinned him with their numbers and weight.

A wolf managed to claw Gary’s arm as he raced past, leaving four long bloody furrows. Gary didn’t slow down or falter. He ran through the double line of wolves determined to get to Zev before the rogues killed him. The wolf got a second hold on him, spinning him around. Gary stabbed an arrow deep into the wolf’s thigh and broke free, jumping over a downed werewolf and putting on a burst of speed.