Dark Lycan (Carpathian)

Instantly he felt peace stealing into him. He couldn’t change what he was and she accepted him, problems and all. I’ve got you, my lady, there can be nothing wrong.

She laughed softly in his mind, filling him with that strange emotion he now thought of as joy. Have I told you this rising that I am madly in love with you and you’re clearly the most beautiful woman in the world? Because if I haven’t, it is very remiss of me.

You covered that nicely when we were feeding this evening. Remember? You picked me up and we made love? In case you’ve managed to forget that, I wrapped my legs around your waist and hooked my ankles so I wouldn’t fall and just lowered myself right over you. Nice and slow. Is it coming back to you? Her voice smoldered, as sultry as ever.

There was no forgetting any moment of making love to her. He preferred to have that experience as often as possible. It would be impossible to forget, my lady. It’s burned into my soul.

Vikirnoff waved his hand in front of Fen’s face. “Are you still with us? Mikhail takes a little blood, and you’re turning pale.”

“He doesn’t look pale to me,” Dimitri drawled. “He looks a little overheated.”

Fen sent his brother a fierce scowl, but Dimitri didn’t look at all intimidated.

“I’d really like to get back to how to fight the Sange rau. There must be a way. Dimitri successfully managed to battle with the one you call Bardolf,” Vikirnoff pointed out. “He’s Carpathian. Was he able to do that because he has some of your mixed blood, or because he used some kind of special strategy?” Curiosity and a hint of eagerness edged his tone.

“I feared turning, just as most ancient Carpathian hunters do,” Fen said, “so we practiced with war games each time we got together. Dimitri found the things that worked as well as the things that didn’t.”

“Hit and run is always the best approach,” Dimitri said. “I had a few tricks I devised, but they could be used only once, at the most twice and only if I spread them out. The Sange rau learn and adapt very quickly, so the name of the game is always to change things up.”

“Fortunately,” Fen continued, “a vampire is a vampire is a vampire. The same with a rogue werewolf. They don’t always have the patience they should. The Sange rau definitely take longer to anger, but they’re actually more puffed up with ego than the vampire, so you can rile them enough that they make mistakes.”

“It’s definitely better for hunters to go after them in pack form,” Dimitri added. “A single hunter doesn’t have nearly the chance a group would have.”

“But to fight pack-style takes skill. Bardolf will know every pack move, while Abel less so,” Fen continued. “The thing you have to know about each Sange rau is where they came from, what they were before they mixed blood. Bardolf is comfortable as a wolf and when pressed, he goes back to what he knows best. The same holds true for Abel. Clearly in this relationship, Abel is the master and has acquired more skills because he’s been Sange rau much longer.”

“We’ll need a crash course in fighting these bad boys,” Vikirnoff stated. “Are the two of you willing to stick around and help us out?”

“That would be the idea,” Dimitri said. “That and devising a strategy for destroying both Bardolf and Abel. If they do move the pack, we’ll have to track them.”

“Don’t discount the pack. We don’t have exact numbers and many were killed during the two battles. But even if we killed thirty or forty of them, if the pack is a hundred strong, as I’m afraid it may be, they still have a large army they can throw at you,” Fen said. “They’ll come at you during the day because Abel knows that’s when they can do the most damage to you.”

“Another good reason for the two of you to stay and help us out,” Gregori said.

“They fight like a well-synchronized army. They strike fast, do as much damage as possible and kill as many as they can before they disappear. They nearly always go for the belly, ripping their adversary almost in half,” Fen told them.

“I’ve got the scars to prove it,” Dimitri said with a small self-deprecatory shrug.

Gregori smiled at him. “You’re not alone. I think half our men had their bellies ripped open, me included. They definitely made us look like amateurs.”

“I knew better than to let him get that close,” Dimitri admitted.

“Packs are dangerous fighters and very skilled,” Fen said.

“Think about the wolf packs in the forests,” Dimitri added. “The Lycans are even more of a threat than an animal pack when they come at you because their very best strategists lead the hunt.”

“But the Lycans don’t hunt humans or Carpathians,” Mikhail said quickly. “When you talk about pack hunting you’re actually talking about the rogue, werewolf packs.”