Dark Lycan (Dark #24)(14)
Author: Christine Feehan

The dim light halted. Faltered. Stayed still. He felt the smallest movement at his wrist and instantly aided his brother in swallowing the liquid of life. Even as Dimitri took in blood, Fen knew it wouldn’t be enough. He was weak himself from blood loss. Healing took tremendous energy. He would have to feed quickly and return to draw his brother’s life light back. He gave Dimitri as much blood as he dared before returning to his own body.

The act of being in two places at one time, feeding his brother and healing him, aiding him in sending the blood through his body took a tremendous toll. Normally, with a wound so grievous, there were many Carpathians participating in the healing ritual. Fen had to remain a Lycan in Zev’s eyes. There was no controlling Zev’s mind. Tatijana could shield them using the mist, but at all times, Zev had to believe that Fen was Lycan, not a mixture of wolf and Carpathian.

He rose quickly, staggered, regained his footing and, after making certain the mist remained thick enough to hide his actions, took to the trees where the two drunken humans were cocooned in the shield Tatijana had provided for them. Before using them to replenish the blood he’d given his brother, he drove as much alcohol from their systems as possible through their pores. As a rule, Carpathians rarely touched tainted blood, but this was an emergency and he’d take anything he could get.

He took even more than he needed, knowing Dimitri would need much more. Tatijana, how long before you can aid me?

I put him into a healing sleep with his permission, but he won’t be in it long.

Bring down the lightning and burn the bodies. Make certain you get every last bit of fur and hair. Do not remove the silver spikes from their hearts otherwise they can regenerate. Let the fire burn everything and we’ll recover the stakes after that. Once that’s done, come help me. I need to find my brother in the other world and guide him back. He’s stuck between two places.

He caught Tatijana’s shocked gasp. Both knew it was difficult to bring someone back when they were so close to death. The only thing that had stopped Dimitri was knowing what his unclaimed lifemate would suffer without him.

Fen hurried back to his brother and knelt down, this time mixing his saliva with dirt, rich with Lycan blood, and packing it into the worst of Dimitri’s wounds. He took a deep breath and once more left his body behind to become pure light.

He took up the great healing chant of his people from centuries earlier. He spoke in his native tongue, using his most charismatic, commanding, persuasive voice.

"My brother’s soul is only half. His other half wanders in the netherworld. My great deed is this: I travel to find my brother’s other half."

Tatijana sank down beside him. "We dance. We chant." She pulled the words of the mystical song from his mind. "We dream ecstatically."

"To call my spirit bird and to open the door to the other world," Fen continued.

He felt the cold of that other place. He’d been there more than once after a battle, but Dimitri had traveled farther than he ever had to the other side.

"I mount my spirit bird and we begin to move. We are underway." He suited action to words. He was going down that long tree into the dark and cold to find Dimitri and bring him back whole. "Following the trunk of the Great Tree, we fall into the netherworld."

His very breath felt like ice. "It is very, very cold." Worse than cold. He’d never been this far into the other world before. He could hear wailing in the dark. Teeth gnashing. He continued, unmoved by what might be stalking him in a place he had no business being in.

He was connected to Dimitri. They were brothers and their minds were tuned to one another. "My brother and I are linked in mind, heart and soul. My brother’s soul calls to me. I hear and follow his track."

As he approached that dim light he knew to be Dimitri’s, another approached as well. Something dark and terrible. Something familiar. Something also calling softly, sweetly to Dimitri. "Encounter, I, the demon who is devouring my brother’s soul."

Fen knew that sweet, deceiving voice all too well. He would recognize it anywhere. Fen was oldest, Dimitri youngest, but in between there had been Demyan and almost from the beginning, Demyan had shirked duty. He’d been a man of little honor, and it was no surprise to Fen when he had, early on, chosen the path of the undead. Still, it was difficult to discover that his own brother had chosen to give up his soul and become the undead.

After that, Fen had checked on Dimitri often. Over the long centuries, he’d learned that his youngest brother was a force to be reckoned with and he never swerved from his duty, no matter how difficult. It had been Dimitri he had turned to when he realized he was both Lycan and Carpathian, and it had been Dimitri who had provided a sanctuary where he could go when he needed rest and healing. Fen had been the reason Dimitri had chosen brotherhood with the wolves in the wild by setting up sanctuaries for them.

Demyan called to Dimitri’s weary soul, promising him rest. Peace. No pain. Demyan was so busy focusing on ensnaring Dimitri’s light that he never saw Fen coming at him through the darkness. He never suspected Fen would travel so far after his brother.

Anger swept through Fen. Shook him. To think that Demyan had waited all this time, crouched in the darkness, still refusing to accept his responsibilities, waiting for one of his brothers to come in death, angered Fen more than he ever thought possible. Dimitri had fought long with honor in the world, and now, when he was at his most vulnerable, the light in him slowly fading, his own brother planned to steal that honor.

Furious, Fen struck out of the darkness, just as Demyan reached for Dimitri’s flickering light. Dimitri must have sensed danger, even so near death. The spirit light jerked inches from Demyan’s outstretched greedy fingers. Fen caught at his disgraced brother, and wrenched him backward. Demyan felt insubstantial, yet he cried out, a long wail of terror when he spun around and saw his oldest brother Fen ready to do battle.

Nenam ; o kuly torodak.-In anger, I fight the demon.

He whispered the words into Dimitri’s mind. Into the mind of Demyan. He spoke the greater healing chant in the language of the ancients.

O kuly pel engem.-He is afraid of me.

He stared into Demyan’s eyes. You should fear me. How dare you think to steal our brother’s soul.

Tatijana, call down the lightning, give it to me, Fen whispered into her mind. He felt her immediate reaction, the hot energy sizzling through her.

Staring into Demyan’s eyes he repeated the next line of the healing chant. Lejkkadak o salamaval.-I strike his throat with a lightning bolt.

Demyan tried to run but it was too late-the lightning bolt followed Fen down the tree of life and struck with precision at Demyan. For a moment the world below lit up and Fen could see the other shadowy beings, red greed-filled eyes, watching nightly as pure souls of light passed beyond their reach. They waited, as Demyan had, for one who would recognize their voice and was not yet into the next realm, one so near death, but not yet dead.