Dark Storm (Dark #23)(84)
Author: Christine Feehan

He read the small hint of fear quite easily and it turned his heart over. Heat skittered through his belly and settled low. He pulled her tight against him. "I’ll cherish you forever, Riley."

She had made up her mind, but she still feared her decision. It was a huge one, and her life would be changed forever. If he abandoned her …

"It is impossible for me to abandon you," he assured softly. "I’m taking you back to Jubal and Gary, but I’ll be sleeping just beneath you. Reach for me if you have need and I’ll wake." He kissed her thoroughly, wanting to remove every doubt from her mind. He knew it was impossible, but he would keep trying until she was just as certain of him as a Carpathian lifemate would be.

She wrapped her arms around his neck when he lifted her into his arms. "I hate to leave this place. You made our time together beautiful for me. Thank you."

"I want you to remember that I love you, Riley. You. The person you are. This is going to get uglier, and you’ll need to hold on to any good moments we can find," he warned.

He took her through the hallway back out into the early morning light. The sun, obscured by the haze overhead created by the ash, still hurt his eyes. The light on his skin burned, but the scales moving beneath the surface protected his body, allowing him the freedom to take to the sky. He took in the early morning, breathing in the rain and scent of the forest.

Movement was constant in the canopy below. The sounds were far different as the birds called to one another. Monkeys scolded and added to the chaotic movement. The forest was waking up just as he was going to sleep. He could see it would be difficult for Jubal and Gary to sleep during the day and his respect for them grew. They were going out of their way to protect what was his.

The two men had already set up a net and tent with a sleeping hammock for Riley. They had chosen an area easily defensible and one where he could find a resting spot without the water table being too high. He found both of them extremely efficient. They were definitely well versed in the ways of the Carpathian people.

He greeted them formally, giving them the respect they deserved, clasping their forearms as one warrior to another, before relinquishing Riley into their care. He found it much more difficult than he’d anticipated to leave her, even for a few hours. She looked alone, although she stood straight, her chin up and even managed a small smile he kept with him as he opened the ground and allowed the cool soil to greet him.

They cautiously approached the clearing Lea Eldridge had told them about. Long before they were close, the stench of death filled their nostrils.

Riley glanced uneasily at the three men. "Not again. I could feel Mitro as we’ve gotten closer to the river. He came this way for certain. I hate that my ties to him seem to be getting stronger."

"That’s the Carpathian blood," Dax explained. "Not any tie to him. Your abilities are growing, and that has nothing at all to do with Mitro. He’s a killing machine. There is no goodness in him, no mercy, not for anyone. There’s no redemption for him. If his lifemate couldn’t save him, no one could. Arabejila is long gone, and evil has completely taken him over, although, in all honesty, I think he was already completely evil."

"Some people are born with something not right," Riley said. "We want to say it’s always the environment they’re raised in, but sometimes, it just happens. Maybe it happens in every species."

Gary nodded his head. "Even animals are born with problems, both physical and mental." He shrugged. "It happens."

Mitro had been twisted from the first time, as a boy, Dax had met him. There had always been a cunning savagery about him. His need to hurt animals and the other boys drove others away from him.

Dax shoved the memories away. In the clearing ahead, the smoldering remains of a home came into view. He halted abruptly and caught Riley’s forearms, effectively stopping her. "You’ll need to stay here, sivamet. The stench of evil is strong here."

Her body rocked against his. She frowned up at him. "He’s gone. You know he’s gone."

"He leaves both carnage and traps behind. Neither is for you."

She raised an eyebrow. "I think you’re mistaken about that. I think he left both behind for me to find. He knows I’m following him."

"That he does, sivamet. And we’ll get him."

"He should never have gotten out." Riley glanced over his shoulder toward the smoldering ruins of the little house there on the side of the river. "I should have been able to stop him."

"Riley." Dax said her name softly, shaking his head. He stroked a caress down her long sweep of hair. "You have to know you aren’t responsible for any of this."

"Of course I am. He got out. He’s killing people, destroying lives. How many more will he kill before we catch him?" She blinked back tears and gestured toward the cabin. "Whoever lived there had a life and it’s gone because I wasn’t powerful enough, or fast enough to keep him a prisoner in that volcano."

"If you believe that, you have to believe that ultimately, the failure is mine. I have had centuries and yet, I failed." Dax kept his voice very low, very matter-of-fact. His guilt was not in his inability to defeat the vampire, that was part of the job. Sometimes the hunter won and sometimes the undead prevailed. All hunters knew and accepted that premise.

At once Riley’s expression changed and she shook her head. "No, no, Dax, please don’t think I ever thought that. Of course it isn’t your fault …"

"It isn’t yours, either. Mitro is evil. I have no idea if he was born that way, or what shaped him, but he wanted to be evil. He embraced that darkness in himself. He had every chance to move to the light, but he clearly made the choice to be what he is."

He dropped his arm around her shoulders and began walking away from the scent of smoke and death. "He seems to need carnage and suffering. It feeds some deep need he has. He’s been around centuries, and maybe it is not our destiny to stop him. But we will continue to try, Riley. There is nothing to gain by blame or guilt. Neither serves any purpose, not in a life-and-death hunt. I need you to be at your strongest and most determined. He can’t ever see weakness in you. The moment he does, he’ll use it to attack. Remember, vampires can get into your head."

Riley nodded. "I hate that you, Gary and Jubal have to see what he’s done and I’m protected from the worst of it."

He leaned down and brushed a kiss across her mouth. "I never want you to have to see any more of his work than necessary. I can help to distance the horror from Gary and Jubal should they ask, and they know enough of our abilities to ask if they have need. I have dealt with this most of my life and can look upon death and torture without repercussions. I have the ability to push all emotion aside."