Chapter
27
The atmosphere in the Fortress was
subdued that night. Everyone knew about the upcoming challenge,
though no one spoke of it openly. Even the sheep knew. But then, it
seemed as if they always knew what was going on. Drake had often
wondered about that. Did they have some sort of telepathy of their
own? Or were they just in tune with what went on around them? He
thought it more likely that they eavesdropped on what their captors
said. They certainly didn’t learn anything from the drones, those
poor, unfortunate humans who were little more than
zombies.
Too keyed up to sit still, he prowled
the corridors for hours before going to his apartment.
Katiya looked up when he entered their
quarters. “Have you seen Andrei?”
Drake nodded. “He is shadowing Olaf. He
told me to kiss you good night.”
She laughed softly, her cheeks flushing
as Drake dutifully brushed a kiss across her lips.
“Did you see Florin?” she
asked.
“No. He has wisely chosen to stay in
his room. One of the drones is keeping watch outside his door,
ostensibly to do his bidding. Ciprian is also watching over him,
from a distance, of course.”
“And Rodin?”
“He is sequestered with
Liliana.”
Drake paced the floor, then dropped
into one of the chairs, his hands braced on his thighs. “I have a
bad feeling about this whole thing.”
“You are not afraid Rodin will lose? He
has defeated every challenger who has ever come against
him.”
Drake nodded. Maybe he was worrying for
nothing. Maybe it was being away from Elena that had his insides
tied in knots.
“Listen,” he said, rising quickly to
his feet. “I need to see Elena.”
“You are leaving?” Katiya asked, her
eyebrows rising in disbelief.
“I will be back before dawn. If anyone
comes looking for me, you do not know where I am.”
Elena had gone to bed early, only to
toss and turn. A glance at the clock showed it was almost 2
A.M. Would this night
never end? With a sigh, she closed her eyes, wishing Drake was
there beside her.
“Elena?”
“Drake?”
“I could not go to sleep without
kissing you good night.”
She threw her arms around him. “Oh,
Drake. I hate it when we’re apart.”
He gathered her close, a sense of peace
stealing over him as he inhaled the scent of her hair and skin,
heard the familiar beat of her heart, tasted her lips with his own.
Without his knowing how it had happened, she had become the most
important thing in his life, his only reason for living. After five
hundred years, he felt as if he had found the other half of his
soul. Love, he thought, it was more binding than
blood.
When she would have spoken, he silenced
her with a kiss. It lit the fire between them as quickly as a match
ignites tinder. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding
tightly, while his hands caressed her back, her shoulders, the
sweet curve of her thigh, the swell of her breast.
He growled something under his breath,
and the next thing she knew, her nightgown and his clothes were
gone and he was rising over her. There was no need for foreplay.
She sensed the urgency within him, but it was as nothing compared
to her own need. They came together in a rush, his mouth crushing
hers, her fingers digging into his back, urging him
on.
Just when she was certain it couldn’t
get any better, she felt his fangs at her throat. She moaned softly
as pleasure exploded deep within her, spreading outward like
ripples in an ocean, until she was certain she would expire from
the sheer wonder of it all.
His tongue laved her neck, and then he
was kissing her again, carrying her over the edge of pleasure into
ecstasy.
Elena sighed as she turned onto her
side, her head pillowed on Drake’s shoulder, one arm across his
chest, one leg sprawled over his. For this moment, he was hers, and
only hers.
But it was a moment fated to end too
soon. She sensed the change in him, knew he was getting ready to
leave.
“Do you have to go so
soon?”
His hand lightly massaged her neck and
shoulders. “I promised to be back before dawn. The challenge is
tonight at midnight.”
“Please take me with you. Can’t you
hide me somewhere in the Fortress?”
“No. Have you forgotten what happened
the last time I took you there? I will not willingly put your life
in danger again.”
“I’m not afraid.” It was a bold-faced
lie, but she was desperate to be with him.
“I will return to you as soon as I
can.” He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand, then kissed
her slowly, deeply. “Stay close to Stefan.”
Determined not to cry, she sat up,
watching him as he dressed, thinking it was a shame to cover that
perfect masculine body, wishing he had time to make love to her
again.
“Thank you, wife,” he said with a
wicked grin. “I will fulfill that wish when I return.”
“I’ll hold you to it.”
“Please do.”
Fully clothed, he bent down and kissed
her again. “Do not worry. Rodin has never lost a
battle.”
She nodded, but she couldn’t ignore the
shiver of unease that speared through her when Drake vanished from
her sight. Was it only her fear making itself known? Or a
premonition of something worse?
The bad feeling was still there when
she awoke in the morning—afternoon, she amended when she looked at
her watch. It was a little after one thirty. Ten and a half hours
left until Gerret challenged Rodin for control of the
Fortress.
Rising, she went down to the kitchen.
Too upset to eat, she drank three cups of coffee, then wandered out
into the garden.
A good cry, she thought. That’s what
she needed. But the tears wouldn’t come.
Feeling thoroughly depressed, she sat
on the wrought-iron bench and stared at the fountain. What was
Drake doing? Was he resting? What of Liliana? And Katiya and
Andrei? How could any of them rest when Rodin was going to fight
another vampire to the death?
She should be there. She had to be
there. She didn’t know why, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that
Drake needed her.
She lost track of time as the certainty
grew within her that she needed to go to the Fortress.
Unfortunately, she had no idea where it was.
But Stefan knew.
She drummed her fingertips on the arm
of the bench.
Stefan knew.
Eventually, hunger drove her back into
the kitchen. She fixed a sandwich, ate it with a glass of milk
while she warmed several pots of water on the stove.
When she finished eating, she bathed in
the wooden tub. When this was over, she was going to ask Drake
about having a bathroom installed in their bedroom.
Wrapped in her bathrobe, she went
upstairs to get dressed, only to come to a halt in the doorway when
she saw a large brown cat curled up on her pillow.
“Stefan?”
“Meow.”
She frowned. She had never seen Stefan
in his cat form before. Why now? Moving to the bed, she sat on the
edge of the mattress.
The cat rolled onto its back, inviting
her to scratch his belly.
“I’m not sure Drake would approve,” she
muttered as she rubbed the cat’s belly.
The cat purred loudly.
Elena stretched out on the bed, her
hand still stroking the cat, who continued to purr, even after she
had fallen asleep.
Elena woke with a start. What was she
doing in bed? She had come up here to get dressed. A glance at her
watch told her that had been over five hours ago. She frowned,
remembering how she had found the cat in her bed. There was
something supernatural about purring cats, she thought. They
inevitably put her to sleep.
Rising, she pulled on a pair of jeans
and a sweater and went downstairs.
Stefan was waiting for her in the main
hall.
“Why did you do that?” she
asked.
“You were driving yourself crazy. I
thought I would save you a few hours of worry.”
“Oh. Thank you. I think.”
“It will be over soon.”
“Where will they fight?”
“There is a clearing below the
Fortress. They will meet there at midnight, with their
seconds.”
“Just the four of them?”
“No. There will be four other vampires,
summoned from other Fortresses, who will serve as
witnesses.”
“So, it’s outside?”
“Yes.”
“Take me there.”
“No.”
Grasping his shirt in both hands, she
shook him as hard as she could. It was like trying to move a
mountain. “You have to take me! Drake needs me. I know it! Please,
Stefan.”
“Dammit, Elena, do you know what he
will do to me if anything happens to you?”
“Do you know what will happen to me
without him?”
Stefan swore long and loud. Not all of
it was in English, but some words sounded the same in any language,
and she knew she had him.
He paced back and forth in front of the
fireplace for a moment, then turned to face her. “All right,” he
said. “I will take you. But you will have to stay out of sight. And
after he kills me, I expect you to put flowers on my
grave.”
“I promise.”
Moving quicker than her eye could
follow, he wrapped her in his arms. “Hang on tight, Mrs. Sherrad,”
he whispered in her ear, and then he swore again. “I know I am
going to regret this.”
Elena closed her eyes as a familiar
feeling of dizziness and nausea swept over her. There was the sense
of flying through time, of freewheeling through space, and then
nothing. When she opened her eyes, she was standing under a tree,
wrapped in Stefan’s arms.
He smiled down at her. “You know,” he
said, hugging her closer, “I could get used to this.”
“What?” She looked up at him, her
thoughts obviously elsewhere.
“Nothing.” He pointed up the mountain.
“Look.”
At first, Elena didn’t see anything.
But, gradually, she saw flickering lights moving down the side of
the mountain, slowly growing larger, brighter, until she could make
out four vampires carrying torches. Behind them, coming
single-file, she saw Rodin and Drake, and following them, two other
vampires she didn’t recognize. All eight wore long black cloaks.
And then, trailing far behind, she saw another dark shape that cut
away from the group and quickly disappeared into the
trees.
“Do not move.” Stefan whispered the
words. “Try not to breathe.”
“Did you see the other
vampire?”
Stefan nodded. “It was Liliana. She is
not supposed to be here, either.”
Elena wrapped her arms around her
waist. What if Liliana had seen them? Well, said a little voice in
the back of her mind, what if she had? She couldn’t say anything
without incriminating herself. That knowledge should have been
comforting, but it wasn’t.
The vampires in the clearing were
moving, spreading out. The four torchbearers formed a circle around
Rodin and his opponent. In the bright silver glow of a full moon,
she easily identified Drake. Taller than the others, he stood
outside the circle, behind Rodin. The eighth vampire took a similar
stance behind the challenger.
Rodin tossed his cloak aside and Elena
saw that he wore a pair of black leather pants and boots and
nothing else. His opponent was similarly attired. Each carried a
sword. The long silver blades glinted in the
moonlight.
Silver, Elena thought. It would make
each cut doubly painful for the vampires.
One of the torchbearing vampires moved
to stand between Rodin and his opponent. “Rodin Sherrad, Master of
the Carpathian Fortress,” he intoned, his voice carrying clearly in
the quiet. “Be it known that Gerret Lynch, Master of the Irish
Fortress, has come here this night to lay down a challenge for your
lands and holdings. Do you accept? Or concede?”
“I accept.”
“Florin Korzha. Drake Sherrad. You have
been chosen as seconds. Come forward.”
Drake and Florin took a step forward.
Drake inclined his head, and Florin did likewise.
“All those required to be in attendance
are here present,” the torchbearer said solemnly. “Let whatever
blood is shed this night be done with honor.” And so saying, he
returned to his place in the circle.
For a moment, it was as if the vampires
in the clearing were frozen in time.
Elena shivered as a low, keening wind
sprang up, rattling the leaves of the trees, causing the torches to
flicker erratically. She looked up at Stefan. His eyes burned red
as he stared at the scene in the clearing.
Without taking her eyes from the
combatants, she asked, “Why is Florin’s last name Korzha if he’s
Rodin’s son?”
“Only Liliana and her children carry
his surname.” Like Elena, Stefan kept his attention on Rodin and
his opponent. “His other children take their mother’s maiden
names.”
There was no signal given that Elena
could see, but suddenly Rodin and his opponent were moving. The
ring of metal against metal was very loud in the stillness of the
night. As the blades met, the wind howled through the
trees.
Elena shivered again. She risked a look
at Drake. His hands were clenched at his sides, his face like
something carved from stone.
She turned her attention back to the
battle. The vampires moved so swiftly, there were times when they
were little more than a blur so that she couldn’t tell one from the
other.
Power shimmered through the air as
sword met sword. When the scent of blood filled the air, the two
vampires parted, and Elena saw that the challenger was bleeding
from a long gash in his left arm.
The two combatants came together again
and again.
It was like being caught up in a
nightmare. The wind howling. The blood in the air. The ringing of
metal striking metal. The blazing red eyes of the vampires, the
light of the torches casting eerie shadows on the
ground.
It seemed as if the fight would go on
forever when Rodin suddenly feinted left, pivoted in a circle, and
drove his sword through his opponent’s heart. The other vampire
fell backward, his sword dropping from his hand. Before Gerret hit
the ground, Rodin’s blade swung again, cleanly severing the
challenger’s head.
Retching, Elena turned away, her arms
folded over her stomach. Stefan had been right. She should have
stayed home.
From behind her, someone shouted, “Stop
him!”
In the distance, Elena heard a scream
filled with such pain, such agony, it raised the short hairs along
her nape.
Beside her, Stefan hissed,
“No!”
Afraid of what she might see, Elena
glanced over her shoulder. Rodin lay on the ground, a long wooden
stake protruding from his chest, exactly where his heart would be.
A dark stain pooled beneath him.
In the blink of an eye, Drake had
Florin by the throat.
And Liliana was kneeling at Rodin’s
side, a look of horrified disbelief on her face.
One of the torchbearers drew a sword
from beneath his cloak and took a step forward, clearly intending
to take Rodin’s head.
With a wild cry, Stefan propelled
himself across the field. Grabbing the sword from the other
vampire’s hand, Stefan drove the blade into his heart, then whirled
around, ready to fight the remaining vampires, if necessary. The
three remaining torchbearers dropped their cloaks to the ground.
None of them carried weapons.
Elena stared at the grisly scene and
then, slowly, lifted her gaze to find Drake staring at her over
Florin’s shoulder.