Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
“Have you seen any of them before?” Vasilisa asked him.
“My lady,” he replied as gently as he could. “Had I seen them before, they would not be here now. Why do you still have the sword raised high in the air?”
She had barely glanced at the pawns, and they were drawing closer. Her attention was riveted on something else—something he couldn’t see. He had the vague impression of shadowy figures moving under the snow, but he couldn’t be certain. It was almost as if he was looking too hard and wanted to find something. But he didn’t for one moment dismiss his lifemate’s curious concern. He had fought beside his brother Sandu and his lifemate, Adalasia, when she fought demons from the underworld. He had a bad feeling his lady was about to fight that same battle, only she would do so on her own.
“You know they are there,” Afanasiv said.
Garald took a deep breath as he surveyed his opponents. “On the right, lover boy, what the hell is that? I thought vampires might be the worst of it, but no, that looks pretty damned revolting.”
Even Vasilisa took her concentration off her surroundings for just one moment to glance to the right to see what her brother meant. “Oh. Ugh. Not looking good. I think his head is falling off.”
“That is a puppet. A ghoul. Whatever you choose to call it. The vampire takes a human and makes him into a flesh-eating monster. In exchange for his soul, he will do anything the vampire commands, including murder his entire family, his own children, his parents, everyone he’s ever known,” Siv explained.
Vasilisa turned away from the sight of the puppet as he stumbled and clawed his way up the rocky hill in an effort to keep pace with the pawns.
“He will try to tear the flesh from your bones with his teeth if he gets close despite anything the vampire or the pawns tell him. Puppets have little or no self-control,” Siv warned.
“Vasi,” Garald whispered, sorrow permeating his voice, driving all cockiness away. “That’s Mark. I sent him out to inspect the high meadow right after the quake. He’s one of our best trackers. I saw strange tracks I couldn’t identify. I would have gone myself, but I was called back by the council.”
Vasilisa took a deep, steadying breath before she turned to inspect the puppet staggering up the hillside so determinedly. Siv wanted to step up and put his arms around her, something he’d never done in his life for anyone that he could recall. He could feel the grief coming off both brother and sister in waves.
“You can’t allow them to know you know him or care that he is the way he is,” he advised, aching for them. For her. He would have to destroy the puppet first, before either of them had a chance to think too much on how this man had gotten the way he was. “He is no longer the man you knew.”
Garald started to say something, shook his head and went silent for a moment. “This isn’t your fault. Vasilisa, whatever happens, loyalty and love.”
“Loyalty and love,” she murmured back to him. The ancient sword pointed into the sky, and she called out in her own language. “You cannot hide from the light.” The sword blossomed into radiant light, a crystal heat that spread like the sun across the sky, encompassing the floor of the gorge where Siv and Garald feigned being captives. The sudden brightness illuminated the ice sculpture that was the waterfall, as well as the series of dark rocks the falls fell over and the pool of water below.
With Vasilisa’s crystal light burning in the sky, the ice sculpture of the falls was magnificent. Nothing but nature could provide such a stunning display of beauty. Siv found it obscene that the swaying pawns, the puppets and the small, strange creatures emerging from beneath the ground at Vasilisa’s command could possibly be anywhere in the same vicinity.
The vampires wailed and shrank back, trying to hide from the light. The creatures, seven of them, looked like crosses between small humans and large red or pink salamanders with enormous mouths. They had arms, legs and heads closely resembling those of a salamander, right down to suction cups on their feet and webbing between their toes. Their bodies were longer and shaped more humanoid. They crawled on their bellies toward Vasilisa in little stops and starts. The hideous noises they made sounded either like high-pitched shrieks that hurt the eardrums or excessively low notes that hurt the organs in the body.
Siv turned the sounds down until they were barely heard and then connected with Vasilisa to ensure she had been able to turn the sounds down as well. As a Carpathian and Lycan blend, she certainly was capable. She had done so. She gave him a haughty little chin lift.