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She scraped snow froood soil Mixing her saliva with the soil, she packed the wounds and then hugged him "Thank you, my brother As so many times before, you've saved my life"

He nuzzled her and waited patiently while she inspected each of the pack The strongest female, Ayame, named after the de his wounds and passing her tongue over the other scratches he'd received Their littermates formed the rest of the pack: Blaez, his second in coer, the two s close to her battered and bruised body in an effort to aid her

The littermates, born of different parents, were very distinctive with their thick, silver-tipped coats, a shier than normal, even the two smaller females All had the blue eyes from their puppy days when Ivory had tracked blood and death back to the den, finding the o Even then, she'd becoend and they'd sought to destroy her Instead, they'd killed and mutilated the bodies of the wolf pack she'd befriended

She had found the puppies dying, their torn bodies wriggling across the blood-soaked ground, trying to find their mothers She couldn't bear to lose them, her only family, her only contact armth and affection, and she'd fed them her blood out of sheer desperation to keep the She'd stayed in the den with the herself Forced, again out of desperation, to take small amounts of blood fro blood exchanges, until the largest and e

The pups had retained their blue eyes as they'd grown, the Carpathian blood giving them the ability to shift Their ability to co theh the conversion Like Ivory, they had been wounded a thousand times in battle, but over the past century they'd learned how to successfully bring down a va as a team

She lay back in the snow, catching her breath, letting her body absorb the pain of her wounds The one in her neck throbbed and burned and she knew she had to cleanse it immediately She was impervious to the cold, as were all Carpathians Her race was as old as time, nearly immortal, as she had discovered, to her horror, when the prince's son had betrayed her to the vaony, an endless battle deep in the earth as years went by and her body refused to die

She h she didn't hear herself She thought her cry was silent, but the wolves pressed closer, trying to comfort her, and the natural pack behind the shield took up the cry Looking up at the night sky, she let her wolves soothe her, their love and devotion a balht tooforward This time of day was as et to her lair, and there was still much to be done before dawn

Ivory pressed her fingers to her burning eyes and forced her body to move First, she removed the poison from the lesions in her flesh, where the vampire's poison-tipped claws had torn her open The vaether used tiny wormlike parasites to identify one another, and those parasites infected any open wound She had to push theh her pores fast, before they could take hold and require a htning to kill the soil and saliva to pack her oounds

"Ready?" she asked her fa the used arrows back into her pack She never left a weapon or an arrow behind, careful that her formula didn't fall into the hands of the vampires, or worse: Xavier, her mortal enemy

Ivory stretched out her arth coat in the air as they shifted, covering her body, the hood over her head and flowing pelt surrounding her armth and affection She was never alone when she traveled with her pack No matter where she went, how many days or weeks she traveled, they traveled with her, keeping her fro insane She'd learned to be alone and had the wolf 's natural wariness of strangers She had no friends, only enemies, and she was comfortable that way

Striding through the snow, she waved her hand and allowed the shield to disintegrate The natural wolf pack s and sniffing at her coat and boots, greeting her as a member of the pack The alpha marked every bush and tree in the vicinity to cover Raja's scent marks Ivory rolled her eyes at the display of dominance

"Males are the same the world over, no matter what the species," she said aloud and checked the wolves one by one, assuring herself the vampire hadn't harmed any of them

"All right Let's get you fed before dawn I have a ways to travel and the night's fading," she told the pack Catching the alpha's muzzle, she looked into his eyes Find and drive prey to h, I don't have much time

Although she talked to her own pack all the time and they understood her, it was easier with a wild pack to convey the order in iency at the sain the trek back to her lair Ordinarily she would fly, and each of her weapons wasnatural that could shift with her, to transport her arsenal over long distances But first she had to help the pack find food She didn't want to lose the in soon

The wolf packinto the forest to look for prey She shouldered her crossbow and began walking through the wilderness in the direction of her home She'd onlyher way, but she would be that much closer to home-and safety

She understood little about the round for so long, the world was unrecognizable when she'd risen She'd learned, over time, that the prince's son Mikhail had replaced him as the ruler of the Carpathians, and his second in command, as always, was a Daratrazanoff She knew little else of theed drastically

There were so few of her species, the race nearing extinction, and who knew? Maybe it was for the best Maybe their ti past So feomen and children had been born over the last few centuries that the race was nearly wiped out She wasn't part of that world any longer, any more than she was part of the huy, other than from books she read, and she had no concept of what it would be like to live in a house or village, town or-God forbid-a city

She quickened her steps, and again glanced at the sky She would give the wolf pack another twenty ht As it was, she was pushing her luck She didn't want to be caught out in the light of dawn She'd spent so round that she hadn't developed the resistance to the sun as many of her kind had done, able to stay out in the early an to rise she could feel the burn

Of course, itto renew itself, scraped fro but bones and a mass of raw tissue So through bone and organs as they chopped her into little pieces and scattered her across the meadow, left to be eaten by the wolves She rehter as they carried out the orders given to them by her worst enemy-Xavier

The wind began to increase in strength and dark clouds drifted overhead, heralding the coe, closing her eyes to seek the wolf pack They had discovered a doe, thin and drawn fro a bit fro chase, the pack had taken turns, running her toward Ivory

She whispered softly, asking for the doe's forgiveness, explaining the need to feed the pack as she lifted her weapon and waited Minutes passed Ice cracked with a loud snap, disturbing the silence Hard breath burst froh the trees and ran full-out over the icy ground

Behind the doe, a wolf ran, silent, deadly, hungry,the the doe running straight toward Ivory They'd hunted this waythe prey to her in desperate times

Ivory waited until she had a killing shot, not wanting the doe to suffer before releasing her arrow and taking the animal down Before the alpha could approach the carcass, snarling at the others to wait until he had his fill, she hurried to it and retrieved her arrow, striding away fast, not wanting to use energy to control a starving pack when there was a banquet in front of them

Increasing her speed until she was running, Ivory sprang into the sky, shifting, the wolves sliding over her skin to becoh the clouds with her She always felt the joy of traveling this way, as if a burden was lifted fro dark clouds helped to ease the light on her skin as she moved quickly toward her hohted down-that she was heading home, where she felt safe and secure

She'd never learned to be relaxed and at ease aboveground where her enemies could come at her fro no traces near her entrance, so no one had the opportunity to track her Her unique warning/protection system would never be detected; of that she was certain The entrance wasn't protected with the usual spell, so if a Carpathian or vampire found her lair, they wouldn't knoas occupied or even existed She'd learned round her enemies were most comfortable at, and she avoided them

Ten , ski across the surface, arms outstretched so her wolves could hunt They all needed blood, and with all seven of the out, they'd run across a hunter or a cabin If not, she would go into the closest village and bring back enough to sustain the pack She was very careful not to hunt near home, not unless she absolutely had to

As she slipped through the trees, the h in the distance, she caet wood perhaps, or doing so himself She crouched low and touched the tracks in the snow A big ood And he was alone That was even better Hunger gnawed at her now that she'd allowed herself to beco the h the trees

The forest gave way to a clearing where a s theit Ordinarily the cabin was eh the snow and inside A thin trail of s her he'd just co cabin and lit a fire

Ivory threw her head back and howled, calling to her pack She waited on the edge of the clearing and theat the surrounding forest That lonely call had spooked hi the area around his house

Ivory took to the sky again,the house She stood above her prey on the roof while he studied the forest and then, with a s the trees and gestured to the

The crack beneath the cabin door ide enough for the h, and Ivory entered the roo fire Only one roo stove, the cabin had the barest of aers had such few trappings She watched the man from a dark corner of the room as he poured water into a pot and set it on the fire to boil

Crossing the roo between hi for his to callazed over Ivory led him to a chair where she could seat hies, a gift froe, but this mountain of aon the side of his neck and sank her teeth deep

The taste was exquisite, hot blood flowing, cells filling and bursting with life Soood it was to feast on the real thing Aniy ca the life-giving blood, grateful to the h he wouldn't rehtly erotic, wholly pleasing, not wanting the experience to be unpleasant for him

She flicked her tongue across the puncture wounds to close the two holes and erase all evidence that she'd been there She got hi him to drink, and then she set another one beside him and tucked a blanket close to keep his body heat up before leaving

The packher theagainst her knee as she knelt and offered her wrist, the blood welling up He licked the wound froht one She fed all six wolves and then sat for aShe'd taken quite a lot froh she'd been careful that he could still function, not wanting to risk hi to death before he recovered, and she was a little drained after the fight with the va the pack

She rose slowly and held out her ar her skin As they iving her their energy Again she ran and leapt into the sky, shifting as she did so, giving her body wings as she flew over the forest, heading home

The clouds were heavy and full, and s sun Thewarmth and ho We're home, she sent to the pack Almost She had to scout before she dropped down, check for strangers in her area

She felt the wolves reach out with each of their senses just as she did, never taking safety for granted It was how she'dno one Speaking to no one unless she was far fro no tracks No trace The slayer appeared and then vanished

She worked her way in an ever-tightening circle, closer and closer to her lair, all the while scanning for blank spaces that y that ht be humans Carpathians were more difficult, but she had a sixth sense about them and could hide herself if she felt one near

As she began her spiral doard, unease rippled through her body and then through the wolves Below her, through the layers ofto her loss of vision, and she knew by the prickly sensation crawling over her skin that the sun had begun to rise Every instinct told her to increase her speed and make it to her lair before the sun broke over thefar older, far deeper, deterred her

She couldn't turn away fro covered with the new falling powder O kod belso-darkness take it Cursing ancient Carpathian oaths that would have shocked her five brothers in the old days, when she remained their protected, adored baby sister, she set her feet down in the snow and threw her arms out to allow her pack to leap down

The wolves approached the carcass wearily, circling in silence Thepart of his ery eyes Raja moved in, two steps only, while the pack continued to circle the body The alpha female, Ayame, stepped in behind the male and Raja turned and snarled at her Aya her teeth at her mate

Ivory took a wary step closer as Raja resu the motionless man He'd once been a powerful e huray pelt that was loose and unke his hair in places She leaned over Raja to get a closer look and so inside her shifted

Gasping, she pulled back abruptly, her body actually turning, ready to flee He had the strong bones of a Carpathian ht aristocratic nose, and deep lines of suffering cut into his once-handsoht her attention and terrified her was the birthh his torn, thin shirt She could see the dragon on his hip It was no tattoo; he'd been born with that mark

Dragonseeker Her breath rushed froasp Around her the snow continued to fall and the world became white, all sound muted She could hear her heartbeat, too fast, adrenaline pu in her ears

Raja nudged her leg, indicating they should leave the body where it lay She took a breath, even though her lungs could barely drag in air Her body actually shivered She turned away, signaling to the wolves to leave hile step The ed face, too-thin body and barely a pulse, held her to him

She raised her face to the heavens, letting the snow cover it like a white mask "Why now?" she asked softly A plea A prayer "Why are you asking this of h fro to strike,Her whispered entreaty was met with implacable silence

Raja gave a series of whines Come away, little sister Leave hih

For the first tiotten safety Everything she knew, everything she'd learned-it was all gone because of this o away, but everything in her was drawn to this one man Palafertiilam-lifemate-her lifemate-the curse of all Carpathian women