Dark Promises

Zev sent him a warning glare. “I’m still armed to the teeth, you bastard.”

Tatijana shook her head, amusement in her eyes. “You two are awful.” The smile suddenly faded from her eyes leaving her, serious-looking—and a little worried. “Zev, this cut is all the way to the bone. There is some kind of poison at work here I can barely detect. I can check it out if you allow me to, but I’ll have to do so the Carpathian way.”

Zev shrugged. “Apparently, I’m nearly half Carpathian already. I may as well learn how to do the healing the way you do. And it isn’t like you haven’t done it before.”

Tatijana didn’t wait, but shed her body, her spirit becoming white energy, moving into Zev to try to find the poisonous compound spreading through his system. A scratch along the bone from elbow to wrist showed where the slice had been. The tip of the blade had cut into the bone and she could see tiny, minute blisters, like little droplets all along the scratch. The globules clung to the bone, but spread along the scratch and beyond. The deadly beads crept their way up his arm, following the bone.

She had to eradicate every single tiny trace of that poison. More, throughout the tissue and muscles of his arm, she could see evidence of a blood thinner and anticoagulant. Gunnolf had been prepared to challenge Zev to a fight for pack leader and he’d come ready to murder him. As long as the thinner and anticoagulant saturated his arm, there would never be healing. They could give him blood over and over and it wouldn’t matter.

She moved back into her own body, her eyes meeting her lifemate’s, her expression grave. “Gunnolf planned to murder you, Zev. There are at least three compounds left behind in your system to kill you. Your Lycan blood is trying to regenerate tissue and muscle and your Carpathian blood is trying to remove the intruders, but you won’t be able to do so on your own.”

Fen reached out and took her hand, threading his fingers through hers. “We knew it was bad,” he told her gently. “Nothing has stopped the bleeding. Can you get it out of him? I have some skills as well. Between the two of us, we should be able to clean him up.”

“Vlad can give him blood,” Byron said. “Once you stop the bleeding.”

“I can, too,” Paul volunteered.

“If he gives me blood, would I be considered part of Zacarias’s family?” Zev asked. “That might be safer.”

“I think Gabriel is going to be one who comes in like the avenger,” Byron said. “I’m getting a few rumblings. Razvan, Skyler’s birth father, is on his way with Ivory, his lifemate. They just reached out to me. None of them are happy about any of this. Razvan informed me that there was an assassination attempt on the members of the council.”

Zev swore under his breath. “This is far worse than I thought. This isn’t just happening here then. I was afraid of that. There are council members in a safe location as well. It’s a precaution taken when there is danger to any of them. That way there is stability should any one of them die. There is always a continuity, older members with any necessary new members. Were any of them killed or injured? I sent my best people with them.”

“Fortunately, cool heads prevailed,” Byron informed him. “Razvan wasn’t there when the assassins struck. Apparently, they tried to kill Gabriel and Francesca as they turned away. Zacarias stopped them, and both Mikhail and a senior member of the council persuaded the others to stand down after a brief but apparently ferocious battle. Twelve Lycans were killed, but they appeared to be for the other side, whatever that is.”

Zev swore again. “I need to get there. If a single council member is murdered in the Carpathian Mountains, whoever is behind this has won.” He half sat up as if he might go right then.

Fen held up a restraining hand. “Did you forget the poison? The anticoagulant? Were you planning on taking a body along with you to supply you with blood?”

Zev looked pained, rolling his eyes, shaking his head. “When did he get to be such a comedian, Tatijana?”

Tatijana pinned Fen with a glare, although amusement lurked in her eyes. “I have no idea, but you really are in trouble here. Sober up, wolf men, both of you, we have to get this arm taken care of.” She looked over her shoulder. “Vlad, I’m going to need you. He’s still losing too much blood.”

“Did she just call us wolf men?” Zev asked, one eyebrow shooting up.

“Were lucky it wasn’t wolf boys,” Fen pointed out. “She throws that in upon occasion.”

“Zev, lay back and just relax,” Tatijana advised. “Fen and I are both going to work on you together.” Her eyes met Fen’s. “You go after the poison, and I’ll work on the anticoagulant.”

Fen nodded, knowing she was particularly worried about the wound. There was no keeping anything from Zev. He knew, probably because he’d been wounded a thousand times in battles. He was a wolf with a body that regenerated quickly. If his arm refused to stop bleeding and he felt weaker even after the infusion of blood, he would know.

Fen shed his body, becoming white, healing energy, his spirit traveling quickly into Zev. The blood of both Lycan and Carpathian was present, although the Lycan was still stronger. Probably, had they not given Zev so much blood over the last few battles, he would have gone several years without realizing he was slowly transforming.

He moved through the body, inspecting the bones for any trace of poison. Tatijana had provided a clear image in his mind, but already the tiny blisters were spreading from the arm to the shoulder and along the collarbone. He went to work extracting the poison, slowly driving it out of the body. Some of the venomous dots were so minute, it was difficult to spot them.

He felt Tatijana’s presence, but only the heat of her energy, as she began her own work on separating the anticoagulant from the tissue and muscle surrounding the wound. Someone had worked on the formula to coat Gunnolf’s knives and daggers, probably his sword. Fen should have thought to collect the weapons so they could find out exactly how it was done.

If the faction of Lycans who wanted war were using poisonous weapons, then the Carpathians and any allies had to quickly find a way to counteract the formula used. He pushed more of the beads from Zev’s bone, driving the venom from Zev’s body. There was no trace of silver in the poison that he could find, so he was positive a Lycan had worked out the compound. An enemy would have added that component as well, but a Lycan, even a treacherous one, would not want to get anywhere near silver.