Dark Demon (39 page)

"You do belong," he said. He pressed kisses against the nape of her neck. "You belong with me, thanks to those binding words you disliked so much."

She frowned, snuggling closer. "Don't think I'm giving up on undoing the spell. I'm tenacious."

"It is not exactly a spell." His eyes were heavy and his arms were taking on the leaden feeling of his kind. "But did you figure out the first two lines?"

"Of course." She felt smug; she couldn't help it. She had always had a gift for. languages and she had the advantage of speaking earlier languages before they had evolved into the twentieth century patterns. She was familiar with the way many words were considered unnecessary in the earlier languages. "The first two sentences translate more exactly to something like this: 'you wedded wife-my'. There is no specific word for the word 'are'. The second line comes out something close to: 'to me you belong, wedded wife-my.' I'm not certain of the exact phrasing, but it is far closer than the more modern form."

A slow smile lit his eyes. "Really?" He arched his brows at her.

"Yes, really," she said, undeterred. "I know you think it's funny, but I refuse to be trapped into something whether I want it or not. It's not good for you to think you've got me tied to you. I'm not a passive person and I wouldn't want you to think I am."

His laughter was soft, his breath warm against the nape of her neck. "Passive? You? I cannot imagine anyone, least of all me, making that mistake."

She grinned, closing her eyes. "Razvan said I needed to curb my tongue and that if Shakespeare had met me, Kate wouldn't be the famous shrew, Natalya would."

"He said that, did he?" Vikirnoff was wise enough not to agree aloud. Not when her body nestled so comfortably next to his. "What else did Razvan have to say?"

"He said I needed to learn how to sew, to be more restful and soothing and to censor most of what I say." There was laughter and affection in her voice.

"I cannot imagine."

"I told him I did censor most of what I say. If he could read my mind…" Her voice trailed off, her lashes lifting so she could meet the amusement in his gaze. "Lucky you. You get to know the real me with no censorship."

"Good night, Natalya." He kissed her again and succumbed to the sleep of his kind, feeling very lucky to know the real woman.

Chapter 15

"Razvan! Where are you? I'm so happy. Come to me tonight. Where are you? Why won't you answer me?" Natalya hurried down the cobblestone steps leading to the great garden. They always met in the garden if they'd been separated for the day, but she couldn't find her brother anywhere.

"Why are you so happy?" The voice came from a distance and Natalya spotted her twin seated on the slabs of slate overlooking the fountain. He looked glum, his legs drawn up, his elbows on his knees, chin propped in hand. "Where have you been, Natalya? Do you even realize you deserted me? I didn't know the safeguards and I had to see grandfather."

That brought her up short. They never referred to him as grandfather. Xavier was supposed to be dead. If they talked about him he would punish them, and his punishments were terrible. Xavier. Their Grandfather. They were forced to live with him after their father had disappeared. Natalya frowned. Why couldn't she remember Xavier when she was awake? She knew exactly what he looked like when she conjured up her dreams of her childhood, but not when she was in present time awake. How did that happen? "Don't call him that. We are to call him Uncle. He might hear you."

"Why didn't you give me the safeguards, Natalya? How could you leave me wide open like that?" Razvan stood up slowly, turning as he did so, lifting his shirt. "Look what he did to me."

Natalya halted instantly. "Oh, no! Razvan, why does he take it out on you when I make a mistake? I hate that. I hate that we're so afraid to be together we have to meet like this. Did he take your blood?"

"He always takes my blood. If not mine, then he would take yours. You know that. I don't care if he punishes me; he isn't going to get your blood."

"Why do we stay? Why are we allowing him to dictate to us and keep us small children? I have power. He can't control me. He wants me to believe he can, but he can't. You have the same power in you, Razvan. You've resisted him for years. Together we can break free of him."

"We have different strengths, Natalya. You're good at commanding the elements. You have a quick mind and can figure things out."

"You come up with the ideas in the first place, Razvan. Without you, we would have been dead a long time ago." The words caught at Natalya. She looked down at her hands. They weren't the hands of a child, but those of a grown woman.

Shock spread through her. She looked up at Razvan. "What happened to us?"

The form of the teenage boy shimmered, became translucent and a man's image superimposed itself over the child. "You betrayed me. You chose the hunter, my enemy."

Natalya shook her head, reaching out toward her brother. "I chose happiness, Razvan. That was something our grandfather didn't understand, could never understand. What was the point of longevity? I've watched people die over and over, but they led happy lives while I just lived on and on alone with no one to share anything with. Neither sorrow nor joy." Her arms dropped back to her side, empty.

"We have power beyond imagination."

"No, we don't. I've seen power beyond imagination, but it doesn't matter to me. Those people who are born, live their lives together as a family and die surrounded by family; they know how to live. What do we do? What does he do? He hides from the world with his malevolent schemes, drinking blood to stay alive—for what? Why live so long without happiness? I choose to be happy, to share my life. I will not apologize or feel guilty for that."

"Look at us, Natalya. You took our world and changed it. I'm no longer a boy and I'm fading. Would you really choose him over your brother? Your twin?"

"I will not leave him. Why would you think I'm trading one for the other? You're in my dreams, Razvan. I will never forget you, never." Her heart pounding, she studied the fading image of her twin, the harshness in the face of the man.

"You don't need me. You have him."

Natalya refused to sound as if she were pleading. Or asking permission. "He is alive and I am alive. I cannot sustain my life on dreams of a brother long gone from me. My love for him is different."

Razvan's face twisted with anger. "I forbid this! He is a hunter, hated by our family. Choose another."

"This is a dream, only a silly dream. I choose Vikirnoff. I choose happiness," Natalya said, determined to wake up. She would not allow her dreams to take on the twisted nightmares that sometimes invaded them. Razvan would want her happy. He wouldn't be so angry with her over choosing to be involved in a relationship with someone who made her happy. Whatever occasionally crept into her dreams and corrupted them, she wasn't going to put up with it anymore.

"Wait!" Razvan called frantically. "The safeguards. You didn't give me the safeguards. I can't weave them myself."

Natalya turned back to him, frowning as she murmured the spell to him.

He smiled at her, beloved Razvan, already repeating the words to ensure he didn't forget them. Pain flashed unexpectedly through her head, a terrible pressure that increased without mercy, and then, just as abruptly disappeared, leaving her shaken.

He shook his head. "It isn't right. That's not right. You aren't telling me the truth."

Natalya stared at her brother in sudden shock and dawning horror. "My god, Razvan, it's you. It's been you all along."

She gave a low, tormented cry. Her heartfelt as if he had literally torn it from her chest.

She jolted into full consciousness with the sound of her cry still echoing in her ears. Tears spilled from her eyes and her breath came in great anguished sobs. "This can't be happening. This can't be happening." She pressed the back of her hand against her trembling mouth. Her stomach lurched and she crawled away from Vikirnoff on her hands and knees and was sick in the corner of the cave.

He woke instantly, moving with his preternatural speed, kneeling beside her, hand on her back, his body pressed against hers. "What is it? Tell me what has caused this distress." Only an hour or so had passed, and the lethargy did not have him in its grip.

"A dream." She sank into him, shivering with cold, wanting his arms around her. "Only it wasn't my dream. It hasn't been my dream for a long time only I didn't know. I didn't understand."

Vikirnoff wrapped his arms around her tightly, pulling her into the shelter of his body. He rocked her gently, feeling her pain, a terrible hurt that couldn't be comforted. "Tell me,
ainaak enyém
." His voice was infinitely gentle.

Natalya was grateful he didn't probe into her mind. She felt raw. Betrayed. Ashamed. Was it the legacy of her mage blood? Was it possible her whole family was so tainted? A small sob escaped before she could choke it back. She huddled closer to Vikirnoff while he rocked her, stroking her hair and holding her close to him.

"He's alive."

"Xavier? We knew that."

She shook her head, tightened her fingers around his wrist, needing to hold onto his solid strength while her world shattered around her. "Not Xavier. Razvan. He's alive. He's the Troll King." Her hand crept down to rub her ankle. "And that means he's in league with Xavier and Maxim. He's in league with vampires."

Vikirnoff brushed the top of her hair with a kiss and rubbed his cheek against the back of her head in an effort to soothe her. "How do you know this?"

"Remember when we were in the cave and Maxim attacked me, was able to get into my head so easily? My safeguards were gone. You replaced them, not me. You wove a different thread through my mind, not one I've ever used."

"How does that make him alive?" Pain radiated off of her in waves but all Vikirnoff could do was hold her, feeling utterly helpless in the face of her anguish. All of his centuries of education, all of his vast power could not prepare him for this moment when she needed him the most. He could only hold her to him and feel her terrible grief.

"My dreams have always been of my childhood with him. It was the only time we were together. We separated to be safe from Xavier, but we'd meet in our dreams and share information. We did that for years. After he died, I summoned the dreams and they would repeat and it would comfort me. But somewhere along the line the dreams started changing. I don't even remember when. We would talk about things pertinent now, in this time. I just assumed it was because I was lonely and I wanted to share my thoughts about things so the dreams changed to suit me."

"That's logical, Natalya. Things occurring during the day that prey on our minds often will creep into dreams. At least that's what I've read."

She shook her head, her eyes dark with pain. "It wasn't like that.
He
would ask me questions about experiments just like in the old days, but these were new ones."

"The challenges. You said you were challenged to make things work. I thought Xavier challenged you."

"It was Razvan. Razvan has been using me, for I don't know how long. It's why I can't remember things. Not Xavier. He didn't have my blood." A sob escaped, torn from her throat, the sound piercing Vikirnoff like a knife. "When I was a child, Razvan protected me from Xavier. He took the punishments and he went to the laboratories. He came up with ideas, but I figured out how to do them and gave Razvan the information. It was how we prevented him from receiving Xavier's punishments. Xavier thought Razvan was the one who had the natural abilities. We tricked him for years into thinking that." She wiped at the tears running down her face; the pain was so deep she felt as if her brother had torn out her heart. She pressed her hand there, trying to still the agony.

"And you believe somewhere over the last few years, Xavier managed to recruit Razvan to his side?" Vikirnoff kept his voice strictly neutral. Natalya was so devastated and he was helpless in the face of her suffering. He snapped his teeth together hard, rage building in spite of his effort to be calm. His arms tightened. He wanted to take away all of her pain, protect her from any further hurt, but Natalya was not a woman to wrap in cotton. She would face this in her way. On her own terms.

"He had to have. I don't know how. I don't even know why. Living a long time without happiness sucks. Why would either of them want that?"

His arms tightened, sheltering her even closer to him. "I have no idea. But are you certain, Natalya? Is it possible you really were discussing your everyday thoughts in your dreams?"

"You provided the safeguards and he couldn't reach me. He couldn't track me. That's why the Troll King didn't show up when you were fighting the vampires. It was so strange that he wasn't there." She raked her fingers through her hair in sheer agitation. "That bugged me. He'd been there every other time. He didn't have the advantage of being able to read my mind. He couldn't find me."