Lara couldn't talk, but she sent Natalya a warning using the common Carpathian path her aunts had taught her.Watch out, it's nasty. Don't let it sting you .
Already the egg was rocking, darkening in color, the microbe sending waves of hatred and despair out into the chamber. A mixture of the foul stench of decomposing flesh and rotten eggs assailed Lara, deepening the feeling of being back in the ice cave. In spite of the heat rising from the chambers beneath them, she shivered with cold, and icy fingers of fear traveled down her spine.
The smoke and incense quickly absorbed the negative energies. Natalya, mindful of the lashing stinger, rushed the new host from the cavern. She called for an electrical storm so that for a moment the night sky lit up as she called down the lightning to incinerate the microbe held within the egg.
Lara rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. Gentle hands touched her face and body as the women searched for injuries. She didn't have the energy left to tell them it wasn't her body that needed to be healed, but her mind. She pried open her eyes and watched as Francesca examined Raven.
Did we get it? Is the baby all right? She didn't have the energy to speak aloud.
Natalya strode back in, going straight to Lara, taking her hand.
Raven closed her eyes and touched her son's mind. Her hands fluttered over her stomach, rubbing gently. «He's at peace. Finally, he's at peace and I feel different. I don't think my body's trying to reject him.»
Francesca immediately sent herself outside her own body, to go seeking in Raven's. A smile of joy lit her face. «This is a miracle. Shea, her blood pressure is fine, there are no more contractions, she isn't bleeding, and her body isn't treating the baby as a foreign invader and trying to dispose of it.»
Lara closed her eyes, pressing both hands to her pounding head. She wanted to weep and laugh at the same time. She was happy she'd been able to find the microbe, but now childhood memories beat at her, images of blood and torture and screaming men and women. More than that was the feeling of utter hopelessness, a seed planted from long ago that she could barely rise above. Her self esteem plummeted, the insidious thread of dark magic preying on her mind.
She didn't want Raven to know what the journey had cost her, but she felt sick to her stomach. Too many doors had opened along the way, and remembering wasn't a good thing. There had been a reason her aunts built a barrier to protect her and the shield seemed to be in shreds. She needed to be alone, far from everyone else where she could pull her fractured mind back together. The problem was-she was
too weak to rise.
Around her, voices rose in excitement. Shea and Francesca whispered in consult, their body language animated. Raven's child was safe and the culprit had been found. The other women rejoiced and Raven wept with happiness.
«What about my daughters?» Savannah's quivering voice quieted the room. «Do I have one of those things in me attacking the girls? Is that why I'm having contractions and bleeding?»
Gregori! I need you. Her cry was heartfelt, a mother's instinctive need to protect her children.
Lara stilled, her heart beginning to hammer inside her chest. She knew what was coming, but she couldn't . There was no possible way with her mind so fragmented that she could go back and face her childhood a second time. Without conscious thought, instinctively her traumatized mind reached out to Nicolas.
Nicolas. Hurry. I fear I'm lost.
«Lara?» Raven asked. «Does Savannah have a parasite in her body attacking the girls?»
For a moment she was paralyzed, her mind frozen, refusing to process information. She was still that child in the cave with Xavier standing over her telling her she was worthless and had killed her own mother.
«Get it out of me! Get it away from the babies,» Savannah cried. «Get it out of me now.»
She could hear herself screaming silently, deep down where no one could hear.
I hear. I am with you. Nicolas's voice was quiet and gentle, but carried absolute confidence.Hang on, han ku kuulua sivamet, I am almost there .
He was coming and he had called her «keeper of my heart.» Lara tried to cling to that, shivering with cold, aware of little around her but the whispers of her past.
Natalya dropped on her knees beside Lara. «You need blood.» She used her teeth to open her wrist, extending her hand toward Lara.
Lara's horrified gaze fastened on the elongated teeth, then touched on the red droplets welling up. The thin crimson trickle turned her stomach. Crablike, Lara scrambled backward away from Natalya, feeling trapped.
All eyes seemed on her and for a moment the expressions seemed greedy and disdainful. Her wrist burned and ached. She rubbed her fingers over the scars, looking toward the chamber entrance, judging the distance to make her escape.
Worthless, pathetic creature. You killed your mother. It is no wonder your father wants you dead. I should let him drink you dry.
Wide shoulders filled the doorway and silver eyes glittered and raked over her face. The scream echoed through her mind, built and built until it was a giant tsunami, bursting out of her, growing and expanding as energy exploded outward.
Nicolas threw Gregori aside and took the brunt of the assault, the powerful energy waves slamming him backward and down. Both he and Gregori shifted into mist as they moved. The force of the blow shook the chamber. Several sconces exploded, showering the cavern with wax and flame. Gregori materialized, his body blocking Savannah and Raven from falling debris.
Lara pulled herself into a standing position and staggered toward Nicolas, remorse adding to her feelings of humiliation and self loathing. He was there instantly, sweeping her up into his arms and glaring at the women. She buried her face against his chest, clinging, wanting to disappear. She felt fractured, fragile, raw and exposed.
«I trusted you with her.» Fury burned through Nicolas, his strong body vibrating with power as rage took hold. He knew Lara's emotions were cutting into his self control, but it mattered little. She had come here already in a fragile state and instead of being bolstered by the women, they had torn her to shreds. He wanted to annihilate them. To maintain control, he stepped back toward the entrance.
Gregori spread his arms wide in a gesture of challenge and there was real anger breaking through the usual cold-stone demeanor. «Take your woman and go. Mage-born, daughter of Razvan, great-granddaughter of Xavier, what do we really know of her? It is bad enough that she endangered our prince with her lack of control, but she has placed every woman in this room in danger.»
Nicolas dragged in his breath, the rage in the pit of his stomach coming to a boil. «You dare to imply that she is a spy in our camp?»
Power shimmered throughout the cavern and the walls undulated. The ground beneath them rolled.
«Stop!» Raven cried out.
«Gregori, you don't understand,» Francesca intervened.
«What is going on?» Mikhail appeared, standing squarely between the two Carpathian males. «You are in a sacred place.»
«She's done a great service, Gregori,» Francesca said. «She found and brought to the surface the parasite threatening Raven with miscarriage. We thought the baby lost to us. She's exhausted and needs blood.»
It was more than that. Merged as he was with Lara, Nicolas felt the press of Xavier's torment. He whirled around with Lara in his arms and took two steps, but Savannah cried out, pushing past everyone to block the entrance to the chamber.
«She can't leave. She can't.» Tears swam in her eyes. «I'm sorry for what Gregori said, but shehas to get this thing out of me. It's trying to kill my children.»