Dark Lycan (Carpathian)

He has to believe the prince would never be left in his home. We already found out the safeguards wouldn’t hold up against Abel, Fen said with confidence. He knows the prince isn’t there. He wants everyone to think that’s what he’s doing.

I hope you’re right, Dimitri said. I’ve got this feeling . . .

One person with a feeling was bad, two was far worse. Fen believed in instincts. His gut told him Abel had made his lair somewhere near the lake. He would be sending what was left of his army as a diversion, but he would have another plan altogether.

Tatijana had a feeling as well. We’ll have to be doubly careful. Abel knows that realistically, we’re the only ones standing between him and Mikhail, Fen said. His plans include us. He’ll want to wipe us out first.

He plays chess or at least he’s studied it. Take the King’s Queen, his best defense. In this case, we’re his Queens, Dimitri speculated. He’s left with Bishops, Rooks and Knights.

Fen, in the body of the large owl, flew out of the forest into open air, flying over the meadows and farms. He saw the marsh below and in the distance, the glacier mountain where Bardolf had established a lair. Dimitri, from Bardolf’s position, could see both Mikhail’s home and the lake.

You have to be right. Bardolf was his lookout. He used him for information. Bardolf would have told him if anyone was poking around the lake, Dimitri agreed.

Reeds choked the shoreline of the lake on the west side. The island looked deserted and had little to offer in the way of shelter, but Fen knew better than to take chances. There was a mud bank to the left of the reeds with a suspicious looking slide on it, as if a heavy body had been dragged from the tall grasses growing on shore, down the embankment and shoved into the lake.

The lake seemed placid enough except the few ripples the wind caused. The water was murky, but tinged with blue. It was fed by the glacier and very cold, if Fen remembered correctly.

The island first? Fen suggested. Watch my back. Let’s see what he’s got.

The owl circled the island and then dropped down fast, talons extended, in hunting mode, as if it had spotted a mouse and was homing in for the kill. Several meters from the largest rock, the bird hit an invisible force field and bounced backward. Squawking, feathers floating toward the ground, it flapped its wings hard to get airborne again.

He’s down there all right, Fen said. And that hurt. He used silver against us. He’s managed to make it so thin it’s impossible to see.

We did that at the farm and again at Mikhail’s, Dimitri reminded. He stole the idea from us. So where on that tiny island is he? Where could his lair be?

Fen studied the island from every angle. That might be part of his escape route somehow, although I can’t figure out how.

Or it’s simply a trap or diversion, Dimitri suggested.

Dimitri, what if he’s in the water. Underneath the water. Is that possible? He was so obsessed with the lake and learning to fight beneath the water. Most of the others ignored him, thinking he was a little strange. After all, what vampire would choose the water as a battleground? Fen asked, as he looked at the large beaver lodge built close into the reeds.

Dimitri studied the lake. A beautiful trap. That would appeal to a vampire. He could kill anyone fishing, or bringing their animals close, he would have a wealth of victims to choose from. They would simply disappear beneath the water and no one would ever find them.

Fen indicated the slide. A body could have been dragged along there, but why? He wouldn’t need to do that.

Unless they were alive and he wanted the adrenaline rush when he killed them. He might deliberately torture his victims just for fun, Dimitri added. Certainly that’s a favorite pastime of vampires.

Alright, we’ll have to check it out, Fen said. The minute I hit that silver, if he was close by, he probably knew that was no owl. He’s smart. Forget pretense. Let’s just straight up hunt.

The brothers dropped through the air fast, shifting just before they touched the grass-lined shore. The moment their boots stepped onto a clump of greenery, both felt the ground shift beneath them. Their boots sank just an inch, but it was enough to give the lurking mutated leeches the chance they needed to swarm up their boots to their legs, biting and sucking in a feeding frenzy.

Dimitri swore under his breath in ancient Carpathian. “I really detest these things. Did he have to put giant teeth in them?”

Both men leapt back away from the edge of the lake and the leeches swarming to the top of the muddy holes their boots had made in the grass. They began to peel the creatures off of them, killing them and throwing their bodies into the swarm.