CHAPTER: 3/?
WORDS: 3453
GENRE: Paranormal Romance
POSTED: January 2011
Feel no sorrow, feel no pain,
Feel no hurt, there's nothing gained…
Only love will remain
She would say
- Jacques Dubrinsky
"There is nothing here to insinuate that Zacarias was here" Mikhail informed his brothers as they checked the second possible Mage sanctuary this rising. This place like the previous was rotting, delved deep into shadows and filled with an abundance of depravity. The only creatures that the six Carpathian males happened upon were two Vampires, one that was easily dispatched with the justice of the Enforcer as Gregori and Mikhail entered the cave, the other had dispersed into molecules of mist as he escaped into the night air, only to be confronted by the four De La Cruz brothers.
"I refuse to give up. Zacarias is never one to simply disappear, there is something more sinister at play here" Manolito responded with. His emotions influenced the weather allowing skeins of lightning to light the blackened roiling clouds. "We aren't giving up Manolito, we just need a new approach" the six males stood together trying to come up with a newer idea when they were joined by Jacques Dubrinsky. "I am believing that we are looking in the wrong places, we are looking for depravity and degradation, what if Xavier is playing on our assumptions and holed up in a small mineral cave, one that is not filled with the stench of evils?"
"Possible, but the underground turrets would buckle and groan under the power of such evil" Rafael commented "There has been talk among Slavica's village that there have been numerous small earth tremors along the Alpine Ridge. She believed it to be one of our own. It is possible that Xavier is playing on our use of Earth and the land to reconstitute a Carpathians movements" Mikhail added thoughtfully. The seven Carpathian males looked to one another, the Alpine Ridge was on the borders of the Forest deep amidst Carpathian territory. Xavier could have been right under their noses and they were too foolish to have known about it. One by one the males launched themselves into the skies and winged the bodies of huge raptors towards their homes, but most importantly to the Alpine Ridge.
Gregori was the first to drop out of the sky and reform his huge body onto the ground, followed closely by Mikhail, Jacques and the four De La Cruz brothers. Subconsciously each male surrounded the Prince with their bodies, allowing no harm to befall him. Mikhail always being shielded by others simply allowed it to pass without rebuke. There were a series of limestone caves before them, old and abandoned, filled with the scents of stale air. Each Carpathian looked on filled with a slight certainty that Xavier could not be in these caves too close to Carpathians.
A spine chilling yell of pain echoed from deep within one of the caves, but subsequently echoed through all of them, until the entire Alpine range was battling for dominance. The males stood and lowered the sound but each recognised the voice with clarity; Zacarias.
Zacarias sat vigil over Adriana's convulsing body. It had been hours since she had regained any form of consciousness and he was starting to worry. Zacarias examined his sudden thought of emotion, something he lived without for the past eighteen hundred years. An occurrence that was brought about by the finding of a lifemate. That had his ominous black eyes cutting deep into Adriana's wolf face. Zacarias suddenly recalled that he had seen her golden eyes, the ice blue veins of the stoneIce and the warm reds of the Firespiders, and wanted to recite the ritual words of binding. Adriana Manilov was his lifemate, and she was dying.
Just that thought had him roaring a yell of agonising pain. Well over a thousand years of hunting and slaying the Vampire, eighteen hundred years without colour or emotion; a bleak barren existence. To be shown colour and emotion in the fleeting moments of his lifemates last breath; no. Zacarias would not allow his lifemate to die, Adriana Manilov had to live, else he would lose his soul in the midst of agony and despair and turn into the very creature he abhorred. Adriana's energy seemed to float about him, touching his skin with fingerless caresses to calm his spirit.
It was then that her eyes, her golden eyes opened only fractionally and looked at him with pain and suffering mirrored within those depths. He watched as her lips parted and moved with a breath of light air
"Shed this pain and bring it light
Hear this agonising plight
Take this form away from pain
And create a anti-toxin for others to gain"
Zacarias watched in amazement as the form of the Lycan dissolved into a fine mist, her soul releasing the wolf as it receded into her body leaving the Carpathian female on the stone ground shivering in weakness. "I haven't the strength anymore to enter my body to heal the damages Xavier brings upon me. I have fashioned a spell to do it instead. It creates an anti-toxin that is stored in my body, one that may defend and protect another should they fall to Xavier's evil traps. I may be the harbinger of death to all races, but I'll be damned if I don't have an anti-toxin to help them if I can. Xavier may be able to create these venomous strains against the Carpathians and Lycans, the Dragonseekers and Jaguar, but what he doesn't realise is that he's also creating the protection of all species, and the death of the High Mage himself" she spoke lightly
"I forbid you to continue to allow him to experiment on you" Zacarias ordered as he gripped her forearms tightly. He grimaced as his fingers easily touched themselves through her thinness and frailty. "Who are you to demand such?" Adriana argued weakly pulling herself away from him "You do not know me, and I know nothing of you. Be thankful that I do not kill you. I owe you a light debt for watching over me as I was creating an anti-venom, you gave me blood which influenced my strength. But you are never to demand anything of me, especially when you are a prisoner as much as I am" Adriana pulled herself free of Zacarias' hold and crawled away on her hands and knees to distance herself. Zacarias followed only to come up short as his bindings held him tethered to the walls. "Come to me" he ordered, Adriana snorted indignantly. "No, I am quite content here, away from you".
"Come here to me, your hunger beats at me, your wounds call to me. I wish to ease your suffering" Zacarias pulled once more at his manacles but they were steadfast and held him tight. "I will not come to you, my hunger is as always insatiable has been for centuries, my wounds are nothing but constant reminders of my frailty. I suffer at the hands of whom I belong to" she answered back "You belong to me!" Zacarias bellowed. Adriana's eyes narrowed to golden slits of roiling anger. "I do not belong to you!" she hissed, her once forgotten powers gathering under her skin brought to the forefront after having ingested ancient blood.
The ground beneath them rumbled and groaned, split in the wall behind Zacarias, caused shingle to drop in the space between them. Gold clashed with unblinking darkness, lips furled with the battle of dominance. At once the door to their cell burst open, a large frame filling the void, power radiating off his body in volumes.
The seven Carpathians made a slow careful approach into the limestone caves, walking towards the epicentre. It seemed to continue forward for miles, never ending, snaking and twisting in turrets that were glazed with stalagmites as it breached into a large circular cave bed, only to branch off into several smaller branches. The entire area groaned and rumbled as a tremor flowed under the ground, causing stalagmites overhead to creak and hiss with the current, then remain as though never touched as the tremor passed "It appears as though we shall be splitting up, I shall accompany Mikhail and Jacques down this turret, I suggest pairs down those two tunnels, keep all communication channels open and be on guard" Gregori ordered as he began to walk ahead of Mikhail and his brother down one of the more brighter tunnels. The four De La Cruz brothers split evenly and approached two other tunnels.
Riordan and Manolito took one as Rafael and Nicolas took another, all vowing that if they should happenstance upon their brother, if turned Vampire they would not allow the Prince, Jacques or Gregori to dispense justice upon him, it was the right of the De La Cruz brothers to take him.
Xavier flowed into the cell that was Adriana and Zacarias' prison, instantly the Dark Mage thrust his magic against the De La Cruz forcing him against the stone wall behind him with an audible crack. Zacarias growled and snarled in defiance of the Dark Mage, flailing his body about in efforts to release himself and pull his lifemate behind him in some semblance of safety. "It appears as though my stringent efforts have been made in vein again you Carpathian, Adriana is much weaker than you and unable to fight against me or use any earth wielding power, whereas you are far more stronger than she. I should have known you would be free of my hold on your mind, body and soul a lot sooner"
Xavier approached the manacled Carpathian, only to catch a word lingering in his mind "lifemate" Xavier turned to Adriana and studied her small beaten body, "her, my Manilov is your lifemate?" Adriana lifted her head at the conversation between Mage and Carpathian. "I am nothing to him, certainly no lifemate" she insisted but the damage of such wordings was already working through the evil mage's brain. Tremors flowed through the cave and lit the cell in a myriad of patterns in various colours, warning the Dark Mage more hunters were in the limestone caves. His eyes narrowed ominously as he studied Zacarias then Adriana.
"Manilov, merge your blood, become the Lycan" Adriana felt the compulsion race through her mind and start the change, the wolf came forefront in her mind, its crimson eyes glaring evilly in the darkness. Her skin itched and raced as the hair follicles rose and covered most of her flesh in a luminous moonlit weaving. "Manilov, there are hunters in our tunnels, destroy them, leave none alive" Zacarias heard her snarl in answer as she turned and fled into the darkness. "No, Adriana don't they'll kill you" he called out after her but heard nothing of her return nor heedance of his warning. "I am planning on it. After all without your tethering of a lifemate you risk becoming vampire, and with other Carpathians so close, you could be the ultimate weapon against them"
Xavier hauled his body higher and tighter against the chains, lifting him almost off the ground. Zacarias hissed at the pressure on his shoulder blades, as the muscles burned in aggression. Xavier smiled in sick satisfaction as he left the small cell, only to return with various weapons and viles of small liquid profanities. "you will turn, and have nothing to comfort your emptiness as your brethren kill your lifemate" Xavier took a sharpened stake and thrust it into Zacarias' flesh repeatedly, enjoying the pain he inflicted upon the newly emotional Carpathian.
Rafael and Nicolas edged deeper and deeper into the cave, finding nothing but old corpses and littered bones of small animals and humans. They growled at the sight of what once appeared to be a wolf, its bones crushed, its fur rotting off the carcass "these caves are certainly being habited by something" Nicolas murmured as he listened to the ground as it spoke in hushed whispers. It buckled and roiled as footsteps were echoing as objects were lurching themselves closer.
Manolito and Riordan had just returned to the main antechamber of the tunnels, having reached a dead end in the tunnel they took. The air suddenly became alive with the feel of oppression, of magic and evil pressing against their bodies. If Xavier was in these tunnels, he knew there were hunters in the area, in the turrets, it would only be a matter of time before he sent something against them.
Gregori, Mikhail and Jacques continued until they happened across a split in the tunnel. This one branched into a tunnel shrouded by shadows and one which was lit by the light of candles glow. Movement was heard in the tunnel with the dim light, that the three hunters took that to be the location of Xavier. They allowed their bodies to dissolve and form a light mist, before streaming into the dimly lit tunnel. They streamed further and further until they were thrown into shadow 'a shadow trap, Xavier knows we are here, turn around and return the way we came' Gregori commanded, only they were forced from their states as mist and returned to their bodies in a vaulting sensation that screamed in their blood.
A deep guttural snarl echoed off the walls in the darkness "Mikhail get behind me, we are not alone in here" Gregori stood still calling power known to him to light the shadows and banish them. When the shadows were banished the three Carpathians stood face to face with a raging Lycan, whose eyes were feral red and talons that promised death. Gregori shuffled himself closer to Mikhail and eyed the Lycan who had yet to move.
Xavier sliced into Zacarias with a small knife laced with one of the poisons that was experimented on Adriana, she had writhed and cried out for days in sheer agony after this was placed into her bloodstream, but the Carpathian before him had yet to whimper, if anything to go by, his resolve was cracking as the bloodied sweat on his brow only grew more intense by the minute. "Cry out, yell, bellow, howl, whatever you do, but know that as you give over to the pain, the pain my Manilov has been forced through for the last eight hundred years, you are giving her the permission to attack your brethren in the tunnels" Xavier took another sharp implement and thrust it deep into his chest, it was all Zacarias could take as he yelled out in a wave of sheer anguish.
Rafael and Nicolas were suddenly against a hoard of ghouls, their flesh torn and rotting from their bodies, hands bent and twisted into claw-like appendages. They leapt and salivated towards the two Carpathians, intending to drink their lifeblood. The brothers banded together in a dance long forgotten by childhood and fought against them, ripping heads cleanly from bodies, shredding torsos into mangled bits and calling fire to hand to burn the puppets into oblivion.
Manolito and Riordan heard the snarls and yells echoing from the tunnel in which Mikhail, Jacques, and Gregori took, as well as grunts and the unmistakeable sounds of ghouls from the one in which their brothers took. The ground shifted beneath their feet, the stalagmites danced on the ceiling before crashing down in a dangerous killing frenzy, showering the two brothers in sparks of limestone laced with Vampire Blood.
"Lycan, we are no threat to you, if this is your den we will leave" Gregori attempted to converse with it, a male yelled filled with torture consumed the small tunnel, and with it the three Carpathians watched as the Lycan snarled, crouched into a spring and attacked with a fury unleashed from the depths of hell. Gregori met the Lycan head on, his hands clamping around the furled clawed fists of the Lycan in full attack. It snarled and snapped in his face, its saliva running across his forearms. Gregori pushed against it, forcing it away from the Prince and his brother. As he fought against the Lycan he felt it growing stronger, its huge hands beginning to crush his fingers and bones, felt as the talons dug deep into his flesh. Gregori snarled in the Lycans face and pushed harder against it "Back off, we intend you no harm".
Mikhail and Jacques inched passed Gregori and the Lycan 'you play with the Wolf, we'll find Zacarias' Jacques sent along the common path to the Enforcer following the sounds of male torture that sounded all too like Zacarias De La Cruz. At the end of a long tunnel covered in long vines that housed odd flowers that seemed to live and breathe was an open cell door, the scent of blood was in the toxic atmosphere "Have you had enough Carpathian?" the two exchanged a glance, that was the voice of the Master Mage, Xavier. And that would mean Zacarias was indeed getting tortured in the cell. Jacques took a candid step towards the cell, but the vines sprang to live, opening the flower heads to show fang filled petals that were stained crimson with old blood. 'how do you wish to take this one brother?' Jacques asked Mikhail as they both looked on at the long trek towards the cell 'remember when we were fledglings, we were experts at duck and dive' Mikhail countered 'I have your back' Jacques nodded at his elder 'As I have yours' Mikhail took a run into the long vine covered tunnel with Jacques hot on his heels.
Gregori sensed the danger Mikhail and Jacques put themselves through and inwardly growled in agitation 'I swear if one of you so much as gets a scratch I will not heal you out of spite' he sent to both the Dubrinsky's 'quit playing with your wolf and join us then' Jacques sent back as he dodged another flesh eating vine. "will you back off!" Gregori snarled at the Lycan throwing himself into the standoff against the raging beast, the Lycan howled and threw its huge head downwards mouth open, canines dripping as it met with Gregori's shoulder. It clasped its huge mouth over his shoulder and bit down, hard, refusing to rescind its grip. The Healer also known as the Enforcer snarled in rage and threw himself into the beast with enough force to knock it off kilter and release him.
"Now you've pissed me off!" Gregori snarled as he launched himself into a full attack. He grabbed hold of the Lycan and twisted wrists and forearms against the bone effectively snapping them. The Lycan howled in pain as the hot heat of broken bones raced through her body. In her mind Zacarias snarled in aggression and attempted to take control of her mind and cease the Carpathian against her, but could find no stronghold on her mind. Blood dripping from her canines the Lycan hissed at the Carpathian before her and launched herself skyward to land atop him. Only Gregori dissolved into mist before she had chance, only to appear behind her and drive his fist through her chest.
Mikhail and Jacques dodged and ducked effectively from the flesh eating plants that exhaled toxins that made their lungs burn. They stood at the door to the cell, looking at the once powerful Carpathian hunter, covered with gashes, deep furrows and holes, his blood coating the stone ground below him. Xavier turned in his amazement "Mikhail, you are too late, you brought about your own destruction" with a maniacal laugh the Dark Mage erupted into a plume of smoke and was gone from sight. Zacarias was chained, his hands above his head his breathing laboured, his chest heaving.
Mikhail took a step to approach, but stopped suddenly as two glowing red eyes stared back at him, a lip lifted in a snarl. 'Get back he is Vampire!' Jacques warned along the path to all connected.