"There's something here."

Lara put out her palm to feel the energy band. It was low, humming, very much alive. "The energy doesn't feel dark."

Natalya shook her head. "It's Razvan. He left something here. When we were children we used to leave messages for one another right under Xavier's nose." She frowned and paced the length of Razvan's prison, both hands palm out away from her body as if feeling the air.

Lara tried not to be that little girl, worthless and lonely in the cave with only ice spiders for friends. She detested how pathetically jealous she was that Natalya had good memories of her father. She rubbed at the ridges on her wrist.

Nicolas reached over and took her hand, bringing it to his chest. I love you, sivamet.

Her heart fluttered. She wasn't that lonely child anymore, living in terror, feeling worthless and unloved. She looked up at him, at his beautiful face, so masculine and strong. There was love in his eyes, tenderness in the way the pad of his thumb swept back and forth over the palm of her hand. This tall, dangerous man loved her. Loved her. With all her failings, even her aversion to letting anyone take her blood, he loved her, and that was everything.

Nicolas turned up her wrist and brushed his lips over the fading scars. I am very grateful that I found you.

She sent him a quick, teasing smile. Actually, I found you.

Natalya's gasp drew her attention.

"I found it. He left a message behind." Natalya leaned over the ledge of ice, waved her hands gracefully, murmuring low.

That which is hidden from all sight, created between two who shared the fight. Blood of blood, twin and twine, show me now the twining rhyme.

The ice lit up from within and an image wavered, a hologram of a man ravaged by time and torture. He was manacled to the wall, no shirt and his trousers in shreds. Lines cut deep into his face. His hair was in dreadlocks, streaked with gray, but it was his eyes that Lara couldn't look away from-so filled with sorrow and pain.

The hologram began to glow and the man spoke, but his words were garbled, unintelligible, a twin talk devised and scrambled between the brother and sister. Natalya's hands moved, gently weaving another unlocking spell, rearranging the notes of his voice, working to make sense of the message left long ago-and meant only for her eyes and ears. Slowly she began to see the pattern of the language, unraveling it until he made sense.

"Natalya. Beloved sister. I pray you find this message I've hidden at great cost. I dare not let Xavier ever touch you or my Lara.

He's evil beyond all imagining. I no longer have the strength to fight him, although I believe I've put up a worthy battle. He uses my body to produce children he can feed on and, although I have tried, I cannot stop him." He shuddered, pain crossing his face.

"The knowledge that it is me he uses to cause such harm to others, to those I love, is far worse than any physical torment he has ever devised."

Natalya let out a soft cry of distress. Vikirnoff circled her waist with his arm.

"When I could, I helped their mothers escape him and take the children far from him, but I do not even have that ability left to me. I opened my soul in a moment of weakness and he owns it now, commanding me for his foul purpose and, though I am aware on some level, I cannot resist his commands. I think that amuses him so much he wants to keep me alive. Few things amuse him these days."

"Razvan." Natalya whispered her brother's name and turned her tear-streaked face up to Vikirnoff. "Look what Xavier did to him."

There were scars. Horrible scars on his neck and throat, on his arms and chest, his wrists, even his legs. The links of the chains smeared in vampire blood had burned the images into his skin-Carpathian skin that didn't scar.

Natalya drew in a sobbing breath. "He is Dragonseeker. He would never turn. I should have known and believed in him. Instead I tried to kill him."

The hologram continued. "I beg you to find my daughter. She is so like you. Tatijana and Branislava have agreed to help her escape. I've convinced them not to tell me their plans. Xavier still likes to occupy my body and I'm afraid if he does, he'll discover the plan and we won't be able to get her out of here. I dared not let Lara know too much because if Xavier suspected anything, he would torture her until she told him everything."

He hung there, his chains cutting into his flesh, his tangled hair hanging down his back and around his shoulders. He was painfully thin. Even talking tired him out, that and the use of magic as he recorded his message to his sister. He moistened his cracked lips.

"He keeps us all drained of blood and weak. He's using me to find a way to kill the Carpathians. Everything from poisons to parasites. He has to be stopped. Find the prince and tell him, Xavier has to be stopped. But first, find my child. Her mother was not my lifemate, but the mage in me loved her dearly. She was sunshine in a world of madness. Find Lara for us and love her, Natalya. It is the last thing I ask of you."

He looked to his left. His body shuddered and his skin took on a grayish tinge. "He's coming for me and I'll hold on as long as I can until Lara is out of his hands, and then I will find a way to force him to kill me. Natalya, do not ever come back here. And don't look for me. Find Lara and let that be enough." He turned his head and looked straight at them.

Lara could feel his piercing gaze right through to her soul. The mental anguish he suffered was far worse than any physical torture Xavier could conceive. She didn't even realize she was sobbing until Nicolas turned her into his arms and held her close.

"I've hated him for years. I thought of him as a monster," she whispered. "He wanted me to think of him that way so he could protect me."

"He's alive," Natalya said. "He's out there, Xavier's prisoner, and he's alive.""We don't know that," Vikirnoff objected. "There's so much blood here, sivamet, and it is all his. If he survived this, it would be a miracle." He caught her to him. "I know what you're thinking, but he does not want you to try to find him. Either of you." He glanced at Lara before turning his attention back to his lifemate. "Don't you see? You and Lara are the two people he loves most and he's managed to protect you. We have to give him that. It's all he has to hang on to to keep him sane. This man has given up his life, his soul, everything he is or ever was in order to insure you and Lara have a life. You cannot take that away from him."

"I can find him."

"What do you think it would do to him if you fell into Xavier's hands after all of his sacrifices?"

Natalya shook her head, refusing to answer.

Lara knew she would never give her word not to go looking for her brother. Lara wouldn't either, if Nicolas asked it of her. She took a deep breath, let it out and looked cautiously around her. The others, always so confident in their power and skills, weren't as nervous being in Xavier's lair as she was. And they were growing in confidence the longer they went without anything attacking them, but the lack of resistance only made her leerier.

She stayed very still, watching the cave as the others fanned out in an attempt to find more clues. Natalya used her connection with her brother, hoping to find more messages, while Nicolas and Vikirnoff examined the devices shelved in the ice where Razvan was chained to the wall. Obviously the various instruments had been stored where he could see them to build anticipation of torture.

"Xavier is one sadistic han ku tuulmahl elidet," Nicolas commented.

Life-stealer, Lara translated, and thought the phrase more than appropriate. Xavier was definitely a stealer of life. He took from everyone-family, species, everyone he met-and the Carpathian meaning was so much more, not just the words, but the inflection, the darkness behind the words.

Vikirnoff bent down to examine marks gouged into the ice. "What is this, Nicolas?"

Lara followed his gaze as both men crouched beside what appeared to be claw marks running along the ice floor. Her heart jumped. The aunts in the form of dragons? Could it be? The marks were recent. Had they been there? Hope sprang even though she knew it was impossible. Both had been so ill all those years ago.

Nicolas and Vikirnoff stroked fingers along the grooves in an effort to figure out what had made those marks. Heart hammering, she crouched down beside Nicolas.

Nicolas turned his head to look at Lara as her shoulder brushed his. The scent of her enveloped him. Although she'd braided her hair, stray strands curled around her face, making him want to brush them aside just for the pleasure of feeling her satin skin and the silky texture of her hair. He had lived long, battled hard, seen beautiful places and none of it, not one thing, compared to the treasure he had been given. The gift. Lara. He whispered her name in his mind, wanting to take the anxiety from her.

Their eyes met and his heart slammed inside his chest in reaction. His belly knotted at the intensity of his love for her. The emotion seemed to grow each rising, filling him so completely, he barely recognized himself anymore. There was a gentleness in Lara he was drawn to. Maybe because he felt there was little in him. Maybe she brought out the best in him-made him a better man. Whatever it was, he ached inside for her. He thought of her, watched for every expression to chase across her face. He didn't even know exactly when it had happened to him-the growing love and need of her-but he accepted that it was only going to get stronger.

"What?" she asked, a small smile chasing away some of the shadows in her eyes.

He smiled back. "Just looking at you."

She blushed and looked down at the claw marks, running her palm over the area to get a feel for what had made the gouges. At once she felt the taint of darkness. Gasping, she scrambled back. "It's a trap. Don't touch it. Get away from there."

Nicolas caught her hand and pulled her to her feet. Vikirnoff and Natalya turned back to back so they faced outward, looking for an enemy.

Large icicles rained down on them from the ceiling. Others hurled themselves like spears from the walls. The men threw up shields to prevent injury or even death from the heavy, sharp, daggerlike ice formations.

The ice cave rumbled and shook. Water gushed from a crack on the wall above them, pouring down with a roar. The ice splintered and a spiderweb of tiny lines spread from ceiling to floor. Water seeped, began to trickle and then pour from the cracks, widening them into deeper crevasses. The ice quivered and then sloughed off in great chunks, crashing to the floor. The grinding and cracking noises increased, as if the walls were moving closer together.

"This chamber is mutating. We have to get out now," Lara warned.

"They do that?" Nicolas asked, already running toward his right where a long, narrow tunnel looked more hospitable.

"This one does," Lara said and rushed after him with Vikirnoff and Natalya close behind.

As the water filled the chamber and began to leak into the tunnel, Lara turned back and murmured her own safeguard. Let Xavier deal with a solid wall of ice several feet thick in his torture chamber.

Water that runs, shift and grow, rise high now to fill these walls. The water began to form layer after layer, growing quickly into a block of ice as big as a tower.

Satisfied that the water had halted at the entrance to the tunnel and began refreezing, she turned and ran after the others. As she ran, she heard the steady drip of water again, the same monotonous pattern she'd noted earlier. She could actually hear each individual drop plop into a puddle. A shiver went down her spine.

Something isn't right, Nicolas. Xavier's chambers know we're intruders and we're in for a fight. Watch everything, no matter how trivial. That's his specialty-the subtle, creeping up on you before you notice anything.

Out of the narrow tunnel they found themselves in a much larger room, this one intensely beautiful with ice sculptures and prisms and many orbs. Lara halted, her heart pounding. She had been in this room many times. She glanced over at the tall pillars, terrified she would see Xavier standing there with his grotesque mask of a face, his fierce eyes and the twisted smug smirk he always seemed to wear.

Shadows moved and stretched. She gasped and stepped back.

"What is it, Lara?" Natalya asked. "What do you feel?"

Lara shook her head, twisting and turning, spinning in a circle to see everything-everywhere. "Apparitions. Shadows. We shouldn't be here. Through there," she gestured toward another narrow tube, "is his laboratory."

"We need to take a look at it," Vikirnoff said, moving toward it.

"Stop!" Desperation was in her voice. "Don't take another step. Don't breathe hard."

The others looked warily around the room. Water dripped, a steady plop into the puddle forming at the base of the wall beside a wide column. Lara turned toward the sound. Another loud drop hit a second puddle, this one closer to her, right near the tallest pillar. She stared into the water as rings expanded outward toward the edges of the small pool of water.

"Elements. Water. He's all around us. He's everywhere."Nicolas glanced at her, alarmed by her rambling. "Lara!" He said her name sharply to snap her out of it. "He isn't here."

"You don't understand," Lara said. "He's here. He locks himself into things, into elements. He can travel that way. You don't know him."

Nicolas moved cautiously to wrap his arm around her. He was worried about her and it showed on his face. "Lara, monsters always appear larger and much more indestructible when you are a child. He may have been here recently..."

"I smell his tobacco."

Natalya inhaled, shook her head and shrugged. "If he is, Lara, he's hiding from us."

The men were cautious as they made their way across the open floor. Natalya and Lara followed, both watching above and around them. The water dripped monotonously. As they approached the archway leading to the next series of open caverns, they could see just inside the entrance. Water sprayed from the ceiling, the droplets falling into a series of pools. Each pool was a bit lower than the first and each was a different color.

Tiny frogs croaked, the notes mournful. A dark red stain dripped down from the ice and dropped into one of the pools, staining it a deep crimson. Several of the frogs stuck to the side of the wall, long tongues dipping in the blood, licking at it as it ran down.

Although there was no breeze, each pool of water rippled slightly, as if something lived in them. The scent of blood and bodily fluids was heavy in the air.

"This is it," Lara said. "This is what you've been looking for, Nicolas. He mutates them here. He's experimenting with extremophiles and this is where he tests and corrupts them for his own purpose. We've found his laboratory."

Chapter 18.

Standing at the entrance of the laboratory, watching the light spray of icy water come down from the ceiling to feed the pools, Nicolas felt his gut tighten. If Lara was right, and Xavier was experimenting with microbes, then it was the mage who had virtually brought the Carpathian people to near extinction and none of them had ever suspected the extent of his true treachery all those centuries ago. As if sensing his need, Lara slipped her hand into his. He closed his fingers tightly around hers and drew in a deep, shuddering breath.

"Without you, Lara, he might have succeeded."

Vikirnoff looked over their shoulders. "Is that spray natural?"

Steam curled over several of the pools, as if they were somehow warm and the icy spray created a foggy condensation.

Droplets froze on the walls and congealed in the trail of blood.

"It appears so," Lara said, "but you can't trust anything in these chambers to be what it appears."

She held out her hands, palms out. The spray from the ceiling was so fine, it appeared more mist than anything else. "It's ice," she said, "tiny particles of ice."

"There has to be a purpose for it," Natalya added. She also put her palms out to test the "feel" of the spray. "Are you getting anything?"

Lara frowned. "Yes, I feel Xavier's hand in this. There appears to be subtle influence in the mist, but I can't tell what it is yet.

Previous Top NextWhy can't you feel it?"

"I can in the outer chambers, but it was difficult," Natalya said. "But in this room, I wouldn't have even been able to tell you Xavier had been here." She looked around. "And I have to say, this is creepy, like in those spooky old movies where the mad scientist conjures up mutated zombies. These are all vats with extremely disgusting gunk bubbling in them."

Nicolas stepped into the room, waited until the mist touched his face and arms before signaling the others inside. "It's cold, but I expected that."

"The room isn't cold," Lara pointed out. "In fact, that pool over there is steaming. I'll bet it's fed by an underground volcano.

Xavier's tapped into something hot."

"Wouldn't that kill anything he's trying to grow in here?" Natalya asked.

"Extremophiles are called just that because they live in extreme conditions." Lara looked around the room. "And it looks to me as if he's testing every condition. Hot. Cold. Acid. Blood. Salt. Minerals. You name it, he has it in here. This is his breeding program."

"Why all the frogs?" Vikirnoff asked.

Lara approached the little creatures, ignoring Nicolas's restraining hand. Again she placed her hand just inches from them.

"They're male. All of them."

Nicolas's jaw tightened. "This is where it started then. He found a way for the microbe to force male offspring and suppress female."

Lara indicated the first pool. "See those stalks with that gelatinous mass, the tiny black specks wiggling inside? I'm betting those are all male. He's still working at perfecting his methods, I see."

Things can always be improved. The hated voice whispered in her ear and Lara spun around, eyes wide with terror, expecting to see the mage standing behind her with his smug expression and his hate-filled silvery eyes.

She drew in a deep breath and pressed a hand to her thudding heart. He had always said that when he injected something into Razvan's body. The memory poured into her mind, the image vivid and sharp. Razvan fighting, sweating blood, her mother crying while Razvan writhed and convulsed on the ice floor. Bile rose. She was going to be sick.

Nicolas pressed his hand against her stomach, his mind merging with hers. I am here. He cannot harm you, Lara. You are not the little helpless child anymore. He poured strength and love into her mind.

"I'm sorry. I can do this. We have to do this. I want to find my aunts." Lara lifted her chin and managed a faint smile. "Be careful in here. I don't trust anything." Her chest felt heavy and she pressed her hand against it hard as she took another nervous look around. He was there. Maybe not physically, but Xavier permeated the room. His evil nature seemed permanently pressed into the layers of ice.

She took another deep breath to steady herself and forced her body closer to the tanks. One was filled with fluid and when she sniffed it, she drew back horrified. "I think this is amniotic fluid. Where would he get that?" The one beside it was blood. The blood coming from above ran steadily into the pool. Dense clusters of organisms floated in both pools.