Dark Slayer

Razvan stared into the vampire's hideous face, the stretched skin over the skull, the pitiless eyes, the jagged teeth stained with the fresh blood of the child. Sergey's lips peeled back in something between a snarl and a smirk. He bent his head and bit down savagely on Razvan's shoulder, the rows of teeth meeting through the muscle, ripping through sinew and bone, tearing at the flesh and devouring great gulps of precious blood. His hand clawed deep through the heavy muscled chest, burrowing relentlessly toward Razvan's heart

Razvan turned his head calmly to look at the boy as if he wasn't being eaten alive by the monstrous demon tearing at his flesh. «Take your sister and go to the silver wolf pack. They will take you to the next village. Ask for a man named Mikhail. He will heal your sister and protect both of you. Run, do not look back.»

His voice never changed, never trembled or showed pain. His hand, inside Sergey's chest seeking the blackened heart, was met with razor-sharp intestines, twisting and pulling around his fist, biting deep into the skin, acid blood pouring over him like molten-hot lava, but he was every bit as relentless as Sergey, refusing to back away.

«I do not mind dying, han ku vie elidet-thief of life. What of you? Are you prepared for your final justice?»

The undead did not respond, and instead continued to rip and tear great chunks of flesh from Razvan's shoulder and neck. Ivory burst into the room, firing the crossbow, the first coated arrow hitting Sergey in his eye. She fired as she ran, hitting his throat as his head arched back. The third went into the open mouth, lodging in the throat. Sergey screamed, his voice so high-pitched the glass in the windows exploded. He jerked backward, taking Razvan with him, one arm shifting until it took on the shape of the beak of a hungry raptor.

As the beak clamped down around Razvan's arm, viciously slicing through flesh and bone, cutting it completely in two, the vampire hissed at him. «I will cut you in pieces and feed them to the wolves, and then I will devour those children.»

Razvan staggered back. Blood sprayed across the room. Sergey gripped the stump of Razvan's forearm and yanked, drawing the fist from his chest and dropping it on the floor, kicking it away in disgust. The vampire jerked at the arrow in this throat and hurled it toward Razvan with tremendous force.

Razvan moved with blurring speed, his one hand shooting out to catch the metal shaft in midair, reverse it and slam it down hard on the top of the vampire's foot, driving the arrow through the top all the way to the floor.

We have to slow him down. He will go after the children just for spite.

«Get away from him!» Ivory warned.

«Too late,» Sergey snarled.

Even as Ivory leapt to cross the distance between them, Sergey whirled, a long sword in his hand. He sliced across Razvan's shoulder and down his chest, carving more pieces. Razvan staggered and went down. Sergey slammed the blade toward his ankle. She met blade with blade, the force going up her arm and through her body as sparks flew and the sound rang in her ear. Razvan was eerily silent, but his hand gripped a knife of his own as he waited an opportunity to aid her.

Sergey laughed, the sound cruelly malicious. «I will chop him up, piece by piece, as they did you, and I will feed them to your own wolf pack. I might let you live, sister dear, just to see you weep for the loss of your lifemate. You must learn who is strong and who is weak. You are on the wrong side. Join me. Let us cut him up together and I might spare you.»

Ivory's heart pounded. Her body jerked in response to the sight of her lifemate's body in pieces. There was a hole in his chest and his arm was in two pieces, slices through his shoulder and chest and one leg, his blood a terrible fountain, pouring over the floor.

Ivory knew that the vampire was the vilest of all creatures. The one before her no longer even resembled her brother, although he tried to keep up the illusion with the hope that it would cause her pain and make her hesitate, throwing off her aim. He had deliberately chosen to tear at a child's flesh and to hack Razvan into pieces, bringing forth some of their worst nightmarish memories to make the battle all the more difficult. She gripped her sword harder and stepped between her lifemate and the undead who had once been a beloved brother.

«Kill me, then. But I am taking you with me.»

CHAPTER 9

The vampire jerked the remaining arrows from his body and tossed them contemptuously onto the floor. «So be it,» Sergey said and thrust his sword straight toward her stomach.

Ivory parried, jumping to the side. Too late she realized the vampire had deliberately driven her away from Razvan. She lunged back, but Sergey struck again, slicing through Razvan's leg a second time, the cut deep enough to go through bone. Her blade raced toward the vampire's skull, but he dissolved and materialized across the room.