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Swirling mist veiled thelayers of white through the snow-laden trees Pockets of deep snow hid life beneath the cap of ice crystals and along the banks of the strearass rose like statues, frozen in tiave the world a bluish cast The forest, where icicles hung, and the stream, with its water frozen in bizarre shapes, seemed an eerie, alien world
Clear, crisp and cold, the night sky shone bright with stars, and a full, glowing round Silent shadows slipped through the trees and ice-coated bushes, e paws le file, the trail winding in and out through the trees and thick shrubbery
Although they looked in good health, strong with steel ry and needed food to keep the pack alive through the long, brutal winter The alpha suddenly stopped, going very still, sniffing the trail around hi his nose to scent the wind The others halted, wraiths only, silent shadows that i dohile the others sank loaiting
A yard away, a large piece of raw ly back toward the wolf Wary, he circled, using his nose to detect potential danger Scenting nothing but theand his belly e toward the large piece of lifesaving food He went in three tier presented itself He nosed in a fourth ti slipped over his neck
The alpha leapt back and the wire tightened Thethe air fro, his fele as another wire snared her neck, nearly knocking her off her feet
For abreaths of the two trapped wolves A twig snapped The pack whirled and dissolved in a rush of fleeing shadows, back into the thicker cover of the trees The bushes parted and a woman stepped into the open She was dressed in black winter boots, black pants that rode low on her hips and a sleeveless vest of black that left herdown the middle of it The six buckles were shiny, al up and around, embedded in the squared silver pieces
A wealth of blue-black hair spilled beyond her waist, pulled back in a thick woven braid The long hooded coat she wore, le silver-tipped wolf pelt, fell all the way to her ankles She carried a crossbow in one hand, a sword at one hip and a knife at the other Arroere slung in a quiver on her shoulder and all down the inside of the long wolf skin were s various sharp-bladed weapons A low-slung holster adorned with rows of very small, flat, razor-sharp arrowheads housed a pistol on her hip
She paused for athe scene "Be still," she hissed, both annoyance and authority in her soft voice
At her co, bodies tre and heads held low to ease the terrible pressure closing around their throats The wo over the surface rather than sinking into the ice-crusted snow She studied the snares, a ust in her dark eyes
"They have done this before," she scolded "I showed the for an easy ony" Even as she rebuked the wolves, she withdrew a pair of utility cutters fro the wolves She pushed her fingers into their fur and over the cuts deep in their throats, then claht burst under her hand, glowing around and through the wolves' fur
"That shouldinto her tone as she scratched the ears of both wolves
The alpha growled a warning and hisaway from the woman She smiled "I smell him It is impossible not to smell the foul stench of vampire"
She turned her head and looked over her shoulder at the tall, powerful reen fir The trunk gaped open, split nearly in two, blackened and peeled back, the needles on the outstretched li as the tree expelled the venomous creature from its depths Icicles rained down like s from contact with such a foul creature
The wo to the wolves totraps to get sustenance these days, Cristofor Are you so slow and foul that you can no longer lure a human to use as food?"
"Slayer!" The vampire's voice seemed rusty, as if his vocal cords were rarely used "I knew if I brought your pack to me, you would come"
Her eyebrow shot up "A pretty invitation then, Cristofor I re man, still handsome to look upon I left you alone for old times' sake, but I see you crave the sweet release of death Well, old friend, so be it"
"They say you cannot be killed," Cristofor said "The legend that haunts all vampires Our leaders say to leave you alone"
"Your leaders? You have joined theainst the prince and his people? Why seek death when you have a plan to rule every country? The world?" She laughed softly "It seems to me that this is a silly wish, and a lot of work In the old days, we lived simply Those were happy days Do you not recall them?"
Cristofor studied her flawless face "I was told you were pieced together, one strip of flesh at a time, yet your face and body are as you were in the old days"
She shrugged her shoulders, refusing to allow the iony really-when her body refused to die and lay deep in the earth, stripped of flesh and open to the crawling insects abounding in the dirt She kept her face serene, s, but inside she was still, coiled, ready to explode into action
"Why not join us? You have more reason than any other to hate the prince"
"And join the very ones who betrayed and e here it is due" She flexed her fingers inside the skintight, thin gloves "You really should not have touched my wolves, Cristofor You have left me little choice"
"I want your secret Give it to me and I will let you live"
She smiled then, a beautiful smile, her teeth s, sexy curve inviting hiazehim carefully "I had no idea you had become such a fool, Cristo" She called hiether Before When the world was right "I am the slayer of vampires You summoned me with your traps"-she waved a contemptuous hand-"and you think I should be intimidated by you?"
He grinned at her, an evil, ant, Slayer And careless You had no idea the trap was for you and not your precious wolves You have no choice but to give ht"
Ivory shrugged her slender shoulders and the silvery full-length coat rippled, moved as if alive One moone, settling over her skin until six ferocious wolf tattoos adorned her body fro around each arm like sleeves
"So be it," she said softly, her eyes on his
Spinning, she drew her sith one hand, rushing toward hi up and over a snowcapped boulder to launch her body into the air She felt the bite of a hidden snare, and inwardly cursed as the noose closed around her neck Already she was dissolving, but blood spattered across the snow in bright crimson drops
Cristofor laughed and leaned down to scoop up a handful of snow to lick at the droplets, savoring the taste of pure Carpathian blood Not just pure-the slayer was Ivory Malinov, froes possible He followed the arc of blood, saw her for a few feet from him, closer to the tree line, and satisfaction made him cackle
Ivory saluted hi across her neck and put her finger in heroff the blood "Nice score I did not see that co them But Cristo, if you believe your partner back there in the woods is going to help you after slayingof your own"
She ran forward again, her hand low, drawing and throwing the sth so each buried itself deep into his body, in a straight line from belly to neck The va into vapor His head swirled and disappeared Fog drifted in fro around his body, for line fro his heart
Her sword sank deep, her body weight, strength and ht beneath the heart The vampire screa over the sword and splattering across the snow Thethe slayer used protected it, as well as prevented that portion of his body fro She turned her body in a dancer's spin, sword over her head, still stuck inside his chest so that she cut a circular hole around his heart
Ivory withdrew the sword and plunged her hand deep "I showed you rave" She withdrew the heart and flung it away fro
The jagged bolt incinerated the heart and then ju it clean "Find peace, Cristofor," she whispered and hung her head, leaning on her sword, tears shi briefly for her lost boyhood friend
Soremained of the life she'd once known She took a deep breath, drawing in the crisp night before cleaning her sword and all trace of the vaht small arrowheads and slid the out her ar, sliding once more over her body in the forar up her weapons and drawing up the hood At once she see sea
Ivoryfrom her pack They were under attack and her wall of protection eakening She'd thrown the shield up around them hastily when she scented the second predator Had he not been quite so eager for the kill, and stayed doind, he ed to kill her olf pack She couldn't reuse the arrowheads on hihShe had very little ties in the va and allowed her enemy to shift
Weaving through the trees, the slayer stayed low to the ground, taking on the shape of a wolf With her silver-tipped pelt it would be difficult to distinguish her froh the trees toward the second va fireballs at the wolves He had cornered theerous She could see cracks spreading along the thin shield she'd thrown up where the vampire continually battered at it
She took a breath, released it, and let herself find that place deep inside where there was stillness Where there was resolve In hu the crossbow as she went Again, her aiht hi into his lower back, the secondthe fireball at her and Ivory so it fly over her head Then she was up on her feet, still running, always advancing, shooting at him with the crossbow
The vae, the sound cut off abruptly as an arrow slammed deep into his throat Her wolves threw themselves at the wall, frantic to come to her aid, but she knew the vampire would simply destroy them all On the other hand
The slayer shrugged, this ti her thick, silver-tipped wolf pelt away from her The heavy coat landed in the snoidespread, the fur rippling as if alive The hood stretched and elongated, and each sleeve did the sa with life as the body of the coat for from the hood and sleeves Ivory didn't wait for her companions to shift to their nor up on one knee, firing two more coated arrows into the vampire's chest while he was distracted by the six newly formed wolves
The va hot with hatred He tried to shift, but only his legs, belly and head took the shape of ahis heart exposed He realized he was trapped, but was fully aware of the s in his back as theup a spout of snow, gathering the wind to hi an instant blizzard as the snoas drawn into his circle and flung out around him
It was impossible to see the vah the swirl of icy snow, guided by scent to attack, tearing at his legs and ar him down The slayer followed the herself into the frenzied fray One of the wolves yelped, and then screa talons and flung its body at her
Ivory dropped her crossbow and caught the wolf as it sla her backward The blizzard slashed across her face withoutat her exposed skin as she went down, the wolf on top of her She put the alpha's injured body aside as gently as possible and crawled forward fast, covering the snowcapped ground like a snake, picking up the crossbow and loading it as she slithered forward Firing rapidly, she struck hiht in front of hi the knife deep, her hand wrapped around the hilt, following as the blade sliced through bone and sinew in an effort to get to the heart
The va around his et at her heart, striking the double row of buckles Howling, he withdrew his hand, the burn marks evident in the flesh of his knuckles The tiny imprints of crosses woven into the silver and blessed with holy water had burned through his flesh almost to the bone
The va at her throat in spite of the wolves hanging on his ar flesh away as he struggled wildly The alphahim back and away froular
Ivory leapt on hinoring the acid as it poured over her coated gloves and began burning through them quickly The vampire thrashed and ripped at her, but the wolves pinned hi it fro her hand toward the sky
Lightning zigzagged, streaked down and slaround The wolves leapt out of the way and the bolt of cleansing energy ju her arrows Wearily, Ivory bathed her gloves in the light and then sank down into the snow, sitting for ato draw in air when her lungs were burning with need
One of the wolves licked at her wounds in an effort to heal her She ers in the fur of the alpha fe her face in the soft pelt for comfort These wolves, saved from death so many years earlier, more even than she remembered, were her only companions-her family They were her true pack and she owed no loyalty to any other but them
"Co e"
Still trapped behind the shield she'd created to protect the natural wolf pack fronored him as he'd done so many others over the years The natural pack lived and died, the cycle of nature intervening, and he'd learned such petty rivalries didn't touch him He sent the natural alpha a look of pure disdain and crawled to Ivory, lying on his side so she could inspect his wounds She'd healed him countless times over the years, just as his sisters and brothers healed the slayer's wounds, their saliva containing the healing agents