Dragomir was stoic, accepting the pain and the injury as he slammed his fist into the vampire’s chest, using Kaiser’s own momentum to penetrate the armor of the bones and muscle. Blood running into his eyes, he stared straight into the vampire’s as his fingers closed around the heart and he began to extract it.

Behind him, Leon divided his army, sending several after Dragomir. They crept up behind him as he began to withdraw the heart. Kaiser fought hard, raking Dragomir’s chest and leaning forward to bite chunks from his shoulder, trying to reach his neck and the pounding pulse calling to him.

Dragomir suddenly spun, forcing Kaiser around as well, the heart in the ancient’s fist, using his chest as a pivot to bring them both around. The attacking replicas raked talons down Kaiser’s back, tearing through his flesh to bone. The vampire screamed in agony as he was struck from behind, and Dragomir ripped his heart from his body. He tossed the heart into the air and followed it with a spinning, fiery spear.

All replicas and Kaiser leapt into the air to try to get to the heart. Leon waved his hand to send the spear off course, but Afanasiv launched another right behind the first one. Dragomir followed with several more. Some pierced the bodies flying toward the now-dropping heart. One went straight through Kaiser. He was closest to the withered organ, stretching to reach it. The spear penetrated his back, right at his spine, and came out his abdomen, flames engulfing him.

The spear flying behind the first hit the heart dead center. By the time the spear hit the ground, ashes were already falling to the earth. The replicas faded from sight as Kaiser’s body, in flames, dropped to the floor of the cavern.

There was a moment of silence. Leon stepped out from behind the rock where he’d taken refuge again. He smiled at them. “It has been a long time since I saw either of you.”

“If you’re stalling for time, Leon, you can forget it. I brought others with me. They are hunting your pawns right now.” Dragomir was very aware Leon probably already knew that when they hadn’t come to his aid. The master vampire was stalling, but his hope was that dawn would break and leave the ancients helpless. They were old and had too many kills to be able to sustain being out during even early morning hours, at least not without severe repercussions.

Leon shrugged and casually touched the rock. One finger. Two. He tapped as if nervous, but Dragomir wasn’t fooled. He didn’t wait to see what Leon was going to do; he started forward. The cavern trembled. The floor buckled. Dirt ran down the walls, first trickling and then in a steady stream. Overhead, the ceiling creaked and groaned. Dragomir continued his forward momentum as giant fissures appeared in the ceiling.

Scorpions poured out of the rock and swarmed up his legs, viciously stinging with poisonous tails, the strikes penetrating his calves and thighs to inject their venom. Undeterred, he slammed into Leon, his fist hitting the solid wall of the master vampire’s chest. Great chunks of rock rained down on their heads. Around them the mountain shuddered and shook as if a great seismic event was occurring.

Afanasiv groaned under the weight of the ceiling as it fell. He stood in the center of the cave, legs wide apart, knees slightly bent, both arms raised, hands palms up to keep the tons of rock from coming down on top of Dragomir as he fought to extract the heart from the master vampire.

Leon calmly raised both hands, his nails lengthening into sharp daggers. He slammed them into either side of Dragomir’s neck, burying the nails deep, piercing the artery on both sides. Dragomir didn’t waver, not even when Leon slowly pulled the nails loose so the ancient’s blood spurted out. Leon opened his mouth to catch the treasured blood. He gulped as his army of scorpions swarmed up Dragomir’s thighs.

Get it done, Afanasiv snapped.

It wasn’t easy extracting the vampire’s heart. His blood was acid, burning through skin to penetrate bone. It felt as if each individual finger was burned off. Dragomir couldn’t feel the heart, only excruciating pain as he closed his fist around what he perceived to be the organ. He cut off all ability to feel and kept pulling.

Leon was bathing in blood, rubbing his face in Dragomir’s shoulder like a cat might, lapping at the blood as it ran down the neck and shoulder to the chest. He smeared it on his hands and licked his fingers. He didn’t appear to notice that Dragomir’s fist had retracted from his chest. When several scorpions made their way up to Dragomir’s chest and the blood there, Leon waved them away, so they fell off the ancient’s body and retreated back to the base of the rock where they’d crawled from.

Dragomir staggered and went to his knees, the venom and loss of blood taking its toll. Leon caught him and eased him to the ground, almost embracing him, holding him close as he licked and sucked at the blood, a frenzy of need, a euphoric high. Dragomir opened his fist and looked down. The heart pulsed there, black and withered, but alive. It jerked in his palm, ready to spring back to its master. Leon was close, but Dragomir shifted slightly, as if offering his neck and the hideous wound there.

Leon made a sound, a kind of greedy triumph. Dragomir tilted his hand and allowed the heart to drop to the ground and roll a few feet from them. His sight blurred. In the midst of the pain, he was all too aware of the sun climbing into the sky. His skin hurt, began to smoke and then blister. Leon didn’t even notice his own skin was smoking and blisters were forming just from the presence of the sun. It mattered little that they were underground, the presence of the sun still was felt. Soon the paralysis of their kind would strike all of them.

Dragomir sent a spear from above, spinning straight down so that the point penetrated the center of the heart and flames engulfed the organ. Leon lifted his head, clearly shocked. He smiled and petted Dragomir’s head. “You’re dead, too. You know that, don’t you? I’ve killed you.” He was still smiling as the second spear hit him.

Dragomir crawled away from the deadly flames, but he didn’t get far. Weakness hit. His legs felt useless. He rolled over and stared up at the chunks missing from the ceiling. Afanasiv cautiously allowed one hand to drop so he could begin to weave a holding spell.

Above their heads, the rocks began to reconstruct the interior ceiling. Immediately Sandu and Andor floated down into the cavern.

Sandu crouched beside Dragomir, whistling softly. “You’re a mess,” he greeted.

“I know.” There wasn’t much more to say.

Ferro joined them, and it took all of them healing and giving blood, pushing out venom to try to keep Dragomir from succumbing to the vicious wounds. All of them had blisters rising on their skin when they finally gave up working and went to ground for the rest of the day.

Dragomir woke just before sunset. For the first time in his life that he could remember, everything hurt. His body protested the slightest movement. He lay still, absorbing the feel of the soil cocooning him like a warm blanket. He knew he needed the healer. His wounds had been mortal, but he counted himself lucky. Leon, for all his idiocy, was a master vampire and he had endless skills. He hadn’t had a taste of ancient blood in centuries – clearly Vadim hadn’t shared Val’s blood with his lesser underlings. The moment he gulped that first mouthful of ancient blood, his greed overtook all else.

Dragomir knew that was one of the biggest downfalls for master vampires. It wouldn’t work on Vadim because he’d used Valentin for years, caging and feeding off him. That blood had been ancient and Vadim wouldn’t succumb to the high it would cause in others. Still, it was a difficult way to defeat a vampire, allowing them to inflict mortal wounds and try to drain their opponent dry. He used his mind to move the earth above him. At once he felt the coolness of the night air. Sandu, Andor and Ferro had worked hard on Afanasiv and Dragomir while Nicu cleared the cavern and marked out all the best places one could find healing soil. Dragomir was alone in the chamber where Leon had taken refuge.

He moved slightly, his body stiff. His legs were on fire. His neck throbbed. His arm, right up to his bicep where he’d slammed his fist into Leon’s chest, was burned and painful. He was starving. Starving. At that moment, he was grateful he had found his lifemate. No human would have been safe for him to feed from in the state he was in had she not been anchoring him.

Dragomir? I am dreaming, and you are in need. I can’t find you and the healer won’t allow me to wake and go to you.