Dimitri rose slowly, this time allowing the sense of the Guardian to emerge. The instant he did he became aware of everything there in the dark. Souls crying out. Those without souls crouched in the dark waiting for an unsuspecting traveler who knew them. The bitter cold coming from deep below, rising to infuse everything in its path with ice.

Yet above him and just to his left, there was a pocket of warmth between two branches, almost as if something had been caught there, or had clung there. He moved fast, surrounding that warmth with his light, holding it captive, recognizing the feel and strength of her unconditional love for him.

Päläfertiilam. Lifemate. Hän ku vigyáz sívamet és sielamet—keeper of my heart and soul. Give yourself into my keeping. Let me hold you close while Josef brings you fully into my world. To do this, you must have absolute trust in me. I will need to possess your body.

She was too far gone. She would never be able to take Josef’s blood even with his aid. He wasn’t even certain if the conversion could be done. Possession was forbidden, a tool of the mage world or the vampire, but he could see no other way.

Skyler could not respond. He couldn’t even see a faint flickering light, but her warmth increased to the point of true heat. He took that as a yes. He divided his spirit, a dangerous move when his own body was burning from the inside out. Nothing mattered to him but saving his lifemate.

He came back into his body disoriented and shaking. A part of him had remained in the nether world. “Paul, she is a daughter of the earth. We can’t heal these wounds in time, but Mother Earth may do so. Get the richest soil and press it into each of the bullet holes. Josef, take her blood, enough for an exchange.”

“But . . .” Josef and Paul exchanged a look of disbelief.

“Just do it. Then give her your blood.”

Dimitri didn’t wait for them to agree with his plan. He took possession of Skyler’s lifeless body. The fit was strange and wrong. Her eyes snapped open and she looked at Josef.

Josef fell back away from Skyler. He recognized those ice-cold blue eyes, and they weren’t Skyler’s. If he did as Dimitri asked, would she rise a puppet? The undead? He shook his head at the idea. There was no darkness in Skyler, not even with her powerful mage blood. He knew her.

He leaned down and sank his teeth into her neck, taking in the powerful combination of her lineage. He had taken her blood many times before when he was caught out away from others and needed to feed, but she was different now. More potent. There was even a different taste to her. He didn’t know if he was feeding from Skyler or Dimitri or a combination of both.

When he was certain he had taken enough for an exchange, he tore at his own wrist and pressed the laceration to Skyler’s mouth. Her movements were jerky, stiff even, as if she had little control over her own body. Her tongue tentatively swiped over the wound and then she began to drink, a small movement, barely there, increasing in strength.

Shocked, Josef gave her as much blood as he dared, not understanding what Dimitri was doing. He knew healers could retrieve spirits that hadn’t gone too far into the other world, but he’d never seen this done. Conversion was hard on a body. One species didn’t easily allow another to take over. But possession? Such an abomination was forbidden. One did not take over the body of another.

At this stage, Skyler was still human. Pressing dirt, no matter how rich, into her wounds couldn’t possibly heal her. Still, Paul did as Dimitri instructed and so did Josef. What else could they do?

Around them, the Lycans had gone wild, desperate to get through the transparent shield Skyler had erected. They tore at it with bare claws. They bit at it, fired bullets into it, and even hacked at it with swords. The shield held. Lycans climbed the trees surrounding the clearing and the strongest of them made large leaps in an effort to get over the shield. Most dropped to the ground, but two landed above their heads, slamming their bodies hard into the transparent ceiling. More dug at the ground in a feverish, frenzied effort to tunnel beneath the shield to gain entry.

Razvan sent Gabriel and Lucian one silent look, turned on his heel and abruptly left the doorway, striding away, the set of his shoulders the only thing that gave away his absolute rage. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that he intended to go find those who had murdered his daughter.

Ivory stepped inside the door and walked straight up to the Lycans, fearless. Her back was covered with tattoos of wolves. The wolves stared at the Lycans with lifelike eyes as she moved through their ranks. No one said a word. No one moved, not even when she emerged from the pack of Lycans to go up to Rolf and look him in the eye.

“He does not lie,” she announced. “It appears as if none of the members of the high council were aware of this betrayal, but I cannot tell if all of those who guard them were unaware of this treachery. There is the smell of conspiracy here. Which ones are guilty, I cannot say.”

Ivory stepped back from Rolf. “You do not know me, but I am wolf as well, not in the sense of blood, but I have had my own pack for centuries. I can tell you, someone wants a war between Carpathian and Lycan. I do not know who would benefit from such a war, but there are those of your kind working against you.”

Rolf frowned at her. “I hear the ring of truth in your voice, but there has been no hint of such a treachery. It would be difficult to hide from us.”

Ivory gestured around the room. “Whoever is behind this now has the perfect weapon available to them. These warriors will go to get their children. None will stand down. None will stop. They will hunt every Lycan who took part in the killing of their children. No one will be safe. No one. You and Mikhail must find a way to stop this.”

Abruptly she turned and walked out, following her lifemate.

“Rolf.” One of the guards, a man by the name of Lowell, pushed forward. “We should get all of you out of here, before this escalates.”

Another guard, Varg, nodded in agreement. “We have no confirmation that any of this is true. This could be their conspiracy to kill all of us and throw the Lycan world into chaos.”

Several guards pulled swords so that the light struck the silver, making it gleam as if in eagerness. More than one began to shift from their human form to Lycan, half wolf, half man.

Two of the elite hunters Mikhail recognized moved into position to defend Rolf. Daciana and Makoce, two of Zev’s elite pack, exchanged uneasy glances. They were aware, more than the others, of the danger all the Lycans were in. There would be a bloodbath here, if the tension continued to escalate between the two species.