Zacarias looked up at the sky and immediately the clouds obeyed, churning black and blowing straight up. Lightning forked throughout a towering cloud. He directed the sizzling bolt into the middle of the pile of dead Lycans.

The flames leapt high, burning the bodies. Rafael left behind a message for the other Lycans. Traitors of the council, murderers of children. Brought to justice.

I’m not leaving you behind and Zev is losing the battle here with his numerous wounds. Get moving.

I’m on my way, Dimitri said placidly.

Fen might be his older brother, but Dimitri was an ancient warrior and had hunted vampires for centuries, mostly on his own. No matter how much he loved his brother, he went his own way and made up his own mind. These Lycans had been killers and they had dared to accost his lifemate. He wasn’t about to let them live. Sooner or later he would have caught up with them. He was grateful they had been ferreted out by Zacarias and his brothers. Who knew what more harm they would have done if they hadn’t been destroyed?

He knew Fen was worried about him, but he refused to acknowledge that Fen had been right all along and his body wasn’t yet up to bringing justice to anyone. He took to the air, heading back toward his brother. Razvan had made a clean getaway with Byron, yet Fen and Zev had refused to leave until Dimitri was safely away. Dimitri was fairly certain Zev was every bit as stubborn as his brother and neither was budging until they knew he was safe.

Rafael and Nicolas fell in behind him. Zacarias led the way. On some level Dimitri realized they were protecting him, flying in a formation that kept his battered body in the center of a triangle.

I’m waiting on you, Fen, he told his brother. If you’re having trouble and need a little help I’ll circle back and save you as usual. Just say the word. I was just giving you a little time to work it out, but seriously, I can’t have you holding everyone up.

Dimitri had to keep the amusement out of his voice, and out of his mind as well. Laughing at Fen was a dangerous proposition.

Very funny. You’re turning into a regular comedian. Have one of the De La Cruz brothers carry your sorry butt.

Dimitri knew he wasn’t going to get away with laughing at his brother, but still, it felt good to be heading home, with Fen close by. He was free, the pain was slowly subsiding and Skyler was his for all eternity.

Moving through the night sky with the wind in his face and the stars glittering overhead had always been relaxing and peaceful. He didn’t look at the battleground beneath him, strewn with wounded Lycans. He’d had enough of blood and death and pain—enough to last another lifetime. He was weary. Exhausted. Done with fighting for a while.

Where are you?

She reached for him immediately with her soothing touch as if she knew his weariness and exhaustion. She’d done so in the past. He remembered once when he’d spent months tracking a master vampire and witnessing the aftermath of the death and destruction the undead left in his wake, he’d been so sickened by the depravity he couldn’t find solace or peace, even in the ground.

She had come to him then as she did now. Skyler. His miracle. She poured into his mind gently, with that slow, almost delicate touch he had grown so familiar with. She filled him, those dark places of death, the cracks that seemed impossible to mend, so many torn places inside of him caused by the numerous kills he’d made and the things he’d seen. Somehow, when she was there, when they merged like this, she managed to wipe it all out. Everything he’d seen and done was gone, replaced by warmth and love.

Safe. I’m following close, he assured her.

Dimitri, something’s wrong. I feel it.

It’s just the distance between us. I’m a little weak. He made the admission to her that he would never make to his brother. She was there with him, in his mind, she would know anyway. It was practically impossible to hide anything from one’s lifemate, and his lifemate was especially sensitive.

It’s not the distance. Something else. Something creeping up on you. It’s close. Dangerous.

He’d put himself on autopilot, basically allowing Zacarias and his brothers to direct his flight, shielding them from any eyes that might see them while he kept his strength for the long way home. He took a quick look around. Fen, in the form of a dragon with Zev on his back, flew just to his left.

The De La Cruz brothers, like him, had chosen the form of birds, moving powerfully through the night sky. They were all on alert, but no one seemed unduly on edge.

He believed her. He had found, over the years, it paid to believe Skyler. He was a Guardian, a mixed blood, and he had special gifts. It was more than time to begin using the special abilities being the Hän ku pesäk kaikak gave him. The danger was in the feeling of superiority that crept in. He was stronger. Faster. His brain could solve problems at a tremendous rate of speed. One had to temper gifts with the inevitable price one paid for them.

His eyesight was especially keen. He took a long, slow look around, at the ground below him, to his right, his left, behind him and up ahead. His hearing was acute. He listened for any sound that might be out of place, a single note that might warn him of danger. His sense of smell was extremely sensitive, the combined wolf and Carpathian coming together to give him tremendous advantages if he just used them.

There was something. The faintest of ripples washed over him, an uneasiness that set in and held on, yet he couldn’t identify the threat.

Fen. Reach out. There’s something here. Something coming after us. Or we’re heading toward it. Skyler feels it as well.

He knew his brother would take him seriously. They had battled together on and off for centuries. As much as Fen liked to pull rank as a big brother, he respected Dimitri’s abilities and would never ignore a warning.

I feel it. But what? So subtle. What could be that subtle that none of us were aware of it? Fen asked.

The answer was clear to Dimitri—to both of them. Sange rau. Whoever has orchestrated this war is using the Sange rau to assassinate those he wants out of his way.

There were Bardolf and Abel. Fen named the two Sange rau they had defeated weeks earlier. The two had been sent to kill Mikhail Dubrinsky. How could he control a mixed blood, a vampire at that. He has to be pretty powerful to do something like that.

If he was Carpathian before he was Sange rau and we warn the others, he would hear, Dimitri pointed out.

Neither Fen nor Dimitri had ever exchanged blood with Zacarias or his brothers. They would have to use the common path—which would allow a Carpathian-born mixed blood to hear.