Dark Hope – Dark Carpathians Read Online Christine Feehan

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Dark, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Magic, Paranormal, Vampires Tags Authors:
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Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
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This kind of vampire was what he feared he would become. He knew if he didn’t kill Emil immediately, chances were he would slay Benedek and his brethren and get loose in the world. Benedek had the element of surprise going for him, and he was just that little too close to being the beast that Emil was. He had a certain ferocious attitude when he went into battle. There was no stopping the almost euphoric feeling rushing through his veins when he went head-to-head with an evil opponent.

Blood spurted from his neck and shoulder as Emil tore strips of skin and muscle from him, as the teeth sawed through flesh and bone. Benedek remained stoic, ruthlessly extracting the heart as Emil twisted and turned in an effort to dislodge his opponent’s body.

Emil changed tactics, slamming both palms hard into the ground’s surface. They’d fallen just off the path of stones that might have protected the earth from Emil’s assault. The ground shook with such force that wide cracks opened. It was only the carefully woven safeguards that prevented Visser and Bakker from falling into an ever-widening abyss.

Everywhere, clones of Castello desperately tried to get to the slayer, their one purpose. They had been created with that end in mind—locating their target and eliminating her. Nothing else mattered, not even the kaleidoscope of colors shimmering through the sky, raining down dragon fire.

Benedek and Emil crashed through the ashes of several of the clones, both wincing as dragon fire swept the yard. The heaving ground aided Emil, allowing him to roll, changing the weight of his body so that when he rotated over Benedek he became equivalent to a steamroller, smashing Benedek beneath him. Benedek was forced to release the heart, changing his body composition to flat and soft so Emil didn’t crush him.

That enraged the beast, and he rolled back and forth, turning the ground beneath Benedek into a mudhole. Benedek sank, burrowed under the soil to come up to the left of the porch, the side the vampire most likely would take to avoid the dragons spewing fire in every direction. It was imperative that he keep Emil from escaping.

As he emerged, the vampire once more ran into his extended fist. Emil shrieked his hatred, slashing at Benedek’s throat along the line where it had once been cut.

“Someone gave me a blueprint to follow,” Emil taunted as his talon, sharpened to the point of a razor blade, followed that white scar around Benedek’s neck.

The blade snapped off as Benedek stepped closer, giving himself leverage to dig closer to the heart. Black acid bit through flesh. He cut off all feeling, refusing to acknowledge pain as he tried to extract the vampire’s heart.

The withered organ wouldn’t budge. Instead, great jaws clamped down around his wrist, serrated teeth sawing through flesh. He had no choice but to change the composition of his arm or he would lose it. The vampire continued to tear at his neck, throat and chest in an effort to get away. Blood ran like twin rivers. Bright crimson red and oily black sludge.

He stumbled back and instantly the vampire raced away.

Chapter

17

Silke couldn’t continue looking at Benedek and what was happening to him. He was covered in blood, in a life-or-death struggle with the vampire. From the direction of the forest, a dragon streaked across the sky, breathing a steady stream of fire at the vampire. He was extremely precise, or Benedek was protected, because not a flame touched him. The vampire screamed in rage and pain, wrenching himself away from Benedek and taking to the sky.

Ainaakfél. It was more a soft call on the wind. Awaken. Evil comes to your territory. I may have need of you. He cannot get away.

Even as Benedek called to an unknown entity, he leapt into the air, shifting into a dragon as if he’d done it a million times. Maybe he had. Silke didn’t know.

The ground trembled as if far off there was a quake. She heard a boom, again in the distance but in Benedek’s mind. Something large awakened. Something ancient. Ainaakfél meant “old friend” in Carpathian. Benedek had reached out to something or someone who was of ancient descent.

What she did know, through her link to Benedek, was that it would take several hunters to bring the mix of beast and vampire down. He was powerful. He had centuries of battles and had acquired vast knowledge and skills, just as the other ancients had. This was what Benedek feared he would become should something happen to her—or if she rejected him. He was already close to the more, to the beast. She’d felt that rush he got from the battle. The absolute joy. He was so close.

The ground shook again, and the hollow boom sounded as if someone tried to speak in a deep cavern and the sound reverberated. Benedek didn’t seem to be upset by the strange far-off sounds. He whipped around in the sky, looking in the direction the vampire had taken.


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