Dark Lycan by Christine Feehan Page A

other three as they tried to close in on him.
    He reached Tatijana, pulling one werewolf off her, spinning him around and staking him through his heart so hard he nearly drove the silver dagger all the way through the man. Tatijana punched the second werewolf hard in his throat as he drove teeth, dripping with saliva, at her face. She used the enormous force of the Carpathian hunter, staggering the werewolf. As he stumbled back, she dissolved into mist and tried to take to the sky.
    Droplets of blood mingling with the mist led another werewolf straight to her. He leapt high and hooked claws into her dissolving ankle, yanking her down to the ground. Fen caught the movement out of the corner of his eye as two others tried tackling him. He felt the burn of teeth snapping down, the bite pressure, an enormous tearing at his calf and thigh. He ripped both wolves off of him, knocking their heads together with tremendous force, just needing a few seconds to get to Tatijana.
    Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Zev, in the form of a huge Lycan, half man, half wolf, whirling in the midst of several werewolves, his body torn and bloody, but he moved with grace and precision, ducking attacks, coming up under one of the werewolves to plunge a silver stake in his heart and whirling away again.
    Fen caught the werewolf who had his claws in Tatijana’s ankle, snapping his neck and yanking Tatijana back up to her feet in one smooth motion.
    Go, he hissed. Take to the air.
    A werewolf landed on Fen’s back, sinking teeth into the nape of his neck. Tatijana put on a burst of speed, darting into the skies, shifting as she did so, taking the shape of a blue dragon. Fen shifted into the shape of a Lycan, using the strength and muscular form to throw off the werewolf ripping at his body.
    The second wave of the pack rushed in. Fen spun around toward the new threat, saw them engulfing Dimitri and Zev, who were back to back. He moved fast, using the double speed of the Carpathian/Lycan blood flowing in his veins. He plunged a silver spike deep into one werewolf’s heart and rushed past just as an enormous werewolf came out of the mist.
    Instantly, Fen knew. This was no ordinary werewolf. This was the vampire masking his presence in the midst of a rogue pack, no, not just a vampire, this was far more. “Zev, Dimitri,” he shouted the warning. “Behind you. Sange rau. ”
    He was already leaping across the werewolves, trying to get to his brother before the newcomer did. His burst of speed put him directly in the vampire’s path. Eyes glowed red, settling on him. The wolf/vampire charged him. They came together with terrible force, shaking the ground around them. The impact was so hard, Fen felt his very bones rattle. He felt as if a freight train had hit him, but if he felt that way, he knew his adversary did as well. He punched through the chest wall, his last silver stake in his fist, driving for the heart. To kill a Sange rau was far more difficult than killing either a Lycan or a vampire. He’d had a lot of experience on what didn’t work.
    Around him, the battle waged, Zev and Dimitri fighting off the werewolves, while up above them, the dragon came in low, breathing fire on the wolves she could without harming Fen, Dimitri or Zev.
    “I see you,” the Sange rau hissed, his voice low. “I know you.”
    Fen knew him, too. He’d been in a pack for a few months a century or so ago and this Lycan had been the pack alpha. His name was Bardolf and he’d been particularly mean, ruling his pack with an iron hand. He’d disappeared on a hunt, and when they’d tracked him, there had been a bloody battle between him and what Fen had been certain had been the undead. Neither were anywhere to be found, nor were there bodies. Now, Fen knew what had happened. The Lycan had torn into the vampire, gulping his blood, and he’d consumed enough to transform himself.
    “I see you, too,” Fen said, ducking under the wolf/vampire’s reaching