Christine Feehan

The night was black, much darker than normal, the moon and stars blotted out by the ominous swirling clouds gathering overhead. Threads of shiny black obsidian spun and whirled in a kind of fury, yet the wind was still. Small animals huddled in their dens, beneath rocks and fallen logs scenting the mood of the land.

Mists floated eerily out of the forest, clinging to the tree trunks so that they seemed to rise up out the fog. Long wide bands of shimmering white. Swirling prisms of glittering opaque colors. The mist gathered, curling droplets of vapor within moving like comets. Gliding across the sky, weaving in and out of the overhead canopy, a large owl circled the great stone house built into the high cliffs. A second owl, then a third appeared, silently making lazy circles above the branches and rambling house. A lone wolf, quite large with a shaggy black coat and glittering eyes, loped out of the trees into the clearing. A dark shadow shimmered for a moment, nearly transparent, solidifying slowly into a man.

Out of the darkness, on the balcony of the rock house, a second figure glided forward, looking out into the night. He opened his arms wide in a welcoming gesture. At once the wind began to move, a soft, gentle breeze. Insects took up their nightly chorus. Branches swayed and danced. The mist thickened and began shimmering, forming many figures in the eerie night. The owls settled, one on the ground, two on the balcony railing, shape-shifting as they did, the feathers melting into skin, wings expanding into arms. The wolf was contorting as it leapt onto the porch, shifting easily on the run so that a man landed, solid and whole.

"Welcome," the voice was beautiful, melodious, a sorcerer's weapon. Vladimir Dubrinsky, Prince of the Carpathian people watched in sorrow as his loyal kindred materialized from the mist, from the raptors and wolves, into strong, handsome warriors. Fighters everyone. Loyal men. True. Selfless. These were his volunteers. These were the men he was sending to their death. He was sentencing each of them to centuries of unbearable loneliness, of unrelenting bleakness. They would live out their long lives until each moment was beyond endurance. They would be far from home, far from their kin, far from the soothing healing soil of their homeland. They would know no hope, have nothing but their honor to aid them in the coming centuries.

His heart was so heavy, Vladimir thought it would break in two. A warmth seeped into the cold of his body and he felt her stirring in his mind. Sarantha. His lifemate. Of course she would share this moment, his darkest hour, as he sent these young men to their horrendous fate.

They gathered around him, silent, their faces serious, good faces, handsome, sensual, strong. The unblinking, steady eyes of confident men, men who were tried and true, men who had seen hundreds of battles. So many of his best. The wrenching in Vladimir's body was physical, a fierce burning in his heart and soul. Deep. Pitiless. These men deserved so much more than the ugly life he was giving them. He took a breath, let it out slowly. He had the great and terrible gift of precognition. He saw the desperate plight of his people. He had no real choice and could only trust in God to be merciful where he could not afford to be.

"I thank all of you. You have not been commanded but you have come voluntarily, the guardians of our people. Each of you has made the choice to give up your chance at life to ensure our people are safe, that other species in the world are safe. You humble me with your generosity and I am honored to call you my brethren, my kin."

There was complete silence, the Prince's sorrow weighing like a stone in his heart and, sharing his mind, the warriors caught a glimpse of the enormity of his pain. The wind moved gently through the crowd, ruffled hair with the touch of a father's hand, gently, lovingly brushed a shoulder, an arm.

His voice, when it came again, was achingly beautiful. "I have seen the fall of our people. Our women grow fewer. We do not know why female children are not born to our couples, but fewer are conceived, carried to term and even fewer live. It is becoming much more difficult to keep our children alive, male or female. The scarcity of our women has grown to crisis point. Our males are turning vampire and the evil is spreading across the land faster than our hunters can keep up. Before, in lands far from us, the lycanthroscope and the Jaguar race were strong enough to keep these monsters under control, but their numbers have dwindled and they cannot stem the tide. Our world is changing and we must meet the new problems head on." He stopped, once again looking over their faces. Loyalty and honor ran deep in their blood. He knew each of them by name, knew each of their strengths and weaknesses. They should have been the future of his species, but he was sending them to walk a solitary path of unrelenting hardship.

"All of you must know these things I am about to tell you. Each of you weigh your decision one last time before you are assigned a land to guard. Where you are going there are none of our women. Your lives will consist of hunting and destroying the vampire in the lands where I send you. There will be none of your countrymen to aid you, to be companions other than those I send in groups or pairs. There will be no healing Carpathian soil to offer comfort when you are wounded in your battles. Each kill will bring you closer to the edge of the worst of all fates. The demon within will rage and fight you for control. You will be obliged to hang on as long as you are able and then, before it is too late, before the demon finds and claims you, you must terminate your life. Plagues and hardships will sweep these lands, wars are inevitable and I have seen my own death and the death of our women and children. The death of mortals and immortals alike."

That brought the first stirring among the men, a protest unspoken, but rather of the mind, a collective objection that swept through their minds linked together as they were. Vladimir held up his hand. "I do not know the time or place, but there will be much sorrow before our time is finished and those coming after us will be without hope, without the knowledge, even, of what our world has been and what a lifemate is to us. Theirs will be a much more difficult existence. We can only do what we can to ensure mortals and immortals alike are as safe as possible." His eyes moved over their faces, settled on two who looked alike.

Lucian and Gabriel. Twins. Children of his own second in command. Already they were working tirelessly to ensure all that was evil was destroyed from their world. "I knew that you would volunteer. The danger to our homeland and our people is as great as to that of the outside world. I must ask that you stay here where the fight will be brother and against brother and friend against friend. Without you to guard our people, we will fall. You must stay here, in these lands, and guard our soil until such time as you perceive you are needed elsewhere."

Neither twin attempted to argue with the Prince. His word was law, and it was a measure of his people's respect and love, that they obeyed him without question. Lucian and Gabriel exchanged one long look. If they spoke on their private mental path, they didn't share their thoughts with any other. They simply nodded their heads in unison, in agreement of their Prince's decision.

The Prince turned, his black eyes piercing, probing, searching the hearts and minds of his warriors. "In the jungles and forests of far off lands the great Jaguar have begun to decline. It is their way of life. As with all things, if you do not work to preserve your species, you are soon extinct. The Jaguar are a powerful people with many gifts, great psychic talents, but they are solitary creatures. The men find and mate with the women and leave them and the young to fend for themselves. The Jaguar men are secretive and refuse to come out of the jungles and mingle with humans. They prefer the superstitious to revere them as deities. The women have naturally turned to those who would love them and care for them, see them as the treasures they are. They have, for some time, been mating with human men and living as humans. The blood is diluted and fewer and fewer exist in their true form. Within a hundred years, perhaps, two hundred, this race will cease to exist. They lose their women through lack of knowing what is precious and important. We have lost ours through nature itself." The black eyes moved over a tall, handsome warrior, one whose father had fought beside him for centuries, whose father had died at the hands of a master vampire.

The warrior was tall and straight with wide shoulders and flowing black hair. A true and relentless hunter, one of so many he would be sentencing to an ugly existence this night. This fighter was proven many times over in battle, was loyal and unswerving in his duties. He would be one of the few sent out alone, while the others he was sending to larger countries would be in groups or pairs to aid one another. Vlad sighed heavily and forced himself to give the orders. He leaned respectfully toward the warrior he was addressing, but spoke loud enough for all to hear.

"You will go to this land and rid the world of the monsters our males have chosen to become. You must avoid all confrontation with the Jaguar. Their species, as ours must, will either find a way to join the world, or become extinct as so many others before us. You will not engage them in battle. Leave them to their own devices. Avoid the werewolf as best you can. They are, like us, struggling to stay alive in a changing world. I give you my blessing, the love and thanks of our people and may God go with you into the night, into your new land. You must embrace this land, make it your own, make it your home. After I have gone, my son will take my place. He will be young and inexperienced and he will find it difficult to rule our people in troubled times. I will not tell him of those I have sent out into the world as guardians. He cannot be weak and rely on those much older than he will be. He must have complete faith in his ability to guide our people on his own. Remember who you are and what you are. Guardian of our people. You stand, the last line of defense to keep innocent blood from being spilled."

Vladimir looked directly into the gaze of the young warrior. Do you take this task of your own free will? You must decide and none may think the less of any who wishes to remain as the war here will also be long and difficult."

The warrior's eyes were steady on the Prince. Slowly he nodded acceptance of his fate. In that moment his life was changed for all time. He would live in a foreign land without the hope of love or family. Without emotion or color, without light to spare him the unrelenting darkness. He would never know his lifemate and he would spend his entire existence hunting and destroying the undead.