As the vehicle swept around the curve to the oil field, there were many other vehicles parked. Klim swore out loud, slamming on the brakes. “It’s a trap. First three cars on either side have armed men in them. They’ve parked one across the road, so we can’t move forward. We’re at the back of the parking area.”
“Let me out,” Andros said. “Vasilisa, I’ll take the ones on the right. You go left.”
Before Nikolay could protest, the two royals rolled out of the car, slamming the doors closed behind them. Klim immediately began backing up as fast as possible to the curve. The locks clicked into place, and no matter how much Nikolay commanded the driver to open the doors, he didn’t. He stopped at the bend, engine still running.
Vasilisa crouched low, pulling her weapon as she ran toward the three cars, circling as she did so. She was incredibly fast, so fast that the agents in the car lost sight of her through the bulletproof glass. There was no finding Andros at all. He had disappeared into the night, racing to the right.
Flashes of multiple guns firing came next, pouring out of the vehicles from either side, left and right. There was no hail of bullets in answer from Vasilisa or Andros. Vasilisa had been trained in the art of warfare by her brothers and several of the older Lycans. She wasn’t to ever waste bullets and give her position away. Select a target, make it a kill shot, squeeze the trigger and roll or back away from where she was if she were close. Then repeat. Keep it up until she had every opponentdown. After that, feel the land around her for signs of one holding back, waiting for his chance to target her.
Vasilisa took her time, firing when she had the kill shot and moving instantly. Her enemies were Lycan, and they had the ability to read the ground just as she did. They had to hurry, whereas she didn’t. Lycans in the search party would know two members of the royal family were under attack, and they would come running.
She targeted the lead car first, the one that would be able to get away first and allow the two behind it to do the same. There were three men in it and she hit each one between the eyes. Then she targeted the second car. It also had three men in it. All fired at her and around the ground where she had been when she’d taken the last shot.
One had his foot out the door on the road side in order to better feel where she was. She shot him in the calf and then switched targets to take out one of the two men trying to spray the ground with automatic weapons. Immediately, she rolled down into a small depression she hadn’t realized was there before. It was odd that it was suddenly available to her. Bullets sounded like an angry swarm of bees as they flew over her. She waited until the spray of bullets moved to a different section of ground before she cautiously lifted her head, tilting so her gaze was fixed on the shooters while she was still hidden.
Before she fired at her target, she looked around, marking where she would roll or scoot as soon as she pulled the trigger. This time, the earth had provided several options. On either side were depressions with shorter bushes in front of them. Behind her was something similar. It looked like a ditch with a rock partially blocking the front of it and more bushes on the other side. The earth was definitely helping her out. She took her time, found both targets, took a breath and squeezed the trigger, twice, a quick one-two tap, and then she rolled to her left to find the depression in the soil.
She kept her head down as a barrage of automatic fire was sprayed over the entire area where she had been. She’d taken out the six men in the first two vehicles. She knew all six Lycans. She’d been to theirhomes. Laughed with them over the antics of young Lycans. She had provided care for one of their mothers when she fell and broke her hip and then got a terrible infection. A year later, she’d stayed with him while his mother was dying. It was difficult to believe these men would conspire to kill her entire family.
She recognized the two remaining men in the last vehicle. They were older than the six she’d already killed. They were her father’s age. Her father’s friends. One of them had worked on self-defense training with all of her siblings and with her. He had sat at their dinner table. Both men had. They had served as Andros’ advisers after their parents had been murdered. The betrayal of the two of them hurt nearly as much as her aunt’s had.
I am with you, my lady. These men are corrupt and they seek power. They are part of the reason you have felt the dark whisper of conspiracy for some time. It has overshadowed your ability to help keep the gate closed securely and shut down any portals demons have to cause their mischief in your land. You have no choice, Vasilisa. The land will no longer whisper to these Lycans. It has closed itself off to them.
Vasilisa wiped the sweat from her forehead. Dragonseeker. Her man. He had influenced the land in her favor. Hopefully, he was doing the same with her brother.
The sound of gunfire was loud, drowning out the natural sounds of the night. In the distance, beyond the cars, lights lit up areas here and there. She took a deep breath and let it out.
Have you found the child, Siv? Is she alive?
Mother Earth has indicated she is alive. Each Dragonseeker has taken one of the boreholes or wellbores to inspect. I am going to my third one. I believe I feel her. She feels small and vulnerable. Radiating fear and thirst.
I can do this on my own. Find her for us, Siv. I need you to find her. Please let her be alive.
Vasilisa needed the positivity of the little girl being alive after all the betrayal and deceit. She needed it for Lada and Andros. She needed it for herself. She thought that little girl represented redemption forevery Lycan desperately searching for her. The fact that the conspiracy to murder the royals had spread and no one had known shook everyone. These were people they all knew—were friends with. The idea that any Lycan had kidnapped a little girl and thrown her down a borehole to die of starvation, if she didn’t die on impact or drown in the sludge, was abhorrent to all Lycans.
She’s alive, Vasilisa. She’s here in this borehole. I will go down first to see her condition and bring her out. Finish and get your brother here. She will need someone she knows.
That was the encouragement she needed. She locked on to the targets, thinking of them only as that, and she squeezed the trigger twice. Both men tumbled from the vehicle they were shooting out of. One hung out the window on the driver’s side, his weapon hitting the ground but still in his hand. The other fell backward onto the back seat.
Andros. She is found. She will need you. I’m coming around to take your place so you can go to Alyona. Siv is bringing her out and she will be terrified.
Vasilisa had automatically crawled backward on her belly until she felt that depression behind her. A rock and a bush helped to hide her as she secreted herself there. Now, certain the two men were dead, she crawled farther away from the Lycans she’d killed and began to circle back toward the other side of the road.
My targets are dead. Head for the borehole. Give me the coordinates. I’ll be right behind you.
The relief in her brother’s voice made her want to weep. She gave him the exact location of the borehole and took off running, avoiding the road leading into the area where all the cars were parked. Andros fell in behind her. Once out of sight of the vehicle holding the government agents, they used Lycan speed to get to the location. Klim would bring the agents to the location as soon as they finished examining the dead and then looking over the oil field. He had been told to guard them.
Andros was done taking care of business, even the kind of business that would ensure he looked like a cop doing his best to cover a large territory, not like a member of a royal ruling family. Vasilisa thought it was the same thing, being a cop and doing what they did to protect their people.
Poor baby is so frightened she is trying to fight me, but she is starved, needs water and is covered in oil. I am bringing her up if Andros is there. I keep saying his name, and that is the only reason she will be calm for a moment.
Afanasiv had to appear as human as the Lycans did in front of the government agents. Vasilisa reminded him.We don’t have time to get ropes in there. Dimitri and his brother Fen have brought them to set up. Zev is here as well, and they’re working as fast as they can to make sure it looks as if you climbed down with rope. We have no idea when the government agents will get here, but when they do, everything has to look legitimate.
Vasilisa and her family dealt with humans, such as the government agents, so she knew what it took to make the rescue operation look very legitimate. Afanasiv, by his own admission, avoided being around humans or even Lycans, for that matter. He might not think or even care about being seen and then disappearing.
Soft laughter slid into her mind. He was as overjoyed at finding Alyona alive as she was, and Vasilisa felt the change in him.
Seriously, my lady, I do take care that my differences are not discovered. Have no worries that I will endanger you, your family or the Lycans. Since you guard the gate of the beast, I will presume that we will make our home here.