Author's Note: Hey guys, sorry this chapter is a bit late. I was sick all of last week so I wrote most of this the day I felt better. I hope you like it! (subliminal messaging Review, Review, Review!)

7

Aingeal gazed wide eyed at the landscape around her. The gray shadows of the land danced like the arms of flames, beckoning her into their grasp. For the first time, she gave in, allowing her curiosity for the land to pull her in. Death had always held a morbid fascination for her, but she had resisted its pull until now. After setting eyes upon her goal, she was unsure she could leave it behind.

Her ties to Skyler were like spider webs trying to hold back a hurricane. However, a much stronger connection pulled at her, drawing her from the borderland of life and death farther down En Puwe. She allowed this thread to guide her, recognizing the feel of Dominic it carried. Somewhere near the roots of the tree he lay, waiting to pass fully into the next life.

Here in death, Aingeal’s memories returned to her, granting her the knowledge of en puwe she had lost. She stopped in her tracks as she realized she would have to face the greedy keeper of the souls alone. It was foolhardy to have entered alone, without the aid of the Greater Healing Chant. Now she must stand before a monster whom an entire group of chanters could barely defeat.

She shivered but slowly resumed her travel, instinctually understanding the folly of standing solitary in one place for too great a time. Very nearly distracted by her returning memories, Aingeal worked furiously to invent some plan that would allow her to pull Dominic from death’s clutches. Surely, there had been those who traveled here without the help of a tribe of people to strengthen them. Memories of Maris staggered her for a moment.

A shadow flickered in the ever-growing thicket of trees lining her path, and she snapped her eyes to the movement. Others were here in the forest, their ghostly threads of life cut short and waving, now, in the winds of death. One such banner caught her attention, pulling her to the left side of the path. She was unsure why she must follow this one thread, only too recognizable as her father’s. The only explanation she could think of was that she was stunned to find Maxim Malinov, the most evil man she had ever known, dead.

“Perhaps, in death, he has found the missing piece of his soul…”

Aingeal’s foot was but a scant inch away from crossing the divide between the forest and the road when a hand clasped her shoulder. “Death changes only the living, young one.”

Aingeal spun around warily to fall into a protective crouch in the face of the stranger. The woman held her hands up in a peaceful manner, her eyes kind and framed by long and waving black hair. Fear once more triggered the natural knowledge lying dormant in Aingeal. Suddenly, the land appeared in color, the woman’s tapestry of life bursting into view before Aingeal’s keen eyes.

“Sarantha Dubrinsky.”

The woman nodded, though it had not been a question. “This pathway appears very rarely. Do you have some sort of dominion here in death?”

“Yes,” Aingeal replied, not questioning the source of this knowledge.

“You look like her.”

“Who? And what were you saying about death changing the living?”

Sarantha’s answer to the first question was only a smile. “Death is unchanging and so are the dead. That rule is not often broken; your father will not have accepted his guilt as of yet.”

Worried surprise flitted across Aingeal’s features. “He can though. If I help him, he could accept his blame and move on to the afterlife. That’s what you’re talking about happening, right?”

Aingeal had straightened from her defensive position at this point, and Sarantha took her hands worriedly. “It is not your burden to bear. It is the responsibility of your mother and father to look after their souls. You will have enough to clean up back in your realm due to them; do not add more in this one.”

Aingeal struggled to remove her hands from Sarantha’s grip as the woman looked on with the patience of one long dead. As the teen thrashed, her life force left her body to flow into Sarantha. Aingeal fell to her knees in weakness.

“Child, do you see what could happen in the hands of your father, one who would not hesitate to steal away your life?” Sarantha picked the girl up to cradle her in her arms as she carried her along the path. “We, in death, have powers you do not yet know how to fight. Neither of us can afford for you to tarry long enough to learn them. I will take you to the border of true death, and then I will return to you your essence.”

Aingeal felt chilled and insubstantial in Sarantha’s arms. She did not struggle, however, as she had learned the lesson the woman had had no time to teach in a kinder way. Her father would not have stopped before she had succumbed to death.

They found the boundaries quickly, where the forest gave way to desert. Warmth flooded back into Aingeal as Sarantha placed her on her feet. In a whisper, Aingeal thanked her.

Sarantha gave her a rather sad smile. “Death offers us unlimited knowledge; sometimes we forget that it is best to leave some questions unanswered. Still, I wish you luck on your journey.”

Without another word, Sarantha once more disappeared into the forest. Aingeal turned her back to the way she had come in order to survey the landscape before her. There was but a single tree marring the blank canvas before her. So, she headed towards it, mentally calculating how she might be able to barter with the demon holding Dominic’s soul. Beneath the tree, the great and fiery monster lounged, carefully drawing in Dominic’s connection to life, the thread that passed through Aingeal and up the tree of life. Dominic’s form was opaque, for now, but growing stronger with every pull of the demon.

“Mamaehut,” Aingeal called, a strange new power filling her voice as it uncovered the creature’s true name. “Why do you insist on taking this one into death when I desire him in life?”

The being’s reaction startled her, but she gave no response as he bowed. “Majesty, I am only performing my humble task. If you command it, I will release his soul unto you.”

“I do command it.”

Mamaehut cast his eyes upwards as though she had said something not quite what he expected. He straightened slightly from his obsequious stance and did not drop his eyes from her face again. His tone was less formal when he addressed her again.

“What use do you have of him exactly, majesty.” The last word was said with sarcasm.

The power fled from Aingeal’s voice as she responded. “Please, he called out to me and I found him grievously wounded. He still lives, and so, I must return the missing part of his soul.”

Mamaehut dropped all pretenses of servility and strode towards Aingeal, gripping the thread that ran from Dominic through her in his hand. He gave a cruel tug at the line and laughed as Aingeal stumbled forward a step. The knowledge of her inability to fight this monster was swept aside in a corresponding flare of rage. She walked to stand scant inches from him.

“Are you sure you would get us both?” She saw doubt in his eyes as he remembered how he had mistaken her for his master. Perhaps there was some connection he was missing. “Do you often gamble with your food source?”

Aingeal was forced to sidestep as Mamaehut swiped at her with a powerful, clawed hand. “Would you rather me take this one soul and leave you be or haunt your meals for the rest of time?”

Mamaehut readied himself to lunge at the girl but was stopped by the voice of his true master. “Mamaehut, leave now before the girl makes a promise in death that she cannot keep.”

The demon disappeared instantly upon this command, leaving Aingeal to stare up into the tree for its giver. There, in the branches, lounged a woman who appeared to Aingeal to have an uncanny resemblance to her mother.

“You were dangerously close to making a pact in death, child.” She dropped from the canopy of the tree to stand before Aingeal. “Make sure, in the future, it is one you have some intention of keeping.”

Aingeal replied as calmly as possible, not wishing to provoke the woman before her. “I have every thought of making good my threat if I do not get what I want.”

The woman’s eyes fell for a moment to the thread running from Dominic to Aingeal before returning to Aingeal’s eyes. She quirked a smile. “Perhaps you do. After all, you hold some resemblance to me. Perhaps it does not run only surface deep, as with your mother.”

The woman saw the lack of understanding etched on her descendants face. “Come now; in death no one may hamper your memories, and you have had many visions of my sisters and myself.”

Aingeal looked the woman in the eye, for the first time truly studying her features. “Lachesis?”

The woman grimaced. “Yes, the Greeks called me that.” Her smile returned. “They never were able to pronounce my real name. I suppose that’s lost with history as well.”

“As well as what?”

“As well as everything else, of course,” replied Lachesis. She continued without giving note to the odd expression on Aingeal’s face. “I believe you had some intention of bartering for the return of his soul. What did you have in mind to trade?”

Aingeal replied without hesitation. “Whatever it takes.”

“That’s a dangerous proposition as well. Death will not be so kind if you continue to give it these opportunities…” She trailed off in thought.

“There’s naught that you can give that I don’t already have, but taking something dear for you to give serves just as well. You are mortal yet?”

“Yes,” responded Aingeal, completely unaware of where this was going yet very knowledgeable of the fact that each moment Dominic was beginning to look more substantial.

Lachesis snapped around from where she had paced during her thinking to stare at Aingeal. “It is time, then.”

This baffled Aingeal, and her tone revealed it. “Time for what?”

Lachesis became exasperated with her incomprehension. “You will trade me time. In return, you may have him.” She pointed her impossibly sharp fingernail in Dominic’s direction.

Aingeal stood, her eyes captured by Dominic’s face. “How much time?”

“As long as it takes.”

“Are you always so vague? Because I have other promises to keep as well.” Aingeal thought of Skyler.

Lachesis laughed and blocked Aingeal’s unwavering view of Dominic. “I am Fate; of course I’m always this vague. You’re lucky I’m giving you a choice in the matter. So, decide. What is most important to you?”

Aingeal stared into the woman’s cold blue eyes a long moment. Finally, Lachesis seemed to find something there hidden even to Aingeal. She went from perfect stillness to motion in a second.

Lachesis crouched over the man only half in death to whisper in his ear, unheard by Aingeal. “Consider this your wedding present.”

Dominic disappeared, leaving Aingeal alone with her very great grandmother.

---

The tension in the room broke as Dominic came coughing back into life. He kept perfectly still as a searing heat filled his body, erasing his wounds.

Cool, earth-covered fingers pressed into the pulse on his wrist. “Dominic, are you back with us?”

He opened his mouth to reply but was stopped by his unresponsive vocal cords. He nodded his head in affirmation instead. Opening his eyes, he noted the worn look on Syndil’s face as she rubbed her temples.

“You frightened us. When we found you…” She stopped as her hands removed the dirt from his skin, revealing unmarked flesh. “I don’t understand. You almost died and there’s not a single mark.” She gently wiped the rest of the dirt from his torso as if searching for where he had hidden the damage.

Dominic searched her face in a similar manner, having expected to find Aingeal upon awakening instead of this vaguely familiar woman. There was no question, however, that she was not his lifemate. He forced his uncooperative body to move, to search for his other half.

Syndil tried to restrain the man in case he was not as recovered as he seemed, but Dominic would have none of it. He sat up, his sore body fighting him just as much as the woman. In defeat, Syndil stopped trying to push him back into the healing earth in case she should injure him herself.

Dominic did not pause to clothe himself as he spotted the only portions of Aingeal’s body not covered with soil, her face and her right hand. He looked questioningly at Syndil who was rather studiously ignoring him. He immediately realized the source of her discomfort and donned some garments. With that accomplished, Syndil turned and noticed Dominic’s questioning gaze. He gestured pointedly to Aingeal’s hand.

“There was a chain linking the two of you when she entered death. It disappeared only seconds before you awoke.”

Dominic stared worriedly down at Aingeal’s face, stroking her metallic silver hair and wondering to himself why she had not also awoken. He committed every nuance of her visage to his memory, having never seen her face before. Never again would he lose her. Syndil looked on, shocked by the display. It seemed that another of the males had found his mate.

“I need to examine you,” Syndil broke the silence; Dominic did not look up from Aingeal’s face. “She did this to save you. Allow me to assist her in the only away I am able, by seeing to your welfare.”

This caught Dominic’s attention. He reluctantly went to lay in his former position beside Aingeal in the earth. With Barack’s help, Syndil was able to shed her physical form and enter Dominic’s body as nothing more than a healing light. She checked twice, yet every one of his wounds, including the one Shea had been forced to make, was healed. Even the parasites seemed to be holding at manageable numbers now, instead of reproducing in overwhelming multitudes.

Syndil stopped gawking at the evidence long enough to find her own body again. “Your wounds are healed. The only marks left are the scars on your shoulder and thighs.”

Dominic nodded distractedly.

Syndil’s eyes flashed to the young woman lying still in the earth before returning to Dominic’s brooding gaze. “Perhaps you should rest now. I or Jacques will alert you should she awaken.”

Dominic shook his head almost imperceptibly, enough to convey his meaning. Syndil sighed, rising to her feet and blowing out the candles in hopes that he would follow her advice if he were left alone and in the dark.

He waited until the woman left to return to Aingeal. Lovingly, he removed her from the ground to hold her close to him, his clothes the only barrier between them. He wanted to crush her so close she could never get away from him, but he refrained. They both needed her to come to him on her own.

He lay back in the yielding dirt with her, his face buried in her moonbeam soft hair. Aingeal was a miracle to him, shining bright against both the darkness of the chamber and his soul. Testing the limits of his control, he stroked the small of her back, the skin as smooth and glowing as the petals of a white rose. He breathed her scent, that of lavender and earth, deep into his lungs.

Laying there, with his soul wrapped safely in his arms, he contemplated his plight. His people were in danger. As a sworn hunter, he was obligated to protect them from any threat. Yet, the danger to be eliminated was the key to his continued existence as anything other than the undead. In that moment, he knew he would protect her at all costs. Dominic would not abandon his people but, for the first time in his life, he was going to be selfish.

He began to form a plan. As long as the vampires believed him to be among their number, Dominic could infiltrate their ranks. A new rage filled him. He was going to decimate them from the inside out for threatening his lifemate and his race. To do so, however, he would have to leave Aingeal in the safe keeping of the Prince, allowing her to further spread the vampires’ disease.

Dominic growled low in his throat, unable to see a way to best his enemies without making unacceptable compromises. He would simply have to trust the healers’ abilities to find a cure after he removed the vampiric threat. He could not risk compromising Aingeal’s safety by revealing the knowledge of her purpose to the other Carpathians. When he completed his task, he would be able to protect Aingeal himself. For now, he grudgingly turned to the healing sleep of his kind.

The vampires will face a new beast, when I awaken. The dragon inside of Dominic roared with triumph as he succumbed to the need for rest, Aingeal safely beside him.

---

Aingeal shuddered, her hot face pressed against the cool floor of the home Lachesis had taken her to. Her forebear had forced upon her visions of the distant past and future, pushing her powers ever farther. In this latest attempt, Aingeal had seen the first stone of the ancient pyramids rolled into place. Lachesis was still not appeased.

“How much more of this will it take before you stop viewing others’ fates and start influencing them?” The woman asked almost idly.

Aingeal sat up, shaking and pale, to stare across the white marble room at her grandmother. “Why don’t you just TEACH me what you want me to know, and stop TORTURING ME!” A vase shattered as Aingeal’s appearance darkened.

Lachesis looked down at her with disgust. “Perhaps you are too much your father’s child and I’m wasting my time.”

“Fine.” Aingeal rose unsteadily to her feet. “We’ve both kept to our bargain. If you believe you have no more use for me, send me away!”

Lachesis cocked her head to the side. “No. You can leave at any time, under your own power. And if you cannot,” she held her hands as if washing them of guilt, “you are of use to no one and may stay here until death truly claims you.”

Aingeal crumpled in pain as Lachesis bombarded her with yet another vision. This one was familiar, a hint of what was to come if the vampires had their way.

Aingeal did not bother with checking the other houses; she knew what she would find. Instead, she went directly to Gabriel’s house, to Skyler and the scene she knew awaited her. Aingeal once more jumped over the broken body of Gary Jansen, desperately trying to make it to her friend’s room in time. In time to do what, she did not know.

She appeared at the same moment as before, however, watching as the blonde woman dropped Skyler, lifeless, to the bed. An unheard scream broke free from Aingeal’s lips, only to be stifled as the woman turned as before…

For the first time, Aingeal wrenched herself from the vision to seek another. Many tendrils of fate attempted to wrap her in their embrace, but she fought loose. Today, she had a purpose: following a single, distinct path. She found the vision she sought with surprising rapidity.

A woman lay contorted upon the floor, her pain reverberating through the chamber of the cave she was trapped in. Her tormentor stepped forward from the shadows to force his bleeding wrist to her mouth. She gulped weakly as the thick fluid flooded her mouth and throat. With the blood came a horrible burning sensation that overshadowed the anguish of only moments before. Tears streaked down her face as she was violently sick over and over again. Her captor looked upon her with disgust before commanding her heart and lungs to stop functioning.

Aingeal watched the scene with new understanding. Through the hours she had been forced to witness the event, Aingeal assumed her mother died when Maxim stopped her heart. She was wrong. Maris had been converted.

Years of brutal punishment assailed her unhampered memory. Suddenly, she wished for the comforting void she had lived in for so long. Death was going to kill her with her past. Already, she was hyperventilating. She was coming undone, literally vibrating with energy as the fear of her childhood monster triggered her abilities.

Lachesis looked upon her progeny as the girl’s form shivered in and out of existence. Self-loathing filled her as she empathized with Aingeal’s conflict. Sometimes, Lachesis was just too good at manipulating others for her own benefit. Her wall of apathy, carefully built through the centuries, cracked in the face of a torment so like her own. The Fate’s eyes filled with tears as she felt the familiar ripple in death, the signal that another had ascended. Now, Aingeal’s future was completely in her own hands as Lachesis could neither see nor affect another Fate’s destiny.

She banished all emotion from her face before turning to the girl who had managed to transport herself across the room. “You’re free to go,” was all she offered in the way of comfort.

The young woman gasped for air, fighting the soul wrenching pain of her first use of power. “What…about…them?” She finally managed.

Lachesis knelt beside her granddaughter. “You’ve spread a plague amongst the Carpathians. There is nothing to be done on that account except to wait and see who falls to vampirism.”

“You could stop it.” Aingeal clung to consciousness with her fingertips. “Put an end to every single parasite, kill me if necessary.”

Lachesis smiled grimly, gripping Aingeal’s face and tilting it to look up at her. “I’ve tried every conceivable action. Again and Again, I wove the fabric of this time, only to have it end in a tangled disaster. This is my only recourse, to allow you to create this piece of the future. I cannot know what will happen, but I know the alternatives are certainly no better.”

“I don’t know what to do!” Aingeal pleaded.

Lachesis laughed as if at some joke only she understood. “Neither do I!”

“Come. You must go now.” Lachesis continued when she had recomposed herself. “Time flows brokenly between death and life, but I will assure that you arrive at the proper moment.”

Lachesis helped Aingeal to prop unsteadily against a wall. “Remember, you are welcome in my home at any time. I expect your great aunts will feel the same as well.” An unexpected jolt shot through Lachesis’ hand into Aingeal. With a wrench, the young Fate was catapulted through death and into life.

---

Aingeal shot up, her hair now fixedly the blonde of her mother’s ancestors. She had no way of knowing, but Dominic had departed only scant moments before, clothing her on his way out. A frustrated growl clawed forth from her throat. Her cursed power, that had tormented her every breathing moment, was now possibly not enough. Her memories, unhampered by the barriers she recognized as Razvan’s, came at her full tilt.

Faces of Carpathians, now dependant upon her, flitted across her watery vision. She allowed despair to engulf her. She could not stop the parasites and, consequently, could not prevent the rising infant mortality rate or save the Carpathians from vampirism. Lists of the impossible tasks before her crowded in amongst the utter melancholy. She was so full of rage and anguish and disappointment, she thought she would fly apart.

Amazingly, she stayed in tact, kept breathing. There was no rampaging of power to tear through the healing room. Instead, a deep calm filled her, freeing her mind to the possibilities of the future. Truly, only two problems faced her, protection and destruction. The first was a noble endeavor. The second…well, the second would at least provide her darker nature with a satisfying preoccupation.

She laughed without reason. Standing and stretching, Aingeal contemplated the irony of her life. After years of running away from her vampire father, she was going to willingly step into the life he had vacated. She had been grateful to learn of his death, the only comforting piece of information gleaned from Lachesis’ “lesson.” Yet, she understood him. It was hard not to when the thrill of finally abandoning all morals ran through her.

Aingeal sighed, quashing that side of herself before it swept her away. She would have to leave behind everything good about herself before giving in. The Carpathians would need some sort of warning.

She climbed the stairs from the cellar to the main room of the cabin. Syndil and Francesca had left to be with their mates, and in turn, Savannah had come to Gregori’s side. It was a wicked stab to Aingeal’s heart to have to see the two couples, Gregori and Savannah as well as Jacques and Shea, before her. Aingeal wrote it off as her reluctance to leave the only acceptance she had ever found.

She cast her eyes to the ground before dropping her bombshell. “I’m infected-we’re all infected-with parasites.” She flashed her eyes to meet Gregori’s. “They’re meant to turn the males and control the females.”

Aingeal would have guessed it was the first time Gregori had ever been surprised. He pulled Savannah to him, and, in a swirl of mist, they were both gone. Gregori’s fears were confirmed. His children were in danger and his lifemate was the host for a horde of unseen parasites. This struck a chord so deep and primal within him he fled, fled as he had not in centuries of battling the undead, of fighting similar parasites within the body of Destiny. The need to protect his mate won out.

The healer’s reaction startled Jacques as nothing else could have. He reverted back to former days, pinning Shea safely behind him.

Stop it, wild man. Shea reprimanded him with a pinch. What more danger could I possibly face if I’m already full of these parasites?

The red haze receded from Jacques’ vision. His Shea was always logical, pushing aside her emotions to analyze the situation with her brain that worked so much like a computer. He stiffened as his lifemate approached the grim young woman but did not allow his instincts to rule him further.

“We will handle this,” assured Shea. She raised a hand to comfort the girl, but Aingeal side-stepped quickly towards the door.

“I’m leaving…” She stopped, wanting to tell them to not spare any worry for her, to find a cure; if she survived her plan to eradicate the vampires, then she would need a way to be free of the creatures forever. But she did not.

Jacques! called Shea, seeing the girl hesitate.

He whipped forward, blocking the doorway as the girl once more moved into action. “You will not leave. By the laws of our people, I cannot hold you after you are eighteen. However, I will protect you from yourself, if I must, until that very last moment.”

Aingeal considered breaking free, but her newfound calm held. She turned to look at Shea’s concerned face. They were afraid, but still, they asked her to remain. Four days being all they requested, Aingeal conceded. So far, her plan was scanty anyway. Staying would allow her the time to perfect her vampire act.

Seeing her acceptance, Jacques stepped away from the exit. “We should not linger here, then; the sun is rising.” He reached with his mind to force Aingeal’s body to form mist, but she was gone.

Aingeal shimmered to the couple’s home. Knowing, all too well, its location, thanks to her horrifying visions. She was fighting so desperately to hold back the future; would her efforts be enough? That very question preoccupied her thoughts as she waited, waited for a destiny now entirely in her own unsteady hands.