Dark Wolf by Christine Feehan Read Free Book Online

daughter of the earth, bound to its properties. Mother Earth had always come to her aid when she had need. She felt that connection now and drew on it.
Sulfur, oh brimstone with life-giving gifts,
I breathe in your essence and take of your gifts,
Antimony, sweet metal, I take on your shine,
And weave now a barrier that none may unbind,
    She was the granddaughter of the most powerful mage the world had ever known, and his blood, whether she liked it or not, ran in her veins. Right now, in this moment of terrible crisis, she used whatever gifts had been given to her gratefully.
Arsenic sweet arsenic so lethal and gray,
I call on your power to shift poison away.
Silver I touch, silver I wind,
Silver I release back to your source.
    To her utter astonishment the silver vein began to actually move backward.
    It’s seeping out my pores. Dimitri gave a gasp, desperate to suppress the pain, to block it so Skyler couldn’t feel the burn as the silver seemed to eat through his entire body, flame through his very skin, to drop away onto the ground below him.
    She followed that thin line of silver back to the source. The hooks the Lycans had placed in his body were actually tubes of silver beads. The tiny beads at the tip of the hook where it was inserted into the body eventually heated from body temperature, turning the bead to a liquid form. The bead dropped into the body and began to stretch out, reaching for the heart. It took thousands of those beads to form the network of deadly veins. It was an ugly way for anyone to die.
    Skyler focused on the hook, searching her mind for a way to stop the flow of venomous silver into Dimitri’s body.
Hooks of silver, curved and sharp,
Inserted in flesh to poison the heart,
Iced brimstone and fire I call you now forth.
Come out and heat this evil source.
    Skyler focused completely on the tips of the hooks, determined to close the hollowed, opened end so that there was no way for that terrible silver to continue poisoning Dimitri’s body.
Take what is open and seal it now closed,
So no more that is poison can seek what is exposed.
Take what is liquid and give it a form,
Sealing away all, so it no more can harm.
    Skyler knew she couldn’t hold the bridge between them for long. There was no way to remove all the silver spreading through his body in the time she had before she collapsed. She had chosen the longest lines, the ones most threatening, and meticulously pushed them back to their source and then through Dimitri’s pores. One by one she removed those thin, deadly threads as fast as she could.
    Skyler. Come back. You have to come back now! Dimitri, send her back to us now! She’s lost. She’s too far away and stretched too thin.
    She heard the call as if from a great distance. Josef, she recognized, and his voice was filled with fear.
    Sívamet.
    Dimitri’s tone was tender, gentle. Filled with love. Surrounding her with warmth when she was so cold. Icy cold.
    You must go back. Now, csitri, I cannot lose you. When you are strong enough, come back and finish what you’ve started.
    She had removed a lot of the silver, at least half, but that didn’t lessen the agony he was in. The thought of abandoning him when he needed her was absolutely abhorrent. She told herself one more thread—just get one more out of him.
    She felt Dimitri’s spirit brush up against hers and then he thrust her away. The momentum pushed her from his body, back onto that ice-cold psychic path. The path itself was so broken and torn she felt very confused. She looked around her somewhat helplessly, not understanding what was happening to her.
    I swear if you don’t come back, Sky, I’m going to throttle you.
    Josef sounded desperate. She felt lost and alone there in that cold stream. She reached for his familiar voice, using it as a guide.
    She found herself back in her own body, so cold she couldn’t stop shaking. Josef bent over her, hissing his anger, pressing his wrist to her mouth, glaring at her. His