Betrayal's Gift

Chapter Sixteen

Quickly outdistancing his opponent, Varagon poured on the speed. When he arrived, still bleeding from his many wounds and laboring for air, Dimos had his back to him, watching the sky. Standing beside him, Lorcan glanced up at the darkening sky worried.

"I don't know how much longer she can stand this without him." he thought anxiously. "I know she's calling to him. Why isn't he here?"

Dimos turned as he heard the heavy breathing behind him. Dimos seen Varagon's ragged condition. His clothes were singed and torn, his feet bare, and his eyes wild with worry.

"Come Varagon sit." he said gently. Lorcan turned around swiftly.

"Donal, he's here!"

"Where is she?" Varagon unleashed the full force of his dark eyes upon what he perceived as the cause of her traumatic pain.

Another wave struck her and him, leaving him shaken. His eyes never left Lorcan, who found himself showing Varagon Delilah's room under a merciless compulsion. Donal arrived and saw his brother in that condition. He surged forward only to skid to a halt when Varagon's head whipped around and pinned him. No one should be able to control both of them like that so easily. Unnoticed, Randy slid his hand from Delilah's and stood back. Dimos came in and was halted by his friend.

"You know, for ancient hunters they lack something." he murmured. Dimos smiled. Lorcan and Donal had interfered in what was none of their business. Dying served them right.

Both of them braced against the fury they saw building within Varagon, then Delilah cried out and they were released. Varagon knelt by her bed and held her hand tightly as they sagged against the wall relieved.

"Delilah, I'm here. What can I do?" he asked, helpless to stop her pain. She turned to him, blindly seeking reassurance.

"Hold me." she whispered brokenly. In her mind, she thought she was going to die and accepted it. After all, this life contained only heartache. The next might be better. He gathered her close against him, panic clawing at his mind.

"No! You are not going to die. I won't permit it." He informed her desperately. "What is wrong with her?" he growled from between clenched teeth. The strain of his attempts to bear the pain for her was evident in the drops of blood beading on his skin. "Answer me."

"She is becoming like you." Lorcan said wearily. "You can't stop it or heal it. Just help her through it."

"What caused this to occur?" Lorcan was saved from answering by Delilah moaning and reaching out for Varagon. He slid on to the bed with her to hold her close. "I'm here now, you're not alone."

He seized control of her mind and calmed its desperate whirling over the agonizing ordeal it was going through. He felt another round coming and braced the both of them against it. From somewhere outside his mind, a touch Varagon recognized but could not place reached out and poured strength behind his efforts.

"Calm down, me frater. She'll survive this."

"What caused this?" Varagon demanded again, breathing slightly easier. Lorcan opened his mouth but Donal answered before him.

"You did." Suspicious of a trick from the two hunters, Varagon searched their minds and found it to be damningly true.

Both Lorcan and Donal couldn't believe that he could do that. That had never happened to them before and he hadn't bothered to hide his presence from them.

"He always had been too easy on the two of you. He never listened when I said the two of you needed discipline. You two are a disgrace and a fountain of wasted knowledge." A voice sneered in their heads. Both of them looked at each other, confused. Who was that? It couldn't be who it sounded like. It sounded too sane for that.