Carpathian 23 - Dark Storm by authors_sort Page B

weakened without the necessary reinforcement Arabejila’s kin would bring,
     but the safeguards were still powerful.
    Dax crept up behind the great worm. The creature spun fast, turning over and over,
     a living drill, its head equipped with a diamond-hard bite while the tail acted like
     a rudder. Dax timed his moment, a hand reaching out of the mist, grasping the spinning
     tail, shackling it in a grip impossible to break. Immediately he reversed direction,
     backing up and dragging the worm with him.
    Mitro thrashed and fought, but the hole was tight, preventing him from turning and
     sinking his teeth into Dax. He tried shifting, but Dax refused to relinquish his hold.
     Mitro couldn’t go forward or shift into insubstantial mist. As the hole began to narrow,
     he shifted just enough to use his diamond-hard nails on his feet like the claws of
     a dragon, cutting through the rock as if it didn’t exist. He widened the hole, maintaining
     his grip on the worm’s tail as he moved backward toward the lava tube.
    The moment he felt the air sliding over him, he shifted again, back into his human
     form, dropping to the floor of the lava tube, dragging Mitro with him. The worm swung
     his head around, the massive drill bit driving at Dax’s body. Without letting go of
     the tail, Dax pulled his chest out of the way of that whirling diamond point.
    The ground lurched, sending him sprawling against the tube. The worm went wild, slamming
     itself into the wall, trying to bank off the rocks to get at Dax. Deep inside the
     dragon roused, a blast of warning reverberating through Dax’s skull. Temperatures
     soared in the lava tube, and steam vented through several places in the floor. The
     ground shook a second time and molten rock burst through the openings. The floor crumbled
     and melted, dropping down into the lava flowing beneath the tube.
    Dax gripped the struggling worm’s tail with both hands, determined they would both
     be destroyed in the magma rocketing into the tube. More and more geysers slung the
     melted rock high into the air so that it hit the ceiling and splattered in all directions.
     Desperate, Mitro reversed direction and slashed at Dax’s wrist, driving through flesh.
     The ground gave another lurch, and Dax sprawled onto the floor.
    Beneath him the floor opened and magma shot through. He heard his own scream as the
     flesh of his legs burned away. He lost his grip on Mitro. For a moment it looked as
     if the molten rock had engulfed the vampire, but with the orange and red stream of
     magma rose a suspicious steam. Shrieks of pain and rage filled the tube.
    Dax had no choice but to survive. Cutting off the excruciating pain was impossible,
     but he shifted, knowing it was the dragon’s scales that saved him. His flesh was burned
     away and he needed the healing earth immediately. Once again, fate had favored Mitro.
     The timing of the blast through the tube’s floor hadn’t been the vampire, but the
     volcano preparing for a major eruption. The body of the worm had saved Mitro, but
     he, too, would have to seek the healing soil. Neither had much time; the volcano wasn’t
     going to wait for them.

4
    “D amn, I missed the entire thing,” Don Weston whispered overly loud to Dr. Henry Patton.
     “All those bats going up in flames and Raul losing his mind and wanting to machete
     someone. I slept right through it. Next time, wake me up!”
    Deliberately, he glanced over his shoulder at Annabel and Riley, pretending to be
     covert, as if his booming voice was so low in his pretend whisper that they couldn’t
     possibly overhear him or know he was talking about them as they trekked in single
     file through the narrow opening of brush on the small game trail.
    Ahead of her, Annabel stiffened, but she didn’t turn around.
    Riley pressed her lips together tightly. Weston was only making things worse. He wanted
     to stir up trouble because neither Riley nor her mother would give him the time of
     day