Free Dark Peril by Christine Feehan

here and play my part as the researcher bent on installing these night cameras to catch sight of the elusive jaguar. I even have a proper permit for my work and credentials. I have found it is a good lure for the evil ones.”
    “Are your brothers close?”
    “I do not stay near them. Their happiness is all I have sought to secure, yet being near them is unsettling in ways I cannot say.” He flashed another humorless smile. “I irritate their lifemates with my demands. It seems I have not the right way of asking for their safety.”
    Dominic laughed, uncaring that his vampire pointed teeth gleamed black and atrocious in the night. “I can imagine how you would sound to those women.”
    Zacarias shrugged. “None of them should be allowed to do what they do. Even Rafael has gone soft.”
    An army of ants swarmed up and over the fallen trunk just behind Zacarias. One moment the truck was covered in moss and fungus and the next a moving carpet of black and red poured over it. Dominic jerked Zacarias away from the trunk, throwing him behind him, an instinctive reaction to protect the other man. Even as he did so, he threw one hand up toward the sky, bringing down several forks of lightning.
    The white light, hot and bright, slammed into the fallen tree. The ants burst into flame, snapping and sizzling, some leaping into the air, others crawling through the vegetation on the forest floor, breaking around Dominic’s booted feet to get to Zacarias.
    Dominic’s breath hissed out between his teeth. Vampire. He is coming at you.
    Then surely I must hide behind you in cowardice. There was nearly an edge of rough humor to Zacarias’s voice, as if he remembered irony and humor just barely.
    Lightning followed the swarm of ants, several strikes, but the massive numbers spread out across the ground to surround Zacarias. The two warriors went back-to-back, sweeping the ground around them with fire to clear the debris.
    “ Muonìak te avoisz te— I command you to reveal yourself,” Dominic ordered, his voice low, but the tone one of absolute authority.
    The ancient words used with the power of the ancient warrior carried every bit as much strength as the bolt of lightning.
    The mass of insects undulated, a living carpet that began to reluctantly weave itself into a dark shadow creeping along the ground. Obviously trying to resist, the shadow transformed back and forth between insubstantial shadow and thousands of ants.
    “ Veriak ot en Karpatiiak, muonìak te avoisz agbaainad és avoisz te ete kadiket —by the blood of the prince I command you to take your true form and reveal yourself before the instruments of justice,” Dominic demanded.
    A shrieking wail, much like nails on a chalkboard, reverberated through the trees. The forest responded with painful cries. Monkeys whimpered, tails tucked, heads down, hands over their ears.
    The insubstantial shadow grew into an elongated body, the vampire’s arms stretched toward Zacarias, the fingers of his hands bony and gnarled, the nails sharp and slightly curled like claws. The vampire raised its head in defiance, revealing skin pulled tight over bone, worn thin in places, so that he appeared scraped raw, maggots pouring from the gaping holes. He spat at Dominic.
    “Traitor. You are one of us. Share this fool.” The vampire dug his nails into the ground and dragged himself closer to Zacarias, his attention centered on the “human researcher.” He made growling noises as he spoke, his vocal cords rusty and strained. He sounded more animal than man. His bony knees dug deep into the dirt, and beneath his body the earth groaned and small ugly white maggots writhed and wiggled as he dropped them. His body was long rotted, indicating he had been a vampire for many years, possibly centuries, yet he was no master .
    Dominic struck fast, as was his way. He had long ago given up bravado or talking. He was there for only one purpose—to destroy the undead. There was no reason to talk to