Dark Challenge (2 page)

Swearing silently, eloquently, Julian moved with preternatural speed to the woman’s dressing room. He was too late. She was gone, already making her way to the stage with the other members of the band. Only two beautiful leopards with spotted fur were curled up in a corner of the small room. Simultaneously their heads swung toward him, all senses alert. The animals were larger and heavier than most in the wild, and their yellow-green eyes, fixed on him, betrayed their superior intelligence. It was also unusual to see the two together, as leopards were generally solitary creatures. Like Julian.

“Where is she, my friends?” he asked softly. “I have come to save her life. Tell me where she is before her enemies kill her.”

The male cat crouched and snarled, exposing long, sharp canines that could grab, hold, and puncture its prey. The female crouched even lower, ready to spring. Julian felt the familiar sense of brotherhood he always did when he encountered a member of the
Panthera pardus
family, and yet, when he reached for the leopards’ minds, he found he couldn’t control either easily. He succeeded only in confusing them a bit, slowing their reaction time. Then the male cat began its move, a slow stalking, head down, eyes fixed on him, its slow-motion manner preliminary to the explosion of speed preceding a kill. Julian didn’t want to have to kill such a beautiful, rare creature, so he quickly slipped out of the room, closing the door firmly behind him, and headed toward the sound of thunderous applause.

The band began to play the opening to the first song. Then he heard the woman’s voice. Haunting, mystical notes that hung in the air like silver and gold shimmering with fire. He actually saw the notes, saw the silver and gold dancing in front of his eyes. Julian stopped dead in his tracks, shock ripping through him. He stared at the hallway. The tattered, faded wallpaper was edged with red. It had been well over eight hundred years since Julian had seen anything in color. It was the fate of Carpathian males beyond their youth to lose all sense of color, to lose their emotions, to struggle in gray bleakness against their predatory natures, unless a lifemate appeared to balance their darkness with her goodness and light. Only then would color and emotion—powerful emotion—be restored to them. But females were rare, and surely one such as Julian would never be blessed with a mate. Yet his heart jumped in his chest.

He felt excitement. Hope. Emotion. Real emotion. Colors were so vivid that they nearly blinded him. The sound of her voice played through his body, touched him in places he had long forgotten. His body tightened; need slammed into him. Julian stood frozen to the spot. The colors, the emotions, the physical lust rising so sharply could only mean one thing. The singer possessing that voice had to be his lifemate.

It was impossible. Totally impossible to believe. The men of his race could spend an eternity hunting for the one woman that was their other half. Male Carpathians were predatory, with the instincts of dark, hungry killers, cunning, quick, and lethal. After their short time of growing, of laughter and adventure, it was all over as they lost the ability to feel, to see in colors. There was nothing left but a solitary, barren existence.

Julian’s existence had been especially unbearable, alienated as he was from Aidan, his twin, whose inevitable
closeness might have made the long, gray centuries a bit easier to endure. But he had known he was locked to Aidan through their blood tie, and every moment they spent together increased the vampire’s threat to Aidan. Their very closeness endangered his brother. So Julian had fled his people, never telling any of them, not even his beloved brother, the terrible truth. He had done the honorable thing, as he had only his honor left to him.

Now Julian stood numbly in the narrow hall, unable to believe that his lifemate was close. Unable, in that dazzling moment of emotion and color, to believe that he could possibly deserve such a thing.

Many Carpathian males turned vampire after centuries of a life filled with no hope. Without emotions, power—the power to hunt and kill—seemed the only thing left to them. Others, rather than becoming a danger to mortals and immortals alike, chose to end their barren existence by greeting the dawn; waiting for the sunlight to destroy bodies meant to live in darkness. Only a handful actually found their other half, the light to their darkness, the one who could make them complete. After nearly a thousand years of bleak existence, after making the decision to meet the dawn before the predatory demon within him, now struggling for control of him, conquered him, Julian could scarcely believe he had found his true lifemate. But the colors and emotions and hope said that it was true.

The woman’s voice—throaty, husky, erotic—held the promise of satin sheets and candlelight. It played over his skin like fingers, tantalizing, enticing, sinfully sexy. It mesmerized anyone within hearing distance; it haunted and captivated. The notes danced, pure and beautiful, weaving a spell of enchantment around Julian, around every listener.

Julian knew nothing of this woman. Only that Gregori
had sent him to warn her that she was in danger from the human society of vampire hunters. Evidently the Prince wished her and those traveling with her to be protected if necessary. The society of mortals who believed in the vampires of old legends and sought to destroy them had for some reason targeted this singer, Desari, with her haunting voice and eccentric ways. Most of the society’s victims were killed, a stake driven through the heart. Worse, some victims were kept alive to be tortured and dissected. Julian listened to the beautiful voice. Desari sounded like an angel singing, her voice not of the earth.

Then a scream, high and piercing, interrupted the beauty of the song. It was followed by a second scream, then a third. Julian heard a shot ring out, then a volley of bullets thudding into flesh and musical instruments. The building shook with the force of feet pounding across the floor as the patrons raced to get out of the line of fire.

Julian moved so quickly that he blurred as he shimmered into a solid mass. The bar was in complete disarray. Mortals were fleeing the place as fast as they could, running over each other in the process. People were yelling in terror. Tables and chairs were smashed and broken. The three members of the band lay, blood-splattered, on the stage, instruments shattered. The security guards were exchanging gunfire with six men who were also shooting into the crowd as they tried to escape.

Julian went straight for the stage. He pushed aside one male body and found the still form of the woman, De-sari, sprawled on the platform, her masses of blue-black hair spreading out like a veil. Blood pooled under her, staining her royal blue dress. He had no time to examine her features further; the worst wound was mortal and would kill her unless he did something. Instinctively he
fashioned a quick visual barrier, blurring the stage from watching eyes. In the pandemonium, he doubted if any would notice.

He lifted Desari easily into his arms, found a weak pulse, and placed a hand over the wound. Blocking out the chaos around him, he sent himself seeking outside his body and into hers. The entrance wound was small, the exit wound quite large. The bullet had torn through her body, ripping internal organs and tissue. He sealed the wounds to prevent further blood loss before taking her deeper into the shadows. With one lengthening fingernail, he opened a wound in his own chest.

You are mine
, cara mia,
and you cannot die. I would not go quietly to my death without avenging you. The world could not conceive of such a monster as I would become. You must drink,
piccola,
for yourself, your life, for me, for our life together. Drink now.
He gave the command with a firm compulsion, not allowing her to squirm away from his iron will. Before this moment, before Desari, he had chosen to destroy himself rather than wait until it was too late and he had become one of the very monsters he had spent centuries hunting and destroying. For tying Desari to him now, he might deserve death a hundred times over, but he would take what destiny offered him.

After long, empty centuries, in a single moment, everything had changed. He could feel. He could see the brilliance of the colors in the world. His body was alive with needs and desire, not simply the ever-present gnawing physical hunger for blood. Power and strength ran through him, sang in his veins, flowed through his muscles, and he felt it.
Felt
it. She would not die. He would not allow such a thing.
Never
. Not after centuries of complete loneliness. Where there had been a yawning
black chasm, an abyss of darkness, there was now a connection. Real.
Felt.

His blood was ancient blood, filled with healing strength, filled with power. His life flowed into her, forging a bond that could not be broken. He began to whisper to her in the ancient language. Ritual words. Words that would make their hearts one, words that would weave the tattered remnants of their souls back together and seal them irrevocably for all time.

For one moment time shimmered to a standstill as he struggled to do the honorable thing, struggled to give her up, to allow her to live without the terrible burden he carried. But he wasn’t strong enough. The words were wrenched out of his soul, from deep where they had been buried.
I claim you as my lifemate. I belong to you. I offer my life for you. I give to you my protection, my allegiance, my heart, my soul, and my body. I take into my keeping the same that is yours. Your life, happiness, and welfare will be cherished and placed above my own for all time. You are my lifemate, bound to me for eternity and always in my care
.

Julian felt tears burning in his eyes. Here was another dark sin for his soul. This time against the woman he should protect above all else. His mouth brushed her silky hair, and very softly he issued the command that she cease to drink. He was already weak from lack of feeding. Healing her wounds and giving her a large volume of his blood weakened him further. He inhaled her scent, took it into his lungs, his body, imprinting her on his mind for all time.

The warning came to him as nothing more than a brush of fur against a chair, but it was enough. Julian sprang away from the unconscious woman, whirling to meet the threat, his snarl exposing gleaming white teeth. This was a huge leopard, a good two hundred pounds,
and it sprang at him, its strange, inky eyes fixed on him with lethal malevolence. Julian leapt into the air to meet the beast, shape-shifting as he did so, his body stretching, contorting, golden fur rippling over heavy muscle as he took another form to meet the deadly threat.

They met in midair, two huge male cats in their prime, at full strength, rending and tearing with claws and teeth. The black leopard seemed determined to fight to the death, but Julian hoped to save its life. The black cat arched in a half circle, swiping at Julian, and Julian felt the rake of razor-sharp claws ripping into his side. He lunged for his opponent and managed to score four long furrows on its belly. The panther hissed softly with hate and defiance, with renewed determination, with retaliation, vengeance.

Julian reached for the beast’s mind. It was in the red haze of a killing frenzy, a need to destroy. Agilely he sprung away. He did not want to kill the beautiful animal, and, the truth was, for all his own fighting experience, this creature was enormously strong and skilled. And it did not respond to his many attempts to seize control of its mind.

He swore as the panther crouched protectively over the woman’s body, then began once more moving toward him in the slow-motion manner of the stalking leopard. The intelligent ebony eyes focused on his face in the unnerving, unblinking stare only a leopard could produce. The cat meant to kill him, and Julian had no choice but to fight to the death or flee. He had given the woman precious blood he didn’t have to spare, and now the four long furrows torn deep into his side were dripping the liquid of life onto the floor in a steady stream.

The cat was too strong, too experienced a killing machine. Julian could not risk it. His lifemate’s fate was now tied to his. He sensed no animosity toward her from
the large panther, rather, a need to protect her. From Desari’s mind he picked up memories of love for the animal. Julian forced himself to back away, his golden muzzle snarling, his eyes blazing defiance, not submission.

The black panther was clearly torn between following him and finishing the job and staying with the woman. Picking up that information from the panther reassured Julian even more. He backed away another two steps, not wanting to blunder by harming a creature his life-mate loved.

Then another attack came from behind him. A mere whisper of movement had him springing aside so that the second leopard landed where he had been. It snarled in rage. Julian bolted, leaping for the bar, then a table, his powerful back legs digging into the smooth surface for purchase. A third cat blocked the entrance, but Julian sprang and hit it squarely, knocking it off its feet. Then instantly he was gone, dissolving into thin air.

As mist, Julian streamed out into the night. He didn’t fool himself, however; some of the droplets streaking toward the ocean were his blood. The cats could track him if he didn’t put enough distance between them immediately. It took tremendous energy to put on a burst of speed while holding his image of insubstantial mist, energy that was fast leaking out into the night air. Julian summoned his remaining energy to close the wounds in his body to prevent further blood loss.

Totally bewildered, he went over every move he had made inside the bar. Why hadn’t the black cat responded to his mind control? He had never before failed to mesmerize an animal. The panther’s mind was not like any other he had encountered. In any case, he should have easily defeated a panther, but the black male was far bigger than any leopard he had met with in the wild.
And the cats had been working in unison, something not natural for the species. Julian was positive the large panther had been somehow directing the actions of the other two. And they had been protective of Desari, not treating her as prey.