Dark Challenge (34 page)

Desari kissed his hard jaw, his stubborn chin. “We cannot desert Syndil at this time.”

“It is rather difficult to help her when she spends all her time in the form of a leopard.”

“Shh. There is nothing wrong with her hearing,” De-sari cautioned, rising on tiptoe to kiss his eyebrow, rubbing at his frown with her cheek. “If she is willing to reach out for just a moment and talk to me as we used to, then I must be here for her.”

“Fine,” Julian agreed grudgingly. “But if that idiot Barack happens by with his hangdog look, tell him to keep going.”

“He seems to be strutting around these days with a rather macho look,” Desari pointed out. “He has gotten progressively worse since Savon’s attack on Syndil. He has appointed himself her personal bodyguard, and he is not very nice about it. Julian,” she added, her dark eyes lighting up with her brilliant idea, “maybe you should tell him to quit being so bossy. She needs him to be more gentle.”

Julian snorted inelegantly. “As if that will happen. I absolutely refuse to interfere with anything Barack is choosing to do. Carpathian males cannot do such things. We believe in allowing one another to work things out alone. Especially anything that might have to do with a woman. Now that I am thinking about it, perhaps I should go and leave you two females to talk privately.”

“Coward,” she whispered, her teeth nipping his ear. “Do not go far, as I have great need of you.”

Julian’s tall, muscular frame shimmered, then became transparent in the night air. He was smiling down at her, that little smirk that always got under her skin. Desari
felt her heart take wing, soar, even as he disappeared, becoming part of the night itself.

Desari turned as the female leopard burst out from the brush, shape-shifting as it did so. “Desari.” Syndil’s voice was a mere thread of sound. “I am going to go away. I need to be far from these overbearing males. I do not wish to leave you, but it is necessary.”

Syndil was upset. Desari knew her so well, she knew every nuance of her voice. Yet, as always, Syndil appeared calm and unruffled. Desari reached out and took her hand. “It never bothered you before to have the males beating their chests like cavemen. We have always laughed together over their silly ways. Why are you allowing them to get to you now? If Darius has upset you, sister, I will speak to him myself.”

Syndil pushed impatiently at the long strands of hair framing her face. “It is not Darius, although he is bad enough. And Dayan, too, watches me all the time. But at least he does not say anything annoying to me. Barack, however, thinks himself my boss. He is rude and obnoxious all the time. I do not wish to put up with his arrogance one more moment.” She ducked her head so that her silky hair fell around her like a cloak, hiding her expression. “He denied I am his sister.”

Desari felt Syndil’s pain. Barack had really hurt her with that denial. They had been family, closer than family for centuries. How could Barack have said such a hurtful thing to Syndil? Desari had an unfamiliar urge to strike him. She put her arm protectively around Syn-dil’s shoulders. “I do not know why he would say such a thing, but you know he cannot mean it. He must be so worried about you that he says things without thinking.”

“Things to punish me because he thinks I, in some way, am responsible for what Savon did. Perhaps he
wished Darius had killed me rather than Savon. He always looked up to Savon; you know that.” Syndil shrugged painfully, staring up at the darkened sky. “Who knows, maybe I did do something inadvertently to provoke Savon.”

“Absolutely not!” Desari denied adamantly. “You do not believe that, Syndil, and neither does anyone else. Julian says that the males turn after so many centuries without finding their other half. He says they have a choice, to meet the dawn or choose to lose their souls. Obviously Savon chose the latter. You cannot in any way believe you are responsible for anything that has been happening to the males of our race for hundreds, even thousands of years.”

“They all treat me differently now, but Barack is the worst.”

“Syndil,” Desari said gently, her voice soothing and gentle, “you
are
different. We all are. It is a change we have to go through just like any other, but as always, we go through it together. Barack may be having a difficult time adjusting to what happened to you. He may even feel responsible. Maybe he noticed Savon pulling away from us and did not say anything. Who knows? I believe he is simply trying to protect you. Perhaps he is going a bit overboard, but it might be that we should cut him a little slack.”

Syndil’s perfect eyebrows shot up. “Cut him some slack? He should cut me some slack. You do not see how he is with me. He is rude and abrasive and totally out of line. Even Darius does not speak to me as he does.”

Desari sighed and shoved a hand through her hair. “Do you want me to speak to him, Syndil?”

“I do not think it will be necessary. I meant what I said. I will be taking a vacation. It is time I went my
own way for a while.” Syndil’s voice was defiant.

“Darius will never allow you to go away unprotected,” Desari reminded her gently. “He would send one of the men to look after you.”

A male leopard, large and well-muscled, moved out into the open and leapt with casual ease onto a low tree branch. It stared at the two women, its eyes unblinking, its sides rippling with power as it breathed steadily. Syndil glared at the animal. Desari shook her head.

Barack, you must stop pushing her so hard. She is going to run if you keep this up.
She used their common mental path, trying to convey the desperation Syndil was feeling.

She will go nowhere without the consent of Darius. And if he were to give it, there would be nowhere she could go that I would not follow
. The voice was arrogant.

Without warning, Julian shimmered into solid form beside Desari, his arm dropping protectively around her shoulders. His eyes, molten gold filled with menace, were fixed on the leopard above them. The disturbance in Desari’s mind had brought him instantly to her side. In that moment there was nothing easygoing about him, only a hard, implacable warrior honed by a merciless life.

Do not drive her away from us,
Desari pleaded,
I beg you, be more gentle with her. You do not understand what has happened to her. She needs time to recover.

I understand far more than you think, Desari. She is no longer living. She is merely existing. I cannot allow it to continue
. Barack sounded cold and distant.

Desari’s dark eyes filled with tears. She turned her head into Julian’s shoulder. “Please, Syndil, do not leave me. Not now. I need you here with me. Everything is so different.”

Syndil reached out and touched her hand. “If that is so, then he will not force me from my own family. I am strong enough to stand up to him.” She glared at the leopard, who simply watched her without so much as blinking. Nodding at Julian, she moved away from them, disappearing into the trees. The leopard jumped soundlessly from the branch and padded after her.

Desari glanced up at Julian. “Do you realize how really intimidating you can look when you want to? What did you think Barack was going to do?”

He shrugged with his casual grace. “It did not matter,
cara.
I did not like the way he made you feel. These other males seem to think they have the right to interfere with you women. Only your brother, as the acknowledged leader, has such a right and duty. The others can do no other than protect you, as Barack has tried to do with Syndil. He cannot chastise you. You are my life-mate and answerable only to me and the Prince of our people. In your case, perhaps to Darius as well. But not to Dayan. Not to Barack. Only to the leaders and your lifemate.”

Her dark eyes flashed with fire. “I am answerable to you?” Her voice was even softer than usual, a velvet volcano waiting to erupt.

Julian rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying not to allow the smile creeping up from his heart to show in his mind or on his face. “As I am answerable only to you, my lifemate, and to the Prince of our people.”

She studied the sensual beauty of his face for a long time. He was amused by her flares of feminism, she could clearly read that, although he wisely attempted to cover it up. Yet she found herself appreciative that Julian cared enough to try to put them on the same footing. Whatever rules he deemed necessary in his mind for his lifemate, he attempted to be fair enough to place the
same on himself. Julian was in many ways a chauvinist, like most of the males she had encountered, yet he was at least attempting to make their relationship an equal partnership. She caught at his arm and slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow. “I seriously believe that I am beginning to fall in love with you.”

His smile was pure masculine arrogance. “You are madly in love with me. Face it,
cara mia
, you know you cannot resist me.”

Her small fist thumped him in the middle of his chest. “When you talk like that I can. Occasionally I think I must be insane to put up with you. ‘Madly in love’ is not a way I would put things.”

His arm swept around her waist. “Sure you would,
piccola
, if you were not so stubborn.” Julian bent his head to bury his face against the slender column of her neck. He loved her scent. She smelled so clean, so tempting. Beneath his wandering mouth, his stroking tongue, he felt the rush of life in her veins beckoning to him. Deliberately he nuzzled her neck, his teeth scraping back and forth over her delicate skin, an enticement that sent shivers down her spine and caused a trembling to start deep within her.

Desari moved even closer to him, her soft body pressing invitingly into his. “We might actually be alone if we move fast enough.” Her smile was frankly sexy, her long lashes sweeping down in invitation.

Julian’s arm tightened almost to the point of crushing her, yet he held her carefully, so that she could feel the power in his arm but know he was protecting her from bruises. She loved how he made her feel feminine, treasured and cherished, while taking nothing away from her.

“Why is it that I want you so much?” she whispered against his ear. “Why do I feel such a burning need that is so much more than mere want?”

His low laughter was all satisfied male. “Because I am so incredibly sexy.” He was rising from the earth with her while all around them the night enfolded them in loving arms. The wind rushed past Desari’s face, so she kept it buried against his chest, her arms winding around his neck.

“That may be true, arrogant one,” she conceded with that soft rasp of velvet that turned his insides to molten lava, “but it is more than that. My skin cannot bear to be apart from yours. My mind tunes itself to yours. My heart and lungs do, too. Inside I burn for our joining. It grows stronger with every passing moment. Why is this?”

“We are lifemates,” he answered seriously, his hands beginning a slow exploration of her back even as they flew through the air. “You know this area much better than myself; show me an image to guide me where we can be undisturbed.” There was a gravelly edge to his voice that sent her heart somersaulting, as if he, too, was so impatient for their joining that he could not wait much longer.

Automatically she brought up her memories of the area and her private resting place deep within the bowels of the mountain. Her skin was so sensitive she could barely restrain herself from ridding herself of the clothes rubbing uncomfortably against her, keeping her from feeling his skin pressed tightly to hers.

“Lifemates have so close a bond,
cara
, that they must share one another’s bodies and minds often. It is a need when our souls and hearts are so connected. Two halves of the same whole must be brought together very frequently or the demands become so great that control is no longer a possibility.” He had picked the information he needed out of her mind and was descending into the very top of the mountain through a narrow crevice
barely discernible to the eye even from above.

The relief in both of them was tremendous. Living with her family was as much a part of Desari as breathing, but the strain of not being alone with Julian was overwhelming. She raised her head even before they began the descent through the passageway that wound deep into the inner regions of the slumbering volcano. Their world. Their home.

Her mouth found his blindly. Clothes were simply wished away, tumbling off unchecked as their bodies continued to wind downward through the channel. At once Julian’s hand moved to cup her bottom in his palms, urging her body to his.

Desari laughed softly, breathlessly, the heat of the mountain interior itself mixing with the fire burning in her body. She wanted him right at that moment, moving through the air with a languid pace. “We cannot do this, can we?” she asked him, her tongue stroking caresses over the pounding pulse in his neck. His entire body clenched in reaction so that she couldn’t help but do it again, the erotic scrape of her teeth adding to the temptation of her bare skin against his. Her full breasts, aching with need, thrust temptingly against his chest, and she pressed the invitation of her hot, creamy entrance against his abdomen.

Julian groaned aloud, his hands lifting her over the thick evidence of his desire. “Do it, Desari, right now,” he whispered hoarsely as he began to lower her over him, fitting them together like a velvet glove. “Do not tease me,
cara mia
. Let me feel my blood flowing into you as I take what I so desperately need.”

Her power over him was all-consuming. To have this Carpathian male with his enormous strength, with all his skills and abilities, so completely enamored, so in need of her, was exhilarating. She lapped gently at his shoulder,
tracing a trail of fire over corded muscle to his neck to find his strong, steady pulse. He groaned softly deep in his throat as she allowed her teeth to tease his skin.

Desari!
Her name was a plea for mercy.

They were moving so leisurely now, Desari was barely aware they were still floating through the passageway. She could feel his body invading hers with exquisite slowness. Julian felt her tight, fiery sheath surrounding him, adjusting to his thickness, squeezing him with strong muscles so that he clenched his teeth to hang on to a vestige of control. Then her teeth sank into his neck, sending a bolt of blue lightning streaking through his body, slamming into him with such sexual ecstasy he had no other recourse but to surge into her with hard, sure strokes, to thrust decisively into her mind to share his erotic thoughts, the emotions and the sheer, passionate pleasure her body was giving his. He felt her pure, uncensored joy in the sharing of their minds and hearts, their bodies and souls, in the spice of his blood flowing like the finest wine into her. Desari’s hair fell around them in a cascade of ebony silk, brushing their sensitive skin like millions of fingers caressing them. He tasted wild and untamed, an erotic blend of animal and man. Julian could taste the very essence of his life through her, and it was erotic beyond anything he had ever known. They hovered in the air, mating wildly, Julian plunging into her again and again, holding her body exactly where he wanted it, exactly where he needed it to be so that the friction building and building was fiery hot and gripping him almost to the point of pain.