Dark Fire (32 page)

Syndil touched Tempest's shoulder to draw her attention. "The one who attacked me, the one who was raised as my brother, my family, my protector-he had turned vampire. He nearly killed Darius. Had Darius not been so powerful, he might have succeeded. As it was, Darius was severely wounded. I, too, would be dead, and perhaps Desari as well. Who knows?"

"Cullen told me he had seen a vampire in San Francisco. That the woman he had intended to marry was murdered by one," Tempest said. She reached up to take

Syndil's hand with her free one, so that they were all connected. "Could Darius still turn?" There was a note of fear in her voice.

"Not unless something happened to you." Desari was examining Tempest's knuckles again. "We need to clean this scrape."

"Is there a possibility of a child? Could we have children together?" Now there was a distinct quaver in Tempest's voice.

Desari exchanged a long look with Syndil. "I do not know for certain, Rusti," Desari answered honestly. "Julian told me of one woman who was born to a human mother and a Carpathian father. She was not raised in our ways and had a difficult time surviving. There was no one to teach her, to love her, to help her grow properly because the mother committed suicide and the father turned vampire. The child did survive, however, and eventually was discovered by her true lifemate."

Tempest closed her eyes tiredly, rubbing her suddenly pounding forehead. "So I guess if I stay with Darius- and I don't seem to have too many other choices-I might or might never have children. I never really considered I'd have the whole fairy tale."

"Darius is giving up his life for you," Syndil pointed out gently. "When the sun is high, members of our race are vulnerable. Even Darius. In the ground, few could harm us, but while he sleeps the sleep of mortals, he cannot go to ground. Anyone who found his resting place could easily kill him. As time goes on, and he loses more and more rejuvenating sleep, his great strength will weaken substantially."

"What can I do to remedy the situation? I don't want this. I never asked him for this. I couldn't bear it if something happened to him because he was trying to take care of me. It's insane for him to neglect his own needs because he's watching over me." Tempest couldn't think beyond that. Everything else was far too overwhelming. "Has an ordinary human woman ever before become a lifemate to one of your kind? Surely I can't be the only one. There must be someone who knows what to do. I can't have Darius endangering himself." The idea of some assassin or vampire stumbling upon Darius while he was vulnerable was frightening.

Desari tightened her hold on Tempest's hand. "Julian told me his brother's lifemate was human."

Tempest jerked her hand away, unwilling for Desari to feel her elevated pulse. Desari had used the past tense. "She's dead?"

"No! Oh, no, she is one of us now. She is like we are." Desari glanced at Syndil, well aware Darius would not thank them for imparting this information and worrying Tempest.

Syndil hugged Tempest gently. "I am going to fix you more vegetable broth. You are quite pale."

Tempest shook her head, answering almost absently, her mind clearly somewhere else. "I'm not hungry. Thanks, though, Syndil. What do you mean, she is like you now? How is that possible?"

"Darius can convert you," Desari admitted carefully. "He has said he will not, that he would never take the chance of something going wrong. He has made up his mind to live as a human until your death. Then he will go with you."

Tempest stood up, scattering the leopards, pacing restlessly. "How is it done? How would he convert me?"

"He must make three complete blood exchanges with you. It is obvious he has made at least one, perhaps even two." Desari watched her pacing, nervous that she had told her things Darius had purposely kept to himself. "But Darius will not even consider the idea. He feels it is far too risky, as only a couple of women have survived such conversions… intact."

Tempest stiffened. "Exchanged blood. He has taken my blood. What is an exchange?"

There was a small, telling silence. And suddenly she didn't want anyone to say anything; the knowledge was already seeping slowly into her pores, her brain. Tempest pressed her hand to her mouth. The idea was so frightening, she pushed it out of her head in an attempt to understand what the women were telling her. "That's why I see things and hear things so differently," she mused aloud, looking to them for confirmation.

"And why you are having trouble eating human food."

There was another silence while Tempest digested what they were saying. Her mind worked at it from all angels. "So if he converted me, I would have to have blood."

Syndil stroked a light, soothing hand down the length of her hair. "Yes, Rusti, you would be like us in every way. You would have to sleep our sleep, stay out of the sun. You would be as vulnerable and as powerful as we are. But Darius refuses to take the chance. He has made up his mind to keep the risk all his own." She said this softly, gently, her voice a beautiful blend of soothing, comforting notes, yet it didn't help.

The sides of the trailer were suddenly closing in on Tempest, suffocating her, crushing her as the mountain had done. Tempest pushed herself away from the two women and stumbled toward the door. She had to breathe; she needed air. She flung herself out of the bus, wanting to run into the night, run to freedom.

Darius caught her small, flying figure as she leapt down the steps, and he pulled her into the safety of his arms. "What is it, baby?" he whispered softly against her neck. "What has frightened you?" He didn't invade her mind, because he wanted her to trust him enough to tell him herself. If she refused to tell him, he could always merge with her.

Tempest buried her face in his neck. "Take me away from here, Darius, please. Just get me out into the open."

He raised his eyes, black and furious, to meet his sister's guilty gaze before he turned and moved away from the camp. Once out of sight of prying eyes, he poured on the speed, so fast that the trees around them blurred. When he stopped, they were in a secluded clearing tucked into the rolling hillside by a grove of trees.

"Now tell me, honey." He was still permitting her to speak the words rather than reading her mind. He wanted her trust. He wanted her to volunteer what was causing her fear. "We are under the open sky. Only the stars are looking down upon us." His hand caressed her cheek, her throat, slid down the length of her arm to find her palm. Very gently he brought her knuckles to the warmth of his mouth, to the soothing, healing moisture his velvet tongue provided.

She closed her eyes tightly, savoring the feel of him. She had missed him these last few hours. Missed him so much that she didn't even feel alive unless he was bugging her. "I don't know how to be a part of something, Darius, a part of you." She pressed her forehead against his shoulder, afraid to look at him. "I've been alone all my life. I don't know any other way."

Darius held her closer, warming her. "We have all the time in the world, honey. You will learn to be comfortable with a family, and if it is too much all at once, I will take you away from the others until you learn to be a part of me. You do not have to contend with the entire group of us all at once if you find it overwhelming."

"What if I can't do it, Darius? What if I just can't?"

His hand found the nape of her neck, his fingers moving in a slow massage, easing the tension out of her. "Baby," he said softly in his black-velvet voice, the one that could command the wind and the very forces of nature. The one that sent her pulse racing and set every nerve ending in her body on fire. "There is nothing to fear. I can do no other than ensure your happiness. Trust me to do that."

"I could lose you, Darius. You know I could. It's so much easier to be alone than to lose someone." Her voice was low and trembling, turning his heart over. "Already you are neglecting to take care of yourself. You're taking advantage of my ignorance of your needs, your ways. Something could happen to you because of me. Don't you see that? I couldn't bear it."

Silently Darius cursed his sister. He felt Tempest's fears and fatigue beating at her, at him. Her body needed nourishment, yet she couldn't eat. His fault. He had done that to her. "What nonsense has my sister been spouting? You cannot be responsible for choices I make. I want to be with you. Live with you, love you, be a family with you."

Tempest shook her head, then pulled back to look into his eyes. "You know that can never be. I won't let you do this, Darius-throw away your life, make yourself vulnerable, perhaps sick. I know sleeping above ground the same way I sleep will eventually weaken you. I won't have it. Why are you doing that? I don't need constant protection. I've taken care of myself for a long time."

He answered her the only way he knew how, by fastening his mouth to hers. The rush was there, instantly arcing between them, sizzling and snapping as hunger rose sharply and flames began to lick at their skin. Darius poured everything he felt for her into that kiss-the fire, the hunger and need, his absolute commitment to her. Then he caught her face between his palms to hold her still beneath his searching gaze. "Look at me, honey. I want you to believe me. Merge your mind with mine so that you will know that what I say is true. I want this. I have no reservations, none at all. I want to spend my life with you, grow old and die with you. It would be a wonderful miracle to have centuries together, but I accept that it cannot be, and I do not wish it otherwise." He leaned down to kiss the corners of her mouth. "Do not fear our union. It is what I want with every cell of my body. It is the only thing I want. I will be happy with our life together."

Tempest reached up to circle his neck with her arms, pulling his head down desperately to kiss him, moving against his body restlessly, needing him with almost Carpathian hunger. He could feel the tears on her face and knew she was crying for him, knew she was afraid of bringing him harm, knew that any moment she could be so overwhelmed by this sharing of her life that she might bolt.

"Why didn't you tell me what you were doing to yourself, Darius?' she whispered against his throat. His fingers were moving beneath her shirt, pushing the edges up until he found her silken skin, his palm hot and inviting, caressing her breast. She could hardly think with the fire racing through her and the hunger for him raging in her soul. "You have to promise me you'll never do it again. I can look after myself while you're in the ground. I'll stay wherever you ask me to stay. I promise I will, Darius."

His mouth was now at her breast and she cradled his head to her, her fingers spearing through his thick hair while waves of heat raced through her body.

She was silk and satin, warm honey, and the clean, fresh scent of the night he loved so much. She was everything good and beautiful in the world, everything he could ever want. His hands slipped reverently over her body, sliding over every inch of skin he could reach. He pushed at her jeans to get at more of her.

Darius was consumed with hunger for her, with a fierce need to bury himself in the perfection of her body. He needed her hot, tight sheath gripping him to take away the terrible fear for her safety he couldn't quite shake. He pushed her jeans away from her slender hips, caressing her, shaping her body with his hands, cupping her bottom in his palms so that he could crush her against him, press her into his hard, thick arousal. He groaned at the feel of her, moist and hot, beckoning him, her body's wild scent calling to his.

She seemed so fragile that he had a fear of crushing her, of becoming so out of control that he would forget his own enormous strength and hurt her. He tried to be gentle with her, to see to her fulfillment before her own, but the scent and feel of her was so exciting to him that his animal instincts threatened to take over.

"What am I going to do with you, Darius?" she whispered softly against his bared chest. Her mouth was moving over him, tasting his skin as hungrily as he was tasting hers. There was an ache in her voice.

His mouth immediately fastened on hers again in long, drugging kisses that fanned the flames more. "Love me back, Tempest. Need me the way I have need of you."

He was everywhere, his broad shoulders blocking out the night sky, his breath taking hers, his body molding around hers, sweeping her into their own world where nothing else intruded. "You do not know what you put me through with your blatant disobedience." His mouth was on her throat, her breasts, a frenzied hunger that seemed to know no boundaries. "You must learn to obey me." His hand moved between her thighs, found her hot, moist acceptance. He heard his own groan as his body hardened even more, a sweet agony only she could relieve. "God, baby, I am going to explode if I do not take you right now." His fingers found her feminine sheath, explored, teased, made her crazy for him.

Tempest was kissing his shoulder, soft little nips she couldn't stop, her body moving restlessly in enticement, demand. "Darius, please, stop giving orders for once and just make love to me."

He pressed her back against a fallen tree, turning her in his arms so that she could brace her hands on the huge trunk. He caressed her bottom, traced the indentations, the cleft, the two small dimples at her lower back. Impatient, Tempest pushed against him, and he grew instantly heavier with need. His hands went to her hips to hold her still, and as he pressed his velvet tip into her hot entrance, the breath was stolen from his lungs.

"Darius!" she wailed, trying to push backward, to take the length of him deep inside her.

"Promise me," he growled softly, his hands caressing her hips, sliding over her buttocks to deliberately enflame her more. The sight of her, so petite and perfect, sent streaks of lightning whipping through him.

"I promise," she bit out rashly, unable to think clearly.

Darius reached around her to cup her breasts in his palms possessively. He thrust into her mind even as his hips surged forward to bury himself deep within her. She was even hotter, softer, tighter than he remembered. He nuzzled her neck, his teeth scraping erotically. He felt her body grip him harder in anticipation, and, despite his every good intention, the wildness in him took over; his fangs lengthened and sank into her neck.