Dark Challenge (8 page)

Darius’s black gaze strayed often to the man leaning with deceptive laziness against the far wall. He was tall and handsome. Power oozed from him, radiated around him. At the moment his strange, molten-gold eyes were fixed on Desari, his attention seemingly consumed by her performance. But Darius was not deceived. This was a predator. Not necessarily evil, but he had come here hunting. And his prey was Desari. There was a hard edge to his mouth, a stark possessiveness reflected in the depths of those burning eyes. Darius knew this man was a dangerous adversary.

Julian’s eyes never once wavered from Desari’s face. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. On stage, in the midst of the rising theatrical fog and floodlights, she looked ethereal, mystical. A woman of erotic dreams, of fantasies. His body was completely still, nearly a part of the wall behind him, as if she had somehow absorbed every bit of his energy.

Darius moved closer, cloaking his presence as he did so. He stalked with the silent advance of the leopard, counting on the stranger’s being caught up in the spell Desari wove around her audience. He was within four rows of his destination when a soft warning growl stopped him in his tracks. He knew no one else had heard that low rumble. It was directed solely at him. The stranger hadn’t changed position, hadn’t taken his eyes off the stage, away from Desari, but Darius suddenly knew the stranger’s complete attention was centered on him.

On stage, Desari faltered, missing two lines of her song. Her heart was beating in her throat.
Oh, God, please do not do this
. Terror was in her voice, concern for him, for both of them.

Julian deliberately turned his head toward Darius and smiled, a show of gleaming white teeth. He straightened, his body fluid and supple. Two fingers touched his forehead in a mock salute directed at Darius. Muscles rippled suggestively beneath the thin T-shirt. He sauntered unhurriedly to the exit, arrogance in every step. His amber eyes glinted with menace until he swung his gaze back to Desari. Then his eyes burned possessively, intently, a molten gold that turned her to liquid heat.

For you
, cara mia. His voice moved through her body with the same inflammatory heat of his gaze.

Desari wanted to run after him. She stood on the stage and sang to a crowd of several thousand, but her mind
and her heart and soul were somewhere else. Dayan and Barack were watching her closely, puzzled, worried by her strange behavior. Desari had never faltered, never missed a beat in all their long centuries of singing on stage.

Darius followed the stranger out of the dome. The man was gone, dissolved into mist in the night air. Darius sensed him, felt the power in the air, but dared not leave his sister to pursue her pursuer. Something about the man gave him pause. He looked at Desari with more than lust in his gaze. More than possession. He looked at her protectively. Darius was nearly certain the stranger was not out to harm her. He was also certain the man had not left out of fear. Nothing would scare him. He walked with the confidence born of many battles, much hardship, and enormous knowledge.

Darius looked up into the night. Whoever the stranger was, he had left out of deference to Desari’s wishes, not because he feared a battle with Darius. Darius sighed and turned back to the dome. He did not need this worry at this time. The assassins stalking Desari required his full attention. It bothered him that his intruder had arrived on the very day someone had tried to kill her. And to make matters worse, Darius had been convinced for some time that the most evil of all enemies stalked his beloved sister—the undead.

Desari saw her brother return. Anxiously she studied his face. It was the same mask of harsh sensual beauty he always wore. He had no visible wounds. She was certain she would have felt the disturbance if the two men had fought. Her singing had always flowed from her, a beautiful creation as mysterious and wonderful to her as it was to everyone else. Now it was difficult to create, with her mind in chaos, her throat closing off, being so near to tears.

Where was he? Was he alive? Was he all right? She wanted to scream, to run off the stage, away from the thousands of prying eyes, away from her family who watched her so closely. She was uncertain for a moment if she could continue the concert.

Sing for me
, cara mia.
I love the sound of your voice. It is a miracle. You bring me peace and joy when you sing. You make my body burn as it never has before. Sing for me
.

The voice was low and husky, brushing away her inner chaos as if it had never been. Just like that her voice soared free, rising to fill the dome, to burst out into the night to find him. The feelings in her body, the pent-up passion, the wild hunger, the need of centuries poured into her voice. She was a living flame, moving across the stage like flowing water. Nothing could touch her; she was not of the earth.

Somewhere her lover waited. His eyes were on her. Watching. He was burning, too. She could feel the heat of his skin, the hungry eyes never leaving her face. He had left the dome, but he had returned because he needed to see her. Nothing else mattered at that moment. Not the danger to him, not her family, only that he see her perform. She sang for him, to him, the strength and intensity of her need in each note. The burning flame heating her blood took her music to new heights. Wildly erotic heights, whispering of silken sheets and candlelight.

Julian could not take his eyes from her. She was so beautiful, he could barely find it in him to breathe. This was the one? His lifemate? No one, least of all him, deserved such a woman. She reached into his dark soul and touched something good in him, something he hadn’t known existed.

In all the world, no one sang like she did. Her voice
was mesmerizing, enthralling; it wrapped one up in a silken web of passion and held him there. Julian’s body reacted in a savage, primitive manner. He wanted her as he had never wanted anything else in his existence. He wanted the concert over, yet he wanted it to go on for all time.

The walls of the dome seemed to have fallen away as she created the illusion of a dark, mystical forest, of cascading waterfalls, deep pools, and hungry fire with her voice alone. The images would never leave his mind, the erotic picture of her swimming to him, her arms eagerly outstretched to greet him.

The audience rose to their feet, their applause thunderous. Julian knew the reviews would be raving. He was proud of her, but at the same time he objected to her performance. Such publicity went against his every instinct. It would only serve to draw more unwanted attention to her. He knew what reporters would write. That she was an enchantress, weaving a spell over the audience.

Desari returned for one encore, tired but exhilarated. This time it wasn’t simply because she knew she had performed well, had shared her extraordinary gift with others. It was because, somewhere in the darkness, a man waited for her. A stranger already familiar to her. It was terrifying yet exciting. She took her bows, her body humming with life. She wanted to run off the stage, to join him.

She wanted to see those eyes. Those beautiful, unusual, oh, so hungry eyes watching her. Staring at her. Those eyes that saw only her. Desari waved to the crowd and hurried off stage, moving down the hall to her dressing room. Barack and Dayan paced at her side, uneasy because of her strange behavior. Both had felt the presence of power in the dome. Who could not? But they
had complete confidence in Darius. They would follow his lead, and so far, he was not hunting down the creature.

She didn’t look at either of them as she firmly closed the door to her dressing room. Sinking into a chair, she slipped off her sandals. She could feel him. Somewhere close. Desari rinsed off her stage makeup and waited, her heart beating, her lungs barely breathing. She knew he was near. Darius must know it, too.

A fine mist streamed under the door, collecting in a spiral close to her. She held her breath. Instantly the handsome, ruthless stranger shimmered into a solid mass beside her. Her heart slammed. Up close he was frightening. Enormously strong. His finely chiseled features were sensual, hard. His countless victories in battle over the centuries were in the set of his broad shoulders, in the grim composure of his face. He was strikingly handsome yet immeasurably intimidating at the same time.

Desari’s tongue touched her suddenly dry lips. “You should not be here. It is too dangerous.”

His body clenched at the sound of her voice. It was so soft, it seemed to seep through his skin to wrap around his heart. “I could do nothing other than see you tonight. I think you know that.”

“Darius would destroy you if he found you here.” She believed it, and her fear showed in her soft, charcoal eyes.

His hard mouth softened, his golden eyes warming at her needless concern. “I am not so easily destroyed. Do not worry,
piccola
, I have made a promise to you this night, and I fully intend to honor it.” His voice dropped another octave, his eyes consuming her as he spoke. “Come with me.”

She felt her heart jump again. Every cell in her body cried out to go. His gaze was a smoldering heat she
could not resist. There was so much hunger in him, such dark intensity, burning for her. The devil tempting her. Resolutely she shook her head. “Darius would—”

Julian stopped her words by simply enveloping her smaller hand with his. His touch sent darts of fire racing up her arm and through her torso, taking the very breath from her lungs. “I grow weary of hearing of this Darius. You should be more concerned with what I will do if he attempts to stop me from taking you with me.”

Temper flared in her eyes. “No one can take me anywhere I do not wish to go. You have as much arrogance in you as my brother does. I happen to know he has earned the right to it. Have you?”

A small, satisfied smile curved his mouth. “So this Darius is your brother. I find that something of a relief. As you hold him in some esteem, I did not want to have to destroy your illusions of his greatness.”

She glared at him, furious, until she caught the glint of humor in his golden eyes. He was teasing her. Desari found herself laughing with him.

“Come with me tonight,” he said. “We will go for a walk. Dance somewhere. It does not matter,
cara
, and we will be hurting no one.” His voice was black velvet. A sorcerer’s whisper of temptation. “Is this so much to ask of you? He does not allow you to choose your own friends? Do as you wish?”

Julian had looked into her mind, seen her need for independence, her constant chafing at the restraints put on her. Still, no self-respecting Carpathian male would ever allow a woman to wander around unprotected. He did not blame Darius; it was his duty to protect Desari. In his place, he would do the same. There were many unanswered questions to ask Desari, but right now, the only thing that mattered to him was her answer to the one he had posed.

She was silent, long lashes concealing her warring emotions. More than anything she wanted to go with him, have just one night of freedom to do as she liked. But she knew Darius. He would never allow such a thing. There was nowhere they could go that he would not find them. And that only served to make her want to go all the more. Her mysterious stranger had struck a nerve. She hated being constantly told what to do or not do. She wanted this one night just for herself.

Desari looked up at him. “I do not even know your name.”

He bowed with Old World elegance. “I am Julian Savage. Perhaps you have met or heard of my brother, Aidan Savage. He and his lifemate reside in San Francisco.” His white teeth gleamed. His golden eyes burned her.

Something in that intense, possessive, hungry gaze made her knees go weak. Desari pressed backward until she was against a solid wall to help hold her up. “Savage. Somehow it suits you.”

He acknowledged her words as if they were a great compliment, bowing once more at the waist in his courtly manner. “Only to my enemies,
piccola
, never to those under my protection.”

“Is that supposed to put me at ease?” she asked.

“You have nothing to fear from me, Desari.”

His hand brushed her face in the lightest of caresses; she felt a jolt of electricity right down to her toes. He was too intense, too hungry for her, his eyes burning with need. Desari lowered her lashes, trying to shut him out, trying to prevent him from trapping her with his power and need. This was so dangerous. Could she risk his life? Risk Darius for a momentary pleasure? Could she possibly be that selfish?

“I scare you to death.” He said it with certainty, his
voice soft and hypnotic, beautiful and soothing. “More than your fear for your brother or for me, you fear what will happen if you part from me.”

She took a deep breath, found her hands were trembling, and put them behind her back. “Perhaps you are right. Why risk so much for so short a time?”

His hand framed one side of her face, his thumb feathering over her soft skin, absorbing the perfection of it before finding a resting place over the frantically beating pulse in her neck.

Desari’s heart nearly stopped. Her words came out strangled. “You cannot touch me like this.”

His thumb moved back and forth in a hypnotic rhythm over her pulse. “I can do no other than touch you, De-sari. I am, after all, a Carpathian male. You cannot see yourself, in that dress you wear, with your hair tumbling around you. You are so beautiful, it hurts to look at you.”

“Julian, please do not say such things to me,” she whispered into his palm.

“It is only the truth,
cara
, nothing for you to fear. Come with me.”

His voice was such temptation. She had never wanted anything more in her life. The pull between them was electric. She swore she could hear it sizzle and arc. She stood there in silence, his hand against her skin sending waves of heat rushing through her blood. In all her centuries she had never experienced such a thing.

“Desari, you know it is right. You feel it. I promise to return you to your family safe and sound this rising.” Julian was aware of the men gathering outside her door. Three of them. One was her formidable brother, the other two members of the band. “We do not have much time,
piccola
. The others are about to break through the
door.” He waved a hand in a peculiar pattern, then held his palm out toward the door.