Dark Fire (22 page)

It was becoming easier for her to do, but she didn't want to take any chances on distracting him, the very thing he had said not to do.

Tempest felt him then. She felt his entry into her body, pure energy moving through her, like an inner light, examining her, warm and soothing. In her mind she heard a voice. Soft, comforting, it whispered like butterfly wings in her mind. The words were none that she knew. Still, she knew she had heard them before. A chant. She tried to distinguish individual sounds, but it was impossible. She received only impressions, like silvery bells, like water skipping over rocks in a brook, like a gentle breeze floating through the leaves of a tree.

Her skin was warm. Her insides were warm. The soles of her feet ceased to sting and actually felt good. Whatever Darius was doing was obviously working, and she wondered at how he was able to heal as he did. At that moment he seemed a perfect miracle to her.

Darius returned to his own body and gazed down at Tempest's beautiful face. She looked very young, and he felt like a criminal, knowing she had no way to fight him, no way to fight his claim on her. He had made certain of that. She had no idea what the ritual entailed, and perhaps the truth was, neither did he. But Darius felt the difference, in himself, the difference the words he had uttered, binding them together, had caused.

He no longer had any choice in the matter. He had to be with her, near her. He knew they could not be comfortably apart for any length of time. Whatever those words had wrought, it was out of their hands now. They had to abide by the results.

Darius touched her face with a gentle fingertip, "Do you feel better, Tempest?" He knew she did. His mind was becoming accustomed to slipping in and out of hers, and he could feel the relief in her body. He had even soothed her feminine core, so that his wild, rather primitive taking of her would not make her sore.

She nodded solemnly. "It's incredible that you can do such a thing. Can you imagine what it would mean to the world if humans could learn to heal like that? Perhaps we really could cure cancer. Think of the good that could come of it. We wouldn't need drugs, Darius."

"It is not a human way of healing, Tempest."

"But you healed me, so it can be done on humans. Maybe you should become a doctor instead of a bodyguard. You could help so many suffering people."

She meant it. The compassion in her was overriding her good sense. Darius leaned over her, and his hand spanned her throat possessively. "I am not human, little love. If those people you want me to heal knew me as I am, they would drive a stake through my heart. You know it is so. I cannot have intimate dealings with humans. No close encounters. Desari entertains humans because she has the voice of an angel and can do no other. Ceasing to do so would make her unhappy, so I must protect her. But I do not deal closely with these people."

Her hand slid over his, and a small smile curved her soft mouth, melting a dimple into her right cheek. "I am human, Darius, and you deal quite well with me."

"You are different."

"No, I'm not," she protested. "I'm just like everyone else."

"You saw the beast in me first, Tempest. You relate to animals. You instinctively accepted my primitive nature. You know I am a predator, more animal than man. We Carpathian men are a combination of the two. You alone among humans understand and accept that."

"You think and reason like a human," she said, sitting up and pushing back her hair, which hung heavy in the humidity of the cavern. She was sweating again, little beads dotting her skin. She looked around for her clothes, so tired she couldn't remember what she'd done with them. "You're more like a human than you think, Darius."

Darius gathered her against him and cuddled her close. "You want me to be human because it is easier for you to deal with that thought." A note of censure tinged his voice.

Tempest pushed at the wall of his chest, then thumped him for good measure with her fist. "Don't give me that attitude. You know at this point I could care less if you're some weird creature from this underground chamber from hell. I know you know that. You've been in my mind the same way I've been in yours. You know what I think of you. I find you intriguing. And, actually, you're not half bad."

"You find me sexy," he corrected and kissed her nose.

She pushed him away and got to her feet, swaying a little with weariness. "Don't let it go to your head. I also find you a pain in the butt." She was wandering around the cave, seemingly inspecting the floor.

Darius got up with a sigh and followed her. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for my clothes."

"You do not need your clothes." He said it very decisively.

"Darius, if you make love to me one more time, I think I might just die. Since we can't have that, it's much safer to find my clothes."

He caught her hand and led her back to the little alcove. "You do not even know what you are saying or doing anymore." Another wave of his hand produced two pillows.

Tempest yawned. "I'm really tired, Darius. I love talking to you, but both of us need to face the facts. Even if you're not human, I am. I have no idea what time it is, but I need to sleep."

He smiled at her, a teasing flash of his teeth. "What do you think I've made up this bed for? This is one of my retreats. I sleep here."

"I gathered that. But you need to take me back."

"Back where?"

Something in his voice warned her. Her green eyes fixed on his face. There was a stillness in him she didn't like. She could hear her heart pounding. "I want to get out of here. You can sleep here, and I'll sleep in the campground, in whatever vehicle they left for us. I don't care. I can sleep under a tree."

"There is no chance, honey, that I will allow you to sleep apart from me." He said it casually, as if it wasn't a big deal to sleep with an entire mountain-a volcano, at that-crushing down on her. He reached out and shackled her wrist. Not hard. Lightly. A loose bracelet of fingers, no more, but it was a warning all the same.

"You can't mean for me to sleep here," Tempest protested, jerking away from him. "Stay under the earth all day while you sleep? I can't do it, Darius. Not even for you."

"You will sleep beside me where I know you are safe, Tempest," he said in his soft, implacable way.

She backed away from him, visibly pale. "I can't, Darius. When you're distracting me, I don't feel as if I'm suffocating, but I could never lie here in utter darkness and try to sleep. I can't see the way you can. If the candles melted down or a draft made them go out, I would go insane. I'd feel buried alive. I'm not like you. I'm human."

"I will not take you to the surface and leave you on your own. Each time I allow you freedom, something happens to you." Her fear was beating at him. He touched her mind, found desperation, panic. "You will not awaken, Tempest. You think I cannot ensure this? I can command the earth itself should I choose to do so. I can create storms, tidal waves, set lava boiling. Why would I be unable to see that you rest beside me undisturbed?"

The tip of her tongue touched her lower lip. Her eyes were wild with fear. "We need to meet up with the others, Darius. I can drive all day. You can sleep and meet me wherever the designated campsite is. I'll be there, I promise."

He rose slowly, his body relentlessly masculine. He moved with fluid grace, a predator's rippling power, toward her. She actually backed away from him, her hand going up between them for protection. Darius stopped immediately, his black gaze on that small, fragile hand. It was trembling.

He sighed softly. "I cannot allow this to continue, Tempest. I have attempted to allow you as much freedom as you need, but we have to have a balance between us. I cannot risk your life, yet when I ask your permission, give you explanations, your fear only grows. If I take command of you as I should, you would feel no fear, no risk. Do you see that you are giving me no choice?"

He moved then, his speed so blinding that he was on her before she blinked, before she was aware of the impending danger. She struck at him blindly, struggling against his superior strength, her mind in chaos. "How could you do this after what we shared?" she demanded, her voice so fearful that he felt his heart melting.

He detested frightening her, even though he knew it was for her own protection. Nothing would happen to her here. The mountain wouldn't crush her. She could breathe the air with no problem. Her frantic blows were no more to him than the batting of butterfly wings, yet each struck to his heart.

"You said you wouldn't hurt me," she continued even as he wrapped her in his strong arms and held her to comfort her. "You said you would always see to my happiness. You lied to me, Darius. The one thing I believed was that I could always trust you, trust your word to me."

Her words were like small blows to his soul. Did she believe that of him, that he would lie to get his way with her? He hated that she was afraid, but what other choice did he have? "I have not lied to you. It is my duty to see to your health, to see to your protection. I can do no other than ensure your safety."

"Darius, I don't care what you are, what kind of power you wield. I will fight you with my last breath for my freedom. You have no right to dictate to me, even in matters of safety. You don't. You can't 'allow' me to do anything. It's my free choice. I won't have it."

Darius regarded her passionate face calmly. He simply held her wrists pinned together, seemingly undisturbed by her outburst. "Be calm, honey, and breathe deeply. Your fear of being beneath the mountain is overcoming your reason."

"I won't stay here with you, Darius. I mean it. I'll go away, so far away you'll never find me," she threatened, her emerald eyes swimming with tears, sparkling like gems.

His face hardened perceptibly, his perfect mouth all at once edged with cruelty. "That will never happen, Tempest. There is nowhere you can go that I cannot find you. I would come for you, and I would never stop until I retrieved you. You are the very air I breathe. You are my light. The colors in my world. There is no life without you. I will never go back to emptiness, to darkness. You and I are tied together, so we have no choice but to find a way to make this work. Am I making myself clear?"

"Perfectly clear. You intend to be a dictator, and you expect me to be a puppet. It isn't going to happen, Darius. I've been in your head; you're not the type of man to beat a woman because she defies him."

His free hand slid to the nape of her neck, a light, caressing touch that sent a responsive shiver down her spine and started a fire in her abdomen. It angered her that he could do that-with one touch send her body into flames even as he was denying her rights. She could not let him do this to her. She wasn't weak; she wasn't the type to give in simply because he made her knees weak.

"I do not have to beat a woman to make her do what is necessary for her own protection." He said it softly, his voice velvet soft, mesmerizing. "You are not my puppet, honey. I would never want you to be. Do you not realize that it is your courage I admire? But I cannot allow you to place yourself in danger." His arms slipped around her from behind, circled her slender body, and drew her tight against him. "The hour grows late, Tempest. I need to sleep. I want you to lie down beside me and sleep, too. Nothing will wake you. Nothing will harm you."

"I can't breathe down here," Tempest said desperately, wiping at the tears spilling onto her lashes and running down her face. "Darius, let me go. Please let me go."

He lifted her struggling body as if she were no more than a child and buried his face in her neck for a moment, savoring her scent, the feel of her skin. "There is no need to fear this place, honey. It is a place of healing." His voice dropped an octave, taking on a compelling, hypnotic rhythm. "You will sleep in my arms, sleep until I call your name and awaken you."

Darius lifted his head so that his black eyes could stare directly into her green ones, so that he could trap her gaze in his black ice. Mesmerizing. Relentless. She could not pull her gaze away no matter how strong her will. He felt her resistance and admired her for it, but he was unyielding. This he could not give her. He would have to face her on the next rising, but this day she would be safe.

Chapter Ten

"This is all we have." The photograph was tossed on the table. It was of a slender young redhead standing in a stream with her arms outstretched. She was laughing, her face turned up toward the sun, while hundreds of butterflies fluttered around her.

"Matthew Brodrick is dead. The police say there's no question but that it was a suicide. But I say differently. Matt was one of us. He knew what he was up against. He wouldn't have taken pictures of just anybody." Brady Grand drummed his fingers alongside the photograph, then tapped it twice. "This woman knows something. This stream is the same stream where Matt's body was found."

"Come on, Brady," Cullen Tucker protested. "Look at that picture. It's full sun. Broad daylight. No way is that woman a vampire."

Grand's cold eyes traveled around the circle of men.

"I didn't say she was, only that she knew something. For all I know, she was helping Matt. Find her, and we can get at the truth."

"The'truth' is, we haven't gotten anywhere," Cullen snarled. "You say this band is a group of vampires. The only 'proof you've offered so far is some obscure quotation based on the Persian word
Dara,
referring to the troupe's Singer, Desari."

A low murmur of approval went around the room. Then the others shifted nervously. No one wanted to cross Brady Grand outright; he was just too mean. But they had lost six men in the first attempt against the band, excellent marksmen, and now they'd lost Matt Brodrick.

Brady looked around at the others. "Is that what you think? That I'm wrong about these creatures? What of the fact that we sent six military-trained assassins to kill supposedly defenseless civilians, and all our soldiers ended up dead, the creatures still alive and well? Tell me how that happened, Cullen. You tell me how some simple security guard single-handedly destroyed all six of our men and their remains. They had a foolproof escape plan but disappeared. They sprayed the stage with bullets, yet the band members were relatively unhurt. Explain that, Cullen, because I don't see how it's possible."