Dark Melody (11 page)

"In all honesty, Lisa, I think someone
was
in the house, and I'm certain we're in danger. But if you want to handle the situation by going to the police, then that's what we'll do." Corinne watched Dayan carefully as she gave her reply.

His black eyes swept her face, then rested there thoughtfully. Corinne lifted her chin in defiance. He was nothing to her. What could he do?

Amusement crept into the depths of his eyes as he read her thoughts.
'I am everything to you, honey. You
will know that in time, and there is much I can do if it is needed.'
His words brushed at her mind, a sensual velvet caress, wrapped in warm humor. His strong teeth scraped gently, almost tenderly over her knuckles.

"That's exactly what I think we should do," Lisa said, glaring triumphantly at Dayan. If he thought for one minute she was going to let him walk in and take over Corinne's life because he was a good-looking musician, he was in for a surprise.

Dayan shrugged his broad shoulders, a lazy ripple of muscle. He had deliberately safeguarded Lisa from the mesmerizing effect he had on humans; now he thought he might have done too good a job of it. Prompted by her protective instincts and her fear of losing Corinne, Lisa was reacting with outright hostility toward him. Corinne loved Lisa and considered her family. Dayan couldn't have Lisa so antagonistic toward him.

"Lisa." He said her name very gently, very softly, commanding her attention. There was something hypnotic about his voice, something impossible to ignore.

"Dayan." Cullen made it a protest.

Lisa couldn't look away from those demanding black eyes. They were empty, fathomless; she found herself falling forward into them. Why was she afraid of him? Dayan had her best interests at heart. He would protect Corinne with his very life, protect Lisa. He was trustworthy, completely so. Why had she ever doubted him? Everything he said was the truth. They were in terrible danger and they needed to leave with him.

Suddenly furious, Corinne attempted to reach around Dayan to grab Lisa's shoulder. She had a feeling that his brooding black eyes were working black magic. He was a wicked sorcerer bent on having his way. Dayan restrained her easily, a casual move of his body that was almost no movement at all. He wrapped his arms around her slender shoulders and pulled her back against his chest. "And just what do you think you are going to do, honey, leap out of bed and run away? Your running days are over." His lips were against the nape of her neck, his warm breath stirring tendrils of hair and causing a minor earthquake somewhere deep inside her.

Corinne forced herself to lean forward and away from him. She knew he had used his psychic gifts to influence Lisa. It angered her that he would do so. She knew Cullen realized it too, yet he was simply standing there, watching her reaction. "Let go, Dayan. I want to get up." She resisted the desire to dump her tea on him. "I think we should call the police, Lisa. Absolutely. In any case, I don't want to stay here." And she wouldn't. Who was Dayan anyway? Nothing to her.

'Everything to you,'
he repeated, his voice calm, tranquil even, as it brushed in her mind. His arms unlocked, releasing her, and at once she felt bereft. That annoyed her more than ever. Dayan casually helped her to her feet, his obsidian eyes laughing as she shoved his hands away from her.

"I'm not sure," Lisa said thoughtfully. "What do you think, Cullen? You know these people. Do you think we're really in danger? Can the police help us?" She looked up at him, her heart in her eyes.

Corinne nearly groaned aloud. She took a breath, determined to save Lisa from whatever black-magic spell Dayan had placed her under. The palm of his hand slipped gently over her mouth, and he pulled her back into the hard frame of his body. "Let them figure it out together. I want to talk with you." He breathed the words against the nape of her neck even as he walked her out of the room, his body hot and hard, so needy against hers.

The moment they were outside in the cool evening air, Corinne wrenched herself away from him, then turned to glare at him. "You had no right to do that to her. And don't even try to play innocent."

He didn't look at all remorseful as his possessive gaze drifted over every inch of her. "You are even more beautiful than I remember from last night. When I woke, I thought I might have dreamed you up. My night fantasy."

His voice was mesmerizing, so beautiful Corinne found herself wanting to hear him speak more. She wished he had his guitar in his hands so she could listen to him sing. No one had ever called her a night fantasy before. She was certain she wasn't beautiful, but he made her
feel
beautiful. For a moment she could only stand there, blinking up at him, caught in his spell.

Corinne bit her lower lip hard to wake herself up. "You must have been a poet in another life. Or a gigolo. Stay on track here, Dayan. I'm not letting you off the hook."

"I did not want your friend to be falsely attracted to me," he said quietly, without any embellishment, yet modestly, almost humbly. "Sometimes women think they want me just because I am performing on stage. I will admit to you, I influence them to turn away from me. Perhaps I did so a little too strongly in her case."

Corinne was astonished that he'd told her the truth. When he looked at her with those black eyes, his hair tumbling onto his forehead, all she could think about was kissing him. "Did you make her want to be with Cullen?" she asked suspiciously.

"I would not do such a thing." A mischievous grin softened the edges of his mouth. "I did send Cullen to your table. The moment you walked in, I knew you were the one who held the other half of my heart."

She tilted her chin at him. "Are you influencing me?"

"I hope so. I want you. I need you in my life. I am not using mind control on you, but I am attempting to be
very
charming. Is it working?"

He could melt a woman's heart at sixty paces. "No." She said it very firmly, but inside she was doing a slow burn. "I don't want you influencing Lisa in any way. It makes me very uncomfortable."

"I know you love her, Corinne," he said softly. "Anyone who is family to you is my family. I would not do anything to harm her or belittle her worth. I will protect her as if she were my own sister."

Corinne took a deep breath and forced herself to look away from him. Staring into the gathering darkness, she tapped out a nervous rhythm with her bare foot. "You can't feel this way about me so fast, Dayan. The truth is, I'm not going to live very long. I'm not saying that to make you feel sorry for me; it's a fact. I've faced it, but Lisa hasn't. You need to be practical, Dayan. It's hard enough with Lisa pretending all the time – I feel like I have to protect her from the truth. I don't want you to be that way too." For no reason at all she felt tears burning behind her eyes. Not for herself – she had gone beyond dreaming – but for him, for that utter loneliness she occasionally glimpsed in the depths of his eyes.

Dayan caught her chin firmly in his fingers, forcing her to face his glittering black eyes burning with such intensity. "You will not die, honey. I will not allow such a thing. Make up your mind to live in this world, because you
will
share your life with me. I will allow nothing less."

"You don't understand, Dayan," she replied gently. "The doctors – "

"Are human," he interrupted. "And they are very much mistaken. I agree we will take precautions until such time as one of our healers can examine you, but you will
not
die. Is that perfectly clear? You do understand me in this, and you will obey."

She found herself laughing at his sheer arrogance despite the gravity of their conversation. "Dayan, you can't just command someone to live. I have a bad heart; I've had it for years. I'm carrying a child. My heart isn't going to last forever."

His black gaze bore straight into hers until she felt as if he were taking possession of her, forcing compliance in some way. "You will obey me in this." There was absolute authority in his voice.

The smile faded from Corinne's soft mouth so that her intriguing dimple simply melted away. "I promise to do my best, Dayan," she capitulated solemnly.

He bent his dark head to hers, his mouth brushing the top of her silky head. "It is always better to see things my way," he said with great satisfaction.

Chapter 5

Corinne pulled away from Dayan, a delicate retreat. The slightest contact with him sent a shiver of anticipation down her spine, turned her insides to mush. "You're a bit on the arrogant side, but I doubt I'm the first person to tell you that." She glanced over her shoulder at him, teasing, enticing, without realizing her heart was in her eyes.

He felt the breath slam right out of his lungs. He glided after her, a great jungle cat stalking his prey. Silent. Intense. His gaze fixed on her face as she backed away. Corinne forgot they were on a porch and stepped off the platform without looking. Somehow Dayan managed to catch her. She blinked, and that fast he was cradling her safely in his arms. "Fortunately for you, I can live up to my reputation. Look where you are going next time." Deliberately he flashed his immaculate white teeth at her, displaying masculine amusement at her predicament.

Corinne raised her eyebrow, managing to look haughty even while cradled in his arms. "How did you do that? How could you move fast enough to catch me?"

"I am a superhero," he confessed soberly. "I never told you because I feared you would not like men in capes. Mine is very traditional, but nice all the same."

She laughed so hard she had to clutch at his shoulder, afraid she might fall out of his arms. "You'd like me to believe you're a superhero. I want to see the all-important cape. You can't be a superhero without one." She liked being in his arms. She
loved
being in his arms. He was enormously strong, yet surprisingly gentle. He could say the most outrageous things with a straight face and innocent black eyes. She looked up at him from under her long lashes. "You need tights to be a superhero too. Bright blue tights," Corinne pointed out wickedly.

One black eyebrow shot up eloquently. "Tights?" He repeated the word as if it were not in his vocabulary. "Blue tights?"

She tried to look serious but she couldn't stop laughing and her heart was beginning to hurt. A hard, painful weight was pressing down on her, squeezing the air from her lungs so that she wanted not to gasp for air. Corinne looked away from him, not wanting him to see the struggle. It was amazing to her that she could be so happy, could forget everything so completely in his company. Her body had to remind her it was wearing out fast. Corinne blinked back sudden tears and buried her face against his shoulder.

Dayan remained silent, allowing his heart to find the scattered, irregular rhythm of hers and slowly guide it back to normal. He cleared his mind of desperation, finding a calm center and reached across time and space as his kind could do.
'Darius. My need for the healer increases. I do not think I have much time.'
There was a moment of time, a heartbeat of silence.

Dayan never doubted, not even in his desperation. Darius's gentle voice flowed into his mind, flooded him with conviction.
'Two of our greatest healers are making their way to the Cascades. We will meet you there. We will not fail you, Dayan.'
He took the directions straight from Darius's mind, learning the way to a safe house owned by one of the Carpathians' greatest healers, Gregori, and his wife, Savannah, daughter of their Prince.
'I thank you for moving
so
quickly. All is well with you?'

'Yes. The women are anxious to see you and your lifemate.'

Dayan took comfort in Darius's voice and words. In his long lifetime, Dayan had never known Darius to fail at a task. If he gave his word about something, it was done. They were family. They had traveled together for nearly a thousand years. To know that his family was mobilizing swiftly, moving to help him save his lifemate, gave him added confidence it could be done. They would find a way to save her. If possible, the child also, but it was imperative they save Corinne. Without her, Dayan could not continue. He would not want to face the darkness and the emptiness. Wherever she traveled, he would choose to be at her side, to protect and guard her in the next life.

It was only after a few minutes of breathing normally that Corinne realized their hearts were beating with the same rhythm. Keeping her head pillowed on his shoulder, she looked up at him with her large green eyes. "Where are you? You've gone very solemn and serious on me."

"I was 'talking' with my brother."

"He's telepathic too?" Corinne lifted her head to look at him more closely. "Put me down, Dayan. I'm really capable of walking without breaking my neck. It must have been wonderful to grow up with someone who shared your talent."

Dayan shrugged his powerful shoulders, a lazy ripple of muscle. "I never thought about it. All of us are telepathic. The entire family." Reluctantly he lowered her feet to the ground.

"Do you think it's genetic, then?" Corinne pressed her hands protectively over her baby, suddenly afraid for her. Her own life had been at times very difficult because of her special gifts. She knew she wouldn't be around to protect and reassure her child when times were hard.

Dayan's hands framed her face. "I call the Troubadours my family because we've been together since we were small children, but only Darius and Desari are truly brother and sister. Syndil, Barack and I are related the way you and Lisa are related. The ties are stronger than blood."

"Of course, the members of your band. They all have interesting names."

Dayan laughed softly. "I forget what a serious little fan you are. You have inflated my ego for all time."

"A serious little fan," she echoed, her eyes beginning to smolder with hidden fire. She tossed her head, the copper highlights in her hair sizzling from the walkway light as it came on automatically. "I'll have you know that it isn't
you
I'm a fan of, but
music.
There is a difference, you know. Don't get me wrong – " She held up her hand to ward him off as he advanced rather purposefully on her. She found herself laughing again, watching his eyes glinting at her. "You've convinced me to be a fan. Really, you have. I'll stare adoringly at you next time you play." She batted her eyelashes and fanned herself. "I could act the perfect little groupie if your ego needs a boost."