Carpathian 03 - Dark Gold

pierced her eyes, and her skin blistered, smoke swirling around her as she burned. She didn't know if she screamed because of the pain or because Aidan had told the truth. This agonizing reaction was not the result of a hypnotic suggestion.
    
    Stefan tore off his shirt, flung it over her head, and lifted her collapsing body into his arms, rushing her back into the safety of the house. Marie was sobbing, reaching anxiously for her, but Aidan got there first, dragging her out of Stefan's arms, cradling her against his chest. For a moment there was absolute silence as he laid his head on top of hers, his eyes closed, his heart pounding, his soul scarred.
    
    "Never again." He hissed the words aloud. Never again , cara, will I allow this kind of defiance . He repeated the warning in her mind, meaning it, swearing it. He was frightened for her. Furious with her. Furious with himself. The emotions swirled and flared within him until the conflagration was nearly out of control.
    
    She could feel his rage beating at her, in her. His arms were like steel bars as he held her.
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    "I am in your debt, Stefan," he said simply, his voice, as always, calm and peaceful, at terrible odds with the rage like a living entity inside him.
    
    He swung around and was gone, his supernatural speed blurring their movement to human eyes.
    Alexandria heard the bang of the basement door as they moved into the narrow stone hall leading to the sleeping chamber, but Aidan himself made no sound. None. Not even the sound of breathing.
    
    Alexandria remained quite still. Her pain was tremendous, her blisters large and ugly. Aidan was careful not to jar her burns, careful not to hurt her. She was beyond caring. She knew something terrible was about to happen. Aidan, always so cool and calm, was a seething cauldron of black emotion.
    
    The walls of the tunnel rushed by, a blur of granite, then Aidan was placing her on the bed and turning away from her. She sat up carefully. "You're very angry with me," she said softly.
    
    He didn't reply, instead busying himself crushing herbs in a bowl made of agate. She could smell their fragrance rising. Then he lit candles, and a smoky aroma mixed with the scents of the herbs.
    
    Alexandria swallowed hard and lifted her chin in defiance. "I'm not afraid of you, Aidan. What can you do? Kill me? I believe I'm already dead. Or at least living some kind of life I don't want.
    Will you take Joshua away? Threaten him? Harm him? I've been in your mind, and I don't think you are like that," she said bravely.
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    He turned his head slowly, his golden eyes resting on her face. A chill went down her spine.
    Those eyes were soulless, ice-cold.
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    "You do not know the first thing about me, Alexandria. Nor have you taken the trouble to learn.
    Do not presume to fight me. You are a mere fledging, I one of the ancients of our people. You have no conception of the power I wield. I can make the earth move beneath your feet and the lightning crack above your head. I can call the fog and become invisible." There was no boasting in his tone, just fact. Just black velvet. "I can do things you cannot imagine."

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    
    Alexandria felt the permanent link he had forged between them, and she could feel his rage, black and terrible, seething below the surface. "What I did today, I did to myself," she whispered.
    
    He moved toward her, looming large, towering over her, an invincible figure, powerful beyond imagining. "You betrayed me. You betrayed Joshua. I told you what would happen if you went out into the sun. You pretended to yourself that you would see if I was telling the truth. But you already knew it was the truth. You took a chance on destroying yourself, leaving Joshua to strangers, to an uncertain future without protection."
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    "You would protect him."
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    "Without you, my existence is no more. We are linked, in life and death. If you choose death, you are choosing death for both of us."
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    Her hands were trembling as she swept back her hair. "That can't be."
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    "You do not wish it to be," he corrected her, and he took possession of her right arm. "But it is so. I do not lie to you, Alexandria. I have allowed you a certain amount of resistance, but only because this is all new to you."
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    The gel he began smearing over her arm was cool and soothing. "You're saying I don't have a choice. That I've never had a