Carpathian 05 - Dark Challenge

that the flames danced for a moment over his stained skin, burning the tainted blood from his hands and arms. Barack took possession of the white-hot ball of energy and ran it around Syndil's waist where he had touched her, cleansing her of any tainted blood staining her clothes. He tossed the fire back to Julian before turning his entire attention to the woman who had shown so much courage.
    "Are you hurt?" Syndil asked him softly, ignoring the other two Carpathians as if they didn't exist. Her fingertips brushed Barack's arm, and she tried not to show how his denial of their relationship distressed her. If he chose, after all these years, to reject the ties between them, she was not going to let him see how bad it made her feel. She could only suspect it was because Savon had raped her, and Barack could not accept her anymore. Perhaps he thought she had brought the assault on herself in some way.
    Barack had not been the same since the attack on her. He had spent a great deal of time in the ground avoiding her and the others. Now he seemed sober and stern, so unlike his earlier, easygoing self. He watched her like a hawk, almost as if he didn't trust her, or as if she were a fledgling not to be trusted to care for herself properly. She wanted to weep and run off and hide again, but something in her refused to leave Barack in such a state, with so many lacerations.
    Syndil lifted her chin but refused to meet his eyes. "Let me heal you, Barack. It will take but a few minutes."
    Finally he took her elbow and led her away from the other two men. Julian and Darius watched them walk off. Julian glanced down at the body of the vampire and then up at Darius. "I guess we have Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    clean-up duty." He directed the flames toward the undead. As he always did when the vampire destroyed was not the ancient he sought, he experienced a deep letdown.
    But this time he wasn't alone. From the concert hall Desari sent him warmth, love, her beautiful, haunting voice wrapping him up and holding him close to her heart.
    Darius had been ensuring they were alone in the hallway, keeping humans away while Barack destroyed the vampire. "Barack has never before fought the undead. He has never even shown interest in hunting.
    Yet he was here before either of us."
    Julian nodded thoughtfully. "Is it really a surprise?"
    Darius shrugged his broad shoulders. "Barack has always stayed close to Syndil. He often protects her.
    As young children they were inseparable. Lately, though, she is so withdrawn that no one can get close to her, not even Desari."
    "She spends far too much time in the form of the leopard. There is no way she will recover from her trauma if she does not face it," Julian replied casually.
    Darius nodded. "She trusts no man. It seems a miracle she answered your call and aided us in persuading Barack to leave the vampire to his fate. She does not like to be close to any of us males."
    "I do not think one can blame her," Julian said distractedly. Already he felt the need to be with Desari.
    He could touch her mind at will, see what she was seeing through her eyes, look into her mind, but he was still uneasy without her in his actual sight. Desari standing so vulnerable in front of such a large crowd brought out the worst in him. His need to protect her was so incredibly strong, he found himself fighting his own deeply ingrained primitive instincts. He went quickly to the concert hall.
    She was so beautiful, she took his breath away. He watched the way she moved, gentle and flowing, her hips swaying, her long hair cascading like waves of silk down her back to brush around her slender body, drawing attention to curves and hollows. He wanted to carry her off to some secluded spot for all time, out of danger, away from prying eyes. He wanted to listen to her voice for eternity and watch her smile and light up the spaces around her.
    At once, even in the midst of her laughing softly into the microphone, seemingly totally bonded with the crowd, he felt the brush of her fingertips at the nape of his neck, and hot flames engulfed his gut and clenched his muscles so that he stood still, shocked at the power of her touch over him. He had spent an eternity feeling empty, a gaping hole in his very soul, so that what little compassion and gentleness he had once experienced had slowly seeped away, lost to him. She had brought back his emotions, his joy in life. He had always