Carpathian 05 - Dark Challenge

surface again. She sensed a deep pain in Julian and did not attempt to probe his thoughts in so sensitive an area. She chose her words carefully. "Were there harsh words between you?"
    "There is blood between us, Desari. As your brother can track you, so it is that we can track one another." Julian sighed and shoved a hand through his hair. "The majority of our males refuse to share blood with one another for the simple reason that each male knows it is inevitable, without a lifemate, that he must choose to end his life or lose his soul for all eternity and become the vampire. It is much easier to track those you have shared blood with, particularly for a hunter."
    Desari took a deep breath. Julian had some terrible secret he wouldn't share with her. "Have you shared your blood with others, Julian?" She asked.
    Julian grinned at her, his white teeth gleaming. "You have only to search my mind for the answer, cara mia ."
    He was tempting her, a blatant seduction to enter his mind and know him in the most intimate way. It bound them closer every time they merged. She could feel it, his mind becoming more familiar with each touch. Her mind craved the touch of his, the need growing inside her in the same way the need for sharing his body was growing. It was an ember smoldering, the flame spreading, a dark heat she knew she would be unable to resist. Yet somewhere in his mind, buried deep, was a shadow, too painful, that he refused to share.
    Desari glanced away from him toward the thick forest. Freedom was so close. Julian wasn't touching her, not even in her mind; he was simply standing there beside her. Tall. Muscular. Sinfully beautiful. With a pain in him buried so deep, he could only wonder if she could ever find it and eradicate it. His golden eyes blazed at her with hunger and need, drawing her to him. Her heart turned over, and she knew she was lost.
    "I have shared blood on more than one occasion, little one, although, because I am a well-known hunter, my help has been often refused. Should the one receiving it turn, I could track him with ease to destroy him." As he said the words aloud, he remembered anew, too, why few males with lifemates hunted the undead. To protect one's lifemate, the hunter could very well hesitate to go into a vicious battle that might destroy him and lead his lifemate, in inconsolable pain, to destroy herself.
    An ideal hunter was one with longevity, knowledge, skill, ruthlessness, and power. Such a one had little hope of finding his mate, so the loss of his own life was not something to be feared. With a lifemate, if the male hunter were to be killed, his lifemate would likely choose to greet the dawn. And their race could not survive the loss of even one of their women. Julian had heard of only one case where a lifemate survived without the other. The female died, and the male became vampire, wreaking havoc in the Carpathian mountains, striking at everyone he held responsible, going so far as to murder his own son and attempt to murder his daughter's lifemate, knowing it would end her life as well, Desari put a gentle hand on his arm, finally touching his mind to find what thoughts had made him grow so still and distant. She saw the memory of Julian slowly approaching a handsome man. The man had haunted black eyes, eyes that had seen far too much. The eyes of a man who had been tortured beyond endurance. Brutally wounded, dripping precious blood, he had watched Julian's approach with wary, Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    dangerous eyes. She watched as Julian spoke softly, easily extending his arm to the man that he might live with the blood of an ancient flowing in his veins. Jacques. Mikhail's brother. Lifemate to one whose father had murdered her brother, betrayed their people to human assassins, tortured her husband, tried to kill her . She caught that much before Julian wiped the memory from his mind and caught her chin with his strong fingers.
    Her dark eyes immediately were held captive by his golden ones. "We will work this out to both our satisfactions, Desari," he promised softly. "Come with me. You need to feed this night before we leave this place with the others. And I need to feel your body, touch you, know you are really mine and not someone I dreamed up in desperation."
    There was such an intensity to his need, everything else was swept from Desari's mind. Heat sizzled and danced along her skin, arcing between them like