Carpathian 06 - Dark Fire

herself into. When Desari said the words aloud, she knew terror was waiting a heartbeat away to claim her. She bit down hard on her lower lip. Both women heard her suddenly pounding heart. She was human, not Carpathian, and she didn't feel safe in their world.
    Desari sank to her knees in front of Tempest. "Please do not fear us," she said softly, persuasively. "You are our sister, one of us. No one in our family would harm you. Indeed, Darius would give his life for you.
    He is giving his life for you." Her dark eyes filled with tears.
    Tempest's green eyes widened at Desari's obvious distress, her choice of words. "What do you mean, he's giving his life for me?"
    "We Carpathians have great longevity, Rusti; that is both our blessing and our curse. Because you are his life-mate, yet mortal, Darius will choose the human way of things. He will grow old and die with you rather than remain an immortal," Desari explained gently.
    "Already he shows signs of stress," Syndil added. "He is refusing to go to ground to sleep properly."
    "What does that mean?" Tempest asked, curious. Darius often used that phrase, but she still wasn't certain exactly what it meant.
    "The soil is healing to our people," Desari said. "Our bodies require sleep in a different way than yours.
    We must shut down our heart and lungs to rejuvenate ourselves. Without doing that, we cannot sustain our full strength. Darius is our protector. He is the one who must face the human assassins and hunt the undead who threaten us. Unless he goes to ground as he must, he will lose his great power."
    Tempest felt her breath catch in her lungs. The thought of Darius in trouble was frightening. "Why doesn't he just go to sleep the way he's supposed to? He spends the entire time driving me crazy, always talking to me, giving me orders, and mixing in a threat or two just to keep things interesting."
    "Darius would never leave you unprotected. He could not. You are his lifemate. He cannot be apart from you."
    Tempest sighed, enjoying the way the two women made her feel, as if she belonged in their family circle.
    "Well, he'll just have to get over it already. I'll insist he go to sleep the way he's supposed to. If he won't, I'll have no choice but to leave."
    Desari shook her head. "You still do not understand. Darius can never be apart from you. It would destroy him. Do not think that anything will change if you attempt to leave him. He will only put a tighter leash on you, Rusti. He has never once, in all the centuries of his existence, wanted anything for himself.
    But he wants you. Needs you."
    "Perhaps I don't want him," Tempest said. "Don't I have rights?"
    Syndil and Desari both laughed, the notes like silvery bells, like water tripping over rocks. "Darius can do no other than make you happy. He dwells in your mind. If you did not want him, he would know. Can you not understand, Rusti?" Desari asked her. "You cannot be without him any more than he can be away from you. Do you not feel it when you are apart? When he is sleeping the sleep of mortals?"
    Tempest ducked her head, the memory of that precise discomfort firmly in her mind. For a moment she felt close to tears. At once he was there in her mind. Tempest? I am here. He flooded her with warmth, Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    with reassurance I'm okay, just being silly.
    I will come to you if you have need.
    Your touch is enough. And it was. The two women were right. She needed him whether or not she was willing to admit it to anyone other than herself. She felt the brush of fingers, a tender caress that trailed over her cheekbone, down to her mouth. She could feel the instant response of her body, the warmth, the heat, the distress when the contact slipped reluctantly away.
    "Rusti?" Desari asked softly. "Are you okay?" She turned Tempest's hand over to examine the scraped knuckles. "How did you do this? Has Darius seen this?" She closed her palm over the scrape in the same way Syndil had. At once Tempest could feel a soothing warmth.
    "Of course," Tempest admitted, blushing slightly as she remembered the feel of his mouth on her skin.
    "He doesn't miss anything. What exactly are the undead? You said Darius hunted the undead. Are you talking about vampires?"
    "If our males do not find a lifemate, in time they eventually lose their souls to the darkness within them.
    They become vampire, preying on our people as well as humans. They must be destroyed," Desari