Carpathian 06 - Dark Fire

to float across the sky.
    The man glanced up through the windshield. "Crazy. The weather reports said clear and sunny. Maybe those clouds will just drift on by. I'm Harry." He stuck out his hand.
    "Tempest." She slipped her hand into his for a brief shake, but the moment she touched him, her stomach lurched and her skin crawled.
    His thumb brushed the back of her hand just once, sending a chill down her spine. But Harry released her immediately and put the truck back into gear, his eyes on the road. Rusti huddled as far from him as possible, fighting her rising nausea and wild imagination. But the moment her head was against the back of the seat, tiredness overtook her, and her lashes kept drifting down.
    Harry glanced at her with obvious concern. "Are you sick? I could take you to the nearest doctor. I think there's supposed to be a small town a few miles up this road."
    Rusti tried to rally. She shook her pounding head. She knew she was pale, and she could feel small beads of perspiration dotting her forehead. "I jogged for several miles. I think I just overdid it." But she knew that wasn't the problem. For some reason every cell in her body was protesting the distance she was putting between herself and Darius. She knew it. Felt it.
    "Go to sleep, then. I'm used to driving alone," Harry advised. "I usually have the radio on, but if it bothers you, I can do without it."
    "It's not going to bother me," she replied. Her lashes would not stay up no matter how hard she tried to Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    stay awake. She was exhausted. Had she picked up a bug?
    Suddenly she sat up straight. Could vampires have rabies? They turned into bats, didn't they? And couldn't bats carry rabies? She was okay with bats, but that didn't mean she liked vampires. What if Darius had infected her with something?
    She realized Harry was staring at her. He was probably thinking he had picked up a nutcase.
    Deliberately she settled back against the seat and closed her eyes. Could a person become a vampire with one bite? One little bite? She squirmed, remembering the dark, sensual heat burning through her body. So okay. Maybe a big bite. The memory, the feel of his mouth on her neck, made her throb and burn, flooding her with flames all over again. She found her hand creeping up to her throat to cover the spot, to hold the erotic memory in the palm of her hand.
    She nearly groaned aloud. Darius definitely had infected her with something, but it wasn't rabies.
    Weariness continued to invade her body, deadening her limbs, so she gave up the fight and allowed her eyes to close.
    Harry drove for fifteen minutes, casting quick, covert glances at his hitchhiker. His heart was pounding loudly in his chest. She was small and curvy and had fallen right into his lap. He never looked a gift horse in the mouth. Glancing at his watch, he was satisfied to see that he was ahead of schedule. He was meeting his boss in a couple of hours and had time enough to indulge his fantasies with the little redhead.
    The ominous clouds had thickened and darkened, occasionally issuing small veins of lightning and a rumble of thunder. But it was still early evening, around six-thirty, and Harry watched for a grove of trees where he could pull off the road into a private area and remain undetected by any passing cars.
    Rusti jerked awake when a hand fumbled clumsily at her breast. Her eyes flew open. Harry was leaning across her, tearing at her clothes. She slugged him as hard as she was able to in the small confines of the truck. But he was a big man, and his fist clipped her behind her ear, then smashed into her left eye. For a brief instant she saw stars, then everything went black, and she slid farther down into the seat.
    Harry's mouth covered hers, wet and slimy. Again she struggled wildly, raking at his face with her fingernails. "Stop! Stop it!"
    He slapped her over and over, his other hand squeezing her breast hard, hurting her. "You're a whore.
    Why else would you get in here with me? You wanted this. You know you did. That's okay, honey, I like it rough. Fight me. It's great. It's what I want."
    His knee pressed hard against her thigh, holding her down so that he could tear at the waistband of her jeans. Rusti's hand found the door handle, and she wrenched at it and jackknifed out onto the ground.
    Scrambling on all fours, she tried to get away.
    Overhead the skies unexpectedly opened up, and the dark clouds