Carpathian 06 - Dark Fire

but something beautiful, not dark and ugly? Why is that, Darius?" she asked again softly.
    "I do belong to the night. I am not of the same race as you. I am not human yet not beast or vampire."
    "But you can become a leopard?" The incredible feat was nearly impossible to believe, even though she had witnessed it with her own eyes.
    "I can become the mouse scampering across the field, the eagle soaring high in the sky. I can be the mist, the fog, lightning and thunder, a part of the atmosphere itself. But I am always Darius-the one who has vowed to protect you."
    Tempest shook her head. "This isn't possible, Darius. Are you sure I didn't fall and hit my head or something? Maybe we both ate a weird mushroom, and we're on some psychedelic trip together. This isn't possible."
    "I can assure you, I have done this all my life. And I have existed nearly a thousand years."
    She held up a hand to stop him. "One weird thing at a time. I'm hearing this stuff, but my brain is refusing to process it."
    "Do you know I would not harm you, Tempest? Do you know that much?" he asked insistently, his black gaze drifting over her face like fog.
    In her deepest soul, beyond the human workings of her brain, Tempest knew it was the only certainty she had. Darius would not hurt her. She nodded slowly and saw relief light his eyes for a moment. Then he sobered again.
    "I did not mean to expose you to the others' appetites. In truth, it did not occur to me that any would use you for such a thing when you were under our protection. I inadvertently subjected you to a terrible moment, but in truth, you were not in any danger. In Barack's defense, he likely thought he could manipulate your memories, as is generally easy to do with human prey, but he would not have harmed or killed you, simply fed, as, smelling my scent on you, he assumed I had. Please accept my apology."
    His voice wrapped itself around her and found its way into her heart.
    She sighed softly and tried not to think too much about the word prey. "You know what, Darius? None of it matters. I don't have to understand, because I can't do this. You can see that now, can't you? I have no way to deal with this. It's better if I just get out now."
    His black eyes never once blinked, never left her face. She found her heart beating faster, threatened in some elemental way she didn't understand. "It isn't as if I would ever say anything to anyone. They'd lock me up if I did. You know you don't have to worry."
    His black eyes were merciless, boring into her deeper and deeper until they penetrated her soul. She found it difficult to breathe. "Darius, you know I'm right. You have to know. We aren't two different Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    races trying to find some common ground. We're two different species."
    "I need you."
    He said the words so quietly that she barely heard them. He made the statement starkly, utterly without embellishment. There was no mental push, no other form of persuasion. Still, the way he said it was like an arrow piercing her heart. She had no defense against those three words. No way to combat the truth of them. The truth she heard in his voice.
    She stared at him for a long moment; then, without warning, she picked up and flung a handful of leaves at him. "You don't play fair, Darius. You really don't. You have those eyes and that voice, and now you go and say something like that."
    A slow smile softened the hard edge of his mouth. "I knew you liked my eyes." He sounded immensely satisfied. He didn't appear to move, but all at once he was towering over her, his body close enough to share its warmth. His hand found her throat, and his palm lay still so that her pulse beat into its center.
    "I didn't say I liked your eyes," she corrected. "I think they should be declared illegal. They're sinful."
    She lifted her chin belligerently at him, trying to hold her ground against something she didn't even understand.
    "I meant my apology, honey. I will never place you in such a position again. I will make certain the others are aware you are under my personal protection at all times." Darius bent his dark head toward hers, drawn to the seduction of her velvet lips.
    Tempest's breath caught in her throat, and she shrank back against the tree trunk and held up her palms to push against the hard wall of his chest. "I'm thinking maybe we shouldn't do this. It's safer, Darius, really, for both of us to just not touch."
    His smile