Carpathian 12 - Dark Melody

leopard in a zoo, pacing back and forth." She didn't add that he reminded her of a little boy clutching his favorite blanket. "Is it so bad to trust me with the truth?"
    He looked down at her, his black eyes brooding and moody. "What happens if you cannot accept me as I am? What happens if I frighten you with the truth and your heart fails you?"
    "Do you think I'm that weak, Dayan?" she asked gently. "My body is fragile – I've learned to accept that
    – but I'm not a weak person. I never have been." She held out her hand to him. "Stop pacing and sit by me."
    Dayan stood for a long moment, his guitar across his chest, his eyes reflecting inner turmoil. Slowly, reluctantly, he crossed the room to sit carefully on the bed beside her. He enveloped her small hand with his larger one. "My heart could not take your rejection, honey. Not for one moment. Be very sure that you want to have this conversation now."

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    "I am certain, Dayan. You think your feelings for me are very strong. Well, I have loved before. John."
    She said her husband's name and silently watched Dayan's involuntary wince. "Don't feel that way about him, Dayan. He was a remarkable man and deserved far better than a woman who didn't love him the way he should have been loved. I know how strong my feelings for you already are. I tried to tell myself the attraction was purely sexual, but I think about you – your expressions, the way you smile, the turn of your head. Everything. Even the silly things like how you can be childish sometimes. I find myself thinking it's an endearing trait. That's not due entirely to chemistry."
    He sighed. "I am not going to ask what is childishly endearing."
    She smiled at him. "No, you're not. You're going to tell me about your childhood. About yourself, so I get to know you."
    He brought her fingers to his mouth, wanting – no needing – the reassurance of being close to her. "I grew up with Darius, Desari, Barack, Syndil and another called Savon. We were alone as children, with no adult to guide us. It was Darius who took responsibility for us. He was six years old and already showing signs of great power and strength of will. It was Darius who took most of the risks for us."
    His teeth were nibbling anxiously at her fingertips, but he seemed unaware of it. Corinne regarded him steadily. "How did a group of children like that slip through social services? How did you all manage to eat and sleep?"
    "We were separated from our people and were believed to have been murdered along with our parents.
    There was a shipwreck, and we ended up in Africa. That is where we grew up. Our band travels with leopards; we raised them. We actually learned quite a bit from animals. It was a difficult time but also very rewarding."
    Corinne's small teeth scraped at her lower lip. She believed him, although it seemed impossible that six children could survive in Africa alone. The continent was wild and untamed. Something in her recognized the truth in his simple explanation, yet she knew there was much more he wasn't telling her.
    "Dayan," she said softly, bringing his dark gaze to hers. "You either trust me or you don't. You have to make up your mind."
    "What if I tell you I am not human?" He said it quietly, his teeth biting harder at her knuckles. "What if I told you my parents had died during the Turk wars? Would that frighten you away from me?"
    Corinne's heart accelerated for a moment, and she was glad for the diversion, happy to be able to concentrate on slowing it down, giving herself time to think. She had suspected there was something not quite human about Dayan, but to hear him confirm it was something else altogether. The Turk wars?
    What did that make him?
    "I would hope I'm not that big a coward. Are you something other than what you've shown me?
    Because the man I'm attracted to is gentle and caring and unbelievably wonderful." She was feeling her way, trying to encourage him and yet give herself the time she needed to assimilate the information he was giving her.
    He looked away from her, unable to face her condemnation. "I want to be gentle and caring, Corinne, but in truth I am a predator," he said regretfully. "You are all that is good and right within me."

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    Corinne shook her head in denial. "You're so much more than a predator, whatever that means, Dayan.
    You're a