Carpathian 13 - Dark Destiny

enough. She's suffered a terrible trauma. That won't just go away because you will it to do so."
    "You are risking your life." He wanted her to know the truth. "Destiny would not want you to risk your life for her." He pulled out a chair, stood courteously while MaryAnn slipped onto the seat. As he sat down across from her he waved off the waitress. "Think very carefully before you speak. I can remove your memories of all of this. Of Destiny. Of me. Of the creature that wanted to kill you. All of it. You will never worry about Destiny, because you will not remember that she exists."
    "I don't want that." MaryAnn shook her head adamantly. "She's important to me, and I think I'm important to her." She leaned across the table toward him. "I can handle this. I really can. I'm afraid. I'd be silly not to be afraid, but you don't know what she did for me. Twice. She saved my life twice. She's given the sanctuary so much money, money we desperately needed to expand and to make sure the Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    women had counseling and job opportunities. Destiny did that. She deserves a chance, too."
    "MaryAnn—" His voice washed over her. Gentle. Compelling. "I will take care of Destiny. I give you my word of honor."
    "I honestly don't think she will get better. I think she'll try, but you won't be able to help her overcome what's happened to her."
    "I lived through it with her."
    "I know," she said quietly. "I see the same things in your eyes that I see in hers."
    "I understand her, understand what she needs. And we are meant to be together. Two halves of the same whole."
    "She isn't whole, Nicolae; she's fragmented and lost. She can't go into a relationship that way and have it work. I think you know that or you wouldn't be talking with me. You would have already removed my memories."
    "If I leave you with this knowledge, I will have to be able to monitor you at will. I am responsible for the safety of my people. I have to know that you are capable of keeping our secret at all times, and I will have to make sure that the undead cannot use you to get to Destiny."
    Mary Ann swallowed her fear. "I think that's fair enough."
    "It entails my taking your blood, MaryAnn. Not converting you, simply taking a small amount of your blood so that I can touch your mind at any time. It wouldn't hurt and you wouldn't be in danger, but the idea of it is uncomfortable to humans."
    MaryAnn was silent, leaning her chin in her hand while she studied his face. "Destiny wasn't given a choice, was she?"
    Nicolae shook his head. "She was converted by the vilest of creatures. The undead. A vampire lives for the pain of others. He made her suffer for years. He subjected her to every humiliating degradation he could think of. He murdered men, women and children in front of her and forced her to drink their blood.
    He used her body for years in the most painful ways possible although she was an innocent child."
    MaryAnn rubbed the heel of her hand over her face. "And you want me to desert her because I might be uncomfortable for a moment or two? I owe her more than that. Take my blood if you feel it is necessary, Nicolae, and let's find a way to help her."

    Destiny rushed out into the night, dragging great gulps of air into her lungs. It was humiliating to be shaking like a child just because she was in such close proximity to so many people. She wouldn't admit her distress had been caused by anything else. How could she want to touch a man's skin? Be held in his arms? Breathe him into her body?
    She knew about men, what they did, what they wanted from a woman… a girl… a child. A scream welled up from her soul, the terror of a child trapped with a monster. She pressed the scream back with her hand, as if to shove it back down her throat and bury the terror where she would never have to look Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    at it. See it. Think of it.
    The night is so beautiful, Destiny. Clear and cold and crisp. Look above you at the stars. His voice came like magic. Soothing. Gentle. Out of nowhere, simply there in her mind. Pushing away the memories of hard, hurting hands, rivers of blood, the faces of the damned. There is nothing so beautiful as the night.
    Even the leaves are a shimmering silver. I did not remember that. Did you notice the color? Silver and gold tonight. The wind is whispering to us. Hear? Just listen to it, little one. It