Carpathian 13 - Dark Destiny

tell me?" She ran her hand over the bark of a small branch. She could hear the sap running in the tree. Insects swarmed over her head in the canopy above. An occasional owl flitted to Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    branches near them out of idle curiosity. A few miles away, a cougar hunted with hunger rumbling in its belly.
    "I want you to know our world. It is not the depraved world of the vampire. We are not all evil any more than every human is evil. We have wonderful gifts and many problems to overcome. We have longevity, yes. We appear immortal, yet we can be killed. Not easily; a wound that should be fatal can be healed with our saliva and good rich soil. The blood of an ancient has healing properties. We use the herbs and plants that abound in our world. We can command the weather should we have need. But we must rest in the hours of the sun. We have limitations."
    Destiny regarded him carefully. "Tell me more."
    "I have told you these things often, Destiny. Are you finally ready to listen?"
    "I thought they were fairy tales. I needed something to live for, and you gave it to me. You turned me into a hunter of the undead."
    For the first time he looked sad. Nicolae raked a hand through the dark silk of his hair so that it spilled around him like a halo. "I know I did, Destiny. I could not think of another way to stop the things the vampire was doing to you. I could not find you. You would not speak to me. I had to use you to kill him."
    She lifted her chin, her eyes stormy. "Don't you dare feel sorry for that. It's the one thing I don't feel sorry for, and I don't ever want to. He did things—things I still can't face. With your help, I found the strength to defeat him. Don't you take that away from me. I deceived him and I managed to rid the world of something evil. I was only fourteen when I did it." She averted her face, but he caught a glimpse of hell in her mind.
    "I did not want death ever to touch you. I never wanted that for you."
    "It touched me the day I first heard his voice." She turned back to him, her gaze moving moodily over his face. Studying him. Looking to see beyond the mask he wore. "A voice like yours. Beautiful beyond belief, but so dangerous. Compelling and intense and filled with promises. You have that same danger in you. The power to crush another with your voice. To lure someone to you and compel him to do your bidding."
    He nodded slowly. "That is so; it is a two-edged gift that can be used for good or evil. You have that same gift now. You have employed it, Destiny." His gut clenched. "On the young man you used for sustenance. You called him to you, kept him calm with promises of paradise."
    Destiny couldn't deny his charge. She knew her voice held enthrallment. It was easy to lure men to her, to hold them compliant while she fed. It was easy to leave them with pleasant memories, and somehow that lessened the guilt she felt.
    Nicolae stirred, a rippling of muscle, of menace, instantly drawing her full attention back to him. He struggled to keep the demon leashed and under control. Jealousy was an ugly emotion. It had no place in his life, in his relationship with Destiny. She feared intimacy and the sharing of her body, and he knew why. He knew her darkest secrets. Jealousy was beneath him, and he refused to allow it to grow into a cancer when they already had so many obstacles to overcome.
    "Thank you," she said simply, watching him with her careful eyes.

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    His grin was sheepish. "It is a male thing."
    Her eyebrow shot up. "I thought jealousy was universal. I didn't like seeing your arms around Mary Ann, but I thought it was because I was afraid for her." She shrugged her shoulders, the movement strangely elegant.
    Nicolae found everything about her intriguing and tempting. She touched him on so many levels, not the least of which was his instinct to protect. Destiny did not want a protector, didn't believe she needed one.
    But he saw the vulnerability around her soft mouth, saw so clearly the torment in her eyes. He could see the terrible struggle for sanity that she endured at each rising. Every cell in his body roared at him to take her into the shelter of his arms, to shield her with his body from every hurt. She stood there so bravely, admitting to him that it had bothered her when she saw him with Mary Ann in his arms. And she had confessed in order