Carpathian 17 - Dark Curse

\"I might wish that I was not quite so vulnerable when the sun is high, but I would never give this up for the ability to see daylight.\"
    Lara frowned. \"I guess being raised where my skin burned and all the children could play and swim, but I had to hide away, made me long for something I couldn\'t have.\"
    He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her to him to drop a hard kiss on her pouting lips. \"Let me show you why the night is so much better. Aside from the obvious advantage, that it suits our physical hungers...\" His voice held a suggestive tone and he smiled unrepentantly when she flicked him a quick glance. \"... the night is just plain fun. Have you ever had just plain fun?\"
    Lara looked out over the valley far below them. She could see the bogs shimmering with ice crystals, the meadows capped with white powder. The world had a shimmery quality she\'d never noticed before.
    \"Take a deep breath.\"
    Lara did so. She drew the fresh, crisp night air into her lungs.
    \"Do you feel the energy? It surrounds every living thing. Tune yourself to it, the energy feeds your power, so you can use it to build whatever you need fast.\"
    \"Carpathians use energy differently than mages,\" Lara explained. \"I\'ve been mage-trained, I don\'t know how to just control it through me.\"
    Nicolas shook his head. \"You have been doing it all along, when you get upset. At the inn, you blasted us out of fear. You gathered energy and used it against us. For now, you need to feel the power, the way it feeds you subtly.\"
    He lifted his arms to the night. In the distance, a wolf howled. Another answered. One by one several more took up the lonely chorus. \"There. Hear that?\"
    \"The wolves?\"
    \"One wolf. That note that sounded different. There is a Carpathian running with our brethren tonight. You need to really listen, not just hear. You have the abilities, now you need the training and practice.\"
    Lara looked below her toward the darkened interior of the forest. \"Carpathians run with the wolves?\"
    \"Of course. We take the form of a wolf, choose a pack and are accepted into it if we desire. We will do that if you like, but first, you need your flying lesson.\"
    Lara shifted restlessly from one foot to the other while he explained-in detail, in tedious detail-how she had to keep the image at all times in her head or she would fall from the sky.
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    Christine Feehan: Dark Curse
    \"Okay already,\" Lara said when he began to go over the instructions again. \"I got it all the first time.\"
    His black gaze smoldered at her. \"Do not be overconfident.\"
    She sent him a saucy grin. \"You aren\'t going to let me fall.\"
    She closed her eyes and pictured the dragon in her mind. It had been years since she had seen her aunts, trapped in the form of a dragon, but she remembered every detail of their large, scaled bodies. She held the shape in her mind, the wedged head and large, jeweled eyes. Out of nowhere came a rush of energy, flooding her body, turning her warm. Muscles contracted and expanded. She felt her body bend and begin to reshape.
    Shocked, she pulled back from the edge of losing herself, so startled she nearly lost the image.
    Nicolas was there immediately, just as she knew he would be, merged solidly, holding the image for her. She felt the brush of scales against her arm as his body changed. She waited a heartbeat and then she embraced the change, throwing herself into it, not wanting him to change his mind. She wanted to fly. And then she was crouched on the edge of the cliff, staring out over the valley with new vision. She spread her wings wide, standing on two legs, flapping her wings and creating a wind that blew out into the clouds.
    Careful, Nicolas cautioned. You are scaring me, Lara. Pay attention .
    You sound like an old hen. I\'m just trying the whole thing out. This is so cool.
    She was going to give him a heart attack. He felt like a mother hen, trying to watch over a baby chick. He was supposed to be the rooster, crowing and everyone falling into line instantly. If he was in his normal form he\'d be sweating by now and sweating wasn\'t something Carpathians did much of.
    Do I just step off the edge and flap my wings?
    His heart bottomed out when the female dragon stepped to the edge as if to launch herself over. He leapt in front of her, pushing the smaller dragon back as he hovered in the air. Let the dragon take over. You are still thinking as you. If you want to fly like a dragon, you need to