Page 18 (1/2)

The night was alive with the heartbeats of countless people He walked arace of a jungle predator Their scents were strong in his nostrils Cloying perfus AIDS The sweet, insidious smell of blood There were so many in this city Cattle Sheep Prey The city was the perfect hunting ground

But he had fed well that day, so even though the blood whispered to hith, power, the seductive rush of excites After all his centuries of walking the earth, he knew the whispered proth, and he knew that the rush, addicting though it s provided

The stadiue, with thousands of people packed inside He walked past the guards without hesitation, secure in the knowledge that they could not detect his presence

Thefeats of escape, disappearance, and mystery - was almost finished, and a hush of breathless anticipation had fallen over the crowd On stage a column of ician herself had stood

He blended into the shadows, his pale silver gaze riveted to the stage Then she eed from the mist, every hts Of satin and silk Mystical, mysterious, a race of an enchantress Thick blue-black hair cascaded in waves to her sli high, full breasts and e and tiny, tucked-in waist Sh, revealing enticing glilasses concealed her eyes but drew attention to her lush mouth, perfect teeth, and classic cheekbones

Savannah Dubrinsky, one of the world's greatest icians

He had endured nearly a thousand years of black e but the crouching beast, hungry, insatiable Nothing but the growing darkness, the stain spreading across his soul His pale eyes slid over her sly Painful His body swelled, hardened, every ers curled slowly around the back of a stadiu visible iers in the metal Perspiration beaded on his forehead He let the pain wash over hih him Savored it

He felt

His body didn't just want her It demanded her, burned for her The beast raised its head and eyed her, erously, ferociously On stage, two assistants began chaining her, their hands touching her soft skin, their bodies brushing hers A lol rulowed a feral red In that moment one thousand years of self-control went up in flaerous predator free No one was safe, mortal or immortal, and he knew it

On stage, Savannah's head caer, a sround

His gut clenched hotly

Feelings

Dark desire Raw lust A stark, primitive need to possess He closed his eyes and inhaled sharply He sht his were so intense that they bordered on violence They were genuine And there was joy in the ability to feel, no erous It didn't matter to hihtfully belong to him, that he had manipulated the outcome of their union even before her birth, that he had broken the laws of their people in order to have her None of it mattered Only that she was his at last

He felt her s of a beautiful butterfly But he was an ancient, powerful and knowledgeable beyond the boundaries of Earth He was the one his own kind spoke of in whispers, with aith fear, with dread

The Dark One

Despite her pre him until he allowed it

His lips drew back in a silent snarl as the blond assistant bent to trail a hand across Savannah's face and brush her forehead with a kiss before locking her, s exploded into hisstare of a killer Deliberately he focused on the blond's throat - let hiulation The ing air into his lungs He took a quick, nervous look around, trying in vain to see into the audience Still breathing hard in alarm, he turned back to help lower the vault into a chamber flooded ater

The unseen predator growled his warning softly, a deadly, e whitened visibly andto the other assistant, who shook his head quickly with a slight frown

While the return of his feelings brought indescribable joy to the ancient, his loss of control was dangerous, even to him He turned his back on the performance and left the stadium, his every step away from Savannah painful Still, he accepted the pain, rejoiced in his ability to feel it

His first hundred years had been a wild orgy of feeling, senses, power, desires - even goodness But slowly, relentlessly, the darkness that imperiled the soul of a Carpathian male without a lifemate had claimed him Emotions faded, colors disappeared, until he sie and power, and paid the price for it He fed, he hunted, he killed when he deemed it appropriate And always the darkness thickened, threatening to taint his soul forever, to turn him into one of the damned, the undead

She was innocent There was laughter in her, coht to his darkness A bitter s it with cruelty His bulging, sinewy muscles rippled He tossed back his thick, jet-black, shoulder-length hair His face became as harsh and merciless as he was His pale eyes, which easily drew mortals, held them, entranced them, became the eyes of death, the silver slash of cold steel

Even froround, the roaring approval that signaled Savannah's escape froht, a sinister shadow impossible for either humans or his kind to detect His patience was that of the earth itself, his stillness that of thea out of the stadiu the inevitable traffic jam He knehere she was at every moment; he had made certain of their link when she was but a child And not even death could break the bond he had forged between the away to her mother's native country, Aht herself safe

The passage of time meant little to him Eventually the sounds of cars and people faded away, and the lights blinked out around hiht to him He inhaled deeply, drank in her scent He stretched, a panther stalking prey He could hear her soft laughter, low,with the blond assistant, overseeing her props being packed up for loading onto the trucks Although the tere still in the building and a great distance from him, he could hear their conversation without effort

"I am so happy this tour is finally over" Savannahdock, lowered herself onto the stairs, and watched as the e truck "Did we ht ould?" she teased her assistant gently Both knew she didn't care about the htest bit of attention to the financial side of things Without Peter Sanders to see to all the details, she'd probably be flat broke

"More than I thought We can call this one a success" Peter grinned down at her "San Francisco is supposed to be a fabulous city Why don't we vacation here? We can do the whole tourist thing - cable cars, the Golden Gate, Alcatraz We can't pass up this opportunity - we ain"

"Nota little as Peter threw hi up on z's You can tell me all about it"

"Savannah" Peter sighed heavily "I' you out"

She sat up straight, relasses, and looked directly at hi dark lashes, her eyes were deep blue, alh theht at hi, drowning, lost in the glea stars in her eyes

"Oh, Peter" Her voice was soft, ht her stardom so quickly She could hold an audience effortlessly with her voice alone "All our sexiness and flirting in the show is just an act We're friends, and ork together, and thatup, the closest thing I ever had to a best friend was a wolf" She didn't add that she still thought of that wolf every day "I' toelse out of it"

Peter blinked and shook his head to clear it She always sounded so incredibly logical, so convincing Whenever she looked at hi she said She could steal his will as easily as she stole his breath "A wolf? A real one?"

She nodded "When I was younger, we lived in a very remote part of the Carpathian Mountains There were no children to play with One day a little wolf cub wandered out of the woods near our house He would play with me whenever I was alone" There was a faint ache in her voice at the thought of her lost animal friend "He just seemed to knohen I needed hientle Even when he was teething, he only bit ertips rew, he became my constant companion; ere inseparable I was never afraid in the woods at night because he was always there to protect ray eyes that looked atSo the weight of the world on his back When I made the decision to come to A to leave ht, my arms around his neck He never , too If there had been a way, I would have brought him with me But he needed to be free"

"You're telling me the truth? A real wolf?" Peter asked incredulously While he could believe that Savannah could easily tame man or beast, he was puzzled by the aniht wolves were shy of people Not that I've ed variety"

She flashed hie and could be ferocious, butbut shy with me Of course, he was never really around anyone else, not even my parents He would lope off into the woods if someone came near Still, he would watch fro in the forest, watching, and it made me feel safe"

Realizing he had allowed her to distract hi his fists in determination "It isn't natural, the way you live, Savannah You isolate yourself from any close relationships"

"We're close," she pointed out gently "I'm very fond of you, Peter, like a brother I've alanted a brother"

"Don't, Savannah You haven't even given us a chance And who else do you have in your life? I escort you to parties and interviews I oversee the accountant and arrange the bookings andI don't do is sleep with you"

A lol ru down Peter's spine Savannah's head went up, and she looked cautiously around Peter stood, peering toward the trucks pulling away fro dock

"Did you hear that?" He reached a hand down to draw Savannah to her feet, his eyes frantically searching every shadow "I didn't tell you, but the oddest thing happened during the show" He hispering as if the very night had ears "After I put you in the vault, my throat closed off It was as if someone had his hands around er directed at hed nervously "Silly irowl inwarned off you"

"Why didn't you say anything to hts in the docking area blinked out, leaving thehtened on Peter's, and he had the distinct feeling they were being watched, even hunted His car was a distance away, the parking lot shrouded in blackness Where were the security guards?

"Peter, we have to get out of here If I tell you to run, do it, and don't look back, no h so that for ato please her But her s, and chivalry won

"Stay behindabout this," Peter cautioned Like all celebrities, Savannah suffered her share of threats and stalkers She orth a few e she exuded Savannah had a strange,effect on men, as if the memory of her haunted them for eternity

Savannah cried out in warning a heartbeat before so the air frorunted, his chest on fire, feeling as if a ton of bricks had crushed him His eyes locked with Savannah's and he could see terror there Soht at hi his ars He screa hot breath on his neck

Savannah whispered his nale leap, and flung herself at his attacker She was struck a blow across her face so hard that she was flung like a rag doll froh she twisted agilely in , and white dots danced in front of her eyes Before she could recover, the beast attacking Peter sank its fangs into his throat, ripped and tore, then gulped at the rich blood spurting froed to turn his head, expecting a wolf or at least a huge dog Red eyes glowed at hiony and terror, in fear and guilt for failing to protect Savannah

With a low, venomous hiss, the creature carelessly tossed away Peter's body, which landed a few feet fro slowly across the asphalt The beast lifted its head and turned toward her, grinning horribly, triued teeth

She stepped back, her heart pounding in fear Grief welled up so sharply for a moment that she couldn't breathe

Peter Her first human friend in her entire twenty-three years Dead because of her

She regarded the gaunt stranger who had killed him

Peter's blood sue came out and licked at the red stains on his lips His eyes burned at her, taunted her "I found you first I kneould"

"Why did you kill him?" There was horror in her voice

He laughed, launched himself into the air, and landed a few feet from her "You should try it sometime; all that fear floods the bloodstrea like it I like the"

"What do you want?" She never took her eyes or herstill and ready, perfectly balanced

"I will be your husband Your lifereat Mikhail Dubrinsky, will just have to take back the death sentence he pronounced onarm of his justice doesn't quite reach San Francisco, does it?"

She tilted her chin "And if I say no?"

"Then I take you the hard way Ithu to please me"

His depravity sickened her "They don't beg you You take their free will It's the only way you could have a wo and contempt she was capable of into her voice

The ugly sly caricature of a man, a creature fro hiss "You will pay for that disrespect" He lunged toward her

A dark shadowlike steel beneath an elegant silk shirt The shadow glided in front of Savannah like a shield, forcing her behind hie hand brushed her face where her assailant had struck her The touch was brief yet incredibly tender, and the momentary contact seeers slipped away from her skin His pale, silvery eyes then slashed at the skeletal creature

"Good evening, Roberto I see you have dined well" The voice was pleasant, cultured, soothing, even hypnotic

Savannah choked back a sob Instantly she felt a stirring in herher into their strong shelter

"Gregori,"

Roberto growled, his eyes gloith bloodlust "I have heard whispers of the dangerous Gregori - the Dark One, the bogey man of the Carpathians But I do not fear you" It was bravado, and they all knew it; hisfrantically for an escape

Gregori sht a distinctively cruel gleam to his eyes "You obviously have never learned tableyears, Roberto, what else have you failed to learn?"

Roberto's breath escaped in a long, slow hiss His head began to undulate slowly fro razor-sharp claws

When he attacks, Savannah, you will leave this place

It was an imperious command in her head

It was my friend he killed me that he threatened

It was against her principles to allow anyone else to fight her battles and perhaps be injured or killed in her place She did not stop to think why it was so easy and natural to speak with Gregori, the most feared of the Carpathian ancients, on a mental path that was not the standard path of communication for their kind

You will do as I tell you, ma petite The order was spoken in her mind in the saht her breath, afraid of defying hi on a Carpathian as powerful as Gregori, but she knew she wasn't She was young, a novice at her people's arts

"You have no right to interfere, Gregori," Roberto snapped, sounding like a spoiled, petulant boy "She is unclaimed"

Gregori's pale eyes narrowed to a slash of cold silver "She is o She is my lifemate"

Roberto took a cautious step to the left "There has been no official acceptance of your union I will kill you, and she will belong to me"

"What you have done here is a criainst our people, our treasured woainst me personally Justice has followed you to San Francisco, and the sentence our Prince Mikhail pronounced over you will be carried out The blow you struck to ori never raised his voice, never lost his faint, taunting smile

Go, Savannah I won't allow him to harm you when it is me he seeks

Gregori's soft laughter echoed in her head

There is no chance of that, ma petite

Now do as I say, and go