Christine Feehan - Dark Curse 19

She studied his averted face. Her gaze drifted down his body to the thick, impressive bulge pushing at the front of his jeans. There was a heady power in knowing she had driven him to the edge of control, yet she wasn't ready to face the consequences. Nicolas was desperately trying to give her time and truthfully she needed it. She took a deep breath and pulled back from the edge of the precipice she was so tempted to jump off.

«I don't want to be left alone,» Lara said. «Not again. Not even when you've made the cave so beautiful. I need to be out in the fresh air with you.»

Nicolas shoved his hands through his hair and paced back and forth, reminding her of a trapped jungle cat. Muscles rippled beneath his thin shirt and there was a fluid grace to his every stride. Abruptly he came back to the bed, towered over her for a moment and then he crouched down. «Fel ku kuuluaak sivam belso. Beloved, I am in desperate need of blood. I had planned to close down the sharing of our minds so you would not have to experience it. I cannot very well take you with me and have you watch something that distresses you, no matter how necessary.»

She pushed herself up, surprised that even with the infusion of his blood, she felt a little weak and dizzy. Ignoring it, she forced herself to stand. «Take me to the inn then. I can visit with Terry and Gerald. I want to see if Terry is doing better. I feel responsible. I never should have taken them along.»

He didn't want her near either man, and certainly not until he made certain the parasites were completely gone from Terry's system. He didn't want to share her, not now, not with anyone until their bond was complete, but she needed to be grounded. She needed to feel as if she didn't come from some tainted line. He was wrong to keep her family from her just because he wanted to be the only one she relied on.

He took a breath and let it out, determined to do the right thing no matter the cost to himself because all this goodness wouldn't last. He knew himself better than that. The darkness was as much a part of him as breathing. «I can check on the two of your friends for you, but I actually have something better for you to do if you really think you are up to it.»

«What?»

He reached for her hand, tugged until she extended her arm and he could bring her fist to his chest-right over the twin marks over his heart. «Razvan has a twin sister and she is alive.»

Lara blinked up at him. At once he felt the push of energy. The music filling the cavern went silent. Her hair crackled and streaked, and her eyes, looking up at him went from that deep emerald green to glacier blue. «How long have you known this?»

He looked down at his hands then back up to meet her probing gaze. «I did not tell you right away because I wanted to give us a chance to come together as lifemates. You need to trust someone and I wanted it to be me.»

She was silent a moment, her blue eyes on his face. A small sigh escaped. «You really do like control, don't you?»

He shrugged his broad shoulders. «Yes.»

«Don't do that again. Don't hold back information from me because of something that stupid. Do you really think I would trust my father's twin sister so easily after seeing what my great-grandfather and my father were capable of doing?»

«I do not know her, but I have heard she is a great warrior. She fights the vampire beside her lifemate.»

Lara pushed a hand through her hair. «Are you certain she's Razvan's sister?»

«There is no doubt. I can take you to her. She's a good person, Lara. And your father, whatever he is now, appears to have been misjudged. He appears to have been a good man at one time. Natalya, that's her name, can tell you much more about him.»

She looked up at him and Nicolas felt a strange melting in the vicinity of his heart. She looked pale and vulnerable, her eyes enormous. There were shadows there, and dark circles beneath her eyes. He wrapped his arm around her and drew her against his body, holding her close to comfort her. It amazed him how right she felt in his arms.

Nuzzling the top of her head with his chin, he rocked her gently. «If it is too soon for you, Lara, we can wait before you talk to her.»

She didn't exactly melt into him, but she did put her arms around his waist and hold on. «I don't know what I want to do.»

«She's been in the cave.»

Lara stepped back, looking up at him. «When? Recently?»

Nicolas nodded. «I do not know too much other than what my brothers told me. Manolito, my brother,

fought beside her during a recent battle.» He took a breath. «It was thought she killed Razvan with her sword, but he turned up again, or at least he appeared to, possessing a woman's body and striking the blow that sent Manolito to the shadow world.»

Lara turned away from him to hide her expression from his watchful eyes. Of course she had to go see her father's twin sister. But she didn't know if she was strong enough to learn about her father. It was much easier to think of him as a monster than a man tortured beyond all endurance. She couldn't imagine the psychological torment of knowing one's body was used to harm others. That would be worse than physical torture.

«And if it's true,» she murmured aloud, «I just left him there.» She raised a stricken gaze to Nicolas. «That's why he helped bury my memories of him, isn't it? And the aunts agreed to it because they didn't want me to know I was abandoning a father who had tried to protect me. I would never have gone had I known he was a prisoner, being tortured and abused.»

She rubbed her wrist. Nicolas had managed to reduce the scarring, but some of the ridges were still there. She brushed her thumb back and forth in a soothing gesture, without realizing she was doing it until she noticed Nicolas's gaze drop to her wrist. Embarrassed, she put her arm behind her back.

«Does it hurt?»

The gentleness in his voice constricted her throat. She shook her head. «I think it's a habit.» But it had hurt for years, burning at times, painful for no reason.

«You didn't abandon him, Lara. You were a child, eight years old. Consider it from his point of view. If he was innocent and trying to protect you, the relief he would feel, the freedom from allowing Xavier to use him against you, would have been tremendous for him. Had you stayed, his suffering would have been far more.»

«You don't know that.»

A small smile softened the edge of his mouth. «He is Dragonseeker. His every instinct is to protect his family, especially his women and children. If Xavier really possessed his body, using him to impregnate women, if he really murdered your mother in front of him as it appeared he did, and if he controlled Razvan, forcing him to take your blood, then Razvan has suffered the torment of the damned for centuries. That would be the worst a Carpathian male could suffer. Your father would have rejoiced to have you out of there and out of Xavier's control.»

She pressed her lips together. His hunger was beating at her, yet he stood there patiently trying to reassure her that leaving her father to be tortured and maybe murdered had been a good thing. «Let's go, Nicolas. I'd like to meet my aunt.»

«Do you want to try shifting? An owl, perhaps?»

Her jeweled eyes gleamed at him. He had said she was capable of shifting with his help and she wanted it to be true. She was certainly willing to try. «A dragon.»

He nodded. «Of course, what else would you choose?» He grinned at her, a teasing invitation to fun. She'd never seen him smile like that, and it made him look younger. «You are already familiar with the dragon's body. The most important thing with shifting-« He held out his hand to her and began to walk with her through the cavern into the labyrinth of tunnels. Candles sprang to life on the walls ahead of them