Christine Feehan - Dark Demon 16

«You are more beautiful than any woman I have ever seen.» And more sensual. She looked a siren there, spread out before him like a feast. «Again, Natalya. I want you again. And I want your blood and I want to give you mine. I want everything this time.»

She shook her head, a faint smile curving her mouth. «You already took everything. I can't move.»

«I do not want you to move. I want you to feel.»

Natalya couldn't move. Exhausted, her body still crying for more, she looked into his eyes, so dark, so intense with desire. His hands were everywhere, his teeth and mouth and his tongue. She pressed her mouth to his chest, drinking when he demanded, fire pulsing through her, multiple orgasms rocking her when his teeth pierced deep and his body thrust again and again into hers. She couldn't believe she could want more, but desire consumed her, Vikirnoff's needs feeding her own. She couldn't seem to get enough of his body and there didn't seem to be enough ways for him to sate himself with hers. «We're going to die if we keep this up,» she warned, when she could talk again.

«I have centuries to make up for.» His hands stroked her breasts. «I will never get enough of touching you like this.»

Natalya rolled over into the heat of the pool. «I'm going to be so sore I won't be able to

walk. You look pale. I think you need to feed.» Even as she said it, a flare of jealousy spurted through her. What if he bent his head toward another woman, knuckles brushing her breast? What if the woman looked at him with desire, her body growing wet and hot as he approached her? A low snarl escaped and Natalya swam toward the center of the pool. If she ever smelled another woman's scent on him, he would find out what it was like to rouse the tigress.

Something was wrong, but Natalya couldn't figure out what it was. They'd made love, she had been so happy, but with her mixture of heightened tigress and Carpathian senses, she suddenly felt the presence of another woman. She did. He might deny it all he wanted, but there was another woman in his life.

Vikirnoff watched her with speculative eyes. Very soft stripes banded her hair and flesh as she moved through the water. He touched her thoughts and smiled. How she could think he might want another woman was a puzzle to him. He followed her, pacing right beside her.

Natalya flashed him an irritated glance. «I need space.» She sent up a column of water with a single bat of her hand. Or paw. In the flickering candlelight, even with his amazing night vision, he couldn't tell whether she had partially shifted. Her blue cat's eyes had gone stormy, opaque, shimmering with translucent colors and a warning.

His body tightened all over again. Natalya's warrior woman brought out the dominating male in him. He couldn't help it or the intense desire sweeping through him. «You need me.»

Her eyes glowed with heat. «Back off, Vik, before you get into trouble. I feel her so close to you.»

He reached out and caught her to him, standing up so the water pooled around his hips. «There is no other woman and there will never be another woman.» The words hissed between clenched teeth.

«I feel her.» Tears shimmered in her eyes and she tried to push him away with the flat of her hands.

He caught her wrists, seeing her very real distress.

«This makes no sense…» His voice trailed off. «Gabrielle.» He whispered the name. «You feel Gabrielle, ainaak sivamet jutta. You feel Gabrielle calling to me.» His thumb slid over her bare arm in a caress. «You cannot hold Gabrielle against me when you asked me to save her. You knew what it entailed.»

She shook her head. «I didn't. I asked before I thought. I didn't know how it would make me feel to know she is there with you.»

«Her spirit is light. She is uncertain whether she wishes to remain when her life will be

changed for all time. I am the holder of her spirit and I can give her freedom. Release her into the other realm. Is that what you wish?»

The tigress fought for supremacy, struggled to rule when jealousy ate at her.

«You are my heart and my soul. You are my woman. It is your body I wish to possess. Your body I fantasize about and your blood I wish to taste. I do not want you to feel afraid that I will betray you, especially after all you have given for me.»

Natalya covered her face with her hands. «Stop! Don't tempt me. What a horrible person I am to even consider such a thing. Don't you dare allow her to slip away. I have every confidence in myself as a woman.» That might be more bravado than she wanted to admit. Vikirnoff's appetites had not only surprised, but slightly shocked her. He had a way of making her so out of control, so filled with desire she would do anything for him and that not only was terrifying, but fascinating to her. «If you did betray me with another woman, I doubt I could hold the tigress in check.»

«Lifemates cannot lie to one another. We are too often in each other's mind for a deception to be effective. I neither want nor need another woman.» He drew her closer, pressing his body against hers. «They call us to the healing cave. Mikhail will convert Gabrielle and bring her into our world. Once it is safe, she will be put into the ground for several days to give the soil a chance to heal her. Joie and Traian, Gabrielle's kin, will have a chance to complete their journey to be here when she rises. I will no longer be needed.» His arms went around her and he rested his cheek on the top of her head.

«I'll need you.» She rubbed her hands down his back. «I'm sorry I'm not those perfect women.»

«Perfect women?» He lifted his head to look down at her, confused as usual. He could never follow her train of thought and he even had the advantage of getting into her head. «I have no idea who you are talking about.»

«June Cleaver and Donna Reed. Your pinup fantasy women.» There was a bite in her voice, even when she tried to tease.

He groaned. «Are you ever going to let me off the hook? I do not want those women. Or any woman like them. I want you.» His teeth bit into her shoulder in a small reprimand. «'Only you.»

«I can hear the Carpathians calling us now. How many of them will be there?»

Vikirnoff heard the apprehension in her voice. Fighting vampires, coming into his world, being his woman, even making love to him for hours on end was undaunting to her, but meeting other Carpathians was frightening. She tried to hide it, but her body was pressed tightly against his and he could feel her trembling.

He carried her out of the water. They dried their bodies and dressed in the clothes

Vikirnoff wove for them. He provided her with her battle outfit, the one she was most comfortable wearing. She loaded up with weapons in silence and accepted the backpack from him, slipping it onto her shoulders before sliding her Amis sticks into the loops of the pack.

«Mikhail and his lifemate, Raven, will need to be present. I am certain Falcon and Sara will be there as well.» He sent a question winging to the prince, waited for the answer and relayed it. «Mikhail said that Jubal is with Slavica watching over the seven children Falcon and Sara care for.»

Natalya slipped her arm around his neck, as he shifted shape. «Not too many people. I can handle it.» As they took to the night sky, with her clinging to his giant bird back, she hoped it was true. Colors dazzled her eyes. Everything, including her emotions seemed so much more acute. She was far more aware than she'd ever been, to the point where she actually had to experiment with turning down the volume in her ears to avoid hearing snippets of conversations as they flew over the village.

The healing cave was beautiful, made of crystals and flowing water. Heat and humidity blended together so at first Natalya found it heard to breathe. Ice-cold water flowed from one wall, dropping several feet into a hot mineral spring so that the steam was thick and white, floating above the shimmering water like clouds.