Dark Destiny Page 0,35

painful his apparent betrayal would be to her. Seeing her suffer shook him more than he had ever imagined anything could.

Destiny looked at his outstretched hand, wiped her palm on her thigh, as if she were afraid to be alone with him. "Mary Ann, will you be all right walking home alone?" She sounded as if she were pleading with Mary Ann to save her.

"Perfectly all right," Mary Ann said firmly. "You go with Nicolae and talk things out. I'm certain the very interesting bird will see me home safely." She grinned at Nicolae, waved daringly at the owl.

Nicolae couldn't help giving an answering grin. He liked Mary Ann. Who could not? There was something special about her. Her courage and loyalty set her apart. He could see why Destiny had settled in the neighborhood, drawn by this woman who worked so diligently for others; she was a woman of great compassion.

Nicolae took Destiny's hand. He couldn't say she held it out to him, or even met him halfway. He had to reach out, shackle her wrist and bring her hand to him. Lace his fingers through hers. But she didn't pull away from him. A small victory, but one that he treasured. Her fingers were ice-cold. And she was trembling.

He didn't make the mistake of tugging her to his side. He went to hers, standing close so that his larger frame sheltered her body from the wind. So that she could feel his body heat. So that electricity seemed to arc between them, crackling and snapping with a life of its own.

The owl flapped its wings, took flight overhead. The movement seemed to calm the wild winds. Even the white-hot whips of lightning faded from the dark clouds as Destiny began to relax.

Mary Ann reached out and, to Destiny's horror, hugged her briefly before walking determinedly away. Destiny simply stood frozen in place, as still as a statue, unaware her hand was gripping Nicolae's so hard that he was afraid she would pulverize his bones. She watched Mary Ann walk out of the alley with the owl flying just above her as if guarding her. Or stalking her. "He won't hurt her," Nicolae said. It was in her mind to try another attack on the owl. Knock it from the sky so she could be sure Mary Ann was safe.

"He only threatened her to stop you from attacking me."

Nicolae stepped closer to her. "You have not fed." It was an invitation.

"I don't trust myself yet." She looked up at him then. Studied his face with its dark sensuality, its sharp angles and planes. The eyes had seen too many centuries. Faced too many battles. He was a man who had been alone for far too long. "I can't be what you want me to be." She had touched his mind often. She knew his thoughts.

Lifemate. She understood all the word implied. Everything.

Lifemate. Something she could never be.

His hand framed her face. Exquisitely gentle, his fingers trailed over her cheekbones, lingering with tenderness. "You are everything I want you to be. There is no need to worry about such things. You do not know me. How can you decide?"

His touch wreaked havoc with every cell in her body, caused a small rebellion of her senses. A mutiny of blood and bone and nerve endings. He confused her. Every time he came near her, she felt different from normal. Restless. Needy. His voice found its way into her body, wrapped itself tightly around her heart and lungs, so that each time he spoke, he robbed her of breath. Of life. Of the ability to hate. Him. Herself. What she was.

"It was easier without you."

"You have never been without me," he pointed out. He curled his fingers around hers, brought her knuckles to his mouth.

Her heart jumped at the touch of his lips against her skin. A whisper of velvet. A stroke of heat. He was so beautiful there in the night. Tall and strong and alive. Too real. Too masculine. Too strong. There was a lump in her throat that made it almost impossible to speak. "You are, you know. Too strong for me." Her voice came out husky, strangled, so unlike her.

His thumb feathered along her cheek, traced the path of an imaginary tear. His palm cupped her forehead, removed every trace of the tiny beads of blood. "You were honed in the fires of hell, Destiny. No one will ever be as strong as you are. I know you