Dark Possession Page 0,44

you did?"

"The wrong cannot be binding us together. That is a natural act for a Carpathian male. I would be wrong not to bind our souls. I would turn vampire and you would eventually die of heartache."

She snorted. "Of heartache? I don't even know you." But she'd grieved for him. Cried for him. Had been clinically depressed and now she was feeling hot and bothered and exhilarated in spite of the fact that she was surrounded by ghouls and insects and spiders the size of dinner plates. She tried again to make him understand. "What if I was married? You didn't even wait to find out. I could have been." Because a lot of men thought she was fine.

His fingers tightened around her and tiny flames leapt in his eyes. "There is only one man for you."

"Well maybe you were late in coming. The point is, I could have been married. I had a life before you came along and I liked that life. No one has the right to turn someone else's life upside down without that person's consent." She forced herself to look into his eyes. "I don't love you."

His eyes went very black, liquid heat, turning her inside out and stealing reason along with her ability to breathe. "That may be, ainaak enyem, but it cannot change what is. You are my lifemate, the other half of my soul, as I am yours. We are meant to be together. I must find a way to make you fall in love with me." He leaned close, so that she felt the warmth of his breath on her skin, so that when he whispered to her, she felt the brush of his lips, soft and firm and tempting, over hers. "Rest assured, palafertul, that I will focus my complete attention in that direction."

Her heart went crazy, pounding and slamming so hard she thought she might have a heart attack. "You're lethal. And you know it, too, don't you? Were there other women? Maybe that's your big wrong." And the thought set her teeth on edge, even though it was silly. He hadn't known her, he still didn't, but reason didn't seem to enter into her emotions. That strange wild thing hiding deep within her began to awaken and stretch, raking with sharpened claws at the inside of her belly.

Horrified, MaryAnn jumped up, yanking her hand away from his She was buying into this entirely. The nonexistent shadow world. The lifemate of a man she didn't know. A species that dealt with vampires and mages. Nothing made sense in this world, and she didn't want to be there. She wanted Seattle, where the rain came down to clear the air and the world was right.

MaryAnn felt Manolito's restraining fingers circling her wrist, hut when she looked down at his hand, it was gray. She blinked. All around her, the rain forest was vivid and bright, the colors so brilliant they nearly hurt her eyes. The sound hit her then, the continual drone of insects, the rustle in the leaves and the shifting of animals moving through the underbrush as well as the canopy overhead. She swallowed hard and looked around her. The water was pure and clean and rushing with enough force to sound like thunder.

She reached for Manolito, clutched him to her, afraid she would lose him. His form seemed solid enough, but there was something not right about his response, as if part of him was otherwise occupied. "I think I just did something."

"You are fully back where you belong," Manolito said, relief in his voice. "We need to get you to safety before the sun comes up. You may not be Carpathian, MaryAnn, but with at least two blood exchanges, you will suffer the effects of the sun."

"Tell me what's happening." She hadn't liked that other world, but being alone in this one was terrifying. "I don't want to be separated from you."

The anxiety in her voice turned his heart over. "I would never leave you, especially not when danger surrounds us. I can fully protect you even with my spirit locked in this world."

"What if I can't protect you?" she asked, her dark eyes filled with trepidation.

Manolito pulled her close to him to try to comfort her. Even as he did, the ground beneath him heaved and a huge plant burst through the soil close to his feet. Tentacles slithered across the ground, searching even as the middle of the bulb opened and a yawning mouth