than both of them and don't even know it. I saw it with my own eyes when you healed Marlene. That's why I'm shaking my head."
Tara's forthright assessment splashed her face with much-appreciated cold water. Damali couldn't immediately reply. The charge stung, but also strengthened her, and snapped her right out of Cain's daze.
"So what that Carlos heard you? Haven't you heard or seen things that have nearly stopped your heart?"
Damali folded her arms over her chest. "No lie."
Tara tilted her head. "I am going to tell you something I swore I would never disclose... because he's your brother."
Damali braced herself. As the words had come out of Tara's mouth, the part about telling her something she'd vowed not to ever disclose had caused a mild heart seize--not being sure if Tara was about to launch into another Carlos misadventure or something else. She was selfishly glad that it was something else, this time.
"I am old, you are not," Tara said flatly. "I've wasted years in this predicament. My hope is that you don't." Her pretty brown eyes held a strange combination of deeply wounded rage, yet mellow understanding. "Rider was my first. I loved him with my all. Parts of me still do. Each time he was with another woman, each occurrence had plausible excuses... reasons... layers of circumstances that were always supposedly beyond his control." She let her breath out hard. "The man has done the world for me. There has never been a doubt that he loves me. or that I love him. That is not the issue."
Tara paced across the room and held on to the dresser as though it might offer her immoveable support. "But he and I were connected, just like you and Carlos are. Like you, I have heightened sensory perception. My ears are tuned to the night. My nose is able to pick up the nuance of any tracer. My eyes can see far beyond the normal human range. So the blond hairs ground into, and woven within the fabric at his shoulder, I saw. The residue of perfume and other things I shudder to mention, I smelled--even after he showered... the heart-shattering sound of his... voice." Tara turned away. "Or hers echoing behind it in the distance, I heard." "Oh, Tara," Damali whispered, not sure if she should go to her, or bolt out of the room to kick Rider's ass. She stared at the vacant mirror that Tara stood before, watching the eerie confluence of the woman's body in front of her without a reflection.
"These are the things that carve out a woman's heart, rob her of respect," Tara said, pointing at Damali without turning. "There is no excuse, after the first incidence. Not from Rider, or your young, hot, impulsive lover, or this new but seasoned king who speaks to you in sensual decibels and never uses foul language. Hold the line and refuse to be swayed by their antics."
After the few moments she seemed to need to collect herself, Tara turned and spoke through her teeth. "The commitment is what gets violated, as well as your heart in the process." She stared at Damali hard. "You don't owe either of the men competing for your commitment anything, until they are ready to give to you what you have given... total .. . complete... unwavering resolve. Carlos never had to compete for your affection--let him work for it, after all the heartbreak that man has made you endure."
Damali rubbed her chin and glanced at the door. This information coming from a female vampire was a bizarre contrast, but sound. Truth was truth, whatever the source. But she was still unsure, not wanting to get caught up in Tara's reality, which had a slightly different set of circumstances than hers.
"Then what do you suggest?" Damali finally asked, fatigued from thinking about all of the variables too hard. "Since it seems Cain will be with us for a few and Carlos ain't going nowhere until he does, what can I do to keep the peace and get a little breathing room just to get my head together and figure out what I want?"
"Do what a man would do," Tara spat. "In every other aspect of your life, you are clear, but in this?" She began to pace as though holy water had been sprayed in the room. "Outside, during the healing, you heard the she-dragon's voice, correct?"
"Yeah, I did," Damali admitted, renewed fury beginning to crest, "but I had to let