Dark Challenge. Christine Feehan. Dark Series – book 5

He waited, his intense eyes molten gold, easily piercing the veil of darkness. His mind continually strayed to his lifemate. Every Carpathian male knew the chance of finding a lifemate within their dwindling race was nearly impossible, their numbers being repeatedly decimated by the vampire and witch hunts in the Middle Ages and during the bloody Turk and Holy Wars. To complicate matters, the few remaining women had not given birth to a female child in years, and the rare children born in recent centuries nearly all died within their first year. No one, not even Gregori, their greatest healer, nor Mikhail, the Prince and leader of their people, had found the solution to these grave problems.

Many had tried in the past to turn mortal women Carpathian, but the females had either perished or become deranged vampiresses, feeding on the lifeblood of human children and always killing their prey. Such women had had to be destroyed to protect the human race.

Then Mikhail and Gregori had discovered a rare group of mortal women who possessed true psychic ability who could survive the conversion. Such women could be turned with three blood exchanges, and they were capable of producing female children. Mikhail had made such a match, and his daughter, Savannah, had been born as Gregori’s lifemate. A new surge of hope had spread among the Carpathian males. But though Julian had traveled throughout the world—granted, preferring the wilds of the mountains and the freedom of the open spaces to long periods spent among humans—he had never come across any women possessing the rare abilities required.

Julian had long since ceased to believe or hope the way the others had, even when his own twin brother had found such a woman. Julian knew he was a cynic, that the darkness in him, calling out to the undead, was like a stain spreading across his soul. He had accepted it, as he accepted the rest of the ever-changing universe, as he accepted the sin of his youth and his own self-banishment from his people. He was of the earth and the sky. He was a part of it all. And as he neared the time when he was dangerously close to the change, he accepted that, too. He knew he was strong; he was willing to walk into the sun before he became a demon with no soul at all. For a very long time he had had no hope, had had nothing to hold out for.

Now everything had changed. In one heartbeat, one instant. His lifemate was out there. But she was wounded, hunted. At least she had a decent bodyguard, and her cats were obviously protecting her. Still, he could not get it out of his head that the huge male leopard was not what it had seemed. And there was the way the assassins had been dealt with, not in the human way but that of a Carpathian hunter. If there was a powerful Carpathian, another male, that Julian wasn’t aware of, he did not want the man anywhere near his lifemate.

The teenagers were traipsing closer, their voices loud in the stillness of the night. One stumbled repeatedly, having consumed far too much alcohol. They laughed raucously, and from the deep woods, the golden eyes watched them, the white teeth gleamed. Julian stepped out slowly from behind the trees. His face was hidden in the shadows. He smiled at the boys. “You seem to be having a good time tonight,” he greeted softly.

All of the boys stopped abruptly. They could not make him out in the dark. And they were suddenly aware that they were somewhere deep in the forest, far from their campsite, without a clue how they got there or how to get back. They exchanged puzzled, alarmed looks. Julian could hear their hearts beating loudly in their chests. He prolonged the suspense for a moment, his teeth gleaming, allowing the faint red haze of the beast within him to be reflected in his eyes.

The boys stood frozen to the spot as Julian emerged from the shadows. “Has no one ever told you the forest can be dangerous at night?” His beautiful voice purred with menace, and he deliberately deepened his foreign accent, evincing a danger the boys could feel moving through their bodies.