Nicolae could barely look at her. She was seething with anger—justifiably so, after such an attack. She hadn’t called him to her. His heart was still trying to recover. The sight of her, covered in tiny pinpoints of blood, sickened him. He could feel the demon in him roaring for release, fighting for supremacy, needing to protect her, needing to destroy anything that dared to jeopardize her safety. He kept his face carefully turned from hers, knowing his eyes would betray his inner struggle.
She was his lifemate, and more than any other thing, her health, happiness and protection mattered to him. Yet securing her happiness and protecting her seemed to be dramatically opposed to each other.
Destiny scanned the area, searching for her enemy. “Coward,” she spat, into the wind. “A woman defeats you and you hide. There is no greatness in you. Slink away. Be gone. You are not worth the time to hunt you down.” She waved her hand, a gesture of disgust, of disparagement, pure scorn in her voice and manner. She sent the wind out over the city, into every hole and every cemetery, into any place the undead might choose to call his lair.
Nicolae reacted immediately, stilling the wind, calming the fog, his glittering gaze capturing hers, allowing her to see the fierce flames burning there. The depth of his displeasure. “Enough! You will not challenge this vampire. You will not, Destiny.”
Her chin lifted belligerently. “I’m a hunter. That’s what I do. I find them any way I can, and I destroy them. You taught me that, Nicolae.”
She was bleeding from countless bite wounds, tiny gashes and gouges from razor-sharp teeth. There were lines of strain around her mouth. Her eyes were more wary than angry. She tilted her head to one side so that her long, thick braid fell over one shoulder as she studied his set jaw.
He looked intimidating. Ruthless. And she was right in thinking him far more powerful than he had ever shown her before. A trembling started somewhere deep inside her. Even her mouth went dry. She feared him more than the vampire she hunted. Nicolae could hurt her so easily. Destroy her with the wrong word.
“Do not!” He spoke harshly, his voice, always so unfailingly gentle, was completely different now. “I will not hear your meager excuses. You were heedless of the danger. If you hunt the undead, you must not do so with half your attention. I did not teach you to be careless or scattered. And I did not teach you to be foolish. You have skills and you have a brain. I counted on you to use both.”
Her fingers curled into fists at the reprimand. Color stained her cheeks. “I would have handled it. I didn’t ask for your help, and I didn’t need it.”
“You sound like a defiant child. You’re a grown woman, a hunter of skill.” He turned away from her, striding over to John Paul, his quick, fluid movements betraying the anger still seething deep within him. He glanced at her, his features set and harsh. “You should have called me to you immediately. You know you should have. You were being childish, angry because the lifemate you thought your equal in strength turned out to be more than you bargained for. That is no reason to place our lives in danger.”
Nicolae reached down and caught John Paul by the back of his shirt, jerking him to his feet and waving a hand almost carelessly to still any protest.
Destiny stood in the street, watching warily. “I didn’t think it necessary, Nicolae. I’m telling you that in my judgment, it wasn’t necessary.”
The full force of his glittering gaze hit her as he turned back to face her. “Are you so foolish as to think those creatures were the actual attack on you? Why would a vampire waste his energy?”
The disgust in his voice brought tears burning behind her eyes. “Of course I didn’t believe that. I knew he was trying to weaken me. He used a holding spell to keep me there. He would have shown himself if you hadn’t arrived.” He had always respected her, respected her abilities. His words had hurt more than the teeth biting into her flesh.