I want you with all my heart. With every breath in my body.
He was relentless in his pursuit of her. She understood suddenly. He had always hunted her, not for the reasons she had thought, but to satisfy a terrible need and hunger, the same craving she now felt. An addiction that would never stop. She couldn’t find the strength she needed to free them both of this dangerous liaison.
“Where are you, God?” She cried the words out among the clouds as she had done so many times before.
The wind carried back the answer. It caressed her skin with a loving touch and affectionately ruffled her hair. The wind surrounded her, enfolded her in the beauty of the night sky. The clouds shifted to allow her to pass through them, trailing a fine mist in her wake, dusted her skin with cool vapor so that if there were traces of tears, it was impossible to see them.
Come back to me, Destiny. His voice offered comfort. Offered paradise. Offered everything.
Why do you want me? Because I’m the light that burns so brightly you will not turn? Is that all there is between us? That and chemistry? I don’t know you at all, do I?
The wind murmured to her, a soft, consoling lullaby. She could feel the wildness subsiding deep within her, settling back to allow her heart and lungs to work without effort. A small sound, faint and far off caught her attention, so that without conscious thought, she changed direction, veering back toward the city.
You have only to touch my mind, Destiny, to find the things you wish to know. To really love, you have to choose intimacy. You have to choose to know your lifemate. You have not made that choice.
I was intimate with you! She was angry that he could accuse her of holding back. It had been difficult to commit herself physically to him. How dare he even think such a thing!
Intimacy is far more than physical, little one.
The lights of the city twinkled like thousands of stars, drawing her back toward humanity. Back toward Nicolae. She knew he waited. That he watched. Just how powerful was he? Had he somehow directed her feelings for him? Amplified them in some way she couldn’t detect? Was she already in his power? She knew the answer. She was totally captivated by him. Completely. Utterly and completely.
Destiny shimmered into her human form, landing easily, lightly. She was already moving, scanning, hurrying out of the secluded alleyway onto the street. Somewhere close by was the soft, discordant note that had disturbed her flight. A child’s muted crying tugging at her heartstrings. She hurried, her footsteps silent, her posture completely confident.
There were only a few people on the street so late at night. She scanned as she walked, checking the various apartments for the location of the child. Most of the buildings were dark and quiet. She could hear televisions blaring in a few apartments and music playing in others. The child was broadcasting sharp waves of grief. Unerringly Destiny turned down another side street where the apartment buildings gave way to small houses set close together. Rickety fences set a few of the properties apart, but duplexes and smaller single dwellings were built tightly against one another. Paint was chipped and peeling from the thin siding. Doors sagged, and gates were cracked and falling off their hinges.
Destiny vaulted a low fence easily and made her way around to the back of one house. Cardboard boxes and bundled newspapers were piled high, mountains of them, taking up most of the space in the tiny back yard. She should walk away, leave the city and get as far away from Nicolae as she could. But her mind was already tuning itself to his. Needing to be immersed in his.
Was it really the ritual words that had bound them together, or had her need of him started long ago? She had reached for him at every rising. His calm, his presence in the world had been her sanity. For years she had used him, forced him to share her pain, her damaged soul. She had sentenced him to a life in the shadows, forever seeking her. She had punished him with her silence, all the while sharing with him every aspect of the vampire’s torture and abuse.