Darius dragged her beneath the protection of his shoulder, his arm circling her slender waist. She looked as if she would fall down if he allowed her to stand or her own for too long.
The driver watched them descend the two steps. Behind them the doors snapped closed. Sheets of rain slammed down from the sky, obscuring his vision. Blinking hard, he peered out the windshield, but he couldn’t see anyone. The mysterious gangster and the woman were gone as if they had never been. There wasn’t so much as a car around.
Without a word, Darius scooped Tempest into his arms and covered the distance to his waiting family using his preternatural speed, blurring their images as he did so. Tempest lay against the solid wall of his chest, cradled in his arms, peeking out at the group suddenly crowding close around her.
“Are you all right?” Desari asked gently.
“She is fine,” Darius answered before Tempest could speak. “We will join you on the next rising.”
“We haven’t many more days before our next concert,” Dayan reminded. “We will need you there.”
The black eyes flamed. “Have I ever failed to be where I was needed?” It was a clear reprimand.
Tempest curled her fingers in the lapels of Darius’s overcoat. “You’re angry with me, Darius, not with them.” She whispered the words, forgetting they all had his incredible hearing.
Do not say anything more, Tempest. I am more than angry with you. I am furious.
“That’s a big surprise,” Tempest muttered resentfully under her breath.
You are not nearly as afraid as you should be right now, Darius rebuked her, his voice soft yet intimidating.
Tempest wasn’t impressed by his posturing. Intuitively she knew he would never harm her. She probably really was the safest person on earth. She simply settled closer against him, her arms circling his neck trustingly. He might hold her captive, but she couldn’t find it in herself to be afraid. Not of him. Maybe of his possession of her. Of his intentions, perhaps. But not of Darius as a man. He would never hurt her.
Do not be so sure I might not spank you for your childish defiance, he said severely, sounding tough. He swung around and carried her into the dark night.
“I hurt,” she announced quietly against his throat.
“You think I do not feel your pain beating at me?” he demanded. “Worsened because I could not help you as I should have?”
“I’m not dead,” she pointed out.
He swore eloquently, switching from English to an ancient tongue. “You came close, honey. Brodrick had every intention of killing you. Why do you insist on leaving the areas of safety I provide for you?”
“I told you,” she said honestly, “I have trouble with authority figures.”
“Get over it,” Darius ordered firmly, meaning it this time. She was driving him to the brink of insanity. “Do you have any idea what it is like to wake when I an bound to the earth, feeling your fear, knowing my strength is at its lowest ebb and I am unable to aid you?
He was striding across a field filled with flower crushed by the barrage of hail. Rain poured over them Above their heads, lightning flashed from cloud to cloud, and thunder roared ominously.
“You came to my aid,” she reminded him staunchly.
“I had to use an animal that unintentionally hurt you in the process, though I thank God it was there to use Why do you do these things?”
“It isn’t as if I go out and look for things to happen Darius,” she objected. “I had no idea Brodrick was any where around.” She glanced up at his set features, then touched a fingertip to the hard edge of his perfect mouth in an attempt to soothe him. She was catching a glimpse into his mind, into the red haze of fear and rage.
“This cannot continue, Tempest. It is dangerous, no only for the two of us but for all mortals and immortal: alike. You cannot leave me. What made you do such ; foolish thing?”
Was there a note of hurt mixed in with the beautiful if severe tone of his voice? She hadn’t wanted to hurt him. “We’re too different, Darius. I don’t understand your world. I don’t even know what you mean by being bound to the earth, and you never explain these matter! to me. I don’t know all you are capable of doing whether, say, you can actually kill someone from a distance. All of it is… unnerving, to put it mildly.”
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