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than as Darius's girlfriend.
Girlfriend?His eyebrows shot up. Is that whatyou think you are? That taunting male laughter mocked
her.
She glared at him.No, that's what you think I am. I know better. Her voice was deliberately haughty.
Darius burst out laughing. His family turned toward him, startled by the rare sound. He ignored them to
lean down, his warm breath against Tempest's ear, speaking softly though he was well aware the others,
with their enhanced senses, could hear him perfectly. "I want you to eat before you do anything else. You
can look at the truck later."
Tempest's eyes flashed fire at him. "You can stick your little owl's head in the nearest tree, too," she
hissed, furious at him. "Why do think you can get away with always ordering me around?"
He grinned at her, totally unrepentant. "Because I am so good at it." His eyes flickered over Syndil.Help
me out here. She must eat.
Dayan seemed to be having a coughing fit. Desari and Julian were openly laughing. Syndil pushed
Barack out of her way, glaring at him so that he groaned out loud. She stalked over to Tempest and took
her hand. "Come on, Rusti. Do not pay any further attention to these men. They think they can rule us,
but in truth, it is the other way around." As she spoke, she looked down her nose pointedly at Barack.
"Come on, Syndil," he pleaded. "You cannot hold one mistake against me for all time. You are supposed
to be compassionate."
"Yes, I can," she said sweetly as she guided Tempest to the bus.
Barack swore, leaned down, picked up rock, and hurled it in sheer frustration. It embedded itself
halfway into the trunk of a pine tree. "That woman is the most stubborn creature in the world," he said to
no one in particular.
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Darius walked over to Julian. "I ask for your help," he said formally, pushing down his dislike of such a
thing. All that mattered to him was that he safeguard Tempest.
Julian nodded and fell into step beside his brother-in-law. "Of course, Darius," he replied, equally formal.
"We are family."
"I have encountered human women turned by vampires. They were deranged, preying on the children of
humans. I was forced to destroy these abominations. Now I fear I am placing Tempest in such peril.
How are these women changed? I know that she is already different. Her hearing and vision are far more
acute, and she is having trouble eating human food."
"It takes three blood exchanges to convert a human woman. Obviously you have not completed the
ritual; it is a very painful process. If such a thing were to occur, you would have to send her to sleep once
it was safe to do so in order for her body to convert without enduring too much pain to manage."
"Would she become deranged?" Darius was worried. He had already put her in danger, exchanging
blood twice with her. "Has there ever been an instance when a human woman survived the ordeal intact?"
Not that he intended to take the chance, but he needed the information in case of an unfortunate accident.
"Prince Mikhail, the leader of our people, successfully converted his lifemate. Their child is the lifemate
of your elder brother, Gregori. My own brother, my twin, accidentally completed a conversion started by
a vampire. Alexandria is his lifemate. If a human woman has psychic ability, it appears she can handle
conversion by her Carpathian lifemate. And Tempest is undeniably your lifemate."
"When you use a phrase like 'it appears,' " Darius said, "it worries me. I would never want to take the
chance of harming Tempest."
"What is the alternative, Darius?" Julian asked gently. "She has brought you into the light. If you lost her,
you would be destroyed. You know you would never survive. You would turn vampire, the undead. You
would lose your soul."
"I have chosen to grow old and die when she does," Darius announced.
Julian caught the echo of his own lifemate's gasp. De-sari was stunned and saddened at the notion. It
took a moment for Julian to fight back his own protest of such a decision. "You know the danger our
race is in. There are far too few of us to ensure the continuation of our people. We cannot afford to lose
even one pair. And certainly not one involving a young, healthy woman capable of bearing children."
Darius shook his head. "I know so little of our race, Julian."
"It is necessary for every Carpathian male to find his lifemate. If he fails to do so, he must choose to face
the dawn and end his life before it becomes too late and he loses his soul, becomes the undead. We are
predators, Darius. Without a lifemate to bring meaning and light into our darkness, to make us complete,
we will become vampire. But so few Carpathian females survive childhood that most of our males are
turning and must be destroyed. Before I found Desari, I had made up my mind to end my life. Prince
Mikhail, through Gregori, sent me to warn her that she was in danger from the human society of
vampire-hunters. Of course, we had no idea any of you were still alive after the massacres in our
homeland. We thought Desari human and mistakenly in the society's sights. But when I saw colors in her
presence, I knew she was my lifemate, that she was meant to be with me."
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"So Dayan and Barack must find their lifemates soon, or they are in danger of turning, as was I," Darius
noted thoughtfully, worried.
Julian nodded soberly. "There is no doubt, Darius. That is why those of us who can must try to have
female children. It is the only way our race has a chance of surviving. Even so, we may be too late. Most
Carpathian women give birth to males. If a female is born, she must struggle to survive that first difficult,
dangerous year."
Darius remembered just how hard it had been to keep the two fragile little girls who were Desari and
Syndil alive so many centuries ago.
"It is necessary to try to provide lifemates for our kind, our brothers and friends," Julian went on quietly,
persuasively. "However, you must also consider that if you bind Tempest to you without converting her,
like all lifemates, neither of you will be able to bear any physical or mental separation. You, a Carpathian,
must sleep in deep ground. She will need air. When you sleep the true sleep of our people, she will be
unable to reach you. No lifemate can take that for a prolonged length of time. It will not work."
"Tempest is already bound to me, and I cannot bear any separation from her. This she does not
understand, though. She thinks in human terms," Darius admitted with a sigh.
"It cannot continue for long," Julian said. "We are hunted. Through the centuries we have been hunted.
We are not invulnerable, despite our many gifts. She must be protected as one of ours."
Darius shook his head. "I have asked much of her these last days. I would not ask this-conversion-of her
also."
"Before you close the door on the notion, Darius, give it thought. The other women I spoke of are happy
in their lives. It took some adjustment, and I will not say they did not suffer, but in the end they accepted
the inevitable."
"Because they had no choice," Darius pointed out softly. "The last thing I want is to cause Tempest any
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