He felt the rising of something dark and deadly. The beast roared and his fangs exploded in his mouth. He kept his gaze fixed on the road, opening the gate with a wave of his hand and closing it behind them with a clang of steel and a rattle of chain as it slipped back into place.
They rode in absolute silence up to the ranch house. Colby slid out of the truck and made her way up to the house, annoyed that her leg felt completely better. She couldn’t ignore that Rafael could heal her, that he had nearly died to save her and Paul from the vampire. That he had come to her when he was in terrible pain, near death, to help find Ginny. But could he be manipulating her mind in some way to believe all those things had happened when they hadn’t really? Was it possible everything was an illusion? Standing alone in the living room, she touched the throbbing mark on her neck with her fingertips, stroking a caress over the pinpricks. Both Rafael and Nicolas were capable of powerful mind exploitation; she’d seen them use compulsion and enthrallment on others. Their eyes, their voices, everything about them shouted power.
The nape of her neck tingled. Her breasts began to ache and heat pooled in secret places. She closed her eyes briefly before turning around, knowing he was there in her living room. Rafael leaned one hip lazily against the wall, his black eyes watching her.
“Where’s Paul?” Was that her voice? She could barely speak, her mouth was so dry. She couldn’t look at him and not want him. It had to be compulsion. She had never been a woman to be obsessed with a man. She kept her hand over the bite mark that never seemed to fade on her neck.
“The Chevez brothers are taking him over to the Everetts’. He can visit with Ginny and calm down. Sean’s good for him, a very steady man, and his uncles will watch over him. It will give him a few hours of relief. The vet left a note for you. He’s taken the horse back to his clinic. I made certain the chores were done for the evening.” He held out the veterinarian’s note.
Wary, Colby stayed where she was. It was the way he looked at her. He was so handsome, so tough and hard yet completely sensual, and his gaze was hot and possessive when it rested on her. And so hungry for her. It made her feel as if he saw only her. That only she existed for him. Her body responded to the dark intensity of his look no matter what her brain said.
“I still have some things to get done. I need to make a few calls and go over the bills,” she said. Her voice didn’t even sound like her own. She felt behind her for the wall and gripped it as tight as she could.
“I am not going to go away.”
“If you were just asking for my body, Rafael, I’d give it to you. But you’re trying to take all of me, and I don’t want that.” She spread her hands out in front of her and stared down at the small white scars from repairing too many fences and handling too much barbwire.
“I am not going to go away.”
“I have to have room. You aren’t letting me think or breathe. I have to try to figure out what we’ve gotten into. I’m sorry it isn’t what you want to hear, but I’m asking you to leave.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Why do you persist in thinking I would ever leave you?”
She tried a careless shrug and just managed to pull it off. She didn’t want him to go, but he couldn’t stay. He devoured her, ate up her personality until she didn’t recognize the woman who would do anything for him, be anything for him. “Maybe because you look human and you seem to be a fairly reasonable person. If a woman asks you to leave, I would imagine you would comply.”
“I cannot leave you and you do not really want me to go. I can smell your scent calling to me. I am like the great cats in the forest, or the wolf running free. I claim what is mine and I hold it to me. Your fear is of little consequence.”
“Does that type of line endear you to women you go out with?”
“I only go out with you so you will have to answer that.” He suddenly straightened, a show of muscle and fluid strength.
“No, it doesn’t endear you to me at all. I want you to leave.” Because if he didn’t, if he stood there looking the way he was looking she was going to go up in flames. She was all too aware of her body’s reaction to him. She had to figure out whether she believed in him, or even trusted him, before they went any further.
He shook his head. “You think to be rid of me. You have no idea of the power I possess, or the lengths I would go to keep you.”
“And you have no idea what a stalking law is,” she said. “But you’re right, I don’t have any idea of your power. How can I trust that any of this is real?”
“You believe this is all an illusion?”
“I don’t know what to believe. You came here to get Paul and Ginny. Suddenly they’re in danger and my entire world is upside down. Surprise—the big solution is to take them to Brazil with you. How very convenient is that? I’m not going to just accept it all without really thinking it through. That’s who I am. Live with that.” Her eyes challenged him, dared him even. She needed Ben, needed to talk to him desperately. She was out of her mind, baiting Rafael the way she was.
“I suggest you stop thinking of this other man.” His voice was very low, almost a purr, but fear blossomed deep in her stomach and spread.
“Ben is my friend. If you stayed out of my head, you wouldn’t know I was thinking about him,” she pointed out.
His eyes hadn’t blinked once; they were totally focused on her. He was mesmerizing her, as efficiently as a cobra mesmerized prey. She stood her ground because she had no other choice. She would not allow him to take her over.
“What do you think would happen to you if I disappeared? You have gone through hell without me these last few risings, yet now you are so willing to do so again. Could you have managed without my brother’s aid?”
She winced visibly. “There you go, Rafael. No, I wouldn’t have managed and that tells me something important. It isn’t normal not to be able to go a few days without seeing someone. Or feeling them inside your head. That’s where you are, inside my head, and I can’t get you out. It isn’t right.”
“How do you know what is right? You purposely keep our relationship physical. You do not touch my mind to find out who and what I am. You do not want to know.”
His tone was mild but her stomach tightened at the way he kept watching her. She suddenly realized she was completely alone in the ranch house and he had arranged it that way. “You keep it physical, Rafael. The way you look at me and touch me. You’re a very physical man and you don’t take no for an answer, not when you want me.”
“Well, at least we understand one another,” he said.
“No, we don’t,” she burst out. She paced the length of the room and then swung back to confront him. “You act so calm, like everything is normal, Rafael. You tried to kill me. Okay, let’s just say for the moment we put aside you ripping the heart out of a man’s chest and the fireball you pulled from the sky. We’ll just shelve that for the moment and go right to the fact that you nearly killed me. I saw it in your eyes. You might have killed Juan as well.”
Rafael’s dark gaze met hers. “That is true.”
“You told me you could never harm your lifemate. If I’m that person, how is it possible? Your own words make you a liar, or very much mistaken about this entire thing.” He had scared her to death. Even now, just thinking about it made her go cold with fear.
“In order for you to understand how such a thing is possible, I have to tell you about myself and my brothers. Even when we were young, not yet two hundred years, we knew we were different from most other Carpathian males. We challenged every rule, pushed every limit. We reveled in our power and strength and when the prince gave us orders, we obeyed, but we questioned. Zacarias was our acknowledged leader, first and always before our prince.”
“So you were the bad boys of the community.”
“More than bad boys. We chafed at the restraints placed on our kind. Our closest friends were the Malinov brothers. They played rough the way we did, reveled in battle, in challenge, and we h
ad long discussions on why our species should be dominant over mankind. We knew we had power and it seemed wrong to us to allow our prince to keep our strengths secret. As we grew in strength, fighting the vampires and learning our craft as warriors, we grew closer together and questioned the authority of our leadership. We even discussed overthrowing the Dubrinsky family and taking over leadership.”
Colby sank back into a chair, her legs rubbery. Nothing he had said so far was giving her confidence in him and their relationship. “You actually plotted to overthrow your ruler?”
“In an interesting discussion kind of way. It happened over a long period of time before any of us thought about it seriously. Eventually, the night our prince sent us away from our homeland with no chance of ever finding a lifemate—at least that was what we thought then—we did discuss turning vampire and whether we would be strong enough as a unit to keep from turning on one another as vampires do. We could separate and scatter to recruit others of our kind, using one code name. That way, it would appear as if the same person was in several places at once.”
Colby thought of the horrific monster holding Paul in front of him, sinking his teeth deep into her brother, the mutated creatures undulating all around him. She pressed her hands to her stomach. “Where does the part where I understand come in?”
“I am trying to tell you our natures were darker, more animalistic, even more predatory than many Carpathians. It has only been the fact that my brothers and I have remained close, that we had a pact with one another and have kept to it. We did discuss these things, but in the end, it came down to one thing. Honor. We refused to live without honor. The Malinov brothers felt the same way. Our decision did not make it easier for us to conform to the rules. I have a predatory nature. You have not committed your life to mine. I need you as an anchor; I need that commitment from you so that our souls can fully merge.”
She jumped up. “Now you’re blaming me for what happened. Your predatory nature might just rear its ugly head again and next time you’ll kill me, or Paul, or my sister.”
A slow hiss of impatience accompanied his exhale. “I have told you things I have never told any other person and yet you do not see that in sharing this shameful part of myself, I was giving you a gift. You would never have found it buried deep inside of me. I chose to be honest. Nicolas is right, there is no other way than force with you.”
She moistened her dry lips with the tip of her tongue. He was seething beneath his deceptively lazy demeanor, a swirling cauldron of heat and fire. He made her burn just looking at him. His eyes smoldered one moment, were icy cold the next. Colby let her breath out slowly. “What are you going to do?” She hated that her voice came out a whisper.
“Fortunately for you, your good friend the sheriff has arrived without you calling him. You have gained another reprieve.”
Relief swept through her instantly. She sank back down into the chair. She had no idea the tension in her had coiled so tightly. She blinked and he was no longer at the wall near the doorway, but crouched at her feet, looking up at her. “Be very careful with this man, Colby. I am angry beyond your imagining and I need you in more ways than you think. I would not want an innocent man to suffer because you push me too far.”
She twisted her fingers together. Perversely, a part of her was disappointed and she was honest enough to recognize the fact. She was drowning in her body’s need for him. Her mind wanted to touch his. She ached for him and wanted his arms around her. Holding herself apart from him was difficult and wearing. “Don’t hurt Ben,” she whispered.
His fingers caught her chin in a firm grip. “Then do not do anything to set me off. Admit I am not human. Let yourself admit that much and it will become easier to accept that I do not have entirely human characteristics. I was born and bred a hunter, a seeker of prey. It is what I do and what I live to do. Every instinct I have is that of a predator.”
“Okay.” Her gaze shifted away from him. “You aren’t helping your cause. Why do you deliberately try to scare me? I’m already afraid.”
“Because you should be afraid. You are not facing a civilized man who understands the laws and abides by them. Our own laws, based on our predatory makeup, rule us. If I do not do what my instincts tell me I must, I endanger too many people. Weighing that against your reluctance, when I know in the end the outcome will be the same . . .”
“You don’t know that,” she interrupted, attempting to jerk away from his tight grip. She was always astonished at his strength, yet he never seemed to hurt her, even when he was rough. His touch sent butterflies winging in her stomach.
“I do know it. The only way it will change will be if I am dead.”
His words took her breath. Sent a dark dread creeping through her body. She blinked away tears, hating that just the thought of his death tore at her emotions.
The knock on the kitchen door was loud but brief. Ben’s voice called out to her. “Colby? You home? Doc said you had a bad cut on your leg and the vet said the horse was drugged.” He was walking through the house.
Rafael scowled his distaste at the easy familiarity of the other man. He reluctantly allowed Colby to pull her chin away from his hand and stood up, looking more a jungle cat than ever.
“I’m in the living room, Ben,” Colby answered, her gaze on Rafael. She couldn’t look away if she tried. He was too overpowering, filling the room with his presence, breathing all the air and taking up all the space.
“How bad is it this time, honey?” Ben asked as he entered the room. He paused for a moment when he saw Rafael lounging against the desk with his arms crossed and his legs stretched out in front of him lazily. Immediately the tension in the room went up several degrees.
Colby rubbed her hand over her face. “I’m fine, Ben. Thanks for worrying about me. Paul and Ginny are at Sean Everett’s ranch at the moment and I’m just resting.” Why not just say something? Have Rafael arrested for stalking her? She pressed her fingers to her throbbing temple and shook her head at her own foolishness. She didn’t have the kind of strength it took to get Rafael out of her life. Maybe she could do it for her brother and sister, but not for herself. She was beginning to despise herself.
Querida. His voice was soft, compelling. Terribly intimate whispering in her mind. You are beginning to understand, to accept. You face so much for others without fear and yet you cannot accept anything for yourself.
When he did that, when he spoke in that voice in her mind, she turned inside out and wanted to burrow inside of him and be everything he wanted and needed.
“We’ve got trouble around here, Colby. I should have listened to you when you were talking about all the accidents happening on your ranch and old Pete’s disappearance.” Ben removed his hat and sank into her one good rocker. “I’ve had three people disappear from town and another two from a couple of ranches.”
Colby glanced at Rafael. The news obviously didn’t surprise him.
Vampires have to feed and when they feed, they kill their prey.
A chill went down her spine. He was so calm about it, so accepting and matter-of-fact. So removed. As if his feelings weren’t involved.
I have not had emotions for centuries. I do not feel when I hunt the vampire. I would not be able to kill that which was my friend over and over.
“Was there evidence of foul play?” Colby asked, watching Rafael. Did he even feel for the victims? For their families? She couldn’t see evidence of it. What did you feel when you tore out that poor unfortunate man’s heart? Because it could have been Paul’s heart. He could have been hunting her brother. The vampire had bitten him, tried to use him in the same way as a puppet.
I felt nothing at all. He would not lie to her. She insisted on scaring herself and making her life so much more difficult than it needed to be.
Would you have been so dispassionate had it been Paul?
It was not Paul.
“Colby, are you listening to a word I’m saying?” Ben demanded.
“I�
��m sorry, yes, it’s just so awful. We’ve never had murders and disappearances here before.”
“I talked to Tony Harris.” Ben’s hard-edged gaze fell on Rafael.
Colby had to admit Rafael didn’t look impressed or in the least bit remorseful. “I have no idea what got into Tony. He was far worse than usual.”
“Luckily for Mr. De La Cruz, he admitted he had assaulted you,” Ben said. “I felt like giving him a good beating myself.”
“Tony admitted it?” Colby was shocked. She glanced suspiciously at Rafael. Had he planted a compulsion in the man to tell the truth? Rafael’s dark features remained expressionless.
Ben nodded. “I had a long talk with him about all the things going on here. I’ve been suspicious that his boss wanted your ranch and that he was the cause of some of your accidents here.”
“I thought of that, Ben,” Colby said, “but as much of a bully as Tony is, he’s ranch. He’s one of us. I couldn’t see him doing that to the kids and me. I’ve known him my entire life.”
“And you’ve always looked down on him.”
Colby spread her fingers out in front of her. “Maybe that’s true. He’s always been such a bully. I hate the way he talks to me.”
“He’s had a crush on you for years, Colby,” Ben said.
She glanced at Rafael. She couldn’t help herself, although she didn’t want to look at him. She could feel his gaze, hot and possessive, on her body. Stop looking at me like that. The plea burst out of her before she could stop it. He made her want him without touching her. Standing across the room, looking cool and nearly bored, he could look at her and reduce her to raging hormones. I hate it. I hate what you do to me.
“I don’t believe that, Ben. He was always nasty to me. Nasty and sarcastic. He always calls me the ice princess.”
“Everyone knows he’s had a thing for you, Colby. And he is nasty and sarcastic. I’m not saying Tony Harris is a great guy—he’s meaner than a snake—but he seems to think you should be with him and he’s damned angry that you’re not. It was fine when he didn’t feel he had a rival, but everyone knows you’re carrying on with De La Cruz”—Ben jerked his thumb toward Rafael—“and Tony’s nose is out of joint.”