Dark Melody

Chapter 9

“Corinne — “ The voice penetrated deep layers of sleep, dragging her back from a shadowy world of dreams. Someone was shaking her shoulder and demanding she wake immediately. It took a few moments before the desperation in the voice penetrated the shadows. Alarm spread, and she forced her eyelashes to lift. “Cullen, what is it? What’s wrong?” Her heart was pounding and there was a hard pressure in her chest. “Is it Lisa?”

“She’s gone. I woke up and she was gone. She left you a note.” Cullen was shoving a piece of paper in her face.

Corinne took the letter, her fingers, slightly shaking, curling around the edges of the pale lavender paper. She didn’t need the note to tell her where Lisa had gone. She knew Lisa, knew the way she thought. Lisa was programmed to wake up early, and she must have thought about the contract she had signed and talked herself into believing there was no danger. Lisa didn’t want there to be danger, so it was simple enough for her to dismiss it. That was Lisa. The world was a place where she changed what she didn’t like. People were supposed to be polite and kind, so Lisa simply imagined them that way. When other women didn’t like her because of her looks, Lisa was very hurt and did everything in her power to change their opinion of her.

Angry with herself for not having foreseen such a possibility, Corinne threw back the covers and reached out toward her robe. It moved on its own, jumping from the hook on the back of the door to dance across the room to her hand. Corinne didn’t seem to notice as she slipped into the terrycloth folds and paced restlessly across the room.

“What was that?” Cullen asked suspiciously.

Corinne glanced up to see him staring at her in shock. “What?” The word slipped out before she realized what she’d done. Of course Lisa wouldn’t have explained about her; Lisa didn’t want Corinne to different from others. She shrugged with feigned casualness. “Just this little thing I can do, no big deal. Get out of here so I can get dressed. I know where she’s gone and I’ll get her back.”

“The photo shoot,” Cullen guessed in disgust. “She didn’t want to give that up. I thought she called and canceled it.” He raked a hand through his hair. “She’s such a defenseless little thing, why wouldn’t she tell me? She knew I thought she was in danger. She should have listened to me.”

“She listened to you, Cullen, she just didn’t

hear you.

You’ll find Lisa says things to appease you because she doesn’t like arguments, but in the end she does exactly what she wants,” Corinne said. She was pulling her clothes out of the suitcase and rushing for the bathroom.

“She knew how dangerous it was,” Cullen said, trying to convince himself. “Maybe she didn’t really go; maybe she started to and changed her mind.”

Corinne yanked on her jeans, calling out to him through the bathroom door. “No, she didn’t, Cullen. She pretended to believe us because it was what we all wanted to hear and Lisa doesn’t believe in upsetting people. I’m telling you, Lisa doesn’t argue. This is my fault. I should have known she would do this. Don’t worry, I’ll bring her back.” She was buttoning the small pearl buttons of her blouse as fast as she was able, smoothing the material, her hand lingering for one small moment over her baby. She glanced at her watch. It was four thirty in the afternoon. How had she slept the day away again? Using cold water, Corinne splashed her face in an attempt to clear the fog from her brain. It was strange how tired she was. Was her heart giving out so soon? Abruptly she pulled her thoughts away from her mortality and concentrated on the problem at hand. Lisa was in danger, and nothing else mattered at that moment.

Running barefoot back into the bedroom, Corinne swept up her hair haphazardly and fastened it into a semblance of a ponytail. “Where are my shoes?” Even as she asked the question aloud, she focused on the missing items and drew them to her. The shoes found their own way out from under the bed and presented themselves to her open palms. Cullen stared at her in amazement. Ignoring him, Corinne sat back on the bed and pulled on the sandals. “Stop staring at me, Cullen,” she commanded. “I didn’t know where the dam things were. Lisa must have taken a cab. We’ll have to use your car; mine is still at the house. Where is it?”

“Right outside on the street. Don’t bring it in here,” he responded dryly.

Corinne’s vivid green eyes flickered over him, then began to dance in spite of the gravity of the situation. “I wonder if I could. Where’s Dayan?” He had been with her when she fell asleep. She remembered that quite distinctly.

Cullen cleared his throat. “It’s a little early for him, but he’ll know where we’ve gone when he wakes up. He always knows.” He tried to sound reassuring.

Corinne’s hands stilled around the strap of her purse. “Why don’t you wake him up?” There was something in Cullen’s demeanor that made her suspicious, but of what, she didn’t know.

“He didn’t stay here last night. After you went to sleep, he left. He likes his privacy,” Cullen added a little lamely.

“Isn’t that strange, when he’s so quick to invade mine,” Corinne murmured. She snatched up her purse and headed determinedly for the door. “Come on if you’re coming. I want to make sure Lisa is safe.”

“I’m coming, all right, and I’ll have a few things to say to Lisa when I see her,” Cullen added, holding open the door for Corinne.

“It doesn’t do any good to get mad at Lisa,” Corinne counseled as she slipped into the passenger seat. “She doesn’t view things like other people. Yelling doesn’t work with her, it only distresses her. I don’t want her hurt, Cullen.”

“Isn’t that what we’re trying to prevent?” he asked between his teeth.

“That isn’t what I’m talking about. She’s very vulnerable. I’m sure she told you about her brother’s death.”

“Which is exactly why she should be taking this seriously,” he pointed out. “She’s too trusting.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that, Cullen,” Corinne said gently. “That’s what makes Lisa Lisa. She is trusting and genuinely sweet and good.” She glanced at his set features. “I’ve never seen her with a man the way she is with you. She talks a great deal, but she doesn’t really fall for anyone. Don’t do anything to hurt her.”

Cullen laughed unexpectedly. “I believe she was planning to have this exact talk with Dayan about you.”

Corinne tossed her head, her hair swinging against the window with an independent little swish. “I am perfectly capable of looking out for myself. Lisa, on the other hand, is not.” Her eyes flashed at him in warning.

“I hear you, Corinne,” Cullen admitted with a small grin. “I’m not the playboy type. I can’t believe she even looked at me. And these same people who murdered your husband are after me. I know what they’re like. I would never have acted on my feelings if she hadn’t already been in danger. The minute I met her, I was attracted to her. I had no idea she would be at all interested in someone like me.” He drove fast but expertly. After Lisa’s wild driving, Corinne was appreciative of his skill. “I could easily fall in love with Lisa if I allowed myself to spend any time with her. In the last few years, I’ve never looked at a woman in that way.” There was a heartbeat of silence. “I never thought I could — not again.”

“What is Dayan like?” Corinne asked in spite of herself.

Cullen shrugged with studied casualness. “Dayan is a law unto himself. No one can predict what he might do. He’s a genius with a musical instrument, and his voice is beautiful. He’s loyal to a fault, but he isn’t a man another man would ever want to cross. I don’t know how to explain Dayan. But I’ve never seen him like this over a woman. Whatever he feels for you is genuine. He isn’t a ladies’ man.”

“Why am I hearing a

but

in there somewhere?” Corinne asked astutely. “I didn’t say ‘but,’ “ he denied.

“You have reservations about Dayan,” Corinne guessed, “What are they?”

Cullen looked at her very soberly, concentrating on putting his vague uneasiness into words. Finally he shrugged, shaking his head. “He’s just different. Dangerous, maybe, I don’t know how to explain it to you. The entire band is different. Darius is a very scary man. Seriously, Corinne, Dayan is just different. I don’t know how else to explain it. The whole family...” He trailed off helplessly. There were no words to adequately describe Dayan’s family.

“Dangerous to me? He isn’t the type of man to hurt a woman.” She believed that with her heart and soul. She

knew

it with every fiber of her being. “What aren’t you telling me, Cullen? Does it have something to do with my heart? The pregnancy? Or something to do with Dayan disappearing each time I wake up?”

Cullen glanced at her set face. “Corinne, he doesn’t want to be with anyone else. If you think he has someone else stashed somewhere, you’re wrong. I’m not worried too much about your heart condition; I even tried reassuring Lisa, because she’s very afraid. But Dayan’s family can work miracles.”

“I never imagined Dayan with a woman, so protective and...” He trailed off, shaking his head. “But I’ve seen it before in the band members. You should meet Darius. Now, there’s a scary man, but with Tempest he acts entirely different, the way Dayan does with you.”

Exasperated with him, Corinne stared out the window at the passing traffic. Clearly, Cullen was concerned about something, yet he wasn’t going to tell her. Maybe it had nothing to do with Dayan and everything to do with her. Maybe Cullen didn’t want his friend mixed up with someone like her. She was pregnant. She had a bad heart, and she moved objects around with her mind.

With each passing mile she felt more tired, more strained, her heart laboring so hard it was difficult to breathe. And she thought of Dayan. Worried about him when she should have been worrying about Lisa. What if Dayan had returned to their home again and someone had hurt him? Perhaps he was lying injured somewhere, needing her help, and she was unaware of it.

“Dayan didn’t go back to my house last night, did he?” There was a little catch in her voice that she couldn’t prevent.

Cullen shook his head. “Not a chance. He had no need. He took you with him to retrieve the things you and Lisa wanted. I was surprised he did that, by the way. I would have bet my last dollar that he would have tied you up at our house to keep you safe. How did you talk your way around him?”

“He’s very reasonable.” Even as she said it, the car was taking her further and further from him, and her heart was laboring harder and harder.

“You’re certain he didn’t go back to the house? We ran into trouble — did Dayan tell you?” She tried to sound matter-of-fact about it.

Cullen pinned her with speculative eyes. “No, he didn’t say a single word. What kind of trouble?”

Corinne rubbed her pounding temple. She was feeling sick to her stomach. And the terrible dread was increasing with each passing mile. “Things. A peculiar fog bank. There was someone at the house. Dayan went out into the fog, and then we went into the house. There was a car...” She trailed off, trying to pull the memory out of her hazy brain. “I can’t think — I feel sick.”

“Do you have medicine you should be taking?” Cullen was concerned about her color. Corinne was deathly white.

They were approaching the large park where Lisa was to do the photo shoot. To their left, Cullen could see the vehicles crowded together. An area was cordoned off for the cameras and crew. Corinne put both hands protectively over her stomach. She was feeling very sick, struggling just to sound as if she were breathing normally.

“Corinne!” Cullen said sharply. “Do you have medicine with you?”

She nodded toward her purse. Her heart was pounding hard, erratically. The baby was moving in alarm. Cullen spilled out two tablets into his palm, very afraid for her. He never should have brought her with him to this place.

Corinne.

The voice was soft and steady, a brushing like butterfly wings in her head.

What is wrong with your heart? You must calm down.

Dayan’s voice alone managed to calm her. Where was he? The fact that he could reach her reassured her that he was alive and well. Corinne took the tablets and made an effort to breathe rhythmically.

I am okay now, Dayan. You are not where I left you.

It was a clear reprimand.

Where are you?

“Corinne?” Cullen asked anxiously. “I shouldn’t have brought you. If anything happens to you, Lisa and Dayan will kill me.”

It was strange to carry on two conversations at the same time. “Nothing is going to happen to me, Cullen. See, I’m much better.”

We've come for Lisa. She went to a park where they’re photographing her. No! It is not safe. I cannot come to you yet. Leave that place at once!

It was a clear order, delivered tersely with a hard “push” behind it.

She wanted to obey him. Needed to obey him more than anything else in the world. Everything in her demanded she do as he told her, but there was Lisa. As much as her entire heart and soul required that she comply with that order, she could not leave without Lisa.

Don’t be upset, Dayan. I will get home as soon as I have Lisa safe with us. Cullen is here too.

Dayan lay helpless beneath the earth, seething with rage. With fear that amounted to terror. He didn’t dare make his command any stronger. Corinne was strong-willed and she was fighting him. Her loyalty to Lisa demanded that she get her sister-in-law to safety. Dayan knew her heart would not survive a struggle against him. He subsided, a shadow in her mind. The time until sundown seemed to tick away with agonizing slowness.

“Maybe you’d better stay in the car,” Cullen said uneasily. Dayan was working on him, pushing at Cullen’s mind so that he felt it was of paramount importance to protect Corinne. “It won’t take me long to collect her.”

“You’ll never get through security,” Corinne replied, resolutely pushing open the door. She slipped out before her reluctant body refused to do as she asked.

Cullen leapt out of the car and raced around it to take her arm. She walked determinedly along the walkway to the path that cut through to the interior of the park. At the area cordoned off for the shoot, she waved to the nearest security man and flashed a smile at him. “Frank! I didn’t know you’d be working today or I would have come sooner. How’s Lisa doing?”

The man in uniform grinned at her. “My favorite woman. I was desolate without you. You know how Lisa’s doing. She couldn’t make a mistake if she wanted to.” He reached across the rope to loosen the latch and let her through.

Inside Corinne’s mind, Dayan was suddenly very still. He wasn’t prepared for the surge of adrenaline sweeping through his body, the flood of black jealousy at the stranger’s words or Corinne’s obvious affection for him. She was far too attractive and didn’t seem to realize when men genuinely admired or wanted her. Dayan had come to resent the dead hours of the day when his body needed to rejuvenate. Even in his sleep, when he lay as dead, he missed her. Needed her. Craved her like a drug in his blood.

“This is Cullen, Frank. I’ve hired him as a personal bodyguard for Lisa. We’ve been getting weird phone calls, and I’ve been so paranoid since John’s death. I know I’m being silly, but I just don’t want to take any chances with Lisa.”

Corinne was looking up at Frank with her vivid green eyes, and the security guard was melting on the spot. Even Cullen could see that. Dayan could see it too. Inside him the beast was roaring with anger and a terrible rage. Hot lava was boiling up through his bloodstream even as his body lay paralyzed, locked beneath the earth. It took a tremendous amount of self-control to keep from using Corinne or Cullen to retaliate against the guard. The man wanted Corinne, but Dayan couldn’t really fault him.

“Should I put my crew on alert, Corinne?” Frank asked, his blue eyes worried. “Are you expecting trouble?” John’s murder had shocked them all. John had loved his sister and had come often to watch her photo shoots. Lisa was different from the majority of the other models, the ones who never spoke to the security crew. John and Corinne had almost always been at Lisa’s shoots and had gone out of their way to speak to everyone. The three of them were unfailingly polite, warm and friendly. They remembered everyone’s name and inquired about family members.

Corinne glanced up at Cullen, a question in her eyes. He nodded, his gaze slowly sweeping the area. There was a large crowd watching the proceedings, and a large crowd was a nightmare to him. Corinne smiled up at Frank. “Just ask them to watch for someone different — I don’t know, anyone who looks like he might have a gun.”

Frank nodded, all business. At once he spoke into his radio and waved Corinne and Cullen toward the group where the filming was going on. Cullen leaned down to whisper close to Corinne’s ear, “They’re here somewhere. I know they are.”

Corinne’s breath caught in her throat. She looked around rather wildly, desperate to find Lisa. Dayan’s soft voice, as calm as ever, brushed at her mind.

What is it, honey? Cullen says Lisa’s in danger; those men must be here. That means you are in danger also, Corinne.

Dayan was holding his breath, counting the minutes, the seconds, until it was safe for him to rise. He was Carpathian, not vampire; he could rise before the setting of the sun, but not now, not when the sun had reduced his great strength and power to nothing. He waited, conserving what little energy he might have so he could aid Corinne should it become necessary.

Corinne walked across the uneven lawn toward the spot where the lights were set up in the middle of the wooded park. A small, frothy waterfall fell with a rush into a deep pool hollowed out of rock. Ferns grew in every nook and cranny surrounding the pool. Lisa was standing beside the pool in the midst of the greenery, looking slim and cool and beautiful. Corinne wanted to cry, she was so proud of her. Lisa was a professional and very thankful for the job and the money it provided her and her family. She was easy to work with, followed directions carefully, and the camera loved her. She had become very popular with photographers and clients for just those reasons.

Cullen simply stared at her, astonished that she had ever given him more than a casual glance. She looked nothing like the shy, vulnerable young woman he knew her to be. She looked like a goddess to him. She was a seductress in front of the camera, then turned to laugh easily with the photographer, joke with the makeup artist, tease the hairdresser. When she noticed Cullen, her face lit up and she waved. For one moment he forgot he had come on a rescue mission.

“Keep your mind on work,” Corinne reminded him. “You’re supposed to be her bodyguard. No ogling the client.”

Cullen grinned sheepishly and edged his body in front of Corinne’s as his gaze swept the crowd, looking for familiar faces. He was high on the society’s hit list, branded a traitor by the organization. Somewhere in that crowd were men with guns — he was certain of it. “Maybe you should get back in the car,” he told Corinne.

“You’ll never get Lisa to come until this is over.” Corinne was walking carefully through the maze of cable toward Lisa. She waved at a photographer she knew. “Are you on a break? I need to talk with Lisa.” She held up one finger, indicating a quick chat.

The photographer nodded at her. “We can’t decide if she looks better standing or sitting. Lisa can carry anything off.”

“She’s getting eaten alive by the mosquitoes,” the hairdresser called as she patted Lisa’s shimmering hair, then swatted at a bug landing on her own arm. “Honestly, Matt, these wilderness locations are dangerous.”

“Not too much longer, Lisa,” the photographer called back. “We’ll lose the light pretty soon anyway.”

Corinne had nearly reached Lisa’s side when she glanced up and saw a man hidden above Lisa in the rocks. For one moment she thought he was part of the shoot, a male model, before it registered that he was short and plump and not at all handsome. As he half turned, the sun’s rays glinted on something in his fist. Her heart in her throat, Corinne hurled herself at Lisa, catching her around the waist and driving both of them backward into the shrubbery. “Cullen!” she called out, terrified the unknown man would be able to get a clear shot at Cullen.

Both women fell heavily in a tangle of arms and legs. Corinne didn’t care — she was concentrating on the object in the man’s hand, fixing on it with her mind, determined to spoil his aim. She actually felt the intensity in the man as he fought for control. She saw people running toward her, saw two more men in the rocks out of the corner of her eye. Nothing mattered but covering Lisa protectively and keeping the man from shooting Cullen. She heard Dayan cry out in warning, felt his withdrawal from her mind. He had been providing emotional support, and it hurt that he left now when she was most afraid, when she didn’t want to be alone.

Deep within the ground, Dayan shook with fear for her, raged at his inability to break free of the terrible paralysis that gripped his race during the daylight hours. He merged with Cullen, “seeing” through his eyes. Security guards were racing around in all directions, people were yelling, and Cullen was trying to make his way toward the two women. He was looking at his destination rather than at the wild crowd. Dayan drew a deep breath, let it out slowly to control his own panic. He forced Cullen to stop running and take a long look around himself to give Dayan a clear view of what was happening.

First he took care of the man struggling with Corinne for possession of the gun. Instead of attacking the weapon, Dayan went for the throat of the man, closing off his airway so that he had no time to think about shooting anyone. He let go of the gun, and it clattered downward through the rocks. He grasped at his throat in an attempt to fight off the unseen hands squeezing him like a vise. Only when the assailant fell from the rocks did Dayan, using Cullen’s eyes, do a slow sweep of the crowd in search of other possible threats.

One man was dragging Corinne backward, away from the rocks toward the deeper thicket of trees, out of eyesight of the fast-moving security guards. The guards were converging on Lisa, who was still on the ground. Two women were screaming, and the scene was fast turning to chaos. Dayan forced Cullen to follow Corinne even though the human male wanted to go to Lisa, who was clearly sobbing, trying to fight her way past the security people to get to Corinne.

Dayan thought only of the man holding his lifemate. He allowed nothing else in his mind. He stared directly at the arm around her throat in an L choke hold. Almost at once the muscles in the man’s arm began to swell. He yelled and released Corinne’s neck, only to shove her in the back as she attempted to run from him. Right before Dayan’s eyes, she went down hard, her hands going out to try to protect the baby from the rocky ground.

Swearing eloquently to himself in the ancient language, Dayan used his last remaining surge of power to buckle the earth so that Corinne’s assailant fell hard, his head striking a jutting rock. At once more rocks tumbled down, dislodged by the minor quake, at first slowly, then raining down in a concentrated shower, striking the man’s head and chest so that he was partially buried beneath the heavy stones.

That was all Dayan could do until the earth renewed his strength and the sun began to wane. With one last look at Corinne, lying small and fragile in the dirt, he reluctantly broke the mind merge with Cullen, his spirit retreating to its resting place, where his body already lay paralyzed.

Cullen turned to look at Lisa, who was struggling wildly with the security guards. “Corinne! Cullen, get to Corinne. Someone call an ambulance.” Tears were streaming down Lisa’s face.

Cullen was sprinting toward Corinne’s fallen body when something hit him hard from behind, spinning him halfway around. His breath slammed out of him, leaving him gasping for air. He registered Lisa’s high-pitched scream, saw people throwing themselves to the ground and running for cover. He never heard the gunshot. He wasn’t even certain what actually happened, but when he tried to continue his forward momentum to reach Corinne, his legs turned to rubber and he found himself sitting abruptly on the edge of the grassy lawn.

“Cullen!” Lisa did manage to break free for a moment before a security guard threw her to the ground and covered her body with his.

It was Frank who aimed his gun very carefully, his hand steady when the gunman continued running toward Corinne. Frank called out a warning, loud and clear, hoping the man would stop. Instead, he turned and fired at the security guard, all in one smooth motion. The bullet thunked into a tree beside the security guard’s head. Without flinching, Frank squeezed the trigger. He found he was whispering to himself, “No. No, don’t.” The gunman stood still, staring in dismay at Frank, his gun falling in a strange slow motion from his hand. He looked down at the crimson stain spreading across his chest and then up at Frank before he fell onto his knees and then face down, half on the rocks and half on the lawn.

For a moment there was only the sound of sobbing, and then people slowly began to look at one another, realizing the violence was over as quickly as it had started. Frank kept his gun aimed steadily on the stranger who had shot at him as he walked slowly toward him. Sirens could be heard in the distance, coming closer fast. Frank glanced anxiously at Corinne. She was very still, face down in the rocks.

Minutes later Lisa was climbing into an ambulance with Corinne, clutching Corinne’s purse, tears running down her face. Cullen was being loaded into another ambulance. Lisa pressed a hand to her mouth to keep from crying out loud. “I did this,” she whispered to Corinne.

Corinne was so pale she looked gray. Around her lips was a distinctive blue color that horrified Lisa. “She’s pregnant,” she said unnecessarily to the paramedics, “and she has a bad heart.”

An oxygen mask covered Corinne’s face. She looked small and helpless, very vulnerable and fragile. Already broken. As if she had already gone far away from Lisa. Lisa took a firm hold of her hand, wanting to cling to her, to prevent Corinne from slipping away. “Is she going to be all right?”

The ambulance was moving very fast, the paramedics talking on their radio, putting things into Corinne’s IV. None of them looked directly at Lisa, and none answered her question. She touched Corinne’s stomach, the baby. John and Corinne’s baby. She didn’t want to lose either of them. And if the worst happened and Corinne’s heart gave out, Lisa wanted that tiny little part of her to live. “It’s too early for you, baby,” she crooned softly. “Way too early.”

At the hospital Lisa was hustled out of the emergency room. She could only watch helplessly as they rushed Cullen into a cubicle beside Corinne. A policewoman came in after a long while to talk to her, but nobody said anything about Corinne or Cullen. Eventually the waiting room was filled with people: her photographer, her agent, Frank the security guard. The one person she looked for, waited for, knew she could lean on, the one person she dreaded most, didn’t come.

Dayan. She would never be able to look him in the eye. Why hadn’t she just listened to them all? Lisa hadn’t wanted it all to be true. Murders didn’t happen to regular people; she and Corinne were finished with that world. She had worked hard and found a new life. One that didn’t include murder. She sat quietly, her fists clenched tightly, wanting to cry and cry forever.

Dayan lay locked in the earth, counting the minutes until he could rise without danger. He burst from the soil, dirt spewing like a geyser as he shot into the sky, shape-shifting as he did so. The sun was low but had not set, and the light hit his eyes so that they burned and wept. Or maybe it wasn’t the sun. Dayan didn’t know for certain as he winged his way swiftly across the sky toward the hospital where she lay.

His world. His life. The best part of him. She lay dying in a hospital. He knew it. He felt it. He kept his mind firmly merged with hers so that she couldn’t possibly release her spirit from her dying body.

You will hold on. ‘

He commanded it with every fiber of his being, bent his entire will to ensure her obedience.

I am so tired. Rest then, but you will not let go. I hear them talking. They do not think they can save my baby.

There was sorrow in her mind, in her heart. A terrible weariness as if she had given up along with the doctors, as if she could no longer continue to struggle against the tremendous odds.

Do not leave me alone!

he cried out. It was a plea. An order.

No one needs you as I do. Do not leave me alone ever again. Dayan. You are strong. So very strong. There will be another for you.

Even in her darkest hour she was thinking of him. Of Cullen and Lisa. She was piecing it together in her mind. Their future. Their happiness. She arranged it the way she thought would work best.

Dayan surrounded her waning spirit, locked her firmly to him.

There will never be another for me. Never. Should I survive your loss and continue for all eternity, I would no longer be me, but something hideous, an abomination. An evil monster. I will not become such a creature. I would choose to follow you into the next life. We are one, Corinne. One. There is no Dayan without Corinne. You have no choice but to live. For the daughter you carry inside you. For me. For our unborn children. For Lisa. I will not release you. Not now. Not ever.

He was much closer now, moving swiftly as the sun sank below the horizon. Colors splashed the sky blood red, and the wind was beginning to pick up, an ominous sign. Dayan was no longer the easygoing poet, the gentle man Corinne knew. He was a male Carpathian at full strength, and something was threatening his lifemate.

He strode unseen past the doctors and nurses, leaving a freezing cold in his wake. Past Lisa, huddled in the room where Cullen lay pale and bandaged and still unconscious. Dayan spared his friend a quick glance, attempting to assess the damage as he hurried to Corinne. Without her, he couldn’t help Cullen or anyone else. His first thought, his first duty, was to Corinne.

She lay on the bed, hooked up to lines and bottles. She was very pale, almost transparent. Despite the oxygen, there was a blue tint around her mouth. Corinne looked small and thin beneath the single cover. She looked a mere child, a waxen doll. She was laboring hard for each breath. Leads ran from her heart to a machine and from her abdomen to another machine. Dayan stood looking down at her, his heart in his throat. She looked so fragile, he was afraid to touch her.

There was a familiar stirring in his mind. Warmth. Reassurance. Total confidence.

Dayan? We are much closer. Bring her to the healers. We are gathering.

It was Darius. His friend. His family. Darius could always be counted on.

Dayan allowed himself to breathe.

Cullen is in need. I cannot take the time to attend him. I will hold Corinne to me as long as I am able, but should I lose her, I will choose her path at once. I did not bind her and there has been no blood exchange, so I do not have the control needed for such a fight. You do have it, Dayan. You will not allow her to slip away from you.

As always, Darius was completely confident.

I will send help to Cullen. Barack and Syndil will go to him. He knows them and he will not be distressed. Come to us now. Bring your lifemate that together we may save her life.

Dayan knelt beside the bed and took Corinne’s hand. For a moment it lay there in his larger palm limply, but then slowly her fingers curled around his. He watched her long lashes flutter before she managed to open her eyes. “Dayan.” There was a smile in her voice. “I think I was dreaming about you, or were we just talking?” Her voice was so low, such a faint thread of sound, he would never have heard her if he didn’t have such acute hearing.

“I do not suppose you are aware that I love you.” He said the words against her temple, his lips brushing her pulse tenderly. “Did they talk to you? The doctors?”

“They don’t have to talk to me. I know I’m dying.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t want to lose the baby. I want her to live.”

“Do you trust me, Corinne? Really trust me?”

Her eyes closed again as if it was too difficult to keep them open. “Yes, of course.”

“No, honey, you have to know what you are saying. Do you trust me with your life? With the life of your baby?” He willed her to open her eyes and look at him.

She blinked up at him. “I know what I’m saying.”

“I am going to take you out of here.”

“They won’t let you.” She closed her eyes again. It was a struggle just to breathe. Carrying on a conversation was far too difficult.

“They cannot stop me.”

Dayan studied the lines running in all directions for a few minutes, then as he unhooked her carefully, he produced the same rhythms as the monitors, simply using his brain to work them. He lifted her carefully into his strong arms and strode boldly right out of the room into the hall with her. He moved easily among the humans, shielding Corinne and himself from human eyes as he made his way out of the hospital and into the night.

It was darker now and storm clouds were beginning to swirl above their heads. In his arms Corinne shivered, unable to maintain her body temperature. Dayan automatically did it for her, holding their mind-merge, breathing for her, aiding her failing heart. He took two running steps and leapt into the air with his slight burden held close to his heart.