She had tried to put off thinking of the consequences of Nicolas's claiming her as his lifemate. Maybe in a secret part of her she hadn't really believed that by uttering a few words he could change her life forever, but she felt the connection-and sexually it was just plain frightening. To go from not being even mildly interested in men who she was friends with and knew, to having her body flare out of control for a man she didn't even like was horrifying.
She had been helpless as a child and vowed never to be so again. She'd spent years of her life controlling everything around her so she would never have the vulnerable, helpless feeling again. She looked around her at the cavern walls. Here she was nearly twenty years later and she was right back where she'd started, only this time, her own body betrayed her.
«Stop being so afraid of me,palafertiil . I will not take anything you do not want to give me.»
In the flickering candlelight he looked a little wolfish. She crossed her arms over her breasts wishing her gaze wouldn't drift down his hard, masculine body and that he didn't have that knowing look on his face. He was Carpathian with heightened senses and he would know her body was aroused-worse, he could probably smell her fear.
Her chin lifted. If he could smell her fear, then what was the use of denying it? «You bound our lives together without consent. That tells me you take what you want and really could care less about what I want or how I feel.»
«Is that what it tells you?»
She couldn't help the small glance she shot at the passage leading to freedom. It was only a few precious
feet away, but it might as well have been miles. «You don't have to sound so patronizing. Do you really think things are the same way back when you were born? What is it now, five hundred years?»
He bared his white teeth in what could have passed for a smile, but was more of a warning. «You are a few centuries off, but I get the point. We have the right to claim our lifemates. If you do not fight the inevitable the transition will be a lot easier and smoother.»
Her eyebrows shot up. «Really? For who? I must have some rights in this situation. Surely I can talk to someone who can advise me. The prince, maybe.»
The tension in the cavern went up a notch. He didn't change expression, but tiny red lights flickered in the depths of his eyes. «If you want to know something, you have only to ask me. Lifemates do not deceive one another.»
«You said you wouldn't make me a prisoner, yet you have. You gave me the way out, but then you refused to allow me to take it.»
He stirred, going from stillness to muscles rippling beneath his thin shirt, as if a great cat stretched and unsheathed his claws. The air left her lungs in a little rush and she actually stepped back, although he had remained stationary.
«The sun will burn your skin. You cannot expect me to allow you to hurt yourself simply because of an unfounded fear. That goes against my entire nature.»
«I don't think you understand something as fundamental as freedom, Nicolas,» Lara said. «You're big and strong and have enormous power. When have you ever had anyone telling you what to do? I can't imagine many people in your lifetime have dictated to you.»
«It is not the same thing.» He gave a small sigh. «I have never had to do this before, and it is something I do not enjoy.»
«The 'it' being someone disagreeing with you?»
«Arguing for no good reason. I cannot permit you to burn for the sake of defiance. What kind of a lifemate would that make me? Would you truly prefer someone who cared nothing for your health and safety?»
«You say lifemates don't lie to one another. Can you truly say you refused to let me leave because you were worried about my skin burning, or was the reason really because I dared to defy your orders?»
He moved then, a fluid glide that sent a shiver of fear skittering down her spine. He looked like a caged jungle beast, fierce and impatient and all too dangerous. «I refuse to answer such a question. I left my mind open to you, allowing you to see everything, including my motivation. There is nothing more to say on the subject.»
She drew in a deep breath, feeling his anger smoldering beneath the surface, but she couldn't quite bring herself to apologize, not even to soothe him and keep him thinking she was accepting her fate with grace.
Nicolas broke the silence first. «You have not eaten.»
«I'm not really very hungry. It's been a long night.» She winced as soon as the words were out of her
mouth. She didn't want him to suggest they go to bed.
«I know you need blood, Lara, there is too much Dragonseeker running in your veins for you to survive without it. If you have problems with the idea of taking blood from a human, what do you do? Animal blood has never sufficed.»
Lara shrugged. «Blood banks. I don't have to control people as if they were puppets.» She sent him a telling look and then paced around the chamber to put a little distance between them.
He seemed to be everywhere, his presence dwarfing everything else. When he stopped moving, he went absolutely still. She could see the hunter in him. Patient. Motionless. Waiting. And he could wait forever. Panic rose and she crushed it down. No, he only seemed invincible, just as Razvan and Xavier had seemed all-powerful when she was a child. She had escaped them when she thought it impossible, and she could escape this man as well. She just had to keep thinking.
Nicolas folded his arms across his chest. «Without blood we die. Is it not better to take what we need without scaring the person and then leave him without knowledge that we have done so, then terrorizing someone when it is completely unnecessary?»
Nicolas watched Lara swing around, her hair crackling with energy, her eyes going aquamarine. «Ifelt that farmer's fear, that one moment before you took over his mind. And earlier, in the street, when I first met you, you made no effort to keep me from knowing what was happening when you took my blood.» Her hand slid to her belt, to the knife there, her only weapon should he attack her again. The smooth handle felt reassuring.
«You cannot have it both ways, Lara. Either you want me to control his mind and keep him from being frightened, or you want me to just feed, uncaring of how the donor feels.»
«Why not use a blood bank?»
He sank down onto the edge of the boulder beside the mineral pool. «You already know the answer to that. The blood does not work for us. We can survive, but not thrive. I fight vampires. I need to be at full strength at all times. What would you have me do?»
Lara pushed both hands through her hair in agitation. «I don't know. Something else. Something more respectful. People shouldn't be used for food like that. They have feelings. We aren't just mindless puppets.»
«You are not human.»
Her chin rose. «I may have a hodgepodge of blood running in my veins, like most humans do, by the way, but without a doubt, I think like a human. I know what it's like to be kept prisoner and dragged out so someone could tear my flesh open and drink my blood. They didn't care if I was scared, or repulsed. They didn't care what I thought or felt,I didn't matter to them anymore than that farmer mattered to you.»
His dark eyes drifted over her face, taking in every detail. «Should our species give up our lives because we should not take the blood of others without consent? We are careful and respectful.»