e wouldn't let her go never crossed her mind. she just couldn't conceive of him wanting her the way he said. needing her.

below them, the vineyards in the napa valley began to take shape. tempest could make out the mountains rising majestically above the rich green valley. a lake shimmered in the distance, reflecting the silvery sheen of the moon. the owl seemed to be making its way toward that body of water, circling lower, dropping into the shelter of a thick stand of pine trees. it seemed much darker beneath the trees, yet tempest was able to see more clearly than she ever had at night before.

she spotted the troupe's campsite tucked neatly into the trees. parked there were the huge motor home, the truck, and the red sports car. her heart took an unexpected plunge. she thought it rather silly to be dismayed when she'd just soared through the sky on the back of an owl; a few people shouldn't daunt her in the least.

no, honey, they should not bother you. i have told you repeatedly that you are under my protection. do you not understand that i would protect you with my life?

darius's voice was soft and soothing in her mind.

the owl glided to the ground, wings spread wide, gave a short hop, and waited for her to slide off. tempest touched the feathers lightly, regretfully, one last time as they began to disappear. at once muscle and sinew rippled beneath skin. she felt the familiar wave of heat as darius's arm curved around her shoulders and his thick mane of black hair caressed her face.

"these people are my family, tempest." his voice was soft, mesmerizing, compelling. "that makes them your family."

she turned her face away from him, closing her mind to that possibility. her large eyes searched for trails almost automatically, as if seeking escape. darius tightened his arm, guiding her toward the camp. desari's soft laughter floated toward them. it did nothing to calm tempest's wildly pounding heart.

as they walked into the circle, desari smiled at her in welcome. tempest noted that julian was close by, his posture protective of his mate. "rusti, i'm so glad you're here. you won't believe what happened. somebody sabotaged the truck. i think the idea was to slow us down. it was most likely one of those obnoxious reporters always snooping around or making up wild stories about us."

tempest's relief was overwhelming. "rusti" could meet the group much more easily as their mechanic than as darius's girlfriend.

girlfriend?

his eyebrows shot up.

is that what you 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.

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. desari 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."

"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 more suffering. she has had enough in her young life."