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Dark Song	By : AyekaPenor Category: A through F > Dark Series Views: 2144 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Dark series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Demon Seeds
- 2-Chasing Game
- 1
- 2
This is my first submission for AFF and what luck, there’s no category! The world and characters this fic is based on are the property of Christine Feehan. This story is supposed to follow the events of her book Dark Symphony. Please tell me what you think thus far, the next chapter has already begun and it may be the last if I don’t come up with a better plot >.>

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Josef sat down at one of the café’s tasteful tables and tried to look reflective. The quiet Italian town had quite a bit of style on account of the wealth of the locals, and this café was possibly the most informal place to eat within an hour’s drive. Reaching into his bag he brought out some reading material and started studying it with a fixed mind and purpose. The young Carpathian was looking forward to meeting with some of his new friends for a late dinner after sunset. He turned a page and heard light footsteps, almost silent. Reaching out lightly he felt the approach of a shielded mind. Not Roberto, but perhaps the friend he was supposed to meet. If I were Uncle Byron I’d just read their mind and find out… He loved and resented his uncle with the same spirit most youngsters feel towards their elders.

“Josef Belandrake?” a gentle voice asked. Josef felt his ears give an almost imperceptible twitch towards the sound and he turned. A young woman dressed all in midnight blue and indigo stood before him. Her face was rounded and cute, but her eyes were a cool gray surrounded by surprisingly long eyelashes. Her brown hair was twisted up on the back of her head and held in place with a single chopstick, and there seemed to be quite a bit of it. Some slightly frizzy curls around her hairline and her warm expression gave her a look of casual elegance. She was the embodiment of the comfortable artist. Josef found himself feeling strangely excited about having her as a friend.

He stood and gave her one of his best smiles. “That’s me, you are Roberto’s friend? Allow me,” he stepped over to her side as she set her purse on the table in front of a chair and he pulled it out for her to sit. She flashed him another bright smile.

“Thank-you. Yes, Roberto called me about half an hour ago and said I absolutely had to meet this new guy. He also said he might be a bit late and I should come on over.” As Josef took his seat again he noticed the stiff posture of her back and could hear her heartbeat fluttering. She was nervous. He had been warned that some of the locals might be able to detect the predator within, but he wasn’t nearly as threatening as his father or uncle, and had yet to encounter such fear from others. Her anxiety was starting to make him nervous and he consciously calmed himself down.

Her eyes fell on what he was reading earlier and he could see her eyebrows go up. “Now th-that’s something I haven’t seen in a while. Comics had a brief revival a few years ago, but it’s very much in the background now.” Josef picked up on her brief stutter and this possible common interest.

“Some of my new cousins introduced me to them a couple years ago, and I’d just figured out I liked painting then. Their favorite was Spiderman, I’ve become more of a Superman fan.” He turned the comic on the table to face her and she kept her eyes down, studying it. Obviously she wasn’t relaxing.

Her fingers skimmed over the page as if afraid to blur them with her touch. “This looks like Batman to me…” she said.

Josef smiled and nodded, looking at her face to try and catch her eyes as he had when they first met. Then he reached out and let his fingers skim across hers as he turned a few pages to a particular scene. Her pulse jumped and Josef felt himself sigh on the inside. He didn’t want this girl to be so tense around him. Then he sought to calm her from within, reaching for her mind. He blinked as he came up hard against smooth mental walls. Dangit! She was one of the strong ones, and obviously she could sense the predator in him. He hadn’t fed yet, heading right to the café after waking up.

“This is my favorite part of this issue. See the style difference here? The dramatic shadows and profile just make it jump out at you!” He tried spirited conversation. She grinned and giggled as he made an expressive hand motion. As she watched his hands her eyes drifted up to his again. Ah, not gray, but violet perhaps. Truly amazing eyes. Then he heard footsteps approaching from behind, and recognized Roberto’s usual swagger.

Josef saw the change in the young lady’s energy. Her posture relaxed some and her eyes shimmered, her smile once again warm and excited. It reminded him of the smiles his mother and Aunt Toni gave their life mates. Suddenly he felt intensely jealous of Roberto for getting such a reaction out of this girl. Josef frowned to himself a moment at the power of the reaction. He didn’t even know her name yet!

Roberto took a seat and smiled, rolling up the sleeves of his black dress shirt. Obviously he had come straight to the café from his job at the gallery. He brushed shaggy blond hair out of blue eyes and sat back looking completely at home. “Sorry for being late, but the boss had me lock up.”

“Your ‘boss’ is your older brother,” the young woman replied, giving Roberto a smug smile. “He never makes you do anything. I’m guessing you insisted on staying to finish whatever you were up to in that back room.” She looked at Josef with mischievous eyes. “Don’t let him fool you, he loves his work.”

Josef knew Roberto loved working at the gallery, that’s why he’d picked the young man up at a bar as his new friend. They liked the same music, clothes, and importantly, art. They described their preferences as, ‘tradition with a kick.’ It was during one of their conversations about artists who used several mediums that Josef had constantly been picking up images of this girl from Roberto’s mind. He’d then given Roberto a slight push to arrange an introduction.

Roberto waved a hand and abruptly stopped to make a sound of dismay. “I’m sorry, totally forgot. Josef, this is my friend Christiana. Tina, Jo-man.” He grinned over his new nickname for Josef, and at Josef’s questioning look Christiana laughed. Josef reached out and picked up her hand from the table beside his forgotten comic and in a gallant gesture brought it up to his lips for a teasing kiss. Her hand was surprisingly soft and he wondered what her skin would taste like.

Josef never let his dark eyes leave Christiana’s blushing face. “Feel free to call me whatever you want… Roberto obviously already does,” Josef said blandly.

Christiana blushed a bit more and gently tugged her hand out of his. “You can just tall me Tina.” Josef smiled and sat back, lazily crossing his arms.

“Nah, that’s too close to my aunt’s nickname, Toni. Besides, I like the name Christiana. A beautiful name should be used.” He gave her a smile and nudged Roberto. Help me out on this one. Roberto’s mouth tipped up at the corner in a wry smile.

“He’s got a point, Christiana,” Roberto said. She stared at him, and Roberto shrugged. “He does. Now, what’s to eat?” They spent the next few minutes arguing over the menu, and then they all stood.

Josef waved Christiana back down. “You can stay here and save our table, I’ll get your order.” She gave him a small smile of thanks and he noticed her hands reaching into her purse. Josef hastily walked over to the counter before she could try to give him any money. What was the point of being a gentleman if he accepted her money? He and Roberto placed their orders and as they waited for their drinks, Roberto leaned back against the high counter and gave Josef a questioning look.

“So, you seem rather interested in my good friend Tina…” he said lightly, but his eyes held no joke.

Josef smiled and cast a look over at their table. Christiana was lazily flipping through the pages of his comic book. “I’ve never met anyone like her, she has this aura about her that makes me want to know her better.”

Roberto sighed. “Just be careful. If you want friendship go right ahead, but anything more than that and you’ll have to watch your back. Particularly in your case.”

Josef arched an eyebrow. “Why me?”

Roberto looked uncomfortable. “Your uncle married the Scarletti heiress, right? Her mother is a Demonesini, Christopher Demonesini’s aunt and closest relative. I don’t know what I was thinking to introduce you two, but be careful. The last few guys to take a romantic interest in her left town very quickly, and I can guarantee it was her uncle’s doing. He has never had much to do with her life except to make sure she stays clear of any possible romantic entanglements. The bastard…God rest his soul. Now Christopher has taken over for his father and is struggling with control over the family and the family business.” The waitress set three cups on the counter and they picked them up.

Christiana looked up and closed the comic, her ready smile showing itself once more. Josef was quickly becoming addicted to that smile. As they sipped their beverages, Josef asked, “So, Christiana, what do you do during the day? Roberto told me you’re an artist of many talents, but I haven’t heard more.”

She looked a little nervous and took a deep breath, calming down. Josef found her shy behavior hopelessly endearing. “I, um, used to work as a professor’s assistant at college, but when I started getting commissions for my art I started doing that full time. Most of my money comes from making digital collages of photographs. I meld several scenes together into an abstract or fanciful place. One of my favorites is a portrait I did of my mother that I combined with close-ups of flowers. I do paint, mostly oils, and have a habit of beating clay when I’m angry.”

Roberto snickered. “Just make sure not to walk in when she’s using clay or you’ll never get it out of your clothes.” Josef arched an eyebrow and Christiana blushed.

“I tend to get frustrated to the point of anger… Not all the time, but often enough.” She took a quick sip of tea. “What do you do, Josef?”

Ah, he loved the sound of her saying his name. “I’ve tried a lot of stuff. Singing, acting, but my parents decided to visit Italy when I started to paint. Now I do mostly cartoon drawings, though.” He’d passed up his artist’s smock and beret for plain black. Sometimes he wore a pale flannel shirt over it, usually not. “My aunt thinks I should try her kind of music before I give up on it.”

Now he had Christiana interested. “Her kind of music? What’s the difference?”

Roberto and Josef grinned at each other. “You do know of Antonietta Justicano, formerly Antonietta Scarletti? That is her music, now think…Eminem,” Roberto said. Christiana’s eyes went wide and she stared at Josef.

“Rap? Really? I don’t suppose you ever recor—” she broke off suddenly and twisted around in her seat to face the dark windows to the street. Seconds later there was a screeching of tires and a crash. Christiana leapt up from her seat and dashed to the door. Roberto cursed and followed, Josef not far behind.

“What’s the big deal?” Josef asked on the run.

Roberto turned to follow Christiana down the sidewalk towards the car stuck in a storefront. “Christiana has this sixth sense when people are going to get hurt. She always tries to do something about it, too. More than once I’ve had to physically restrain her from doing something stupid. TINA! Wait up!” Josef hurried ahead and caught up to Christiana beside the car. He blinked a couple times to clear his eyes even as his nose confirmed that it was his aunt and mother climbing out of the mangled automobile.

Eleanor Belandrake and Antonietta Justicano looked slightly dazed, and his mother had a cut on her forehead that was bleeding steadily. “Mom! Aunt Toni! Are you alright?” he asked, barely restraining himself from licking his mother’s wound in public to stop the bleeding.

Eleanor brushed her midnight curls out of her face and looked at her son, dark eyes open wide in surprise. “Josef? What are you doing here?”

There was some silence all around, until a brown twist of hair stepped between Josef and his mother. Christiana was at just the right height so all Josef had to do was lean forward to rest his rose in her hair. It was sorely tempting. Eleanor eyed the girl warily until Christiana reached up to move a dark lock of hair away from Eleanor’s face. Eleanor caught the girl’s wrist and smiled. “I’m fine, just a little shaken up. Are you one of Josef’s friends?”

Josef stepped to the side and saw Christiana’s face was a mask of concern, and any sign of nervousness was gone. “I am, and I’d like to help you with that… Come this way and sit down.” She led Eleanor over to a bench and Eleanor allowed herself to be led.

“Why don’t you help Toni, Josef? Her eyes…” Eleanor said quietly. Josef turned abruptly and headed over to the passenger side of the car, where his aunt was currently trying to negotiate the debris of the crash with great difficulty.

Taking her hand he said, “This way, Aunt Toni.” His aunt had regained her ability to see when she became his uncle’s life mate, but her brain hadn’t been able to make sense of what she saw. Combined with her own heat-sensitive sight from her jaguar ancestry, she was still adapting. As he guided her to sit beside his mother, Christiana frowned and then looked at the car.

“Why would somebody want you dead?” she asked quietly. It was meant for Eleanor and Toni’s ears alone, but Josef heard clearly. Both women stared at her.

“I have my enemies, but I didn’t think any of them would try to kill me again,” Antonietta said calmly. She was giving Christiana a wary look and then looked at Josef. Josef winced. She knew Christiana was a Demonesini already.

Christiana nervously nibbled her lower lip and gave the lady musician a pitying look. “I’m sorry… This is Cousin Christopher’s work, isn’t it?” Antonietta and Eleanor blinked. Christiana looked like she was on the verge of tears, and Josef felt his heart cry out at him to help her. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, he reached out and pulled her into his arms, resting his cheek on her head as he stroked her back.

“Th-things were going to change!” she cried into his chest, furious tears were now soaking his shirt and her hands gripped his shoulders with bruising force. Perhaps all the clay beatings had graced her with her strength?

Josef felt a whisper in his mind and looked up to find his uncle and father had arrived. There wasn’t a hair out of place on either of them, but they obviously flew from home to reach their life mates the moment they knew the accident had occurred. Josef watched Roberto’s eyes glaze over before the young man walked away. Josef threw a knowing look at his uncle, but Byron wasn’t paying attention and was instead checking his life mate for any injury.

Josef, who is she? Vlad said to his son. He could feel the fury and hurt rolling off Christiana in waves.

Josef started massaging the back of her neck to calm her as he’d seen his father do for his mother. She’s Christiana, Christopher Demonesini’s cousin and apparently very ANGRY with her cousin as well. Roberto just introduced us, but she has a talent for finding trouble—and getting involved.

Vlad absently licked the blood clean from his mate’s face. I see. Byron? Will you clear this girl’s memories of the accident? She is protected, and you have experience with jaguar minds. Byron seemed to notice the strange girl in his nephew’s arms for the first time and frowned.

What have you gotten into this time? Byron asked. Josef lazily shrugged his shoulders and the action brought Christiana out of her inner thoughts and back into the moment. She backed out of his arms and Josef found himself feeling very cold and lonely. Christiana wiped the tear streaks on her face and gave him one of her shy smiles.

“Thank-you… I don’t cry that often, but when I do it’s usually out of frustration.” Byron kept Antonietta under his arm as he tapped Christiana on the shoulder. She turned and Byron caught her eyes. Josef watched her face wince in pain and her eyes turned violet once more. He winced himself and rubbed his forehead. Byron looked at Josef impatiently.

Stop shielding her, he commanded. Josef blinked. He hadn’t been aware of interfering, but now that Byron mentioned it, he could feel his mind wrapped protectively around hers.

I didn’t even realize I could do that, he admitted. Byron gave Josef a hard look, breaking contact with the girl as Josef lowered his own protections on her. Christiana took one good look at Byron and squeaked. Before any of the Carpathians realized it, she had taken off down the street and turned onto a narrow service path. Byron cursed and Josef knew he was going to get a detailed talk about mental control and discipline when he got home.

He watched his uncle run after Christiana and then a wave of surprise. She and her scent are gone—but I can smell cat. A Demonesini indeed, Byron said to the gathered Carpathians. Josef swallowed nervously, shaking with the tension of restraining himself from going after his uncle on the hunt.

“Josef? Are you alright?” Eleanor asked. She could see her son’s confusion and emotions on his face as clearly as if written with ink.

He waved her hand off and turned to head back down the street past the café. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m going to go feed, then I’ll head home.” Josef stalked away, trying to make sense of the evening.

It could be…life mates?

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Christiana lay huddled on her bedroom floor trembling. She hated shifting. The transformation didn’t hurt, but during it she felt like she was falling with no way to control herself. Those men who’d shown up scared her. They felt even more predatory than her uncle had, and when the tall one tried to get into her mind…

What had happened there? She had felt momentary pain and alarm then something warm had wrapped itself around her and shielded her. The moment the scary man looked away she’d bolted. He’d chased, she’d transformed. It was instinctive, an act of self-preservation against a strange male. She was never in complete control as a jaguar, and never shifted form for fun. This was perhaps the twelfth time in her life she’d shifted, and the thrill of running as a predator, the sleek muscle and power, was seductive. I’m human, not a cat, not a wild animal…

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she sat up, turning to stare at the balcony doors. The doors looked out over the ocean, and only a rock ledge was left to catch the poor soul unfortunate enough to fall from her bedroom patio, a deterrent for late night visitors. Right now a tall young man of lean build and dark features was standing there. It was Josef tapping on the glass. Christiana slowly got to her feet and walked to the doors as if in a trance to open them. He stepped in and looked around somewhat nervously. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean for my uncle to scare you like he did, but he kinda jumped to the wrong conclusion after the accident… He doesn’t react well to threats to family.” She looked at his expression and then past him at the open balcony doors. A cool sea breeze blew into the dark room.

Looking back up at Josef she asked, “How did you get up here?”

Josef grinned devilishly. “Want me to show you?” He turned to walk back out to the balcony and Christiana followed, part of her mind calling her an idiot.

She watched as Josef shifted in the dim light from the waning moon. His smiling face turned darker and she was suddenly faced with the mask of Spiderman. Her jaw dropped open and he chuckled, losing the shape and returning to normal. Then he fell forward on all fours as a large, black wolf. She reached out slowly and touched his furry shoulder, the contact making him lose his concentration and he returned to his normal shape. There was an arrogant look in his eyes. “Cool, huh?”

Christiana reached out and touched his face, tracing lines and shadows. Josef’s eyes and smile lost their arrogant feel and became heated. Her feather light touch was making him strongly aware of things he’d only experienced briefly in the past. With alarm he felt heat pooling in his nether regions and barely managed to resist shivering as she brushed over his lips. He slid closer to her, his eyes locked on her slightly parted lips. As her hand fell from his jaw he caught it and brought it to his lips, catching her startled eyes with his as he placed an open-mouthed kiss on her knuckles, his tongue lightly flicking across her skin. She tasted heavenly, and her silver eyes were beginning to lose out of focus.

Without really thinking about it, Josef caught her chin with his free hand and tiled her face up as he bent down to brush his lips across hers in a very innocent kiss. Their eyes closed and Christiana grabbed the back of his neck and pressed her lips firmly against his. Josef released her hand and chin and wrapped his arms around her. Fire and lightning were arcing between them and through their veins. Christiana had never felt anything like it, and she instinctively sought more. Josef was just as overwhelmed, and in their youth they gave in to the sensation with all their hearts.

Josef sucked and nibbled on Christiana’s lower lip, causing her give a moan that bordered on a purr. She nipped at his lips in return and their tame kisses turned into hungry bites. Josef traced his teeth down her chin and sucked on her neck as Christiana tilted her head back. He licked the skin over her pulse and she gasped. One of his hands entangled itself in her hair, knocking the stick holding the fine locks up out so they fell down to curl at her hips like the goddess Venus. He claimed her mouth and thrust his tongue past her lips to get a real taste. None of Christiana’s usual shyness was to be found as her tongue met his and curled in a contest of dominance and passion.

Christiana’s arms embraced Josef and held him tight. He growled deep in his throat and held her tighter, closer. Her soft curves, hidden under the loose-fitting blouse and skirt, pressed into his hard body and Josef began to find their clothes quite bothersome. He slid one hand under the edge of her blouse as his mouth migrated back down her neck to nibble with his teeth and then sooth with his tongue. Christiana suddenly stiffened and her pleased purring ceased. She grabbed Josef’s shoulders and pushed him back.

Her lack of participation filtered into Josef’s mind and he groaned, giving her neck one last kiss before pulling away to look into her face. She was looking at her bedroom door and was tense with dread. He frowned and reached out with his senses—and immediately withdrew back to himself.

“It’s my mother! You’ve got to hide!” Christiana whispered. Josef had picked up on the presence of another protected mind just outside the room. He hooked his fingers into her hair, turning her to look into his eyes briefly before giving her a lingering kiss. Then he leapt off the balcony and perched on the ledge below just long enough to take the form of an owl and he flew off.

Christiana watched the dark owl, knowing it was Josef in yet another form. Her lip quirked into a smile as she remembered his claim that he transformed into Spiderman to climb up to her room. Then she heard her mother knock on the door and ran to open it. She flipped on the light and opened the door to see a woman of her height and proportions, but in face and coloring completely different. Loretta Demonesini had curly, black hair and dark brown eyes and the look of a goddess of old. Christiana thought of herself as cute, her mother was elegant and beautiful.

Loretta looked around and noticed the open balcony doors. She walked past her daughter without a word and closed the doors with a loud ‘click.’ “You really shouldn’t leave these open after dark. It’s also very late, you should be in bed.”

Christiana looked at the clock beside her bed and snorted. “It’s barely eleven.” She grabbed a sketchpad off her dresser and a pencil, and headed for the door. “I think I’ll get some work done tonight.”

Her mother’s hand on her arm stopped her. Christiana met her mother’s scared gaze. “Stay here, Christopher is frustrated about one of his plans and has been stalking the halls. I came to see if you were home yet since you were planning to meet Roberto…” Christiana gave her mother’s hand a comforting squeeze and nodded.

“I’ll sketch in here. Goodnight.” With a kiss on the cheek, her mother left.

Christiana sat on her bed with a sigh. She looked around the room with its neutral tones, all creams and white with accents of sea foam green. It wasn’t a room she spent much time in, her uncle had paid decorators to redo it every few years in the past, and with his untimely death his son had made sure the entire villa was redone. Christiana longed for her studio, the one room the designers could be convinced to let go untouched. It was on the south side of the villa, large windows made it bright and warm and whisked away the fumes from her paints. The walls were bright white, and the only furniture was simple tables and chairs, a few easels and stools, storage chests and a kiln. On a night like tonight, the breeze would smell like the garden flowers.

She suddenly pictured Josef lounging on a covered sofa in her studio with a sleepy smile on his face and her wrapped around him. Her cheeks flushed and her pulse sped up as she remembered the kiss and her short daydream took an erotic turn. Shaking her head to rid it of the sinful images, she laid on the bed and turned to a fresh page.

Her hand settled over the paper and began to draw lazy lines. Soon she had a sketch of her mother, eyes looking downward. Christiana stopped and studied it. Her mother had been constantly bullied by her older brother, forced to take his lead. Her parents had never married, her uncle wouldn’t let his baby sister leave his house. The former Don Demonesini had been a tyrant, not a protective brother. Christiana was the result of the one night in her mother’s life when Loretta stayed out too long and didn’t return until the next morning. Nobody ever found out where she went or who she’d been with, but nine months later Christiana had been born.

As far as Christiana could tell, her ability to call on her inner beast was uniquely hers. She often felt the beast in her uncle and cousin, but it was nothing compared to what she’d gone through this evening. She tossed the pad aside and turned off the light, slipping off her clothes and climbing into bed bare. She’d ask Roberto for his friend’s address tomorrow and pay him a visit. While she’d allowed her uncle to chase away all the guys she’d ever seen display any romantic feelings for her, her cousin was her generation if not her age. Christopher would not rule her. She was not her mother. The fear and shyness was there, but her experiences with her gifts for feelings other’s pain had given her backbone.

She was the cat, and she was going to track her own prey.

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Byron, Vlad, Eleanor, Antonietta, and Josef sat in one of the drawing rooms of the Scarletti family palazzo in silence. Heads turned, but no one spoke aloud. This was a serious meeting, and all impressions counted.

So she’s not planning to try going to the authorities about this, but you don’t know she won’t tell Christopher or her mother? Byron said on the common Carpathian communication thread to Josef. Josef looked slightly angry.

Look, she’s not going to tell anyone anything! She’s just not like that. Josef heard the lack of reasoning in his own words and ran his hands through his stylishly spiky hair and sighed. You knew when you tried to track her that she is a descendent of the jaguar race, one with enough of the blood to transform. You also know Christopher isn’t aware of her ability, so she obviously keeps secrets from him. She’s also an artist, not a business girl.

Antonietta tapped her lower lip with her hand. You know, Byron, her mother is very sheltered from the world. The few times I met her she struck me as quiet and very scared, probably her brother’s influence there. Today when Christiana showed up she did not strike me as a possible accomplice of Christopher’s schemes for revenge.

Eleanor took it from there, changing the conversation by speaking out loud. “Josef, we didn’t really call this meeting to discuss Christiana’s liability to harm us in the future. We’re more concerned with the fact that you happen to have her scent very well mingled with your own… Just how close did you get to make sure she was going to stay quiet?”

Josef instantly felt like lashing out at this person who dared question his right to pursue Christiana. He took a deep breath to calm himself when he noticed he was growling at his mother, rather horrified that he had reacted so strongly against her. Meeting his father’s eyes he tried to think of an explanation. “She was scared by Uncle Byron and her own shifting. I…” Would it be wise to reveal that he had showed her he could shift as well? Maybe not, but they had to know. “I let her see me shift, and that’s how I knew she’d never give us away, because she was so obviously relieved to meet someone like her. She also made sure I left before her mother caught sight of me.”

Eleanor and Vlad eyed their son warily. He was no virgin, they accepted this, but they had to wonder at how ‘relieved’ Christiana had been and their son’s reluctance to share how far it had gone. Still, he had a lot of maturing and growing up left to do emotionally and mentally if not physically. Physically he was twenty-five, but for a Carpathian true adulthood wasn’t acknowledged until at least fifty. The exception to the rule being any new females born, who, upon the age of eighteen could be presented to unattached males in hopes of finding her life mate to take her under their wing and save another male from his dark nature.

There was no question that their race was in desperate need of women to save the despairing males and to produce children. Light to darkness, a Carpathian male’s life mate brought him emotion and forever secured him from turning vampire, from giving up his soul for the rush of the kill. After two hundred years Carpathian males lost all emotion and the ability to see color. The real threats were the ancient hunters, the males whose calling was to hunt their peers, the vampires who gave up on finding their life mate and preyed on the innocent. The first female child the new eighteen-year rule applied to had been the Prince’s own daughter, Savannah. Her life mate had been Gregori, the Dark One, their people’s greatest healer, a strong hunter, and dangerously close to turning. In the past few decades a remarkable number of human women with strong psychic powers had been found to be life mates, able to be turned without going mad from the pain of the conversion.

The origin of these psychic women had been discovered by Byron’s life mate Antonietta in the secret passages of her home. She’d shown Byron the carved record of the jaguar people, whose women turned to taking human men as mates when their own males proved too restless. The Scarletti bloodline was strong with the blood of these people, as were some of the local families. This included the Demonesinis, which made Josef’s and Christiana’s obvious attraction very disturbing for the adults involved. Josef was too young, too inexperienced, to be able to tell who his life mate is. Christiana certainly couldn’t know the impact binding herself to Josef could have, she might be of the same mind Antonietta had originally had, that all relationships were only temporary until one partner decided the other did not have what they wanted.

Vlad looked his son in the eye. “Josef, be careful. You are young still, and our associations with the Demonesini family have never been good.” He could see the walls going up in his son’s mind. Josef was going to do whatever he wanted to do, regardless of what advice they might try to give.

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There it is, please give me productive criticism—or better yet—an offer to beta. I have a problem with finding good beta readers. This chapter may be prone to revision, and if so I will provide a notice at the top of the chapter.
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Dark Song