Dark Wolf(61)

He uncurled her fingers one by one from around the thick length of his  shaft, pulled her hand very gently back to his chest, and placed her  fingertips in the bands of chain. He needed a respite almost as much as  she did. His body was on fire. He needed just a few moments to breathe  his way through the danger zone.

"You cannot disappoint me. You cannot. It is an impossibility."

"How do you know?" Skyler asked. "I feel like such a coward. There's  more than just the physical relationship, Dimitri. Knowing the  Carpathian ways and living them are two distinctly different things.  When I first wake beneath the ground, I feel as if I'm buried alive.  Intellectually, I know better. I know it's natural for us, but I can't  control my reaction, that horrible moment when I feel I can't breathe  and I'm being smothered."

"That is easily solved, Skyler. I can wake first and open the earth . . ."

"No. No. I don't want you to do everything for me. I refuse to be a  burden to you. I want to be your partner. I need to come to terms with  all of this."

He tugged her braid very gently. "Sívamet, it has been less than a week  since your conversion. You were shot numerous times and died, were  brought back to life. I am not expecting that you'll know everything and  be comfortable with it. Isn't that too much to ask even of a woman as  powerful as you?"

"No, not when I know what you've been through, what you sacrificed."

Dimitri brushed kisses along her temples, his heart nearly melting in that ridiculous way it had when she was concerned for him.

"I didn't do anything special, Skyler, although I'm grateful you think I  did. Stop worrying so much about being young, or finding new things  difficult. Carpathians age differently than humans. At fifty I might be  considered your human age or Paul's human age. We don't mature fully  until we've seen two centuries. After that, there is no real aging. Time  goes by but we don't mark it with age. When one has such longevity, age  ceases to mean anything. Humans mark time because they have a cycle of  life and they become caught up in that and measure all things by it."

"I didn't think about that," Skyler admitted. "Francesca tried to  explain it to me when I asked why Josef was treated like such a child  when he's so brilliant. No one takes him seriously, but he actually is a  real asset to the Carpathian community if they would just listen to him  and utilize his talents."

"I think Josef will be seen in a different light after your daring  rescue. Without the three of you, Skyler, you know I'd be dead. You  proved yourself as well."

She sighed. "I don't know why I suddenly began feeling so inadequate,  Dimitri. Just knowing the things you've had to face in your life . . . "  She broke off again, shaking her head.

He shrugged his shoulders. Her fingers were already working their  nightly magic, smoothing the burned flesh, easing the tight bands around  his chest. The reminder of that agony of silver wrapped around his body  like a boa constrictor would always be physically present. Skyler and  Mother Earth did their best-and he was certain no skilled healer could  do more-but the scars were too deep.                       
       
           



       

Sometimes, when he first woke, he could feel the bite of the silver  burning into his skin, in a hundred places, surrounding his body,  slowly, like a snake, penetrating his skin to slither inside him,  burning long worm holes through every organ. He knew the memory would  stay with him, century after century, right along with the scars.

"I told you everything, my love," she said. "What are you keeping from me?"

Her fingers traced the burns around his ribs. His left side in  particular had been excruciatingly painful, digging deep until he was  certain the chain had wrapped around bone, leaving its mark there.

He was branded forever by the Lycans. He was mixed blood, part of the  Lycan world, yet half wolf and half Carpathian. Like Skyler with her  mage blood, he would have to come to terms with what the Lycans did to  him and how he felt about them.

"Mikhail wants me to go before the Lycan council and show them what was done to me."

Skyler frowned. Dimitri sounded as he always did-matter-of-fact, very  steady and calm. But she felt a ripple beneath the surface. She was  always tuned to him. He had become her world and she knew the very  number of breaths he took at times.

She splayed her fingers over his belly, feeling the tension in him-not  sexual as there had been only moments earlier. She felt humiliation and  anger. Not anger. Rage. She took a breath, inhaling his scent, wrapping  herself in him for a moment while she considered how to best come to his  aid. She understood the way Ivory touched Razvan or stood close to him  in moments of distress. She wanted to ease any burden, but wasn't  certain how.

"You don't want them to see these scars?" she prompted. It would be easy  enough to slip inside his mind and see for herself what battle he  engaged in, but like Dimitri had done earlier with her, she wanted him  to tell her himself-to trust his partner.

She loved touching him. It was that simple. Every stroke of her fingers  along those terrible burns made her feel closer to him. She tried not to  be intimate in her touch, but she couldn't help the possessive feeling  she had when her fingers moved over his body. Dimitri belonged to her  alone and so did his magnificent body.

Each time she found herself skin to skin with him, legs tangled  together, his palm sometimes cupping her breast while they slept, her  body reacted, coming to life when she'd thought that part of her would  always be dead. She hadn't known she could want a man. She'd never felt  that tension building in her, the electrical shock running from breast  to thighs as fingers of desire pulsed through her, until Dimitri.  Sometimes just his scent triggered her body's reaction.

She was terrified, and yet she was also equally as mesmerized by him.  When she'd wrapped her fingers around his thick shaft, her first  reaction had been panic, but Dimitri never forced anything on  her-certainly not intimacy. She felt safe with him, safe to do some of  the things she wanted to do-like explore his entire body. She didn't  want to be a tease-she knew it was difficult for him, that she was lucky  he had such control, but she had to know how she would react to him.

He'd felt so soft, like velvet over steel. So hot. Her body had become  liquid, matching his heat, an urgent coiling need that burned through  her body like wildfire. She had scared herself with a terrible hunger  that seemed to come out of nowhere. But Dimitri steadied her. Always,  she could count on him.

"I don't want anything whatsoever to do with them," Dimitri admitted.  "Perhaps they didn't know what was happening. Maybe they really weren't  the ones to sentence me to such a horrific death, but believe me,  Skyler, when I say I planned out each of their deaths very carefully  while I hung from hooks on that tree."

She felt the tremor going through his body beneath the palm of her hand.  Not fear-definitely rage. She knelt up again and wrapped her arms  around his neck, linking her fingers at his nape. She knew he would  never pull away from her, never recoil. There was such freedom in that  knowledge. She wanted the same for him. She wanted to give him that  gift.

"Dimitri, those members of the Lycan council are nothing to us. Nothing.  You survived the worst that they had. They couldn't defeat you.  Standing in front of them is a slap in the face to them and their  horrible medieval method of torture. Such a thing should be abolished."  She leaned in to trail soft, butterfly kisses over his face until she  reached his mouth.

His hands came up, sliding up her back. His arms wrapped her up tight as  his mouth came down possessively on hers. She felt the aggression in  his body and waited for the familiar panic, but his kiss was too  enticing, sweeping her up like an avalanche of pure feeling, pure bliss.  She loved his mouth and the way he kissed. She was learning how to  respond, how to give him that same somersaulting stomach and send fire  racing through his veins.

He pulled back just enough to rest his forehead against hers. "There  aren't proper words in any language to tell you just how much I love  you, Skyler."

"I feel the same way." She stroked his hair, fingers massaging his  scalp. "You don't have to go, but if you do, I want to be there, too,  standing next to you."

"I'll go. You're right about my presence being a slap in the face to  them. Mikhail knows what he's doing. He's got the upper hand right now.  He wants them to ban hunting Guardians, to acknowledge the difference  between Sange rau and Hän ku pesäk kaikak. They assured him I was safe.  When Mikhail brings me into that room, he'll know which ones-if any-are  involved in this plan to turn Lycan and Carpathian against one another."