Paul backed away from the truck. He didn’t remember jumping out of the back or tearing open the door behind his sister. He didn’t even know where the knife came from. “I love my sisters. I’d rather be dead than hurt either of them.”
Colby made a single sound of distress that tore at Rafael’s heart. She tried to slide out of the truck and go after Paul, but Rafael caught her hand and held it to him, never taking his eyes from the boy.
Querida, allow me to try. He is ashamed of what he’s done and terrified he might succeed.
“Paul, we know you love your family and that you would never do anything to harm them.”
“I did, though. I did.” Paul turned as if to run, but Rafael was faster, holding him there, his arms locking around the boy.
“Listen to me.” Colby recognized the compulsion in Rafael’s voice. “Now that we know what he has done and who he is, we can better stop him. He cannot have you. You belong with us. You are
família,
family to us. You will be the one to bring about his downfall if he continues to try to use you.”
Paul burst into tears, sobbing wildly, burying his face against the Carpathian. Rafael found himself comforting a teenager, a human boy, his heart reacting right along with Colby’s to Paul’s unrestrained crying.
“I saw what the vampire did to you. He was hideous. And his teeth going into my skin.” Paul shook with revulsion. “I have nightmares.”
“I have hunted the vampire a long time. I know you think he is invincible, but I have destroyed more than you can imagine over the years. I was careless, feeling too many emotions, and was not as wary as a hunter should be. The vampire took you with the intention of using you against us, but found you
much stronger than he expected. You could have killed Colby in her sleep, anytime during the afternoons.” That was not strictly the truth; Paul could have
attempted,
but Nicolas had provided safeguards to her room while she slept and the Chevez brothers had watched Paul closely. Paul had never made the attempt in spite of the vampire’s compulsion. “Your character proved too strong for him. All these days and nights have gone by, yet only now, when I was close to rising, did you succumb to the demands.”
“But I hurt her.”
“You had to obey him. Paul, look at me.” Gently Rafael held him at arm’s length until the boy’s shattered gaze met his. “You know I am far stronger than you, and far faster, yet you attacked when I was here to stop you. He did not defeat you and yet you are a boy, a human thwarting his plans.”
Paul bristled a little at being called a boy, his pride surging forth. “I’m sixteen,” he said and stepped back, wiping at his eyes.
“Yes, you are, and I am counting on the fact that you have been shouldering a man’s responsibilities. You are definitely mature enough to understand the stakes and what we have to do.”
Paul glanced at Colby, a quick, nervous shift of his eyes. He straightened his shoulders. “Tell me how to stop this.”
“We have to kill the vampire in order for his hold on you to be completely gone, Paul,” Rafael explained. “In the meantime, I can aid you in the same way Nicolas can.”
Nicolas hasn’t been much help so far,
Colby was compelled to point out.
Nicolas prevented him from outright killing.
Rafael was gentle, but firm.
Without his interference, Paul would be in bad shape.
He is in bad shape. I’m in bad shape. My ranch is in bad shape. My life is a mess ever since all of you came here. Did that vampire follow you here . . . ?
Colby trailed off, her mind racing. The accidents on her ranch had started long before the Chevez brothers had come to make their claim on Ginny and Paul. She couldn’t blame them for that.
“Whatever it takes,” Paul said. “Whatever you want me to do.”
“It may mean leaving here, Paul,” Rafael said.
Colby stiffened. “We’re not leaving, Rafael.”
“We have no choice, Colby,” he said. “Until the vampire is destroyed, all of you are in danger. Paul, most of all. We need to put distance between them.”
Colby suddenly felt trapped. She turned her face away from Rafael and looked up at the craggy peaks of her beloved mountains. “You’re talking about sending Paul to Brazil, to the Chevez family, aren’t you?”
There was absolutely no expression in her voice, but Rafael felt the surge of adrenaline, of resolve. “There are five of us in South America to protect Paul and his sanity. Across such a distance, the vampire could not so easily direct him when he is vulnerable. He will have his uncles and cousins to look after him during the sunlight hours and all of us when the sun is down.”
“Paul, get in the truck,” Colby said.
The boy hesitated, but she was giving him her fiery gaze, so he climbed into the back, still unsure and confused and very upset.
Rafael started the truck. “Colby, you cannot run away from your feelings for me. Vampires are utterly evil. This is a dangerous situation.”
“I’m well aware we’re all in danger,” she replied stiffly. His black eyes flicked over her, just once, but sent a shiver down her spine. She was afraid of him, afraid of his control over her. She slid the window back in place to give them a semblance of privacy. “I don’t know what my feelings for you are. We have sex. Great sex, but still, I don’t really know you. You deliberately seduced me, Rafael. Don’t deny it. You did. I’m lonely and I was easy prey.”
“I have no intention of denying I seduced you. Why should I? But you would not have responded to me the way you did if I were not your lifemate.”
“Rafael, any woman would be seduced by you. You’re very sexy and an incredible lover. It has nothing to do with being lifemates.”
“
I
could not be seduced by any other woman,” he said quietly. “You belong with me. The rest will have to come later.”
“What rest? The part where I do everything you say?”
“No, that needs to come now.”
She glanced at him to see if he was attempting a joke. She didn’t feel any amusement on his part and she had the sinking feeling he was very serious. “Here’s the thing, Rafael: vampires and Carpathians aside, I believe in compatibility. I speak my mind, make my own decisions, and go my own way. I also think things all the way through. You want to make up my mind for me. Why would you think we’re even remotely compatible?”
His black eyes slid over her a second time. Hot. Possessive. He robbed her of breath with that single seductive look. Colby had to look away, out the window, her fingers twisting together hard. He could look right through her and
own
her. Once he kissed her she seemed to lose her own will. Colby pushed at her throbbing temples.
She tentatively touched his mind with hers. Emotions swirled, violent and turbulent and unlike anything she was prepared for. Rafael intended to have her at any cost. He was every bit as ruthless as she first thought, maybe more so. He would have his way and do what he thought best to protect her in spite of her fears and misgivings. Colby pulled out of his head, more afraid than ever. Rafael didn’t like anyone telling him no and he believed he had a right to her.
How could she survive with him? He lived so differently, thought so differently. He was a mixture of animal, instinct, Latin male and dangerous Carpathian hunter. She was the epitome of an independent woman, yet she could no longer trust her own judgment around him. She wanted to be with him more than she wanted anything, but she was losing herself. She
needed
to be with him and yet she knew he would rule her. She wasn’t the type of woman to be ruled. She closed her eyes, trying to keep her mind blank, not wanting him to read her confusion.
Rafael thought of a hundred arguments, a hundred explanations, but none of them would matter. Colby feared what he was and she feared his hold over her. After she had witnessed his nearly losing control, she had every right to fear him. She didn’t even trust his purpose with her brother and sister and he couldn’t really blame her. He and his brother had come with the sole intention of removing Armando Chevez’s family to
the ranch in Brazil and that purpose remained the same. Colby had clearly read that resolve in his mind. She was trying to keep from thinking, not wanting him to read her thoughts, but she planned on calling the sheriff as soon as she was home and talking things out with him. She trusted Ben like no other.
He felt the rising of something dark and deadly. The beast roared and his fangs exploded in his mouth. He kept his gaze fixed on the road, opening the gate with a wave of his hand and closing it behind them with a clang of steel and a rattle of chain as it slipped back into place.
They rode in absolute silence up to the ranch house. Colby slid out of the truck and made her way up to the house, annoyed that her leg felt completely better. She couldn’t ignore that Rafael could heal her, that he had nearly died to save her and Paul from the vampire. That he had come to her when he was in terrible pain, near death, to help find Ginny. But could he be manipulating her mind in some way to believe all those things had happened when they hadn’t really? Was it possible everything was an illusion? Standing alone in the living room, she touched the throbbing mark on her neck with her fingertips, stroking a caress over the pinpricks. Both Rafael and Nicolas were capable of powerful mind exploitation; she’d seen them use compulsion and enthrallment on others. Their eyes, their voices, everything about them shouted power.
The nape of her neck tingled. Her breasts began to ache and heat pooled in secret places. She closed her eyes briefly before turning around, knowing he was there in her living room. Rafael leaned one hip lazily against the wall, his black eyes watching her.
“Where’s Paul?” Was that her voice? She could barely speak, her mouth was so dry. She couldn’t look at him and not want him. It had to be compulsion. She had never been a woman to be obsessed with a man. She kept her hand over the bite mark that never seemed to fade on her neck.
“The Chevez brothers are taking him over to the Everetts’. He can visit with Ginny and calm down. Sean’s good for him, a very steady man, and his uncles will watch over him. It will give him a few hours of relief. The vet left a note for you. He’s taken the horse back to his clinic. I made certain the
chores were done for the evening.” He held out the veterinarian’s note.
Wary, Colby stayed where she was. It was the way he looked at her. He was so handsome, so tough and hard yet completely sensual, and his gaze was hot and possessive when it rested on her. And so hungry for her. It made her feel as if he saw only her. That only she existed for him. Her body responded to the dark intensity of his look no matter what her brain said.
“I still have some things to get done. I need to make a few calls and go over the bills,” she said. Her voice didn’t even sound like her own. She felt behind her for the wall and gripped it as tight as she could.
“I am not going to go away.”
“If you were just asking for my body, Rafael, I’d give it to you. But you’re trying to take all of me, and I don’t want that.” She spread her hands out in front of her and stared down at the small white scars from repairing too many fences and handling too much barbwire.
“I am not going to go away.”
“I have to have room. You aren’t letting me think or breathe. I have to try to figure out what we’ve gotten into. I’m sorry it isn’t what you want to hear, but I’m asking you to leave.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Why do you persist in thinking I would ever leave you?”
She tried a careless shrug and just managed to pull it off. She didn’t want him to go, but he couldn’t stay. He devoured her, ate up her personality until she didn’t recognize the woman who would do anything for him, be anything for him. “Maybe because you look human and you seem to be a fairly reasonable person. If a woman asks you to leave, I would imagine you would comply.”
“I cannot leave you and you do not really want me to go. I can smell your scent calling to me. I am like the great cats in the forest, or the wolf running free. I claim what is mine and I hold it to me. Your fear is of little consequence.”
“Does that type of line endear you to women you go out with?”
“I only go out with you so you will have to answer that.” He suddenly straightened, a show of muscle and fluid strength.
“No, it doesn’t endear you to me at all. I want you to leave.” Because if he didn’t, if he stood there looking the way he was looking she was going to go up in flames. She was all too aware of her body’s reaction to him. She had to figure out whether she believed in him, or even trusted him, before they went any further.
He shook his head. “You think to be rid of me. You have no idea of the power I possess, or the lengths I would go to keep you.”
“And you have no idea what a stalking law is,” she said. “But you’re right, I don’t have any idea of your power. How can I trust that any of this is real?”
“You believe this is all an illusion?”
“I don’t know what to believe. You came here to get Paul and Ginny. Suddenly they’re in danger and my entire world is upside down. Surprise—the big solution is to take them to Brazil with you. How very convenient is that? I’m not going to just accept it all without really thinking it through. That’s who I am. Live with that.” Her eyes challenged him, dared him even. She needed Ben, needed to talk to him desperately. She was out of her mind, baiting Rafael the way she was.
“I suggest you stop thinking of this other man.” His voice was very low, almost a purr, but fear blossomed deep in her stomach and spread.
“Ben is my friend. If you stayed out of my head, you wouldn’t know I was thinking about him,” she pointed out.
His eyes hadn’t blinked once; they were totally focused on her. He was mesmerizing her, as efficiently as a cobra mesmerized prey. She stood her ground because she had no other choice. She would not allow him to take her over.
“What do you think would happen to you if I disappeared? You have gone through hell without me these last few risings, yet now you are so willing to do so again. Could you have managed without my brother’s aid?”