Dark Celebration (16 page)

She turned her face into his neck. "Maybe I am. I don't feel very well."

He frowned as he brushed the hair from her face. "You did not want to take any sustenance this evening. I thought it was because of this dinner. After all this time, does it still bother you?"

"Not when it is from you," she admitted. "I just feel tired, that's all. Tired and out of sorts, I guess."

"You should not have tried to hide this from me," he said.

"I didn't want you to worry about me, like you're doing now. This entire time you've been looking around us, searching the ground, the sky, the trees, as if you're expecting trouble. You have enough to do just looking after the security."

"
Anything
concerning you is always and forever my first priority, Tempest." He brushed bright red strands of hair from her face. "I know the adjustment to our way of life has been hard on you."

She shook her head. "It was my choice, Darius. I wanted to be with you. I
chose
you and your way of life myself. You would have chosen differently for me—for us. I've grown to love the others, Desari and Julian, Dayan and Corrine and Barack and Syndil, and I'm getting used to being around them, but this…" She waved her hand to encompass the snow-covered mountains and forest where all the homes were hidden from prying eyes. "This is overwhelming to me."

He feathered the pad of his thumb back and forth tracing over her cheekbone. "We do not have to participate, baby. We can walk away from this—go far away and just be together. I thought you wanted to come."

"I do." Her lower lip trembled and tears filled her eyes. "I thought I did."

He bent his head to capture her mouth with his. "Do not cry, Tempest. I would much rather feel the heat of your temper. Your tears are heartbreaking."

She attempted a soft laugh in the midst of their kiss. "Tears are normal."

"Not for you. You are far more likely to throw a very hard snowball at me and call me names than cry."

He kissed her again, and Tempest could taste his desperate need to comfort her. It shamed her that she couldn't stop wanting to weep—and it was so unlike her. She wanted to crawl into a hole and pull the soil over her head. She wanted to cling to Darius, another trait so unlike her. He simply held her, rocking gently back and forth as if she were a child, and when she looked up at his face, his black gaze moved restlessly—ceaseless in his vigil to search out danger around them.

"Its so beautiful here, Darius, it doesn't seem as if we could possibly be in danger. I wish you could find a way to relax and just enjoy life—even if it's only for a day or two while we're here."

He touched one stray tear with his fingertip and brought it to his mouth. Tempest found the gesture curiously sexy. Her stomach did a funny little flip—a sensation she was becoming used to. She secretly found Darius the sexiest, most attractive man in the world, but she wasn't about to let him know that—not with his bossy ways.

"I am relaxed. Being vigilant does not mean I cannot relax. I want to examine you, Tempest. Not because I think anything is wrong, but just so neither of us is worried."

A slow smile drove away the tears. "You mean
you're
worried. Go ahead then. I don't like it when you get upset on my account." He was the most protective being she'd ever run across in her life. Darius could hardly bear for her to be out of his sight. If she did have some kind of strange illness, she'd never have a moment without Darius at her side. Even when the band performed onstage and he was working security, he kept Tempest beside him. If he needed to ease his mind by examining her, she was all for it.

Darius wasted no time, his body simply dropping away from his spirit so that he moved in complete freedom, a white hot light of pure energy entering her easily. Darius took his time, looking at her blood, her heart and lungs, moving lower… For the first time in his life he lost his focus and found himself back in his own body, sweat breaking out, his heart pounding. He stared down at her, panic in his eyes.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

His heart thundered in his ears. She looked so anxious, her eyes enormous, but holding such trust it steadied him as nothing else could. "Nothing is wrong. In fact everything is right." He stole another deep, calming breath, gripping her wrists, pinning her tightly against his chest. "What do you know about babies?"

"Babies?" Tempest drew back, shaking her head in adamant denial. "Absolutely nothing and it's going to stay that way. I've never even held a baby. I didn't exactly have parents, Darius, to show me what to do, so if you have a sudden yearning for children, you're going to have to think about finding another lifemate. Of course, then I'd begin immediately taking body parts off of you, but what the heck? You wouldn't need everything for another woman, now would you?"

"Our women always know when they can get pregnant."

Her eyebrow shot up. "How?"

He shrugged, looking confused. "I do not know. I suppose they check. I should have been aware of your breeding cycle."

"Breeding cycle?" There was horror in her tone. "I don't have a breeding cycle. That's just disgusting. Do Carpathians have birth control? I thought you could control that. You control everything else."

"If we are paying attention."

"Well, start paying attention. If you can control the weather and call down lightning, you can certainly keep us from having babies. I'm a mechanic. I fix things. Every time Corrine comes in with her baby, I go out the back door, or hadn't you noticed."

Darius managed another long breath of ice cold air. He tightened his hold on Tempest. "I have been alive for centuries, and in all that time, I never thought once of birth or babies. Once I found you, all I could think of was what a miracle you are to me, not checking for cycles."

Tempest shrugged. "I didn't think about it either. So now we'll just be careful."

"It is a little too late to be careful."

There was a small silence. Tempest pulled back slightly to stare into his dark eyes. "What are you saying?"

"You are pregnant with our child," Darius announced.

She shoved him hard, throwing herself out of his lap to scramble away, struggling to her feet, hands on hips, glaring at him. "Okay. That's just not funny. I don't do babies, Darius. And I'm not in the mood to have you joke with me about it." She pointed a shaky finger at him. "You never once said you wanted children."

"Tempest, I would not even consider joking about such an important thing. You are carrying our child. I saw it in your body, nestled safe and sound, growing every day. I should have been instantly aware, but I have been more concerned with our safety and did not consider that such an event could happen."

She backed up, looking frightened. "I can't have a baby, Darius. Really. I can't be a parent. I'm a mess." She shook her head. "You're mistaken. You have to be mistaken, that's all."

Darius sat in the snow regarding her with a raised eyebrow. "I very seldom make mistakes, Tempest, and certainly not of this magnitude. It is shocking to me that I never noticed the heartbeat. It is very strong. I obviously need to be far more vigilant where you are concerned."

"Is that all you have to say? Darius! Carpathian women are not supposed to be able to get pregnant very easily. I'd better be Carpathian after going through the conversion."

"Baby." His voice was low, a velvet soothing caress. "Of course you are pregnant. It explains everything."

"Everything?"

"Your mood swings, the tears, the temper. I have heard it is easy to have accidents such as the ones in the kitchen."

"Oh you have, have you?" Her teeth snapped together. "There's about to be another accident right here, Darius. I
don't
have mood swings. As for a temper, you're impossibly bossy and would make the easiest going person lose their mind."

"Check for yourself."

His calm, steady tone set her teeth on edge. Just once she'd like him to be wrong—and this was the perfect moment for it. She
needed
him to be wrong. Surely she'd know if she was going to have a baby? And he would have known. He knew everything. Tempest took a deep breath and let go of the physical world around her.

There it was. A tiny heart beating, little more than that, but definitely a new life. Tempest observed in total amazement and awe. This tiny creature lived inside her. A part of her—a part of Darius. "How come I didn't know?"

She was barely aware of Darius standing beside her, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. "I should have known," he said gently. "It was my responsibility to watch over your health at all times. I was so busy worried about enemies, it did not occur to me to think about pregnancy, but I should have."

She leaned into him, murmuring aloud, more to herself than to him. "What in the world are we going to do? I have no idea how to take care of a baby." She looked up at him, afraid to be happy, afraid of the love and joy already growing. "You know me, Darius. Other than you, I've never really gotten attached to anyone."

"That is not entirely true. You are very attached to the others in the band. I can feel your affection for them."

"It isn't the same thing as having a child. I could drop it. And I have no idea how to be a Carpathian, let alone a Carpathian parent. This is so scary. What are we going to do?" She clutched his hand, feeling desperate.

"I guess we're having a baby." He feathered kisses down her face to the corner of her mouth. "We can do anything together, Tempest. By the time the baby gets here, we can figure it out."

"Aren't you terrified? Just a little, Darius?"

"I kept Desari and Syndil alive. We will do just fine." Few things terrified him. The possibility of losing Tempest was the only thing he could think of offhand. He had never asked for a single thing in his long, difficult life, until she had come along. She was a miracle to him with her brightness. She was so alive—her moods mercurial, her laughter often and contagious. There was no existence for him without her and he wouldn't lose her, not to an enemy, not to accidents and certainly not in childbirth.

She was trembling. "I thought the conversion took care of all that. I mean, I didn't have a cycle anymore so I just stopped thinking about it. And it didn't seem like anyone ever got pregnant. Corrine was pregnant before she became Dayan's lifemate. And isn't there some kind of time-out for newbies?"

"It does not seem so."

"You're not even upset," she accused. "You're the man. The man always gets upset when the woman gets pregnant. It's practically tradition."

His face always seemed carved in stone, a ruggedly sensual face with no expression and eyes that were flat and cold and held the promise of death—until he looked at her. Tempest loved the slow smile that occasionally curved his mouth and lit his black eyes. She especially loved the way he looked right now—with love heating the ice and flooding her with warmth.

Her lungs found the rhythm of his. Her heart beat in perfect time to his. "You're really not afraid, Darius?"

He shook his head. "This will be a good thing. Our child will grow up with Dayan's child. They will not ever be lonely. It is important, especially if they are male, that they have someone they can count on—have a strong bond with. As the years pass, sometimes it is only remembered friendship that holds us to our honor when we are without a lifemate."

"Don't tell anyone I'm so afraid. There have to be books on parenting. I'll just sit around and read."

He brought her hands to his mouth and pressed kisses along her knuckles. "You're shivering. We should get back to the house."

"You mean before someone notices the great big hole in the wall?" She managed a small smile. She stepped away from him and took off with confidence, walking back in the direction of the house, shoulders straight, head up, determined to make up for all her shortcomings. If Darius could handle having a baby, then so could she. Of course, she wasn't touching it until it was at least three years old. She chewed nervously on her lower lip and glanced back at Darius. He just stood there shaking his head. "What? Are you reading my thoughts again? I told you never to do that. It's bad enough that I have to try to follow what I'm thinking. And it's only fair for you to handle the baby until he's three, and then I'll take over."

"Really?" He caught the back of her jacket and tugged her around. "The house is in the opposite direction. That way leads into deep forest."

"I knew that. I was just making sure you were on top of things." She grinned at him. "The snow's a little disorienting."

He took her hand and led her in the right direction. "I noticed you said 'he.' You think we're having a boy?"

"If we re going to do this, Darius, it
has
to be a boy. I definitely wouldn't know what to do with a girl. And the poor thing would be a prisoner. You'd never let her out of your sight and you'd scare any young man who came near her."

He growled low in his throat, and Tempest burst out laughing. "See? Just the thought gets you riled up."

"I never get riled up. It is a complete waste of energy."

Tempest stepped in front of him, stopping so abruptly his body bumped up against hers. One slender arm circled his neck and she leaned close, pressing her soft breasts into his chest, and lifted her mouth to his. Her long hair spilled over his arm as he instantly responded, fingers curling around the nape of her neck to hold her to him, deepening the kiss until she thought she might melt the snow all around them. She broke it off, her eyes sparkling at him. "You get riled."

His heart slammed hard in his chest, a sensation only Tempest seemed to create. "Around you maybe."

She waited this time, taking his hand again so they could stroll back through the gently falling snow to the house.

"Someone is close by," Darius announced as they emerged from the trees into the clearing where the house stood. He inhaled sharply. "It is the prince. Stay behind me, Tempest."

Tempest dropped back a foot, rolling her eyes at what she considered unnecessary protection. She slipped her hand into Darius's back pocket.
I thought the prince was the leader of the Carpathians. Are we supposed to fear him
?