Dark Prince (Author's cut special edition)

by Christine Feehan

  They stood, regarding each other in the gathering darkness, once Rand left them. Raven could feel the weight of Mikhail’s displeasure pressing down on her. She lifted her chin defiantly. He moved closer, gliding unbelievably fast, his fingers finding her throat as if he might strangle her. “You will never repeat this foolhardy act again.”

  She blinked up at him. “Don’t try to intimidate me, Mikhail, it won’t work. No one tells me what to do or where I can go.”

  His fingers slipped to her wrists, tightened, threatened to crush her fragile bones. “I will not tolerate any foolishness that might put your life in jeopardy. We have lost one of our women already. I will not lose you.”

  His sister, he had said. Compassion warred with self-preservation. Most of this confrontation was because he was so afraid for her. “Mikhail, you can’t put me in a box or keep me on a shelf.” She spoke as gently as she could.

  “I will not argue over your safety. Earlier, you were alone with a man who thought of forcibly taking you. Any wild animal could have attacked you, and if you had not been under my protection, in his present state, Rand might have harmed you.”

  “None of those things happened, Mikhail.” In spite of herself, she touched his jaw with gentle, placating fingers, a tender caress. “You have enough to worry about, enough responsibilities, without adding me to them. I can help you. You know I’m capable. I’ve done it before.”

  He tugged at her wrist so that she lost her balance and fell against his hard strength. “You are going to make me crazy, Raven.” His arms came up, pinning her soft, slender form against him. His voice dropped to a drawling caress, mesmerizing, pure black magic. “You are the one person I long to protect, yet you will not obey. You insist on independence. All others lean on my strength, yet you seek to help me, to shoulder my duties.” He lowered his mouth to hers.

  There was that curious shifting of the ground beneath her feet, the crackle of electricity in the air around them. Flames licked over her skin, heated her blood. Colors whirled and danced in her head. His mouth claimed hers, aggressive, male, totally dominating, sweeping all thoughts of resistance aside. She opened her mouth to him, allowed his probing exploration, his sweet, hot assault. Her hands found the broadness of his shoulders, crept up to circle his neck. Her body felt pliant, boneless, like hot silk.

  Mikhail wanted to press her to the soft ground, tear the offending clothes from her body, and make her irrevocably his. There was far too much innocence in the taste of her. No one had asked to share the weight of his countless burdens. No one, until this little slender slip of a mortal, had even thought of the price he continually paid. A human. She had the courage to stand up to him, and he could do no other than respect her for it.

  His eyes closed, savoring the feel of her body against his, the fact that he could want her with such intensity. He held her, wanting her, needing her, burning for her, not even understanding how such a firestorm could consume him. Reluctantly he lifted his head, his body raging at him. “Let us go home, Raven.” His voice was pure seduction.

  A slow smile curved her soft mouth. “I don’t think it’s safe. You’re the kind of man my mother warned me about.”

  He kept his arm possessively around her shoulders, shackling her to him. Mikhail had no intention of allowing her to leave his side again. His body urged her in the direction he wanted. They walked together in companionable silence.

  “Jacob wasn’t going to hurt me,” she denied suddenly. “I would have known.”

  “You were not touching him, little one, and it was lucky for him.”

  “He’s certainly capable of violence. It’s always hard to miss violence.” She flashed him her mischievous smile. “It clings to you like a second skin.”

  He tugged at her thick braid in retaliation for her teasing. “I want you to come stay in my home. At least until we find and dispose of the assassins.”

  Raven walked several steps in silence. He had said we, as if they were a team. That pleased her. “You know, Mikhail, it was the strangest thing today. Not one person at the inn or in the village seemed to know of the murder.”

  His finger flicked along her delicate cheekbone. “And you said nothing.”

  She flashed him a quelling glance from under long lashes. “Of course not. Gossiping is not my form of entertainment.”

  “Noelle died cruelly, senselessly. She was Rand’s lifemate . . .”

  “You used that term before. What does it mean?”

  “It is like a wife or husband, only more,” he explained. “Noelle had given birth to a child only two months ago. She was my responsibility. Noelle is not food for gossip. We will find her killers ourselves.”

  “Don’t you think if there’s a serial killer loose in so small a village, the people have a right to know?”

  Mikhail chose his words carefully. “The Romanians are not in any danger. And this is not the work of one individual. The assassins wish to stamp out our race. True Carpathians are almost extinct. We have bitter enemies who would see us all dead.”

  “Why?”

  Mikhail shrugged. “We are different; we have certain gifts, talents. People are afraid of what is different. You should know that.”

  “Maybe I have Carpathian blood in me, a diluted version,” Raven said with a trace of wistfulness. It was nice to think she had an ancestor with the same gift.

  His heart went out to her. Her life must have been terribly lonely. Mikhail wanted to wrap her up safe in his arms, sheltered from life’s unpleasantness. His was a self-imposed isolation, Raven had no choice.

  “Our petroleum and mineral rights in a country where everything is property of the state, where others have very little, could be cause for concern and jealousy. I am the law to my people. I deal with the threats to our position and our lives. It was my poor judgment that placed Noelle in danger, and it is my duty to hunt her killers and bring our justice to them.”

  “Why haven’t you called the local authorities?” She was struggling to understand, feeling her way carefully.

  “I am the sole authority to my people. I am the law.”

  “Alone?”

  “I have others who hunt, many in fact, but it is at my command. I hold the sole responsibility in all decisions.”

  “Judge, jury, and executioner?” she guessed, holding her breath for the answer. Her senses couldn’t lie. She would have felt the taint of evil in him, no matter how good a shield he constructed. No one could be so good that they never once slipped up. She didn’t realize she had stopped walking until his hands ran up and down her arms, warming her shivering body.

  “Now you fear me.” He said it softly, wearily, as if she had hurt him. And it did hurt. He had wanted her to be afraid of him, had deliberately provoked her fear, yet now, his goal achieved, it wasn’t at all what he wanted.

  His voice tugged at her heartstrings. “I don’t fear you, Mikhail,” she denied gently, tipping her face up to study his in the moonlight. “I fear for you. So much power leads to corruption. So much responsibility leads to destruction. You make life-and-death decisions that only God should make.”

  His hand caressed her silken skin, moved to trace the fullness of her lower lip. Her large eyes were enormous in her small face, her feelings naked to his mesmerizing gaze. There was concern, compassion, the beginnings of love, and a sweet, sweet innocence that shook him to his very core. She worried for him. Worried—as no one else had ever done.

  Mikhail groaned aloud, turning away from her for self-preservation, for his honor. She had no idea what she was offering to one such as him. He knew he wasn’t strong enough to resist it, and he loathed himself for his selfishness.

  “Mikhail.” She touched his arm, sending flames licking along his skin, heating his blood. He hadn’t fed, and the combination of love, lust, and hunger was explosive, heady, but very, very dangerous. How could he not love her when he was in her mind, reading her thoughts, knowing her intimately? She was light to his darkness, his other half. For
bidden though it might be, mistake of nature probably, he could not help loving her.

  “Let me help you. Share this terrible thing with me. Don’t cut yourself off from me.” Just the touch of her hand, the concern in her eyes, the purity and truth in her voice, brought out an unfamiliar softness in him.

  He dragged her to him, all too aware of the urgent demands of his body, the aching need intense, a fire in his blood that refused to be quenched. With a low, animal growl he lifted her, whispered a soft command to her, and moved with all the speed of which he was capable.

  Raven blinked and found herself in the warmth of Mikhail’s library, with the fire throwing shadows on the wall, unsure how she had gotten there. She didn’t remember walking there, yet they were within the walls of his home. Mikhail’s shirt was open, exposing the heavy muscles of his chest. His black eyes were steady on her face, watching her with a stillness, a watchfulness reminiscent of a predator. He made no attempt to hide his desire for her.

  “I will give you one last chance, little one.” He spoke the words in a harsh, hoarse voice, as if they tore painfully at his throat. “I will find the strength to let you go if you say it. Now. Right now.”

  The length of the room separated them. The air stilled. If she lived to be a hundred, that moment would be etched forever in her mind. He stood waiting for her decision to share herself with him or damn him to eternal isolation. His head was held up proudly, his body fiercely hard, aggressively male, his eyes burning with hunger.

  He drove every sane thought from her head. If she condemned him, wasn’t she condemning herself to the same fate? Someone needed to love this man, care for him just a little. How could he continue so alone? He waited. No compulsion, no seduction, just his eyes, his need, his total isolation from the rest of the world. Others relied on his strengths, demanded his skills, yet they didn’t show him affection, didn’t thank him for his unceasing vigilance. She could sate his hunger where no other could. She knew it instinctively. There would be no other woman for him. He wanted her. He needed her. She could not walk away from him.

  “Take off your sweater.” He said it softly. There was no other path for him now. He had read the decision in her eyes, in the soft trembling of her mouth.

  She stepped back, her blue eyes widening. Very slowly, almost reluctantly, she pulled off the sweater, as if somewhere deep inside she knew she was giving him more than her innocence. She knew she was giving him her life.

  “The shirt.”

  Her tongue touched her lips, moistened the satin finish. The answering jolt in his body was savage, primitive. As she drew off the turtleneck, his hands went to the buttons of his pants. The fabric was stretched taut and confining, hurting him. He was careful to use the human form of disrobing, not wanting to frighten her any further.

  Her bare skin gleamed in the firelight. The shadows brushed the contours of her body. Her rib cage was narrow, her waist small, emphasizing the generous fullness of her breasts. The man in him inhaled sharply, raged with need; the beast in him roared for release.

  Mikhail dropped his shirt on the floor, no longer able to stand the feel of the material against his ultrasensitive skin. A sound started deep in his throat, animal, feral, a fierce savage claim. Outside the wind began to rise, and dark, ominous clouds roiled across the moon. He kicked aside human garments, exposing his body, chiseled muscle and burning need.

  Her throat worked convulsively as she slid the lacy straps of her bra loose, let the material slide to the floor. Her breasts thrust invitingly, nipples hard and erotic.

  He took the length of the room in a single fluid leap, uncaring of later explanations. Age-old instinct was taking over. He ripped the offensive jeans from her body with a single slash and tossed them aside.

  Raven cried out, blue eyes going smoky with fear at his intensity. Mikhail calmed her with a touch, stroking his hands over her body, committing every line to memory. “Do not fear my hunger, little one,” he whispered softly. “I would never hurt you. It would be an impossibility for me to do such a thing.” Her bones were small, delicate, her skin hot silk. The mass of hair came loose with his marauding fingers, brushing the hard length of him, sending fiery arrows piercing his groin. His body tightened, raged. God, he needed her so much. So much.

  His hand closed over the nape of her neck in an unbreakable grip, his thumb tipping back her head to expose her throat and lift her breasts to him. His hand moved slowly, tracing the swell of her breasts, resting for a moment on his mark on her neck so that it burned and throbbed, returned to cup velvet softness. He traced every line of her ribs, feeding his hunger, soothing her fears. Mikhail trailed his fingers over her flat stomach and the ridge of her hipbones, to rest in the triangle of silky curls at the juncture of her legs.

  She had felt his touch before, but this was a thousand times more potent. His hand created desperate need, a sensation of drowning in a world of pure feeling. Ainaak enyem—forever mine. She heard Mikhail whisper something low in his own language, and he took her to the floor in front of the fire. His body was so aggressive, trapping hers against the wood floor, that for a moment she had the impression of a wild animal forcing its mate into submission. Mikhail had not realized until that moment just how close to turning he really was. The emotions, the passion and lust, were swirling together until he feared for both of them.

  The light from the flames cast a demonic shadow over him. He looked huge, invincible, a dangerous animal as he crouched over her. “Mikhail.” She said his name softly, reaching out to ease the lines in his contorted features, needing him to go slower.

  He caught and pinned both her wrists in one hand, stretched her arms above her head and held her there. “I need your trust, little one.” His voice was a combination of hoarse demand and black velvet magic. “Give it to me. Please give it to me.”

  She was afraid, so vulnerable, stretched out like a pagan sacrifice, like an offering to a long-dead god. His eyes moved over her, hot, glowing, burning her skin everywhere his gaze touched. Raven lay quiet beneath his merciless strength, sensing his implacable resolve, aware of some terrible struggle within him. Her blue gaze drifted over the lines etched in his face; his mouth, so sensual, capable of such cruelty; his eyes, burning with such fierce need. Raven moved her body, testing his strength, knowing it would be impossible to stop him. She feared their joining because she was unsure of herself, of what to expect, but she believed in him. The feel of her soft, exposed body writhing beneath his only inflamed him more. Mikhail groaned her name, his hand sliding up her thigh, finding her heated core.

  “Trust me, Raven. I need your trust.” His fingers sought velvet, probed, claimed, produced a rush of hot liquid. He bent his head to taste her skin, the texture, the scent of her.

  She cried out softly when his hot mouth found her breast, when his fingers probed deeper in her center. Her body rippled with pleasure. He moved lower, tracing the earlier path of his hands with his tongue. With every stroke his body tightened, his heart opened, and the caged beast became stronger. A mate. His. He inhaled her scent deeply, drawing her into the very essence of his body; his tongue slid across her slowly, a long caress.

  She moved again, still uncertain, but subsided when he raised his head and looked at her with stark possession burning in his eyes. Deliberately he pushed her knees apart, exposing her vulnerability to him. His eyes holding hers in warning, he lowered his head and drank.

  Somewhere deep inside, Mikhail recognized that she was too innocent for this particular brand of wild lovemaking, but he was determined that she would know pleasure from their union, pleasure he gave her, not some hypnotic suggestion. He had waited too long for a mate, endless centuries of hunger and darkness and total desolation. He could not be gentle and considerate when his entire being was demanding that she belong to him totally for all time. He knew her trust was everything. Her faith in him would be her safeguard.

  Her body convulsed; she cried out. Mikhail dragged himself over her, savoring the feel
of her skin, her softness, how petite she was. Every detail, no matter how small, was imprinted on his mind, became part of the savage pleasure in which he was indulging.

  He released her wrists, bent to kiss her mouth, her eyes. “You are so beautiful, Raven. Belong to me. Belong only to me.” He was pressing against her, his body still, corded muscle, unbelievably strong, trembling with his need for her.

  “There could be no one else, Mikhail,” she answered softly, her fingers soothing on his burning skin. She smoothed the lines of deep despair from his face, reveled in the feel of his hair in her palms. “I do trust you, only you.”

  Mikhail caught her small hips in his hands. “I will be as gentle as I can, little one. Do not close your eyes; stay with me.”

  She was hot liquid, ready for him, but as he eased his hard length into her, he felt her protective barrier. She gasped, stiffened. “Mikhail.” There was real alarm in her voice.

  “Just for a moment, little one, and then I will take you to the heavens.” He waited for her consent, waited and burned in agony.

  Her blue eyes shimmered as she looked up at him with wondrous trust. No one, his kind or hers, down through the centuries, had ever looked at him the way she was looking at him now. Mikhail surged forward, buried himself in her tight, fiery sheath. She moaned softly, and he bent his head to find her mouth, to erase the pain with his tongue. He held himself still, felt their combined heartbeats, the blood singing in their veins, her body adjusting to accommodate his.

  He kissed her gently, tenderly, opening his mind as much as he dared, wanting to share himself with her. His love was wild, obsessive, protective, certainly not given easily, but given completely to her. He moved then, slowly and carefully at first, judging her reaction by her expressive face.