Danica's mind was buzzing. She sent her niece to bed but it now left her alone with this person. Whoever he was. And why did she keep getting the distinct impression that she knew him? "Have I seen you somewhere before?" she found herself asking. Had she have given herself enough time to think first she might have kept the question to herself.

He was unable to resist the almost taunting words, "Perhaps in your dreams?"

She was laughing by then and wondered why. Usually she would put someone out of her house for such blatant arrogance, but she found she couldn't be so cold with this man. "Oh, puh-leaze!" she said as she went and sat down on her couch. "Now would you mind telling me what's really going on here?"

Sitting down directly next to her, he accepted that this was as far as things could go, just for now. He wanted very much on a cellular level to inhale every aspect of her being, merging her with him. When she attempted to move away, he shackled her to his side by pulling her even closer. "You know you do not truly want to leave my side," he said a little too casually.

Incensed by what she saw as a narcissistic know-it-all, Dani pried herself away from his grasp and pointedly moved to the other side of the couch. As she moved away from him another part of her betrayed her and wanted to return to his embrace. She ignored the feeling by going forward with the conversation. "I have a lot of questions and you're going to answer them for me."

He looked at the clock and then pointed it out to her. "Are you certain it is not also your bedtime? I would be happy to oblige you by tucking you in," he teased, only halfway straight-faced. His eyes took on a scary visage of dancing firelight for a split second and then a wolfish smile was on his lips.

She was struck with a case of instant lust. Looks like he wants to eat me up- Why did I have to think that? She looked away from him and absently ran her hands over her messy bun. What had she been saying before? This man was too distracting! She couldn't wait until all of this was over so she could never see him again! She remembered what she had been trying to say before. "Oh, yeah. So tell me, what is going on?"

"With?"

She forced calm into herself and confided, "A week ago the thought of something like vampires was the most ridiculous thing to me. Now you and my niece say they not only exist, but one is after her? And I know I didn't see it with my own eyes, and I guess everyone would call me nuts, too, but I actually believe her! Something like that must be dangerous and deadly. But she still got away from him? How did she get away from him?" She looked honestly worried. "She still won't tell me what happened to her that night. What if he-" She couldn't get the words out. "I didn't see any marks on her, though!"

He was serious then and watched as her lovely almost silver eyes saddened and her mouth frowned, heard her heart speed up at the thought of something coming after the child that was now hers. He wanted to not only soothe her fears but he also wished to protect the young life that was now, by extension, in his care. "Please do not worry. Little Lena was not touched. She will remain untouched."

"How do you know that?" she asked, worry stuck to her like a second skin.

"I have been a hunter of his kind for quite sometime. Not as long as some, but for quite long enough. As a result, I have certain abilities where they are concerned and I can tell when they have left their mark on their prey."

She shook her head, still confused. "Maybe you should start from the beginning? Because I thought you most certainly were a vampire. Then Lena comes out with this weird theory that you aren't but you could be one if you wanted to? What's up with that? She doesn't even know why she thinks that, she just does."

He nodded. "Yes, I am not surprised she came to that conclusion. The child is gifted. You, as well."

She brushed off his comment. "Okay, yeah, sure."

He saw then that she was not at all comfortable with her abilities. "The girl is fine with who she happens to be. You are not?"

Danica shrugged. "The poor girl's had to accept a lot in her short life. Because of that she takes things as they are without question. She does a better job in that department than I do, anyway. And kids are just resilient that way, you know? They still have one foot in the magic of childhood and can accept next to anything as fact."

He could attest to that. Everywhere he went children seemed to bounce back faster from trauma than the adults around them. But it often caught up with them in their adult years. "I agree. She is fine for now. As to myself and what I am-"

Dani sat waiting for him to speak. But he seemed to be taking forever, trying to decide what and how much he should tell her. "You can trust me," she found herself whispering. She sensed his sudden ambivalence not even realizing she was moving toward him to assuage his uncertainty. "I think you're arrogant as hell but I know you mean well for Lena. I don't know how I know that, but I do." She went out on a limb. "There is something extra I know about you, but I don't know what that is. Who or what are you? Why do I feel like I've met you before? And why do I feel like you're not-" She couldn't finish the thought. Not Human. No, it was stupid! How could he not be?

Andriev decided to start out slowly. "Your suspicion is correct. I am not human, my Danica," he confirmed her unspoken thought as his eyes devoured hers. "I never was."

She tried not to acknowledge in her mind how much she liked the feel of his gaze sliding over her, touching every place she suspected she wanted his hands to travel. But she was most certainly puzzled over his words. "But you're not a vampire either?"

"No. I am a Carpathian. My race and yours, along with several others, have survived on this planet for many years."

"More than just ours?" she asked, only halfway shocked. But even as she thought about it, it made sense. If there was another race coexisting on this planet, why not one or two more? Why not even more than that? Her mind was beginning to ache with the expanding thoughts.

"Yes. We have all kept silent and hidden from the human world. We are outnumbered substantially and you must admit that the human tendency is to destroy that which they do not understand."

She sighed tiredly. "Yes, it's true. That's why I never talk about my…my abilities." She shook her head. "It's hard to be different. I know that for a fact."

"We call ourselves 'Carpathians' for we come from that region of your planet. We are long-lived but our penalty is that we do not live in the light of the sun as you do. We are terribly allergic to that form of radiation. In small doses it causes stark discomfort. But full exposure leads to death."

Her mind was spinning with question after question and she didn't know where to start first. But she latched on eagerly to the subject. "Oh! Well first, how old are you?" she asked, eyes wide, not believing she truly believed him and his story. But she did.

He found himself smiling down into her face full of wonder and wanted to kiss her lips. "It is not important for you to know at this time."

She regarded him with a cautious face as she wondered how it was he had wound up next to her on the couch again. She just barely suppressed a tremor that went through her body. "I know what that means. That means if I found out I might wind up in an old-fashioned swoon."

They both laughed as he admitted, "Yes, that is true."

She shook her head again, her laughter gone. "All right, fine, you can tell me that later. So where do vampires come from if you're not a vampire?"

He seemed to sadden then, but his eyes continued to hold hers. "I must explain it this way. The people of our race are not as humans. For us, when a male is born, he is born incomplete. Only his lifemate may complete the other half of his soul. During his wait for her it is not difficult for the first two hundred years. For some, they still remain 'themselves' for up to three hundred years. There are those rare males that have even made it to their 400th year without any true changes. But it is inevitable. It always strikes."

"It?"

His hand reached out tentatively and touched her fingers. It was, at first, only a light brush of contact via the tips of his fingers. He promised himself that he would only touch her that once for the night. But the feel of her flesh, the spark of beautiful warmth and heat, the small radiating fire that blossomed from such a light touch! So many sensations, he had trouble sorting them all out; he found he could not stop with the small bit of contact. He reached out, took her right hand in his fully and began to knead it continually between his large hands. "The colors and emotions begin to fade from their lives with the passage of time," he answered.

Andriev swallowed back uncertainty. With the feeling of even this small bit of physical contact, he knew he would never be able to let her go again. Would she suffer due to the presence of him in her life? "To know no joy, no happiness, not even true sorrow; to see only in black, white…shades of bleak grey. There is no more feeling, only the strict impression of duty and whatever path they have set for themselves until they come across she who is their other half. In the meantime darkness spreads across our souls. The loneliness and a state akin to deep depression envelopes who and what we once were. And it is at this time that we find ourselves at our most vulnerable, the darkness in our nature waiting to betray us and lead us down the path to becoming the undead. It would tempt us to kill while we feed simply for the momentary rush of the feeling of power from adrenaline laced blood."

"So you drink-" She couldn't find it in herself to finish the sentence.

"Yes, we do," he admitted. Then he looked into her eyes again. He would not hide what he was. "I do."

She yanked her hand out of his and stood quickly. Putting space between the two of them, she told herself she didn't care how good his touch felt, there were some things to establish from the get-go! "Let's set this straight right now. You're not getting anything off of, or out of, me or the kid without my express permission. Is that clear?"

"You are both under my protection. You must understand I would never take from the child, or in fact any child, for sustenance. She is very young and in great need of what she contains," he said as he practically glided off of the couch, muscles rippling beneath the silk of his shirt as he advanced upon her position.

How did Andriev wind up this close to her and that fast? Danica found herself unable to breathe as he drew closer, still. Her body responded to his and she was more than just slightly annoyed by that. "So, um, this lifemate person," she said as she backed away from him. Her back came up against the wall and she had no place else to go. "Wouldn't yours be jealous if she saw you standing here talking with me like this?" Even as she said it, she knew whoever the woman was she was intensely jealous of her!

He sensed her thoughts and found himself smiling. "I did not have one until tonight," he said as he continued to advance upon her. His eyes gleamed as he took in her position, trapped, back still to the wall.

She found herself giggling up into his face. "You're joking!"

"When it comes to this subject, I do not jest," he said as his eyes took in the loveliness of her long eyelashes, the fullness of her lips, they beckoned to him; the smell of her skin and the blood surging through her veins.

Dani frowned. "I get the impression you're kind of…old. Um, I thought you said after a while you all don't feel or see in color until you find this lifemate person. But yet you laughed at what I said, laughed at Lena's joke. I guess you're not that old after all?"

"Yes, I am. Until this night, I did not have a lifemate. I have felt no emotion, have seen no colors for nearly 600 years," Andriev's eyes surveyed hers with undisguised wonder, "-until tonight."

His meaning began to sink in as the two stood there, looking into one another's eyes. He seemed to be staring at the best gift a man could ever receive as he looked down at her with tenderness and heat paired together. Her insides clenched hotly and she felt herself wanting to fall into his arms. She forced the palms of her hands along the wall, trying to reconnect her senses to something else other than him. She concentrated on the smooth yet rough textured feel of the wall beneath her fingers. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? "Oh, no, you don't understand! See, I can't do that because-" She shook her head worriedly. "There's been a mistake or something. You have to pick someone else," she insisted.

He stalked even further into her space, placed his body very close to hers, his forearms flat on the wall, his chest almost touching hers effectively trapping her. "You did not fully understand what I meant when I said that there is only one female for the male. And we do not choose her. She is chosen from before we are both born." His face ducked into hers, forced her eyes back to his. "You are mine. I have been waiting for you for centuries."

She tried to distract him from his caveman campaign. "So you mean to tell me when you came here to check up on us you didn't know I was here?"

"How could I have known?"

She looked confused. "You really didn't know? Well how long have you been searching?"

"One stops counting after a couple of centuries-"

"All right!" Danica said as she pushed off of the wall and ducked under his arms, escaping. "Too much information!" She found herself pacing. "Centuries," she whispered to herself. "He said 'centuries'!" It dawned on her then. "So you mean you haven't felt anything for years and years and then tonight-"

"Tonight, I saw your face. I heard your voice," Andriev spoke as he couldn't help the sudden rush of euphoria. He walked into her space again and this time pulled her fully into his arms as the words rushed out of him, "And I feel! I see color again! I am overjoyed at the wonder of it all." He pulled back from her enough to point, "Even that hideous painting on the wall, I am overjoyed even at that, to see every nuance of badly chosen color!"

She sucked in her breath, horrified for another reason. "That was a $400 painting!"

"You have been, what is the expression? 'Ripped off'?"

She found herself smacking at his chest not at all playfully, wondering why she hadn't pushed him away again. "Oh, whatever. What can you possibly know?"

He smiled down at her still in his arms. "Yes, what can I know? I only lived through the height of the Italian Renaissance…in Italia. Yes, what can I know?"

She gave him a face and murmured, "Showoff," under her breath. "Well, whatever." She disentangled herself from his grasp and went to sit back on the couch. Like a magnet, he followed, sat next to her again. Danica grew exasperated. "Will you stop following me!"

"Do not lead and I shall not follow."

"What the heck does that mean?"

"If you would simply stop moving, la mia stella, I would not have to follow."

She had a feeling this was just going to go around in circles and decided to try to move the conversation along. "Fine, then. Is this vampire going to keep coming after my niece? Because I can't have that."

"He is most likely still healing from his wounds. He sent the ghoul, most likely, to track her down and pick her up, but he has most certainly noticed by now that she has not been brought to him. He will likely arrive tomorrow or the day after that to try and track her down for himself."

"Arrive!" she asked, horrified. "Tomorrow?"

"I will attempt to draw him out if he does not manifest himself by then. Since his ghoul has not returned he has probably realized the hunter that caused him to have to go to ground has killed his minion and is still on his path. He will most likely not show his face, then. He will figure to wait until I leave the area and then search for the child again. One such as her, such as yourself, that is quite rare. He will not give up the search."

"Draw him out?" she asked, suddenly worried for him. But why should she care? Something told her this man was nothing but danger and trouble. She didn't want to care about him, but she did.

"Do not worry, cara mia," he said, sensing her concern. "I have been doing this for five hundred years."

She jumped back and away from him again. "This isn't natural," she found herself saying so as not to get attached to this man. "Okay, um, I'll pretend I didn't just hear that. What does he want with my niece?"

Andriev sighed. Once again, he wondered, how much should he tell her?

She knew what he was concerned about. "Don't worry," she assured him. "I can handle it."

"You cannot even handle the subject of my age," he halfway teased.

"Go on. If it's for Lena, I have to be strong for her."

"When my land was ravaged by brutal wars and bloodshed, the opposing armies did not stop at simply men and soldiers. They killed our women and our children, human and Carpathian alike. The humans recovered their numbers after a time. But our race…we are so long-lived, another penalty is only being able to bear one child every century and even then it is no guarantee that that child will live past five years of age, even past one year is difficult. After the almost destruction our homeland, our women and children were all but wiped out. And we have been unable to recover since then. As it was, only perhaps one in every four births was female. But after the wars, we saw no females born for quite sometime. Only a few males here and there."

She looked honestly alarmed. "But that means that there was no one for the men to-"

"Yes, no one to anchor them. No hope. And with no hope, there was a bumper crop of males making three crucial decisions: To seek the dawn, to turn vampire or to hunt the vampire."

"And you've been a hunter, trapped in this craziness, for five hundred years?" she asked, truly horrified for him.

"There are those who have hunted twice, three times as long as I have. But it appears I am nowhere as strong as they happened to be."

Her face paled and she was overwhelmed by a strange sense of loss. "What does that mean?"

Andriev couldn't believe he found himself admitting this, but he said, "The call to turn was becoming stronger. And I decided, after I sought after the child, made certain she was safe and unharmed, I was going to seek the dawn and destroy myself rather than allow myself to kill during feeding or to feed while making a kill. It was close at my heels, my love, I can admit that now."

She felt numbness on the edges of her fingertips and toes and a disorienting dizziness was threatening to bring her down. "But you don't have to now?" she wanted to make certain. She didn't know exactly what it was she wanted from him, but she knew down to the core of her being, she needed him to live!

He smiled at her, watching the minutest details of her expression. "No, I do not have to now."

She swallowed her nerves. Somewhere in all this, she had the feeling that something unpleasant was going to come up. "So what does this have to do with the fact that this thing called my niece his lifemate? Is he really? What would that mean if he were? Would she be the one to bring him back from that terrible state?"

"He is not her lifemate," said Andriev with full assurance.

"And how do you know that?"

"He has turned. It is too late for him. Whoever she is or will be, he has doomed her to a life of loneliness and perhaps a substandard relationship where she settles for less than what should have been him."

"And how do you know that that wasn't my Lena?" she asked, horrified.

He swallowed back troubling thoughts and memories. "I know."

"But I'm not Carpathian. Neither is Lena. We're human! Right?" Danica asked. "I mean, wouldn't I know it if I weren't human?"

"Yes, you are very much human," he reassured her. But he wondered for how much longer. "There is, however, a conversion process that-" And she was up and off the couch, not just across the room, but across the house, in the kitchen, hiding on the other side of her refrigerator. He was even shocked at how quickly she had flown away from him. He stood and forced himself to move at a regular pace as he walked into her kitchen and kept himself just at the other side of it. "Danica, this conversation- you assured me you could take it for the sake of the child."

She swallowed back her fear. "You're not going to try to convert one or both of us, are you?"

"The child's decisions are her own when she grows to maturity. As for you, my love, it is entirely your decision as well. But you decide for both of us what you shall do next."

"Both of us?" she asked, horrified.

He swallowed back the beginnings of sweat beads threatening to pour from his forehead. "It has been at great cost to myself that I have done none of the things that are instinctual for me upon meeting you. I have not and I shall not convert you without your permission. But I also have not recited the ritual words to bind your soul to mine. It is a state akin to agony to continue to be with you and not say the words."

She was reeling from too much information and asked, "Well if I don't convert, what do you mean I choose for both of us?"

He paused. "We will not speak of that at this time. For now know that if I speak the words we will be bound together and we will be unable to be apart from one another. I understand your need to digest this information first, to, as it were, sleep on it. It is why I shall go no further tonight in deed or word."

"Good. Because I don't want to talk about any of this anymore…not right now, okay? Tomorrow? We can talk about it some more tomorrow."

"Tomorrow it is," he reassured her.

"And Rusti?"

"She should be here perhaps the day after tomorrow with her lifemate Darius."

She frowned as she walked around the refrigerator and looked up into his beautiful blue eyes. "Are you telling me she's been…converted?" She didn't say it aloud, but her friend's voice had sounded markedly different on the phone. She knew it had for a fact been her, but something had changed substantially in her voice.

He took her hand in his and began kneading her flesh again. He attempted to infuse calm into her via his actions and words, tried to add a mental 'push'. "Yes, but there is no need for you to-"

"Don't DO that!" she said as she yanked her hand out of his.

He knew she was not referring to his massaging of her hand. He should have known a mind as powerful as hers would be able to tell what he was doing. "I only wished for you not to be so panicked about this situation, Danica. That is all. Please, believe me, I will try my best not to speak the words with you until you are ready. But I am fighting every instinct I possess, you must know that."

"I said I don't want to talk about that anymore!" she charged angrily.

Andriev hung his head as if in surrender. "I apologize, my love."

"And I'm not your love!"

He didn't answer, he simply stood there as he looked into her eyes again. A slow sizzling smile gradually overtook his face. Gorgeous teeth and beautiful lips caused her to get trapped in that smile and she instantly wanted to strangle him or herself…perhaps both of them at the same time.

"I have to go to bed," she said, offhand, attempting to get out of the kitchen unscathed.

"If you have need of assistance-"

"Try it, buddy, and you'll be wearing your thumbs on the back of your head!"

"Oooh," he said with a very pouty expression and then bit his lower lip lightly. "You threaten very well, my love."

"You better stay away from my room," she charged, one threatening finger pointed at him.

"I mean nothing but safety for you and for the child."

She believed him. But some other part of her knew what it really was he wanted from her personally. Because she wanted it from him, too, and that disturbed her and it was not just physical in nature, either. "What are you going to do while I go to bed?"

"I will scan the area and remain vigilant through the night."

Danica thought of the effect of the sun's rays upon him and felt worry despite not wanting to be. "Where will you go in the morning, Andriev?"

He loved the sound of his name as it left her lips. She did not pronounce it at all correctly, she pronounced the 'r' much harder than it should have been and he found it adorable! "Do not worry, my love, I will seek shelter before then. I will return to you tomorrow evening."

Danica still didn't understand the feelings traveling through her at his words and retreated from him as quickly as possible.