I don't own 'em, but I hope you enjoy reading about 'em

I don't own 'em, but I hope you enjoy reading about 'em!!

Skylar could hardly believe that she had been in South America for nearly a year. The nights had seemed to fly by quickly since she had fully adjusted to living a nocturnal existence. Skylar had grown accustomed to waking to the feeling of invisible fingers on her cheek and the pain of absolute solitude in her heart. She was never quite sure whether it was his agony alone or their combined emotions she felt, but as she sat in front of the vanity mirror she rubbed a palm along her breastbone and waited for the stabbing feeling to fade.

Tonight she would turn seventeen. Tonight she would be one year closer to what she considered the inevitable – binding herself to Dimitri, a man that filled her with fear and fascination. When she had first come to South America, Skylar had been determined to shut him out of her mind and heart until she was whole enough to make her own decisions and strong enough to stand beside him instead of cower behind him or worse cower from him. How foolish she had been. Ever since her first session with Mary Ann De La Cruz he had been there with her. Skylar remembered the security the feeling of his arms surrounding her produced each time that she connected to her subconscious mind and surrendered to her past pain before letting it go like tears in the wind. He would always hold back his own pain while she suffered and, though she had wanted to deny him, she couldn't bring herself to hide anything from him. When she would collapse exhausted on the sofa, she would feel him pull away from her and his pain would echo through her. She felt horrible for causing him hurt. She could not pull away from his pain any more than he could pull away from hers, so she did the only thing she could; she reached out to him, mind and soul. She wrapped him in the comfort of her compassion just as firmly as he had wrapped himself around her as she healed. In those moments she saw him. His memories flooded into her, at first dismal and grey and filled with killing the undead without compassion. Then other memories came; the feeling of being the wolf and running with the pack, the duty he felt to his homeland and to his chosen home, his desire for her.

With a sigh Skylar slid her fingers up to the place where his necklace rested gently between her breasts. She felt it burning there many times, as if his fingers were touching her. When she closed her eyes she could see the piercing blue of his eyes burned into the back of her eyelids. As she sat alone in her room listening to the sounds of the jungle around her she longed for his presence in her mind. As uncomfortable as being around him was for her at times, she had discovered that he was a man of unfailing honor and moral character. Being in his mind had allowed her to glimpse the care he gave to the land and the creatures of his realm. There was also such a deep well of loneliness and regret in him that she sometimes physically ached from it.

Other times she just ached – for him. When she remembered the feel of his hands in her hair and on her skin that dawn on the balcony, her body burned with unrelenting need. Skylar knew the feel of a man's hands on her body, but never with gentleness and care; never with love. The more she had worked with Mary Ann, the less she had dreaded his touch. She had even begun to experiment touching herself, allowing herself to explore her own sexuality.

"Skylar, are you nearly ready?" Francesca called from the doorway.

"Nearly Francesca, I was having trouble deciding how to wear my hair."

"You were thinking about him, weren't you?"

"Yes," Skylar whispered. "I was thinking about what it will be like to be with him. I don't know if I can imagine never being alone again. Not that I am alone now – I know that you and Gabriel and Tamara are my family and I love you more than I can say, but it is not the same. He has pain that he has had to bear alone, pain so deep that he feels no one could ever understand him or care for him. It is pain like mine. He has taken so much time and energy to be with me, to aid me to heal. It hurts me that he continues to suffer. Francesca, I think that I will go to him sooner than I thought."

"Skylar," Francesca began slowly, "you have changed very much since we came to South America and I am overjoyed to see you emerging like a butterfly from a cocoon. Still, I do not think that you are ready for a Carpathian male in you life; you are still learning our ways and learning about yourself. I wish that you would wait at least until you are twenty-one for us to call Dimitri to our home so that he may court you properly."

As Francesca began to style her hair, Skylar fell into silence and thought. Twenty-one was many years away. She could never condemn him to torment for even that short a time, not when he had already suffered many centuries. Still, how could she disobey the wishes of the two people who had saved her from her slow slip into the abyss?

Do you have need of me, lubyof maya?

No Dimitri, I am well. I just hate to disappoint my mother and father and I know that I will do it.

They know that you must live your own life.

Yes, they know, but they want it to happen slowly; they don't think that I am ready to be an adult yet.

You are not an adult yet, little one.

Argh! You're just as bad as they are – I'm not speaking to you anymore! She could hear his deep chuckle reverberate throughout her body.

Giving herself one final look in the mirror, Skylar followed Francesca out of the room and down to her party. The courtyard of the ranch house had been decorated with multi-colored lanterns and several tables had been arranged for the guests to relax and enjoy each other's company. Quiet traditional Brazilian music played from a radio. Many of the South American Carpathians were in attendance, including Skylar's half-sister Colby and her lifemate Rafael. Skylar was very fond of Colby and had come to enjoy her company over the past year. Colby knew as well what it was like to be an oddity and have people despise and shun you for your differences. Though it was their parentage that connected them, Colby seemed uncomfortable discussing both their father and the battle at Christmas between their father and their aunt.

Skylar had felt since Christmas that the mage was in her fighting to be released. She longed to go to her aunt Natalya and learn how to become strong and powerful. She had seen Natalya fight Razvan; she had seen Natalya hurt him and send him running. Skylar desired to have the strength and confidence to do the same. Though she was also a daughter of the mage Razvan, Colby did not seem to possess the desire or propensity to learn the mage-ways. Her mother had been Jaguar, though she seemed to have no great affinity to the cats either. She was a strong psychic and a full Carpathian.

A chill ran from the base of her neck and down her spine. In that moment she felt his unseen eyes watching her, his will seeking her out because there was something he still wanted from her. He had long since ceased to take her blood. Why now would he seek to force her into his service? Because that was what he wanted – a power that laid dormant inside her, a power he wanted to bend to serve his purpose. Skylar had seen it in his mind during restless dreams. But what power did she have that would serve a vampire-mage? It was the question Skylar knew she had to answer; and only one person could help her answer it. It was time to leave South America.

AN: Thanks to those who added this story as a favorite or alert – and an extra big thanks with a hunky Carpathian on top to the three people who left lovely comments!! I hope you like this chapter – I have good stuff coming up for the next one – so stay tuned!!