Thanks for the reviews

Thanks for the reviews….oh, and disclaimer is in one of the earlier chapters…

Hahaha…finally I got to write a kiss!! faints and has to be revived

I’ve no idea how long this is going to be, so if you have any ideas, feel free to express them in a review! Review, all of you, please!

Oh, and have you noticed that the # of my X marks is inconsistent? )

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Arkael turned around, his gray eyes revealing some of his inner beast.

At the sight of two Carpathians, he took one difficult breath, trying to clear his mind. He could feel Sept’s body so close to his….and the memory of those lips, those expressive eyes…

Calm, calm, he told himself, and the female Carpathian laughed, and he realized that he had yet again forgotten to shield his thoughts. This is how he has affected me…

He glanced at Sept, whose eyes stared, confused, into his own- whose breathing was as difficult as his own.

I’m sorry, Arkael thought to his lifemate, not knowing what else to say.

He then looked fully at the Carpathians, and focused his eyes so that only a whisper of the beast, a trace of his feeling for Sept, remained to be seen.

“Greetings,” he said, keeping his voice steady. Normal, he hoped. “I am Arkael Krynlin, and you?” He pretended normalcy, that the kiss between him and Sept was no different from any other kiss between two lifemates.

“Greetings,” they said in unison, hands linked.

“I am Gregori Daratrazanoff and this is my lifemate…”

“Savannah Durbrinsky,” she cut in, and smiled. “May I ask for the name of your companion?”

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He heard the question, and knew that the woman was asking for his name.

“September Blue,” Sept said- his brain was not disoriented enough for him to not follow the conversation….even if the feeling of that kiss, thoughts of that kiss, threatened to flood his mind. “Sept.”

He looked at the man next to the woman, and looked at him for a moment. Well, who wouldn’t? That man was….huge. Tall and muscular, his body showing that he protected the woman. He guessed that they were a couple immediately.

Sept looked at Arkael’s back, wanting him to explain. He kissed me, he thought to himself. Unless it’s a vampire tradition or something…why? That kiss…

He fought to keep his thoughts controlled- feeling embarrassment, that strangers had seen their kiss…seen him, in such a state.

Arkael had similar thoughts and feelings, though Sept did not know of them.

“Is he your li..”

“Yes,” Arkael replied, cutting off Savannah. Thinking this a sign of disrespect, Gregori glared at him, pulling Savannah close to him.

He didn’t want that man to know, Savannah thought, calming Gregori. I think that he wants to still meet the dawn.

That will sadden his lifemate, Gregori said, purposefully letting Arkael hear the words. Arkael winced.

Sept just stood there, as a series of physical signs and short words passed in front of him. Suddenly, he felt…as if he didn’t belong there. He was left out of the conversation, and the tension he felt…it unsettled him.

“I’ll go,” he said, stepping haltingly to his left, unsteady. “Bye, Arkael.”

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Arkael felt instinctive panic as his lifemate walked away from him, and without thinking, he ran to him. He wrapped his arms around Sept’s body, and felt his lifemate’s body stiffen. Why? he asked himself. Why do I do this when I will be dead in a few hours? I will only cause him more pain! Why? Why? Why!

Sept relaxed in his grip, and Arkael held that comforting warmth, not knowing what to do.

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You should claim him, Savannah said mentally so that Arkael could hear her. You do not need to meet the dawn…from what I saw, he reacted to that kiss.

Not only Arkael heard her, but Sept as well- and two sets of eyes glanced in her direction.

Arkael shook his head, and Sept looked at him as he shook off the embrace.

“What aren’t you telling me?” he demanded. “Why did….all of this….happen? Why?” He clutched at Arkael’s shirt, frustrated. “Why are you going to kill yourself? Why did you kiss me? Why did you stop me from going? Why!”

He shouted at the last word, and the air temperature around him rose several degrees- not enough to hurt, but enough to know that it had gotten warmer.

“Tell me!” he said.

“I can’t,” Arkael said, feeling helpless. “You’re better off not knowing.” His voice, in contrast to Sept’s, was barely more than a whisper.

He tried to pull away from Sept’s hold on him, but Sept clutched at him tightly.

“Tell me,” Sept said, quietly, and Arkael made the mistake of looking into his lifemate’s eyes. Those green eyes shone with tears- tears that did not make him look weak, but, rather, made his words stronger. His eyes, so accepting of anything Arkael would say, so desperate. A mirror of what Arkael felt.

Before he knew it, tears fell from his own gray eyes. I cannot, I cannot, I cannot! he cried. I would destroy your happiness!

“You’re already making me unhappy!” Sept shouted back. “Everyday I see you in my thoughts, and you know what I dream of, these nights? You. You crying, you killing yourself. You know what you’re doing to me, torturing me like this?”

He didn’t care anymore. He grabbed Arkael’s hair, and pulled him down, kissing him.

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If they aren’t lifemates…I don’t know what else they can be, Savannah thought to Gregori, who gave her a mental nod.

It is unlikely that…this bond…is…pretended, he admitted, clearly uncomfortable with the scene they were witnessing.

Let’s go and leave the couple alone, she suggested. From what I see, they’ll settle the problem themselves.

Two owls flew away into the night.

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They separated, gasping, fingers threaded into each other’s hair.

“I…I,” Sept stuttered, blushing slightly. As he looked up at Arkael, he was surprised. Was it just him, or did he see a blush on him as well…

“Do you…prefer men?” Arkael asked, cursing himself for his bluntness. But he needed the answer. Sept looked away from those intense gray eyes.

After a while, he looked up again. “Maybe,” he said. “I think…so.” I never really liked kissing anyone in school…and afterwards, relationships didn’t work too well, he thought. If I like…kissing Arkael…so much…that probably means that I’m gay…

He found the word almost foreign to him, never having described himself that way.

“Then, if I said that we were bound for life, would you mind?” Arkael asked, feeling a seedling of hope grow in his chest, in his heart.

“What?” Sept asked. “Bound for life?” His mind blanked.

Arkael nodded. “You know…that I share some qualities with a vampire.” Sept nodded, once. “I am part of a race called the Carpathians…and the males of our race become color blind and cannot feel emotion after their first two centuries.” Sept blinked, confused and unbelieving, but motioned for Arkael to go on. “This seems impossible for you…but…”

He reached for Sept’s mind gently, and sent him images of him seeing nothing but black, white, and gray, of days of emptiness, filled with memories and his craft.

“But you see color now.” Sept made it a statement. “And you feel emotion.”

“That is because of you….love,” Arkael said, cautiously adding the term of endearment at the end of his sentence. Sept looked at him. “You are my lifemate. That’s why I can see color, why I can feel again.”

“Can you explain that?” Sept asked, leaning against a tree for support. He swallowed.

“Lifemates….are partners that share your life with you,” Arkael said. “With a lifemate…one can see color, and feel. For each Carpathian, there exists only one lifemate, so that person is irreplaceable. And my lifemate is you, Sept.”

“No way that all of this is true,” Sept said, rubbing his head. “I’ve only known you for a few days, too…”

“You can believe in vampires and powers, but you can’t believe in what I am telling you?” Arkael asked, smiling slightly. Then he sobered. “Lifemates are bound to each other…so if you dislike this bond…I can destroy it.”

“How?” Sept asked, and Arkael felt pain at his question.

“I can meet the dawn before this bond grows stronger,” he said. “Or I can avoid you for the rest of your life.”

Neither plan seemed…good. Either he dies or I never see him again, Sept thought. “You are telling the truth, right?” Arkael nodded. “Then…can you prove that we are really….lifemates?”

Arkael smiled. So…perhaps he will accept me…

“One thing lifemates feel is attraction…and I can truthfully say that I am attracted to you,” he said, looking deeply into Sept’s eyes. As Sept tried to look away, he held his head in place, keeping his gaze focused on his lifemate. He made his lifemate feel the connection between them, a golden thread.

“If you wish to run now, go, and I will not run after you. But if you will accept this bond…stay and be with me for all your days.” Arkael said these words uncertainly, and his heart shook as his lifemate remained motionless.

“I can’t make either decision,” Sept said. “I don’t want you to disappear from my life, but I don’t know you well enough to…promise to be with you for the rest of my life.” At Arkael’s blank look, he glared. “What you want takes trust, and time.”

“Then…for now, you do not regret that this bond? You will give me a chance?” Arkael dared to hope.

“Yes.”

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So…what did you think about this chapter? (I wrote it all in one sitting…heh…)

Your reading of my story is appreciated…though it would be nice if you could review, leave me with your thoughts and feelings. If my story was good…or bad…, really.

Next chapter will (hopefully) be done soon….