Chapter Seven

The night air was crisp and clean and so fresh, Joie gratefully dragged it deep into her lungs. Fear was dissipating now that she was out in the open and she knew her siblings were safe. She pulled her helmet from her head to allow the wind to comb through her hair. Stretching her arms toward the moon, she laughed softly. "I love the night. I love everything about it. It doesn't matter if it's stormy or not."

She turned her head to look at Traian. His face was beautiful in the moonlight. "Worthy of a Greek G.o.d," she murmured, astonished that she felt so much for him, that her emotions were so strong and connected with his. His hair fell like black silk around his face to his shoulders. There wasn't so much as a smear of mud on his face. All traces of blood were gone from his chest, leaving only the raw gashes on his flesh.

Joie shook her head, stepping away from him, putting distance between them. She needed s.p.a.ce, needed to find balance. "Thanks a lot for leaving me standing filthy and wet all by myself while you're all shined up and looking good. I'm not even going to ask how you did that."

His teeth gleamed at her, more the smile of a wolf than a man. "I have my little secrets. You are shivering. Hand me your harness and pack and take this jacket." He enfolded her in the warmth of a suit jacket.

Joie decided not to ask him where he found the jacket either, or how he got clean. "How did you find the way out? I couldn't see a thing." She sank down because all at once she was tired and she wanted to feel the ground under her. Traian had changed her entire life in the blink of an eye, and she didn't want to think too much about the bizarre world he lived in.

"There were signs if you knew what to look for. In the old times, Carpathians and mages were not enemies. We lived side by side and enjoyed the benefits of both races. We often used the same glyphs. I saw them as we moved through the halls. Mages and Carpathians actually worked and studied together, were friends and allies. We shared knowledge with one another."

"What happened to change everything?"

Traian sighed. "Mages have great longevity, but they are not immortal. We can be killed, but it is not easy to do. The great mage, Xavier, we all trusted and believed in-he often taught our more gifted children in the arts ..."

"More gifted than you are?" Joie raised an eyebrow. "You can do just about anything. How much more gifted are your children?"

Instead of smiling he looked sad. "We do not have children any longer. Ours is a dying species. Few women are born, and our children are not surviving. Such treasures are lost to us." He shook his head. "This network of caves could very well have belonged to Xavier at one time and it is possible one of his descendents is using it now-unless he still lives."

"I can hear the distaste and contempt in your voice."

"He betrayed the friendship of our people and began a war that has been waged for centuries, devastating both of our peoples."

Joie looked up at his face. There was no hatred, only a sorrow that filled him with sadness. To her, Traian was a handsome man, timeless and even elegant in an honorable warrior sort of way. The lines in his face only served to make him more attractive to her. "I'm so sorry, Traian." She couldn't imagine what his life had been like.

Traian crouched down beside her, touched her chin with gentle fingers. "Let me take you back to the inn where you are staying. You are tired and hungry and want a shower. You are also very worried about your brother and sister. You needn't be. I've a.s.sured your brother that we are safe and they are waiting at the inn, already warm."

"Thank you, I know you told me they were safe, but it's difficult with everything that's happened not to want to touch them physically to rea.s.sure myself. I know they're both experienced climbers and neither panic, but we've never had to face ..." She broke off and waved her hands. "Vampires and traps." She covered her face for a moment. "That sounds so insane. The world has no idea those things actually exist. It's crazy."

"And they can't know. Every now and then, down through the ages, a society raises the alarm and there is a ma.s.sive witch hunt. They kill everyone they suspect, human, Carpathian, and just people who they don't like. As far as I know they've never managed to actually kill a vampire."

She shot him a confused look. "You don't want us to say anything."

"We handle it," he said. "Just as we've been doing for centuries."

Joie swept a hand through her hair, pushing it back from her face. "I am tired, Traian. I feel as if I could sleep for a month."

He drew her to her feet, and then simply lifted her into his arms as if she was no more than a child, cradling her against his chest.

Joie burst out laughing. "This is so medieval. Male carries little woman over mountain. Oh, the utter humiliation of it all." She wrapped her arms more tightly around his neck in case he thought to put her down. Joie allowed her head to drop back as she scanned the heavens. "If you ever tell a single soul I let you do this, I'll have to hurt you. I just want to be very clear on this. Not one single word."

Traian looked down into her upturned face. She was trying to be courageous when she was obviously exhausted. He wanted to kiss her. More than anything, it seemed necessary to bend his head and find her mouth with his. Just taste her. Put in his claim. "What is your position on kissing?"

Joie's gaze jumped to his mouth. The wicked, sinful temptation of it. "I'm thinking it over," she conceded. "If I let you kiss me, I'll melt on the spot. That's a given. I already know that, and it's so very humiliating. Worse than being carried around like I'm a fainting, weak bundle of femininity."

"True, but it would be worth it," he pointed out seriously.

She sighed and lifted her hand to his face, her fingertips tracing his sinful mouth. "Yes. But there's another consideration, Traian." Her voice turned very somber. Her gaze went to his. "You're going to be addicting. And then I won't be able to get you out of my system and I'll get all weepy when we have to part, and that's just more than I can bear, crying over some idiot man. Do you see the complications I'm facing here?"

His heart twisted inside his chest. "I do see that might be a problem if we were ever to part, but since we are truly lifemates and have no choice but to be together, I do not really think it is of much importance. In fact, under the circ.u.mstance, being addicted to my kisses would be an a.s.set." He couldn't resist turning his head to capture her finger in the warmth of his mouth.

"The lifemate thing-see? That's part of the problem. I have this overwhelming need to be mistress of my own fate. I don't think I'm cut out to be a lifemate if it entails a have to sort of relationship. I'm a want to sort of woman. There is a difference."

"That is good, Joie. I do not foresee any problems whatsoever, because it is clear we think so much alike. I am definitely a want to sort of man-and I want to kiss you."

There was a devilish smirk on his face, one she couldn't possibly resist. And who wanted to anyway? His mouth descended toward hers, and Joie lifted her face to meet him halfway-because this kiss was her choice, and he needed to know it.

Joie's lips were soft, yielding, welcoming even. After all the long centuries, Traian felt like he had come home. It didn't matter where they were, whose world they were in, she would always be home to him. The Earth stopped spinning, just as he knew it would. Bursts of star fire rained down around them. The embers smoldering deep in his belly burst into flame and raged through his bloodstream. His body knew her almost as intimately as his soul, though he hadn't even really touched her yet.

Joie couldn't think, couldn't breathe, forgot whether it was night or day. It was impossible to get her brain to function. She could only feel. Nothing had prepared her for the unrelenting pressure building so swiftly in her body, the heat rising, flames dancing along her skin, creating an inferno deep inside. Pa.s.sion coiled tighter and tighter, a spring threatening to explode. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s ached. Her fingers found the silk of his hair, and crushed the thick ma.s.s in her palm.

"You shouldn't be able to do this to me," she whispered into his mouth. Into his heart. "I don't let anyone inside."

"I am already inside you." His lips took hers again, over and over, long, drugging kisses that shook them both.

"It has to be the danger factor," she said. "It's the only logical explanation."

"Is there logic? I cannot remember." He couldn't get enough of her. Mud from her face smeared his. Her clothes were wet, soaking his. His wounds burned, but he couldn't feel the discomfort when his body was so heavy and hard with need.

His voice shook her. It was possessive. Husky. Perfect. A seduction in itself. It was Joie who pulled away, framing his face with her hands. She rested her forehead against his. "I need a minute here to come up for air. I can't breathe, or think, or want anything but you."

His mouth curved into a smile. "Is that supposed to stop me?"

Her gray eyes studied every inch of his face. He could see her confusion. "Why do I feel like this? Does this make sense to you, Traian? I don't jump into relationships. All I can think about is having s.e.x with you. Not just s.e.x-wild, uninhibited s.e.x. I'm muddy, exhausted, scared to death and worried about my family, but I want-no need-to feel your body inside mine."

His smile widened. "I think kissing you is the best idea I have ever had."

She couldn't help smiling back. He made her happy in a way she never had been-complete when she hadn't known a part of her was missing. "Why you? You aren't even human." She made a little face at him. "You know you're complicating my life."

"Your entire family has telepathic abilities. Are you certain you are human?"

Laughter spilled over. "Please don't ever ask my father that. He's outrageous, and he'll tell you some absolutely horrible and untrue tall tale, and we'll all be mortified."

The raw affection in her voice told him her father's outrageous stories never really mortified her and she loved the man very much. "That gives me hope. At least I know you plan on introducing me to your parents, but the list of dos and don'ts is growing. Just out of curiosity, do his outrageous tales ever have to do with dragons and mages?"

"Of course. When we were children, he told us fairy tales all the time, but the mages were wizards in tall hats concocting all sorts of magical spells."

"Good wizards or bad?" he prompted.

"Both, of course. What's a good fairy tale without both?" She turned her face up to his again. "You think I don't know where you're going with this? Every parent tells their children fairy tales. My father is an undisputed genius, tremendously talented, as is Jubal, with numbers and patterns. Gabrielle inherited a lot of that as well. She works as a researcher for hot viruses and she's really done a lot of good, unlocking strands and finding potential ways to combat them. But we're human through and through. We were born in hospitals, go to doctors for regular check-ups, pay taxes, and eat real food."

"I am certain that is the case. It does not, however, prove your father is not mage. We blend into society very well, and mages, far better than Carpathians. They do not sleep in the ground or sustain life on blood."