Without warning the stranger's tall, thin frame contorted. Jaxon fought back a scream as the man became an animal, a wild wolf, patched and maned, sharp fangs filling the jaw thrusting straight at Lucian. Powerful hind legs dug into the stones, allowing the animal to leap at Lucian in an attempt to tear at flesh and arteries.

Lucian burst into the air so swiftly he was a mere blur. Jaxon tried to compose herself despite the bizarre phenomenon, sighting on the terrible beast. Its fangs were dripping saliva, and the eyes were glowing red with hatred.

Thunder was cracking so loudly it was hurting her ears as bolt after bolt of lightning lit the sky. Even as she thought Lucian would come crashing down to the hard stones and the wolf would tear him apart, he landed easily, almost casually, on top of the beast, his hands twisting the head savagely. The crack of its neck was loud in the night air. Then Lucian leaped away from the animal.

It bellowed loudly, shape-shifting again so that it was once more a man, its head flopping hideously to one side, its discolored teeth snapping and gnashing at Lucian. Jaxon could see that Lucian's powerful hands had broken its neck, yet the creature was somehow still extremely dangerous. She squeezed the trigger and saw the hole blossom in the center of the repulsive forehead even as Lucian seemed to disappear for a moment.

Jaxon nearly fainted when she saw Lucian appear right beside the creature.

She wanted to scream at him to get away from the awful thing, but her throat was closed with terror, and no sound emerged. To her horror, the beast was still ripping at Lucian with the grotesque talons he had for fingernails. Lucian thrust one arm forward, a powerful blur that buried his fist deeply in the creature's chest cavity. Jaxon heard a terrible sucking sound, and when Lucian withdrew his hand, in his palm was the creature's pulsating heart. Lucian leaped back as the body flopped to the ground with a high-pitched scream. Impossibly, the creature wriggled around, the hands stretching greedily toward Lucian. It began to pull itself relentlessly across the cobblestones.

Intellectually Jaxon knew none of this could be happening-all of it was beyond the scope of reality-but she aimed her gun squarely on the repulsive creature dragging itself toward Lucian. She could see its dark blood spreading like a stain across the cobblestones. Without warning a fiery ball slammed from the sky onto the ghastly, nightmarish figure flopping about in the courtyard, incinerating it. It completely consumed all evidence of the creature and the blood that had been spilled. She watched as Lucian casually tossed the heart into the flames and then held his hands over the fire. The blood staining his skin was gone as if it had never been, yet, miraculously, he was not burned. Jaxon stared down at the scene below. The storm was pa.s.sing, the wind carrying the ashes off to the south. And then there was only Lucian standing alone in the courtyard.

He turned and looked straight up at Jaxon.

She couldn't breathe. She could only stand there staring at him with her mouth open. She realized she was still aiming her gun. The thought entered her head to shoot him. Had she gone crazy, or had he done impossible things? She was already backing into the house. It would take him only a few minutes to make his way from the courtyard back into the house, and he knew the grounds and the layout of the building, while she did not. Jaxon ran lightly down the stairs and turned in the opposite direction from the courtyard. Almost immediately she spotted a door. Jerking it open, she ran out into the darkness of the night. She sought high ground, somewhere she could conceal herself but observe if he was moving toward her. But she ran straight into what appeared to be a solid wall.

Instantly she was steadied by two strong hands. Lucian was standing in front of her-another impossibility. No way could he have gotten from the courtyard to where she was that fast. The whole house had been between them.

Jaxon attempted to bring the gun around to point at him. She heard his soft laughter very close to her ear.

"I do not think that is a very good idea for either of us, honey." He swept the gun from her hand, taking possession easily, and swung her into his arms, cradling her against his chest, his upper body leaning forward to shelter her from the rain. "You do not obey very well, do you?" He asked it with that same note of mild amus.e.m.e.nt that always did something peculiar to her heart.

"I want to leave." She was trembling so hard her teeth chattered, uncertain whether it was from the cold and rain or her fear of Lucian and of what he was.

Because, clearly, he was no ordinary man. No matter that he was handsome and s.e.xy and had a beautiful voice.

He moved rapidly into the house. Behind them the door closed firmly. "I told you to stay in bed."

"I wanted to help." She buried her face against his shoulder because there was nowhere else to go, and she was freezing and scared and exhausted. He was warm and strong and gave her the impression that he could manage anything easily. He gave her the feeling that she was safe with him. "I couldn't let you face whatever was out there by yourself." To her horror, it came out as an apology.

"You managed to scare yourself to death," he observed without inflection.

She raised her head and glared at him accusingly. "I didn't do it. What was that thing? I shot it straight through the head. You broke its neck. Even after you ripped out its heart-and don't even tell me how you managed that-the thing kept coming for you."

"It was a vampire." He said it softly, as he said everything, calmly, matter-of- factly.

Everything in Jaxon went still. Even her breath seemed to cease. She wanted to believe there was no such thing, but what she had witnessed was undeniable.

Her breath came out in a long hiss as she held up a hand. "Don't tell me any more. Nothing. I don't want to hear another word."

"Your heart is beating too fast, Jaxon," Lucian pointed out gently. He pushed open the door to the large bathroom with one elegantly shod foot.

"Answer me this one thing. Am I in a sanitarium? If I've lost my mind, it's okay to tell me. I think I want to know at least that much."

"You are being silly," he said softly in his black-velvet voice.

She closed her eyes to get away from him, from the tremendous power he seemed to wield over her. Due to the fact that she was freezing and weak and he had her gun, the only real attack that might work long enough to free her would be to go for his eyes. But he had extraordinarily beautiful eyes. It would be such a shame to ruin them. She didn't know if she could force herself to do such a thing.

She heard his laugh then, low and intimate. Thank G.o.d for the gift of my beautiful eyes. I would not want you to attempt to do something so terrible to me.

Her long lashes flew open, and she stared up at him more in accusation than astonishment. "You can read my thoughts! That's how you knew which door I chose to run out of. You read my thoughts!" "I must confess, that is the truth." He sounded very amused now. He cradled her in his lap, next to the heat of his body, while he ran steamy water into the huge sunken tub. He added some bath salts from a beautifully shaped bottle. A wave of his hand lit several aromatic candles.

"I didn't see you do that," Jaxon denied, turning her head away from him.

"But I've caught the fact that you don't necessarily always speak out loud to me.

You laugh and talk to me, but in my head, in my thoughts." She pushed her forehead into her hands. "I'm in real trouble this time, aren't I?" She was trembling hard, and this time she was certain she was more afraid than cold. At least she still had enough of her faculties left to know she should be afraid of him.

"You are just as capable of speaking to me in the same way, honey," he replied, his voice soothing. "Jaxon, look at me. Do not hide from this. What would be the point?" Lucian found she was turning him inside out. She brought such joy into his formerly bleak, violent world.

She raised her head so that her large chocolate-brown eyes could meet his black ones.

"You are not afraid of me," he insisted. "Search inside yourself. The knowledge that there are things in your world you knew nothing about is understandably frightening, but you do not fear me."

"And how do you know that?" She would not fall into his eyes and allow him to mesmerize her. That was it, right? He had some kind of black magic spell thing he did with his eyes. She just wouldn't look into them again.

His perfect mouth curved into a smile. "I have shared your mind. I know all kinds of things about you. Just as you know all manner of things about me."

"Well, I don't want to know them," she snapped. "I don't want any part of any of this. I shot that thing right in the middle of his forehead, dead center, and he didn't die."

"There is only one way to kill a vampire and ensure that he does not rise again. You must extract his heart and incinerate it. His blood acts like tainted acid on the skin or poison if ingested into the bloodstream. It must also be destroyed. Even after death a vampire can cause tremendous damage if not disposed of properly."

She glared at him. "I told you I didn't want to know any more."

He began to undo the b.u.t.tons of her shirt, slipping each one carefully from the b.u.t.tonhole. His fingers brushed warmth over her soft skin, leaving behind tiny dancing flames. She caught at his hands, stilling their actions. "Just what do you think you're doing?" She tried to look outraged instead of shocked and horrified by her own body's reaction to him.

"I am removing your wet clothes. They are not doing you much good, honey, if your intention is to hide your body from me. The rain-soaked shirt is now completely transparent." He pointed out the obvious without any inflection in his velvet-soft voice. "You are very cold, and you need to warm up. I thought this was the best way. But I would be most happy to choose another, if you wish."

She pushed at the wall of his chest, turning bright red at his implication. He was right; the wet silk shirt revealed everything. "Go away. I am absolutely not taking a bath with you in the room."

He studied her face. She was very pale. All eyes. In her mind was confusion and fear but no real resistance. She was not the type to throw herself out a window. "I would not like it if you slipped and fell, young one."

"It's insulting to have you refer to me as 'young one,' as if I were a child. I'm a grown woman," she informed him haughtily.

His smile nearly took her breath away.

"That is what I am afraid of," he said.

"What does that mean?"

"It means, Jaxon, that I am much too old for you." Lucian's black eyes moved over her face with that possessive glint very much in evidence. "And yet there is no other for me, for either of us. We are stuck with each other."

"Go away." She pushed impotently at his broad chest again. "I'm going to soak in the bathtub for a very long time and convince myself none of this happened. I must be on drugs or something. Or the blow to my head has left me very confused."

"You never received a blow to the head." Amus.e.m.e.nt turned the warm velvet of his voice to pure seduction. "That was your partner."

"Go!" This time she pointed to the door.

He gently allowed her feet to touch the tiles. Shaking his head at her silliness, he glided casually out of the room.

Jaxon took a deep, calming breath and let it out slowly. There simply were no such things as vampires in the world. It just wasn't so. She tossed the wet shirt aside and slipped thankfully down into the hot water.

Yes, there are. You just saw one. His name was Henrique, and he was not very skilled. There are many more. Do not worry, Jaxon. I am a hunter of the undead, and I will protect you.

He was in her mind again. She shook her head as if that would remove him.

"I don't want to know anything about vampires. I could go my entire life without that information and be perfectly happy. I don't want to know." What if Lucian was a vampire himself? He had gotten from the courtyard to the door she was fleeing out of, and the entire huge house had been between them. How had he managed it? "And what about all my dreams of dark princes and blood and icky things like that?" she murmured aloud to herself.

Icky things? He was definitely laughing at her. I am no vampire, although I pretended to be for a few centuries to help out my brother. I am a Carpathian, a hunter of vampires, those of my kind who have surrendered their souls to the darkness that exists within all Carpathian males.

"A few centuries? Just how old are you, anyway? Wait! Don't answer that. I don't want to know. Just stop talking to me. This is crazy. I must be on very powerful drugs, and soon I'll wake up in the hospital, and everything will be back to normal. I made you up. What I'm going to do is ignore you and take a bath. Vampires and you are gone forever from my mind. So don't talk to me."

Lucian found himself laughing aloud. The sound startled him. He couldn't remember laughter. It felt good. He placed a palm on the bathroom door. He had endured nearly two thousand years of emptiness, of darkness and violence. No emotions. Nothing. His own people, those he had protected, had been so afraid of his power and skill that they whispered his name and hid when he pa.s.sed through the land. Yet one small human woman had worked a miracle and brought laughter into his life.

He had no qualms about what he was. A killing machine designed to protect Carpathians and humans alike from evil. He was more than good at his role. He destroyed easily without anger or remorse.

But Jaxon Montgomery was the most beautiful thing he had ever encountered. She was his, and he would never give her up. But was she changing him? His palm caressed the door behind which she bathed, his heart turning over strangely, unexpectedly.

The hot water warmed Jaxon's insides but stung her healing wounds. She frowned down at the evidence of the recent shoot-out at the warehouse. She should have died from those grave wounds. And all her misery finally would have been over. She drew up her knees and rested her head on top of them.

Now her burden of responsibility was worse than ever. She would have to protect the world not only from human criminals but from the things of nightmares. She couldn't do it. Not anymore. She just couldn't be in this world anymore and be so completely alone. The mere thought of it left her raw and aching.

You will never be alone again, honey. The voice, so soft and beautiful, was filled with compa.s.sion.

Jaxon made every effort to rally. "I told you not to talk to me."

I am thinking, not talking. The tenderness mixed with amus.e.m.e.nt in his voice made her heart turn over, made her feel all the more vulnerable.

"Well, don't think either." She ran a hand through her wet hair. This kind of thing just didn't happen to normal people. Why did she attract such weird things?

I am not a thing.

"I can't hear you." She was smiling in spite of herself. There was something almost endearing about him, if such a frightening creature could be called endearing. Her eyes suddenly widened. He had known she was out there. The entire time. He had known she was on that balcony.

"You did, didn't you?" She whispered it, but she knew he would hear her. If she could hear him in her head, he could hear her whisper.

Yes.

"And you can erase all this from my mind." It made sense. How else could someone like Lucian remain hidden from the world? "Why did you let me see that hideous thing? I'll never get that image out of my head."

You would not want me to erase your knowledge. Not of anything. I know you would not. The temptation is there, naturally, but you would not wish such a thing, and I have too much respect for you to make the decision for you.

She rubbed her aching forehead. He was right. It was a temptation to forget the horrors she had seen. She wanted to scream at him that no one could a.s.similate such knowledge. But he was right. She would hate for him to make such a decision for her, and she would never choose ignorance. But what did this new knowledge mean to her future? What could it mean?

For no apparent reason, Jaxon started to cry. Once the tears started, she could not control them. Great sobs welled up, shaking her with their intensity.

She never cried. Never! Jaxon deliberately went under the water, hoping to wash away the tears. It would be humiliating to have Lucian catch her crying. At once came the knowledge that he had to be aware; he was there in her mind, a shadow monitoring her most private thoughts and memories. She came up so fast, she hit her head on a faucet. Yelping, Jaxon stood up in the enormous tub, water running off her body.

Lucian materialized directly in front of her, his black eyes anxious as he reached for a large bath towel. Jaxon gasped audibly. "My G.o.d, you just appeared out of nowhere! You didn't even come through the door!"

He enveloped her in the towel. She was far too much of a temptation standing there naked, confused, her eyes enormous and water running off her slim body. Pulling her into the shelter of his large frame, he began to dry her.

"Doors really are not all that necessary, honey."

"Evidently locking them wouldn't do much good," she pointed out. She tilted her head to study his handsome face. "I'm tired, Lucian. I need to lie down."

He swept her into his arms. She looked so fragile. One good, strong wind might blow her over. "If you cry anymore, honey, my heart is going to break."

He meant it, too. His heart actually ached for her. There were dark circles under her eyes. Cradling her close to his chest, against the steady beat of his heart, he glided through the house, up the stairs, and back to her bedroom. Very gently he placed her back in bed.

"You will sleep now, Jaxon," he commanded. His voice made her want to do whatever it was he asked of her. No, commanded of her. That was what it was-a command-and she was so mesmerized by the beauty and purity of his voice, she succ.u.mbed to his power.

"Am I right? Is that what you do?" She allowed him to help her into another shirt His fingers once again spread flames everywhere they brushed her skin as he b.u.t.toned it for her. Resolutely, he pulled the covers up to her chin.

"Yes, with my voice and my eyes I can easily control others." He admitted it shamelessly, the same way he did everything else, matter-of-factly, in his soft, gentle tone.

A faint smile lit her large eyes for a moment "You admit it so easily. How many others like you exist out there?"

"Not many anymore. We Carpathians are dying out. Very few of our males can find their lifemates."

She closed her eyes. "I know I shouldn't ask. I know I shouldn't, but I can't help myself. What is a lifemate?" Her long lashes lifted, and laughter danced warily in the depths of her eyes, despite their shimmer of teardrops.

He ruffled her hair, his fingers combing it into some semblance of control.

"You are a lifemate, honey. My lifemate. It has taken nearly two thousand years to find you, and I never dared to believe in such a miracle in all that time." She held up a hand, palm out. "I knew better. I knew I wouldn't want to hear this. Nearly two thousand years, you say? That would make you way old.

You're right-you're far too old for me."

His strong white teeth flashed. They were perfectly straight, his mouth sensuous. Everything about him was perfect. She glared at him. "Couldn't you at least look wrinkled and dusty, with most of your teeth missing?"

Lucian laughed, the sound so beautiful she could feel the whisper of b.u.t.terfly wings in her stomach. He was incredibly charismatic. She knew she had fallen under his spell. Were her emotions real, or was he suggesting them to her? She had never had these feelings for anyone. It was frightening how strong the emotions he evoked in her were.

"Neither have I felt such before." He said it starkly. Honestly. The purity of his voice made it impossible for him to be lying. "I have never wanted another woman this way, Jaxon. For me, there is only you."

"You can't have me. I live in a world that doesn't include love. There's no room for you. Tyler Drake may not be a vampire, but he's very dangerous. I will not be responsible for any other deaths. I have enough blood on my hands for an entire army." She wasn't going to believe in this vampire nonsense, she decided. That was all there was to it. Otherwise, she would have to be committed. G.o.d in heaven, maybe she wanted to be committed.

He took her hands in his, turned them this way and that to inspect them carefully. He brought her palms to the warmth of his mouth, then pressed a kiss into the exact center of each hand. "I do not see one drop of blood, honey. You have never been responsible for what Tyler Drake has chosen to do."

"You aren't listening to me." She sounded sad, snuggling more deeply into the pillows. Once again she felt safe, when she knew that couldn't possibly be true. "I will not take chances with your life."

Lucian laughed again. Jaxon could hear the genuine amus.e.m.e.nt in his voice.

"You still do not understand me, young one, but you will soon enough."