Lucian chose his answer carefully. "In all the centuries of my existence, all the vampires I hunted and destroyed, I never actually found one who slept in a coffin. If anyone was going to try such an idea, I imagine the undead would do so first."

"That's one good thing." Jaxon was already pulling away from him, moving gingerly, as if by touching him she might become more infected with some strange disease. "I don't think I could ever get used to the coffin thing. Can you undo what you've done?" She tried to keep her voice neutral. She was very tired and wanted only to lie down somewhere and not think anymore about anything.

"You can't, can you?"

"I would not want to if I could. I do not want to give you up." His hands fell to his side. "That is selfish of me, I know, but I cannot. It is not only for my own sake, Jaxon, but for yours-and for others."

She held up a hand and gave a faint smile "Overload, Lucian. I can't take in any more. Let's do something normal." Jaxon bit her lower lip, a small frown flitting across her face. "I don't know what normal people do, do you?"

His hands framed her face, his thumbs feathering over her satin-soft skin in a small caress. He had to touch her. He couldn't seem to stop himself. "You look tired, Jaxon. You should be resting."

"I was thinking we could go for a walk on your grounds. I'd like to look around outside." "Scouting. Of course you would want to do that. It is so normal."

She found herself smiling. "Maybe you're right. After all, neither one of us knows what to do when we're not tracking some killer."

His smile was slow and s.e.xy. "I did not say I did not have other, much more interesting things in mind to do."

Her breath caught in her throat. He could so easily get around her. It wasn't natural. He whispered to her in her mind, shared erotic images, and made her think things she never would have on her own. Jaxon shook her head.

"You are bad, Lucian. What am I going to do about you?"

"Be with me. Live with me. Learn to love me. Accept me as I am," his black- velvet voice whispered, and his words touched her in her deepest soul.

She reached out to take his hand, weaving her smaller fingers through his. "I think you should be outlawed. That voice of yours can get you almost anything."

She had no real way to resist him. Not when he could say such things to her in his beautiful voice with such stark truth in his gaze.

He turned her hand over, bringing her palm to his lips. His black eyes were burning with possessiveness. "Does that include you?"

Jaxon found herself smiling. "I'm considering it. Walk with me."

"You wish to go outside?"

She shook her head. "There's a reason you're not so certain you want me to go outside. What's out there? I know it's not a coffin. I think we've pretty much covered that issue, and we're clear on it."

"No coffin," he acknowledged.

"So, what is it?" she demanded. "Out with it."

"Wolves." He said it straight-faced.

Jaxon s.n.a.t.c.hed back her hand. "Give me back my gun. Wolves? I should have known. Of course you have wolves. Doesn't everybody?" She snapped her fingers. "The gun, Lucian. Hand it over. I've decided I have to shoot you after all. It's the only way to preserve my sanity."

His hands curved around her neck in mock threat. "I do not think I will ever give back that weapon of yours. It gives you hostile ideas."

She was very much aware of him as they moved together toward the back of the house. Why did his home have to be so perfect? Everything she had ever wanted?

Why did it make her feel so safe when she should have felt threatened by such a powerful and dangerous being as she knew Lucian to be? How could she simply accept his differences so calmly? Well, maybe not calmly, but she was accepting them.

Lucian enjoyed the way her mind worked. Jaxon was sometimes overwhelmed by the enormity of the information he had given her, but she didn't allow herself to panic. She took her time a.s.similating what she could and then gave her mind a small break before processing the next influx of information.

She used humor to get herself through frightening situations. She never once condemned him out of hand. Jaxon didn't know him. She did not understand what he really was. She had no real concept of what it had done to him to destroy others for centuries. That his bleak, dark world was so cold and shadowed, he would do anything to keep from going back there. He was a predator, had terrible darkness in him, and she was too much of the light to understand that each kill had taken a piece of his soul. Only Jaxon could make him whole.

Chapter Five

The moment Jaxon stepped out onto the grounds and inhaled the fresh air, the terrible weight threatening to crush her dissipated. The air was cold and crisp, the rain having ceased for a short time. Clouds swirled overhead, dark and ominous, blocking out any moonlight, yet it was a beautiful sight. She loved storms and the sound of rain. She loved the cloud formations and the scent of the air after a downpour.

She was aware of Lucian's powerful body moving close to hers as they emerged from the house. Jaxon raked carelessly at her hair with one hand, sending it into further disarray as she surveyed the acres of forest that lay behind the mansion. "This is a bodyguard's worst nightmare, Lucian. Drake would love this. He could be here right now, up in the trees somewhere. This is his element."

"You worry too much about my safety, honey." His fingers tangled in her hair on the pretext of taming it into some semblance of order. "I would know if a human approached my property. It is well protected, not by a security system such as humans use but by ancient safeguards, powerful and dangerous. Tyler Drake cannot get through them. As long as you are on this property, you are perfectly safe from him."

"What about from a sniper's bullet? He doesn't have to be on the property to shoot you, Lucian. All he has to do is perch on a hilltop somewhere and get you in his sights."

"I am not so easy to kill, angel. You only pretend not to know what I am because you do not want to think too closely about it." He was in her mind. She was avoiding the idea of their sharing blood, mainly because it brought up dark, erotic memories she didn't want to touch. And she was definitely having trouble with the idea that she had taken his blood. It bothered her far more than she wanted to admit, yet she was turning it over and over in her mind.

Lucian looked down at her. Jaxon had tipped her head back to look up at him, her large eyes dark with such mixed emotions it turned his insides to molten heat. More than anything he wanted to taste her soft lips. The need was fierce and urgent and this time he gave in to the demand without a fight. He simply wrapped his arms around her small waist and pulled her to him, his head descending to take possession of her mouth.

Time stopped. Beneath their feet the earth itself shifted and rolled. Burning heat erupted everywhere, electricity arcing between them. Still, his mouth was slow and gentle, coaxing her response rather than commanding it. His hands moved to cup the back of her head, holding her so that he could explore, lose himself in the silken heat of her mouth. She was everything to him. A secret world of light and heat and color and emotion and magic. He never wanted to be anywhere else. He wanted this perfect moment to go on for all time.

Lucian lifted his head slowly, almost afraid to stop, afraid the moment couldn't be real, it was such perfection, afraid she would vanish and leave him alone once more. His hands tangled in her hair. "I thought there were few secrets left in this world for me to discover, angel, but the mystery of how I came to deserve one such as you, I will spend eternity unraveling."

Her fingertips touched his perfect mouth. The truth was, Jaxon was in awe of him. She had known if he touched her that way, if his mouth found hers, she could never be truly free of him. She would crave him for all time. His taste, his power, his scent. Everything. "I shouldn't have let you do that, Lucian," she whispered. "Now what are we going to do?" He had said she could leave anytime, she wasn't a prisoner, but she knew it wasn't the truth. She was locked to him in some way, bound by something far more powerful than she had ever imagined. Her eyelashes lifted, and she looked up at him with tremendous sorrow. "What are we going to do?"

Lucian caught the nape of her neck in the palm of his hand and drew her against him so he could hold her. "When you look at me with such sadness, Jaxon, you break my heart." The wind provided a soft music, and he moved in perfect rhythm to it, moving her with him so that they were one. She rested her head against his chest and seemed to melt into him, pliant and soft when she should have been protesting.

"Our fate is sealed, honey," he said as gently as he could. "There is no Lucian without Jaxon, and there is no Jaxon without Lucian. We must find a way to merge our two worlds together. We have no choice. It was written long before either of us was sent to this earth. We are fortunate that we were able to find each other, when there are so many who have been unable to remain hopeful."

"You think that, Lucian? You really think that we're lucky? I've brought you into a sick world where someone is stalking me and killing anyone who matters to me. You're bringing me into a nightmare world where creatures out of horror stories exist." Jaxon sounded very sad, her voice m.u.f.fled by his white silk shirt.

"I don't even know if I want to be with you. I don't know if you've got me under some black-magic spell or not." Their bodies were swaying together, as close as they could get, with only thin layers of clothes between them.

He found himself smiling again. He was more than likely the most powerful creature on the face of the earth. He could command the heavens. She was not much more than five-foot-one, probably didn't weigh in at a hundred pounds, yet she didn't think anything of standing up to him.

The truth was, Lucian was used to complete awe and respect. Even among the more powerful males of his race, he had always been treated with deference.

No one had defied him in centuries. He mused over that. No one other than enemies he had to destroy had ever defied him. Not once in all those centuries did anyone ever disobey his will. Lucian was used to having his way in all things.

In his arms Jaxon felt so small and fragile. He was suddenly aware of his strength, of his power, something he had always taken for granted. He inhaled her scent; she was already the very air he breathed. The bond between them was growing stronger with every moment that pa.s.sed.

A sound intruded, a soft cry, music on the wind. The wolves knew he was out on the grounds and had come close to visit him. Seeing he was not alone, they were in the woods, dark shadows watching him, waiting for a signal. Attack or stay back? He touched their minds, sending images to them. Jaxon was a part of their clan, their pack, his female, a leader right alongside him. She was under his protection. Under their protection. They must at all times look out for her first.

Jaxon raised her head. "They're out there now, watching us, aren't they?

Where did you get them? You have to secure all sorts of special licenses to have a wild animal. I would have thought, even for you, it would be difficult to attain the permits when you live so close to the city. How did you manage it?"

He shrugged his wide shoulders carelessly. "I simply told the gentleman he was going to give me the permits, and he did so."

Jaxon sighed and stopped dancing with him. "I need to get away from you. I really do. I can't believe someone so perfectly logical and down-to-earth as I am is falling for this fantasy world you've created. Lucian, you can't just go around getting your way by crawling into people's minds and hypnotizing them into doing whatever you want."

His black eyes glittered with what could have been amus.e.m.e.nt. "Jaxon, I have been doing just that since the beginning of existence."

"What does that mean?"

"Centuries. I have been doing it for centuries."

Jaxon held up her hand. "Just stop saying centuries. Don't use that word anymore. Something about it makes me crazy." She pressed a hand to her stomach. "Give me back my gun before you call those animals to you." She could see the wolves, their eyes reflecting in the dark. Without realizing it, she moved back beneath the shelter of Lucian's wide shoulder for protection. "I'd just feel better, you know?"

"The wolves are my brothers. They would never seek to harm me or mine,"

he said quietly. "They are n.o.ble creatures, Jaxon, with a strict code. They would give their lives for us. Do not fear them."

Her heart was beginning to pound. Right away she noticed his heartbeat match hers, and then both hearts slowed to normal. She glanced up at him.

"What are you?"

"Not vampire, little love. Never that." His every instinct was to scoop her up and run off with her, claim her body and tie her to him irrevocably. Lucian's mind was a shadow in hers; he knew she would be unable to resist him, but it was not what she wanted. She was still struggling to accept his existence and their strange bond. With a sigh he circled her slight body with his arms and dropped to one knee. Come to me, brothers and sisters. Come and meet my lifemate.

The wolves raced from the woods, eager to welcome her into the pack.

Lucian held her tightly, rea.s.suring her physically as well as mentally. In her head his voice was soft and soothing; his heart and lungs directed hers so that she could remain calm in the midst of the large pack. The animals pushed against her legs, rubbed along her thigh, sought to have her hands in their fur. When she was reluctant to do so on her own, Lucian's hand guided hers, so that her palm was immersed in the thick dark coat of one of the larger wolves.

Jaxon found a smile curving her mouth, joy in her heart. She almost felt as if she could see into the minds of the animals. Images of what they were thinking and feeling. Their fur was incredibly soft and thick. It was amazing to be so close to a wild animal, to be touching one, having it accept her. She turned her head to look up at Lucian. "This is so wonderful. Have you been doing this all your life?"

"I would say for centuries, but I know how much you dislike that particular word," he teased her.

She made a face at him. "You are so bad."

He ruffled her hair, trying to treat her like a child instead of the woman he knew her to be. She was tired. He could sense her exhaustion. Her wounds were not completely healed. She needed nourishment, though her mind shied away from that particular need. Lucian sent the wolves back into the woods, scooped Jaxon into his arms, and glided back into the house, cradling her against his chest.

"I'm quite capable of walking," she pointed out.

"It is faster this way. Your legs are short."

"They are not!" She was seriously offended. "I can't believe you even said that."

He laughed and tossed her into the deep cushions of the sofa in his den, where it was warm. "I have to go out for a short time this evening. You will, of course, remain indoors and out of harm's way."

She looked up at him with wide-eyed innocence. "Where exactly did you think I was planning on going at this time of night? Out dancing? I can wait a few days."

"Promise me you will try to eat something."

"Absolutely." She nodded solemnly. Lucian regarded her through half-closed eyes. "Why is it I am not certain I can trust you?"

"You have the longest, darkest eyelashes I've ever seen," she replied, trying not to stare at his eyes. "You should be locked up. It's not safe to have you around women."

"I have not noticed you falling all over me, angel."

"Thank G.o.d for that." Jaxon snuggled deeper into the cushions and smiled up at him. "Notice I'm not even asking you where you're going. I'm just happy to be rid of you for a while."

"That is not nice."

"Keep it in mind when you're thinking about this lifemate stuff. I'm not a nice person," she said smugly.

He laughed softly. "I do not have to reinforce my request that you remain indoors with a little help, do I?" Her dark eyes flashed fire. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Try me." His voice was as soft as ever. Jaxon did her best to look demure.

"Do I look in any shape to go running around like an idiot? But you need a couple of bodyguards. Take the chauffeur. He looks as if he can handle himself in a crisis. Not that I have any intention of worrying about you." His white teeth flashed at that blatant lie. "If you need me, honey, just reach for me with your mind. We can talk to each other anytime."

She held up a hand. "Go away. It's the only safe thing for you to do. And leave my gun while you're at it. I don't want to be here alone unarmed."

"You have a complete a.r.s.enal upstairs in your bedroom. I never saw so many weapons. It made me wonder just what type of woman I was getting myself involved with. There will be no shooting me when I come home this night, no unfortunate accidents, I trust," he teased as he put her gun on the table beside her chair. He bent to brush her temple with his warm mouth before he walked away from her, laughing softly.

Lucian made certain he had stepped out into the darkness before his tall frame shimmered into transparency, slowly dissolved into millions of tiny droplets, and streamed out into the mist rising from the ground. He moved fast, traveling at preternatural speed, moving straight toward the city.

The three men sent to murder Jaxon had all worked for the same person.

Samuel T. Barnes. The man was a banker, wealthy and very social. He was seen at all the prominent parties, supported the local mayor, the congressman, and the senator. He did not appear to have any drug connections, yet he had ordered all three a.s.sa.s.sins to get rid of Jaxon. She had been far too successful in slowing the drug traffic in her city. Her team had virtually put a stranglehold on the incoming routes. She found and took away shipment after shipment.

Lucian found Barnes's condominium in an exclusive neighborhood. The stream of mist circled the house, testing the defenses. Each window was sealed, every door bolted. Lucian returned to the front door, shimmering once more into solid flesh and blood. He stood tall and straight, a faint smile touching his mouth, although his eyes were completely expressionless. He listened for a moment, noting the position of all people in the house and what they were doing.

His knock was sharp and authoritative and brought an instant response.

A young man in a suit, the poorly concealed bulge beneath his jacket indicating he was armed, opened the door. Lucian nodded politely. "I am Lucian Daratrazanoff, here to see Mr. Barnes. I do not have an appointment, but I was in the area and thought I would take a chance."

The man blinked several times in surprise. He obviously recognized the name. "Please come in, sir. I'll tell him you're here."

Lucian didn't move. "I would not want to disturb him if he has settled in for the evening. After all, it is quite late. I will wait out here."

"Mr. Barnes wouldn't like that, sir," the man insisted. "I've heard him speak of you often. Please come in."

"You are certain you have the authority to invite me into his home?" Lucian's voice was soft, his accent very much in evidence.

The man nodded. "Yes, sir. Please come in. Mr. Barnes would have my job if I kept you waiting on the doorstep."

Lucian graciously allowed the man to talk him into entering the foyer. He stood quietly while the man hurried off to get Samuel Barnes. He could clearly hear the whisper of conversation in the room above him.

"Are you certain it's Lucian Daratrazanoff? My G.o.d, where's my jacket?

Quick, Bruce, mix a couple of drinks, and bring them into the library. No, wait.

Escort Daratrazanoff into the main sitting room. I'll make the drinks myself."