Dark Ghost (30 page)

You fought him, and that’s why you were wounded when I found you.
 

I was in bad shape,
he admitted.
I could not open the earth enough to crawl in. I was that weak. Fortunately, I was able to open it just enough that the nutrients in the soil helped to rejuvenate me enough that I could eventually heal myself.

I would have healed you,
she said quietly.
Not like you can do it, but I really can heal people tuning crystals to them and centering on the problem.
She had wanted to heal him. That had been important to her, but when she saw his gift – it had been so much more than hers.

Not so much more, sivamet. Different. Move to the top of that little mound of dirt just above the drop off.
 

Do you think they have found another victim to bring to their master instead of me?
She couldn’t help the tremble in her voice. She couldn’t imagine how it would have felt to be taken to someone worse than the vampire she’d encountered.

I do not know. I will hunt him, but if he has someone with him, csitri, it is already too late.
 

The gentleness in his voice turned her heart over. She even felt a caress
inside
her mind. How was that even possible, and yet he soothed her with his nonphysical touch.

He would kill them immediately?
 

He hesitated, and her stomach churned. She wasn’t certain she wanted the answer, not if he was hesitant about revealing what a master vampire would do to his victim.

There is no way of knowing. I doubt it. He would want to feed as long as possible on his victim while he heals. He knows I am hunting. He will not wish to move until he thinks it is safe.
 

That said volumes. Teagan realized the master vampire had to be afraid of Andre. He had taken on the master vampire and several of his pawns. She couldn’t help the little surge of pride she had in him as well as the fear for him. She wanted him to stop the vampires from taking any more victims, but at the same time, she didn’t want him hurt. Not one scratch.

Stop thinking about vampires, Teagan. This will require complete concentration. You have to allow your owl to take flight. You will need to recede into the background enough that whatever form you take can behave naturally with you present enough to guide it. Do not try anything else. One skill at a time.
 

He didn’t have to remind her of that. She was a climber and she was terrified of heights. She knew how to focus her entire brain on a single problem, especially when she was afraid. She was about to try to fly. She didn’t risk looking at the sky, because she considered the sky pretty much as high up there as she was ever going to get.

Um, Andre.
Her heart began to hammer. She heard it. The birds heard it, and so did he.
There’s something you should know about me.

Tell me.
 

I often, as in every time, completely fall apart when I’m around fifty feet up. I freeze. I always cry. It’s a total panic thing. I can’t stop it. I talk myself out of it, or my climbing partner does, but no matter how often I climb
–
and it’s a lot, both bouldering, and with ropes on the higher trad climbs
–
I always panic.
 

Teagan.
 

Her heart turned over. No contempt. No arguing. No telling her not to do this. Just her name. Tender. Sweet. Silk and velvet. His voice helped to settle her.

I will be with you. If you get too high and panic, I can talk you out of it. I will be right beside you. Look to me. I have got you, always.
 

She believed him. That calm, absolutely confident man wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her. He didn’t seem to mind that she needed reassurance, or that she confessed she panicked. He was there, right next to her, and she sensed that he was proud of her, whether or not she actually got into the air.

You are allowing me to show you my world, csitri, and I am honored and privileged to do so.
 

He was so formal. So gallant. She so wanted Grandma Trixie to meet him. She knew her grandmother would love him. So would her sisters. Unless of course, Grandma Trixie didn’t take the time to know him and staked him instantly.

Teagan. Keep your mind on flying. You are distracting yourself.
 

Of course she was. She was about to take a leap of faith and throw herself off a very high cliff. She’d looked down, and it wasn’t pretty. Rocks. Below that, trees. She needed a minute, but if she didn’t just close her eyes and go, she might never experience flying on her own.

She deliberately retreated in her mind, sliding back to allow the owl to the front. Instantly the bird spread its wings and took flight. No hesitation. She was in the air. Almost immediately she was aware of the night. The mist on her. The way her down feathers trapped air and provided insulation. The fringe on her primary wing feathers actually broke down the turbulence from air rushing over the surface of the wing. She realized that was the reason the owl was silent as it flew across the sky.

She was flying. Teagan Joanes, flying. Crazy cool. If she didn’t let herself look down – let the owl do it – she would be fine. Perfect. The sensation of the air moving through her and over her was amazing.

You have to guide the owl. You are the owl, and yet you are not. I am right beside you. Nothing will happen if you look down. Seeing through the eyes of an owl is wonderful and not to be missed.
 

That’s total bribery.
If she was being honest, bribery was working. She wanted to see through the eyes of the owl. Fear shimmered through her.
I don’t want you to see me in panic mode. You already think I’m irrational. I don’t need you thinking I’m unreasonable as well.

I do not think you are unreasonable, Teagan.
 

That’s because you haven’t seen me in full panic. I am unreasonable. It takes me forever to get myself under control.
 

Open your eyes and let yourself see. I am guiding both owls and you are perfectly safe. I will not let you fall.
 

Teagan had spent years learning to meditate and doing deep breathing to remain calm when her fears got the best of her. She wasn’t in the least prepared for this situation. He didn’t understand, and she was a bit ashamed to confess.

I boulder, Andre. I can trad or sport climb using a rope, but I prefer bouldering.
 

And this means?
he prompted.

She hadn’t realized his opinion of her meant so much. She had never much cared what others thought of her. She went her own way and did her own thing. But it mattered what Andre thought of her.

Bouldering is just me figuring out a problem. Controlling the climb. If I climb with a rope, I’m relying on someone else to save me if I’m in trouble.
It shamed her, that she didn’t have enough trust in her that she could allow a climbing partner to belay her properly. She’d never been able to get past that one fear – placing her life in the hands of another without falling apart.

Teagan.
 

His voice brushed over her.
Through
her. So much silk and velvet. Inside the owl, she shivered, unable to stop her reaction to his mesmerizing voice. She’d never liked her name so much as when he said it in that tone.

You have placed your life in my hands repeatedly. You have great courage facing my world whether you think so or not. The idea of shifting has to be frightening, yet you followed my instructions and were successful.
 

She hadn’t considered that she trusted him to get her out of a bad situation if she messed up. The idea of shifting had been incredibly fascinating. She had been determined to learn how. Yes, she’d been scared, but she could feel Andre there in her mind. His presence, even without his physical body was so incredibly large and powerful – so
steady
. Like a rock.

How could she possibly trust him with her life – almost a stranger who had forced her into a world she wanted nothing to do with – and yet not trust the people she knew for years? While astonishing, she realized it was the absolute truth.

I am in your mind, csitri. You are in mine. You know I will protect you with my last breath. You know that. No matter what I have done to displease you, that will always and forever be a constant you know you can rely on.
 

Don’t remind me you have displeased me. And displeased is a very mild word to describe how I feel when I think about what you did.
 

Then I regret bringing it up.
 

But there was no remorse. She kept waiting for Andre to feel remorse or guilt. She found neither in his mind, only the sorrow and regret that she suffered. He hadn’t known how hard the conversion was on a human psychic and he wished he’d researched more carefully and thoroughly, but she knew, without a doubt, he still would have converted her. His culture and her culture were very much opposites when it came to what men were allowed to do with their women.

She understood him more after seeing what he’d gone through as a child and the trauma he’d suffered. She could see the reason in his mind that he had held on with honor for centuries and if he didn’t bind them together, he was at risk because he was already so close to the darkness of his species. Truthfully, she didn’t fully understand that, but she knew it was real enough. Both those reasons were the only things that kept her from fighting for a freedom she wasn’t certain she really wanted.

Teagan, let yourself look. Guide the owl. Stay beneath my wing. I will have you in my mind. Nothing bad will happen to you.
 

She believed him. He was calm. A rock. Steady. There was something so powerful and invincible about Andre that there simply were no doubts. She was safe. She took a deep breath, feeling it inside the owl’s body, and opened her vision behind the owl’s eyes. For a moment she was disoriented. The owl could see greater distances due to the shape of its eyes and its ability to turn its head. It took just a moment to adjust to that. The ground wasn’t as far as she thought it might be, and the owl could see everything, spotting the smallest movement in the vegetation as they moved overhead.

From above, the trees looked beautiful. Breathtaking. She had never thought to see the tops of the canopies like she could from a bird’s perspective. Andre was really the guide, keeping the coordinates in her mind so her female owl responded and flew away from the mountain toward the village in the distance. Still, it was exhilarating to see the beauty of the land from her position in the sky and to feel as if she was navigating, even if by Andre’s instruction.

So beautiful, Andre. Truly beautiful.
There was wonder in her voice and she didn’t try to hide it from him. She knew he was giving her gifts from his world in order to combat the things she considered negative.

She felt that he was pleased. More, she felt she was giving him the same gift that he had given her. For the first time in centuries, he was experiencing something he took for granted with fresh eyes – her eyes.

It is beautiful,
he agreed.

There was something in his voice that took her breath away. That sent little darts of fire licking down her spine and into her body, despite the fact that she wasn’t in her natural form. She understood then that she was still present, and her attraction to him, her responses, started in her mind and moved through her body. In her mind, she still had her body and always would have. She was there, she’d simply mixed up the molecules and made her form something else. She still felt and thought and reasoned as Teagan.

Addictive, Andre. Flying is addictive. Like bouldering. Like you.
She didn’t care if she admitted it to him. He already knew she thought he was absolutely the best. She could still be angry at him and tell the truth.
Okay, honey, maybe anger is fading. Maybe it’s all about fear at the things you’ll expect from me.

Sivamet.
 

The tenderness in his voice turned her heart over.

Teagan, I do not expect you to go to ground with awareness. There is no reason you ever have to be aware of it. I can wrap my body around yours and wait for you to fall asleep, make certain you are out for the night and put you in the earth where you will be rejuvenated. I can wake before you, feed you and make certain you are refreshed and in bed again with me before you wake. I have told you, whatever makes you happy and comfortable in our world is what I want to do for you.
 

She knew he meant that as well. It was impossible to miss the sincerity in his voice or his mind. But still, Teagan’s brain played the “what if” game that she always played when she was climbing with others. She always considered herself the weak link. If someone fell or was injured and they were up four or five hundred feet, even in a harness, she would have to bring them down. Of course she’d trained for it. She’d even practiced it repeatedly, but she always wondered if she would panic.

There it was. Panic and fear, her old nemeses. If Andre fought off a master vampire or a pack of vampires, he would be injured. He would need her. Just as her climbing partners would need her in an emergency. She didn’t know, even if he trained her, if she could open up the earth and put them both in it.

There is no need to worry about such things, Teagan.
 

Of course there is. It could happen. It’s even likely to happen.
 

Teagan, you are my lifemate. We share the same soul. You are in my mind and you can pull out information on anything I have done. You would protect me with the same fierce determination that I would use to protect you. It will never matter what you have to do
–
you will simply do it.
 

How do you know?
 

You have great courage. You always have. You are already bound to me, not only our souls, but in your heart as well. It is in your nature to take care of those you love.
 

You can’t know that.