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 assured 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 reassure 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 massive 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 circumstance, being addicted to my kisses would be an asset.” 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. Passion coiled tighter and tighter, a spring threatening to explode. Her breasts ached. Her fingers found the silk of his hair, and crushed the thick mass 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 sex with you. Not just sex—wild, uninhibited sex. 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.”
Joie blinked up at him. “You sleep in the ground?”
“In the soil. It rejuvenates us.”
She closed her eyes. “Oh, God. I don’t even know what to say to you.”
He bent his head to steal another kiss. “Hang on. I am about to take you flying.”
She made a noise somewhere between laughter and choking, but her mouth responded, soft and firm and very pliant. He indulged himself for a few more moments, kissing her again and again, finding her mouth a sweet, hot haven he could lose himself in. When he lifted his head, she looked a little dazed.
Traian smiled down at her. “You’re being very brave.”
“You’re cheating. And I’m not being brave. Has it occurred to you I might be afraid of flying?”
“You were engaged in astral projection the first time I laid eyes on you,” he pointed out.
“I thought you were drug-induced,” she confessed. “I’d been experimenting, but I didn’t really believe I was actually accomplishing it. I thought I just sort of hypnotized myself. I would never have been so open with you had I thought you were real.” Joie turned her face up to the sky, her head cradled on his shoulder.
“Then I am glad you thought you made me up. I think I will like your family very much, mage or not.”
“I wouldn’t jump to conclusions until you’ve met my mother. She’s absolutely devoted to us and to our father, but she doesn’t welcome others at all. My teachers frankly detested to have her come to school for conferences—especially the male teachers.”
“Nevertheless, I intend to win her over. I have not had a family in so many years, the idea of one did not occur to me. Yet now, when I watch you with your brother and sister and feel the love you have for them, it makes me envious.”
Her heart turned over at the longing in his voice. Joie had never thought she would feel so intensely about a man. The mere tone he used could make her shiver like the caress of fingers, or wrap around her heart like a fist.
“Did you have siblings? Were you close?”
He rubbed his chin on the top of her head just to feel the silky strands of her hair against his skin. “Actually yes. I had a sister, Elisabeta. She, of course, was much younger than I was. Carpathian children, as a rule, are born fifty to a hundred years apart, but not always. She was very young when I was sent away from the Carpathian Mountains. I have searched for news of her, but no one seems to know what happened to her. I remember her running barefoot, her long hair streaming out behind her, and it seemed as if every plant turned their head to watch her pass. Our gardens were crazy after she was born. She had a free soul.” He closed his eyes, savoring the memory of a little girl, not more than six summers, her laughter making his heart sing when he shouldn’t have felt a thing. He had stayed longer than a warrior should, basking in the child’s presence.
“Most of the ancient warriors, those that had already lost their emotions and had fought too long and taken too many lives, gravitated toward our home just to be around her. She could make emotions appear when they were long lost. A little miracle really.”
He shook his head, blinking down at Joie’s upturned face. “I have not thought of her in centuries. Far too long. I accepted that she was lost to our people.”
“And to you,” Joie said softly. “I’m so sorry, Traian. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost my brother and sister. I really don’t.”
“It was many years ago, Joie, although in truth, I lost my emotions, and sorrows were much easier to bear. They are fresh again with memories returning now that my lifemate has provided a way for me to feel again.”
“That’s such a difficult concept for me,” Joie admitted. “I’ve never wanted to give myself to anyone, not wholly,” she admitted, looking up at him. “Not all of me. I didn’t want anyone to see inside me. But you already do, don’t you?” Her eyes met his. “You do see me like no one else ever has.”
“Yes.” Holding her close, protectively, Traian took to the air.
They soared across a night sky so dark it was nearly purple. A blanket of stars sparkled overhead. The few remaining storm clouds drifted rather than spun. Far below them the ground dropped away—mountains and valleys, forests and lakes hiding secrets best kept hidden for all time. The scene below them was a mixture of old world and new.
She could see farms scattered, with great haystacks and patches of gardens struggling for life. Sheep dotted the mountainside along with some cattle and goats. A herder’s cabin sat here or there in the remote places higher up on the mountain and more than once she saw stray dogs poking around looking for food along dusty roads.
Old ruins of a castle and a monastery along with numerous churches came into view. The country was beautiful and intriguing. Horse-drawn carts were no more than flatbeds in many cases with rails and car tires. The beauty of the countryside overwhelmed her as well as the simplicity of the villages.
I love it here,
she admitted.
You were lucky to grow up in such a beautiful place.
She looked up at him and her breath caught in her throat. She was half terrified and half fascinated at the shape Traian had assumed. He had the enormous wings of a huge owl, yet human arms held her against the soft, feathered breast. The feathers tickled her skin, and sent a shiver down her spine when she realized it was all too real. She closed her eyes trying to keep her heart rate normal, certain he would notice the difference if she didn’t. She was so aware of his every breath and couldn’t imagine that it wasn’t the same for him.
I have been unable to see beauty in my surroundings for some time.
Traian looked around him.
You are right, it is beautiful. Thank you for giving me such a gift.
Joie took a cautious peek around her once she had calmed her accelerated heartbeat. She was
flying
through the air with a man who could shift shape. Astral projection was cool, no doubt about it, but this—this was amazing. The sensation of the wind in her face, the way Traian could drop down low and skim the lakes and gorges. Everything, even the leaves on the trees were amazingly clear.