She glanced at the door just as someone knocked on it. When she turned back, Traian was gone. Joie took a deep breath and with a trembling hand opened the door to her siblings. Jubal swept her up in his arms and Gabrielle put her arms around both of them. They held one another for some time. Joie remembered to kick the door closed after a few minutes of a long group hug.
She looked over her brother and sister for scrapes and bruises. “You both got out unscathed.”
“We fought a vampire,” Gabrielle declared, her eyes bright. “Jubal killed it and the darn thing has my ice axe.” She gave a delicate shudder. “Not that I want it back after sinking the spike into its head.”
“Oh, my God, you
fought
one of those evil things and actually managed to kill it without Traian?” Joie was shocked. “They seem invincible.”
Gabrielle sank into a chair, trying to cover a yawn. “It was Jubal’s bracelet. It doesn’t like vampires.”
Jubal held out his arm for Joie’s inspection. With him dressed in a tee and jeans, his arms bare, the thick metal just looked like an ordinary bracelet. “This thing bears our family crest, Joie. And it kept me warm in the caves as well as lit the way and also cut out and burned the heart of the vampire. I have no idea how it happened. I didn’t direct it, the blades jumped out and began spinning and the metal warmed up as it unlinked from my arm.”
Joie studied the innocent-looking bracelet. It would take a strong man with large arms to wear such a thing well. It looked as if it had been made for Jubal.
“The staircase we went down was long and winding and carved of ice. At the bottom was a wall of symbols and stars,” Jubal said. “The secret password to open it was actually the Draco constellation.”
Joie’s gaze jumped to his. “What are you saying, Jubal?”
“I don’t know, Joie, but this is a pretty big coincidence that the bracelet came to me, bears our crest, and that the secret to the way out was the Draco constellation.”
Jubal’s tone was matter-of-fact. Jubal rarely got upset or too excited. Gabrielle and Joie often joked that he’d never have a heart attack.
“Do you think Dad’s family is somehow descendents of mages?” Joie could barely manage to voice the question. Had she not seen vampires and the other extraordinary things she’d witnessed through the long night, the question would have been ludicrous.
“I think there is a possibility,” Jubal acknowledged. “We were always drawn to this region and Dad didn’t want us coming here. I think he has his secrets and maybe the tales he told us were truer than we ever suspected.”
“That’s what Traian said. He doesn’t trust mages at all and I doubt if others like him do. Maybe we should be really cautious about speculating other than among the three of us,” Joie ventured. “At least until we have a chance to talk to Dad.”
“Agreed,” Gabrielle said. She yawned again. “I’m going to bed.”
“We all should,” Jubal agreed.
“Stay in your rooms during the day,” Joie cautioned. She told them what Traian had said about vampires using human puppets. “We can sort all this out tomorrow night when he’s back and figure out what we’re going to do.”
She hugged them both and shut door after them, locking it and after a couple of moments, pushed the dresser up against it. She was very tired and had no idea if she would wake up if an intruder tried her door.
J
oie dreamt of a man with the face of an angel and the body of the devil. She could hear the sound of her heart beat drumming like thunder every moment of the dream—whether in fear or in exhilaration—she couldn’t tell. One moment she ran for her life, the next she was in his arms, kissing him over and over. Monsters ran through her dream, chasing her, tearing the flesh off of him. In the background her father watched with strange eyes, standing by, doing nothing, holding a glowing sphere in his hands. Beside him a great jungle cat covered in spots watched Traian hungrily and as one of the monsters tore at him, the cat leapt the distance, landing on his back and settling teeth around his head.
Joie rushed across an endless bridge of ice, driving a knife deep into the ribs of the cat in an effort to save Traian. The jaguar turned its head and looked at her. The amber eyes filled with hatred, slowly turned gentle, sorrowful. Joie blinked to bring the face into focus through unaccustomed tears. She gasped and backed away as blood ran down the side of the cat and pooled on the ground beneath it. She was looking directly into the face—the eyes—of her mother.
She fought her way out of the web of her dark dream, tears running down her face, her chest heavy and her heart beating wildly. She didn’t recognize the hotel, only the deep sense of dread and danger surrounding her and the gun in her hand. She was already tracking around the small room, seeking out an enemy.
“Romania,” she said aloud in the gathering darkness. “You’re in Romania with Jubal and Gabrielle and a man you might have made up.”
Traian emerged out of the darkness slowly, hands up, palms facing her. Darkness swirled around him, cloaking him one moment and then revealing his strong features the next. She slipped the gun beneath her pillow and sat up, tasting passion in her mouth. He could very well be a dream, a mere fantasy that her mind tricked her into believing was real.
“You’re already here.” Her gaze drifted over him slowly, inspecting him for damage. The raw wounds were nearly healed, an amazing feat considering what he’d looked like when he’d left in the early-morning hours. “You’re lucky I didn’t shoot you.” Defensively she put out her hand as if to ward him off.
He smiled at her and kept coming. “You would never make that mistake. You will always recognize me.”
Of course it was true. She had known the moment he moved that it was him. He took her breath away. It was so trite. So unlike her, but it was the stark truth. He came right up to the side of her bed, reached down, framed her face with both hands and kissed her. His mouth robbed her of all ability to breathe. She was not a woman to be intimated by a dominating male, nor did she ever feel small or fragile or even beautifully feminine, yet Traian managed to make her feel all those things.
Her reactions to him confused her more than the vampires, secret caves of mages, and his shifting shape. Her fingers curled in the thick silk of his hair. On him the long hair seemed natural, almost elegant, pulled back from his face and captured at the back of his neck with a thin cord. His chest was wide and thick, his arms enormously strong, his hips, encased in black trousers, narrow. She had a difficult time believing a man as attractive as Traian would want to be with her.
He laughed softly and ruffled her thick cap of hair. “I told you, a Carpathian cannot see any woman other than his lifemate—certainly not once he’s found her. I have heard there have been one or two throughout the centuries who were not quite right, but you have only to look into my mind to see what you mean to me. Lifemates cannot lie to one another.”
“I have morning mouth,” Joie said, wiping her hand across her lips, more to prevent more kissing than to cover her breath. More kissing was going to most assuredly lead to other things.
His smile lit his eyes. “It is evening.”
“Whatever. Still. I just woke up and unlike you, I have to brush my teeth to have fresh breath.”
“As far as I’m concerned, your breath is fresh. You taste like a mixture of honey and mint.” He flashed her a reassuring smile.
Traian realized she was very nervous. Joie seemed to be very confident, but he suspected she was confident in action rather than inaction. Deliberately he paced across the room to give her space, and toed a chair around to straddle it, knowing his height and shoulder width made her feel as if he was taking up the room.
“You had a nightmare.” He made it a statement.
Her gaze jumped to his face, a little wary. She nodded. “Yes.” She shrugged. “It was unsettling but hardly surprising. The things we witnessed last night were a lot to take in. Who knew there was an entire world of mythical beings living in the same world as us? You said you were traveling back to your homeland. Where have you spent all of your time?”
He knew she was searching for reassurance that they weren’t moving too fast, that the pull between them was real and not simply powerful chemistry. She needed a few seconds just to breathe. He refrained from pointing out that all she had to do was access his mind and she’d know everything about him she wanted to know. He would hold nothing back—good or bad, but she needed the breathing space and the humanness of speech.
“Centuries ago, my prince called the ancient hunters together and told us the war was coming and more vampires would roam the earth. It was our duty to rid the world of them. Those of us who agreed to go were sent to far-off places with little or no contact of our kind. I was assigned basically to cover India and outer regions such as Sri Lanka. It was a very extensive territory and not developed much. Wars occurred often among kingdoms trying to seize control.”
“Did you participate in the wars?”
Traian shook his head. “Very rarely. If I came across a woman or child being abused, I stepped in, but I had enough to do moving through such a large area trying to keep any vampire from establishing himself.”
“It’s hard to believe that vampires were in India.”
He smiled at her. “Think of the legends and myths you hear in every country around the world. You would be hard put to find a country that didn’t have some form of vampire firmly entrenched in the tales and lore recorded. And what of all the strange animals one hears of, the ones even now that have occasionally been captured on film but are always put down to a hoax, whether proved to be so or not. Even in the States there are strange sightings.”
Joie leaned toward him. He could see the open speculation in her eyes. She was an unusual woman in that she had a very open mind to anything others would never consider.
“Are you saying those strange animals are vampires?”
He shook his head. “No, but more than likely they are among the species still existing that are capable of shifting shape, and that includes the undead.”
Joie shoved a hand through her hair, drawing his attention to the cap of thick, dark strands. She looked a little disheveled, her large gray eyes still sleepy, her skin smooth, looking petal soft, her hair tousled. Need slammed into him before he could stop it, ran unchecked through his veins, the slow heat turning to flames.
“Tell me about India. I haven’t been there,” Joie admitted, oblivious to his growing hunger.
Traian drank her in. The sight of her, the scent of her brought him a peace he’d never known. He had risen, appreciating after centuries the richness of his homeland’s soil. He saw beauty in the land around him as if seeing with new eyes—and maybe he was. Colors were vivid, even scents seemed more pleasing.
She
was in the world. Joie.
“Tell me,” she repeated. “It’s important to me to know what your life has been and the influences on you. You see my family. But tell me of the early days in India.”
He was pleased she wanted to learn about him, but he had other much more pleasing ways to pass the time before the evening’s demands would be on them. He swallowed a small sigh and indulged her.
“India was forest and jungle when I first arrived there. I felt at home very quickly in that environment. I found myself spending quite a bit of time with elephants. Over time my emotions and memories faded, more so with each hunt and kill of the undead and for some reason, when I stayed around the elephants, I could tap into them. For many centuries they were content and peaceful, teaching me an acceptance of life, of the ways of the land shaping the future. They do not fight what they cannot control. Eventually many were harnessed into the service of man, and still, they lived their lives as patiently and as well as they could. Buddhism was very influential and I couldn’t help, at times, to compare the teachings, the quiet acceptance of life, the living in the moment, with the way the elephants lived their lives.”
He spread his hands out. “I have managed to shift into every animal I have come across and fooled the others of the species into believing I belonged, but not the elephants. They accepted my presence among them and as time went on, I believe they looked forward to my company, but they always knew I was not a true elephant. There is something very special about them.”
Joie frowned. “Traian, you’ve been all over the world and had experiences, watched the world change century after century. I have such a different background. How can someone like me hope to keep a man like you from being bored after a few days or weeks in my company?”
“Is that what worries you?” His voice was tender.
“Among a million other things,” she admitted. “Seriously, how could you possibly be happy with someone who has such little experience compared to you living centuries and seeing the world take shape? You’ve been here when there was barely a population and have lived through wars and plagues and things I can’t even imagine.”
Joie pushed strands of hair behind her ear and regarded him thoughtfully. “I was raised to be very independent. I think for myself and I’m a woman of action. Compared to the knowledge you have, I’m a child. Being with you, as tempting as it is to throw myself into your arms and just take whatever you’re offering to me, I’m afraid eventually I would lose who I am. I like making my own decisions, it’s who I am. I need to climb cliffs and find caves no one’s been in. I find satisfaction in my job.”
She thought herself safe sitting there on the bed, her body covered up by the man’s shirt that only managed to make her look sexier than ever. He shook his head. “I cannot believe you are worried you will lose yourself when you are with me. Joie, I want you the way you are, not changed into something else. You are a very intelligent woman. You are a warrior and I respect that, and your need for action. I also know that when you are working with anyone, whether you are climbing or going deep into a cave or protecting someone, if another person has more knowledge than you, your ego would never get into the way. You would listen. I trust you implicitly to do that.”