Dark Series - Dark Guardian Part 11

"I a.s.sured you I had no intention of going out dancing," she pointed out virtuously. "I can't think where you ever got the idea that I intended to sit around waiting for you. I have things to do. Modern-day women do not sit at home while their men go out and play."

He touched her face with one fingertip, tracing her soft skin, the delicate line of her high cheekbone. "I told you to stay here." "I was merely out walking. Fresh air is good for a person-didn't you know that? And walking is the greatest exercise of all. It can be done anywhere, anytime." She looked absolutely convinced of it. "Walking doesn't count as going out."

Lucian sat on the bed, crowding her. "Walking." He murmured the word absently, his fingers tangling in her hair. The feel of it against his skin distracted him. "Do not place yourself at risk again, angel. I will take action next time."

She shoved at the wall of his chest, more to get some breathing room than for any other reason. He seemed capable of robbing her of her very air. "I hope you don't think you're threatening me with something. I'm a police officer, Lucian. Threats are not a great way to win favors."

"I do not need favors, and I do not much care for your rather strange choice of occupations. This may not be a good time to bring it up, but you do not seem to understand. I have never had anyone question my decisions. You will not place yourself at risk again." He never raised his voice; if anything, it was softer, gentler than ever before. He sounded mild, almost absently giving his order to her.

Jaxon frowned at him. "You don't improve much as one gets more acquainted with you. I don't like bossy men."

His hand slipped to the nape of her neck, his fingers caressing her soft, scented skin. He didn't seem to notice, and she sat very still, not wanting to draw attention to the fact that he was scattering her senses in every direction.

"I do not consider myself bossy. There is a vast difference between being bossy and being in command."

"Go command something else then, Lucian, because I am in charge of my own life. Total charge. If I decide to leave the house, I'll do so anytime I please.

Don't think you can get away with being a supreme dictator just because you're..." Words totally failed her. What was he?

I already answered that. Deliberately he used the intimate form of communication that his race used with their lifemates. He bent his head to the vulnerable nape of her neck, unable to resist the temptation. I am Carpathian, your lifemate.

At once hungry flames danced over his body. His gut clenched hotly, and he closed his eyes to savor the taste and feel of her skin. To savor the feeling of intense hunger. His larger, stronger body bent over hers, slowly forcing her to lie across the bed beneath him. She was very delicate, very fragile beneath his exploring hands as he imprinted her for all time deep within his soul.

"Lucian." His name came out a soft, whispered plea, almost as if she were asking him for help.

Lucian lifted his head and stared down into her enormous eyes. She looked confused, drowsy, and very, very s.e.xy. "I am not hurting you, angel, only giving in to a tremendous need I have to feel you."

She reached up to brush at his hair, a small smile tugging at her full lower lip.

"Yes, well, I noticed. I just think this is a little dangerous. I'm still trying to get used to the idea that you're not human. You tell me all this interesting science- fiction stuff, and I hear what you're saying, but my mind doesn't want to put together all the facts. You're positively scary, Lucian."

"Not to you," he denied, his voice lazy as he bent to find her throat with his mouth. She tasted so good. Felt so good, her skin like satin. "I have been unfailingly gentle with you." His mouth followed the perfection of her skin down her throat and across her collarbone. She was so very delicate. He didn't see how anything so small could hold together such a perfect package.

"You're always in such perfect control. I can't imagine you not in complete control. But then you look at me, and..." She closed her eyes as his mouth wandered lower, pus.h.i.+ng aside the thin material of her top so he could touch more skin.

"You were saying?" he murmured against the inviting swell of her breast. "I look at you?" His teeth sc.r.a.ped gently, erotically over her sensitive skin, and she heard herself gasp even as her arms cradled his head to her.

What had she been saying? He was still in control. Even now, while she lay in his arms and could feel his body burning for hers, hungry for hers, he was in complete control. She turned more fully into his arms, her body pressing closer to the enormous strength of his. What would it feel like to belong? Really belong to someone? Not to be afraid all the time? When she was with Lucian, she was never afraid.

Lucian felt her body, soft and pliant, molding itself to his. He pushed the offending cloth farther from her skin, exposing her small, perfectly molded b.r.e.a.s.t.s to the cool air. To his dark, possessive gaze. To the heat of his mouth.

She really was a miracle, everything about her. Her body moved restlessly, and he s.h.i.+fted his weight to pin her more fully beneath him, needing to feel every inch of her imprinted against his skin. He lowered his mouth and tasted her breast, his tongue swirling lazily, teasing her nipple into a hard peak.

He could hear the ebb and flow of her blood rus.h.i.+ng through her veins, calling to him, beckoning with a sweet invitation. He murmured her name softly, stroked her skin, tracing each separate rib, finding the indentation of her small waist. In his ears was a dull roar, and the beast within him lifted its head and roared for release. Roared to claim what belonged to it.

Jaxon sensed the change in him. It was in the hard possession of his hands, the sudden aggression of his body. For the first time she was afraid. She caught his thick black hair in her fists and made a small sound somewhere between submission and protest. "Lucian." She whispered his name like a talisman, knowing he would always protect her.

At once he raised his head. Her breath caught in her throat. Behind the depths of his eyes crouched a primitive animal; she could see it, the red flames in its eyes, the heat and hunger gathering into a fierce conflagration. Her heart thudded wildly. "Lucian." She tightened her grip in his hair, two large handfuls, holding on for her life.

"It is all right, angel," he said tenderly. He kissed her throat gently, lingering over her wildly beating pulse. "I could never hurt you. You are my life, the air I breathe. I may sometimes act more animal than man, but I am truly a man after all."

"But not human." Jaxon's voice was a mere thread of sound.

"Not human," he agreed. "A Carpathian male, very much needing his lifemate at this moment."

Jaxon was suddenly acutely conscious of her disheveled clothes. "I think it would be best if you removed yourself from my bedroom."

"Best for whom?" Amus.e.m.e.nt tinged his voice. "Not me." Very gently he arranged her black top to cover her creamy skin. "Do you have any idea how much you mean to me?" He shook his head. "It is not possible that you could know."

She was afraid to breathe. Her entire body was crying out for his, completely betraying her saner self. "Lucian, I really need to be alone for a while."

"So you can deny that you want me?"

"Absolutely," she agreed readily. There was no reason to deny it. He was lucky she wasn't experienced. She might just be ripping his clothes off. The idea took her breath away.

He arched an expressive eyebrow at her. "It takes my breath away, too," he murmured against her throat, proving he was a shadow firmly entrenched in her mind.

She wanted to be annoyed with him. He had no right to listen to her every thought. But she found herself laughing. It just seemed so intimate, lying on the bed with his arm curved around her waist, his black eyes moving over her with such stark hunger in them. "You're so bad, Lucian."

Jaxon closed her eyes tiredly. It felt good to simply lie there and be still. Not think. Not do anything but feel his warmth and strength. "I'm so tired. It must be close to dawn. Why are we always talking until dawn?"

"So you grow tired and sleep all day while I am at my weakest. It is a good way to keep you chained to my side." Lucian stretched lazily "I intend to sleep here with you, so settle down and do not try to argue with me."

Jaxon thumped his shoulder, then s.h.i.+fted to lay her head on it "I wasn't going to argue with you. Why ever would you think that? I never argue."

Lucian smiled at her. She was so small, it amazed him she was such a strong person. "Of course you do not argue. What was I thinking? Go to sleep, honey, and allow my poor body to rest."

"I'm already asleep. You're the one gabbing."

Lucian concentrated on safeguarding the estate. He found he was more than a little distracted with Jaxon snuggled so close to him, her body fitting perfectly into the curve of his. She thought him so controlled, and perhaps it was true in every other matter-every matter other than Jaxon. He was not so sure of his ability to protect her from his own needs and hungers.

"Lucian?" The drowsy note in her voice sent his gut clenching into a ball of fire that was spreading like molten lava.

"Go to sleep." He draped his arm over her, completely engulfing her. Of their own accord his fingers tangled in the thick mop of untamed hair. His own voice was husky with need.

"Don't you sleep underground or something? I know you don't use a coffin, but this seems too normal for you." Her voice held suspicion.

Lucian hesitated. There could be no untruths between lifemates, and he had always been careful to tell her those details of his life she asked about. But this.

What was he to answer? "Go to sleep."

At once Jaxon tried to lift her head. Lucian didn't appear to notice. His arm lay firmly in place. "Tell me, Lucian, or I'm going to bug you all day."

He sighed. "I thought you didn't like hearing all the gory details of my existence." His fingers were moving in her hair gently, a tender caress that warmed her heart as nothing else could.

It was the way he touched her, the way he looked at her, Jaxon decided, as if she were the only woman in the world for him. And he was beguiling. A dark sorcerer impossible to resist. Like right now, his mouth skimming the top of her head, the way he inhaled her scent as if he were taking the essence of her into his own body "I'm beginning to be rather fond of your fantasyland, Lucian." The smile left her voice, and she became very serious. "I want to know everything about you. Not all at once, maybe, but eventually, everything."

He lay there, his body tight and hot and uncomfortable. He should have been in a burning h.e.l.l, but instead he was filled with joy. Her words moved him, melted his insides, so that the demon within him was safely leashed. He knew he would have her, he knew he would never allow her to escape him, yet he never believed she would grow to love him for who he was, what he was. Maybe it wouldn't happen, but Jaxon did want to know him, his reality.

Lucian's hand moved to the nape of her neck, his fingers curling around it.

"To rejuvenate our bodies, such as when we have suffered mortal wounds or used much energy to heal another, the soil of the earth welcomes us. But it is not strictly necessary to sleep within the arms of the earth. It is safer, for little harm can find its way to us there." Again he hesitated, unsure how she would take the next piece of information.

Jaxon thumped his chest lightly with her fist. She didn't bother to open her eyes and frown at him, considering her gesture enough of a reprimand. "Tell me."

"Normally we sleep differently than humans in that we shut down our hearts and lungs and lie as if dead. But that is a dangerous thing to do in a setting such as this one. Beneath this house I have a sleeping chamber. If something should happen and my safeguards failed, then it would be much easier for an adversary to destroy me here than in my sleeping chamber, where they cannot find me."

Jaxon shoved his arm aside and sat up, her hair spilling wildly around her face, her eyes enormous. "Why aren't you doing what you're supposed to be doing? I'm not going to be thrilled waking up next to someone who looks dead."

"I will not sleep in the manner of our kind, Jaxon. We are bound together.

We must touch minds frequently, or it is uncomfortable, even dangerous. Your mind is used to the touch of my mind. Without it you would feel intense grief, much more intense than a human could withstand. Carpathian emotions are extremely strong, Jaxon, due, no doubt, to our longevity. I cannot exactly describe what you would feel, but I cannot take such a chance with you. There is no need for it. I will sleep in the way of your people."

"Why don't you sleep like we do all the time?"

He sighed and deliberately pulled her once more into his arms. "You talk too much, when you should be sleeping." "You've been doing that, haven't you? Sleeping beside me like a human instead of doing what is good for you," Jaxon guessed shrewdly. "That's why you look tired sometimes. Your body doesn't rest this way, does it?"

"No, it does not rest." He sounded somewhere between exasperation and laughter.

"Go to your sleeping chamber or whatever it is you call it," she demanded.

"I cannot be apart from you."

"If your heart and lungs are shut down, then you can't possibly feel anything," she said logically.

"You are trying to take care of me again," he pointed out, wis.h.i.+ng his heart didn't react quite so strongly to her concern. In all the endless centuries he had endured, he could not remember a single individual, other than his twin brother, Gabriel, who had worried about him. And that hadn't been the same.

"Someone has to take care of you. You don't," she replied. "I mean it, Lucian. I can see how tired you are. Please go where you can sleep properly."

"Not without you."

There was a small silence. "I can go there?"

"Yes," he said slowly. "I told you, it isn't in the earth.It is below the bas.e.m.e.nt but not in the soil."

"If I woke up, I could just walk out of there? I don't think I'm claustrophobic, but I'd hate to trapped somewhere."

"I can show you the way. But, Jaxon, you must not think I'm dead. If you wake without me, before the sun goes down, your mind will play tricks on you. I will look dead and feel dead to your touch. You cannot allow your mind to trick you into doing anything foolish. Lifemates often end their lives rather than exist alone after they are bound together. You must promise me, should you wake, you will not leave the house, and if it becomes unbearable, you will call out to me persistently in the way of our people."

"You can hear me while your heart and lungs are shut down?"

"Most cannot. But I am not most. If you are suffering and you call to me, I will hear you."

"Then let's go." She said it determinedly.

"You are certain you wish to do this? It is not necessary."

"Yes, it is. You need to sleep and stay strong and powerful for all that weird stuff that you do. I'm getting used to it, and I'd miss it if you couldn't do it anymore."

Lucian lifted her easily as he rose straight off the bed into the air, cradling her in his arms. "Close your eyes, angel. You know how you hate my manner of travel."

"The speed thing."

"Exactly." His voice was infinitely tender.

She closed her eyes and snuggled more deeply into his body, her heart pounding nervously. There was a rush of wind and sense of traveling through time and s.p.a.ce as they maneuvered the intricate pa.s.sages to his sleeping chamber far below the house.

As he laid her on the bed, Jaxon looked around her in awe. It was beautiful, nothing like the cave she had imagined it to be It was a room with furniture and candles and crystal rocks that reflected the dancing flames, projecting intriguing shadows. Its fragrance was soothing, and Jaxon found she could lie beside him without fear.

Lucian leaned over her, his hand tracing the beloved lines of her face. "Sleep well, angel. If you dream, let it be only of me." He bent his head and found the silken heat of her mouth one last time, staking his claim, his intentions, moving the earth for both of them. Even as he lifted his head, he commanded she sleep, a deep sleep undisturbed until the sun sank from the sky.

Only when he was certain the safeguards were in place and he had sent word to the wolves to guard the property did he allow the breath to leave his body and his heart to cease beating.

Chapter Seven

Jaxon fought her way up through layers of thick fog, emerging with a pounding headache and a sick feeling in her stomach. In the darkness of the chamber she could not tell whether it was night or day. Not one speck of light seeped through the room's thick walls. She lay very still, deep within the earth, trying to sort out what was happening. She could feel Lucian beside her. His body was cold, and he had no discernable heartbeat, no rise and fall of his chest. It was eerie lying there beside him, knowing he wasn't even breathing.

For a moment she felt as if she were suffocating at the possibility of his lying dead beside her, but he had prepared her for just such an event, and she forced logic into her panic-stricken brain. What had awakened her? Instinctively she knew she had been programmed, commanded, by Lucian not to wake up until he did.

It took her a few minutes to shake off the fog. Even so, her headache refused to disappear along with it, almost as if the air was too thick to breathe. Sitting up, she pushed at her thick hair. Her stomach lurched crazily. She pressed both hands against her stomach and went very still. Drake. Was it Drake? Something evil was lurking close to them. Something malevolent. Something ugly lying in wait for them. Stalking them.

She glanced down at Lucian. He was such a perfect specimen of a man. He was amazingly beautiful, sensual in a purely masculine way. She touched his long black hair, pus.h.i.+ng it from his forehead with caressing fingers. Drake was not going to hurt him if she could help it. She knew if she called to him, he would awaken, but she had confidence in her own abilities, and Lucian was far safer beneath the earth, where no one would find him until he was at full strength.

Resolutely she slid from the high bed and padded barefoot across the floor. It was pitch-black in the chamber, but her night vision was phenomenal.

The door was heavy, and it took all her strength to open it. Even then it seemed difficult to walk through it. It was much like walking through quicksand or a heavy bog of some kind. Jaxon hurried through the narrow pa.s.sageway, noting that it slanted upward, twisting and turning through bedrock. At last she came out into the bas.e.m.e.nt. But she could see no evidence of a door. Then she discovered it concealed neatly in the rock. The feeling in the pit of her stomach was getting stronger. Something was definitely stalking them.

She ran lightly through the kitchen up the stairs to her room. Hastily she threw on a pair of slim black jeans and a navy police academy sweats.h.i.+rt. It was an old favorite she often wore for comfort. Again she considered waking Lucian, calling to him as he had told her she could, but she dismissed the idea. Even through the heavy drapes in her room she could see that the sun was not quite out of the sky yet. He needed all the rest he could get. And if he wasn't at full strength, he could possibly be hurt. She didn't know enough about him yet to determine what would happen if he awakened during daylight. The thought of him melting or something was laughable but unpleasant all the same.

She put on her tennis shoes, strung field gla.s.ses around her neck, and found her favorite Browning. If it was Drake, he wasn't going to get to Lucian. Jaxon glided silently from window to window, studying the surrounding grounds, taking care not to expose herself on the one side she knew could be seen from the distant bluff. She heard the lonely cry of a wolf, and a few moments later a second answered it, but it didn't sound as if they were hunting or had been disturbed in any way.

Jaxon decided whatever it was could not make an a.s.sault on the house from the woods side without some warning from the wolves, so she concentrated on the courtyard and the front entrance. Outside the high wall she caught a brief glimpse of something moving. Not enough of a view to make an identification, but enough to be certain something was out there.

She made her way midway down the winding staircase where the balcony with the gla.s.s door was. She slid it noiselessly open and rolled out onto the deck, hidden from view behind the railing. At once the terrible precognition hit her fiercely, making her physically ill. She knew she was on the right track. Why hadn't she called for backup? Because she couldn't explain Lucian's absence to anyone. And she couldn't have the police department snooping around.

Cautiously she raised her head and surveyed the front of the estate. She lifted the field gla.s.ses to get a better view. At once she saw the arm and leg of what appeared to be a large male. He was moving along the wall of the estate and came into full view as she watched. Brought up close by the binoculars, he was a frightening sight. He looked like a giant, and his head was somewhat misshapen, almost like a bullet. His eyes were dull and lifeless, his teeth blackened and sharpened to ugly points, and his entire expression was the blank mask of insanity.

He slammed his palms repeatedly against the high stone wall, and each time sparks would explode and smoke would rise. He would scream and pull his palms away, only to move one step farther along the wall and try again, with the exact same results. The wall couldn't possibly be electrified, yet it seemed that way, crackling with life every time the stranger attempted to touch it. He was persistent, not in the least deterred by the fact that he was being burned.

Jaxon stood up to climb onto the railing, wanting access to the roof. She was too short; her fingers missed by several inches. Irritated, she glared up at the eaves. There had to be a way up if she just took a minute to think about it. She didn't want the strange person out of her sight. He was up to no good, and he gave her the creeps. As she turned, her body automatically adjusting her weight to keep centered, she glanced at the sky to judge the setting sun.

Too late she saw a spinning silver web coming at her from above, sparkling out of the clouds like a net to encase her. Fear slammed into her. Lucian! It was automatic, calling for him, reaching for him, almost a compulsion, certainly not a thought of her own. Except on her job, it was nothing she would ever do in her life-think to call another for aid. The strange glittering net stopped in midair, hovered there for a moment, and then dropped harmlessly to the ground below.