Dark Descent
Joie stared back at the flame-red eyes in horror, unable to look away. The eyes were real, watching her, some terrible apparition set on her destruction. She had never seen so much malice, so much black hatred pouring from any entity. Her body rebelled, sickened by the evil emanating from the thick slime.
At Traian's warning, she tried to wrench her gaze away, but she was trapped, unable to break eye contact with the red flames. Her airway began to close, choked off by an invisible noose. Instinctively her hands flew up to her throat as if she could pry unseen fingers from around her neck, but there was nothing there. As white stars flashed across a black background, Joie realized dizzily she had only precious seconds to break the invisible hold on her throat. She reached for her knife, following through in one smooth motion with a throw directed by sheer desperation.
The blade sank deep into the fiery left eye. Immediately the water bubbled up in a blackish-red ooze and the hold on her throat loosened, allowing her to breathe. A terrible howl filled the cavern, assaulting her ears. She stumbled away from the poisonous pool, dragging air into her lungs, coughing as her raw throat protested.
In the next moment Traian was dragging her into his arms, his body crowding hers, his hands moving over her to assure himself she was unhurt. As he lifted her, she clung to his strength, not bothering to pretend the encounter hadn't shaken her. He moved quickly through the air, so fast the cold air bit at her face, numbed her arms, and tore tears from her eyes. Joie buried her face against his chest, allowing herself a few moments to recover before she faced her siblings.
"You are teaching me the meaning of fear," he said.
"Really? I thought it was the other way around. I don't think your world is the calm environment a woman like me should be in." Her voice shook, embarrassing her.
"Having courage does not mean being unafraid."
"True, but everyone doesn't have to know I was shaking in my boots. Literally."
"I am not everyone. I still cannot believe you are real," he said softly. His lips moved against her cheek, a brush lighter than a butterfly wing, yet she felt it all the way to her toes. That small caress sent blood rushing through her veins, her heart leaping; his touch warmed her as nothing else could.
"I'm having a difficult time believing that any of this is real," Joie admitted. "And what's up with the wolf? Telepathy, okay, I can accept that. Even your strange little blood fetish, but don't you think changing into animals and flying through the air might be going a little too far?"
His arms tightened possessively. "You do not enjoy flying?"
"I don't enjoy anything when I'm not in complete control. And you didn't have to intimidate my brother."
His arm was curved around her, pressed against the underside of her breasts. "You will not be in complete control when I make love to you, Joie," he told her softly.
She closed her eyes at the velvet sound of his voice. Danger surrounded them. Her family was close. It didn't seem to matter. She was so aware of him, her body ached with need. With hunger. With absolute longing. She felt edgy and hot; a terrible pressure was building inside her.
I feel the same way.
She often spoke with her brother and sister using telepathy, a secret they all shared, but this was different. So much more. An intimacy that whispered of erotic nights and appetites that would never be sated.
Why? Why with you? I am your other half. We belong together. I have searched the world for you. Waited lifetimes for you.
Joie tightened her grip on his shirt, burrowed closer to his heart. She was a woman who knew herself well. An adrenaline junkie. A feminist. A believer in justice. She loved her life. Traveling from country to country. One assignment after another taking her into danger. Her recreation time was spent caving, white-water rafting, or skydiving. She was not a woman who wanted or needed a man. She was not a woman who clung to a man.
Joie looked up at Traian, the light from her helmet shining on his face. He had changed her very existence for all time. "I'm not altogether certain I approve of you."
"Great. I don't know a thing about you except I can't exactly bring you home to my mother and father. My family is very close, by the way."
He put her carefully on firm ground. Jubal and Ga-brielle rushed to her, flinging their arms around her and hugging her close. "I had not noticed," Traian said with drawling amusement. "We are not safe. We have to keep moving."
"Wait, Traian," Jubal objected. "We found something. Something really important. You said those vampires were hunting something. You have to take a look at this. I've never seen anything like it."
Traian hadn't relinquished Joie's hand, even when her siblings dragged her into their arms. She felt a little silly holding hands - she'd never really done it, not even in high school. But there was something warm and comforting, something extraordinary about being close to Traian.
"You can bring me home to your parents." He said it softly, honestly, as he followed Jubal and Gahrielle through a narrow hall. "I would never embarrass you, or frighten them. I want to meet them. Anyone important to you is important to me."
Joie tried to prevent her heart from going crazy. She was no young girl, but a fully grown woman. A man shouldn't have such an effect on her, yet he did. There was honesty in his voice. A simple sincerity that shook her. She knew nothing about him, not even what he really was, yet she knew everything. She knew what kind of man he was. The knowledge was instinctive, the one thing she was certain of.
"Where is your family?" she asked.
"I have only my people. My prince." His eyes gleamed a deep black in the soft glow of the helmet lights. "You are my family. Your brother and sister have become my family." He arched an eyebrow at her. "And we have only just met. A very strange concept for you, but completely natural to me. Lifemates are two people who meet and need to be together, two halves of the same whole. Finding a lifemate is what every Carpathian male dreams of and longs for and fights to keep our world together for, yet few of us ever gain such a treasure. I never thought to experience such an earth-shattering event."
"Are you disappointed that I'm not what you thought I'd be?"
Traian looked down at her. "You do not yet understand the concept of lifemates. I am surprised and even shocked by the idea of a human lifemate, but I could never be disappointed with you. We were made for one another. We complete one another. You are fascinating to me. You always will be."
Joie hurried to catch up with her brother and sister, not wanting Traian to see the pleased grin she couldn't quite hide. Jubal turned toward a shallow alcove in the wall, directing his light onto the ice. There was a sudden silence as all of them held their breath. The creature encased in ice was large, an enormous beast with scales covering its body, a wedge-shaped head, a serpentine neck, and a long tail ending in a sharp spike. The wings were folded in close along the body. It had sharp claws for rending and tearing. One eye was wide open and staring at them through the thick wall of ice.
Joie let her breath out slowly. "That's no dinosaur."
"It has to be," Gabrielle said. "It can't be a dragon. Don't tell me it's a dragon." She glared at Traian. "There aren't vampires. You can't change your shape, and there aren't dragons. The air is bad down here and we're all having a mass hallucination. It can't be anything else."
"Is it real, Traian?" Jubal asked. There was awe, even reverence, in his voice.
"Yes. It is real. I had no idea it was down here."
"Do you think this is what the vampires are looking for?" Joie asked.
Traian shook his head. "They have no interest in the remains of a dragon. But this is definitely a cave the wizards used. I suspected as much. It could be a gold mine of information for our people. The wizards had incredible power and knowledge. It would be terrifying to think that the vampires might get hold of any of the power the wizards wielded. Do not touch anything. We must be very careful in here. The wizards used spells and traps to guard what belonged to them."
"That's what you meant when you said the bridge could be a trap. You thought the wizards had made it," Jubal said.
Gabrielle held up her hand. "We're talking about things found in fantasy books. Legends. Myths. There has never been evidence of dragons existing. Not even when dinosaurs roamed the earth." She reached out to touch her sister. "Joie? Are you certain of this? Certain of this man? He flies through the air. He changes into a wolf. He can talk to you telepathically. He takes your blood like a vampire would." There was pleading in her voice.
Traian pulled Joie closer to him. He was well aware of Gabrielle's influence on Joie. He could easily read his lifemate's mind, just as he could pick up the thoughts of her siblings. Joie loved her brother and sister and would willingly sacrifice her own happiness for them if need be.
Joie felt the possession in Traian's touch, felt the brush of his mind in hers. She smiled up at him in reassurance. At the same time, she reached for Gabrielle's hand. "The one thing that matters is family. And more than anything, we want each other to be happy," she explained to Traian. "I know what I'm doing, Ga-brielle. You know I've always relied on my instincts. I know this is right. I don't understand any of it, but maybe I've been preparing for it all of my life. I fit with him. You're right, I don't know him yet, but I fit with him." She rubbed her face, smearing mud across it. "A one and only sort of thing. Silly, but true."
Jubal groaned. "Joie, I never thought you'd turn all mushy romantic on us."
Gabrielle exchanged a long look with Jubal and turned to Joie. "Well, I suppose your life with him will always be interesting."
"My sisters have already put gray in my hair. I won't survive Traian hanging around, howling at the moon, biting Joie's neck. And, just for the record, stay the hell away from mine, Traian. Having a woman bite my neck might be a turn-on - kinky, maybe, but I could handle it. Having a man bite my neck is out of the question. Doesn't do a thing for me," Jubal said dryly.
"Ouch. That hurts, Jubal," Traian said. "I was really looking forward to a snack later." He leaned down to brush the top of Joie's head with his chin. He had to touch her, keep reminding himself she was real. Even when they were speaking telepathically while he searched the complex of caves for whatever the vampires were frantic to find, he almost believed he had made her up.
Gabrielle managed a grin. "Well, he fits in with our weird family, Joie. I can't wait to see Mom and Dad's reaction."
"I need to seal this area off, slow the vampires down, and get all of you out of this cave," Traian said. "I'm not so eager to leave," Joie responded, studying the huge body of the dragon. "This is a treasure. There must be other fascinating things down here."
"You are being hunted," Traian said severely. "I am getting you out of here now. I will come back later and find whatever the vampires want so badly."
"When you're alone," Joie said.
"When I am alone," Traian confirmed. He urged them through the narrow hall. "You must not touch anything, no matter how inviting it appears," he added as a precaution.
Jubal glanced at Joie. "It isn't like you to agree to stay behind. Are you certain he doesn't have you under a spell?" He groaned. "That sounds so melodramatic and stupid. I can't believe I said it."
"I'm a professional, Jubal, and I don't need to make a point. This is his area of expertise, not mine."
The hall opened into a gallery. Tall columns in a Gothic style were carved into the walls. The high cathedral ceiling was impressive. Pillars of ice and crystal formed two rows down the room, each holding several round globes of varying colors. Joie peered into one of the largest, a milky blue natural sapphire. As she stared at it, the color deepened, darkened, began to swirl with alarming speed. Mesmerized, she moved closer. The ground beneath her tilted, rippled. She felt a pulling, a drawing as if the swirling sphere called to her.
Traian clapped his hand over her eyes and pulled her away from the globe. "Do not look at them. Gabrielle, come away from there." There was urgency in his normally calm tone. "Jubal, just pull her with you. I can feel the aura of power in all of these objects. Until we know what they are, we need to give them a wide berth."
Joie was stunned that she had been so quickly pulled into the globe's influence. "I thought wizards were supposed to be good."
"Absolute power corrupts. It is something one learns when one's life spans hundreds of years." Traian crowded close to Joie, keeping his body between her and the tall pillars.
"I heard it already," Jubal said. He was pacing right behind Gabrielle, pushing her through the long, wide-open room. There were clear crystal sculptures of mythical creatures. Small, blood-red pyramids made of stone were set into chiseled-out archways in the walls. It was difficult not to stare at the gems and strange objects surrounding them, but Traian was obviously fearful of their safety, and they were ever conscious of the deadly creatures following them.
A deep boom shook the network of caverns. They stopped in the last one and stared at a solid wall in front of them. "There has to be a way out," Traian said. "Wizards were not able to shape-shift or fly. They were much as you are. There must be an opening leading to the surface."
"We have our gear," Joie pointed out. "We can use it to climb."
"Not with vampires so close on our heels. They will not need gear to climb. They can take to the air to pursue you. They hit the trap I set for them and were buried under a mudslide, but it will only slow them down. Look for something that does not feel right. There will be a hallway leading up to the entrance."
"Like the rocks outside the cave. The pattern was all wrong," Joie said. "Jubal, you're good at patterns. Find us the opening, and hurry. Jubal's rather infamous in our family for his mathematical mind," she told Traian.
"He can see a pattern in just about anything. That's how he makes all his money."
They could hear scratching, a terrible sound amplified by the acoustics of the cavernous room. Great claws scraping at the earth, digging to get at them. They spread out, walked along the wall, carefully examining every surface. All the while they could hear the vampires tunneling furiously through the mud and ice. The sounds grew louder, closer, and Traian dropped back, facing the wall where the creatures were certain to break through.
"I've got it!" Jubal said triumphantly. "We were expecting up, but it's down. The floor. See the pattern on the floor, Joie?"
"Open it," Traian said tersely, not looking, his attention centered completely on the far wall.
Jubal studied the squares, pyramids, and starburst patterns of stone beneath the layers of muddy ice. In the center of each symbol were hieroglyphics, pictures carved into each stone. He stepped on various ones, taking his time, choosing each stone carefully, following the pattern he could see laid out before him.
At last a large stone slid aside to reveal steps carved into the ice. Jubal hesitated. "Are you certain this is the way?"
"It has to be the way," Traian said. "Take your sisters and go."
Jubal was cautious, shining his light down the narrow staircase. The stairs appeared to be a bridge over a dark, fathomless abyss. "It's another bridge, Traian. Do I trust it?"
"You have to. It must have been their way out."
Jubal took a deep breath and stepped onto the first stair, found it solid, and reached back to aid Gabrielle. "Hurry, Joie."
"Come with us, Traian," Joie pleaded.
Water gushed in a dark, muddy stream from the side of the wall. Insects poured into the gallery. The wall to Traian's left collapsed in an oozing pool of dark sludge.
Two hideous creatures flopped onto the floor of the chamber, abominations in the crystal perfection of the room. Gaunt and cadaverous, they were covered in black muck. Baring their jagged, spiked teeth, they stared at Traian from red-rimmed eyes filled with venomous hatred.