Dark Descent (Dark #11)(18)
Author: Christine Feehan

She made a noise somewhere between laughter and strangling. "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 it was drug-induced," she admitted. "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. 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. "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?"

"Yes." Holding her close, protectively, he 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. A mixture of old and new.

Joie’s 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, sent a shiver down her spine when she realized it was all too real.

Is this not better than thinking you are crazy?

The masculine amusement would have earned him a punch had they been on the ground. Sheer exhilaration was taking the place of fear.

I’m not certain I want you running around in my brain. It was perfectly natural to think I was hearing voices. Even when you are able to speak to your brother and sister telepathically? That’s entirely different. We’ve always been able to speak to one another, but not anyone else. We just thought it was a Sanders sort of thing. My mom and dad can do it too. It could be considered arrogance to think that only your family was capable of telepathic communication.

Lights from the inn lit the ground below them. Traian dropped to earth some distance from the building, where the shadows were deep. Music spilled out of the two-story building, floating out in all directions. People mingled on the wraparound verandah and on most of the balconies, some dancing, some talking, and others pressed close to one another.

"The festival," Joie said. "I forgot about it. Look at me – I’m a mess."

"You look beautiful to me," Traian objected. "Which room is yours?"

"Second story, third balcony on the left." She grinned at him. "Are we floating?"

"Is the window locked?"

"That wouldn’t stop me. I have second-story skills."

His eyebrow shot up. "I am very impressed. I am a hunter and I am certain those skills could come in handy."

She narrowed her gaze, locking her fingers behind his neck. "They come in handy for a bodyguard. I do have a business, and I’m known to be one of the best."

"I’m sure you are." He took her into the sky fast, enjoying the way she clung to him, tightening her arms and gasping as he shot up.

Don’t you laugh at me. I’m not laughing. I can feel you laughing. You know, it isn’t normal to fly through the sky. It is normal for me.

The balcony floor felt solid beneath her feet. She let go of his neck immediately. "Great, I would have to do this with a hundred people around."

"They cannot see you. I have shielded us from their eyes."

She glanced at him over her shoulder. "We’re invisible? Sheesh. Is your life easy or what? I wouldn’t mind being invisible in my line of work. No wonder those things are afraid of you."

"They fly, and they can cloak their presence as well."

Joie pushed open the door to her room. "How perfectly charming of them. Where do they come from?"

Traian followed her into the room. She heard his heavy sigh and turned around to face him. "I’m not going to like your answer."

"Vampires are Carpathians who have chosen to give up their souls for a brief moment of power, the thrill of the kill. Our males lose their emotions and the ability to see in color after the first two hundred years of existence. Some earlier, some later, but all of us eventually lose everything we hold sacred if we do not find a life-mate. Our race has few women and fewer children. We are on the verge of extinction. There is little hope, and more and more of our males are turning."

There was compassion in her eyes. "How terribly sad for all of you. So you and the other hunters are forced to police the vampires. Even if they were once boyhood friends… or family."

He nodded, astonished at the wealth of understanding he read in her expression. She clearly saw what others did not: deep below the surface, every destruction of a childhood friend or cousin had cut pieces out of his soul until he feared there was little left. Yet her understanding, the compassion washing over him, changed something. He felt it, felt the first healing touch and the power a lifemate wielded. She stood there in her filthy clothes with mud smeared all over her face, and she was beautiful to him. A lump the size of his fist rose in his throat, and he turned away from her, afraid of allowing her to see the emotion threatening to choke him. How could she possibly understand what she meant to him? "I’m sorry, Traian. I know I can’t begin to understand what it must have been like, but I feel the weight of it in your mind." More than that, she felt how alone he had been. The intensity of his pain shook her. His life had been stark. Ugly. Bleak. She caught frightening glimpses of scenes in his past. Terrible battles that lasted for hours. Severe injuries. Death all around him. No one to comfort him. No one to care.

"This is becoming a habit."

Joie closed her eyes briefly, overwhelmed by longing, by the need to wrap her arms around him and just hold him. "I have to contact Jubal and Gabrielle. I can feel that they’re close, so I’m certain they made it." When she picked up the phone to dial their rooms, her hand was trembling.

Traian waited while she talked to her siblings, assuring them she was fine and that she would meet them downstairs after she showered. She was instantly relaxed, laughing, her voice soft with love, firm with reassurance. He had forgotten so much. Just the tone of her voice brought back memories of his life before he left his homeland to answer the call of his prince.