Carpathian 03 - Dark Gold

strength completely drained, the journey took the better part of the afternoon, and he feared that when he did reach home he might not have energy enough to rise with the setting sun and return to the vampire's lair. He was growing ever weaker, his being becoming even more insubstantial, a feather blown about in the elements. Only the thought of Alexandria sustained him.
    And a welcome dense, blanketing white fog eased his passage home.
    
    Once there, with his last ounce of energy, he made his way unerringly to his resting place beside Alexandria. The wrench of reuniting with his body contorted his very bones, his muscles contracting and locking in hard, swollen masses. Vulnerable and without strength, his great power drained completely, he lay as one dead, the cool earth closing over him. A soft hiss escaped, the last breath from his lungs.
    
    Upstairs, above Aidan and Alexandria, Stefan could only try to comfort his wife as they huddled together awaiting the setting sun, awaiting the moment Aidan would arise. The sun seemed as if it wanted to stay up for all time, but unexpectedly a slow, thick fog began to roll in just before six o'clock. Stefan felt some of the terrible tension leave his body, though the guilt remained as he waited.
    
    Deep below the earth, Aidan arose, voraciously hungry to replenish starving cells and sinews depleted from his earlier task. Yet his first thought was of Gregori. There could be only one answer. The Carpathian had intervened. He was great enough, powerful enough to feel the disturbances in the land even from beneath the earth itself. He had sent the fog to aid Aidan when he knew Aidan was far too drained to build it himself. And the fog remained, here before the sun set, giving him a head start on what he must do.
    
    Aidan had studied for centuries, believing, as Gregori did, that knowledge was power, yet he could not do all the things Gregori was able to do. He would not have detected a bodiless being while sleeping in the ground, and Aidan was certain Gregori had not only done so but had also sent the fog to aid him. Aidan found himself smiling. The vampire was not Gregori.
    
    Glancing down at Alexandria's face, he brushed his fingers tenderly through her hair before floating them upward to the underground chamber. Alexandria always went to sleep on a bed and awoke on one, but as long as a vampire preyed in their city, Aidan always brought her beneath the healing soil, where she was impossible to detect.
    
    Wake , piccola. Wake and look at your lifemate . He whispered the words softly, dreading her coming pain, a lump forming in his throat.
    
    When she took her first breath, a soft sigh, it went straight to his heart. Her blue eyes opened, Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    her gaze locked on his. At once her warmth surrounded him, seeping into the cold pores of his body. She smiled, a loving, sweet smile that was an arrow piercing his soul.
    
    "What is it?" she asked. Very gently, tenderly, she lifted a hand and traced his mouth with a fingertip. "What have you been doing to yourself? You're gray, Aidan. You need to feed." Her voice was a soft invitation.
    
    "Alexandria." He said her name, nothing else.
    
    She surprised him as she always did, her eyes darkening to a deep blue, her voice a mere thread of sound, her body very still. "Is he alive?" There was no hint of condemnation, no anger that he had not kept the child safe.
    
    He closed his eyes, unable to meet her gaze. He simply nodded.
    
    Alexandria took a deep breath and caressed his jaw with her palm. "Look at me, Aidan."
    
    "I cannot, Alexandria. I will face you when I have returned Joshua safely to our home, to your arms."
    
    "I said look at me." Her fingertips were on his chin, raising it.
    
    He could do no other than her bidding. She was tearing him up inside with her acceptance, her understanding, her gentleness. His golden eyes blazed at her. Then he felt her, merging, instantly with him, so swiftly and completely that he had no chance to hide any of it—the beasts attacking those guarding her brother, Stefan and Marie's anguish, Joshua's terror, his own efforts and pain in the sun, the charring of the human puppet. It was all laid out in front of her in stark, ugly detail.
    When she heard the soft whisper of her name on Joshua's lips, she made a single sound.
    
    Her pain went so deep, Aidan felt the demon rise and rush