Carpathian 09 - Dark Guardian

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 space as they maneuvered the intricate passages 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 Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    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, pushing 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 passageway, noting that it slanted upward, twisting and turning