Carpathian 11 - Dark Descent

large eyes. She was staring down at him in complete astonishment.
    "You're hurt," she said. "If you were real, I'd send the paramedics."
    "What makes you think I am not real?"
    "Because I'm not realy here; I'm in a hospital many miles away. I don't even know where here is."
    "You look real enough to me."
    "What in the world are you doing lying in the mud in the middle of a cave?" Her soft laughter rippled through him. "You didn't mistake this for a beauty spa, did you?"
    His heart nearly ceased beating. Those simple questions turned his world upside down. He was aware of everything—the coolness of the interior, the blue of the ice, the dramatic sweep of architecture formed thousands of years earlier. He was mostly aware that her hair was a rich brown and her eyes were a cool gray. Her mouth was wide and curved at the corners, and she had laugh lines.
    He was seeing in color. After hundreds of years of a bleak, gray existence, living in a world without color or emotion, there she was. The other half of his soul. Staring down at him with curious eyes and an amused grin. There was blood on her shoulder and bruises on her face, a tear in the gown she wore.
    "You seem a bit overdressed for a cave," he pointed out.
    She shrugged, her laughter soft and inviting. "Yes, wel, a lady likes to know she looks her best when the cave crickets come caling."
    "You are hurt, too."
    "A smal bit of trouble with some unpleasant felows. What about you? And do you often go swimming in the mud with a gaping hole in your shoulder? You have heard of infection and gangrene, haven't you?"
    "How good of you to notice. A smal run-in with a group of unsavory ruffians. I was uncharacteristicaly slow."
    "You have an incredibly sexy accent. Do women fal al over you just at the sound of your voice?" She was very good at placing people by their accents, but his was different; there was a rich turn to his words. As dreams went, this was a fun one.
    "I have not noticed such a phenomenon, but I wil watch for it in the future."
    "Nice cave. I love caves. This one looks like a wonderful place to explore."
    "I do not believe it has been discovered yet," he replied pleasantly. Peace seeped into his body. His soul. Genuine laughter found its way into his heart.
    "Realy? You just sort of stumbled in blindfolded, did you? An interesting way to explore caves. Where am I? I'd like to come back here."
    It was his turn to arch his eyebrow. "You floated through the air blindfolded?"
    She grinned at him. "I do that sometimes when I don't want to be wherever I am. A bad habit."
    Her form shimmered and her smile faded. "They're doing something nasty to me, I can't hold the projection."
    He sat up, bit back a groan as the embers beneath his skin burned fiercely. "Do not go yet."
    "I'm sorry." She looked down at her arm, looked back at him, tears swimming in her eyes. "They're cleaning my wound. It hurts like a bear."

    And then she was gone. Just that fast. Vanishing without a trace. He sat there alone in the dark of the cave, astonished at how life could change in the blink of an eye. She was real. Her psychic abilities were strong. He had shared her space, shared her mind, and the path was imprinted on his brain. She would not escape him.
    Traian lay back and waved his hand to close the soil over him, stiling his heart, his breath, alowing the song of the earth to send him into a deep, healing sleep.

Chapter Two
    "You're losing it, Joie, there's nothing here." Gabriele Sanders sank gracefuly to the ground and drew up her knees as she regarded her sister with cool gray eyes. "Stop making yourself crazy and enjoy the view. It's breathtaking up here. You've been in a frenzy for hours now." Tipping her head back, she stared up at the sky. "We've been climbing forever. If you were going to find anything, you would have done so by now."
    "I'm not losing my mind, Gabriele," Joie insisted. "I've already lost it."
    There was a sudden silence. The wind paused. A hawk screamed as it missed its prey. Gabriele exchanged a long look with her brother, Jubal. They both stared at their younger sister. She seemed focused entirely on the rock surface she was studying. "Wel, that's a relief," Gabriele replied, laughing. "Al this time I thought I was the abnormal one."
    Joie let her breath out slowly. She knew she was acting crazy, almost out of control. What was she going to tel Gabriele and Jubal? That she realy had lost her mind some weeks ago and this was a last-ditch effort to hold