Carpathian 12 - Dark Melody

protectively over the baby and murmured softly to the child, wondering if she could hear her. As she talked to her daughter, she looked around the beautiful room. It was full of treasures, from the artwork to the carvings on the high ceilings. The room was very large, the colors muted and elegant. The carvings looked like strange, beautiful hieroglyphics. Some of the symbols were soothing to her, while others made her heart pound if she stared at them too long.
    Her hand moved over the thick quilt covering her. It was art too, a beautiful blend of colors with similar Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    symbols woven into it. Each character was wide and clear, the surface smooth to the touch. She found her fingers continually seeking out the different symbols and tracing them carefully over and over.
    She felt Dayan beside her, just lying quietly, his body wrapped protectively around hers. Corinne turned her head to find him watching her, his black gaze loving. There was so much tenderness there, so much emotion, he robbed her of breath. She smiled, her soft mouth curving as she lifted a hand to touch his face with gentle fingertips. "Hello," she said softly. "Have you been waiting there long?"
    "Several risings," he answered honestly, shifting so that he could prop himself up on his elbow to better study her face.
    "What are you doing?" she asked, slightly embarrassed by his close scrutiny. He was watching her with unblinking eyes.
    "Memorizing your face," he answered truthfully, his gaze drifting over every inch of her classic features. "I want to close my eyes and still be able to see you. I used to welcome daylight as a relief from the everpresent whisperings of darkness, yet now I resent those hours because I cannot be with you. I want to talk to you, just be silent beside you, look at you, reach out and touch you, know you are real and not some figment of my imagination." He traced her mouth, her eyebrows, his thumb lingering on the corner of her lips. "I do not want to sleep anymore because I cannot take you with me."
    "Do you have to sleep away from me?" she asked, running her hand up and down his arm, needing to touch him almost as much as he needed to touch her.
    He bent to brush a gentle kiss across the temptation of her mouth. "When I sleep, it is as if I am dead. I shut down my heart and lungs and do not breathe air. Our species does not have to seek the earth to sleep, and many of our people do not, but they sleep in chambers below ground where they are relatively safe from human hunters and accidents. Most of us do seek the rejuvenating sleep of the earth because it is safer and more natural to us. I would prefer to be beside you always, but it would be unsettling to you to wake and find me as if dead."
    "Not if I was expecting such a thing. Why are you so distressed, Dayan?" She pushed her fingers through his hair. "I'm beginning to be able to read you, and you are having a difficult time. If something is wrong, just tell me."
    "Everything is going the way the healers have predicted with your health," he answered vaguely, his black gaze slipping away from her.
    She curled her fingers around his wrist. "What is it?"
    He shrugged casually. Too casually. "There is a ritual between lifemates. It is necessary to bind us together. Until we are formally bound together, I am still a slight risk to others. There is nothing to be done about it, Corinne, until your health is better. It is just uncomfortable for me." The beast was struggling for supremacy from within. He felt it growing stronger with each rising. He needed her more than ever to anchor him. He needed her soul bound to his, her heart to complete him, her body for a safe haven.
    "What ritual?" she asked curiously. "And don't shrug and put me off. If we're a partnership, then you have to give me the trust you insist on having from me."
    He sighed. "You are getting tough on me, Corinne. Am I losing my charm?" He made an attempt to Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    tease her, to make light of a dark situation.
    "I don't think you could ever do that," she reassured him with an answering smile. "But I want us to be very certain we're together on this. It's important to me, Dayan. I don't want to do the wrong thing and take a chance of hurting you. This has happened very fast. I'm someone who has to think things through thoroughly before I make decisions. And you are