Carpathian 17 - Dark Curse

her screamed inside, another part wanted to feel his teeth sink into her neck.
    His lips feathered over her pulse. She felt the teasing scrape of his teeth, but he never penetrated her skin. He kissed his way up her neck to the corner of her mouth and when he smiled at her, his teeth had receded.
    Still buried deep, he moved and sent electricity arcing through her all over again.
    \"I can\'t move.\"
    \"You do not have to move. It is going to be a long, pleasurable night, päräfertiilm ,\" he promised softly.

Chapter 13
    Lara stood at the wide entrance to the cave, listening to the soft melody coming from within. Women\'s voices.
    The faint sounds produced instant memories of her aunts singing to her when she was alone and distressed, deep in the maze of caves beneath the ice mountain. For a moment, she stopped to listen.
    \"I know this song. It\'s a lullaby,\" she said. \"It sounds beautiful in the Carpathian language. I used to sing it for the children in the camps where I lived. When I realized no one understood the language I switched to the English version. I was never certain exactly what the last line meant, but the melody and lyrics always comforted me, and also the children I sang to.\"
    \"The song is sung by mothers before the child is out of the womb,\" he explained. \"While the mother is waiting until the night she can hold her child in her arms.\"
    Nicolas sang to her in a melodious voice, one that sent touches of heat streaking along with the comfort.
    Tumtesz o wake ku pitasz belso. Hiszasz sÃ-vadet. Én olenam gæidnod. Sas csecsemõm, kunasz. Rauho jo?e ted. Tumtesz o sÃ-vdobbanás ku olen lamt3ad belso. Gond-kumpadek ku kim te. Pesänak te, asti o jüti, kidüsz .
    She interpreted the lullaby. \"Feel the strength you hold inside. Trust your heart, I\'ll be your guide. Hush my baby, close your eyes. Peace will come to you. Feel the rhythm deep inside. Waves of love that cover you, protect, until the night you rise.\" She looked at him. \"What does that last line mean?\"
    \"So many women were losing their babies,\" Nicolas said. \"Women tell them that love will protect them until they are ready to be born, to come into our night.\"
    \"It\'s so beautiful.\"
    Everything about the night seemed beautiful now. Nicolas had spent hour after hour making love to her, seemingly insatiable. They had taken a short break to enter the warmth of the mineral pool, only to have him take her there as well. He knew every inch of her body and the hot look he gave her made her blush, as if, with just a small encouragement, he might take her right there at the entrance to the women\'s cave.
    \"I don\'t really feel like I belong here, Nicolas.\" She twisted her fingers together. \"I don\'t know anyone.
    Natalya isn\'t going to be here.\"
    Page 130

    Christine Feehan: Dark Curse
    It wasn\'t that she was terribly shy, but gathering with the Carpathian women at such an emotional time, when she already felt raw and emotional was a little daunting.
    \"Raven asked for all women to attend and she asks very little of our people.\"
    \"I don\'t think she meant me. She doesn\'t even know me.\"
    \"Everyone knows about you, Lara. This is a very small community and we share a common communication path. When she put out the call for all the women to join her, she definitely meant you as well. I would attend with you, but it is a woman\'s ceremony.\"
    \"Natalya\'s a woman,\" she said stubbornly, under her breath. \"And she isn\'t coming.\"
    Nicolas framed her face with both hands. \"I know I am asking a lot of you, Lara, but this is an ancient ceremony and one small detail may help you remember more of what you saw in the ice cave. Our children rarely survive the womb, let alone outside. They cannot go to ground as they should where the parents can protect them. Our women cannot even provide food for them. We need to know why these things are happening and you might have valuable clues that will aid us. This could be the single most important time for our people.\"
    She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. \"I can\'t make the memories come back. When I look too hard, everything is just a blank slate.\"
    \"Protection for you,\" Nicolas said. \"But your aunts were not hiding these things from our people. If that were so, they would have erased your memories, not preserved them.\"
    \"Nicolas?\" A woman materialized quite close to them. \"Is this Lara?\" She smiled in welcome, her face unlined and serene, in