Dark Ghost (39 page)

She didn’t have time to catch her breath because he rolled her under him and took over, his hips not in the least slow and leisurely, building the tension in her all over again. Suddenly everything was even more amazing. She looked up at his face. His beautiful face. His blue eyes blazed down at her, so intense, so filled with… love.

She really couldn’t catch her breath. There it was, all of it, everything she could ever want, right there in the intensity of his blue eyes. Love. For her. Stark. Raw. Fierce.

Teagan reached up and stroked a caress through his hair. “You’re so gorgeous, Andre, and I love you so much.” Sometimes, like that very moment, the way she felt for him crept over her, then grew and grew until she couldn’t contain it. She could barely stand looking into his eyes, his emotions were so close to the surface, so strong they nearly overwhelmed her. How could anyone feel like that about her?

“Keep looking at me,
sivamet
,” he whispered in his silken tone. “I need to look at you when you give yourself to me.”

She realized he had done that before, rolling her at the last moment to stare down into her eyes. She trailed her fingers down his face and then, as the tension coiled tighter, dropped her hand and let pure feeling take her. Her head tossed on the pillow, but she didn’t look away from him. Her body writhed under his, hips bucking, her fingers digging into his back while her legs wrapped him as tight as she could.

Every inch of her that she could possibly press to him, she did, all the while staring into his eyes. The breath left her lungs, leaving them raw and burning. Still the tension grew, coiling tight deep inside. She needed it now, that wonderful, soaring release, but he didn’t give it to her.

“Andre,” she whispered. “Andre, I can’t take any more.”

Her body clamped down on his, the friction a terrible, perfect thing, but still, she couldn’t quite reach her goal, and those blue eyes didn’t help. Sensual. Hooded. Watching her intently. Pushing her higher than she’d ever been.

“You can,” he said softly, and proceeded to show her he was right.

She wrapped him up tighter. Her legs hooked around his hips and she tipped her body at another angle, to draw him deeper, to get what she wanted. His hands adjusted her more, tilting her hips and then holding her there so the long, thick length of him, ground down over that delicious bundle of nerves, that perfect sweet spot, over and over.

She cried out as she felt her body slip out of control. She felt that moment when her muscles gripped him in a velvet vise and strangled, determined to get what it needed from him. She couldn’t look away from the blue of his eyes.

Possession. Satisfaction. Love. Lust. And then his own release overtook him, and her eyes widened at the sheer beauty of it. She’d given that to him. Just what he gave her, she gave to him.

Teagan closed her eyes to savor the expression in his eyes, to burn it into her memory. “I don’t know how I got so lucky,” she murmured against his shoulder as he collapsed over her, burying his face in her neck. “My miracle.”

He let her take his crushing weight just for a few moments, his face against her neck, her arms around him, his cock deep inside of her. It didn’t matter that she could barely breathe, he gave her that moment and it was important to her.

“Teagan.”

A shiver went down her spine and she blinked back tears.

“You are my miracle, Teagan. I am more than pleased that I am yours.”

She held him tighter, reluctant to allow him to take his weight from her, even though it was becoming impossible to catch her breath.

He smiled against her neck, kissed her there, his mouth and teeth moving sensuously, and then he rolled them again so that she sprawled on top of him.

“Did you just bite my neck?” she accused at the feel of a little sting there.

“Yes,” he admitted, with a laugh in his voice. “I intend to leave my mark on you everywhere. I like taking little bites out of you.”

Playing. He was playing with her. Teasing. She loved that she had been the one to give him that. She buried her face in his neck and held him all the tighter. She couldn’t look at him when she said it, but it had to be said. “Thank you, Andre. For bringing me into your world. I might be afraid, but I’m so happy I’m with you and I want this. I want us to be together in every way and I couldn’t be unless I was Carpathian.”

His hand stroked caresses in her hair. “You were frightened when you woke and found yourself deep in the ground. You fight my commands, Teagan, and even in your subconscious you unravel them. I did not protect you as I should have from your awakening. I should have been up before you.”

“You were wounded and the soil was healing you.” She made the statement softly, suddenly remembering that moment when she was caught in his dream. Other things had registered, but she hadn’t noticed them because the nightmare was too vivid and so had been the terror at being buried alive.

“Yes,” he said softly, allowing her to figure it out for herself.

He gave her that. Acknowledged that she had a brain. All the fear she had living in her skin didn’t matter because she refused to let it rule her life. She was a geologist for heaven’s sake. She loved rocks. She loved soil.

She had automatically registered the various layers of soil so rich with minerals. If she hadn’t been so shocked at being under the ground, buried under those layers, she would have been caught up in her need to identify and count them. She would have known how they were healing Andre and rejuvenating both of them.

“I won’t be so afraid next time, Andre. You do not have to shield me from what I am. I think I can handle it.”

“I never doubted your ability to handle it,” he murmured softly.

She could tell he was pleased with her by the tone of his voice, all velvet and rasp. His hand continued to move over her body, tracing the line of her spine down to the curve of her buttocks.

“We have a vampire to catch,
csitri.
This one is unlike the others. He will be difficult to bring down. He is cunning and ruthless and has plenty of tricks. There are few surprises to a hunter who has been bringing the undead to justice for so many years, but sometimes it can happen.”

“Do you recognize most of them?” she asked tentatively. It stood to reason that he would run across childhood friends.

“The older ones. I have been gone many years. This one, I knew. His name is Costin Popescu. He is alone now, his pawns defeated. He will try to sneak away, not face me, but I cannot allow that. He is extremely dangerous, and he cannot, under any circumstances, find you. He will go after you in order to destroy me.”

Her eyebrows shot up and shock slid through her.
He will go after you in order to destroy me.
Andre wasn’t just meaning he would be grief-stricken if something happened to her. He had alluded to more several times, but she wasn’t getting it.

“How would that destroy you, Andre?” she asked quietly, holding her breath, knowing his revelation would be huge. And it would be the truth.

“You are my lifemate. I cannot exist without you, now that I have found you. If he manages to destroy you, he is destroying all light in my soul, leaving nothing but the darkness. I lived with that for centuries, but it came on gradually, over time. To have that happen, the connection severed, it would throw me into madness, into the thrall. I would have to follow you immediately, or become the very thing I have hunted throughout these long centuries. I would be the undead.”

Teagan bit her lip. “You wouldn’t.”

“I would. That is the curse and the blessing of our species. We cannot continue without our lifemate. We are too dark inside.”

She chewed on her lip for a moment. “So basically, you’re saying I’m saving you
again
.”

His smile was slow in coming but she was rewarded. His smile was beautiful and this one lit his eyes. “Yes, Teagan, you have saved me.”

She kissed him. He took over her kiss, just like he did most intimate contact between them, but only after she was able to kiss him for a long time.

“Do you see why it is important that you stay away from vampires?” he asked gently.

“It was important to you before you explained this to me, so yes,” Teagan said. “Tell me the plan and I’ll follow it to the letter.”

His eyes searched hers for a long time and then he nodded, the glacier blue melting into a deep, sea blue, warming her with his love.

T
wo owls flew through the evening sky. The male flew slightly above the smaller female, his wing just over her, just enough to protect her from any attack coming from above them. They executed lazy circles in the air, in perfect synchronization, as if they were two dancers performing a stunning ballet against a backdrop of clouds.

Teagan scanned the ground below them carefully. Not because she thought she would spot the master vampire they hunted, but because the scenery was breathtaking. Breaks in the forest presented boulders covered in green moss, lining a series of small, tumbling waterfalls, cascading through the boulders and falling into a clear, shallow pool. Small rocks made up the pool floor. The pool spilled into a larger stream that seemed to meander through the tall trees. Ferns sprang up along the banks, crowding other plant life, vying for coveted space.

Her body picked up the rhythm of the stream and waterfalls. She heard the music and her own body sang that song with nature. Trees added the drumbeat of branches in the wind as well as the softer, flowing music of the sap running in the veins through the variety of trees.

She felt free. Complete. Part of nature. Part of the wild, wonderful mountains and the dense forest below. Above her rose the higher, enshrouded peaks where she knew the monastery was located. Inside that sacred place were the ancients who had not yet left the world, but had no hope of finding lifemates. They could no longer afford to hunt and destroy the undead. Each kill brought them closer to becoming vampire. They weren’t safe around humans or any other temptation, and yet they could not walk into the sun and destroy themselves because it felt so wrong to them.

She felt them as well, although they were in the distance, felt the emotions they couldn’t feel. Despair. Loss of all hope. Sorrow. Pain not physical, but mental. The air groaned with those heavier emotions, but the ancient Carpathians couldn’t feel any of it themselves. She knew she had to find a way to ease those burdens, and her heart hurt for them. She had felt them before, but she hadn’t recognized when she’d first found the cave that she’d been feeling the emotions of the lost ancients in the monastery.

Teagan.
 

Andre’s voice wrapped her up in velvet. The raspy tone licked over her skin and the silk pushed deep inside. She would always love the way he said her name.

You cannot take on the burdens of the ancients. It is too much.
 

Actually, I think I can help.
In the cave. She’d been sitting right on it. She had followed her tuning fork through the various chambers of the cave, looking for a stone to cure her grandmother of insanity, but her grandmother clearly wasn’t insane and didn’t need a stone. All along she’d felt that heavy burden, the weight of the ancient Carpathians, yet she hadn’t acknowledged it. Hadn’t known what it was.

When she’d sunk to the floor of the cave to meditate and open her mind, she had inadvertently connected with the stone she needed. It wasn’t her grandmother’s stone, but it was the one that would help ease the suffering of the ancients in the monastery. Elated, she nearly fell from the sky.

Do you really think you can ease the burden of an ancient?
There was hope in Andre’s voice.
My adopted brothers, Tomas, Matias and Lojos are skating very close to the edge of the insanity. If you could ease them, give them more time
…
Even if it is a few more years
…

She had no idea what her stone would actually do, but she knew it would help – and she had to help those ancients in the monastery. That need had now become a compulsion. The stone was somewhere beneath the spot where she had chosen to meditate. She would have to dig carefully to find it, making certain not to destroy it in the hunt for it. Now, when she heard the cautious hope in Andre’s voice, she wanted to be able to help the ancients even more.

I think I can
…
She trailed off.

Her stomach lurched, a discordant note jarring the beautiful symphony of the mountains and forest. She took a careful look around, using the owl’s superior vision.

Andre. He is somewhere close by. Beneath us.
 

The moment she sent Andre the information, he acknowledged her.
I do not feel him at all, Teagan. He is a master and is able to hide himself well. Your gift is incredible and will be an enormous aid to us.

She couldn’t help but feel a little glow at his words. This was far better than sitting on a tree branch, paralyzed and feeling useless. Andre made her feel important to him – always – in every capacity.

What does it feel like?
 

He was already slipping deeper into her mind, but she liked that he asked. It was a form of asking permission, even though she knew he needed to feel the discordant note for himself.

We’re moving away from him,
she reported, as the jarring note became fainter.

Circle back around. I need to hear it. You tune yourself to that note and when it is strongest, we can follow the trail,
Andre said.

The two owls rose higher, turning in a slow circle, moving up into the higher elevations. She could see the mountain rising up above the dense forest of trees. The canopy swayed, drawing her attention back to the leaves, silver against the backdrop of the evening sky. The night was staining the sky a darker blue. A few brave stars sparkled above their heads, and the moon managed to make itself seen against the darker sky.

Shrouding the mountain peaks was a heavy mist that seemed impenetrable. Once again she felt the heavy burden of the monks pressing into her. They had their own music, but it was infinitely sad. Filled with despair and sorrow. Worse, although they radiated it, sending those notes of intense pain into the universe, they clearly weren’t aware of it.

Can you tune them out?
Andre asked gently.
You are taking on their sorrow, sivamet. They would not want that for you, for any woman. They honor women and have their entire lives. They are ancients without the other half of their souls and it is far too dangerous for them to continue looking. They are lost and they know it.

I can help them, Andre. Perhaps give them a few more months or years.
 

Perhaps, Teagan. You are a miracle so I have no doubt if anyone can do such a thing, it would be you, but not like this. Not taking on their burden.
 

She didn’t know how to tune them out. All that sadness slipping into nature’s joyous symphony. The notes weren’t at all unharmonious. In fact, they added to the richness of the music she heard. And then… there it was. Her stomach lurched and she felt a jarring, as if something vibrated wrong through her insides.

Did you feel that, Andre? He’s there. I need to hear more to find his trail and follow it. That one note out of place.
 

Teagan Joanes was a true miracle. Andre felt the note through her. He would never have discovered a master vampire’s lair. Never. They didn’t leave blank spots, giving away to the hunter that their presence was close. Not if they were a true master. They were far better at vanishing than that or they never would have survived so many centuries to become a master.

The discordant note grew stronger as the two owls began to narrow in on the jangle of sound, so out of place among the beauty of the song Teagan could hear and had shared with him.

Teagan had been so beautiful, so unexpected, so sexy, waking him up, replacing nightmares with her sweet, sensual body. Giving herself to him. He didn’t know what other males had, what went on between lifemates, but he was thankful she belonged to him and that she understood he belonged to her. She had taken him into her keeping in the same way he had her.

He stayed very alert in her mind. She wasn’t flying headlong into danger. She felt her way, sharing with him without holding back. She was afraid. Her fear beat at him, but that didn’t stop her. It didn’t slow her down or make her hesitant. His woman had a backbone of pure steel.

To the right. We need to drop down closer to that area in the mist there, Andre, but I think if we do, he’ll know we’re here.
 

Popescu’s pawns had used a web inside the fog to find victims. Andre had seen that particular trick used in the past, but it wasn’t a well-known one. Not many vampires had managed to acquire the necessary knowledge to do such a thing. It was complicated, and most didn’t have the cunning or patience. But Costin Popescu did, and that said a lot about his battle knowledge.

Let me move ahead of you,
Andre said.
Stay circling right here until I can get a feel for what he has wrought there in the fog. If I can find a way for us to move through it undetected, we will get closer and try to pinpoint his exact location.

Why didn’t he leave?
 

He was either wounded much more severely than I first thought, which I doubt and will not count on, or he is not moving so he does not leave a trail for me to follow. A master will forgo his meals to throw a hunter off the trail. This one is very dangerous, Teagan.
He poured a warning into his tone, hoping she understood the knowledge he imparted to her.

I have no wish to encounter him up close and personal, Andre,
she assured.

He found himself wanting to smile at the snippy little tone she used. He liked her snippy. He liked the way, when she was nervous, she blurted out anything that was in her mind. He found the trait both funny and endearing.

Neither do I,
he admitted.
Keep your mind in mine, just in case I find us a way in.

He was using his bossy tone, which he knew she disliked as a rule, but she didn’t seem to mind so much when they were hunting vampires.

She made a little sound in the back of her throat.
I don’t know what I’m doing hunting vampires. That’s your territory so be as bossy as you want. Anything else, you might want to consider I’ve been known to bash people over the heads with frying pans.

You hit a serial killer over the head,
he reminded.
That was entirely justified. Hitting me would just be mean.

Um. No. What exactly is the definition of a serial killer? Doesn’t that label go with multiple bodies stacking up?
 

He choked on his own laughter. She had a point, but she didn’t need to make him laugh when he was entering the web of a master vampire. He had to go delicately, and without a body of any kind that could trip the shimmering wires trailing back to the undead.

Andre shifted, leaving the form of the owl to become nothing but molecules moving through the air. He entered the mist cautiously, feeling for each of the fine filaments that would lead back to the master.

Now you have called me an old dog
and
a serial killer.

I’m just saying.
 

The smile was gone from her voice, even though she went along with his teasing. He didn’t like that she was afraid for him, and he knew she was. She was in his mind, just as he was in hers, and she knew what he was doing was very dangerous. The vampire’s traps surrounded him.

Sivamet.
He tried to wrap the endearment in his love.
I have done this for centuries. Believe in me.

I do.
 

She said it fast. Sincerely. Meaning it. But she was terrified
for
him, just as he had been terrified for her when she’d been so close to the vampire. He had never considered that his lifemate would feel the same intensity of fear for her man as he did his woman when she was in the path of danger, and he didn’t like it. He more than didn’t like it. His woman shouldn’t have to ever feel that kind of fear.

You do,
she shot back, revealing she was becoming even more adept at reading his thoughts than she had been at rising. She learned at an outrageous pace. He was going to have to work hard to stay in front of her.

It is not the same thing.
Deliberately he made his reply decisive.

She would never convince him, although he knew she would try, that she had every right to worry over his safety as he did hers. For him there would always be a difference. She was his woman. Precious. A treasure to cherish. No matter that she had a spine of steel, she was fragile in his world. She might not think so, but she was. She always would be. It was his duty and his privilege to protect her.

You make me crazy when you think like that, Andre. Of course I am going to worry about you facing monsters. I love you. You’re my
…
family.
 

That was everything. Family, to Teagan, was her everything. Sacred. For her to say that, she was revealing her vulnerability to him. She was giving him another gift and he knew it was huge. He wasn’t going to spoil it by arguing with her. He was who he was and he couldn’t change his nature. He could find ways to compromise because above all, he wanted her to be happy, but he didn’t want her worried or in danger.

I love you, sivamet. You are my heart and soul.
She had just given him hers, he needed her to know she wasn’t alone in that.

Andre spotted the first filament and elation swept through him. On his own, he couldn’t hear the discordant notes jarring nature’s symphony, but through Teagan, he knew the vampire was below him and to his right, smack in the middle of what appeared to be solid rock.

I am going to drift as close as I can to that boulder just to my right. Do you see it, Teagan? I think he may be somewhere in that vicinity. I cannot pinpoint his location.
 

The female owl made another slow circle, dropping lower.

Do not touch the mist,
he cautioned.

I think I can make a pass just beneath the fog, come down as if I was hunting and missed my prey. I might be able to feel his exact location.
 

He was grateful she waited for his permission. If she allowed her owl to actually scan the ground looking for mice or any other food source, and then allowed the bird to take over, giving it very little guidance, she would be safe enough. The vampire wouldn’t expect a female owl to be any threat to it.