Dark Ghost (8 page)

“Thank God I didn’t kill him. I wanted to bash him one but, you know, without the consequences of him dying.”

He hid a smile. She was different from the other humans he’d met. Intriguing. But then she was his lifemate, and everything about her, down to the smallest detail, was captivating and fascinating to him.

“Do you often bash men over the head with your cooking pot?” he asked, amusement in his voice. He barely recognized the emotion. He didn’t know what humor was until that moment. She made him want to smile. She made him happy just by being in the same space with him.

She grinned at him a little mischievously. “Only if they deserve it. Well, once I hit Jimmy Baker over the head with my book bag and nearly knocked him out. I was in kindergarten and he was in first grade, and he was picking on me. I was always really small so I was an easy target. I learned to pick up equalizers.” She bit her lip. “Um. I put a couple of really heavy books in my bag. I took them off the teacher’s desk. It’s important to be totally prepared, but the school didn’t see it that way and I got in trouble.”

He didn’t like that she’d been picked on, but he liked that she defended herself. Where the hell was her family when some boy was being mean to her? He pushed down the need to go find Jimmy Baker and have a little talk with him.

“That was very intelligent of you. What would you like for your dinner?”

She pressed a hand to her stomach. “Actually, I’m not really that hungry. I’m thirsty, but I think I’m too tired to eat. It’s the middle of the night already, and I spent too much time being a tuning fork.”

He raised an eyebrow and walked over to the darkened corner of the room, keeping his body solidly in the way, even going so far as to blur the chamber enough that she couldn’t see him as he created a small cupboard with human supplies such as herb tea and a kettle. She needed to eat and drink something. She was feeling the effects of the first blood exchange between them.

To bring his human lifemate fully into his world, he needed three blood exchanges with her and she had to have psychic abilities, which clearly she did. It seemed a little ironic to him that her grandmother – a vampire hunter who clearly didn’t have the good sense to discriminate between her victims – could have been a lifemate to a Carpathian male in need. She probably was. He had the urge to find the woman and shake her.

“I will make some herbal tea,” he announced, returning with the kettle and the tea.

She shook her head. “Thank you, Andre, but really, my stomach is a little upset. Maybe it was the news about Armend. He deserved to be arrested and should have gone to jail, but being eaten by wolves…” she trailed off.

“That is probably justice if he really killed other women as he boasted to you,” Andre pointed out as gently as possible.

She nodded before she could stop herself and then looked guilty. “Well, I hope he didn’t suffer.”

“Like he would have made you suffer?” he asked as he filled the kettle with water from the small trickle of water coming out of the side of the mountain. “As he made those other women suffer?” Again, he kept his body blocking her sight of what he was doing so he could just wave his hand and fill it.

Keeping the fact that he was a different species from her was going to be difficult. Other Carpathians lived among humans and had perfected the art of blending in. Andre had perfected the art of avoiding contact with them. This woman was his lifemate, and she would have to know, sooner or later, that she was his and belonged in his world, but she’d already suffered a trauma and he didn’t want to compound that, especially after she’d confided in him about her grandmother.

“Well, I didn’t suffer so much as I was scared,” Teagan admitted reluctantly. She watched him set the kettle in the flames. She winced. “Andre, you’re going to get burned doing it like that. It’s hard to believe you camped out before.”

He hadn’t felt the heat of the flames. He could call down lightning and not get burned, fire wasn’t going to do anything to him, not unless he was in the paralyzed sleeping state of his people. “I will be more careful.”

She studied his face. “You don’t like to be around people, do you?”

Andre turned his gaze to her face. She was definitely a natural empath. He had been intrigued with her gentle nature and the unexpected strengths that suddenly rushed to the forefront. Her very nature had to always be at war. She was a fierce little warrior who definitely had a clear line of justice she didn’t want crossed and would fight if necessary. She was also a healer and protector, one who would face her greatest fears in order to help others.

“I find I like being around you,” he admitted. He wasn’t certain if that was something he should say, but she was his lifemate and he didn’t want to lie to her. “Ordinarily, I find people trying, but you are very soothing. You also make me want to smile. I had forgotten what that is like.” That also was the truth. He had forgotten emotion.

Like every Carpathian, he had clung to his memories of emotion after feelings had faded, leaving him in a bleak world of gray. Unfortunately, as the centuries went by, he had even forgotten the memories – at least any good ones, if there had been any. He found he couldn’t relive them through the minds of others. Emotions had receded too far for him to recapture them. Now, feelings were so vivid and alive, pouring through him, he was nearly overwhelmed, and most centered around this woman.

She sent him one look from under her lashes. Her features were so beautiful to him, he had to keep himself from staring, so he busied himself making certain the water in the kettle boiled fast. He couldn’t resist touching her mind to see what that look meant. He found wariness. She wasn’t used to compliments and it made her a little nervous that he gave her one. But she was pleased. Secretly she hugged his words to her. That made him want to smile as well.

She didn’t see herself at all the way he saw her. In her mind, she had an image of what beauty in a woman was. Her sisters. Taller. Curvy bodies. Long legs. Lots of curly hair and makeup. He supposed they were beautiful in their own way, probably by human standards as well.

Teagan was so much more to him. He would never be able to explain it to her. He liked that she was petite and slight. He liked that she had the spirit of a warrior. It didn’t mean she didn’t have fears, but she faced them head-on. He especially liked that she loved her grandmother with the same fierce protection she would have for their children.

Teagan shifted back and he could see immediately she was uncomfortable.

“Is your leg hurting again?”

She shook her head. “No. I climb.” At his raised eyebrow, she gave him a faint smile. “You know. Boulders. Cliffs. Rock. I love climbing, especially bouldering, but I took a pretty bad fall right before I came here. I was working on this problem and I was literally on the last move before I topped out and I knew I should have pushed off from the boulder and let it go when my foot slipped, but I was so close to victory that I could taste it, so I hung on like an idiot.”

He had scanned her body for injuries, but he had concentrated on injuries she’d suffered from the attack on her by Jashari, not older ones. He cursed silently. He would have to be much more thorough in the future with her.

She shot him a small grin. “Grandma Trixie says I have a stubborn streak with a dash of crazy.”

“What happened?”

“I fell, of course. First I tore the skin off my fingers and when I fell, it wasn’t the graceful falls I’m so known for. I hurt my shoulder.” She rubbed her hand along her right shoulder. “It was my fault, but it still hurts. Funny that I can heal everyone’s injuries but not my own.”

“Let me.” It wasn’t a question. Or a plea. He had to heal the injury. He had no choice. The need was more than a compulsion, it was as necessary as breathing.

Teagan gave him a faint smile and shook her head.

Andre ignored the head shake as if he hadn’t noticed. He didn’t wait for her consent. She was his woman. She was injured. There was nothing to talk about. He moved with his blurring speed, one moment on the opposite side of the fire so she felt safe, the next he was beside her, his hands gentle on her shoulder.

Her bones were small. She was very slender, but her muscles were surprisingly firm. She was in very good shape. He could feel her strength beneath her soft skin, the gentle ripple of muscle. Still, his fingers could close around her upper arm.

“Um…” Teagan trailed off, biting her lip. She didn’t trust him enough to touch her so intimately, and up close, he was just plain scary. But his hands felt warm and gentle on her and already she could feel the heat going into her muscle.

“It would be impossible for a man such as me to allow you to continue in pain,” he said softly, distractedly.

She bit her lower lip a little harder, reminding herself he had taken that pain away and with it, the memory of how Armend attacked her had diminished just a little. His body was close to hers, almost surrounding her. The way he sat, his knees apart, her back to his front, her body wedged between his thighs, his heat warming her more than the fire, was terrifying. Not because she feared him or felt threatened, but because her body reacted to his.

The reaction was shocking, exhilarating, astonishing and proved there was absolutely nothing wrong with her when it came to men and sex. She’d never felt the rush before, the heat moving through her veins or the way her breasts could ache with sudden need. She loved the sensation, mostly because she’d never managed to feel it for anyone else.

Still, it was a little unsettling having him so close and she was afraid he would notice the change in her breathing, the slight trembling in her body at his touch. His hands were large and very soothing on her aching shoulder, but the effects of his touch didn’t stop there.

“Um…” she started again. “Andre, maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

“Csitri. Ainaak terád vigyázak.”
 

She frowned. When he spoke in his language – and she couldn’t understand a word of it and she was pretty good with languages – he sounded sexier than ever. His tone was pitched low and seemed to move over her skin in a caress. She really didn’t understand how a voice or tone could do that to her, but it did.

“I don’t understand what that means.”

“
Csitri
is” – he frowned – “little one. But affectionate.”

Teagan didn’t ever want to think of herself as “little,” but she liked the affectionate part and she couldn’t deny that beside him, she was on the smaller side. Okay, maybe beside most people, but still. “And the other part?”

“Ainaak terád vigyázak.”
He mulled that over for a minute. “I have difficulty translating that properly, but it means you are in my care. Always in my care. I do not have the proper English words to convey the full meaning.”

He sounded distracted. She was totally okay with him being distracted. The healing warmth penetrated deeper, right into the muscles and tendons she’d strained. She could feel the difference already. She also preferred that he wasn’t paying close attention to her reaction to his touch.

The longer he was close to her, the more her breath stayed captured in her lungs. Even her thighs seemed to dance with fingers of desire moving up and down them from his voice alone. The heat between her legs increased and she felt her womb pulse and her feminine channel go damp with need.

It was beautiful. Perfect. Scary strong. Very intense. She’d gone from not being able to react physically to a man to wanting to turn her head and see if his mouth tasted as good as it looked. She also wanted to dance a little jig or something to celebrate that she wasn’t totally frigid.

His breath hitched. She felt the warmth on the nape of her neck as he swept her hair out of his way. The pulse in her throat jumped. Throbbed. She reached up and covered it because, just for a moment, she felt his mouth there, against her skin, his tongue sliding across her pulse. She knew it wasn’t real, because his mouth was close to the nape of her neck – she could feel his breath. Still, she captured the sensual feeling of his tongue over her pulse with the palm of her hand and just held it there, pressing it into her skin.

She hoped the memory burned deep so when she went to bed, she could take that with her and keep scary dreams of Armend at bay with Andre’s presence.

“I need your hand,
sivamet
.”

Even as he told her, he already had taken possession of it, so very gently. His touch was a caress, and it sent a shiver of awareness down her spine. He examined the raw fingers, smoothing them out in his palm. Her hand looked very small inside of his. The pads of his fingers stroked over the raw wounds. Her toes actually curled, and she felt her very core spasm and spill damp heat between her legs.

Teagan nearly jerked her hand free, but his fingers closed around hers and he brought them to his mouth before she could do a thing. She was so mesmerized, she stared at him over her shoulder as her fingers disappeared into the warm haven of his mouth. The reaction of her body was shocking. She could have sworn she had a mini-orgasm just from the sensation of his tongue stroking caresses over her fingers.

She couldn’t move. She should have – but she couldn’t. Her entire body was on fire and that was just… remarkable. She didn’t want the feeling to go away, yet at the same time, she didn’t want this strange bear of a man, so gentle and kind, to know what she was feeling.

Her hand tingled, and then grew warm. She felt his tongue slide over each individual finger a second and then third time. Each slow, sensual movement sent desire knifing through her body. It took a moment for her thought processes to kick in.

Her brain felt slow and sluggish, dazed and mesmerized by the lines carved so deep in his handsome face. His hooded eyes filled with concentration, the blue so deep and true, she’d never seen such a pure color on anyone. He had to be the most sensual man in the world, and she was alone in a cave with him.

There might be something to vacation flings after all. She’d never understood the concept. It seemed so wrong, sharing your body with a stranger and walking away. She wanted intimacy and emotion. A connection beyond physical. She wanted everything – or nothing – with a man. She’d accepted, a long time ago, when her body didn’t respond to anyone, she was going to have nothing.