“Bears perhaps. The usual animals one finds in a forest. They won’t bother you.” He waved his hand, creating a small archway, allowing the opening to be large enough for her to enter. When she tried to step back away from the cold, very dark interior, he was behind her, and she ran into his large frame.
“I am not going in there.”
He waved his hand again and sconces lined the narrow hallway every ten feet, illuminating the dry floor in spite of the sound of dripping water.
“Now you’re really freaking me out. Stop doing things like that.”
“I told you, I’m not going to allow anything to happen to you.” He took her hand to give her confidence. So far, she’d surprised him by not trying to run from him, but she was on the verge of flight. She just didn’t have a way to run.
“You’re asking me to put a lot of trust into a total stranger.” She continued to eye the interior of the cave warily, still not moving.
Sandu reached down and lifted her, cradling her once more against his chest, ignoring the way she stiffened. “I am not a total stranger. I have not been a stranger since you walked in my mind.” He entered the cave and closed the entrance behind him, sealing them inside.
Her breath caught in her throat, and she buried her face in his chest. “I’m going to die in here. Underground. With a really gorgeous insane person.”
The urge to laugh came again. “Are you thinking of bashing me over the head with your bag? I see the thought in your mind.”
“It occurred to me it’s a little late.” She lifted her head from his chest and looked up at him as he carried her through the maze of tunnels. She didn’t look to see where they were going but kept her eyes on his face. “The time for bashing you one and making a run for it was before we came inside. Now I’m stuck with you. I have no way out, and I think you’re keeping me warm. It looks like it could be pretty cold in here.”
He smiled down at her. “It’s good to know I’m safe while we’re in the caves.”
She nodded. “You are.”
“This journey we’re taking together,” he ventured as he brought her into the chamber he’d chosen to use to keep her safe during the day. “This is about your history, isn’t it? The history of your family, perhaps? Is it tied to those men?”
He set her down as he once again waved his hand to install the sconces on the upper walls to illuminate the chamber for her. He did it casually, not really giving it thought. He added things from her home: a rug, comfortable chairs, a bed.
She sucked the side of her lower lip into her mouth and bit down with her small teeth. “Our histories were entwined, Sandu.”
“Our futures are entwined,” he corrected, turning to face her.
“Perhaps, but our histories were entwined as well.”
“I am an ancient. There are few of my kind left in this world, Adalasia. You know I’m not human.” He took a step toward her and framed the side of her face in his hand, his thumb moving in a caress over her cheek. “I don’t believe you are an ancient.”
She was beautiful to him. Her skin like silk. She was courageous. She didn’t flinch away from him, her eyes looking straight into his. Long lashes swept down and back up again. His thumb glided along her full lips. Silky there as well.
“I’m not an ancient,” she whispered. “It’s difficult to take in that you’re actually real. I knew of you only as a legend.”
He could hear her heartbeat calling to him. The pulse beating so steadily in the side of her neck fascinated him as no other ever had. He swept the pads of his fingers over that pulse point. “Who told you of the legend?” He murmured the question as he dipped his head toward hers. Toward that beckoning drumbeat.
He ached for her now. He felt the slide of his teeth. One arm slid around her back, pulling her into his body, locking her to him. He kissed that steadily beating pulse. Swept his tongue over her soft skin and then sank his teeth deep. She cried out, the bite of pain giving way immediately to something else altogether. He shared her mind, so he knew that shocking painful bite became a dark, erotic heat that swept through her body.
He’d taken blood millions of times over centuries to sustain his life. But this was different. This was an aphrodisiac that poured into his system and flooded every cell in his body with an erotic heat. He drank from her as the ritual binding words rose up like a great storm in his mind. He could no more have held them back than he could have held back the tides. Te avio päläfertiilam. You are my lifemate. Éntölam kuulua, avio päläfertiilam. I claim you as my lifemate. Ted kuuluak, kacad, kojed. I belong to you. Élidamet andam. I offer my life for you. Pesämet andam. I give you my protection. Uskolfertiilamet andam. I give you my allegiance. Sívamet andam. I give you my heart. Sielamet andam. I give you my soul. Ainamet andam. I give you my body. Sívamet kuuluak kaik että a ted. I take into my keeping the same that is yours.