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head and pressed her closer, his hips moving against her body in a slow seductive rhythm.

"I don't actually like to take blood. I do it only when necessary," she confided, her lips feathering against his chest. Her tongue stroked over his hammering pulse. Once. Twice. She heard him groan. "But I can't resist the way you taste."

Her Carpathian legacy demanded she survive by occasionally taking blood, but for the most part, she was able to resist the lure. Right now it didn't matter. Nothing mattered but the feel and taste of him. The lure of his body heat, the touch of his hands. She groaned softly and gave into the terrible addiction that seemed to have overtaken her. She craved him. She craved the feel and scent of him. His touch. His kiss. His body. She really wanted his body.

Her teeth sank deep and she felt him shiver with rising hunger. She wanted him. She would have him. She pressed her breasts against his chest, moved in a restless, enticing way, deliberately adding to the painful ache in his body. She felt him thicken, heard his breath leave his body in a rush. He tasted like nothing she'd ever experienced and it wasn't enough. She wanted it all. She flicked her tongue over the small pinpricks and stepped back, reaching to remove her shirt.

Behind Vikirnoff, the ground rippled as something raced beneath the dirt toward them. At once her ankles burned and hurt, just as if the creature that had dragged her below the surface had a hold of her again.

Chapter 7

"Something moved under the ground." Natalya jumped back and reached down to rub at her suddenly burning ankles. "Do you think it's that creature, the one that grabbed me?" She shuddered and backed up another step. "The ground did move, Vikirnoff, I saw it. Watch out. It might be after you. We so deserve this for acting like a couple of sex-starved teens in the late night movies."

Vikirnoff picked her up and settled her on the outcropping that had a half-inch crack zigzagging down the face of it. "I will be fine. You are obsessed with your movies, Natalya. I do not think viewing them has been a good influence on you."

"Well, I should have known better than to make out when deadly peril surrounded us. Please be careful. The Troll King could burst through the ground any minute now and take you to some disgusting lair. I'd have to rescue you again and..."

He shook his head, his faint intriguing smile capturing her attention and wiping out all coherent thought before she could finish. "Your imagination is running away with you. Tell me what you want to do."

"I want to get the hell out of here, but I can't. I have to go into the cave and get rid of this compulsion." She caught at his shirt. "I know you're thinking of taking me away from here, but I'd just have to come back and I'd search without you. Please don't do that, Vikirnoff."

He studied the desperation in her eyes. "I know you have this to do, Natalya. I am with you all the way. If Freddie or Troll King try to bother you, I will keep them off your back until this is finished."

Natalya let her breath out slowly, leaned forward and brushed a kiss over his lips. "Get up on this rock with me before that thing eats you alive."

His eyebrow shot up. "One of us has to be on the ground to find the opening. I know it is here, somewhere around this rock. We will have to be wary of traps. The cave does not want us to enter it."

"Good luck to you then."

He laughed softly. "I thought you might say that."

"Yes, well, I'm the practical type."

Vikirnoff studied the niche and outcropping, pacing back and forth around the front and sides of the boulder several times. Natalya was right, not only was something moving beneath the ground, but it was mimicking his every stride. The ground swelled slightly as if something large searched in serpentine motion just inches below the surface parallel to him

each time he took a step. He also noticed, whenever he ceased to move, the creature raced to the boulder where Natalya was perched and remained still, melting back into the earth. The mist thickened around them, rolling in with cold blasts of air, but hovering to blanket the small peak, rather than continuing out in a path over the mountain