Traian moved again, certain of reprisal. He had not displayed fear or awe, or even respect, and the vampire was used to his minions admiring him.
A shower of hot stones poured from the sky. Traian protected Joie, covering her body with his like a blanket. The stones fell harmlessly around them, but the attack was a halfhearted attempt. The vampire was fleeing and simply wanted to instill fear in Traian. He hugged Joie closer to him.
“I have been a warrior so long, I barely recall any other existence. Even a master vampire cannot change my chosen path. If he should come to find us, Joie, I will not turn away. He will not take you from me, nor will he take me from you.” He made the promise to her aloud beneath the stars. And then he took her deep beneath the surface to the healing caverns.
Chapter Thirteen
Joie awoke quickly. One moment she knew nothing, and the next she was fully conscious. She heard the steady fall of water, the thrum of life beating in the earth. She felt different, completely alive, yet her body ached and her neck felt torn. She turned her head to look at the man holding her.
Traian lay beside her, his arms around her, one hand on her bare stomach, his fingers splayed wide. His long hair fell like a dark waterfall around his face. His eyes were dark, wide open, framed with long lashes, so beautiful she wanted to fall into the deep well of love she saw there.
They were lying in a deep hole in the damp soil of a cave. Overhead the ceiling sparkled with crystals, and water shimmered in a pool not far from them. She knew it, saw it, yet it should have been impossible, buried in the soil as they were.
“Open the ground above us,” she ordered, trying not to let her pounding heart get so out of control she had a heart attack.
“Carpathians do not have heart attacks,” he said, a smile in his voice, but he obligingly opened the earth above them so she could see the gems on the ceiling of the cave they occupied.
“I was seeing what you’ve seen,” she guessed. Her voice was different, husky, not at all the way she’d sounded before. “The gems. The pool.”
“Yes.” His teeth nipped her shoulder. “We’re in a cave I used to swim in as a young man.”
Joie looked around her, reached out, and touched the damp soil. “It’s a darned good thing I don’t have a cleanliness fetish. Aren’t beds appropriate when you’re injured?” She was trying very hard to keep the nerves out of her voice, resorting, as usual when she was uncertain, to humor.
“The soil heals us.” He kissed her neck, swirled his tongue over the wounds on her neck. “We can remove all traces of dirt easily. Our wounds were packed earlier with soil but are very clean now. I will repack them before we go to sleep again.”
“How lovely for us. Are there worms in this particular little bed of soil? And did I happen to mention worms in any of our talks?”
“I do not believe you did.”
“There was a reason for that.” Her fingers tangled with his. His hand on her stomach was soothing her in some way she didn’t understand. Her insides ached. “Did someone take a baseball bat to me?”
“No. The conversion is difficult.”
She didn’t want to remember the horror of that seemingly endless pain. The complete loss of control. The helpless feeling she had or the look in his eyes. Especially the look in his eyes. Begging forgiveness. He’d looked guilty, terrified of losing her. She recalled the blood-red tears that had fallen on her face. “Yes, it was difficult.” She touched his face with gentle fingers and gave him a faint smile. “For both of us.”
Traian caught her fingers and pulled them into the heat of his mouth. “You scared me. I will admit that to you now.” He nuzzled the top of her head with his chin. “Watching you have to go through such pain was almost more than I could bear. You saved everyone there at the inn with your sacrifice, you know that, don’t you?”
“We all worked together,” Joie said. “I knew you would come. I just had to buy us some time.”
“All of you were more than lucky. Any vampire is difficult to defeat, but master vampires have lived for century upon century, growing in strength and power. They