I want to be with you and see you through the fears of such a permanent and fast bonding, but I have no choice. I must go to ground before the sun is high.”
Joie nodded. “I’m not going anywhere, Traian. I’m pretty good at facing things I’m afraid of. I’ve got Jubal and Gabrielle with me. We’ll be fine.”
He cupped her face in his hands and lowered his mouth to hers. His mouth was a hot temptation, masculine and demanding. She felt her body going boneless as everything feminine in her reached for him, responding to his kisses. Joie reached up to circle his neck with one arm, leaning into his strength, still a little shocked that she could respond without inhibition to this man she barely knew.
Sivamet—my love, he whispered. At long last I have found you.
When he lifted his head, his dark gaze roaming her face she laughed softly and shook her head. “Technically, I found you.”
His smile warmed her. “So you did.”
Joie! Jubal’s voice was very demanding in her head. Gabby and I are coming to your room right now.
Joie’s laughter spilled over. “I’m going to have to report all these voices running around in my head. I’ll let my brother and sister in and you get out of here. I’ll see you when I wake up?” It was definitely more of a question than a statement. Her heart stuttered a little at the thought of him leaving. She wasn’t a clinging woman, yet the thought of him going away made her body react physically. She kept her smile firmly in place. She would not be a baby and beg him to stay with her. Jubal and Gabrielle would be there any moment.
Traian kissed her again. “No matter what, do not go downstairs without me and know that I will come for you.”
Joie swallowed the unexpected protest rising and nodded her head. Her mouth had suddenly gone dry and her heart felt like a stone in her chest. “Be safe,” she managed.
Traian glanced out the window toward the dawn streaking across the sky, kissed her again, and slipped outside onto the balcony. He raised his hands and began to weave a pattern, chanting softly, concentration etched into his face.
I will safeguard the rooms of your siblings and then I must go. Your brother and sister are at your door. You will have to allow them in.
She glanced at the door just as someone knocked on it. When she turned back, Traian was gone. Joie took a deep breath and with a trembling hand opened the door to her siblings. Jubal swept her up in his arms and Gabrielle put her arms around both of them. They held one another for some time. Joie remembered to kick the door closed after a few minutes of a long group hug.
She looked over her brother and sister for scrapes and bruises. “You both got out unscathed.”
“We fought a vampire,” Gabrielle declared, her eyes bright. “Jubal killed it and the darn thing has my ice axe.” She gave a delicate shudder. “Not that I want it back after sinking the spike into its head.”
“Oh, my God, you fought one of those evil things and actually managed to kill it without Traian?” Joie was shocked. “They seem invincible.”
Gabrielle sank into a chair, trying to cover a yawn. “It was Jubal’s bracelet. It doesn’t like vampires.”
Jubal held out his arm for Joie’s inspection. With him dressed in a tee and jeans, his arms bare, the thick metal just looked like an ordinary bracelet. “This thing bears our family crest, Joie. And it kept me warm in the caves as well as lit the way and also cut out and burned the heart of the vampire. I have no idea how it happened. I didn’t direct it, the blades jumped out and began spinning and the metal warmed up as it unlinked from my arm.”
Joie studied the innocent-looking bracelet. It would take a strong man with large arms to wear such a thing well. It looked as if it had been made for Jubal.
“The staircase we went down was long and winding and carved of ice. At the bottom was a wall of symbols and stars,” Jubal said. “The secret password to open it was actually the Draco constellation.”
Joie’s gaze jumped to his. “What are you saying, Jubal?”
“I don’t know, Joie, but this is a pretty big coincidence that the bracelet came to me, bears our crest, and that the secret to the way