“Normally we sleep differently than humans in that we shut down our hearts and lungs and lie as if dead. But that is a dangerous thing to do in a setting such as this one. Beneath this house I have a sleeping chamber. If something should happen and my safeguards failed, then it would be much easier for an adversary to destroy me here than in my sleeping chamber, where they cannot find me.”
Jaxon shoved his arm aside and sat up, her hair spilling wildly around her face, her eyes enormous. “Why aren’t you doing what you’re supposed to be doing? I’m not going to be thrilled waking up next to someone who looks dead.”
“I will not sleep in the manner of our kind, Jaxon. We are bound together. We must touch minds frequently, or it is uncomfortable, even dangerous. Your mind is used to the touch of my mind. Without it you would feel intense grief, much more intense than a human could withstand. Carpathian emotions are extremely strong, Jaxon, due, no doubt, to our longevity. I cannot exactly describe what you would feel, but I cannot take such a chance with you. There is no need for it. I will sleep in the way of your people.”
“Why don’t you sleep like we do all the time?”
He sighed and deliberately pulled her once more into his arms. “You talk too much, when you should be sleeping.”
“You’ve been doing that, haven’t you? Sleeping beside me like a human instead of doing what is good for you,” Jaxon guessed shrewdly. “That’s why you look tired sometimes. Your body doesn’t rest this way, does it?”
“No, it does not rest.” He sounded somewhere between exasperation and laughter.
“Go to your sleeping chamber or whatever it is you call it,” she demanded.
“I cannot be apart from you.”
“If your heart and lungs are shut down, then you can’t possibly feel anything,” she said logically.
“You are trying to take care of me again,” he pointed out, wishing his heart didn’t react quite so strongly to her concern. In all the endless centuries he had endured, he could not remember a single individual, other than his twin brother, Gabriel, who had worried about him. And that hadn’t been the same.
“Someone has to take care of you. You don’t,” she replied. “I mean it, Lucian. I can see how tired you are. Please go where you can sleep properly.”
“Not without you.”
There was a small silence. “I can go there?”
“Yes,” he said slowly. “I told you, it isn’t in the earth.It is below the basement but not in the soil.”
“If I woke up, I could just walk out of there? I don’t think I’m claustrophobic, but I’d hate to trapped somewhere.”
“I can show you the way. But, Jaxon, you must not think I’m dead. If you wake without me, before the sun goes down, your mind will play tricks on you. I will look dead and feel dead to your touch. You cannot allow your mind to trick you into doing anything foolish. Lifemates often end their lives rather than exist alone after they are bound together. You must promise me, should you wake, you will not leave the house, and if it becomes unbearable, you will call out to me persistently in the way of our people.”
“You can hear me while your heart and lungs are shut down?”
“Most cannot. But I am not most. If you are suffering and you call to me, I will hear you.”
“Then let’s go.” She said it determinedly.
“You are certain you wish to do this? It is not necessary.”
“Yes, it is. You need to sleep and stay strong and powerful for all that weird stuff that you do. I’m getting used to it, and I’d miss it if you couldn’t do it anymore.”
Lucian lifted her easily as he rose straight off the bed into the air, cradling her in his arms. “Close your eyes, angel. You know how you hate my manner of travel.”
“The speed thing.”
“Exactly.” His voice was infinitely tender.
She closed her eyes and snuggled more deeply into his body, her heart pounding nervously. There was a rush of wind and sense of traveling through time and space as they maneuvered the intricate passages to his sleeping chamber far below the house.