“If a child attempted to climb the wall, absolutely nothing would happen,” he answered. “The wall only reacts to evil.”
She nodded again, biting down on her lower lip. “Naturally. Of course. Why would I think anything else?”
“Come to bed, angel,” he invited softly.
She wasn’t looking at him, her eyes carefully studying the surrounding walls. He had been meticulous about the construction of this room, ensuring that it appeared to be a replica of a bedroom aboveground. Lightly he touched her mind, wanting to correct whatever might be wrong. It took great effort to prevent a smile from showing on his face. Her reaction had nothing to do with the room, nothing to do with her conversion, and everything to do with his naked body and the things they had done together.
Lucian glided to the bed and covered his lower body with a sheet. “Are you going to walk around the chamber for the entire day?”
“Maybe,” she answered, touching the walls, running her fingertips over them to feel the texture. “How far underground are we?”
Lucian shrugged his powerful shoulders, a casual ripple of muscles, his eyes suddenly watchful. “Do you have a problem being beneath the earth?” He was a shadow in her mind and knew she had no anxiety over being underground. She was reluctant to get into bed, afraid of sleeping, of waking, afraid of facing the truth.
She glanced at him, more comfortable now that his nakedness was covered. Her behavior made no sense to her. Why did she want to be with Lucian so desperately? It was so unlike her. He had been honest with her from the first about who and what he was, yet she had simply gone along with everything he said, everything he did.
“You are my lifemate, Jaxon. You were born the other half of my soul. Your body and mind recognized me. Your heart and soul cried out for mine. It is the way of our people.”
“I’m not Carpathian.” She said it defensively, her hand going protectively to her throat. “Why would it happen?”
“It is as much a mystery to me as it is to you. All I was told was that some human women with psychic powers are truly lifemates to our males.” He softened his voice deliberately, evoking a soothing, tranquil calm. “Obviously it is so.” He was once more merged fully with her, slowing her heart and lungs, allowing her to find the strength to cross the floor and slide into bed beside him.
Lucian wrapped his arms securely around her, pulling her small body into the shelter of his larger frame. She relaxed into him immediately, his touch calming the rising tide of terror sweeping through her. She felt battered emotionally and physically. She had so many questions but didn’t want them answered, afraid of her own reactions to what he might tell her.
“I just want to go to sleep, Lucian,” she said, her head snuggled against his shoulder. “Can we just go to sleep?”
He felt her holding her breath. She didn’t want to sleep; she wanted to run away. He brushed the top of her head with a kiss, his fingers moving tenderly in her hair. “Sleep, angel. You will be safe with me.” He took control, sending her into a deep sleep immediately so that she would have no chance of fighting the command.
They would not sleep in this chamber, or this bed, this night. Her body needed rejuvenation; it needed the healing only the soil of the earth could offer a true Carpathian. Lucian had no intention of forcing her to face that particular reality of their existence. He was her lifemate; as such, he could do no other than to see to her health, to her happiness. But he wanted to spare her the details he deemed unnecessary for her to learn at such an early stage.
He lifted her slight body into his arms, then concentrated on the wall to the left of them. The wall shifted to reveal the narrow stone passage leading deeper into the heart of the earth. He followed it downward until he came to the rich, dark soil bed he had provided within the rock. Waving a hand, he opened it. Then he floated into the bed, cradling Jaxon’s slender body to him. Safeguards in place, the wolves roaming free, he closed all doors so that his lair was secret from any intruders. Again he placed safeguards at each door, along the passage itself, and above them in the rock bed. Only then did he send Jaxon into the deeper sleep of his people, stopping her heart and lungs so that she lay as still as death within the earth. As he waved a hand to command the soil to pour over them, he sent his own body into Carpathian sleep. His heart stuttered for a moment, then ceased to beat. The soil continued to pour over them until it was all in place, undisturbed as if it had lain there for centuries.