Dark Legend

"Tell me of your stained glass. It is very beautiful and peaceful. When I was examining the pieces in your studio I could feel the presence of power woven into the patterns. Safeguards of a kind." Gabriel was slightly in awe of her healing talent. Few had it so strongly. Her touch alone could impart a soothing peace and he detected that same sense of peace in her work.

She smiled, a quick flash of happiness that he would be interested in the things she enjoyed. She was glad finally to have someone she could talk to about her discoveries. "I started long ago working with small pieces. The idea was to use quilts and coverings of that nature to aid the sick. I often found when I examined a patient that there were other things involved than simply physical illness. Grief for the loss of a loved one, marital troubles, things like that. I began to experiment making specific items for individuals I had touched. I wove patterns that would aid my patients while they slept. Eventually my work became quite popular. People found they were drawn to the articles because they were so soothing." She glanced up at him. "I'm not explaining this very well. I just read people and know what they need and try to provide it. That's how it all started."

"You are truly an amazing woman," he said softly. She astounded him with her accomplishments. "And now?"

"I created a company. My identity is buried deep so if someone comes looking it will be difficult to find out who I really am." She grinned at him, her pride in fooling the ancient Carpathian males showing through. "I even added a safeguard to discourage human sleuths."

"A Carpathian would feel the dusting of power and certainly recognize the ancient symbols in your work," he pointed out.

"Naturally," she said complacently. "That is why I went to the trouble of creating a fictitious male Carpathian, an artist, who is a hermit. My work is often sought by Carpathians to safeguard their homes and bring peace to their environment. They send their orders through my company and I do the work. A few have asked to see the artist, but I always decline."

"Any Carpathian worth his salt can distinguish the difference between the touch of a female or male."

She raised her elegant eyebrow. "Really? Perhaps you underestimate me, Gabriel. I have lived for centuries in secret, undiscovered by the undead, by Carpathian males traveling through this city, and even by you and your brother. Although at times I suspected Lucian might have been aware of my existence. He returned often to this city and scanned more times than I care to count or remember."

"He did?" That made Gabriel nervous. If Lucian suspected such a thing as a female Carpathian in this city, he would dig and dig until he found her. Nothing escaped Lucian's attention. Gabriel recalled how Lucian had led him back to Paris time and again. Even their last terrible battle had been here. Had Lucian somehow been aware of a female's presence? They had shared information all the time. What one knew, the other did, too. Would Lucian hide such knowledge from him?

Francesca nodded solemnly. "Yes. I felt his presence often over the centuries, and I must confess I buried myself deep within the earth to hide from him. I was afraid of you finding me. I had lived alone so long doing whatever pleased me, and I no longer wanted a male in my life." She did not tell him that she had been afraid he might reject her again and she couldn't have borne it a second time.

"Francesca, Francesca," Gabriel murmured softly, "what a little liar you have become. What is the good doctor if not a man? Why would you want the taste of love from one such as he?"

She pulled her hand away from him, cutting him off from her soothing touch. Her face was averted, the curtain of hair concealing her expression from him. "That just happened unexpectedly."

"You have lived with humans so long, sweetheart," he said softly, gently, "you have forgotten what it is like among our people, among lifemates, males and females. I am a shadow in your mind, in your thoughts. You can tell an untruth to Brice, but never to me. You have lived as a human and do not want to extend your own feelings be- yond their capabilities. You are afraid of the intensity of Carpathian emotions. I hurt you, Francesca, and you do not ever want to experience such pain again."

She pushed at her long, wild hair and her hand was trembling, betraying her, even as she shrugged her shoulders with studied casualness. "I don't know if you're right. I certainly never blamed you. I was hurt at first, I was only a child, but I always understood the well-being of our race was far more important than the happiness of one person."

He caught her shoulders, bringing her to an abrupt halt, the controlled violence in his grip setting her heart pounding. He had enormous strength. "Never think that I had a noble purpose in leaving you behind, Francesca. If I had known of your existence, I would never have left. I am far more selfish than you can imagine, because you are not. I would never have given you up then, any more than I intend to now. You are the only person who is important to me. I saw the memory of that day so long ago in your mind. I was striding through a village, as I had gone through so many other villages. I felt something unusual, but my mind was preoccupied with thoughts of war. I glanced back, I saw women, but did not really see them. The faces of women and children haunted me, I could never look directly at them. I turned away as my brother spoke. Had I seen you, our lives would have been very different. I have a duty to perform, but I would have forsaken it back then. I would have allowed Lucian to hunt alone."

She studied his face for a long moment; then a slow smile curved her soft mouth and she shook her head. "No, you would have willingly sacrificed your happiness for the good of our people."

"But not yours. You still do not understand. I would not have sacrificed yours. I would never have allowed you to be so unhappy. I hate myself for what you have gone through to survive alone, feeling so rejected and unwanted."

"That was the child, Gabriel, not the woman. My life has had purpose and meaning. Because I am tired does not mean I did not enjoy the years I had. I lived well and made my life count as best I could. I had experiences other women of our race could never have. I have been independent and loved it. Yes, I missed having a family, but I had other things to occupy me. It was not a terrible life. And I always had a choice. I could have revealed myself to you again. I could have sought the dawn. I could even have chosen to go back to my homeland where at least the soil and the company of our people would have given me solace. I did not choose to do so. And it was strictly my choice, not yours. I am a woman of power, not a child creeping and hiding in the shadows. All I did, I did of my own will. I'm not a victim, Gabriel. Please do not attempt to make me out to be one."

"You do not love Brice, you only admire him. You have something in common. You respect the way he is with children, his ability to heal, and his focus on his medicine. But you also have your reservations about him."

"I do not," she denied adamantly. "Why would you think that?"

"If you did not, Francesca, you would have committed your life to him. I have been in your mind - "

"Well, stay out of it."

"It is not such an easy thing to do, sweetheart. In fact, you are asking the impossible of me. You do not like the way Brice treats the patients who are less fortunate, those without homes. You do not like the way he is able to completely forget his patients once he has treated them. There are many things you have serious reservations about. You share so much with him, so many children who are ill, but part of you knows that he needs to cure them for his own ego."

Her dark eyes flashed at him. "Maybe that's why I do it, too." There was far too much truth in his words for comfort, and she was annoyed at herself even more than at him. She wanted to cling to Brice because he could never hurt her the way Gabriel had. Her lifemate

had torn out her heart.

His voice, so calm, so truthful, was enough to make her writhe with mortification. She was a woman of power, not a child to be hiding behind a mortal; yet, in the end, that was what she was doing rather than face her lifemate.

"You do it because you are a natural born healer with a gift beyond comparison. You would never leave Skyler in a home with strangers after what she has been through. It would never occur to you. If you could not care for her yourself, you would always watch over her. That is who you are. The doctor would simply forget her."

"You aren't being entirely fair to him, Gabriel. After all, he didn't share her memories. He doesn't know what she's been through." Francesca found herself defending Brice almost automatically.

"He examined her extensively," Gabriel said. "He saw how withdrawn she was. That comes from trauma. He knew. He probably knows all of it, the physical part anyway, and he can guess at the mental and emotional trauma. It does not touch him once she is no longer his patient. That bothers you."

Francesca turned away from him and began to walk along the sidewalk. "Maybe you're right, Gabriel. I don't know. I'm very confused."

He had torn out her heart.

He would again when he left her to follow his twin, as he must. She could feel the touch of his mind gently reaching for hers. She hastily forced herself to think of Skyler, to focus on the teenager.

"I know you're confused, love, and it is no wonder that you are," Gabriel said softly, but he was watching her with his intent black gaze. "For now we should concentrate on how to bring Skyler home and provide a decent home for her. We will need to decide which memories to erase completely and which to minimize."

"I don't think we have the right to erase the things she's been through, but it wouldn't hurt to dull the memories so that she can deal with them. The most important thing is to help her feel safe, to trust us. I think she needs that more than anything else," Francesca said softly, worried. "Of course, she's missed most of her schooling, too."

Gabriel shrugged indifferently. "That is the least of our worries. We can impart knowledge should there be a need. At this point she needs stability and a decent home life. Once she has the things necessary to build her confidence back, school will come."

"Helping her will be a huge commitment, Gabriel. I do not ask that you share it with me."

"I felt her pain. She is a mere child. But she will soon be a woman. A woman who has psychic ability."

Francesca swung around to face him once again. "Are you certain? I thought she might, because the connection between us was so strong."

"I could not mistake such a gift. I am thinking she could not be in better hands than ours. We can see to her happiness, protect her, and safeguard her should the undead detect her presence. She is so young and has suffered so much already, we cannot allow her in harm's way. And when she is grown, she may be a lifemate for one of our people."

Francesca stiffened. "She will be free, Gabriel, to choose her own destiny. You will not call in the males of our race and hand her over. I mean it. She has suffered much at the hands of males, and our race is domineering and at times brutal. She has it in her mind to avoid all relationships of such a nature and we must respect her wishes. She may never fully recover from the damage done to her."

He laughed softly and curved his arm around her slender shoulders. "We males are never brutal to a lifemate. I believe we have a mama tiger on our hands. You are a very formidable lady. The kind I would choose to be the mother of my child."

She made a face at him. "I don't think you should bring that up just now. It could get you in trouble." She didn't sound as if it would. Her tone was mild, teasing even. Her dark eyes were smoldering but there was a softness about her mouth that belied her flare of temper.

"Skyler will be a well-loved young lady in our household. I will cherish her and offer her the protection I would give my own daughter. She will be happy, sweetheart, very happy. I would never allow someone to claim her ruthlessly without her consent as I have done to you. You forget she may not be compatible with any of our men. I believe in destiny. If she is to be claimed by one of our males, let him find and court her as he should. He will treasure her all the more. As I do you."

He thought it and the words shimmered in the air between them.

Francesca blushed a vivid scarlet, her long lashes sweeping down to hide her pleased expression. There was such a sincerity about Gabriel. She loved his Old World accent and his intense smoldering passion barely hidden beneath the thin veneer of civility. His emotions were stark and devastating, raw and real. He looked at her with such need, such hunger, he took her breath away.

Francesca kept her eyes focused straight ahead. Gabriel could so easily overwhelm her, swamp her with his hungry passion. No one had ever needed her before, the way he seemed to do. She had always thought of him as being entirely self-sufficient, yet now she saw he was utterly alone. A warrior endlessly walking the earth in search of the enemy. She didn't want to sympathize with his loneliness, to admire his honor.

"You are smiling again. That faint mysterious smile that makes me want to pull you into my arms and kiss you. I promised myself I would behave in your presence, Francesca, but you are making it extremely difficult." He said the words softly, his voice a smooth black velvet whisper of seduction.

She was suddenly terrified of reaching her home, yet at the same time, she wished desperately that they were already there. "You can't kiss me Gabriel. You're already driving me crazy. I don't know what to do with you. I had a nice comfortable life with a nice comfortable future all planned out and now you've come and turned my world upside down."

He grinned at her, a quick, almost boyish, mischievous flash of immaculate white teeth. "I cannot help myself, sweetheart. You are so beautiful, you take my breath away. What man would not have such thoughts walking in the night beside you, with the stars overhead and the breeze teasing him with your scent?"

"Do be quiet, Gabriel." Francesca tried not to let any pleasure sound in her voice. He certainly didn't need any encouragement. "For a man who claims little knowledge of women, you certainly know all the right things to say."

"It must be inspiration," he replied.

Francesca burst out laughing; she couldn't help herself. He was becoming more outrageous by the minute. "The dawn is creeping up on us and I'm tired. Let's go home."

He liked the sound of that. Home. He had never had one. Gabriel could acknowledge to himself that he had been lucky in the unique relationship he shared with Lucian. He had been lonely, but never truly alone like the other males of his species. Even after Lucian had turned, they merged often. A two-thousand-year habit could not be broken so easily. It was automatic.

It bothered Gabriel that he had not found Lucian's first kill in the city. Any kill. Lucian had risen starving from their long imprisonment beneath the earth. He would have gorged himself on the first human he had come across, yet Gabriel had scoured the city for evidence and had found nothing. He knew there was more than one vampire in the area. He read the papers for news of strange murders, but none of those murdered had been killed by Lucian. Lucian was an artist with a very distinctive style. There was nothing sloppy about Lucian. Each kill held his personal signature, as though he were taunting his brother to come after him. Sometimes Gabriel thought it was all a game to Lucian.

"You've gone away from me again," Francesca said softly. "Where do you go, Gabriel? Is he talking to you?"

Gabriel didn't pretend not to know whom she was talking about. "Sometimes we merge inadvertently. At those times you are in great danger."

"You love him very much, don't you?" Francesca curled her fingers around his wrist, brushed her body close to his to offer comfort.

At once he felt her soothing presence, and peace stole into him as it always did when she was touching him. He wondered, just for one moment, if she could have healed Lucian before he turned. Could she have imparted the same peace to his soul as she did to his twin?

They turned up the road leading to her house. He liked the look of it, the way it seemed to reach out and beckon to them. Home. This was home. Was there any possibility of a family for him? Could they actually live here together? Raise their baby? Care for Skyler? Would Francesca ever be able to love him? She wanted him, her body craved his, but would she love him? Forgive him?

"You go very quiet when you think about him," Francesca murmured softly. "I can feel the pain it causes you. Yet if I touch your mind, you have only good thoughts of him. He must have been quite a man."

"There has never been another like him. He was a master at battle. At anything. I never had to look to see if he was there, I always just knew it. Lucian was a legend. He saved so many lives down through the ages, human as well as Carpathian, it would be impossible to count them. He never faltered in his duty. Not at all. We were close, Francesca," he admitted softly. "Very close."

They were walking along the property toward the front entrance. "Tell me about him. It might help to share your memories. I feel your reluctance to speak of him; you think it is disloyal to him. But I would never presume to judge him. You loved him and admired him and I can only do the same."

Gabriel pushed open the front door, stepped back to allow her to precede him. He was continually scanning the area around them, a habit long since drilled into him by his lost brother. Sorrow welled up out of nowhere. "I sometimes think I could have destroyed him by now if it weren't for the fact that I can't bear to be in the world without him. I gave my word of honor to him long ago that I would be the one to destroy him should he lose his soul. We both did. If one turned, the other would hunt and destroy, yet I have been unable to fulfill my promise to him. Is it deliberate, Francesca? Is it?" He sounded lost and very alone.

She closed the door firmly against the light beginning to streak through the early morning sky. "No, Gabriel, you would have honored your promise if you were able to do so. And I believe that you will. You honor him."

"Lucian lost feeling while he was a mere fledgling, long before our males normally do, yet he endured for two thousand years. I had emotion far longer than he did, so I shared what I felt with him. I still cannot believe he turned. I have seen the evidence of his kills. I have even come on him when he was making a kill. But something in me will not believe it. I cannot comprehend that so strong a man, such a leader, a defender of our people, would have, chosen to give up his soul to the darkness for all eternity."

"You love him, Gabriel. It is only natural that you would want him to remain in your heart the way you have always known him," Francesca said softly. She tugged at his hand and moved through the house, taking him with her. "I need to call my attorney and ask him to draw up the appropriate papers making me Skyler's guardian. Before we retire to our chamber, we must send inquiries to ask if any of our people have human families they would trust to aid us in caring for Skyler during the day while we sleep."

He followed her to the study, watched as she spoke quickly and firmly to the lawyer. She gave him no real chance to argue with her; there was compulsion in her voice, and Gabriel automatically aided her, adding the weight of his power to hers. Her attorney would have everything in order for them by evening. No one would protest. Who would want Skyler Rose Thompson? She was an orphan with no relatives. Francesca had money and influence. Any judge would gladly grant her wishes.

Gabriel watched carefully as she turned on her computer and began typing at a rapid rate. It amazed him, the capabilities of the new technology. Her fingers flew on the keyboard with total confidence. She had watched this technology as it had grown. She had experienced the things he could only read about. He could read about them, but he could not go back and watch them as time unfolded. Francesca was comfortable with speeding cars and airplanes that blasted across the sky. With spaceships and satellites. With the Internet and computers.

"I've got a hit, Gabriel," Francesca said. "Savage, Aidan Savage in the States. I've made several lovely pieces for his house. I am certain I heard his lifemate was once a human psychic. Aidan has a twin brother, Julian."

A slow smile spread across Gabriel's face. "Julian, I remember him. He was just a boy with wild blond hair, very unusual for our species. He was eavesdropping on a conversation Lucian and I were having with Mikhail and Gregori. He was quite a handful even as a boy. I sensed a darkness in him, but there was no time to examine him closely." His white teeth flashed. "Gregori was very protective of him, and I did not wish to challenge my own kin. We were hundreds of years apart, but our blood is the same. I would like to know what happened to both of them."

"Well, I do not know much of Julian's fate - I am careful not to rouse curiosity with my inquiries - but I have done business with Aidan on more than one occasion. He does not know me, only my fictional Carpathian male, the artist who owns my company. I'll e-mail Aidan and see what he can tell us of his human family and how it works. I can include a question about Julian. As far as Gregori, it is well known his lifemate is the daughter of our Prince."

"Please do ask about Julian. It is interesting that you can talk so quickly to someone halfway around the world. One of our own people. You must be very careful about the way you talk to our people. Anyone might be able to intercept your mail," he cautioned.

"Trust me, Gabriel, I am very careful. I've always had to be careful." She turned off the computer and took his hand once more to lead him to the chamber beneath the earth. Her heart was beating so loudly she knew he could hear it. They walked through the halls at a leisurely pace, through the large kitchen passageway leading to the sleeping chamber.

Gabriel brushed her temple with his mouth, lingering for a moment against her pulse. "I want you, Francesca, I will not pretend that I do not, but I have told you I want us to be friends. I will be satisfied with holding you." He wanted the comfort of her arms, her closeness.

Francesca tightened her fingers in his. She was just as capable of reading his mind as he was at reading hers. He was determined to put aside his own needs and see to hers first. He wanted to give her as much time as she needed to accept his claim on her. Her heart gave a curious lurch at his consideration.

"How did you manage to walk in the sun at midday? Our ancients are unable to do such things, yet you managed to find the secret."

There was so much admiration in his voice, Francesca felt color steal into her face. "I knew the only way to avoid recognition by my own kind was to train myself to think like a human and walk and talk like a human at all times. When I reached the point where I wanted to be able to go out into the sun, I had already given up so many of our gifts, it seemed like a kind of return, a treasure. I had been researching why our women cannot usually conceive more than one child successfully. I came to the conclusion it was nature's way of balancing our population. Then I turned my attention to why we lose so many children during the first year of life. Our children are much like human children - they do not drink blood, their teeth are not developed, and they cannot go to ground, shape-shift, or do anything we can do as adults. Their parents, however, must rest during the daylight hours, and the children are certainly at risk without supervision because they must be above ground when their parents put them to sleep."

"That is very interesting, but it does not explain how you managed to go out in the sun." His chin rubbed the top of her hair in a little caress. Tendrils of her hair caught in the stubble on his jaw, tangling the two of them together with the silken strands.

She smiled up at him. "I theorized that if we could do so as children, then we could do it again. What changed us? Our body chemistry altered, and we required blood to sustain our lives and our gifts. Yet we could survive for long periods of time with transfusions and with animal blood. I experimented and eventually changed my actual body chemistry. I was weak and unable to shape-shift or do most of the things that are necessary to our species."

Beside her he stirred. She felt the sudden pounding of his heart. His lifemate had been alone, unprotected, performing dangerous experiments to enable her to walk in the sun. He was proud of her, but the thought frightened him. Francesca found herself a bit pleased at that reaction. She hid her smile as she moved the large bed with a command so that they could open the chamber below the ground.

The chamber was cool and welcoming, the darkened interior inviting. Francesca waved her hand and the earth opened to reveal the dark, rich soil. Gabriel glanced at the bed. The quilt was thick and soft with intricate swirls and ancient symbols. He slipped free of Francesca's fingers and went to examine the fine craftsmanship. Francesca had accomplished so much in her time on earth. "How did you change your body chemistry?" he asked. "It is a tremendous feat and one that might be very useful to our people."

Francesca shook her head regretfully. "I experimented over many years, Gabriel, but it was a trade, my gifts, for the sun. And I was very vulnerable. I found herbs and made them into soups and used different compounds in an effort to duplicate the metabolism our children have, not human yet not Carpathian. Just as they could spend time in the sun but could not go to ground, so it was with me. For Carpathians at the end of their days and wishing to try new things, it might be good, although the process is painful and very long. It requires nearly a hundred years. And my eyes really never got used to the sun. There was still some weakness. I recorded it carefully in our ancient tongue and would have sent the information to Gregori before I died."

She turned her head to study the glittering of his eyes. Dark. Dangerous. That was Gabriel, a legend come to life. He reached out, caught her wrist, and drew her to him. "I want you. All over again." He said it starkly, without embellishment. He brought her hand to his trousers, but the material was gone, sliding from his body in the way of their people so that her palm contacted the hard thick length of him. He was hot, throbbing with need.

She wrapped her fingers around him, simply holding him for a moment, and then her fingers began to move of their own accord, a small experiment as she watched his face intently, as her mind merged deeply with his to share what he felt. At once she was rewarded with the sheer pleasure etched into the lines of his face, in his mind. "The bed does have possibilities," she murmured softly.

"Undress for me, in the manner or humans," he said suddenly. His eyes had gone very black, burning with such intensity that she could feel tiny tongues of flame along her skin. "There is something very erotic in the way a woman removes her clothes."

Her eyebrow shot up. "I thought there was something erotic in the way your clothes melted away and left me to explore where I wanted." Her voice teased him, was sultry with invitation. She stepped away from him, her arm dropping slowly to her side, her fingers brushing the hard length of him as she did so. Francesca tilted her head so that her long hair slid in a silky black curtain over her shoulder. Her hands went to the small pearl buttons on her sweater. She eased each through its button hole so that the edges began to gape open to reveal the satin swell of her breasts. Deliberately her hands traced the path of the opening, pushing the sweater slowly from her shoulders and allowing it to fall on the floor unheeded. She was rewarded with the darkening of his eyes, the swelling of his body to alarming proportions.

She eased her slacks from her hips to reveal her silken panties, a scrap of fabric that barely covered her tight black curls. She kicked off her sandals as, she stepped out of the slacks and stood for a moment in her underwear. Her nipples were already hard in anticipation, pushing at the lace of her bra, adding friction to sensitize her further. With a slow, unhurried movement she released the catch and dropped it aside. "I ache for you," she said softly, cupping her breasts as an offering. "I want you suckling me. Your mouth is always so hot, Gabriel." Her hands traced a path down her flat stomach to strip the panties away.

His eyes blazed with desire. "Are you wet and slick with wanting me, Francesca?" His voice was husky, his eyes raking her body possessively.

Her hand slipped between her legs, sampled the moisture there, and held it out to him. His eyes on her face, he stepped forward and deliberately sucked her fingers. At once Francesca's legs went weak. He melted her. Anything and everything was beautiful with Gabriel. She loved how he wanted her.

His arm circled her waist, dragged her close to kiss her, devouring her mouth. "You taste so sexy, Francesca, I want to feed on you for eternity," he whispered into her open mouth. "Taste yourself, sweetheart, feel what it is like for me when I have you. When you take me in your mouth and suck on me, hot and tight, when I am deep inside your body. Whatever we choose to express how we feel, it is so beautiful." His mouth wandered to her breast, his hand kneading her buttocks, pushing her deliberately against his arousal.

Francesca cradled his head to her, giving herself up to the shared ecstasy. Gabriel pushed her down on the bed, dragged her to the edge. "What do you want, my love?"

She didn't hesitate. Why should she? She was his lifemate and there should only be pleasure between them. She had every right to total fulfillment and she wanted it. She opened her legs wide, her hand going to the hot wet core of her. Once more she brought her fingers to his mouth. "I want to feed you for eternity. Make me come, Gabriel, long and forever. I want you buried deep inside me and I want to wake the same way."

He lifted her legs to his shoulders and bent his dark head, his tongue stroking, caressing, and probing until she was writhing on the bed, unable to hold still. His fingers inspected, explored, probed deep, only to be replaced by his tongue. She cried out then, shuddering with pleasure, closing her eyes as he lowered her body to his hips and surged forward, taking her, filling her as she fragmented, catching her at her most sensitive.

He plunged into her hard and fast, as hungry and ferocious as she was for their joining. He wanted her like this, craving him, needing him, her body glowing with pleasure, her sheath a tight hot home for his own engorged body, relieving the ever-present raging need in him. He wanted it to last forever, riding her hard, her hips rising to meet his, his body and hers coming together in perfect union, her breasts full and firm and quivering with each hard thrust, her hair spread out around her, and her eyes fixed on them. Together. As they should be.

When the release came it swept both of them up into the flames, hard and long, an endless spiral, an earthquake with strong aftershocks. They lay in each other's arms, kissing, their mouths melding together, expressing a fierce need and hunger they couldn't seem to assuage. It was Gabriel who floated them to earth, still entangled together, his mouth dominating hers, his hands holding her close.

They settled to earth and still couldn't stop. He took her a second time, harder and faster than the first, and even then he couldn't quite let go. He lay beside her for a long time, his hands in her hair, his mouth at her breast. They lay together until the light in the sky made it impossible to stay awake. Reluctantly, Gabriel set the safeguards on their chamber and covered their resting place. Their bodies needed the rejuvenating sleep of the earth during daylight hours. Sometimes they slept in chambers above ground, but they needed the benefits of the healing soil for rejuvenation.

She curled up in his arms, feeling secure and protected. Feeling as if she was not alone anymore.

Francesca snuggled closer, breathing in his masculine scent. His body was made for hers. Perfect. The way she fit against him, the way he seemed to shelter her, making her feel so much a part of him. Inside her was their child, living, growing, developing, warm and safe, a gift from her lifemate so precious, no treasure could ever surpass it.

"Sleep, my beautiful lifemate, rest while you can," Gabriel said softly. She felt his mouth brush a kiss in her hair. His arms tightened around her and they both allowed the breath to leave their bodies and their hearts to cease beating.