“You know,” Marie said softly.
Aidan bent and brushed her cheek lightly with an affectionate kiss. “I guess I do,” he admitted. “Please see if Alexandria is ready to go to the chamber. I do not wish her to think I am ‘dominating’ her.”
Marie nodded, and Stefan followed his wife through the house, uneasy with the way things seemed to be going. Aidan was dangerous, powerful, more beast than man when push came to shove. And he would allow no one or nothing to take Alexandria Houton from him. Stefan could easily read that in Aidan’s protective, possessive posture when he was close to her. And Aidan’s thin veneer of civility was wearing thinner by the day.
Marie and Stefan’s search for Alexandria came to an abrupt stop when they saw her huddled beside the front door. She looked small and lost, a forlorn little girl tormented beyond endurance. Her knees were drawn up to her chin, her face down, hair spilling around her, hiding her expression. She was shaking, pale, the terrible daytime lethargy of the Carpathian people slowly creeping over her, taking control. Clearly it was frightening for her to feel her body turning to lead, as if all control was lost forever.
“Alexandria,” Marie said anxiously, approaching the huddled figure, “are you all right?”
Her concern seemed genuine, but Alexandria was under no illusions. Marie’s first and only loyalty was to Aidan Savage. Anything she said would be reported to him immediately. Alexandria did not lift her head. Inside her was a growing dread that she was utterly helpless, caught in a snare, a maze so tangled, she would never get out. Aidan was far too powerful to fight, and for some reason, he wanted her with him.
“Alexandria?” Marie gently touched her bowed head. “Tell me, should I get Aidan?”
Alexandria squeezed her eyes shut. Aidan. It always seemed to come back to Aidan. “No, I... I’m just finding everything... overwhelming. I... I need time to adjust.” Her voice was so tight, she felt so close to a breakdown, she was afraid to speak. She struggled to stop the inner trembling threatening to shake her apart. Was she crazy? Did she belong in a mental institution?
She had to find a way to get Joshua away from these people. She should have asked Thomas Ivan for help. But the truth was, he could never hope to win against Aidan. Aidan would never let her go. She didn’t know why, she didn’t understand how, but she had an absolute conviction that he would follow her to the ends of the earth. She bit down on a knuckle to keep from screaming. How could shehope to fight Aidan? Could she even survive without his help? If she checked herself into a hospital, admitted to hallucinations, what would happen to Joshua?
Without warning she could feel the need to touch Aidan creeping up on her, entering her mind. No matter how hard she tried to wipe the idea away, it persisted. She wanted to know he was there, somewhere close. Insanity! Her own mind had turned against her! The more she fought herself, the worse it became. She needed him. Needed his reassuring touch.
Marie gave a soft exclamation as droplets of blood dotted Alexandria’s forehead. She turned toward Stefan, afraid for the girl. They needed Aidan immediately. Clearly the struggle taking place in Alexandria’s mind was causing her agony. Tears welling up in her own eyes, Marie knelt beside Alexandria and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. She felt so small, so fragile, her body trembling so hard, Marie was afraid she might shake apart, break into a million pieces.
“Please let me help you, Alexandria,” the housekeeper begged softly.
“What can you do?” Alexandria asked hopelessly. “What can anyone do? He’ll never let me go.” She looked up at the older woman plaintively. “Will he?”
Marie’s silence was her answer. She felt the girl’s shudder of fear. “Aidan is a good man and means only to protect you. Trust him.”
“Do you?”
“With my life. With the lives of my children,” Marie said solemnly, truthfully.
“But then, he doesn’t want the same thing from you that he does from me, does he?” Alexandria asked bitterly. “He would do anything to keep me here, even deceive me about what is real and what isn’t.”
Without warning she leapt to her feet, nearly knocking Marie over. Then she was struggling to open the front door. Stefan yelled a warning. Marie shouted for Aidan. And Alexandria jerked open the heavy door and ran out into the relentless, murderous sun.
At once a thousand needles pierced her eyes, and her skin blistered, smoke swirling around her as she burned. She didn’t know if she screamed because of the pain or because Aidan had told the truth. This agonizing reaction was not the result of a hypnotic suggestion.
Stefan tore off his shirt, flung it over her head, and lifted her collapsing body into his arms, rushing her back into the safety of the house. Marie was sobbing, reaching anxiously for her, but Aidan got there first, dragging her out of Stefan’s arms, cradling her against his chest. For a moment there was absolute silence as he laid his head on top of hers, his eyes closed, his heart pounding, his soul scarred.
“Never again.” He hissed the words aloud. Never again, cara, will I allow this kind of defiance. He repeated the warning in her mind, meaning it, swearing it. He was frightened for her. Furious with her. Furious with himself. The emotions swirled and flared within him until the conflagration was nearly out of control.
She could feel his rage beating at her, in her. His arms were like steel bars as he held her.
“I am in your debt, Stefan,” he said simply, his voice, as always, calm and peaceful, at terrible odds with the rage like a living entity inside him.
He swung around and was gone, his supernatural speed blurring their movement to human eyes. Alexandria heard the bang of the basement door as they moved into the narrow stone hall leading to the sleeping chamber, but Aidan himself made no sound. None. Not even the sound of breathing.
Alexandria remained quite still. Her pain was tremendous, her blisters large and ugly. Aidan was careful not to jar her burns, careful not to hurt her. She was beyond caring. She knew something terrible was about to happen. Aidan, always so cool and calm, was a seething cauldron of black emotion.
The walls of the tunnel rushed by, a blur of granite, then Aidan was placing her on the bed and turning away from her. She sat up carefully. “You’re very angry with me,” she said softly.
He didn’t reply, instead busying himself crushing herbs in a bowl made of agate. She could smell their fragrance rising. Then he lit candles, and a smoky aroma mixed with the scents of the herbs.
Alexandria swallowed hard and lifted her chin in defiance. “I’m not afraid of you, Aidan. What can you do? Kill me? I believe I’m already dead. Or at least living some kind of life I don’t want. Will you take Joshua away? Threaten him? Harm him? I’ve been in your mind, and I don’t think you are like that,” she said bravely.
He turned his head slowly, his golden eyes resting on her face. A chill went down her spine. Those eyes were soulless, ice-cold.
“You do not know the first thing about me, Alexandria. Nor have you taken the trouble to learn. Do not presume to fight me. You are a mere fledgling, I one of the ancients of our people. You have no conception of the power I wield. I can make the earth move beneath your feet and the lightning crack above your head. I can call the fog and become invisible.” There was no boasting in his tone, just fact. Just black velvet. “I can do things you cannot imagine.”
Alexandria felt the permanent link he had forged between them, and she could feel his rage, black and terrible, seething below the surface. “What I did today, I did to myself,” she whispered.
He moved toward her, looming large, towering over her, an invincible figure, powerful beyond imagining. “You betrayed me. You betrayed Joshua. I told you what would happen if you went out into the sun. You pretended to yourself that you would see if I was telling the truth. But you already knew it was the truth. You took a chance on destroying yourself, leaving Joshua to strangers, to an uncertain future without protection.”