Dark Melody (40 page)

Dayan knew Julian fairly well. As Desari's lifemate, Julian traveled with the band. He was definitely a law unto himself, confident and certain of his own abilities after traveling the earth alone for centuries. He could needle both Darius and Gregori easily with his taunting sense of humor, almost as if he were secretly laughing at the two men over their downfall with their women. Dayan liked Julian's sardonic, independent nature, although it had been difficult at first to allow him entrance into their family.

Gregori smiled down at Savannah, his features full of love, then he turned ice-cold silvery eyes on Julian. "I should accept your offer, Julian, and drain you dry. It would put you in the earth for a few days and out of your lifemate's hair."

Julian laughed softly, nuzzling Desari's thick mass of long, silky hair. "She loves me in her hair, right, Desari?"

Dayan could feel the relief in the room, the release of tension into humor. Gregori was nearly gray with fatigue, but no one mentioned it. Savannah glanced up at the healer, and they both simply dissolved into mist and streamed from the chamber before Dayan had a chance to thank them. He knew he owed a huge debt to Gregori.

"We will leave you now," Desari said in her soft, musical voice, "that you may sleep undisturbed. I cannot wait to greet Corinne as a sister. I will check on Cullen this night as well. Do not worry, we are all bound by Darius's word. He has taken Cullen into the family, and with Corinne comes Lisa. They are human, but they are well loved. I will see to it that Lisa has all the news and knows that Corinne is out of danger. I will tell her you will bring Corinne and the baby to her the moment Corinne can safely travel. Syndil says Lisa will be much relieved when she hears news of Corinne."

Dayan shoved a hand through his black hair, leaving it more disheveled than ever. "Thank you, Desari. Corinne has been anxious about Lisa. And I know Cullen has very strong feelings for her."

"So Syndil tells me. Do not worry any longer, Dayan. It took some time for everyone to accept Julian into the family. Corinne and Lisa will also work out their places with time. I know you are concerned that Corinne may not want to travel with us because she has a baby, but she loves you. She knows that in your heart and soul you are a musician. As she is home to you, so are you to her." Desari leaned over and hugged Dayan. "I love you very much, and I am so happy for you."

Dayan kissed her and watched as Julian and Desari left the chamber, walking side by side. Julian had his arm around Desari's slender shoulders and was whispering softly, suggestively in her ear. Dayan heard her musical voice laugh softly, happily. The sound filled him with so many memories, flooded him with warmth.

Corinne was alive and out of danger. The baby was alive and safe within the enclosure. Darius opened the earth and gestured for Dayan to gather Corinne's body into his arms. Dayan hesitated. "You are certain this Jansen will watch over my daughter?"

Shea laughed softly. "You are already becoming a worried father. Gary is very reliable. I will be here with Jacques, of course. Darius and Tempest will sleep above you and Corinne. Gregori and Savannah are in the next chamber. Our people are everywhere within this network of tunnels. No harm will come to the baby while you rest."

Dayan took a last look at the baby, touched the top of the transparent enclosure with his fingertips, right over the tiny infant's head. Then he floated down into the rich, welcoming soil with Corinne, holding her close, his body protective as he allowed his heart to slow and eventually cease beating.

Darius closed the earth over their heads and turned then, into the arms of his beloved lifemate, Tempest, needing to replenish his strength.

Chapter
17

Dayan woke deep beneath the surface of the earth with his heart pounding and his body on fire.

Corinne.

He turned his head to look at her, afraid, exhilarated, so hungry for her he thought he might go up in flames. She lay beside him where he had placed her, unmoving, completely still; she lay as if dead. She looked unbelievably small, fragile beside him. Her body was a woman's, soft and curvy, and he knew she had the heart of a lion, yet she looked like a child in her sleep.

It had been three risings since he had gone to earth with her. He had awakened each night to check that the baby lived and was doing well in her little cocoon. He knew Corinne would expect it, but he did it because he found he was filled with worry for the infant. Each time breath came into his body, fear for the baby, his daughter, would cycle through him.
Daughter.
He tasted the word. He was a father.

Dayan scanned automatically, searching the immediate area first for danger, then to assure himself that no others of his kind lingered near their resting place.

Darius and Tempest had risen and were some distance away. Shea was already awake and bending over the child, feeding her with some formula she had concocted.

'The baby is well?'
He made the inquiry before he had even parted the soil of his resting place, anxious for news, anxious to gently touch the baby's mind with his own.

'She grows stronger with each rising, Dayan.'
Shea's reply was gentle and patient.

Dayan concentrated on the other two healers, focusing his attention completely.
‘I wish to bring Corinne to the surface.'

There was a brief pause, as if the healers were conferring. It was Gregori who answered him.
‘I will come at once.'

Dayan waited impatiently as Gregori hurried to the chamber. Dayan waved his hand to open the soil above their heads. He waited anxiously while Gregori took his time, centering himself, focusing, moving outside his own body and into Corinne's to examine the repairs. He paid attention to the smallest detail, making sure Corinne was completely healed before she was awakened. Dayan watched Gregori come back to himself, raising an elegant eyebrow at Dayan's obvious anxiety.

"She is healed, Dayan, and completely ready to take up her life with you. I will examine the baby and get out of your hair," Gregori drawled, knowing full well what was on Dayan's mind.

As Dayan floated out of the earth with Corinne cradled in his arms, he cleaned both her and himself, examining Corinne's lush body for marks or signs of her ordeal. Not a single mark marred her skin, not even the long, wicked cut where she had been opened to take the child from her body. He clothed both her and himself, knowing Corinne's natural modesty.

Issuing the command to wake, he brought her safely to ground, bending his dark head to find her mouth, to capture her first breath. Corinne. His lifemate.
‘I want you, love, more than my body can stand.'

Merged so deeply with him that she felt the urgent demands of his body, she couldn't help catching fire, her body perfectly attuned to his. She was aware that his body was full and hard, his mind dancing with erotic thoughts and images. He allowed the nightly reassurances from Shea to replay in his head, so she immediately knew the baby was thriving.

Dayan carried her swiftly across the chamber to the small area where Shea had enclosed the baby protectively. Corinne cried out at the sight of her daughter. She circled Dayan's neck with her slender arms and burst into tears. She couldn't believe she was alive. Her body was strong and supple, her heart beating in perfect rhythm with Dayan's. Every cell felt alive, on fire. She wanted Dayan as much or more than he wanted her.

'That is not possible.'
His voice was sinfully wicked.

She laughed in the midst of her tears, so unbelievably happy she couldn't take it all in. "I have to hold her. I have to have her in my arms." She looked up at Dayan with her heart shining in her large eyes. "Have you held her?"

He shook his head. "Only Shea and Gary have held her. Gregori and Darius have examined her daily, and all of us have been reassuring her, but it is you she wants."

Shea smiled at her. "She is very strong, Corinne. She definitely wants her mother. It is not good to have her out of her protected environment for any length of time. Together, Dayan and I can provide a shield for her while she spends time with you. But only for a few minutes. It is better to be safe."

"What is wrong with her?" Corinne asked anxiously.

"I want her immune system to be stronger. She has had a hard go of it and needs a little more time. Do you have a name picked out for her? Dayan thought you might want to call her Jennifer after John and Lisa's mother."

Corinne nodded, unable to take her eyes off her daughter. "She's so beautiful. Little Jennifer, at last we meet."

Shea lifted the baby carefully from the enclosure, placed the tiny body into Corinne's waiting arms. Merged as he was with Corinne, Dayan shared the instant bonding between mother and child, the unbreakable tie, the exchange of love and tribute. It flooded all three of them. The acceptance. The love. Dayan felt tears burning in his eyes. This was his family for all time. Eternity.

'We have it all, my love, I cannot believe our good fortune.'

Corinne crooned softly to the baby, rocking her gently back and forth while Dayan surrounded them both with his arms. "Look how tiny her fingers and toes are," he marveled. "She has everything, like a real person." He was almost afraid to touch the tiny infant; his finger looked very big as the infant clutched her fist around it.

Corinne laughed softly. "You've never been around a baby before, have you?"

He grinned at her, nuzzled her neck so that unexpected sparks seem to jump back and forth between them. "Does it show?"

"Absolutely. Do you want to hold her?"

Dayan looked like he might faint on the spot, and both women laughed openly at him. It was Corinne who sobered first. "I'm so sorry, Shea. Savannah told me you are expecting a child, and you had to make such a long journey to be here. I don't know how we can ever repay your kindness. Is your baby okay?"

Shea placed both hands on her stomach, holding her baby protectively, feeling her lifemate's breath on the nape of her neck even although he wasn't in the chamber with them. "It is difficult sometimes for our people to carry to full term. The baby is fine, but we had to travel cautiously to prevent complications."

"Dayan told me there's concern that Carpathian babies often don't survive the first year of life." Corinne looked anxiously at Shea.

Shea sighed and pushed her hand through her long wine-red hair. "That is true, Corinne. There have been problems for many centuries. Gregori has done much research on this, and I joined him a few years ago. We discovered that the problems have been occurring longer than we originally thought. It was assumed that during the fourteenth century when most of our adults and children were destroyed, many, many lifemates were lost to us. It was believed fairly universally that Carpathian women had some chemical makeup that made it possible for only the male fetus to implant successfully."

Shea leaned over and smiled at the sleeping baby. "I think it is much more than that. I believe it has something to do with the plague."

Corinne's head snapped up, and she clasped the baby protectively to her. "What do you mean?"

Shea laughed softly. "Jennifer doesn't have the plague, don't panic. The plague has been around for much longer than most people realize. We know of instances in China in 224
B.C.
There was an outbreak in Rome around 262
A.D.
that killed five thousand people a day. The crusaders carried the plague to Europe. It swept through the continent in the 1300s and early 1400s."

"How could our people have been affected? Human illnesses do not have
any
effect on us. Their drugs and alcohol do not either," Dayan pointed out.

Shea shook her head. "That's what is believed, but it is not necessarily true. Drugs and alcohol are pushed through our systems, so we do not feel the effects. The same happens with human diseases. It doesn't necessarily mean there are no traces left in our systems."

"Has there ever been a case of a Carpathian falling ill from such a thing?" Dayan could scarcely believe what Shea was saying. "I have lived hundreds of years – how is it possible that I would not have contracted an illness?"

Shea laughed again. "You Carpathian males. You have egos the size of the continent. I read your thoughts as easily as you read mine. Yes, my mother was human and my father was Carpathian. I am a researcher, Dayan. I am merely looking at a hypothesis. I don't much care whether you think I'm capable of understanding the makeup of a Carpathian or not. What matters to me is finding an answer to this puzzle. If it is found, we can save our children. In doing so, there is a chance we can save our race from extinction."

Dayan bowed courteously, elegantly, a courtly gesture. "I ask forgiveness for my thoughts, Shea. I have never seen a Carpathian with a human disease."

"Traces still might be left behind," Shea pointed out patiently. "The human descendants of the survivors of the plague carry a mutated gene. That gene seems to be responsible for giving them protection from the HIV virus. Our people must have at times been forced to use those who were ill for sustenance during that time. With as many as five thousand people coming down with the plaque daily, they might have had no choice. It was during that time that we began to lose our babies on a regular basis. It might mean nothing at all, might be merely a coincidence, but it is an interesting fact."

"How does all that affect Jennifer?" Corinne asked fearfully.

"I don't honestly know," Shea said. "I'll work closely with you to see that she thrives on the mixture of nutrients we give her. So far she is doing well on it. Another week or so and she will be able to be with you all the time. For now, she needs to be in her little incubator." She grinned at Corinne. "I suggest you and Dayan take some time to be alone together. Enjoy yourself – you've earned it. Gregori, Darius, Gary and I will be watching over Jennifer. Look at it as if she had to stay in the hospital. She will sleep for long hours. You will know when she awakens; her mind will reach for yours."