Dark Illusion ('Dark' Carpathian Book 33) Read online

  She could hear the water falling into the pool, the sound as real as the illusion in her mind had been. She’d always been good at illusion because she did pay attention to detail. She turned her head slowly and the basin was there. Solid. Real. She stared at it for a long time and then looked up at him.

  “You did something.”

  He shook his head. “No, little mage. You did something. You created exactly what you wanted to create because you are Carpathian. You are also mage, and that makes you extremely powerful. And dangerous to your father and his followers.”

  She couldn’t help the little surge of hope, but she didn’t dare believe him. She would have known, right? How could she not know? It didn’t make sense.

  “Come here to me. You need to feed. You are very pale. If you are going to continue to create things, you will need your strength. I have fed, although, I do crave the taste of your blood. A lifemate’s blood is perfection to him.”

  She was a little obsessed with his taste. She had continually pushed aside the need that would come at her out of nowhere. Just him making the offer to her brought such a surge of absolute hunger for his taste alone, it shook her. That wasn’t right. She recognized that she shouldn’t want his blood to the point that everything else went out of her head. Worse, the moment he made his offer, she wanted him to take her blood.

  Daringly, she looked up at him, already taking the few steps that separated them, so she was standing in front of him. “I want you to take mine as well.”

  “That can be dangerous, kislány hän ku meke sarnaakmet minan.”

  “We both live dangerously,” she pointed out. “Just by being who we are.” She ran her hand up his body, from his wonderful abdomen with its multitude of muscles to the defined muscles of his chest. Her lips followed the path of her palm. “You taste delicious. Your skin.” He did. She didn’t care what that sounded like, need was on her. Overwhelming her.

  She found his heartbeat and then slid her tongue over the beating pulse just above that. She felt the slide of her teeth and she bit deep. His body jerked. She felt the lengthening of his cock while the taste of his ancient blood burst through her senses. Perfection. Absolute perfection.

  She stroked his cock, petting him, wishing his clothes were gone. He couldn’t possibly know what she was thinking, so she built that picture in her mind while she drank. Isai. Naked. Her hand around the thick length of him. Shockingly, his clothes were gone, and she found herself with his hot girth in her fist. That was even more perfect.

  She drank more and slipped her thumb over the wide crown to smear those pearly drops and use them to help pump him while she consumed his blood. When his hand came up to warn her to stop, she did so immediately, licking across the twin little holes that proclaimed him hers and then licking her way down his chest and abdomen to his cock.

  Take my blood. She had to entice him. She could already feel his rejection, the way he was steeling himself to back away from her. He hadn’t been able to resist her when she was feeding, the erotic pull between them was too strong, but now that her tongue had closed the twin holes, he was gathering his strength. Please, she added.

  He murmured something in his language she didn’t catch. She was certain she hadn’t caught it because there was a strange roaring in her ears. Her head felt chaotic. Her body felt on fire. She . . . needed. The taste of his blood was hot in her mouth and she didn’t wait to see if he would do as she asked. She bent her head to taste—him.

  His breath hissed out in a long, slow trail of desire, heating her blood more. She parted her lips and took the head of his cock into her mouth. Instantly his hand dropped to her head, fingers buried in her hair. She was aware of the pull on her scalp, but whether to guide her or to pull her away, she wasn’t certain. Whatever his first intention, as she suckled, he gave in to the pleasure.

  Her body felt hot, burning, flames licking at her skin with the same dark intensity as she was his cock. She no longer wanted her clothes and as she concentrated on learning the shape and feel of Isai’s cock with her mouth and tongue, she built a picture in her mind of herself without clothes, her skin rubbing along his. She was demanding, not submissive, her fingers digging into his sculpted buttocks as she began worshiping his cock with her mouth. He tasted like perfection. He felt that way. She didn’t want to ever stop, but her body burned.

  I need you.

  You are my lifemate.

  She was. She totally was. At that moment she would have worn a neon sign in order to entice him to have sex with her. Yes. Absolutely. The thought of another woman with him made her crazy. I am your lifemate.

  You accept me as your lifemate?

  Her mouth clamped down on him, one hand working his cock with her fist, sliding it in and out of her mouth while her other hand cupped his heavy sac and worked much more gently. He was filling her mouth with his heat. His fire. With that addictive, perfect taste she would never be able to replace.

  Julija. I have to have your consent.

  I need you in me! she wailed. She was burning from the inside out. Between her legs she was on fire. She sucked harder, becoming almost frantic.

  Do you accept me as your lifemate? he persisted.

  Yes. Clearly, I’m your lifemate. She was beginning to detest that word. She just wanted him. Like now. Do that thing.

  Thing?

  Now she was wild. Out of control. The burning was getting worse. That thing you do when you bind us together. So there’s no going back. She was going to have him. Take him. Keep him. This man was going to be hers. Hurry.

  You are certain?

  In answer, she sucked harder and took him deeper. His girth stretched her lips and there was no way to get him as deep as she wanted, which was just to swallow him down, but she tried. She was staking her own claim on him.

  The hands in her hair became two tight fists. “Te avio päläfertiilam. Éntölam kuulua, avio päläfertiilam.”

  Speak English. I don’t know everything you’re saying. She should have stopped what she was doing, but she couldn’t. Her mouth clamped over his cock like a vise and she suckled strongly, her tongue lashing at him, dancing up and down, needing to know him intimately. One hand began to slide downward along her belly, her body desperate for relief. He caught her hand and guided it back to his balls.

  “Ted kuuluak, kacad, kojed. I belong to you.”

  You do. She agreed with him. No other woman was going to get her hands on him, not if she could help it. She really was frantic for him.

  “Élidamet andam. I offer my life for you. Pesämet andam. I give you my protection. Uskolfertiilamet andam. I give you my allegiance. Sívamet andam. I give you my heart. Sielamet andam. I give you my soul.”

  Yes. Mine. She needed to know that he belonged solely to her. She liked that. No, she loved it. No one had ever been hers. She couldn’t say she’d ever had a family. She didn’t know love. She did know lust, and she totally was in lust with this man. Surely, that was a positive thing. He was giving her his allegiance. He meant it. She could hear it in his voice.

  His hands were gentle on her face, slowly lifting her mouth from him. She chased after his cock while his thumb brushed at the tears on her face. “Little mage, you are definitely mine.”

  “And you’re definitely mine.” She needed his reassurance.

  He lifted her and she immediately circled his neck with her arms, locking her hands behind his head. He lowered her to the bed she’d slept in all day, coming down over her, his knee nudging her legs apart. Heart pounding, she widened her thighs to accommodate him. To welcome him. He brushed kisses over her wet lashes and then she felt him, that thick, broad head pushing into her tight entrance. Her breath caught in her throat.

  “Ainamet andam. I give you my body.”

  She so wanted his body. She tried to push herself onto him, but she was so tight, her muscles resisted his invasion. She didn’t care if he stretched her beyond burning. She needed him. Nearly sobbing, she bucked her hips and squir
med, desperate to take him all the way inside her. The birthmark over her left ovary began to glow, the dragon showing himself.

  Isai’s breath caught in his throat and then he kissed the mark gently. Reverently. “Mark of Dragonseeker. It is strong in you,” he whispered. “Sívamet kuuluak kaik että a ted. I take into my keeping the same that is yours.”

  He surged a little deeper and she almost couldn’t breathe. When he bent his head to hers, his sapphire eyes burning his claim into her, his dark hair brushing like fingers over her skin, she couldn’t look away. Then he was kissing her with exquisite tenderness. He lifted his head, so their gazes collided, and she was held prisoner in all that blue.

  “Ainaak olenszal sívambin. Your life will be cherished by me for all my time. Te élidet ainaak pide minan. Your life will be placed above mine for all time.”

  He began to move in her, all the while those eyes staring into hers, as if he could see right into her soul. He held her as if she was the most treasured, precious woman in the world. She felt like she was truly beautiful, cherished, maybe even loved. He looked as if he knew her, and maybe he did, he’d been in her mind.

  “Te avio päläfertiilam. You are my lifemate. I’m so grateful that you’re the one, Julija. That you are mine.”

  She was more than grateful he was hers. She almost didn’t believe it, but it was difficult to refute it when he was looking right into her eyes. She could barely blink. She certainly couldn’t look away. “I feel the same,” she whispered, praying he was for real. That this wasn’t some elaborate illusion or dark, sinister plot against her. She wouldn’t be able to live through another one, not whole and intact. “Be real, Isai. Please, be real.”

  “I am going to be so real most of the time, my little mage, that you will wish me otherwise.” His voice was warm with amusement, but it was also a warning.

  She chose to ignore that. She found herself lifting her hips to meet his every stroke, urging him on with one hand to his hip.

  “Ainaak sívamet jutta oleny. You are bound to me for all eternity.”

  She wanted to be bound to him. Maybe he would drive her insane, but he would be hers. They would fight their enemies together. She needed that. She needed someone to care whether she lived or died.

  “Ainaak terád vigyázak. You are always in my care.”

  It was strange, but even with flames spreading like wildfire through her veins and little sparks of electricity dancing over her skin, she felt tiny threads binding them together, weaving back and forth between them. Her light shed over his darkness. In any context she would have thought it hokey, but she had studied Carpathian society. She knew lifemates were a reality in their world. Now she knew it applied to her as well.

  He moved in her, welding them together, fusing their bodies the way he had their souls. She clung to him, her nails biting deep. Deep inside she felt the tension coiling tighter and tighter. Her gaze clung to his.

  “Isai?” His name escaped. A ragged whisper of sound. Breathy. Needy. A little afraid.

  “I have you,” he said. “Just let go.”

  She knew when she did she would be swept away. Julija would be gone and it would always be Julija and Isai. “I’m terrified.” She was. Of the unknown. Of needing someone the way she would need him.

  He leaned down and nuzzled her throat. “Come to me, sívamet. Just let go. You will never be alone again.”

  Looking into those brilliant blue eyes, with her body on fire and wound so tightly she was afraid she might shatter, she took a breath and did exactly what he said. The tidal wave was massive, moving through her body, washing from her center outward. The feeling spread through her, ripples of shocking intensity that swept her up into a place she’d never been and never wanted to leave.

  She took him with her, so that she felt the hot splash of his seed, triggering even more shocks. Each left her breathless. Amazed. Floating. She didn’t think anything could ever sate her, not once that horrible spell had been used on her, but somehow, Isai had managed, and he’d been gentle, not rough. He’d destroyed everything Barnabas had ever said about her and her needs for darker, painful sex. She had hated everything Barnabas ever said or did to her, but those nights and days had run into weeks and then months. Perhaps years. She’d been terrified that he was right about her because no matter what he did, or how much it hurt, her body had responded and had been desperate for more.

  “Stop, sívamet.” Isai brushed kisses over her wet lashes. “Tell me what is wrong.”

  She was sobbing again. He would end up thinking all she did was cry. What could she say? She was so grateful she wasn’t completely messed up? “Nothing is wrong. Everything is right. Is perfect.”

  There was no way Barnabas could possibly have conjured up Isai. Or the bliss she’d just experienced with the gentle, caring intimacy of their sexual encounter. Isai made her feel cherished. Treasured. Important. Barnabas made her feel dirty and disposable. A receptacle, nothing more to him.

  She couldn’t stop crying, and Isai did the only thing left to him. He kissed her, swallowing her tears, his mouth hotter than a flame. She couldn’t think when he kissed her, and she had to respond. She gave herself up to the wonder of his mouth. When he finally lifted his head, she felt dazed, happily so. His mouth wandered over her chin and down her throat, giving her little kisses, tiny stings as his teeth nipped her, then a velvet rasp as his tongue eased that ache. He kissed his way to her breast and right on the upper curve, he sank his teeth deep.

  She cried out, her body clenching hard, grasping and milking at his cock, the erotic act triggering a massive orgasm all over again. She circled his head with her arms, holding him as he drank, his body moving in hers, until she felt she had one endless orgasm that tore through her repeatedly.

  When he lifted his head, licking across the two holes to close them, his blue eyes smiled down into hers. She let her head loll back against the mattress, desperate for air when her body seemed incapable of breathing properly.

  He waited until the last wave had receded before kissing her again. “I think you are beginning to believe I am real.”

  She nodded, afraid to move.

  “Just so I am certain, you are, for the moment, perfectly satisfied, because if you need me to continue . . .”

  Teasing. He was teasing her. Playing. Couples did that. She’d read about it. Seen it in movies. She’d witnessed it out in the world—just not in her world. “I am more than satisfied,” she assured. “Not that I will complain if you decide you need to make another effort sometime quite soon.”

  He smiled, and her heart nearly stopped. He was absolutely gorgeous. She wished she didn’t have so many scars. His fingers pushed at tendrils of damp hair on her forehead and his touch sent butterfly wings fluttering against her stomach.

  “Do you mind if I raise the temperature in the pool? I will carry you in. The hot water will keep you from feeling sore.”

  She didn’t feel sore. She felt delicious. She’d felt his every heartbeat, right through his cock. He’d stretched her ability to take him, yet there wasn’t a painful spot on her body. “You didn’t hurt me at all. Not in the least.”

  “Nevertheless, I intend to take care of you.”

  He lifted her easily into his arms, cradling her against his chest, over his heart. His hands on her body were so gentle she wanted to cry all over again. Instead, she turned her face into his neck and enjoyed the way he seemed to glide across the floor to the short distance where the pool she’d created waited for them.

  “I did this.” She looked at it with pride.

  “You did and it’s beautiful. Nice job.”

  She held his praise to her. It wasn’t like she ever got compliments or praise for anything. She would be grateful for anything he noticed. Having him express his approval was huge and she hugged it to her. “I’m glad you like it.”

  “Very much. It looks completely natural, as if it has always been here. It is efficient and does not take up too much space. You h
ave a good eye. For someone who had no idea she could do this, you created the pool like an expert, which I suppose, technically you are.”

  He floated into the pool with her in his arms and sank into the heat of the water. It felt like heaven, exactly what she needed.

  8

  Isai allowed Julija to move out of his arms to the other side of the pool. Before she got there, he waved his hand and she had a comfortable seat, just the right height for the blanket of warm water to hit her just above her breasts. She looked beautiful, all flushed and tousled, as if she’d been thoroughly made love to—and she had.

  He’d grown to know her through their telepathic connection. He caught glimpses of her life and it sickened him that he’d been in the world and hadn’t been able to protect her. She blushed when he kept looking at her.

  “You have to stop. I can’t think when you’re staring at me like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know. A hungry wolf. You look as if you might devour me any minute.”

  He flashed a small enigmatic smile at her. “It is a possibility.”

  “I’m sorry I doubted you, Isai. Or even acquainted you at all with the likes of Barnabas or my father. I should have believed in my own ability to tell truth from lie.”

  “Do not apologize to me, my little mage. They conditioned you to doubt everything. You will soon believe in yourself again and in us.”

  She went underwater to rinse out her hair. He watched the strands floating across the top of the crystal-clear pool. She looked like a sexy water nymph. It was difficult to watch her and not have his body react in spite of the fact that he had just had her. One of the cats mewed and pushed against his arm. Without thinking, he bit into his wrist and offered his blood to the animal. The two had to be hungry to ask so soon. He didn’t mind. He wanted his bond solidified.

  The shadow cats had shields preventing Anatolie from accessing either one. That gave Isai the necessary time to build the bond, so their loyalty would be absolute. He would also know what they were doing at all times. He couldn’t afford one or both cats to go after human or Carpathian blood. They would have to get used to taking what they needed from either Julija or him.