Dark Slayer - Christine Feehan [140]
Razvan realized what she was doing and immediately followed suit. He had a photographic memory. If she wanted the area pristine, he would make certain it was left that way when they were gone.
Ivory floated the two small rocks away to reveal a crawl space low to the ground. They both shifted into vapor and poured into the narrow opening. Ivory wove safeguards to hide the entrance while they were inside and then proceeded along the curving tube, following its direction down into the warmth of the earth. The crawl space was no wider than a small man’s shoulders, but in their present form, they traveled fast.
The tunnel began to widen and the ceiling became high enough for them to stand, but Ivory, conscious of disturbing the natural balance of the ecosystem, remained as vapor until she got down into the cave itself. The cave was quite large and wide, terraced with many levels.
She left off her shoes when she shifted to her natural form, letting her feet sink into the rich soil just to absorb the feeling.
“Hurry, Razvan, like this. It is so wonderful—like heaven.”
She flashed a quick smile his way, but Razvan could tell it was a bit tentative. That always moved him. His confident warrior always became a little nervous when she was having fun or being a woman. He stayed just inches from the soil with his bare feet. “I do not know about this, Ivory. I have been in heaven, you know.”
She looked up with a small frown, realized his meaning from the look in his eyes and then she blushed. He loved that—the sweep of color moving up her neck and creeping under the porcelain of her skin when he teased her.
“Put your feet in the soil,” she said, shaking her head at him.
He floated to just in front of her, keeping his feet hovering above the enticing richness of the dark loam. His body bumped against hers. “I cannot quite settle. I am new at this you know.”
“You are always up to something when you give me your little-boy smile.” The one that melted her entire body and left her weak and breathless and ready to do anything he wanted right there on the spot. In a kind of desperation, she gripped his arms and yanked him down. His body slid along the length of hers, sending a shiver of excitement spiraling through her.
Razvan’s bare feet sank into the rich soil nearly up to his ankles. His fingers curled around her arms as they stood with only a breath between them. “Ivory!” Excitement shook him. “This is such a find.”
Pleased, she shrugged. “It is not really my find. I was given the location by the earth when I was deep beneath the layers and fighting for my life. I crawled here. Inch by inch.”
She swallowed the dark memories of those difficult days and leaned into him, unconsciously seeking the shelter of his heart. She hadn’t realized until that moment how much she already relied on him. It both frightened and elated her that Razvan had become so important to her so quickly.
“I would crawl as far as I could when there was no moon to burn my skin,” she explained. “In the first attempts to rise for a few hours and start the trek, even the smallest light hurt my skin. The pack would guard me and then I would sink beneath the soil and recover until I could manage to gather the courage and endurance to go farther.”
His arm swept around her and he brushed kisses over the top of her head. She wasn’t asking for sympathy, she simply was giving him the facts. Everything he was rebelled at the images of her crawling on her hands and knees, dragging herself over the rough terrain on her belly, using elbows and knees to propel herself forward. He hadn’t been there to aid her and the thought of her enduring such agony without him to help her left him sick.
He traced the thin white lines segmenting her body, the one around her