topped her feeding, closing the wound himself. his blood would both tie them together and aid her healing. it would also work on her human body to convert her to his race. conversion was risky, hard on the body and mind. and once done, there was no going back. jaxon would be as he was, needing blood to survive, seeking relief from the sun in the welcoming arms of the earth. if she was not a true psychic - the only kind of human female to successfully convert to carpathian - the experiment would push her over the edge into madness, and jaxon would have to be destroyed. lucian sat back, releasing her from his dark spell.

her eyelashes fluttered as he slipped her back onto the pillows. lucian knew that very few humans could be converted successfully. but he also believed she must belong within those ranks, as she was his true lifemate. her heart matched his. he knew that. when he uttered the ritual words, he felt the threads binding them together. even so, knowing something intellectually didn't make his heart believe it. he wanted to take no chances with her safety. three exchanges of blood were necessary for complete conversion. already her hearing and eyesight were more acute, more like those of carpathians. she would soon have trouble consuming meat products and most other foods. she would need him near. he had changed her life as much as he dared to at this time.

"i still don't know who you are." beneath the covers of the bed, jaxon's fingers wrapped securely around the butt of her gun. she was very drowsy, and this stranger was far too familiar. she didn't like puzzles. she had no idea where she was, only that she was ill and had strange dreams of a dark prince taking her blood and tying her to him for all time. there was something exotic and different about the stranger she found hovering over her bed.

something elegant and courtly yet wild and untamed. jaxon found the dangerous combination sensual and difficult to resist.

lucian smiled at her, a flash of even white teeth that softened the hard lines of his shadowed features. "i am lucian daratrazanoff. a very old and respected name but difficult in this country to pronounce correctly. lucian is fine."

"do i know you?" jaxon wished she wasn't so weak. she wished she hadn't had such erotic and peculiar dreams about this man. it made her feel strange to be in his presence, especially when nothing was making sense to her. "why am i here instead of a hospital?"

"you needed extraordinary care," he answered truthfully. "you came very close to dying, jaxon, and i could not afford to take any chances with your life."

"my partner, barry radcliff, was shot. i remember, he came back for me." everything else was a blur to her. she had no idea how she had gotten out of the warehouse, since barry had not been in any shape to carry her.

"he is in the hospital and doing better than expected. he is a tough man and very courageous." lucian gave her partner his just due, although he didn't add that the man was in love with her.

"i thought i was going to die. i should have died." she murmured the words softly almost to herself.

she had wanted to die. the terrible responsibility that weighed on her slender shoulders was far more of a burden than she wanted to carry for all time. she forced her lashes open so that she could look at him. "you're in terrible danger. you can't be with me. wherever we are, it isn't safe. you're not safe."

lucian smiled and reached down to brush at the hair tumbling down around her face. his touch was incredibly tender and gave her that strange sense of security. his voice was so beautiful and pure, she wanted him to go on talking forever. his accent was sexy, sending a wave of longing through her she hardly recognized for what it was.

"do not worry about me, young one. i am able to protect both of us. i know of the man you fear, and as long as you are in this house, you are safe. he is well trained, but it would be impossible for him to enter these grounds undetected."

"you don't know him. he will kill anyone without remorse or thought. even though you're only helping me, he'll interpret it as a threat to him." she was becoming agitated, her eyes enormous with concern for him.

"if you believe nothing else of me, jaxon, believe this. there is no other in this world as dangerous as the man in this room with you. tyler drake cannot reach you. he can no longer dictate your life, as you are under my protection now." he sounded matter-of-fact, not arrogant, not a braggart.

she was falling into his dark eyes again. his beautiful, very unusual eyes. jaxon felt a little lost, and she blinked rapidly to break away from his mesmerizing spell. "i know you think that. my father was a navy seal, and so was my foster father, russell andrews. tyler drake managed to murder both of them. you can't think you're safe as long as you're with me." her lashes were far too heavy to keep up. they drifted down in spite of her intention to convince him. she didn't have the strength to guard him. that frightened her, and her heart slammed painfully against her chest.

"be calm, jaxon. take a breath and relax. i am the one taking care of you, not the other way around, although i greatly appreciate that you would want to protect me. in any case, no one knows where you are. i have kept you entirely secure. just sleep, honey, and heal."

his voice was so soothing and persuasive, she soon found her breathing regulating itself exactly to his. why she wanted to do as he commanded, she didn't know, but the urge to obey was far too strong to ignore. she allowed her eyes to close. "i hope you're as good as you think you are. it would be safer for you if you called my boss and had him station a couple of the guys to watch over you." her voice was trailing off to a soft slur. "better yet, it would be safer if you just walked away from me and never looked back."

once more lucian's fingers tangled in her soft hair. "you think i would be safer, do you?"

there was a tinge of amusement in his voice. for some reason it made jaxon's heart turn over. he was so familiar, as if she knew him intimately, when she didn't recognize him at all. except his touch. she knew his touch. and the sound of his voice. she knew his voice. the accent, the velvet seduction of it, the way he turned his phrases. the way it seemed to belong in her mind. the really crazy part was, jaxon was beginning to believe in him.

lucian watched her go under without so much as a fight. she hadn't wanted her life to be saved, but she had picked up the torch of being his guardian, worried for his safety. she was ready to protect him without even knowing who he was. he had spent a good deal of time now with his mind merged firmly with hers. it had been necessary at first just to keep her alive. later, he did it because he wanted to know her, her memories, how she thought, what she dreamed of, the things that were important to her. she had far more compassion in her than was good for her. she needed him to balance her out.

he was amazed at how powerful the sexual urges he was experiencing for her were. that it had never happened to him before. he had seldom looked at a woman for other than satisfying hunger. now his hunger was different and far stronger than anything he had ever imagined. for the sake of knowledge lucian had sometimes shared the minds of humans to see what sex felt like. this urgent demand raging throughout his body was completely different from even that. it seemed to take over his mind, driving out every sane thought.

protective. lucian knew every carpathian male was born with the tremendous duty of protecting the women and children of their race. this protectiveness he felt toward jaxon was also different. lucian had dedicated his life to guarding humans and carpathians alike, yet again, the intensity of his emotions toward jaxon was so much stronger. he was unprepared for how powerful his attachment to her would really be. he had lived nearly all his life in darkness and shadow, was comfortable and familiar with violence. he was wholly dark and dangerous. now he wanted to know tenderness, gentleness. he knew himself as most men never did. he knew he was powerful and dangerous, and he accepted it in himself. now, however, with jaxon lying so vulnerable and fragile in his bed, he was even more so.

with a sigh he sank down on the bed beside her. while she remained human and needed to stay above ground to survive, he would be unable to fully protect her during the day, when sunlight diminished carpathian powers. normally he would take to the earth until nightfall. which posed a problem for both of them. she could not be separated from him for that many hours without suffering tremendously. he stretched out on the bed beside her. he would command her to sleep until the next sunset. meanwhile, the safeguards he would weave around them and the wolves he would release would keep them safe from any creature, human or otherwise, that might seek to harm them. he gathered her small body into the shelter of his larger frame and buried his face in the silky fragrance of her hair.