Dark Descent by Christine Feehan

blood fetish, but don’t you think changing into animals and flying through the air might be going a little too far?”
    His arms tightened possessively. “You do not enjoy flying?”
    “I don’t enjoy anything when I’m not in complete control. And you didn’t have to intimidate my brother.”
    His arm was curved around her, pressed against the underside of her breasts. “You will not be in complete control when I make love to you, Joie,” he told her softly.
    She closed her eyes at the velvet sound of his voice. Danger surrounded them. Her family was close. It didn’t seem to matter. She was so aware of him, her body ached with need. With hunger. With absolute longing. She felt edgy and hot; a terrible pressure was building inside her.
    I feel the same way.
    She often spoke with her brother and sister using telepathy, a secret they all shared, but this was different. So much more. An intimacy that whispered of erotic nights and appetites that would never be sated. Why? Why with you?
    I am your other half. We belong together. I have searched the world for you. Waited lifetimes for you.
    Joie tightened her grip on his shirt, burrowed closer to his heart. She was a woman who knew herself well. An adrenaline junkie. A feminist. A believer in justice. She loved her life. Traveling from country to country. One assignment after another taking her into danger. Her recreation time was spent caving, white-water rafting, or skydiving. She was not a woman who wanted or needed a man. She was not a woman who clung to a man.
    Joie looked up at Traian, the light from her helmet shining on his face. He had changed her very existence for all time. “I’m not altogether certain I approve of you.”
    Laughter rumbled in his throat. “Fortunately, your approval is not strictly necessary. Lifemates simply are. We have no choice in the matter. We are like two magnets that cannot be torn apart.”
    “Great. I don’t know a thing about you except I can’t exactly bring you home to my mother and father. My family is very close, by the way.”
    He put her carefully on firm ground. Jubal and Ga-brielle rushed to her, flinging their arms around her and hugging her close. “I had not noticed,” Traian said with drawling amusement. “We are not safe. We have to keep moving.”
    “Wait, Traian,” Jubal objected. “We found something. Something really important. You said those vampires were hunting something. You have to take a look at this. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
    Traian hadn’t relinquished Joie’s hand, even when her siblings dragged her into their arms. She felt a little silly holding hands—she’d never really done it, not even in high school. But there was something warm and comforting, something extraordinary about being close to Traian.
    “You can bring me home to your parents.” He said it softly, honestly, as he followed Jubal and Gahrielle through a narrow hall. “I would never embarrass you, or frighten them. I want to meet them. Anyone important to you is important to me.”
    Joie tried to prevent her heart from going crazy. She was no young girl, but a fully grown woman. A man shouldn’t have such an effect on her, yet he did. There was honesty in his voice. A simple sincerity that shook her. She knew nothing about him, not even what he really was, yet she knew everything. She knew what kind of man he was. The knowledge was instinctive, the one thing she was certain of.
    “Where is your family?” she asked.
    “I have only my people. My prince.” His eyes gleamed a deep black in the soft glow of the helmet lights. “You are my family. Your brother and sister have become my family.” He arched an eyebrow at her. “And we have only just met. A very strange concept for you, but completely natural to me. Lifemates are two people who meet and need to be together, two halves of the same whole. Finding a lifemate is what every Carpathian male dreams of and longs for and fights to keep our world