Dark Nights by Christine Feehan Read Free Book Online Page A

sighed, her shoulders sagging. She had to tell someone—and besides—she owed them an explanation. “Does insanity run in the family?” Joie continued to stare down into the well of darkness. “Because if it does, someone should have warned us.”
    “You think you’re insane?” Jubal struggled to understand. Joie was the one who laughed all the time, who found humor in everything. She lit up the world with her smile, and she certainly never seemed to suffer from depression.
    “I hear voices. Well . . .” she hedged, “ a voice. One voice. Mostly at night or in the early morning hours. We have conversations. Long conversations. Sometimes very intense and sometimes humorous.” She felt the color rise beneath her skin and was grateful it was dark in the gallery. “Sometimes sexy. I find myself staying up all night just to be able to hear his voice and spend time with him.” She shrugged her shoulders. “He even has a name. Traian Trigovise. How could I think up a name like that? I’ve never even heard of a name like that. He has an accent—a European, very sexy accent. He’d old world and charming and I can’t stop obsessing over him.”
    Gabrielle tightened her fingers around Joie’s hand. “When did this start? When did you first hear this voice?”
    Joie shrugged, remaining silent. Neither Jubal nor Gabrielle spoke, waiting her out. Finally she sighed again, hating to admit when the voice had first begun. She knew what they would think, but to her, he was real and he was in trouble. She had to find him.
    “When I was shot in Austria. You know how much I hate hospitals. When they took me there, I did my little disappearing act.” She looked at her brother and sister briefly and then away again. “It isn’t as if I didn’t consider that I was dreaming when I first saw him—you know feeling the effects of the anesthesia, but it’s so much more than that.”
    She stole another quick look at both of her siblings. She had their attention and clearly they were trying to understand.
    “I’ve practiced astral projection for a long time. Remember all the stories I told you as a child about flying?”
    “In your dreams,” Gabrielle said.
    Jubal shook his head in warning. “Keep talking, Joie.”
    “I guess I really succeeded. It really happened. This has to be real. I think we connected because we’d both been in a storm, in a battle and wounded at the same time.” She shrugged helplessly. “It’s the only reasonable explanation to me. He didn’t go away. I could hear him talking to me in my mind. He found something important in the caves. I was already planning a trip here with you two, so I figured I could see if he was real.”
    “Joie,” Jubal reprimanded gently. “Telepathic communication? With someone else? I know we can use telepathy, but we’ve never met anyone else who can.”
    “Is it really that far-fetched? I can take myself somewhere else. I know when I’m in danger. You’re weird with patterns, and Gabrielle can do all sorts of strange things. We’re all able to use telepathy with each other. Is it such a stretch to believe others can use it, too? I have to go down there. I have to know if he’s real, if he’s here, in this place. I feel him. I can’t explain it, but it’s like he’s crawled inside of me somehow and I need him. I need to prove this to myself. And I’m afraid he’s injured.”
    “Why didn’t you tell us right away, Joie?” Jubal asked.
    “Because I don’t want the voice to go away,” Joie admitted with stark truth. “I saw a counselor. He said I was having a break with reality, schizophrenia, probably brought on by the trauma of being shot. I didn’t want to point out it wasn’t the first time I’ve taken a bullet; it wasn’t the worst injury and it won’t be the last. I didn’t take the medication the counselor prescribed. I thought maybe it wasn’t so bad to live in a fantasy world part of the time. I still function and do my job.” She