The Darkness in Dreams (Enforcer's Legacy, #1)(73)

She moved restlessly and he soothed her. “Hush,” he whispered. “I’m sorry that I frightened you.”

“You didn’t.” She traced her finger across his chest, following one of the amber memories. Christan felt something dark begin to vibrate, sucked in a deep breath as he moved her hand.

“What do you remember of your life as Gemma?”

“That you were right about Nico.” She was drawing little circles against the back of his arm. “I still think of him that way, even though I know he’s Kace. I was foolish in that life. I’m half embarrassed by myself, actually. I’m not that way now.”

He made a half laughing sound, and she swatted at his hand.

“Well, I’m not. I was careful enough around Kace when he was calling himself Wallace. I didn’t let him get close.” She stopped talking and dipped her head. He tightened his arms and settled her more firmly between his long legs. “I’m sorry, Christan. I’m to blame for what I did. I won’t excuse it away.”

“We’re all capable of great darkness. It’s embedded in the human soul.”

“That’s why we ask for redemption, I suppose. It’s hard, facing it, that I could go that deep.”

“Hate is a terrible thing.”

“And we hated.”

“I forced you there with my arrogance and the secrets I kept.”

“And I found just as much pleasure in pushing you back.” She remained quiet, and then she asked, “Did Nico kill her? I don’t remember who held the knife.”

“He didn’t kill her, but he watched as it was done. There are two unbreakable laws with the Agreement. One is that no immortal can kill a bonded mate without paying with his life. That doesn’t mean an immortal can’t have mortals do it for him. There were mercenaries there that night. Kace claims he tried to stop it before it went too far.”

“But you don’t believe him?”

“No. I would have killed him then, but it would have started a Calata war, and for that I owe you a blood debt.” When he spoke again, his voice was unyielding, with the total absence of humanity. “The blood debt will be paid.”

Christan felt the shiver that whipped across her shoulders, and he tightened his hold to bring her back.

“That night on the road,” she asked him, after a long, long moment. “You knew he was there to kill you. Why did you come?”

“I had to know the truth.”

Because only his death would have freed her. It was a stark answer, brutally honest in his self-awareness, and it crushed her. Lexi felt broken inside until he reached out and took her hand. That connection, that one connection above all others pulled them back together, and after everything—all the anger and the pain—it was nearly inconceivable they could have gotten to this place of honesty, stripping the past clean.

When she turned more fully to face him, he was sprawled against the headboard. Lexi grabbed the blanket, wrapped it around herself and scooted down near his feet. She settled herself against the bed post, leaning back to study his changing expressions. The sensual tangle of dark hair made him less intimidating, but she loved that hard angled face, the blade of a smile when he was amused. There was a fierceness in him she admired. He belonged to a world that she barely believed could exist, untamed and earthy and natural. He deserved to be free the way a wild animal was free to live easily within his own skin.

“I want to know all there is to know about you,” she said. “I want to know how they created you if you know. I want to know how you can talk to Arsen with just your mind and what the Calata thought they were doing with this reincarnation scheme. All of it.” He was laughing at her with those dark eyes and she pointed a slender finger toward his chest. “So spill.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He gave a gentle tug on the corner of her blanket. Her grip tightened and she glared at him.

“I like cooking with you,” he said.

“What did we cook?”

“Whatever you shot with your little arrows.” He reached out to stroke her foot. “I don’t know how they created us, just one day we woke up and it felt like any other morning since then. We communicate with one another telepathically. We can summon a telekinetic power to move things around.”

“And face plant people on the ground when you lose arguments?”

“It’s how you learn never to argue with me.”

She arched her eyebrow. “Arsen’s teaching me how to guard against that little trick.”

“I’m sure he’s trying.”

“You don’t have faith in his abilities?”

Christan’s smile was wicked. “What else do you want to know?”

“What do you do as an Enforcer?”

“You don’t need those images.”

“What is it like when they compel you?”

“You saw the way the warrior disappeared in the surveillance footage? It’s like that. One minute you’re here, the next minute, you’re where they want you to be. You’re pulled apart and then you snap together again.”

“So, if the Calata wanted to mess with you, they could?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you get advanced warning?”

“Not always.”