None of the crew who had gone out that evening had returned yet.
“Goddamn bastards,” he muttered under his breath. “They could do this for the rest of the night.” For the next two nights. He had kept his word, but that didn’t mean that Julian would. If Carling was capable of deceit and subterfuge, so too was her errant progeny. “Tell me again what he said to you.”
“I’ve already told you three times. He said I could go to him if I wished. That’s all.”
But if she was still under Julian’s thrall, was she telling the truth?
He glanced at Olivia and caught her surreptitiously wiping at her eyes with her head bent. That stopped him in his tracks. He strode over to squat in front of her. “Are you all right?”
She turned her face away and said, “Of course I am.”
She lied with such composure and dignity, it blew apart all of his rage. He took hold of her chin and turned her face gently back to him.
Tears swam in her eyes.
He took a deep breath. His voice calm and quiet, he said, “Let’s try that again. I will ask, ‘Are you all right?’ And this time you will tell me the truth.”
“I feel humiliated,” she said, very low. “I’m supposed to be intelligent. I’m very well educated. I am really good at my job.”
“You are superb at your job. I don’t have to see you in action to know that. You wouldn’t be on this trip otherwise.” He took both her hands. She still felt chilled. He cupped them between his own, trying to warm them up. “And so?”
“I thought I was a strong person,” she began. “I’ve never had such a reaction to a Vampyre before, and I’ve encountered them countless times. I’ve helped dozens of them at the library without a single problem…”
“Stop,” he said. “Just stop.”
She fell silent and regarded him gravely.
“What happened is not your fault,” he said. Her fingers moved underneath his. He realized he was crushing her hands between his and made a conscious effort to loosen his grip. “It has no bearing on your intelligence or your worth, or strength as a human. It’s like—like coming down with cancer, or—” He cast about his mind for another example but came up blank, so he reached for something that he was more familiar with. “Or mortality. It’s a part of your human condition. That’s all. He is a very old, very Powerful predator, and you are his prey. Everything about him is designed to pull you in, and you heard what he said. Sometimes it takes humans that way.”
She nodded and straightened her back. “Intellectually, I understand what you’re saying. It’s just taking my emotions a little while to catch up. You know, it’s quite terrifying to not be in control of what is happening to you.”
Her words hit him hard, and it was his turn to avert his face. He muttered, very low, “I know.”
There was a pause. He could feel her gaze upon him almost like a physical caress. “That’s happened to you too.”
He didn’t have to tell her anything. The thought flashed through his mind, and he even paused to consider it. He had no business opening up to someone like her, or attempting to develop a real connection. They lived vastly different lives, and his was cursed.
But that intangible thing about her still drew him, just as it had on the plane and earlier on the deck when they had talked. And he discovered that he wanted to confide in her.
His mouth twisted. He said, “It’s happening to me right now.”
Her hands turned under his, slender fingers closing around his. “What do you mean?”
Slowly he disengaged one hand, removed his sunglasses and looked at her. Funny how quickly the glasses had become such an ingrained habit that he felt naked and vulnerable without them.