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“I’m in love with her.”
“What.”
Of all the things Daniel had expected the man to ever say? That wasn’t it; not about Lydia, not about anyone or anything.
“You heard me. I’ve bonded with her—not that you’d understand that kind of thing as a human.”
Human?Daniel narrowed his eyes. “What the hell are you talking about.”
Blade got down on his haunches and stared through the flames. “Your woman says the lab under Deer Mountain is working on drugs to save your life. Is that true?”
Daniel put up a forefinger. “Can we not refer to her like that, thanks. And yes, it is.”
“But you haven’t taken them, why?”
“Too much to lose. Or so I thought.”
“You’re already dying.”
“Yeah, so time is really fucking important. Especially with the one I love—loved, I mean. Fuck.” Daniel rubbed his face. “You any closer to putting a gun to my head? If we could move that along, that would be great, thanks—”
“You should try the drugs, Daniel.”
“Like I’m taking advice from you about anything?”
“She’d be worth it. Time with a woman like her—it would be worth any risk.” Before Daniel cut in, the guy kept going: “Fight for her, Daniel. You need to fight. Do whatever you can to stay with her. It’ll be worth it.”
Daniel sat up, the crackling of the fire seeming to increase. Or maybe that was just his temper flaring.
“Don’t tell me what I need while you’re fucking the woman I love.”
Maybe if he repeated the words enough times, he could jam everything about her into his past, make her something in his rear view—so that it didn’t hurt as much.
“Look into my eyes,” Blade commanded.
“Fuck you—”
The instant Daniel’s stare was caught and held, the images started: He saw a progression of them, starting with the perspective of Lydia from a distance, through some trees—and Daniel felt an instant attraction, sure as if he were the one looking at her. Even though he wasn’t. These were someone else’s memories. Blade’s.
He saw it all. From when Blade had first seen her… to later, when he’d become transfixed by her and one of the biomechanical soldiers showed up… to when she had protected him… to the moment his sister, Xhex—
“Alex Hess is your sister,” Daniel breathed.
And then there were other memories. From inside the den with the hidden spring.
Of Lydia telling the guy she was happily married.
“Why are you doing this?” Daniel whispered as the man’s face came back into real-time view.
“I don’t know. It goes against my nature.”
Blade straightened back up. And then he looked to the heavens as if he were searching for meaning in the stars that shone, bright and cold, above them both.
“Maybe it’s because she was never mine to begin with. She’s yours, all the way. Always has been.”
“We’re not married,” Daniel whispered. “She lied about that.”
That cruelly intelligent face shifted back to him. “Strikes me as the kind of thing you should rectify before the Grim Reaper shows up on your doorstep, but that’s me. And I don’t care what you do with what I showed you. Destiny has always been subject to free will—so if you want to complicate this by distrusting me or my motives, that’s your prerogative. Frankly, I hope you do fuck it up. Because if you don’t? That extraordinary female will no doubt live out the rest of her life as some kind of recluse, forever pining for her one true love.”
