Blurred Memories (16 page)

He knew why Blake had turned
to her, of course. He understood that in Blake’s mind, Marc’s face
was still the face of his jailer; it would always be. Blake had
progressed a lot, and he could see more in Marc than the creature
who had tortured him for countless years, but Marc knew that a
monster was still the first thing Blake saw in him.

It hurt because Blake was
his Childe. It was Marc’s job—his responsibility, his reason for
being, or at least one of them—to take care of him.

It hurt for other reasons,
too; there were words Marc had never said to Blake, words he would
never say, but that didn’t mean that the feelings behind these
unspoken words didn’t exist.

Marc could have joined them.
He should have, maybe. After all, that propped door testified to
the fact that they had been expecting him. They looked too
peaceful, however. He didn’t want to break such a quiet moment.
Also, Blake’s and Kate’s words from earlier were still ringing
through his head. Blake had reproached him for not coming to free
him and had forgotten for a moment where he was when he had struck
Marc as if Marc were his jailer; Kate had been adamant that they
had to do something about the prison, physically sick at the
thought that more people were trapped like Blake had
been.

They were right. Both of
them. And Marc would prove himself worthy of them.

One slow step after the
other, he retreated back to the door, turning away only when he
couldn’t see them anymore.

He left the shoe in the
door, giving himself a way to come back later if he needed it, and
started down the hallway again, not knowing where exactly he was
going. He reached the elevator and was waiting for it when soft
steps on the once-plush carpet drew his attention. He turned to see
Daniel. His hair was damp, and he was wearing a crisp, white
shirt.

“
Couldn’t sleep either?”
Daniel asked with the flicker of a smile. “I was on my way down to
the kitchen. Hungry?”

Marc wasn’t, but he didn’t
have anything better to do. He entered the elevator with Daniel and
observed him from the corner of his eye. It was the first time they
had been alone since Daniel had left Riverton—and the first time
that Marc felt he could talk to Daniel as his Childe rather than as
the leader of the squad.

“
You look much better,” he
remarked, striving for a casual tone. “No issues finding blood in
this town?”

Daniel threw a wry look at
him. “If you’re asking whether I’ve been feeding enough, the answer
is yes. I’ve learned my lesson. So you can stop worrying about
me.”

Marc nodded, but what came
out of his mouth was, “That’s not going to happen. You’re my
Childe, you’ll always be my Childe, and I’ll always worry about
you. That’s all there is to it.”

They had reached the first
floor, and as he stepped out of the elevator Daniel rolled his eyes
at Marc. “You make it sound like I’m a kid. I can take care of
myself. I managed just fine long before we ever met.”

Daniel led the way past the
lobby and toward the hotel kitchen. It was late, but voices could
be heard coming from the courtyard beyond the lobby door; soldiers
on duty, no doubt.

“
It’s not that I think you
need supervision,” Marc tried to explain. “It’s just—”

“
It’s just that you
couldn’t do a thing for Blake and you don’t want it to happen
again?” Daniel cut in.

Despite Daniel’s lopsided
smile, the words tore into Marc’s heart like a knife, reopening
wounds that had been self-inflicted only minutes earlier. He didn’t
reply and merely watched Daniel warm up two bags of refrigerated
blood. He still didn’t say anything when Daniel handed him a warm
mug, opting for a nod of thanks.

“
I shouldn’t have brought
it up,” Daniel said with a sigh. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. All I
meant was that I’m fine, and Blake needs you a hell of a lot more
than I do.”

Marc drank a mouthful of
blood, but it did little to chase the bitter taste of failure that
lingered on his tongue. “I know,” he said at last, and changed the
subject. “Have you told your superiors about the prison
yet?”

Daniel grimaced over the rim
of his mug. “Not yet. I was going to make that call now, actually.
Do you want to listen in?”

Moments later, they were
sitting in Daniel’s office, but Daniel seemed reluctant to pick up
the phone.

“
Will they still be up?”
Marc asked, wondering what the hold up was.

Daniel barely threw a glance
at the clock on the wall before he answered. “Yes, it’s morning for
them already.”

“
So, what are you waiting
for?”

Daniel’s hand lingered over
the phone, and he shrugged—but still didn’t pick it up. “I’m trying
to think of the best way to present the news. They’ve always been
dead set against any attempts at going to the other side, and I
don’t want them to say no before I can even explain.”

“
You think they’ll say no
even with all those lives hanging in the balance?” If Marc was
fully honest with himself, he could admit that he had expected as
much—maybe even counted on it.

Daniel didn’t reply and
dialed. It took less than five minutes for him to explain the
situation and for his superiors, two men and a woman on conference
call, to agree unanimously.

“
The risk is too great,”
one of the men said, Commander something-or-other.

“
We’re talking about dozens
of lives,” Daniel insisted. “We can help; it’s only a matter of
trying.”

“
Your job is to close
breaches,” the woman said sternly. “Not all mages are strong enough
to do so, and you have one of the strongest in your unit. Close the
breach and move on to the next. Every day you delay, people in
another town die under demon steel because their breach wasn’t
closed yet. Twenty prisoners is a small price to pay for thousands
of people not living in fear anymore.”

Daniel clearly disagreed. He
leaned over the desk and stared intently at the phone when he
started arguing. Marc had heard enough. He stood and started for
the door. Daniel didn’t seem to notice.

It was better this way, Marc
thought as he returned to the kitchen. It
was
a dangerous
mission. The fewer people, the better. With a mug full of hot
insta-coffee in hand, Marc returned to the squad’s floor and
followed his nose to Simon’s room. He found it easily enough.
Before he knocked, he looked down the hallway toward his, Blake,
and Kate’s room. He hoped they were still asleep. They both needed
the rest. Finally, Marc knocked with two brief rasps of his
knuckles on the wood. The light snoring inside ceased abruptly, but
when a few seconds had passed without the tell-tale sound of steps,
Marc knocked again, a little louder this time. After another
moment, the door opened to reveal a bleary-eyed Simon. He frowned
when he saw Marc standing there and closed his robe a little more
tightly around him, as though he were feeling
self-conscious.

“
Marc?” He blinked several
times. “What’s wrong?”

Marc gave him a tight smile.
“Nothing. I just need to talk to you. Can I come in?”

He held the mug of
insta-coffee in front of him like an offering. After another beat,
Simon reached for it, thanking Marc as he took it. He cradled the
mug between his hands as he stepped aside and asked, “Do you… I
mean, do I have to actually invite you in?”

Marc shook his head as he
passed the threshold. “Not to enter a hotel room, no. Can we sit
down?”

Simon allowed the door to
swing shut and led the way into the room proper. The bed sheets
were rumpled, which was no surprise at this hour of the morning.
Simon sat at the foot of the bed, tilting his head toward the chair
to invite Marc to sit.

“
What was it you wanted to
talk about?” Simon asked before taking a slow sip of
coffee.

“
The breach,” Marc said
without preamble. “Yesterday you said the news was
grim?”

Simon drank again, this time
with a grimace. “Not so much grim as nonexistent. I couldn’t figure
out anything other than the obvious, which is that some kind of
magic is keeping it open.”

Marc nodded. “Jen said
they’re maintaining a shield over it to deflect magic from the
inside out. She can show us where from.”

Simon’s hand trembled when
he lowered the mug. He stared at Marc for a long moment, and
finally licked his lips before he asked, “Show us? You mean…in the
demon dimension? You actually want to go there?” He gulped and
added, even more quietly now, “You want
me
to go
there?”

The fear in Simon’s voice
wasn’t unexpected. Marc only hoped he could find a way to get past
it.

“
I
need
you to go
there,” he said calmly. “I could storm there with an entire army
and we still might not be able to break the spell that holds the
breach open. I need a mage. And there’s none better than
you.”

Simon had always been proud
of what he could do with magic, and even now, he perked up a little
at the praise. He still sounded wary, however, when he asked, “Why
are you telling me this? Why not Daniel? He’s the leader of the
squad and…” His voice trailed off, and his eyes widened when he
figured it out. “He doesn’t know, does he? Does
anyone
know?”

It was clear that, by
‘anyone,’ Simon meant ‘Blake and Kate.’ Marc had anticipated this
question, too, and he had his answer ready. Knowing how to reply,
however, didn’t make the words any easier to say. “Blake…my
Childe
was trapped in that place for decades. He is
not
setting foot there again. Neither are Kate and Daniel.
Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Simon’s lips twitched, then
settled into a weak grin. “So…you won’t let the people you care
about go, but you’ll take me? Is that supposed to reassure
me?”

“
That’s not…” Marc smiled
wryly. “Listen, I’m not going to say everything will go fine,
because I don’t know that. What I know is this. You are the best at
what you do. I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe. And we’ll
have better chances of success if it’s just the three of
us.”

Simon dropped his gaze to
the mug in his hands and was silent for a while, his face screwed
up in concentration. Marc wasn’t sure whether to push any further
or wait to see what conclusion Simon came to. In the end, the truth
was that it had to be Simon’s choice. Marc couldn’t force him to
come along, not when so many things could go wrong.

“
I could do a glamour,”
Simon said at last, sotto voce, and he might just as well have been
thinking aloud as talking to Marc. “With just three people to
cover, I could make it a pretty good one, too. Enough to get past
the demons.” He looked up again, frowning. “It’d be too much to
hope that there won’t be demons, right?”

Marc barely suppressed a
sigh of relief. There were still a lot of details to iron out, but
Simon was in, and that was an important first step.

Chapter 14

The smell of insta-coffee in
the morning would always be Kate’s favorite way to wake up. She
drifted out of sleep slowly, smiling before she even opened her
eyes. It had been a long time since Blake had surprised her with
breakfast in bed. And a long time since he had curled around her
like this, spooned tightly against her back, his arm wrapped around
her middle.

Except… She frowned and
finally tried to open her eyes. If Blake was still in bed, still
sleeping against her, he couldn’t have gone to get insta-coffee or
anything else, for that matter.

Her smile returned when her
gaze found Marc, seated by the desk. He was watching them sleep,
and she wished he would have joined them instead of sitting so far
away. She raised a hand toward him to invite him closer, but her
gesture had the unintended consequence of making Blake jerk against
her and draw away.

“
What?” he mumbled,
sounding more than half asleep.

Kate rolled onto her back to
offer him a contrite look. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t
mean to wake you up. You can go back to sleep if you
want.”

Blake yawned and started to
shake his head, then frowned and sat up when he saw
Marc.

“
Blood?” he asked almost
hopefully.

Marc stood and picked up the
tray from the desk. “Blood,” he confirmed. “And coffee. And
something the kitchen assured me was toast but I’m still not
convinced about that.”

He sat at the foot of the
bed—much too far—and waited until Kate and Blake were sitting up
before he set the tray down. He picked up a mug and held it out to
Kate, who took it gratefully. The aroma of the insta-coffee was
already invigorating her brain. She took her first sip while Blake
accepted the second mug from Marc. The smell wafting from that one
was entirely different, but it had never bothered Kate.

“
Where were you?” Blake
asked almost diffidently before he started to drink.

Marc shrugged. “Out. I had a
lot to think about. And I figured you’d sleep better if I wasn’t
there.”