“Who’s watching them now?”
“Claude.” His brows furrowed. “Why are you doing that with your hair?”
“You like it?”
“Take it down.”
I lowered my arms. “Why?”
He reached out and worked his fingers through the weaves, loosening the wet braids. “Don’t ever come to my bed with your hair that way. I prefer it down. There,” he said, letting it drape over my shoulders. “That’s the Raven I desire.”
“Lenore said you liked braided hair.”
Christian lifted my hand and placed a kiss on my knuckles. “Someday we’ll find a way to put that woman away for good.”
“I’m letting it go. Sparrow’s power, I mean.”
He swirled a floating rose petal around with his finger. “I knew you might be thinking about it.”
“Sparrow was an Infuser. I could have sealed his gifts to my own light. None of us joined Keystone with the intention of staying forever. Everyone was more concerned about the impact on Keystone, but I had to think about my future and what this could mean. If Viktor didn’t like it, I could have started my own group.”
Christian gave me a pensive stare.
“If only you could have felt it—then you’d understand. And I had the ability to keep adding to it. Or I could probably take some away. No one would have had to know.”
“You think rumors wouldn’t spread?”
I draped my arms over the rim of the tub. “You can’t receive a gift like that and make a hasty decision. I thought about it every waking moment. I weighed the pros and the cons and finally decided I didn’t want that burden, and not for the reasons you might think. I’m not afraid of people hunting me down.”
“So what persuaded your decision?”
I watched the petals bobbing in the water. “What if I created a wall to put people in the shadow realm and I couldn’t control it? I learned last night that Sparrow’s light is like a wild mustang that can’t be tamed. What if that wall kept expanding and swallowed the world?”
“It might be interesting if you did it on All Hallows’ Eve. Think of all the costumes.”
“I’m serious. We know it makes Breed half-dead, but how do we know it would do the same to humans? I could wind up killing every human on the planet, including my family. All it would take is one stupid miscalculation. Sparrow had time to learn each gift, layer by layer. And even then, he proved he didn’t fully understand his power and what it could do—how it continually changed. That’s not a gift I want.” I met his gaze. “What do you think?”
Christian ran his wet hand over his beard. “It doesn’t matter what I think. We each have to make our own choices. People can give you their opinions, but you always know in your heart what needs to be done.” He said it with such conviction that I wondered if he was referring to something in his own life. “The one thing I do know is just because a man has power doesn’t mean he can hold it. Sparrow wasn’t born to lead, and his plan would have failed. Not before overthrowing the government and causing irreparable damage, but he didn’t have what it takes to lead. His own men would have soon turned on him.”
I thought about Christian staying by my side when I lost control of Sparrow’s energy. “Christian, don’t ever do anything like that again. If I had failed and killed us both, I would have died with so much guilt.”
“Remember what I said a moment ago about knowing what needs to be done? You work better under pressure.”
I flicked water at him, and he smiled.
“Where the hell did you get all these rose petals?”
He winked. “I have my connections.”
“This is sweet for a Vampire, but I’m not that dirty aside from a little mud on my hands from last night. My clean body was preserved for nearly a week.”
“I know that. I just wanted to make you feel good.”
I bent down and kissed his hand. “You always make me feel good.” I rose to my feet, water cascading down my body. “I’ll feel better when I get some chow.”
He waggled his eyebrows and towel dried every inch of my body, taking his time, not missing a single spot.
Eager to put on real clothes. I dug around in my armoire until I found my raggedy jeans. Because of the sharp chill in the air, I slipped on a long-sleeved black cotton shirt and some fingerless gloves.
