Blurred Memories (20 page)

Without Marc or Kate needing
to say a word, their fingers entwined on Blake’s hips. Marc’s
rhythm picked up, his hips slapping faster and faster against
Blake. With each of his thrusts, Kate moaned, urging Marc onward,
her slick walls tightening and releasing around Blake’s cock. It
was all Blake could do to hang on and let this last a little
longer. With each thrust, each squeeze, harsh breaths wheezed out
of Blake.

“
Tell me what you want,”
Marc asked, almost growling.

“
Tell us,” Kate echoed, her
gaze burning as it held Blake’s.

That question, at least, was
easy to answer. “You,” he panted. “Both of you.” The rest of it
came out as a plea. “Don’t let go of me.”

“
You’ve got us,” Kate said,
even as Marc replied, “You’re ours. We’re not losing you
again.”

Kate raised her head to kiss
Blake. At the same moment her lips touched Blake’s, Marc’s mouth
pressed to the crook of Blake’s neck and bit down. Fire shot
through Blake, ignited by both kiss and bite. His body jerked as he
came. The next second, they followed him over the edge.

Their bodies fell apart, but
they all remained close as they rearranged themselves on the bed.
As pleasure ebbed away, one thought remained in Blake’s mind: he
loved them both more than his own life, and it would kill him to
lose one of them now.

* * * *

Kate fell asleep first. Damp
strands of hair stuck to her cheeks and forehead. She lay curled
against Blake’s side, her head resting over his heart, her hand on
his shoulder. She had never looked so beautiful. Marc’s fingers
twitched at his side. He itched to reach out to her and caress her,
not to rouse her but simply to touch her again, connect with her,
enjoy her warmth a little longer.

The last thing he wanted was
for her to wake up, however. He needed her to be asleep, and Blake
as well. Unfortunately, Blake still seemed to be fully awake, his
hand sweeping lightly over Kate’s mussed hair but his gaze directed
unflinchingly at Marc.

“
See?” Blake told Marc in a
whisper. “All better. Just fine. I don’t need you to run off and be
a hero.”

Despite himself, Marc
couldn’t help but smile. Another small glimpse of the old Blake. It
just wasn’t enough.

“
This has nothing to do
with playing hero,” he replied as quietly. “You know it never was
about that.”

Blake blinked very slowly,
an agreement of sorts. “Does that mean you’re not
going?”

If Marc had given Blake the
answer he wanted to hear, it would have been a lie. So he didn’t
reply, and said instead, “I’m sorry I didn’t find a way to come for
you. I should have tried harder. I should have—”

“
So you
are
going,
then,” Blake interrupted him. “That’s what you’re saying, isn’t
it?”

Slowly because he didn’t
know whether his touch would be welcome or not, Marc reached out
and passed his fingers through Blake’s hair. Blake closed his eyes
briefly, but when he opened them again, he stared at Marc,
demanding an answer.

“
I have to go,” Marc
whispered. “I couldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t. I know it can’t
make up for not rescuing you, but—”

Blake interrupted him again,
this time with a kiss that was all teeth and desperation. Marc
returned it with the same force, finally dropping his fangs to cut
his own tongue and add his blood to the kiss in offering. Blake
made a little sound in his throat, quiet and yet
frantic.

“
Promise me you’ll come
back,” Blake whispered as he pulled away. “Just promise
you…”

He swallowed hard and didn’t
finish.

Marc ran his fingers over
Blake’s features, desperate to touch now that he knew Blake
wouldn’t flinch away.

“
Of course I’ll come back,”
Marc murmured. “I’ll always come back for you. You know that, don’t
you?”

Blake didn’t respond. Marc
leaned in again and brushed a kiss across Blake’s mouth before
doing the same to Kate’s forehead.

“
I’ll be back soon,” Marc
said when he sat up and slipped out of bed. “Tell her that for me,
all right? I’ll be back before either of you even has time to miss
me.”

He got dressed with his back
to the bed and wasn’t sure whether he imagined the whispered
words.

“
Already do.”

Chapter 17

Marc raised his closed fist,
but before he could knock on the door, it swung open to reveal a
grim Simon. He clutched the leather bag in which he kept his magic
supplies to his chest with one arm and nodded at Marc.

“
Ready,” he said before
Marc could ask. “Let’s go.”

For all the determination he
tried to project, however, his scent told a very different story.
He was scared, which wasn’t much of a surprise. From the very first
time they had met, fear had seemed to be Simon’s primary emotion.
But back then, it had paralyzed him. Not anymore. He strode by
Marc’s side with an outward appearance of confidence.

After their conversation
that morning, and after seeing how much on edge Simon had been
during the squad meeting, Marc had been half certain that he would
need to convince Simon again. Seeing Simon determined enough to act
despite his own fear was unexpected, but truly welcome.

Before the elevator doors
had even closed on them, Simon was already opening his bag and
pulling out a small plastic jar. He twisted open the lid, picked up
a pinch of a silvery powder and threw it over Marc before dosing
himself the same way.

“
Hey!” Marc batted at the
sparkles on his shirt. “What are you—”

“
Hush,” Simon
demanded.

The word startled Marc so
much that he found himself staring at Simon. He soon understood
what was going on, however; Simon recited a brief incantation, and
suddenly his reflection on the mirror-like doors of the elevator
disappeared.

“
You didn’t need glitter
the last time you did a glamour,” Marc said, still a little annoyed
he had let himself be surprised.

“
It’s not
glitter
,”
Simon huffed. “For your information, it’s a focus aid. So the
glamour will hold on even if crossing the breach changes the
strength of my magic.”

In a whisper, he added, “Or
at least it
should
hold on.” Marc probably wasn’t supposed
to have heard that last part. In any case, he didn’t comment on
it.

“
I didn’t expect you to
come so early,” Simon added after a second. “There’s still sunlight
outside. Isn’t that going to be a problem?”

You didn’t expect me, but
you were ready
, Marc thought, although he didn’t say it.
Instead he answered Simon’s question. “We’ll have to be careful,
but at least the road out of town won’t be barricaded yet. With any
luck, we’ll be through before they even realize we’re
gone.”

At that point, he fell
silent; the elevator had stopped on the office floor. Jen’s cell
was only feet away—and so was the soldier guarding her door.
Signaling Simon to be quiet, Marc stalked toward the soldier. He
almost tripped over his own feet when Simon said behind him in a
clear voice, “You do understand the concept of a glamour, right? He
can’t hear you any more than he can see you. There’s no point in
tiptoeing.”

Marc glared back at him,
although he didn’t reply. He advanced toward the soldier and struck
once, a precise blow on the side of his head. The guard went down
without a cry; Marc caught him before he could make noise as he
fell.

“
The key card,” he told
Simon urgently. “It should be in his pocket.”

With a nod, Simon searched
the guard and found the key to Jen’s cell. While Simon opened the
door, Marc had to wonder what the scene would look like to someone
passing by, with the soldier floating in the air as though carried
by a ghost. He didn’t have time to wonder very long, however;
already Simon was entering the cell, Marc right on his heels. Marc
set the soldier down and watched Jen’s reaction. She was sitting
very rigidly on her cot, frowning in their approximate
direction.

“
Pretty good,” she sniffed
lightly. “Not even your smell betrays you.”

Simon snorted as he threw
some of the silvery powder over her and recited his incantation. He
waited until she was under the spell too before he said, “Of
course
there’s no smell. I’m not stupid. And if I were you,
I wouldn’t talk about betrayal.”

Jen didn’t seem fazed in the
least by the magic, although she did raise a mildly surprised
eyebrow at Simon and sniffed again. Now that she was within the
folds of the glamour, she could smell Simon’s scent, and Marc
understood her surprise: Simon was still scared, almost terrified.
But still, he turned to the door and said, “Let’s go. No time to
lose.”

They left the hotel
together; minutes later, Simon, who had shed the glamour on himself
so it wouldn’t seem like the car was operating on its own, drove
them out of the city, Jen and Marc hiding from the sun under
blankets. Now that he was so close to Jen, Marc realized that she,
too, smelled like fear, although she did her best to hide
it.

Looking inside himself, Marc
searched for the same fear his companions shared, and found
nothing. He wasn’t scared, not at all. He was doing the right
thing, and that thought alone was enough to push him onward. He
would free those prisoners, destroy the prison, help Simon close
the breach—and then maybe he wouldn’t feel quite so guilty anymore
when he looked at Blake.

* * * *

Kate snapped back to
consciousness, going from the deepest slumber to full awareness in
the time of a blink. It only took her a second longer to realize
what had awakened her.

A whimper.

Blake’s whimper.

It tore at her heart like
claws. She sat up in bed, her hand searching for him next to her
but finding only an empty bed. She looked around the room and
discovered two things: Marc was nowhere to be seen, and Blake was
sitting in the corner, hunched over his raised knees, naked and
trembling.

Immediately she knew where
Marc was. After all, he had told her where he was going.

Why had she believed that a
few moments of shared pleasure would change his mind? Blake had
seemed to think his ‘proof,’ as he called it, would be enough, but
surely Kate should have known better.

She stumbled out of bed,
feeling a little numb, and immediately slid to her knees. She
remembered what Blake had said about how he didn’t like seeing her
kneel, but he seemed too far gone to care right then. She wasn’t
even sure he could see her or hear her when she said his
name.

“
Blake…look at me,
please.”

But his gaze remained
clouded, unfocused. Every few seconds, he banged his head against
the wall behind him. Kate was almost surprised not to see blood
there already. She wrapped her hand around the back of his head,
cushioning his head the next time he jerked back. Her other hand
cupped his face, and she stroked his cheek, trying to draw Blake’s
attention to her.

“
Blake.”

Her voice was louder this
time, almost commanding. It was the voice she used on the
battlefield, and it felt oddly appropriate at the moment,
especially because it seemed to work. With a slow blink, Blake’s
gaze focused on her.

“
Calm down,” she demanded
in the same tone. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

Blake’s mouth worked
soundlessly for a few seconds before words finally rose, no louder
than a whisper.

“
He’s gone.”

Kate’s stomach lurched as
her fears were confirmed. She knew what he meant, and still she
heard herself ask, “Marc? He…He left?”

“
I showed him,” Blake said,
now pleading. “I showed him I was better, and he left anyway. Why
didn’t he believe me?”

Because you’re not
better
, Kate thought, but she couldn’t voice the words, not
when Blake was looking at her with heartbreak in his eyes. She
pressed the briefest of kisses to his lips and tried to
smile.

“
I’m sure he believed you.
That’s not why he went. And maybe there’s still time. Let’s get
dressed, all right? Can you do that for me?”

For a few seconds, Blake
gave her such a blank look that she wasn’t sure he was still with
her. When she started to rise, however, he followed her movement.
She handed him his clothes. After a beat, he started to get
dressed. Kate picked up her own clothes from the floor but only set
them on the desk. First, she needed to make a call. Maybe there was
still time, but only if she acted quickly. She picked up the phone
and dialed the number for Daniel’s office. It rang five times
before Daniel picked up and barked a terse, “What is
it?”

“
It’s me,” she said
quickly, keeping an eye on Blake’s progress; boxers and t-shirt,
and now his overshirt. “Marc cooked up this crazy plan. He wants to
go to the demon dimension with—”