She shivered, biting her lip. She didn't want the confrontation she sensed coming. She wasn't ready for it.
How could she be? Her whole life had changed in some unfathomable way, and the man standing so calmly on the opposite side of the bed had worked that change.
'As I was just explaining to Nikki, I'm too bloody stubborn to die.' Jake's smile was a pale imitation of its usual self.
His eyes closed. She lightly squeezed his hand, then placed it back on the bed. He needed to rest. And she needed to get out of this hospital.
'We should go,' she said softly, glancing at Michael.
He nodded and stepped away from the bed.
'Get the bastard for me, Michael,' Jake murmured as they left.
Michael's gaze was bleak as it met hers. 'I will.'
There was a promise of death in his voice. Nikki gave Mary a brief hug, then followed Michael down the corridor.
'He'll live,' Michael commented as they waited for an elevator.
'I know.' She glanced at him, studying his still features. 'Thank you for not leaving him in the tunnel.'
He shrugged. The elevator doors opened, and several people got out. Nikki stepped inside and pressed the lobby button. In silence, they walked out to the car and drove home.
Her nerves were stretched to the breaking point by the time she walked into the kitchen. Michael followed her inside and watched her make coffee. The time for confrontation had come. She feared it, and sensed she wasn't the only one.
Apprehension stole through her heart. She ignored it, finally turning to face him. His body was as shadowed as his thoughts, lost to the darkness filling the kitchen.
'What did you do to me, Michael?'
He didn't answer her right away. She gripped her coffee cup tightly, watching his shadow, waiting.
'I saved your life.'
His answer was little more than a whisper across the darkness. She couldn't see him—but did she really need to? All she had to do was reach out and listen to the color of his thoughts…
She shuddered and resisted the temptation. It wasn't natural to be linked so intimately. And the link was stronger now than it ever had been.
'At what cost? Why do I feel so different?'
'You were dying, Nikki. I had to save you.'
'And in the process you broke your vow never to make me do something against my will.'
He made no answer, a still, silent presence she could feel but not see.
'What did you do?' she repeated, her voice a harsh whisper.
'What I had to do.'
'Answer me, damn it! I have the right to know.'
'But have you the courage to look beyond it?' A trace of bitterness haunted his words.
She glared at the shadows that hid him so well. He sighed.
'What I have done cannot be undone.'
'What can't be undone, Michael? What the hell did you do to me?'
'I gave you part of what I am.'
Horror rose anew. Did that mean she was a vampire?
'No, it does not.' He moved, though it was something she felt rather than saw. 'All I've ever asked of you is trust. I wonder now if you are even capable of it.'
His contempt lashed at her. She flinched but made no comment, waiting for him to continue.
'What I did was give you part of my… psyche, part of my strength, part of my life force, I suppose. It gave you life.'
She took a step back. Linked for the rest of her life, never to be separated. The one thing she'd been fighting desperately to avoid.
'Not your life. My life.'
Her heart skipped several beats. She clenched her fists against the fear pounding through her heart.
'What do you mean?'
'Your life force is linked to mine. As long as I live, you cannot die.'
She groped for the edge of the bench, her knees suddenly weak. 'Oh God, Michael, you're kidding… right?'
'No. Unless you're beheaded, or have your neck broken, you cannot die.' There was no remorse in his voice, only an odd harshness that somehow spoke of pain.
She ignored it. She was immortal? As eternal as the moon and the stars… and Michael?
'I am not immortal, Nikki. You noted that yourself some days ago.'
'Damn it, Michael, that's not the point.'
'Then what is?' he asked wearily.
'I don't want to spend eternity with a man who lives his life in shadow, a man who could rule my every thought and desire!'
He made no comment, but his anger rolled across the darkness towards her.
Energy burned at her fingertips. She clenched her fists against it. 'Could you control me now, if you tried?'
He seemed to hesitate. 'I don't know.'
She closed her eyes, fighting terror. Michael wasn't Jasper. He wouldn't want to control every aspect of her life. At least not now. But what about one hundred, two hundred years from now? What would happen when he tired of her?
'Questions that mean nothing, because nothing will ever evolve from this. You do not want me in your life, Nikki, and I…?' He hesitated. '…cannot have you in mine.'
Cannot, or would not have? Either way, it made little difference. 'Then why save me? Why not let me die?'
Again he hesitated. 'Had you died in Jasper's trap, he could have raised you as one of the undead. I couldn't have stood that.'
She rubbed her arms. What a choice. Life as the undead, or life everlasting. Both had their drawbacks, though in far different ways. 'How could you possibly share a life force, Michael? How is something like that even conceivable?'
'I'm not sure of the mechanics of it myself. I only know it is possible when two people are… compatible.'
What had he meant to say? She shook her head, not sure if it even really mattered. 'Is this the first time you've attempted something like this?'
'Yes.' And the last, if the acidity in his voice was anything to go by. 'Do you think it was easy, Nikki, to tear part of what I am away to give you life?'
She winced at his anger. She wasn't a complete fool. Life was a miracle she surely didn't deserve. She was just trying to understand the ramifications.
'Do all vampires do this?'
He hesitated, and doubt ran through the color of his emotions.
'Very few. There are problems. I know of only one other, and he found himself in need of an… assistant.'
'A servant,' she corrected tightly.
He sighed. 'There were reasons, Nikki, and his friend was very willing.'
'Well, at least the friend was given a damn choice!'
A short, sharp movement stirred the air. Light filled the room with brightness, then she was spun around.
His eyes glittered with fury and some deeper, darker emotion she couldn't define.
