Carpathian 20 - Dark Slayer

back into the shadows.
    â€œYou have no conception of how dangerous that might be,― Razvan said.
    â€œIf no one tries,― Gregori pointed out, “you are lost to us.―
    â€œI have been lost these hundreds of years.―
    â€œAnd all the information you possess that might aid in our fight against our greatest enemy is lost as well,― Gregori continued. “And your lifemate is lost as well.―

    â€œI do not factor into the equation,― Ivory protested.
    â€œDo not put pressure on him to do anything he thinks is wrong by using me as your leverage.―
    Gregori flicked her a quelling glance. “You have much to contribute to the world at large, Dragonseeker. I wish only to take a look.―
    Perhaps he is right . Deliberately Ivory didn’t look at Razvan.
    It is solely your decision and I will back you all the way, but perhaps we can find a way to break Xavier’s hold on you. I suspect there is a way .
    Razvan turned the idea over in his mind. He hadn’t thought about living, only dying. Dying represented freedom from Xavier’s possession, from mental and physical torment, and now even from his memories and the emotions they elicited.
    Ivory had used the term we . He had never thought in those terms either. He looked around at the small group.
    He had never thought he would be standing among Carpathians and not have to fight his way out. A part of him didn’t trust their acceptance of him.
    As if reading his mind, Gregori shook his head. “I do not altogether trust that you pose no threat to Carpathians, but I am willing to find out.―
    Razvan felt the challenge of those words. Gregori was willing to put himself in jeopardy in order to protect the Carpathian people and perhaps to aid Razvan. Did Razvan have the courage to allow him to enter his body to see for himself what Xavier had done? Guilt lay heavy in his mind.
    His memories of earlier had faded behind the barriers he’d erected for sanity’s sake, and he was no longer certain what he had or hadn’t done. There were weeks, months, perhaps even years he no longer remembered, and he was afraid to examine what had happened. Xavier had slowly, successfully beat him down until he could no longer fight the mage.
    If he allowed Gregori to enter his body and examine him, Gregori would know every humiliating and degrading moment of his life.
    I will enter with the healer. I can protect your memories if anything were to be incriminating. Otherwise, whatever he finds is on Xavier, not you .
    His heart turned over. She so clearly aligned herself with him, but why? They were meant to be lifemates, it was true, but they didn’t know each other, and he was the most notorious criminal the Carpathians had.
    I have been inside your head many times these past three weeks. I am an outsider as well. And I believe absolutely that you are the key to destroying Xavier .
    That was a reason he could understand. He wasn’t certain it was true, that he was the key to destroying Xavier, but he knew her purpose was absolutely unswerving. What did he have to lose? Their respect? He could care less. That had gone centuries ago. He was more than willing to face the dawn. But he didn’t want her to see, to know, to live through the things he had seen and done, whether he was a party to them or not.
    He knew the faces of every woman Xavier had violated with his body. The alluring lies, the sweet, deceptive promises, impregnating an innocent woman in order to take the child she conceived with him for the blood. Always the blood. He didn’t remember their names, but he remembered the tears when they knew the truth. He remembered the sense of betrayal and the taunting laughter of the mage.
    There had been so many killed over the centuries: mages, humans, one or two Carpathians who had been deceived and murdered by his hand. He remembered every face, every expression. They haunted him every moment he was awake. He had been dishonored so many times he couldn’t remember any other way of life.
    This was his moment—he could take up the burden of helping his lifemate hunt and destroy the world’s greatest enemy, or he could give up and walk into the sun, telling himself he was protecting everyone. By helping, he would be exposing the sins of his past to both Ivory and the healer. There would be nowhere to hide from himself and the