Darkness Bred by Stella Cameron Page B

together. “Do you still think what you did was a good idea? He could so easily have killed you.”
    She frowned and sat on a straight-backed wooden chair.
    “Would it have been so hard to do what I asked you to do?”
    “I don’t like being told what to do.”
    “That’s not what I asked. You could have been who knows where by now. Or dead.”
    She sniffed. “That creep wasn’t going to kill me. He wanted me for something else.”
    A quiet pause made her fidget until she looked right at him. “That’s right,” he said. “And I’m sure you’d have loved what he wanted you for.”
    “No,” she said quietly. “You didn’t shift to fight him.”
    He returned her look then. “I needed everything I had to deal with Colin.”
    “But—”
    “I’m stronger as a human, but that’s not something I want generally known.”
    She nodded miserably. “Why didn’t you tell me that before? Do you know how scared I was?”
    “Do you know how desperate I was? I expected you to be gone or dead by the time I came through that door.”
    “I’m not helpless.”
    His laugh wasn’t pleasant. “You’re gutsy, Elin, but you have limits and you know what they are.”
    Exhausted, she didn’t want to argue anymore. “Could we go to bed and talk about this tomorrow?”
    Without answering, Sean started another examination of windows and locks around the cottage.
    Back at the front door he paused. “While you’re in bed, please think about what almost happened. I’ll be out front again—also thinking.
    “Being with me carries its own dangers for you. I’ve asked you to consider risking that because I can look after you—unless you won’t let me when it’s necessary.”
    “I’m trying to learn,” Elin said but she couldn’t meet his eyes because she really hadn’t tried very hard. “I’ll do much better the next time.”
    He drove both hands through his hair and said, “ Much better? That’s about the same as saying, ‘almost saved.’ People who are almost saved are dead. Think, Elin. From here on out, wherever you go, someone goes with you. And we watch you—for your own sake as well as mine.”
    Sean closed his eyes for a moment and covered them with a hand, then he stared deep into Elin’s eyes. His gaze was heavy, and for a moment, he seemed to be struggling with what to say next. When he finally spoke, his tone was brisk. “Please, for my peace, do what I ask you to do. We don’t have any choices, at least now. Good night.”
    Elin thought she caught a look of pain flash across Sean’s face, but it happened so quickly she couldn’t be sure if it was real or imagined. He studied her again and seemed about to say something else. Instead he nodded and walked out the door.
    Slumped on the chair, Elin stared at the closed front door. Her eyes prickled and she sniffed. She had to be stronger than this. Stronger, smarter, and less compulsive.
    Around the edges of the windows, a faint, foggy medium gathered.
    Elin stood up, praying Sean wouldn’t change his mind and join her. This was one of the things over which she had no control.
    Gathering density, taking on a spectrum of glittering colors, the vapor spread like a series of rainbows, surrounding Elin and growing more intense.
    Listening for any movement from Sean, she watched and waited—and from the green part of the mass there was a spill, an overflow that came toward her. “The green,” as Sally had explained, “has incredible power you can mold into something as small as a marble and use as a weapon to immobilize an enemy.”
    Quickly, she plunged a hand into the glitter and took a small handful. She squeezed it in her palm and dropped the ball into her pocket.
    Sean didn’t know that, like Leigh, she was Deseran. Elin wanted to be sure he could want her for herself rather than as a potential bearer of his children.
    This was a visit from The Veil that invisibly separated the human from the metaphysical on Whidbey. Humans could not see past