* * *

He found Inea dawdling over coffee at a little table. Crumbs littered the white cloth. There was a red rose in a crystal holder, and a red candle at the center. White china and gleaming silver scattered about showed two had dined.

It took all his nerve to walk across the thick red carpet and sit in the red velvet chair opposite her.

Slowly, as if in a faraway dream, she raised her eyes to meet his. Her eyes were vacant, her expression slack.

She’d been debriefed under strong Influence, but Abbot had not Marked her. He released his breath. If he hadn’t silenced her, he would now be the target of two assassins.

There was no sign of Abbot’s minions in the restaurant. Titus waved the waiter away, and passed his hand before Inea’s eyes. She didn’t blink. Damn that man! The icy lump he’d been carrying in his midsection since she’d rejected him grew much larger. Titus hadn’t done anything like this to Sisi.

Despite his promise, Titus had to use his power on her. She couldn’t handle the press like this. In a few hours, she’d revive spontaneously. But they didn’t have hours.

Abbot must have left traps for him, traps to make him injure her if he tried to bring her out of it. He knew I’d find her, or he wouldn’t have left her here like this. But why would he want her to miss the demonstration? He sat back and dismissed awareness of all distractions.

“Talk to me,” he commanded, interrogating her and watching her aura respond. Finally, it became clear that Abbot had used extreme force because Inea had fought hard. Maybe I interrupted him, so he just left her for me to deal with.

It was a good hypothesis. He found no hidden traps-no reason not to wake her. Shrouding himself in the semblance of Abbot, he donned Abbot’s voice and set his hand in the focal plane of her eyes. Moving his hand, he trapped her gaze then snapped his fingers and withdrew his hand to the plane of his own race, saying, “Remember!” in Abbot’s voice.

Her eyes focused and she recoiled with a stifled squeal.

He cast aside the Abbot illusion, saying, “You may speak now. This is a private conversation.”

She shrank away. “Who are you! For God’s sake, stay the right person!”

“Inea, it’s me. Titus. I’ve broken my promise-”

“It was you all along-but-why-”

“No! That was Abbot. He had you in thrall. I used my power to break your trance and restore your memory of what he did. I thought that’s what you’d want.”

She started to breathe normally, but her hands clutched her nearly empty cup. “I see now why you refused to use those illusions on me again, after that first time. Not knowing what’s real. Are you really you?”

“Abbot never knew-I had a dog named Tippy, mostly black spaniel. He got fat cadging snacks off your mother.”

A smile played around her lips. “I guess you’re you.”

“Inea-I didn’t think Abbot would do that to you. I’d have protected you, come what may, if I’d suspected he’d-”

Expressionlessly, she said, “You said he was ethical.”

“He warned me-I didn’t know what he meant, but he did warn me.” He put his hand palm up on the table, not daring to reach out to touch her, but knowing they both needed it.

She ignored his hand. “You couldn’t have stopped him. You said so yourself last night.”

“I could have Marked you. He wouldn’t have touched you then.” And he explained what that meant under luren law. “I didn’t want to last night because it would have been a blatant signal that you were important to me. Now it’s too late to hide that. But if you want, I’ll place the Mark.”

“If you’d told me about the Mark-before you told me what you people are-I’d have demanded it. I belonged to you-”

He noted the past tense. The world froze.

When she didn’t say anything, he felt compelled to add, “I wanted to tell you all of it, let it be your choice-”

“It’s too late. He’s already done his worst.”

“No, he hasn’t Marked you for himself. He hasn’t taken you. He left no permanent commands buried in your mind. He only questioned you-brutally. He found out things I didn’t want him to know, and made sure I’d find out he knows. But he did nothing to you compared to what he could have done. He did it as a warning to me.”

He hadn’t told Inea what he was doing against Abbot. His father had learned nothing important-except how precious Inea was to him. “I don’t think he’ll molest you again because you’ve come to hate me so.” He made his next suggestion with much trepidation. “If you like, I can remove the memory of his interrogation.”

“No!” She recoiled. Then she scrubbed at her face with both hands, and when she looked up again, it was the old Inea staring back at him. “You could do it, couldn’t you? You could do everything he did!”

Stricken, he nodded. Tarred with the same brush.

Only she added, in a hard, positive voice, “But you wouldn’t. You were willing to starve, to face any nightmare, to take any humiliation, rather than do that!”

“I might have lost that resolve. I’m only a flesh and blood creature. Don’t think I’m-”

“But you’re human. That-individual-isn’t!”

“He prides himself on cultivating what he thinks are luren attributes. But he’s as human as I am.”

“How can you defend him!”

“I can’t. I oppose him as absolutely as I love you.”

“Oh, Titus-I-” She fell silent, mouth working as if she wanted to proclaim her love. At last, she put her hand on the table barely touching his. “Give me time. Please.”

“I don’t have it to give. Abbot is running this game. Let me Mark you as my own. I’ll take it away, if you tell me to. But in the meantime, you’ll be safe from him.”

“You said the Mark itself won’t stop him.”

“No. It’s just a law. But he’d die rather than violate our laws.” He had to be brutally honest though. “But as my father, he could force me to remove my Mark, then take you. He wouldn’t, ugh, unless I push him too far. I’ve misjudged him a couple of times, but I’m really very positive about how he regards the Mark. He taught me himself. It would take a threat to The Blood to make him violate a Mark, and he’d expect to be executed for it. Before he’d force me to remove my Mark, he’d have to be willing to kill me. He’s not. He didn’t find out how long you ran around unsilenced. Forgive me, but I checked before I brought you out of it.”

She doodled on the tablecloth. “Think. He’ll be at the demonstration. If I walk in there Marked, he’ll know he’s forced you to a move you didn’t want to make.”

He shook his head. “I don’t care what he thinks-” Neither does she. She doesn’t want to wear a brand.

She balled up her fist and hit the table. “No! You have to care what he thinks! You said you were here to win for all of Earth. If those are the stakes, then I am as expendable as any soldier. For once, you listen to me. We’re going to walk in there pretending nothing at all has happened. From now on, we’re going to seize the initiative, we’re going to force him into a corner, and then we’re going to whip him good. Have you got that, Dr. Shiddehara?”

A slow warmth thawed the icy lump in his belly. An ally. Not a Marked stringer. An ally. “Got it.”

He moved to take her hand, but she froze again. Her voice trembled as she whispered, “I’ll fight him with you. But that’s all I can do now.”

I win her back. I will.

Titus walked back to the lab beside Inea, restlessly scanning the crowds for Abbot’s spies. It was close to the end of the day shift. Gossip raged around them, people talking about the reporters, the assassin, and the threat to close the Project down, sabotage.

The tension in the humans made Titus edgy. Abbot was certainly not about to leap out of some potted shrubbery and devour Inea. He would be in the lab. Colby had arranged for him to take his bows in front of his handiwork.

At the lift, Inea stepped close and asked, “Tell me. Why fight Abbot while working so hard for the Project? If the Probe doesn’t go-”