Page 85 of Blood Stone

Winter turned to face the man squarely. “This is ridiculous. I can’t go around calling you ‘you’ all the time. You must have a name. What is it?”

The man raised a single brow. “I have many names.”

“What do your friends call you, then?”

“Friends?”

“You do have friends, don’t you?”

He thought about that for a while. “No. Our kind doesn’t make friends. Not the way humans count friends. You must have noticed that by now.”

Winter caught her breath and looked at Nial. It was true that up until she had met Sebastian and formed a working partnership with him, her life had been empty of friends. She’d known casual acquaintances all over the globe, but no one had ever grown close enough to guess her secret…until Sebastian and Nial had come along.

“I think I might be a rare exception,” she told him. “I have two friends. Friends, lovers and husbands. And they have introduced me to more friends, who know me for what I am.”

He looked down at where Sebastian sat propped against the wrecked bookcase. “These creatures?”

“These men, yes,” Winter replied.

The man drew himself upright with an odd sort of dignity. “They have done well to protect you and nurture you while you have been ignorant of your heritage. But you have so much more to learn, to come into your full strength. You are Curandero. You will discover how much stronger than your friends you really are. Their company would lose its flavour when you reach full maturity.”

Winter gave him her politest smile. “That’s quite impossible.”

He smiled politely back. “Your innocence is refreshing. We have not had one as young as you for a very long time. You may call me Vicent.”

“Vicent, you had a reason for ramming your way in here?” Winter prompted.

“To reach you, of course. You have been indiscreet. You failed to leave behind no memory of your presence in those who have met you. It is how we found you.” He looked around at Nial, Garrett and Sebastian. “Now, I begin to understand why you made this error. But we can still make amends.” His smile was slightly warmer. “You are young. There is time yet for you to learn how it must be.”

Horror touched her. “You mean…you wipe any memory of yourself from everyone you meet?”

Vicent frowned. “Did I not just say that?”

“Not up front and frank-like,” Sebastian said, his hand against his belly. “Winter was repeating it so she could make it sound as bad as it really is, instead of prettying up the way you did.”

Vicent didn’t move his gaze away from Winter. “It is a necessity,” he said simply. “They will not feel a thing. You know this.”

Fresh terror spilt through her. “Wait, wait…you mean, you intend to do this to themnow?”

“He wants to take you with him,” Garrett interpreted. “And wipe our memories so you never existed for us, because according to him, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.” His tone was withering.

And not one of them was physically capable of standing up to the man. He could throw them all across the room with a hand toss, cut them open with a touch…and wipe their memories as they lay recovering.

He could probably make Winter do anything he wanted, too. The Curandero might have trained to defeat weaker opponents.

“I’m not going with you,” Winter told him. It was the only defense she had – flat denial.

Vicent frowned. “I’ve never had a youngling refuse to come with me before. This is…unusual.”

“Does threatening to destroy the minds of the friends of youryounglingsalways work, then?” Winter asked.

“They don’t have friends,” Nial said. “You heard him, Winter. The Curandero are loners. You’re the exception.”

“Yes, that must be the explanation,” Vicent said, almost to himself. His gaze focused upon Winter once more. “You have no human friends. You befriended these creatures only. The ones that hide from humans, too.”

“Too?” Nial said, sitting forward. He hissed in pain, then got to his feet. “A minute ago, you said something about wiping memories being the way it had to be, Vicent. Explain that.”

Vicent was focused upon Winter’s face, and didn’t move. It was as if he hadn’t heard Nial at all.