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.“That is an unwise use of the drug.By the time I arrived, it was done.There was nothing I could do.” His eyes took on a faraway look.“I stayed behind to make sure none of them escaped to the general population.” He shivered and reached up to rub the outside of his arms.His cigarette glowed between his index and second fingers.“He destroyed their minds.”“Who?”“I don’t want to imagine what could happen if even one of them had gotten free.”“Careful,” Gray said.“Next you’ll be agreeing fiends are people, too.”The Spartan frowned.“I presume, Durian, that none of them did survive.”“No.”“Thank the gods in heaven for that.” Tension bled out of his shoulders.“I’ve heard rumors about dit Menart,” the mage said.He glanced over his shoulder at his magehelds and lowered his voice.“Unpleasant ones.Are they true?”“Most rumors about the magekind are unpleasant.” Durian returned his steady look.Leonidas flushed and avoided looking at Gray.“That he intended to breed his magehelds.With human women.”“If you want to know the answer to that question,” Gray said, “why don’t you ask me?”Durian slid his hand to the back of her neck and softly stroked there, as much for his own calm as for hers.He steeled himself against a too familiar rage.Dit Menart deserved to die.For what he had done to Gray and more.Nikodemus was a fool to think there was a greater good in keeping that mage alive than there was in killing him.“I think this is not the time for such a disturbing discussion, Leonidas.”“She’s human.You should release her.” He took another drag of his cigarette and offered it, butt end, to Durian.“No, thank you.” He kept his magic hot.At his side, Gray’s traceries reacted to his pulling and holding his magic, and that got another stare from the mage.Leonidas twisted his wrist, and, after a moment to prove he didn’t have to let the mage go, Durian let him go.“Not entirely human, I’ll grant you that.” Leonidas blew smoke over his head.Another whisper of magic came at him.Leonidas had always been a subtle user.“Whatever you’re doing,” Gray said, “stop it.”“No wonder dit Menart is so desperate to have you back.He can’t be happy knowing you came away with some of his magic.How on earth did you manage to escape with your life? ”“He underestimated me.”“No doubt he did.” He cocked his head, his copa cigarette momentarily forgotten, though his eyes were turning from brown to a brassy gold.For a mage of his longevity, he was remarkably sensitive to copa.Most mages who’d been alive as long as he had either never touched copa or needed more than he’d had to experience any effect.“Fascinating.I wouldn’t have thought it possible for anyone to integrate the two sources of magic as you have.”A taxi came down Broadway going at least twenty miles over the speed limit.All three of them retreated to the edge of the street.Durian felt a flare of magic from the mage, but it was defensive only, a push outward.Away from them.Aided by the copa he’d taken.The driver stayed intent on the road.His passenger stared out the window, a cell phone to her ear.If she noticed any of them standing there on a street of mansions, she gave no sign of it.When the taxi had disappeared toward its downtown destination Durian took Gray’s hand in his and pulled her out of the mage’s reach.“I should very much like to study how it was done.The implications are enormous.”Slowly, she shook her head.“Christophe likes to go on about how dangerous fiends are.” She took a step closer.“If you ask me, the magekind are just as dangerous.More, because you seem to think you have some kind of holy call that makes it all right to do whatever you want.” She gestured at his magehelds with a movement of such ineffable grace that even Durian was arrested.“Slaves, Leonidas? What’s just or right about that?” Her quiet voice gave her words power [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]