Dark Slayer - Christine Feehan [137]
She nodded. “Yes, he is mage. There is always a balance in the universe. Where there is good, there must also be evil. One can use the earth’s natural elements to weave for good. It is done all the time for healing and other things our people need. One can also weave spells for evil, calling upon demons and bargaining with them.”
“I know that he does that. I have seen foul creatures in his caverns, but I have never seen portals to another world or another realm that even a mage can walk through.”
“No, I am certain he would not be foolish enough to allow anyone to know what happened. He wants to appear all-powerful to everyone—even to himself. He needs that illusion. As far as I can tell, as far back as when I attended his school, he was using apprentices to write spells and then he used those spells as the base for his own. He can no longer come up with new spells, I am certain of it. Each mage has a rhythm, a twist in how they cast and what they use, a signature, if you will. Xavier’s spells cover a multitude of other mage’s spells.”
Razvan ran agitated hands over his face and then through his streaked hair. “What else have you learned by studying him?”
She ran her hand down his arm to soothe him. “I know it is disturbing to speak of him.”
The feeling of her fingers on his skin shook him. As long as he lived, he would never get over the wonder that she had been chosen for him. “Your description fits him so well. I lived with him and thought I knew him better than anyone living, yet . . .” He gestured toward the book and her flowing, obviously offensive words. “Yet you managed to convey the very essence of him.”
“I hope you are right, Razvan. I am staking both our lives on this.” She took his hand and tugged until he followed her out of the room. They sank into the chairs in the memory room. “I have to know you are with me on this, Razvan. It will not be easy and I cannot have you hesitate when we confront him.”
He leaned back in the chair and regarded her steadily. “You never have to worry that I would hesitate. We are in this together. It is my choice. I made it when you asked me to live. I knew then we would go after him.”
She allowed herself a sigh of relief. She shouldn’t have doubted him. He had the courage to be whatever she needed. He found no shame in following her lead. No hesitation in accepting their destiny. He was more of a man than any other she knew.
“You know what I think, Razvan? I believe Xavier has to find another body. He was not merely possessing you, leaving pieces behind in you to stay in control. I believe he was looking for a host body and a way to enter it, to claim it completely and make the body his own. He wanted to be Carpathian. You were born with Dragonseeker blood running in your veins, known to be one of the most powerful lineages, if not the most powerful. He coveted that bloodline. That is why he went after Rhiannon. And that is why he drank the blood of her children and grandchildren. He craves a body from the Dragonseeker bloodline.”
“No Dragonseeker has ever turned.” There was no pride in his voice. It was merely a statement. “I would not allow him to make me the first.”
She smiled at him, her smile lifting him back from the shadowy place that he had dropped into. “No, you did not. And you saved all of us. No one will know what you did, but I know, Razvan. If he had acquired a Dragonseeker body as was his goal, there is no way to judge the harm he would have done.”
He took her hand, played with her fingers, shaking his head a bit. “It is my stubbornness.”
“It is your immeasurable courage,” she corrected. “It is not as if anyone could have endured as you did.”
He brought her fingers to his mouth and bit gently. “You will make me blush.”
She doubted that. He had no ego. None. He simply accepted his life and lived in the moment, focusing his entire attention on what he was doing and giving his best to whatever task was at hand. She did a little blushing thinking of how he focused so completely on her when they made love. Nothing