Page 44 of Take No Prisoners
"You won't do anyone any good when you're dead." There was venom in Vadim's tone, and more fire than Efren had ever riled from him in their time together. That confirmed it more than anything Vadim had said while aboardStarlight Specter. Vadim cared for Klaus.
Klaus tossed his coppery locks over his shoulder and raised his chin in defiance as he glared at Vadim. "I didn't ask for this."
"If I would have left you in Landale, you'd be dead already."
Vadim and Klaus glared at each other.
Martiz reached for Klaus's hand where it rested on the table. His expression shifted from confusion to one of pure horror. "Oh, Vadim." Martiz dropped Klaus's hand and hissed out a breath. "What have you done?"
"I kept him alive." Vadim continued to stare at Klaus until the seeker looked down at the table. "I needed to know when Efren got close to us."
"You've tethered his life force to yours." Martiz directed his gaze to Beatrice. "I can't heal the young man until Vadim severs the link with him, and even then, there's a good chance he'll die for losing it."
"It's time for you to learn to use your power opposite." Beatrice patted Vadim's hand. "Which leads us to our next point of discussion. Niall."
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Niall
Niall wasn't sure he understood everything from the elders' conversation. Coryn had a vendetta against healers, and Niall didn't yet understand how healers created enchanters, seekers, suppressors, and whatever Coryn was.
There was one tidbit he could offer to clear things up, or so he hoped.
"I've never been touched by a healer."
Elder Beatrice smiled at him. "I'd assumed as much."
"That's impossible!" Vadim turned his glare from Klaus to Niall.
"You're not a siphon, as Vadim guessed," Elder Beatrice said. "You're a spectral mage."
Efren grinned at Niall, but Niall didn't share his enthusiasm. "What does that mean?"
"It means you have your own power," Elder Martiz said. "How did it first manifest?"
Niall shrugged. "I don't know."
"Tell him about the first time you remember," Vadim said.
"I heard your voice in my head at the docks, and again on your ship. You said that meant I'm a death weaver."
Vadim nodded. "That's why I assumed you were a death weaver, but then you broke free from the silver cuffs."
"The cuffs didn't keep him out of your head," Klaus said. "You should have known they wouldn't hold him."
"I didn't know the cuffs would sever our communication link," Vadim answered. "I only tested them long enough to know they wouldn't break the life link and kill you."
"Wait." Niall couldn't recognize the emotion on Klaus's face. "You tested them on yourself?"
Vadim turned back to Niall. His hair hid the trace of pink across his cheekbones from Klaus's side of the table. "And then?" His glower deepened, as though he was personally affronted by Niall's escape and subsequent—
"I brought Renald back to life." Niall swallowed hard as the rest of the room erupted around him.
"How?" Elder Martiz leaned forward over the table to meet Niall's gaze, his eyes wide with curiosity.
"I sensed his life force hovering over his body, and I ... shoved it back in."
"Even perfectly balanced mages struggle to do that." Elder Martiz's quizzical frown said he didn't believe Niall.
