Page 20 of Dallas

“We can all do that. I admit I’m better at it than some of the others, but I worked to develop my talent.”

“Because you wanted to control others?” He chuckled.

“Do you think that’s funny?” I asked with a wary, weary stare.

“I’m laughing at myself, since I would do the same thing. No question.” He looked around from his place behind the steering wheel, sighing. “I wish this would let up a bit so I could get a sense of how much further we need to go. We might be closer to the top than we thought, and closer to help.”

“Or we might be miles away.”

“Always positive. One thing I can count on from you.” He eyed me up and down. “I’d think if you were that cynical regarding our chances, you would jump at the opportunity to spare your sister further pain. There’s no telling how long it would take before we can get actual assistance, if we can at all.”

I looked away, then back to her. It would be so easy, wouldn’t it? To let him give her his blood somehow. She could heal.

She could also then carry dragon’s blood within her.

“Why don’t we let her decide what she wants when she wakes up?” he suggested.

“Yes. That’s a good idea.”

“You agreed awfully quickly.”

“Because it’s a good idea.”

“And not because you intend to keep her in this state so she won’t awaken?”

My head snapped around in surprise. “What?”

“So that’s what you were planning to do, is it?” He folded his thick arms. “I thought so.”

I blinked rapidly. “No. How could you say such a thing?”

“Stop lying, please. Now I understand you.”

“Oh, now you understand me?” My sister forgotten for the moment, I turned to face him. “Pray tell. How is that?”

One corner of his mouth twitched. “You really don’t know, then?”

“Know what? Why are you being so mysterious? Is this a joke to you?”

“Not at all. I do not find this a laughing matter. I merely find it amusing that you don’t understand what happened when you took on your sister’s pain, an admirable thing, that. Do not mistake me. But you made a slip up.”

“What slip up?” I hissed, as the storm in my head raged on. Didn’t he understand I could hardly think straight? Yet he insisted on playing word games with me, thinking he was so clever as he always did.

I would have sworn there was a gleam in his eye. “You were shielding yourself before now, weren’t you?”

I bit my tongue to keep from gasping.

My shield! I forgot my shield! It must have slipped or dissolved entirely when I turned my power toward Callie.

“I know how upset you are with yourself,” he continued while I panicked. “I can feel it now. I’ve been wondering all this time why I couldn’t understand you, the way I can understand everyone else. You’ve been a mystery to me all along. I could not comprehend your motivation behind testing me, nagging me, bringing your problems to me.”

“And now you understand?” I asked, rolling my eyes. “Pray tell, then, as you’re so clever and wise, which is precisely what you want me to think of you. What you want everyone to think of you.”

He frowned, but didn’t allow this to stop him. If anything, there was malice in his voice when he announced something which should have been wondrous, miraculous.

Or so I guessed, as I’d never experienced anything like what I was about to hear.

“No matter how you shielded yourself from me, something wouldn’t allow you to forget me. Isn’t that right?” he asked. “And now I see why. You’re my fated one.”

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