“How did you learn about it, Joey?” Collier asked gently. “Did Luke explain—”
“What I was?” Joey finished, breaking free of the downward spiral of her thoughts. “Yes. He told me in Val Cache, or tried to. But I didn’t remember that until much later.”
“It must have come as quite a shock,” Collier murmured sympathetically. He shook his head with a sigh. “I had guessed that Luke would never have acted—never have behaved as he did with you if there hadn’t been some very solid reason behind it. Reason!” Barking a laugh, he met her startled gaze. “Reason isn’t quite the word.”
“No,” Joey said softly. “Reason has nothing to do with it.” There was a deep and awkward pause. “I didn’t remember what he’d told me in Val Cache at first, but once Philippe came to visit and let it slip. At the time I didn’t even question, it was as if I’d known it all along.” The memory made her grimace. “I suppose I should be grateful for that. Luke didn’t force me. He made it quite easy for me to accept it, and in the end, when I had no other choice, it simply happened.”
“And was it so terrible, Joey?” Collier asked. There was such wistful sadness in his voice that she summoned up a smile, remembering why, for him, it was no idle question.
“Not terrible. Not that.” Her vision darkened and blurred. “The terrible thing was waking up from a beautiful dream.” Collier’s eyes were locked on hers, intense with some unnamed emotion. “It was easy accepting what I was. It was easy living here with Luke, forgetting everything else. Too easy for me to guess anything was wrong.” Slowly she closed her eyes against the black void that ached to swallow her. “Something happened to me after I changed, Allan,” she whispered. “I learned more than how to be what he is. I woke up.” She spaced the words deliberately, forcing them out. “When I knew he was safe and I’d done everything I could and the need was past, when I could think again, I realized—I found out—what he—what he…” The overpowering sense of loss engulfed her utterly, she dropped her head into her hands.
“Oh, Joey,” Collier sighed. She heard him shift beside he.r “I was afraid, when Luke told me you’d agreed to stay, when I spoke to you in Val Cache—I was afraid something wasn’t right. Eventually, when it was too late, I guessed what it was.”
Joey dragged her head up to look at him. His face was as grim as she had ever seen it. For the first time she noticed the deep hollows under his mild blue eyes. “You see, Joey, I’ve known Luke a very long time. I know what he fears, and what he’s capable of. I tried to warn him. I didn’t want to see either of you get hurt, but I failed to recognize what was coming.”
Understanding came to Joey through a thick fog of confusion. “You know,” she said in amazement.
“I know.” A wry smile twisted his mobile mouth. “I know because it happened to me. And I should have seen it, been prepared for it.” His eyes were suddenly very bright. “I should have known Luke was not rational in this—where you are concerned.”
“What,” Joey said slowly, “did he do to you?” She closed her eyes again, afraid to hear him confirm what she had realized in those terrible moments when her thoughts had cleared and she had known Luke was safe. When her awakened mind and Luke’s weakness had broken the bonds of his will.
“He used his ‘influence’ on me. That’s the phrase we coined for it, anyway.” His voice was dry, almost pedantic. “He used to experiment with it as a boy, once he’d learned to change. When I found out about it, I tried to explain that it wasn’t right—that his gifts should not be so misused. Eventually he found that out for himself, the hard way.” Joey opened her eyes to see the lines of new pain etched into his weathered features. “I never really believed he’d used it on me. But then again, I never believed he’d find you, either.”