Marius blinked. “But you … you cannot … drain souls? As I can?”
Janus shook his head. “There are many different types of us, with powers of varying kinds. An incubus, as you are, is a fairly unusual power as of now. There are not so many of your kind. They are all of one family, and I can only assume that your father was also an incubus.”
“No one knows who my father is,” Marius said. “My mother never said.”
“It was probably Valerianus,” Janus said with an air of distaste. “He has a tendency to float about the countryside having his way with women and leaving them dead in his wake.” He looked sickened. “Few of his victims survive, I am sad to say.”
“Why would he … do such a thing?” Marius asked, trying to wrap his mind around all he had heard. People with powers, gods walking the countryside? He had had faith, but to hear that it was all true, existing beneath the surface of the cold and cruel world he had witnessed with his own eyes … that was something else entirely.
“Out of desire,” Janus said. He sounded like the villagers when they had discussed a murderer who had been caught and killed. “He lets his primal lusts rule him and woe betide any who get in his way.” Janus leaned on the table, his eyes connecting with Marius. “I must caution you that there are many of our kind who conduct themselves in this way, treating people as objects to be used for whatever purpose or gain they can find. They view humans around them in much the same way that your hometown likely treated you.”
Marius felt a sudden revulsion creep through him. “That is …” He searched for a word.
“Appalling, I know,” Janus said. He eyed Marius warily. “Yet I understand the temptation. You will likely feel it yourself, now that you realize your power over others.”
Marius swallowed, felt the bile burn down his throat. “I don’t … I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
Janus watched him then nodded once. “That is an excellent place to start, with that intention in mind.”
Marius leaned back in his chair again, but now he found no comfort in it. A chair was a luxury he’d never imagined in the barn. There was food before him of the like he had never seen. The house that surrounded him was unlike anything in his village. And yet— “What is to become of me?” he asked.
Janus shifted his weight from his elbow and sat up straight in his chair once more. “An excellent question, and one I would have myself were I sitting in your seat. Now, I think we will have the servants bathe you, and show you to a lovely bed not made of straw, and give you a night to rest before we discuss the paths in front of you.” He snapped his fingers and a servant appeared out of the shadows. He gestured for Marius, spreading both arms in such a way as to indicate the nearest door, shadowed under an archway.
Marius drew himself up slowly, his limbs suddenly feeling the weariness of the last few days. He started toward the doorway and halted, looking back at where Janus sat, still deep in thought. “Why are you helping me?” Marius asked.
Janus shifted, turning his head ponderously toward Marius and then smoothing his beard. “Because, my boy, you are, after a fashion, family. And it is good form to take care of one’s family.”
With that, Janus stood and said no more, as he himself exited the dining hall into the shadow of a doorway in the opposite wall. Marius stood there and watched him disappear before following the servant into the darkness himself.
Chapter 18
Sienna
Now
GET OUT.
The voice nearly shouted in my head, overcoming the sound of the freeway and the wind. The feeling of weightlessness that had accompanied my flight was gone, replaced by the heady, stomach-dropping sensation of a fall.
My fingers slid across the smooth surface of the white van I’d been holding onto only moments before, hoping I’d find some place to grab onto. The sweat on my fingertips caused them to slip, and I fell in slow motion as I closed my eyes at the sound of the voice resonating in my head.
GET OUT, it repeated again, deep and rich and …
… familiar.
The psychic spear that had been causing my brain to scream in pain only a second earlier was gone, I realize dimly as I slipped past the back wheel of the van. It spun so slowly I could see it turn, faint lines of dust coming off it like mist rising off the low fields around the Agency in the mornings.
I could taste the exhaust from the cars around me, and the ground was rising to greet me. I knew it would hurt, knew that I’d bounce and probably break something. But there was nothing to stop it now—
SIENNA …
The familiar voice called to me. Jarred me out of the reverie of my slow fall to oblivion. I closed my eyes and I could see the speaker in the dark space in my mind where I greeted the souls I’d taken.