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. You didn t hurt me. 112SAM C.LEONHARD I know.Now.Because I watched the film.But I can t be a wolfpermanently unless I want to end up like my mad grandmother.I needanother way to block out the voice. Aleksei nodded. Logical reasoning, he said. So what about thatexperiment? Gabriel tapped his finger on the closed lid. The leather stringtriggered an idea.I thought, what if you bind me too? You re myanchor anyway, Aleksei.Bind me to you and this world, make it clear Ibelong to you and that no one else, especially not a disembodied voice,has any power over me. Aleksei paled. You re talking of forbidden magic here. Heshook his head vigorously. Not only is it illegal to use, I couldn t do itanyway.Those kind of Binding runes require hate, beloved.I do nothate you.I do not wish you harm. Gabriel grabbed his lover s collar.The voice became louder bythe second. That thing is out there, and it is calling me.I will followits call if you don t hold me back somehow.And anyway, I am nottalking about the forbidden runes.I m talking about a new one. I can t Aleksei began, but Gabriel didn t let him finish hissentence. I m losing my mind.Now.This very moment.The creaturemakes me believe I hate you.After I watched the video& I was soclose to using all those toys on you.I was that close to hurting youreally badly.If the wolf hadn t taken over, I would have.But in thelong run, not even the wolf is strong enough.Hold me back, Aleksei.Please! But I cannot! It was rare for Aleksei to shout.He was a man who wonarguments through reasoning and logic and, sometimes, with a kiss.Shouting was just not part of his character. I cannot bind you, Gabriel, Aleksei repeated more quietly. Iam willing to do everything and sacrifice everything to save you, but abinding&.No.Never. If this is all about finding a way to do it, I think I can makesomething up. Before Aleksei could hold him back, Gabriel was in theworkroom.He took a sheet of paper and a pen both much more 113TAINTED SOULsuitable for painting runes than cocoa spilled on a table and scribbledlines without even bothering to sit down.I shouldn t be able to do this, he thought, nibbling the pen s end.But it is all so clear.All I have to do is& here, this line, and that one.No.Doesn t work that way.His knowledge of runes was fragile and pitted at best, and hewould have been the first to admit it.He used them without knowinghow they worked, he crossed the portals without even bothering toprotect himself, and whenever Aleksei tried to get him to talk about it,he quickly changed the subject.Inventing runes should be according to his lover, the faecouncil, and everyone else impossible.He did it anyway.It was so easy.Stupid, really, that no one had ever tried before.All it needed was yes, if he began with the Protection rune but alteredthat line so the lower part of a Hiding rune could be added&. No, still doesn t work yet, Gabriel mumbled, pushing straystrands of his hair behind his ear. Got to erase that bit here.Now.That s more like it.Can t remember which rune that part is from, butwhat the hell.Should work anyway. I cannot believe you re doing it again. Leaning against thedoorframe, Aleksei was watching him with a mixture of amusement,doubt, and faint jealousy on his face. You have no idea howdesperately people in all worlds try to do just that: invent new runes.Itnever works.It is impossible to feed them with power.They stay whatthey are, lines on paper.And then you come along and scribble not onebut several new runes down just like that.Runes that work! Hmm.Sorry. Gabriel flashed him an apologetic smile. If youkeep this to yourself, I won t tell anyone either.Ah.Now, that s better.I m not done yet, but I want your opinion.Come here and take a look. Aleksei stepped next to him, looked at the paper, and traced thelines with his fingertips.They were glowing faintly, not enough to dowhat they were designed for, but enough to make it absolutely clearthey were more than ink on paper. This one here was your first try,yes? 114SAM C.LEONHARDGabriel nodded.His fingers itched for the pen so he couldcontinue his work, but right now, he understood it was more importantto explain what he d done. It didn t feel quite right, he said. Thatline is too long and that one there doesn t fit at all. I can see the difference with the second one.But I don tunderstand how you could know the first one wouldn t work.I cannotfeel runes.I know by looking at them if I did them right and then I feedthem with power. Gabriel shrugged his shoulders.He couldn t explain it any betterthan that, just as he couldn t explain to a blind man what the color redlooked like. The rune you invented to find the cameras could you show mehow it is drawn? Aleksei raised a questioning eyebrow, and Gabrielcouldn t help but smile. Sure.It s easy.Look, he said, and he drew a few linesunderneath the runes already on the paper. That one you need to drawin the air or it won t work, just like the& let s call it Binding rune&has to be drawn on naked skin.Try it.Think of something you want tobe found and that s it.Easy. I have mislaid one of my Hang on! Even better& let s see if I can alter this a bit yes.Perfect! Now, you know how you always talk about filing all yourbooks so you can find references to certain subjects more easily? Or soI can find them more easily since you know all your books by heart,anyway, and I can t even remember the title I m looking for? Gabriel s cheeks were glowing with excitement.For lack of paper, heused the pen to write on his palm, rubbed out wrong lines with histhumb and a bit of spit before finally thrusting his hand in front ofAleksei s eyes. There.Imagine you want to find books containinginformation about shapeshifters.Draw the rune. Aleksei never hesitated when it came to runes.He d grown upwith them and had a natural knack for mastering their powers.No otherfae, and probably not even the oldest elf, knew more about them thanhe did.He hesitated now
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