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to let you go, and we can't convince him to try and change you. Our people might accept you then; it's a rare feat for a human to survive the change. They may not embrace you with open arms after, but they won't deny you either, and the ones that did would be few.
"He is unwilling to realize these facts, but you need to." A sob escaped her. She shoved her fist into her mouth, trying to stifle her cries as something inside of her began to break. "It's for the greater good Aria. Think of the people, your people that will be freed. The future generations that will never know the fear and oppression that you have known. Think of the fact that they will not know starvation, filth, and enslavement as you have known it; as Max has known it."
Max, oh Max. His time as a blood slave had destroyed him. It had taken a proud, vibrant man and turned him into someone filled with hate and bitterness. It had broken him, as it had broken so many others before they were mercifully destroyed. Then there were the ones that never made it to blood slave status. She recalled the boy she'd been captured with, so young and vulnerable. He'd been selected for death.
"Oh." Her legs gave out; she slid limply to the forest floor. "Oh."
"He believes that he can make everything alright in the end. It's not possible Aria." Jack's tone had become softer, she could hear the ragged pain in it, but it was nothing compared to the anguish savaging her soul. "We need for you to agree to leave him when this war is over."
She knew it was the right thing to do, she knew it was the best thing for everyone involved, even if it destroyed her and Braith. But even so, hope flared hotly through her as she realized something. "But that's not possible!" she blurted. "He can track me anywhere, his blood is in me; we are bound in that way. Ashby said I'm his bloodlink, that we can't live without each other."
"You have started the bond, but it's not complete, is it?"
"No, but..."
"As long as you don't allow it to be completely forged there is a chance that the bloodlink will not destroy either of you. As for his blood in your system, we're hoping that if you don't accept it again his blood will thin out and eventually leave your system."
"I was gone from the palace for over a month and he still found me."
Jack and Ashby exchanged a look. "We think that if another vampire's blood is added to your system, most likely mine, it may dilute his enough so that he won't be able to track you for long, if at all."
She recoiled; revulsion filled her, nausea surged up her throat at the mere thought. She was shaking her head no when Jack bent and grabbed hold of her shoulders. "Aria..."
"He'll die without me," she groaned. She didn't add she would die without him, she was dying now, and though she would continue to move through her days, she knew she would never live again, not without him.
"Maybe not, if the bond isn't completely forged."
The noise that escaped her was guttural. "He went berserk when I left him last time."
"We hope that having so many lives in his hands will help to keep him in control. He didn't have that responsibility before. No matter how upset and furious he is, we're hoping that the good in him will win out because of that."
"That's a lot of hoping."
"It's all we have, and one day, you will die Aria. Your death may sever whatever bond remains between you at the time, freeing him."
Freeing her also, she realized as she bent over, her arms wrapping around her stomach. "He will be blind again."
"He will, but he was blind for a hundred years before you, it never slowed him down. The world was dark to him, but it was not a weakness for him. Ashby, Melinda, Gideon, and many others will be there to protect him."
She almost laughed at the mention of Ashby, the one who had blinded him to begin with, but there was no humor in her. It was all too awful to even remotely be funny. "I know this is a lot to ask of you Aria, I know that you are young and in love, but..."
"Stop," she whispered.
Ashby clasped hold of her hands as he knelt before her.