It was also the moment he knew he could never accept the bond from her. Could never be what she needed him to be. Her life was far too precious. As he slowly joined her in unconsciousness, content in both his new internal acceptance and the feel of the soft, warm shape pressed against him, he felt a presence both old and young, light and dark, flit along the edges of his mind just long enough to whisper words he would later convince himself were nothing more than a hallucination. Love is a weakness, Andrian Laurent.
