"You helped us." Her fingers sought and found Mikhail's, entwined with his, yet her gaze never left Gregori's face. "You were so far away. The sun was out, yet you knew we were in trouble, and you were able to help us. It was difficult for you. I felt it even as you reached for me to take away what I could not endure." The silver eyes, pale in Gregori's dark face, narrowed to a slash of quicksilver. Mesmerizing. Hypnotic. The voice lowered an octave. "Mikhail and I are bound together. We have exchanged blood when we were wounded in battle, and we share a mind link that is strong. That enabled me to come to your aid--through my link with him. We have shared long, dark years of emptiness without hope. Perhaps you represent hope for both of us." Raven regarded him steadily, seriously. "That would please me." Mikhail felt a surge of love for her wash over him, a surge of pride. Raven had so much compassion in her. Although she was mentally bruised and battered, and Gregori's mind was firmly closed to them, his harsh features impossible to read, she realized that Gregori was fighting to survive. That he needed to be drawn into the circle of light, of hope. Mikhail could have told her that Gregori was like water flowing through fingers--impossible to hold or control. He was a law unto himself, a dark, dangerous man on the edge of a yawning abyss of madness."