"Of course.  If I had wanted you dead, do you imagine that you would be alive?  How often have I had you deep in my clutches?  I wouldn't need such a charade to kill you," he said, and suddenly was behind her, his finger trailing across her shoulders and hair.  It was unclear whose dream it was, but Blackvayne was a creature of dreams as much as the flesh.  He was quite used to enacting his will through dreamcraft and knew all the tricks and spells of it.  "I will not go far as to say your parents are well, but they're alive.  And, yes, I very much passed you out as my whore.  Did you think there would be no consequences for your rejection of me?  I enjoy irony.  When I found that you and the lone wolf were compatible - psychically compatible - I couldn't resist."<br/><br/>He laughed.  "Kill me?  Do you not imagine I am more in control of this situation than you think?  No, he will not kill me.  Why should he want to kill me?  He has you.  Have I not given him a great gift, a gift greater than any a witch has ever given him.  And, beyond that, if he is not in league with my enemies, is he my enemy?  Am I his enemy?  What is so terrible about me that he must implacably hunt me down and kill me?  He doesn't.  There is much he doesn't understand, and unlike the witches, I will freely teach him.  Or he can teach himself and learn himself.  There is no need to be enemies.  There has never been a reason for my kind and your kind to be enemies, Vara.  You know that."