“Welcome to my world, Sarah,” Nikolas answered. “Why are you wearing these?” He reached to the bandages on her right arm as she pulled away. “Are you ashamed of what they hide?”
“Ashamed?” she echoed, incredulous. “Should I beproudto show the world that you’ve sliced your name into my skin?”
Nikolas laughed. “Look around you.”
The comment was well placed. Sarah had already seen several humans with Nikolas’s marks on them. When he entered the room, they greeted him with adoration. While they were discreet in human society, in Nikolas’s own lair they wore tank shirts or sleeveless dresses, going out of their way to show off the marks.
“I’d rather burn them off, personally,” she growled.
“If you really want to, you can always do that later, though I’ve heard it’s painful,” Nikolas commented, apparently serious. “Of course, I don’t suppose you would mind a little more pain, would you?”
Before she could react he grabbed her wrist, pulling her toward him sharply enough that she stumbled and needed to catch herself on the arm of a nearby couch.
“I thought you played by the rules,” she hissed, snatching her other wrist away when he reached for it.
“I do. I’m simply removing these,” Nikolas answered, carefully unwinding the bandage on the wrist he had a hold on.
“Let me go.”
He let go of her arms, but continued to undo the bandages until each of his marks was revealed.
The sudden movement had opened one of the cuts on her shoulder, and he bent his head down to the wound. She felt the soft sensation of his lips on her skin and tried to pull away, but Nikolas grabbed her right arm and held her still.
Pressing her left hand to his chest, with the tip of the spring-loaded knife only inches from his heart, she said, “I consider this a threat. Let me go, or I will kill you where you stand.”
“You’re right,” Nikolas said, lifting his head and releasing her. The taste of her blood, stronger and sweeter than any human’s, had caused his expression to darken with bloodlust. “It isn’t midnight yet, is it?”
CHAPTER 19
“ DAMN, SARAH.”
She spun toward the familiar voice, and nearly swore when she recognized her sister. Kaleo, lounging against one of the walls, watched the confrontation with malicious pleasure—he must have let Adianna in.
“You really have gotten yourself into trouble this time, haven’t you, little sister?” Adianna asked, sizing up the situation.
“What are you doing here?” Sarah demanded, frustrated by her sister’s appearance. Adianna was going to get herself killed.
“Touchy today, aren’t we?” Adianna responded.
“How did you know where I was?”
“I wanted to know what was up with you. I asked this”—she gestured to Nikolas—“thing’s brother, Christopher, and he told me you were here.”
Sarah cringed inwardly. Adianna didn’ttalkto vampires—if they had information she needed, she would force it from them. Sarah hoped Christopher was still alive.
Evidently, Nikolas had the same thought, because Sarah saw instant hatred on his face. He stepped forward a pace and Adianna drew her knife.
“Come any nearer, and you won’t be pleased with the results,” Adianna warned.
“Tell you what,” Nikolas said slowly, glancing from Adianna to Sarah and then back. The other vampires had disappeared, leaving Nikolas alone with the two hunters and a scattered handful of groggy humans; Sarah could tell he was stalling for time. “Only Sarah is in my plan for tonight. I’ll let you leave safely, if you will do so now.”
Adianna did not wait for him to continue but attacked instantly. No hesitation, no thought, just pure Vida skill.
Nikolas dodged, but Adianna turned quickly, cutting into his side. Sarah had just drawn her knife to join the fray when something struck her from behind, sending her stumbling. More astonished than frightened, she twisted and detached the human who had attacked her, knocking the girl out with a small burst of power.
A quick scan revealed two more humans on their feet and ready to fight if necessary, but Nikolas did not need the help. Sarah heard something in Adianna’s arm snap as the vampire slammed her back into the wall.
“Nikolas, let her go!” Sarah shouted.
“Why?” he asked, his hand over Adianna’s windpipe, ready to crush it.
“Adianna isn’t involved in this—she only came because she heard I was here. Let her go.”
“Christopher wouldn’t have told her where I was unless she hurt him,” Nikolas growled.
Sarah advanced, careful to keep the humans from her back, and Nikolas’s grip on Adianna’s throat tightened. “The hour has fallen, Sarah—I could kill her before you could get near enough to hurt me, and you know it.”
“Then how about I leave now, while you are busy with her?” Sarah bluffed. “It would ruin your plans for tonight, wouldn’t it?”
Nikolas hesitated. “I suppose it would dent them a bit.”
“Let her go, Nikolas.” Adianna was turning blue from Nikolas’s grip, and it took all of Sarah’s will not to attack.
“You are in no place to make demands, Sarah, but I’ll make a deal with you anyway. Marguerite?”
One of the humans answered. “Yes?”
Sarah spared a glance and recognized the girl from SingleEarth. Nikolas’s marks on her dark skin looked like pearl inlays.
It was not these designs, though, that sent dread down Sarah’s spine. There were two more on her left arm, which must have been tucked under the girl when she had been brought to SingleEarth: one was a teardrop, and the other was a second signature.
Kristopher.
“Sarah,” Nikolas said, “Give your knives—all of them—to Marguerite so she can bring them upstairs, and I will let your sister go safely.”
She believed him. However warped, somewhere within Nikolas’s twisted mind was a sense of honor.
Of course, if she relinquished all her weapons, Nikolas would probably killher. And it wascompletelyagainst Vida rules to surrender arms to any leech.
“Fine,” she answered, drawing the first knife from her back.
Nikolas loosened his grip on Adianna’s throat enough that she could breathe, and Adianna immediately said through her teeth, “Sarah, what are youdoing?”
She did not answer.
Adianna had never broken the rules. She hadn’t befriended the vampires or made deals with them. She hadn’t revealed her powers to a human boy. Stronger and colder, Adianna was the one more likely to survive after this night, and so Sarah had to do what she could to help her. The Vida line had to go on, and Adianna was a better Vida than Sarah could ever be.
It seemed to take a long time before Sarah had finished stripping herself of weapons, but it was all too soon that Nikolas asked Marguerite to bring them upstairs, and Sarah was left standing before the vampire unarmed. Nikolas pulled Adianna away from the wall and disappeared with her.
He reappeared alone in an instant. With luck, he had simply put some distance between Adianna and this house. With less luck, she was somewhere in Europe, trying to find a phone to call Dominique to arrange a plane home.
CHAPTER 20
“NOW WHAT?” Sarah asked.
“No fight, Sarah? No bold words?” he asked, stepping toward her. “Are your knives all that give you courage?”
“My knives are necessary for me to kill your kind,” she answered. “But they aren’t my courage. I’m not begging for my life, either.”
“You never will, will you?” he asked, as he took hold of her right arm. He bent his head down to the rose and licked away the thin line of blood that had gathered on the stem. Then his lips moved to her throat.
Once again she started to pull away, but this time she had no knives to threaten with, and Nikolas’s grip was tightening. His fangs brushed across her throat and she braced herself for pain.
He raised his head to look her in the eye.
&n
bsp; “It doesn’t hurt, Sarah,” he said, as if reading her mind. “And I’m not going to kill you. What are you afraid of?”
The unknown,Sarah thought. What exactly did this creature have planned? But she didn’t ask, because she didn’t really want to know. “Just get on with it.”
With his free hand he leaned her head back, his fingers running through her hair, strangely gentle.
“Nikolas, let her go.”
Nikolas raised his head, allowing Sarah just enough room to look to the speaker.
“Christopher.” Nikolas’s eyes lit up as he whispered his brother’s name. “Care to join me?”
“Let her go, or I will take her from you,” Christopher ordered, his voice unwavering.
“You can’t,” Nikolas answered. “Youcould,physically—you know I wouldn’t fight you—but you can’t by law.” Nikolas gestured to the thin line of blood on his side where Adianna’s knife had pierced the skin. “Her sister drew blood. I have claim on Adianna and her relations.”
Blood claim was one of the few laws vampires regularly followed. In return for the blood Adianna had drawn from Nikolas, no other vampire was allowed to interfere if he wanted to harm her or anyone in her family.
Christopher closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. “Don’t hurt her.”
“Whoever said I was going to hurt her?” He sounded so innocent, it made Sarah nervous.
“Iknowyou, Nikolas,” Christopher argued.
“Once you did,” Nikolas said quietly, sadly. “We—not I, butwe—were the most feared of our kind. Rome, Paris, New York—every city in the world was ours. What happened to Kristopher and Nikolas, who would hunt side by side, sharing the blood, dancing in the streets?”
Nikolas gestured to the wounds on Sarah’s arms. “These marks wereours,not mine, and everyone knew it. Now, even the hunters have forgotten you. When was the last time I saw you place your mark on your prey?”
“Marguerite,” Christopher answered, lost in memory. He stepped forward until he was standing in front of his brother. “She was the last.”
“Why?” Nikolas asked, voice barely audible.
“Let it go, Nikolas,” Christopher ordered, his voice shaking slightly. “That was fifty years ago.”
“I can see it in your eyes, Christopher,” Nikolas whispered to his brother. “You remember. Why did you leave me?”
“I stopped killing, Nikolas—”
“You stopped living!” Nikolas shouted, his emotion breaking any control he had. “I look at you, and all I see is pain. For you I tried to survive on anything but the blood of humans, but I couldn’t stand the pain. I couldn’t walk in the sunlight. I couldn’t stand to be near humans. One day I ran into a human girl on the street, and before I knew it she was dead in my arms. Aninnocent human girl,Christopher, who didn’t deserve to die.”
Sarah’s confusion escalated. Since when did Nikolas care if his victims were innocent or not?
“You were always stronger,” Nikolas finished. “I don’t have your control.”
Christopher looked anything but strong. Sarah could see the bloodlust close to the surface. She was still trapped in Nikolas’s arms, and her wounds had opened enough for blood to bead around the edges. The scent of her witch blood was in the air, laced with power and a hint of danger.
“Why did you leave me, Christopher?” Nikolas asked as he reached around Sarah to take his brother’s hands. She was trapped between the two vampires, and not sure how to react. Christopher’s control was obviously slipping—if she fought now, she would destroy it altogether. She did not want Christopher’s life to be the price of her escape.
“You remember Marguerite,” Nikolas said. “She pickedus.She knew what we were and what she wanted—”
“She said she wanted to die,” Christopher whispered. The memory was so strong in his voice that Sarah could almost imagine the scene, and the vision caused her to pull at Nikolas’s grip for a moment before she forced herself to stop.
Christopher’s control was so thin. If he could contain the bloodlust long enough to get his brother to let her go, she would be grateful. If he lost it, she would fight.
It no longer mattered who was speaking as they continued the tale, both lost in memory. “Two of us, like a mirror. We both fed on her, you on the left, and me on the right. You marked her first, putting your signature forever on her skin, and then I followed.”
“And when she woke she was afraid, but there was passion there too. She was given the finest wines and the softest silks to wear, rich foods, chocolates—”
“We approached her again, both of us taking her blood, but this time we only took a taste—”
“And then we both cut ourselves, here, just below our throats, and she leaned forward to drink.”
Disgust flashed in Sarah’s mind, as she weighed the brothers’ every word for a hint of what their next action would be. So the girl had wanted to die. Instead they had blood bonded her, given her all but immortality.
Nikolas drew his brother forward, and then placed Christopher’s hand over the uncut skin on Sarah’s left wrist.
“Why is there nothing here, Christopher?”
Both of the brothers seemed entranced by their pasts. Finally, Sarah spoke.
“You said you haven’t hunted since Marguerite, Christopher,” she said, loudly, in an attempt to break the spell. “Why?”
Christopher blinked and looked at Sarah as if he were seeing her for the first time.
“Nissa took him away from me,” Nikolas answered sullenly.
“Nissa needed me,” Christopher answered tiredly. “You saw how she was, Nikolas. She hadn’t fed in a week. If I hadn’t—”
Nikolas’s voice was quiet as he interrupted. “Don’t you know how lonely it is hunting without you?”
“No,” Christopher answered, still looking at his brother. “I don’t. I’ve never hunted alone.”
Nikolas once again drew his brother forward, this time placing Christopher’s hand just above the pulse on Sarah’s throat. She checked her reaction to jerk back, knowing that an attempt to flee would only bring out the predatory instincts that Christopher was fighting.
“Can’t you feel the life there, Christopher?” Nikolas pressed. “Don’t you want it?”
Christopher closed his eyes, turning his head away.
“Christopher—”
“Sarah, don’t talk,” Christopher said quickly, sounding pained. He jerked his hand out of Nikolas’s grasp and stepped back.
“Christopher, don’t leave me again,” Nikolas pleaded, childlike in his fear of loneliness. “I don’t want to be alone anymore. Nissa needed you then, but I need younow.”
“Let Sarah go.” Christopher’s voice wavered.
“Shehurtyou,” Nikolas argued. “Isawyou after she turned you away. You wouldn’t even talk to me. I can’t stand to see you in pain, Christopher. In the old days we would have hunted her down together.”
“I don’t want to kill her,” Christopher said. He finally gathered the strength to meet his brother’s gaze again. “And I won’t let you.”
“I won’t kill her if you don’t want me to—if I was willing to do that she would have been dead the instant she entered my home. But you know I can’t just turn her loose. She hunted me down once. Do you really think she would stay away if I let her go? Do you really think her family wouldn’t track down you and Nissa if they couldn’t find me?” Nikolas’s voice was cold, but filled with pain.
“Nikolas—”
Nikolas removed his knife from his pocket and opened it.
“Nikolas, what are you doing?” Christopher demanded, but his brother did not answer as he caught Sarah’s right wrist in a grip she could not break, and skimmed the blade across the back of her hand, drawing a thin line of new blood.
“Damn it, Nikolas!” Christopher shouted, spinning sharply away so the blood was not in his sight. “Don’t do this to me!”
“Just once, Brother, be the Kristopher I
know.”
Christopher was trembling as he fought the bloodlust.
“Please, Brother. For me, kill the pain.” Holding Sarah by the throat with one hand, Nikolas reached out and turned his brother around with the other. Christopher’s eyes immediately fell on the blood that was dripping from Sarah’s hand.
“Christopher, no—”
“Shut up,Sarah!” Christopher shouted when she tried to argue, his voice strained. He turned to his brother. “We’re both damned. You know that, don’t you?”
And then Christopher took Sarah’s hand, lifted the wound to his lips, and licked the blood away.
“Christopher, I’m your friend—”
“No, Nikolas.” Roughly, Christopher shoved himself away from her, sending Sarah stumbling back into Nikolas. She could see him shaking from the effort it took him to break away.
“Kristopher, have you forgotten everything?” Nikolas pleaded, the hurt clear in his voice.
“Please, Nikolas, let her go.”
“Why?” Nikolas’s voice was childlike, hurt. “You were the first one,” he reminded his brother, “to pick up a knife.”
Sarah felt Nikolas’s hold on her wrists lessen as he focused on his brother; if he continued to be distracted, she stood a chance of getting out. She had lost hope that Christopher would help her—he wasn’t strong enough to ignore his bloodlust.
“Please, Kristopher,” Nikolas implored.
“Not Sarah.”
That last, painful argument almost caused her to hesitate, but even as she yanked her arms out of Nikolas’s grip she had made her decision. Survival. She threw herself forward, and before either vampire could react, she had pinned Christopher to the floor, a hand over his throat.
“Sarah—”
He didn’t have another chance to speak before she violently dragged at Christopher’s power with her own. He gasped, unable to fight back, and she winced at the pain she knew her magic caused him.
There were nine energy centers in the body, called chakras, that witches could use to manipulate the energies of another, usually in order to heal. Her line had learned another way to use them, one no witch would ever use on another mortal creature: to inflict pain, and to kill.
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