"That much is obvious," she retorted. "You look like you've been up for a week straight."
He frowned at her before downing the contents of the bag. "I feel like I have. I take it my eyes are red."
"No, they're some weird combination of your green and red. I've never seen anything like it before Ethan."
"Well, isn't that interesting." He ripped the top off another bag and consumed the contents. "Don't you have to get to the airport?"
Isabelle sighed and shook her head. "You're a stubborn fool."
"It takes one to know one."
A footstep in the hall caused him to drop everything into the trash. The last thing he wanted was for Emma to see him feeding; she was freaked out enough as it was. When he saw it was only Stefan, he retrieved the bag of blood from the trash and nodded to him before retreating to the pool area. He settled in the shade of an umbrella as the sun now made his skin itch in a way it never had before. He listened as the two of them left the house, but his attention remained focused on the sun shining off the clear pool water. It was the last place he'd made love to her, the last place he'd been inside her and known complete calm.
There wasn't enough blood in the world, he decided as he tossed the empty bag into the trash and went to get more.
* * *
Isabelle eagerly searched the crowd of passengers getting off the plane as they walked around her. She spotted Ian easily amongst the crowd. At six-four he was the tallest of her siblings, and taller than most of the people around him. His golden hair was disheveled and curled at the corners of his sky blue eyes. Not only was he the tallest of her siblings, but he was also the most built with his broad shoulders and chest. His heavily muscled arms were emphasized by the black wife beater tank top he wore.
Aiden was at his side; at six two he was shorter than Ian but still tall. He also had a more lean, whipcord build than Ian and Ethan. His black hair was shorter than the last time she'd seen him, and his eyes were darker than Ethan and her father's; they were more of a leaf green than an emerald.
Ian reached out and pushed Aiden's shoulder, knocking him slightly off balance. Aiden lowered his shoulder and shoved into Ian's chest in response. They both laughed and smiled as they continued to jostle each other through the crowd. For a minute, her heart soared as she savored in the sight of them. It had been almost a year since she'd seen them, and she'd missed them so much. It had been an amazing experience to explore the world with Stefan, but she was ready to get home to her family. This was supposed to be a happy reunion, yet all she felt was stressed out.
Rising on her tiptoes, she waved above the crowd to get their attention. They stopped shoving each other long enough to look at her and Stefan.
"There she is!" Aiden broke into a broad grin when he finally saw her. He barely acknowledged the people around him as he rushed forward.
Isabelle released a little squeal when he wrapped his arms around her, lifted her off the ground, and spun her around. Ian claimed her as soon as Aiden released her. Isabelle clung to him while he twirled her around before placing her on her feet. He grinned at her as he held her shoulders and leaned back to inspect her.
"It's good to see you, sis," he said and slapped her on her shoulders.
"You too," she told him.
He stepped away from her and turned toward Stefan. "Stefan," he greeted and extended his hand.
Stefan clasped his hand and shook it. "Where's Ethan?" Aiden inquired as he scanned the crowd of people moving around them.
Isabelle felt her smile slip away when they both turned questioning looks on her. "We have a problem," she told them.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ethan lifted his head from his hands when the front door opened. He didn't have to see them to know his brothers had arrived; he could hear and smell them. He lifted the glass of whiskey sitting on the table before him. It probably wasn't the best idea to be drinking right now, but it seemed to be the only thing helping to curb the edge of the growing insanity within him.
He took a sip of the liquid and braced himself for the invasion of his family. Solitude was best for him right now, but there was no way his family would give him the opportunity. Ian poked his head out of the house first, but Aiden was right behind him. Isabelle shoved them both out the door and stepped onto the patio behind them.
"Look at you, drinking all by yourself, in the middle of the day; somebody's wallowing in self-pity." Though Ian smiled, his voice held no humor, and his eyes were troubled as he studied Ethan.
"If you join me, I won't be by myself," Ethan said.
Ian's eyes widened as he approached, he hesitated as his gaze locked on Ethan's. He knew what his eyes looked like now, knew what his brother was seeing, and if Ian looked like this, he would hesitate before approaching him too. Ethan lifted his drink and saluted his brother with it before downing the rest of the contents. He'd drank so many of them, he didn't feel the burn anymore. He didn't feel a buzz either. There was only a softening of the razors slicing his stomach and chest apart.
"Here's to afternoon drinking," he muttered and refilled his drink.
"Ethan—"
"Don't talk, just drink," he interrupted Ian.
He lifted his glass and swirled the amber liquid around.
"Those are my kind of words," Aiden said as he dropped into the seat across from him. He already had a beer in hand. His brows were drawn together as he studied Ethan, but he took a swig of his drink. "Though they're usually uttered during more festive times, but here's to moping."
"I'm not moping!" Ethan snapped at him.
Aiden snorted. "Could have fooled me. Anyway, where is the little human?"
"She's in her room, and you're to stay away from her," Ethan warned.
"I think it's only right I meet my future sister-in-law."
"That most likely won't happen."
Aiden stared at him before leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "When you're not such an obstinate ass, you'll realize not only will it happen, but it has to happen."
Ethan glowered at him as he took another sip of whiskey. "Not if she doesn't want it to."
"Ethan—"
"No!" he barked. "Like I've told Isabelle, back off on this."
Aiden's cheerful demeanor vanished, his forest green eyes were steely as he relentlessly held Ethan's gaze. Ian slid into the chair next to him, grabbed a glass, and poured himself some whiskey.
"You smell different," Ian commented.
"I killed a man," he admitted. "And I'll do it again if it means keeping her safe."
"So Isabelle said," Aiden replied.
"Do I smell like a landfill?" he inquired.
"No, nothing that bad, but it's different...maybe like overripe fruit," Isabelle answered. "It's nowhere near as repugnant as the smell coming off the vampires who attacked us at the hotel or the ones with Tristan."
"Good to know," he murmured.
"What about her friends?" Ian asked.
"What about them?" Ethan asked.
"Are we going to allow them to keep their memories?"
"She'll hate me if I take them away," Ethan told him. “I won't mess with her mind, and I won't allow any of you to either. She has to know the truth if she's going to stay safe."
"At this point, they all do," Stefan said. "We can't warp their thoughts to our bidding to keep them here. I don't think they'll be a threat to us, they care for Emma, and will help to keep her safe."
"If they become a threat to us?" Aiden asked.
"I'll kill them myself," Stefan said flatly.
Ethan remained silent as he thought over those words. "Even if she hates me after, if they somehow become a threat to her I'll kill them too, but I do believe they'll keep our secret and do whatever it takes to keep her alive."
"If you two are confident of that then I'll trust your judgment," Ian said. "Have you talked to dad yet?"
"No, why?" Ethan asked.
"Because if anyone knows what you're going through,
it's him."
"Yeah, I guess, but I don't want to involve him or mom. They're thousands of miles away; worrying them isn't going to do anyone any good."
"They would be on the first plane here if they knew," Isabelle said as she and Stefan settled into the other chairs.
"And that's the last thing I want to happen. There's danger here; the two of you shouldn't even be here," he said to Aiden and Ian. "You haven't even hit maturity yet."
"Well, one of us hasn't," Ian said and shoved Aiden's shoulder. Aiden scowled back at him and flipped him the finger.
"You did?" Isabelle demanded of Ian. "When?"
"Last month," Ian answered. "I figured I'd wait until summer break to tell everyone."
"Well, congratulations," Isabelle said and squeezed his hand.
"I guess that would be the term for it," Ian said with a smile before turning his attention back to Ethan. "But we're more help than you think, and we're not going anywhere, so get that thought out of your head. You know we're stronger than young vampires, even before we reach maturity."
"If something happens to you—"
"Mom will kick your ass, so it's a win-win for us all," Aiden broke in with a laugh.
"We may need more help than just you two though," Stefan said. "There are quite a few of them, and although they are young and less powerful, they're also driven by their thirst for blood and their need for death. They'll be volatile and unpredictable."
"My parents won't be brought into this; I won't take the chance of them being hurt," Ethan said. "And we can't tell The Stooges without my parents somehow finding out about it. They're not exactly good at keeping secrets."
"That they're not," Aiden agreed.
"I wasn't talking about your parents," Stefan said.
"Who then?" Isabelle asked.
"Brian."
Even Ethan felt his eyebrows shoot up. "Didn't you tell him you'd kill him if you saw him again?" Aiden inquired.
"I told him if he found me again I'd kill him, but this time I'll be finding him," Stefan replied.
"Potato, Potahto," Ian said.
Stefan leaned back in his chair. "He's one of the strongest vampires I know, other than myself." His gaze slid over Ethan and Ian before turning to Isabelle and taking her hand. "Though I do believe there’s more power inside all of you than we've yet to see, I'm not willing to put any of you in harm's way on a belief."
"What makes you think that?" Aiden inquired.
"The fact you can identify a killing vampire by their smell even before you hit maturity. The fact you are far stronger than any turned vamp of your years would be. The first vampire was born, but there's no record of what they could do. There are also only about a hundred born vampires in existence. We have no idea what you might be capable of under extreme duress, but I can tell you having your mate threatened will bring it out of you. We also don't know what it might do to one of you after if you're able to tap reserves of power we've never seen before. Would you be able to let it go, or would it destroy you?"
Ethan appreciated Stefan didn't look at him as he spoke, but he knew his words were directed at him. "I'd say Ethan’s eyes lend some credibility to your theory," Ian said.
Ethan scowled at him and drank the rest of his whiskey again. "You're all a little too obsessed with my fucking eyes."
"And you're a little too nonchalant about it," Stefan said. "There's power in you, in all of you, and if you allow it to get out of control, we could all be in peril."
Ethan simply held Stefan's unwavering gaze. There was nothing he could say to that; he knew it was the truth, knew he was walking a fine line between man and monster right now. He had no words for Stefan, so he refilled his drink and leaned back in the chair.
"Can you get in touch with Brian?" Isabelle inquired.
"Yes."
"You've kept in touch since we last saw him?"
Stefan shook his head. "No, but I'll be able to track him down."
"I thought you didn't trust him," Ian said.
"I don't, but—"
"I do," Isabelle interrupted. "He's lethal, don't get me wrong, but I don't believe he's a threat to us."
"I have to agree with her," Ethan said and finished off his drink. "He's not going to team up with them against us."
"How do you know that?" Aiden asked.
"Because he doesn't kill indiscriminately. He kills to gain power but not because it's what he thrives on, and he only kills those who have killed humans."
"We're not the kind of vampires he goes after," Stefan said. "He's trying to punish the ones who destroyed his life by murdering vampires who kill. It's not simply to gain power."
Aiden stared at all of them before finishing off his beer and dropping the bottle on the table. "Yeah, okay," he muttered. "And he is powerful."
"Do you think he'll come?" Isabelle asked.
"Brian's never turned down a fight before, but I don't know, maybe he's changed," Stefan said.
"Get in touch with him," Ethan said. His gaze drifted toward the doorway of the house as he sensed Emma's approach. "But if he arrives here and it turns out he is different, and he is a threat, especially to Emma, you won't have to worry about killing him, Stefan, because I'll do it myself. She's coming."
Ethan rose as Emma appeared in the open doorway. She froze when she spotted them; her eyes scanned his family before landing on him. He heard the increased beat of her heart as her forehead furrowed and she frowned at him. He despised she had to see him in such a state, but though he tried to get them back to normal, he'd lost all control over the color of his eyes. He was slipping, but he would do whatever it took to keep her safe, even from himself.
Emma couldn't tear her eyes away from Ethan's strangely colored ones as he moved around his brothers to approach her. She could smell the whiskey on him even before he stopped in front of her. There was something about him, other than being one of the living non-dead, that frightened her. It had nothing to do with the eerie color of his eyes, or that she'd never seen him drink so early in the day, and everything to do with the desperate air she sensed around him. An air that eased when he took her hands.
His eyes turned back to their beautiful emerald color so fast it stole the breath from her. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and yet such desolation and loneliness surrounded him that it tugged at her heart.
"Are you okay?" she whispered.
"I'm fine," he assured her.
"Ethan—"
"Come meet my brothers."
He tugged lightly on her hand, drawing her forward when all she wanted was to talk with him and make sure something wasn't wrong. Her eyes were drawn to the two large men sitting in the chairs near Isabelle and Stefan. Jill would be tripping over herself when she saw these two, Emma decided as they rose to their impressive heights.
"This is Aiden and Ian," Ethan introduced.
"Nice to meet you," Emma said.
They were both sporting crooked grins as they stared at her before exchanging a glance with each other. "Nice to meet you too," Aiden said and extended his hand to her.
Emma hesitated before taking it. Beside her, Ethan stiffened, his body pressed closer against hers, and Aiden hastily released her hand. Ian nodded toward her, but he didn't offer his hand, and his eyes never left Ethan. Emma frowned as she glanced at the group of large, imposing men gathered around her. Men who could tear her head off and use it as a volleyball if they so chose.
Trepidation trickled down her spine, and though she knew he was no different than them, she instinctively moved closer to Ethan. He rested his hand on the small of her back.
"We were just talking about Tristan," Ethan informed her.
"I'm sorry. I know this wasn't the vacation you were planning," Emma apologized to Aiden and Ian.
Aiden laughed and ran a hand through his black hair. It was impossible not to know the three of them were brothers, she realized as she looked at them. They were similar in appearance and possessed the same almost carefree
air, or at least they all had before things with Tristan started. Her gaze slid up to Ethan standing rigidly by her side. There was nothing carefree about him anymore, not like there was when she first met him. Stress radiated from him, even when he looked down at her and smiled.
"We've experienced worse, and we're more than willing to help. Our siblings are always trying to get us into trouble," Ian said. "But we usually end up saving their asses."
"Like hell," Isabelle muttered as Ethan frowned at him. Ian grinned at them in return.
"I don't want to see anyone get hurt," Emma said as she glanced at everyone gathered around her.
"No one is going to get hurt," Ethan promised. "And believe me, these two can handle themselves."
"As I said, we'll be pulling their asses out of the fire," Ian insisted.
"I'm going to kick your ass if you keep it up," Isabelle told him.
Aiden and Ian laughed, but Emma remained uneasy as her gaze traveled over them. How could she possibly ask them to risk their lives, for her?
"I uh...I have to take a shower," she said.
Ethan almost grabbed her when she stepped away from him. The change in her demeanor made her seem more distant than she'd been since discovering what he was. He forced himself to let her go. Being overbearing wasn't the way to get her to come back to him, if she ever came back to him.
He fisted his hands at his sides; he could feel the hunger within him blazing back to life as his attention returned to his siblings. Ian tilted his head to the side to study him; Aiden shook his head and turned away.
"You know what really sucks," Aiden said as he twisted the top off another beer.
"What?" Isabelle asked.
Aiden flipped the cap away as he turned to face them. "When the two of you finally do get laid, you turn into raving lunatics."
Isabelle stuck her tongue out at him while Ethan glowered. He stormed around the table, slid back into the chair, and poured himself another whiskey.
* * *
Emma turned away from the window when she heard the door open. The sun had begun to set, its rays spread across the sky in a colorful array which had held her captive for the past five minutes. Ethan stood in the doorway; his eyes still had a strange red hue to them.
The Vampire Awakenings Bundle: Books 1-5 Page 76