Julian shook his golden head wryly. “Some have not the patience for either the teaching or the learning.” Desari laughed at him. “I think I know what kind you were.”
Julian looked into her dancing eyes, the beauty of them.
“Is hunting always a choice, or does your Prince order it?”
“It is by choice unless, of course, one stumbles upon the undead. It is kill or be killed in that situation. We have lost many males unprepared for such an event. The more ancient the vampire, the more dangerous he is. An unskilled hunter has little chance against a vampire who has survived many centuries. As our skill grows with experience and time, so does the vampire’s cunning and knowledge.”
“And my bloodline has both a vampire and a hunter famous for their skills?” She was uncertain she wanted to hear of the vampire. She wanted to hear that her bloodline was too strong to allow one of its own to turn. Her brother was becoming more deadly every day. She tried not to notice how distant he could be, how completely emotionless. He used to pretend, at least, that he could feel affection for her; now he seldom made the effort.
Julian’s arm circled her shoulders with easy familiarity, the move comforting. His chin nuzzled the top of her head. “Darius will not choose eternal darkness,
cara mia;
he has lived in it far too long. Do not fear for your brother’s soul.” As always, he read her thoughts easily, a shadow in her mind.
Desari let out her breath slowly, his nearness easing her worries. He had experienced how Carpathian males changed over the centuries. He had lost feeling and colors until his world was one of bleak darkness, yet he had survived. He had even survived the mark of the beast, the vampire’s shadowing of his soul. It could be done. “Tell me of my ancestors. After all these centuries of believing we were the only ones of our kind, it is interesting to know our family can be traced back to such legendary creatures.”
Julian nodded. “There were two of them. Twins. Gabriel and Lucian. They were alike in everything. Tall and dark with eyes that could look straight through a person to his very soul. I saw them once, when I was a child. They were like gods striding through our village, visiting with Gregori and Mikhail for a brief time, then gone again. The wind went utterly still when they were near. The earth seemed to hold its breath as they passed. They were relentless, unswerving angels of death once set upon a path.”
Desari shivered. Not so much at his words as at the pictures she glimpsed in his mind. True, they were the memories of a boy, yet she could see the images clearly. The two men very tall, elegant, their faces cruelly beautiful, as if etched in stone, their dark eyes merciless. Strong Carpathians trembled in their presence.
“They were loyal to the Prince of our people, but all knew that should the two choose darkness, no one would be able to destroy them.”
“Was the prince this Mikhail you speak of?” Desari asked.
“Mikhail’s father was our leader when I was a small child. I believe the twins, ancients even then, had served Mikhail’s grandfather long before that. In any case, they were always together, inseparable. It was said they had made a childhood pact, one with the other, that if one turned, the other would destroy them both. They were so close they thought alike, knew what the other would be doing at every moment, hunted and fought as a team.”
“They were born together, like you and your brother?” Julian nodded. “Some said they were demons, others called them angels, but everyone agreed they were the most lethal of all Carpathians, the most knowledgeable, the most skilled. What one learned through study or experience, he shared with the other, doubling their power and ability. Many of our race were terrified of them, yet they were much needed. In those days vampires were achieving a kind of popularity among humans, a disaster in the making for our people. Without the two angels of death, Carpathians would have been hunted to extinction, the vampires would have triumphed, and the world would have become a deadly, desolate place. There was chaos and war, the hunters of our race stretched beyond their capacity.”
“Why would humans ever embrace the undead?”
“It was a time of great self-indulgence and decadence among the rich. They would have orgies of drinking and gluttony and sex. They would watch bloody, violent clashes and worship the victor. It was an atmosphere for the undead. They can be as cunning and charming as they need to be and influencing those already corrupt is not so difficult. We had to do something to change the course of history. It was Gabriel and Lucian who did so.”
“Which was the vampire?”
Julian shook his head with his now familiar taunting smile. “Just like a woman, no patience.”
She quirked an expressive eyebrow at him. “I am the one without patience? I think not, Julian. You are the one impatient.”
His mouth swooped to take hers in a slow, leisurely exploration. He lifted his head, his eyes molten gold. “Then I will have to be more careful the next time to be slow and thorough. I want you to be completely satisfied in all things, lifemate.”
Her slender arms circled his neck. “You know I am. And if you were much more thorough, we might both be dead.”
He wrapped his arms protectively around her, pressing her body into his hard frame. “You are so perfect, Desari. For me there is no other.”
“Nor for me. Before you, my world was not bleak and barren—I had emotions and colors, my singing to sustain me, my family to love—but I was alone. There was a part of me missing. A part of me restless and wild, searching for something. We wandered the continents to cover the fact that we did not age, but all of us were also looking for something to end the emptiness. We just did not know what it was we sought.” Her hands were stroking his thick mane of hair, allowing the skeins of silken gold to run through her fingers. “I do not want to be apart from you, Julian. I want us to be always together.”
He held her in silence for a time, breathing in the scent of her, trying to comprehend why he had been handed such a miracle, why he had been granted a reprieve at the last moment, been rewarded with a woman such as Desari. Julian tried not to think of the vampire who could destroy them both.
She felt his thoughts, the waves of intense emotion overwhelming him, things he could not put into mere words. Desari rested her head on his chest and listened to the steady beat of his heart, knowing hers tapped out the exact same rhythm. It was right. They were two halves of the same whole. She wanted to comfort him any way she could. He needed, and that was everything to her.
Stop wasting time, little sister. I can take only so much of this syrup between you and the one you have chosen. Have you forgotten you have commitments to fulfill?
Darius’s soft, emotionless reprimand echoed in her mind.
I am coming.
She sent no more, unwilling to share her private thoughts. Again she mourned the fact that Darius felt no emotion, not even love for her.
I may not feel it, little sister, but I know it is there. Do not fear me now after all these long centuries. I fear
for
you, Darius. Do not go away from us.
She hadn’t meant to show her deepest anxiety to him, yet it slipped out.
There was only silence. Desari found herself trembling, her breath suddenly hard to find.
Julian tipped up her chin to search her dark eyes just as he was searching her mind for what had frightened her. “He will not leave you, Desari, will not seek death until he knows he cannot hold out any longer against the darkness within him. If that should occur, you must willingly allow him to greet the dawn. He is far too powerful; if he became the undead, many of our hunters would die before he could be destroyed. He carries that knowledge with him. It makes his existence still more difficult for him, a two-edged sword. He knows he has a chance of surviving as a vampire, of feeling at least the thrill of the many kills he would achieve, yet he still has his memories of love and duty, his code of honor, which help him hold on. He knows those he loves would be destroyed first should he turn.”
He nodded. “You must remember, Desari, the twins had lived centuries longer than most of our people without finding a lifemate. They were hunters, having to kill often, the kind of double burden nearly impossible to long endure. As each century passed and their legends grew, more people feared and shunned them. It was rumored they were more powerful than the Prince, much more dangerous. It seemed not to matter that they followed him and protected those that could not hunt. Their lives were ones of nearly total isolation from all society. It had to have been torment.” Julian knew the torment of isolation.
“Yet they continued, as you continued.” Desari pressed back against a tree, her eyes enormous, searching his story for a shadow of hope for her brother.
Julian nodded. “Always they endured. They went after the vampires high society had embraced. The battles were long and fierce, as the undead were ancients with much power and now government backing. Rewards were posted for Gabriel and Lucian so that humans and the undead alike hunted them. They fought the many servants of the vampire, hosts of ghouls and zombies and demented creatures created at the undead’s whim. Always they were the victors, and while our people were thankful, each time the twins emerged alive, the whispers grew of creatures half in our world and half in that of the darkness.”
“How unfair!” Desari was angry at such treacherous behavior by those of her own race. What if Darius were to be treated in such a manner by those who followed Mikhail? Her fists curled at her sides until her knuckles grew white.
“Yes, it was unfair, yet not altogether untrue. As a male ages, as the hunter grows in strength and the number of his kills, he does live partially in the world of darkness. How could he not? They were powerful, and there were two of them, their pact strong. They would be invincible should they turn. Who could destroy them? Gregori was young then, as was Mikhail, though they sometimes secretly sheltered the two warriors when their wounds were severe. I know that Gregori and Mikhail both supplied blood on more than one occasion.” Julian rubbed one eyebrow thoughtfully. “Gregori knew I saw them, but he said nothing to me. I was very young, you understand, no more than nine. I was very awed by the two legends, and, even then, by Gregori, who was rapidly growing in stature, and Mikhail, in line to be Prince. I would never have betrayed their secret, and I think they knew that.”
“How sad the twins’ lives must have been.” Desari sounded as if she might weep. Julian was across the distance separating them instantly, wrapping her in his strong arms. “Really, Julian, to have the people so unappreciative of their sacrifices must have been a terrible thing. They were like men without family or country or even friends.” As Julian had been. She suddenly realized the enormity of his sacrifice. He had been a man without family, country, or friends, and he did not even have his twin brother beside him. Love and compassion surged through her, strong and powerful. Julian would know love. He would have a home, a family, everything she could give him.
“That is the danger inherent in the hunter’s acquisition of power and skill and experience in centuries of battles. The two were lethal hunters, equal in strength, in intellect, in fighting ability. None was their better. And then the wars came. The Turk invasions that depleted the ranks of our people, destroyed our women and children. Our people had chosen to fight alongside those humans they had befriended and known for years, but we lost the ancient prince and most of those skilled in hunting.”
“That is when Darius saved us,” Desari offered.
Julian nodded. “During that period, yes,” he agreed. “It was at that same time that Gabriel and Lucian really became legendary warriors, two against the Turk multitudes and the vampires thriving among them, driving the armies to do hideous things to their captives—the tortures and mutilations you can read about in history books. Some individuals slaughtered countless innocent women and children, drank blood, bathed in it, and feasted on living flesh while the orchestraters, the vampires, looked on and rejoiced. But Gabriel and Lucian were in constant pursuit of these enemies, and the body count the two of them achieved was so high, no one could believe they were real and not some mysterious death winds blowing in and out of villages, leaving little in their wake. Vampires disappeared by the dozens, and legions of their soldiers and demented creatures, mostly noblemen and women, were killed or exposed. War raged everywhere. The damage to humans and Carpathians alike was devastating. Sickness and death followed, homelessness and hunger, savage slavery of the impoverished. It was a hideous, merciless time for all.”
“And my kin?”
“Few actually could claim to have laid eyes on them, but they were everywhere, tirelessly destroying the enemy, saving our few remaining women, still without lifemates or hope of their own. It is said they consulted with Gregori and Mikhail at this time, and I witnessed one such meeting right after Mikhail’s father was killed trying to save a human village. Shortly after, at Mikhail’s order, I was taken from the region and placed in hiding with the remaining children. Mikhail was young to be a leader, but he had vision and realized our people were facing extinction. He and Gregori, the next oldest to survive, moved at once to protect the few surviving women and children. Gregori and Mikhail seldom spoke of the two ancients or that time, perhaps because both had lost—or thought they lost—their own families while trying to save their race. But their skills and accomplishments at such a young age were almost inconceivable.”
“And what of the twins?” she prompted, intrigued by this history she had never known, her roots, her bloodline.
“When things finally settled down in Transylvania and Romania, throughout the Carpathian Mountains, it is said the pair traveled to Paris and London and anywhere else in Europe vampires were striving for a foothold. They hunted throughout the continent, always working together as a single unit. The stories of their unearthly powers grew beyond legends to mythology.”
Julian moved away from her and shoved a hand through his golden mane. “The rumors started about half a century later. That Lucian had fallen to the dark side. That he was vampire, preying on the human face. No hunter could find him or even his trail. Only Gabriel would have been able. The hunt for Lucian went on for well over a century. It was unlike anything our people had known. Vampires are messy killers, leaving a trail of blood and death recognizable to any of us, exposing us to discovery by mortals and their inevitable mistaken assumptions that vampire and Carpathian are one and the same. In some ways it is fortunate for us that human police often label the murders and mutilations as the work of serial killers or cults. Otherwise we all would be hunted until we were no more.
“But Lucian was unlike any vampire ever known. There is no record of him slaying a woman or child, of creating servants or ghouls. He made hundreds of kills but only among the corrupt, the evil, the scourges of the earth. Many of our hunters were misled, perplexed, and came away thinking perhaps the twins were mythical, not reality. Only Gabriel recognized Lucian’s work. Only Gabriel could track him.”
“No one else would help him?”
Julian shook his head. “No one else could help him. Gabriel was a legend himself. An angel of death. No one approached him or dared try to ease his task. He pursued Lucian, often found him, but because they were equals, the battles were long and ferocious but never decisive, with both striking terrible blows, only to break apart and attempt to heal themselves for the next battle. It went on for years until, one day, they both simply seemed to vanish off the face of the earth.”
Desari’s long lashes fluttered for a moment. “That is it? The entire story? They just disappeared?”
“There are many stories our people believe. One is that Gabriel ended Lucian’s life and then chose to greet the sun. I believe that is what happened. Ancient as he was, he would have been so close to
the darkness himself, and without a lifemate or even his brother to hold him, long dead, I believe Gabriel simply laid it down. He had lived long and alone; he deserved release into the afterlife.”
Desari shook her head. “I cannot believe that after holding out for so long, fighting so many battles, Lucian would choose darkness and Gabriel would be forced to hunt his own brother, his twin. It is so terrible.”
“It is a chance all hunters take. The kill triggers a sensation of power in us. For one who has no emotions, no other feelings, it can be tempting, addicting. There is also the problem of when to stop. If Lucian hung on to fight vampires as long as he was able, he might have been too late to make a rational choice. Some say Gabriel turned also, and when the two vampires fought for supremacy, both were killed. I do not think that is so, because there would have remained some evidence of the battle. Gabriel respected Lucian; he would have chosen to destroy all evidence of their battle and Lucian’s defeat before he walked into the sun.”
“You cannot hunt like these men any longer, Julian,” Desari said, biting at her lower lip. “I cannot bear this to happen to you. It is a horrible story. Two men who gave their lives for their people, and no one cared for them, no one appreciated them.”
His smile was tender. “
Piccola,
there is no need to fear. I cannot turn now. You are my light, the goodness to my darkness, the air I breathe and my reason for existing. The twins did not find their lifemates, but do not think they were unappreciated by our race. Though they were feared, they are also much revered, and many stories and songs have been written in their honor.”
“A bit late for them,” she sniffed indignantly. “It is hardly a happy story, and I do not like the ending. I do not wish this for my brother. We must find for him whatever he needs to survive.”
“He needs to find his other half,
cara,
and there is no telling when or if that will happen.”
“Maybe I will see what I can do. My voice is powerful; my words can weave enchantments. I have brought couples back to love and laughter, healed grief-stricken parents. I will try to draw to us the one my brother needs.”
Dark Challenge (Dark Series - book 5) Page 23