Between Good and Evil

by Jasmine Wylder

  He fell back on that now, dodging and ducking. Keeping his stake close, waiting for just the right moment to strike. Sweat beaded on Dane’s brow as smoke started curling from his mouth. Isaac could have grinned. Already wearing himself out, so full of emotion that he was overheating?

  Block. Dodge. Spin in close. He elbowed Dane hard in the sternum, and as he stumbled away, gasping for breath, Isaac followed up with a kick to his stomach. Dane flew backward. He hit the ground hard and rolled several times, groaning. Isaac adjusted his grip on the stake and darted in. His weapon pierced through Dane’s shoulder. At the same time, fiery pain burst from his leg.

  Bolts of electricity shot up his spine. Isaac stumbled back, howling as he gripped the stake plunged into his thigh. Dane pulled out the weapon from his shoulder and leaned heavily forward, pressing his free hand to the wound. Isaac hurriedly removed the stake from his own body and tore a strip of cloth to tie around his leg.

  Dane watched, growling and panting. His own wound was in such a place he couldn’t hastily bandage it. “Ready to continue?” he snarled.

  Isaac bared his fangs. “Of course. If you want to kill me, you’ll have to fight for that honor.”

  “What honor?” Dane spat. “You have no honor and so there is no honor in killing you.”

  ***

  His shoulder hurt like hell, but he wasn’t going to allow it to slow him down. He adjusted his grip on the bloodied stake, his fires cooled enough for him to think clearly. Isaac was injured; he wouldn’t be as fast with that much blood running down his leg. The tourniquet wasn’t doing much to stop the bleeding, and that could only be an advantage for Dane.

  Isaac came at him again with a wide swing. It would be easy to knock his hand aside and thrust the stake into his heart. But Dane instead stepped back and kicked out, his foot connecting with Isaac’s knee. Isaac dropped with a cry of pain.

  And then he realized that it would be all too easy for Isaac to skewer him from beneath. Isaac’s hand came up and Dane moved to avoid the blow, but it was too late—or it would have been if Isaac had been aiming at his heart. As it was, the stake snagged harmlessly on Dane’s sleeve. He backpedaled, allowing Isaac once more to get to his feet.

  “I was open,” Dane snarled at him. “Why didn’t you take that blow?”

  “Why didn’t you take yours?” Isaac snarled right back.

  They stood several feet from each other. Stakes raised, ready to swing back into action at any sign of provocation. Dane’s heart beat fast in his ears as he eyed Isaac. What was he waiting for? He shifted his stance, more balanced and to keep his wounded shoulder a little further from the vampire. He adjusted his stance as well, putting less weight on his injured leg.

  The stink of the city settled between them and cars drove by. Still, neither of them moved. They just stood there like a couple of idiots. Both were bleeding and they still did not move one inch.

  Dane quickly grew tired of waiting. “If you’re going to try to kill me, the least you could do is put some fucking heart into it!”

  “I was about to say the same fucking thing to you.” Isaac laughed. Actually laughed.

  Dane snarled, adjusting his grip on the stake again. “We both know there isn’t any other end to this. You’ve gone too far. You tried to kill my brother!”

  “I never tried to kill him. If I had, he’d be dead. If I wanted to kill any of them, they’d all be dead!” Isaac spat at his feet. “Or didn’t you notice all those calls you’ve been getting?”

  Dane’s eyes widened. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Keith gave me your number. That’s right,” Isaac’s face lit into a feral grin, “Keith and I had a nice little chat. This was last night on his way to work. I know all your brothers’ schedules. I know. If I wanted to kill them, there would be nothing you could do to—”

  Dane let out a bellow. He flung himself forward, but before he reached Isaac, suddenly Rune was there. She held both her hands out and screamed.

  Chapter Eleven

  Both of them were bleeding. Rune’s hands shook as she slowly turned her head, gazing first at one then the other. The stakes in their hands gleamed red, matching the blood that ran down their limbs. Their shirts were torn, faces bruises. Both of them panted, watching her, waiting.

  Disappointment hit her hard. Rune lowered her hands. The relief she had felt from seeing them both alive quickly evaporated as she took in just what they had done to one another. She clenched her fists and for a moment, wanted to lash out at the both of them. Wanted to punch them both in their stupid, handsome faces.

  “Okay,” she started, fighting to keep her emotions in check. “I know that I haven’t been the most emotionally stable person lately. One minute I’m crying, the next I’m angry. I decide never to give either of you a second chance, then I’m trying to pull you both to me. So, I know that I’m not exactly the best person to demands this, but… but gods! Get your acts together!”

  Both of the men lowered their weapons. Isaac’s brow furrowed and Dane shifted from side to side, looking uncomfortable.

  “First off…” She faced Isaac. “You. Stop with that defeatist attitude you’ve got going. I know this isn’t the sort of life that you want. Nobody can change that except for you.”

  “I lied to you.” If he was meant to sound angry, the exhaustion on his face robbed it of its sting. “I never came to you because I wanted a different life than the one I have. Don’t you see? I was just using you.”

  Okay, maybe that did sting. Rune threw her shoulders back, trying to look fierce and determined. “Yeah, okay. So what if you were? The feelings I got from you aren’t a lie. I could sense how much you hate this path that you’re on, how much you wish you had a different life. And I wasn’t lying to you.”

  He flinched.

  “Your future, your destiny, depends on your choices. I don’t know what this whole thing about the king dude laughing is about, but that’s all we know. It means nothing about the kind of person you are going to be. But let me tell you this, the more you go down one path, the harder it will be to get onto a different one.”

  He hesitated before glancing over her shoulder at Dane.

  Rune nodded, satisfied that she had said her bit with him. “As for you, Dane Hemmerick. You keep saying you’re meant to protect people. That doesn’t mean that you go out and attack people like you’ve been doing. You know what sort of man you want to be, but the choices you’re making? They’re taking you further away from him.”

  “If stopping him means savings lives—”

  “But you’re not thinking about stopping him, are you? You’re thinking about your brother.”

  A pained hiss brought her attention back to Isaac. “What did he tell you about that?”

  “Um…” Rune swallowed. “I honestly don’t remember. I know that sounds stupid, but my brain is like that sometimes. It gets so overwhelmed and… some things just don’t stick. I just know it’s got something to do with one of them.”

  “We already talked about this.”

  Rune frowned. She would have said she didn’t remember doing that, only she was pretty certain Dane was right. The problem was that with everything happening so quickly she was having a hard time keeping up. She blew out her breath, gave him an apologetic look, and shrugged.

  “I guess we just have to talk about it again. I hope that it doesn’t get too repetitive for you.”

  Dane moved forward and took her by the elbow. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, she snatched the stake from his hand.

  “Hey,” Dane protested.

  At a glare from Rune, however, he ducked his head and didn’t try to take the stake back. Isaac chuckled, though that cut off quickly enough. Rune held out her hand to him, and slowly he put his weapon in it. A wash of relief came over her and she nodded while awkwardly putting the stakes in her pocket. The blood smeared on her pants, making her stomach lurch, but she choked down the bile and nodded toward the sidew
alk.

  “Let’s get back home and take care of those injuries of yours and then talk.”

  Both of them glanced at one another but nodded tensely. Rune was glad that they were agreeing to that, at least. She didn’t want to have to fight with them just to be able to take care of them, after all. Anxiety swirled in her chest, tightening her lungs, as they headed back. They hadn’t gone far from the empty lot, though, before Dane swept her into his arms.

  “Whoa,” she gasped from the unexpectedness. “Wait, your arm is bleeding, I—”

  “You’re not wearing shoes.” Isaac frowned at her as he limped along with them.

  “You’re lucky I put on any clothes at all,” Rune snapped at him. Honestly, they had run off to kill each other, and Dane expected her to waste time putting on shoes?

  Even though Dane’s shoulder was still bleeding all over her, she didn’t protest again. Despite their injuries, they still moved at a pace she would have had a difficult time keeping up with since she was so much smaller than the both of them.

  When they got back to the house, Rune busied herself cleaning and binding the two injuries. Once that was done and she was fairly certain that they weren’t going to bleed to death on the couch, she made Dane move over to sit on the couch beside Isaac, then seated herself in an armchair across from them. She cupped her hands over her knees and glared first at one and then the other.

  “Okay. So here is what I do know. Long ago, you two were friends. Then something happened and you’ve been trying to kill each other ever since.”

  Isaac opened his mouth, then closed it. Dane grunted, not looking at her.

  “This might be crazy, but I have figured out what the universe is telling me. When I’m with Dane, I feel like this could be my happily ever after. True love, forever and for always. But there’s something missing. It’s the same when I’m with Isaac. So, I know what’s missing. You are. Maybe it’s selfish, but the only way I can be really, truly happy… is with both of you.”

  She paused, taking in a deep breath to see how her words were taken. To her surprise, neither of them looked overly surprised. She waited for a beat, then nodded. If they didn’t have any questions on that part of things, she could move right on.

  “So. What happened?”

  Isaac slumped back, massaging the area around the stake wound in his thigh. Flushing it out had helped to reduce the effect of the silver, but it was still going to take a while to heal. The pain was pretty bad. Nothing he couldn’t deal with, but he had to wonder how long he would have lasted if Rune hadn’t come and intervened.

  Beside him, Dane shifted on the spot. He opened his mouth, then closed it. A furrow marred his brow as he glanced at Isaac.

  “What?” the vampire snapped at him.

  “I know what I know,” Dane said slowly. “And I already told Rune about it. Even if she doesn’t remember.”

  Rune turned a shade of pink that was quite lovely. “I’m sorry. I was paying attention, I swear, I just—"

  “It’s fine,” Dane rumbled. “But… I think I want to hear Isaac’s side of the story, now, too. It’s been long enough,” he added, shoulders slumping. “So… I’m willing to listen now.”

  There was almost a hopeful look in his eyes. Isaac was shocked to see it, but that made hope well in him, too. Perhaps there was a chance after all… Rune’s declaration that she needed both of them in order to be happy hadn’t truly shocked him. Somehow, it just seemed natural. As though she had peered into their past and saw all the girlfriends they had shared while they were still the best of friends.

  Now, he stared at Dane, wondering if it could be real. Did he really, finally, want to hear his side of the story? It seemed impossible in many ways, but at the same time, Isaac could not risk losing this opportunity.

  “Dane and I were raised by the same organization,” he started slowly. “We were paired together very early. For the majority of our growing up, we were partners. The best of friends. Two sides of the same coin… If either of us had been the opposite sex or gay, we probably would have been a couple.”

  Here, Dane chuckled. “Plenty assumed we were a couple anyway. But neither of us is attracted to men.”

  Rune nodded here, her expression unreadable.

  Isaac gathered his thoughts for a moment, then slowly continued. “After we learned that Dane’s brothers had also been taken by the agency, and his parents killed, we decided… to take them down. And we did. We were very successful. We destroyed the agency, freed his brothers. That was it… or so we thought. Only a few months later, some of the others that had been raised by the agency came after us.”

  Beside him, Dane started to stiffen. Isaac tensed, preparing to throw himself out of harm’s way if it came to that.

  “I was with James when we were attacked. I took a stake to the heart.”

  “What?” Dane’s head whipped around. “You did?”

  “I thought James had been just knocked unconscious. I couldn’t smell blood on him, I didn’t see him being injured. So… I fed on him. I needed blood or I would have died. But if I had known, I never would have.”

  Dane stared at him like he wanted to believe him, but he didn’t quite dare.

  “I didn’t know,” Isaac repeated, softly. “But that hardly matters. His back was broken. I realized that after it was too late. My venom was already in his system. Preventing him from healing. So you see…” Here he reluctantly raised his eyes to meet Rune’s gaze. “Dane’s right to hate me. His brother would not be paralyzed if it wasn’t for me.”

  ***

  A mistake. That was what it boiled down to. Isaac had made a mistake. Rune’s hands clenched on her knees. She wasn’t sure if she was furious or sad or both. It didn’t matter, either. The emotion was there. She held onto it, keeping her gaze on Dane this time.

  “You never asked him why?”

  Dane hesitated a moment and shook his head. “I just came in, saw him feeding… and he ran. I thought… the worst of him. And I refused to think that it could be anything else, because… well, because I was afraid, I guess. That if I believed him, it would be a betrayal to James. And I was angry. So, so very angry…”

  “And you needed someone to hate, so that you wouldn’t hate yourself so much,” Isaac whispered, his expression understanding.

  Something went between them. Something Rune didn’t understand. She leaned forward, the tickling in her spine an all-out drumming now. Not painful, but very much there. When both of them looked back at her, she asked the question that had been poking at her brain for some time now.

  “So… Isaac made a mistake. He misread the situation and someone who didn’t deserve to get hurt was hurt. So why doesn’t he get a second chance, Dane, when you do?”

  Dane flinched. Isaac bowed his head. He must know what they were talking about, it was in all the newspapers.

  Rune slid off the chair. She knelt between them, reaching for one of their hands each. She looked first at one and then the other, and if she didn’t think too hard about it, she knew exactly what needed to happen. Getting there was another thing, but she knew what it was.

  “Trust me when I say this,” she said, making sure both of them knew she was referring to each of them. “Everybody deserves a second chance. Everybody.”

  ***

  Dane needed to speak. It pressed against his lips, telling him to say it before the moment was lost. Shame welled in him, and he shrank back from his story. How would Isaac ever forgive him, when he had such a similar story? The difference was that people had chosen to look at the reasons beyond what happened with Carl Mainsburg. And he hadn’t let himself think that Isaac had been anything but malicious.

  “Tell him.” Rune’s voice was soft, but the order in it was undeniable.

  “Tell me about what?” Isaac raised a brow.

  Dane knew exactly what she was referring to. “Carl Mainsburg.”

  “Carl…” Isaac frowned. “I heard about that. Wasn’t it a frame job?”

>   Dane, startled, turned to him. “A frame job?”

  “The way the media portrayed you… I knew that you wouldn’t have gone after him with the intent to kill. So I thought…” He trailed off.

  Shame bit harder at Dane’s heart, and he let out a bitter laugh. Even when he was hunting Isaac down, wanting to drag him in front of a jury and refusing to think he was anything but wicked, Isaac had not thought the same of him. He hadn’t assumed the worst. Dane hid his face in his hands, realizing just how far he’d fallen. Isaac might have done awful things, but he had still proven to be a better man. Because he thought the best of others.

  “It wasn’t a frame job,” Dane said heavily. “Although… I wasn’t given all the information, either.”

  He told the story, speaking quietly and at some points wondering if he could bear to look at Rune or Isaac. Even though Rune had already heard it and forgiven him, now that she was faced with his own lack of forgivness, maybe she would change her mind…

  When he was done, Isaac leaned back on the couch. His face was turned away, so Dane couldn’t see what he was thinking. After all the years apart, he wasn’t sure he’d know how to read Isaac anymore, anyway. He focused instead on Rune.

  Her eyes shone with tears. As he gazed at her, she squeezed his hand gently and nodded, giving him her support. He responded with a stiff smile.

  “So. That’s the story of Carl Mainsburg.” Isaac slumped back in his chair, his gaze ghosting over their hands together before he ran a hand through his hair. “And quite a story it is, isn’t it? I hadn’t thought…”

  Dane looked at the ceiling. “Go ahead. Tell me what an idiot I was for making assumptions and not looking at the bigger picture.”

  Isaac snorted. “How can I do that? You’ve always been like that. How else do you think I’ve been able to evade you all these years? As soon as I knew what you thought was going on, I was able to play on that and throw you entirely off the trail. I lived in fear of the day you’d smarten up and realize that it’s your biggest flaw.”