Now!
He sent her the command, but it wasn’t only to Colby. She found she was connected through Rafael to both Chevez brothers and to Nicolas. Vines broke through the surface, hungrily reaching for Paul, dragging him from the vampire and wrapping him up in a thick cocoon. The angry serpents smashed at the plants, eager to get to the boy, but as fast as they broke the fibrous stalks, more replaced them, these covered in thorns that slashed the serpents and embedded deep into the coils.
As Paul went down, Colby felt Rafael and Nicolas take hold of her power, tear it ruthlessly from her, hurl it with terrible force at the vampire. Fire burst through the sky, a blowtorch of white heat and raging red-orange flames, generated by Colby, fed by the De La Cruz brothers. Colby heard her own scream and knew the moment Rafael and Nicolas directed the Chevez brothers to shoot with their high-powered rifles.
The fire incinerated several of the serpents, but the vampire was already gone, leaving nothing at all, not even a vapor trail or a blank spot to mark where he had gone. Rafael waved his hand toward the sky, turning in a circle as he did so. Colby found she was holding her breath, waiting for something terrible she knew was coming.
Lightning forked in a violent display as the clouds spread out, thinning as if a giant veil was stretched across the sky at Rafael’s command. Colby blinked several times to try to see what he was so interested in. She thought he should be worried
about the snakes slithering across the ground toward him at a rapid speed. Instead, he watched the sky patiently. His hands continued to flow in a graceful rhythm and she heard his voice whispering words she didn’t understand.
Something moved at the edge of a cloud, something dark and shapeless. She swore Rafael commanded the lightning, slamming a bolt from ground to sky, streaking like a spear toward the dark spot. A hissing curse signaled a hit, but retaliation was swift. The ground shook. Colby went rigid.
“Rafael, he’s stampeding the cattle.” The snakes and vines seemed to be everywhere, an obstacle course between her and Paul. She had thought her brother safe, caged inside the thick, fibrous stalks, but he was helpless in the face of the mindless animals thundering toward them.
Rafael turned his attention to the ground, waving his hand so that the vines withered and the creatures blackened, smoking, but still alive, mouths gaping wide, snapping teeth together in frustration as they continued to fight to get to the hunter.
Go, querida, get him clear. Juan, Julio! Help Colby.
Colby hesitated for only a moment. Rafael was weak, but determined to save them. She hated to leave him, but Paul stood no chance against the stampeding cattle, locked in the vines the way he was. She ran to him, skirting around the slithering snakes as they tried to obey their master even as the heat seared them from the inside out. She knew the terrain, knew the cattle were heading down the steep gully that led right to where they were all gathered. She could hear them now, bellowing in fright, and she could see, off in the distance, just below the ridge, an ominous red-orange glow. “Paul.” Heedless of the thorns, she began yanking vines away from her brother.
The attack came from behind Rafael, a rush of wind and flapping of wings. Great unnatural bats darkened the sky, racing toward Rafael, ferociously beating the air around him with outstretched wings, claws extended as they reached for him.
Colby couldn’t watch, terrified he was going to go down under the weight of so many creatures. She held on to Rafael’s calm reassurance and concentrated on freeing Paul. Rafael had
allowed her brother to wake from his enthrallment and he was already trying to dig his way out from the prison made of plants. She focused on the vines, blocking out her fears and thinking only of moving the thick stalks. The vines opened, stretching apart to allow enough space for Paul to crawl out. He staggered to his feet and caught Colby’s hand as she tried to drag him quickly out of the path of the oncoming cattle.
As they ran, she screamed for Rafael to get out of the way. The ground trembled under the heavy hooves and she could see the terrified cattle as they thundered over the slope and raced down the gully toward them. Gasping at the sight of the herd maddened with fear as great orange-red flames leapt in between each animal as they ran, she pushed Paul up onto a rocky ledge and turned back for Rafael.
Rafael!
Her cry was in her mind, not aloud. He was holding his ground, the hordes of sharp-clawed bats inches from his body, unable to get through some invisible barrier to tear apart his skin and bones. She could feel the terrible strain on him as he held off the creatures, called down rain to put out the fires springing up around the cattle, and battled with the vampire hidden somewhere close by. She took a step toward him, frantically trying to figure out how to help.
Do not distract him.
Nicolas was just as calm, just as confident, and just as imperious as Rafael. His voice was in her mind, a reminder of the closeness of the brothers. There was something very chilling about Nicolas and, rather than intimacy, he only added to the threat she felt was all around her.
“Colby!” Paul caught at her, dragging her up onto the ledge as the cattle swept down the valley.
She couldn’t take her eyes from Rafael. He exuded power and confidence even in the face of a stampede. His expression never changed as he controlled the elements, his body ravaged by the loss of blood. He never yielded for a moment to pain or fear. She was in his mind, sharing the battle. And she knew Nicolas shared both of their minds. She could feel him there, coiled, waiting to strike. She knew, through Rafael, that Nicolas was moving toward them at a fast speed and that he was
flying through the air.
Flashes of light streamed from the cloud cover toward
Rafael. He deflected the white-hot spears and launched an attack of his own, sending a hail of silver slivers of lightning rocketing back toward the vampire. A tree uprooted behind Rafael, falling toward him with huge, outstretched branches.
Colby tried to scream a warning, but Paul clapped his hand over her mouth roughly and nearly slammed her into a boulder. She had no time to reprimand him as she caught sight of a flaming spear spinning through the air aimed directly at her heart. She kicked back, struggling against Paul’s unusual strength as he held her immobile.
She felt the sudden shift in Rafael’s attention as he realized she was in danger. He immediately sent the hidden barrier that protected him from the vampires’ batlike creatures in between her and the oncoming spear. The spear bounced off the barrier, but he was instantly swarmed with bats, clawing and digging at his skin and face.
Colby drove her elbow into her brother’s ribs with the intention of leaping off the ledge to go to Rafael’s aid. The first of the cattle rushed through the gully, others following so that the narrow strip was filled with the large, heavy bodies. She tried to shield her brother from the mass of huge bodies as they rushed past, pressing close to him as the ground shook. The rain poured down, extinguishing the fires and sending billows of smoke into the air. She felt Paul grip her shoulders hard, his fingers squeezing viciously. Before she could cry out in protest, he picked her up off her feet and flung her into the center of the stampeding herd.
Instinctively, Colby curled up in a tight ball, hands over her head to protect herself from the flying hooves. Shockingly, nothing touched her. The ground shook, but not a single animal kicked her as they thundered past. She heard the sound of voices and knew the Chevez brothers were turning the herd, trying to calm them before they reached the steep cliffs rising to the east.
Colby cautiously lifted her head. Nicolas stood beside her, his face a grim mask. He reached down and hauled her to her feet with casual strength. At first her legs were shaky, refusing to hold her, but he paid no attention, dragging her with him almost at a run to his brother.
Rafael stood upright, although she couldn’t see his body for the hundreds of creatures clinging to him, clawing at his flesh, digging into the wounds on his body. With a cry she tore herself away from Nicolas, reaching for one of the furry animals ripping at his face. Before she could touch it, Nicolas clapped his hands and issued a command. The bats fell to the ground and were incinerated. The noxious odor made Colby gag, but she ran to Rafael.
Rafael staggered. Colby wrapped her arm around his waist. “I’ll get you to a doctor.” She didn’t see how it was possible for a doctor to help him. Most of his skin was scraped from his body. She’d never seen such injuries. She looked around frantically for the vampire, expecting an attack immediately. “Where’d he go? Can you see him?”
“He is long gone,” Nicolas said. “He will not fight all of us.” His hands were gentle as he reached for Rafael.
Paul ran up to them, swinging a tree branch toward Rafael’s head.
“Don Nicolas!” Julio Chevez called out in warning.
Nicolas caught the club and twisted it easily from the boy’s hands, sending him sprawling to the ground.
“The boy is tainted, Rafael. He reeks of the vampire. He is no more than a human puppet. I will dispatch him quickly and convert the woman for you. You will go to ground and heal properly.” There was absolute resolve in Nicolas.
Colby could see he had already dismissed Paul and would kill him without a single thought of remorse. She flung herself in front of Paul. “Don’t you dare. Don’t you come near him.” Paul was taller than she was, but she spread out her arms and called up every ounce of power she had in her. She didn’t want to protect Paul, she wanted to go to Rafael, to save him, do anything it took. She hated standing there, shielding her brother, when Rafael was so broken. She felt her heart was shattering into a million pieces as she looked at his ravaged face.
Meu amor, I would not allow Paul to be harmed by my kin. You should know better.
The stirring in her mind was weak, as if Rafael was fading, leaving her.
She was frightened, not knowing who to run to, who to protect. “Rafael’s dying, Nicolas,” she said. “Is that what you
want, to have him try to fight you with his last dying breath? What kind of a person are you?”
Rafael’s tall, muscular frame crumpled. He went to the ground on his knees, held there swaying a moment, his eyes glazing before falling forward facedown.
Colby had no memory of leaping to catch him, but she was under him, cushioning his fall, his large frame taking her down with him. Surprisingly, she didn’t slam into the dirt as she expected. Nicolas floated Rafael gently to the ground, turning him just before his body hit hers, his head pillowed in her lap. She couldn’t prevent the shudder of fear when Nicolas loomed over her.
Juan and Julio stepped up on either side of Paul. “Don Nicolas, please do not force us to make such a choice. This boy is
família.
He is under Don Rafael’s protection, as is Colby. This protection should be yours as well.”
There was a small silence. Even the night seemed to hold its breath. Insects ceased their wild calls and the cattle stopped their restless motion.
“The poison can perhaps be driven from his system, but I will have to take his blood.” Nicolas made it a threat, staring straight at Colby.
She didn’t trust him and wished Rafael was fully awake to tell her what to do. “Rafael says he can’t lie to me—can you?”
“Say yes or no,” Nicolas replied harshly. “He will suffer with the acid of the vampire’s blood and he will crave the taste of human flesh. He will rot from the inside out and the vampire will be able to use him to defeat us all.”
Paul burst into tears, his hands pressed to his stomach. “I do burn inside, Colby. And there’s a buzzing in my head that makes me feel crazy. Is he saying I’m going to be a cannibal?”
“Then do whatever you have to do, but don’t you harm him or I’ll hunt you down and drive a stake right through your ice-cold heart,” Colby warned.
Nicolas ignored her threat and knelt beside Rafael. She watched in disbelief as he tore open his own wrist with his teeth and shoved the wound against Rafael’s mouth. He looked at her with empty black eyes as he forced his brother to swallow the ancient blood. “He should have taken you immediately
instead of catering to you the way he did.” His voice was a harsh whip, lashing her when she was holding Rafael’s head in her lap, her fingers tangled in the long silk of his hair and his blood soaking into her jeans.
“I don’t like you very much either,” she snapped. “How are you different from that monster? My brother is innocent. He didn’t ask to have that horrible creature kidnap him and infect him with poison. I didn’t ask to be your brother’s lifemate. I have my own life here, my own responsibilities. Why should your rights be more important than mine?”
Nicolas leaned close to her, his eyes flat and diamond hard. “Because if you don’t find your lifemate, you will not turn into a monster that will be absolutely evil and live for the death and pain of others. I will. I am not human. Rafael is not human. We have fought centuries against the darkness. You could relieve his pain so easily. You could ensure that he would never face that moment in time when he might succumb to darkness, yet you are too stubborn, too selfish to give him what he needs. And because of that, you foolishly risk the lives of your brother and sister and your neighbors and others you don’t even know. Worse, you risk my brother’s very soul and the souls of my
família
and myself. In the end, he will have you, so taking this risk is senseless. I would take you, if you were mine, and get it done.” There was a distinct snap to his teeth as if he might lean over and bite her neck right there.
Colby’s heart pounded harder in her chest, but she faced him squarely, trying to be honest with him. Struggling to understand. She wanted to understand when she saw him giving his own blood to his fallen brother. More, the thought of Rafael turning into such a hideous monster as the creature who had attacked them was inconceivable. “I can see from your point of view. Can you see from mine? I’m not Carpathian. I didn’t even know you existed until a short time ago. I don’t know Rafael. I don’t know much at all about him other than he’s different, with tremendous powers, and that he can control me in ways that scare me to death. I have a brother and a sister I love and a ranch that I swore to my father on his deathbed I would keep for them. I didn’t have any concept of the consequences you’re describing. I haven’t lived centuries and I haven’t known of vampires other than in movies.”