“Now you have seen one. Now you know the consequences to Rafael and you know the things I say are true. What are you going to do about it?”
“I don’t even know what you want me to do, Nicolas,” she answered honestly. “How do I protect Rafael? He talked of bringing me wholly into his world. What does that mean?”
“Could you not tell the evil one was striking at you? If he succeeds in killing you, he has destroyed Rafael. He used the boy to try to kill you,” Nicolas pointed out.
“I didn’t try to kill her,” Paul denied, his face very pale.
“Yes, you did,” Nicolas said calmly. “And if the poison is not removed from your system, you will try again and again until you succeed. Colby, as long as you are human, the vampire knows you are vulnerable and he has a chance to kill Rafael through you.”
“How would my death be killing Rafael?” She asked it, but she already knew the answer through her own fears and grief. She struggled to contain it, but she couldn’t entertain the idea of losing Rafael. Her mind refused the possibility because her heart knew she wouldn’t survive.
“You know,” Nicolas said softly.
“Don’t even think about it, Colby,” Paul snapped. He doubled over in pain, holding his stomach. “Don’t let them do anything to you. Can’t you see what they are?”
Julio slipped his arm around the boy’s shoulders. “They are great men and have protected us from the vampire, Paul. Nicolas is the only one who can save you from the acid inside of you. No doctor could cure the effects.”
Nicolas stopped Rafael from feeding, closing the wound in his wrist with a swipe of his tongue. Colby couldn’t help the shudder that ran through her body at the matter-of-fact gesture.
“I must take Rafael to a place where he will be safe and I can heal him,” Nicolas said. “He has bound you to him and you will suffer greatly for the separation. I can stop that by converting you, but then you would have to rest in the earth with him. Choose now. He needs care immediately.”
“If I have to make an immediate choice then I have to stay with my brother and sister and see to their safety,” Colby said. There was challenge in her voice.
“You will grieve for him. You will believe he is dead and you will feel a strong call to join him. You cannot harm yourself, no matter how desperate you feel. Reach for me and I will aid you should it become necessary.” Nicolas reached down and easily gathered his brother into his arms.
“Wait!” Colby said frantically. “What about Paul?” Her brother could no longer stand, but had to be supported between his two uncles. Doubled over, he sagged helplessly, groaning in pain.
“I will return to take the poison from him. Know this, sister kin: in doing so, he will be tied to me for all time.”
It sounded like a warning to Colby, maybe even a threat. Her hand went to her throat in self-defense. “Should I wait for Rafael?” She kept her gaze fixed on his, refusing to be intimidated, wanting the truth.
“That is up to you.” He cradled Rafael in his arms, almost as if his brother were a small child instead of a very large and dangerous man.
Colby reached out to touch Rafael’s face. He felt cold. Lifeless. A scream welled up in her mind, but she forced it back down. “He’s alive?”
“I will not allow him to die. Do I return this night?”
Colby looked at her brother’s face, saw the twisted hatred in his eyes, and shuddered. “Please,” she whispered, looking away from Paul. “Hurry.”
“Traitor! Whore!” Paul threw himself at her, his fist raised, his expression demonic.
Julio caught him and dragged him away from her. “Shall we take him to the house,
senhorita?
”
Paul fought his uncles, growling and snapping his teeth at them. Then he suddenly subsided, looking around him, blinking his eyes to clear his vision. “Colby?” He sounded young and confused. “What’s happening to me?”
“You’re ill, honey.” She tried to comfort him, but tears were clogging her throat and burning behind her eyes. She could no longer touch Rafael’s mind. She felt the loss deeply, as if someone had ripped out her heart. She could barely breathe, let alone think. She wanted to scream and claw at the earth, dig her way down to where his body would rest. Instead,
she lifted her head to find the Chevez brothers watching her with compassion. “Let’s get him home,” she said wearily.
“Juan will see to the cattle,” Julio said. “I’ll watch over you and Paul and Ginny.”
Colby stumbled after him. She could see better in the darkness than she’d ever been able to see, yet she was off center, feeling blind and deaf. “Does this kind of thing happen often?”
What were those terrible creatures and how badly was he hurt, Nicolas? He was so torn up, lost so much blood.
She hadn’t kissed him. Hadn’t tried to hold him to her. What if Nicolas was more monster than man?
I am more monster than man,
Nicolas confirmed. His voice was soft in her mind, distracted. She could hear a chant repeated, old ancient words with a soothing rhythm of power.
I am healing him, giving him more blood, and then I will put him in the arms of the earth to heal.
Julio glanced back at her as he propelled Paul forward. “Do you need my help, Colby?” When she shook her head, he continued, “Yes, I’ve witnessed many battles between the vampire and the hunters. This vampire is not like the others. He is much more powerful and cunning.”
Colby wrapped her arms around her waist as she walked along the trail back toward the ranch house. Rafael had walked this path with her, holding her hand, making her feel the most beautiful and desired woman in the world. When he focused on her, nothing else seemed to matter. She tried to replay what Nicolas had said about conversion, but her mind was too scattered.
“Do they often get hurt?” Colby asked.
Julio shook his head. “Vampires are all different. The hunters are very powerful, very experienced. Rafael is a great fighter—together with Nicolas, or any of his brothers, they rarely sustain injuries. This one”—he shook his head—“this is one they call a master vampire, an ancient who has escaped justice many years. Zacarias, the eldest of the De La Cruz brothers, thinks a master vampire is an ancient of their kind. One long in the world and experienced in battle who finally succumbs to the dark call. The master will not stand and battle, but he’ll use human puppets to do his bidding. He’ll call
lesser vampires to him and use them as pawns. And he mutates other species into evil incarnate. You saw a sample of his work.”
“You’re very nervous. What aren’t you telling me?”
Julio looked at her with dark, worried eyes. “Nicolas can take the blood and help with the pain, but until the vampire is dead, Paul will be connected to him. He can still try to use Paul. Nicolas will be the only one standing between Paul and what the vampire wants from him. Nicolas is powerful and ancient, but he is very close to the end of his time. He also must rest during the daylight hours. It is dangerous for him to do this thing you ask. If he does not, Paul will eventually die and you will be thankful.”
Colby pressed her fingers to her pounding head. She needed Rafael’s reassuring touch.
He is safe beneath the soil. I have fed and will meet you in the barn. I do not want the child to see what we must do to aid her brother. You must be certain. He can and will harm you if the vampire reaches him and programs him. I can run interference, and I can remove the pain, but I cannot break the tie between them.
He was offering to kill her brother. It was his voice, so flat and empty, that made her ill. Made her feel Rafael’s barren existence starkly. She could almost see the darkness creeping inside of him, staining his soul, taking him over. She closed her eyes but she couldn’t block out what was in her mind.
I will watch him until you have a chance to kill the vampire.
She made her decision.
Rafael has much to answer for.
There was a bite to Nicolas’s voice.
Rafael has tried to give me time. Is that truly such a terrible thing?
Tears burned in her heart. Had she caused all of this? Was it her fault Rafael lay as the dead beneath the earth?
I feel his love for you. It has sustained me, yet it cannot soften me. He has given me hope by sharing his feelings for you. His emotions are intense and difficult to manage. He is uncomfortable with the presence of other males near you, myself included, yet he tries to ignore those dangerous emotions and allow you the space you need to come to him.
Is it my fault?
she persisted.
Silence answered her question as she pulled open the door to the barn and faced Nicolas and his black, merciless gaze.
12
P
aul sat silently
in the corner, his uncle very close to him. Colby couldn’t help but note the protective posture. In that moment, Julio looked heartbreakingly like her stepfather. She glanced anxiously toward the house. “I want to check on Ginny.”
“The girl is fine, sleeping peacefully,” Nicolas said. “If you want this done, we do it now.”
She tried not to bristle at his abrasive attitude. “I wasn’t stalling. I happen to be genuinely worried. This hasn’t been the best night of my life so far. You might deal with vampires on an everyday basis, but their existence is news to us.” She sent a reassuring smile toward her brother.
He tried a grin, looked down and caught sight of her peach-colored bra still wrapped around his arm. At once his expression changed, became dark and ugly. Paul unwound the lacy garment, holding it away from him with two fingers, up, so everyone could see. It made Colby acutely aware of the fact that she wore nothing at all beneath her thin shirt and that the buttons were missing. Even so, even in the midst of her utter humiliation, her mind tried to reach for Rafael. The moment she realized she couldn’t touch him, there was only emptiness and grief. Fear shook her heart.
She followed the movement of her bra as Paul tossed it away from him as if it were something so disgusting he couldn’t stand to look at. He suddenly lurched away from Julio and caught up a pitchfork, lunging at Colby in one motion.
Colby never saw Nicolas move, but he was there in front of her, taking the weapon from Paul and dragging him into his terrible embrace. The air rushed out of Colby’s lungs as she saw his fangs lengthen, and without preamble he sank the teeth into Paul’s neck, her brother going still, under the influence of his mind. She shuddered, feeling as if those sharp fangs were going into her neck. At that moment she hated Nicolas. Hated herself. Hated Rafael. How could she just stand there while some creature she barely knew took her brother’s blood so coldly?
What is he doing?
Rafael was weak, too weak. She could feel the low pulse of his lifeblood as he stirred in her mind.
His alarm wasn’t for Paul. It was for his own brother, for Nicolas. She felt it as if it were her own alarm. She felt the surge of love and warmth that spanned centuries. It flooded her body, took over her heart and soul so that she wanted to reach out to Nicolas, to stop him. What he was doing
was
dangerous to Nicolas, not to Paul. Nicolas was deliberately ingesting vampire blood when he fought every minute of every day against the beast that already stained his soul and fought for supremacy.
“Wait!” Colby couldn’t choose between the two brothers. Her own, or Rafael’s. They were intertwined, both bound together now in her mind. Paul’s life versus Nicolas’s soul. It was a terrible choice.
Do not waste your worry on me, either of you.
Nicolas’s voice brushed at the walls of her mind.
I will hold on and return to our brothers for your sake, Rafael. You share with me the emotions you feel for this woman and this boy. It is enough for me to continue until I reach our home. Go to sleep, Rafael, and allow the earth to heal you.
She actually felt Nicolas’s love for his brother through her tie with Rafael. It was a strange shared path. For the first time she could see him as something other than the cold-hearted monster trying to rip her brother and sister from her arms. Nicolas was real to her. She could see him through the heart
of Rafael. Memories of Nicolas welled up and she knew it was deliberate on Rafael’s part.
How many times had he stepped between humans and death, at risk to his life and soul? How many times had he tried to protect Rafael and their younger brother from the terrible battles? He had been wounded countless times. He had killed countless times, each time tearing pieces from his soul.
Colby closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see it, didn’t want to view him as anything other than the emotionless predator she’d first thought him. She was already confused enough. And there was Paul, standing in his embrace while Nicolas took more and more blood, until Paul’s face went pale and he sagged in the hunter’s arms, dizzy and weak, but still so unnaturally willing to do as Nicolas required him.
She felt the exact moment when Rafael succumbed to his need for rest and healing. He pulled from her mind and left her bereft. She sank down onto a bale of hay and pressed both hands to her churning stomach as she once again watched Nicolas with her brother. He swept his tongue across Paul’s neck, closing the pinpricks as if they’d never been. There was no mark. None at all. Her hand crept up to the mark on her neck that never seemed to fade, never went away.
We can leave a mark if we desire, yet not leave evidence if we choose.
Nicolas read her thoughts as easily as Rafael; but where, with Rafael, it was an intimacy, with Nicolas it seemed invasive. The cold black eyes swept over her, so different from Rafael. So utterly alone and separated from everything going on around him.
Rafael chooses to leave his mark both as his warning and and his commitment. He will protect you even when he should be resting beneath the earth.
She recognized the mild censure, but for the first time was able to look past that to the terrible burden Nicolas carried. “What do you have to do now, Nicolas?” she asked.
“Push the poison through my pores and rid my body of the vampire’s taint.” Her brother was still under his enthrallment. Nicolas helped him to sit on the floor of the barn. “Vampire blood burns like acid. The boy would not have lasted very long. There is something here I have never come across before.” Nicolas’s eyes drifted closed and he sought inside his own body to break down the compound that had infected Paul
and now lived within his own veins. “There is something else here, some small parasite that should not be. It is mutated, much like the serpent the vampire used to attack Rafael.”