Then another man loomed up behind her killer. He was physically the most beautiful male she had ever seen. Tall and broad-shouldered with long, flowing dark hair and icy black eyes. He materialized out of nowhere so close to her attacker that she had no idea how he could have gotten there unseen by either of them. The man simply reached out with his hands, caught the murderer’s neck, and wrenched hard.
Run. Run now.
She heard the words clearly in her head and could not even wait to thank her rescuer. She ran away as fast as she could.
Lucian waited until he was certain she had obeyed his order before he bent his head to the neck of the murderer. It was imperative that he drain the blood from his victim and leave the evidence for Gabriel to find.
“I find you here as I expected, Lucian. You cannot hide from me.” Gabriel’s soft voice came from behind him.
Lucian allowed the body to fall to the ground. Over the long years it had become a game of cat-and-mouse no other could play. They knew each other so well, they had choreographed their battles together for so many years, that each knew what the other was thinking almost before he thought it. They knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Over the last years they had scored many near-mortal wounds on each other, only to break apart and go to ground to heal. Lucian turned toward his twin brother, a slow, humorless smile softening the hard edges of his mouth. “You look tired.”
“You were too greedy this time, Lucian, killing your prey before you fed.”
“Perhaps it was a mistake,” Lucian agreed softly, “but do not worry about me. I am more than capable of finding myself warm bodies. None can defeat me, not even my brother, who gave me his word to do this one small thing.”
Gabriel struck hard and fast, as Lucian knew he would. And they came together in a deadly battle they had been practicing for centuries.
*****
Lucian Paris, Present Day
Gabriel crouched low, his stance that of a fighter. Behind him, his lifemate watched with sorrow-filled eyes as the tall, elegant man approached. He looked what he was: a dark, dangerous predator. His black eyes glittered dangerously, graveyard eyes. Eyes of death. He moved with an animal grace, a ripple of power.
“Stay back, Lucian,” Gabriel warned softly. “You will not endanger my lifemate.”
“Then you will do as you vowed so many centuries ago. You must destroy me.” The voice was a whisper of velvet, a soft command.
Gabriel recognized the hidden compulsion even as he leaped forward to strike. At the last possible second, with his lifemate’s denial loud in his mind, he whipped his clawed hand at his twin brother’s throat and realized Lucian had opened his arms wide in acceptance of the kill.
No vampire would do such a thing. Never. The undead fought with their dying breath to kill everyone and everything around them. To sacrifice one’s life was not the act of a vampire
.
The knowledge came too late. Crimson droplets sprayed, arced. Gabriel tried to go back, to reach his brother, but Lucian’s power was far too great. Gabriel was unable to move, stopped in his tracks by Lucian’s will alone. His eyes widened in surprise. Lucian had so much power. Gabriel was an ancient, more powerful than most on earth—Lucian’s equal, he would have said until that moment.
“You must let us aid you,” Francesca, Gabriel’s lifemate, said softly. Her voice was crystal clear, soothing. She was a great healer. If anyone could prevent Lucian’s death, she could. “I know what you are attempting to do here. You think to end it now.”
Lucian’s white teeth gleamed. “Gabriel has you to keep him safe. That had been my task, and it is ended now. I seek rest.”
Blood was soaking his clothes, running down his arms. He made no attempt to stop it. He simply stood there, tall and straight. No accusation lit his eyes or voice or his expression.
Gabriel shook his head. “You did this for me. For four hundred years you have deceived me. You prevented me from the kills, from turning. Why? Why would you risk your soul this way?”
“I knew you had a lifemate waiting for you. Someone who would know told me many years ago, and I knew he would not tell an untruth. You did not lose your feelings and emotions quickly, as I did. It took centuries for it to happen to you. I was a mere fledging when they ceased for me. But you merged your mind with mine, and I could share your joy in life, see through your eyes. You made me remember what I could never have for myself.” Lucian staggered.
Gabriel had been waiting for the moment when Lucian would weaken, and he took advantage, leaping to his brother’s side, sweeping his tongue across the gaping wound he had created to close it.
His lifemate was at his side. Very gently she took Lucian’s hand in hers. “You think there is no more purpose to your existence.”
Lucian closed his eyes tiredly. “I have hunted and killed for two thousand years, sister. My soul has so many pieces missing that it is like a sieve. If I do not go now, I may not go later, and my beloved brother would be forced to attempt to destroy me. It would be no easy task. He must remain safe. I have done my duty. Let me rest.”
“There is another,” Francesca told him softly. “She is not like us. She is mortal. At this moment she is young and in terrible pain. I can only say to you, if you do not find her, she will live a life of such agony and despair, we cannot imagine it, even with all our great gifts. You must live for her. You must endure for her.”
“You are telling me I have a lifemate?”
“And that her need of you is great.”
“I am no gentle man. I have killed for so long, I know of no other existence. Tying a mortal woman to me would be sentencing her to live with a monster.” Even as he made the denial, Lucian was not resisting as Gabriel’s lifemate began to work on his savage wound. Gabriel filled the room with beneficial herbs and began the ancient healing chant as old as time itself.
“I will heal you now, my brother,” she said softly. “A monster such as you think you have become will be able to protect the woman from the monsters who would otherwise destroy one such as she.”
Gabriel cut his wrist and pressed the wound to his twin’s mouth. “I offer my life freely for yours. Take what you need to heal. We will put you deep within the soil and guard you until you are at full strength.”
“Your first duty is to your lifemate, Lucian,” Francesca reminded him softly. “You can do no other than find her and remove her from danger.”
*****
Jaxon, Five years old Florida, USA
“Look at me, Uncle Tyler,” Jaxon Montgomery called proudly, waving from the top of the high wooden tower she had just climbed.
“You’re crazy, Matt.” Russell Andrews shook his head, shading his eyes against the sun as he stared up at the replica of the high platform used for training Navy SEALS recruits. “Jaxx could break her neck if she fell.” He glanced away toward the fragile woman lying on the chaise lounge, cuddling her newborn son. “What about it, Rebecca? Jaxx isn’t even five yet, and Matt has her training for Special Forces,” Russell said.
Rebecca Montgomery smiled absently and looked up at her husband as if asking his opinion.
“Jaxon’s great,” Matt said immediately, reaching to capture his wife’s hand and bringing her knuckles to his lips. “She loves this stuff. She was doing it practically before she could walk.”
Tyler Drake waved to the tiny girl calling to him. “I don’t know, Matt. Maybe Russell’s right. She’s so small. She takes after Rebecca in looks and build.” He grinned. “Of course, we were lucky in that department. The rest of her is all you. She’s a daredevil, a little fighter, just like her daddy.”