Dark Secret

12

Paul 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 ashis 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.'

'Where did the vampire come from?' Colby asked, sickened as beads of blood began to push through the pores of Nicolas's skin. It was a sight she would never forget, never get out of her mind. She tried to distract her thoughts, anything to keep from screaming as the blood seeped onto the floor of the barn and stained the hay dark red. She wasn't squeamish-she'd grown up on a ranch-but her stomach lurched all the same.

'Do not look,' Nicolas said harshly. 'You are going to draw Rafael from his slumber again and his wound is deep. He must be given time to heal.'

'I'm sorry. I've never seen such a thing.' She needed to touch Rafael. It wasn't just something she wanted. Everything in her reached for him, yet there was only emptiness. She wasn't altogether certain she could stand being away from him and that was alarming, especially with Nicolas telling her his injury was grave and needed time to heal. She wasn't a selfish person, yet it seemed so imperative to disturb him, to call to him so she could feel the brush of his mind in hers.

Nicolas sighed. 'He should have converted you and spared you the hell you will have to endure. You must not harm yourself.'

'I'm not the type,' Colby said, but she was beginning to wonder if that was true. 'Is it hurting you?' She couldn't imagine Paul having to go through such a thing.

'Yes.' His voice was without inflection. He gestured toward the blood-soaked hay and Julio immediately brushed back everything that hadn't been touched, leaving a circle of bare wood exposed with the bloody hay in the center. Nicolas shoved open the door to the barn and stared up at the sky. At once lightning forked.

To Colby's horror, an orange-red ball streaked toward them, drawn by Nicolas. It incinerated the vampire blood, burning hot for an instant and then simply disappearing as if it had never been. She blinked several times to make certain she wasn't hallucinating.

'This is too bizarre for me ' She backed away from Nicolas. 'Is Paul going to be okay now? Can I put him to bed?'

'I want to attempt to heal him. The vampire infected him with his blood and his insides are going to feel like someone took a blowtorch to him,' Nicolas replied.

Colby could see how pale and weary he was. The lines were deeper than ever in his face and his eyes as cold as ice. She shivered. 'You need to feed.'

'Yes.'

Colby glanced helplessly at Julio. After what Nicolas had done for Paul, she felt she had no choice but to make the offer and it was the last thing she wanted to do.

Julio shook his head. 'I will give Don Nicolas blood while you put young Paul to bed. Then I'll help Juan tend to any injuries the cattle sustained.'