Dark Secret

'Julio, you and Juan must stay here,' Nicolas decreed. 'Watch the boy, particularly during daylight hours. I have to rest and I will not be able to monitor him.'

Colby paused as she reached for Paul. 'What does that mean? Didn't you just remove the vampire's blood from him?'

'Until the vampire is dead, Paul will always be tied to him.'

Colby wanted to ask more questions, but Nicolas freed Paul from the enthrallment. Her brother got unsteadily to his feet, forcing her to wrap her arm around him and help him out of the barn.

Paul leaned on her heavily. 'I feel terrible, Colby.'

'I know, honey, you need to sleep.'

He clung to her as she led him to the house and into his room. 'I'm really scared, Colby. I've never seen anything like that.'

'Me either. But we have Rafael and Nicolas and Juan and Julio to help us. We'll be safe. I'll get your boots off, Paul. Just lie down on the bed and sleep.'

He closed his eyes the moment his head hit the pillow, not stirring even when she removed his boots and socks. He looked pale, his dark hair standing out starkly against his skin. She brushed the stray strands from his forehead with gentle fingers and bent to press a brief kiss on the top of his head. Paul stirred, touched her wrist. 'I love you, Colby.'

She hadn't heard him say that in years. 'I love you, too, Paulo,' she murmured, aching inside for him.

Colby returned to the barn and found Nicolas gently propping Julio against the wall. 'Is he all right?'

Nicolas turned to look at her, his gaze sweeping over her so that she had to struggle to keep from shuddering. 'Yes, of course. Julio is my familia, under my protection. Ordinarily we do not take the blood of our human companions. He was generous to offer when the need was great.'

'Nicolas, Rafael knew the vampire. And the vampire called him by name. I felt sadness in Rafael, more than sadness when they were fighting.'

For the first time Nicolas regarded her with more than his cold expression. There was a faint expression reminiscent of Rafael in his eyes as if by struggling to understand their world she had gained a greater degree of acceptance from him.

'We knew one another as boys back in the Carpathian Mountains.' Nicolas sat down beside Julio, the first really human gesture she'd ever seen him make. It was odd-she couldn't stop thinking of Rafael as human, yet she never thought of Nicolas in human terms. She watched as he took Julio's wrist and checked his pulse.

'I am fine, Don Nicolas,' Julio protested.

'You must drink plenty of water and sleep.'

'I have work to do,' Julio protested. 'I must watch the boy.'

'Juan can watch the boy,' Nicolas said. 'You go to bed.'

'Don't worry, Julio,' Colby agreed, 'I can help watch Paul. I know he might become dangerous and I'll be careful.'

'You must do as Juan tells you,' Julio instructed.

Juan entered the barn as Julio spoke and he immediately helped his brother up. 'I'll take him to the house.'

'The guest room is the middle bedroom,' Colby said. She wanted to learn more. She needed to learn more, and somehow Nicolas's presence helped to ease the grief that overwhelmed her at times. She watched the Chevez brothers make their way out of the barn. 'They're good men.'

'Yes, they are, and that is no small compliment,' Nicolas said. 'I can read their thoughts and know the honor and integrity that lives in these men.'

'Tell me about the vampire. Who is he?'

'Who was he, is a better question. The first thing you learn as a hunter is to separate the man you knew and loved as a friend from the monster who battles you with every intention of killing you. Kirja is such a man. His brothers and mine were the best of friends. It is unusual in our society to have brothers so close, yet our two families did. Our parents were friends and we were raised very similar.' He gave a soft sigh. 'We were very competitive, a little rougher and more defiant of the rules of our society, so we stuck together. Kirja and Rafael were particularly good friends. They were always in and out of scrapes and always competing to see who could do something first. It was a good time, although my memories fade. Rafael and Riordan kept those memories alive for the rest of us.' Nicolas dropped his head into his hands, rubbing at his temples.

Nicolas. Rafael's voice once again brushed in their shared minds. You have grown weary. You must rest.

'He sounds so faint, so gone from us.' Colby's heart pounded in alarm.

Nicolas lifted his head, leaned back against the wall. You are not resting properly. Shall I command you to sleep, Rafael? Why do you persist in sleeping so lightly when you know you are mortally wounded? The bite was back in Nicolas's voice, making Colby wince.

Those I love are vulnerable aboveground and I want to hear should they have need of me. I begin to see why my lifemate is reluctant to commit her life to mine. It is a form of hell to lie helpless beneath the earth when those you love are in danger. Rafael's voice was a thread of sound, but he was calm, almost peaceful.

Go to rest, Rafael, or I will do the one thing you asked me not to do and break my promise to you.

Colby looked at the lines etched so deeply into Nicolas's face. She had seen him through Rafael's eyes and now she saw those lines as badges, a man bound by honor, a man ravaged by his destiny but determined to continue to protect the people he loved through memories.

You ease his burden, querida. For that alone I will always love you.

Colby closed her eyes to savor his voice, the caress in her mind that slipped through her body and wound around her heart. She ached to touch him. To make certain he was all right. Even now, even with his terrible wounds, he was stroking her mind and body, reaching out to soothe her, reaching out to his brother.

She blinked back tears. She was beginning to fall in love with him. She didn't know how it was happening; he wasn't the kind of man she would have ever allowed herself to look at.

I am the only man for you.

You are too dominating. You like your women to say yes to everything you dictate.

Only when it comes to sex. And when I am right.

Nicolas's breath came out in a slow hiss. 'Merge your mind fully with his.' It was more than an order; it was a dare.

Without giving herself time to think it through and back out, Colby merged her mind fully with Rafael's. Instantly she was flooded with pain, a great tearing pain that clawed at her insides, her skin, even her mind. She saw more than that; she saw his childhood memories of a small boy running with a friend in the hills, trying to shape-shift, and falling from the tree branches, laughing together. She felt the terrible burden of knowing she would have to kill that friend, rip his heart from his chest, with the memory of that boyhood smile and kinship of centuries weighing on her.

With a small cry, she pulled out of Rafael's mind, staggering back, reaching behind her for support. Nicolas was there, although she hadn't seen him move, easing her down to a bale of hay.

Colby! Rafael's cry echoed hers.

I had no idea you were in such pain. Go to sleep at once and I mean it, Rafael. How could anyone live through such a wound? She pressed her hand to her heart. The vampire had tried to jerk the organ backward through Rafael's body using the serpent's strong jaws and razor teeth.

'I should not have told you to do that,' Nicolas said. 'I regret few things, but that was not worthy of me. My brother will retaliate.'

'What does that mean?'

A faint smile touched Nicolas's mouth and was gone. 'He just severely reprimanded me and it was not fit for