Shattered Mirror

pain. For you I tried to survive on anything but the blood of humans, but I couldn’t stand the pain. I couldn’t walk in the sunlight. I couldn’t stand to be near humans. One day I ran into a human girl on the street, and before I knew it she was dead in my arms. Aninnocent human girl,Christopher, who didn’t deserve to die.”

Sarah’s confusion escalated. Since when did Nikolas care if his victims were innocent or not?

“You were always stronger,” Nikolas finished. “I don’t have your control.”

Christopher looked anything but strong. Sarah could see the bloodlust close to the surface. She was still trapped in Nikolas’s arms, and her wounds had opened enough for blood to bead around the edges. The scent of her witch blood was in the air, laced with power and a hint of danger.

“Why did you leave me, Christopher?” Nikolas asked as he reached around Sarah to take his brother’s hands. She was trapped between the two vampires, and not sure how to react. Christopher’s control was obviously slipping—if she fought now, she would destroy it altogether. She did not want Christopher’s life to be the price of her escape.

“You remember Marguerite,” Nikolas said. “She pickedus.She knew what we were and what she wanted—”

“She said she wanted to die,” Christopher whispered. The memory was so strong in his voice that Sarah could almost imagine the scene, and the vision caused her to pull at Nikolas’s grip for a moment before she forced herself to stop.

Christopher’s control was so thin. If he could contain the bloodlust long enough to get his brother to let her go, she would be grateful. If he lost it, she would fight.

It no longer mattered who was speaking as they continued the tale, both lost in memory. “Two of us, like a mirror. We both fed on her, you on the left, and me on the right. You marked her first, putting your signature forever on her skin, and then I followed.”

“And when she woke she was afraid, but there was passion there too. She was given the finest wines and the softest silks to wear, rich foods, chocolates—”

“We approached her again, both of us taking her blood, but this time we only took a taste—”

“And then we both cut ourselves, here, just below our throats, and she leaned forward to drink.”

Disgust flashed in Sarah’s mind, as she weighed the brothers’ every word for a hint of what their next action would be. So the girl had wanted to die. Instead they had blood bonded her, given her all but immortality.

Nikolas drew his brother forward, and then placed Christopher’s hand over the uncut skin on Sarah’s left wrist.

“Why is there nothing here, Christopher?”

Both of the brothers seemed entranced by their pasts. Finally, Sarah spoke.

“You said you haven’t hunted since Marguerite, Christopher,” she said, loudly, in an attempt to break the spell. “Why?”

Christopher blinked and looked at Sarah as if he were seeing her for the first time.

“Nissa took him away from me,” Nikolas answered sullenly.

“Nissa needed me,” Christopher answered tiredly. “You saw how she was, Nikolas. She hadn’t fed in a week. If I hadn’t—”

Nikolas’s voice was quiet as he interrupted. “Don’t you know how lonely it is hunting without you?”

“No,” Christopher answered, still looking at his brother. “I don’t. I’ve never hunted alone.”

Nikolas once again drew his brother forward, this time placing Christopher’s hand just above the pulse on Sarah’s throat. She checked her reaction to jerk back, knowing that an attempt to flee would only bring out the predatory instincts that Christopher was fighting.

“Can’t you feel the life there, Christopher?” Nikolas pressed. “Don’t you want it?”

Christopher closed his eyes, turning his head away.

“Christopher—”

“Sarah, don’t talk,” Christopher said quickly, sounding pained. He jerked his hand out of Nikolas’s grasp and stepped back.

“Christopher, don’t leave me again,” Nikolas pleaded, childlike in his fear of loneliness. “I don’t want to be alone anymore. Nissa needed you then, but I need younow.”

“Let Sarah go.” Christopher’s voice wavered.

“Shehurtyou,” Nikolas argued. “Isawyou after she turned you away. You wouldn’t even talk to me. I can’t stand to see you in pain, Christopher. In the old days we would have hunted her down together.”

“I don’t want to kill her,” Christopher said. He finally gathered the strength to meet his brother’s gaze again. “And I won’t let you.”

“I won’t kill her if you don’t want me to—if I was willing to do that she would have been dead the instant she entered my home. But you know I can’t just turn her loose. She hunted me down once. Do you really think she would stay away if I let her go? Do you really think her family wouldn’t track down you and Nissa if they couldn’t find me?” Nikolas’s voice was cold, but filled with pain.

“Nikolas—”

Nikolas removed his knife from his pocket and opened it.

“Nikolas, what are you doing?” Christopher demanded, but his brother did not answer as he caught Sarah’s right wrist in a grip she could not break, and skimmed the blade across the back of her hand, drawing a thin line of new blood.

“Damn it, Nikolas!” Christopher shouted, spinning sharply away so the blood was not in his sight. “Don’t do this to me!”

“Just once, Brother, be the Kristopher I know.”

Christopher was trembling as he fought the bloodlust.

“Please, Brother. For me, kill the pain.” Holding Sarah by the throat with one hand, Nikolas reached out and turned his brother around with the other. Christopher’s eyes immediately fell on the blood that was dripping from Sarah’s hand.

“Christopher, no—”

“Shut up,Sarah!” Christopher shouted when she tried to argue, his voice strained. He turned to his brother. “We’re both damned. You know that, don’t you?”

And then Christopher took Sarah’s hand, lifted the wound to his lips, and licked the blood away.

“Christopher, I’m your friend—”

“No, Nikolas.” Roughly, Christopher shoved himself away from her, sending Sarah stumbling back into Nikolas. She could see him shaking from the effort it took him to break away.

“Kristopher, have you forgotten everything?” Nikolas pleaded, the hurt clear in his voice.

“Please, Nikolas, let her go.”

“Why?” Nikolas’s voice was childlike, hurt. “You were the first one,” he reminded his brother, “to pick up a knife.”

Sarah felt Nikolas’s hold on her wrists lessen as he focused on his brother; if he continued to be distracted, she stood a chance of getting out. She had lost hope that Christopher would help her—he wasn’t strong enough to ignore his bloodlust.

“Please, Kristopher,” Nikolas implored.

“Not Sarah.”

That last, painful argument almost caused her to hesitate, but even as she yanked her arms out of Nikolas’s grip she had made her decision. Survival. She threw herself forward, and before either vampire could react, she had pinned Christopher to the floor, a hand over his throat.

“Sarah—”

He didn’t have another chance to speak before she violently dragged at Christopher’s power with her own. He gasped, unable to fight back, and she winced at the pain she knew her magic caused him.

There were nine energy centers in the body, called chakras, that witches could use to manipulate the energies of another, usually in order to heal. Her line had learned another way to use them, one no witch would ever use on another mortal creature: to inflict pain, and to kill.

It was a desperate move. Any vampire strong enough to control his own power could reach along the line