Davy Harwood

The dead vampire was turned the other way now. He wasn’t a help and so I did what I probably shouldn’t have. I slipped inside of Wren. She was boiling with adrenaline, excitement, and wrath all at once. Complicated.





As she bent forward, I reeled, and suddenly she was back up with her legs in the air and her fists between them. I felt like I was on a roller coaster. Then another scream punctured the air and everything froze.





Wren whirled around, her insides surging.





Lucan held Shelly in front of him with his mouth turned towards her neck. He lowered his teeth, but looked up—Wren followed the gaze—and there stood Roane with two vampires in his hands.





It was a direct challenge.





Roane straightened, deftly flexed his hands and snapped the vampires’ necks. Their bodies fell to the ground and he stepped over them, calm and assured.





Wren stretched her hands, ready for Roane’s command. None came. He held his human brother’s gaze steadily. “Do you want to drink? Go ahead. You know what will happen.”





Lucan grinned, lethally, and nipped lightly at Shelly’s skin.





She shuddered against his chest, but Lucan only had eyes for Roane. “Is this how you thought it’d end? After all this time and I’ve got the girl in my arms. You had your chance, brother. Too bad you forgot who you were when you chose them.”





“Do you want the Immortal or do you want me?” Roane threw out the challenge.





CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE





For a moment I saw indecision in Lucan’s eyes. Roane was right. Lucan did want his brother back, but something had gone wrong between them, more than the ready-to-kill-each-other type of wrong. “Is that what it would take, Lucas? If I let her go, would you remember who you’re supposed to be? Do you think I’m still the stupid one?” A hard glint appeared in Lucan’s black eyes. “Or maybe if I drink from her, you’ll have no other choice. You’ll have to come back to my side.”





“That’s what you want, isn’t it?”





I felt Roane’s confidence. It was sweltering, sexy, and entirely too alarming. I felt what was on the other side—the acceptance of what was to come….





Lucan hesitated, but an emotion quickly stormed in those blackened eyes. His hand grasped Shelly’s neck tighter and a vein jerked in her neck.





Wren wetted her lips. She wanted a taste too, but her fear and loyalty to Roane held her back.





For a moment, just a moment, I was tempted to slip inside of Shelly, but I knew the fear would paralyze me. I didn’t know for sure if I could withstand it, but then another thought came to my mind….With a gasp, I was inside of Shelly. The terror was suffocating, but I tried to wade through it. It was like hardening cement. I felt Lucan pressed behind me. I felt my neck, Shelly’s neck, trembling and weak. Then a box opened behind me. There was a light, but it quickly shut off.





The terror was gone. The trembling had stopped. Shelly had gone into a back corner of her mind where she could escape. She was no longer in control of her body. I would’ve done the same thing. Hell, I had done the same thing in my recent past.





Then I slipped into every pore of her body. Lucan stilled at the sudden change, but then Shelly’s body jerked when I took control. He continued, “You had your chance, brother. You could’ve been beside me through eternity. You chose the wrong side. I’ve got her now and I’ll reign in your defeat.”





My eyes—Shelly’s eyes—snapped to Roane. His eyes narrowed as he sensed the change. He paused, studied me/Shelly, and comprehension flared in his eyes. He looked towards the closed door where my body stood, but swung back to Shelly.





He knew—and he was pissed.





Roane chose his words carefully. “You need to be careful, Lucan. Things aren’t as they seem. Things are… undecided.”





Wren frowned and glanced to her leader.





Roane took a purposeful step forward. He didn’t step forward, he stalked forward.





Lucan stilled—I wasn’t inside of him, but I felt his body’s answer to the sudden shift in Roane’s body. Roane had been cautious, held himself back before and now there was no holding back. Lucan registered it all and I wondered how long it would be before he realized who exactly he held in his arms. It wasn’t my body. It wasn’t my blood, but I still didn’t want to feel his fangs rip through Shelly’s skin.





“What’s undecided, brother?” Lucan enjoyed the back and forth. “You led with me. You were the one who had this grand idea. It was just because she was a child. That’s the only reason why you stopped. You’re weak. You were weak then and you’re weak now. You protect her even though this one means nothing to you.”





Roane’s attention snapped to his brother. For the first time since the battle had started, Roane wasn’t focused on me. I frowned as I wondered who Lucan referred to….





He sounded malicious. “You hunted the first one. You were supposed to have the first drink. It shouldn’t have meant anything that the thread jumped to her child.”





“Shut up, Lucan!” Roane growled.





“It’s the truth. And the thread’s not in Talia anymore. Your lover died. You weren’t even there to protect her. That’s what you had chosen. You chose her over me.” Disdain and bitterness dripped from Lucan, but I watched horrified as something glazed over Roane’s eyes at the words.





Her? Lover?





Roane and Talia, the previous Immortal, had been lovers. From the clenched jaw, I judged that he still loved her…. I closed my eyes tightly as tears stung them. They were a knee jerk reaction.





Lucan continued, “You fell in love with a child. Only a vampire can be that sick, but I understood. I did, Lucas. I’m your brother. I understand things like love at first sight. You fought me for her, but that’s over. She’s not alive anymore. You can forget this charade and take up my side again. I need my brother beside me. It hasn’t been the same without you.”





“I didn’t fall in love with Talia until she was an adult. I fought you that day because she was a child. We don’t hurt children.”





“Yes, we do. We’re vampires. Why do you keep denying what we are?”





I opened my eyes, Shelly’s eyes, a crack and glimpsed the pain in Roane through her tears—my tears that her body produced from my suffering.





Roane shook his head. “I’m no longer your brother, Lucan. That ceased when Jaleathus sired me. The Roane’s Family blood became mine. We live with different standards in our blood.”





Lucan snorted in contempt. “Don’t tell me about your different standards. They come from Jacith. He brainwashed your entire Family, but you’re still vampires. You try to pretend you aren’t. I’m insulted that they did this to my brother.”





A bitter laugh wrung out of Roane. “You were nothing without me, Lucan. I told you how to act. I told you how to think. I told you everything. You wouldn’t have done anything if I hadn’t been there.”





Lucan froze behind me. I felt rage build inside of him. His fingers tightened on Shelly’s throat. His other hand gripped her arm until I felt a trickle of blood seep downwards. It trickled over his hands, but he didn’t realize it. Roane’s nostrils flared at the smell. So did Wren’s. I glanced around the room. All of them except Wren and Roane eyed the blood. It was Immortal blood… or so they thought.





“You’re wrong,” Lucan whispered. “I lead my Family. I’ve found the Immortal. I have her in my arms. You failed, brother.”





Roane smiled. It was a confident, too smooth, type of smile. Lucan gripped harder on Shelly’s arm—more blood slipped downwards. It trickled over her palm, down her finger, and hung just off the tip of the nail…. My heart pounded heavily as I waited… then it let loose and splattered on the floor.





Still no reaction from Lucan.





He was focused, almost crazily focused on Roane. “Now what is your Family going to do? You were supposed to protect the Immortal and you couldn’t do that, could you?”





“I’m a Hunter, Lucan. Are you forgetting what that means? I’m connected to all of the other Hunters. You rip into that girl and I can call on them. You won’t be fighting just me. You’ll be fighting all of them.”





“I’ll have the Immortal’s blood. I’ll be unstoppable.” Lucan was so sure, so confident in his own words. I knew instantly when he smelled the blood. His body jerked in reaction and I/Shelly was slammed against the wall. His fangs clamped onto Shelly’s neck and sunk further. He drank—oh—I fought against it. The blood was pulled out at breathtaking speed. I couldn’t… I tried to slow the draining, but it was useless.





Lucan was a starved animal. Shelly whimpered from inside of her box. She felt her body’s death. I saw the box open and the light shone briefly before she crawled out of the box. There she was, terrified, but calm. She knew her death was almost there.





I almost wished that Shelly had been a vampire. I could’ve talked to her, comforted her in that moment, but she wasn’t. She was just a human who didn’t have any special power, but it was a good thing that Shelly was a human. Life was simple for her.





I felt her heart slowing… thump… thump… she closed her eyes and fell. Her heart had stopped. Lucan let go, confused, and Shelly’s body really did fall to the ground.