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.