Chapter 18
MARCUS
Your mate is in danger. We flash into the cover of the trees. The bond screams at me even as I pummel Julian into the damp forest earth. I have the element of surprise, and I go for his throat. He recovers and grips my jaw with his hand, nearly crushing my bones.
“Fancy seeing you here.” His fangs are fully extended, eyes fully black. There is no love lost between us, and a torn part of my soul mourns what we used to be.
“Where you kill, brother, I follow,” I snarl. I’ve spent half my life cleaning up Julian’s messes, and now he is trying to take the one thing I have for myself.
He slams me to the ground, and something snaps. Pain rockets up my back. My shoulder. He snapped my shoulder. I snarl and go for his eye, but he’s too fast.
“You don’t deserve her. She should be mine,” he growls.
I bar his throat with my forearm, my gaze hunting for Leah. She’s crouched, watching us, looking for an opening, a dagger in one hand and a stake in the other.
“Go,” I gasp out. “Go now, Leah.”
She doesn’t listen, the foolish slayer. She leaps forward, seeing the opening, and slashes at his back. He whirls. Panic pushes me to flash faster than I have before. I tear him away.
“I lost mine,” Julian rages. His face is a horrible mask of anger and pain. His pain rips at me the way his claws do.
“Go,” I shout.
“You care for her so much, brother?” His eyes light.
Fear drops through me, cold, hard, fast. My brother has always coveted what I have, even as a human. Julian slams me into a tree. I wrench his arm out of the socket.
He snarls, but I’m not sure he even feels the pain.
“You have everything I want,” he hisses. “And you deserve none of it. I will take her from you.”
Rage swallows coherent thought, and I take him to the ground. We are a whirlwind of fangs and clawing hands. The shadows are striped across the leaf-covered floor, and I burn every time I feel sunlight.
Julian’s eyes are swallowed by the blackness. I’d harbored hopes that he might be saved, but he’s well and truly gone, my brother, and I am rapidly tiring. I am weak from not feeding and fighting him in the shadow of the day.
“You’ll burn before I do.” He grins before he flashes us into the sun and slams me against a tree.
“You think she wants a pile of bodies as a present?” The words are half snarl. My skin is singeing and the acrid smell is as bad as the searing, endless pain.
His hand tightens on my throat. “She will have no choice. Die, brother.”
Leah’s cry is fierce before she attacks. She lunges, using the force of her body to bury her stake in his back. Julian snarls and drops me as Leah leaps away.
“You want to dance, slayer?” He smiles. Leah backs into the sunlight and crouches, her face determined. She scoops a handful of twigs, and I realize from the scent that it’s ash.
She has an ash grove planted near her house. Clever girl. Her bravery makes my chest pinch. The sun will not save her.
I try to motion to her that I’ll go right while she feints left.
Left toward the house and freedom. She doesn’t see and instead darts to the right, toward the brighter sun deeper in the clearing, trying to flank him and raising her fist to toss the poisonous wood.
I blur into a run, hoping to tackle my brother. I have to keep him from her.
Julian flashes, blurring into the mist. I’m faster. I’ve always been faster, and I’m closer to Leah than he is. I cannot reach him, but I can reach her.
I slam her to the tree, cover her with my body, just in time for Julian to open my back with his clawed hands.
He tears chunks from me as I cover my mate.
Fire trails in the wake of his hands, then numbness.
I feel blood drenching my pants, but above that, I feel nothing.
The smell of burning skin is in my nose.
Pain makes my vision dim around the edges. I turn all my energy to cradling my mate against my chest. Distantly, I realize that a wound like this will take too long to heal. I will die in the sun.
But Leah.
Leah cannot die. Not Leah. My soul wails, loud enough to drown out the sounds of blood and death.
I barely register Leah’s hands on my arm. She is screaming. My mate is screaming.
“Go now, Marcus,” she begs. “Behind the wards.”
I hug my mate to me and flash us into the shadows, where I face my brother. He’s dripping blood from his chest, and his eyes flicker from silver to black. His gaze goes to my mate, then to my face, and his mouth twists.
I’m not sure why he’s not attacking. Guilt, perhaps. Or he’s more injured than I realized and the stake is poisoning him.
“I’ll be back,” he says lightly, though his smile is edged with pain. “On Hallow’s Eve. When good little vampires are at their weakest.”
I ignore him and flash us into the house.