Chapter 4 #2
It was curious that each warning sign associated with his brothers seemed to fit their personalities so well.
Beltran was a slight pressure in his temple as if a headache were coming on.
Winter brought chilled goose bumps along his forearms. And Rafe was that annoying itch that couldn’t quite be reached.
He never asked if they got a strange sensation when he was close or what it was. He wondered a bit now.
“My, my, dear brother,” Rafe drawled behind him. “This isn’t one of your usual hunting grounds.”
Marcus turned slightly to his left and narrowed his eyes at Rafe’s tall, lean form encased in an exquisitely tailored dark suit. His brother had been a perfectly dressed dandy in his previous life, and that had carried forward untouched into his vampire existence.
“Did you need something? Is it Mother?” he asked, preferring to ignore Rafe’s comment.
Rafe gave an irritated sigh before walking the last few steps to stand by his older brother. “I’ve just come from checking in on Mother and our sweet Bel. Mother is fine. She’s calm.”
“Thank you,” Marcus said simply to annoy Rafe, and it worked.
Everyone knew Rafe didn’t check on their mother out of some sense of familial duty.
He did it out of worry for his twin. Bel, with his mind always on his research, tended to be the worst of them when it came to watching over Julianna.
He too often missed the early warning signs of her mind slipping into a bad episode, which usually ended in bloody consequences that could have been avoided.
It was probably best that Marcus would be managing her care once they were all settled in Connecticut.
“Seriously, Marcus, why are you in this part of town? You prefer to hunt closer to your home.”
Marcus resumed walking down the street, a frown tugging at his lips. He knew Rafe was going to keep needling him and digging at him until he finally had the truth of it. Rafe was such a nosy bastard.
“I hired a new assistant today. Ethan Cline. He lives in the neighborhood,” Marcus admitted.
“Really, now?”
“He’s to help prepare my household for the move and run errands as needed.”
“It’s a shame you couldn’t keep that last one. What was her name? Carrie? Cheryl?”
Marcus paused and glared at his brother for a second. “Amy.”
Rafe shrugged and they resumed walking down the street. “She was with you for ten years. All broken in.”
Marcus couldn’t argue with that. Amy had been fantastic, particularly those last six years.
She knew his routine, didn’t ask unnecessary questions, and generally remained an invisible part of his life.
She’d been incredibly well paid and worked well, but the truth was that having an employee around for more than ten years was dangerous.
He didn’t age, and humans tended to notice things like that after a bit.
“This new assistant? Worried that he’s not who he says he is?”
Marcus stopped in front of a plain, square, brick building.
The squat two-story looked worn and rundown.
The front light flickered, staying off longer than it was on.
The apartment building looked as if the owner had simply given up on trying to make repairs, leaving the tenants to live in relative squalor.
This was the address Ethan Cline had put on his résumé.
Their meeting had been brief, but there was no denying there had been an instantaneous spark that crackled around Marcus when he met Ethan’s eyes.
It had taken him a second to remember his own damn name after shaking Ethan’s hand.
The young man was sharp and eager. His brain had screamed that Ethan was trouble, but he couldn’t stop himself from declaring that he was hired within seconds of meeting him.
Marcus didn’t make snap decisions. He left the hiring to Janice.
She dealt with the tedious details of running his financial empire.
But something had demanded that he walk into that office, demanded that he hire Ethan Cline on the spot.
It didn’t make a damn bit of sense, and the complete lack of logic bothered him.
Not Ethan. Not that the young man would be in his house tomorrow.
That they would spend time together as Marcus showed him his duties.
Those things simply made his heart speed up and a strange feeling start to shift in his stomach.
“Have you asked Winter to look into him yet?”
Marcus shook his head. That would be the smart thing to do. Winter was the sneaky one of the family. He had a feeling Rafe could easily claim that title if only he would stop running his mouth for more than a couple of seconds.
“Have you spoken to Winter recently?”
“Nope,” Rafe said, seeming to pop the “p” with a little extra pleasure.
Of course, Winter was missing. Their brother took pleasure in disappearing for extended periods of time, only to reappear again when he saw fit. Luckily, he seemed to sense when true danger was brewing and managed to be present before things got out of hand.
“I’ll speak to Winter about Mr. Cline when he appears again,” Marcus muttered.
He stood staring up at the apartment building for a couple of seconds more, wondering if the light on in the front left window on the second floor belonged to Ethan.
Was he awake still? Excited for his first day of work with Marcus?
Disgusted with himself, Marcus turned back the way he’d walked, stepping around Rafe, who looked at him with a confused expression. He really didn’t want Rafe pondering this too much. He didn’t want him digging into Ethan. Didn’t want him talking to Ethan.
“The Ministry is considering a new vote,” Marcus said, mentioning the ruling vampire body for the Americas. The pompous, power-hungry creatures loved thinking of ways to complicate their lives, and their actions were a guaranteed distraction for Rafe.
“When aren’t they?” Rafe grumbled.
“They are considering whether to ban vampires from using social media.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? I’ve got more than two million followers on Instagram.”
“And you are likely the reason they are considering such a ban.”
Rafe tilted his head toward the sky and groaned in disgust. “If only they knew the images I haven’t posted. I’m using incredible restraint to keep them happy.”
Marcus didn’t believe that for a second. Restraint was not something Rafe truly understood. “Try limiting yourself to fashion for the time being. At least until this ban talk blows over.”
“Don’t attempt to make me boring, dear brother. It will never happen.”
“Was there another reason for you to hunt me down?” Marcus asked. He didn’t want to think Rafe had come looking for him simply because he was in an unexpected part of town.
He didn’t question Rafe’s ability to sense the locations of his brothers.
Rafe admitted that Bel was the easiest of them to pinpoint, followed by Marcus.
Winter was more nebulous, and Marcus had little doubt that it greatly annoyed Rafe.
If he tried, he could probably find Winter within a few hundred square miles, but that wasn’t incredibly useful.
Of course, they all had ways of keeping track of each other. It was a struggle not to look around for Ozzie. But if Bel’s enormous black raven wanted to hide, Marcus wasn’t going to see him.
What was surprising was that Rafe could easily trace their sire, Aiden. Unlike his brothers, Marcus couldn’t sense their sire when he was close. But then, vampirism had manifested itself in strange and unique ways for each of them.
“Aiden has returned from Rio,” Rafe announced.
Marcus stopped and turned to look at his brother. “He’s here?”
Rafe shook his head. “Miami.”
Marcus grunted and continued to walk to where he’d parked his car.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, made sense for Aiden.
It was a distracting enough place with just enough crime that a hunting vampire could move unnoticed.
It was a place where he could forget about his beloved Julianna and the knowledge that he could never be close to her again.
But Miami was less than seven hundred miles from their current location.
He had to have returned to the United States because of the upcoming move.
He wanted to be close in case there was a problem.
Even from afar, after more than a century, Aiden would do anything to protect Julianna, as well as her children.
Even if it meant protecting her children from their mother.
Marcus sighed, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets. “I do not think we were meant for love.”
Rafe’s bright, carefree laugh rose up and echoed through the night above the distant rush of cars. “Nonsense! I fall in love with a new beautiful face and sweetly curved ass each night.”
“That is not love, brother,” Marcus grumbled.
Rafe purposefully bumped into him with his shoulder, and Marcus looked over to see his brother’s wild smile. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t trust your sense of love.”
Marcus couldn’t blame him. He’d never been in love. Never known a lover’s touch. The soft, tender words whispered from a lover’s lips. Maybe Rafe did know more about love than he, but Marcus didn’t want to believe that the hedonistic love that his brother had found was all there was.
But he also didn’t welcome the endless torture that Aiden suffered for his love of Julianna.
No, their kind was not made for love.