Dark Secret - Feehan Christine - Страница 54

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"Don Nicolas!" Julio Chevez called out in warning. Nicolas caught the club and twisted it easily from the boy's hands, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"The boy is tainted, Rafael. He reeks of the vampire. He is no more than a human puppet. I will dispatch him quickly and convert the woman for you. You will go to ground and heal properly." There was absolute resolve in Nicolas.

Colby could see he had already dismissed Paul and would kill him without a single thought of remorse. She flung herself in front of Paul. "Don't you dare. Don't you come near him." Paul was taller than she was, but she spread out her arms and called up every ounce of power she had in her. She didn't want to protect Paul, she wanted to go to Rafael, to save him, do anything it took. She hated standing there, shielding her brother, when Rafael was so broken. She felt her heart was shattering into a million pieces as she looked at his ravaged face.

Meu amor, I would not allow Paul to be harmed by my kin. You should know better. The stirring in her mind was weak, as if Rafael was fading, leaving her.

She was frightened, not knowing who to run to, who to protect. "Rafael's dying, Nicolas," she said. "Is that what you want, to have him try to fight you with his last dying breath? What kind of a person are you?"

Rafael's tall, muscular frame crumpled. He went to the ground on his knees, held there swaying a moment, his eyes glazing before falling forward facedown.

Colby had no memory of leaping to catch him, but she was under him, cushioning his fall, his large frame taking her down with him. Surprisingly, she didn't slam into the dirt as she expected. Nicolas floated Rafael gently to the ground, turning him just before his body hit hers, his head pillowed in her lap. She couldn't prevent the shudder of fear when Nicolas loomed over her.

Juan and Julio stepped up on either side of Paul. "Don Nicolas, please do not force us to make such a choice. This boy is familia. He is under Don Rafael's protection, as is Colby. This protection should be yours as well."

There was a small silence. Even the night seemed to hold its breath. Insects ceased their wild calls and the cattle stopped their restless motion.

"The poison can perhaps be driven from his system, but I will have to take his blood." Nicolas made it a threat, staring straight at Colby.

She didn't trust him and wished Rafael was fully awake to tell her what to do. "Rafael says he can't lie to me-can you?"

"Say yes or no," Nicolas replied harshly. "He will suffer with the acid of the vampire's blood and he will crave the taste of human flesh. He will rot from the inside out and the vampire will be able to use him to defeat us all."

Paul burst into tears, his hands pressed to his stomach. "I do burn inside, Colby. And there's a buzzing in my head that makes me feel crazy. Is he saying I'm going to be a cannibal?"

"Then do whatever you have to do, but don't you harm him or I'll hunt you down and drive a stake right through your ice-cold heart," Colby warned.

Nicolas ignored her threat and knelt beside Rafael. She watched in disbelief as he tore open his own wrist with his teeth and shoved the wound against Rafael's mouth. He looked at her with empty black eyes as he forced his brother to swallow the ancient blood. "He should have taken you immediately instead of catering to you the way he did." His voice was a harsh whip, lashing her when she was holding Rafael's head in her lap, her fingers tangled in the long silk of his hair and his blood soaking into her jeans.

"I don't like you very much either," she snapped. "How are you different from that monster? My brother is innocent. He didn't ask to have that horrible creature kidnap him and infect him with poison. I didn't ask to be your brother's lifemate. I have my own life here, my own responsibilities. Why should your rights be more important than mine?"

Nicolas leaned close to her, his eyes flat and diamond hard. "Because if you don't find your lifemate, you will not turn into a monster that will be absolutely evil and live for the death and pain of others. I will. I am not human. Rafael is not human. We have fought centuries against the darkness. You could relieve his pain so easily. You could ensure that he would never face that moment in time when he might succumb to darkness, yet you are too stubborn, too selfish to give him what he needs. And because of that, you foolishly risk the lives of your brother and sister and your neighbors and others you don't even know. Worse, you risk my brother's very soul and the souls of my familia and myself. In the end, he will have you, so taking this risk is senseless. I would take you, if you were mine, and get it done." There was a distinct snap to his teeth as if he might lean over and bite her neck right there.

Colby's heart pounded harder in her chest, but she faced him squarely, trying to be honest with him. Struggling to understand. She wanted to understand when she saw him giving his own blood to his fallen brother. More, the thought of Rafael turning into such a hideous monster as the creature who had attacked them was inconceivable. "I can see from your point of view. Can you see from mine? I'm not Carpathian. I didn't even know you existed until a short time ago. I don't know Rafael. I don't know much at all about him other than he's different, with tremendous powers, and that he can control me in ways that scare me to death. I have a brother and a sister I love and a ranch that I swore to my father on his deathbed I would keep for them. I didn't have any concept of the consequences you're describing. I haven't lived centuries and I haven't known of vampires other than in movies."

"Now you have seen one. Now you know the consequences to Rafael and you know the things I say are true. What are you going to do about it?"

"I don't even know what you want me to do, Nicolas," she answered honestly. "How do I protect Rafael? He talked of bringing me wholly into his world. What does that mean?"

"Could you not tell the evil one was striking at you? If he succeeds in killing you, he has destroyed Rafael. He used the boy to try to kill you," Nicolas pointed out.

"I didn't try to kill her," Paul denied, his face very pale.

"Yes, you did," Nicolas said calmly. "And if the poison is not removed from your system, you will try again and again until you succeed. Colby, as long as you are human, the vampire knows you are vulnerable and he has a chance to kill Rafael through you."

"How would my death be killing Rafael?" She asked it, but she already knew the answer through her own fears and grief. She struggled to contain it, but she couldn't entertain the idea of losing Rafael. Her mind refused the possibility because her heart knew she wouldn't survive.

"You know," Nicolas said softly.

"Don't even think about it, Colby," Paul snapped. He doubled over in pain, holding his stomach. "Don't let them do anything to you. Can't you see what they are?"

Julio slipped his arm around the boy's shoulders. "They are great men and have protected us from the vampire, Paul. Nicolas is the only one who can save you from the acid inside of you. No doctor could cure the effects."

Nicolas stopped Rafael from feeding, closing the wound in his wrist with a swipe of his tongue. Colby couldn't help the shudder that ran through her body at the matter-of-fact gesture.

"I must take Rafael to a place where he will be safe and I can heal him," Nicolas said. "He has bound you to him and you will suffer greatly for the separation. I can stop that by converting you, but then you would have to rest in the earth with him. Choose now. He needs care immediately."

"If I have to make an immediate choice then I have to stay with my brother and sister and see to their safety," Colby said. There was challenge in her voice.

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