5
MATTHIAS EMERGED FROM THE STEAMY BATHROOM wearing nothing but a white towel wrapped low around his hips. His pale skin was scrubbed clean of any trace of the blood or injury that had been there. “Thank you, Jillian. I feel much better now.”
I’d wanted him gone. I’d helped him get his blood, heal himself, but he refused to tell me how to save Declan—if he even needed saving—until I found out where Sara was. I’d had enough trouble to deal with tonight.
Declan’s arms were flexed, his hands fisted, and veins had popped up in his neck and forehead.
“Why the f*ck are you here?” The words weren’t much more than a growl.
Matthias raised his eyebrow. “Declan. You’re back.”
“Answer me.”
“Noah wanted me to deliver a vial of fusing potion to Jillian. During this delivery I was attacked and sliced open by a former blood servant and needed some time to recover.”
Declan’s gaze turned to me. “Is that true?”
I nodded. “Yes, but it’s all right now and Matthias was just leaving after he, uh, cleaned himself up.”
Matthias glanced at me. “Are you certain you feel safe alone here with the dhampyr?”
This earned him a fierce glare from Declan.
Declan had a lot of Matthias issues, starting with the lies he’d been told about the vampire that originated with Declan’s birth mother. She was dead now and you wouldn’t be seeing me putting any flowers on her grave.
Dr. Monica Gray had been the head of the research program that developed the Nightshade formula. and she was Carson’s boss. Her entire agenda wasn’t to destroy the threat of vampires as she would have had everyone believe. No, it was to destroy Matthias alone—the man who stood in the way of the release of her former lover, Kristoff.
Kristoff was Declan’s real father.
Declan didn’t know this because I hadn’t told him yet. Maybe I figured he’d been hurt so much, physically and emotionally, that one more blow might break him.
Stupid thought. Declan wasn’t that fragile.
“Your blood servant followed you here?” Declan said after the uncomfortable moment of silence passed between the three of us. He didn’t address Matthias’s comment about my current safety and neither did I. “How would they know where you are to begin with?”
“There’s a tracking device planted under my skin I didn’t know about until tonight.” Matthias’s jaw tensed. “It needs to be removed immediately. Will you help me?”
He wasn’t looking at me.
Declan stared at the vampire for a long time before he nodded. “Of course.”
The news of a tracker hidden under the vampire’s skin didn’t make him so much as blink.
Matthias sat on a wooden chair he pulled out from the small corner desk and sat on it backward. The towel split, showing off a long line of his pale thigh right up to the hip.
“It’s below my right shoulder blade and very small. So small that I never knew it was there. But now that I do, I was able to find it easily during my shower.”
Declan pulled his silver blade from the leather sheath at his right hip. He used that blade to kill vampires when he wanted a change from the gun he kept filled with silver bullets. One to the heart did the trick as well as a knife would, provided the bullet penetrated all the way through.
He approached Matthias with the knife in hand. I was surprised Matthias trusted him enough to do this. Not only to turn his back on a known vampire hunter, but to do so willingly. However, a glance at his knuckles showed they were white as he clutched the side of the chair, which told me he wasn’t as at ease with the situation as he might want us to believe.
I tried very hard not to think about what had happened between me and Declan earlier, but it was impossible. The look in his eye—that rage that seemed to be completely gone now, that had come out of nowhere—it bothered me a lot.
Matthias said it wasn’t because of the serum or my blood, it was simply because he was a dhampyr. And it was only the beginning.
The thought chilled me as I touched my tender throat, the throat I’d thought for a split second he’d wanted to tear out.
“Here?” Declan touched the spot Matthias mentioned.
“Yes.”
“I feel it. It makes me wonder how you didn’t notice it before. It had to get in here somehow.”
Matthias turned his head. “My play is sometimes a little rough. Spilled blood—mine or another’s—can be part of the fun.”
“Your play.”
“Sex, dhampyr.” Matthias’s lips curled. “A woman’s fingernails can be used to show her passion. I’ve found that the harder they scratch, the more they are enjoying themselves.”
Declan’s jaw clenched. “Or the more they’re trying to fight a man taking them against their will.”
“I’ve never taken a woman against her will. I think you have me confused with my brother.” He hissed as Declan sliced into his skin. “No warning?”
“Hurts less if you’re not expecting it.”
Declan spread the cut flesh and felt about for the tracking device. A fresh well of blood spilled down Matthias’s side to stain the stark white towel. He didn’t move, but his face grew more tense.
It reminded me too much of earlier and seeing the blood servant with his hand deep in Matthias’s gut, searching for the key.
“If Kristoff’s really so bad, you don’t think Meyers will have second thoughts about freeing him?” I asked, although I already knew the answer to that.
Matthias’s pale gaze moved to me. There was sweat on his brow and pain in his eyes. Declan wasn’t trying to be particularly gentle during this operation. “No. I have no doubt he’ll free my brother, but I didn’t think it would be so soon.”
“What are you talking about?” Declan asked.
“I had a key surgically hidden inside of my body from the time I imprisoned Kristoff. The room my brother was placed in is rigged with explosives if anyone attempts to release him without the key.” His expression darkened. “I told only two people the location of this prison and where the key was. I trusted both of them. One is dead. The other a traitor who carved the key from inside of me less than an hour ago.”
I remembered the greed in Meyers’s eyes as he pulled the bloody key from Matthias’s body. “He seems very determined to have Kristoff sire him.”
“I’ll kill him long before that happens. But I must also find a way to kill my brother. It should have been done decades ago.”
Declan yanked out something from inside Matthias’s flesh and the vampire king gasped in pain. I ran to the bathroom, wet a facecloth, and returned to press it against Matthias’s new wound. This one wasn’t as bad as I thought it was and it didn’t take very long before it started to knit and heal right in front of my eyes.
Declan held the tiny piece of metal in the palm of his hand. “What do you want me to do with it?”
“Destroy it.”
Declan placed it on the carpet and slammed the hard sole of his boot on top of it, leaving a bloody stain and a destroyed tracker behind. Between that and the mattress and wall, I hoped not to be here when the maid stopped by to clean up. She was going to be pissed.
“You should have killed your brother before he became immortal.” Declan wiped his hand against his thigh to remove the blood. “Evil like that shouldn’t be allowed to live. Same goes for the rest of your kind.”
Matthias took the cloth from me and dabbed at his side a bit harder to clean it up. “Contrary to what you believe, we’re not all soulless monsters. We require blood to survive, and blood doesn’t come cheaply. However, many of us have chosen not to take from those we consider innocent. When I drink blood it’s usually from a willing donor.”
“Usually,” Declan repeated.
Matthias grabbed his clothes from earlier and began to get dressed right in front of us. I automatically looked away when he dropped the towel. “I know you don’t like me, dhampyr, but I’m not the biggest threat you’ll be faced with. If you knew my brother—” He broke off for a moment. “He’s different from most others. I know better than anyone what he’s capable of and what his plans were before I put him into that prison.”
“What were they?”
“To infiltrate society. To slowly turn all humans into blood servants. To have vampires become the dominant species on earth.”
Declan shook his head. “It’s impossible. There aren’t enough vampires.”
“That’s because I’ve kept our numbers small. Not everyone who wants to be sired has been granted their wish. There are currently less than a thousand of us worldwide. But Kristoff will change that. He’ll begin to sire many new vampires immediately after his awakening. It’ll grow faster than anything you ever imagined—like a virus.”
I felt ill at the thought. “You really think he can recover that quickly from being locked away for nearly thirty years?”
“I don’t know for sure what will happen.” His jaw clenched. “But the moment blood touches his lips again, he’ll regain a great deal of his strength. And I’ll know the moment it happens.”
I frowned. “How will you know?”
He walked to the window to look outside. “Because we’re twins we’ve always had a very strong psychic bond with each other. When we were sired, this connection became stronger. There were times when we could even read each other’s minds.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded. “You and Kristoff are psychically connected twins.”
“Yes.”
“Identical twins?”
He nodded.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said under my breath. This was like a bad soap opera.
I already knew Kristoff and Matthias were brothers, but I had no idea that they were twins. I studied the two men standing before me. Declan’s scars and eye patch, as well as the thirty-plus pounds of muscle he had on Matthias were definitely distracting. But if I ignored that, I thought I could see a slight family resemblance. The line of their jaws. The shape of their noses. The curve of their upper lips.
Matthias raked a hand through his hair. “I only hope I’ll have enough time to find a way to destroy him before it’s too late.”
Declan crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you mean?”
Matthias rubbed at a large bloodstain at the edge of his sleeve. “I believe the Nightshade in Jillian’s blood stripped away my immortality. I can feel my life fading. I don’t have much time left.”
We were both dying. The thought made my throat thicken. I wondered which one of us would last longer.
Declan stood there stoically, seemingly unmoved by the announcement. “So what’s your plan?”
“When Kristoff is awakened, I think he’ll be able to find me through our bond. I know he’ll come for me—out of revenge for what I did to him. He’ll want to kill me. This will be my only opportunity to kill him first.”
Declan snorted. “You think you can kill an immortal when you’re not even immortal anymore?”
“I need to try.” Matthias’s gaze narrowed. “And I need to know the location of my daughter. In my final days, knowing she’s safe is all I actually care about.”
“Father of the year,” Declan said dryly. “But I’m not telling you where she is.”
Any warmth drained from Matthias’s face. “Why?”
“Jill might believe that you’re on our side, but I’m not quite as trusting as she is.”
Declan shot me a look and I shot it right back at him. Trusting? I didn’t trust anyone except for him, and after what happened earlier I was a little iffy on the unconditional confidence I’d had in him before I’d seen his desire for me turn to hate and rage. But I sure as hell didn’t trust Matthias as far as I could throw him—except when it came to Sara.
Matthias’s expression was tense. “You can trust me when it comes to the safety of Sara.”
“She’s a dhampyr. A female infant dhampyr.”
“Your point?”
“I know about the immortality ritual you participated in.”
Matthias shook his head. “That was against my will, the final straw in my dealings with Kristoff. That he’d sacrifice his own child—”
“For the chance to live forever. That’s right. Drinking the blood of a dhampyr like Sara could give you that immortality back couldn’t it, Matthias?”
I felt cold. “You’re not suggesting—”
“That Matthias would sacrifice Sara in order to save his long life?” Declan’s face was stony. “Actually, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting. And it’s all the more reason why I won’t tell him where she is.”
I watched Matthias, worried about how he’d react to this. He drew closer to Declan and he didn’t look happy. In fact, I could see a slight tremble to his fists he clenched at his sides.
“She’s my daughter. Other than Kristoff, she’s my only family.”
Declan shook his head. “This doesn’t give you any right to be near her in your current condition. You’re the one who’s admitted you’re near death.”
“You don’t trust me.”
“That’s right. I don’t.”
Matthias looked at each of us in turn. “Then how do I gain your trust?”
Declan frowned. Perhaps he was expecting Matthias to throw a temper tantrum, but he didn’t. I felt his sincerity that he meant his daughter no harm. It made my heart ache a little for him.
Still, I was conflicted.
I wasn’t sure why this conversation was making me so emotional, but I felt tears sliding down my cheeks. “You’re wrong about one thing, Declan, I don’t trust easily. I don’t trust Matthias in many matters, but when it comes to Sara, I . . .” Both men were staring at me now with strange expressions on their faces. “What’s wrong?”
“Jill—” There was a catch to Declan’s voice. “Your face . . .”
I reached up to wipe at my tears. When I pulled my fingers back I saw that they were covered in blood so dark red that it was almost black.
A moment later a curtain of pain descended over me, making me collapse to my knees. I braced myself on the floor, hunched over, and saw the blood drip to the cheap beige carpet there.
After a moment, all I could feel was agony. All I could see was blood.
And then darkness claimed me.