"But she has always wanted you, she was always yours, she still is!" Christian's eyes flew to Victoria's knowing that the turn in conversation would not be easy for her. Her face was inscrutable but he could see her white, clenched fingers.
"Lucian, what happened with Lena happened. I can't change the past. And if you wanted her so damned badly, you should have gone to the Council yourself," he said. Christian sighed and raked his hands through his hair. "What is this really about, Lucian? Le Sang Noir? You really think it's the answer to everything?"
"Yes." Lucian's voice was sulky.
"Well, it isn't, just ask her!" he said, looking over at Victoria.
It was entirely the wrong thing to do, and Christian cursed himself as soon as he said it. When he had been speaking to Lucian, he had unconsciously redirected Lucian's attention to himself and away from Victoria, but the second that he'd pointed toward Victoria, everything pivoted onto itself.
It was as if all the air had been sucked out of the room.
Lucian snarled, dropping into a feral crouch, transformation complete as he became the hunter ... and his prey was Victoria. Christian shoved her behind him, and a low fierce roar tore from his chest as he faced his brother.
"Don't do it, Lucian," he growled. But Lucian didn't hesitate as he leapt with all his strength right at Christian, his hands connecting with his chest as they both went flying.
Christian barely had enough time to shove Victoria out of the way as Lucian snapped his teeth perilously close to her neck. He was unfamiliar with his newfound strength and she catapulted backward, her head cracking against the marble. She lay motionless on the cold floor, a thin trickle of dark blood dampening her hairline. The scent alone was enough to drive Lucian into a feeding frenzy as he whirled toward its source.
Christian twisted his body, wrapping his leg around Lucian's waist with enough leverage to flip him over, and held him down with the weight of his body. Lucian snarled even more ferociously as the terrible hunger clawed its monstrous way out of him; there was nothing human left inside of him. He threw a knee up into Christian's gut with brute force, heard him grunt in response, and then kicked with his other leg sending Christian somersaulting head over heels.
Lucian was on his feet in minutes, his teeth gnashing together in sheer rage at being thwarted, but the minute he turned to spring toward her motionless form, a bodily missile tackled him from behind. They rolled along the floor in a flurry of blows, their arms moving with silent and furious invisible speed. Christian sprang to his feet just as Lucian leveled a blow to his head that shattered the marble floor.
Christian was holding back because he wasn't sure that he could control the liquid heat inside of him, licking at his vampire senses like flames. Lucian lunged and landed a wallop that snapped Christian's head sideways. Christian answered with a vicious uppercut to Lucian's jaw and the crack resounded through the room as his jaw dislocated.
Within seconds, Lucian had re-aligned it and it healed into place even as he dived growling, his sharp nails slicing Christian's exposed chest. The wounds healed as expected and Christian swung around to counter his bloody attack, but Lucian was backing away slowly, watching him with an incredulous expression, his nostrils flaring. His eyes flicked from Victoria's still form to Christian in disbelief.
Confused, Christian looked down at his chest and touched the thin lines of blood that had welled along where Lucian had scratched him, a telltale blackly-red color smearing on his fingertip. He smelled it too, different now but still the same underlying cloying heady scent.
Lucian's incredulous expression had transformed to one of accusation and then his face hardened into a mask of freezing rage. Christian hesitated in shock as his vampire instincts responded to the sight of the blood that was his but not his. The hesitation cost him dearly as Lucian spun with inhuman speed and snatched Victoria's body to his.
He held her in front of him, his fingers around her slim neck as her head lolled unconscious to the side.
"You liar!" he snarled. "You took her blood, I can smell it in you."
"Lucian, don't!" Christian said. "I didn't take it. She gave it to me but she altered it first—" He couldn't finish because Lucian had started laughing uncontrollably, the sound harsh and terrible in the silence.
"Come on, Christian, face it," he said. "She's going to die and I am going to take her blood, same as you. We both wanted it from the minute we saw her, you just got to her first." His smile was cruel.
Christian could see Lucian's terrible teeth lengthening even more as his face contorted into a terrifying grimace, leaning over Victoria's exposed throat, his eyes never leaving Christian's. Christian half lunged and Lucian shook his head in warning, dropping his mouth an inch closer to her neck.