Bloodspell (The Cruentus Curse, #1)(106)
"I did not lie, Lucian," he said. "Her blood was poison."
"You still protect her?" Lucian was snarling now. His overwhelming desire for Le Sang Noir impeded his better judgment, and his eyes were starting to go wild at Victoria's nearness, feeling the heat of the forbidden blood that surged so sweetly beneath the surface of her flushed skin. Such torment ... he could barely concentrate. It was so strange that he had never noticed it before until she had deliberately revealed it to him in Paris, and now it was like a tempting secret suddenly naked and exposed.
Christian watched Lucian, knowing the signs of the change intimately. He glanced around the room. Angie had wedged herself into a corner staring at them with unfocused frightened eyes as if she were watching something totally different in her head. She had moved Gabriel's body away from where Lucian had been standing and he lay just a few feet away from her. Her fist was pressed against her mouth as if to stop herself from screaming. Victoria was silent.
"Lucian," Christian said.
Lucian's long, lithe body started to lope with a familiar grace as the hunger spread through him, and he fought to control it. It was a losing battle.
"Lucian," said Christian roughly. "Snap out of it!" He tried to grab Lucian's shoulder and Lucian backed away ever so slightly, only to continue his frenzied shifting. "Lucian, that's what it does. I have seen it ... it lures you in and then it kills you. Trust me."
"Trust you?" Lucian's laugh was hollow and completely devoid of any humor. "I never should have trusted you. You couldn't stand to see me more powerful than you, that's why you hid it from me!" Christian looked at his brother's twisted face in stunned surprise.
"Is that what you think I've done? Saved you from a deathly mistake so that I could be more powerful than you?" Christian said slowly. Lucian's eyes were over-bright, and the truth of his feelings was clear as he glared murderously at Christian. "I left so that you could have the power you craved, to rule the House of Devereux as you wanted, not because I wanted to be more powerful than you!" Christian's body was rigid with disbelief at his brother's complete and utter hatred toward him. "We are brothers ..."
Lucian laughed humorlessly. "We are the furthest thing from brothers there ever was. Mother worshipped the ground you walked on. You were always the first. I only have the House because you left—"
"For you!" Christian said.
"You took Lena, you hid the prophecy from me, and now, her—"
"Lena?" Christian looked at Lucian like he was demented. "You have Lena!"
"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.