Carpathian 09 - Dark Guardian

hard edges of his mouth. "You look tired."
    "You were too greedy this time, Lucian, killing your prey before you fed."
    "Perhaps it was a mistake," Lucian agreed softly, "but do not worry about me. I am more than capable of finding myself warm bodies. None can defeat me, not even my brother, who gave me his word to do this one small thing."
    Gabriel struck hard and fast, as Lucian knew he would. And they came together in a deadly battle they had been practicing for centuries.

    *****
Lucian
    Paris, Present Day
    Gabriel crouched low, his stance that of a fighter. Behind him, his lifemate watched with sorrow-filled eyes as the tall, elegant man approached. He looked what he was: a dark, dangerous predator. His black eyes glittered dangerously, graveyard eyes. Eyes of death. He moved with an animal grace, a ripple of Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    power.
    "Stay back, Lucian," Gabriel warned softly. "You will not endanger my lifemate."
    "Then you will do as you vowed so many centuries ago. You must destroy me." The voice was a whisper of velvet, a soft command.
    Gabriel recognized the hidden compulsion even as he leaped forward to strike. At the last possible second, with his lifemate's denial loud in his mind, he whipped his clawed hand at his twin brother's throat and realized Lucian had opened his arms wide in acceptance of the kill.
    No vampire would do such a thing. Never. The undead fought with their dying breath to kill everyone and everything around them. To sacrifice one's life was not the act of a vampire .
    The knowledge came too late. Crimson droplets sprayed, arced. Gabriel tried to go back, to reach his brother, but Lucian's power was far too great. Gabriel was unable to move, stopped in his tracks by Lucian's will alone. His eyes widened in surprise. Lucian had so much power. Gabriel was an ancient, more powerful than most on earth—Lucian's equal, he would have said until that moment.
    "You must let us aid you," Francesca, Gabriel's lifemate, said softly. Her voice was crystal clear, soothing. She was a great healer. If anyone could prevent Lucian's death, she could. "I know what you are attempting to do here. You think to end it now."
    Lucian's white teeth gleamed. "Gabriel has you to keep him safe. That had been my task, and it is ended now. I seek rest."
    Blood was soaking his clothes, running down his arms. He made no attempt to stop it. He simply stood there, tall and straight. No accusation lit his eyes or voice or his expression.
    Gabriel shook his head. "You did this for me. For four hundred years you have deceived me. You prevented me from the kills, from turning. Why? Why would you risk your soul this way?"
    "I knew you had a lifemate waiting for you. Someone who would know told me many years ago, and I knew he would not tell an untruth. You did not lose your feelings and emotions quickly, as I did. It took centuries for it to happen to you. I was a mere fledging when they ceased for me. But you merged your mind with mine, and I could share your joy in life, see through your eyes. You made me remember what I could never have for myself." Lucian staggered.
    Gabriel had been waiting for the moment when Lucian would weaken, and he took advantage, leaping to his brother's side, sweeping his tongue across the gaping wound he had created to close it.
    His lifemate was at his side. Very gently she took Lucian's hand in hers. "You think there is no more purpose to your existence."
    Lucian closed his eyes tiredly. "I have hunted and killed for two thousand years, sister. My soul has so many pieces missing that it is like a sieve. If I do not go now, I may not go later, and my beloved brother would be forced to attempt to destroy me. It would be no easy task. He must remain safe. I have done my duty. Let me rest."
    "There is another," Francesca told him softly. "She is not like us. She is mortal. At this moment she is young and in terrible pain. I can only say to you, if you do not find her, she will live a life of such agony Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    and despair, we cannot imagine it, even with all our great gifts. You must live for her. You must endure for her."
    "You are telling me I have a lifemate?"
    "And that her need of you is great."
    "I am no gentle man. I have killed for so long, I know of no other existence. Tying a mortal woman to me would be sentencing her to live with a monster." Even as he