Carpathian 15 - Dark Secret

from her mind and left her bereft. She sank down onto a bale of hay and pressed both hands to her churning stomach as she once again watched Nicolas with her brother. He swept his tongue across Paul's neck, closing the pinpricks as if they'd never been. There was no mark. None at all. Her hand crept up to the mark on her neck that never seemed to fade, never went away.
    We can leave a mark if we desire, yet not leave evidence if we choose. Nicolas read her thoughts as easily as Rafael; but where, with Rafael, it was an intimacy, with Nicolas it seemed invasive. The cold black eyes swept over her, so different from Rafael. So utterly alone and separated from everything going on around him. Rafael chooses to leave his mark both as his warning and as his commitment. He will protect you even when he should be resting beneath the earth.
    She recognized the mild censure, but for the first time was able to look past that to the terrible burden Nicolas carried. "What do you have to do now, Nicolas?" she asked.
    "Push the poison through my pores and rid my body of the vampire's taint." Her brother was still under his enthrallment. Nicolas helped him to sit on the floor of the barn. "Vampire blood burns like acid. The boy would not have lasted very long. There is something here I have never come across before."
    Nicolas's eyes drifted closed and he sought inside his own body to break down the compound that had infected Paul and now lived within his own veins. "There is something else here, some small parasite that should not be. It is mutated, much like the serpent the vampire used to attack Rafael."
    "Where did the vampire come from?" Colby asked, sickened as beads of blood began to push through the pores of Nicolas's skin. It was a sight she would never forget, never get out of her mind. She tried to distract her thoughts, anything to keep from screaming as the blood seeped onto the floor of the barn and stained the hay dark red. She wasn't squeamish—she'd grown up on a ranch—but her stomach lurched all the same.
    "Do not look," Nicolas said harshly. "You are going to draw Rafael from his slumber again and his wound is deep. He must be given time to heal."
    "I'm sorry. I've never seen such a thing." She needed to touch Rafael. It wasn't just something she wanted.
    Everything in her reached for him, yet there was only emptiness. She wasn't altogether certain she could stand being away from him and that was alarming, especially with Nicolas telling her his injury was grave and needed time to heal. She wasn't a selfish person, yet it seemed so imperative to disturb him, to call to him so she could feel the brush of his mind in hers.
    Nicolas sighed. "He should have converted you and spared you the hell you will have to endure. You must not harm yourself."
    "I'm not the type," Colby said, but she was beginning to wonder if that was true. "Is it hurting you?" She couldn't imagine Paul having to go through such a thing.
    "Yes." His voice was without inflection. He gestured toward the blood-soaked hay and Julio immediately brushed back everything that hadn't been touched, leaving a circle of bare wood exposed with the bloody hay in the center. Nicolas shoved open the door to the barn and stared up at the sky. At once lightning forked.

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    To Colby's horror, an orange-red ball streaked toward them, drawn by Nicolas. It incinerated the vampire blood, burning hot for an instant and then simply disappearing as if it had never been. She blinked several times to make certain she wasn't hallucinating.
    "This is too bizarre for me " She backed away from Nicolas. "Is Paul going to be okay now? Can I put him to bed?"
    "I want to attempt to heal him. The vampire infected him with his blood and his insides are going to feel like someone took a blowtorch to him," Nicolas replied.
    Colby could see how pale and weary he was. The lines were deeper than ever in his face and his eyes as cold as ice. She shivered. "You need to feed."
    "Yes."
    Colby glanced helplessly at Julio. After what Nicolas had done for Paul, she felt she had no choice but to make the offer and it was the last thing she wanted to do.
    Julio shook his head. "I will give Don Nicolas blood while you put young Paul to bed. Then I'll help Juan tend to any injuries the cattle sustained."
    "Julio, you and Juan must stay here," Nicolas decreed. "Watch the boy, particularly during daylight hours. I have to