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“Once you did,” Nikolas said quietly, sadly. “We — not I, but we — were the most feared of our kind. Rome, Paris, New York — every city in the world was ours. What happened to Kristopher and Nikolas, who would hunt side by side, sharing the blood, dancing in the streets?”

Nikolas gestured to the wounds on Sarah’s arms. “These marks were ours, not mine, and everyone knew it. Now, even the hunters have forgotten you. When was the last time I saw you place your mark on your prey?”

“Marguerite,” Christopher answered, lost in memory. He stepped forward until he was standing in front of his brother. “She was the last.”

“Why?” Nikolas asked, voice barely audible.

“Let it go, Nikolas,” Christopher ordered, his voice shaking slightly “That was fifty years ago.”

“I can see it in your eyes, Christopher,” Nikolas whispered to his brother. “You remember. Why did you leave me?”

“I stopped killing, Nikolas —”

“You stopped living!” Nikolas shouted, his emotion breaking any control he had. “I look at you, and all I see is pain. For you I tried to survive on anything but the blood of humans, but I couldn’t stand the pain. I couldn’t walk in the sunlight. I couldn’t stand to be near humans. One day I ran into a human girl on the street, and before I knew it she was dead in my arms. An innocent human girl, Christopher, who didn’t deserve to die.”

Sarah’s confusion escalated. Since when did Nikolas care if his victims were innocent or not?

You were always stronger,” Nikolas finished. “I don’t have your control.”

Christopher looked anything but strong. Sarah could see the bloodlust close to the surface. She was still trapped in Nikolas’s arms, and her wounds had opened enough for blood to bead around the edges. The scent of her witch blood was in the air, laced with power and a hint of danger.

“Why did you leave me, Christopher?” Nikolas asked as he reached around Sarah to take his brother’s hands. She was trapped between the two vampires, and not sure how to react. Christopher’s control was obviously slipping — if she fought now, she would destroy it altogether. She did not want Christopher’s life to be the price of her escape.

“You remember Marguerite,” Nikolas said. “She picked us. She knew what we were and what she wanted —”

“She said she wanted to die,” Christopher whispered. The memory was so strong in his voice that Sarah could almost imagine the scene, and the vision caused her to pull at Nikolas’s grip for a moment before she forced herself to stop.

Christopher’s control was so thin. If he could contain the bloodlust long enough to get his brother to let her go, she would be grateful. If he lost it, she would fight.

It no longer mattered who was speaking as they continued the tale, both lost in memory. “Two of us, like a mirror. We both fed on her, you on the left, and me on the right. You marked her first, putting your signature forever on her skin, and then I followed.”

“And when she woke she was afraid, but there was passion there too. She was given the finest wines and the softest silks to wear, rich foods, chocolates —”

“We approached her again, both of us taking her blood, but this time we only took a taste —”

“And then we both cut ourselves, here, just below our throats, and she leaned forward to drink.”

Disgust flashed in Sarah’s mind, as she weighed the brothers’ every word for a hint of what their next action would be. So the girl had wanted to die. Instead they had blood bonded her, given her all but immortality.

Nikolas drew his brother forward, and then placed Christopher’s hand over the uncut skin on Sarah’s left wrist.

“Why is there nothing here, Christopher?”

Both of the brothers seemed entranced by their pasts. Finally, Sarah spoke.

“You said you haven’t hunted since Marguerite, Christopher,” she said, loudly, in an attempt to break the spell. “Why?”

Christopher blinked and looked at Sarah as if he were seeing her for the first time.

“Nissa took him away from me,” Nikolas answered sullenly.

“Nissa needed me,” Christopher answered tiredly. “You saw how she was, Nikolas. She hadn’t fed