The Den of Shadows Quartet - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [111]
“I wanted to give you a chance, Brother,” Nikolas said. He reached into his pocket, pulled something out, and tossed it to Christopher.
For a moment Sarah thought the knife was Nikolas s, but as Christopher snapped it open she realized the handle was black with white inlay the reverse of Nikolas’s — Kristopher’s, Sarah assumed, left over from the time when the two brothers still hunted together.
Christopher closed the knife. “A chance to do what?”
“To share this one with me,” Nikolas answered, and Sarah realized it might be time to start fighting.
But she didn’t move.
“You’re going to blood bond her to yourself,” Christopher said, knowing how his brother’s mind worked. “That’s why you didn’t kill her when you marked her.”
“For you, Brother. You wanted her, but she turned you down, Christopher,” Nikolas answered. “Now’s your chance to make her yours. To make her ours.”
“Like Marguerite,” Christopher whispered, understanding. “Nikolas, no. Marguerite wanted it. Sarah doesn’t.”
“She hurt you, Christopher,” Nikolas said, pleading. “I heard you scream. You told me not to kill her — fine, I won’t kill her, but there are very few choices left. I can let her go, in which case her own family is going to kill her, or I can blood bond her to myself.”
“I’m not going to help you with this, Nikolas —”
“Fine,” he answered, his voice childlike and resigned at the same time.
Sarah stepped back out of Nikolas’s line of sight, and saw him turn to keep her in his view.
She went for her knife, and an instant later Nikolas was behind her, with his hand around her throat. She drew the knife from her thigh and flipped it in her hand, driving it into his side.
Nikolas cursed, throwing her away from him, and Sarah landed awkwardly on her knife, slicing open her right palm. A moment later a knife blade was at her throat.
Christopher’s.
Christopher had Sarah pinned on the floor, with the blade of his knife against her skin.
“Slice me open, Christopher,” she hissed. “If you’re really willing, then do it.”
Though Christopher didn’t let the knife cut her, he pressed the blade harder against her skin. If she moved, she would slit her own throat.
Nikolas recovered and knelt by his brother’s side, then reached toward the knife on Sarah’s back so he could disarm her. His brother caught his wrist, stopping him, and Nikolas nodded.
Christopher moved his knife away and pulled her to her feet, and then he let her go.
Nikolas followed Sarah with his gaze. “Christopher —”
“I’m not going to kill her for defending herself,” Christopher interrupted.
“The Kristopher I used to know — my brother — would have killed her as soon as he found out she was a Vida. You’ve tasted her blood. How can you not want it?”
“I want it,” Christopher said softly. “I want it as much as humans want to breathe, but I have control.”
Sarah backed away, and noticed that, though Nikolas kept a hawk’s gaze on her, Christopher was only watching his brother. When she realized how easy it would be to kill him, bile rose in her throat.
“Come back to me, Kristopher. Hunt with me,” Nikolas pleaded. He stepped toward his brother, moving closer to Sarah at the same time — he obviously did not trust her at his brother’s back. “Why do you let the bloodlust burn you every night and every day? We need to feed to survive. Would a starving man on the verge of death turn down a dinner because it was chicken and he was a vegetarian? Or would he eat it anyway, because it was all he had that could stop the pain?”
Sarah did not wait for Christopher’s answer. Instead, she drew the knife from her wrist. The blade had barely cleared its sheath when Nikolas pounced, sending her to the ground; the breath rushed from her lungs, but she kept her grip on her weapon.
Christopher reacted instantly and grabbed his brother’s arm, dragging Nikolas to the side, ignoring Sarah as if she posed no threat. Slaughtering her sense of fair play, Sarah rolled, knocking the momentarily defenseless vampire away Nikolas cried as her blade touched his skin,