The Den of Shadows Quartet - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [114]
“I didn’t think,” Christopher answered quietly, raising his black gaze to meet the hunter’s. “I lost control.”
Adianna was Dominique Vidas older daughter. She had always been the strong sister, the one who honored the line, the one who made Dominique proud. She, more than anyone, knew exactly how much could be destroyed by losing control even for a few moments. She could also see how painful the confession was to the vampire.
Perhaps seeing Adianna’s reluctant understanding, Christopher added, “I love her, and I never meant to hurt her. And I will not let her die because I screwed up.” Though he spoke softly, Christopher’s voice was rich with self-directed anger.
He stepped toward Sarah, and without thinking, Adianna moved between the vampire and her sister. “Get away from her.”
“You’re Sarah’s sister,” Christopher said, his voice tight. “Do you really want her to die?”
Adianna flinched at the accusation; her nails bit crescents into her left palm as she clenched her hand into a fist. “How do you intend to help her?” she asked, but she knew the answer.
“I took her blood, and possibly her life,” Christopher said. “It’s only right if I give her mine.” The meaning was clear. He meant to change her, to make her into one of the creatures that Sarah had spent her whole life hunting. Christopher must have seen some sign of revulsion in Adianna’s face because he added, “She would be alive.”
“She would be a …”
“Yes, she would be a vampire,” Christopher snapped. “But she would be alive. Isn’t that all that matters? I would prefer to change her and risk having her hate me even more for it than to let her die without giving her a choice.”
Adianna could not agree. To allow her own sister to be turned into one of their kind would be worse than letting her die.
Before Adianna could raise the protest, Christopher calmed his voice and added, “If she wakes up and doesn’t want it, Sarah is strong enough to fall on the knife. At least this way she will wake up.”
Adianna choked on her own argument, and turned away from Christopher and Sarah. “Do what you have to do.” Her voice broke on the words.
She stepped aside, but could not force her gaze away. Her resolve almost broke as the leech bared Sarah’s throat; she leaned back against the wall and sank to the floor.
Get out of here, hunter. You don’t want to watch this. The vampire’s voice in her mind was loud, strengthened by the witch blood he had in him. Adianna felt the bile rise in her throat.
She stood, and turned her back on the pair. One step, two. She was almost at the door when, like Orpheus, she had to take one last glance — just in time to see Christopher draw his knife across his own skin, and to see Sarah latch on to the new wound like a suckling child.
Adianna lost control, and sprinted the rest of the way to her car. Twenty minutes later she convinced herself to slow down when she found herself pushing ninety-five on the highway; no matter how far or how fast she traveled, Adianna knew she would never outrun that last image.
From this night on, whether she chose to live as a vampire or kill herself, Sarah was as good as dead. Adianna prayed she would never see her sister again.
CHAPTER 29
AT SUNSET, Kristopher still sat by Sarah’s side, waiting anxiously for her to stir.
Had he been too late? He cursed himself for wasting time arguing with the hunter, but he doubted that Sarah would have forgiven him if he had hurt Adianna. His system still hummed with the power of Sarah’s witch blood, and if he had fought the hunter he probably would have killed her out of reflex.
His brother was pacing in the back of the room, his power crackling around him like a net of sparks, and as always Kristopher could feel the connection between them. Nikolas had a right to be there; they were in his house. It had been the only location that Kristopher had trusted to be safe enough.
A less intrusive presence, Nissa waited calmly in one of the other chairs. He wasn’t sure why his sister was there — maybe to diffuse the situation if Sarah