Fangs For The Memories. Kathy Love

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СКАЧАТЬ refilled his glass. He held up the decanter to Sebastian.

      “Please,” Sebastian said. He was going to need a couple drinks to grasp what was going on here. It was on the tip of his tongue to remind Rhys what he was, but he hesitated. Rhys was calm, content—unlike he’d been in centuries. Perhaps it was better to let him remain blissfully oblivious for a while longer. At least until Sebastian understood more of what had happened to him.

      “Jane is far more perfect than I could have hoped for.” Rhys sighed and leaned back in the chair.

      “Yes.”

      “I must admit, though, I do not seem to recall how she got here. Nor do I remember last night.”

      “You’ve forgotten a good bit more than just last night,” Sebastian said wryly, but quickly covered his comment. “You and Christian were celebrating your upcoming wedding before he left with Elizabeth.”

      Rhys nodded, readily accepting that explanation. Christian had always been the wildest of the three brothers. He would be the one who would have convinced Rhys to make the party last well over a few days.

      They drank silently for a few moments, and Sebastian tried to figure out what he should do about this. Maybe he should talk to some of the other vampires that frequented his nightclub. Maybe one of them had heard of this disorder. And he would definitely ask about any rogue vampires in the city—a vampire who was attacking other vampires.

      “Upcoming wedding?” Rhys asked, suddenly. “Jane and I are not wed already?”

      Sebastian shook his head. “No. Jane only got here last night.”

      “Good Lord, you mean to say, she got off the ship, and I herded her straight into my bed and compromised her? While I was drunk, no less?”

      Sebastian blinked. This was just way too weird.

      “She seemed agreeable to it.”

      Rhys shook his head, his eyes dark with self-reproach. “That is simply not how one treats their intended. And the wedding will obviously have to happen as soon as possible. I cannot have her reputation in tatters because I was a randy, soused caper-wit.”

      Randy, soused caper-wit? Did they really ever talk like that?

      “Sebastian,” Rhys said, drawing Sebastian’s attention back from the oddities of the English language. “I intend to keep Jane. To find happiness with her.”

      At first, Sebastian found Rhys’s wording strange. Keep her.

      But his attention was immediately drawn back to Rhys as a wave of overwhelming need flooded the room. Then it was promptly replaced by a devastating, heartbreaking sense of loss that seemed to weight the air and crush Sebastian.

      Sebastian blinked, forcing himself to focus on his brother, realizing the emotions came from him.

      Rhys stared straight ahead, his eyes distant, almost as if lost in a trance.

      Sebastian started to ask Rhys what was wrong. But before he could get the words out, images began to bombard his brain like a rapid-fire slide show. Visions of Elizabeth. And Christian. Other things from their pasts.

      Sorrow nearly choked Sebastian—as the visions continued at a speed that offered only brief glimpses of lives now lost.

      And just when Sebastian thought he couldn’t handle any more, that his brain and emotions were going into overload, the grief evaporated away.

      One final image flashed in Sebastian’s mind. Jane. Then that image, too, vanished.

      The air grew lighter—only the subtle scent of Rhys’s desire for her drifting through the room.

      Sebastian blinked. What the hell was that? The flashes had been similar to what happened to him when Rhys had been attacked. He was again feeling what Rhys was feeling.

      He looked at his brother. Rhys’s gaze no longer had that faraway look. He actually even smiled again, although there was a determined edge to the set of his mouth.

      “I cannot explain it,” he said, and for a moment, Sebastian thought that Rhys knew what had just occurred. “I realize I just met Jane, but I simply cannot let her go. I must have her.”

      Then suddenly, between Rhys’s words and the images Sebastian had seen and the loss surrounding those visions, he understood what must be happening in Rhys’s muddled head.

      Rhys wanted Jane, but as a vampire, Rhys would never allow himself to grow attached to a mortal. He’d already lost too much in his vampire state. Been hurt too much.

      But if he could go back—before the losses, before the vampirism—maybe then he could have Jane.

      Sebastian knew his brother’s connection to the little mortal had been very strong. That had been the main reason he’d brought her back here, and even put her in Rhys’s bed. So Rhys would sense her near, and he could rest easier and heal. But Sebastian had no idea the extent Rhys wanted her.

      Not until now.

      He wanted her enough to forget what he’d been for almost two hundred years. Rhys was forcing himself to forget he was a vampire, simply going back in his head to before Lilah, to before they crossed over.

      That had to be why he didn’t seem fazed by this apartment or the modern conveniences. To question how those things could exist in the nineteenth century would ruin this fantasy world he had created.

      But Sebastian decided to put his theory to the test.

      He pointed at the lamp on the end table. “What is that?”

      Rhys glanced at the light, then gave his brother a wry look. “It’s a lamp,” he said slowly, as if Sebastian was the one who’d lost his wits.

      “And that?” He pointed to the state-of-the-art stereo system on one of the many shelves.

      “A CD player.”

      “And that?” He gestured toward the wall.

      “The thermostat. Listen, is there any point to this little game of twenty questions?”

      “I’m just pointing out all the fine things you have to offer Jane,” Sebastian told him. “Not many men in London at this particular period of time could offer his bride so much.”

      Rhys stared at him for a moment, then shook his head, clearly thinking Sebastian was mad.

      Sebastian wasn’t mad; he was brilliant. Rhys was suppressing only the bits of his past that he couldn’t accept. The loss of all the things he loved. Elizabeth. Christian. His life.

      But even as he was pleased with his own deductive reasoning, he was also stunned by the extent of his brother’s pain. He knew Rhys had never been able to accept himself as a vampire—but Sebastian had never truly realized the agony and guilt he felt. But it did make sense. Rhys had always been the head of the family. And he’d lost the most when he lost Elizabeth and Christian.

      Sebastian watched his brother for a moment, trying to decide what would be the best thing for him. Finally he decided. СКАЧАТЬ