Prince reached under his desk, pulled out a handgun, and pointed it at Lucian’s heart. “You seem to have quite a knowledge and interest about my business, Dalakis. That kind of curiosity can be dangerous to a man’s health.”

  Lucian ignored the gun and shrugged, unconcerned. “You still have something that belongs to me. And I will have it back.”

  Prince’s eyes widened and he vibrated with fury even though his gun hand never wavered. “I could kill you now, but I’m curious. What do you think I have that belongs to you?”

  “Chase Deveraux.”

  The other man’s demeanor changed in a flash, becoming more cunning and sly. “It seems I may have underestimated the value of my new young friend. His continued safety and good health would be worth quite a bit to you?”

  “I don’t pay for what is already mine. But if you let him go and leave the Deveraux family alone, I will let you live.” He inwardly sighed even as he made the offer, knowing that the only reason he did so was that he could assure Delight that he’d done all he could before killing Prince and Smith. He knew they had to be dealt with, but women could be funny about these kinds of things.

  Prince started to laugh as he strolled out from behind his desk and ambled across the room to the large wingback chair that was facing a dark corner of the room. Reaching around with his free hand, he hauled a battered Chase to his feet and yanked the gag out of the boy’s mouth. Chase stumbled as he was dragged toward Lucian but managed to stay on his feet. From the bruises and swelling on his face, it was obvious they had beaten the boy badly, but he still managed to glare at his captor.

  “You shouldn’t have come.” Chase spit the words at Lucian.

  Lucian ignored Chase, knowing he feared for his sister’s life. Prince smiled cruelly. Before Lucian realized his intent, he backhanded Chase’s already battered face. The teen bit back a cry, stumbled, and fell to the floor. Unable to catch himself with his bound hands, he landed hard, striking his head on the floor. He closed his eyes and moaned.

  “Enough.” Lucian’s softly spoken command cracked like a whip, causing the other men in the room to freeze. The time had come to end this. Chase was hurt and needed care.

  He turned his attention to Prince, focusing all his energy on him. “Come to me.”

  Prince looked surprised, then shocked before his face went lax and his gun hand dropped to his side. As if pulled by some unseen hand, he stumbled toward Lucian. Lucian could sense Smith’s surprise and sent him a mental command to freeze.

  Everything was under control until the door to the office slammed open, causing him to lose concentration for a split second.

  “Chase!” Delight cried out when she saw her brother lying on the floor. In total disregard for her safety, she raced across the room.

  Everything decelerated, like the scene was being played out in slow motion. Lucian took everything in at a glance. Stefan burst through the door behind Delight, followed by a disheveled Detective Cassidy. In that single moment of distraction, Smith broke free of Lucian’s thrall, pulled his own weapon, and turned it on Delight.

  Not wasting any time, Lucian grabbed Prince by the neck and gave it a violent twist. The vertebrae snapped in one easy motion. He was already on the move before the body began to fall. Even with his speed, he knew he wouldn’t make it to Delight before Smith fired.

  His brother lunged toward Smith, but the gun went off just as Stefan reached him. As Lucian had done with Prince, Stefan wrapped one heavily muscled arm around Smith’s neck and snapped it like a twig.

  The bullet shot across the room. Lucian was so close he could almost touch it. But he missed and it slammed full force into Delight. Her body jerked on impact and she stumbled back a step. Lucian howled in anguish as he caught Delight’s falling form and lowered her to the carpet. Her precious lifeblood was spilling through his finger and soaking his clothing. Stefan was by his side in a flash, shoving him aside and applying pressure to the wound.

  He could hear Cassidy in the background checking the bodies and untying Chase, but nothing mattered to Lucian but Delight. Her pulse grew weaker. She was slipping away from him with each breath she took. The moment she succumbed to her injury his life was over.

  Chase scrambled to his side, his battered face white as he stared at Delight’s still form. “Do something. She can’t die. She can’t.” He grabbed the front of Lucian’s shirt and shook him hard. “Do something.”

  Stefan continued to lean hard on the wound, but blood still leaked from beneath his fingers. “You only have one choice, Lucian.”

  Cassidy was on the phone calling for backup and requesting an ambulance, but they all knew the emergency response team would never make it in time to save Delight.

  Lucian stared down at the woman he loved more than life itself and willed her to open her eyes. They fluttered several times before they finally opened. Pain and anguish shone from their pure depths. He sensed that most of her pain came from the thought of leaving him and her family behind.

  “I’m sorry, Lucian . . .” Her voice trailed off as a wave of pain racked her body.

  “Don’t talk. Listen to me.” He leaned down until his nose was almost touching hers. “There is one chance. I can try to change you so you become as I am. You would be vampire, but your life would be linked with mine. If I die, then you too will die. You would be susceptible to other dangers as well. But I would be by your side for eternity, and no man living or yet to be born will love you as I will. Your happiness and protection are my life’s work and my life’s joy.”

  Ignoring the startled gasps from behind him, he focused all his concentration on Delight. “Choose.”

  She slowly raised her hand and brushed her fingers against the side of his face before it fell limply back to the floor. “You,” she gasped. The scent of her blood was getting stronger. Every heartbeat was pushing her closer to death. “Choose you.” Lucian was moving as Delight’s eyes fluttered shut.

  “I’m losing her.” Stefan’s voice seemed to come from far away, but Lucian heeded the warning.

  Kneeling on the floor amid her spilled blood, Lucian pulled Delight into his arms. His fangs elongated as he lifted her closer. He bent his head and sank them into her neck, carefully pierced her skin, and began to drink from her. Delight unconsciously arched her neck toward him, as if trying to help.

  “What the hell is he doing?” Cassidy’s hand landed on his shoulder. Lucian hissed in warning but kept his concentration focused on Delight. He had to stay linked with her or he could lose her.

  “Leave him alone.” It was Chase who knocked Cassidy’s hand away from Lucian. “I don’t know what the hell he is, but he’s her only chance.”

  “He’s killing her.”

  “No.” Stefan stepped between Chase and Cassidy, momentarily taking the detective’s attention off Lucian. “He is offering her a chance at life.”

  Lucian felt the last of Delight’s life start to slip away. She gasped and then took one long, final breath. He brought his wrist to his mouth and bit down hard. His fangs slashed through his skin and tore open a vein. Cradling her head against his chest, he held his wrist to her mouth as his own blood seeped from his body and flowed over her parted lips. “Drink, my love. Stay with me.”

  Delight lay totally unresponsive in his arms. He reached out to her mentally and tried to connect with her, but found only darkness. Fear ripped through him at her lack of response. He was losing her. He’d only just found her. She was young and vibrant and all that was good, everything he wasn’t. He was older and jaded, some might even say cruel. He might deserve this fate, but she didn’t.

  Lucian met his brother’s gaze, a silent plea for help reflected in his eyes.

  Stefan dropped to his knees, grabbed Delight’s lifeless fingers in his own, and began to chafe them. “Come, little sister. You must try.”

  Stefan’s energy combined with Lucian’s, his brother pouring every ounce of himself into saving Delight. Lucian was shocked at the extent of Stefan’s power. It was enormous, almost overwhelming, and it gave him renewed hope.

  Nothing else existed in the world except the link between Lucian, Delight, and his brother. Energy pulsed through the room until the walls and floor began to vibrate with the force of it.

  He focused all his concentration on Delight, sending her thoughts of love. He begged, pleaded, scolded, and commanded her to live. He rubbed his wrist over her lips, coating them in his blood, silently urging her to drink.

  “This is sick,” Cassidy muttered in the background, but he made no further move to stop them. The scent of blood and pulse of power was strong in the air as they all waited and hoped.

  “Come on, Delight,” Chase encouraged. He knelt beside them and stroked the back of Delight’s head, angling it closer to Lucian. “You have to try. For me. For Lucian.” Her brother looked to Lucian for reassurance, but he had none to give. It was all up to Delight. She had to want to live.

  She jerked slightly in his arms. He wasn’t sure if it was intentional or a muscle spasm. “Drink,” he told her. “I’m ordering you to drink, damn it.” Lucian’s voice rose with every word he spoke until he was screaming at her.

  Then her mouth moved ever so slightly. He felt it with the force of an atomic bomb. She was alive. “That’s it,” he praised. “You can do it. Drink.”

  Everyone in the room held their breath. Lucian was almost afraid to hope. He poured everything he was into holding the link with her, encouraging her to drink, to choose life, to choose him.

  Delight stiffened and gasped. Lucian wondered if this was the end, when her mouth latched on to his wrist and she began to suck. Tears welled in Lucian’s eyes. He closed them and tipped back his head to keep them from falling. “Thank you.” His words were like a whispered prayer in the deafening silence of the room.

  As Delight drank, the severe wound in her chest slowly began to close. Bullet fragments pushed their way out of her body as the skin began to mend. The bleeding slowed to a trickle and finally stopped. Lucian knew that after several days’ rest there wouldn’t even be a mark left on her skin. When he felt she’d had enough of his blood for the time being, he eased her mouth away from his wrist. She gazed up at him and smiled before closing her eyes and falling into a deep sleep.

  Lucian raised his wrist to his mouth and traced the open wound with his tongue. The skin closed over and the bleeding stopped. Bending down, he licked the traces of blood that still clung to her lips.

  “How the hell am I gonna explain this?” Cassidy’s outburst shattered the silence. The cop was shocked but he was still on his feet and thinking.

  “You’re not.” Stefan stood and stalked toward the detective, pure menace in every step. “We were never here. No one ever saw us. This is obviously a falling out among criminals.”

  Cassidy was wide-eyed but steady as he confronted Stefan. “That’s going to be a little difficult to pull off.”

  Stefan’s eyes were blazing as they locked on Cassidy. “No, it isn’t. Lucian and I will take Chase and Delight to our home. By the time I finish with the guards, none of them will remember seeing us. One of the guards will say he asked you to come up and investigate when he found the two dead bodies.”

  “Is that right?” The detective crossed his arms over his chest and glared back at Stefan. “And how are you going to explain the blood on the carpet?”

  “I will take care of that.”

  “Enough, you two.” Lucian stood with Delight cradled in his arms and motioned to Chase, who had passed out and was lying unconscious on the floor. The teen most likely had a concussion from the beating he’d taken, but he’d held up until the danger to his sister had passed.

  Lucian faced Cassidy, noting the lack of fear in the man’s eyes. The detective could be a powerful ally and right now they needed help. The sirens were getting closer. The authorities would be here before they could put things to rights. “I will give you all the answers you seek later, but for now you must believe what Stefan has said will happen.”

  Cassidy’s gaze went to Delight’s limp form and his face softened. “I don’t know what the hell I believe anymore.” He raised his eyes to meet Lucian’s straight on. “But I do know she was as good as dead a few minutes ago and now she isn’t.”

  As the sounds of sirens filled the street below, Stefan bent down and deftly rolled the thick bloodstained carpet into a bundle, making sure that not a drop of Delight’s blood remained behind on the floor. He tossed it over his shoulder as if it weighed nothing. Then he scooped up Chase and strode from the room without a backward glance.

  Lucian waited to see what choice Cassidy would make. He knew he could alter the other man’s memories, but he was loath to do so. There was something about the man he liked.

  “Go on.” Cassidy motioned him toward the door. “I’ll clean up the mess here.”

  Lucian was almost out the door when Cassidy’s parting words reached his ears. “But you can bet your ass, I’ll be coming to get some answers when this is over.”

  Stefan was waiting for him by the back door. They stepped out into the night just as the police were racing through the club and up the stairs to the office. Lucian knew that his brother had already taken care of the guards, planting the appropriate memories in their minds. None of them would remember seeing anyone but the police detective. For now, they were all safe.

  Lucian cocked his head and listened a bit longer. He heard Cassidy identifying himself as a police detective and taking over the investigation.

  Stefan shifted beside him, adjusting the large carpet that was still draped over his shoulder, while easily retaining his hold on Chase. They would dispose of the carpet later. Satisfied that everything was under control, they started for home, each of them carrying a precious burden in their arms.

  “Race you.” Stefan’s words were barely out of his mouth before he disappeared. Laughing, Lucian tightened his grip on Delight and raced after his brother.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Delight’s head felt as though someone was inside it with a set of drum sticks pounding away. She’d swear she had a hangover except she wasn’t much of a drinker. The sound of someone moaning made her head hurt even more and she wished they’d shut up. Ever so carefully, she moved her hands to her ears to shut out the sound, but she could still hear it. She felt pity for whoever was in such pain, she really did, but she still wanted them to shut up.

  “Shhh,” a voice whispered near her. “I know it hurts, but this will help.” Her hands were pushed away from her face and a cool cloth was placed upon her forehead. Delight sighed with relief. Surprisingly, the moaning stopped. It took her befuddled mind a few seconds to realize that it had been her making the ungodly noise.

  She tried to focus her thoughts. There was something important she was supposed to remember, but she just couldn’t think what it was. Her brother’s face suddenly popped into her mind and the memories and fear came flooding back.

  “Chase?” Even though it hurt, she tried to sit up in bed. A strong hand steadied her and lowered her back to the pillows.

  “Don’t try to move, love.” The covers were tenderly tucked around her shoulders. “Chase is fine and sleeping comfortably in another room. The doctor has been here and gone.” A large hand cupped the side of her face and Delight snuggled closer to its warmth. “I won’t lie. He was beaten badly, but surprisingly nothing is broken. He’s got a few cracked ribs, a sprained wrist, some minor cuts, and a hell of a lot of bruises. It’ll take a while for him to recover but he’ll be fine.”

  She licked her dry lips and tried to speak, but it came out more of a croak. “What happened?”

  “Drink this.” A straw was placed near her mouth and she sipped a small amount of water, easing some of the dryness in her mouth.

  “What’s wrong with me?”

  Delight sensed Lucian’s reluctance to talk to her. That surprised her as he hadn’t flinched from the raw truth since their first meeting. A huge knot formed in her stomach and her palms grew sweaty. His silence was scaring her.

  She pushed the damp cloth off her face and cautiously opened her eyes, sighing in relief at the darkness of the room. Only a dim lamp was lit in the far corner. Delight immediately recognized Lucian’s bedroom and a soothing comfort enveloped her.

  She blinked several times to steady her vision before turning her head toward Lucian. Most of him was lost in the shadows. “Lucian?” Her voice shook and her hand trembled as she reached out to him. He seemed further away from her than he’d ever been, even though he was standing right next to her.

  Lucian heaved a deep sigh, gently clasped her hand in his, and moved closer. The moment the light hit him, Delight almost cried out in pain again. He looked ravaged. His skin was pulled taut against his face, his green eyes were cold, and his thin lips were clamped together. He looked hard and unforgiving as he stared down at her. She felt very small and fragile in that moment. There was a remoteness to Lucian that made her feel incredibly cold inside. It was as if he was distancing himself from her.

  “What have I done?” The question was torn from her lips before she could stop it. She pulled her hand away from him and slapped it over her mouth, but it was too late to stop the words from spilling out. As a strong, independent woman, Delight was appalled at her question, but as a woman in love, she needed to understand what had come between her and Lucian.

  A look of horror and pain flickered on his face before the hard, cold mask descended once again. “You have done nothing wrong. What do you remember?”

  Delight thought hard. The memories were a jumble in her head. “I tricked Stefan and snuck out of the house.” Lucian’s scowl deepened. “Chase is my brother and I had every right to try and help him. Besides,” she mumbled, “I did call Detective Cassidy.”

  “You did not trust me.” Pain echoed in each word he spoke.

  “I did trust you. I do trust you.” She reached out and grabbed his hand. Although his expression didn’t change, he allowed her to tug him down onto the bed until he was seated next to her.