Leo’s eyes flew open, growing wide with shock. “Elliot?” His gaze drifted to the doorway. “Alexander?”
The devil woman gave an ear-piercing scream, grabbed the sheet and held it to her bare breasts as she scrambled to Leo’s side. Elliot noticed Leo’s fangs protruding, the sharp tips coated crimson.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Leo asked without the slightest hint of gratitude for the hundreds of miles they had travelled, for the weeks spent cramped inside a bloody carriage with barely enough air to breathe.
“What do you think we’re doing here? We’ve come to rescue you from the evil clutches of the golden-haired devil.”
Chapter 10
“Damn it. Quick, untie me, Ivana.” Leo noted Elliot’s look of utter confusion. “It is not what it seems,” he said as guilt flared.
“Ivana?” Elliot’s contempt for the woman who had turned him was evident in his expression and his tone. “You’re calling her by her given name?”
“Put the sword down,” Leo said as Ivana freed his right hand. He touched the pads of his fingers to his neck, the damp, sticky residue clinging to the tips. Bloody hell. It must look even worse than he suspected.
Alexander stepped forward. “What is this?” he asked through gritted teeth as he waved his hand at the rumpled sheets. His wide eyes surveyed Leo’s naked form, falling to the hard evidence of his arousal. “Please tell me it is not what i
t looks like.”
Hell, Leo didn’t even know where to start. It had taken hours to hear Ivana’s lengthy explanation, and now he had to try and make his brothers understand the reason for his betrayal in a matter of minutes.
It didn’t help that Elliot stood frozen to the spot, the look of disgust on his face like a blunt blade twisting in Leo’s gut.
Leo glanced back and forth between the men he called his brothers. “Just give me a chance to explain.”
“We have travelled for three weeks to find you,” Elliot sneered as Ivana freed his other hand before rearranging the sheets to protect his modesty. “I thought you were being tortured. I stood outside the blasted door prepared to give my life to save you. And all the time—” He stopped abruptly and shook his head. “All the time you’re cavorting with the devil woman who stripped us of our humanity.”
Anger flared in Leo’s chest. “Don’t call her that.”
Elliot ignored him. “Move out of the way, Leo, so I can put an end to this once and for all.”
Despite Alexander’s annoyance, he turned to Elliot. “Let us hear what he has to say before you do something you may later regret.”
Elliot snorted. “Half an hour ago you wanted to kill him for all the trouble he has caused. Now you plead for clemency? If there is one thing I can’t abide, it is a damn hypocrite.” He nodded towards Leo. “Look at him. Look at his blood-stained fangs. Look at the mark burnt into his chest. This creature has ruined our lives. She has poisoned our brother’s mind, and I’ll not rest until she pays for what she’s done.”
Ivana cleared her throat. “From what Leo has told me, it seems your life has never been better. There are not many men who can claim to have found their one true mate.” She sounded confident even though she was shaking at his side. “The gentleman I met in the mausoleum was blind to the beauty of love.”
Elliot lunged forward, and they all gasped. “Do not dare speak to me of such things. What would you know of it? Because of you, I must watch helplessly as the woman I love slowly fades away from me with each passing year. I will never forgive you for that.” Taking a deep breath, he said, “Move aside, Leo.”
“If you will only listen to what she has to say,” Leo pleaded, “as I have done. I have witnessed things that have made me alter my views about what happened here.”
Elliot raised the sword an inch higher. “Nothing anyone could say or do would make me change my opinion. Nothing could eradicate the four years of agony. What’s worse is she has changed you again. The man I know would never betray the brotherhood. The man I know would not degrade himself by bedding the woman we all despise.”
“I am a changed man,” Leo acknowledged. “I am not the same man I was before I came back here. But you need to know why, Elliot.”
“I’ll give you one more chance to move.”
Leo swallowed. He could feel the roaring flames of anger burning in Elliot’s chest. But he sensed his friend’s pain, too. Casting doubt over everything they had believed to be true was bound to cause emotions to flare. It was unsettling, unnerving and Elliot was scared.
“I cannot move, Elliot,” he said with a heavy heart. “You will have to kill us both.” He turned to Ivana, ignored the fact two men loomed over the bed. “I believe in you,” he said stroking her cheek. A smile touched his lips when he noticed the trickle of dried blood on her neck. She had tasted divine. Their joining had been everything she’d promised it would be, and more. “I understand your motives. If I must die, I will die here with you.”
She covered his hand and smiled. “It is how it was always meant to be. We should never have been apart. I should have been stronger. I should have fought for us.”
“It doesn’t matter now. We have found each other again.” He turned to Elliot. “I appreciate the effort it took for you both to come and find me. I would never have wanted to tear you away from the women you love. But if this is the end, then so be it.”
It was as though the whole room stood suspended in a moment of frozen stasis: no one moved, no one spoke, no one dared to breathe. The air felt stale and stagnant.
After what seemed like an hour, Elliot threw the sword to the floor, the clattering sound echoing through the chamber. “You have made your choice,” he said before turning on his heels and storming out through the doorway.