Gabriel helped to lower Lucian to the safety of the couch. Even as he aided his twin, he could feel his own great strength draining. They were in desperate need of blood. He glanced at the serenity of Francesca’s face and at once felt better. She always knew what was needed and he could trust her completely with his life and with that of his brother.
“I need to heal your wound, Lucian,” she informed Gabriel’s twin gently.
Lucian closed the laceration in his brother’s wrist and looked into Francesca’s eyes. “I am no gentle man. I have killed so long, I know of no other existence. Tying any woman to me, Carpathian or mortal, is sentencing her to live with a monster.”
“Perhaps a monster such as yourself is needed to protect her from the monsters who would destroy one such as she. Your first duty is to your lifemate, Lucian. You can do no other than find her and remove her from danger.”
“The darkness is already in me; the shadows are permanent now.”
“Have faith in your lifemate,” Gabriel counseled, “as I have in mine. You were strong enough to sacrifice your life for mine. You are strong enough to live while you hunt for this woman of yours.”
Francesca signaled to Gabriel and closed her eyes, shutting herself off from their conversation and all that was around them. She separated herself from her body and went seeking outside of herself into the body so mortally injured. She made the repairs with all the skill of a superior surgeon. All the while Gabriel chanted the healing words and the scent of the herbs filled the air.
Francesca removed herself from Lucian’s body and immediately entered Gabriel’s. She was not about to allow her lifemate to suffer needlessly. She meticulously attended every wound, every laceration, pushing out the poisonous cells the vampire had injected through his minions and repairing all damage from the inside out. It took time to repair his ribs, his lungs, the battle scars so deeply entrenched in his body. She was swaying with weariness when she emerged.
At once Gabriel put his arm around her. “Rest, honey, I will go out to hunt this night to replace the blood we need.”
Francesca gave him one swift look of censure with her enormous black eyes. “I do not think so, Gabriel. You will stay right in this room. I am the healer and you will follow my instructions in this matter. You and Lucian will stay here where you both are perfectly safe in your weakened condition and I will return soon with the blood you need so desperately.”
She rose with a little swish of her hips, a very feminine gesture of impatience with the male of the species. She looked quite haughty. Gabriel didn’t dare look at Lucian to see his expression. He watched her leave, his features carefully expressionless. It was only when he was certain she had left the house that he turned his head to meet his twin’s black gaze.
“Do not say it,” Gabriel said with quiet menace.
“I said nothing,” Lucian pointed out.
“You raised your eyebrow in that obnoxious way you have,” Gabriel replied. “You are already in enough trouble with me without adding a sneer to your sins.”
“She is not like the women I seem to remember from our youth.”
“You did not know any women in our youth,” Gabriel told him. “Francesca is a law unto herself. She had hidden from the Prince of our people for as these long centuries.”
“She hid from me,” Lucian admitted. He slid farther down into the cushions of the couch, his large frame drained of its life-giving fluid. “I sensed her close on more than one occasion and often led you here in the hopes of discovering her, but she was always out of reach.”
Gabriel was inordinately proud of Francesca for that.
When Lucian hunted the undead, none was successful in hiding from him, yet Francesca had done just that over several centuries. Lucian shook his head tiredly. “If she had not been so successful, we would have found her long ago and you would have been safe.”
“And then you would have chosen to end your life and your lifemate would be without the one she needs so desperately,” Gabriel pointed out rather smugly, Lucian’s empty black eyes gleamed for a moment, moving over his twin in a kind of warning. Gabriel grinned at him like a little boy. “You hate it when I am right.”
“She is with child,” Lucian said suddenly, his eyes closing. His long lashes softened the lines of strain in his face. “She cannot enter the doctor’s body without endangering both of them, even with your aid. You know it is so.”
“Yes, I know,” Gabriel admitted. “There was no reason to tell her when I did not know if I would return to her. She gave me her word she would call Gregori in to aid her if I had failed to come back to her. Gregori would never have allowed Francesca to place herself or the child in jeopardy.”
There was a small silence. Lucian had slowed his heart and lungs because his body was crying out for blood. Gabriel sighed. “You should not have done it, Lucian. You are correct, I was close to turning. I believe I felt Francesca’s decision to withdraw from this world. She was able to find a way to live partially as a human. Her intention was to grow old and die in this time period. She had been experimenting, seeking ways to become more human for several centuries.”
“She is an extraordinary woman. I was astonished by her strength and ingenuity.” Lucian’s voice was very low, a mere thread of sound. “You are the only reason I continued my existence, Gabriel. If not for you, I would have chosen to end my time in this world and go on to the next a long time ago. I did not believe there was ever hope for me. I lost my ability to see in color, to feel emotion almost immediately. I did not last the two hundred years our males usually have as fledglings. For years I used your emotions, but then you, too, lost them, and there was only one way for both of us to survive. I had to convince you I was a danger to the world or we both were lost. If you did not believe I was too dangerous to allow others to hunt me, you might have turned. And if that had happened, I knew I would not be able to destroy you.”
Gabriel smiled. “You could have destroyed me. You are far more powerful than even I imagined.”
“I
would
not have destroyed you, Gabriel. You are the one who sought to keep our vow. I would never have allowed anyone to kill you.”
“You would have, Lucian,” Gabriel said softly, knowing it was true in his heart. “You never have stepped aside from our chosen path and you never have gone back on your word of honor. You would have kept our vow.”
“Your belief in me is greater than my own.” Lucian lifted his head tiredly. “She returns to you, brother. She will attempt to replenish me as she believes I am in the most need. Take the blood and then give it to me. I have discovered you have a few flaws, and jealousy is one of your worst.”
Francesca found the brothers stretched out on the couches in her drawing room, a small smile on Gabriel’s mouth, Lucian devoid of all expression. She started toward Lucian, but her lifemate stopped her.
“Come to me, my love. I will feed and then care for my brother. We will have to utilize the soil beneath the chamber where the doctor rests.”
If Francesca wanted to argue with him, Gabriel couldn’t find it in her mind. She went to his side instantly, leaning her body into his, her hands moving over him as if to assure herself he was in one piece. She was careful to stay clear of his wounds, although she passed her palm over the multitude of deep scratches and bite marks, leaving behind a soothing balm. Whether it was in his mind or real, Gabriel didn’t know and didn’t care. She made him feel alive and whole. She made his world right again.