“Alex?” Nicholas’s voice was laced with panic. “Where are you?”
“I need two cars at 340 West 11th, off Hudson. Garden apartment.”
“Why?” Nicholas demanded harshly.
“I have two unconscious humans and no protection.”
“No protection?” A stunned silence vibrated across the line. “What have you done?”
“Protection from the sun,” Alexander said angrily.
“What?”
“I’ve gone through morpho.” The words were bitter on Alexander’s tongue.
There was a pause. Then Nicholas uttered a curt “Impossible.”
Yes, Alexander mused, as the brands on his hands and face twitched with residual pain. “Get the hell over here. I need to find out what’s going on.”
Ten minutes later, Nicholas and Lucian walked through the door. Both standing well above six feet, both broad and lethal, they surveyed the one-room apartment and its contents with the same military vigilance they’d relied upon in battle more than a century ago.
“Damn,” Lucian said, his severe sand-colored gaze shifting from the man on the floor to the woman on the couch. “You did it.”
“Did what?” Alexander snapped, standing sentry beside the woman, monitoring her physical condition.
Lucian tossed the black cloak he’d brought with him, a makeshift sun shield for Alexander, over one arm of the couch. “Drained them both.”
“Bullshit,” Alexander growled. “The woman’s blood is untouched.”
“And the man?” Nicholas asked, walking over to Alexander, his stride heavy with predatory grace.
“In a coma, I believe,” Alexander said.
When Nicholas reached his eldest brother, his black gaze moved over Alexander’s face and forearms. “Have you seen yourself?”
“No,” Alexander said, his jaw tight.
“It’s not pretty.”
“Then not much has changed, has it?”
A quick grin touched Nicholas’s lips, showing off the tips of his fangs. It was gone in an instant. “You have the markings of our father.”
The circles branded into his cheeks screamed “I am descended from the Breeding Male.” Alexander nodded. “Yes.”
“And of your true mate,” Nicholas said, eyeing the key-shaped markings within the circles. “Is this good news or bad?”
Alexander sniffed. “You mean am I relieved that I don’t carry our father’s gene to screw and impregnate any female that crosses my path?” He heard Lucian snort with amusement behind him. “Yes.” He was glad of that, and had felt deep concern for the day he would morph and find out what future he had been given. But was this good news? Instead of a Breeding Male’s empty circle, he had the mark of a true mate inside of his, and his body, without his consent, would soon be on the hunt for her.
“Going through morpho explains the extreme hunger,” Nicholas said. “Is it gone now?”
“It is different,” Alexander said. “I have more control, but the blood I desire isn’t as random.”
Nicholas’s ink black brows drew together in concern. “What are you saying? You must be selective in the vein you choose? Not just any female will do?”
“The hunger remains, but it too has morphed into something I’m not exactly sure how to feed.” His nostrils flared. “Blood has become the appetizer ...”
“Not the main course,” Nicholas finished for him.
Alexander said nothing.
“Sounds great. Can we finish the question-and-answer portion of this game show later?” Lucian said, impatience registering in his tone. He looked at Alexander, arching one pale brow. “Are you going to tell us what went down in here?”
A growl began to build low in Alexander’s chest. “Take care not to push me today, Little Brother. I don’t feel so good.” He raised his chin and inhaled deeply, trying to rid himself of the unnecessary aggression surging through his blood. “Sun came up and I needed shelter.” Alexander looked at the woman, felt a deep tenderness roll through him. “She provided it. Without question.” His voice conveyed a hint of awe.
“What about the man?” Lucian asked.
“He was waiting for her. The little prick attacked her.” Alexander stared at the bruise on the woman’s face as she slept peacefully. A low snarl escaped his lips. “I should have drained him.”
“Good thing you didn’t,” Lucian uttered tightly. “That would’ve been another problem we don’t need.”
Sensing another round of morphed male hostility in the air, Nicholas asked a practical question. “What do you want to do with the man?”
Still hovering close to the woman, Alexander eyed his brother. “You take care of him, Nicholas.” He lifted one thick eyebrow. “Make sure he never comes back here. Make him forget that she even exists.”
Nicholas nodded quickly. “Done. And what about her?”
“I’ll take care of her,” Lucian offered with a wicked grin.
“No!” Alexander snarled, his upper lip lifting, exposing his fangs. “No one touches her.”
“You sure the hunger’s eased, Alex?” Lucian said, his grin widening. “You’re acting like an animal over a feed. Perhaps she has the vein you desire?”
Nostrils flared, Alexander stared at Lucian, ready to strike with either words or fists.
“Easy there, boys,” Nicholas said dryly, stepping between the two. He eyeballed Alexander and said in a low voice, “Duro.”
The tender word for “brother” barely registered with Alexander. Blood was rushing in his ears as he tried to keep himself under control. This was not the debilitating pangs of hunger; this was something altogether different—a barely restrained ferocity when it came to the woman who’d saved him. Jesus, how could he even think about striking his brother? The brother he’d protected and cared for, for more than a century?
Nicholas broke through his thoughts. “We need to act swiftly, Alexander. Where do you want to take her?”
“Home.”
“Isn’t this her apartment?”
“Our home,” Alexander clarified. He knew the decision wasn’t a wise one, but he couldn’t stop himself.
Nicholas and Lucian stared at him for a good thirty seconds. Finally Lucian shook his head and muttered, “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“She’s unconscious, Alexander,” Nicholas said, attempting to reason with him. “She needs a doctor.”
“She remains unconscious because of me. I sedated her. Her mind is protected, unharmed, and, for the record, we have a doctor.”
“She needs a doctor who treats humans,” Lucian said sharply.
Alexander covered the ground between them, stood nose to nose with the white-blond vampire. “She’s coming with me, Little Brother, so if you have a problem with that, you’d better get over it in the next five seconds.”
Lucian stood his ground, his nostrils flaring. “We have a covenant, Brother. No humans in our home—”
“Screw the covenant,” Alexander snarled. “This is different.”
“How?”
“She’s mine!”
“Stubborn ass.” Lucian backed away, signaled for Nicholas. “You talk to him.”
Nicholas had been a lion on the battlefield, but in business matters and family squabbles, he could always be counted on to remain the closest thing to unruffled and rational. “Alexander, you know what we risk if she—”