Untamed (Vampire Awakenings, Book 3) (29 page)

"My parents won't be brought into this, I
won't take the chance of them being hurt," Ethan said. "And we
can't tell The Stooges without my parents somehow finding out about
it. They're not exactly good at keeping secrets."

"That they're not," Aiden agreed.

"I wasn't talking about your parents," Stefan
said.

"Who then?" Isabelle asked.

"Brian."

Even Ethan felt his eyebrows shoot up at that
one. "Didn't you tell him you'd kill him if you saw him again?"
Aiden inquired.

"I told him that if
he
found
me
again
I'd kill him, but this time I'll be finding him," Stefan
replied.

"Potato, Potahto," Ian said.

Stefan leaned back in his chair. "He's the
strongest vampire I know, other than myself." His gaze slid over
Ethan and Ian before turning to Isabelle and taking hold of her
hand. "Though I do believe there is more power inside all of you
than we've yet to see, I'm not willing to put any of you in harm's
way on a belief though."

"What even makes you think that?" Aiden
inquired.

"The fact that you can so readily identify a
killing vampire by their smell, even before you hit maturity. The
fact that Ethan's eyes have taken on a hue the likes of which I've
never seen in my two hundred and sixty-eight years of existence.
The first vampire was born but there's no record of what they could
do, there's also only about a hundred born vampires in existence
now. We have no idea what you might be capable of under extreme
duress, but I can tell you that having your mate threatened will
bring it out of you. We also don't know what it might do to one of
you after, if you're able to tap reserves of power we've never seen
before, would you be able to let it go? Or would it destroy
you?"

Ethan appreciated the fact that Stefan didn't
look at him as he spoke, but he knew that his words were directed
at him. "I'd definitely say those eyes lend some credibility to
your theory," Ian said.

Ethan scowled at him and drank the rest of
his whiskey again. "You're all a little too obsessed with my
fucking eyes."

"And you're a little too nonchalant about
it," Stefan said. "There's power in you, in all of you, and if you
allow it to get out of control we could all be in peril."

Ethan simply held Stefan's unwavering gaze.
There was nothing he could say to that, he knew it was the truth,
knew that he was walking a fine line between man and monster right
now. He had no words for Stefan so he simply refilled his drink and
leaned back in the chair.

"Can you get in touch with Brian?" Isabelle
inquired.

"Yes."

"You've kept in touch since we last saw
him?"

Stefan shook his head. "No, but I'll be able
to track him down."

"I thought you didn't trust him," Ian
said.

"I don't, but..."

"I do," Isabelle interrupted. "He's lethal,
don't get me wrong, but I really don't believe he's a threat to
us."

"I have to agree with her," Ethan said and
finished off his drink. "He's not going to team up with them
against us."

"How do you know that?" Aiden asked.

"Because he doesn't kill indiscriminately, he
kills to gain power but not because it's what he thrives on, and he
only kills those that have killed humans."

"We're not the kind of vampires he goes
after," Stefan said. "He's trying to punish the ones that destroyed
his life by murdering vampires that kill. It's not simply just to
gain power."

Aiden stared at all of them before finishing
off his beer and dropping the bottle on the table. "Yeah, ok," he
muttered. "And he is powerful."

"Do you think he'll come?" Isabelle
asked.

"Brian's never turned down a fight before,
but I don't know, maybe he's changed," Stefan said.

"Get in touch with him," Ethan said. His gaze
drifted toward the doorway of the house as he sensed Emma's
approach. "But if he arrives here and it turns out that he is
different, and he
is
a threat,
especially to Emma, you won't have to worry about killing him
Stefan, because I'll do it myself. She's coming."

Ethan rose to his feet as Emma appeared in
the open doorway. She froze when she spotted them, her eyes scanned
rapidly over them before landing upon him. He heard the increased
beat of her heart as her forehead furrowed and she frowned at him.
He despised the fact that she had to see him in such a state but
though he'd tried to get them back to normal, he'd lost all control
over the color of his eyes. He was slipping, he knew that, but he
would do whatever it took to keep her safe, even from himself.

Emma couldn't tear her eyes away from Ethan's
strangely colored ones as he moved around his brothers to approach
her. She could smell the whiskey on him even before he stopped in
front of her. There was something about him, other than being one
of the living non-dead, that frightened her. It had nothing to do
with the eerie color of his eyes, or the fact that she'd never seen
him drink so early in the day, and everything to do with the
desperate air she sensed surrounding him. An air that seemed to
strangely ease as he took hold of her hands.

His eyes turned back to their beautiful
emerald color so fast that it stole the breath from her. A smile
tugged at the corner of his mouth, and yet there was such
desolation and loneliness surrounding him that it tugged at her
heart. "Are you ok?" she whispered.

"I'm fine," he assured her.

"Ethan..."

"Come meet my brothers." He tugged lightly on
her hand, drawing her forward when all she wanted was to talk with
him and make sure that something wasn't wrong. Her eyes were drawn
to the two large men sitting in the chairs near Isabelle and
Stefan. Jill was going to be tripping over herself when she saw
these two, Emma decided as they rose to their impressive heights.
"This is Aiden and Ian."

"Nice to meet you," Emma said.

They were both sporting crooked grins as they
stared at her before exchanging a glance with each other. "Nice to
meet you too," Aiden said and extended his hand to her.

Emma hesitated before taking hold of it.
Beside her, Ethan stiffened, his body pressed closer against hers
and Aiden hastily released her hand. Ian nodded toward her but he
didn't offer her his hand and his eyes never left Ethan. Emma
frowned as she glanced at the group of large, imposing men gathered
around her. Men that could tear her head off and use it as a
volleyball if they so chose.

Trepidation trickled down her spine and
though she knew he was no different than them, she instinctively
moved closer to Ethan. He rested his hand in the small of her back.
"We were just talking about Tristan," Ethan informed her.

"I'm sorry. I know this wasn't exactly the
vacation you were planning on," Emma apologized to Aiden and
Ian.

Aiden laughed and ran a hand through his
black hair. It was impossible not to know that the three of them
were brothers, she realized as she looked at them. They were
similar in appearance and had the same almost carefree air about
them, or at least they all had before things with Tristan had
started. Her gaze slid up to Ethan standing rigidly by her side.
There was nothing carefree about him anymore, not like there had
been when she'd first met him. Stress radiated from him, even when
he looked down at her and smiled.

"We've experienced worse and we're always
willing to help. Our siblings are always trying to get us into
trouble," Ian said. "But we usually end up saving their ass's."

"Like hell," Isabelle muttered as Ethan
frowned at him. Ian simply grinned at them in return.

"I don't want to see anyone get hurt," Emma
said as she glanced over the people gathered around her.

"
No
one is
going to get hurt," Ethan promised. "And believe me these two can
handle themselves."

"Like I said, we'll be pulling their ass's
out of the fire," Ian insisted.

"I'm going to kick your ass if you keep it
up," Isabelle told him.

Aiden and Ian laughed but Emma remained
uneasy as her gaze traveled over them. How could she possibly ask
them to risk their lives, for her?

"I uh... I have to take a shower," she
said.

Ethan almost grabbed hold of her when she
stepped away from him. He sensed a change in her demeanor that made
her seem even more distant than she'd been since discovering what
he was. He forced himself to let her go though, being overbearing
wasn't the way to get her to come back to him, if she
ever
came back to him.

He fisted his hands at his sides; he could
feel the hunger within him blazing back to life as his attention
returned to his siblings. Ian tilted his head to the side to study
him; Aiden shook his head and turned away.

"You know what really sucks," Aiden said as
he twisted the top off another beer.

"What?" Isabelle asked.

Aiden flipped the cap away as he turned to
face them. "When the two of you finally do get laid you turn into
raving lunatics."

Isabelle stuck her tongue out at him while
Ethan glowered at him. He stormed around the table, slid back into
the chair and poured himself another whiskey.

***

Emma turned away from the window when she
heard the door open. The sun had already begun to set, its rays
spread across the sky in a colorful array that had held her captive
for the past five minutes. Ethan was in the doorway, his hair stood
out in spikes around his head, and his eyes still had that strange
red hue to them.

"Is there anything you need?" he
inquired.

You
, the
thought blazed through her mind but she clamped her mouth shut
before she could blurt it out.

"I'm good," she said instead. "Jill and
Mandy..."

"They're playing cards with everyone
else."

"Oh."

"Would you like to join them?"

There were a thousand things she would like
to do right now but joining the others for a game of cards wasn't
one of them. She couldn't tear her eyes away from him as he
remained standing in her doorway. He looked torn between walking
away and coming to her. "Not right now."

He bowed his head and stepped away. The
broken air surrounding him was more than she could stand. "Ethan."
He stopped and turned back to face her. The hope in his eyes caused
tears to burn in hers. "Are you ok?"

He forced a smile to his face. "I'm
fine."

She couldn't shake the feeling that he was
lying to her though. "Would you tell me if something was wrong,
something more than the obvious? You've already kept something from
me, and I can understand why, but please don't do it again and
don't lie to me. I don't know if I could take that."

His eyes searched her face as he stared at
her; finally, he stepped into the room and closed the door behind
him. "I won't keep anything from you anymore Emma, but there are
some things that I would prefer not to burden you with."

A small snort of laughter escaped her. "Look
at everything I've burdened you with. Your life is in jeopardy
because of me.
Please
tell me what
is going on with you."

"You could never be a burden Emma, not to me,
and I
will
kill Tristan."

She flinched at the straightforward way he
said that he was going to kill Tristan. The idea of it seemed not
to affect him in anyway. What had she gotten herself into with all
of this? Walking over to the bed, she slumped onto it. She lifted
her head to look at him as he leaned against the door.

"And you're ok with that?" she whispered.

"I'm ok with anything that keeps you
safe."

"This is all so much. My best friends are
playing cards with vampire siblings; the man I thought I was
falling in love with is talking about killing my ex as if it's the
same thing as ordering fast food."

Ethan did a double take as those words
spilled from her lips. "You thought you were falling in love with
me?"

She frowned as she lifted her head to look up
at him. He had stepped away from the door; his eyes had turned back
to their normal green hue. There was a look on his face that made
her feel as if she were the most cherished and priceless jewel in
the world. She'd never thought a man could look at her like that,
with so much hope and... love?

Yes, that was what was radiating from his
eyes. "I did," she breathed, unable to tear her gaze away from
him.

"And now?"

"And now, where do I fit into all of this?
Your world isn't mine Ethan. Your world is something I can't even
begin to understand. How could I possibly allow myself to love you
when I'm not sure what would become of me?" He rapidly moved across
the room and knelt before her. Taking her hands into his, he held
them against his chest as he looked into her eyes that were
swimming with tears. "I don't belong..."

"You belong with
me
," he said vehemently. "My world is not a dismal
one; there is love and laughter in it. My family..."

"What of
my
family?"

He released her hands and slid his fingers
across her face to her hair. He brushed it back as he moved closer
to her; he needed to touch her, to feel her. It was the only thing
that made the monster that had been growing within him subside.
"There are things we will figure out Emma, if you become like me,
you can keep seeing them for at least a few years without question
and then we can work on changing memories..."

"They're my parents," she interrupted. "I
can't mess with their minds like that."

"Emma," he groaned. It was all right there,
right before him. The hope that she could love him, that she would
agree to be with him was growing so vigorously within him that he
didn't know what he would do if it was ripped away from him again.
"I love you." Her mouth parted as she gazed at him in awe. "I will
love you for an eternity. If you tell me to leave, I will, but if
there's any chance that you will allow me to stay there is
something else that you must know about me, about my kind."