Lev nodded.
Alexei continued, “We must try our best to speak sotto voce. I am sure Boris is more than a little interested in what we are about to discuss.”
Lev nodded his reply.
“Most of us do not know where our makers have gone to over the years, but I needed to keep track of Boris. I’ve known for a long time what he’s wanted from me. Hell, look at him. Would you want to spend all of eternity looking and smelling like that?” Alexei wrinkled his nose, and Lev had to stifle a laugh.
“If you’ve managed to stay away from him for so long, I don’t understand why you’re willing to sacrifice yourself now.”
“Brother, I am not as good as you make me out to be. Am I afraid of Boris? Hell, yes. Do I really want to die? No,” he said in a furious whisper.
Lev’s eyes widened. “What—”
Alexei muted him with a hand. “You must give up your fantasy, brother. Carly is gone. She is not coming back. She cannot come back, and you cannot get to her. But, with your help, we can get rid of Boris once and for all, and I won’t have to live in fear.”
Lev had no words. He’d been sucker-punched. “You liar!”
Alexei held a finger to his lips and looked back over his shoulder to make sure Boris hadn’t returned. “Shhh.”
“I should tell him your plan,” Lev said, no longer keeping his voice down. “Besides, you can never kill him. Only his maker can, and he has no idea where he is.”
“But I do,” Alexei said with a smile. “Will you help me, brother? I really am sorry that it’s too late for you, but your heart will mend in time. You’ll find another woman to love. You always do. Between the two of us, we can overpower him. He’s not stronger than the both of us together. And please, keep your voice down.”
“Why would his maker kill him? You’re not making sense.”
Alexei rolled his eyes. “Let’s just say he likes me. Everyone does.”
Not everyone, Lev thought, then swung. His fist met Alexei’s jawbone with a crack. “Bastard!”
Alexei put a hand to his jaw and rubbed. Shock was written all over his face for a moment, then his demeanor changed, his eyes narrowed, and he slunk into a crouch—hands raised, fangs at the ready. Alexei was a blur as he plowed into his brother like a ram, sending him skittering backward over a pile of books and magazines. Lev hit the floor but quickly found his feet.
Another flash of movement caught Lev’s eye. Boris now stood between them—arms spread out like a referee, a palm on each man’s chest. “What the hell is going on?” His voice was a growl of discontent.
Lev shot daggers at his brother. Should he tell? Could he tell? If he did, it would mean the end of Alexei.
“Just a disagreement between brothers,” Alexei said, giving his jaw another rub. He returned his brother’s gaze as if to send a message to keep his mouth shut. “Perhaps we should go now.” Alexei took a step toward the exit of the great room. “Lev and I will get back to you with our decision.”
“No!” Boris bellowed. “This will be settled here and now.” He bent to Alexei’s level, eyes narrowed. “Do you think me a fool?” His purple lips spread into a grin. “I know where you live now. It was not difficult to follow you home, you stupid creature.”
There was fear in Alexei’s eyes, and Lev almost felt sorry for him. Instead, he stepped away and allowed Boris center stage. It felt as if he were watching a play, and he was eager to see what would happen next.
The darkness in him surfaced. He let it take the reins from the true Lev. He watched as Boris and Alexei began to circle each other. Low growls percolated deep in their throats, fangs flashed, eyes narrowed. Alexei was slighter and quicker, but Boris seemed made of brick and mortar—a broad-shouldered, barrel-chested monster.
Alexei made the first move. Lashing out with an open hand, he clawed a gash on the side of Boris’s leathery face. The big man lunged, but Alexei sprung up quickly. His back was now against the ceiling where he hovered in a corner and peered down with a smile.
Boris barreled toward a window but managed to swing over a step to stop from crashing through the glass. He hit the wall with a thick shoulder instead, leaving a cavernous dent in the plaster and sending a plume of dust into his own face.
He shook it off like a dog after a bath then looked up, but Alexei had already moved to the doorway and would have left, except Lev made it there before him and stood solidly in his way.
“Brother?” Alexei’s voice was pleading and filled with surprise.
There was no stopping what Lev had just set in motion.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Lev’s nostrils filled with the scent of coppery blood as he watched Boris rip Alexei apart as easily as a man pulling pork from a barbecued rib.
What the hell had he just allowed to happen? He fought the impulse to stop the carnage. True Lev struggled to wrestle the reins from the darkest part of him. It wasn’t easy to witness his brother die, but he did his best to steel himself, closing off what was left of his heart, reminding himself this was his only way to be reunited with Carly. And there was the fact that Alexei had lured him back to Boris’s house under false pretenses—all self-serving. Killing Boris meant freedom for Alexei. It meant never having to look over his shoulder again, but what about him? Didn’t he deserve happiness?
The big man ripped Alexi’s right arm from his body and hungrily put the stump to a mouth that seemed almost to unhinge. Boris sucked and slurped until his face was a mask of crimson. He continued to pull Alexei apart, limb by limb, until he was reduced to a pile of bones and blood-soaked rags in a heap on the floor.
In all their years together, Lev was the responsible one, always taking care of his brother. Alexei would think nothing of bringing home beautiful young men or women, sleeping with them, feeding from them and, more often than not, killing them. Lev was left with the aftermath of his brother’s messes. This fueled his acceptance of the decision he’d just made, and he couldn’t deny there was peace knowing there was a place beyond the material world, at least for him. He was pretty sure Alexei would cease to exist in every sense of the word. He suddenly remembered why Boris wanted Alexei’s life so badly in the first place. He cringed and shook it from his thoughts. It may not be true, he told himself. How could anyone take another’s appearance?
He swung his thoughts back to Carly and contemplated the ways in which he could end his own life. Surprisingly, that thought didn’t bring a cringe but a worry instead—what if he couldn’t find her? What if all this was for naught?
Boris’s eyes met Lev’s as he wiped his face with the sleeve of his jacket. A long smear of crimson ran across the big man’s face, making him look like a homicidal clown.
The impulse to run shot through Lev. He readied himself, setting his sights on the front door of the dilapidated mansion, which he could see from where he stood at the entrance to the great room. He didn’t want to leave, not without the precious thing he’d come for. His soul would surely find its way back to him, its owner. Wasn’t that the way it worked?
Then he saw it—a fine, colorless mist began to curl from the heap of blood-soaked rags, like steam rising from a boiling kettle. It swirled and spun and made its way over to Lev like a mini tornado. He dared not move when he felt it begin to bore into the top of his skull. At first he felt nothing but a little pressure, then his vision began to blur, and his senses dulled. He saw more curling, churning mists—hundreds, maybe thousands. He thought back to Boris’s words—that they were teeming with them. The mist-like souls vanished through the closed window. No doubt let loose into the world, they would head back to their owners. Lev briefly wondered about that. Where would they go if the bodies they once lived in were dead? Or turned? He had no answers or time. His brain seemed to be slowing down, his senses dulling. Lev’s world went black, and the last thing he saw was the floor rising up to meet him.
When Lev opened his eyes, his brother stared down at him. Flat on his back, he was still on the floor of Boris�
�s great room. A bolt of adrenaline shot through him when he realized it couldn’t possibly be Alexei. His arms and legs began to work in an uncoordinated effort to get him out of danger.
He heard his brother’s voice say, “Do not be afraid.” Then a laugh. “I must find a mirror.” Lev watched as Boris peered down at his hands and slender legs, how he passed a hand through thick black hair, then felt his face, tracing a finger over an aquiline nose and chiseled jawline.
A sudden urge to retch came over Lev despite the fact his stomach was empty and ached for food, real food. A vague remembrance of how it felt to be hungry for food came to him, yet the sensation seemed new. He didn’t want blood. In fact, the thought of it was repulsive.
Boris’s house, though huge, brought on an attack of claustrophobia. Lev had lost his amplified senses, but still he was well aware of the lurking danger. He could never go home again. Boris could come for him any time he wanted. He needed what he didn’t have—time to figure things out.
He struggled to his feet, staggering like a newborn colt, and had to grab the back of a chair to keep from toppling over.
Boris now stood at the other end of the room in front of a mirror, sloppily wiping blood off his new face with a rag. He turned and smiled at Lev. It was Alexei’s smile but somehow different. Lev had never truly been afraid of his brother, but that smile sent a shiver down his spine. Then it went out and Boris glared. “Leaving so soon?”
Lev felt heavy and clumsy as he took a few steps toward the doorway. Boris beat him there, blocking his way, just as he’d blocked his brother’s moments ago. A stab of regret pounded through him. He’d let his brother die—let him be pulled limb from limb! Did he deserve to be with Carly after what he’d allowed to happen? He’d never killed anyone, but he certainly felt like a murderer now. He not only let it happen, a part of him also wanted it to.
That was the old Lev, he told himself, trying to lessen his anguish. The Lev who was a creature of the night.
“You have what you want. Just let me go now,” Lev said, trying to keep the panic from his voice.
Boris ran a finger along his own jawline, wiping off a bead of blood, then he slipped his finger into his mouth and sucked. “I like you,” he said and put an arm around Lev’s shoulder, leading him back into the room. “Do you not want to hear about what I saw? About what I told you and Alexei when we were outside?”
Of course he wanted to know. There was nothing he wanted more. He’d hoped that once he was whole again, the portal would have opened on its own, and Carly would have been waiting. But alarm rang in every fiber of his being. He was about to become Boris’s second course. He’d have to find another way back to Carly.
Boris still had an arm clamped around Lev, and though it was now a smaller, thinner arm, and not the tree trunk Boris had sported, Lev still felt its crushing strength. There would be no escaping his grip.
Boris pointed at the air in front of him, seemingly at nothing. “Do you not see it?”
Lev shivered as he stared at the spot the man who looked like his brother was pointing at, but he saw nothing.
Boris laughed in Alexei’s voice, but there was a bit of Boris in the sound too. “You would have seen it earlier if you still had eyes to see with. But there is something still here, a remnant of that…that swirling ball of light your girlfriend disappeared through. I thought you might like to see it. I have no use for it and no idea why it remains.”
Lev squinted and tried harder to catch a glimpse.
“It is right here.” Boris pointed directly in front of his own nose. “I am so close, I could pluck it up and squash it.” He made pincers out of his thumb and pointer and moved his hand over the spot where it supposedly hovered.
“No!” Lev screamed, making Boris roar with laughter.
“Why would you want to be mortal again, stupid man? All for what, a woman? You traded immortality and your brother’s life for nothing.” His grin grew until it filled his face.
Lev barreled into him, managing to shove him only a few inches.
Boris shot out a hand and wrapped it around Lev’s throat, squeezing and lifting until his feet dangled a foot from the floor. He could hardly draw a breath. Boris’s fangs slipped from his gums, and Lev knew they would soon plunge into his throat. His only hope was Boris would kill him instead of turn him back into a creature of the night.
“I am not that nice, Lev. I like you too much to kill you. You are as beautiful as your brother.” He laughed. “I should say, you are as beautiful as I am now. I shall like to have you around.”
Lev dropped to the floor, his back slamming against a wall. He sat stunned for a few seconds before Boris came at him again. He hardly felt a thing as his fangs hit their mark.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Then Lev saw it. The thing Boris had pointed at moments ago and had threatened to squish between his fingers. It was a tiny golden orb, and it began to spin. As it spun, it grew larger and larger until it nearly reached him where he lay. Lev stretched out an arm, trying in vain to touch it.
Boris’s mouth was on his jugular. He sucked and slurped and groaned with pleasure. A tiny sound came and died in Lev’s throat as his world began to dim once again. He had to make it to the portal. Boris, he knew, would stop feeding in time to turn him. Then he’d be nothing more than a lapdog for this narcissistic demon. He couldn’t let his mind wander to the unending hell that life with Boris would be. He may look like Alexei, but Boris wouldn’t let him get away with the things his brother did. Boris would make a devil of him.
An overturned vase caught Lev’s eye. It lay just inches away and was smashed to pieces. He slumped down further, an easy task, and stretched with every ounce of strength he could muster, until his fingers found a shard. Although it bit into his flesh, he wrapped his hand around it and brought it up with a burst of energy, catching Boris in the soft spot under his chin.
The ceramic shiv slid in easily now that Boris’s skin had changed from thick and leathery to soft and supple. He jerked away and let out an ear-splitting roar, his eyes catching Lev’s.
The shiv hadn’t done much damage, and Boris would heal quickly, but it did buy Lev some time—just enough to began his crawl toward the portal. Its golden light was bright and stung his now-human eyes. The room whirled like a top. Was it the spinning portal or the blood loss? Lev was less than a foot away. All he had to do was touch it; even just a fingertip would do, then he’d be pulled through. Somehow he knew this.
A hand wrapped around his ankle like a vise and began to drag him back. Lev’s heart beat as quickly as a bird’s. It pumped and pumped, leaving a crimson smear as he was reeled back to Boris. All hope dying as he saw the portal grow smaller and more distant.
Suddenly, Lev was on his feet, but he was as light as air. It was as if he had his abilities back, though he knew he didn’t. This was different. He looked at his hands, but saw only mist in the shape of hands. He checked what he could, his legs, his arms, his feet—all seemingly made of mist. The air currents in the room sucked him higher and higher until he hovered near the ceiling. He watched as Boris tore into the flesh of some poor sod’s neck. Then a shiver of knowing flooded him—it wasn’t some poor sod. It was him! But where was the panic? Where was the pain?
“This way!” a voice from behind him called. He recognized it instantly. Now he had eyes to see, and they weren’t the eyes of a mere mortal. They were the eyes of his soul.
Carly stood in the center of the portal, which slowed and stretched out in front of him like a tunnel. She held out a hand, and he hurried to her on feet that seemed to glide. When fingertip touched fingertip, he was beside her instantly.
“You waited?” he said and gathered her into his arms. He still had form but it was not made of flesh, bone, and blood.
“I watched and I hoped.” She pointed behind her, deeper into the tunnel. Lev saw a throng of people, some he recognized, and others looked familiar, but he couldn’t quite place them. “They told me what happened.
Nothing gets past them,” Carly said.
Lev was mystified.
She explained, “They’re our guardians, but I call them the Watchers.” She smiled and it made Lev smile. Then he kissed her and pulled her tight.
As the portal began to close, the last thing he saw was his brother’s face peering at him—bewilderment and disappointment written all over it.
Death had found Lev after all.
THE END
Beautiful Monster-The Exchange Page 6
