Chapter 3

Pierce sat back in his chair, his eyes tired from looking at the computer screen. Not that he'd really been working. How many surprises could happen in one night? First he finds out Samuel was close to turning vampire. Then he phones a woman who brings him color and emotion, only to find out she is Samuel's lifemate. To top it off, his twin was now using him as a reason to have introduced himself to her.

He reached out to Samuel, but found his brother's mind tightly closed. Pierce sighed. Most likely Samuel was already thinking of about how to take her blood, a way to make sure he'd be able to find her no matter where she went. Yes, blood, among other things, would be on Samuel's mind. Actually, Samuel had made the right decision with immediately finding her. Even though Pierce had told Carissa he's see her tomorrow evening, he'd immediately planned to seek her out as soon as his twin left. But Samuel got to her first.

Pierce drummed his fingers on the desk. He should be thinking this was a loss to himself, that Carissa should have been his lifemate. But curiously, Pierce was very optimistic. Perhaps it was the feelings his brother shared, giving him a sense of hope.

He stood and stretched, wondering if Lucy, his administrative assistant, was around. Like Graham, she was extremely loyal and was perfect in assisting them with the numerous business errands they needed. She liked the night hours because she could spend more time with her young children during the day. They actually met her through one of their few encounters with a vampire. She was being attacked when they found her. After saving her life, Lucy begged to pay them back somehow. They found she had a very good soul, so they agreed she was a perfect solution for some of their tedious tasks to be handled. As their personal assistant, Lucy took care of ensuring meetings were coordinated, business expenses were properly charged to each company, and she was able to divert anyone who had the least bit of curiosity about who they were.

He wandered down the hall and found Lucy working on a PowerPoint presentation with business results for one of their companies. Without looking up, she knew he was there. "If you are looking for the latest numbers on Logtech, they were just released. I can get them for you…"

When she suddenly looked up at him, her eyes grew wide.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Well, ah, you're smiling."

Pierce stared at her, suddenly realizing she was right. Not only that, he was noticing how pretty she looked today in a light blue suit. He also felt a rush of gratitude for all the things she did for them. He was…feeling everything.

He reached out again to his twin, but Samuel's mind was still tightly closed. Then why was he feeling? Didn't he only feel through Samuel? What was this?

"Um, Mr. Falkland?"

Pierce shook his head, trying to clear it. "Sorry, things have suddenly changed a bit."

"What do you mean?" She suddenly looked nervous and he realized Lucy might be thinking he was turning.

"Samuel found his lifemate," he gently explained.

Her eyes widened and she gave him a beautiful smile. "Oh my goodness! That's wonderful! And she's here in Chicago?"

"Yes, he just met her."

"But if you don't have a lifemate, why are you feeling?"

God, Pierce had no idea why he was feeling anything by himself when he wasn't connected to his twin at that moment. But to make Lucy feel better, he nodded. "Even though I don't have a lifemate, I can feel things through him."

"Oh," Lucy breathed, "that must at least give you some sense of relief! To have no feeling, well, I just couldn't imagine! Will Samuel bring her here to live?"

"Things will take some time," he answered. "She doesn't know what we are, let alone what a lifemate even is in our world. He'll need to take some time and court her."

Lucy laughed. "With Samuel's wit and charm, I can't see her holding out too long. He'd have half of the women in this city chasing after him if he let them."

"Yes, I'm sure," he replied. But he was now less engaged in the conversation as he continued to be puzzled over the situation with his emotion. And color…he was seeing in full color. How was this possible if Carissa was not his lifemate? He needed to be alone. "Lucy, would you mind taking the night off?"

"Well…no, but there's a lot of work to be done, right now. Logtech's quarterly results took a nose dive. Although I'm no expert, you may want to really look at what's going on."

Damn. This wasn't good. Logtech had been a stable company for years. He and Samuel had a number of investments based on its history. He couldn't risk losing a fortune on behalf of the Carpathian people. Of course they had many other investments that were well protected. But Samuel's pride and honor demanded that he protect every bit of wealth.

He exhaled hard. His problem with emotion would have to wait.

Samuel couldn't stop staring at Carissa while she directed Graham where to go. When the car got moving, he cleared his throat. "I want to thank you for getting us those airline tickets on such short notice."

"Oh, no problem." She looked down awkwardly.

"What's wrong?"

"Um, you said you were going to pay me?"

Samuel straightened. "Of course. I'm sorry, how much do I owe you for the flight?"

She gave him a strange look. "I didn't book the flight. You got me to call someone I knew who had a private jet, remember?"

"Oh, yes, of course." He should be reaching out to his twin to find out what the agreement was, but Samuel suddenly didn't feel like having his twin laughing at him even more. "I'm sorry, I think with the turn of events this evening, I completely forgot." He reached into a compartment in the middle console and withdrew a wallet that was always on hand. Samuel removed several bill and handed them to her.

Carissa stared at the money in her hand. "What is this?"

"I thought I still owed you something…for what you did."

"But this is five thousand dollars!"

"Is that not enough?"

Carissa couldn't help herself. Handsome or not, the guy had to be after more than an airline reservation. For God's sake, she was in a stranger's car and who knew what this really meant. Maybe the whole thing was a setup. In fact, it felt suddenly like this man had been after her. She always had an unusual sixth sense about things and had learned to trust her instincts. "Look, I don't know what you're used to, but I'm not that type of booking agent."

"Excuse me?" asked Samuel. He tried to reach into her mind, but was frustrated when he found it surprisingly strong.

"Stop the car!" she shouted at Graham.

"Madam?"

"You heard me. No, don't look at him. Let me out, right now." The car slowed, and before Samuel could reason with her, Carissa unlocked the door and jumped out.

He cursed and in a flash, he after her. He considered racing in front of her, but he didn't want to frighten her. "Carissa! Stop. What did I do?" She was now walking at a fast pace, trying to hail a taxi cab. "Will you answer me? What did I do wrong?"

"What kind of man gives a girl five thousand dollars for making one phone call? You're not the first man to ask me for more than just booking some trip!"

"Is that what you think this is about? That I'd actually want to buy something like that from you?

"That story was made up about your brother being sick! It had to be! And who was that guy in the garage?"

Samuel grabbed her arm. "I have no idea, but you need to believe me. I swear I mean you no harm."

She turned and looked up at him. "You were after me."

He stared at her, unsure of what to say. Samuel didn't want to tell another lie, not to mention he was still having doubts with being her lifemate when he actually had the ability to tell her lies in the first place.

When he didn't answer, Carissa panicked. He was so tall, he towered over her. And her arm wouldn't budge within his iron grip. "Let go of me. Right now or I'll scream!"

"Little one, calm yourself," he pleaded. He managed to penetrate her mind and found it in complete chaos and fear. His heart broke as he found that she'd been abused in the various foster homes she'd been in all her life. She trusted very few people, and none of them were men. When she ran away, men had offered money to her a number of times but she always refused, even if it meant she would starve. She had never known a man to be caring or actually want to protect her. No, she only knew they wanted one thing…and that was to try and get her in a bed with them.

Carissa was trying to pry his fingers loose and he didn't even notice. She remembered being held as a child like this when she was being punished. With all her strength, she tried to pull away from him. Her arm roared with pain as she struggled, but Carissa didn't care. She'd break it just in an effort to escape…

And then everything went black.

Samuel gathered Carissa's limp body in his arms. When he realized she was in danger of harming herself from the struggle, he automatically whispered a command and put her to sleep. Graham came running up behind him, breathless from chasing them.

"What happened? Is she hurt?"

"In more ways than you can imagine," replied Samuel as he nuzzled her cheek with his chin and softly kissed her forehead. "Get the car. We'll still take her home." As Graham turned to run back, Samuel stepped back into the shadows of an alley. He lowered his mouth to her neck and his fangs elongated. Samuel pierced her soft skin, and the sweet taste of her blood was like nothing he'd ever known. Within moments, he couldn't help himself and opened up his shirt, cutting himself open and then whispering for her to feed as well.

When she began to feed, he lost focus due to his emotions. His body tightened all over, and Samuel groaned. All doubt about her being his lifemate vanished.

Samuel.

He froze at the sound of Pierce's voice. I'm sorry, I…

You need to return.

But I need to spend more time with her.

Right. Now.

Samuel heard the urgency in his twin's voice. What is it?

There was a pause. One of our companies is in trouble.

You're asking me to come home because of a company? Don't you think seeing to my lifemate is just a little more important?

I need you here.

Samuel grimaced. There's something else really wrong, isn't there? When he received no response, he cursed under his breath. Pierce, answer me.

Yes.

There was something definitely not right. He stopped Carissa from feeding and closed his eyes to see if could reach further into his twin's mind. What he found shocked him. Not only was Pierce concerned about one of their companies, he was extremely confused and worried. So much so that his brother was on the verge of pain.

I will take Carissa home and then come to you immediately.

Thank you.

Samuel sighed and carried Carissa out of the shadows. Graham was waiting for him with the car door open. He looked at Samuel with concern. "You look even worse now."

"Do I?" he asked as he gently placed Carissa in the car.

"Yes. You look completely pale. Did you feed tonight?"

"Not really," he muttered, regretting he did not have more time with Carissa. Not that it mattered, he couldn't feed like that from her just yet. She was still human and he needed to be careful. "Graham, we need to get her home, then I need to get back to Pierce."

"But…what will you tell Carissa?"

"I'm going to make sure she stays asleep. With any luck, I can talk with brother and still return to her this evening." Although God knew what the hell he was going to say to her.

Pierce was now standing on the balcony, staring out into the city lights. He knew the instant Samuel began to feed from Carissa. Even if his brother's mind hadn't opened up, Pierce still would have known it. At first, Pierce thought maybe this was some kind of jealousy, that perhaps he was her lifemate after all. But he had no blood connection to her, so how could this be? How would he know? His only blood connection was to Samuel.

Worse, he wasn't really feeling what he would call jealously of his brother anyway. No, he wanted his brother to take her blood. More than that, Pierce wanted to feel everything his twin was feeling…including how much he desired Carissa. When he closed his eyes, Pierce actually felt Carissa feeding from his twin. For a moment, Pierce even let himself give in to the temptation to let his body go, and shockingly his body grew hard from the experience.

Lucy had been going over numbers with him when this all happened and embarrassed, he quickly left the room, citing he needed a moment alone. Panic set in at that point, and he demanded Samuel return home. His stomach felt sick at what he'd just done. How could he want his twin's lifemate? Was his soul turning? Was this new emotion from Samuel triggering lewd thoughts and temptations? But if this was the case, why could he see in color? Did some vampires see in color? He'd always been told they did not, but how did anyone really know except for those who turned?

Pierce placed his head within his hands, the feelings of confusion completely overwhelming him. There was something so definitely wrong with him. This was not normal. Then another horrifying thought came to him.

His twin's voice made him stiffen. "Pierce?"

Pierce turned around and looked warily at his brother as he approached.

Samuel was shocked. His brother looked worse than he'd ever seen. He had deep lines etched in his face and Samuel could actually see him shaking. "Brother, what is it? What is happening to you?"

His twin backed away from him. "Do you remember Draven?"

What? Samuel looked at his twin with puzzlement. "Yes, why?"

Pierce closed his eyes. "I'm…sick."

"What?"

Pierce drew a deep breath and opened his eyes to look at Samuel. "There is no other explanation."