The Vampire's Kiss by Cynthia Eden Page B

Something you’re not telling me.”
    Surprise shot through him. How had she known? He’d grown amazingly adept at hiding his feelings. “Yes, there’s more.”
    “Tell me.”
    She stood before him, looking for all the world as if a strong wind would blow her down. But her gaze was filled with such strength, such courage. It was time for the truth. “His name is Geoffrey.”
    “Geoffrey,” she repeated the name softly. A smile of satisfaction curved her lips.
    William could read her so easily. She had a focus now, a name. Before, she’d only had shadows. A monster waiting in the darkness. Now she had a name, a target for her anger, her hate.
    Her gaze sharpened upon him. “How do you know him?” She asked.
    “He’s my half-brother.”
    “What?”
    He steeled himself for her rage. For her rejection. “Geoffrey de Montfort is my half-brother.”
    She shook her head in vehement denial. “No. No, that can’t be.”
    “You read the diary,” he reminded her brutally. “You know that I had two brothers. Henry and Geoffrey. One golden like the day, and the other with a soul as dark as the night itself.”
    “But how—”
    “How is he alive? How is he here, now, to kill?” William’s lips twisted. “He’s my blood. He shares the same curse that I do.” They were bound by their heritage. Bound to walk the earth, to feel the eternal hunger.
    Suspicion filled her stare. “You knew,” she whispered. “You knew he was killing, didn’t you? That’s why you were in Panama City and in Atlanta. You knew what he was doing!”
    How had she known about Panama City and Atlanta? He thought that he’d covered his presence well in those cities. Yes, he’d known that Geoffrey was out of control, that he was out to kill, to destroy everyone that he could. “I knew.” Simple, flat.
    “And you didn’t stop him?” She shoved against him, pushing with all of her strength against his chest. He didn’t move. “Why didn’t you stop him, you bastard? Why?” She shoved him again.
    William caught her hands, easily holding them within his grasp. He opened his mouth to reply, but closed it instead. He should have stopped Geoffrey. He should have stopped him years ago. He was responsible for the evil that his brother had wrought.
    “He killed Mark. He killed Sharon, and God knows how many other people! If you knew what he was doing, why didn’t you stop him?”
    He’d tried. He’d tried to stop Geoffrey. He’d tried to stop him on that bloody battlefield in France. They’d fought for hours, until their bones were broken, until their strength was all but gone. He’d had the stake against Geoffrey’s heart. He’d been seconds away from ending his brother’s life. And then he’d looked into his brother’s eyes . . .
    And seen Henry staring back at him.
    For a moment, he’d lost his focus, his strength.
    A moment was all the time that Geoffrey had needed. Geoffrey had knocked William aside and fled as fast as he could.
    William had been tracking his brother since then, following him around the globe. Finding dead bodies in every city, but never arriving in time to stop his brother.
    “I was too late,” he finally told Savannah. “Each time, I was too late.” The memory of Geoffrey’s victims burned him. He could still see them, see their blank eyes and white bodies. See the fear etched on their frozen faces.
    Those faces would haunt him for eternity.
    “Each time?” Savannah swallowed. Her lips trembled faintly. “Do you mean you were there? When he was killing, you were there?”
    Ah. There it was. The fear. The revulsion. He’d known it would come. He turned from her, not wanting to face that look, not wanting to see her condemning gaze. “You have to understand. He’s as old as I am, as strong as I am. I’ve been tracking him for centuries. Whenever I would get close, when I thought that I had him, he’d slip away. And there would be another trail of blood for me to follow.” William knew that