Destined (Vampire Awakenings) (43 page)

   Brian blurred suddenly, disappearing from Stefan’s hold. He swung around as
Brian
reappeared behind him
.
He
crouch
ed
low as a
fierce
growl escaped him. “I’m not here to fight you Stefan!”
Brian
hissed.

   “You’re not welcome here!”

   “You either help me, or when the others arrive, you’ll be on your own.”

   Stefan stood slowly, trepidation clutching his chest as Brian’s words sank in. “The others?”

   Brian nodded briskly as
he rubbed his abused throat, w
arily eyeing Stefan. “I’m in trouble, and they’re tracking me. They’ll follow me here, and when they do, they aren’t going to leave peacefully.”

   “What the hell have you done?” he bellowed.

   Brian shrugged negligently. It took every ounce of control
Stefan
had not to lunge at him again. Not to kill him where he stood. “I pissed off a few people.”

   “Who?” he growled.

   “Some of our kind, some
o
lder
ones
of our kind. The ones here are young Stefan, they’ll be no match for them, and you know it.”

   Running his hand tiredly through his hair
Stefan
closed his eyes against the fear that was squeezing his chest. If they came here, if Brian had led them here...
Shit
, they would kill everyone. His mind instantly sought out Isabelle. Her fear beat at him, but he didn’t open his mind to her, wouldn’t let her in to see, or hear, what was going on.

   “So you want my help?” he demanded.

   “You’re one of the strongest ones I know Stefan. I didn’t know where else to go.”

   Stefan snorted tiredly. It had taken him a long time, and a lot of death
,
to become one of the strongest
.
H
e had always suspected that he would pay for it in the long run, now he knew that he had been right. His gaze darted to the house as a crushing feeling of impending doom descend
ed
upon him. He had wanted to keep Isabelle sheltered from his past, from the darkness that lurked within his soul, to never let her know that it was there, that it existed. Now he
knew
that it wasn’t going to be possible.

   “That was a long time ago Brian,” he said softly. “Things are different now.”

   “Not that long ago, I can still feel it in you. You may fool them, but I know what you are Stefan. We were together for a long time.”

   “Things are different!” he spat.

  
Brian quirked a dark
eye
brow at him, his eyes narrowed questioningly.
“Why, because of the girl?”

   Stefan’s hands clenched as fury shook his body. “You shouldn’t have
come here,
”
he growled.

   “Well I did, now you have to decide what you’re going to do.”

   He already knew what he was going to do, what he would have to do. “If I help you, you’ll leave here and never come back, or I will kill you.”

   Brian
nodded briskly. “
F
air enough.”

   “If any of them get hurt, I will kill you.”

   “Fine.”

   “How long do you think it will be before they find you?”

   He shrugged again. Stefan’s eyes flared as he took a step toward him. “A day, maybe two,”
Brian
answered
quickly.

   “Do you care to tell me what you did?”

   “I killed one of them.”

   Stefan snorted as he shook his head, his gaze dart
ed
back to the house.
Shit
, what the hell was he going to do? He didn’t want Brian anywhere near any of them, but he was right, even if they
both
left the others would track Brian here, and they would destroy everyone that lived here. His time here was
done;
no
one would forgive him for bringing this down upon them. For the first time
,
he regretted stepping foot on this land, regretted meeting Isabelle. He wished like hell that he had never come here.

   He didn’t know what he had been thinking, there was no way for him to escape his past, and it was about to come barreling down on all of them. He would be lucky if none of them got killed. He would gladly
have
sacrificed his life, but he knew that Isabelle would die without him, waste away without him. He could not allow that to happen. For better or worse, she was stuck with him, and he was going to do everything in his power to make sure that she remained safe. He wished that he could take it all back, wished that there was some way to set her free, but there was nothing that he could do.

   “How many are coming?” he asked quietly.

   “Four, maybe five.”

   Stefan whirled back to him, his eyes blaz
ed
with fury. “How strong are they?” he hissed.

   “They have me on the run,
”
Brian
said with a negligent shrug.

   “You son of a bitch
!
I should kill you now!”

   “You need me, and you know it. We can do this together. It will be just like old times.”

   “The old times are over with.”

   Brian shrugged again. “So you say, but you’re still a killer Stefan.”

   “I know what I am!” he snapped
furiously
. “Let
’
s go.”

   He turned on his heel and headed toward the house. “Are you going to tell them?”

   “I’m going to have too.”

   “The girl...”

  
Stefan’s hands fisted, fury suffused his entire body once more.
“I swear I will rip your throat out if you go anywhere near her.”

   Brian chuckled softly;
Stefan
despe
rately fought the urge to hit him
again
. “I don’t want her, but she reeks of you Stefan. They’ll go for her too.”

   “I know that Brian. That’s why she’s getting the hell out of here, with everyone else.”

   He pounded up the porch
steps, hesitating at the doorway. He turned back to Brian, his eyes narrowed. “I can kill you, don’t forget that.”

   “I know.”

   “Stay away from all of them, I mean it.”

   Brian
no
dded quickly. Stefan eyed him w
arily for a moment more before opening the door. Isabelle, Ethan, Jack, and David were sitting on the countertops in the kitchen. Their eyes locked on Brian as he followed Stefan into the house. Isabelle’s gaze instantly darted back to him, widening in surprise as she leapt off the counter. “You’re bleeding!” she cried, casting Brian a scathing
glance as she hurried toward Stefan
.

   Brian grinned at her as he shrugged negligently, closing the door behind him. “I’m fine,” Stefan assured her, grabbing hold of her arms before she could touch the wounds on his chest. Her gaze was worried and troubled, her delicate
eye
brows drawn together as she studied him questioningly.

   “What’s going on?” Jack demanded.

   Stefan lifted his head to look at the
m
as Brian leaned casually against the door, his long legs crossed before him
and
his arms folded over his chest. “Brian seems to have gotten himself into a little bit of trouble,” Stefan replied coldly.

   “What kind of trouble?” David asked.

   “Hey, I know you.
” Brian
straighten
ed
away from the door as he stared questioningly at David
.

   “Philadelphia,” Stefan reminded him sharply.

   Brian nod
ded slowly;
a sly smile curv
ed
his mouth as he studied David. “That’s
right;
you were the one whose friends were in trouble. How did that work out?”

   “You’re at one of their houses,” David replied.

   “Well, that’s good. Stefan and I never did believe in that soul
mate crap, but I guess there
must be so
me truth to it.”

   Isabelle’s
eye
brows furrowed, her mouth pursed tightly as she glanced sharply at Brian. The uneasiness in her stomach was beginning to grow by the second. Her gaze darted back to Stefan, but his face was cold and impassive as he studied David, Jack, and Ethan. His hands on her arms were just as impersonal as the rest of him. She swallowed heavily, as her gaze scanned the jagged wounds in his chest. They had already healed
tightly;
the only evidence of their existence
was
the dry blood on his shirt, and the jagged rips in it. Chewing nervously on her bottom lip, she looked up at him, but he still would not look at her, and he had effectively shut her out of his mind. Something was going on with
him;
something that she didn’t understand, but instinctively knew wasn’t good.

   “What kind of trouble?” she asked tremulously, hoping to draw his attention back to her.

   “The kind that’s going to follow me here, and soon.” Brian drew her attention again as his gaze, curious and troubled, focused upon her. 

   David, Ethan, and Jack slid off the counter, their bodies tense as their eyes narrowed. “Th
e
n you should probably leave,” Ethan said
coldly
.

   “It’s not that simple. They’ll track me here no matter what. I either leave, and Stefan faces them by himself, or I stay, and Stefan helps me.”

   “We’re here,
we can help
” Jack said.

   “You’re like pitting a lamb against a lion,” Brian snorted disdainfully.

   “Brian!
” Stefan hissed warningly.

   “It’s true,” he retorted.

   “And you’re that much stronger?” Ethan demanded.

   Brian’s eyes narrowed as he met Ethan’s hostile gaze. “I could snap your neck before you could even blink.”

   Ethan’s eyes narrowed as they sparked red. “Enough,” Stefan said coldly
, wanting to ward off a fight that would not end well
.

   “And you? Are you that much stronger Stefan?”

   He finally turned his gaze
back
to
Isabelle;
he couldn’t keep putting it off. Her gaze was dark and turbulent as she stared questioningly up at him. There was a sudden coldness surrounding her that had never been there before. An aura of hurt
surrounded her
that would have shredded him
,
if he hadn’t already steeled himself for the fact that she was going to be hurt
,
and he was the one that was going to do it.

   He remained silent as he stared at her, his jaw locked, his eyes as cold as black ice. She didn’t know the man that stood before her, and she was beginning to realize that she never had. The feeling turned her heart to a cold lump, and caused her stomach to twist into tight knots. She refused to acknowledge it though
.
I
f she did, she knew that she would completely break down, that she would lose all control and never stop crying. Now she needed to know who he was.

   “Well Stefan,” she prompted.

   “Yes.”

   Isabelle refused to acknowledge the agonizing pain that ripped through her as she lifted her chin slightly, her eyes narrowed. She knew where that kind of power came from, what it meant. She could smell it on Brian, feel it radiating off of him. She had smelled it on the others, but she had never smelled it on Stefan. Not once had she sensed anything wrong with him, and she
why she hadn’t
. She didn’t understand any of this, and her sense of betrayal was beginning to almost choke her.

   “Why don’t you smell like him,
or
like the others at the club?”

   Stefan’s eyes narrowed as Brian straightened away from the door. Jack and David cast her questioning looks. “What are you talking about
, what smell
?” Jack demanded.

   She turne
d to stare at them in confusion
. “Don’t you smell it?” she asked.

   The confusion in their eyes was her answer. She turned ba
ck to Stefan and Brian, her forehead
furrowed as she frowned at them. “Well I do,” she said forcefully. “
Brian’s
nowhere near as bad as the ones at the club, but you smell off, you smell different. But you,” her gaze narrowed as she stared angrily up at Stefan, loathing beg
an
to burn through her body. “You don’t smell like that. Did you cover it up
somehow
?”