No Escape From Destiny (21 page)

He was interrupted by
Adrian
laughing hysterically.
Nikkos
looked at him as if he had lost his mind. “What’s so funny?”

He wasn’t sure why he asked, because he already knew what his friend was going to say.
Adrian
had always had to cut him off when he got going on some off-the-wall subject and jumped from one topic to another.

“Oh my gods, it has to be true. He sounds just like you. You never shut up either when you get going,”
Adrian
said while holding his stomach and trying not to keep laughing.

Nikkos
rolled his eyes at his best friend. “Thanks, I love you, too.”

Adrian
blew him a kiss and replied. “I know you do.”

Nikkos
looked back at Damian, who looked so confused. “What has to be true?” he asked.

“Caught that, did ya?”
Nikkos
pulled a chair up in front of Damian’s and took a deep breath. He wasn’t really sure how to tell Damian he was his brother and the family he knew his entire life was not really his.

“Your blood tests came back, and they showed something quite interesting. They showed that your parents weren’t your biological parents.”
Nikkos
watched the younger male for signs of distress.

“I know that I was adopted when I was a baby. My biological parents were killed, and my adopted ones couldn’t have children. That’s how I ended up in the orphanage after they were killed. I had no other family and nowhere to go.”

Nikkos
couldn’t help his heartache at not knowing he had a brother and not being able to take him in when he needed him, too. “You do have family now, and you will always have a place to live.”

Damian looked around the room as if waiting for someone to fill him in on this mysterious family he supposedly had.
Nikkos
watched Damian’s pulse speed up.

“I’m your brother.”

He blinked then and couldn’t breathe. “Excuse me? What did you say? With all due respect, sir, please don’t play with my feelings. You of all people should know what it feels like to lose your family. But for you to give me hope that I have family out there, and then try to tell me it’s you… please, sir, don’t.”

Nikkos
was shocked. Damian looked so pitiful. He looked to Mikhaila for some assistance. She walked over with a folder and handed it to Damian. He opened the folder and looked at the pages within. Mikhaila said, “This is a copy of your DNA tests we did this morning. The first set is yours, the second is
Nikkos’s
, the third one is what we have on file for his mother, and the fourth is his father’s and the bottom is his stepfather’s. This shows that you both have the same mother. We know you don’t have the same father because
Nikkos’s
was killed before he was born, but his stepfather is not yours, either. So technically you are half brothers.”

Nikkos
cut in, “But blood is blood, and you and I are family. You don’t have to be alone anymore, and you will always have a place in my home if you wish it. I don’t know what happened or why you have a different father than my stepfather, but we will try to find out if you want. Until then, you will stay here and join our family if you want.”

Damian looked over the papers several times before he looked up with tears in his eyes.
Nikkos
couldn’t help himself if he tried. He had never been close to anyone except
Adrian
, but looking at the young vampire, he couldn’t resist pulling him into a fierce hug and holding him there.

The other male couldn’t hold himself together any longer. He wrapped his arms around
Nikkos
and held tight while he sobbed on his shoulder. It took him a few minutes to compose himself. When he did, he pulled back from
Nikkos
and wiped his eyes. “Sorry,
Kyrios
, I’m not usually this emotional. I know you must think I’m weak, crying like a baby.”

He stopped talking when he met
Nikkos’s
eyes and realized the older male was crying, too. “Oh gods, please,
Kyrios,
don’t. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Nikkos
wiped his eyes and looked at his brother. “You really need to stop calling me that. If you didn’t hear what was just said, you are my brother and that makes you
Prigkipas
also. Besides,” he said, looking over his shoulder at Anstice, who was also crying, “I think some of your emotions are coming from somewhere else, also. You can feel everything she is feeling right now.”

Damian looked at him, confused again.

“You fed her last night when I almost killed her, and now you will be linked to her forever.”

Damian paled and his eyes went wide.

“Don’t worry, I told you I will help you to control it, and you can learn to block her out. It will happen with anyone you feed, but it will get easier. It is all new to you, and her being in the same room will be hard for a while, but we’ll get through it together. I promise. It’s what brothers do, right?”

Damian could only nod his head “Brothers. Right, I’ve never had a brother before. I was an only child. My parents couldn’t have children. That’s why they adopted me.” He blushed. “I said that already, didn’t I? Sorry.”

Nikkos
placed his hand on Damian’s forearm and gave a small chuckle. His brother really was like him, couldn’t stop talking for anything. “Stop apologizing so much.”

Nikkos
cleared his throat. “Now, I’m sure you have a lot to think about and a lot of questions, but I want to get you moved in here right away, if that’s what you want.”

Damian nodded his head again. “I have been staying at the warrior compound, but I would love to live here.”

Nikkos
looked to Marcus. “Can you get someone to go get his belongings and bring them here? Give him any room he wants.”

Marcus nodded his head and left the room. Looking back at Damian,
Nikkos
said, “Okay now, let’s get working on blocking out Anstice’s emotions a little, and I think we will all feel a little better.”

Damian nodded, but before
Nikkos
could start explaining how to go about doing just that Anstice spoke up. “Excuse me, I have a question.”

All eyes turned to look at her.

“What are a
Kyrios
and a
Prigkipas
?”

Adrian bent down and whispered in her ear, “Let’s wait a little while and I’ll explain everything to you.”

Nikkos
cut him off. “No, she deserves to know.
Kyrios
roughly translated mean ‘lord.’ And
Prigkipas
means ‘prince.’” He waited for that to sink in. She still looked confused. He continued, “Our race has a royal family and…well, I’m it. Actually, we’re it,” he said, gesturing to Damian. “My mother was queen, and when she was killed, I should have ascended to the throne, but I didn’t. I don’t want to be king. I’m not king material. I’m a warrior, and that’s all I’ve ever known. So now that we know that Damian and I share the same mother, he is also a prince. And an heir to the throne.”

Nikkos
paused before he dropped more onto her. “And now that you’re my mate,” he said, pausing, and saw the pieces click into place as she started shaking her head. She tried to take a step back, but
Adrian
was too close. “You are the princess, and if I ever decide to ascend, you will be queen.”

She looked back up into
Adrian
’s dark eyes. “What does that make you?”

He looked down at her with a sad look in his eyes. “I’m just me, little one. You and
Nikkos
are mates, so you will be the royal family. But don’t worry, I will always be here to protect you both.”

Nikkos
got up and stalked across the room toward them. Once again, Anstice flinched away, and he knew his eyes were probably glowing again. He stopped inches away from them and gently laid his palm on her cheek.

“Baby, I will never hurt you. Please don’t be scared of me.” He looked up at
Adrian
as he wrapped the other hand around the nape of his neck. “And you,” he hissed through his teeth. “We have been over this. You are her mate, too. We all belong together, and as soon as we find out what else Mikhaila and Lucian have to say about this whole changing-a-human business, we will be proving it.”

Adrian lowered his eyes, and
Nikkos
prayed to any gods that would listen that he was right. He wasn’t sure what he would do without the two of them in his life. He knew he would love them both until his dying day, but not being able to touch Adrian and be touched by him would slowly kill him.
Adrian
raised his dark eyes to meet
Nikkos’s
turquoise ones. “Okay,” he whispered.

Nikkos
leaned in and smothered him with a kiss until he heard someone whimper. When he realized it was him, he had to pull away.
Nikkos
turned his head just enough to see what the reaction of the others in the room would be. Damian looked shocked, to say the least. If he had opened his mouth any farther, his jaw may have fallen off. Mikhaila was looking at them with awe and tears in her eyes. And Lucian had that
well it’s about time
look.

He looked back to Adrian as the other male said, “Well, I guess the cat’s outta the bag now.” He motioned with his head toward the rest of the room.

Nikkos
replied, “I don’t care. It’s no one’s business who I’m with. If anyone has a problem with it they can deal with it, because I’m not giving up either one of you. It’s time things start to change around here. Our race is stuck too far in the dark ages. There is no reason that two men cannot be together. And if I have to ascend to the throne and make new laws, then I will.”

Nikkos
kept talking about new laws and loving who one wanted to love when he heard a small laugh behind him. He turned to see Damian sober with a quick look of fear crossing his face. “Something funny, brother?”
Nikkos
asked in his most menacing tone.

“Sorry,
Kyr
…sorry, b–b–
br
–brother. I was just thinking that
Adrian
was right, you do talk as much as me when you get going on something,” Damian said as he looked down at his feet.

Chapter Twenty-One

Nikkos
turned to look at Lucian. “So, what information do you have for me about being able to change a human into a vampire?”

Lucian stood and handed another folder to
Nikkos
then started to explain. “These are copies I made from some of the ancient texts about our race I found. I started looking into it after you gave Anstice blood the first time. A long time ago there was a vampire who fell in love with a human. The human was fatally injured, and the vampire fed her his blood in hopes of saving her life. It worked. However, she was injured again, and again he gave her his blood. After the second time, she stopped aging and started to grow stronger. After several years of being, together she got pregnant.”

Nikkos
gasped. “I thought vampires and humans couldn’t have children together.”

Lucian held up his hand. “Let me continue, please. When the time came for the baby to be born, something went wrong, and the mother hemorrhaged, almost bleeding to death. The male gave her more of his blood, and she and the baby seemed to be fine. But then she had a very restless night and seemed to be in excruciating pain. The male wasn’t sure what to do, so he just held her and prayed that she would be okay. After hours of her screaming in pain, she finally settled into a deep sleep. So deep the male assumed she was going to die in his arms.