“It hurts.” She gasped. “So bad.”
Elijah bent over her and smoothed her hair back from her face. “I’m sorry, Sabrina. So sorry.”
Isaac stirred next to him and Elijah tensed. He was going to get hell from his brother, and Isaac might well kill him.
But he wouldn’t kill Sabrina, right?
Elijah shuddered and pulled her into his arms. If he was going to have to run from Isaac, he was not leaving her behind. He knew Isaac loved her, had even been prepared to transform her himself, but things always changed in this world. He could have not gone through with his plan, could have remembered his duties and allowed Sabrina to die on this cliff. Elijah acknowledged he’d taken the choice away from Isaac and he feared the consequences. Not for himself, but for Sabrina.
Elijah looked down into her pain-wracked face and love swelled over him. He couldn’t risk her life, and he couldn’t trust Isaac. He didn’t know how his brother would react to the “new” Sabrina, and she was too weak and vulnerable to withstand attack. Enforcers often hunted down new changelings avidly, for they were easy prey.
Without further thought, Elijah lifted her and sprinted away from Isaac. He needed to keep Sabrina safe, at all costs.
Even from the man she loved.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Isaac moaned, disoriented, as he sat up and cradled his head in his hands. Why was he lying outside in the cold night in the first place? In a horrifying sequence of pictures, he saw it all. Sabrina lying in the clearing, pinned down by the tree his storm had knocked down, Sabrina getting thrown into the water, Sabrina dying by the cliff’s edge. He’d wanted to save her, to bite her. But they hadn’t allowed him; they’d knocked him out instead.
And let her die.
He growled and jumped up, looking around madly. Had Sabrina died when he’d been unconscious? Or had she allowed Elijah to bite her, after having denied Isaac the chance to do so?
No, the right to do so. She belonged to him, and he to her. Yet she refused the one course of action that had been open to him. He tried not to allow it to hurt him, but it was like trying to stop the rain from falling or the wind from blowing. It wasn’t possible. He heard the ground crunching beneath footsteps behind him, and he swung around in excitement. Were they still here? Had they not left him, after all?
He saw a woman and man walking out of the darkness of the trees, and tensed in apprehension. It couldn’t be Sabrina. She wouldn’t be able to walk. He cursed when he was able to recognize the pair approaching him.
“Sheila, Connor. What brings you here?”
Sheila looked at her companion, and Connor nodded. Sheila spoke eagerly. “We could sense a new vampire was nearby, and so we followed the scent. It led to this spot, and we saw you. Are you okay?”
He stiffened and felt rage come over him. So Elijah had changed her. Had she allowed him—nay, welcomed him? Thunder boomed overhead, and he cursed.
“I’m fine. There was a fight, and Sabrina was badly injured. I was here, with her, and Elijah s
truck me. I just woke up. I suppose he changed her while I was unconscious, and ran from me. Louisa was the culprit, and she’s dead.” All the time he was explaining, his mind was on Sabrina and Elijah. Where were they? Did Elijah actually think Isaac would harm Sabrina? The woman he loved?
Sheila chuckled, and he looked at her inquiringly. “You find something in my story amusing, Sheila?” He let his anger show.
“No, in your thoughts!” she exclaimed as she gestured at his head.
Shit, he’d forgotten to guard his thoughts, had completely forgotten her power was to read minds. Was he insane? He quickly remedied the problem and guarded his thoughts from nosy ears. Sheila would like nothing more than to get revenge against him for past wrongs. He knew it as well as she did. “Get out of your king’s head, Sheila. I didn’t give you permission to fish around in my thoughts.”
Despite her bravado, she paled in the face of his ire. “I know what you think, Isaac, and this has nothing to do with revenge. But I do know what I see, and I see you were going to change her yourself, and the only reason you didn’t do so is because Elijah stopped you.
“I know also how much you love her, and so I wonder if the lines are still drawn strictly. You have always said if there was a newborn vampire, we must hunt it down and kill it before it gains strength. ‘A dead vampire is the only good vampire’, as you said.
“So, Isaac, does this still hold true if the newborn is your girlfriend? Or are we simply to turn our heads and pretend these rules do not apply to you, our esteemed Ruler?”
He’d never hit a woman before, but there was first time for everything, damn it. Isaac growled, and would have leapt on her in anger if Connor hadn’t stepped forward.
He forced a calming breath and ran his fingers through his hair. He loved Sabrina, but he also knew if he left and ran off with Sabrina, the Enforcers would battle for control. There would be a dissension in the ranks as they all fought to take his place. He wasn’t a vain man by any means, but he knew he’d kept the men, and the few women, under his control over the years. They all looked to him for punishment, rules, and guidance. To fail them all now would mean to fail all mankind. His Enforcers would be too busy fighting each other to save mere mortals from death.
But along the same vein, he’d be able to escape all the easier if that were the case. He and Sabrina could slip under the radar, lost within the battles that would be waged. Finding the treasonous Enforcer would take second place to finding a leader, by far. They’d be able to slip away unnoticed, find a secluded spot, and let the world go to hell. He cursed and punched a nearby tree. Choose love, and curse all mankind? Or choose duty, and curse himself?
It wasn’t a choice any man wanted to make. It wasn’t a choice any man should have to make.
Sheila’s gloating eyes followed his every movement and again he resisted the urge to punch her in her face. He instead forced his gaze to Connor’s admittedly more sympathetic scrutiny. Though he may feel empathy for Isaac’s plight, he was also one of the first who would hunt down Isaac and Sabrina if they were to run.