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Out of the two of us, I've always been the one who has a fiery temper. In contrast, Darius always had a cold mind, even in complicated situations. If he's getting angry now, this situation pisses him off.
"We won't lose him, not this time," I promise, even though I can't be one hundred percent sure about it. I've already lost him once when he lived in London. It took me more than fifty years to find him again.
"I'll send someone," he offers and takes the phone.
"Don't be ridiculous, he'll kill them, and we won't be able to find him again for years," I extend my hand and take the phone out of my brother's hands, "and don't you want to be the one who'll kill this bastard?"
"I do," he agrees, looking at me. "How the hell did he find out who'll make the event? Do we have a rat?"
"He doesn't," I assure him right away. "His sister is coming." I see how his eyes start to glitter with anticipation. I knew that would cheer him up. "We'll follow her when she leaves, and she'll lead us straight to his house."
A long pause comes after as Darius proceeds with my offer. When the society received a letter from Beatrice Darrington saying that her brother won't attend the event, I was pissed. But after thinking about it for some time, I concluded that it might be for the better. We won't have to kill this bastard during my brother's celebration. We'll kill him later, at his home, and no one will find out about it, which would be risky if he came here.
"I have another idea." He finally breaks the silence. "We'll kill his sister, and then he'll come to meet us by himself."
I tense at that thought. To kill Raphael, who murdered our parents, is one thing, but to kill an innocent woman is entirely different.
"She probably doesn't even know what Raphael did," I protest, even though I know that my brother won't like it. "She's a woman; we don't touch women."
"She's his sister," he says with a steely voice. "She knows everything. She was probably helping him."
She wasn't. We know for sure that Raphael was alone that day; we had a witness, a maid who worked for our family and who he didn't kill because she was innocent, as he told her. And now we have to kill an innocent girl, who happens to be this bastard's sister.
"If she lives, this war won't be over," he continues, seeing my hesitation. "She'll try to kill us because we killed her brother. It will be a never-ending fight. Our family may get hurt."
"We don't have family," I object, glancing into my brother's eyes, wondering whether Darius will be able to kill an innocent person, even if in revenge. I always knew he was merciless, some would even say cruel, but I never saw him like that.
Not until now.
"We agreed not to have a family until we kill Raphael," he continues, leaning closer, "and you will never be able to have one if his sister stays alive. You will always be afraid that she'll come one day for your children..."
"Stop it." I shake my head, unable to hear this bullshit. "You know I don't care."
He knows I'm pleased with my bachelor's life; I wouldn't change it for marriage and kids; that's not my priority. Darius, in his turn, always wanted procreation.
But my brother is right. If we leave this girl alive, she'll come for one of us one day. And I don't want to lose my brother because I didn’t have the courage to kill her.
"I agree," I finally say, standing up. When I look at Darius, I see an approving grin on his face. "We'll kidnap her. Then Raphael will come to us for the rescue."
"And then we'll kill her in front of him, to make him suffer just like we did," he ends my thought, nodding approvingly. "It's a brilliant idea, brother."
I can see Darius' body relax after I agree to follow his plan. I try to keep a poker face and pretend I don't care about a woman I don't even know, even though my gut tells me it won't be that simple.
"How will we find her?" I ask before walking away. "It's a masquerade ball; we'll have hundreds of guests. And she'll probably try to stay incognito."
"There are not many single women coming alone," he says as if he has already come up with a plan. "Most of them come with their parents or brothers. It won't be that easy to find her, especially with your charming skills.”
"You wantmeto spend the whole night searching for her?" My jaw clenches and my nostrils widen.
"From time to time, you have to use your charisma for business and not just pleasure," Darius responds, his voice even, ignoring my irritation. "We'll figure out how many women will come alone, and then we'll ask them for brunch the next day."
"That would be suspicious," I interrupt.
"Not if we spread the word that you finally decided to get married and need a wife. Then they'll flock to you like moths to a flame."
He's trying to piss me off; I can see that. He knows I'll never get married and still maddens me with this idea. And now I not only have to spend the night of celebration looking for Beatrice Darrington instead of flirting with women and partying, but I also have to hint to most of them that I'm ready to settle down. Those women won't stop hitting on me long after the party is done.
I know what he's doing. It's a test. He wants to see if I'm ready to put business before pleasure. He’s trying to decide if I'm prepared to rule our company while he becomes the head ofSaint Philip, the most influential association of vampires in the world.
