Page 46 of Bane of Hate and Silver (Primordial Inheritance #1)

If Jules’s heart had been beating it would have stopped completely.

“That’s the murderer,” Gabriel hissed.

Jules barely heard him. The vampire on the dance floor mirrored her frozen expression. He had her eyes, her hair, even her lips.

Gabriel stepped out in front of both women, and in a flash, punched Jules’s twin brother square in his matching nose.

Nick’s face jerked to the side, but he barely felt the broken nose. “Gabriel, stop!” The person Nick thought was long ago dead, shouted at the man who had just punched him in the face.

Nick barely registered Eileen running up and putting a hand on his assailant’s chest, holding him back from continuing the assault.

He was too focused on the tiny vampire running toward him to even address the blood gushing from his nose.

Before he knew what was happening, he was holding his sister in his arms, his twin.

The part of him that had been missing for centuries. His arms grasp her desperately.

After a few seconds, that felt like years and yet the briefest of moments, he set her back on her feet and looked down at her. She was just as she had been the last time he’d seen her, except she was a vampire. Four-hundred years and the memory of her face hadn’t faded.

“Juliana?” he asked breathlessly, his hands in her hair, hers on the sides of his neck.

“How?” she asked him.

“Well, I’m the living dead,” he teased with a wide smile. He didn’t think he’d ever been this happy before. “As are you, obviously.”

She punched him on the shoulder hard. He flinched but the identical smiles on their faces widened.

Red tears of joy streaked down his sister’s face. “You disappeared,” she said in a quieter tone.

“I came back for you. As soon as I knew that I wouldn’t accidentally kill you, I came back,” he said. “But they told me that Aunt Millie had been murdered. And that you…” his voice trailed off. He thought she was dead. He never would have left England if he hadn’t.

“Jules, what are you doing?” The male said as he and Eileen approached the twins.

“This is the murderer!” Gabriel shouted.

“Murder?” Nick asked. Looking at the man.

“You’re the Fort Miles Phantom.” Jules took a step back from him, her expression one of confusion and pain.

“That’s what they call me,” Nick admitted easily.

Eileen looked shocked while Jules was looking at him like their parents had died for a second time.

“Julie…” The joke fell from his next comment as he put two and two together. She’d come for Eileen. If they were in the same coven, then she didn’t drink from humans either. It made sense. She would be one of those vampires. The ones that abstained.

“Jules,” she corrected, the look on her face hardening into resolve. She looked from him, toward Eileen, and then the other guy.

“Jules, let’s go,” the guy said, stretching out a hand for her to accept. Nick felt panic grip his un-beating heart. She couldn’t leave like this. This couldn’t be the end of this insanely miraculous second chance.

Jules’s heart was breaking as she took Gabriel’s hand and turned from the one person she’d always loved above all others. The other half of herself.

She felt a hand grasp her arm. He spun her, his grip tightening. “Don’t leave me. Please, Jules.” The tone of voice Nick was using meant that he felt as if his life was being ripped apart, again.

“Jules…” she heard Gabriel's voice call, but it felt far away.

Looking up into her brother’s eyes, pure silver, like her own, she saw only him. His face was just as she remembered it. He still looked like an angel, or maybe he was a ghost now.

“Please…” he begged softly.

As he held her gaze, she saw all the gentleness and love she remembered so clearly. This was her twin, her blood. She loved him. Despite all of his faults, she always had. He was a murderer, but so was she. Yes, she’d found a way to control it, but could she blame him if he had not?

As she worked through the tidal wave of emotions drowning her, she heard Gabriel walk out from behind her. In the blink of an eye, he was standing threateningly in front of Nick.

“Get your hand off of her,” he said firmly.

“Gabriel,” she said, throwing an arm across his chest, restraining him.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Nick spat.

“Back down. Both of you, now!” Jules ordered.

Her brothers of blood and choice took one step back each. Jules looked around them, they were drawing quite a bit of unwanted attention. A woman was approaching them, her arms crossed, looking livid.

“We can talk about all of this back at the hotel.” Gabriel reached out and grabbed Jules’s wrist. “The sun’s coming up and we’re making a scene. Let’s go.”

“Really Nick…” the irate looking woman began.

“Cleo, my dear.” Nick turned towards the stunning woman, throwing an arm over Jules’s shoulder, pulling her away from Gabriel’s grasp. “Have you met my sister? As in Biologically?”

The woman stopped in front of them, tapping her long nails against her hips in irritation. “The twin that died in a fire?”

“That’s the one.” Nick beamed.

“Hmmm…” Cleo pressed her lips together but said nothing.

Nick rolled his eyes. “We’re going, Cleo.” Nick released Jules, leaned forward, and kissed the woman on her upturned cheek. “I’m sorry.”

“I bet you are,” she replied sarcastically, pointing to the door with one neon painted nail.

Gabriel took another step back, putting an arm over Eileen’s shoulders and guiding her from the bar.

Jules’s hand found its way into Nick’s. The distinct feeling that if she let him go, he may just disappear into thin air, haunted her. Phantom or not, she wouldn’t go through the pain of losing him for a second time.

He looked down at their hands a moment and then whispered in her ear. “Did you miss me?”

“Every day.” Hand in hand, Jules left the vampire bar, her life forever altered.