Where previously he had strained till the restraints tore through his skin, he now tore free with the mildest effort. Lucian in me had been power. But me in Lucian made him invincible. A power greater than any original.

He blew away from the clingy restraints till he came to a sudden halt inches from Vanessa's weary face. I glanced down at her feared expression with some satisfaction. It was great having the tables turned on the enemy.

Her eyes widened as she put two and two together to come up with the reason for Lucian's miraculous strength. Dropping her gaze to my prone figure on the floor I realised the same time we all did that our weaknesses lied in the prone figure on the floor. Kill the physical embodiment of myself and I would surely die too.

The alarm rang through Lucian vibrating down to my very core. I felt his anxiety throbe with the blood pulsatimg through his veins. Anger unlike any before flushed through him painting me in the same crimson shade of red.

Canines elongated and features contorted. Lucian meant action and there was nothing that could possibly stop him. Nothing perhaps but me. I felt his grip land hard on her wrist crushing into her radius and ulna combined.

The shrill cry that emitted from her lips should have been music for my ears but it wasn't. I ached with pain for her. It was not like the vampires I encountered outside. Them I knew would survive their encounter with me. But Vanessa would never survive an encounter with us.

Did I really want that for her?

I may have stood undecided when the push came to shove but Lucian didn't balk in his intentions. I looked past the peripheral of his vision to stare at Damon. He looked as aghast at Lucian as I now felt myself. I didn't want this for him. Vanessa was the mother of his child. Even if she had murdered her own father and numerous unborn besides.

The later thought chased away my wavering doubts. Thinking of all those unborns. Children that belonged to Lucian. My Lucian... and therefore my children. With a surge of intense anger I didn't know I was capable of, I whipped my awareness through Lucian's focusing on his hold on her with an intensity that saw to my will being exercised through his enhanced strength. The hand moved up from her crushed arm crushing the humerus, scapula and then the clavicie before I focused on the throbing veins at the base of her throat as blood gushed out from the broken skin and torn flesh beneath. My thirst grew for the enticing blood of an original.

As one Lucian and I leaned forward his teeth sinking straight into the visible vein. The gush of blood was like a rush of narcotics. Stealing my awareness of our surroundings entirely.

Thankfully Lucian kept his wits about him as he kept his tight hold on her trashing body all the while swinging us out of harm from her attacking family. Their blows continued to miss us by inches to land instead on the trashing Vanessa. She was being pummelled by her own as much as devoured whole by Lucian and me.

Damon stayed mostly with my fallen body keeping me safe from the attackers.

Then I felt the last pint of her blood drain out of her body. There was no more left. Bitter resentment of a the fall from the high it gave me jolted me back into awareness of the present.

The crack was loud enough to be heard by all in the small confines of the chamber. As one all movements stilled and all eyes came to rest of Lucian and his tenacious hold on the now lifeless Vanessa. But it wasn't enough to simply drain her dry and then snap head. So Lucian did the necessary to ensure that she was truly dead. With a vicious tug that I felt wrenching her head away from her body, he decapitated her with unseemly ease.

I stood panting within him. Not from his exertion but from my own. An exertion I wasn't even aware I had been undertaking. But I felt the strain now. The urge to get back into my own body. Add to that the roiling feeling at the pit of my essence and it was turmoil enough to send me over the edge. So I did.

I blacked out.

Only to become aware again in my own pain wrecked body.