Dark Needs at Night's Edge by Kresley Cole

wasn’t even halfway there.
    â€œI know you hate Nikolai and me for what we did to you,” he began. “But we can’t take it back.”
    What did Nikolai and Murdoch do? These undercurrents, the tensions, the unspoken words—she had to admit all of this was fascinating to her.
    â€œNo matter how you treat us, Nikolai won’t give up on this. Not until he’s convinced you’re beyond salvation.”
    Conrad smiled, his teeth still bloodied, fangs prominent—the most menacing smile Néomi had ever seen. As she shivered, he said, “Convince him then, brother. There’s no delivering me from being evil.”

6
    W hen does the goddamned sun set in this place? He checks the sun’s progress—no different from twenty seconds ago—then studies his brother’s tired visage.
    â€œCon, I can’t convince Nikolai to give up on you, not when I won’t,” Murdoch says. “Just cooperate with us. Life can be good again.”
    Murdoch is much altered from how he’d been as a human. Back then, he’d been lighthearted. Women had found him charming, and he’d had few cares past servicing every pretty maid within a hundred-mile radius.
    All I had was cares, no time for women, and a distinct lack of charm.
    â€œTell me what you’ve been doing these three hundred years. I haven’t seen a glimpse of you since the night right after you died and rose.”
    He hates to be reminded of that. Swords in hand, he and Sebastian had been defending their four gravely ill sisters and father from marauding Russian soldiers. Two against battalions; they’d had no chance. Nikolai and Murdoch had returned home to find five dead from plague and two brothers mortally wounded, barely clinging to life.
    Unconscious, he hadn’t been able to fight off Nikolai when he’d dripped his vampiric blood down his throat. He’d woken a monster.
    Neither Sebastian nor he had wanted to be turned, but then he’d had quite a bit more reason to resent the betrayal. Changed to the very thing I’d been conditioned to hate and trained to destroy…
    â€œDon’t want to tell me?” Murdoch says. “Then I’ll leave tonight to dig on my own, now that I know what you were—”
    â€œWhat I am . I’m still a killer for hire.”
    â€œLook at yourself.” Murdoch seems to stifle his exasperation. “Who’d hire you?”
    His face heats. “Fuck off, Murdoch.” His brother makes him sound like a washed-up failure. Which he doesn’t give a damn about—except that he doesn’t want the female to believe this. The one who isn’t real. The one I’m about to see .
    Almost sunset…any second now. At the window she flickers in the last of the muted light. He begins to make out a more distinct shape.
    â€œVery well,” Murdoch says as he stands. “Con, you can resist us because you hate what we are or because you resent our actions. But don’t fight just because you’re prideful and stubborn.” He gives a grin, a hint of the old Murdoch. “What am I saying? If you weren’t prideful and stubborn, you wouldn’t be Conrad Wroth.” He traces out.
    Shortly after, Sebastian enters and turns on the overhead light. The glare blazes, and she disappears.
    â€œTurn it off!”
    â€œWhat? Why?”
    â€œMy eyes pain me. Do it.”
    With a shrug, Sebastian flips off the switch, then sits with his long legs stretched out in front of him. “I understand the anger you feel for Nikolai and Murdoch,” Sebastian begins in a measured tone. “I hated them too, you know. For so long, I yearned for revenge. But life can be good again. Better than ever before.”
    â€œAccording to you? There’s nothing wrong with my life.” Everything’s wrong with my life…. How much longer till I can see her?
    â€œThen you’ll like it even better sharing