Fractured (Vampire Awakenings, Book 6)

by Brenda K. Davies

  Flames were licking over the tiny buildings that were no longer cute to her when David stalked across the parking lot toward her. The slope of his shoulders and his pinched face spoke of his exhaustion and sadness before he drew her into his arms and held her against him.

  “This is all my fault. I never should have returned to that house,” she said. “We never should have stopped here for the night.”

  “This is not your fault,” he said. “This is their fault. Those vampires were weak and twisted. You never could have seen this coming. You never could have guessed it was an old friend of your father who turned you in and would know where to possibly look for you again. There is no way you could have expected this.”

  She melted against him as she absorbed his words. She knew they were true, but she still couldn’t help the tug of guilt pulling at her conscience.

  “Be happy again, Mia,” he whispered in her ear.

  The ragged sorrow in his voice had her digging her fingers into his back. “I will be,” she promised, though tears burned her eyes.

  He gave her a big squeeze before releasing her and stepping back to open the door to the Rover. She slid into the passenger seat and watched while the flames leapt higher into the air as they consumed the tiny cottages. Her chest constricted and she closed her eyes against the flames, but she could still see the light of them dancing against her closed lids. No matter how much better she’d been doing, she couldn’t stand the sight of those flames.

  Mia opened her eyes and focused on David when he opened the driver’s door. “I’m getting you out of here right now,” he muttered, and jumped behind the wheel.

  “I’m okay,” she murmured. “I’m okay.”

  He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “I know you are.”

  David released her to start the Rover and drove out of the parking lot. He called Aiden as he turned back the way they had come, heading toward New York. Aiden told him that Ronan would take the Rover to search it and find the tracking device. Someone was already on their way to speak with the family at the farmhouse, but David doubted the family would remember anything about their encounter with Miles. The family had simply been programmed to report to Miles when a stranger arrived, and most likely to forget it afterward too.

  David kept a white-knuckled grip on the wheel as he constantly searched for someone else following them. The rising sun did little to ease his stress. While they remained in this vehicle, he wouldn’t relax. He felt as if eyes followed him every step of the way, and he couldn’t be sure someone else wasn’t monitoring the tracking device.

  He would have found and gotten rid of the thing, but Ronan wanted it untouched. David wasn’t going to argue with him, not if it meant helping to finally put an end to this shit with the purebreds. Far too many of his loved ones were affected by what was happening in the vampire world now.

  On the side of Interstate 84, he pulled into a rest area and parked behind a black Honda Civic. The driver’s door of the Civic opened and Aiden climbed out. Brian stepped out of the passenger side. David opened his door, exited the vehicle, and walked around the front of the SUV to help Mia out. He tucked Mia protectively against his side before walking over to meet Aiden and Brian.

  “You two okay?” Aiden demanded, his green eyes fierce as he scanned the parking lot.

  “Yes,” David said.

  Aiden glanced between the two of them before nodding. “Brian’s going to take the Rover. I’m coming with you two. We’ll meet Lucien at another rest stop and switch vehicles again there. After that we’ll meet Declan, then Killean, and then Ronan would like to talk with you both. If anyone tracked you here and tries to follow us, we’ll lose them by the time we’re done.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” David said, then tossed Brian his keys. “Be careful.”

  “Always am,” Brian replied and strode toward the Rover.

  David watched as Brian pulled out of the rest area. A silver Corolla pulled out behind him, and both vehicles merged onto the highway.

  “Is that one of Ronan’s men?” David asked Aiden, gesturing at the Toyota.

  “Yes, it’s Saxon,” Aiden replied. “He’ll follow Brian the entire time.”

  David glanced around the parking lot. The sun shone brightly down on them, and humans walked back and forth to the brick building with the bathrooms, but he still felt far too exposed. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Walking over to the Honda, David opened the back door for Mia and waited for her to climb in. He slid in next to her and closed the door. Aiden started the car, pulled out of their spot, and merged onto the highway.

  “It will be a little bit of time, but you’ll be able to go home again,” Aiden said as he glanced at David in the rearview mirror.

  “I can’t wait,” Mia whispered as she stared at the scenery flashing by.

  EPILOGUE

  Mia sat in the cradle of David’s legs as she stared up at the night sky through the plate glass window of their hotel room. His warmth enveloped her, and love swelled in her chest when he bent his head to kiss her neck.

  It had been a month since the incident at the motel, and tomorrow they would finally make the long journey home. She couldn’t wait, but while they were still in Alaska, she hoped to get in one more viewing of the Aurora Borealis.

  They’d been lucky enough to see the Northern Lights a few times over the three weeks they’d been there. It had been everything she’d dreamed it would be and more, as she’d had David standing by her side when it occurred.

  She nestled closer to him just as the first wave of green light moved across the sky. She sat up in his arms, hitting him excitedly with one hand while she pointed with the other. “Look!” she cried.

  “I see,” David murmured, smiling as Mia’s face lit with joy. She bounced in his arms as excitedly as she had the first time she’d witnessed the phenomena. All he’d wanted was for her to find happiness again after the motel, and she had. He relished every one of her smiles and excited cries as the eerie light filling the sky played over her delicate features.

  Ronan and his men had no luck learning anything more from the family at the farm or the tracking device. Declan had told him it was a simple tracking device, one meant to link up with someone’s phone. Most likely it had been linked to Miles’s phone. However, that phone had been destroyed during David’s fight with Miles.

  Ronan didn’t think there was any reason to believe someone else may know who Mia was, and he believed any direct threat to her had been eradicated with Miles, but David had decided she needed a break and not to return home right away. Instead, he’d arranged to bring Mia there. Deciding against airports or anywhere else public for the time being, they’d driven cross-country into Canada and continued on to Alaska. They would be driving home again too.

  Knowing it was Miles who had originally turned her in eased David’s fears for Mia. He couldn’t wait to return to Maine, settle into their lives together, and build their home.

  “I love you, Mia,” he whispered.

  She smiled even more radiantly when she turned to face him. “I love you too. No matter where we are, I know I’m home if you’re with me.”

  David squeezed her in his arms as he kissed her tenderly. “So do I,” he murmured against her lips.

  THE END

  Read on for an exclusive excerpt from Eternally Bound.

  This is the first book in the spinoff to the Vampire Awakenings Series and is releasing March 28th 2017!

  Eternally Bound (The Alliance, Book 1) will focus on Ronan and is now available for pre-order everywhere ebooks are sold.

  Look for book 7 in The Vampire Awakenings Series coming in 2017.

  Stay in touch on updates and new releases from the author by joining the mailing list!

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  ETERNA
LLY BOUND EXCERPT

  Ronan’s gaze narrowed on the woman who emerged from the hallway to stand at the edge of the dance floor. Her silver blonde hair, dangling in a braid over her shoulder to her left breast, reflected the colors flashing over her in an array of reds, blues, and yellows. The lights played over her delicate features and lit the awe on her face as she stared at the humans.

  A smile tugged at the corners of her full mouth as a group danced by close to her. Many of the people below displayed more flesh than they covered, but Ronan found his gaze riveted on her fully clothed body. She wore a pair of form-fitting black pants tucked into ankle-high, black boots. Her long black coat pushed back as she settled her hands on her hips and tilted her head to watch the crowd. Beneath the coat, she wore a black turtleneck and jeans that hugged her breasts, slender waist, and rounded hips. She looked to be a good five inches shorter than him at about five-seven.

  Her smile slid away, and her hands fell from her hips as she surveyed the crowd with a far more serious eye. Then, her head tilted back, her gaze locked onto his, and he was treated to a full-on view of her striking beauty.

  Ronan clenched the bar as, for the first time in centuries, lust slammed into him. The image of her naked body beneath his, moving in a sensuous dance against his sheets, caused his cock to harden.

  He felt like he had when he’d been twelve and first discovering the joys of the female body, before the pleasure of sex had faded away over the many centuries of his death-filled life. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d desired a woman, but he knew it had never happened this strongly before.

  “Hello, Sugar,” Declan purred from beside him. “I think she might make a very tasty treat.”

  Ronan didn’t have to look at him to know Declan had also spotted the woman. In a crowd of nearly a hundred humans, she stood out as clearly as the full moon from the stars. His teeth clamped together as Declan leaned forward, his gaze intent on the woman.

  “Don’t,” Ronan snarled, half-tempted to throw his friend over the railing.

  He had no idea where the impulse had come from. He was not an easy man, he was not one who took disobedience well, but he was tolerant. He’d learned long ago that giving into anger and having a temper were pointless. However, with the way Declan was looking at her as if he could see straight through her clothes, Ronan wanted to kill him.

  A dark auburn eyebrow rose as Declan’s head turned slowly toward him. “Claiming her for yourself tonight?”

  “We have a mission,” Ronan bit out. The thick sunglasses may be shading his eyes, but he knew Declan was aware of the fact he remained focused on the woman.

  “After the mission then?”

  Ronan tore his attention away from the woman to look at Declan. His friend’s casual air vanished, he straightened away from the railing and took an abrupt step back. Ronan’s gaze was drawn back to the dance floor when the sharp stench of garbage wafted through the air.

  The crowd of people flowed away from the corner as Joseph glided out of the shadows. Yet even as the humans moved away from him, the women and some of the men were drawn closer to Joseph, practically tripping over themselves to get at him. A vampire’s innate ability to lure someone closer drew the humans to Joseph like flies to honey, yet their instincts told them this was no honey but a Venus Flytrap set to spring and devour them whole.

  Unfortunately for these humans, their desire and Joseph’s lure won out over their flight or fight instincts.

  Ronan’s gaze darted to the woman only twenty feet away from Joseph. His fangs burst free when he saw the woman’s gaze lock on Joseph as he strolled through the crowd. Unlike the other females though, this one did not saunter toward the vampire. Instead, her eyes narrowed and her hand went to something at her side.

  Ronan’s eyes narrowed at the unusual reaction. The dark-haired, male hunter appeared again at the edge of the dance floor, drawing the woman’s gaze to him. For a second, Ronan watched as the two locked eyes and then the male was moving toward her so fast that the humans’ eyes didn’t register his passing. The born hunters may not be vampires, but they certainly weren’t entirely human either. The fights he’d had against them hadn’t been easily won.

  Ten feet before the hunter reached the woman, he stopped in the middle of the dance floor. His head swiveled and his nostrils flared as his gaze locked on Joseph. The hunter’s eyes darted between the woman and Joseph before he closed the distance to the woman.

  Ronan couldn’t hear what they said to each other over the thumping music, but when the man grabbed the woman’s arm, she yanked it away from him and planted her hands on her hips. A low growl rumbled up Ronan’s throat when the man reached for her again. Joseph was right there, yet he found himself wanting to go for the hunter. To break his hand for daring to touch her when she obviously didn’t welcome it.

  The woman’s hands moved through the air as she spoke; the man’s followed suit as they faced off. Then, the crowd parted and Joseph moved within feet of them. They both stopped speaking as they focused on Joseph. Their faces filled with an intense hatred that Ronan suspected ran deeper than just a hunter’s normal animosity toward vampires.

  When Joseph was out of sight, the woman and man rejoined the other hunters standing beside the floor. The woman moved with the same lethal speed as the man, confirming what she was.

  “A female hunter,” he murmured.

  “I thought they were a myth,” Declan chuckled.

  “Apparently not,” Ronan said as his gaze drifted back to Joseph. It didn’t matter who or what the woman was, all that mattered was ending this tonight. He only hoped the hunters stayed out of his fucking way.

  He didn’t want to have to kill them too.

  Eternally Bound is now available for pre-order

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