“Kadence?”
“Yes, it’s me,” she whispered and wiped away the tear that slid down her cheek at the much-loved voice coming through the line.
“Oh, thank God,” Nathan breathed. “I’ve been so worried about you.”
Guilt filled her at the relief in his voice. “I’m sorry, I really am. I hope you know that.”
“It doesn’t matter. Just tell me where you are and I’ll come get you. We can forget all about this when you get home.”
Even if she did go home, she could never forget about any of this. “No, Nathan, I’m still not coming back. I… I’m doing this for me. Please understand, and don’t ask me to come back again, not now.”
“Kadence—”
“Listen to me, I didn’t call you to hear a lecture or to come home. I’m not coming back. I’m not going to marry someone I don’t love—”
“Then we will find you someone else!” he exploded.
She couldn’t tell him that there was no one else for her, not after Ronan. She rubbed at one of her temples as she tried to ease the headache pounding there before shaking her head to clear it of the absurd notion. Of course there could be someone else for her, eventually, maybe.
She told herself this, but her skin felt stretched so tight that she had the urge to tear it away from her, and her heart yearned to go back to him. Did she love Ronan? No, that couldn’t be possible. She’d only known him for a little over a week; it was impossible to fall in love with someone so fast. She kept telling herself this, but now that the possibility had taken hold it wouldn’t let go.
He was a vampire, but he was a good man. Strong and caring, he made her feel things no other man had ever made her feel. She knew vampires weren’t the enemies she’d always believed them to be, but to fall in love with one, to…
What? Settle down and marry him? She didn’t exactly see Ronan as the marrying kind, and just because he’d tossed out that eternity comment to her, it didn’t mean he wanted anything more with her. She was standing here after all when he could have made her stay. No, he would have never done that, she knew. But he could have asked her to stay, and he hadn’t.
Kadence kept that in mind as she inhaled a shuddery breath and focused on speaking with Nathan.
“I didn’t call to be talked into coming home or because of marriage. I called because…” She had no idea how to say to him what she wanted to say to him. She’d been trying to figure it out since she’d left Ronan behind, but it always sounded the same to her, ridiculous. “We have it wrong, Nathan,” she blurted.
Not exactly the smooth words she’d hoped to be able to come up with, but the truth.
“We have what wrong?” he demanded.
“The vampires, we have it wrong.”
“What are you talking about?”
She glanced over at Baldric when he stepped into her line of view and tapped his watch. This was never going to be elegant, it would never be received well, but she couldn’t leave here without at least trying to make a difference, and she was running out of time.
“Not all vampires are evil,” she said. “Some of them are good. Some of them are trying to do exactly what we are. They protect innocents from those vampires who kill—”
“Kadence—”
“Listen to me! It could save so many lives if you do! They could have killed you in that alley. They didn’t. They could have killed me. They didn’t!”
“You’re with the vampires who were in the alley?” he barked.
“No, not anymore. They set me free. I’m leaving, Nathan.”
“Did they twist your mind in some way? Where are you? Tell me, and we will get you help.”
“You know I’m not susceptible to their persuasion. No one twisted my mind. They opened it.”
Silence met her statement. Baldric tapped his watch faster.
“I have to go.”
“Did they hurt you?” Nathan asked.
“No. They knew who and what I was too, Nathan, and they let me go. Ronan would never hurt me.”
“Who the fuck is Ronan?”
She had to move the phone away from her ear as Nathan’s words reverberated through it.
“He’s… he’s… the one who set me free to live my dreams, and gave me the means to do so,” she finished lamely, knowing he was so much more than that to her.
“If he set you free, then he’s trying to kill you, Kadence. This world—”
“I know. It’s big, it’s cruel, and I have no idea about it.” Being in this airport had hammered that fact home. “But I’ll learn, just as I learned to walk and talk. Just as I’ve learned everything else. And I’m not alone; I have friends to help me through and money.”
“What friends do you have with you? How do you have money? Where can you go? You have no ID; you have nothing.”
“That’s not important. What is important is that you listen to me. Not all vampires are brutal killers; not all of them are our enemies.” A line was forming outside the gateway for her plane. Baldric had stopped tapping his watch and was coming toward her as the first person in line handed over their ticket. “Vampires and hunters can do good, together,” she said as she watched more people moving through the ticket line.
Her gaze went to the silver airplane outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. The setting sun lit the plane in a multitude of different colors and caused the windows of the plane to reflect the growing pink of the sky. That plane would take her from here and deliver her to the first stop on her journey.
Baldric stopped before her and pointed toward the shortening line. “I have to go, Nathan. I’ll be in touch again soon. Take care of yourself, and remember what I said. I love you.”
She flipped the phone closed before he could respond. Baldric took it from her and tossed it in a trashcan. “We have to go,” he said.
Lifting her bag from the floor, she walked with him toward the line.
***
Ronan leaned against the wall of the club to watch the humans grinding against each other. Saliva filled his mouth at the possibility of sinking his fangs into every one of their necks. Draining them all dry and leaving them nothing more than shriveled husks was the only thing he could think about doing right now.
Declan stepped in front of him, drawing his attention away from the crowd. “Perhaps you shouldn’t be here.”
Ronan straightened away from the wall. “And where should I be?”
“There are a lot of humans here.”
“There are, and they’re all prime targets for Joseph.”
And me. It was what Declan was thinking too, but he was wise enough not to say it.
A shifting behind Declan’s shoulder drew Ronan’s attention to the dance floor as Killean and Lucien cut across it toward them. Saxon followed behind, moving slower due to a woman with blue hair and another redheaded woman grinding against his sides. Saxon bestowed his charming smile on them, causing them to nearly swoon.
Ronan’s teeth ground together so forcefully, he thought he might shatter his fangs. Now was not the time for Saxon’s playboy shit.
Saxon finally succeeded in extricating himself from the women. Ronan’s attention was drawn away from them, and his desire to feast on their blood, when the distinct odor of garbage filled the air. Saxon’s head swiveled on his shoulders seconds before a Savage crashed into his side.
Ronan leapt forward, shoving his way through the crowd as the Savage propelled Saxon across ten feet of dance floor and into the exit door. The impact of their weight caused the door to burst open. They both tumbled outside and vanished from view. Ronan heedlessly shoved humans out of his way as he ran forward.
Never had he seen such a brazen attack from a Savage in public before. Some of the humans were still staring at the closing metal door when he pushed them out of his way. A few were creeping closer, trying to see what was going on outside. They scrambled away when he snarled at them before plunging out the door.
He didn’t get a chance to look around bef
ore he was assailed with the stench of garbage and something hit him in the side of his head. Staggering to the side, the scent of his blood filled his nostrils as the glasses he’d been wearing fell to the ground. He spun, lashing out at whoever had hit him and catching them under the jaw with an uppercut that shattered bone with a crack.
He heard the scuffle of another fight, but before he could look for the source, a whistling sound came from behind him. Throwing his arm up, he caught the blade of the sword that would have sliced his head from his body. The blade bit into his palm, slicing deep as he yanked the sword from the grasp of the Savage wielding it.
His blood coating the weapon made it slippery as he spun it around and stabbed it through the Savage’s throat. Lunging forward, he drove it into the wall, shattering bricks and breaking the tip of the blade off. The Savage clawed at the weapon as Ronan twisted it deeper and yanked it to the side, severing the vamp’s head from his shoulders.
Ronan spun to face three Savages racing at him, their shoulders hunched up and their fangs fully extended. He braced his legs apart and grinned as the first one ran into him. He’d been itching for a fight, and these assholes had delivered it to him.
Capturing the Savage by the shoulders, Ronan lifted him up and slammed him facedown onto the pavement as the second one launched onto him. The thin thread of control he’d been retaining over himself shattered. Red shaded his vision, and his fangs ached to be buried in someone’s throat. Death was the only thing that would fill the hole Kadence’s leaving had torn into him.
He didn’t recognize the sound that came out of him as he stomped his foot onto the back of the one he’d driven into the ground. He wrapped his hand around the throat of the one clawing at his back and tore the vampire’s head off with his other hand.
The next Savage spun two daggers through his fingers while he eyed Ronan, looking for a weakness. Blood dripped from Ronan’s hand as he stepped onto the one still lying on the pavement, unable to move due to his broken back. He stalked forward, ignoring the spinning blades the Savage swung back and forth at him. The daggers whistled as they sliced through the air in front of his face, but he didn’t ease in his pursuit.
The Savage backed steadily away, his eagerness for a fight lessening when Ronan grinned at him. The Savage swung at him. Ronan leaned away from the blade as it sliced so close to his nose he felt the nick of the blade across his skin. When the Savage swung at him again, Ronan clutched his arm and brought it down over his knee, snapping it in half.
The Savage howled and stumbled back as Ronan pounced on him, sinking his fangs into his throat. Putrid blood filled his mouth and he spit it out. The Savage drove the next dagger at his eye, but Ronan clasped hold of the wrist, halting it before it could blind him.
He bared down on the Savage’s wrist, shattering bone and causing the knife to clatter onto the pavement. The Savage gagged when Ronan punched him in the face, knocking his fangs down his throat. Before the Savage could react, Ronan seized his throat and ripped backward, tearing it out.
He spun the vamp’s head around and tore it from his shoulders before tossing it aside. He whirled to find the others entangled with a handful of Savages. Ronan raced toward the one climbing over Saxon’s back and wrenched the Savage away. The vampire’s startled red eyes met his before Ronan drove his fist through the vamp’s chest and ripped out his heart. He crushed the still beating organ in his hand as the vamp fell before him.
The scent of the blood and the thrill of the kill had his pulse racing and his temples pulsing with the adrenaline coursing through him. More. He needed more death, more blood, more of this mindlessness. It was the only thing that made any sense to him anymore.
He pulled another Savage off Killean and twisted its head completely around. Killean ran a hand through his hair, pushing it away from his face and streaking more blood over him.
“Ronan—”
Footsteps silenced Killean and drew Ronan’s attention to the end of the alley. A crossbow bolt fired out of the darkness. He sprinted to the side to avoid taking the hit as more were fired at them. Saxon cursed as one of the bolts hit him in the upper shoulder.
Ronan bounded down the alley toward the half a dozen hunters emerging from the shadows. The hunter’s blood wouldn’t be putrid. No, it would be delicious, powerful. It would finally satisfy the unending thirst he’d been dealing with his entire life.
A small part of him still recognized that once he gave into the bloodlust, it would never be eased, that it would haunt him until he was destroyed. The far larger part didn’t care as he slammed into the first hunter. Ronan struck the hunter in the nose, shattering it.
The enticing aroma of the hunter’s blood filled his nostrils and caused his veins to burn with hunger. The hunter’s startled blue eyes met his. Ronan hesitated when he recognized it was Kadence’s brother, but then he heard the release mechanism of a crossbow and a bolt slammed into his shoulder. Ronan grinned as he dragged the man beneath him.
CHAPTER 31
“What happened to you guys?”
Ronan didn’t bother to respond as Lucien strolled across the grounds toward them. His body language remained casual, but his gaze raked Ronan’s blood-soaked frame from head to toe and back again before his black eyes darted nervously to the others.
“Savages and hunters,” Saxon replied.
“Looks like a bloodbath.”
“It was,” Ronan grated.
“It was ugly,” Declan said.
“I can tell,” Lucien remarked.
“How are things here?” Ronan demanded.
“I just returned with everyone,” Lucien replied. “The recruits are settling into the carriage house and the guest house. All of them decided to come.”
“Good.” Ronan turned away from him. His body still thrummed with his need to kill; he hadn’t had enough of it tonight, but that would have to wait until their next hunt. He could feel the eyes of the others boring into his back as he stalked toward the hideous house that had nothing on the hideousness creeping into his veins.
He threw open the door and walked into the foyer, pausing when the aroma of vanilla drifted to him. Kadence’s lingering scent caused a stabbing pain to shoot through him as he strode toward the stairs.
Something shifted in the shadows and Baldric emerged from the area of the kitchen. Ronan’s hand fell onto the banister at the same time his foot hit the first stair. Baldric’s eyes widened on him and he stumbled back. Ronan could only stare at him as he tried to figure out why the man was back here.
Had she returned to her brother? Had she been trying to spy on them and betrayed him, or had she run away from Marta and Baldric?
“Where. Is. She?” Ronan bit out even as he realized that none of his questions were right.
He turned away before Baldric could respond and followed the enticing lure of her scent toward the library. Every step had him feeling more keyed up than the one before it. “Ronan—”
He didn’t look back at Declan, but he heard his footsteps as Declan hurried after him.
“Ronan, you’re covered in blood. Some of it is her brother’s.”
Ronan ignored him as he stepped into the doorway of the library to find Kadence lying on one of the couches with her head resting on her hand and her eyes closed as she slept. Her silvery hair cascaded around her shoulders in waves. The sight of her calmed him even as his body roused to her nearness and his fangs lengthened in anticipation of tasting her.
“Ronan—”
“Leave us be,” Ronan commanded. Spinning, he grabbed the doors. Declan’s troubled eyes held his as he slid the doors closed, shutting Declan out.
“Ronan?”
He turned toward the beautiful sound of her voice to find her eyebrows in her hairline as she surveyed him. The rays of the moon spilling through the windows were the only illumination in the room as she rose. The increased beat of her heart sounded in his ears; her hand went to her mouth.
“What happened? Are you injured
?” Kadence took a step toward him and froze when he remained unmoving and staring at her as if he didn’t know what to make of her. “Ronan?”
“What are you doing here?” he grated out.
Kadence didn’t know how to respond, what to say to this man standing across from her. No, not a man. Right now, he was every inch the demon that had created the vampire line. Blood streaked him from head to toe. It coated his hair, making it stand up from where he’d been running his hand through it.
His torn shirt exposed a swath of his chest that hadn’t been spared any blood either. The hole in his upper chest near his shoulder oozed blood, but most of the blood covering him was not his own. He didn’t have enough injuries for that to be possible.
She’d never been afraid of Ronan before, but he looked Savage, and damn if he didn’t smell like one of those murderous things too. Her nose wrinkled at the stench wafting off him. She felt every beat of her heart against her ribs.
What had happened to him while she’d been gone? What had she returned to?
“What are you doing here?” he asked again.
The tone of his voice, the way the shadows caressed his body, and the fiery glow of his red eyes caused her to gulp and wipe her palms on her pants.
“I… I came back.”
“Why?” he demanded as he prowled forward.
She couldn’t stop herself from stepping back as he glided across the room with lethal grace. He didn’t come at her; instead, he circled her like a shark circling its prey. She was nothing more than the guppy.
“Ronan, what happened tonight?” she asked, unable to keep the tremor from her voice.
“Why are you here, Kadence?”
The hair on her nape rose when he uttered the words from behind her. Why did he smell like those Savages who had attacked in the alley? Was it because it was Savage blood on him, or was it something more? Had he given in? Before, she never would have believed it possible; now she shared the room with a lethal predator, and she wasn’t sure she knew this man.
Eternally Bound (The Alliance, Book 1) Page 21
