Eternally Bound (The Alliance, Book 1)

by Brenda K. Davies

  “Holy shit.” He ran a hand through his disordered hair before tugging at the ends of it. “Working together is easier said than done, Kadence. The elders—”

  “Won’t understand this, I know, but you have to. You’re the leader, Nathan. If we don’t work together, if we don’t stop fighting vampires who aren’t our enemies, we’ll all be destroyed. I think this warehouse proves there is something horrible in the works right now.”

  Nathan’s eyes were haunted when they met hers. “It’s more than just the elders. Yes, we were wrong about some things, but there are other strongholds around the world. There are others with us who will not understand this or agree to it. Everyone in our stronghold wants to change our location, and I have agreed to it.”

  She ignored the twinge of sadness his words caused her. She should have known they would decide to do that once they’d learned of her fate. “I would never reveal where it is,” she murmured.

  “I know, but it doesn’t matter. They don’t feel safe, and I can’t have that. They’re in the process of moving as we speak.”

  “I see.”

  “How did you escape, Kadence?”

  She smiled at him. “Planning,” she replied and gave him the shortened rundown on her method.

  “Smart,” he murmured.

  “Determined,” she replied. “Nothing is ever easy, Nathan, not in our worlds, but the hunters have followed our family for years, and for more reasons than we were the strongest line. We are born leaders who can do anything we set our minds to. The hunters believe things are one way, and we’ve always accepted it, but you will make them see that things must change if we are all to survive.”

  He opened his mouth before closing it again. His head tilted to the side as he studied her. “We’ve been together our whole lives, but I’m not sure I ever knew you. A part of you would have died if you stayed in the stronghold.”

  “This was the path I was meant to take in life, and I truly believe that. It’s more than seeing things more clearly now, like this place, but I also see them differently.”

  “I can understand that,” he said.

  Ronan strode over to them and slid his arm around her waist as he handed Nathan a bottle of gasoline with a rag hanging out of the top. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Nathan took the bottle and glanced between the two of them. “We have much to discuss when this is over.”

  “We do,” Ronan agreed. He removed his arm from her waist and turned to face her. She’d come armed with stakes and a crossbow, but he pulled out another crossbow and a lethal-looking switchblade knife. He handed them both to her. “I know you won’t return to the vehicle, and I’d prefer to have you where I can see you, but don’t you let anything that comes out of that building anywhere near you. The fire and the sun will take care of most of them before they can get close to you, and I will take care of anything else.”

  She nodded and he clasped the lapel of her coat. Pulling her closer, he kissed the end of her nose before his forehead fell briefly against hers and he inhaled her fragrant scent. Every instinct he had said to take her from here before this started.

  He couldn’t, he knew, but allowing Kadence to embrace who she was becoming may be his undoing. She wrapped her hands around his wrists as she lifted her lips to his. I love you.

  The words were a soothing caress that came from her mind and whispered into his. I love you too, he told her.

  Lifting his head, he kissed her again before releasing her. “I don’t want you in the shadows,” he said as he led her toward the edge of the small clearing surrounding the crumpling building. The woods had crept in to reclaim most of their land, but there were still some open patches. “As soon as that building is on fire, get in the sunlight.”

  “I will,” she promised and stroked the thick muscles in his forearm when his body vibrated with tension.

  “Don’t get out of the sunlight.”

  “I won’t.”

  His gaze remained latched on her, his eyes turning redder with every passing second. She knew that color wasn’t entirely because of his concern for her, but also because of the impending battle. She could feel his growing excitement over what was about to unfold. Their bond would keep him from turning Savage, but she’d never be able to completely ease the compulsion to kill from him, and she didn’t want to. She loved him for who he was, a powerful warrior.

  Nathan stepped beside them and rested his hand on her shoulder. Kadence grasped his hand and tears burned her eyes at the connection. He squeezed her fingers before releasing her.

  He moved swiftly forward with Ronan and the others. Kadence remained in the tree line with Declan and Saxon, watching as half of the hunters and three vampires approached the warehouse. A clammy sweat coated her skin and her heart raced as Ronan and Nathan crept up to the backside of the building.

  The strengthening rays warmed Ronan’s skin as Lucien and Killean broke off to head around the building. Nathan stayed by his side as he reached the warehouse. Turning, bricks bit into his back when he pressed it against the wall and lit the rag sticking out of the bottle he held. Nathan did the same with his bottle.

  Rising to his feet, Ronan used his fist to smash the board out of the window and tossed the bottle inside before Nathan threw his in. The crack of more boards breaking sounded around the warehouse before the first startled cry pierced the air.

  Retreating from the building, Ronan fell back as the screams within rose. Declan led Kadence out of the shade of the trees to stand twenty feet behind him. Saxon moved forward to join the circle near the front of the building. From his spot, Ronan couldn’t see the hunters guarding the front.

  Flames shot out of a lower window as the first tendril of smoke spiraled from the roof. The back doors burst open and a rush of Savages poured out to take their chances with the sun instead of the flames. Some of them didn’t make it ten feet before they shrieked and fell to the ground. They wailed as the sun blistered their skin and smoke poured from them. Others made it to the circle where they were taken out by a hunter or vampire.

  Ronan seized the first one coming at him and threw him to the ground before grabbing the next two. He tossed one of them onto the ground before tearing the head from the first. Placing his foot into the back of the one he’d thrown down, he ripped the heart out of the next Savage before finishing off the one pinned beneath him.

  From behind him, a bolt whistled past his ear and embedded into the heart of a Savage racing toward him with smoke billowing off his body. The impact of the bolt through his heart threw the Savage back and he fell to the ground, dead. Ronan glanced over his shoulder as Kadence lowered her crossbow and grinned at him.

  She reloaded her weapon and spun to take out another Savage barreling toward her brother. Nathan gave her a startled look before returning to the fight.

  The next Savage Ronan captured had flames shooting from his eyes when he tore its head off and tossed it aside. One of the hunters on the side of the building fell beneath the weight of three Savages who were barreling toward the woods. Saxon clasped the hunter’s hand and yanked him to his feet as flames and smoke trailed behind the escapees.

  The hunter turned to follow them, but Ronan’s bellow froze him in place. “Do not break formation!”

  The hunter glanced after the Savages. If they made it to cover and put out the flames, they were still less of a threat than the mass fleeing the warehouse. Ronan had just grabbed another Savage when the clatter of shattering glass and wood sounded. Driving the Savage into the ground, he lifted his head to look up as vampires leapt out of the burning building from the windows above.

  His head spun toward where Kadence stood behind him as the first wave of vampires leapt over him. “Kadence!” he roared as the Savages jumped to their feet and fled toward the woods.

  Declan yanked her back and caught the first two coming at her. Kadence fired the bolt in her crossbow before releasing the weapon to let it fall against her side. She pulled her stakes free as
she prepared for the next wave of Savages.

  Adrenaline raced through Kadence as her fangs lengthened. She bounced on the balls of her feet and spun to drive a stake through the heart of a female Savage who had been coming at her with her fangs fully extended. Yanking the stake free, Kadence dashed to the side and drove both her stakes into the hearts of two more Savages as Declan took down another. The Savages parted enough to reveal Ronan carving his way ruthlessly through them toward her.

  She ducked to avoid the clawing grasp of another Savage when something hit her in the back. A foot kicked out, knocking the stake from her hand. Her other stake was yanked from her as a heavy weight fell on her, nearly driving her to her knees.

  Before she could hit the ground, she was pulled back up by a hand gripping the collar of her jacket. “What do we have here?” a voice murmured in her ear, and she realized the bastard had jumped onto her from above.

  For a minute, she thought it was Joseph who held her when an arm cinched around her neck and her head was pulled roughly back. The voice didn’t match Joseph’s though. She smelled death on the man holding her, but it wasn’t as overwhelming as Joseph’s stench had been.

  Declan took a step toward her and stopped when the arm around her neck jerked, causing her to choke as she was dragged back three feet.

  “Tsk, tsk, Declan,” the man holding her murmured.

  Declan’s forehead creased as he gazed at the man. The Savage chuckled and pulled her back another step. “You have no idea who I am.”

  “Not a clue,” Declan said.

  “And it doesn’t fucking matter,” Ronan replied as he stalked toward them.

  The fury emanating from him in waves caused her skin to prickle. The hold on her neck tightened until there was no room between her body and the solid wall of flesh behind her.

  CHAPTER 43

  “Stop!” Ronan snarled when her toes were pulled off the ground. His long fangs glinted in the sun’s rays and his eyes became so intense a red that Kadence swore she felt the heat of them against her skin.

  Kadence tried to turn to see who held her, but her head was jerked back again, making it impossible for her to move it. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to go limp. The Savage behind her grunted and then wrapped his other arm around her waist to support her weight.

  Ronan’s eyes focused on her as the Savage dragged her further back. “Joseph will like my little prize,” the Savage muttered and turned his nose into her hair before inhaling deeply. “You and Ronan are entwined with each other. You reek of him, cupcake.”

  Kadence stiffened when he ran his tongue over her cheek and Ronan’s rage blistered across their bond. Her vision blurred when Ronan’s emotions swamped her mind. Then, he retreated from her mind and a wall slammed down between them.

  Shaking off the lingering effects of Ronan’s rage, she lifted her head and gasped when her gaze landed on him once more. The staccato beat of the Savage’s heart sounded in her ears and sweat now coated his forearm as he held her closer, something she hadn’t considered possible until his body practically molded around hers.

  She didn’t blame him for being terrified. She was more than a little unnerved herself as a reddish-black hue began to seep insidiously over Ronan’s skin. The only time she’d ever seen anything like that color was in pictures of demons. The color seeped over the backs of his hands and crept up from the collar of his shirt to spread across his face. The way the color moved through him reminded her of the flames spreading out to destroy the warehouse behind him. The stare he leveled on the Savage promised death, and not a merciful one.

  When something poked her in the chest, she tore her gaze away from Ronan’s startling visage to the stake aimed directly at her heart. Yet, she felt no fear of the weapon. Not when she had a very pissed off purebred standing across from her, and the vamp holding her had begun to quake.

  The flames of the building rose higher behind Ronan, and she became aware that the screaming had stopped and that all the hunters and Defenders were creeping toward them now. The ground was littered with bodies and drenched in blood. Some of the bodies still had flames consuming them, but most were little more than smoldering ash in the growing daylight.

  The Savage holding her hissed and stepped further into the shadows of the forest as his skin blistered and smoke curled into her face. He didn’t have the same intense reaction to the sun that most of the others had, leading her to believe that he hadn’t killed as much as they had.

  Ronan’s face became completely encompassed by that insidious color. Though the rest of him was covered by his clothing, she knew his entire body was now that reddish black hue. The rest of his men fanned out behind him, but most of the hunters had started to hang back, afraid to move any closer to Ronan. Nathan edged forward, coming toward her from the side.

  “Back off, Ronan, or I’ll kill her,” the Savage said.

  “No,” Ronan said in a guttural voice she barely recognized. “You won’t.”

  “You’re all over her,” the Savage spat. “You think I can’t recognize your claim on her? A newly turned vampire could realize it, and I am no newly turned vamp!”

  The last of his words took on a hysterical tone. Ronan’s unblinking stare mixed with the demon-color was the most frightening thing Kadence had ever seen.

  “No,” Ronan finally said. “You’re a purebred, and you’re a dead one.”

  “You won’t do anything to me while I have her, and you’ll do anything we say once I give her to Joseph.”

  Ronan’s skin swirled and pulsed with those colors as his eyes burned like hot coals. “You won’t make it one more step, let alone reach Joseph.”

  Kadence’s fingers inched toward her side as the knees of the Savage literally knocked together. Slipping the knife Ronan had given her from her pocket, her fingers slid over it as she worked to free the blade.

  The Savage gave a harsh bark of laughter. “You think you’re so strong, Ronan, so powerful, but you don’t know what’s coming. Not even you will be able to stop it, and I will be standing there laughing when you’re finally taken down.”

  Kadence finally succeeded in opening the knife and turned it in her grasp. “I can’t wait to see you destroyed,” the Savage growled.

  Gripping the handle, Kadence kept her arm close to her side as she swung the blade back and drove it into the Savage’s thigh. She threw her weight to the side to keep from taking a stake to her heart as she twisted the blade in his flesh and jerked it to the side. The putrid scent of his blood hit her as he grunted and fumbled to keep his hold on her. His hand twisted around her braid and he yanked her back.

  Kadence never saw Ronan move until he was on top of the Savage, driving him into the ground like a jungle cat taking down its prey. She bit back a cry as her head jerked forward and she was brought to the ground with them. Before she could try to free herself, Ronan tore the hand holding her from the Savage with a brutal twist of bones and sinew. Bile surged up Kadence’s throat when the fingers of the severed hand remained entangled in her hair as she scrambled back.

  Fumbling awkwardly, she managed to tear the hand free and throw it aside. The Savage wailed in horror as blood sprayed from the stump of his wrist and Ronan remained perched on his chest. With methodical ruthlessness, Ronan tore the other hand away from him.

  Kadence crab-crawled backward across the ground, looking to get away as the sour stench of urine filled the air, and she realized the Savage had pissed himself. She didn’t blame him.

  Hands seized her arms, and her head fell back to take in Nathan standing above her. His mouth fell open when Ronan’s head swiveled toward them. Ronan’s nostrils flared, and the red of his skin took on a scarlet hue.

  “Let her go!” Declan snapped and yanked Nathan’s hands away from her.

  Nathan released her and took two steps back, but Ronan continued to watch him. Kadence realized the Savage had pushed him too far and he was on the verge of completely snapping.

  “I’m okay,” Ka
dence choked out. He’d said that because of their bond he wouldn’t turn Savage, but if the man before her wasn’t Savage, then she didn’t know what was. “Nathan was just trying to help me!”

  Nathan lifted his hands in the air as if to prove her point. Ronan watched him for a second more before his attention shifted back to the Savage.

  “Don’t touch her again, not when he’s like this. He won’t hurt her, but he’ll shred every one of us,” Declan warned, and Nathan nodded.

  “Where is Joseph?” Ronan snarled.

  “I… I don’t know!” the Savage wailed. “Not here. He left me here yesterday and went somewhere else!”

  Ronan leaned so close to the savage that their noses almost touched. Amusement slithered through him as the man’s misery battered him. This vampire had no idea what suffering was yet, but he would by the time Ronan was done with him. The vamp’s eyes rolled in his head as his stumpy arms beat against Ronan’s sides. Ronan slid his fingers around the vamp’s throat, drawing blood as he dug into the Savage’s flesh.

  “What is coming?” he demanded.

  Spittle flew from his mouth when the Savage violently shook his head back and forth. Ronan dug his fingers deeper in until he could feel the Savage’s spine. He scraped his fingers across the bone and the Savage blurted out a reply. “A war! Your death!”

  “Not my death, but yours. I’ll make it quick if you tell me where Joseph is,” he promised.

  “I really don’t know!” the Savage cried.

  “Ronan, he doesn’t know,” Kadence whispered.

  His attention was drawn to her, sitting on the ground ten feet away from him. Her neck was still red from where the vamp had choked her. This thing had dared to touch her. Yet, he couldn’t tear this creature leisurely apart like he longed to do, not in front of her. She understood his darker side, but he wouldn’t expose her to such cruelty, not when he knew she was right; this thing didn’t know where Joseph was right now.