Vicky barely recognized his guttural voice. Then, over his shoulder, she saw movement.
“Nathan, he’s waking,” she said.
CHAPTER 26
Nathan turned as Jordan’s head lulled on his shoulders and rose. He blinked at them before his hazel eyes narrowed and a wave of hatred washed out of him as he wiggled his way into a sitting position against the wall.
Nathan leaned protectively closer to Vicky and rested his hand on the wall beside her head. Jordan’s mouth opened and closed three times. His gaze darted between them before falling to his bound ankles; he jerked on his wrists as he grunted in disgust.
“Is she the reason you sold us out and made this unholy alliance with the vampires?” Jordan asked.
“I’ve sold us out to no one,” Nathan replied.
“That bitch attacked me.” Jordan leaned forward and spat a gob of blood on the floor. “I was coming here to speak with you, and she attacked me.”
Vicky opened her mouth to protest Jordan’s words before closing it. This was something for Nathan to judge; Jordan was one of his people, and if he chose to believe him over her, then so be it.
“Oh, I don’t believe that,” Nathan murmured. “How did you know I was here?”
The tone of Nathan’s voice was calm, yet something about it made the hair on Vicky’s nape rise. If Jordan were smart, he’d start playing nice, but she didn’t think he realized how volatile Nathan was right now.
“I saw you leaving the stronghold one day,” Jordan replied.
“And you followed me?”
“I’d hoped to speak with you privately, but when I saw you with her, I didn’t think I could trust you.”
“Trust me with what?”
Shut up, Jordan! Vicky screamed inwardly as Nathan’s body coiled like a tiger ready to pounce. Jordan seemed to realize Nathan wasn’t as controlled as he believed; some of the hostility eased from his features, and his gaze flicked nervously to Vicky.
“I, ah… I believe some hunters are unhappy about our new arrangement with the vampires and might be planning something,” Jordan stated as sweat beaded his upper lip.
“You don’t say,” Nathan replied in a voice dripping venom. “Who are these hunters? I’ll need names to investigate this further.”
Nathan lowered his hand to Vicky’s cheek when she shifted against the wall and winced. Jordan’s lips pulled back in a sneer before he composed his face into a blank look again. Keeping his eyes on Jordan, Nathan stroked Vicky’s cheek with his thumb.
“You don’t approve of this, Jordan?” Nathan inquired.
“If you want to bang a vamp, that’s your choice.” Jordan’s tone made it clear he’d rather have all his teeth pulled out with pliers and no Novocain.
“It is my choice,” Nathan replied before kissing Vicky’s forehead and rising to his feet.
“Nathan,” she whispered.
“It’s okay,” he assured her before striding across the room to Jordan. The man’s head tilted back as Nathan stopped to stand over him. In his mid-forties, Jordan was twenty years older than him, had more training and hunting time under his belt, but Nathan would be the one to end him. “We’ll discuss this later.”
Before Jordan could reply, Nathan hammered his fist into the side of his face. Jordan didn’t make any sound as he slumped to the ground, unconscious. Retrieving a rope and a rag from his supplies, Nathan lifted Jordan’s chin, forced his mouth open, and shoved the cloth into it. Jordan’s breath whistled in and out of his broken nose.
Nathan tied the rope around the handcuffs on Jordan’s wrists before walking over to the kitchen sink. Opening the cabinets beneath the sink, he tied the other end of the rope around the PVC piping there. If he struggled enough, Jordan would be able to break free, but Nathan would hear him trying to escape before then.
Returning to Vicky, he slid his arms under her and carefully lifted her. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“Getting you cleaned up before we leave,” he replied. “Are you healing?”
“Starting to.”
“Good.”
He carried her into the bathroom and set her on the edge of the ugly, green tub. He kept his hand on her knee as he leaned around her to turn on the water, all while listening for any sound from the other room.
Rising, he pulled his knife from his pocket, flipped it open, and cautiously cut away her turtleneck, sweater, and bra. He peeled away the last of her bra before kneeling in front of her and unbuttoning her pants.
Fascinated by the care he took with her, Vicky watched his every move as he unbuttoned her pants and slid them down her thighs. There was nothing sexual in his touch, but there was something affectionate in it.
“You could have died,” he said when he’d removed the last of her clothing.
The ragged tone of his voice tore at her heart. Before she could respond, he lowered his head and his shoulders hunched up as if he were about to turn into the Hulk. She’d give anything to be able to lift her arms and embrace him against her as she sensed he needed it, but though she could feel her muscle and bone weaving themselves back together, she still had no movement in her arms.
“So could you, every time you go out to hunt, and apparently there are some vipers in your stronghold,” she said.
“I’ll be okay.”
When he met her gaze, his eyes were haunted. Frustration filled her when she tried to move her arms again to hug him. Instead, she could only sit and stare as steam rose from the tub to swirl around them. The water at her back was hot, but she felt chilled to the bone.
“I don’t know where your stronghold is,” she said. “The only one who could find it is Brian, and he vowed to Ronan he wouldn’t search for it. If something happened to you there, none of us could help you, and we’d never know what became of you. You could vanish one day, and I would never learn the truth of what happened to you.”
Her words were choked by the end, and to her dismay, a tear slid free. She’d vowed not to let Nathan know how deeply she cared for him. Because of Kadence, he’d learned something about mates and vampires, but she didn’t know how much Kadence had revealed to him, and she didn’t want to arouse his suspicions by broaching the subject with him.
She would never put him in the position of making him think he had to choose between her and his followers.
“Don’t,” Nathan whispered as he wiped her tear away and clasped her face in his palms. “Jordan is an anomaly. I’m safe with the hunters.”
“You said they don’t like the changes you’re making.”
“They don’t.”
“Jordan could be working with others.”
“And if he is, I will find out who they are. Come on, let’s get you cleaned up so we can leave here.”
“And go where?” she asked.
“To my old stronghold.”
He dipped his fingers into the water to test it before turning the faucets off. Slipping his arms under Vicky’s knees and one of her arms, he lifted her and settled her into the tub. “I’ll be right back.”
He went far enough down the hall to make sure Jordan remained unconscious before returning to Vicky. When he stepped into the doorway, the sight of her in the bathtub halted him. With her head bowed and her hair shielding her face, she looked so vulnerable it robbed him of his breath.
When she lifted her head to look at him, her eyes weren’t full of misery; they burned with fire. No matter what happened to her, she refused to let it break her. Instead, she used her experiences to fuel herself into becoming stronger.
He loved that about her.
The realization he’d fallen in love with her rocked him on his heels. He loved her heart, her fire, her energy; he loved her laugh and her brashness. He loved how bold she could be, yet also how understanding and caring she was. She never backed down from him, something as infuriating as it was refreshing.
She’d been through so much in her short life, would endure so much more, and he wanted to experience a
ll of it with her. Every day and every night for the rest of his life, he wanted Vicky at his side.
He loved her, but he had no idea what he could ever do about it.
You could walk away from the hunters as Kadence did, but as the idea entered his mind, he knew he couldn’t. Throughout the centuries, every leader sacrificed something to lead; he would have to sacrifice his love for her.
Fury and sorrow swelled with equal measure inside him.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
“Yes.”
Grabbing a towel, he knelt at her side and dipped a corner of the cloth into the water to clean the blood from her face. The blood no longer trickled from her nose, the bruises had stopped darkening, but it would be a while before she healed completely.
“How bad is it?” she asked.
“You’re still beautiful.”
“Now I know you’re lying,” she teased, hoping to coax a smile from him. “I’m pretty, I’ve been considered cute, and I know I can be downright smoking hot, but beautiful might be pushing it.”
“Everything about you is beautiful to me, Victoria.”
She inwardly recoiled from him at the same time another crack raced up what little barriers she still had to keep her heart from being shattered by this man.
CHAPTER 27
“Don’t you need to blindfold me?” Vicky asked as they wound through a forest. She had no idea how close they were to the stronghold, but she suspected they weren’t far away.
“No.”
She turned her attention away from the trees crowding the road and to him. “Nathan—”
“It will be okay.”
“But your people—”
“Won’t know we’re there.”
Vicky glanced at where Jordan lay in the bed of the pickup, buried under tarps and tied to the bumper and cab of the truck. How many more snakes slithered inside Nathan’s stronghold?
“Which hunters can you completely trust?” she asked.
“Asher.”
“Is that it?”
He hesitated before answering again. At one time he would have said Logan too, without question, but Nathan didn’t know what to make of him since Kadence chose Ronan. Did he think Logan would turn against him and try to sway others against him too? No, he didn’t. But was Logan entirely on board for working with the vampires? Not at all.
“There are others I trust, others who wouldn’t turn against me, but there’s only a few I completely trust.”
“Would you have considered Jordan trustworthy?”
“Yes,” he reluctantly admitted. “I never heard him speak out against the alliance, and with only three hundred hunters residing in our stronghold, it’s impossible not to know everyone. Jordan and I were never what I’d consider friends, but he was an ally.”
“Did you hunt together?”
“Rarely. Jordan’s twenty years older, and we tend to stick with our age groups while on hunts. We all come up together in those groups, train together, and the bonds formed during that time are important in the field.”
“I see,” Vicky murmured.
When he turned onto a bumpy dirt road, the branches of the trees nearly kissed the side mirrors until he stopped in front of a massive gate. Climbing out of the truck, Nathan walked over to punch in his code and waited for the gates to swing open. He returned to the pickup, drove into the stronghold, and parked in front of the brick house.
“What do you plan to do with Jordan?” Vicky inquired.
“Learn everything I can from him.”
Pulling the emergency brake up, he slid his phone from his pocket and punched in the number he had memorized. He waited as Kadence’s phone started ringing. He’d considered calling Ronan instead, but Kadence knew the location of the stronghold and would have to be woken no matter what to come here; she’d be annoyed when she learned he called Ronan instead of her.
“Hello?” she asked groggily, not recognizing the number of his newest burner phone.
“Hey, Kadence,” he greeted.
She gasped, and he pictured her bolting upright as she realized it was three in the morning. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, but I have a situation I need your help with.”
“Where are you?”
“The old stronghold.”
“I’ll be there soon.”
“Bring at least Ronan and Declan with you, preferably more.” He didn’t understand it, but he’d come to realize that Declan had a way of reading people better than anyone else Nathan had ever met.
Her breath sucked in. “Really?”
“Yes, and use code five-one-three-eight, so you don’t have to break in like you broke out.”
He hung up before she could reply and called Asher next.
• • •
Kadence sat and stared at her phone for a minute as her brother’s words sank in. What had happened tonight to cause this change?
He’d made it clear he trusted her even though the hunters left the old stronghold after she became a vampire. Still, he never would have wanted her to reveal the location to Ronan and the others.
Whatever happened, she wouldn’t know the answer if she remained in bed. When she threw the covers aside, the book she’d fallen asleep reading thumped onto the floor. She set it on her nightstand before hurrying to get ready. Five minutes later, she left the room and rushed down the hall in search of Ronan.
He’d been on a hunt with Killean earlier. She usually stayed awake until he came home, but tonight exhaustion had won out. Sometimes, when he returned, Ronan liked to have a drink with the others before coming to bed, but there was still a chance he wasn’t home yet.
She descended to the marble foyer and strode toward the bar. She heard Ronan’s baritone before she arrived at the open wooden doors and stepped inside. At one time, this room was the exact opposite of the men gathered within it, because of that, it was the first one she redid.
Gone were the delicate chairs with spindly legs. Leather recliners, leather chairs, and a leather sectional sat in their place. The once red curtains on the windows were now wooden blinds currently lifted to reveal the bars outside the glass. The garish red window seats had been replaced with tan ones.
The oriental rug was gone, and the oak wood floors buffed to shine. She kept the oriental carpet because it was beautiful, but moved it into the library where she saw it often.
The bar on the far side of the room remained the same, but she’d hung paintings depicting scenes of meadows and forests on the walls. The whole room now had the air of a gentleman’s club instead of an old woman’s tea parlor, but she’d barely call those gathered inside gentleman.
Ronan, Killean, Declan, and Lucien sat facing each other in the chairs, their drinks in hand or on the glass table in the center of the grouping. Lucien puffed on a cigar while Declan twirled a lollipop between his fingers. Ronan sat with his back to her, and Killean stared broodingly out a window. Only Saxon was missing, and she suspected it was because he’d found a woman for the night.
Sensing her presence, Ronan turned toward her. A smile lit his face as his burgundy eyes warmed to a brown hue. Then, his smile vanished and his eyes became more crimson.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as he rose.
“Nathan called me,” she said. “He wants us to meet him at the old stronghold.”
“For what?” Lucien demanded.
“He said he has a situation he needs help with.”
“It could be a trap,” Killean said.
Kadence glowered at him. “My brother would never do anything like that to me. It’s not a trap. He specifically asked for Ronan and Declan, so please, feel free to stay.”
Killean’s full lips compressed into a flat line. He’d been nicer to her since she became Ronan’s mate, but nice for Killean was the same as nice for a rattlesnake. He was polite to her because Ronan would beat him to a bloody pulp otherwise, but he didn’t hide his intense dislike for hunters.
She turned her atten
tion back to Ronan. “We have to go.”
“You up for a ride?” Ronan asked Declan.
Declan flicked the lollipop into the trash before replying, “I’m game for anything involving intrigue.”
Ronan looked at Lucien and Killean. Lucien was already rising, but Killean turned to stare out the window again. Then, Killean placed his hands on the ends of the armchair and rose.
“I might as well cover your asses if you’re walking into a trap,” Killean replied.
“It’s not a trap,” Kadence insisted.
“Let’s go see what it is,” Ronan said as he walked over to stand before her.
• • •
Nathan dropped Jordan onto the floor of the prison. This was the first time the cell was used, as crimes against hunters were rare. There were fights, some came to blows, but nothing bad enough to warrant being locked away. Still, every stronghold had a prison just in case. Over the centuries, there were a few murders between friends and jealous spouses, or the occasional theft that warranted locking someone away.
Nathan didn’t bother to remove Jordan’s restraints as he stepped out of the cell and shut the door behind him. He stood with his hand on one of the bars while he watched the hunter.
“Are you okay?” Vicky asked from behind him.
Turning, he spotted her standing at the bottom of the stairs. The lantern on the wall cast shadows over her bruised and swollen face, but she already looked better than she had an hour ago.
“Yes,” he said.
“He….” She swallowed as she tried to think of the right words. “He betrayed you.”
“He did.”
“That can’t be easy to deal with.”
“I’m okay.”
“Has anything like this ever happened before?” she asked.
“No, but since my father died, a lot of shit has gone wrong, or differently than in the past. I know this alliance is the best thing for our survival, but I’m not sure my father would have approved.”
“You’re doing the right thing with the alliance,” she said.
“Am I?”
“Yes!”
He glanced back at Jordan. “Many hunters would disagree with you, and I’m not the leader my father was.”
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