Vicky marveled when even the hunters campaigning to kill him hushed at his command. Whether they believed him a traitor or not, he still exuded an aura of authority they obeyed.
“This trial will be between me and Jordan. If I lose, you will find another leader and be free to do as you choose. If I win, you are still free to find another leader, continue your traditions, and pull out of the alliance with the vampires. With everything that’s happened, I’m sure the other strongholds would welcome new members to strengthen them. But when the Savages come for you, and they will come for you, the vampires won’t be there to back you up.”
When many hunters looked to Ronan, his smile revealed his fangs. “I won’t save your lives if you’re not helping us stop this.”
More excited, loud voices exploded as the hunters argued with each other.
When Roland stepped forward and raised his hand, the chatter died down again. “I don’t like it, but Nathan’s right, let them try each other. This continued division will destroy us all. Many of us don’t like change, but the time has come when we must adapt or perish. If Nathan is meant to rule, he’ll win. If not, then Jordan will win and we’ll sort out the pieces afterward.”
“I don’t like this,” Elfry said.
“Neither do I,” Vicky murmured.
“It’s what must be done,” Nathan said. “Do you agree to this and feel up to it today?” he asked Jordan.
“I’m up for killing you any day,” Jordan spat.
“We need weapons,” Roland said.
Striding forward, Declan removed two identical swords from where he’d strapped them in a cross against his back. “Will these do?” he asked as he held them out to Roland.
Roland took the blades from him and inspected them both before handing them back. “Yes.”
Declan passed a sword to Nathan and the other to Jordan. “Don’t ruin my blades,” he said to Nathan before rejoining Ronan.
Nathan tested the weight of the sword in his hand and examined the honed edge of the blade. It would slice a head off in one swing.
“Do me a favor,” Roland mumbled as he walked by Nathan, “and kill that asshole.”
Nathan bit back a smile as Jordan was led over to stand across from him inside the circle of hunters and vampires.
CHAPTER 44
“This shouldn’t happen,” Kadence said.
Vicky refrained from agreeing; she wasn’t sure she could talk through the lump in her throat. She might be standing here to watch Nathan die.
“Nathan’s right,” Ronan agreed. “The man, though a traitor, deserves a trial, and Nathan went against his people too. This is the way I would handle it; it is the honorable way.”
“Screw honor,” Kadence whispered, mirroring Vicky’s thoughts.
“He’ll be okay,” Abby said while twisting her hands in front of her. Brian clasped her hands and held them against his stomach.
Ronan rested his hand on Kadence’s shoulder as Nathan and Jordan approached each other from opposite sides of the circle. Jordan swung his sword back and forth in a widening arc that caused the blade to whistle through the air as he stalked Nathan with a leering grin.
Jordan had opted to enter the battle shirtless, while Nathan wore a black, body-hugging shirt. Shorter and stockier, Jordan had the advantage of weight on Nathan, and that weight was all thick muscles that bulged as he swung the sword back and forth. If this battle were decided by brute strength alone, Jordan would win.
Vicky gritted her teeth against tearing out the throat of the man who had attacked her. She wouldn’t get involved. However, she wasn’t sure she could stop herself from interfering if it looked like Nathan might lose.
Behind her, Lucien shifted his stance, alerting Vicky he’d moved to stand over her shoulder. She glanced at him before looking to Ronan who held her gaze. With a sinking sensation, she realized they would make sure she stayed out of this.
“I’m not one of your Defenders or trainees,” she hissed at Ronan.
“I’m taking my rightful position as king of the vampires back, so that makes you one of mine,” Ronan replied.
Kadence gazed between the two of them. “Ronan—”
“This battle will happen, and no one will interfere,” he said and turned away from Vicky.
Vicky glowered at him, then Lucien. They could try and hold her back, but that didn’t mean they would succeed. Sure, they were old, super-lethal, purebred vampires, but she’d grown up with nine siblings, she knew how to fight dirty. More than that, she knew how to evade as that was how she and Abby dealt with most of their brothers’ and sisters’ antics.
Jordan continued to swing his sword, while Nathan stopped moving and pointed his blade at the ground.
Lift it up! Vicky silently screamed, but Nathan leaned on his sword, digging the tip into the sand as he studied Jordan’s movements.
From one second to the next, Jordan lunged at Nathan. Pulling his sword from the ground, Nathan swung his blade up. Steel kissed against steel; sparks flew as Nathan blocked Jordan’s thrust.
The fighters danced around each other, their blades clashing as Jordan jabbed and Nathan parried. Vicky rubbed at the scar on her wrist as her foot tapped on the sand. Lunging forward, Jordan swung his sword down. Nathan leapt back, but the sand slowed him, and he couldn’t avoid the tip of the blade slicing through his shirt. Blood beaded across his chest from the scratch Jordan delivered.
First blood. Vicky pressed her fist against her mouth to hold back her scream. I can’t watch this! She couldn’t look away.
Nathan dodged Jordan’s next lunge, but instead of dancing back as he had before, Jordan hammered at him as he seemed to decide to give up on trying to gouge his opponent with smaller jabs and opted instead to batter Nathan down with physical strength.
Nathan analyzed Jordan’s every move as he kept from taking a blade to the gut. He learned more of Jordan’s technique as sweat beaded and slid down Jordan’s face at a faster rate. The inability to move smoothly through the sand added to Jordan’s growing fatigue, but it also fueled his anger, making him more aggressive and less careful.
Jordan would wear himself out, but he would also weaken Nathan in the process as each of Jordan’s heavy blows jarred his bones. Gritting his teeth, Nathan ducked a swing that would have had his head bouncing across the beach before he knew he no longer had a body.
Then, that odd sense of time slowing took him over.
With Jordan’s next downward arc, Nathan saw the individual air particles as the sword sliced through them. Rainbows of color filled those particles as they parted to make way for the blade. Maybe others would have found it distracting, but while time slowed around him, his mind raced ahead, plotting the moves that would lead to Jordan’s demise.
The sword was halfway through its downward arc when Nathan stepped to the side and brought his elbow down on Jordan’s forearm. The man grunted, but the grunt was cut off by Nathan lifting his elbow and driving it into Jordan’s face.
Time returned to normal as Jordan’s cheekbone caved and some of his teeth broke free. Jordan staggered back, and when he gripped the sword with both hands, Nathan suspected he’d done more than bruise the bone in Jordan’s forearm.
Jordan edged further back, blood trailing from his mouth to drip off his chin. Nathan would love to slice and dice Jordan after what he’d done to Vicky, but he wouldn’t do that to one of his own, and not in front of Vicky and Kadence. When Jordan turned, Nathan spotted Vicky over Jordan’s shoulder. Her hand covered her mouth, her red eyes watched his every move, and her terror was palpable on the air.
He had to end this.
Jordan’s eyes were filled with loathing as he circled Nathan, but a new wariness also filled them. Then, Jordan charged him, and as he swung the blade back and forth so fast it became a blur, Nathan realized Jordan had exaggerated the injury to his arm.
Nathan’s hair blew back from his face as he dodged every vicious swing at his head. Despite Jordan’s continued fe
rocity, his movements became increasingly sluggish from exertion. He wasn’t lifting the blade as high or swinging it as fast.
With an angry shout, Jordan lifted the sword over his head, giving Nathan an opening. Lowering his shoulders, he charged as Jordan swung the blade down to slice him in half.
“No!” Vicky screamed, unable to suppress it when Nathan barreled into Jordan.
Before she could run to him, Lucien’s hand came down on her shoulder, and he pulled her back. She considered kicking, screaming, and clawing until she tore him to shreds, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away as Nathan lifted Jordan off the ground and flung him back.
An umph of air exploded from Jordan’s lungs when he hit the sand. When Nathan turned, she saw the blood streaking across his flesh. Jordan’s blade caught Nathan in the back and ripped his shirt, but like his stomach, only a scratch marred his bronzed skin. Jordan rolled to the side as Nathan strode toward him. Before Jordan could rise, Nathan stepped on his sword, pinning it to the ground.
“I’m sorry it came to this,” he said, and he meant it. He would gladly kill Jordan a thousand times over for hurting Vicky, but he wished none of this had happened.
Before Jordan could reply or react, Nathan sank his blade into the hunter’s chest and heart. Jordan jerked, his hands clawed at the weapon piercing him as blood gurgled from his mouth.
Nathan tore the blade free and dropped it on the ground before kneeling beside Jordan. Jordan’s family was gone, his wife and son having died in childbirth five years ago. Unwilling to let him die alone, Nathan clasped the man’s hand.
Jordan gawked at him, but he gripped Nathan’s hand as spasms racked his body. His feet kicked the ground before his eyes rolled back and he slumped to the ground.
Nathan remained with him for a minute more, before leaning forward to close his eyelids. Releasing Jordan’s hand, he placed it on the hunter’s chest.
He lifted both blades from the ground and turned to Vicky. Her eyes had returned to their emerald hue, but her lower lip quivered as she gazed at him. When Lucien’s hand slid away from her shoulder, she ran across the sand and flung herself into his arms.
Releasing the blades, he embraced her, and his fingers entangled in her silken hair. He ignored the sounds of disgust some of the hunters made as the feel of her in his arms eased the tumult of emotions battering him.
“Are you okay?” Vicky whispered.
“Couple of scratches, they’ll heal,” he replied.
“No, I mean with what just happened.”
“Death is a way of life for us,” he replied.
“That doesn’t make it easier.”
“No, it doesn’t,” he agreed as he kissed her temple. “But I’ll be okay.”
Declan approached and bent to reclaim his swords.
“Thank you,” Nathan said to him.
“It was a good fight,” Declan said. “Honorable as much as there can be honor in death.”
“It never should have been, but there is no changing it now,” Nathan replied.
“True,” Declan said as he wiped the bloody blades on the sand before returning them to the scabbards on his back.
Taking a deep breath, Nathan set Vicky down before facing the hunters. He was tired of fighting, but his battle was only beginning.
“You have a choice to make.” He pitched his voice to carry over the silent crowd. “You either stay and be a part of this stronghold, work with the vampires, and continue to follow my lead, or you leave. However, there are some things you should know before you make your decision. One”—he claimed Vicky’s hand and lifted it between them— “this is the woman I will marry. I don’t know when it will happen, but I will be joining her. And let me make this clear, by joining her, I mean I will become a vampire, but I will also remain a hunter and the leader.”
An explosion of breaths sounded from the group. Elfry stepped back as her eyes flew between him and Vicky before going to Kadence.
“Two. There will be no more vampires and hunter groups. We will be one, united front. Joseph is building an army of Savages; he will use that army to bring down vampires, hunters, and possibly the entire human race. We can’t continue to distrust each other when our existence depends on binding together to fight our true enemy. From now on, there will be no Defenders and hunters, no vampires and mortals; we will only be the Alliance.”
This time the crowd was too flabbergasted to make any noise. They simply stood and gawked at Nathan as if he’d lost his mind, and perhaps he had, but it was too late to turn back now.
“Think about it and let me know what your decision is, and no matter what you decide, I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”
Before they could speak, he turned away and led Vicky over to Ronan and Kadence. Earlier today, he’d discussed his plan with Ronan to be with Vicky and to bind the groups together officially. He hadn’t expected to reveal it to everyone so soon, but then life had gone the exact opposite of his plans recently.
CHAPTER 45
Hot tears burned Simone’s eyes as she slipped away from the crowd and hurried down the beach. They were all so staggered by everything Nathan had revealed and all that had happened, they didn’t notice her leaving.
She wished she had Kadence’s courage to flee the stronghold. Wished she could go out into the world, forge her way, and never look back. Anything would be better than facing the hunters she’d just been humiliated in front of again.
All her life, she’d done everything right! She excelled in her classes, she never disobeyed, she worked to make herself as perfect as she could be, and to become the wife and mother a hunter would be proud to have to take care of his children and home.
A perfect wife for Nathan. Since they were babies, everyone had known he was the hunter she was to marry. The most perfect student and the most beautiful woman available had to be destined for their leader. What a perfect couple they would make.
Instead, he’d tossed her aside for a vampire!
Had he been with the vampire woman? The idea of the man who was supposed to be her husband lying with one of those creatures made her glad he hadn’t gone through with the ceremony. If he’d come to her and kissed her after that woman….
Thinking about it made her nauseous, and the unfairness of it all caused anger to burn in her chest. She’d occasionally experienced some anger before, but she’d never seen a reason for the emotion. It didn’t solve anything, and it was not the way a proper hunter woman should react to anything.
Calm, demure, poised, agreeable, loving, perfect those were the things she’d been raised to be, and anger had no place in perfection.
But she was angry now. No, not angry, she was fuming! Her whole life she’d prepared herself for her husband, and now she had no idea who that husband would be. It certainly wouldn’t be Nathan.
She didn’t love Nathan; her dreams were in ruins, but her heart wasn’t. They’d known each other their entire lives, but never well enough for love to develop between them. However, she had loved the dream of being with the head of all the hunters.
She’d often daydreamed about being married to Nathan and the input her marriage would give her into the ceremonies and the way things were done in the stronghold. Everyone would look up to her, tell her how lucky she was, and hopefully one day, she would have children. When their son rose to become leader, everyone would still revere her.
After working tirelessly at being a woman who mostly went unnoticed, she wanted to be noticed by her husband and her people. There were no other men in the stronghold who could give her the same opportunities Nathan would have.
No matter who she married now, she would be as she’d always been—one of the many women who lived only for her husband—and that vampire would be the one standing by Nathan’s side.
She wiped her tears away and practically stomped her way down the beach. She felt like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum, but the break in her calm façade felt amazingly better than she’d ever thought it would. Fo
r the first time in her life, she almost felt free.
She went to throw open her arms and spin in circles but restrained herself. A tiny fit was one thing; such abandon couldn’t be tolerated. Nathan may not become her husband, but there would be another man, and she would make him the perfect wife.
Perhaps it would be Asher. He was kind, funny, and would make a good father; she could see herself married to him. She hoped it wasn’t Logan. She liked him well enough, but it was obvious he’d been in love with Kadence, and she’d prefer not to be married to a man who secretly pined for her best friend. That would be more unfair than Nathan’s betrayal of their ways.
Sighing, Simone halted and looked out to the ocean. She wasn’t being fair. Nathan hadn’t betrayed their ways. He was trying to do what he felt best for them, and she agreed with him that working with the vampires might be the only way to save them all.
Kadence and Nathan had chosen those creatures over their kind, but she’d seen the way Nathan looked at the female vampire, and the way Ronan and Kadence were with each other. The obvious love between them made her heart ache. She would never get to experience a love like that. Her marriage would be one of convenience and breeding, but she hoped she’d grow to love her husband.
“What are you doing out here?” a gruff voice demanded.
Simone spun and gasped when she spotted the man standing behind her. He was less than a foot away, but she’d never heard him approach. Behind him, a rocky outcropping cut through two of the dunes; he must have come from there.
His golden eyes were stunning but cold as they flicked dismissively over her. About seven inches taller than her five-eight frame, he loomed over her when he stepped closer.
As her shock over his sudden appearance waned, Simone absorbed more details about him. A scar ran straight down from his deep brown hairline to the center of his cheek. Despite the disfigurement and his obvious dislike of her, she found him a little intriguing. When she took a deep breath, the resin scent of him filled her nose, and she found herself eagerly inhaling it as the corner of his full lip curled into a sneer.
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