“Did you hear me, hunter?”
He spat the word hunter like it was something foul, had the attitude of an ogre, and exuded the warmth of a corpse, so why wasn’t she afraid of him?
“I heard you,” she replied.
This time, when his gaze ran over her, his more leisurely perusal of her body made her nerve endings tingle.
“What are you doing out here?” he demanded again.
“Walking,” she replied and gestured toward the beach.
“Not out here and not alone, not after what happened with the rest of your idiot brethren.”
Simone’s shoulders went back, and for the first time in her life, she glared at another. “We’re not idiots,” she retorted.
He grunted in response.
“I’m guessing you’re one of Ronan’s men, a trainee.”
“Hardly a trainee, little dolly. I’ve been a Defender since before your grandmother was a thought.”
“Well, goody for you.” Whoa, she’d surprised herself with that response, but something about this man made it impossible for her to retain her years of training. She’d had a bad enough day without having to deal with this arrogant jerk too. “You vampires are idiots.” Oh, darn it, now she sounded like a two-year-old. “And it’s none of your business what I’m doing here!”
“It is my business when it affects my life and the lives of my friends. It’s not exactly intelligent to be tromping around alone when three of your strongholds have fallen and you’re in hiding, or have you forgotten? Wait, do they still not tell you delicate little female hunters the perils of the world?”
“Who are you?” she demanded instead of answering him.
His scarred right brow lifting in amusement infuriated her more than Nathan’s rebuttal of their engagement.
“Killean,” he replied. “And you are?”
“Simone.”
Killean surveyed the beautiful hunter once more. He’d never seen her before, but then, he’d seen few of their women. As soon as he could get away from them, he’d gone far from the hunters to keep watch, until she’d come stomping into his territory.
The knowledge she was a hunter made his blood boil, but he couldn’t deny she was gorgeous. Her refreshing scent of eucalyptus wafted out to ensnare him, and for the first time in years, he found his cock stirring as her presence awoke a passion he’d believed doused by blood and death. Unable to stop himself, he stepped closer to her.
He expected the docile little hunter to tuck tail and run. He terrified men twice her size and had caused more than a few to piss themselves with one look. Instead, her clover-colored eyes widened, but she held her ground. When her tongue darted out to nervously lick her lips, his gaze fastened on it and blood engorged his shaft.
He almost groaned aloud as the simple pleasure of an erection returned to him. Would he be able to get off again, or would it be like the last few times he’d tried to ease himself only to discover nothing worked?
When his gaze dipped to the swell of her breasts, barely visible beneath her plain, baggy blouse, he knew he’d have no problem coming between them.
For years, his more primitive instincts had ruled him, and they did so now. Before he could think, his hand lashed out and wrapped around the back of her head. He pulled her against him and claimed her mouth with his.
Simone cried out as she stiffened against him. She hadn’t been expecting the ill-tempered vampire to touch her, let alone drag her against him and kiss her. They were all brutal monsters, ruled by their filthy urges and uncaring of who they hurt, but he’d seemed about as interested in her as pumpkin pie.
Her hands flattened against his chest to shove him away, but when his tongue touched her lips, the heat and disbelief flooding her froze her movements. What is he doing? That can’t be….
Oh! Her entire body went limp when his tongue slid into her mouth. She’d never been kissed before, didn’t understand what to do, but when instinct had her hesitatingly meeting his tongue with hers, she thrilled at the carnal sound he emitted.
Simone melted against him as unfamiliar emotions and sensations came to life within her. He was a revolting vampire, but for the first time in her life, she felt passion for something.
Then, reality returned, and she pushed at his chest. She couldn’t lose herself to one of them. She was to be a hunter bride.
She shoved at him again and tore her lips away. His head rested against her temple as his shoulders heaved and his warm breath tickled her ear. She should step further away from him, but she didn’t trust her wobbly knees to support her enough to do so.
Killean’s lips skimmed back when realization over what she was to him slammed home.
A hunter! A FUCKING hunter! Life had been exceptionally cruel to him over the years, but this was the cruelest blow it ever delivered him.
“Get back to the hotel, Simone!” he snarled as he abruptly released her.
Simone staggered back when red bled into his golden eyes and he bared his lethal fangs at her. She was more humiliated by him than frightened of him. For a second, she’d actually thought he desired her, but she was so horribly wrong. It was one more slap in the face today.
She wanted to scream at him, to punch him and tell him he had no right to treat her this way, but years of training surged forth to bury her indignation.
Folding her hands demurely before her, she didn’t acknowledge him as she turned to walk back the way she’d come. She felt his eyes burning into her back with every step she took, but she didn’t give him the satisfaction of looking back or scurrying away.
Killean stood on the beach, his hands fisted as his body shook with the rage battering it. He’d never expected to find his mate, and in his life, he had no room for a woman, but he certainly hadn’t expected his mate to be a hunter.
And he knew from the lingering taste of her on his lips, and his compelling need to go after her, that’s exactly what she was to him—his mate.
No. He would not allow it. Never would he crawl into bed with one of them. He’d die first.
Turning, he stalked back to where he’d been sitting on the rocks. He had to kill, to shred, to feel the blood pouring down his throat and easing the hunger burning his veins every day since he’d reached maturity.
He couldn’t leave here to kill though. He may not care enough about himself to worry about death, but he still cared about his friends. When that caring went away, he would take his life, but until then, he would help guard over the hunters, a species of mortals he despised with every ounce of his being.
Killean touched his scar as he settled onto one of the rocks. The feel of it brought back the memory of how it happened, but he was unwilling to travel that path. With the mood he was in, he’d kill all the hunters in the stronghold and consequences be damned if he opened that memory again.
CHAPTER 46
Over the next few weeks, Nathan worked to get everything straightened out as much as possible with the hunters here and the other strongholds. The leaders in Buenos Aires, Bogota, Colombia, and San Salvador united in an undisclosed location in South America, but they had agreed to join the Alliance. Ronan contacted vampires he trusted in South America to meet with those leaders and formulate an arrangement with them.
Despite their agreement to be in the Alliance and work with the vampires, none of those leaders were happy about Nathan’s decision to become a vampire. They were trying to decide if they would consider him a hunter when it was done. They wouldn’t agree to Nathan making the final decisions on anything anymore, but they did accept that he and Ronan would run the Alliance together.
He imagined his father and ancestors were rolling in their graves, but over the weeks, he and Ronan labored to draw everyone together and divided their rule over the hunters and vampires who joined them. Nathan would still deal with the hunters more and Ronan the vamps.
The two of them butted heads at times, but with Joseph’s growing army, the best course was to present a lethal front, one that woul
d take Joseph down.
Most of the other hunter strongholds had been more challenging to deal with. Edward had taken his hunters from England, met with the group fleeing Prague, and united with the strongholds in Cairo and Cape Town. They’d all relocated together somewhere in Africa, but they’d officially withdrawn from the hunter union. No one had heard from them in over a week.
The stronghold in New Delhi and the ones in Beijing and Hanoi were residing in an undisclosed area of China. They still spoke with Nathan and the other strongholds, but they had yet to join the Alliance. Nathan suspected Enlai was waiting to see what would happen once Nathan became a vampire.
In Australia, Hugo had relocated his hunters from Perth to Sydney and retreated from the hunter union.
“Nothing against you, mate,” he’d told Nathan last week, “but we’re on an island, and we’ve been removed from the rest of you for years. We haven’t felt unified in a while. Your father was a good man, or at least that was the vibe I got from him the one time we met, but we have to focus on taking care of our own. That doesn’t mean if the shit hits the fan, and you need help, we won’t be there. If we can help, we will, but for now, we think we’re better on our own.”
Hearing those words had staggered Nathan. Perhaps his father hadn’t been the perfect leader he pictured him being. His father had been a good man, a fair one, and he’d kept the hunters together, but perhaps it hadn’t been as easy for him as Nathan believed. Maybe, his father had struggled with leading too but kept it hidden from Nathan.
The realization helped to ease some of his persistent feelings of failure. His father had struggled with far less on his plate than Nathan had, but he’d remained steadfast. Nathan would do the same.
“If you ever change your mind,” Nathan had said to Hugo.
“You’ll be the first to know,” Hugo assured him. “I’ll call every couple weeks or so to see how things are going. Those vamps attack one of our strongholds again, you let me know.”
“I will.”
Nathan hadn’t heard from Hugo since, but he suspected he would before all this was over.
The only one who stayed entirely with Nathan was Alejandro. He’d relocated his hunters to Nogales, Mexico, and agreed to take in any hunters leaving Nathan’s faction. He’d already received twenty of them. The hunters who moved from here to reside with Alejandro preferred to stay in the Alliance, but they didn’t want to live with Nathan.
He didn’t fault them for it; he’d completely changed all their ways in a matter of months, and soon he would change from mortal to immortal.
Another group of hunters had also broken off from his stronghold and gone their own way last week. Their break cut his numbers in half, and unlike those who went to live with Alejandro, they wanted nothing to do with the Alliance.
When his faction of hunters split, he’d moved his group to another property Ronan owned on the coast of Rhode Island. Nathan had recently purchased the estate next to Ronan’s, and soon they would be moving there, combining their lands, forces, and preparing for what could only be considered war.
Most of the elders went with the hunters who broke away. Only Elfry and Roland remained, and Roland had almost left too. Not because he wanted to go, he’d confided to Nathan, but because, as Roland put it, “those idiots will get themselves killed, or worse, captured and turned into Savages.”
In the end, Roland decided to stay because he believed the world was about to go to shit, and the best way to fight it was the way Nathan proposed.
“Besides,” Roland had said as he rolled from one computer screen to the next, “I don’t fit in with those old fuddy-duddies. They’ll have their followers back in the Dark Ages by next week.”
Nathan agreed with him, so last week he stood by and watched as most of the elders led half his followers away.
He hadn’t tried to stop them. A follower who could become a potential enemy in their midst, and one who considered him an enemy, wasn’t one he wanted. They’d forge their way, or they would perish.
It had still saddened him to see them go, especially Simone. He suspected she’d left because he’d embarrassed and possibly hurt her by choosing Vicky; Nathan didn’t blame her for going, but he’d tried to get her to stay by apologizing. He didn’t want something to happen to her because of him.
She’d waved away his apology with a demure smile and a flutter of her hand. “There’s no need. You cannot help it if you love her.”
“I do love her.”
Simone bowed her head. “Then I wish you much happiness, Nathan.”
“You don’t have to go, Simone. Things will be different here now. You won’t have to marry anyone you don’t choose to marry.”
Her sad smile had tugged at his conscience. “But this is all I’ve ever known. Who am I without our ways? Besides, I’m not one for change. I must go.”
Before he could respond, she’d fallen into step behind Ida and strolled out the hotel doors. He didn’t know where they’d gone. Their new leader, Dallas, had contacted him to let him know they were somewhere safe, but that was the last he heard from him.
One thing all the hunters and vampires could agree on was that someone bigger than Joseph was behind the attacks on the strongholds and the nest in the sewers. The nest might be Joseph alone, but turning the hunters into Savages was someone else, someone meaner and more powerful than Joseph.
They’d returned to the sewers in search of clues as to who it could be, but the Savages were gone and no evidence remained. For over a week, Duncan had led more groups back into the sewers to search out other nests, but they hadn’t found any.
Unwilling to risk more lives, they’d warned those still living below they would be safer if they returned to living on the streets, and called off the search.
They needed to capture and interrogate Joseph if they were to discover who he was working with. All the other Savages they’d caught and questioned had proven to be nothing more than unknowing pawns. There’d been no sign of Joseph or any of the hunters taken from the other strongholds, and they needed answers.
Leaning back in his chair, Nathan ran a hand through his hair. Rain ticked off the window before him, and in the distance, the red flash of a buoy riding the waves bobbed on the storm-tossed sea.
A whimper drew Nathan’s attention away from the window and to where Vicky lay on their bed. Her head turned toward him as she whimpered again. Lying on her stomach with her hand next to her head, her fingers twitched on her pillow.
Placing his glass of whiskey down, he rose and walked over to her. She’d been sleeping far less this past week, and spreading shadows lined her eyes more each day. Her golden skin was paler in hue though she tanned almost every day. Knowing he was dealing with turbulent times, she never mentioned her growing distress, but he sensed it building in her with every passing minute.
When they made love now, she was reserved and careful in a way he hadn’t ever thought Vicky could be. When he was inside her and they were drinking from each other, he sensed her increasing need to complete the bond between them, but this week, she’d stopped taking his blood as much.
He’d brought it up to her once, and she’d laughed. “I’m fine. I’ll wait until you’re ready.” He’d realized a while ago that when Vicky said she was fine in that cheerful tone, she never was, but she’d bounced out of the room before he could question her further.
Nathan knew her growing distance wasn’t because she was unhappy here. When they’d first decided to make the move to Rhode Island, he’d asked her if she would prefer to stay somewhere with the vampires instead of hunters, but she insisted on being with him and getting to know his people. Over the weeks, she’d taken to his people, and they to her, with more ease than he expected.
Lucien and some trainees remained with them to help keep guard, but Vicky sent her sister and Brian away. When her brother Aiden returned to Boston, she also turned down his offer to stay here with his mate, Maggie. She insisted she would get to know the hun
ters on her own, and she was doing it.
The first week was awkward, but gradually the hunters started adjusting to her. Every day, she helped train some of the younger women in fighting techniques, and after she introduced them to nail polish, makeup, clothes, and started styling their hair. More than a few of the women were wearing as many colors as they could put on their nails.
He hadn’t realized how drab their lives were until Vicky entered his world. She ordered clothes and fabrics online, and every day new packages arrived. The women all opened the boxes together, oohing, ahhing, and laughing as they removed the colorful fabrics and clothes.
Elfry, and a few of the older hunters, continued to wear the gray, black, and white clothes making up their wardrobes for years, but Elfry enthusiastically snatched up the colorful fabrics Vicky ordered for her. She didn’t make clothes for herself with them but weaved beautiful quilts instead.
Despite their age difference and their contrasting personalities, Elfry had become Vicky’s closest friend here. Vicky was learning how to sew as she made quilts with Elfry. Often, Nathan would find Elfry and Vicky laughing with their heads bent close together.
Victoria was the exact opposite of the kind of wife a hunter was supposed to have, yet she’d brought them all to life and was exactly what they all needed, especially him.
Standing over her, he watched as she whimpered again. No, she wasn’t unhappy because she was here, she was unhappy because of him. He knew what she needed, and he’d been unable to give it to her.
“No,” she murmured. “Nathan. Please, don’t go.”
His heart ached for her. She hadn’t been the only one suffering these weeks. Even when he was with her, he couldn’t deny something was missing between them. Away from her, he found it difficult to breathe and battled an ever-present compulsion to return to her. They’d both struggled through this time, and he was tired of it.
They’d come together over their shared need for vengeance, but all that mattered now was keeping her safe for the eternity they could have together. A rocky road lay ahead of them, but Nathan planned to travel it with her.
Bound by Vengeance Page 28
