The rush of adrenaline and blood coursing through him coalesced into a potent drug that could become addicting. For one brief second, he understood why vampires turned Savage.
Then, Vicky’s mind brushed against his and her hand was on his arm, soothing him in a way the blood never could. He’d tried to convince her not to come here, that it was better if she stayed out of danger, but keeping her away was impossible.
It was a good thing she still refused to listen to him, as he didn’t think he could handle this without her. He now understood how vampires fell victim to the thrill of killing, but with her by his side, it would never happen to him.
Releasing the Savage, Nathan shoved the creature away and drove his fist through the thing’s chest. He gripped its heart and tore it out. The organ gave one final beat in his hand before he released it.
“Can you handle this?” Vicky asked as she nervously searched his face. His eyes were that feral, arctic snow color, but she sensed the easing of his bloodlust through their bond.
“Yes,” he assured her before turning to face the battle.
A female Savage lunged at Vicky; she flipped the woman over her head before slamming a high kick into the throat of the next vamp coming at her. Vicky bent and plunged her stake into the woman’s heart before lowering her shoulder and ramming it into the chest of the monster whose windpipe she’d crushed.
The Savage staggered back, and Nathan jerked its head to the side before tearing it off. For a moment, he stood and gawked at the head in his hands before dropping it. That was something he couldn’t have done before becoming a mated vampire.
From somewhere in the distance, smoke coiled into the air.
“The smoke will attract humans,” Aiden said from beside Vicky.
“It will,” Vicky agreed. Which meant their time here had just been shortened.
Abby, Brian, and Duncan moved forward to flank Aiden and Maggie. Sister June had stayed behind with the children, but every available vampire and hunter capable of fighting were here.
On the other side of Brian, she spotted Kadence and Ronan slicing their way through the Savages with Declan and Saxon. Declan had the stick of a lollipop between his lips as he smashed the heads of two Savages together. Killean and Lucien were on the far end, hacking their way through more of the monsters with some of the trainees.
Hunters filled in the gaps between the vampires, giving Vicky a glimpse of what their future with each other could be. A future of coexistence that would allow more of them to flourish—if they survived to end the terror Joseph was working to unleash on the world.
And then there was Joseph. She had no idea what the man looked like, but she knew if Nathan saw him, there would be no holding him back from going after the bastard. They’d already gone through so much to be together; she couldn’t lose him now. She kept her mind acutely attuned to Nathan’s, searching for the murderous storm she knew would encompass him if he spotted Joseph in this chaos.
Another Savage leapt at her, rising high into the air and coming down with hands curved and fangs bared. Vicky caught the beast in midair and flipped it over her back. Behind her, Asher released his crossbow, sending a bolt straight through the creature’s heart.
More smoke filled the clearing as the fire spread to one of the homes. Nathan blinked away the smoke burning his eyes as, across the way, he spotted Joseph gliding through the crowd.
Joseph’s golden-brown hair was disheveled from battle, but he grabbed a hunter by his shirt collar, lifted the hunter off the ground, and with a sharp thrust of his thumb under the man’s chin, Joseph snapped his neck before tearing off his head. The vamp lifted the head over his mouth and opened his lips to let the blood slide down his throat.
Rage tore through Nathan, but Vicky’s mind brushing against his kept him from rushing heedlessly into the crush of Savages surrounding their leader. No matter how badly he wanted to feel Joseph’s life slipping away in his hands, with Vicky’s survival depending on his, he wouldn’t do anything to risk her life.
More would die if Joseph escaped here, more innocents would be turned into monsters against their will, but far more would be lost if rage got the best of him. The hunter factions would fall further apart. The Alliance might crumble. Not only did Vicky’s life rely on his, but so did the lives of his people, and he wouldn’t let any of them down.
Vicky seized Nathan’s arm when she felt his blistering fury. “Where is he?”
“There!” Asher shouted and pointed over her shoulder.
Vicky’s stomach somersaulted when she spotted the Savage pouring blood down his gullet. Bile surged up her throat, and for a second, she thought she might throw up. Before she could react, a Savage snatched a handful of her hair and yanked her head back.
Vicky didn’t make a sound, but a stab of pain emanated through their bond and into him. Nathan clutched the Savage’s hand and jerked it to the side, causing the bone to pierce through flesh before he punched the monster square in the face, knocking it back.
Before Nathan could finish the kill, two more Savages pounced on him. One of them locked their arm around his neck and jerked his head back while the other grabbed his waist and tried to drag him down. Nathan tore at the arm around his neck as the creature sank its fangs into his throat.
Agony unlike anything he’d ever experienced tore through him when the Savage pulled his blood from his body against his will. His limbs stiffened as his body became paralyzed. This was what Vicky experienced in that warehouse, he realized. This was what she’d been talking about, but there was no describing this kind of pain.
Vicky appeared before him. Red filled her eyes, and her skin was turning a mottled red and black color that reminded him of Hellfire. He’d seen the skin color change happen to a vampire only once before; Ronan’s skin had done the same thing when Kadence was threatened. Ronan later told him it was a trait of purebreds and that he’d probably never see it again.
But now, his purebred was furious as she drove her palm straight into the face of the Savage feeding on him. The Savage screeched as it was knocked away so forcefully that one of its fangs remained embedded in his shoulder.
Nathan gulped air into his burning lungs, for the first time realizing he’d stopped breathing when the Savage bit him. He didn’t have a chance to recover before Vicky pounced on the Savage and took it down.
Nathan knocked the fang from his shoulder, seized the arm of the creature still dangling from his waist, and tore it away. Tossing the arm aside, he swung his hand down, backhanding the vamp across the face. Nathan pulled a stake free and drove it into the Savage’s heart.
Vicky tore the head from the Savage who’d bit him and tossed it aside. When she lifted her head to look at him, blood splattered her face, but beneath the blood more Hellfire spread across her face, causing her eyes to burn brighter and the aura of her power to crackle against his skin when she leapt to her feet and returned to his side.
Glancing down the line of vampires and hunters, Nathan saw Abby, Aiden, and Ronan all had that same red-black color mottling their skin as they slaughtered their enemies.
Because their mates are in danger, he realized.
Flames leapt higher into the sky as the trees a hundred feet away from them caught fire. Sparks filled the air, and some landed on the roofs of the closest homes. Smoke started spiraling up from the shingles when some of the embers caught there.
They had to get out of here soon. In a matter of minutes, humans would be crawling all over this place. Nathan staked the next Savage before pulling out his crossbow and taking out three more.
Suddenly, the wave of Savages cleared, and a pathway toward Joseph opened. The Savage strolled across the smoke-choked grounds and toward the back half of the property.
Some of the Savages fell back to follow their leader, but the spreading fire split some of them off, exposing Joseph more. From the corner of his eye, he saw Kadence and Ronan running toward Joseph.
He didn’t have to look at Vicky
before they were racing forward in unison. Joseph glanced at them over his shoulder; amusement flickered across his face before he vanished into the thickening smoke.
Vicky ducked and spun away from a Savage who leapt at her. Turning, Nathan battered the Savage’s cheek, knocking him off balance before the monster could grab her. The Savage hit the ground, rolling away and vanishing into the smoke.
Nathan moved closer to Vicky as they closed the distance to where he’d last seen Joseph. Kadence and Ronan merged with them, and the four of them homed in on their prey as Joseph emerged once more. Through the smoke, Nathan saw the shadows of more Savages coming forth, and he realized Joseph had lured them into a trap.
CHAPTER 51
From the right of Ronan, a wave of Savages rushed forward with a unified cry of bloodlust. A scream lodged in Vicky’s throat as the first of twenty more monsters emerged from the smoke. Before the Savages could collide with Ronan, vampires and hunters poured through the smoke to clash with the Savages. Cries of victory turned to ones of pain as the Savages were brought down.
Joseph turned to flee, but Kadence darted to the side, heading him off, and Nathan ran at him from behind. When Joseph spun to escape in another direction, Vicky moved to intercept him.
The spreading flames heated Vicky’s back and caused her hair to dance in the billowing wind. Smoke burned her throat as the four of them closed in on Joseph while Declan, Lucien, and Saxon advanced from the other side.
Cornered, Joseph turned and charged straight at Vicky with teeth bared. She braced her legs apart, waiting for him to get closer before dropping suddenly.
It was a move she’d perfected during training, one that had thrown Aiden and other trainees off as she hit the ground flat on her back. Not expecting it, Joseph could have run over her, or she could have rolled out from under him. This time, she threw up her right leg, kicking him square in the nuts.
Joseph’s breath exploded out of him. He was lurching downward when Nathan swung an uppercut under his chin that shot his head back and caused blood to explode from his mouth. Ronan snatched Joseph from behind, and his arm snaked around the Savage’s neck. Joseph was taller than Ronan, but Ronan lifted him off the ground until Joseph’s eyes bulged and his feet kicked against Ronan’s shins.
Two Savages raced out of the smoke and crashed into Ronan’s side, knocking his hold on Joseph free. Kadence cried out as Ronan spun to tear one of the Savage’s hearts out, but half a dozen more Savages jumped on him.
Nathan pounced on Joseph’s back and brought him down like a velociraptor on a cow. He drove Joseph’s face into the ground until blood burst free and his features became nothing more than mush. Joseph’s teeth littered the ground, blood oozed from his ears, eyes, and nose, and still, Nathan continued to batter him.
Vicky’s scent filled his nose as she stepped beside him and rested her hand on his shoulder. “Nathan.”
He resisted her for a second, but then he shoved Joseph’s head away and jumped to his feet. His shoulders heaved with every inhalation as he stood over the prone body of the man who had inflicted so much damage on his family and his kind. Lifting his arm, he went to wipe away the blood splattering his face before realizing it saturated every part of him.
He wanted nothing more than to drive a stake through the bastard’s heart, but for now, Joseph was more useful to them alive. He would go into Ronan’s prison where they could question him and learn everything he knew before destroying him. And Nathan would take great pleasure in killing him slowly.
Lifting his head, Nathan’s wrath ebbed as he met Vicky’s troubled gaze. He was reaching for her when Joseph suddenly rolled and jumped to his feet. His face resembled pancake batter, but he was still healthy enough to smash his hand into Nathan’s chest.
Nathan grunted, his body bowed backward as Joseph’s fist shoved through flesh and bone in search of his heart. This invasion of his body didn’t hurt as bad as the Savage’s bite, but pain still flared out from his severed nerve endings and broken bones. Joseph’s finger scraped his heart, and the beat of it altered. It all happened so fast that Nathan didn’t have a chance to react at first.
Through their bond, Vicky’s terror and panic engulfed him as her hands wrapped around Joseph’s wrist. She tried to pull Joseph back, but the Savage was stronger than her.
Nathan couldn’t die here, he wouldn’t allow her to die, and he wouldn’t let this bastard be the one to kill him. Over Vicky’s hands, Nathan seized Joseph’s wrist, restraining the Savage from wrapping his hand around his heart.
“No!” Vicky screamed.
She couldn’t lose Nathan, not after everything they’d been through, not when she’d finally allowed herself to envision a future for them.
“I killed the father. Now I’ll kill the son,” Joseph taunted, his words distorted by his toothless mouth and battered face.
Nathan held Joseph’s ruby eyes as he twisted his wrist to the side. Together, he and Vicky succeeded in pulling his wrist back an inch.
Red and black color swirled through Vicky’s hands as power the likes of which she’d never known suffused her. Her muscles felt like someone had placed her on a rack and stretched for days, but her fingers squeezed down. Joseph hissed out a breath when she felt the give of the bones in his wrist; he didn’t let up as his muscles flexed against her palms and his hand slid a little way into Nathan again.
“No!” she spat. She’d tear Joseph to pieces for this.
“Nathan!” Kadence shouted.
Kadence appeared at Vicky’s side. Her hands encased Vicky’s, and together the three of them finally succeeded in wrenching Joseph’s hand from Nathan’s chest. Joseph swung his other hand up, but Vicky caught it before he could hit Nathan. Kadence lifted a stake over her head and plunged it into Joseph’s chest.
Blood exploded from Joseph’s mouth, but the stake had missed his heart. Joseph spun, tearing his hand from Vicky’s grasp and backhanding Kadence across the face. Kadence cried out as the blow flung her away, and Ronan’s roar reverberated through the air. Joseph twisted back, but before he could smack Vicky, Nathan jumped in front of her.
“Nathan!” she screamed as Joseph’s blow lifted him off his feet and threw him fifty feet away.
Joseph spun toward her, his shoulders hunched up and his nostrils flaring like a bull preparing to charge. Over Joseph’s shoulder, Vicky spotted more Savages coming toward them through the smoke. Having finished off the last of his attackers, Ronan launched to his feet to intercept a Savage bounding toward Kadence.
They’re coming for Joseph, Vicky realized with a sinking sensation. Whether it was to save their leader or destroy him before he could be captured and interrogated, she didn’t know, but the Savages wouldn’t be stopped.
“Killing you will kill him,” Joseph said, his voice sounding like what she imagined a talking snake would.
And then he was coming at her.
Before she could react, a booming explosion rent the air. In what seemed to be slow motion, fire raced over Vicky’s back and seared away her flesh. Bits of flaming debris, chunks of wood, and a kitchen sink flew by her as she was lifted off her feet. She somersaulted through the air, flashes of ground, smoke, and sky filling her vision as flames crackled and screams resounded all around her.
Then, she felt the air falling away as she fell back toward the earth. When she hit the ground, air burst from her lungs and earth plowed up before her as she skidded ten feet on her stomach before coming to a stop near a tree. Dirt clogged her nose as she inhaled shallow breaths, and tremors racked her brutalized body. It took her a minute to realize some of the smoke and snapping flames around her were coming from her charred flesh.
“I’ve got you, don’t move,” Declan commanded.
He pulled off his shirt as he knelt at her side and beat out the flames consuming her flesh. She thought it should hurt, but she couldn’t feel anything. She only knew the fire was being put out by the dwindling noise and smoke coming from her.
“Nathan?” she whispered.
“He’s fine. He was thrown fifty feet in the other direction. You were the closest; you got it the worst.”
She tried to reach out to Nathan through their bond, but she was too weak. “What… what happened?”
“Gas line or propane tank, I’m assuming,” Declan said as he finished putting out the flames.
Vicky’s teeth started to chatter as goose bumps broke out on her non-charred skin. She was burnt to a crisp, yet freezing.
“We have to go,” Saxon said as he arrived at Declan’s side.
“Vicky!” Abby screamed, and then her sister was kneeling beside her.
“I’m fi… fi… ne,” she said through chattering teeth.
“I’ve got her,” Aiden said as he knelt beside Declan and gently slid his arms under her stomach. “Don’t move.”
“Nathan. I… I want… to… to see Nathan.”
Aiden turned her, and when she lifted her head, she spotted Nathan running through the smoke toward her. At his side, Ronan carried Kadence in his arms. Nathan’s eyes were wild when he halted beside her. Blood cleaved his ripped shirt to the torn flesh of his chest, but he seemed not to notice as he clasped her face.
“Vicky,” Nathan whispered, unable to keep the tears from choking his voice or a tremor from his hands. The black and peeling flesh of her back was broken only by raw skin and blisters. I wish it was me, he thought.
I don’t.
He hadn’t realized he’d mentally communicated the thought to her until she responded. She closed her eyes when he tenderly kissed her.
“You’re going to be okay,” he whispered.
“Ye-yes.”
“We have to go,” Ronan said as wailing sirens sounded in the distance.
Nathan eased her from Aiden’s hold. Vicky draped her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist; she bit back a scream when the motion caused her burnt back to crack. Pain lanced across the nerve endings already putting themselves back together.
Bound by Vengeance Page 31
