Bound By Vengeance

by Shannon K. Butcher

  She was shaking like crazy. This wasn’t like target practice with a soda can sitting nice and still. She was aiming for flesh and blood, and while it was icky flesh and blood, it still gave her pause.

  The only part of her that wasn’t exploding with anger was that small, bright spot where Liam’s power flowed into her. It was like warm sunlight, steady and moving slowly through her.

  Dakota focused on that, and as she did, more of it trickled into her, steading her hands and evening out her breathing.

  She could do this. She needed to do this.

  Her first shot was off by a few inches, slamming into the demon’s shoulder. It snarled and lifted its head as if it just now realized she was there.

  Its eyes flared and it sprung forward, launching itself toward her on powerful hind legs. The wound wasn’t even slowing it down.

  With each passing yard, it gained speed. Dakota took aim again and fired, hitting it in the neck. It yelped and fell into a clumsy roll.

  She didn’t wait to see if it recovered. Instead, she fired again and again, sending another three shots into its skull.

  That might not be enough to kill it, but it was certainly enough to slow it down.

  Liam had finished off two more of the demons, and was fighting a third. She didn’t dare try to shoot it as close as it was to him.

  His powerful body moved almost too fast to see, and the last demon’s head spun away from its body. His shoulders rose and fell. His stance was sure and solid as he scanned for more monsters.

  Without a word, he stalked to where the demon she’d shot lay and lopped off its head with a single blow. He wiped the black blood from his sword on the fur of the beast, then sheathed his weapon.

  The demon that had been wounded was gone. With it had gone the luminous trail she’d seen, winding off into the distance. She could see a thick, oily black path on the dead grass where it had bled as it ran away.

  She sprinted toward it, needing to finish the job.

  Liam’s thick arm looped around her middle, stopping her in her tracks. “No. It’s too dangerous.”

  She fought against his hold, but he was too strong. She looked up at him to tell him to let her go, but the words stalled in her throat. What she saw on his face made her struggles cease.

  He was furious. The lines on his face were tight with rage and his pale blue eyes burned with anger. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Killing my brother’s killer. Let me go.”

  “You still don’t get it, do you? You still don’t understand what will happen to me if you die, running off after a demon, armed with only a gun.”

  “How am I supposed to understand? You never told me.”

  He let out a controlled breath. “I’ve been searching for centuries for a woman who is able to wield my power. Without someone like you, I won’t make it much longer. I need you to stay safe.”

  She remembered the stories now—whispered rumors of men with dying souls and the women who could stop that decay.

  The fear swirling inside of her had congealed into a mass of frustration and anger. She hadn’t asked for any of this. She didn’t even want it. The only thing she wanted was to kill the demon who’d ruined her life. And when she’d had the chance, she’d let it get away.

  It was long gone now. Even the trail had faded to the point that she couldn’t see it against the lightening sky.

  Dakota stomped back to the house, slammed the door open and headed for the kitchen sink. She needed to wash off the blood before it caused more problems. Dawn was getting closer, but until the sun was up, the danger was still real.

  Liam’s heavy footsteps sounded behind her. When he spoke, the fire had left his voice. “You’re hurt.”

  “It just a scratch. I’ll glue it shut.”

  She felt him get closer, felt the heat of his body behind her and smelled his skin, warm from combat. His breath brushed past her hair as he peered over her shoulder, watching her scrub away the blood and dirt.

  “Let me see.”

  She turned her hand under the flow of water, showing him the small scrape. “See. No big deal.” Unless she pulled her hand out from under the running water and let the scent of her blood fill the air.

  “Stay here,” he said.

  “I know the score. Bleeding is bad.” That had been drilled into her head from the time she’d learned that monsters were real. The news had not only terrified her, but it had made that time of the month more than just an inconvenience. She’d known women who’d been slaughtered because they hadn’t been careful and gone to one of the Defenders’ shelters at night.

  He came back with a roll of duct tape, gauze and some antibiotic ointment.

  “I suppose you’ve done this before,” she said.

  “A couple of times.”

  His touch was gentle, but quick. He had the scrape covered airtight in seconds, but held onto her hand as though he weren’t yet finished.

  He was quiet for so long she glanced up at him and saw him staring at her hand like she was some kind of puzzle.

  “What?” she asked, wondering what was going on in his head.

  “I want to take you back to my home where you’ll be safe.”

  “How are we going to hunt for the demon if we’re all nice and safe inside some house?”

  “It’s not a house. It’s a compound. Fortified. Protected. There are warriors there as well as healers.”

  “And you still haven’t answered my question. You promised me that we’d hunt down the demon that killed my brother. We can’t do that from a compound.”

  “I will go hunt it.”

  Now his point was becoming clear. “You think I’m too weak. That I’ll get in your way.”

  “No. I think you’re not ready for this yet. Given enough time—”

  “We don’t have much time. The trail is getting fainter. And even if it wasn’t, how are you going to find the monster?”

  “I’ll kill them all.”

  “Oh, I see. Easy.”

  “Not easy. Simple. It may take time, but in that time your strength will grow.”

  “How? Even when you’re only a few feet away I can feel the difference in the flow of power coming from you versus when I’m up close.”

  “That will also improve with time.”

  “Even if you’re not around?”

  He bowed his head, hiding his face. “I can’t risk your life.”

  “It’s not yours to risk. It’s mine. I’ve kept going for the last six months by telling myself that I’d find the demon and kill it. Even when my parents left because they couldn’t stand the sight of me, I kept it together because I had a reason to. If you shove me in some prison somewhere and lock me away, that reason will be gone.” And while she couldn’t speak her fears aloud, she was afraid of what she would do.

  “It’s not a prison and you wouldn’t be locked away.”

  “Then there’s no fucking way I’d stay. I need to do this, Liam. I need to see this through. With or without you.”

  “You can’t get rid of me. We’re bound.”

  “Only if we kill the demon in the next couple of days. If we don’t, then our deal is off, remember?”

  “I won’t let my desires cloud my judgment. Your safety is more important than our bond.”

  “You said that you needed this bond to live.”

  “I do. But if things don’t work out between us, there are other men like me, other men who need a savior.”

  She let out a scoffing bark of laughter. “I’m more likely to get them killed than not. Just ask my brother.”

  “His death wasn’t your fault.”

  It was. She’d been careless. Even her parents who’d always loved her couldn’t stand to be near her. Eventually they’d come home, but she’d never be able to change the fact that she’d killed their only son. That wasn’t the kind of thing a parent could forgive.

  She knew she’d never forgive herself.

  “I’m tired
,” she said. “I’m going to bed. When the sun sets, I’m going hunting. I hope you’ll come with me, since you’re handy as hell with that sword, but I’m going with or without you.”

  “With,” he said, cupping her cheek. “I won’t let you do this alone.”

  Liam locked his knees as Dakota walked off to keep from staggering under the weight of the guilt he felt pouring out of her. He nearly went after her, but the thought of what he’d say stopped him cold.

  She believed Daren’s death was her fault. The people who were supposed to love her unconditionally had left. What could he possibly say to make her feel better? He was a stranger—one who’d been furious with her only moments ago. She wasn’t going to trust him, not if he kept acting like an ass.

  But he couldn’t let her go hunting alone. Even if killing this demon assuaged her guilt and tied her to him irrevocably, it wasn’t worth the risk.

  Liam stood in the kitchen as the sky lightened, trying to figure out what to do. He briefly considered going after the wounded demon. Once the sun was up, Dakota would be safe from Synestryn. But she wouldn’t be safe from their human servants, Dorjan. Leaving her alone, undefended in her sleep, wasn’t something he could do—not after what had happened to two of their women in the last few days. Dorjan were getting bolder in their attacks. Liam refused to risk Dakota, despite the fact that no one knew what she was except Jake.

  His duties to his people tugged at his conscience. If he died, the knowledge that she was a Theronai had to live on. One of his brothers might be saved by her.

  He shoved away his feelings of possessiveness and sent an email to Joseph, his leader, telling him that if anything happened to Liam, Joseph needed to contact Jake about a woman named Dakota Kacey.

  As selfish as his ambiguity was, it was as far as Liam could bring himself to go right now. He still had most of two days to make his bond with Dakota permanent. And in the meantime, he needed to do everything he could to keep her safe.

  He parked his ass outside her bedroom door, took off his boots and shirt, pulled his sword and laid it in front of him, ready to go if he needed it. He tried to slip into that meditative state that had always been so easy to find before, but not now. He was acutely aware of Dakota on the other side of the door. He could feel her sorrow and guilt as if it were his own. Exhaustion trembled through their link, but she wasn’t asleep.

  Liam briefly considered helping her, but his instincts warned him to hold off. She had a lot to digest. She needed time to think and sort through the way her life had changed in the last few hours. If he sent her to sleep, it would only delay that process.

  Minutes seeped by in silence. An hour passed. Two. Sunlight filled the house. He could see a bright patch of it at the bottom of the stairs, slowly inching across the carpet.

  Every once in a while, he could feel her prodding at their link, proof that she wasn’t sleeping.

  Liam let her poke around, holding his mind open for her inspection. He had nothing to hide. She already knew about Synestryn. She already knew how much he needed her, how much he wanted to keep living and fighting. There were darker parts of himself where he held the grief for those who had fallen—people he’d known and loved—but he let her slide around that part of him as well, hoping that seeing how he’d healed might help her heal from her own grief as well.

  Still, even though he thought he was an open book both to himself as well as her, she still managed to stumble on a part of himself that he hadn’t realized was there until he felt her strong reaction to it. Her shock, her sadness.

  He tried to cover it up and hide it, but it was too late. She’d already seen it, and now he heard her moving behind the door, drawing closer.

  The door opened at his back. He didn’t turn around and look at her. He was ashamed to face her now and see the look of pity in her eyes.

  Her hands settled on his shoulders tentatively, as if she wasn’t sure if she should touch him.

  “I’m fine,” he told her, his voice chilly in an effort to ward off any conversation.

  “How long have you been alone?” she asked.

  “I’m not alone. My home is filled with five hundred people.”

  “Then why did I feel such deep loneliness inside of you? Why did you try to cover it up when you let me see everything else?”

  Because it was stupid for him to feel that way. Irrational. “I have no reason to be lonely. Just let it go, Dakota. You need to sleep.”

  She went to her knees, pressing her body against his back and wrapping her arms around him. At first he thought it was a hug of pity, but she didn’t seem inclined to move away. She just held on with her arms looped over his shoulders and her cheek right next to his left ear.

  “I haven’t gone out with any of my friends since that night,” she said, her voice quiet as if it were a confession of some kind. “When’s the last time you went out with your friends?”

  “There’s no time for that kind of frivolity. We’re at war. I need to fight.”

  “You don’t ever take a vacation?”

  “The demons don’t take vacations, so no, I don’t, either.”

  “Are all of you like this?” she asked.

  “Like what?”

  “Lonely.”

  “I’m not lonely,” he said as if the words would make it true.

  “Bullshit. But I guess I can forgive you for the lie seeing as how you let me poke around in your head like that.”

  “It helps the bonding process.”

  “I see. It’s completely practical then.” Her fingers splayed across his chest and a string of heat shot through him. His lifemark swayed toward her touch so fast he could feel a slight tremor along his skin as if the tree were creaking.

  He was so distracted by her touch that he had a hard time concentrating on her words. “One of us had to be first to open up. I seemed the logical choice.”

  Her mouth moved down so that he could feel her breath brush past the skin that had so recently been covered by his luceria. Nothing had touched that skin for so long, it was ultra-sensitive. “Logical. Practical. There’s more to you than that. I saw it.”

  Her head turned. He felt her soft hair slide over his shoulder. She kissed the side of his neck, just under his ear. It was light, almost hesitant, but it still had the power to send heat blooming through his body.

  Liam shivered and rolled his fingers into fists to keep from reaching for her. As much as he wanted to take what she offered, he knew she was acting on something that wasn’t real. She’d touched his mind, but she hadn’t interpreted what she’d seen there correctly. He wasn’t some sympathetic victim. He was a warrior. That was all. It was all he could allow himself to be.

  “You’re a good guy,” she whispered against his throat.

  He was trying to be, but keeping his hands to himself was becoming more of a challenge by the second. “You should try to get some sleep.”

  She completely ignored him, crawling around until she could face him.

  Dakota wasn’t wearing pants. Or a bra. She wore only a man’s too-large T-shirt that she must have found in one of the drawers. It hung on her frame, making her look vulnerable and delicate as she knelt in front of him.

  Her gaze slid down his chest and back up to his face. A pretty pink blush tinted her cheeks, and her nipples beaded up beneath the thin, white cotton.

  Liam could not stop staring, no matter how rude and inappropriate it was.

  A spurt of desire spilled through their link and his whole body clenched in response. Heat filled him up, swirling inside of him until there was no place left untouched by her effect on him.

  A sultry, knowing smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “You want me, too.”

  “Any sane man would. But I don’t always take what I want. That would be wrong.”

  “What about what I want? Does that matter?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Her smile deepened, and he felt the link between them widen to allow room for more to pass be
tween them. “Good. I was hoping you’d say that.”

  With any luck at all, she would be his forever. And if she wasn’t, why not taste what she seemed intent on offering while he had the chance? He hadn’t been with a woman in years, and whoever they’d been, they hadn’t left enough of a mark on him that he could remember their names or faces. At least not right now. Hell, he was doing good to remember his own name right now.

  He moved his sword aside so she wouldn’t cut herself on the sharp blade. She scooted forward and braced her weight on his thighs. “I’ve never met a man like you before.”

  He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, and right now he didn’t have the concentration to figure it out. He had to kiss her.

  Her lips parted as if she’d sensed his intent. Maybe she had. The connection between them was wide open. She seemed to like it that way, and he wasn’t about to do anything to stop her from her intended course of action.

  A lock of curls had slipped over her shoulder. He slid it back behind her ear and cradled the side of her head as he moved closer. His mouth watered in anticipation of her taste. Eagerness hummed between them strong enough to vibrate the ring around his finger. Her necklace swirled with blues, so rich and vibrant they were nearly as pretty as her eyes. But nothing could compete with her mouth. Her lips were a dark pink and parted just for him.

  Liam intended to be gentle with her. He didn’t want to scare her away with the ferocity of his lust for her, or let her see him as the rutting beast he felt like. But the moment his lips touched hers, electric sparks spread out over his skin, tightening his grip and heightening his raging need for her.

  He bore her backwards, down onto the carpet. She tasted like rain and moonlight, and he couldn’t get enough. Her tongue danced with his as she squirmed beneath him. The urge to pin her in place shuddered through him, but he fought it off, giving her room to move away from him if she chose.

  Blood slammed through his veins, but did little to cool the need eating away at his sanity. He shoved his knee between hers, parting her legs so he could get between them.