[The Alliance 01.0] Eternally Bound

by Brenda K. Davies

  He’d fought against losing his humanity for years; he could fight it longer, for her.

  “I’m sorry for what transpired here earlier.”

  Her eyes became a vivid shade of blue as fury emanated from her. “I see.”

  He didn’t understand why that had pissed her off more. He was trying to apologize. He knew it would never be enough, but it was a beginning at least. “I must explain—”

  “Don’t bother,” she cut in. “It was a mistake, a passing fling.”

  “It was not a mistake!” he snapped, unable to control the flare of temper her words provoked in him. Taking a deep breath, he took a second to steady himself before continuing. “I am not sorry for what happened between us; I am sorry for my behavior afterward.”

  “Oh.” Her arms fell to her sides as some of her ire faded. “Okay.”

  He couldn’t help but smile at her even as his insides twisted into knots at the words he knew he would be issuing soon. “Okay.”

  “Why did you act like that then?”

  Tell her. The words screamed across his mind, the selfish part of him roaring to life. She cared enough for him to have given herself to him; she might agree to stay with him if she knew his sanity could depend on it. However, he couldn’t bring himself to place that responsibility on her, not when she was so close to being free.

  “It had been a while since I fed.” Not a lie, not a truth.

  Her brow furrowed then cleared when his eyes were involuntarily drawn to the vein in her neck. “Oh,” she said. “And you’ve fed now?”

  That was not the word for what he’d done. “I have.”

  “So you’re better now?”

  No. “Yes,” he lied.

  “What about what happened with Killean and Declan just now? I’ve never seen you so angry at Killean, and I think something was wrong with Declan.”

  “No one is going to talk to you in such a way. Killean knows that now. And Declan is… well, he’s different from others. Before you ask, I don’t know exactly how he’s different. I just know he is. I’ve never asked him to reveal all of his secrets to me, but his difference can be useful to him, or stressful.”

  “I see.”

  “You should rest before you leave.”

  Kadence blinked at him, thrown off by the abrupt change in conversation. “Excuse me?”

  “Rest. It is going to be a tiring day for you, and you will be leaving shortly.”

  “Oh… ah… yeah,” she muttered. She had no idea what was wrong with her. She should be jumping for joy. Soon she’d be leaving this place and him behind to do everything she’d always dreamed about doing. The knowledge brought her no joy. Instead, it made that awful tightening of her skin start all over again.

  Her fingers bit into her arms as she held back the tears burning her eyes. She would not cry in front of him. She refused to do so again, especially since she had no idea why she wanted to cry. Okay, well, she had a little bit of one. She had come to care for this man who she would have gladly staked two weeks ago, and she wasn’t ready to leave him.

  Do I want to go? she asked herself. Of course you do, you idiot. You abandoned your whole family for a shot at freedom, and Ronan is offering you more than you ever could have hoped for.

  Then why did her heart feel like it was being squeezed in a vise?

  “Do you want to leave, Kadydid?” he asked.

  Her heart squeezed further at the nickname he’d given her; one she’d come to cherish over the past week. Was that a measure of hope she heard in his voice, or was she only trying to hear it there?

  “I want… I want to see the world and learn things,” she whispered.

  He glanced to the windows, his hands fisting as on the horizon the night sky began to lighten toward dawn. “And I will give that to you,” he murmured. “I must speak with Marta and Baldric now.”

  He kept his head averted from her as he strode toward the door. “Ronan.” He flinched away from her hand when she rested it on his arm. “I should speak with my brother.”

  His head swiveled toward her. She couldn’t stop herself from taking a step back from the burning red of his eyes. “Why?” he asked.

  Kadence swallowed. “To let him know we were wrong, that you are not all bad, that we all fight a common enemy. Maybe… maybe you could work together. Think of the good that could be done and the lives that could be saved if hunters and vampires united.”

  “And do you think he would listen to you?”

  She contemplated his question before sighing. “Probably not, but don’t you think it’s worth a chance?”

  His hand briefly rested over hers, his fingers squeezing her before releasing her. “I think it’s best if you get away from here. If you leave behind the violence and death of both our worlds and live the life you are meant to live.”

  “And what life is that?” she inquired.

  “One of happiness.”

  “Ronan—”

  Pulling her close, he kissed her forehead before releasing her. “Let this go.”

  The lump in her throat choked her as he strode toward the doorway. “Ronan!” she blurted when he stepped out the door. He hesitated in the threshold, his shoulders drawn up to his ears and his back hunched. “Thank you, for everything. No matter what, I will never regret anything that transpired between us.”

  “Neither will I.”

  “When I come back—”

  He looked at her over his shoulder. “If you come back, I will be here, waiting for you.”

  “You’ll have found someone else by then,” she said with what felt like the worst smile.

  “No, Kadydid, there will never be anyone else for me, only you. Do not return here unless you’re ready for an eternity with me.”

  Before she could reply, he was gone from the doorway and she was left gawking after him.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Kadence stood in the foyer, her small bag in hand as Marta bustled around her. For the thousandth time, Kadence’s eyes went to the hallway where the poolroom was located. Somehow, she knew Ronan was down there. She kept waiting for him to come to say goodbye, but she hadn’t seen him again since he’d left her room.

  “Are you ready, miss?”

  Kadence glanced at Marta before focusing on the hall again. That awful feeling of not belonging in her own skin hadn’t eased, but now she found it nearly impossible to breathe as she kept waiting.

  “Miss?” This time it was Baldric who stepped before her.

  Go, or stay for an eternity? And what did he mean by an eternity with him? He couldn’t have really meant what she’d thought when he said that? She wasn’t a vampire. There was no eternity for her.

  Kadence looked over at where Marta stood by the door with a small duffel bag in hand. Her mostly gray hair had been pulled into a ponytail. Her round face only showed lines around her eyes and mouth when she smiled. Plump with kind hazel eyes, Marta had become someone Kadence really liked.

  “Yes,” she croaked. “Yes. I am ready.”

  Baldric stepped back and opened the door for her. Kadence glanced over her shoulder, but there was still no sign of Ronan. She took a step toward the poolroom before retreating. If she went to say goodbye to him now, she might never leave.

  She forced herself to walk out the door. She’d turned against her brother and all her kind for this opportunity at freedom. She’d forsaken everything she knew; she could not change her mind now, even if she was contemplating staying for a man she’d only known for a short while.

  A man she had willingly given herself to. By doing so, she’d chosen a course she could never take back and didn’t want to. If she tried to return to the hunters now, and they somehow learned who she had given herself to, they may label her a traitor and kill her. Even Nathan wouldn’t be able to stop that from happening if they decided that’s what she was.

  Not like she would ever willingly tell them she had given herself to a vampire, but like Declan, there were those of her kind who had gi
fts. She certainly did. She had the same strength, speed, and enhanced senses her father and Nathan possessed and her strange knowing of things.

  Stepping into the day, Kadence tipped her head back and let the warmth of the sun wash over her. Baldric opened the back door of a black car with heavily tinted windows for her. Every step she took caused her shoulders to sag more, but she tossed her bag into the back seat and climbed in behind it.

  She winced at the clicking sound of the door closing behind her. Huddling into herself, she watched as Baldric and Marta climbed in and Baldric started the vehicle. She couldn’t look back as they drove down the tree-lined, cobblestone drive to the thirty-foot-high gate at the end.

  “Put your blindfold on now, miss,” Marta said.

  “Please call me Kadence. It’s going to be an extremely long time together if you keep calling me miss.”

  “Kadence then,” Marta said with a smile. “Do you need help with the blindfold?”

  “No,” she whispered and slid the thick material over her eyes.

  “What have you done, Ronan?”

  “If you want to survive to hunt tonight, I would suggest leaving,” Ronan didn’t look back at his friend as he replied to Declan’s question.

  “You have to stop them. You can’t let her go.”

  “I can and I did.”

  He kept his gaze focused on the bar as he swirled the whiskey in his glass. He was going on his third bottle of Jameson, and he still didn’t feel any effects from the alcohol, which was probably a good thing. In his current mood, he might tear this entire house down if he were drunk.

  The people who had lived here before them had shitty taste in décor, but they had fantastic taste in alcohol, he decided as he took another sip of the Jameson Vintage Reserve he’d discovered beneath the bar. At one time, he’d lived on Irish whiskey and women.

  He couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken a sip of alcohol, but he could clearly recall the last time he’d taken a woman. Every second of that encounter had been emblazoned on his mind, along with the fiasco of an ending. And now she was gone, set free by none other than himself.

  Had he hoped she’d stay? Right up until she walked out the door. He would have denied it, but he realized now, he’d been holding out hope she would decide to stay for him.

  Now he was trying to remember the last time whiskey had burned its way down his throat instead of thinking about who had walked out the door.

  The light Declan let in when he’d slid open the doors flashed, but not because he was closing them again; it was because Declan was coming closer. Ronan had closed the shutters over all the windows, unable to handle that small amount of sun right now as the demon churned within him. He definitely couldn’t deal with Declan’s worry for him.

  “Ronan—”

  The tumbler shattered in his hand, and liquid splashed over him as shards drove deep into his flesh. He didn’t bother to pull the glass from his palm before he lifted the bottle he’d set next to his chair. Declan remained mute as he padded by him to the bar where he removed a couple of bottles before walking over to him. Grabbing the back of one of the ugly chairs, Declan set it beside him, placed one of the bottles between them, and opened the other.

  “Not one more word about her, Declan.”

  “Understood.”

  The light shifted again and Killean’s resin scent drifted to him. Ronan’s fangs lengthened in anticipation of one of Killean’s remarks, but the vampire only walked by him to the bar before moving a chair to sit on Ronan’s other side. Saxon joined minutes later, and when Ronan heard the click of the front door shutting, he knew Lucien had also arrived.

  He’d forgotten Lucien was supposed to be coming today to discuss the moving of the training facility. Ah well, the more the merrier, he thought as he lifted the bottle to his lips and drank half of it down.

  Ronan closed his eyes and took another pull on the bottle. The bloodlust slithered through his veins like an insidious snake waiting to strike. Every beat of his heart caused his temples to pulse with it. Yet there was still so much to deal with, so many still counting on him.

  If he gave in and gorged himself on the blood, he wouldn’t have to deal with it ever again. He’d only have to deal with himself, and Kadence’s hatred of him should she return.

  Mate or not, she was gone and he had to accept that she may never return. He had to continue with what he’d been born to do. Rising to his feet, he drank the rest of the bottle as he made his way toward the bar.

  He waited until Lucien walked in and settled into another chair before speaking. “We have to take out Joseph before he continues to organize.”

  Declan passed his bottle to Lucien and opened the one he’d set on the floor. “We’ve had no new leads on him, even Brian is coming up blank,” Lucien said.

  “How is that possible?” Declan inquired.

  Lucien shrugged. “Brian said he’s not a GPS. Sometimes whatever he does just doesn’t work. He also said Joseph is most likely staying in a large crowd or city if he can’t pinpoint him.”

  “A large crowd of Savages?” Saxon asked.

  “Perhaps,” Lucien replied.

  “Not good,” Declan muttered.

  “The trainees, do they know what is going on? Why the facility is being closed and moved?” Saxon asked.

  “I saw no reason to keep it from them,” Lucien replied and tee-peed his hands before his face. “If they decide to bail instead of fight, then good riddance. I hope they get butchered by a Savage.”

  “Nice,” Declan muttered and took another drink.

  Lucien scowled at him. “You’d wish them well?”

  “I wouldn’t wish them death.”

  “We have to discuss if we will bring the turned vamps in to work with us,” Ronan said. Some of the glass still embedded in his hand clattered against the bar when it succeeded in working its way out of his flesh. He glanced at the blood splattered piece before focusing on the others.

  “It goes against tradition,” Saxon said.

  “It does,” Ronan agreed. “And the turned vamps aren’t as strong as we are, but they can take on a Savage. I lived through an attack from the Savages before. If Joseph comes at us with numbers like what they had back then, it will be a war the likes of which none of you have ever experienced.”

  They stared stonily back at him. He understood their reluctance to add turned vampires to their ranks and their pride. There were so few purebred vamps left, even fewer who had made it through the extreme training that elevated them to the status of Defender. The turned vamps went through a lot of training, but they didn’t go through the same kind of training they had all endured and survived.

  “They still don’t have to be one of us,” Lucien said. “We can call them something else if we want to use them for this battle.”

  “I vote we call them pissants,” Killean said.

  “I like it,” Lucien agreed. “They many not even be willing to fight.”

  “I’m sure you’ve inspired no loyalty,” Declan replied.

  Lucien gave him the finger. “I’m not there to inspire them. I’m there to make sure they don’t get killed by a Savage, and as soon as we find a replacement for me, I’m done with training them. Joseph boned me the most when he went Savage on us, and I got stuck with all the idiot newbies.”

  Thankfully, Joseph had given into the demon part of him outside of the training facility. Most likely because there had been enough recruits there to possibly take him down when they realized he’d become a Savage. Joseph had known that. Despite their endless thirst for blood, Savages were far from stupid. Before Joseph, they’d had no one to organize them, to lead them, but Joseph was a purebred, something different and stronger than they were, and the Savages were falling into line with him.

  “Bring the turned vamps in training, who agree to fight with us, here,” Ronan said to Lucien. “There will be enough room for them to stay here between the carriage house and the guest house, but make sure they
have no idea where this place is located.” His teeth ground together at the idea of having to be so close to the recruits, but there was little else that could be done about it. As long as they stayed out of his way, they’d survive. “Cut the ones who aren’t willing to fight loose.”

  “What about Aiden, the purebred in training?” Lucien inquired. “His sisters and Brian are still at the training facility too.”

  Aiden had already been in training when his sister, Vicky, was captured by vampires looking to sell off her blood to the highest bidder. She’d been chained and held with other purebreds. It had taken them a while, but Ronan and the others had hunted down and destroyed most of that remaining threat against purebreds.

  What remained of those vampires were a far smaller threat than what the vampire race faced with Joseph. But then, Joseph and the Savages were a danger to everyone who crossed their paths. For the first time, he was glad Kadence would be far from here.

  “Bring Aiden and his family here too, if they agree to it,” Ronan replied.

  Lucien took another swig of his bottle.

  “There are other turned vamps who have already gone through the training and are out there hunting Savages,” Saxon said. “Do we bring them in?”

  Having as much help as they could get would be the smart thing to do, but having vampires crawling over this place and the nearby cities and towns in search of food would be a sure-fire way to draw Joseph’s attention, along with that of the humans.

  However, if Joseph was accruing Savages, it was only a matter of time before he caught the attention of someone he shouldn’t.

  “Let’s get the recruits here first, and then we’ll discuss bringing more turned vamps in,” Ronan replied as the last of the glass in his hand worked its way out of his flesh and clattered onto the bar.

  “When should I bring them?” Lucien inquired.

  “Now. I want this over with,” Ronan replied.

  Chapter Thirty

  “I’d like to make a phone call, if I can,” Kadence said.

  “Of course, miss… ah, Kadence,” Baldric replied with a smile. “You’re not a prisoner. We’re only here to make sure you’re safe.”