Bending, Killean wrapped his arm around Simone’s waist and yanked her back. When he tore her fangs from the man’s arm, she screeched, and her hands and legs flailed. Clasping her against his chest, he placed his hand on her forehead and pinned her head to his shoulder to suppress her.
“I’m trying to save you!” he hissed, but even with having fed, she was still too far gone in her hunger to understand him.
Ignoring her screams and the fingers tearing at his forearms, he ran for one of the broken windows. Andre darted in front of him and planted his feet like a football player about to make the block. The grin on Andre’s face infuriated Killean.
Lowering his shoulder, Killean charged him but switched course at the last second and barreled toward one of the unbroken windows. If he weren’t holding Simone, he would have gone straight at Andre and destroyed the bastard, but he couldn’t risk a fight with her in his arms. They only had one chance at freedom, and he couldn’t risk her getting away from him.
Hunching over Simone, he used his body to protect hers when he hit the glass. There was a small hesitation before the window gave way beneath the impact of his body. Curling himself further around her, Killean sheltered her from the glass slicing across his arms and cheeks as the window blew outward.
The air rushing around him whipped at his hair and clothes as they fell fifteen feet before crashing into a shrub. Sticks jammed into his flesh; the bush bent before bouncing them away from the building. Killean’s shoulder crashed onto the dirt road, and he rolled to get away from the window and the glass. As he moved, Killean kept his weight off Simone the best he could, but she grunted when he rolled again.
Fingers scraped down his back and tangled in his shirt. Killean rolled again and lashed out with a kick that snapped the Savage’s head back. He didn’t have time to stop and kill it though as shouts rang out from inside and figures appeared in the windows overhead. Killean kicked again and then once more until the Savage’s face caved in and it released him.
Another one leapt out the window as Killean launched to his feet. Two more followed it.
Jarred and bouncing, Simone tried to process what was going on, but all she knew was someone had ripped her away from her delicious meal. Straining against the iron-clad grip on her waist and head, she tried to break free, but the hold was as imprisoning as the chains she’d been freed from.
I’m free! The thought burst through all the confusion muddling her brain and hope swelled forth before she recalled she wasn’t free; someone still restrained her. She kicked and clawed at her captor, but they didn’t relent as her feet dangled over the ground while air rushed around her.
“Stop struggling!” someone grunted in her ear.
The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. Then, it didn’t matter as she scented her captor’s blood on the air and her mouth watered.
Killean bolted across the dirt road and plunged into the woods with Simone clasped against his chest. The excited cries of the Savages followed him into the shadows of the forest. Branches and limbs slapped at him as his feet easily found their way through the debris littering the ground. The crunching of sticks and the grunts of his pursuers sounded behind him as he jumped over a downed tree before darting around a boulder.
Shifting his hold on Simone, he glanced over his shoulder to discover one of the Savages closing in on them. Killean grasped a tree branch and bent it back until it snapped off. He hefted it in his hand as Simone lunged against his arm locked around her waist. He struggled to keep his hold on her as her fingers clawed at his arm and she tried to lift herself free of his grasp.
“Be still!” he ordered, and spinning, he heaved the branch like a javelin thrower at the bastard pursuing them.
The branch struck the Savage in the chest. It was off the heart, but the Savage yelped as the impact lifted the creature off its feet and flung it backward. He heard the others crashing through the woods behind them, but Killean didn’t see them through the trees, and they sounded as if they were still a good hundred feet away, if not more. He’d bought them some time.
Placing his hand on Simone’s forehead again, he held her more securely against him as he poured on the speed. No moonlight penetrated the thick canopy of leaves overhead, but he saw well enough that he didn’t worry about crashing into anything or tripping over something. Unfortunately, his pursuers could also see well, and they weren’t carrying a pissed-off hunter.
“Stop!” he hissed when Simone kicked him in the shin and almost tripped him.
If he continued to run with her dangling against him, he would end up falling. Slowing only a little, he twisted her in his arms until her chest was flush against his.
“Wrap your legs around my waist,” he commanded.
Either the urgency of the situation, the tone of his voice, or instinct finally pierced through her hunger as she lifted her legs. Her dress pushed back when she locked her legs around his waist. Killean cradled the back of her head and placed it in the hollow of his shoulder as he ran.
CHAPTER 12
The scent of resin and blood filled Simone’s nostrils as she was embraced against a rock-hard surface that flowed with the grace of water against her. Something about the embrace and scent tickled her memory, but she couldn’t quite place it as the blood singing through the veins of whoever held her occupied all her senses and thoughts.
Without thinking, she sank her fangs into flesh and groaned in ecstasy when blood slid down her throat. Unlike anything she’d ever tasted before, this blood flooded her body with renewed strength as it eased the burning in her veins far more than the meal she consumed earlier. She tried to recall what was happening around them, but she was too far gone in the blood filling her and the awakening sensations of her body to pull away.
As power filled her, a growing awareness spread through her body. Her nipples puckered and her body came alive in a way it had only once before. The scent and solid muscles holding her coalesced into a memory of standing on a beach while being kissed for the first time in her life.
That kiss and the tender stroking of his tongue had awakened her to passion. No matter how much she tried to forget him, and the way he’d made her feel, he’d haunted her dreams every night until her capture. And then he’d been in her nightmares too.
Now she knew it was him holding her and him feeding her.
Killean, she remembered as she rubbed harder against him and drank deeper.
When Simone locked her legs tighter around him and started grinding against him, Killean almost fell. Out of her mind with thirst, she didn’t know what she was doing as she rode him; often blood and sex went hand in hand for a vampire.
Years ago, it had been the same for him too. Those were the days before age, time, and the death surrounding him battered him into something he barely recognized before stealing sexual gratification from him. Until Simone, he hadn’t had an erection in years, and the few he did have before then were impossible to find any release from.
Killean gritted his teeth against his growing desire, but the feel of his mate in his arms, feeding on him, and taking satisfaction in his body was almost too much for him to resist. However, he had to resist if they were going to survive.
Killean smelled and heard the roaring river before spotting it through a break in the trees. Whitewater sprayed into the air when it crashed against the rocks jutting up from the fast-moving water. The rapid current would batter anyone caught in it against the rocks, smashing their bones before sweeping them away.
Killean didn’t hesitate before plunging into the frigid water.
Water sprayed up around him, speckling his face and sticking Simone’s dress to her back as he strode out to the center of the river. The river became a living entity, sucking at him and trying to pull him under, but though his legs ached, he resisted being pulled under by the powerful flow.
When he was away from the rocks and in the center of the river, he pressed his hand against Simone’s back before liftin
g his feet and allowing the current to take them away. Their pursuers were still too far away to see him, and once they reached the river, it would take them time to figure out if he’d crossed to the other side, remained on their side, or entered the current.
The water would mask their scent, and though he had no idea where the current was taking them, it would get them there fast. He used his feet to push them away from the rocks the best he could and his body to protect Simone from the ones he couldn’t avoid.
Spinning away from one of the rocks, he grunted when his back smashed up against another. Water flooded his mouth as the current pinned him to the rock digging into his spine. Simone seemed not to notice the river beating against her as she continued to feed while Killean used his elbow to maneuver them away from the rock in slow, jerking motions.
Finally away from the rock, they were thrown back out toward the center of the river. Killean threw out his foot to push away the next rock rushing at them. His foot collided with the boulder, his knee bent, and it took a herculean effort to thrust away again.
The water crashing over them washed away the blood and grime covering them. The raging river pounded in his ears and covered any sound of an approaching enemy, but it also hid any noises they might make and most of their bodies.
Killean was counting on most of the Savages remaining at the wedding to contain the hunters and clean up their mess, but enough would come after them that they would be a threat. And one of them would be Joseph, he was sure of it.
Simone whimpered when one of the rocks caught her arm, and her fingers dug deeper into his nape while she drank. His eyes drifted halfway closed as he briefly allowed himself to savor the feeling of having his mate feeding on him. She felt so amazing and right that he could almost forget the circumstances and her heritage.
He could feel her vitality returning and the strength of her hold on him increasing as his blood nourished her. The sounds she made ceased being the ones of an animal feeding and became those of one rutting as she ground against him.
He seized her hips to hold her still; Simone mewled in displeasure and bit harder. Out of her mind with bloodlust, she had no idea what she was doing, and he couldn’t let it continue. Not only would she not be acting like this if she were rational, but the more steps they completed in the mating bond, the more difficult it would be for them to separate. He couldn’t deny her his blood when she so obviously needed it, but he had to refuse her this.
For Simone, the mating instinct might be more difficult to deny after feeding on him. If she experienced the pull of the mating bond with him, her drinking from him would accelerate her necessity to complete it. However, there was a chance this little hunter wouldn’t recognize him as her mate like he did her.
He knew how things worked with vampires when they encountered their mate, but the joining of hunters and vampires was something new. Kadence and Nathan had experienced a draw to their mates before their turning, but hunters could be like humans and capable of walking away from the connection. Or some hunters might be able to resist the lure of the bond like they withstood a vampire’s power of persuasion.
He hoped hunters could resist; he didn’t want Simone as his mate, but he would make sure she survived. When he put his foot out to push them away from a jagged boulder, his muscles trembled and his ankle almost gave out; she was taking too much. Still, he couldn’t refuse her the blood she desperately required. He was strong enough to withstand this drain, and he would.
As the blood eased the discomfort in her veins, Simone slowly became aware of her surroundings. Water tore at her clothes and battered her body while it dripped from her lashes and clogged her nostrils. Goose bumps covered her flesh, and she couldn’t stop shivering.
She also became aware of the new sensations in her body as she hung onto the vampire who confused her more than all the mysteries of the universe. Her skin tingled with awareness while something built between her thighs and she thrust her hips against him.
What am I doing?
Simone recoiled when she realized she was rubbing against him like a cat in heat while drinking from him. However, she couldn’t go far as Killean kept a firm hold on her.
For the first time since this whole mess started, her fangs retracted when she willed them to, and she turned her head away from the lure of his blood. She started to inhale a shuddery breath, but all she got was a mouthful of water as it sprayed her face. Sputtering and choking, Simone spit out the icy water.
“Easy,” he murmured in a voice so low she barely heard him over the rush of the river. “They’re still hunting us; stay calm.”
Simone was anything but calm as her mind and body were a tumult with the confusing emotions battering it. What had she been doing to him? And why did she want to keep doing it?
Over the years, there had been times when she woke after a dream with a similar yearning between her thighs, but this was far more intense. On those nights, she’d lain awake, uncertain of what to do and unable to move because the feel of her sheets and nightgown rubbing against her only made it worse.
She hadn’t known how to ease the needs of her body, and being the proper hunter she was raised to be, she never asked anyone about it. She knew how things worked between a man and woman, or how they were supposed to work, but her knowledge about sex was far from vast.
Instinctively, she knew Killean could answer her questions and satisfy her yearning. For some strange reason, she wanted this rude, confusing, Savage vampire to do it.
You’re an idiot. Yes, she was. She had no idea where they were and could only recall vague impressions of what occurred tonight, but they were far from danger. If they didn’t drown or freeze in the water, the Savages would still be after them, and if they caught them…
She hugged Killean closer when she realized they would take her back and finish what they started, but they would destroy him. And it wouldn’t be a simple killing. No, they would make him pay for what he’d done, but exactly what had he done?
Her brain felt like it was trying to wade through mud as she pieced together bits and pieces of her imprisonment. Savages brought Killean in to where they were holding her captive and treated him as one of them. Was he one of them, or had it all been a ploy to save her and the other hunters?
Maybe it had been a ploy, but she didn’t think anyone in the Alliance would agree to a vampire murdering innocents no matter what the cause. And there was no denying Killean had killed, as beneath his strong resin scent and the fresh water cascading over them, she detected the rot of a Savage.
It wasn’t as strong as it was on the monsters who imprisoned her, and when she wasn’t searching for the rot, his natural scent overpowered it, but there was no denying what that odor meant.
He was one of them, so why was he taking her away from them? Or was he taking her back to them? No, that made no sense. She couldn’t remember much about tonight, but she knew they’d been with Joseph and the other Savages. They wouldn’t be in this river if they weren’t trying to escape her captors. Plus, Killean had said they were still hunting them, but maybe he didn’t mean Joseph and his Savages, perhaps he meant Ronan. Maybe the Alliance had somehow found them.
And then she recalled the building, the blood, and being swept into a pair of arms and carried away from all the screams. The details remained fuzzy, but Killean had taken her from Joseph.
But why? And just who and what was this enigmatic vampire?
Simone frowned as Killean’s eyes slid toward her and their gazes locked. In the tanned complexion of his harsh face, the golden color of his magnificent eyes stood out starkly. She read nothing in those eyes or his expression.
“Why did you take me from there?” she asked.
“Quiet,” he replied gruffly.
Simone glowered at him. No one could annoy her the way this vampire did, but though she was tempted to do the exact opposite of what he commanded, she wanted to survive as a non-monster more than she wanted to annoy him too.
&nbs
p; Drawing on the proper upbringing that propelled her through life, she buried her irritation and closed her mouth as she nestled closer to the warmth he radiated. The trees on the shoreline whipped by as the current swept them toward an uncertain destination. However, she preferred the unknown and the ice rattling her bones to what lurked behind them.
Killean tried to keep himself distanced from Simone, but when she trembled against him and her teeth chattered in his ear, he couldn’t stop himself from rubbing her back to warm her. He studied the shifting shadows leaping through the trees in search of anyone hunting them, but he didn’t see any sign of their enemies.
The current was fast, but if the Savages realized what he’d done, they would be able catch up to them. And it was only a matter of time before they figured it out.
He had to get them out of this water.
Kicking toward the shoreline, Killean suppressed a grunt when the current caught him and smashed his back against a rock before shooting him into the middle of the river. It took him a couple more tries, but eventually, he succeeded in getting them to land.
His legs wobbled from blood loss when he staggered onto solid ground, but he managed to stay upright. If they were going to evade Joseph, he had to feed, and soon. Holding Simone in his arms gave him strength as he ran.
CHAPTER 13
He hadn’t run far before the rapids of the river became a lazy stream, and he came across a campground where, nestled on the shoreline of the river, more than a dozen RVs were set up. Most of the RVs were unlit, but outside of one, a group of campers sat around a dwindling fire. The scent of pot wafted to him as the handful of men gathered around the fire passed a joint while they sipped beer and spoke in low murmurs.
Killean needed to feed, but with the amount of blood Simone took from him, he’d end up drunk and high if he consumed their intoxicated blood. Turning away from the men, he didn’t set Simone down as he slipped through the RVs parked along the river. Water dripped from them and his boots squished as he jogged onward.
Bound by Darkness (The Alliance, Book 3) Page 8
