“You,” Simone said, and for the first time since this started between them, a blush crept into her cheeks. She was ready to begin discovering herself, but she still wasn’t comfortable with her new, bolder attitude.
In all his life, few things had rattled Killean so much as that one simple word. Unable to resist her request, he stepped closer to the bed. Simone bit her lip as she inspected his shaft, which lengthened beneath her curious gaze.
“Can I touch it?” she asked.
He tried to tell her she could do anything she wanted to it, but words failed him, and all he managed was a nod.
Simone stretched her hand toward the length of him and grazed the soft tip. In response, his penis jumped slightly, and Simone almost laughed out loud, but she didn’t think he would appreciate it if she did. Gliding her fingers down him, Simone took note of how hard he was beneath his taut skin. This part of the male anatomy was larger and thicker than she’d expected, but nowhere near as frightening as she’d assumed it would be.
“Amazing,” she murmured and enclosed her hand around it.
His breath sucked in through his teeth, and her eyes flew up to his reddening ones. She couldn’t help but smile when she realized pleasure and not pain caused his reaction. A thrill went through her, and for the first time, she felt in control of her life as she literally held this powerful man in the palm of her hand.
He may be an abrasive jerk most of the time, but he captivated her, and it pleased her to learn that she affected him as much as he did her.
Killean reached for her hand to show her how to please him, but a knock on the door halted his movement. Instead of running Simone’s hand over the length of him, he pulled it away and gripped her arms to haul her to her feet. Her breasts, still free of her dress, burned his flesh as he held her against his chest and scented the air for a threat. He caught a whiff of lemon cleaner and bleach.
“It’s the housekeeper,” he said and relaxed against Simone.
Releasing his grip on her arms, he stepped away from her. Her skin had paled at the knock, but the rosy hue of satisfaction still colored her cheeks as her hair tumbled around her shoulders and back. He couldn’t stop himself from tracing her full bottom lip with his thumb; she was beautiful.
He lowered his hand from her face, and his fingers skimmed her breasts as he gently pulled up her dress and settled it into place before forcing his recalcitrant cock back into his jeans. When he was sure she was covered, he strode over to the door. He checked the peephole to make sure the woman was alone before opening the door and stepping aside.
The woman walked woodenly inside. She didn’t look at him or Simone as she set the bags she carried on the floor.
“Is she okay?” Simone whispered.
“She’s fine,” Killean assured her. He instructed the woman to recall handing them their towels before taking a break to do some shopping. “You put all the clothes you bought in a donation bin and returned to work after finishing.”
The woman’s mouth had slackened while he spoke, and her eyes remained glazed. Killean escorted her to the door and opened it to nudge her outside. “Resume your day as if everything is normal.”
Killean closed the door behind her and slid the chain into place. Stepping over to the window, he pulled back the curtain to watch as the woman walked a few doors down, pulled out a keycard, unlocked the door, and stepped inside. A couple of minutes later, she emerged with a cart loaded with cleaning supplies and rolled it over to another room.
Sure the woman was doing as he commanded, Killean released the curtain and turned to face Simone.
“Can I control people too?” she asked.
“Not as strongly or as convincingly,” he said. “You can tweak some memories and take control of someone’s mind, but it will take age and power to twist their memories for so long, or to get them to do something so elaborate.”
“I’m okay with that,” she murmured. “I don’t think I’d be comfortable with so much power.”
“You adjust and grow with it.”
“There are some who use it for evil.”
“For as long as the world turns, there will always be those who abuse their power, but there will also always be those who seek to stop them.”
Killean picked up the bags and set them on the bed. He opened the ones containing Simone’s clothes and laid them out first.
Her nose wrinkled when she spotted the jeans, and her eyes widened at the vibrant colors of the short dresses. “I can’t wear…” Her voice trailed off.
She’d been about to say she couldn’t wear those; it was against the rules to wear something so colorful or short, but the hunter rules didn’t apply to her anymore. However, she would not feel comfortable in dresses above the knee. She was willing to start exploring the world and herself further, but she wasn’t ready for that leap.
She lifted a couple of pairs of jeans and two black shirts from the bed before scooping up the underwear and bras and heading into the bathroom to see what fit best.
• • •
Simone gazed out the passenger window as the scenery flashed by in a blur of green trees speckled with farmhouses. Through the night pressing against the windows, she could make out the shapes of horses and cows sleeping in their pastures. Their headlights were the only thing illuminating the gloomy ribbon of road as they wound around curves and up and down hills.
She glanced at the hands she’d folded in her lap. Despite her initial apprehension about wearing jeans, she found them comfortable and didn’t mind them. The strange sizes irritated her, but she discovered the ones marked eight fit her best; she was most comfortable in the baggier, large shirts and 36 C bras, though the clothes she made for herself fit far better. However, she would learn how to make jeans in the future.
She didn’t know where they were going, and she didn’t ask. They hadn’t talked about what they’d shared earlier, but she found she didn’t want to discuss it. She was afraid it would ruin things for her if they talked about it; so for now, she was content to sit beside Killean and listen to the strange music drifting from the radio.
Having only listened to classical musicians during her training and at home, this faster-paced, more chaotic music took some getting used to. At first, it made her head ache, but a few different songs had her tapping her foot along with the beat. She was also starting to like the idea of words accompanying the melodies.
“Who sings this?” she asked when one especially catchy song caught her attention.
“Queen,” Killean replied without looking at her.
“That’s funny.”
“What is?”
“It sounds like a guy singing.”
Killean surprised himself by almost laughing. He couldn’t remember the last time something had amused him enough to make him want to laugh, but then there were many things he couldn’t remember doing before Simone walked into his life. “It is a male band.”
“Then why would they name themselves after a position a woman holds?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps they thought the name would be memorable.”
“And are they memorable?”
“Most know who they are. Didn’t the hunters let you listen to music?”
“Oh, yes; I am well versed in classical music, and though it was never my best instrument, I can play Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 rather well on the piano.”
Killean had been alive when Chopin was, but he had no idea what song she was referring to. “Impressive.”
Simone shrugged. “Not really. It’s what I was bred and raised to do. I can also play the violin better than the piano. I can design and sew a shirt and pants for my husband in mere hours, and I am well read in classic literature. I play chess, cribbage, and would learn any other game that interested my husband. I was also the best cook in my class.”
Certain he detected a hint of bitterness in her tone, he glanced at her and noted the slump of her shoulders. “And none of those things please you?”
&n
bsp; “What good does any of it do me anymore? No hunter would take me as a bride given what I am now.”
Killean nearly ripped the wheel from the truck at the possibility of her marrying another, sharing a bed with another, and bearing their children. “And would you take them as your husband?” he grated through his teeth.
“Just last week the answer would have been yes.”
“And now?”
“It’s not what I want from my life anymore.”
The rigid set of his shoulders eased as he focused on the lonely stretch of road once more. They could have taken the highway, but he’d decided to stay on routes where they were less likely to be spotted. He had no idea how vast or strong Joseph’s resources were, and he couldn’t risk showing up on some camera at a toll booth, gas station, or highway that Joseph might be able to monitor. These back roads were less likely to have that kind of technology.
“And what do you want from your life, Simone?” Killean didn’t know why he asked the question. The less he knew about her, the better, but he couldn’t deny his curiosity.
“I have no idea,” she admitted. “At first, going from knowing exactly how my life would unfold to not having a clue was terrifying and freeing; I don’t find it so scary anymore. What about you, Killean, what do you want from your life?”
Blood, death, you. But if he said any of those things to her, she’d probably jump out of the vehicle and run screaming into the woods. “To return home.”
“Can you go home with what you’ve done?”
“I don’t know.”
Simone studied the severe edge of his profile. When he wasn’t an angry, intimidating buffoon, he was rather handsome. The scar added to his menacing air, but something about the mark was so entirely Killean that she couldn’t picture him without it. And whereas others might have found the scar detracted from his looks, she believed it added to them.
How did he get it? She almost asked the question, but she bit her tongue to keep herself from doing so. It really wasn’t any of her business how he received it, and despite what transpired between them in the hotel, she suspected it might be something he didn’t want to share with her.
Besides, there was something else she wished to learn the answer to more.
“Why did you come for me?” she asked again.
CHAPTER 23
Killean had hoped she’d forgotten that question or decided to drop it; he should have known better. “Would you have preferred I left you there?”
“Of course not,” she replied. “I’m just trying to understand why you didn’t leave me there when, after we kissed on the beach, you acted like I disgusted you.”
She didn’t like recalling that day; between him and Nathan, it had been humiliating. She’d considered it the worst day of her life until she was taken, and then the degradation Joseph put her through made that day seem like a day in the park.
“So why did you come after me?” she asked.
“Because I didn’t want you to become one of them.”
“But why? Was it because we kissed?”
“That’s the only answer I’m going to give you, so let it go and be happy you’re not there with the others.”
Simone didn’t think he’d rescued her because he cared for her. They didn’t know each other well enough for that, and she didn’t see Killean as the type to become emotionally attached to anyone, but she wasn’t going to give up until she learned the truth. Continuing to press him now though would get her nowhere. She’d just have to keep hammering at his walls until she finally found a weak spot that caused them to collapse.
“Fair enough,” she murmured and turned to look out the window again.
Silence stretched between them as the tires hummed over the pavement. A few vehicles passed them going the other way, but they had the road mostly to themselves. When she glanced at the clock, she and saw it was nearly nine.
“Have you ever heard of any other hunters becoming a vampire?” Killean asked when he recalled the being he encountered in the bunker. “I mean besides Kadence, Nathan, and you. It wouldn’t have happened recently, but probably occurred millennia ago.”
Simone bit her lip as she shook her head. “I studied our history, but I never heard of such a thing happening. They might not have taught it to us though.”
“Might not have taught it to all the hunters or just the women?”
“I would like to say all, but probably just the women.”
“Hmm,” he grunted. “While you were a prisoner, did you see a vampire who was over seven feet tall, but had the white-blue eyes of a hunter?”
For some reason, his description of this creature made her skin crawl. “No, but after the first couple of days, I didn’t register much beyond the hunger. You saw this thing?”
“Yes.”
“And you think it was another turned hunter?”
“I don’t know what else it could be, not with those eyes. And judging by the power it emitted, it was ancient.”
“How much power?” she asked in a hoarse voice.
“More than I’ve ever encountered before.”
Her breath caught at this revelation. She’d felt the aura of power surrounding Ronan, and if this thing was even more powerful than that…
She shuddered and rubbed at her arms when goose bumps broke out on them.
“How old are you?” she asked to distract herself from the horrible possibilities of what something so ancient and evil could unleash on them.
“I fully matured and stopped aging at twenty-four, so I will forever look that age. I’m four hundred fifty-two now.”
“Wow,” she breathed.
“And how old are you?”
“Twenty-three, but I’ll be twenty-four July first.” As if that would somehow make a dent in their age difference.
“And I will be four hundred and fifty-three on November sixteenth.”
“You’ll officially be ancient then,” she replied.
Killean released a small bark of laughter; it had been so long since he laughed that it sounded rusty to him. Simone didn’t seem to notice as she smiled at him. He found himself momentarily dazed by the loveliness of that smile and the twinkle in her eyes.
Simone relished the sound of his laugh. It wasn’t carefree or loud, but it was deep and vibrated his chest. “And what’s your last name, ancient?” she teased.
“Claymore and yours?”
“Baker.”
Simone had hundreds of more questions for him, but some might irritate him or get him to clam up again, and she was enjoying this more carefree side of Killean. Just minutes ago, she never would have suspected it existed; she didn’t want to scare it away.
They traversed another fifty miles in silence before Killean pulled into a gas station that looked like it was last updated in the fifties. The old-style pumps would make antique hunters drool. Chimes went off when Killean drove over a black strip and parked next to one of the pumps. A young man in his twenties jogged outside and was at Killean’s door before he could turn off the truck.
“What can I get for you?” the kid inquired when Killean rolled down his window.
“Fill it up,” Killean said as he pushed a button to open the gas tank.
The kid nodded before turning away.
“I need to use the restroom,” Simone said, and opening her door, she jumped out into the brisk air.
“Not alone,” Killean replied.
He flung his door open and hurried around the front of the truck to join her. Her fierce frown didn't deter him when he stopped at her side.
“I’ve been going alone most of my life. I think I can handle it now,” she said.
“Not alone,” he repeated as he clasped her elbow. “Where’s the bathroom?” he asked the kid.
“My dad has the key inside,” the kid replied without taking his gaze off the rising numbers on the pump. “He’ll tell you where it is.”
Killean led Simone across the pavement and into the small convenien
ce store. The middle-aged man behind the counter didn’t look up from his newspaper when the bell over the door rang.
“Keys to the bathroom?” Killean asked him.
Without looking, the man pulled a spoon from the wall and plopped it on the counter before turning the page. “Outside to the left,” the man said.
Simone grabbed the spoon before Killean could. “Thank you.”
They walked outside and around the side of the building to the metal bathroom door. Simone used the key, slipped inside, and locked the door behind her. Crossing his arms over his chest, Killean leaned against the wall while he studied the road. Crickets chirruped and frogs croaked in the nearby fields. He smelled horses, but he couldn’t see them in the fenced-in paddock across the way. Overhead, thousands of stars lit the black tapestry of the night while a crescent moon hung in the sky.
On the distant horizon, a set of headlights soared over a small hill. They vanished into a dip in the road before reappearing. Killean stepped away from the wall as the vehicle neared. Despite the calm of the night, a looming sense of doom built in his chest. He had no reason to suspect being discovered, but the sooner they were away from this place, the happier he would be.
The car was almost to the gas station when Simone emerged from the bathroom. “Do you need to use it?” she inquired.
Killean didn’t look at her as the car swung into the gas station and parked near the door of the store; more headlights loomed on the horizon. They’d passed other vehicles on their way here, and for all he knew this was the only gas station around for miles, so it was a big draw for the locals, but he still didn’t like seeing so many vehicles on the road.
“Killean?”
“Shh,” he whispered, and clasping Simone’s arm, he slid further into the shadows of the building as the kid pumping the gas turned to look at the idling sedan.
A beat-up truck pulled in and parked next to the car. Three young guys jumped out, waved to the kid pumping gas, and sauntered into the store. A woman climbed out of the sedan with her baby and followed the guys inside.
Killean relaxed, and taking the spoon from Simone, he strode with her back to the store, put the spoon on the counter, and they returned to the truck. Opening the passenger door, he helped her into the truck before walking around to the other side and climbing behind the wheel. Killean closed the door and studied the quiet night.
Bound by Darkness (The Alliance, Book 3) Page 14
