“What did you do after they died?” she asked.
“Before their death, I’d known there were vamps out there who slaughtered for fun, but I didn’t care. To each their own.” And he was too busy struggling to keep himself from becoming one of them to give much thought to the havoc they created. “Afterward, I became determined to hunt them down and kill as many of them as I could. My new mission gave me something else to focus on, besides sex. I was one hundred when Ronan found me.”
“Who’s Ronan?” she asked.
“He’s our king; though, at the time, he didn’t want to be king. That’s a more recent development.”
“The vampires have a king?”
“We do now. But back then, he was the leader of the Defenders; a group of purebreds who worked to keep the Savage population under control. He’d heard about what I was doing with the Savages and asked me to join them. It had been years since I felt like I belonged anywhere, but the Defenders became my new family. Because they were all purebloods, they also understood what I was going through, even if they sought something other than sex to keep them from going over the edge.”
“Wow,” she breathed, fascinated by this new insight into the vampire world. “And these Defenders are still around?”
“Now we are the Alliance; we’ve joined with the hunters to fight the growing threat the Savages represent.”
“That’s just… amazing.”
He smiled as he folded his hands behind his head. “And what about you, Elyse?”
“What about me?”
“What was your life like pre-Savage?”
She stared at her hands as she tried to decide how much to reveal to him. “It was fairly normal until I was twelve. You know, mom, dad, white picket fence, little ranch house, pool in the backyard. We lived in Ohio then.”
“What happened when you were twelve?”
At the time, it was something rather inconsequential, but it turned out to be the catalyst that would tear her ordinary little world to pieces. She couldn’t reveal that to him without telling him why she was here, but she could tell him some of it.
“My mom decided we should tour the U.S. and homeschool me. So my parents bought an RV, pulled me out of school, and we hit the road when I was thirteen.”
It had been so much more than that, and by then, she’d been more than happy to leave school behind. She’d gone from being the popular girl dating the cutest boy to the social outcast, who dreaded going to school and heard whispers about herself wherever she went. She’d also become more of a fascination for her mom than a daughter.
“And how did you like traveling?” he asked.
“I hated it.”
That was putting it mildly. She’d hated being the social outcast; she loathed being on the road. She’d been lonely, frustrated, sad, scared, and humiliated, but he didn’t want to hear the details of her teenage years.
“How long did you travel?” he asked.
“Three years,” she said. “When I was sixteen, I put my foot down and told her I wouldn’t do it anymore.”
She refused to be her mom’s one-woman freak show anymore. There were many times she considered running away from the life her mother shoved on her, but no matter how much she resented being her mom’s freak show, she loved her parents dearly. They were also all she had in the world, and she couldn’t leave them behind.
“Where did you go after that?” he asked.
“We moved to Pennsylvania and settled down. As soon as I turned eighteen, I got my own place.”
When she refused to keep traveling, they agreed to live somewhere no one knew her, and Elyse chose a small, quiet town. Her father agreed with her. It was one of the rare times he told her mother no, as her mom wanted to move to Manhattan, but the idea of all those people made Elyse nervous.
By then, her father had realized how miserable Elyse was and the damage they were doing to their daughter. He always catered to her mother, but he loved Elyse and refused to continue doing something that made her unhappy.
“The Savages have your father, but where is your mom?” he asked.
She winced at the reminder of her poor father being held by these monsters and punished every time she failed. “I’m not sure,” she admitted. “They brought my father here once after I first arrived to make sure I knew they had him, but there was never any mention of my mom. My dad looked so devastated that I think they killed her.”
She’d never forget the broken look on his face, the way he huddled in on himself as Joseph stood with his hand on her dad’s shoulder. Though her dad wasn’t crying at the time, red rimmed his eyes, and his face was swollen. His belly overhung his jeans, as always, but there was something frail about him.
She never got the chance to ask about her mother before they decided to show her what they were capable of doing if she didn’t follow their rules. Later, she asked Joseph about her mother and never received an answer. If the vamps had her mom, they would use her against Elyse too, but they never mentioned her.
“They’ll kill him if I leave here,” she said.
“No, they won’t. They’ll keep him because, no matter what, they can use him against you.”
“You can’t know that.”
“No, but it would make no sense to kill their one connection to you. These Savages are ruthless monsters, but they’re not stupid. They’ll keep him alive in the hopes of drawing you in again. If they’ve kept you here for this long, they’ll want you back.”
“What if they don’t? What if they decide to cut their losses?”
“Do you think they will?”
“No.”
She was too valuable and too dangerous to them. They’d want her back, or they’d kill her, and until they succeeded in one of those things, they would keep her dad alive. Or at least she hoped they would.
“Did you have any relationship with any of the women you’ve been with?” she asked more to change the subject than out of any desire to know the answer.
“No,” he said. “I don’t do relationships.”
“Were they all one-night stands?” she asked incredulously.
“Most.”
She should be disgusted by him and this revelation, but she only felt sad. “That sounds lonely.”
She knew how lonely she felt most nights; she couldn’t imagine centuries of feeling that way.
Saxon hadn’t expected her response. He wasn’t proud of the number of women he’d been with, they were a necessity to keep him from killing, but he’d expected her to be repulsed by him.
Instead, she’d stripped him bare and gone straight to the heart of the matter.
It was a lonely life. Many times, he didn’t enjoy sex anymore; he was just desperate for the release it would grant him for a few hours before the need started to build again. Most days, he tried not to think about what an eternity of living this way would be like, but some days, the doubts crept in until he was afraid the hopelessness of it would choke him.
He understood why some vampires gave in and started killing to stop the hopelessness looming over them, but that would never be him. Death was his only other release; unless, he found his mate.
Saxon had never really considered such a thing happening to him before because he preferred to live in the present. He wouldn’t have any problem with settling down with only one woman; he’d always been the playboy, but that was to keep his sanity. The idea of returning home to someone after fighting with Savages made him yearn for a life he didn’t have.
He saw the way Ronan and Killean were with their mates, how much finding those women changed their lives and brought smiles to their faces. They had something more than killing Savages to live for now, and it had brought them to life in a way Saxon hadn’t believed possible.
“It can be lonely,” he admitted. “But I have good friends.”
“That must be nice.”
The wistfulness of her tone and the sadness in her eyes tugged at his heart. “I’m sure you have plenty of
friends.”
“I’m more of a loner,” she said.
Elyse tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. They may not know she was a freak in her new town, but after years of slinking through the shadows and trying to go unnoticed, she had a difficult time being social.
She kept waiting for someone to discover who she was and what she could do and tell the whole town. The one bad thing about living in a small town was the gossip would spread like wildfire. She couldn’t take it if she made new friends only to have them turn their backs on her like her old friends had.
Besides, after being imprisoned here for months, she doubted her social skills had improved.
“What about the men you were with, any relationships?” he asked.
“No.”
She’d met her first at a campground in Texas where they’d parked their RV for a week. She didn’t find him attractive, but he paid attention to her, told her she was pretty, and she’d been desperate for someone to look at her as anything other than a commodity. She didn’t remember much about number two; he’d simply been another person to hold her one night at another campground.
Saxon kept his face impassive, but he wasn’t accustomed to the jealousy seething through him.
Elyse sank onto the couch again and rested her head on the pillow as she yawned. “Your friends are probably worried about you.”
“I’m sure they are,” he agreed as her eyes closed, and her lashes swept over her pale cheeks.
He sat and watched while her breathing eased and she fell asleep. Saxon draped his arms over the couch as he listened to the crackle of the fire. His veins burned with his hunger, and he was going on three days without sex, but he couldn’t recall the last time he felt this relaxed.
Chapter Fourteen
The crash of something bolted Elyse up the next morning. Her gaze swung around the cabin as she searched for whatever caused the noise, but she didn’t see anything. Her mind spun as she tried to recall everything that happened. She turned on the couch as she searched for Saxon; had she dreamed him up?
Then she saw the flashlights on the table and heard the crackle of the fire as the scent of burning wood filled the cabin. She couldn’t have dreamed the loss of power and Saxon; he had to be real.
“Saxon?” she called.
Silence met her. Throwing the blanket aside, she winced when she set her feet on the floor, and it took her a couple of seconds to recall her mad dash down the driveway. The glass rattled in the windows as the wind buffeted the cabin. When she rose, she saw snow blowing across the yard, but she couldn’t tell if it was still snowing or if the wind was just blowing it around out there.
She padded into the kitchen and found it empty. Leaning back on her heels, she peered down the hall, but she didn’t hear the shower, and all the doors were closed. Maybe he’d gone to sleep in one of the rooms.
She was about to go in search of him when the back door flew open, and a blast of wind caused her to jump away from the arctic air. Snow fell off Saxon as he stomped into the kitchen with an armload of wood.
“It’s snow in Hell, not fire,” he muttered as he set the logs near the back door. He leaned into the storm to pull the door closed.
“It’s not that bad,” she told him.
He didn’t look at all amused when his gaze swung to her. Snow slid off his jacket to plop on the floor. “I’d rather wrestle naked with an alligator then go back out there.”
She tried not to laugh at the picture his words conjured. “That would be extremely uncomfortable for your twig and berries.”
“You’re not kidding. Those things look rough and pointy. Also, I can assure you, it’s definitely not a twig; it’s more like a tree,” he told her with a wink.
She recalled his obvious erection last night; the man was not exaggerating. Elyse shifted her gaze to the window over the sink. “Did you hear a crash?”
“A tree fell in the woods.”
“Oh. Is it still snowing, or is the wind blowing it around?”
“It’s still snowing. There’s about three feet out there now and more coming. Do you need anything while I’m outside?”
“You’re going back out there?”
When he grinned at her, she almost sat down to fan herself.
“If you want to stay warm, we need more wood,” he said.
She could think of a much better way to stay warm that involved a different type of wood, but she bit her tongue. Turning away, he opened the door again, cursed when snow blew in his face, and descended the stairs. He closed the door and vanished into the storm. She had no idea how they were going to get out of here, or how long they would be stuck here for, but the last time she saw the woodpile outside, there hadn’t been much wood.
The door opened again, and Saxon trudged in with another bundle of wood in his arms. Snow swirled in behind him before he dumped the wood and closed the door. “I hate winter.”
“You’re living in the wrong part of the country then. Although, Florida might not be so good on your sensitive skin,” she teased.
He glanced at her before removing his jacket and hanging it on a hook near the door. He bent to untie his boots. “The sun doesn’t bother me.”
“What? How is that possible? My guards tried to hide it, but I noticed they stayed mostly in the shadows and only came out during the day when it was necessary. The other vamps they brought here only came at night, so I assumed the legend about vampires being unable to tolerate sunlight was real.”
“It is for Savages.” He set one of his boots on the floor before turning to the other. “But vampires who don’t kill innocents aren’t affected by the sun. The more a vampire kills, the stronger they become, but they also become weaker. The more a Savage kills, the less they can tolerate the sun until they can’t go in it at all. Your guards probably hadn’t killed enough to be completely intolerant of the sun, but they were on their way.”
“It’s all so crazy.”
“That’s the vampire world. So, what other vamps did they bring here?”
“Huh?” she asked.
“You said, the other vamps they brought here only came at night. What other vamps?”
She stared at him as she tried to figure out what he was talking about, and then it hit her. If she could, she’d kick herself in the ass as she tried to come up with a response. “Sometimes other vamps would stop by.”
“Why?”
Saxon rested his hand on the wall as Elyse shrugged, but she couldn’t hide the anxiety or fear shimmering in her eyes.
“To hang out with their buddies, I guess.” It was the worst excuse in the world, but she had no idea what else to say.
“They were brought here to hang out with their buddies?”
“What can I say?” she asked with what she hoped was a playful smile while inside, turmoil rolled through her. “Savages are social folk.”
“Uh-huh,” he said.
Those two words made it clear he wasn’t buying what she was trying to sell him.
“Who brought them here?” he asked.
“In the beginning, Joseph. Since then, it’s been different vampires. Some have come a few times, and others only once.”
He set his other boot on the floor and rose to shake the snow from his hair. He tugged his sweatshirt off and tossed it onto one of the chairs. Elyse felt as if the floor dropped out from under her as she tried not to gawk at his broad, bare chest.
Her mouth watered as his muscles flexed with his movements. The etched abs of what could only be called a twelve pack made her fingers itch to run them over his smooth flesh before dipping her tongue into the hollow of his belly button. Maybe she only had sex with those other guys so someone could hold her, but with Saxon, oh with Saxon, she’d be doing it because all she wanted was him.
Saxon was halfway to the sink when the increased scent of cherry blossom filled the room, and her heightened desire hit him like a punch to the chest. He turned his head to find her ravenously watching him.
Before she realized what she was doing, Elyse’s feet glided across the floor to him. He’s a vampire! This is a BAD idea!
But even as her mind screamed this at her, her body kept moving as if it were no longer under her control. Stopping before him, she stretched out a tremulous hand and rested it against his smooth flesh.
Chapter Fifteen
Saxon’s breath sucked in as her fingers ran down the center of his chest before dipping down to stroke his abdomen. Her increased scent tickled his nose until it became the only odor he detected in the room. With her head bowed, her hair fell forward to shield her features. He tucked it behind her ear before tracing the delicate shell of it as her hands rested against the waistband of his sweatpants.
When she tipped her head back, her arctic eyes were darker with passion as she licked her lips. Saxon’s stomach tightened as she stepped closer until her chest brushed against his. He threaded his fingers through her silken hair before clasping the back of her head and drawing her closer. Bending, he brushed his lips over hers and relished the sound of her indrawn breath.
Taking firmer possession of her mouth, he deepened the kiss as he savored the sweet taste of her. When she opened her mouth to his, he slid his tongue inside and tasted her; she melded against him while she eagerly returned his kiss. He’d never held anyone who tasted or felt as good as Elyse.
When the rigid evidence of his arousal pressed against her belly, Elyse skimmed her fingers over his sweatpants to his shaft. An ache spread between her legs, and she grew wetter.
Wrapping his arm around her waist, Saxon lifted her off the ground and carried her to the counter. Elyse gasped when he set her down and stepped between her thighs before breaking the kiss and leaning back to take her in.
Unable to resist, he ran a finger over her swollen bottom lip while he took in her flushed face. A good night of sleep had helped ease the shadows under her eyes. He brushed her hair over her shoulder and ran his fingers over her delicate collarbone before trailing them down the center of her sweater and gripping the bottom of it. Her eyes met his as he lifted the shirt an inch but didn’t go any further.
Bound by Passion: The Alliance Series, Book 4 Page 8