Binding Ties

by Shannon K. Butcher

  But she wasn’t his. Didn’t even want to be near him. At least she hadn’t until now.

  Ronan pulled to a stop and turned off his engine. He turned on the headlights to help ease her fears, and then stepped out of the van inside the protective confines of the metal building.

  He would be more careful this time. Be gentle with her. Respect her wishes.

  Everything in him that was ravenous and demonic laughed at the idea that he would be anything more than his true self.

  As he stepped around to the back of the van, she held up her hands. “That’s far enough.”

  Ronan forced his feet to stop. It was an act of willpower, but one he made for her comfort.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  “Justice.”

  Ah, so she was here to inflict some kind of punishment on him. At least she was honest about her intent. Even though he hated it that she wanted to hurt him, he had to give her credit for owning up to it.

  “What is your name?” he asked, clarifying his question. “Mine is Ronan. I should at least know the name of the woman who’s come to mete out justice.”

  “No, Justice is my name.”

  “I didn’t see it on the manifest for your flight.”

  She frowned. “I have no idea how you got your hands on that, but, for your information, I flew under an alias.”

  “So, your friends call you Justice?”

  “I have no friends.”

  He couldn’t help but feel the sting of pain saying that caused her. Protective instincts rose to the fore, and all he wanted to do was take her in his arms and soothe her hurts. “I will be your friend, Justice.”

  She laughed, and the sound was so musical, he wanted to dance. “Nice try, bloodsucker. But I think I have enough friends.”

  “You just said you had none.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Why are you still here?” he asked. “Why didn’t you run from me the way you have every other time I’ve come close to finding you?”

  Her mouth tightened in anger. “They wouldn’t let me.”

  “They who?”

  “No one you know. Now, let’s just get this over with so we can both go on with our lives.” She stepped out from behind her car. Bruises darkened her arms, along with what looked like scabbed-over cuts.

  Ronan was at her side before he realized he was moving. Magic fueled his speed and scared the living hell out of his woman. She wheeled back from him so fast, she left a dent in the metal siding of the outbuilding.

  “Do not touch me,” she said. “The last time you did, you nearly killed me.”

  How could he explain to her the hunger he’d felt at the time? He hadn’t meant to take so much of her blood or to be so rough with her. If he’d been in his right mind, he would have been gentle with her, cherishing the gift of blood she’d given him.

  But he hadn’t been gentle, and she had no way of knowing that he didn’t make a habit of ravaging women who showed up out of the blue to save his life. All he could do now was respect her wishes and hope that in time she’d find some sliver of trust for him.

  Because he really did need to get his hands on her again, feel her warm skin against his lips and taste her sweet blood as it flowed over his tongue, replenishing his cells with the magic they craved.

  Ronan held up his hands and backed away a step. “I’m sorry about that, Justice. I deeply regret how I treated you that day. If you’d stayed, I would have explained that I’m not usually so rough with—”

  “Your prey?” she supplied.

  “I don’t see you like that.”

  “No? So if I tilted my head and pulled my hair out of your way, you wouldn’t come after me again? Tear into my skin with your teeth and drink my blood?” She angled her head so that her hair fell away from the smooth lines of her throat.

  He could see her pulse pounding beneath her skin, feel the power of the magic that beat there, rich and intoxicating.

  She was meant to sustain him the way Hope sustained Logan. He was certain of it. Why else would she compel him so completely?

  Ronan had expended a lot of energy chasing after her, and more healing Joseph. He was still functional, still strong enough to keep going despite the hunger rolling around in his empty belly—a hunger human food couldn’t touch. Nothing had eased that bone-deep, gnawing starvation the way her blood did, and now she was posed as if offering him another taste.

  He saw the glow his eyes cast as his gaze slid over her body, homing in on her throat. His mouth watered for her. His chest worked overtime trying to draw her scent into his lungs and hold it there. Normally, his sense of smell was much stronger, but the sun had weakened all his abilities. Until it set, he would never be able to get enough of her scent.

  He needed this woman in a way he couldn’t understand or describe. The urge to feed from her nearly overwhelmed him, but he reminded himself that this was about the war, not the battle. If he was to win the woman, he had to let her think he was nice and safe, not the ravenous predator that lurked within him.

  “I would be so very gentle with you,” he told her. “I could make you feel so good, make your whole body shimmer with pleasure.”

  She swallowed hard, the movement a helpful distraction from the hot pulse pounding along her neck. He was able to break the spell her blood held over him and look into her beautiful eyes. Midnight pupils ate up the silvery green ring. “Yeah. Not going to happen. Ever. Keep your damn fangs to yourself.”

  He was losing ground with her. He could feel her slipping away, feel her nervousness rising with every passing second. If he didn’t do something fast, she was going to bolt.

  Ronan forced himself to back up and put a vehicle between them. That seemed to ease her nerves and got her to move away from the dented wall.

  “I understand,” he said. “If you didn’t wait for me here to feed me again, then why?”

  “I have something for you. Something important. I don’t know why, so don’t ask. All I know is they made me bring it here and wait for you.”

  Curiosity sparked beneath his skin. He would cherish any gift this woman offered him, but he thought it might not serve his cause to say so. “What is it?”

  She dug in her pocket and pulled out a key fob. One push of the button unlatched the trunk of her rental car. The trunk lid popped open, and Ronan knew instantly what lay inside. He could smell the demon lurking there, one she’d hidden from him until just now. If he hadn’t been so consumed by her scent, if the sun hadn’t diminished his powers, he might have detected the stench of demon earlier. But he hadn’t, and now he was trapped in an enclosed space with a woman who wanted him dead and a demon that wanted his blood.

  Apparently, his first instinct had been right. This had been a trap all along.

  Chapter 31

  At the end of a hike that lasted several hours, the trail finally came out on a rural blacktop road a few miles from where Joseph’s truck was parked. On the road there were some muddy tracks that cut off abruptly, as if the all-terrain vehicle that had made them had been loaded onto a trailer.

  “This is it,” said Lyka. “This is as far as the trail goes.”

  “You can’t smell them anymore?”

  Her shoulders slumped as she shook her head. “I can smell diesel exhaust, but that’s not going to get me far. I can’t separate one vehicle out from another. Whatever they did with Eric and the young here, they were no longer leaving behind a scent trail. No blood, no dead skin, no hair . . . nothing.”

  “They could have been loaded into the back of a truck.”

  She paced the area, her hair glowing in the last light of day. Night would be on them soon, and when it came, he needed to have her safely behind protected walls, or at least in his truck, where he could see danger coming for her.

  Frustration and a steadily growing sense of f
ailure and fear were tumbling out of her. The pathway between them was wider now, leaving room for him to better sense her emotions. And as much as he loved knowing how she felt, he hated that she suffered and there was little he could do to stop it.

  This wasn’t a problem he could kill for her. This was a battle of stamina and keeping her hopes up high enough that she could continue searching for her family.

  Joseph went to her and took her hand in his. “This isn’t our last hope.”

  “No?” she asked. “Then tell me what our next move is, because I’ve only got one more idea, and you’re not going to like it.”

  “Tell me what you’re thinking,” he said.

  “Do you remember how I told you that I always seem to know what people want?”

  “Yes.”

  “I think it works with other creatures, too. Not just people.”

  He blinked at her. “What makes you say that?”

  “I knew about the woman Ronan is looking for—about how he’ll stop at nothing to find her.”

  “Okay, but Ronan isn’t a demon.”

  “No, but when that sgath attacked me, I knew it wanted my blood. I knew it wanted to eat me.”

  “Honey, I hate to break it to you, but sgath feel that way about all Sentinels and blooded humans.”

  “I realize that, but I knew it. Felt it. The way I do with people. I’d never been touched by a demon before, so I was a little shocked when it hit me.”

  “Okay, let’s just say that it does work. How does that help us?”

  “If we can find one that wants to capture more Slayers, then maybe we can follow it home or find some way to interrogate it.”

  Joseph’s instant reaction was a swift, harsh denial, but he held that in and gave himself a minute to calm down before he spoke. “Let’s pretend that your idea will work. How are we going to capture a demon without killing it?”

  “Leave that part to me,” said Lyka. “I’m the one who can physically touch their skin without being poisoned. I’ll figure out something.”

  “You’re right,” he said. “I don’t like it. In fact, I hate it. I don’t want you getting close enough to a demon to see it, much less touch it.”

  “We can’t just sit around waiting. If you’ve got a better idea, I’m all ears.”

  “I’m sure I’ll come up with something,” he said.

  “Fine. You hop right on that, brainiac. In the meantime, we should head back to the truck. It’s getting dark fast.”

  Joseph went through about twenty different scenarios to trap a demon—and not just any one, but the right one. Each scenario that ran through his mind ended in utter disaster. If he had more time and some welding equipment, he might have a shot, but without those, he was screwed.

  “The frustration I feel sliding off you is not exactly instilling a lot of confidence in me,” she said. “And we’re almost back at the truck.”

  “I’m still thinking.”

  They rounded the bend, back to where he’d parked the truck, a little ways down from where they’d left her car. Lyka was half a step ahead of him and came to a complete stop, sucking in a shocked breath.

  An instant later, he saw what she had: the vehicles had been totaled. The tires were shredded, the axles bent so that the wheels sat at an awkward angle. Both hoods were ripped open, and the guts of the engines were spilling out onto the pavement. Their spare clothes were now tattered strips of cloth and leather.

  “New plan,” said Lyka.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “We’re screwed.”

  Chapter 32

  Justice watched the bloodsucker’s face fall with disappointment. In fact, if she wasn’t mistaken, he was actually hurt by her offering.

  For some reason, that upset her.

  What a ridiculous reaction. The man had all but killed her, and she cared about hurting his feelings? Since when?

  “I’m on a schedule here,” she said, “so can you please just take this to Joseph, whoever he is, and I’ll be on my way.”

  “How do you know Joseph?”

  “They told me.”

  “Who is they?”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. All I know is they won’t leave me the hell alone until you take the damn monster and give it to Joseph. Can you do that or not?”

  “I can.” He peered into the trunk to see the unconscious . . . thing she’d captured.

  “How did you manage this?” he asked.

  “I hit it with my car, fought it into submission, tied it up with rope and shoved it in the trunk.”

  “By yourself?”

  She widened her eyes and looked around. “Do you see anyone else?”

  His gorgeous face paled even more than it had before. She could tell by the compulsion the fates had given her that the dude wasn’t a fan of the sun, but she’d never seen anyone go this white. “You touched this creature? Is that where you got those scratches?”

  He started coming after her again, and she stepped around the car to put some nice, sturdy metal between herself and him. “Don’t come any closer.”

  “This demon is poisonous. My intent was only to help. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “You didn’t,” she lied. “And I’m fine.” Or she would be once she got back behind the wheel and down the road again, away from him.

  “How were you injured?”

  “The thing’s fingernails. I knocked the sword out of its hands with the car, but it still put up a hell of a fight.”

  “And you won,” he said, stating the obvious. “How did you win?”

  She patted her ribs and the semiautomatic pistol she kept strapped there, hidden under her jacket. “I shot it.”

  Ronan eased closer to the creature, gliding over the dirt floor with the grace of an Olympic ice skater. “It’s still alive.”

  “I wasn’t supposed to kill it.”

  “Why not?”

  “Hell if I know. Are you going to take it to Joseph, or do I have to do the job myself?”

  “What does Joseph want with the demon?”

  “I’ve never met the man. For all I know, he’s going to cut it open and study its parts. I really don’t care. The only thing that matters is getting it to him. Will you help?”

  She was starting to get frantic now. The fates were nipping at her heels, urging her to hurry. If she didn’t, she might well become incapacitated with pain right here, completely helpless to stop Ronan from sucking out all her blood.

  He stared at her for a few uncomfortable seconds. That familiar pressure was closing in on her, bringing with it a mountain of fear.

  “If it’s that important to you, I’ll call him.”

  “Now,” she urged, hoping she didn’t sound like too much of a bitch. She really needed the vampire to play nice.

  “If it pleases you, yes.” He pulled out his phone and dialed. An angry male voice answered.

  “I know I didn’t answer earlier,” said Ronan. “I was otherwise occupied.”

  The man on the line, presumably Joseph, went off for a full minute while Ronan winced and held the phone away from his ear. “I understand. It won’t happen again. The reason I called was because I have something I think might interest you. Do you have need of a live Synestryn demon, by chance?”

  * * *

  “As a matter of fact, we do,” said Joseph into his phone. How the hell had Ronan known? Freaky Sanguinar trick, no doubt.

  “Where are you?” asked Ronan.

  “Standing outside of what used to be my truck.”

  “Used to be?”

  “Yes. I’m afraid you’re going to have to come to us with your present.”

  There was a slight pause before Ronan answered. “We can do that.”

  “We?”

  “Long story. It’s g
etting dark out. Where will you shelter?”

  “I’m in Slayer territory. There are no Gerai houses near enough to make it on foot. We’ll have to find a defensible position and sit tight until someone can pick us up.”

  “I know a place,” said Lyka.

  “Where is it?” Joseph asked her.

  “Less than a mile on foot.”

  “Come to Andreas’s settlement. Call when you get here, and we’ll meet you at the road.”

  “I’m hours away from there. Are you sure you’ll be safe that long?” asked Ronan.

  “We’ll have to be. I doubt anyone is closer than a few hours out. We’re stretched thin with so many pregnant women stuck at Dabyr.”

  “Stay safe. We’ll hurry.” Ronan hung up.

  Joseph looked at Lyka, who was biting her plump bottom lip in anxiety. Before he could think better of his actions, he pulled her into his arms and kissed away the dent she’d left behind.

  As always, she went straight to his head, making his blood sing in his veins. He didn’t understand how she had the power to rock his world so hard, but he was starting to like that she could.

  “Where to?” he asked, eager to get her out of the open, where they could be attacked from all sides.

  She was a little breathless from their kiss, her cheeks flushed, but that worry he’d felt coming out of her had abated.

  She gave him a devilish grin. “How do you feel about heights?”

  A demon’s howl, answered by one of its kin, echoed through the woods.

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Joseph. “We need shelter. Fast.”

  “Follow me.” She took off at a jog, making a beeline through the trees.

  Joseph stayed close, sword in hand. He tried to push power through their link to help fuel her body, but it wasn’t working. Something was blocking him, so he sought out what it was.

  She was exhausted, worried, a little afraid. She was concentrating on leading him through the woods in the quickest, safest manner while simultaneously extending her senses so she would be able to detect a demon before it pounced.

  There was no room in her thoughts for some new way to use his power. She was already handling as much as she could.