“What is it?” Simone whispered.
“Someone already has control of their minds. Most likely it’s a Savage who works for Joseph and who hasn’t killed enough that the sun affects him and who might not have the stench of rot yet.”
“No one has control over my mind,” the man said.
“Shut up,” Killean hissed as he strained to hear anything beyond the room, but he only detected the hum of tires on the road outside and the song of the birds in the nearby trees.
“Let Waldo up!” the woman cried.
Simone stepped toward the woman when the look Killean sent her promised death. “She’s not in control of herself,” Simone said.
“I don’t give a fuck,” Killean grated through his teeth. “She’s putting you at risk.”
Kneeling, Killean settled his knee in the middle of Waldo’s back. “Who sent you in here?”
The man’s pudgy face flushed as sweat beaded his brow. “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Waldo stammered. “We were fighting, and I fell into the door. Look, mister, I’m sorry, and if you let me up, we won’t bother you again.”
Killean sent his power forward and tried to wiggle his way into Waldo’s mind, but he came up against a wall of resistance. This couple might be the happiest couple in the world under normal circumstances, but someone had either implanted new memories in their heads or provoked them into this fight.
Rising, he gazed at the covered window before glancing at Simone; he had to get her out of here.
“Killean, what is going on?” Simone asked.
“One of Joseph’s cronies sent them in here to drive us out.” He’d believed it to be a remote possibility Joseph would find them; he’d been wrong.
Simone’s blood ran cold at the mention of Joseph. “How do you know it was one of them and not some other vampire?”
“Because even if Ronan and the others ignored my instructions to stay away, they would have come to us and wouldn’t be playing these games. And that’s exactly what this is, a game. Joseph’s puppet could have sent this couple in here with a straightforward message to leave now, but instead, they created a fight to throw us off and to make me work to discover that their minds were manipulated. They did this with the intent of unnerving us.”
And they succeeded, Simone thought as she gazed at the couple.
“We’re sorry we interrupted your day,” the woman said. “But this is between me and Waldo. Let him up, and we’ll leave you be.”
Killean ignored her as he took his foot off Waldo’s back and delivered a knockout blow to his cheek. Grasping Simone’s hand, Killean pulled her toward the broken door.
“No!” the woman moaned. “Why did you do that?”
Killean didn’t answer as he stalked toward her. The woman stumbled back as she retreated into her room, and Killean followed with Simone. His gaze darted over the king-sized bed the woman plopped onto before taking in the small bureau and the TV hanging on the wall above it. He didn’t detect anyone else in the room; whoever wore the boots must have retreated during the commotion.
“What did you do to Waldo?” the woman practically shrieked at him.
“Where are your car keys?” Killean demanded of her.
Taking their vehicle was the least ideal prospect; whoever was controlling this couple probably knew which car belonged to them, but with his inability to tolerate the sun, Killean didn’t have any other choices. He couldn’t walk around the parking lot looking for a car to steal, and if he started knocking on the doors of the other rooms in search of someone to control so he could have their keys, whoever was watching them would still know which vehicle they were in when they left.
Besides, taking a different car would only draw more human attention to himself. He didn’t want to do what he believed they were being herded into doing, but more Savages would come for them if they remained here.
The Savages didn’t want to attack them here where there could be numerous human witnesses, so they were using this couple to try to drive them out. If they stayed though, Joseph would find a way to flush them out, most likely a fire. If Killean and Simone remained, the humans here would become casualties, and the two of them would be trapped. At least on the road, they would have some options.
Like a volcano simmering toward eruption, the tension in him was escalating toward a breaking point. He labored to keep the demon leashed while his body clamored to set it free and let it tear apart anyone who came near Simone. His head buzzed like a swarm of bees filled it, and he found himself teetering on the edge of madness.
“Car keys?” Killean demanded of her again and, to him, his voice sounded as if it were coming through a thick fog.
“I’m not telling you!” the woman spat at him.
Reacting on instinct, Killean clamped his hand over the woman’s mouth and sank his fangs into her throat. Unable to take control of her mind to suppress it, the woman’s pain blasted against him at the same time Simone’s shock rippled through their bond. The woman’s hands pushed feebly against his chest before they froze, and her endless, voiceless scream echoed in his head.
A rush of excitement filled him as her blood slid down his throat. He’d needed to feed before this started, and as her agony battered him, the demon part of him purred like a contented cat as Killean fed it the misery and power it craved.
“Killean,” Simone whispered.
She knew the strangeness of this situation had him on edge, but she hadn’t expected this. However, she should have suspected this breaking point was coming. Not only was he a vampire, but Killean was far more volatile than the other vamps in the Alliance. He wasn’t the same as the Savages who imprisoned and tortured her, but he was stuck somewhere in the middle, and that middle made him unpredictable.
“Killean.” When Simone rested her hand on his arm, the sound he released reminded her of a wolf guarding its dinner.
Before she could pull away, he twisted his arm and his fingers clutched hers. Everything in her wanted to jerk her hand away and condemn him for this brutal act as pain twisted the woman’s features, but she couldn’t turn away from him when he needed her. She’d told him she could handle the darkness inside him, and she would.
However, this could not be a constant thing. She would not tolerate him killing innocent people, and she’d go mad if she had to continue watching him feed on other women. No matter what he was to her, no matter what he’d done for her, she would not let him destroy others and trample her feelings to satisfy himself.
When the woman’s heartbeat slowed, excitement pulsed through Killean; he was so close.
“Killean, don’t,” Simone whispered when she detected the decrease in the woman’s pulse. “Stop. She doesn’t deserve this.”
On the brink of feeling the rush of power that came with the end of life, Killean almost finished the woman, but Simone’s growing distress stopped him. She was his mate, and she didn’t approve of this.
Retracting his fangs, Killean stepped back from the woman and wiped the blood off his mouth with the back of his arm. The woman’s dazed eyes briefly met his before they rolled back in her head and she slumped onto the bed.
Killean watched the steady rise and fall of her chest before turning to Simone. Shame coiled through him when he saw the displeasure in her eyes. He shouldn’t have lost control in front of her, but there was nothing he could do to take it back.
“She’s going to be okay,” Killean assured her.
Simone pursed her mouth as she stared at him. His lips were redder from the blood, vitality emanated from his pores, he was more in control, and the woman would be fine, but she was still angry at him. However, her anger could wait until they were away from this place.
“We have to go,” he said.
“Yes,” she murmured.
Killean released her hand and walked around the room in search of the car keys. He found the woman’s purse in the bottom of the nightstand, pulled it out, and dumped the contents on the bed. He shi
fted through the tampons, wallet, a bag of white powder that looked like cocaine, and another bag of mushrooms, before finding the car keys and a phone.
“You’re going to have to drive until the sun sets,” he said to Simone as he held the keys out to her.
“I don’t know how to drive. The hunters didn’t believe it was necessary for the women to learn.”
“They didn’t believe it was necessary?” he asked in disbelief.
“Until Kadence, women never left the stronghold. And Kadence only knew how to drive because Nathan couldn’t say no to his sister, so he taught her. One day, I’d like to learn how to do it.”
Killean lowered the keys. “I’ll teach you when this is over.”
Simone gave him a half-hearted smile. She admired his optimism, but they had no idea what they faced outside this room.
“I’ll be right back,” Killean said.
He walked into their room before returning with only a single bag of what remained of their clothes. Digging into the bag, he removed a black, long-sleeved shirt and pulled it on before donning his socks and sneakers. Killean handed her the bag before rolling the woman over and stripping the comforter from the bed.
When he finished, he went into the bathroom and emerged with white towels he wrapped around his hands until only his fingers were exposed. He then draped a towel over his head before sliding the comforter around his shoulders. By the time he was done, he looked more like a mummy than a man and would draw attention, but not as much as the smoking man running across the parking lot would.
“Let’s hope they’re parked close,” Killean said.
Simone’s heart ached as she watched him. At one time, he’d walked as freely in the sun as she did, and now all she saw of his skin was his face and fingers. It still wouldn’t be enough to keep him protected.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Smoke wafted from Killean’s fingers as he merged the car onto the highway. When they’d had the truck, he avoided the main roads, but now he saw them as his savior. Joseph may be able to monitor them on the highways better than the back roads, but he wouldn’t come after them if there were too many witnesses. He would wait until Killean was somewhere remote, so he had to avoid those places if he could.
Killean removed his smoking hand from the wheel and replaced it with his other one. Blisters immediately broke out on his flesh. After only a few minutes on the road, he’d discarded the towels when they nearly caught fire, and now his hands were fully exposed to the UV light.
Some of the other drivers gave him strange looks when they passed, but he ignored them. He may look odd in his shroud, but he would look odder with flames shooting out of his head.
Simone gazed worriedly at Killean as the flesh on his fingers peeled back to reveal his sinew and then the tips of his bones. The set of his jaw and a muscle twitching in the corner of his right eye were the only indications he gave of pain.
“Maybe I can try driving,” she offered as he switched hands again.
“Not on the highway,” he murmured. “Not for your first time.”
Thankfully, he’d discovered sunglasses in the car, but his eyes still stung behind the dark lenses, and he kept blinking against the light. It was a good thing he’d fed on the woman as he weakened every time his body healed the burns it sustained. After a while, his healing ability couldn’t keep up with the burns, and his skin stopped completely repairing itself before he had to switch hands again.
He glanced at the GPS in the center of the dash. He’d programmed it to avoid tollbooths; he may be able to change the memories of the collector, but he couldn’t alter what was on the cameras monitoring those tolls.
In the rearview mirror, he searched for someone following them, but he hadn’t seen any of the same cars since leaving the motel. But whoever had been at the motel wouldn’t have to follow them; they could monitor the car’s GPS from afar. They needed a new ride, but he couldn’t get out of this one until nightfall; he hoped the constant healing wouldn’t have him too exhausted to do what was necessary when that time came.
He also hoped the couple they’d left behind would remain undiscovered and tied up until they acquired a new car. They couldn’t risk being stopped by the police while driving a stolen car. Unable to change the woman’s memories, he’d made a slit in her neck to hide his bite and left it to their booted stalker to do what was necessary to cover their tracks. And if their stalker decided not to do it, the drugs Killean left in plain view would explain whatever tales the couple spun to whoever found them.
Killean switched hands again. “Can you get the phone?”
Simone opened the glove box to pull out the woman’s phone. “There are a dozen missed calls,” she murmured as she gazed at it. She wasn’t familiar with the things, but that’s what the words on the screen said.
“I didn’t hear it ring. Is it on silent?”
Simone turned it over in her hand before hitting a button that lit up the screen, but it didn’t reveal anything. “I… I’m not sure. Maybe.”
“The hunters didn’t teach you about cell phones either?” he asked.
“They were starting to before I left Nathan’s stronghold; I chose not to learn,” she admitted.
Killean extended his charred fingers toward her. “Let me see it.”
Simone winced at his brutalized skin, but she handed the phone over before she accidentally broke it.
Killean frowned when he saw the missed calls were all from the same number and all within the past hour. For every call, there was a voice mail. Whoever was calling wasn’t a contact of the woman’s as the phone didn’t reveal a name, only a number. He glanced at the road before turning his attention back to the phone as it lit up in his hand with another incoming call. The phone made no noise, but the same number displayed on the screen.
Killean waited for voice mail to pick up and the call to end before scrolling through to listen to the first message. He hit speaker and set the phone in the cup holder as he switched hands.
“Hello, Killean.” His grip tightened on the steering wheel, and his charred skin broke apart when Joseph’s voice filled the car. “I see you.”
The message ended when Joseph hung up. Beside him, Simone’s hands gripped her thighs, and her lower lip trembled. She cast him a fearful glance before gazing around the car.
“Hit delete,” Killean instructed her.
Simone gulped, found the delete button, and pushed it.
“Now hit the arrow in the middle,” Killean said.
When Simone did, Joseph’s voice came over the speaker again. “Peek-a-boo.”
The sick feeling in her stomach grew as she deleted it before moving onto the next message. “I seeeeee you.”
Then the next one. “She sure is a purty one, Killean. I always was a sucker for a beautiful lady myself, but I think there’s something more between you, isn’t there?”
“I’m going to kill him,” Killean muttered.
Simone went through the rest of the taunting messages and deleted the last one before the phone started ringing again. Before Simone could figure out what to do, Killean hit the green button on the screen. The ringing stopped, but he didn’t speak.
“Well, helllllooo,” Joseph purred. “I was wondering when you’d answer.”
“Joseph,” he greeted dryly.
“Killean.”
The silence stretched until Simone’s fingers became cramped from clenching her legs so fiercely. She glanced between Killean, the phone, and back again. She swore some of the smoke wafting from Killean had nothing to do with the sun and everything to do with the fury he exuded.
“Do you really think you’re going to get away from me, Killean?” Joseph asked.
“I already have.”
“Ahh, but you haven’t gotten far at all. You’re only about a hundred miles from where you started. Quite a pathetic escape attempt in all honesty.”
Killean didn’t respond as he switched lanes to pass a Mac truck. Pressing on the gas
, he surged past the truck and over in front of it. Unwilling to risk being pulled over and caught on the camera in a police car, Killean had kept his speed down, but now he wanted to floor it all the way to the state border.
Instead, he eased off the gas as he struggled to rein in the Savage side of him seeking to be freed.
“And where are you going to go?” Joseph inquired. “We both know Ronan won’t take you back; you’re too far gone. All enshrouded against the sun—”
Killean hung up when Simone gasped. She stared at the screen in horror before her gaze swung to him. “He is watching us!”
“He had someone at the motel who saw us leave,” Killean said. “And this car has GPS; he’s probably tracking our every move.”
“What do we do?”
“We wait until night, and then we switch vehicles.”
“But if he’s tracking this vehicle, won’t he know when we stop? And won’t he know which vehicle we switch into.”
Killean had been hoping she wouldn’t think of that; he didn’t want her to worry any more than necessary. “It’s a possibility.”
“Killean…” Her words trailed off when the screen lit up again. Killean hit the red button, and it went black.
“He’s going to kill us,” she whispered.
“I’m going to keep you safe,” he vowed. He didn’t tell her they would probably prefer death if Joseph got his hands on them.
The screen lit up again, and Killean hit the decline button. This went on for the next five minutes before the screen lit up with words instead of a number.
“What is that?” she asked.
“Text message,” Killean replied. “Read it to me.”
Simone lifted the phone from the cup holder. “It says… It’s not Joseph. Answer the phone.”
She had no idea why, but a chill ran down her spine at the cryptic words. Unlike Kadence and Nathan, she didn’t have any gifts, but her instincts screamed a warning at her now.
“You have to answer when it rings,” she said.
The distress in her voice drew Killean’s attention. Somehow, he knew the creature in the bunker was the one who sent the message, and so did Simone. The screen lit up to reveal the same number once more. Simone stared at it while the seconds ticked by and the screen continued to glow.
Bound by Darkness: The Alliance Series, Book 3 Page 21