The transition wasn’t complete. He could still feel the changes taking place in her through the bond connecting them, the shifting of her cells and molecules as she became immortal. He suspected her transition had been easier because she was already part demon, but he didn’t know what that would mean when she woke again.
Whatever she became, she was his now, and they would deal with the consequences of that, if there were any.
Moving away from her, he walked into the bathroom. He turned the sink on and splashed his face with water. He pulled a towel from the rack and dried himself before lifting his head to meet his haggard reflection in the mirror. His face hadn’t seen a razor since Kadence left. Thick stubble lined his cheeks and jaw. He’d rubbed her skin raw earlier because of it, something he would not do again, but he couldn’t spend the time away from her that it would take him to shave now.
He walked into the bedroom as a knock sounded on the door. Grabbing his pants, he tugged them on and hurried to answer it before it woke Kadence. He cracked the door open, his eyes narrowing on Declan.
“What is it?” He slipped out and closed the door to within an inch.
“How is everything going?”
Ronan glanced at the partially closed door as he sought out his bond to Kadence. “Better than I’d expected.”
“Good. We’re getting ready to go hunting.”
“If you come across Joseph, bring him to me if it’s possible. We should try to learn what he’s been up to.”
“We will, but I have a feeling he’s going to be lying low for a while.”
“So do I.”
“Ronan…”
Declan’s strangled voice broke off as his eyes darkened until the silver color became almost entirely black. Ronan took a step back as the color drained from Declan’s face. Uncertain of what was happening to his friend, Ronan took his arm to steady him when Declan swayed.
Declan fell forward to brace his hand against the wall as tremors wracked his large frame. A blood curdling scream rent the air, piercing deep into the hushed night. Spinning, Ronan flung the door open, shattering plaster when it banged off the wall.
Horror turned the blood in his veins to ice when his eyes landed on Kadence. Her entire body was lifted off the bed, her head and heels the only things touching the mattress. The scream broke off as she flopped onto the bed and began to thrash as if she were in the middle of a seizure.
Ronan raced across the room and gripped her shoulders in an attempt to stop the spasms wracking her. The delicacy of her bones was not lost on him as she jerked against him and he feared she would break something. Sweat rolled down her, plastering the sheets to her slender frame. She fell back, panting heavily as her fingers dug into the bed.
She jerked beneath him, nearly breaking free of his hold when another round of spasms shook her. He glanced at Declan when he slumped heavily against the doorframe. Declan’s eyes were closed as he labored to breathe.
“Declan—”
“What’s going on?” Lucien burst into the room. Killean and Saxon were close on his heels as Lucien skidded to a halt inside the doorway.
Kadence whimpered again and her eyes fluttered open. No longer their bright blue color, they’d become a bruised blue as they stared unseeingly up at him.
“The pathways are opening,” she whispered.
He stared at her in stunned silence when she slumped listlessly back to the bed, unconsciousness claiming her once more. His heart hammered as he caught the much too faint thump of her pulse. He’d witnessed transitions before, he knew they were never pleasant, but he’d never seen anything like this. Never seen one go so smoothly before going so horribly wrong.
Through the bond connecting them, he felt nothing from her. He turned toward Declan. “What is going on?”
Declan opened his eyes to reveal their still black color. “Pain.” His voice came out gravelly. “She was in pain.”
“What do you mean was?”
“I don’t know. It’s… it’s quiet now.”
“Too quiet,” Ronan murmured as he gazed down at her parted lips. He ran his fingers over her forehead, brushing back the hair sticking to her pale skin.
“Have any of you heard or seen anything like this before?” he demanded of the others.
Killean and Saxon shook their heads. “No,” Lucien answered.
“Get the records,” he ordered.
“I’ll go.” Declan spun and fled from the room as if the hounds of Hell were on his heels.
***
Saxon sat in the chair beside the bed, flipping through one of the numerous books that contained much of the vampire’s vast history. Declan had disappeared after returning with the records. Uncomfortable with being near Kadence in her current condition, Lucien and Killean had retreated to the hall where they were flipping through more annals, but Saxon was studying her reactions and trying to find something in the records to match.
The records were the only things Ronan had maintained full custody of after the war with the Savages. One of the selling points of this place had been the vault built into a wall in the gym. If one didn’t know the vault was there, they would never see it.
Some of the records were so old they were written on parchment and had to be handled with the utmost care. They’d focused on those older documents first, the ones written before Ronan was born.
“Anything?” Ronan demanded when Kadence remained unmoving before him, her hand cold as he held it within both of his. He’d ordered the others from the room earlier and slipped a nightgown on her, but she was still far too exposed for his liking.
“Not yet,” Saxon murmured.
Lucien’s head emerged at the bottom of the doorway, where he sat with his back against the wall. “No,” he said and ducked back again.
Declan walked into the room with a book clasped to his chest.
“Declan?” Ronan asked.
“I discovered nothing in the books I went through,” Declan said, his eyes once again a silvery gray color as they met Ronan’s. “In all your many years, a hunter has never been turned, and it doesn’t seem to have occurred before you were born either. I think if it had occurred, it wouldn’t have been a secret, but full-blown knowledge. We’ll find nothing in these journals, Ronan.”
“I didn’t think we would,” he murmured as he turned his attention back to Kadence.
Rosy color tinged her cheeks once more. Her heart continued to beat within her chest, and her breath warmed her lips when she exhaled, but she hadn’t moved in the three hours since she’d collapsed onto the bed again. The transition should be over by now, but it still held her within its unrelenting grasp.
“She will survive this,” Saxon said.
And become what? Had he destroyed her? Turned her into something different? What pathways were opening and where would they lead her? His hands tightened around hers at the possibility of something terrible awakening within her. Closing his eyes, he bowed his head. He had no idea what she was going through as the bond remained oddly closed off on her end.
“Get the crossbow and weapons ready, in case she doesn’t survive,” he ordered.
“Ronan—”
“If you don’t put me down immediately, I will kill you all,” he interrupted Lucien.
“I’ll get them,” Killean said and Ronan listened as he rose to his feet.
“Wait,” Declan ordered. “She’s awake.”
Ronan’s eyes flew open and his head turned toward Kadence. Her hand remained limp in his grasp, but her eyes were on his. Except, she didn’t seem to see him, and the color of her eyes robbed him of his breath. He’d never seen anything like the white blue shade of her eyes as they glowed with an eerie light.
Declan stepped closer when her eyes shifted toward him. “The paths,” she croaked. “The paths, they’re all broken. They go nowhere. They go everywhere.”
Her eyes closed as fierce spasms shook her. Ronan clasped her to his chest until the spasms stopped and she fell silent
once more. Her body eased against his as her shallow breaths warmed his neck.
He had done this to her; he had caused this to happen. The uncertainty surrounding her and this hideous pain was his fault. Self-hatred boiled through him, rocking him to the very core of his being.
“What paths, Kadence?” he whispered, but she didn’t respond, and he hadn’t expected her to. “You will not die.”
He didn’t know if she heard the order or not, but he willed her to survive as he sought her out through their bond. This time, he found a small opening, but he discovered only a slumber so deep that he could barely connect with her.
“She is strong,” Declan said. “Stronger than any of us realize.”
“I hope so,” Saxon muttered.
“That strength is what is making this more difficult and different from any other transition. The parts of her that have been dormant since birth, possibly since the creation of the hunters, are changing and evolving,” Declan said. “We will soon know what she will become.”
CHAPTER 36
Kadence stirred, causing Ronan to nuzzle her forehead with his lips as he held her in his arms. Declan stepped out of the shadows by the back wall when she whimpered.
Her eyelashes fluttered against his skin as she blinked. Hope clutched at Ronan’s chest when he leaned away to peer down at her. Shadows circled her eyes, but the brilliant azure color of them had returned.
“Ronan,” she whispered.
He exhaled sharply as relief filled every part of him. He kissed her as his hands ran over her face. Warmth radiated from her flesh instead of the unnatural cold she’d been emitting. Her heart beat more solidly within her chest and her breathing was stronger.
“Are you okay? How do you feel?” he inquired.
A small smile curved her lips. “I’m fine now. That wasn’t normal, was it?”
“No.” He brushed the lank strands of her hair away from her face. “It shouldn’t have happened.”
“We both knew it may be different for me, but there was no choice. It had to happen. How long have I been out of it for?”
“Almost two days.”
“Not too bad.” She stifled a yawn and struggled to sit up. Ronan steadied her as she pulled herself up to sit against the headboard. “It’s over now. There’s only the future to look to.”
Her voice took on an odd tone as she said those last words and her eyes became distant.
“Kadence—”
“I’m fine, Ronan,” she interrupted and her eyes came back to him. “Truly.”
He turned to Declan. “Leave us.”
“I’m glad you are well, Kadence,” Declan said before he slipped out the door and closed it behind him.
Ronan gathered Kadence’s hands in his. “I was worried about you,” he admitted.
A tug pulled at Kadence’s heart as she inched closer to him. “I know.”
Kadence held him as she tried to bury the memory of the murky realm of uncertainty she’d been trapped in. It felt like weeks had passed instead of days. “I could hear you and feel you, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t come back to you. There were so many different things.”
She knew she didn’t make any sense, but she couldn’t quite process what had happened to her yet. She rubbed her hand over his back, taking comfort in the familiar strength of his etched muscles. He was something solid when nothing had been solid for the past two days.
“What happened, Kadence? You mentioned something about pathways.”
“There were only brief periods of pain,” she murmured. “But they were so painful.” She trembled as she recalled those moments when it had felt like every bone in her body was breaking and snapping back into place. “And then there would be quiet…”
“And pathways?” he prodded when her voice trailed off and her eyes took on that distant look again.
“Yes, or at least they looked like pathways in my mind. They were full of vibrant blues and purples as they unrolled around me to lead me onward. They took me deeper and deeper.”
“Toward what?”
“Deeper inside me, I think,” she murmured. “It was all so confusing, yet it felt right. The pathways led me to where I was supposed to be.” She rested her hand against his cheek. “Here, with you, and… whole?”
“What do you mean by whole?”
Her hand fell into her lap. “When I left here, when I walked away from you, it didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel right. I told myself it was nothing and that I couldn’t run away from my family to live my dreams only to give them up for someone I barely knew, even if I did care for you. I tried to convince myself it was the crowd at the airport making me so uncomfortable. I told myself all those things, yet my skin felt too tight, my body ached, and all I wanted was to come back to you.”
Ronan scrubbed a hand over his face at this revelation. “That’s why you came back.”
“That was part of it. I was walking to the plane, getting ready to board and thinking about kissing the Blarney Stone when I realized that I was probably the only person who had a chance of bringing our sides together and that I couldn’t go.”
“You were going to Ireland?”
She smiled at him as she brushed the hair away from his face, taking note of the shadows under his eyes and the exhaustion radiating from him. “I kind of have a thing for this Irish guy I know. I wanted to see where he came from.”
Ronan clasped her hand and kissed the back of it. “You will one day,” he promised. “Why did you come back here instead of going to your brother?”
“I knew you would listen to me more than he would, and the minute I decided to return to you, some of the pressure in me eased. Not completely, but it was better, and I almost felt normal again. When I finally saw you, I could breathe easier again.”
“It sounds to me like the demon DNA in you also recognized me as your mate.”
“I think so too. I sense the bond between us more strongly now that I’m a vampire, but it was there before too; I just didn’t know what it was. You’re mine, Ronan. Nothing will ever change that.”
“No, nothing will,” he vowed. “Do hunters have mates or something similar?”
“Not that I know of. We are paired off, and some of those pairs come to love each other if they’re lucky enough, others don’t. Sometimes hunters find someone they would like to marry before they can be paired off, and sometimes they’re granted permission to marry, but I’ve never heard anyone describe anything like what I felt when away from you. However, few love matches occur before marriage, and I’ve never met one, so I don’t know what those couples experience with each other.”
“I see,” he murmured.
“My family is the strongest line.” She stifled a yawn and nestled closer to the warmth of him. “Maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe we are more in tune with the demon part of us.”
“Maybe,” he agreed.
Kadence lifted her head to gaze around the room and her brow furrowed. “Ronan—”
“It will take some time to get used to your heightened senses. I’m told the sights and sounds can be especially overwhelming in the beginning.”
“No,” she said. “It all looks and sounds the same to me.”
He sat back as he studied her. “It seems our species have a lot more in common than we’d ever realized. You were also seeking out my blood before the change.”
“I was,” she murmured as her eyebrows drew together over her nose. “And I enjoyed it. I have to speak with Nathan.”
“Soon,” he promised. “First you should feed and rest.”
His words drew her attention to the blood pumping through his veins. She felt the answering pulse of his heart in every molecule of her body. For the first time, his new scent enveloped her, as did her own. The two of them had become intricately woven together.
A new inner strength pulsed within her, and with the next beat of his heart, her fangs lengthened. She recalled sinking those fangs into Ronan earlier, but feel
ing them now startled her.
She would never change what had passed between them, but she felt thrown off now. She hadn’t experienced as many changes in her body as a human would have, but there was no denying she was no longer the woman she’d been before.
She was also extremely aware of another change in her. She felt Ronan at the edges of her mind, and she could feel the edges of his. “We will both have to get used to the mental bond,” he said as he ran his hands over her. “It can be shut off again, if you would prefer.”
“No,” she said. “I will get used to it.”
He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose. “We will get through this together, and I will do what I can when it comes to your brother.”
Her breath caught in her chest as his pure brown eyes gazed back at her. “Ronan, your eyes, they’re completely brown.”
“When I was younger, they used to be brown all the time, but as time went on and the urge to kill became more incessant, the color of my eyes changed.”
“Why are they different now?”
“Because you calm me more than all the blood and death in the world ever could. They may not remain brown all the time, but I didn’t know they could ever be purely brown again until Declan told me they were when I first held you in the alley.”
She drew her lip into her mouth to bite on it and winced when she pierced it with one of her fangs. “Easy,” he murmured and bent his head to lick the blood away. “It will take time.”
“I know,” she said and sniffed at the air again. Now that she was adapting to his strong scent within her, and hers within him, she was beginning to smell herself more. “I could really use a shower.”
He chuckled and rose to his feet with her locked securely in his arms. “Of course.”
“I smell really bad.”
He dropped his head down and inhaled deeply. “I think you smell like me, and I smell fantastic.”
She couldn’t help but laugh as he grinned at her. She’d never seen this side of him; he was almost jovial as his brown eyes twinkled. “Ronan, are you teasing me?”
“I think I might be,” he replied, sounding more surprised by it than she was.
Eternally Bound (The Alliance, Book 1) Page 25