Over his shoulder, she watched as hunters and vampires lifted the bodies of the dead and dying Savages and tossed them into the spreading fire. Others carried dead and wounded hunters and vampires while they ran from the stronghold.
“Joseph… is… is… he…?”
“He got away,” Nathan said. “Some of his cronies grabbed him when the house exploded.”
“No,” she moaned.
“We will get him.” Gently, he clasped the back of her head and pressed it into his neck. “Feed,” he commanded as he started running.
CHAPTER 52
“There are thirty-five dead, including trainees and hunters,” Nathan said to the others the following day after the losses were tallied and the dead buried. “The majority of losses, twenty-five, were hunters from the New Hampshire stronghold. We lost five hunters from here and five vampire trainees. We’ve taken in seventy-five of the hunter refugees. They’ve decided to remain with us and join the Alliance.”
“So they’re not complete idiots,” Lucien drawled.
“No, they’re not. After learning what happened between Kadence and me, Enlai has talked his newly formed, larger stronghold into joining the Alliance. He believes the vision we shared, and the fact we were able to save lives because of it, is an indication our birth is a herald of good things to come from us. Whether he’s right or not, I don’t know, but if it gets them on board with us, I’ll play along with it.”
“So will I,” Elfry said.
“Fifty hunters were taken from the stronghold Joseph attacked, including Simone,” Nathan said to Kadence.
Kadence flinched, and Ronan pulled her close. “We’ll do what we can to find her,” Ronan vowed as Killean slipped from the room.
“We will,” Nathan agreed.
Suddenly feeling drained, Nathan clasped Vicky’s hand and helped her to her feet. She moved slower than normal and was still sore from yesterday. The flesh on her back remained pinkened, but she was healing fast. Kadence had cut her singed hair off to just beneath her ears.
Carefully draping his arm around her shoulder, he pulled her close as he led her out the open doors of the library to the patio beyond. They walked across the courtyard, over the dunes, and down to the beach.
Nathan inhaled her scent and listened to the waves crashing on the shore as her presence calmed some of the lingering tension in him. They’d been so close to capturing Joseph. They could be learning where the other hunters were and who else was involved with Joseph right now.
Instead, the bastard had gotten away.
Nathan’s need for vengeance didn’t compel him anymore—his love for Vicky had filled that hole—but while Joseph lived, they all remained in peril.
“How do you feel?” Vicky asked.
The wound in his chest was healing, he’d lost a fair amount of blood, and his bones ached from the battle, but he felt strong as he held her. “Sore, but better,” he admitted.
“No, I mean about Joseph getting away.”
“We would have an easier time finding the missing hunters if we’d captured him, and he’s going to wreak havoc while he remains out there.”
“You and Kadence will help bring them home, and you will find him again. Brian might be able to help locate the missing hunters too.”
“Hopefully, but no matter what happens, we’ll get through it together.”
“In the beginning, I was certain you would be the death of me, but you’ve given me a life I never dreamed of having. No matter what happens, I’ll always be grateful for our time together.”
“We’re going to have an eternity together, Victoria,” he promised. “I’ll make sure of that.”
“You might not be so certain of that soon; we still have our biggest hurdle to leap.”
“And what is that?”
“You have to meet the rest of my family.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” he assured her.
• • •
One week later
Vicky surveyed the new home and property they’d spent the past three days moving into with a critical eye. They’d planned to wait longer before moving here, but after everything that happened, Nathan and Ronan pushed up the timeline. Homes still had to be built for everyone, but they would make do until then with trailers and cramming as many hunters into the main house as possible.
The security system had been updated until she was scared to go anywhere near the fence without risking being turned into a barbequed corpse. They’d also integrated something that allowed them to monitor the sky and take down anything trying to get in from above. It would be almost impossible for anything to get in here like they had the other strongholds.
She never would have believed that she would end up living in a hunter stronghold, but then she doubted the hunters and Ronan had ever expected to be neighbors.
She glanced at the wall separating the two estates. A large section of it was recently torn down to allow for easy access between the two properties, in case there was an attack on one side or the other. The plan was to tear down the entire wall dividing the estates, but that section was all they’d completed so far.
Both properties combined were over a hundred acres and offered plenty of room for the hunters to stake out individual sections to build their homes. There would be arguments, of course. No one lived so close to each other without getting annoyed once in a while, but they’d work through it all together.
Things were going to be interesting, but no matter how rocky the road became, she looked forward to the future.
She went to rub the scar on her wrist before recalling it faded away shortly after she claimed Nathan as her mate. Their bond had strengthened her enough for the scar to finish healing, but she would never forget the woman she’d killed in the warehouse. However, she didn’t hate herself as much for it anymore.
Duncan nodded to her as he carried a box by her and into the mansion. Sister June, Duncan, and the children would be living with them until they felt it was safe enough to move somewhere else. The children’s memories were altered on a regular basis, but Vicky hoped they’d eventually decide to stay.
The mansion at her back was gorgeous, but Nathan intended to one day build them a smaller home of their own and turn the second floor of the mansion into a residence for the single, male hunters. The bottom story was going to be converted into a massive training facility for the Alliance.
Vicky loved the mansion, but she was looking forward to having their own home, away from the chaos of the many who were residing with them now. Never had she thought she’d happily give up the opulence of a mansion for the simpler home Vicky knew Nathan wanted, but she couldn’t wait to move in and curl up in front of a fire with him. She planned to put lots of color in their home, and it would have all the newest amenities.
Just because she would be giving up the mansion didn’t mean she was giving up everything. Glancing down, she smiled at her brand-new Louis Vuitton boots. Lifting her heel, she twisted them back and forth to inspect them. Beautiful.
Laughter drew Vicky’s attention away from her boots to the perfectly manicured grounds and the human and hunter children running across the lawn. The children had a wide-open yard to play in, but something was missing.
In her mind’s eye, she rearranged things outside as she recalled her childhood. She and her siblings had loved to play on their swing set, playhouse, and treehouse. They’d run through the woods, tormented each other, and laughed endlessly; she wanted that here too.
Next week, she and Nathan would be making a quick trip to visit her family. With everything going on, they couldn’t stay long, but she couldn’t wait to see everyone again and to have Nathan meet them. For the first time in months, she was looking forward to going home, but until then, she would focus on making this place as homey as possible.
“What are you doing?” Nathan inquired as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He rested his chin on her shoulder to gaze across the yard with her.
“Trying to figure out where to put the swing set for the children and our future offspring,” she replied.
He laughed as he hugged her closer. “As soon as we can, we’ll set up a swing set for the kids, but we have plenty of time to prepare for our children.”
“We have about eight months to ready for ours, and of course it does take time for a child to grow enough to play on a swing set, but I’m a planner.”
Nathan’s forehead furrowed as her words sank in. “Eight months?”
“Yes.”
“Before our child is born?”
“Yep.”
His gaze fell on her flat belly. “Are you sure?”
“I’m not going to be showing yet,” she laughed. “And yes, I’m sure.”
He blinked at her, seeming not to process her words before he beamed at her. Then, he let out a whoop of joy and crushed her against him. She laughed as he lifted her and swung her in a circle, but her laughter broke off when a wave of dizziness assaulted her.
“Gonna throw up,” she muttered.
“Oh shit, sorry!” he said and set her on her feet.
She waited for the nausea to pass before responding. “It’s okay.”
Cupping her cheeks tenderly in his palms, he kissed her.
“I take it you’re happy?” she asked breathlessly when he pulled away from her.
“I’m more than happy. A child!” He rested his hand on her stomach. “Our child will grow up in a world of peace, I swear it to you.”
She grasped his forearms, squeezing them until he lifted his head to look at her. “I want our child to grow up with both of us protecting and loving it.”
“It will,” he promised as he pulled her against him and rocked her in his arms.
“It’s going to be an interesting kid,” she said. “Half vampire, half hunter, possible mortal as it was conceived before you turned.”
“Whatever it is, it’s going to be 100 percent badass with us as parents.”
Vicky laughed and rested her head on his chest. Tomorrow, he’d go back out with Brian and some of the others to see if they could locate the missing hunters, but today she had him all to herself, and she planned to enjoy it.
“Come on,” she said and took his hand.
“Where are we going?”
“To bed.”
She laughed as he swept her into his arms and ran with her inside and up the stairs to their room.
EPILOGUE
Later that day
The white envelope with his name on it was propped against a bottle of scotch on the bar. Ronan lifted it, removed the letter tucked inside, and read it.
My mate is one of the hunters taken by Joseph and his Savages. I’ve tried to leave her to her fate, but I can’t. What we’re doing isn’t working, and we both know it won’t. The only way I’m going to find her is to go into their world. It’s the only chance I have of saving her.
I WILL come back from this.
K
Ronan gazed at the note as he absorbed the meaning of Killean’s words. There was nothing Ronan wouldn’t do to save Kadence in the same situation, but there were some lines that once crossed could never be uncrossed, and there was no guarantee Killean could save the hunter from becoming a Savage.
For Killean to enter the world of the Savages, he would have to become one. Killean believed he could come back from this, but no one had ever come back after giving into their Savage nature.
Killean knew that, yet he’d still chosen to go.
Crumpling the note in his hand, Ronan stared out the window as he tried to sort through the tumult of his emotions. Killean was like his brother, Ronan wanted to have faith in him, but he knew his friend had just become a powerful enemy who knew all their secrets.
Ronan stalked from the room and ran into Lucien in the foyer. “Put everyone on high alert; Killean has gone Savage,” he commanded.
THE END
Killean and Simone’s story will be told in Bound by Darkness (The Alliance, Book 3).
Bound by Darkness is now available for pre-order and will release in 2018!
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About the Author
Brenda K. Davies is the USA Today Bestselling author of the Vampire Awakening Series, Alliance Series, Road to Hell Series, Hell on Earth Series, and historical romantic fiction. She also writes under the pen name, Erica Stevens. When not out with friends and family, she can be found at home with her husband, dog, and horse.
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