Dask’iya dangled in his hold, compliant and quiet, and slowly, he seemed to realize that he had made a very bad move, his eyes, like glowing blue glass, slowly widening.
“You can burn,” Dask’iya remarked, and then all six of the seraph’s wings erupted into flames. With a scream, he released his hold on Dask’iya, beating his wings frantically to try to quell the sudden blaze.
Dask’iya plummeted calmly. It was Osamu who leapt straight up to catch her out of the air, grunting at the impact as she slammed into his chest but landing steady on two feet. He set Dask’iya down and rolled his eyes as she offered him a curtsey that consisted of about ninety-five percent sarcasm. It was about as close as Siobhan had seen him come to losing his temper.
The seraph crashed to the ground in a heap, his wings still smoldering. He had no time to get back to his feet as Regina and Harendra were on him in an instant, seizing him by his arms. They dragged him back to his feet themselves, though, so perhaps it was of little distinction.
Dask’iya, unbothered by the embers, grabbed onto the base of one wing, her fingers clenching tight around it. Her heels dug into the ground, carving deep rivets as she heaved her weight backward just as Regina and Harendra did the same, pulling the seraph’s arms in the opposite direction.
There was a sound like breaking concrete as the seraph’s wing and one arm tore free. He didn’t even make a sound. He just crumbled into a heap as Harendra let go of his remaining arm.
Osamu and Allambee prowled forward then, and after that it was hard to keep track of everything that happened, as the Lords swarmed over the seraph like piranha in bloody water. They rent him into pieces, until there was nothing left but chunks of soggy meat and the occasional scorched feather. Siobhan even had to sidestep to avoid getting hit with a tossed hand.
It was…a sight to behold, and in the aftermath, as the Vampire Lords clustered together around the remains of their kill, a heavy silence fell over the manor and its grounds, as if none of the remaining vampires dared to even breathe.
Eventually, as the Lords calmed, Jack breathed out a nearly mesmerized, “Holy shit.” Siobhan couldn’t quite keep a snort of laughter in.
“So, what happens from here?” she wondered, lacing her fingers together with his.
She didn’t get an answer immediately, and they watched Dask’iya move from one body to another, burning them. Though the angels’ bodies were burned carelessly, they knew whenever she found the corpse of another vampire, as she would pause for just a moment to offer a few words before setting it ablaze.
“We’re not exactly out of the woods yet,” Jack pointed out eventually, his fingers tightening around hers. “There will be more angels. More seraphim. But we’ve got a fighting chance, at least.”
“We’ve got hope that we can win,” Siobhan added, summing it all up neatly.
“Exactly,” Jack agreed, though he sounded distracted. Siobhan followed his gaze to see Regina standing on the crest of the hill, beckoning for them to come closer.
Hand in hand, Siobhan and Jack joined her on the hill. She eyed their clasped hands with quiet amusement, but she made no comment on it. Instead, all she offered was a gentle, “We owe you our thanks, though I know the others will not acknowledge it.”
“I will,” Allambee called pleasantly, busy inspecting the foundation of the manor to make sure there was no real damage from the landing of so many angels.
“Most of the others will not acknowledge it,” Regina corrected wryly. “But regardless of what happens in the future, we won today because of you two. So, thank you.”
She turned away then, to make her way into the woods. While Dask’iya was more than capable of disposing of everything, all of the evidence of the fight still needed to be found to be properly disposed of.
Jack and Siobhan shared a quiet smile, and it was with a light, glowing feeling that they joined the cleanup efforts.
Had they won the war? No, not yet. But a fighting chance was just as good.
BOOK TWO
THE VAMPIRE'S BOND 2
THE BONDED SERIES BOOK 2
SAMANTHA SNOW
Copyright ©2018 by Samantha Snow
All rights reserved.
About This Book
This is book 2 from the “Bonded” series. A Vampire Romance series in which curvy Siobhan finds herself brought back to life as a vampire and owing her self to the vampire who saved her...
In Book 2, Siobhan was still adjusting to her new life as a vampire when her and Jack faced another challenge.
The angels were back and this could mean the end of existence as they knew it...
CHAPTER ONE
The city of Chambersburg was not especially large, by the standards of a city. It was not another New York City, not another Boston or Chicago. But it was bustling all the same.
It was sleepy, by the standards of a city. Calm and quiet, it stayed off the radar. On the whole, little happened in Chambersburg. Few people who didn’t live there even knew it existed. The residents tended to prefer it that way; being solidly average was more easily maintained if there wasn’t any huge fuss, and being solidly average was peaceful. So if they had to explain to people where it was a bit more often than most everyone else, well, it was a small sacrifice to make for a quiet life.
Until it was too late, at least, and suddenly everyone knew about Chambersburg.
It started with a light in the sky, early on a Sunday morning. The earliest mass had not even begun yet. Slowly, the city woke, as early birds woke their friends and family to see the light that was most assuredly not the sun, and those friends and family woke their own friends and family. Soon enough, it seemed like three quarters of the city was gathered on the streets, staring upward in quiet, awestruck fascination.
The light hovered in the sky, high over the tallest buildings for a full forty minutes, until at last, it began to descend.
It was not hot or cold, but as the light touched the ground and spread, it left only rubble in its wake. The ground shook as buildings crumbled apart, leaving nothing behind but brick dust, cracked stone, and steel skeletons clawing at the sky with rusted, grasping fingers.
People lay where they fell, their eyes wide and their expressions peaceful, unmarred save for those who were buried in the wreckage.
The light, visible for miles, combined with the shaking of the ground brought police cars and emergency crews soon enough, but the city had already crumbled, and over a hundred thousand people were dead. News crews followed soon after, one by one, until hardly an inch of what remained of the city remained undocumented. Though many had not known of Chambersburg’s existence, by mid-afternoon, the entire country knew.
*
Siobhan MacLeod groaned as someone shook her awake. Slowly, she slapped a hand out and rolled over, tucking her hands under her cheek. Jonathan Blackwell—Jack, more commonly—was not having any of her nonsense, though.
“Siobhan…” Jack sighed, giving her another shake. He threaded his fingers into her chin-length red curls and gave them a gentle tug. “Come on. Regina needs us.”
With a louder, more emphatic groan, Siobhan cracked open one bronzed-over green eye, and her pale, freckled cheeks bunched up slightly as she scowled up at him. “Why,” she asked, so unenthusiastically that it didn’t even manage to sound like a question.
“There’s…been a bit of a situation,” he replied, one pale hand lifting to drag through his short, black hair, his slightly brighter green eyes darting off to the side.
Slowly, Siobhan heaved a sigh and sat up. “Let me guess: it involves angels?”
“To put it lightly,” he confirmed, giving her arm a tug until at last she was on her feet. “Basically, every vampire in the manor is being sent out.”
Siobhan’s eyebrows rose, impressed. Considering that most of the vampires who had arrived for the skirmish with the seraphim a few weeks ago had yet to leave, that meant a good two dozen vampires were being roped into whatever the mess was.
<
br /> Finally, compelled more by curiosity than obligation, Siobhan went in search of a change of clothes and her shoes.
Barton met them at the guestroom door, already determined that he wasn’t being left behind. A mid-content wolf hybrid, he far more resembled the wolf side of his heritage than the German shepherd half, though the squeaky duck toy sticking out of one side of his mouth rather belied the appearance, along with the way he trotted in their wake as they left.
*
The news crews had been ushered off. Even the emergency crews were not in the wreckage. The utter lack of any sign as to what had happened meant that the entire site had been declared unsafe. Within a few days, they would likely decide that there would be no adverse effects of venturing into the city’s rubble, but in the meantime, it was surprisingly easy for thirty-one vampires and a dog the size of a pony to slip into the ash unnoticed.
For the time being, it was being rather dubiously blamed on a meteorite strike. It was an explanation that would likely not hold up for particularly long. There was no crater and no meteorite, and there had been no impact explosion. The city had simply…crumbled, like sandcastles caught in the surf.
Siobhan, like presumably every other vampire combing through the wreckage, had not heard of Chambersburg in the past, but even so, she felt for the people who had lived there. She wondered how many there had been and if there were any left.
As she unearthed yet another body from beneath the rubble and as everyone else continued to remain silent, she was fairly sure the answer was none.
She moved aside a broken pane of glass, where the body of a cat, white fur dyed black with dirt and dust, was splayed out, as if reaching for its owner just a few feet away.
Gently, Siobhan ran a finger along the top of the cat’s head, leaving a streak of white fur behind. “What about you, huh?” she mused softly, picking up the small body and moving it closer to the young girl who was presumably the cat’s owner. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” Siobhan continued as she situated the cat in the girl’s arms. “Why drag you into the middle of all of this?”
Slowly, she straightened back up. She needed a break. Turning, she made her way over to the clearest patch of ground she could see. Her clothing was already filthy, but even so, she didn’t want to sit down on a pile of broken bricks.
It didn’t take long before Barton joined her, licking the side of her face clean until a shadow fell over them and he sank to the ground, his ears folding back. Slowly, Siobhan looked up, recoiling slightly when she saw Harendra watching her curiously, standing only an arm’s length away.
Of the five Vampire Lords, Harendra was the Lord Siobhan was the least comfortable with. After trying to kill Jack immediately after waking up in India, Siobhan was hesitant to trust the stability of his temper, and she found herself looking around to see if Osamu was there to keep him in check.
He was a tall, dark-skinned man, lean and lithe, with harsh features, as if he was judging the world at all times and always finding it lacking. Siobhan supposed she could believe that. His eyes, like those of all other vampires, had a coat of bronze over them, but they were black underneath. His black hair, usually neatly slicked back against his head, was disheveled, coated with dust and grime. Seeing one of the Lords even a bit out of sorts was slightly surreal, but Siobhan was gratified, at least, to know that they too were getting their hands dirty in the wreckage.
“Problem?” he wondered mildly, and Siobhan couldn’t tell if he was quietly disapproving of her or if she just expected him to be and so disapproval was what she saw.
“Just…taking a minute,” she replied. “This is…” She trailed off, grasping for words. “A lot,” she finally settled on lamely.
He hummed quietly in agreement, but he offered no comment beyond that. He stated, after a moment, “I suspect it won’t be much longer. We’ll not find any survivors, by my reckoning, so there will be little point in staying long.”
Siobhan nodded slowly. She patted Barton on the head and got to her feet, the dog cautiously creeping to his feet again, even if he continued to give Harendra as wide of a berth as he could without abandoning Siobhan.
Siobhan dusted herself off, though there wasn’t much point. She was still coated in grit. With a sigh, she said, “Well, I’m going to get back to it. Whether we’re here ten more minutes or until sunrise, I need to keep looking.”
Harendra nodded once and gestured her away before he vanished. Siobhan still wasn’t certain if the Lords could legitimately teleport, or if they were simply so fast that it looked like teleportation. She supposed the distinction was unimportant, though.
“Let’s go, buddy,” she sighed, giving one of Barton’s ears a gentle tug between two fingers before she set off into the rubble again.
She knew, somewhere in the back of her mind, that she wasn’t going to find anyone still alive in the rubble. Even so, she couldn’t bring herself to throw in the towel just yet. She needed to search for just a little bit longer.
*
Siobhan was knee-deep in concrete when Osamu appeared beside her, so suddenly that she nearly leapt out of her skin. She blinked at him owlishly, one hand clutched to her chest.
“Hi?” she offered, her voice half an octave higher than usual.
One corner of his lips twitched up in quiet amusement. “Merely checking in,” he assured her quietly, as mellow and mild-mannered as ever.
He was of reasonably average height and slender build, with parchment pale skin and a toss of side swept black hair. His eyes were copper beneath the layer of bronze, and he radiated an aura of unassuming ease.
“Making rounds, as it were,” he added, and Siobhan remembered that, super strength and speed aside, most of the vampires that had been at the manor were average people, very much like her. She was willing to bet at least a few of them hadn’t seen a dead body before the ordeal with the angels.
“I’m fine,” she assured him as she set about extricating herself from the concrete. It was not strictly true in that moment—they couldn’t really move the bodies, couldn’t do anything for them, couldn’t do anything that would let the emergency crews know that someone had been picking through the rubble—but she figured it would be true later on, and that was good enough.
Osamu’s eyebrows raised slightly, his expression shifting to quiet disbelief. It always sort of felt like the Vampire Lords could see straight through her, but just then, she was pretty sure he didn’t need to be a Lord to do so. She supposed it wasn’t her most convincing statement.
“You don’t need to worry about me,” she corrected reluctantly, rolling her eyes and planting her hands on her hips. “How does that sound?”
“Better,” he returned pleasantly, nodding his head once. “Do feel free to head toward the outskirts of the city if you feel it’s becoming a bit too much. Damien, Viktor, and Charlotte are waiting there, so you would not be the only one.”
Siobhan scoffed and shook her head. “Love the concern, big guy, but I’ll be fine. Just…need to get to my happy place.” She brought her hands toward her head, pressing her pointer fingers to her temples and humming.
Osamu rolled his eyes and held his hands up in a pacifying motion. “I was merely extending the offer, letting you know the option is available. But if you are handling yourself, then I will be on my way.”
“How’s Jack?” Siobhan asked quickly before Osamu could vanish. “Have you talked to him yet? Is he alright?”
Osamu tipped his head to one side. “Jack is fine in the same way you are fine,” he replied after a moment. “He is unsettled, but he insists he is alright. Much like you, I suspect he will cope with the discomfort.”
Siobhan nodded slowly. “Right. Great. Good.” She heaved a sigh and turned to look over her shoulder, farther into the city. There was still a lot of ground left to cover.
She looked back to Osamu in time to see him turn away just before he vanished, presumably to go check on someone else. She wondered if that was what Haren
dra had been doing, too.
She put the thought out of her mind, though. She had more important things to focus on, beyond the Vampire Lords and their opinions on their subjects.
She pinched the bridge of her nose, sighed out a loud, blustering breath, and kept moving. She wasn’t getting anywhere just standing in the dust and moping. True, she probably wasn’t going to find anyone, but she definitely wasn’t going to if she didn’t actually look.
*
Siobhan backpedaled away from a pile of bricks and broken furniture, the broken remnants of a child’s mobile clutched in her hand. She knew what sort of remains she was going to find if she kept looking in that part of the rubble, and that was something she was positive she couldn’t deal with, no matter how fine she said she was. So with the portion of the mobile held tight—a shooting star, from the looks of it, painted yellow with a shimmering golden tail—she turned and abandoned the wreckage of the apartment.
The Vampire's Bond Trilogy: The Complete Vampire Romance Series Page 17