“Ronan?”
He turned toward the beautiful sound of her voice to find her eyebrows in her hairline as she surveyed him. The rays of the moon spilling through the windows were the only illumination in the room as she rose. The increased beat of her heart sounded in his ears; her hand went to her mouth.
“What happened? Are you injured?” Kadence took a step toward him and froze when he remained unmoving and staring at her as if he didn’t know what to make of her. “Ronan?”
“What are you doing here?” he grated out.
Kadence didn’t know how to respond, what to say to this man standing across from her. No, not a man. Right now, he was every inch the demon that had created the vampire line. Blood streaked him from head to toe. It coated his hair, making it stand up from where he’d been running his hand through it.
His torn shirt exposed a swath of his chest that hadn’t been spared any blood either. The hole in his upper chest near his shoulder oozed blood, but most of the blood covering him was not his own. He didn’t have enough injuries for that to be possible.
She’d never been afraid of Ronan before, but he looked Savage, and damn if he didn’t smell like one of those murderous things too. Her nose wrinkled at the stench wafting off him. She felt every beat of her heart against her ribs.
What had happened to him while she’d been gone? What had she returned to?
“What are you doing here?” he asked again.
The tone of his voice, the way the shadows caressed his body, and the fiery glow of his red eyes caused her to gulp and wipe her palms on her pants.
“I… I came back.”
“Why?” he demanded as he prowled forward.
She couldn’t stop herself from stepping back as he glided across the room with lethal grace. He didn’t come at her; instead, he circled her like a shark circling its prey. She was nothing more than the guppy.
“Ronan, what happened tonight?” she asked, unable to keep the tremor from her voice.
“Why are you here, Kadence?”
The hair on her nape rose when he uttered the words from behind her. Why did he smell like those Savages who had attacked in the alley? Was it because it was Savage blood on him, or was it something more? Had he given in? Before, she never would have believed it possible; now she shared the room with a lethal predator, and she wasn’t sure she knew this man.
“I’m here because I called my brother from the airport.”
“Did you now?” The words were murmured in her ear, but when she spun to face him, he was ten feet away from her again, circling once more. Despite her excellent night vision, she briefly lost him in the shadows near the back of the room. “And what did you say to him?”
“I… I told him the truth,” she whispered and stepped away from where she’d last seen him. “I told him not all vampires are killers. That the hunters have it wrong.”
“I see. And why would you do that?”
“Because we’re trying to accomplish the same thing and working against each other is just going to help Joseph and the Savages rise in power. You need help, the hunters need help, coming together to fight a common enemy will benefit both sides and prevent unnecessary deaths.”
“And that’s why you’re here now?”
“Ye-yes,” she stammered when she felt his breath against her neck once more, and he inhaled her scent. She didn’t bother to try to face him; she knew he would be gone before she could turn around. “Maybe I can help bring both sides together.”
His bitter laugh caused her to wince. “I don’t think your brother cared much for what you had to say.”
“What happened tonight?” she whispered.
“Savages and hunters. Your brother was there.”
Kadence’s stomach turned, and a cold sweat coated her body. “Is… is… did you kill my brother?” Silence stretched on so long she nearly screamed in frustration as her fingernails bit into her palms. “Ronan?”
“He is alive,” he replied, and Kadence heaved a sigh of relief. “Though I didn’t want to leave him that way, not after he shot me with his crossbow.”
Kadence took an involuntary step toward where she’d last seen him, but movement to her right alerted her that he’d already moved on. “Are you okay?”
“What do you think?”
“No,” she admitted. “Something is wrong, and I don’t know what it is.”
“You sacrificed yourself, Kadence. Sacrificed your freedom because you believe you can help forge an alliance between the hunters and vampires.”
“No, not a sacrifice. I never thought of it like that, but right now you’re making me feel like one!” she blurted, unnerved by the creature in this room with her.
She felt a brush against her nape before his hand clasped it and he held her loosely within his grasp. He had her flight-or-fight response kicked into hyperdrive, yet she couldn’t help but reach out to him in some way. She tried to touch his hand, but he was gone so fast that she took a stumbling step back from where he’d been.
“But you have sacrificed yourself. I told you, don’t come back here unless you’re ready for an eternity with me. Yet here you are.”
She wiped her palms on her pants again. “Ronan—”
“Did you think I was playing with you, Kadence? Did you think my words were an idle promise? Did you think you could come back here, try to play peacekeeper, and then take off again?”
“I… I don’t know,” she admitted. “I didn’t know what to expect.”
She’d simply known she couldn’t get on that plane and abandon her family and Ronan. No, she’d never known freedom before. Yes, there was so much in this world she dreamed of seeing and doing, but she would enjoy none of it if she left them behind. Not if there was something she could do to bring both sides together and possibly save some lives.
“I couldn’t go, not while knowing you and Nathan would be here fighting. I’ve always been caged, but I was born into this life. How could I abandon everyone I know and love because I want to see the world? How could I live with myself if something were to happen to him or to you? Your deaths would be on my hands, and I couldn’t allow that. I would have been back earlier, but the humans weren’t exactly pleased that we weren’t going to board our flight even though we didn’t check any baggage.”
“You have no idea what you’ve unleashed by coming back here.”
The words were uttered from her left, but when she turned to face him, she didn’t see him there. Then, on her right, he emerged from the dark, stalking toward her like the predator he was. He stopped before her, his ruby eyes burning into hers.
“I had to come back,” she said.
He reached for her before recalling the wound the sword had sliced across his palm and the blood splattering him. “There are more things you don’t know about vampires, Kadence. You have no idea what you are to me, but I do.”
“And what am I to you?”
“My mate. We will be bonded. I can’t and won’t let you go again. It nearly drove me over the edge to do so this time; it won’t happen again. I’ll turn you because I must claim you as mine. If I don’t, I will have to be destroyed. I gave you the chance to be free; you should have taken it and never come back here.”
Her mouth parted on a gasp when he spun away from her and stalked toward the doors. “I’ll give you time to absorb that knowledge, but know you will either become a vampire or I will be destroyed. I can’t turn Savage; it would spell doom for everyone, including you.”
He threw the doors open and strode away before she could form a response to his proclamation. What had she done by coming back here? He’d told her not to come back unless she was prepared for an eternity, but she hadn’t really believed him when he’d said that, or had she and it was what she wanted too?
Being in his presence again had caused her skin to stop crawling, and her chest no longer felt like someone was trying to rip it open. He’d unnerved her with his strange behavior, and his declaration was frighte
ning, but she finally felt almost normal again.
When she was with Ronan, she felt like she’d finally found her home.
But become a vampire? She hadn’t been expecting that.
What else would eternity mean, you idiot?
She was staring at the doorway and trying to puzzle that out when Declan appeared. “Are you okay?” he inquired.
“Yes.” Declan started to turn away from her, but she stopped him before he could leave. “Declan?”
“Yeah?” he asked over his shoulder.
“Would he really have to be destroyed if I left here again?”
“If he allowed himself to be taken down by one of us, yes, he would have to be killed. Ronan is the strongest creature in existence on this planet. If he turns Savage, we’re all doomed. I told him it was a horrible mistake for him to let you go without telling you all this to begin with. I like you, Kadence, really I do, but make the right choice here, and make it fast, or I may turn you myself. Ronan will kill me for it, but if you’re already a vampire, he can complete the bond with you after. I will do what must be done to save his life just as he’s saved mine countless times over the years.”
Kadence gawked after him when he vanished from the doorway. She’d stepped into a steaming pile of crap, but no matter what happened now, what she became, she’d made the right choice by coming back here. She could save lives, and she would. Even if she lost hers in the process.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Nathan held the icepack to his nose as he paced back and forth within the living room of the brick house. His head pounded from the beating he’d taken and every breath he took whistled in and out of his nose, but he was alive.
And for the life of him, he didn’t know why. That vampire had had him dead to rights. He should be taking a dirt nap right now. Instead, he was drinking scotch in the hope of numbing the soreness of his body and trying to figure out why that vamp hadn’t torn his throat out.
No, not that vampire, Ronan. That was what one of the other vamps had called him when he’d thrown Nathan away from him and taken off with them. Ronan. The same Ronan that Kadence had mentioned?
It had to be, as it was definitely the same vampire who had been in the alley the night Jayce was killed. None of it made any sense, and trying to figure it out only made his head pound more. The guy had beaten the snot out of him, and Nathan had shot him with his crossbow, yet his throat remained intact.
“I don’t get it,” he muttered.
Logan and Asher didn’t say a word from where they sat on the couch, nursing their own wounds. There was nothing for them to say. None of them understood what had happened tonight or in that alley the first time they’d encountered Ronan and those other vampires. Maybe the first time he could have written it off as the vamps had decided to retreat, but he couldn’t tonight. Yes, the vamps had left, but they could have easily killed them before they departed.
He’d felt the power emanating from Ronan, and it had rocked him even before the punch to his nose had. Never had he encountered anything like that. There was no denying they should all be dead, yet they remained standing, or mostly standing anyway.
“Maybe it’s a game they’re playing or something,” Asher muttered.
Nathan hadn’t told them about Kadence calling him again. It was a sensitive topic for Logan that she’d fled in the first place. Plus, his sister hadn’t exactly sounded like someone they could trust when he’d spoken with her, and no matter what she’d done, he didn’t want anyone thinking badly of her when she finally did come back.
Now, he knew he had to tell them about the call. He couldn’t figure this out on his own, and he could trust them not to go to the elders with it. If they did, Kadence may never be welcomed back here again.
Nathan finished off his scotch before turning to face them. “There’s something I have to tell you. It’s not going to make any sense, but you have to know. Kadence called me earlier.”
Logan winced and rubbed at his chest, but he raptly listened as Nathan repeated the conversation he’d had with his sister.
Ronan slid the doors to the library open and glanced around the dimly lit room. Someone had closed the shutters over the windows. He had a feeling it was Kadence, who still believed the sunlight would burn him. She was curled up on the sofa, her hand tucked beneath her head and her chest rising and falling with her soft inhalations as she slept soundly.
It had been hours since he’d last seen her, since he’d felt in control of himself enough to come anywhere near her again. His eyes were still red; he believed it might be a permanent condition until the bond between them was complete.
She came back! He’d been too geared up last night, too covered in death to really grasp that concept. Standing there gazing at her, the realization hit him fully now. She may not have been prepared for what she’d walked into, but she’d come back to him.
He couldn’t tear his gaze away from her as he walked across the room to kneel at her side. She looked like an angel as she slept, her face serene. He stroked her cheek, relishing the satiny feel of her skin beneath his as she calmed him further.
Her sweeping lashes fluttered open, her azure eyes were dazed as she stared at him. Then, a smile curved her lush mouth. “Hello,” she murmured.
He couldn’t help but smile back at her. “Hello.”
He slid his arms beneath her and lifted her from the sofa. She draped her arms around his neck and nestled closer against him. Her head fell into the hollow of his shoulder as he carried her from the room and up the stairs.
“Why didn’t you go up to your room?” he asked her.
“I wasn’t sure I still had one here.”
“You’ll always have a place with me, Kadydid. Always.”
She rested her lips against his neck. “You’re much calmer now.”
“Do not be fooled. I’m barely in control, but I had to see you.”
“At least you’re not covered in blood anymore.”
He bent his head so that his lips rested against her cheek as he spoke. “You never should have seen me like that.”
Tilting her head back, her eyes searched his as she heard the self-loathing in his voice. “I know what you are, Ronan. You’ve never denied it. I know you’re lethal, brutal, a killer.”
“Hmm.”
“It was the smell that had me worried.”
He froze in the middle of the hall. “The smell?”
“Yes, you smelled like them.”
“Like who?”
“Like the Savages.”
“And what do they smell like?” He knew what they smelled like to him, but to learn they may also smell to a hunter wasn’t something he’d expected.
“Like garbage,” she murmured. “Like death. It’s not a strong aroma, but it’s there. I smelled it that first night in the alley, then with Joseph, and again on you last night. It must have been because you had their blood on you.”
Ronan was too shocked by the revelation to continue forward for a minute. The hunters could smell the difference too, not even a turned vampire had the ability to smell the Savages, only purebreds did, and now hunters. It didn’t sound as if she smelled the aroma as strongly as he did, but perhaps there was more demon in the hunters than he’d realized.
“I see. Do other hunters smell it?”
“We assumed it was what all vampires smelled like, something else we were wrong about,” she said as she rested her head against his chest and placed her hand over his heart. She loved the solid pulse of it beneath her palm. “You smell like cinnamon and the ozone scent of power. I like it.”
“I’m glad you like it,” he said and kissed her ear. “To smell the difference between us is an unusual ability to have. All purebred vampires can smell the foulness of the Savages, but the turned ones can’t.”
“You smell it?”
He smiled at her as he continued walking again. “I do. For every human life a vampire takes, the scent increases. When I was forced to kill hunters bef
ore, I acquired the smell for a while. It has faded over the years.”
“So hunters can tell the difference between Savages and those who aren’t, and we don’t know it?”
“It seems that way.”
“I will talk to Nathan again and tell him.”
“After last night, I’m not sure your brother wants to hear anything you have to say about vampires.”
“Did you hurt him?”
“I did, but he will live, and he deserved it.”
She didn’t flinch away from his blunt words. Her fingers rested against the fading red mark from where a bolt had pierced him. Her brother and her lover could have killed each other last night over a complete misunderstanding. This insanity had to stop.
“Nathan injured you too.”
“Barely felt it.”
She sniffed. “Tough guy, huh?”
He didn’t tell her that he could take a bolt to the chest and barely feel it, yet the idea of losing her again could knock him to his knees. He nudged the door to her room open with his foot.
“I can talk to Nathan. I can make him listen, make him see reason,” she insisted.
“Not today, Kadence. One battle at a time.”
“I couldn’t stand it if something happened to either one of you when I might be able to stop it.”
Whether she realized it or not, she’d just admitted to caring for him. He didn’t know what the strange sensation filling his chest was, didn’t know how to react to it as it robbed him of his breath.
“Is there anything else about vampires we have wrong?” she asked.
“There are other things,” he replied.
“Such as?”
“Not now.”
“You still don’t trust me?”
He set her on the bed and stepped away. “There are many things I have to tell you, but there is something else we need to get straight between us first.”
“This mate thing?”
“This mate thing,” he confirmed.
Taking a deep breath, she gripped the edges of the mattress. “Tell me about it.”
[The Alliance 01.0] Eternally Bound Page 22