“Then enlighten me; what makes you such a monster?”
Declan’s hands clenched around the arms of his chair. “There are some things I’d prefer you didn’t know.”
“I’m a member of the Alliance and a purebred vampire. I’ve been through and seen a lot of shit; there’s nothing you could tell me that I haven’t heard or experienced before.”
Declan’s chuckle trailed off as a Savage loped across one of the side yards before disappearing into the woods. The ones who couldn’t take the sun at all were going into hiding for the day, but that didn’t mean they could make it out of this town.
With the roads blocked, the woods were their only option, and that’s where the Savages were hiding. And they wouldn’t make it past the roadblocks. Any of the Savages who could tolerate the day would be on guard there.
“Just for the record, I don’t think you’re a monster,” she said.
She thought he was frustrating and too tough on himself, but she didn’t tell him that.
“How do you think they knew we were in this town?” Willow asked. At least he might answer this question. “Do you think they have someone like Elyse under their control again?”
“No. Elyse requires blood to find whoever she’s searching for, and they don’t have our blood.”
“Maybe someone like Brian.” She wasn’t entirely sure how her brother-in-law’s ability worked, but he could track people too.
“It’s a possibility,” Declan said. “I think it’s more likely we never completely lost them, and one of them followed us through the woods. If they had someone like Brian, they would be here already.”
“True,” Willow said as she turned her attention back to the window. “Why only one of them?”
“Because if it had been any more than one, they would have attacked us.”
Willow shuddered when she realized a Savage was watching and stalking them the entire time. It had seen them kissing and listened to their conversations.
“You think one of them followed us all the way here?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Then it would know we were with Gus.”
“I thought about it a lot while I was patrolling the house, and I think I’ve figured it out. It was daytime, and we were in the middle of that field when we encountered Gus and his family. The camp was on the edge of the field, far away from the woods we exited. I don’t think the Savage who followed us was able to track us once we entered that field.”
“Wouldn’t they have still seen us leave with Gus? His old pickup is pretty memorable; once they saw it, they would know what to look for and ask around about.”
“From the second we left the woods until we left the camp was maybe only an hour. However, by the time we got to Gus’s house, the phones were already down. I think once it couldn’t follow us anymore, it broke off in search of a town to call in backup and keep us trapped here. Their first stop would be the police station. From there, they could take control of everything fast, and they did.”
Willow rubbed at her eyes as she tried to process everything he’d revealed. She was exhausted; she’d give anything for a few hours of sleep, but she was afraid to take her eyes off the window.
“How did we miss one of them following us?” she asked.
Declan had been questioning and kicking himself in the ass about that same thing. He could only come up with one explanation. “I think it was a turned hunter.”
Willow stiffened as she recalled the hunter by the waterfall, his cruel smile, white-blue eyes, and the sword at his side. It could have been any other turned hunter who followed them, but she couldn’t shake his image from her mind.
A turned Hunter would be far stronger, better trained, and faster than a human turned vamp who was forced to become a Savage. A turned hunter would have more patience and would hold off on attacking them until it saw the perfect opportunity… like trapping them in a town.
It might also have orders to bring them back alive, or at least one of them, and that would explain its patience in tracking them.
“Shit,” Willow said again.
That about sums it up, Declan thought as he stared out the window. The fact he hadn’t sensed another’s emotions in the woods told him the hunter stayed pretty far back from them. It had tracked them using all the techniques they trained hunters with.
Of course, he could be wrong about how the Savages knew they were in this town, but he didn’t think so. If they had another vampire with an ability like Elyse’s or Brian’s, they would already be in captivity. Instead, the Savages were using humans to help trap and locate them.
“We have to get out of this town,” Willow said.
“We will.”
Another Savage sprinted across the street and into the woods as smoke started trailing from it. “They're not very discreet,” she muttered.
“They don’t have to be if they’re controlling the town. I don’t think there’s much of a population here. It won’t be difficult for them to change their memories afterward.”
“Or they could be planning on killing them or turning them into Savages.”
“Or that.”
Willow shook her head as the possibility squeezed her chest until it felt like an elephant was sitting on her. “Even if we beat the demons, the battle with the Savages will never end.”
“No, it won’t.”
“Do you ever get tired of it?”
“Do you?”
She held his gaze as she spoke. “I get tired of the killing. I’ll do it; I’ll do whatever is necessary to survive and protect others, but I don’t like it. And these Savages…” Her voice trailed off as she turned to stare out the window again.
“Many of them didn’t choose this life,” Declan guessed.
“Yes.”
“They could still leave them; they could go somewhere else and try to take back their lives.”
“Can they? Especially if they’re a human who has never known anything other than blood and death since becoming a vampire. Can they take back their lives? Can the hunters fight what has become of them? Or the turned vamps who lived peaceful lives until the Savages turned them? Can they fight it?”
“Killean does.”
“Yes, but Killean has Simone; would he still fight it without her?”
“I don’t know,” Declan admitted. He’d like to think so, Killean was his friend, and he had a lot of faith in him, but he knew Killean still grappled with the repercussions of what he did to save Simone.
“You’re a lot older than me, do you ever get tired of it?” she asked again.
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “Not the killing and fighting.” He required that to help keep him sane, but… “It was a lot easier to kill Savages in the old days when you knew they were vampires who gave in and chose their life. Now…” He shrugged as he held his hands out before him. “Things are different now. They’re not so black and white.”
“Were they ever completely black and white?”
“No.” He was an excellent example of that. He’d crossed the line, but through years of hard work, he’d come out of it stronger. However, if it weren’t for Ronan, he would be one of the monsters he hunted. “But there was no guilt then.”
“You feel guilty about killing them now?”
“Not often, but sometimes I recall they didn’t ask for this. And then I remind myself that it’s necessary. Do you feel guilty?”
“Sometimes.”
He studied her as she stared pensively out the window. “Do you regret joining the Alliance.”
“Never,” she said. “This is where I belong, even if we don’t make it out alive. I’d just prefer it if things were more black and white sometimes.”
“So would I.”
She yawned and rubbed at her eyes.
“You should get some rest,” Declan said. “I’ll keep watch.”
Willow rested her cheek on her knee and studied the sharp planes of his face. From the side, his nose was a straigh
t blade, and his cheekbones looked like they were carved from marble.
He was magnificent, and her fingers itched to run over him again. She was exhausted, but she could sleep when she was dead. Which, with the way things were going, could be any minute now. When he sensed her attention, his head turned toward her, and his eyes met hers; she saw his need for her shimmering within them.
He should get up and leave, but Declan found himself riveted on her while she watched him. He shifted in the chair as his hands dug into the ends of the arms, and his erection pressed against his jeans.
Leave. Get away from her. She deserves better. But he remained in the seat.
Willow made things come alive in a way they never had before. He’d been around others whose emotions were so extreme they became something else inside him. Usually, when that happened, it was overwhelming, unpleasant, and he loathed every second of it.
With Willow, he craved more, and he was willing to let go of his restraint to have it. And that was the most dangerous thing for both of them.
Chapter Thirty-One
When she rose from her chair and sauntered toward him with an enticing sway of her hips, his gaze ran greedily over the curves he longed to explore. His tongue latched to the top of his mouth as protests rose in his throat. He didn’t speak when she stopped before him and settled her hands on his shoulders.
Instead of pushing her away, he rested his hands on her rounded hips and shoved aside images of running his tongue over those hips before sinking his fangs into her. He would taste and bite every inch of her perfect body. He would mark her until the satellites in space could tell she was his.
Mate. The concept was so foreign to him before she walked into his life. It was something that happened to other vampires, not to him. But the more time he knew her, the more he cared for her, and the more he suspected she was his mate.
He did feel sorry for her, but he was so happy for himself that he wanted to shout his joy to the moon and screw the consequences. He’d been blessed with a gorgeous woman who understood his life, accepted it, and was a warrior herself. She might be able to handle everything about him, the good, the bad, and the downright hideous.
And because of that, he couldn’t allow this to continue without telling her some of it. “I’m not good for you, Willow.”
Though, it no longer mattered. If she were his mate, he wouldn’t let her down, and he would not become a monster again.
“I know, you’re a monster,” she teased.
The playful smile she gave him made him realize she didn’t believe him. “I am a monster. I’ve—”
Before he could finish telling her about the evil staining his soul, she bent and kissed him. He easily could have stopped her and made her listen, but the heat of her mouth and the way her hands slid around until her fingers played with the hair on his nape hushed his protests.
Willow teased Declan’s clamped lips until his mouth opened. He was right; he probably wasn’t any good for her, and this may be the biggest mistake of her life, but what did it matter when they might not see the sun set? And was it a life worth living if she didn’t grasp it in both hands and hold on for the ride?
She’d never been one to back down from a challenge, and she’d never lived her life in fear. She wasn’t about to start now. She may be the cause of his torment, but she sensed she could also give him some relief from it. And if she couldn’t relieve his torment, then she would give him a different kind of relief.
His stubble-roughened cheeks tickled hers as the kiss deepened. His lips were firm yet soft as his tongue entwining with hers melted away the last of her reservations. She’d always been brazen, and she’d initiated sex before, but she’d never been quite this brazen. However, she’d never wanted a man as badly as him.
Declan drew her forward until she straddled his lap with her long legs hanging over the arms of the chair as she settled onto him. Her hair spilled over his face in tickling waves as Willow shifted her hips in a way that caused her to grind against his cock.
He was supposed to tell her something, but it was impossible to think about anything other than her scent, her warm, luscious body, and the fact she had him on the verge of coming already. He ran his hands up her hips to the bottom of her shirt. He tugged it up until he could settle his hands on her silken flesh.
Running his hands up her back, he skimmed them along her spine and held her closer when he realized how fragile her life was. And I can be the one who ends it.
Declan didn’t think he would hurt her, but he hadn’t believed he would snap before either. Memories of the past threatened to overwhelm him. He started to turn his head away, but she nipped his lip to express her displeasure.
When his blood hit her tongue, the wave of excitement and passion that erupted from her knocked the breath from him. He stopped resisting as he bent her back while drawing her closer.
Nipping at his lip again, she drew more blood, and he didn’t stop her. He’d never given his blood to a vampire before, never intended to let it happen, but he wouldn’t deny Willow anything.
Willow circled her hips as she ground against his thick erection and tugged at his hair. Between his heady taste and the scent of his blood, she’d lost all control of herself, and she welcomed every second of it.
She hated her jeans and wanted to tear them from her. She reached for the button, but his hands were already undoing it and pulling the zipper down. The position she was in made it impossible for them to come off. Reluctant to break the kiss, she tried to wiggle them past her hips, but only ended up with them wedged under her ass.
Finally admitting defeat, she broke the kiss and pulled away to stand before him. His fingers curved around the ends of the chair; his knuckles turned white as he watched her from hooded silver eyes.
The look in his eyes and the way his muscles strained as if he was barely in control, told her she was messing with something far beyond anything she’d ever dealt with before. A trickle of apprehension ran through her.
However, as much as he unnerved her, the need in his eyes also called to her. Maybe it was foolish on her part, but she wouldn’t turn back now. She believed she could soothe the tension from him, ease his need, and give them both what they desperately craved.
Declan remained unmoving as he waited to see what she would do. He sensed her uncertainty and knew he radiated a wildness that would send any sane woman screaming for the hills.
It had been nearly five hundred years since he last had sex. Out of all the many women who came before his period of abstinence, none had ever made him ache to be inside them as much as Willow, but he would wait for her.
He would control himself; he wouldn’t harm her. This wouldn’t be like the last time. He was a lot different now, and Willow was so much more to him.
She was… everything.
They’d only really known each other for a short time, and he had so much to tell her, but she was the woman who would walk by his side for eternity, and he would die before he ever hurt her.
In a seductive, teasing manner that caused his nails to bite into the wood of the chair, she started pushing the jeans down her thighs. He leaned forward as they slid over her shapely calves and off her feet. She kicked them aside with a flick of her toes.
Next, she grasped the edges of her shirt and slid it up to reveal inch by tantalizing inch of her alabaster skin. The swell of her breasts appeared and then fell free as she tugged the shirt over her head and tossed it aside.
She threw her shoulders back and stood with the haughty arrogance of one who was confident in her body, and she had every right to be. His mouth watered, and he sat back in the chair while his gaze ran over the swell of her pert breasts, flat, toned stomach, rounded hips, and long legs that he couldn’t wait to have wrapped around him. The neatly trimmed, dark blonde triangle of hair between her thighs shielded her sex from him.
“Do you like what you see?” Willow inquired as she ran her fingers lazily from her collarbone, between her
breasts, and down to her belly.
He followed her movements with the rapt attention of an eagle following a field mouse. Willow thrilled at the idea of being his prey.
“I do. And I’ll like it more when I’m fucking it,” Declan growled.
“That you will,” she murmured.
Declan remained riveted as she ran her fingers around her nipples until they stood out from her body. And then she gave them a pinch and rolled them between her fingers. Wood splintered beneath his fingers, but he couldn’t bring himself to release the chair.
Willow heard the wood crushing beneath his grip and sensed his waning control, but it didn’t frighten her. He believed himself a monster; she knew he wasn’t.
“Come here,” he commanded.
Willow smiled as she sauntered toward him. She’d never felt more sexy or alive in her life. When her legs brushed his knees, she knelt before him, undid the button of his jeans, and pulled down the zipper. Declan lifted his hips to let her slide the jeans down his legs.
When she got them past his hips, his cock rose to stand proudly in the air. Willow couldn’t tear her gaze away from the long, thick length of him. None of the men she’d been with were this large. She pulled the jeans down his calves and untied his boots as she battled her desire and apprehension.
Slipping his boots off, she tossed them aside before removing his socks and jeans. When she lifted her gaze to his, she saw the challenge in his silver eyes. Somehow, he sensed her confidence was waning. He’d let her walk away from this, and if she did, it would be the end.
He wasn’t a monster, but if she turned away, he’d always believe he was. She didn’t know how she knew this, but the truth of it vibrated to the center of her soul.
Rising higher on her knees, Willow glided her fingers along the insides of his thighs. His breath sucked in when they caressed his shaft. She kept her eyes on his for as long as she could while she bent over his cock. She ran her tongue across the head to lick away the precum already forming there.
More wood crushed beneath his fingers as Declan watched Willow’s head lower over him. Her mouth, tongue, and hand worked a magic that he’d foregone over these last centuries of his life.
Bound by Torment (The Alliance Series Book 5) Page 16