Page 11 of Eternally Bound
“Your brother will be safe.” If he wasn’t already dead. “Now go!”
“Thank you.”
His chest constricted at those words. “Go.”
Ronan didn’t look back at her as he ran toward the others. A good fight and death were what he needed to purge himself of his reaction to her.
CHAPTER 7
Kadence rounded the corner, but went no further. She couldn’t leave. Her brother was fighting for his life, and that man, thatvampire, was there. The warmth of Ronan’s fingers still lingered on her cheek. He hadn’t acted like her enemy. She supposed his strange behavior could be some sort of sick, vampire trick, but she doubted it. He’d had the perfect opportunity to kill her. He could have easily struck her down, or had his friend do so. Instead, he’d told her to run.
The monsters she’d always been taught vampires were would have killed her without a second’s hesitation. Those monsters wouldn’t have told her that her brother would be safe. What had just happened between them was not normal and she needed answers.
She also hadn’t come all this way not to watch Joseph die.
Kadence crept back to the corner of the alley and poked her head out to watch the battle. She pulled her crossbow free and loaded it. Her hand squeezed on her weapon while she watched them all fight in a flurry of fists and blood, but the vampires still didn’t go in for the killing blow. Now that she was watching more closely, she realized they spent most of their time deflecting the hunters’ attacks. The hunters were outnumbered; this fight should be over. It wasn’t.
The more she examined the vampires in action, the more she began to question if Ronan and his friends were the murderous, mindless creatures she’d been taught to hate her whole life. They seemed to be something different, something she’d never known existed when it came to vampires. Something she didn’t thinkanyhunter had ever known existed.
Ronan cut his way through the thick of the fight. Seizing Logan and Nathan by their necks, he lifted them and threw them toward where Jayce and Asher stood with Joseph. Kadence couldn’t help but marvel over the amount of strength Ronan possessed. He’d tossed them both aside as if they weighed no more than a feather. The other vampires fell into line behind him as the hunters grouped together. Blood tricked from the injuries the hunters had sustained, but none of them were mortal wounds.
“Give us Joseph,” Ronan commanded. “We will take care of him.”
“Set him lose to kill more, you mean,” Nathan said as he slid his crossbow free of his hip.
“He’ll never know freedom again,” Ronan replied. “He’s ours to destroy. Give him to me.”
Nathan’s crossbow dipped a bit before leveling on Ronan’s broad chest, right at his heart. Kadence’s breath stuck in her throat when Ronan stalked forward as if he didn’t see the weapon. The resolute expression on Nathan’s face was one she recognized well. The bolt fired less than a split second later.
Ronan didn’t change his course or even blink when he plucked the bolt out of thin air and tossed it aside as if it had been an annoying fly. Kadence gaped at him. She’d never seen anyone move that fast before, had never thought it possible that someone could.
Before anyone could react, or Ronan could reach Nathan, Joseph shouted a command. “Now! Attack now!” The words were garbled, but his windpipe had healed enough for him to speak again.
Kadence frowned as she tried to figure out who he was yelling at. The others in the alley exchanged a questioning glance. Ronan leapt forward, his hand encircling Joseph’s throat. He looked about to tear Joseph from Jayce’s grasp just as another vampire leapt on top of the brick wall. The feral-looking vamp with the blood-red eyes was followed by a dozen more vampires.
Ronan froze with his hand around Joseph’s throat as he gazed at the Savages perched on the wall like gargoyles ready to take flight. Their putrid odor barely pierced through the stench of the alley. It hit him that Joseph had lured them into this area of the alley because of the amount of trash and the fact that his cohorts could remain hidden on the other side of the wall until he was ready to draw them forth. If he hadn’t crushed Joseph’s windpipe, the Savages would have arrived sooner.
“Well, that’s a heap of shit right there,” Declan said and reached over his back to slide two swords free from under his coat.
Kadence bit back a shout when the vampires launched themselves off the wall. Right now, no one knew she was there; she could be the hidden weapon they may need, but only if she didn’t give away her location. One of the vamps crashed into Ronan, knocking his hold on Joseph free. Another hit Nathan, sending him staggering into Jayce and Joseph.
Joseph twisted in Jayce’s grasp and yanked Jayce’s hand to the side. The young hunter howled as his wrist broke with a snap of bone. Kadence’s stomach nosedived into her toes, but she lifted her crossbow and aimed it at Joseph’s heart. Joseph clutched Jayce’s head as she fired the bolt.
A bead of blood formed on Jayce’s ear from where the bolt nicked him before driving into Joseph’s chest, centimeters off his heart. Blood-red eyes briefly met hers before Joseph snapped Jayce’s neck to the side. The cracking of his spine echoed down the entire alley. The scream ofNo!burned its way up her throat and choked her as a cruel grin curved Joseph’s lips.
Sorrow filled her as Jayce’s limp body collapsed to the ground. She’d grown up with Jayce. They’d played tag and eaten ice cream cones on hot summer days. He’d once told her he would have preferred to be an astronaut, to travel into space, but instead he’d trained to be a pilot for the hunters and to kill. And now he was gone.
Kadence wanted nothing more than to sit down and sob for the loss of her friend. Instead, she pulled another bolt free from her pocket and reloaded the crossbow. She lifted it to end the vicious monster who had destroyed her father and her friend.
She was about to fire again when Ronan stalked through the fray and captured Joseph by the throat with one hand. With ease, he lifted Joseph high before smashing him into the pavement. The asphalt cracked and splintered beneath Joseph’s body. Ronan drew his other hand back to strike Joseph when two more vamps leapt onto the top of the wall before launching themselves off and onto his back.
Kadence’s hand quivered on her crossbow when Ronan vanished beneath their bodies. She searched for Nathan and the other hunters, but they were also nowhere to be seen amid the mass of vamps. She fired more bolts at two of the vamps on Joseph’s side, successfully taking them both out.
She’d gone through a fair amount of training over the years to learn how to protect herself, but she’d never been allowed to hunt a vampire. Now, her blood hummed with excitement, her body was alive in a way it never had been before, and she couldn’t deny that this feltright.
Ronan rose from the mass, shedding the vamps clinging to him. Grabbing one of them, he threw the vamp forward with enough force to shatter some of the bricks in the wall. The indent of the vamp’s body was left behind as he slumped to the ground. The wall rocked on its foundation, and for a minute, Kadence thought it would topple over.
She searched for her brother, worry tearing at her insides as she spotted Asher and Declan beating back the wave of vampires coming at them. If they found it weird to be working together, they didn’t show it.The enemy of my enemy,she realized as they stood nearly back to back with each other. Logan was fighting near the one with the scar, Killean. Lucien and Saxon stood back to back as they fought.
