Page 14 of Eternally Bound
Turning, she finally managed to land a solid punch against the underside of his chin. The monster laughed and leaned back to survey her. “Do it again,” he taunted, his face only inches from hers.
It hit her then that all her training in weapons and self-defense had been for nothing. Dummies didn’t hit back or block her blows; they didn’t laugh in her face when she gave them an uppercut, and they didn’t have the strength of twenty men. The women had been taught how to defend themselves, but they’d never been prepared to actually do it against a vampire.
Managing to get her hand up again, her fingers hooked into claws that she raked down the side of his face. As the skin tore away, flesh dug beneath her fingernails and blood welled forth.
“Bitch!” he spat at her before slapping her across the face. Blood exploded into her mouth, a ringing sounded in her ears, and she was certain he’d knocked one of her teeth loose.
Clutching her hand, he twisted her arm behind her back. Agony tore through her shoulder and screamed up her back as he turned the joint a way it was never meant to go. “The power,” he murmured against her ear. “I can smell it thrumming through your veins.” He jabbed his erection against her again.
Her shoulder popped out of place when she twisted to the side. She cried out as he bent his head to run his revolting tongue across her ear. He propelled her back against the wall, his heavy body plastering her to the cold brick. White fangs glinted when he pulled back to reveal his lethal canines seconds before he struck.
Fire burned through her veins, her heart stuttered in her chest, and her breath froze in her lungs as pain ripped through her, rendering her helpless. Blurred stars filled her field of vision. Tears streamed down her cheeks as her life drained unwillingly from her in slurping gulps.
CHAPTER 9
“Did you hear that?” Ronan asked.
“Hear what?” Declan inquired.
Ronan’s hand fell away from the doors of the van after closing them. The alley remained hushed, but he’d heard something. Blocking out the sound of approaching sirens, the hum of the nearby traffic, and the distant beat of the music from the club. He honed all his senses onto the alley, trying to sense another presence there.
Then, he smelled her vanilla scent and herblood. He’d assumed Kadence had run when he told her to, and in the ensuing battle with the vamps, he’d lost her scent, but it was all he could smell now.
“Get out of here, Saxon!” he barked.
Declan, Killean, and Lucien stared at him in surprise as the red taillights of the van washed over them and Saxon pulled forward.
Ronan moved so fast down the alley that the walls around him were a blur. His vision became clouded with a haze of red as he turned the corner and spotted her. Spottedthem.
Moving faster than he’d ever known he could, Ronan closed the distance between him and Joseph in less than a heartbeat. He tore Joseph off her and threw him thirty feet through the air before he crashed onto the top of a dumpster.
In all his life, Ronan had never been this hell-bent on murder. It was bad enough that Joseph had touched her, but that he hadhurther was intolerable. He’d tear Joseph limb from limb for this.
Joseph spun back toward him as he launched off the dumpster. He braced himself to charge forward, but then he turned and fled down the alley. The muscles in Ronan’s legs bunched in preparation to follow the Savage vampire, but Kadence’s blood permeating the air froze him in place.
“Follow him!” Ronan commanded, and Lucien and Killean took off after Joseph.
His gaze fell on where Kadence had slumped against the wall. Declan knelt at her side, examining her injuries. Two jagged tears marred her flesh from where Joseph’s fangs had torn across the right side of her neck. The vivid red of her blood stood out starkly against her pale skin. Tears streaked her cheeks from the pain she’d endured by having her blood unwillingly taken from her body. Her right arm was twisted at an unnatural angle behind her back. He’d had his shoulders dislocated enough times over the years to recognize the damage done to her.
“She’s alive,” Declan murmured and moved his fingers to prod at the wounds on her neck.
Stalking forward, Ronan pushed Declan’s hand aside. “Don’t touch her.”
Declan gave him a questioning look, but he edged away from her. Kneeling at her side, Ronan stroked her soft skin in the hopes she would wake. She remained unmoving, her heart beating sluggishly in her chest. Fighting back the rage threatening to consume him over what Joseph had done to her, Ronan leaned forward and scooped her into his arms.
Her head lolled to the side, coming to rest against his chest. Her silver-tipped eyelashes curled against her frightfully pale cheek. Blonde eyebrows drew together as a moan whispered past her lips.
With her slender nose, round cheeks, and full lips, she was exquisite. Despite what he knew her to be, he wanted to hold her close and shelter her from the horror of their violent world. Footsteps in the alley drew his attention as Lucien and Killean emerged from the shadows. Killean’s eyes latched onto Kadence; his mouth compressed into a flat line.
“Did you get him?” Ronan asked.
Lucien ran his hands through his sandy blond hair. “No, he was gone before we made it to the end of the alley.”
A sneer curved Ronan’s upper lip, but he couldn’t be mad at them. He should have gone after Joseph himself. If it hadn’t been for Kadence, he would have, and Joseph wouldn’t have evaded him, not again.
“What are you going to do with her?” Killean demanded.
Ronan glanced at Kadence as red, amber, and white lights flashed over the walls around them. The human’s emergency vehicles had arrived. He didn’t know when he’d come to his conclusion, but he knew exactly what he would be doing with her. “She’s coming with us.”
