Page 16 of Eternally Bound
He bent his head, pressing it against the tiled wall as blood pooled around his feet. The sight of it didn’t bother him; he was well used to seeing and smelling his own blood. The puncture in his shoulder was still raw and seeping blood, but healing rapidly. He’d survived worse than this, and he would survive the many more injuries he would sustain for the rest of his life.
He turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. Padding over to the rack, he pulled a towel from it and dried himself off before examining his shoulder. The bleeding had stopped, his muscle had already closed within the hole, and before his eyes, his skin was healing over the top of it. He didn’t worry about it getting infected. His vampire DNA wouldn’t allow an infection or any diseases to survive in his bloodstream.
He checked to make sure Kadence still slept before tossing his towel aside and striding back into the room. He walked over to the armoire, for the first time noticing the ivy leaves etched into its solid wood surface. The hinges creaked when he opened one of the doors to remove a pair of jeans from within.
He pulled the jeans on before walking over to the picture window facing out on the pool beyond. Bars lined the outside of the window. The moon shone down across the wintry landscape as he gazed out at the night before pushing a button beside the window. Heavy metal shutters slid silently down over the glass.
It had been almost seventy years since he’d killed a hunter and felt the effects of their life on his body. However, having spent his life hunting Savages, he’d adapted to their habits and become a creature of the night himself. Usually, he slept through the day and he preferred the sunlight blocked out when he did.
The fact he’d become more and more like the creatures he hunted over the years was not lost on him. He knew what he was becoming.
His gaze returned to Kadence. He didn’t feel quite so Savage around her, or maybe he did, he thought as his gaze lingered on her full lips, but he didn’t feel the bloodlust as intensely. With her, he knew one thing, keep her safe. He could do that; he could focus on that.
Grabbing the brown leather chair from the corner, he placed it next to the bed and settled in to watch over her.
CHAPTER 10
Kadence blinked against the darkness as confusion swam through her groggy mind. She normally didn’t go to sleep until almost dawn, when she was sure the hunters had all returned safely, but she always had a nightlight on in her room, or the sun would be peaking around the edges of her drapes when she woke in the afternoon.
Struggling to sit up, she groaned as pain tore through her neck and shoulder. She tried to raise her right hand to her neck, but it hung limply at her side. Her left hand flew up to the bandage there as memories of the night before flooded her.
She was not in her room, not in herhome! She bit back a scream. If Joseph was around somewhere, he couldn’t know she was awake.
Kadence forced herself to lie back as she fought against bolting out of bed and fleeing into the night. She had to learn her surroundings first. If she launched out of this bed in a panic, she was sure to draw attention to herself and wouldn’t get anywhere.
She remained still while her eyes picked up the small bits of light filtering in from under the door across the room. The nightstand beside her gradually took shape, and then the chair next to it.
Adrenaline shot through her. Someone sat in that chair. She could hear their shallow breathing, see the broad expanse of their shoulders. The fingers of her good arm dug into the sheets. Was it Joseph?
She had no idea why he would keep her alive, but if he had, it meant worse things than what had happened in that alley were in her future. And if it wasn’t Joseph and she wasn’t at home, then her future had become a whole lot more uncertain.
She pushed the blanket aside and slid her feet to the floor. A wave of dizziness assailed her, causing her to sway. She bit into her lower lip, drawing blood in an attempt to keep herself grounded in the moment. She had to remain conscious, and she had to move while whoever sat in that chair remained asleep. Her only chance of survival was to make it to the door and out of here.
Staggering to her feet, another wave of dizziness caused her to lurch to the side and bang into the nightstand. Something rattled on it. Kadence’s breath froze in her lungs while she waited to see what would happen. The form in the chair remained unmoving, but the hair on her nape rose as she felt eyes on her.
She saw no movement, heard no sound, but suddenly a warm hand clasped her elbow. A shrill cry escaped her as she flung herself backward. Her frantic movements caused her to knock the nightstand over. Glass shattered when whatever had been perched on the nightstand toppled onto it. Dull thuds sounded as whatever else had been on the nightstand fell onto the carpet.
“Easy,” a voice soothed. “It’s okay; you’re safe here.”
Kadence took a deep breath while she strained to see the face of the man holding her. His chest brushed against her arm when he leaned toward her. A wave of heat flooded her, and before he flicked the light switch on, she knew who stood before her.
Kadence went completely still when the light in the ceiling blazed to life and illuminated Ronan’s face. Her hand flew to her mouth as his eyes met hers, and she finally got to see what his sunglasses had been covering. She’d never seen eyes like his before. They were such a magnificent combination of red and brown that she couldn’t figure out if they were the soulful color of a deer’s eyes, or the deep red shade of blood.
The blood comparison should have unnerved her; she found it only fascinated her more as the colors swirled more intricately together until they became the deep hue of burgundy while he watched her.
Heat crept through her cheeks when she realized she was staring at him. It didn’t get any better when her gaze dropped lower and she saw he wasn’t wearing a shirt. To her horror, her mouth actually watered as she drank in the chiseled muscles of his broad shoulders, chest, and abdomen.
She’d seen men’s chests before, when the hunters were training, but none of them had ever affected her in this way. There was no hair on his chest, but a deep brown trail of it ran from his belly button to the edge of the jeans slung low on his hips. She barely kept her fingers restrained from following that trail before tracing the lines etching his abdomen with her tongue. As a vampire, she knew he couldn’t be in the sun, but his skin was a bronzed hue that made her think of the sun-kissed beaches she’d never been to but had read about.
The numerous paintings and photos she’d seen of men had nothing on the specimen standing before her. Unable to fight the strange pull he had over her, Kadence swayed toward him. How could she so strongly want someone she barely knew, someone who could kill her with a flick of his wrist?
After last night, she thought her teachings about vampires had been wrong, or at least incomplete, and her instincts were telling her that no matter what he was, he would not hurt her. However, she wasn’t about to toss aside twenty-three years of upbringing because she found herself wanting to touch, explore, and kiss a man more than she wanted air right now.
Her eyes lifted to his mouth with its stiff upper lip and full bottom one. She almost licked her lips as she contemplated what he would taste like. If he tasted as good as he smelled, he would be delicious.
Kadence gave herself a mental shake before jerking her gaze back up to his eyes. She bit her lip as she struggled to keep her strange attraction to him restrained. Unfortunately, the action caused his eyes to fasten on her lip and hunger sparked within his gaze. Except, this was not a hunger for her blood. Oh no, she saw and felt the desire in him while he watched her. It caused her breath to hitch as her toes curled into the plush carpet. His palm on her elbow burned into her skin; her nipples tightened and she tried to recall how to breathe from one second to the next.
Ronan watched as the blue of Kadence’s eyes deepened in hue and her gaze fell to his mouth again. He moved closer until her arm rested against his chest. His fingers slid over her elbow when he bent over her. His eyes never left hers as his lips hovered only inches above her.
