Page 23 of Eternally Bound
“Oh,” she breathed as her eyes ran over him. That revelation, and his age, had to be why she sensed so much power in him. “What about a human and a vampire? What would their offspring be?”
“It depends on which side is stronger. I’ve seen some be more like hunters, but not as strong, and some be entirely human. The combination of a human and a vampire doesn’t happen often, but it has in the past. Most live normal, human lives, some choose to be turned later in life. If they are turned, they can be stronger than an average turned vamp, but not as strong as a purebred.”
“Vampires are able to conceive and bear children,” she murmured. “We believed they were all turned.”
“We are part human too after all, which is why not all of us are killers. We have as much human DNA as demon. I’m not an overly big fan of the human race, they’re rather annoying, but I don’t like seeing them slaughtered for sport, even if they do it to each other on a daily basis.”
Kadence felt as if he’d given her a combo punch that left her lying flat in the middle of the boxing ring. Never in a million years had she expected to learn these things about vampires, never would she have considered they hadanycompassion within them.
“Do vampires have a difficult time conceiving?” she asked.
“No. Do hunters?” Her eyes went to the shuttered windows behind him. “So that is why they lock their women away,” he guessed, and knew he was right when her jaw clenched. “The demon DNA must have reacted differently with the hunters, making it difficult for them to conceive.”
She didn’t reply.
“Lie down,” he coaxed, knowing he would get no more out of her on the subject. He gave a tug on her waist, but she didn’t budge. “Joseph didn’t take enough blood to permanently damage you, but he took enough to weaken you for a while.”
“The permanent damage he’s done to me happened before last night,” she muttered more to herself than to him.
He frowned as he realized more than a rebellious streak had brought her out last night. “Why were you in that alley, Kadence?”
Her gaze was fixed on the blanket as she responded. “Nathan has been tracking Joseph for a while.”
“Why is your brother so interested in him? Why did you disobey everything you’ve been raised to believe to be there?”
“I never obey when I’m supposed to.”
“I get that, but why risk leaving your home now?”
“It took me a while to figure out a way to break free of the stronghold.”
“How did you get out?” he asked.
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Fair enough.” He wouldn’t ask her to divulge any information he wouldn’t divulge himself. “So why were you so determined to escape and see Joseph brought down?”
Fire burned in her eyes when they met his again. “He killed my father.”
No wonder she’d been determined to achieve freedom and her brother had been so determined to destroy Joseph himself. Nathan wouldn’t back down and would get in the way again, but that was something he would have to deal with later.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” he said honestly. He knew how it felt to lose a parent to a Savage.
Kadence gazed at him, trying to decide if he was playing with her or not, but she saw only sincerity on his face and in his eyes. “Thank you. I’m hoping that watching Joseph die will make me feel better. That this… this emptiness in me will ease once he’s gone.”
He didn’t want to take the hope away from her, but he knew nothing completely eased the pain of losing a loved one. It had been nearly a thousand years since he’d lost his parents. He’d had such a short time with them, but their guidance had forged him and the hole of their passing had never been filled.
The young, idealistic man he’d been before their deaths never would have believed himself capable of slipping into the darkness. That man hadn’t been plagued with the need to kill, as at twenty-eight, he’d just reached maturity, stopped aging, and started to come more fully into his powers.
Back then, he’d been a young fool who had no idea that soon after becoming fully matured, there would be little left of the vampire race to lead. He hadn’t known that centuries of delivering death, even to those who deserved it, would stain and warp his soul. He’d been told by his father that as a mature, purebred vampire he would start to crave something insatiably and that he would have to fight giving into that craving every day of his life, but he’d never fully understood it until his need for blood and death became an ever-constant companion.
He knew the truth of it all now.
“The emptiness of a lost loved one never goes away completely,” he told her.
“Never?” she whispered.
“No, but time makes you better capable of dealing with it. Revenge is never the salve you think it will be. It is often necessary and must be carried out, but it will not make everything better.”
