Page 30 of Eternally Bound
“Fate is a fickle bitch, and sometimes she takes even the best of us down, but sometimes she also intervenes to save us,” Declan replied.
Kadence blinked at him, uncertain of whatthatwas supposed to mean, but she didn’t have time to get into it.
“Enough, Declan,” Ronan said as he glowered at his friend.
“He’s a little testy right now,” Declan said to her before leaning back in his seat and crossing his legs. His expression was innocent when he focused on Ronan.
“Why are you testy?” Kadence blurted.
Ronan refused to answer her question or react to Declan’s antics. He had no idea what his friend was trying to get at, and he didn’t care. All that mattered was getting Kadence safely back to where she belonged. His nails scraped across the stone of the mantle as he balled his hands.
Declan’s silver eyes ran appraisingly over her before he grinned. “Because not only is fate fickle, but sometimes she’s downrightdevious.”
“Huh?” she asked.
“I saidenough!” Ronan roared, causing her to jump as her attention swung back to him.
He’d stepped away from the mantle once more. His hands were fisted at his sides, making the muscles in his forearms and biceps bulge beneath his shirt. For a second, she thought the seams of that shirt would burst open as his eyes became almost entirely red.
Fear raced over her skin, not for herself, but for Declan. The vamp became as still as stone while Ronan stared at him. Before she could think about it, she stepped forward, drawing Ronan’s gaze to her. She didn’t know what she’d expected, but his shoulders relaxed, some of the red bled away from his eyes, and the tension in the room eased.
Saxon cleared his throat. “You must know of another way you can get in contact with your kind then.”
“I could call my brother,” she said.
“And was your brother one of the annoyances there last night?” Killean inquired.
“That annoyance could kick your ass,” she retorted.
Killean lifted an eyebrow, causing his scar to pull upward with the gesture. “Doubtful, but I will give him a go if you’d like.”
“Would he be able to trace the call?” Saxon asked, sending Killean a quelling look.
She’d read enough books to know what tracing a call meant, even if she’d never been around as much technology as the male hunters had. There were computers in the stronghold, but only a few of them had the Internet, and she’d never been granted access to those. If she hadn’t read those books though, she would have no idea what Saxon was talking about.
For the first time, she felt not only resentful but infuriated by all she’d been denied. There was so much out in the world, so much for her to see and do. She didn’t want to just learn other languages; she wanted to travel to the places where they were spoken and immerse herself in the culture and people there. She didn’t want to simply stare at pictures of art in books; she wanted to breathe it in as she stood in the Sistine Chapel or the Louvre.
She yearned to stand somewhere and feel small and to learn without any limitations. There were thousands upon thousands of books in the stronghold, ones for recreation and others for learning, but all she would ever know was what was in those pages. Never would she experience it for herself.
And it pissed her off.
She’d once asked one of her instructors why the women could read about and see photos of the outside world, but not use the computers or experience the world firsthand. Her instructor had replied it was because they had no reason to learn about computers, and as women they must be kept safe. However, as women, they also had to be educated so they were intelligent enough to carry on a conversation with their husband and not bore him.
At the time, she hadn’t understood why the response had exasperated her so much that she’d walked out of the class, but she understood it now. They’d given her a taste of things she could never have to educate her for her husband, but they’d never taken into account that maybe her husband would boreher.
Kadence took a deep breath to steady herself. She could rage against her fate until she became bitter, or she could accept it for what it was. She couldn’t stay here; it would only cause more problems between the hunters and vamps. It was more than obvious Killean didn’t want her here, and Saxon would prefer her gone.
Her temples throbbed as she tried to figure everything out, but she could feel time slipping away from her.
“Can he trace the call, Kadence?” Declan nudged.
“I’m not sure the depth of their technology,” she replied, “but I know they have a lot.”
“Then we’ll give her a burner phone, take her out of here, and have her call from somewhere else,” Killean declared.
Burner phone, something untraceable, a onetime thing, she knew. Nathan had told her they used burner phones when they hunted in case one of their phones fell into the wrong hands. He gave her the number to each new phone he had, and she memorized it before he went out to hunt. He’d had the same phone for two weeks now, unless something had happened to it, and then she would have to call Logan.
“The sun will set in an hour,” Saxon said.
