Page 67 of Eternally Bound
“I know. It’s big, it’s cruel, and I have no idea about it.” Being in this airport had hammered that fact home. “But I’ll learn, just as I learned to walk and talk. Just as I’ve learned everything else. And I’m not alone; I have friends to help me through and money.”
“What friends do you have with you? How do you have money? Where can you go? You have no ID; you have nothing.”
“That’s not important. What is important is that you listen to me. Not all vampires are brutal killers; not all of them are our enemies.” A line was forming outside the gateway for her plane. Baldric had stopped tapping his watch and was coming toward her as the first person in line handed over their ticket. “Vampires and hunters can do good, together,” she said as she watched more people moving through the ticket line.
Her gaze went to the silver airplane outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. The setting sun lit the plane in a multitude of different colors and caused the windows of the plane to reflect the growing pink of the sky. That plane would take her from here and deliver her to the first stop on her journey.
Baldric stopped before her and pointed toward the shortening line. “I have to go, Nathan. I’ll be in touch again soon. Take care of yourself, and remember what I said. I love you.”
She flipped the phone closed before he could respond. Baldric took it from her and tossed it in a trashcan. “We have to go,” he said.
Lifting her bag from the floor, she walked with him toward the line.
***
Ronan leaned against the wall of the club to watch the humans grinding against each other. Saliva filled his mouth at the possibility of sinking his fangs into every one of their necks. Draining them all dry and leaving them nothing more than shriveled husks was the only thing he could think about doing right now.
Declan stepped in front of him, drawing his attention away from the crowd. “Perhaps you shouldn’t be here.”
Ronan straightened away from the wall. “And where should I be?”
“There are a lot of humans here.”
“There are, and they’re all prime targets for Joseph.”
And me. It was what Declan was thinking too, but he was wise enough not to say it.
A shifting behind Declan’s shoulder drew Ronan’s attention to the dance floor as Killean and Lucien cut across it toward them. Saxon followed behind, moving slower due to a woman with blue hair and another redheaded woman grinding against his sides. Saxon bestowed his charming smile on them, causing them to nearly swoon.
Ronan’s teeth ground together so forcefully, he thought he might shatter his fangs. Now was not the time for Saxon’s playboy shit.
Saxon finally succeeded in extricating himself from the women. Ronan’s attention was drawn away from them, and his desire to feast on their blood, when the distinct odor of garbage filled the air. Saxon’s head swiveled on his shoulders seconds before a Savage crashed into his side.
Ronan leapt forward, shoving his way through the crowd as the Savage propelled Saxon across ten feet of dance floor and into the exit door. The impact of their weight caused the door to burst open. They both tumbled outside and vanished from view. Ronan heedlessly shoved humans out of his way as he ran forward.
Never had he seen such a brazen attack from a Savage in public before. Some of the humans were still staring at the closing metal door when he pushed them out of his way. A few were creeping closer, trying to see what was going on outside. They scrambled away when he snarled at them before plunging out the door.
He didn’t get a chance to look around before he was assailed with the stench of garbage and something hit him in the side of his head. Staggering to the side, the scent of his blood filled his nostrils as the glasses he’d been wearing fell to the ground. He spun, lashing out at whoever had hit him and catching them under the jaw with an uppercut that shattered bone with a crack.
He heard the scuffle of another fight, but before he could look for the source, a whistling sound came from behind him. Throwing his arm up, he caught the blade of the sword that would have sliced his head from his body. The blade bit into his palm, slicing deep as he yanked the sword from the grasp of the Savage wielding it.
His blood coating the weapon made it slippery as he spun it around and stabbed it through the Savage’s throat. Lunging forward, he drove it into the wall, shattering bricks and breaking the tip of the blade off. The Savage clawed at the weapon as Ronan twisted it deeper and yanked it to the side, severing the vamp’s head from his shoulders.
Ronan spun to face three Savages racing at him, their shoulders hunched up and their fangs fully extended. He braced his legs apart and grinned as the first one ran into him. He’d been itching for a fight, and these assholes had delivered it to him.
Capturing the Savage by the shoulders, Ronan lifted him up and slammed him facedown onto the pavement as the second one launched onto him. The thin thread of control he’d been retaining over himself shattered. Red shaded his vision, and his fangs ached to be buried in someone’s throat. Death was the only thing that would fill the hole Kadence’s leaving had torn into him.
He didn’t recognize the sound that came out of him as he stomped his foot onto the back of the one he’d driven into the ground. He wrapped his hand around the throat of the one clawing at his back and tore the vampire’s head off with his other hand.
The next Savage spun two daggers through his fingers while he eyed Ronan, looking for a weakness. Blood dripped from Ronan’s hand as he stepped onto the one still lying on the pavement, unable to move due to his broken back. He stalked forward, ignoring the spinning blades the Savage swung back and forth at him. The daggers whistled as they sliced through the air in front of his face, but he didn’t ease in his pursuit.
The Savage backed steadily away, his eagerness for a fight lessening when Ronan grinned at him. The Savage swung at him. Ronan leaned away from the blade as it sliced so close to his nose he felt the nick of the blade across his skin. When the Savage swung at him again, Ronan clutched his arm and brought it down over his knee, snapping it in half.
The Savage howled and stumbled back as Ronan pounced on him, sinking his fangs into his throat. Putrid blood filled his mouth and he spit it out. The Savage drove the next dagger at his eye, but Ronan clasped hold of the wrist, halting it before it could blind him.
He bared down on the Savage’s wrist, shattering bone and causing the knife to clatter onto the pavement. The Savage gagged when Ronan punched him in the face, knocking his fangs down his throat. Before the Savage could react, Ronan seized his throat and ripped backward, tearing it out.
He spun the vamp’s head around and tore it from his shoulders before tossing it aside. He whirled to find the others entangled with a handful of Savages. Ronan raced toward the one climbing over Saxon’s back and wrenched the Savage away. The vampire’s startled red eyes met his before Ronan drove his fist through the vamp’s chest and ripped out his heart. He crushed the still beating organ in his hand as the vamp fell before him.
