Page 70 of Eternally Bound
“No, not a sacrifice. I never thought of it like that, but right now you’re making me feel like one!” she blurted, unnerved by the creature in this room with her.
She felt a brush against her nape before his hand clasped it and he held her loosely within his grasp. He had her flight-or-fight response kicked into hyperdrive, yet she couldn’t help but reach out to him in some way. She tried to touch his hand, but he was gone so fast that she took a stumbling step back from where he’d been.
“But you have sacrificed yourself. I told you, don’t come back here unless you’re ready for an eternity with me. Yet here you are.”
She wiped her palms on her pants again. “Ronan—”
“Did you think I was playing with you, Kadence? Did you think my words were an idle promise? Did you think you could come back here, try to play peacekeeper, and then take off again?”
“I… I don’t know,” she admitted. “I didn’t know what to expect.”
She’d simply known she couldn’t get on that plane and abandon her family and Ronan. No, she’d never known freedom before. Yes, there was so much in this world she dreamed of seeing and doing, but she would enjoy none of it if she left them behind. Not if there was something she could do to bring both sides together and possibly save some lives.
“I couldn’t go, not while knowing you and Nathan would be here fighting. I’ve always been caged, but I was born into this life. How could I abandon everyone I know and love becauseIwant to see the world? How could I live with myself if something were to happen to him or to you? Your deaths would be on my hands, and I couldn’t allow that. I would have been back earlier, but the humans weren’t exactly pleased that we weren’t going to board our flight even though we didn’t check any baggage.”
“You have no idea what you’ve unleashed by coming back here.”
The words were uttered from her left, but when she turned to face him, she didn’t see him there. Then, on her right, he emerged from the dark, stalking toward her like the predator he was. He stopped before her, his ruby eyes burning into hers.
“I had to come back,” she said.
He reached for her before recalling the wound the sword had sliced across his palm and the blood splattering him. “There are more things you don’t know about vampires, Kadence. You have no idea what you are to me, butIdo.”
“And what am I to you?”
“My mate. We will be bonded. I can’t and won’t let you go again. It nearly drove me over the edge to do so this time; it won’t happen again. I’ll turn you because I must claim you as mine. If I don’t, I will have to be destroyed. I gave you the chance to be free; you should have taken it and never come back here.”
Her mouth parted on a gasp when he spun away from her and stalked toward the doors. “I’ll give you time to absorb that knowledge, but know you will either become a vampire or I will be destroyed. I can’t turn Savage; it would spell doom for everyone, including you.”
He threw the doors open and strode away before she could form a response to his proclamation. What had she done by coming back here? He’d told her not to come back unless she was prepared for an eternity, but she hadn’t really believed him when he’d said that, or had she and it was what she wanted too?
Being in his presence again had caused her skin to stop crawling, and her chest no longer felt like someone was trying to rip it open. He’d unnerved her with his strange behavior, and his declaration was frightening, but she finally felt almost normal again.
When she was with Ronan, she felt like she’d finally found her home.
But become a vampire? She hadn’t been expecting that.
What else would eternity mean, you idiot?
She was staring at the doorway and trying to puzzle that out when Declan appeared. “Are you okay?” he inquired.
“Yes.” Declan started to turn away from her, but she stopped him before he could leave. “Declan?”
“Yeah?” he asked over his shoulder.
“Would he really have to be destroyed if I left here again?”
“If he allowed himself to be taken down by one of us, yes, he would have to be killed. Ronan is the strongest creature in existence on this planet. If he turns Savage, we’re all doomed. I told him it was a horrible mistake for him to let you go without telling you all this to begin with. I like you, Kadence, really I do, but make the right choice here, and make it fast, or I may turn you myself. Ronan will kill me for it, but if you’re already a vampire, he can complete the bond with you after. I will do what must be done to save his life just as he’s saved mine countless times over the years.”
Kadence gawked after him when he vanished from the doorway. She’d stepped into a steaming pile of crap, but no matter what happened now, what she became, she’d made the right choice by coming back here. She could save lives, and she would. Even if she lost hers in the process.
CHAPTER 32
Nathan held the icepack to his nose as he paced back and forth within the living room of the brick house. His head pounded from the beating he’d taken and every breath he took whistled in and out of his nose, but he was alive.
And for the life of him, he didn’t know why. That vampire had had him dead to rights. He should be taking a dirt nap right now. Instead, he was drinking scotch in the hope of numbing the soreness of his body and trying to figure out why that vamp hadn’t torn his throat out.
No, notthatvampire, Ronan. That was what one of the other vamps had called him when he’d thrown Nathan away from him and taken off with them.Ronan. The same Ronan that Kadence had mentioned?
