Page 79 of Eternally Bound
“The transition is difficult, Kadence, prepare yourself for that, and I have no idea what it will be like for a hunter.”
“I know,” she whispered and brushed back a strand of his hair.
“Kadence—”
“I have made my decision, Ronan. There is no going back now. This can’t be changed for either of us. Whatever happens, we will deal with it together.”
He gazed wordlessly at her as some new emotion came to life within him. He wasn’t sure what this feeling was, but she was the only one who had ever brought it out in him.
Kadence smiled at him as the red bled away from his eyes and she found herself staring into a pair of beautiful, deep brown eyes once more. “There’s the Ronan I love,” she whispered.
CHAPTER 35
His mouth parted on an explosive breath. He stared at her as if she’d punched him in the gut. “Love?” he choked out.
Kadence took a deep breath, bracing herself against the sorrow that would follow if he rejected her. “Yes, I think… no, IknowI love you.”
His body softened around hers as one of his hands clasped the silken strands of her hair. “I will spend forever trying to be someone who deserves your love.”
“You already deserve my love.”
He lowered his forehead so it rested against hers and inhaled her enticing scent. She humbled him in ways he’d never expected to be humbled in his life. He was determined she would never again feel trapped and lost. Never again be unhappy.
“I may not be able to give you everything you dreamed of right now, but one day you will have everything you’ve always wanted. One day, when things settle some, I will take you anywhere you ask to go. I will make you the happiest woman in the world, Kadence.”
Her hands ran over his sweat-slicked back as tears burned in her eyes. “I am happy,” she whispered.
“Good.”
She shivered with delight when his arms tightened around her and she felt him harden within her once more. Her body quickened in response to his arousal. Wrapping her hand around the back of his head, she turned her head as she guided him to her neck and lifted her hips to him.
He slid out of her before burying himself within her again. He ran his tongue over the pulse pounding in the side of her neck as the rush of her blood filled his ears. Thirst burned him when he rested his fangs against her vein.
Taking deep breaths, Kadence tried to stay relaxed even as her body braced for what was to come.
“Don’t fight it,” he whispered in her ear before he sank his fangs into her neck.
The piercing sting caused her body to jerk beneath his, and she winced as she waited for the excruciating agony she’d experienced with Joseph, but when Ronan gave his first pull, all she felt was joy as he took her blood while his body moved within hers.
Strength flooded through Ronan as her blood filled his cells, branding him forever as hers. He’d never tasted anything as intoxicating as her, or experienced so much power from another’s blood. He’d only rarely fed from other vampires, and they’d all been turned ones. It had been centuries since he last fed from another of his kind, but her blood felt far stronger than theirs ever had.
For the first time in centuries, he was free from the burning in his veins and his unquenchable need to kill. Joy swelled within him as a peace he’d never thought to find settled over him. Her fingers curled into his back and her pleasure slid through the connection opening between them.
Turning her face into his neck, she sank her teeth into his shoulder and cried out when she broke through his skin and licked away his blood. Too far gone in the freedom she gave him and the ecstasy of her body, Ronan didn’t think about her reaction and craving for his blood.
She arched beneath him and bit into him as she came again. With one final thrust, he found his release within her welcoming body. He pulled out of her as her blood continued to fill him and she bit him again.
Gathering her closer to him, he bit deeper into her vein. Her grip on his back loosened, her fingers eased their hold on him. The slowing beat of her heart sounded in his ears as the life drained from her, and he knew she was almost to the point of no return. Retracting his fangs from her, he licked the drops of blood from her neck when her head lulled to the side.
Panic gripped him as her shallow breaths rattled in and out of her chest. He had to get more of his blood into her soon. He bit into his wrist. Blood welled forth, its new scent causing his nostrils to flare. Kadence was etched into his cells now as her blood flowed through his veins, making him stronger than he’d been before.
He brought his wrist to her mouth and rested it against her parted lips. His blood trickled inside, but whereas she had eagerly consumed it before, she remained limp beneath him now. “Drink, Kadence,” he commanded gruffly.
Her dazed eyes met his before fluttering closed again. Gathering her closer to him, he cradled her in his arms. The weakness in her body caused his heart to race as he kissed her forehead, and his fingers entangled in her hair. He could feel his blood seeping into her, but he couldn’t feel it making any changes within her or strengthening her.
Terror clawed at his insides. Maybe a hunter couldn’t become a vampire; maybe it was impossible to turn them. It had never occurred to him that might be a possibility, but maybe the fact they were already part demon would make them immune to the change.
If that were true, then they were both doomed as he could feel the life slipping from her. Madness crept steadily into the edges of his mind at the realization that he may have destroyed her.
