Page 97 of Eternally Bound
She reloaded her weapon and spun to take out another Savage barreling toward her brother. Nathan gave her a startled look before returning to the fight.
The next Savage Ronan captured had flames shooting from his eyes when he tore its head off and tossed it aside. One of the hunters on the side of the building fell beneath the weight of three Savages who were barreling toward the woods. Saxon clasped the hunter’s hand and yanked him to his feet as flames and smoke trailed behind the escapees.
The hunter turned to follow them, but Ronan’s bellow froze him in place. “Donotbreak formation!”
The hunter glanced after the Savages. If they made it to cover and put out the flames, they were still less of a threat than the mass fleeing the warehouse. Ronan had just grabbed another Savage when the clatter of shattering glass and wood sounded. Driving the Savage into the ground, he lifted his head to look up as vampires leapt out of the burning building from the windows above.
His head spun toward where Kadence stood behind him as the first wave of vampires leapt over him. “Kadence!” he roared as the Savages jumped to their feet and fled toward the woods.
Declan yanked her back and caught the first two coming at her. Kadence fired the bolt in her crossbow before releasing the weapon to let it fall against her side. She pulled her stakes free as she prepared for the next wave of Savages.
Adrenaline raced through Kadence as her fangs lengthened. She bounced on the balls of her feet and spun to drive a stake through the heart of a female Savage who had been coming at her with her fangs fully extended. Yanking the stake free, Kadence dashed to the side and drove both her stakes into the hearts of two more Savages as Declan took down another. The Savages parted enough to reveal Ronan carving his way ruthlessly through them toward her.
She ducked to avoid the clawing grasp of another Savage when something hit her in the back. A foot kicked out, knocking the stake from her hand. Her other stake was yanked from her as a heavy weight fell on her, nearly driving her to her knees.
Before she could hit the ground, she was pulled back up by a hand gripping the collar of her jacket. “What do we have here?” a voice murmured in her ear, and she realized the bastard had jumped onto her from above.
For a minute, she thought it was Joseph who held her when an arm cinched around her neck and her head was pulled roughly back. The voice didn’t match Joseph’s though. She smelled death on the man holding her, but it wasn’t as overwhelming as Joseph’s stench had been.
Declan took a step toward her and stopped when the arm around her neck jerked, causing her to choke as she was dragged back three feet.
“Tsk, tsk, Declan,” the man holding her murmured.
Declan’s forehead creased as he gazed at the man. The Savage chuckled and pulled her back another step. “You have no idea who I am.”
“Not a clue,” Declan said.
“And it doesn’t fucking matter,” Ronan replied as he stalked toward them.
The fury emanating from him in waves caused her skin to prickle. The hold on her neck tightened until there was no room between her body and the solid wall of flesh behind her.
CHAPTER 43
“Stop!” Ronan snarled when her toes were pulled off the ground. His long fangs glinted in the sun’s rays and his eyes became so intense a red that Kadence swore she felt the heat of them against her skin.
Kadence tried to turn to see who held her, but her head was jerked back again, making it impossible for her to move it. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to go limp. The Savage behind her grunted and then wrapped his other arm around her waist to support her weight.
Ronan’s eyes focused on her as the Savage dragged her further back. “Joseph will like my little prize,” the Savage muttered and turned his nose into her hair before inhaling deeply. “You and Ronan are entwined with each other. You reek of him, cupcake.”
Kadence stiffened when he ran his tongue over her cheek and Ronan’s rage blistered across their bond. Her vision blurred when Ronan’s emotions swamped her mind. Then, he retreated from her mind and a wall slammed down between them.
Shaking off the lingering effects of Ronan’s rage, she lifted her head and gasped when her gaze landed on him once more. The staccato beat of the Savage’s heart sounded in her ears and sweat now coated his forearm as he held her closer, something she hadn’t considered possible until his body practically molded around hers.
She didn’t blame him for being terrified. She was more than a little unnerved herself as a reddish-black hue began to seep insidiously over Ronan’s skin. The only time she’d ever seen anything like that color was in pictures of demons. The color seeped over the backs of his hands and crept up from the collar of his shirt to spread across his face. The way the color moved through him reminded her of the flames spreading out to destroy the warehouse behind him. The stare he leveled on the Savage promised death, and not a merciful one.
When something poked her in the chest, she tore her gaze away from Ronan’s startling visage to the stake aimed directly at her heart. Yet, she felt no fear of the weapon. Not when she had a very pissed off purebred standing across from her, and the vamp holding her had begun to quake.
The flames of the building rose higher behind Ronan, and she became aware that the screaming had stopped and that all the hunters and Defenders were creeping toward them now. The ground was littered with bodies and drenched in blood. Some of the bodies still had flames consuming them, but most were little more than smoldering ash in the growing daylight.
The Savage holding her hissed and stepped further into the shadows of the forest as his skin blistered and smoke curled into her face. He didn’t have the same intense reaction to the sun that most of the others had, leading her to believe that he hadn’t killed as much as they had.
Ronan’s face became completely encompassed by that insidious color. Though the rest of him was covered by his clothing, sheknewhis entire body was now that reddish black hue. The rest of his men fanned out behind him, but most of the hunters had started to hang back, afraid to move any closer to Ronan. Nathan edged forward, coming toward her from the side.
“Back off, Ronan, or I’ll kill her,” the Savage said.
“No,” Ronan said in a guttural voice she barely recognized. “You won’t.”
“You’re all over her,” the Savage spat. “You think I can’t recognize your claim on her? A newly turned vampire could realize it, and I am no newly turned vamp!”
