Page 35 of Eternally Bound
“Call your brother!” Ronan ordered.
Kadence scowled at him, not at all pleased with the command or the tone of his voice. “I’m not yours to order around!” she retorted and held his gaze when a muscle in his cheek twitched and a vein appeared in his forehead.
After a minute of tense silence, Kadence turned away from him and flipped the phone open. Her fingers felt thick as she punched in the last number she’d had for Nathan. It took three tries before she finally got the number right. She stared at the screen as she waited for something to happen, but nothing did. Knowing she must have missed something, she searched the phone for the answer.
Ronan winced when he realized that Kadence wasn’t familiar with cell phones. The hunters kept her so sheltered that she only had a rudimentary knowledge of things that most took for granted. Before he could intervene to show her what to do, she hit the send button and lifted the phone to her ear.
Holding her breath, Kadence closed her eyes as she waited for her brother to answer. “Who is this?” Nathan demanded after the fifth ring.
Kadence winced at the raw anger coming across the phone even as love and sorrow swelled within her. She took a deep breath to steady her wire-taut nerves before plunging in. “It’s me, Nathan.”
“Kadence! Thank God! Are you okay?Whereareyou?”
Guilt burrowed into her at the relief in her brother’s voice. She would have given almost anything to ease the anguish she heard, to see him one more time, but she couldn’t, shewouldn’t, give up her freedom again. One thing she’d realized after Ronan’s kiss was that life was too short to continue to do as she’d always done. There were so many new experiences out there for her, and she wanted all of them.
She’d rot in the stronghold; she’d die someone far different from the woman she was now if she went back, and she couldn’t do it.
“I’m fine, Nathan, really.”
“Where are you? What happened?”
Kadence glanced over her shoulder. All the vampires were staring at anything other than her, but she knew they were listening to every word she was saying. “After what happened in the alley, I ran, and I kept running.”
“To where?” he demanded. “Where are you? Tell me and I’ll come get you.”
“No.”
The silence on the other end stretched on for a full minute before her brother spoke again. “What do you mean,no?”
“I ran as far as I could, and I’m not coming back!” she blurted before she completely lost her nerve. She had no idea what she would do with her life now. That knowledge should terrify her; instead, she felt like a baby bird spreading its wings for the first time, and she nearly laughed aloud from the free-falling experience of plunging out of the nest.
Saxon gawked at her as he turned toward her. Killean’s head swiveled on his shoulder, as he leveled her with the stare of a snake ready to strike. A small smile curved Declan’s lips and he tossed the lollipop aside. Ronan’s breath exploded from him as he whirled toward her.
“What?” Nathan yelled into the phone. “Have you lost your mind? Where are you? I’m coming to get yourightnow! You can’t survive out there on your own!”
Kadence grimaced and started moving backward when Ronan came toward her. His eyes became a more vibrant red with every step he took. She couldn’t let him get his hands on the phone; he would tell her brother everything if he did. He would make her go back.
“I’m not coming back!” Kadence gushed into the phone. “I’m sorry, Nathan. I can’t be what you need me to be, and I want to see, to learn, toexperience. Please forgive me, and tell Logan this has nothing to do with him. I’ll call you as soon as I can. I’ll be all right. I love you.”
“Kadence!” Nathan’s shout resonated through the phone as she pulled it away from her ear and snapped it in half.
“What are you doing?”
Kadence jumped at Ronan’s bellowed words. He wasn’t mad. He wasirate!
“Give me that phone.” The steady calm of Ronan’s command unnerved her more than if he’d yelled again.
Kadence shook her head, her hair flying around her face. “No,” she managed to choke out.
Shock briefly registered on his face before his wrath blazed back to life. He looked mad enough to strangle her.
“Give me that phone,” he growled.
“I… I broke it,” she stammered.
“Then you will give me his number and I will call him back.”
Kadence jumped back as he grabbed at her. She spun to flee, but his hand snagged her coat and he pulled her against him. The air in her lungs rushed out of her when her back crashed into his solid chest. His grip on her instantly gentled, though she remained firmly trapped against him.
