Page 7 of Eternally Bound
Ronan’s lips skimmed back when the black-haired hunter’s azure eyes fell on him. At about six four, the hunter was a good four inches taller than him, and lean in build.
“This doesn’t have to happen,” Ronan said. “We don’t have to fight each other. Give us Joseph and walk away.”
The hunter bared his teeth and his hand clamped down on Joseph’s already crushed throat. Joseph’s head lulled forward on his shoulders before it snapped up. The black-haired hunter’s eyes were full of antipathy as they held Ronan’s. He didn’t have to say a word; Ronan knew the real fight was about to begin.
Signaling Declan and Killean, he moved to the side, putting himself in a better position to go after the hunter with the crossbow. Ronan charged at him just as the black-haired hunter’s command to kill them rang through the air.
The hunter holding the crossbow caught his charge out of the corner of his eye. Startled, he spun toward Ronan, but he was too late. Grabbing the end of the bow, Ronan ripped it from the hunter’s hands. He drove a fist into the man’s nose, shattering it before he shoved the hunter into a dumpster.
A gunshot rang out. Killean’s grunt could be heard over the ensuing echo of the shot as it reverberated off the brick walls surrounding them. Another shot fired, but this time it cracked off brick. Either Killean or Declan had managed to subdue the hunter with the gun.
CHAPTER 5
“What were you thinking coming here?” Logan demanded when she crept forward to stand at his side within the club.
Kadence barely glanced at him before focusing on the doorway Nathan and the others had exited through. Her hand slid to the stake in the inner pocket of her coat. “I should be out there,” she whispered.
Logan grasped her shoulders, spinning her to face him. Kadence blinked at him, startled by the harshness of his handsome face as he glared at her. “You have no business being here at all!” he barked at her.
“You have no business telling me what to do!”
“I have every right to tell you what to do. We’re to be married soon, and you’ve put yourself, your brother, and our entire way of life at risk by coming here. I will not have it!”
The one thing her instructors had always hated most about her was her willful streak, but she wouldn’t be ordered around by anyone. Not her father, not her brother, and certainly not the man who she had no choice about marrying.
“I will not have you talking to me in such a way,” she grated from between her teeth. “We may be getting married, but no one will order me around, Logan. Not even my husband.”
She jerked out of his grasp and gave him a scathing glance before focusing on the door again. Around them, people danced and swayed, the lights flashed over the walls and floor, but she tuned it all out to focus on hearing anything from the outside world. Her father’s line of hunters had always been the strongest; it was why their line had been the leader of the hunters since the beginning. She and Nathan were faster and stronger than the others, their senses more honed.
Because she was a woman, she would not have been allowed to lead even if she were the only living descendent, but she carried the strength of that line in her blood. If Nathan were killed before he could produce an heir, her husband would lead the hunters until she produced a male heir who would one day take control. If she had only a female child, her daughter would face the same fate. Only three times in their history had someone outside of their line been a leader until an heir was born.
“I am only trying to keep you safe,” Logan said.
He broke her concentration on the outside when he rested his hand on her shoulder. His finger slid up to stroke her cheek. She resisted cringing away from the tender touch. She loved Logan as a friend, she always had and always would, but she was well aware his feelings for her were more than friendly.
He clasped his hand possessively around her nape, drawing her a step closer. Kadence stiffened beneath his touch, but it was something she would have to get used to if she were going to survive her marriage to him.
Her stomach rolled at the thought of their wedding night, and the many nights that would follow, before she blocked it out. If she pondered it too much, she would never make it through the wedding ceremony, never mind the next hundred and fifty or so years they could possibly be married, if Logan didn’t get killed on a hunt.
A gunshot from outside barely registered through the music, but she knew what she’d heard. Plunging forward, she slammed into the bar on the door and shoved it open. The cold air robbed her breath as the second gunshot sounded.
Logan grabbed her arm, pushing her back toward the club. “Get inside!”
Kadence staggered backward, but she didn’t turn toward the closing door. Instead, she followed Logan down the alley, running as fast as her legs would carry her. One vampire versus three hunters, her brother and the others should have easily taken him down. Yet, she could hear the sounds of fists hitting flesh, the twang of a bolt firing, and the scuffle of numerous feet from deeper within the alley.
Something had gone wrong.
Not my brother, please not my brother too.She couldn’t handle it if she lost her father and Nathan.
Her brother was the only family she had left. Nathan wouldn’t stand in the way of her marriage; as the leader, he would follow tradition, no matter how unhappy it made her. However, he would be there for her to lean on when she needed it. She hadn’t complained to him about her marriage—she couldn’t when he had enough weighing on him right now—but she knew he was aware she wasn’t happy about it.
Just as she knew that being the newly appointed leader wasn’t something he wanted, though he’d never said it to her. As twins, they had always been close. They’d been closer when they were younger, before Nathan went into training and she was forced to learn how to be the perfect wife and mother. They followed separate courses in life, but he’d still been her best friend over the years, her rock.
Legs aching, lungs straining for air, Kadence flew around a corner of the alley and skidded to a halt. The alley reeked of the coppery scent of fresh blood and garbage. Bile rolled up her throat, and it took all she had to keep from vomiting. The last time she had smelled blood so strongly…
Memories of her father’s broken body tried to drag her under before she locked them away.
She found Nathan instantly, unharmed and holdingthevampirein his grasp. Hatred blurred her vision as she gazed at the creature who had murdered her father and torn her life apart. The vamp was beaten and bloody, and though she scented him on the air, it was not his odor filling her nostrils now. This scent was different, spicier, and held no hint of the evil pouring from the vamp.
