Page 8 of Eternally Bound
Her eyes latched onto a heavily muscled man shoving Asher aside. Blood poured from Asher’s broken nose, but it wasn’t his blood she smelled either. It was the blood of the man who had shoved Asher away. A man with lethal fangs fully extended and an overwhelming aura of power emanating from him.
Disbelief screamed through her as she recognized him as the man who had been standing on the balcony watching her. The man who had finally made her understand some of what she’d read in those romance novels. A man who wasnota man at all, but one of the twisted freaks who thrived on killing.
How could his blood smell like that? All vampires smelled like rot! Over the years, the male hunters had captured some vampires and brought them to the stronghold for training purposes. They’d allowed the women of the camp to get close enough to detect the stench vampires emitted. It was a smell she would never forget.
As this vamp turned toward her, she saw the bolt protruding from his shoulder and the blood oozing from the puncture. His coat was pushed back, his black shirt ripped open to expose a slash of bronzed flesh across his broad chest.
His sunglasses remained in place, but she knew he watched her. Molten lava spread through her veins as those covered eyes exposed her and ripped her soul bare. He staredintoher in a way no other ever had. Kadence shuddered while her heart leapt into her throat. Despite the fangs and the fact he was a creature she’d been born to hate, she couldn’t deny her pull toward him.
Shock slid through Ronan as he stared at the female hunter. He hadn’t expected her to leave the club, to come out here, and he certainly hadn’t expected the rapt way she watched him. He’d seen many beautiful women over the thousand years of his life, but none of them had captivated him in such a way.
The battle and his men faded away as he stared at her. The wind tugged at her silvery hair, whipping the loose strands of it around her oval-shaped face. Her azure eyes watched his every move. The look on her face said she couldn’t figure him out, but then he had no idea what to make of this woman either.
Kadence felt time crawl by as they gazed at each other, but when Logan suddenly crashed into the vamp, she realized only mere seconds had passed. Asher barely dodged out of the way of the vamp and Logan as Logan propelled the vamp into the brick wall.
“Ronan!” the auburn-haired man shouted.
“I’m fine,” the one wearing the sunglasses grunted, and she realized he was Ronan.
Kadence took a step forward to stop Logan from attacking him, but then her heritage, hercommonsense, kicked in and disgust at herself filled her gut. He was a vampire for crying out loud! What was the matter with her?
Her first time out of the stronghold and she was having the warm and fuzzies for her worst enemy. She was an idiot and a pitiful excuse for a hunter.
Taking a deep breath, she struggled to control the accelerated beat of her heart as Ronan hit Logan, knocking him backward. “Declan, go that way,” Ronan ordered with a wave of his hand at the auburn-haired man. “Killean, that way,” he commanded the one with the scar.
Kadence’s hands went to two of the stakes tucked into her inner coat pocket when she realized there were twomorevamps in the alley. Declan moved to the right as Jayce fired a shot at Killean, hitting him in the shoulder. Killean lunged forward, knocking the gun from Jayce’s hand with one blow.
Killean jerked Jayce forward, but instead of sinking his fangs into Jayce’s throat and tearing it out, he threw Jayce away from him. Killean could have killed Jayce, there was no denying that. Instead, he’d pushed him away. Kadence’s mind spun as she tried to understand what she’d seen, but none of it made any sense.
“Kadence! Get out of here! Now!”
Nathan’s bellow made her cringe, but she wouldn’t follow his command. She had to witness what happened here. Kadence gasped when Logan brandished a stake and tried to plunge into Ronan’s chest. Ronan grabbed Logan’s hand and tore the stake away as if Logan were no more than a child. With a flick of his fingers, he tossed the stake aside.
His lethal fangs gleamed in the dim light of the alley, but instead of striking, he pushed Logan away from him like Killean had. Kadence watched as the vamps lined up on one side of the alley, with the hunters moving to position themselves on the other side. The vamp who had killed her father thrashed in her brother’s grasp, his red eyes blazing like rubies in the sun. His florid face and wheezing breaths led her to believe his windpipe had been crushed at some point.
“We are at a crossroads,” Ronan stated.
His deep voice sent shivers down her spine. Kadence shook herself. No matter how compelling she found him to be, he was a vampire, plain and simple.
So caught up in her own confusion and emotions, she failed to notice what had happened during the fight. Her brother and the hunters were lined up on their side, closest to the wall, with the vampires lined up before them.
Which would have been fine. Her brother had her father’s killer. Kadence was more than happy to leave here with him, more than happy to go somewhere else to dispose of the monster, while they left the rest of the vamps alone, for now.
The real problem was that she’d been separated from the hunters and was stuck behind the vampires.
CHAPTER 6
“Do you plan to fight to the death?” Ronan asked.
“If that’s what it takes, considering it will be your deaths, not ours,” Nathan replied.
Declan and Killean chuckled while Ronan shifted his stance. Kadence’s heart leapt into her throat. “No,” she croaked.
Once the word was out of her mouth, she knew she’d made a mistake. Until she spoke, everyone had forgotten about her. Now, all eyes turned toward her.
“Kadence, leave!” Nathan spat.
Her eyes flew around the group. Her hand trembled as she lifted it to her treacherous mouth. However, she couldn’t run from here. She couldn’t lose her brother, and for some strange reason, she didn’t want anything bad to happen to Ronan either.
