Page 80 of Eternally Bound
She was his, but more than that, somewhere along the way, he’d fallen in love with her too. He should have told her that before doing this, should have told her what she meant to him, and now he might never get the chance.
Then she shifted and her fingers twitched against his chest. Unexpectedly, love cascaded around him, robbing him of his breath. It took him a second to realize it wasn’t his own emotions he felt, buthersas her love surrounded him within its comforting embrace.
Excitement hammered him when Kadence seized his arm and she drew more blood from him. Ronan’s head lowered to hers while his blood strengthened her and replaced the blood he’d taken from her.
The satisfaction Ronan experienced from her drinking from him brushed against the edges of her mind, as did his concern for her and his love. That love spread in her a warmth stronger than the sun. An unfamiliar, but not unpleasant, tingling sensation started in her gums. Easing her bite on him, she ran her tongue over her teeth. Her canines lengthened when she prodded at them.
“Kadence?” Ronan murmured as he brushed the hair back from her face. Her eyes remained closed, her skin paler than normal, but she’d released her bite on him.
Then, her fangs sank into his wrist. He jerked against her, disbelief filling him as she pulled on his blood. He’d never changed another, but he knew that wasn’t normal. All humans had to go through the change before they could be reborn as a vampire. It took hours, sometimes as much as a day for fangs to emerge, not minutes.
He held her tighter when she squirmed against him and bit deeper. He had no idea what he’d unleashed by changing a hunter, but he would never let her go.
***
Ronan rolled over and climbed from the bed. He glanced back at where Kadence remained sleeping peacefully. He’d watched religiously over her for the past few hours, searching for any hint of suffering, but she hadn’t so much as twitched as she lay on her side with her hair fanned out around her.
Even in the easiest of transitions, there was still excruciating pain, but there had been none with her. Her body had accepted his blood as if it were her own.
The transition wasn’t complete. He could still feel the changes taking place in her through the bond connecting them, the shifting of her cells and molecules as she became immortal. He suspected her transition had been easier because she was already part demon, but he didn’t know what that would mean when she woke again.
Whatever she became, she was his now, and they would deal with the consequences of that, if there were any.
Moving away from her, he walked into the bathroom. He turned the sink on and splashed his face with water. He pulled a towel from the rack and dried himself before lifting his head to meet his haggard reflection in the mirror. His face hadn’t seen a razor since Kadence left. Thick stubble lined his cheeks and jaw. He’d rubbed her skin raw earlier because of it, something he would not do again, but he couldn’t spend the time away from her that it would take him to shave now.
He walked into the bedroom as a knock sounded on the door. Grabbing his pants, he tugged them on and hurried to answer it before it woke Kadence. He cracked the door open, his eyes narrowing on Declan.
“What is it?” He slipped out and closed the door to within an inch.
“How is everything going?”
Ronan glanced at the partially closed door as he sought out his bond to Kadence. “Better than I’d expected.”
“Good. We’re getting ready to go hunting.”
“If you come across Joseph, bring him to me if it’s possible. We should try to learn what he’s been up to.”
“We will, but I have a feeling he’s going to be lying low for a while.”
“So do I.”
“Ronan…”
Declan’s strangled voice broke off as his eyes darkened until the silver color became almost entirely black. Ronan took a step back as the color drained from Declan’s face. Uncertain of what was happening to his friend, Ronan took his arm to steady him when Declan swayed.
Declan fell forward to brace his hand against the wall as tremors wracked his large frame. A blood curdling scream rent the air, piercing deep into the hushed night. Spinning, Ronan flung the door open, shattering plaster when it banged off the wall.
Horror turned the blood in his veins to ice when his eyes landed on Kadence. Her entire body was lifted off the bed, her head and heels the only things touching the mattress. The scream broke off as she flopped onto the bed and began to thrash as if she were in the middle of a seizure.
Ronan raced across the room and gripped her shoulders in an attempt to stop the spasms wracking her. The delicacy of her bones was not lost on him as she jerked against him and he feared she would break something. Sweat rolled down her, plastering the sheets to her slender frame. She fell back, panting heavily as her fingers dug into the bed.
She jerked beneath him, nearly breaking free of his hold when another round of spasms shook her. He glanced at Declan when he slumped heavily against the doorframe. Declan’s eyes were closed as he labored to breathe.
“Declan—”
“What’s going on?” Lucien burst into the room. Killean and Saxon were close on his heels as Lucien skidded to a halt inside the doorway.
Kadence whimpered again and her eyes fluttered open. No longer their bright blue color, they’d become a bruised blue as they stared unseeingly up at him.
