Page 83 of Eternally Bound
“There were only brief periods of pain,” she murmured. “But they weresopainful.” She trembled as she recalled those moments when it had felt like every bone in her body was breaking and snapping back into place. “And then there would be quiet…”
“And pathways?” he prodded when her voice trailed off and her eyes took on that distant look again.
“Yes, or at least they looked like pathways in my mind. They were full of vibrant blues and purples as they unrolled around me to lead me onward. They took me deeper and deeper.”
“Toward what?”
“Deeper inside me, I think,” she murmured. “It was all so confusing, yet it felt right. The pathways led me to where I was supposed to be.” She rested her hand against his cheek. “Here, with you, and… whole?”
“What do you mean by whole?”
Her hand fell into her lap. “When I left here, when I walked away from you, it didn’t feel right.Ididn’t feel right. I told myself it was nothing and that I couldn’t run away from my family to live my dreams only to give them up for someone I barely knew, even if I did care for you. I tried to convince myself it was the crowd at the airport making me so uncomfortable. I told myself all those things, yet my skin felt too tight, my body ached, and all I wanted was to come back to you.”
Ronan scrubbed a hand over his face at this revelation. “That’s why you came back.”
“That was part of it. I was walking to the plane, getting ready to board and thinking about kissing the Blarney Stone when I realized that I was probably the only person who had a chance of bringing our sides together and that I couldn’t go.”
“You were going to Ireland?”
She smiled at him as she brushed the hair away from his face, taking note of the shadows under his eyes and the exhaustion radiating from him. “I kind of have a thing for this Irish guy I know. I wanted to see where he came from.”
Ronan clasped her hand and kissed the back of it. “You will one day,” he promised. “Why did you come back here instead of going to your brother?”
“I knew you would listen to me more than he would, and the minute I decided to return to you, some of the pressure in me eased. Not completely, but it was better, and I almost felt normal again. When I finally saw you, I could breathe easier again.”
“It sounds to me like the demon DNA in you also recognized me as your mate.”
“I think so too. I sense the bond between us more strongly now that I’m a vampire, but it was there before too; I just didn’t know what it was. You’remine, Ronan. Nothing will ever change that.”
“No, nothing will,” he vowed. “Do hunters have mates or something similar?”
“Not that I know of. We are paired off, and some of those pairs come to love each other if they’re lucky enough, others don’t. Sometimes hunters find someone they would like to marry before they can be paired off, and sometimes they’re granted permission to marry, but I’ve never heard anyone describe anything like what I felt when away from you. However, few love matches occur before marriage, and I’ve never met one, so I don’t know what those couples experience with each other.”
“I see,” he murmured.
“My family is the strongest line.” She stifled a yawn and nestled closer to the warmth of him. “Maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe we are more in tune with the demon part of us.”
“Maybe,” he agreed.
Kadence lifted her head to gaze around the room and her brow furrowed. “Ronan—”
“It will take some time to get used to your heightened senses. I’m told the sights and sounds can be especially overwhelming in the beginning.”
“No,” she said. “It all looks and sounds the same to me.”
He sat back as he studied her. “It seems our species have a lot more in common than we’d ever realized. You were also seeking out my blood before the change.”
“I was,” she murmured as her eyebrows drew together over her nose. “And I enjoyed it. I have to speak with Nathan.”
“Soon,” he promised. “First you should feed and rest.”
His words drew her attention to the blood pumping through his veins. She felt the answering pulse of his heart in every molecule of her body. For the first time, his new scent enveloped her, as did her own. The two of them had become intricately woven together.
A new inner strength pulsed within her, and with the next beat of his heart, her fangs lengthened. She recalled sinking those fangs into Ronan earlier, but feeling them now startled her.
She would never change what had passed between them, but she felt thrown off now. She hadn’t experienced as many changes in her body as a human would have, but there was no denying she was no longer the woman she’d been before.
She was also extremely aware of another change in her. She felt Ronan at the edges of her mind, and she could feel the edges of his. “We will both have to get used to the mental bond,” he said as he ran his hands over her. “It can be shut off again, if you would prefer.”
