Page 88 of Eternally Bound
Kadence met her brother’s troubled blue eyes, so similar in hue to hers. “Not all vampires are evil. Not all of them kill for fun. Not all of them are like Joseph.”
“I see,” Nathan murmured. “And we’re supposed to believe they’re not all evil because…?”
“Because you can smell it,” she said in reply to her brother’s trailing question. “I didn’t realize it until recently, but the stench we believed all vampires to havedoesn’taffect them all. Ronan told me all purebred vampires can smell the difference between a vampire who has turned Savage and one who doesn’t kill, but a vampire who has been turned from a human cannot smell the difference.”
“What is a purebred vampire?” Nathan inquired.
“A vampire who is born a vampire, and not a human who has been turned into one,” Ronan replied.
Nathan’s eyebrows shot into his hairline, Asher’s mouth dropped, and Logan made a scoffing sound. “Vampires can be born?” Nathan inquired.
“Yes,” Kadence replied.
“Holy shit,” Asher muttered.
“It’s a far bigger world than all you little hunters believed,” Killean drawled, earning scowls from everyone.
Choosing not to rise to Killean’s baiting, Kadence focused on brother again. “Hunters can smell the difference between the vampires who kill and those that don’t too, not as strongly as a purebred, but we can detect it. I know the vampires here don’t smell like Joseph did.”
Nathan gazed at the men around her before giving a brief nod. “They don’t,” he agreed. “But just because there’s no foul odor, I’m supposed to believe they’re not killers?”
“We’re killers,” Ronan said, and she almost elbowed him in the gut for it. “But we only kill those of our kind who turn Savage and start slaughtering other vampires and humans.”
“We’ve also taken out a hunter or two when they’ve gotten in our way,” Lucien added with a smirk.
“Enough,” Ronan said, and Lucien became silent.
“So you’ve killed an innocent hunter before?” Logan demanded.
“You’re not innocent if you’re threatening our lives,” Ronan replied. “Your kind may have been ignorant to the truth about vampires since the very beginning, but ignorance is not an excuse when our lives are on the line. You better remember that.”
“Ronan,” Kadence whispered.
Ronan’s thumb rubbed her nape reassuringly as he spoke. “They must know the whole truth if there is to be any kind of trust.” Ronan kept his attention focused on Nathan. The bruises he’d inflicted a week ago on the hunter had vanished. His broken nose was no longer swollen and crooked. “I could have killed you,” Ronan said to him. “I didn’t.”
A muscle ticked in Nathan’s cheek at the reminder. Ronan waited for him to be foolish enough to deny it, but the young hunter nodded. “True,” he agreed.
“They saved me from Joseph. He attacked me in the alley,” Kadence said. “I’d be dead now if it wasn’t for Ronan. He also set me free. I wasfree, Nathan.” Anguish flickered in her brother’s eyes. “I could have gone anywhere I wanted to, I had money andhumanswho were going to help keep me safe, yet I’m standing here now.”
“I know being kept in the stronghold was difficult on you. I didn’t realize until recently how difficult it was and how confining. We can work on making it better for you there,” Nathan said.
Ronan stiffened beside her. She rested her hand on his chest, but it did nothing to ease the tension he emitted. “Nathan, I’m not returning to the stronghold.”
“Then what do you intend to do, Kadence, live with the vampires?” Nathan asked.
“Yes.”
Logan threw his arms into the air. “They’ve corrupted you and you can’t even see it!”
“No, they haven’t,” she replied. “I know it’s hard to believe that they aren’t our enemies, at least not all of them. I struggled with it too in the beginning, but I know the truth now.”
Before coming here, she’d promised Ronan she wouldn’t reveal to her brother that they could go out in the day, not until he deemed Nathan trustworthy enough. Now, she had little to work with in order to make them see reason, but she understood Ronan’s reasons for guarding some of their secrets.
“Nathan, take her and let’s get out of here,” Logan said.
“No one willevertake her from me,” Ronan promised.
“Enough, Logan,” Nathan said before focusing on her again. “It seems you have traded one cage for another.”
