Page 53 of Bound by Vengeance
Turning the corner, her phone rang as shewalked toward Nathan’s apartment. She hated that she smiled whenshe saw his name on the screen.
“You’re pathetic.” She didn’t bother toargue with herself as she answered the phone. “Hello,” she purred,refusing to let him know how exhausted she was.
“You okay?” he asked, which wasnothis typical greeting. Usually, it was something dirty andknee-knocking.
“Fine, why?”
“You sound off.”
She thought she sounded perfectly normal,but apparently not. What did it mean that he noticed? Was theresomething in his hunter DNA also reacting to her?
Stop it! No hopes up!
Kadence may have returned to Ronan after heset her free, but Kadence didn’t rule over an entire race ofhunters, and she didn’t have the legacy Nathan did.
“I’m fine,” she said with a breeziness shedidn’t feel. Stopping, she shrugged out of her coat and draped itover her arm. Bundled up for the sewers, the warmth of the buildingwas too much for her as sweat beaded her forehead. “Another nightof nothing in the sewers, but I did knock out your downstairsneighbor.”
“The wife beater?”
“Yep.”
“He deserved it.”
“He did.”
Nathan listened to her tone instead of herwords. He’d detected an increasingly troubled pitch in her voicethe past few days. Today, it was worse.
“You don’t have to keep searching,” hesaid.
“Yes, I do.” She had no idea what else shewould do to occupy her time and distract herself while he hunted.She also needed to distract herself from the aimlessness her lifehad become since she offed Duke.
“It’s tiring you.”
“No, it’s not. I’m tired today, but I didn’tsleep well last night,” she admitted.
“Dreams of me waking you up?”
She chuckled as she removed her key from herjeans pocket and stopped outside Nathan’s door. She unlocked thedoor and swung it open.
“That was part of it,” she said.
Usually, she would have told him, yes,dreams of him plagued her all night, but she found herself unableto play it off right now.
“And the other part?” he asked.
“Those people,” she whispered, andunexpected tears burned her eyes.
Nathan had been about to shift the truckinto gear, but he sat back in his seat as Vicky’s sadness beat athim across the line. He should have guessed that was the cause ofher growing distress. She was far from naïve, she’d experiencedmore horror in her short life than some vampires experienced overcenturies, but her experiences hadn’t made her bitter. He suspectedshe’d become more sympathetic to the plight of others instead ofless.
“I don’t want you doing this anymore,” hesaid.
“You don’t have a choice. I’m my own womanand—”
Her loud grunt suddenly filtered across theline. Nathan winced when the phone clattered against something, andthe sounds of a scuffle sounded over the airwaves.
“Vicky!” he shouted, panic clawing at himwhen the line went dead. “Vicky!”
He tossed the phone aside, shifted intogear, and hit the gas so hard a plume of smoke trailed up behindthe vehicle. The burnt smell of rubber filled the air before thetruck lurched forward. Tires squealed, and horns blared as hispickup shot out of the parking lot and onto a busy street.
