Page 93 of Bound by Vengeance
As if to prove her point, Nathan watched inthe rearview mirror as a couple of Savages followed them to theedge of the road before retreating to the lot.
“They were creating a nest down there,”Vicky murmured. “It was perfect for them; dark, indiscrete, and noone would miss the people they turned. Duncan only knows of so manyencampments, but he said with the numerous old tunnels runningbeneath the city, there could be hundreds of groups down there.There are so many forgotten tunnels, collapsed and rebuilt areas,it might be impossible to learn them all. There could be more nestslike that.” Vicky’s realization made her heart sink.
“He’s building a silent army as well asconverting hunters,” Nathan said.
Vicky shuddered. Kadence hadn’t become asstrong as a purebred when she turned, but she was stronger than anaverage turned vamp, and every male hunter was trained to kill.From what she’d heard, Joseph already had more turned hunters thanthere were purebred vampires in this world.
“If it were only you and Duncan down theretonight, you could have died,” Nathan stated.
“But it wasn’t.”
“But it could have been!” he roared, hiscontrol unraveling with the realization he could have lost her.
In her side mirror, she saw Asher and Loganexchange a glance.
“Everything okay?” Asher called to them.
Vicky waited for Nathan to reply, but hisjaw was set so tightly she could hear his teeth grinding together.“It’s fine!” she yelled back to him. “Nathan—”
“You’remineto protect,” hesaid.
She had no response for him. It had beensuch a vampire thing to say; it was how she felt for him, even ifhe wasn’t hers.
Stopping at a red light, Nathan glanced intothe back of the truck as Asher and Logan rose. They both slappedtheir hands on the truck roof before leaping out of the bed andrunning toward a parking lot.
“Where are they going?” Vicky spun to watchthem disappear into the night.
“Asher brought a vehicle so they couldreturn to the others and stand guard when we finished here. Weparked it here in case something went wrong and we needed a backup.I have something to take care of before we return,” he said.
“Jordan?” she guessed.
“Yes.”
“What are you going to do with him?”
“Bring him back and tell everyone thetruth.”
Vicky gaped at him before recovering enoughto speak. “But they’ll… they’ll label you a traitor or something,won’t they?”
Her breath sucked in when his head turnedtoward her. In the glow of the streetlights, his eyes werewild.
“Nathan?” she whispered.
“They’ll label me whatever they label me,but I’ve already lost the hunter organization my father andancestors ruled for millennia. Our old way of life is dead. They’llaccept the alliance, or there will be a larger fracturing in thehunters than what has already occurred.”
Vicky swallowed the lump of dread cloggingher throat. “But what about you? What if they decide to blame youfor all of it? What if they putyouon trial? What if theykillyou?”
He turned away from her, and she foundherself gazing at the chiseled planes of his profile. She memorizedevery detail of this proud man as if it were the last time she’dsee him.
“They won’t,” he said flatly.
“What happened with the hunters today wasn’tyour fault! No one could have seen that coming. The planning Josephand his followers must have put into it—”
“No one could have seen it coming, but ithappened on my watch.”
“There arefifteenother strongholdleaders!”
“Therewerefifteen other strongholdleaders.”
