Page 20 of Bound by Vengeance
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll stay out of it,” shereplied with a wave of her hand.
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“Because you’re not as stupid as you look,Nathan Holter.”
“You think I look stupid, Victoria…?”
“Byrne,” she supplied when his voice trailedoff questioningly. “I’m one of the ten Byrne children.”
When she gave him a sweeping bow, she wasn’tfaking her ebullient air this time. She also couldn’t deny that herhappiness came from the idea of spending more time with him.
It dismayed Nathan to realize she’d buttonedthe shirt all the way up when she dipped for her elegant bow. Sheswung back up, the smile on her pretty face causing her eyes todance.
“And no, you don’t look stupid, Nathan. Youlook quite the opposite, but it is fun to tease you,” she repliedwith a wink.
Her vibrancy, independence, flirty demeanor,and candor were the exact opposite of every hunter woman he’d everencountered, yet he found himself entranced by her.
“I have to return to my stronghold soon,” hesaid.
“Of course,” she replied. “You can drop meoff at my hotel. I’ll change and head over to your apartment tolook through everything you’ve gathered on Joseph. Maybe I can seesomething you’ve missed.”
“I might not be free again tonight to meetyou.”
“No worries,” she replied. “I’m very good atentertaining myself. Now, please tell me you have some pants I canwear. Ireallydon’t want to put my jeans back on or enterthe hotel wearing them.”
“I do,” he murmured.
“Great.”
His eyes latched onto the backs of her legsas she sauntered away. Nathan knew he might have made a deal withthe devil by agreeing to let her help him, yet he found himselfhoping the devil was as sinful as he proclaimed to be.
CHAPTER 10
Nathan navigated his truck through theimmense wrought iron gates of the newest stronghold. Aten-foot-tall, gray, stacked stone wall with electric wiringencircled the entire property encompassing one hundred acres ofland.
The newest stronghold wasn’t as large as thelast one, but closer to Boston, it offered an ideal location. Theywere able to purchase it quickly as the previous owner hoped toavoid foreclosure.
Gravel crunched beneath the tires as thegates swung closed behind him and he navigated a driveway thelength of three football fields. From here, he couldn’t see themassive house at the end yet, only the two gray stone chimneyspoking over the trees. Bradford pear trees lined the road; theywould be beautiful when they bloomed, but their leaves were onlybeginning to unfurl now.
As he crested a small hill, the firsttrailers housing many of the hunter families until permanent homeswere built came into view. Some of the men were outside working onthe newest home they were assembling while some of the womenstrolled the property.
They paused to wave as he passed, and hewaved back. They all wore the muted colors of gray, black, orwhite. Normally the lack of color in their world didn’t bother him;today, it grated against his already raw nerve endings.
He’ddespisedhaving to leave Vickyat her hotel. She’d bounced out of his truck with barely a backwardwave at him, but he’d watched her until she vanished inside. It hadtaken everything he had not to climb out of the truck and go afterher. The problem was, he didn’t know if he would be going after herto take her home, to stay with her, or to find out if she tasted asgood as she smelled.
If she was a hunter woman, he would havedragged her back here, but if she’d been a hunter woman, he didn’tthink he’d find her as desirable as he did. It drove him nuts whenKadence rebelled, but he liked how different Vicky was from thewomen here, how brazen, and headstrong. At one time, he would havekilled himself before he slept with a vampire, but he’d donenothing but fantasize about her since first seeing her.
Instead of going after her, he’d shifted thetruck into gear and reluctantly pulled away from the luxury hotel.He told himself he would see her soon, but more than likely therewould be something here requiring his attention, and he might haveto go out to hunt with the others tonight.
They rotated through hunting groups withsome of Ronan’s men as they adjusted to working with each other.Because of that, he and the other hunters ended up with occasionaltime off from hunting. Some of the hunters loved this, it made someirritable, and others remained bitter about working with thevamps.
In the beginning, he’d kept his truce andalliance with Ronan from the other fifteen hunter strongholdsthroughout the world. But when, after a month of working together,everything was going well, and Joseph still hadn’t been destroyed,he’d told the other leaders about the truce.
Most were less than thrilled about it. OnlyAlejandro, in Mexico, was entirely on board. The others still madetheir disagreement with his decision known whenever he spoke withthem.
It hadn’t happened yet, but he planned tointegrate those other strongholds into a working relationship withthe vampires in their areas of the world too. The number of turnedvamps training with Ronan to fight Joseph had grown since Ronan haddecided to branch out and train them more, but Nathan wouldincorporate the other strongholds at a gradual pace. For now, heremained mostly focused on stopping Joseph.
In the end, it didn’t matter what the otherleaders wanted; he’d made his decision. They would obey it, but hewas aware of dissension in the ranks, especially amid the elders.Some of them refused the idea of working with the vamps. They wereapoplectic when he, the youngest leader to ever take control,overruled their veto on this alliance.
