Page 29 of Bound By Blood
“My father gaveweapons to so few others; the odds of these things stumbling acrossone of them are slim,” Caro said.
“So are the oddsof winning the lottery, but people still do,” Saber said.
Caro’s mind spunat the implications of that. It was a small world, but it becamemuch smaller with those words.
“There were onlyfive. You have one,” she whispered.
“Your father wasalive for centuries, even if it was only five, it was only a matterof time before a Savage or demon saw one of his weapons, realizedit was special, and came for whoever created it.”
She was going tothrow up. It took her a minute to get her nausea under control. Herfather’s rare gift of generosity to those he believed deserved ithad shattered their lives. There wasno wayhe ever couldhave seen that coming.
“Now what?” sheasked.
“Now you have youranswers,” Saber said. “Are you ready to kill him?”
“No,” the Savagewhimpered as he squirmed beneath Saber. “I can help you. I can… I…I can tell you where the demons are!”
This statementpiqued Saber’s curiosity. “You can tell me where the demonsare?”
“Yes!” itblurted.
“You’d be thefirst,” he said. “The demons don’t stay in one location. They’realways on the move. And they especially wouldn’t let someone likeyouin on their location. You’re low on the totem pole;otherwise, you wouldn’t be out in the day. You’re one of theirlittle peons and nothing more.”
Saber bared histeeth as he grinned at the astonished man. “I was once one of you,except I wasfarhigher on the totem pole than you, myfriend. Don’t lie to me. I don’t like it.”
With that, Sabersnapped the Savage’s last uninjured finger and thrust his arm intohis throat to suppress its scream. Then, he turned to Caro.
“Are you going tokill him, or should I?” Saber asked.
Caro shook herhead as his words ran through her mind. Saber had already told herhe was once one of them, but now he’d revealed he was once higheron the totem pole than one of the monsters who killed herparents.
What had Saberdone to earn that position? Whose families and how many of them hadhe destroyed over the years? What was shedoingwith him,andwhywould her dad give him that knife?
“Caro?” heinquired.
When she liftedher head, revulsion radiated from her. For a second, he recoiledfrom it as he knew it was forhim, but then he managed toregain control of his emotions and slam the wall back into placearound them.
Good. I alreadydisgust her; now, let’s hope she starts to trulyhatemesoon.
“I… I… I can’t,”Caro stammered.
As he’d known, shewouldn’t. Without hesitating, Saber drove the stake into theSavage’s heart and rose as the thing’s hands and feet were stillkicking against the ground in its death throes.
Once it finallydied, he worked to gather the Savages’ bodies while Caro remainedunmoving. He dragged them over to the back door. “I’m going to haveto set them on fire.”
Caro blinked athis words. She’d been too lost in her thoughts and the horror ofwhat happened here to realize he’d collected the bodies. “The wholeplace will burn down,” she whispered.
“It will.”
The complete lackof emotion accompanying his words told her he didn’t know how muchthis place meant to her. Or he did… and didn’t care. That wasprobably more like it.
Caro gulped as sheblinked away the tears swimming in her eyes. She was never going toreturn to this store, but…
“There are otherstores next door. They could catch on fire, and if the wind isblowing right, the whole block will burn down.”
She couldn’t takeaway the livelihoods of people she’d come to consider as friends—oras close to friends as vampires got with humans. And what ifsomeone died? She shuddered at the possibility.
“We can’t leavetheir bodies here. The humans will find them,” Saber said.
