Page 6 of Bound By Blood
And as the screamsof the villagers continued to fill the air, he knew exactlywhohe was going to feed from. He’d make them all pay forwhat they did.
Filled with wrathand a hunger so intense it consumed him, he left the water behindas he started to hunt. The humans were nothing more than cattle tohim, and he joyfully helped his father slaughter what remained ofthe villagers.
CHAPTER 5
A dawning horrorsettled over him as he tried to understand the tiny body he saw inthe fire after being told Brie was in the flames. His father mostlikely threw a child into the fire.
They’d tried toavoid killing the children when they first arrived, and Saberassumed they’d succeeded. However, at some point in his madness,his father must have thrown the child into the flames.
Under normalcircumstances, it wasn’t something his father would have done, buthe went out of his mind after losing his mate. Saber was sad andenraged after losing his mother, but his father was on a completelydifferent level. The loss of his mate had stripped him of hissanity and conscience; he didn’t care who he killed.
Throughout all hisyears of existence, Saber had done some truly awful things, andhe’d lost track of the innocents he slaughtered, but he’d alwaysmaintained one steadfast rule… children were off limits.
He couldneverkill those as innocent as Brie was, but his fatherdidn’t care and had no such qualms as he sought to destroy allthose who ruined his family. His father must have tossed the childinto the flames before Saber arrived, and he’d mistakenly believedit was his sister.
Until he saw thebody, Saber refrained from killing, even as screams and thetemptation of all that blood permeated the air. After seeing thebody, he saw no reason to hold back anymore.
The townspeoplehad unleashed this slaughter on themselves by killing his family;they didn’t deserve pity or mercy. He pondered if his father hadthrown the body in the fire to get Saber to kill, but he decidedagainst it. His father had believed Brie was dead too.
Learning she wasalive wouldn’t have stopped his father’s rampage, but it would haveat least pierced it. He would have done anything for his daughter;he’d grieved her as much as the loss of his mate.
Either the man wasso incensed he didn’t realize he tossed the child into the fire, orhe lost the recollection of it. If he’d known Brie was alive, hestill would have died, but at least it would have given him aglimmer of happiness at the end. Bloodlust and vengeance hadconsumed him from that day until his last.
“Fa…ther?” Brieinquired with a small hitch in her voice.
“Dead,” Saber saidflatly. “He walked into the sun two days after we killed theresidents of that town.”
“And you? Whatbecame of you afterward?”
Saber gave asmall, brutal laugh. “That’s a horror story for a differenttime.”
His attentionreturned to the stones. It was time for him to getoutofthis room and away from everyone here as he battled against joy ather survival and fury over everything he’d lost and everything hebecame when it never had to be that way.
Hehaddecided to become a Savage; he wouldn’t have done it if he’d knownthe truth, but it didn’t matter. If he didn’t get his emotionslocked away again soon, he could become a monster again.
He should becelebrating his sister’s Lazarus-like return from the dead, but hecouldn’t while he wanted to sink his fangs into something. Hismouth watered as he imagined drenching himself in blood.
It would be a goodway to eradicate the guilt tearing at him, and he wouldn’t have tofight his instincts anymore. He could lose himself in murderagain.
Saber couldn’tstay here with all of them looking like he was a creature to pity.He didn’t want their pity or understanding. He’d made his choicesin life, and he was fine with them.
Had there beenmistakes? Definitely, but he wouldn’t change any of them. He wasstronger because of them.
“I have to takeone of the stones with me,” he said. “I’m not sure if he knowsanything about the stones, but seeing one might get him to agree towork with us.”
“He doesn’t have achoice,” Killean said.
“I agree,” Saberreplied, “but he is a friend, and I’d prefer to do this the easyway instead of the hard one. Taking a stone would make iteasier.”
“I don’t think weshould separate them,” Brie said. “Ijustgot them alltogether.”
Saber shot a lookat his sister and bit his tongue to keep from responding in anger.He recalled her visions. Back then, they were simple, small things,but the passing centuries had strengthened them if she could locatestones believed lost to history.
“Having one willmake this a lot easier,” he said.
“Then I’ll comewith you,” she said.
“No.”
