Page 22 of Bound By Love
Her skin had paled to the point where he could see the faint scars marking her flesh. His jaw clenched at the sight of those marks; the humans who killed their parents did that to her.
Why are we helping them?
Right now, he didn’t have an answer for that question, but they were fighting for more than the humans; they were also fighting fortheirlives. And Brie would lose hers if Asher died.
“I won’t let that happen,” he vowed.
He’d just gotten her back and wouldn’t let their relationship develop into something more, but he’d believed her dead once; he wouldn’t let there be a next time. And he certainly wouldn’t lose her in the same way they lost their father.
“I won’t let that happen,” he vowed again.
“I don’t know where it happens, but it’s coming soon. I suspect it will happen when we go up against the demons, as there’s darkness around us in my vision, but he says he won’t stay out of the fight.”
“Of course he won’t. There’s no way he’ll let his mate go in there alone.”
“And that’s foolish, because if he dies, then he’s condemning us both to death.”
Saber would prefer to stay out of it too. It was a simple, easy solution to the problem, but it wasn’t a solution. The hunter-turned-vamp would never agree to it, and Saber didn’t blame him. Heneverwould have agreed to let Caro go in without him.
“You won’t stay out of it either,” he said to her.
“I don’t have a choice. The stone found me.”
“Is that how you see what happens with the stones? They find us?”
“Isn’t that howyousee it?”
“I don’t know. I never really thought about it until now.”
“The Alliance and stones have brought us all together. There’s a reason why the stones belong to so many in the Alliance.”
“And that reason is…?”
Brie hesitated before replying. “Fate. All of us finding each other, my visions, and the stones all boil down to fate. Whether that means we’ll be successful against the demons or not, I don’t know, but fate brought us together to fight them. I firmly believe that.”
“And what about the final stone? We’ve found someone for nine of them, but where’s the vampire or hunter who will claim the final one?”
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
“I’ve been thinking about that,”Brie said. “Elena never touched any of the stones. She never went near any of them. Everyone was too busy celebrating her miraculous return, and then she and Logan locked themselves away. We didn’t see them again before we packed up and came here. The final stone could be hers.”
“What do you think the chances of that are?”
“Pretty good. I never expected almostallthe stones to get claimed once we went to the Alliance with them. I wasn’t granted a vision of that happening, but it makes sense. My collection of stones was always leading to something, and now, I know what it was. And then, we came here; I wasn’t expecting Caro to claim another stoneorto discover you with a mate.”
“I didn’t expect that either,” he muttered.
And he wouldn’t change a thing. Well, he would have preferred it if she wasn’t working herself into a state of exhaustion every day, but he was glad she was his, and he wasn’t going to let her go.
He still wasn’t sure how she felt over what he told her about the demons and the orphanage. It had upset her, that much was clear, but she didn’t hate him for it or hold him responsible for what happened.
Hewould always hold himself responsible. They would have killed him if he’d gone after more children, but the what-ifs were reawakened with the memory. He was glad he’d told her; while it hadn’t lifted the weight of that night from him, at least he wasn’t still upsetting her by keeping it from her.
Before her, his incessant need for death was the only thing driving him. With her, the thrum of that compulsion was much quieter and far more controllable. Now, he had to ensure she survived the coming battle, and his sister and her mate did too.
Caro lowered the sword and used the back of her arm to wipe sweat from her brow. She planted her hands on her lower back as she stretched.
She went to pick up the sword again, but Saber’s strong hand encased her wrist, stopping her. Scowling, she shifted her attention to him as he stepped closer.
