Page 46 of Bound By Love
As they went deeper beneath the ground, the chill in the air increased. The weight of the earth pressed further down on them as they had to duck to avoid the beams running across the ceiling.
Bugs and worms crept through the earth and scampered into the shadows until they ceased to exist down here. They were too low now for those creatures to thrive, and he was beginning to suspect they were descending into Hell itself.
He glanced back at Willow and reached for her hand; his fingers enclosed on hers when she took it. Declan squeezed it as he tried to convey all his love for her into this gesture.
She was the one who had healed his soul, the one he should be protecting, not leading into a possible death trap. But they’d always known this is where their journey would take them.
He hoped it wasn’t the end of their journey.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-SIX
Kirkau bentso close to Caro that his mouth and breath warmed her ear. His breath smelled like someone had left fish out in the August sun for three days as it tickled her cheek. “Did that hurt?”
At first, Caro couldn’t respond. She was terrified, in the worst pain she’d ever experienced, and not in the mood to talk to this prick.
But from somewhere deep inside, she dug up a strength she hadn’t known she possessed. Lifting her head, she smiled at him. “You bite like a bitch.”
Kirkau’s twisted smile made those monstrous fangs look bigger. She’d found the strength to respond to him, but she involuntarily flinched away from those torturous things.
Her reaction elicited a chuckle from him. He moved so fast she never saw it coming before the back of his hand smashed into her face with its lethal claws.
The blow caused blood to erupt from her nose and sent her chair skittering backward. It probably would have kept going, but the chains, bolted into some nearby rocks, stretched taut and jerked her to a stop.
The sounds coming from Saber were nearly as animalistic as the excited cries of the Savages and demons surrounding them. They were all enjoying this, and she could barely keep her eyes open as her face swelled.
Using her tongue, she felt over her teeth. The blow had knocked a couple loose, but they’d be fine if he stopped pummeling her face. She didn’t know how likely it would be for that to happen.
She was pretty sure he’d broken one of her cheekbones too, but that was the least of her worries. Cracking her eyes open, she tried not to wince as the pounding in her head returned. It felt like a hundred tap dancers had taken up residence in her skull, and every one of them was trying to outdo the others with the ferocity of their kicks.
When she was sure she wouldn’t vomit, she lifted her head and looked at the beast again. She glowered at him before shifting her attention to Saber.
Black and red coloring had flooded his body and turned him into something she almost didn’t recognize. The veins in his arms, throat, and face bulged as he yanked against his chains, and despite the cool air, sweat coated his body and cleaved his bloody shirt to him.
She’d never seen him this wild before, but when those red eyes met hers, the soul of the man she loved so deeply shone back at her. She yearned for him, and her fingers itched to touch him, but that was impossible with her hands chained behind her back.
She held his gaze as Kirkau glided toward her. If she kept her attention on Saber, it wouldn’t matter what this demon did to her; she could find the strength to withstand it.
And she knew, without a doubt, that Kirkau’s cruelty would remain focused on her. She was the best way for him to punish Saber.
Her torture would be horrible, but it was far worse for a mate to sit by and watch it unfold. She would hate this more if she had to sit and watch Kirkau do it to Saber instead.
Though her lips were swollen and blood streaked her teeth when she pulled them back, Caro smiled at Saber. “It’s okay.”
The fuck it is!Saber jerked against his restraints until they tore away the flesh on his wrist, and blood spilled to coat his hands before dripping onto the floor.
Noneof this was okay. He twisted as the bones in his wrists cracked. Fire surged through his hands and up his arms, but he didn’t stop trying to break free as Kirkau approached Caro.
Heshould be the one suffering Kirkau’s cruelty, not Caro. She was practically an innocent and far too kind to endure this. She’d already lost and suffered so much; she didn’t deserve this.
The increasingly excited noises and shouts of the Savages and demons helped stifle the noise he created as he struggled to break free. Kirkau wouldn’t get away with this. He would get Caro free if he had to tear off his own hands to do it. She would die if he died, but it wouldn’t be at the hands of that thing.
I love her too much for that to happen.
The realization was almost as jaw-dropping as when she told him she loved him in the woods. After his parents’ deaths, he hadn’t believed he could love anyone again.
He was too broken, vicious, and too much of a monster to experience love. He’d also believed no one could ever love him again; why would someone love a man who thrived on killing and once relished the deaths of innocents?
But somehow, Caro, the strongest, most enduring, and most wonderful soul he’d ever encountered, knew all that he had been and stillwasand loved him anyway. She’d told him so, and he hadn’t said a word.
