Page 49 of Bound By Love
On one side of his face, the flesh had been peeled away to reveal the bone beneath. His remaining eye bulged grotesquely from its socket, though it was probably the same size. The lack of flesh and eyelids surrounding it made it so awful.
The other half of Derrick’s face remained untouched. It was a horrible disfigurement and would eventually heal. Still, the fact it hadn’t meant it was new or the demons inflicted this atrocity on him regularly.
Eventually, it would cease trying to heal and might have already stopped doing so. It was how a vampire got a tattoo, after all. They did them repeatedly until their bodies stopped rejecting the ink and accepted the new intrusion into their system.
No one had to tell her; sheknewDerrick had this punishment repeatedly inflicted on him for a massive wrongdoing. She suspected that wrongdoing was failing to bring her sword to the demons.
It must have been an awful torture to endure, but she didn’t feel pity for him. He chose to align himself with these fuckers, but it was still the most atrocious thing she’d ever seen, and she’d seenmanyhorrible things, including this place.
The cruelty and evil that had driven such an act as this was something she couldn’t imagine.
But she would be the one to end it as the crowd parted and she came face-to-face with the shithead who once tried to kill her and Declan. When he spotted her, Derrick’s mouth pulled into a grotesque smile.
The open view of his teeth on one side of his mouth was unnerving, but it wouldn’t distract her. That grotesque, bulging eye was the white-blue color the hunters’ eyes became after turning and when they were enraged. The other eye was the same color but far less noticeable.
When Derrick lifted a crossbow and fired an arrow at her, Willow stepped to the side and swung up her sword to knock the projectile away. From the corner of her eye, she saw Declan spin toward them.
Shock registered on his face when he spotted Derrick, but he still charged forward. Willow tried to control the uptick of her heartbeat as her mate went after the Savage, but it was impossible to remain calm and focused while watching her mate attack their enemy.
The disfigured Savage fired another bolt at Declan before tossing aside his crossbow. Knowing he could never defeat Declan, Derrick tried to blend in with the fighters around him, but the crush of bodies knocked him back toward Declan.
The ex-hunter suppressed his irritation over this development, but he couldn’t hide his apprehension. He’d intended to turn and run like the coward he was, and now he’d have to stay and play.
Derrick pulled his sword from where it hung on his back and swung it at Declan, who dodged the blade with lethal speed and expertise. When his sword clashed against Derrick’s, sparks flew.
They became locked in a deadly battle as their swords pressed against each other and Declan pushed the Savage toward the ground. Unable to withstand Declan’s superior strength, Derrick’s knees started to bow as his back bent before he hit the ground.
Willow went in low after Derrick, but she wasn’t so focused on him that she missed the deadly threats surrounding her. Twisting, she managed to mostly avoid a knife that shot out of the mob.
Its tip sliced across her shirt and belly, severed her clothing, and spilled her blood, but she didn’t feel the sting of the gash across her stomach. She was too focused on killing the man who had nearly destroyed them.
Smashing her hand down on the arm holding the knife, she knocked the blade free as the arm snapped beneath her blow. The Savage tried to recoil, but it didn’t get far enough to avoid her sword as she plunged it into the creature’s leg.
Ashes and fire erupted as Derrick hit the ground. Spinning toward him, she saw the flicker of alarm in his eyes as they briefly met hers.
She grinned as she plunged her sword into Derrick’s stomach and out his other side. He screamed as the stone’s power burned through his insides and erupted out of him.
Willow didn’t have time to feel any satisfaction over watching that bastard burn; there were too many other Savages closing in on them. They’d destroyed Derrick, but that didn’t mean they would make it out of here alive.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-NINE
Over Kirkau’s shoulder,Caro spotted Brie and Asher carving their way through the Savages and toward them. All around her, the Alliance and Savages fell as death rained down on those inside the cavernous space.
She’d been too focused on Kirkau and his torment to notice the table behind him before, but as Brie leapt onto it, she realized there were dozens of chairs surrounding the long table. Some skittered backward beneath the weight of the bodies hitting them, and others became weapons.
Caro was about to hit Kirkau again when something crashed into her back. Thrust forward by the weight, she slammed into the demon whose fingers dug into her throat as hands enclosed around her ankle and yanked.
“Brie, watch out!” Asher yelled.
Caro couldn’t see what was happening with Brie anymore as another weight shoved into her back and kept pushing. Unable to stay upright beneath the force of the blow and the crowd pressing against them, Kirkau toppled to the ground.
The inhuman sound the demon released sent a chill up her spine as she fell on top of him. This was a horrible position to be in, even if it seemed like she had the advantage, because she didn’t.
This was an embarrassment, and he would destroy all those who caused him to hit the ground… includingher. Planting her palms on the hollow cavity of his chest, Caro ignored the discomfort in her broken fingers as she pushed herself up to tear free of the hand on her neck.
She tore his grip on her free, but not without skin and blood loss. She didn’t think he’d torn open her artery. Blood spilled down on top of them, but it wasn’t the torrential, pulsing wave it would have been if he’d sliced her artery.
But it would weaken her soon, if she didn’t get away. Just when she believed she might succeed in breaking free, Kirkau ensnared her wrist.
