Page 42 of Bound By Love
He was one of them, but he was still an outsider. They needed the swords to have a chance of defeating the demons, but was that enough for them to risk their lives, and the lives of their mates, to save them?
Before Caro, he would have gone after one of them. What did he have to lose? His life was no great thing, so it didn’t make any difference.
After Caro, he didn’t know if he would risk it because doing so would also jeopardize her life if something happened to him. They would all feel the same way, and he didn’t blame them.
He also had no idea where they were. It might be too risky to come after them if they were beneath the ground. And they had to be below ground as, through the stench of decay, he detected the mineral aroma of earth and limestone. Cool, damp air adhered to his skin and created a small sheen across his flesh.
Coming here could be a death sentence for every member of the Alliance, even if it meant sacrificing him, Caro, and their swords. That might be their only option.
Saber wouldn’t blame them for it either. They had to remain alive to continue a fight whose outcome would be much bleaker without the swords to help, but hope remained while they lived.
However, there wasn’t any for him and Caro. He didn’t see how they would make it out of this alive.
The demons wouldn’t try to change him back into a Savage. He’d broken free once; they wouldn’t take the chance of him doing so again.
Maybe they’d turn him into one of the injected, but he doubted it. They wanted the swords, and he suspected he and Caro would have to die for the weapons to work for the demons.
They could turnherinto one of them. They wouldn’t want to wait the month or so it would take to turn her into a Savage, but they could inject her with their blood and turn her loose on him. Or they could do the same to him.
He’d fight it with everything he was, but he didn’t think that would be enough for the demons. It would be over too quickly, and they wouldn’t get a chance to unleash the full amount of suffering they intended for him.
It had taken centuries, but they would finally get the chance to make him pay for leaving them. And they would do it by starting withher.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-THREE
Ronan walkedbeside Brian as he led them through the city. Thankfully, it was early in the morning and the sun was just starting to rise, or their large group would have drawn a lot more attention as they strolled past businesses and people gathered on the streets.
As it was, they’d already had to send two police officers away when they questioned their presence here. A bunch of men and women with weapons didn’t go unnoticed, but with fewer people around, there would be less calls and a smaller chance the police would return.
Saber had told them he’d encountered a demon in the storm drains beneath White Bridge, but Ronan hadn’t expected the monsters to bring them back to the city. He’d been certain they would have gone to a less populated area, beneath some woods or in a cave.
He supposed they could still be in one of those offshoots, but Brian led them straight through the city to get there. And they had no choice but to follow as the demons would have taken Saber and Caro back to their main base of operations.
In many ways, it made sense that they’d started to branch out from beneath this city. It was a smaller city, but there was a ready blood supply here to keep the Savages happy and fed.
It would be more difficult to cover their tracks and hide the missing people disappearing from here, but they were doing a good job. A large increase in missing people hadn’t attracted the attention of the Alliance to this place. Whatever they were doing here, it was working.
But, if this went well, it wouldn’t work much longer. He just wasn’t sure how well this could go if they all had to funnel beneath the earth and into the storm drains to go after them.
They’d purposely tried to lure the demons away from here to avoid such a thing happening. Now, they had no choice but to meet them on their ground.
At least the demons didn’t know of Brian’s existence or talent and wouldn’t expect the Alliance to locate them. If they had known about Brian, they would have gone after him years ago. An ability like his was rare and coveted.
Theydidknow about Elyse, but she’d never encountered Saber or Caro’s blood. The demons couldn’t know that and might suspect they were on their way. However, he’d bet they didn’t think Saber would allow another to have the ability to track him in such a way.
Brian didn’t need blood; he sensed a soul and homed in on it. It had taken him a while to get them this far, and they’d taken a few winding trails through the city, sometimes doubling back over ways they’d already come.
But if the demons were underground and moving Saber and Caro around, the backtracking made sense.
Brian’s forehead furrowed as he pushed his platinum hair out of his ice-blue eyes. “It’s difficult to get a read on them.”
“Is that because they’re underground?” Lucien asked.
“No, it’s because there are a lot of other souls around them.”
Ronan resisted the impulse to grasp Kadence’s shoulders, turn her around, and tell her to go back. She wouldn’t leave, and she had a sword, which meant she was supposed to be in this fight. Fate, or something else, had chosen her; he hated them for it.
“Are they still alive?” Ronan asked.
