Bound in Darkness (Bound #2)(18)

She smiled.

Crawford’s eyes narrowed. “What have you done?”

His hold eased, just enough for her to speak. “N-not me.” Her smile widened even more. “Werewolf.”

“That bastard? He still has her?”

“Gonna…kill her.” And the perfect plan hit her. “Unless…” Her breath heaved out as she studied the vamp. Maybe he could get the job done for her.

Wouldn’t that be fitting?

“Unless what?” he snapped. Poor vampire. With the werewolf hiding Allison in the woods, he wouldn’t have been able to catch her scent anymore.

And he’d be wanting to find the lost pureblood very badly. Purebloods were the favored in the vamp clans.

Elsa tried to appear careless as she said, “He’ll kill her…Unless you can kill him first.”

Now that bit had Crawford stepping back. “Tell me where the wolf is, and he’s dead.”

Elsa rubbed her throat and glanced back at her broken mirror. She saw nothing, because there was nothing left to see.

The end was coming.

It won’t be my end. It won’t. Crawford could take out the werewolf, and she would find a way to kill the pureblood.

“Don’t worry,” she told the vampire. “You won’t have to wait long.” Not long at all. “When night falls, he’ll come here. To you.”

She didn’t need her mirror to know that. Cade wouldn’t wait for her to attack again. She’d studied him. Learned his habits before she approached her would-be killer. No, he wouldn’t sit back and wait for another attack. He’d come after her.

And find a vampire waiting to kill him.





Chapter Seven


Vampires tore into her flesh. They cut her with gleaming silver blades, and they licked her blood from the edges of their knives. They laughed when she screamed.

And they tortured her even more.

They chained her and poured liquid silver onto her back, just so they could hear her screams.

And Allison did scream. Over and over as her flesh burned away.

She looked up, staring straight at the bastards who loved her pain, and something broke inside of her. Broke, even as the chains holding her arms broke free, and she lunged forward with a strength born of fury.One swipe, and she cut the head off the nearest vampire. She drove her claws into the throat of another. And as they fell, this time, she was the one who laughed.

“Allison!” Hard hands grabbed her, shook her.

Her eyes flew open, and Allison found herself out of that dank pit. The peeling walls of the hotel room surrounded her. She was on the bed. With Cade.

The man seemed to always be saving her from nightmares. But then, it wasn’t like she was the sweet dream type.

Always nightmares.

Sweat covered her, and she could still smell the scent of her own burning flesh.

Only, it hadn’t been her flesh that burned. Not really. Her trembling fingers lifted and touched the rough scars that marked Cade’s face.

His pupils widened when she touched him. His hold on her gentled, but he didn’t let her go.

Why not? Her hand fell away. How could he stand to have her near him? Those other vampires had tortured him for hours, days, and they’d drank his blood.

Just like she had.

“I’m sorry.” Her stark whisper.

Cade frowned down at her but there wasn’t surprise on his face. Just a kind of angry understanding. “The blood,” he said. “Fuck, how did I forget that? Vamps don’t just take blood, they take memories, too.”

Allison flinched. “I-I didn’t—” What? What was she supposed to say? That she hadn’t meant to steal his memories? That she hadn’t meant to drink his blood?

She had meant to do it.

Allison realized she was still naked. It hadn’t mattered before, not when she’d wanted the press of his flesh against her more than she’d wanted anything else. But at that moment, she felt…lost.

She pulled free of him and yanked the sheet up to cover her breasts. Taking a breath, she asked the question that she feared, “Am I even human any longer?” She didn’t feel weak. In fact, her body seemed incredibly strong right then. No blisters, no wounds. Only healed flesh.

Her heart was still beating. She still breathed. But she’d taken blood. Grown fangs. Her own version of claws.

“You were never human.”

His words hurt as much as a slap would have.

Allison jumped from the bed, dragging the sheet with her.

“You were born a vampire, it just took a little while for the DNA to kick-in.” His voice followed her, cold, no emotion. There’d been plenty of heat in the daytime hours. But with night, all of that seemed to have vanished. “It usually takes about twenty-five years of life, maybe a few years more, before the vamp side takes over for a pureblood.”

“Why?” She needed to learn all that she could. No more denying. No more hiding.

Deal with this.

“Because the vamp genes freeze the body at its peak. They keep you strong and young, forever.”

“Forever…” Or as long as she kept drinking blood. As long as she didn’t lose her head or get staked.

Or die in a fire set by a sadistic witch.

“You’ll keep breathing,” he told her, and she glanced back to see him pulling up his jeans. Sexy. “Your heart won’t stop. That only happens to the turned humans, and only for a little while. You were born this way…you’ll stay this way.”