Vengeance (The Captive #6)(31)

“Ka… Kane,” she stammered as she took a step away from him and closer to the exit. “He was one of the invaders of the orphanage.”

He stopped a few feet away from her. His eyes burned brighter than the fires she’d fled; his hands fisted at his sides as a muscle began to jump in his cheek. “What did he look like?”

Tempest swallowed heavily; she hated that she couldn’t keep her hands from shaking. “Ugly, shorter guy… ah he has a, ah… large scar on his face.”

He didn’t blink as he continued to stare at her. The seconds ticked into minutes but he didn’t make any movement. Finally, just when she’d started to think he’d turned to stone, he spoke, “You’re going to take me to that town.”

She did a double take before finally sputtering out a response, “We’re… ah… uh… we’ll need help before we go back. More numbers and guards.”

“We’ll get help,” he assured her. “But first you will take me there.”





CHAPTER 11


Tempest blinked at him and then looked toward the front of the cave again. Over the crackling of the firewood, she could hear the shriek of the wind whipping across the open plain. Huddling deeper into her cloak, she pulled it more firmly around her neck as the sound caused a shiver to rattle her bones.

Turning away from the mouth of the cave, she focused on him again. His face was severe, his lips pinched as his eyes blazed. He looked about ready to rip someone’s head off, but he would have already torn her head from her shoulders if he’d wanted her dead, she was certain of it. She was fast and agile, older than he was in vamp years, but strength radiated from the corded muscles of his neck and forearms as he watched her. Fury radiated from every inch of him, yet none of it had been directed at her. He didn’t intend to hurt her, of that she was sure.

“We can’t go now, there’s a storm going on,” she reminded him, her voice far stronger than she’d expected.

“Not now. When the storm breaks.”

She pursed her mouth and tilted her head to study him. “Do you know Kane?”

“Yes.” Over the pop of the fire, she could hear the grinding of his teeth. Sparks flew into the air from behind him as the flames leapt higher into the air before settling down once more. If she hadn’t known better, she would have believed the fire had reacted to his seething emotions.

“How?”

He wouldn’t have any teeth left, she decided when his teeth grated together louder. “He’s the one who killed me.”

Tempest’s mouth dropped. By the time this man was done with his revelations, her jaw was going to be dislocated, she realized. She finally gave into the urge to sit and slid down the rock wall to the cave floor where she began to rub her throbbing temples. “All I want is to find some help for the children,” she muttered.

“And you have.”

She lifted her head to glare across the fire at him. “No, I’ve found myself mixed up in some strange vendetta you have against one of the asses who invaded my town. The children need help, not an ego contest.”

“It’s not an ego contest, and the children will be helped.”

Tempest released a small snort and ran her fingers through her hair. “I may have never left my valley before, but I know how it works outside of our town. We village vampires are all expendable.”

His muscles rippled as he shifted his position. “I’m a child of the forest. The leader of the human rebels was my father. We were once the lowest of the low; you are not expendable to me.”

She continued to rub at her temples as she contemplated his words. “The two of us won’t be enough against all of the vampires in my town.”

“I’m not sending my brother-in-law and sister into something without checking it out for myself first. They’re the king and queen, and must be protected. Aria can often make that difficult to do, and I’m not going to put her at risk. I believe what you are telling me. I will do whatever we can to save them, but if we go to Aria and Braith now, to retrieve more help, we could be sending them into a bloodbath, or your town could be gone by the time we return.”

Her soul shrank away from that thought; she couldn’t have come this far only to fail. She nodded, but she didn’t know what to make of him or this situation. It was so strange to hear someone talk so openly and knowingly of the queen. It had actually caused a little smile to tug at the corners of his mouth when seconds before he’d looked like he could tear the mountains down with his bare hands in order to get at Kane. She still wasn’t one hundred percent convinced he was right about any of this, but his love for his sister was obvious.

Rubbing at her arms, she crept closer to the fire in an attempt to ease some of the chill seeping through her. “I’d heard the queen was human, a rebel,” she murmured.

“She was.” He moved away from the wall and walked toward the front of the cave. They were mostly sheltered from the storm in here, but a breeze ruffled his hair away from his face as he moved.

“The peace after the war was nice.” His eyes had returned to their crystalline blue color when he turned to look at her. “Whatever they’re trying to do is going to threaten that, and their numbers are growing.”

“Their followers won’t have much loyalty if they feel they’re being forced to join or die. Vampires and humans alike only want to be treated fairly,” he replied.