Vengeance (The Captive #6)(85)
Hugging the wall, she watched as William dropped onto the ledge and did a hasty patrol of the area before coming back and waving at her to join him. He stepped aside to let her down; his warm hand burned through her cloak to heat her back. Her entire body felt like rubber. She barely had the strength to move out of the way of the villagers before collapsing again with her back to the wall.
William settled beside her, his broad shoulder brushing against hers. A minute passed, before she looked up at the six villagers still on the wall. They were making good time for ones so inexperienced. Her gaze traveled above them, but she saw no one else on the ledges or cliff face.
She pushed herself to her feet and rested a hand against the chilled rock in order to keep herself steady. The other villagers collapsed beside her, their shoulders heaved as they bowed their heads. “We won’t have to climb again,” she told them.
“Thankfully,” the one beside her murmured.
Taking hold of her hand, William turned and hurried down the ledge with her behind him. “Up here, on your right!” she yelled to him.
She squeezed his hand when they were almost to the entrance of the final cave. She almost jumped for joy when she stepped into the shadows of the cave, but she managed to keep herself restrained.
She only made it ten feet before William jerked her back. The force of his pull caused her to stumble awkwardly. She was trying to right herself when he spun her away and pinned her against the wall with his back. A startled cry escaped her; the jagged rocks protruding from the wall scraped her skin and bit into her back. Her hands fell onto his shoulders. His muscles tensed and vibrated beneath her touch like a cat ready to pounce on its prey.
She had no idea what had caused such a reaction, but she knew something wasn’t right. Her mouth dropped when she spotted the group of white clad men and women emerging from the shadows of the cave. There were at least nine of them, but they weren’t the ones who drew her attention the most.
Her fingers tensed on William’s shoulders when Kane stepped forth. The smug smile on his lips tugged awkwardly on his scar, pulling half his face up in some kind of macabre theatre mask. His hazel eyes twinkled with delight as he turned and waved a hand at the shadows behind him.
Tempest’s heart plummeted; her stomach curdled when two more white robed figures led Pallas, Abbott, and the rest of the children forward. Agnes clung to Pallas; the tears streaming down the young girl’s face glimmered in the glow of the guard’s torch. Pallas’s eyes shone with unshed tears.
“I’m sorry,” Pallas whispered. “I didn’t know they were following us.”
Kane’s smile grew as his eyes turned toward her. Tempest almost cowered away from the malevolence in his gaze, but she remained unmoving by sheer strength of will. “Well, when I saw my missing resident of the orphanage fleeing from the home and toward the mountains, of course I became curious as to why you would suddenly reappear at the same time as…” his gaze slid pointedly to William, “you.”
William shifted before her, his muscles rippled. The power within him swelled beneath the tips of her fingers, electrifying her skin. He was so strong, so powerful, yet she didn’t think it would be enough. Not against Kane. Tempest bit into her bottom lip as Kane ruthlessly stared at William.
“I thought where there was smoke, there must be fire. I didn’t see her slip out of the cave to return for you, but when we caught up with the children, I knew she’d return for them.”
Tempest kicked herself in the ass for being spotted, but she’d never seen him following her, and there had been no way to remain completely hidden from view. She’d led Pallas and the others to the first ledge before taking a different way out of the mountains and back to Badwin. It had taken her longer to return to the town than she wanted, but she couldn’t put the children in more peril by risking being seen exiting the cave.
Kane’s tongue flickered out to lick his lips when his gaze slid over her. “I don’t blame you for following the girl into town, she is a fine piece.” The growl William emitted caused the village vampires to take a step back. Tempest’s hands tightened on him, in an attempt to keep a hold of him in case he tried to launch at Kane. “I’m going to enjoy using her in every way and breaking her beneath me when you’re dead. Maybe I’ll keep you alive to watch, for a while.”
Her grip on William proved useless when he tore free of her and leapt at Kane with a roar that would have made a wolf cower. Kane braced himself, but the force of William’s shoulder slamming into his chest threw them both into the shadows of the cave and out of view. A scream for him built in her throat; she managed to keep it suppressed as she spun toward the remaining white clad vampires.
Their eyes shone red in the firelight playing over them. Smiles curved their mouths as they adjusted their spears in their hands. Tempest tugged two stakes free of her cloak and braced herself the way William had taught her.
“Do you have any more of those?” a village woman with vibrant red hair inquired of her. Tempest dimly recalled her name was Moira.
She glanced over the other villagers, but they all had the same resolute look on their faces. “You saved our lives. They won’t take us without a fight, not this time,” a man said.
Digging into her cloak, she pulled out the other four stakes tucked within. They took the stakes from her. She handed a fifth vampire one of the stakes in her hand.