Vengeance (The Captive Series, Book 6) (27 page)

The world vanished as she fell back against the floor. She had no idea how long she’d passed out, but when she came to, cold air brushed over the flesh of her chest. A moan escaped her; her head pounded as if a woodpecker had gotten inside and mistaken it for a tree. It took all she had to concentrate on her surroundings. Finally able to keep her eyes open, she turned her head to find Kane still sitting on top of her. She blinked at him, trying to clear the hazy fog of her vision but he blurred before her, becoming two and then three.

It wasn’t until his hand fell on her breast that she came back to life again. She slapped at his hands; strangled sounds escaped her blood-filled mouth as she beat at him. Lifting his hand to slap her again, Tempest braced herself for the blow. She couldn’t afford to lose consciousness again.

His hand was on the downward swing when a figure loomed over the top of him. It took her a minute to realize that the fiery red eyes, blood soaked face and clothes belonged to William. A snarl escaped him as he lifted the spear he’d ripped free from his chest and drove it through Kane’s back.

Kane arched forward on top of her. His eyes rolled back in his head; his fingers scrabbled at the broken end of the spear piercing his heart. Gurgled sounds of distress poured from his mouth along with his blood.

Bending low, William rested his mouth near Kane’s ear. “Remember that moment I told you about in the prison. This is it. I’ve never missed a heart before; I missed yours on purpose last time, you prick.” With that, he twisted the spear, turning it within Kane’s chest before grabbing his shoulder and shoving his limp body off her.

The red bled from William’s eyes, leaving them their exquisite blue again as he collapsed onto the ground before her. “Are you ok?” he demanded, grabbing hold of her hands and dragging her toward him.

She took hold of his cheeks, tears of relief and joy spilling down her face. “Yes, are you?”

He collapsed in her arms before he could answer her. “William!” she shrieked grabbing at him and rolling him over.

His eyes were closed, his mouth parted. Her hands scrambled over his blood soaked clothes as she tried desperately to wake him again. Alive, she knew it, but so badly beaten and bruised he may not stay that way. The gaping wound in his chest continued to bleed; his leg was twisted awkwardly, and now that she was closer, she could see the bone still piercing through his skin. He’d torn the other spear from his shoulder, but blood continued to flow from the hole that went all the way through him.

“How did he manage to climb up here?” Abbott muttered from above her. She lifted her head to look up at him. His nose was scrunched up as he rubbed at the back of his head.

“I don’t know,” she said. She couldn’t imagine the amount of agony he must have endured, or the determination it would have taken him to accomplish the climb, but her heart swelled with more love for him. “But he needs blood, and we have to get him out of here.”

She bit into her wrist and pressed it against William’s bloody lips. “Tempest!” Abbott hissed.

“It’s ok,” she whispered, brushing back strands of William’s hair from his bloody face. Even battered and broken, he was still the most magnificent man she’d ever seen. He reflexively swallowed when the blood pooled into the back of his throat. The taste of her blood and his own instincts caused his fangs to lengthen against her skin. A sigh of pleasure escaped her when he bit down. “Good,” she murmured, leaning over him to press a kiss against his forehead. “Take as much as you need.”

Moira emerged, limping from the shadows. Moira’s brown eyes flickered; her eyebrows shot up when she spotted Tempest’s wrist pressed against William’s mouth. Maybe what she was doing wasn’t something commonly done amongst vampires, but she didn’t give one damn what they thought about it.

“Are you badly injured?” Tempest inquired.

Moira blinked at her question, but her gaze remained locked on the two of them. Finally, she rested her hand against her side. “I’ll heal.”

“We have to go,” Abbott urged.

“Help me with him,” she said. Adjusting her hold on William, she kept her wrist against his mouth as she moved carefully out from under him.

Abbott claimed William’s feet and Moira came to stand by his head to help her with his arms. Together they carried him through the cave toward where they’d left Achilles. She really hoped the horse was still there. It would be difficult for them to carry William through the snow without the horse, but she would do whatever it took to get him to safety.

Over the next two days, they trudged endlessly through the snow. They spent the first night in the cave she’d shared with William what felt like months ago now, but it had only been a little over a week since she’d stepped out into the blizzard. So much had happened since then, so much gained and lost, but they were still here, and they had managed to save at least some lives, and hopefully he’d learned something that would be of use to his brother-in-law.

At night, the lonely cries of the starving and lethal vampires would echo over the land, but she never spotted them within the shifting, snowy landscape. The children struggled through the snow, but though she wished she could put them on Achilles with William, she couldn’t risk injuring the horse. All of the adults switched off carrying Agnes and none of the children complained.

William sat slumped in the saddle; he had yet to regain consciousness. She tried not to dwell on the terror filling her at the prospect of him never waking again, but with every passing minute, the fear grew stronger. She alternated feeding him her blood with the blood of the animals they managed to track and capture. The loss of her blood had started to drain her; it was becoming more challenging to trudge onward and to keep her head up, but she’d do everything she could to keep him alive.

They arrived at another town on the eve of the second night. Glancing up and down the empty streets she wondered if this was the town William had told her about. She didn’t intend to go into the basement of the prison to find out; she’d had enough of prisons for a lifetime. Helping her with William, she, Abbott and Pallas carried him into one of the homes at the end of the road and placed him on the couch. Moira and one of the other vampires led Achilles to the small stable across the street before returning to the house.

Tempest knelt at William’s side; her fingers brushed his hair back from his forehead as she watched him. In the cave, she’d cleaned the blood from his body and changed him into what remained of his clothes from the saddlebags left with Achilles. The blisters and burns had faded from his skin, but the bruises from his battle remained. She stroked her fingers over his cheeks, worry gnawing at her gut, as he remained unmoving.

“You have to come back to me,” she whispered and bent to kiss his cheek. She nuzzled against him, inhaling his scent. “I need you.”

“Tempest.” She turned to find Abbott hovering in the doorway of the living room.

“What is it?”

“Someone is coming.”

Her heart plummeted into her stomach; she leapt to her feet and rushed toward the door as the last of the sun faded behind the horizon. Had they been found? They didn’t have it in them to put up another big fight; they were all exhausted, hungry and battered. She’d fight to the death to keep William protected; she just didn’t think it would be a long fight.

She pressed her face against the window in the door to stare out at the darkening street. The jingle of saddles drifted to her before the first man rode into view. Her hands pressed flat against the door; the other vampires hovered by her back as the men and women riding by continued on their trek. She was so busy praying they would go past, and keep on going, that she didn’t notice the patches on their sleeves until they were almost halfway down the street.

A strangled cry escaped her; spinning away, she tugged the patch William had given her, and that she’d reclaimed from Pallas, free of her cloak. Running toward the front door, Tempest flung it open and leapt down the porch stairs.

“Wait!” she cried, her voice strangled by hope and distress.

The startled glances of those closest to her caused them to jerk their mounts away from her. “Careful!” one of them barked.

“The queen, I must speak with the queen!” she gushed as she grabbed at the boot of the vampire who had yelled at her.

He raked her with a scathing glance. She’d washed the blood from herself, but she’d had no clothes to change into. She’d tried to button her ruined shirt the best she could, but her ripped, torn and bloody clothing weren’t helping her right now, and neither was her frantic behavior. The cloak, and what remained of her clothes, covered most of her flesh, but she still felt exposed. She tried to steady herself and compose her features before speaking again.

“Please,” she begged. “I know where her brother, William, is!”

That caused more of a reaction. A murmur went through the crowd toward the front of the line. The horses stopped moving; from somewhere up front the talk became more excited and agitated. The front three horses fell out of line and trotted down the street toward her.

Human,
she realized as the three men stopped before her. They were so close that when they stopped the breath from their horses puffed against her shoulder and blew her hair back. Two of them were blond, and the other was the largest man she’d ever seen. So large she wondered if giants actually did walk the earth.

“Where is he?” she focused on the blond man who had spoken the demand.

Something oddly familiar about him caused her mind to search frantically through her memories. Then she realized what it was, saw the family resemblance in the sparkling blue eyes. “Daniel?” she inquired.

He kicked free of the saddle and dropped to the ground with grace beyond what she was used to from a human. He strode toward her; his eyes narrowed and his shoulders thrust back. “How do you know my name?”

“William told me about you,” she murmured, fighting the urge to throw her arms around him. She didn’t think he would much appreciate a filthy, battered vampire he didn’t know grabbing hold of him and sobbing out her relief. “This way.”

He glanced back at the other two humans and jerked his head at them to follow him. Behind him, more vampires dismounted and came forward as she led the way into the house. Stepping back, she gestured for them to enter the living room before her. Some of the vampires escorting them crowded into the hall behind her. Their gazes fixed warily on the village vampires who watched them with the same expression of distrust.

“William!” Daniel shouted and raced toward his motionless brother.

He fell to his knees beside him; his hands carefully ran over William’s body as he searched for injuries that had already mostly healed. There was still a hole in his chest, and his shoulder, but the one in his shoulder no longer went all the way through, and the muscle and bone had mostly repaired themselves. She’d set the bone in his leg back into place. It had mended, along with the flesh around it. The two deep gouges running down his chin had left faint, puckered scars on his flesh, but his growing beard had already covered those.

“What happened to him?” the other blond-haired man demanded as he spun toward her.

His blue eyes followed her as she edged past him to stand beside Daniel. Daniel’s nostrils flared; his jaw clenched as he watched her. Despite the anger and distrust pouring out of him, she felt his love and concern for his brother as he kept his body defensively positioned before William’s unmoving figure.

“What happened?” he growled.

“So much,” she whispered as she held her hand out to him.

He watched her guardedly while the others pressed closer to her. She knew they would attack her if she made any sudden movements. She unfurled her hand to show Daniel the patch in her palm. Taking it from her, his fingers ran over the material before he focused on her again.

“William told me to find a member of your family, to give you this, and to tell you, banquet tree, so you would know you can trust me.”

The other blond haired human inhaled a harsh breath, some of the wariness faded from his handsome face as he glanced between her and William. Daniel stared at her before rising to his feet to stand over her. Slightly taller than William, he was of a leaner build. The aura of authority surrounding him was somehow out of place with his youthful age. This man may be human, and young, but he carried himself as if he was far older. He had the unmistakable air of a leader.

“Tell me what happened,” he commanded.

Stepping closer to William, she took hold of his hand and enfolded it within hers before she began to fill Daniel in on what she knew.

***

Sitting on the floor, Tempest kept her head on William’s chest as the first rays of the sun began to illuminate the dawn. Daniel and Max were sitting in chairs on the other side of the room; their chins were on their chests as sleep had finally claimed them an hour ago. Timber snored loudly from the small loveseat his massive body was awkwardly draped upon. His feet, hanging over the end of the loveseat, touched the floor. She didn’t know how much food it would take to fill that man, but she imagined it would be a whole farm.

After she’d revealed what she had to them, Timber and Max had taken a handful of the king’s soldiers with them to check out the prison down the road. When they’d returned, they’d confirmed what she’d feared; this was the town of Chester. She couldn’t shake the sick feeling in her stomach at the thought of the bodies of those helpless vampires down the road.

That would have been her and the children if she hadn’t left in search of help. If she hadn’t miraculously stumbled across William in the middle of the blizzard, she and those she loved most would be dead. She wished she could have saved more of the residents of her town, but there were eleven other survivors from Badwin in this house, and that was more than there would have been if she hadn’t left to try and find help.

Daniel had sent out ten more soldiers in search of any straggling survivors from Badwin, but she didn’t hold out much hope they would find many, if any at all. At least the king’s soldiers had received warning, they knew what to look out for; they wouldn’t be wandering into a trap or unaware of the creatures hunting within the snow.

Her eyes were heavy with sleep. The more she rubbed at them the grainer they felt, but sleep had been extremely elusive since William had become so defenseless. She couldn’t rest when he felt so lost to her right now. Her eyes closed; her hand flattened against his chest. Floating half in and half out of awareness, she never felt a difference in him until the brush of fingertips against her cheek caused her eyes to fly open.

Her head jerked up, her hand instinctively went to the stake at her side as she prepared to destroy anyone who came near him. A low chuckle caused her eyes to shoot to him. She froze when his sparkling blue eyes met hers. “Easy tiger,” he said.

“You’re awake!” she cried, tears bursting free and sliding down her face. “You’re awake!”

His lips skimmed back in a smile as he pulled her head toward him. “I’m awake,” he murmured against her lips before taking possession of her mouth in a kiss she’d craved and missed these past couple of days.

Her fingers curled into his shirt. She tried to pull him closer, but it was impossible to get as close as she wanted to right now. She longed to tear the clothes away from him and lose herself in him. Her body shook with the restraint it took to keep her from doing just that.

Pulling away from her, he wiped the tears from her face with his thumb. “Don’t cry.”

“I was so frightened,” she admitted. “I thought you were going to die on me.”

“Never.” His finger caressed her full bottom lip. “I’ll stay with you always, Tempest.” She threw herself into his arms, clinging to him as he rocked her against him. “Will you stay with me?” he murmured against her ear.

“Always,” she vowed.

His arms tightened around her; he pulled back to kiss her again. Her fingers slid past the buttons of his shirt to press against the heated flesh of his chest. Excitement grew within her as his tongue swept around her mouth in hungry thrusts. Her eager acceptance and return of his kisses caused a low rumble to escape him.

She became so lost in him that she completely forgot about anyone else being in the room, until a discreet cough sounded from behind her. William didn’t notice as he continued his possession of her mouth. His hands slid over her face to cradle the back of her neck. He’d angled her in such a way she was now half on and half off the couch.

“Ahem!” Not so discreet now, the noise broke through her passion-filled haze.

Blinking dazedly, she reluctantly pulled away from William when she recalled they had an audience. A dull flush stained her cheeks at the reminder. He swung his feet to the floor, lifting her up and settling her onto the couch beside him. She’d thought he would turn to greet his brother and friends, but his attention remained on her.

His gaze ran over her body. A muscle in his cheek twitched as he surveyed her still swollen but nearly healed nose and bruised eyes. She barely felt the brush of his fingers over the small burn holes and blood that had ruined her clothes. Turning so his shoulder blocked her from the rest of the room, he pulled back a piece of her torn shirt to reveal the faint bruises still marring her ribs and breastplate.

“William,” she whispered. His eyes were the color of fire when they met hers. “I’m fine.” She wrapped her hand reassuringly around his and pressed it against her chest. “Believe me, I’m fine. I’m the one who has been awake these past three days.”

“Three days?”

“Yes, but we’re safe now.”

Some of the tension eased from his shoulders, he leaned into her and pressed a tender kiss against her nose. When he pulled away again, his eyes were blue once more and he grinned at her. “You should have told me we had company when I first woke.” He tugged playfully on her hair before pulling her against his chest and holding her there.