And besides, Simone had no idea where to go if she did get free, she’d simply needed to try. She would have hated herself if she didn’t, because she knew what these Savages planned for her and everyone else here. They were going to starve her and her fellow hunters until they were so mindless they didn’t care who they killed to get blood.
In the beginning, she was determined not to become one of them. Then that sick monster, Joseph, had some of his fellow bastards hold her down while he drank from her. The excruciating agony of the experience nearly drove her insane. Not only had he drained her until she teetered on the brink of death, but he’d forced his putrid blood down her throat afterward.
She recalled only anguish when he finished and the transition took over. All her bones had felt like they were breaking before fusing back together. Her muscles twisted and bent into something else. Yet somehow her body retained her Simone shape, but she wasn’t the same Simone.
Everything she’d always known was gone, and now there was only cold, anger, terror, andhunger. The rare times she slept, she dreamed about the blood they’d given her when she first woke from the brutal change her body endured. It was the only substance given to her since she awoke, but she recalled the sweetness of it on her tongue and the strength of it filling her.
She hated herself for it, but she’d greedily consumed every drop of that blood and been thirsty for more.
Things had been horrific so far, but they were only going to get worse. Once they set her free, Simone didn’t doubt that no matter how much she tried to resist, she would jump on the first human she came across and sink her fangs into their throat.
Even as she hated herself for the weakness, her heart raced with excitement at the thought of blood. If she could reach the vampire chained next to her, she would sink her fangs into his throat too, fellow hunter or not, it no longer mattered. The beat of the hearts surrounding her had become another form of endless torment as she listened to the blood pulsing through her neighbor’s body.
But they were chained in such a way that she couldn’t reach him, and they couldn’t get at each other. She had a feeling they’d be tearing one another apart otherwise. She quivered at the horrific image while she licked her upper lip over the blood such carnage would produce.
A small commotion amongst the others barely penetrated the blanket of depression and starvation enshrouding her. Footsteps thudded against the concrete floor, and it wasn’t until those closest to her scuttled further into the shadows, that she tried to lift her head. It felt like a fifty-pound weight was tied to her skull, but somehow, she got it upright.
When her vision blurred, she blinked at the approaching group of men coming down the long tunnel until she could finally see again. Her eyes drifted to the tall man in the center of the group. There was something oddly familiar about him…
She frowned as she tried to recall where she’d seen him before, but starvation made it difficult to process her memories. Then the man slowed as he approached her, and she realized he wasnaked.
She hadn’t believed it possible, given everything she’d been through since being taken by these monsters, but Simone blushed and diverted her eyes from him. However, in those few seconds, the image of his lithe, chiseled body was burned into her mind. It was the first time she’d ever seen a nude man.
“Hunters,” Killean sneered. Though he showed open disdain to the Savages holding him captive, fury churned in his gut as he gazed at his chained mate.
The word and the familiarity of the voice caused Simone to forget about her embarrassment and lift her head again. Curiosity tugged at her as she was struck by the whim to see more of him, but Simone kept her gaze off the naked man’s body and focused instead on his ruby-colored eyes.
Then like Moses parting the Red Sea, the fog clouding her memory pulled back.Killean!
The scent of ocean air drifted over her as she found herself standing back on the beach with this man before he kissed her. Simone almost felt alive again as she recalled the delicious heat of his lips on hers and the thrill of her first kiss.
She’d never experienced anything like the intensity of his kiss. It had been amazing until it ended. Then he’d looked at her like she was some disgusting form of slime before ordering her back to the hotel. She’d been so humiliated and angry, and she’d never wanted to see him again.
But seeing him here brought a surge of hope rushing up from the bleakness encompassing her life. This man was one of Ronan’s Defenders! Had he come here to free them? She’d given up hope of being discovered so many hours ago, but had someone finally found them? Were they going to be set free?
Her hope vanished when she took a good look at the vampire with the scar. That scar sliced straight down from his deep brown hairline, through his right eyebrow and eyelid, to the center of his cheek where it stopped. How he hadn’t lost his eye when he endured the injury, she didn’t know, but he hadn’t.
The last time she’d seen him, his eyes were the color of gold; now they were the red color she associated with monsters. Then he’d been one of Ronan’s men, an ally to the hunters, but now he stood in the center of her enemies, and he didn’t wear chains.
She didn’t understand what was happening or why he was here, but instinctively she knew he wasn’t the same vampire she’d encountered on the beach. She sniffed at the air; however, trying to differentiate his resin scent from the garbage stench of the rest of these monsters was impossible.
Killean held Simone’s white-blue eyes before turning away. Unlike a vampire, whose eyes became red with emotion, hunger, or loss of control, a turned hunter possessed that striking, white-blue color.
If he didn’t stop looking at her, he would go to her, tear the chains from her thin wrists, and rip her away from the others. He wanted to demolish this place with his bare hands, shred the Savages closest to him, and rain down Hell on all those who’d harmed her, but he was vastly outnumbered, and they would stop him before he could free her.
And if he tried to free her, he would give his real purpose for being here away. He’d sacrificed himself and his relationship with the Defenders to make it here; he wouldn’t let it be for nothing. No matter how much it killed him to do so, he had to restrain himself from going after her.
The image of her wrists chained to the concrete wall next to her head, and her white-blue eyes, haunted him as the Savages started walking again. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to continue with them.
The last time he’d seen Simone, she was prim and proper in her ankle-length dress with her hair in a bun. The sun’s rays playing across her hair brought out the strands of copper, mahogany, and vivid red in it. Her demure dress and placid demeanor did nothing to hide her beauty, but judging by the ardor of her kiss, they did conceal a passionate woman yearning to break free of the confines placed on her by her hunter heritage.
He’d barely recognized the woman trapped here. Dirt and blood caked the black, floor-length dress she wore. Streaks of brown and red marred her delicate features, and her previously glorious and bound hair tumbled around her shoulders and down her back in lank, greasy locks that appeared to be a dank brown rather than the glorious auburn they were.
She was as far from the ice princess hunter image she’d portrayed on the beach as she could get. Simone was no longer a pretty dolly, and though he’d always believed he would relish the sight of a humbled hunter, heloathedthe broken air surrounding her.
He had to get her out of this place, but first, he had to stay alive, and to do so, he must keep walking away from her. These Savages were taking him to Joseph, and if anyone could see through the new role he was trying to portray, it would be his fellow fallen defender.
Trying to portray?You’ve killed seven men in the past two nights.
