“I’m not leaving you,” she stated as if she’d been reading his mind.
“We’ll discuss it after we speak with Ronan,” he said.
“There’s nothing to discuss,” Simone bit out.
The crunch of tires on the road saved him from getting into this argument with her. He’d relented to her desires before, but if Joseph was appearing again, then things were different now, and he would do whatever it took to keep her safe. He walked back toward the door but stayed out of the sun when Saxon opened it. Declan rose from the stairs and leaned against the railing as Ronan, Nathan, and Lucien came through the door.
Ronan’s eyes were a fiery red color, and beside him, Nathan’s normally blue eyes were a striking white-blue. Bloodlust slithered up from the depths of Killean’s soul in response to the barely leashed violence they radiated. The need to have Joseph’s blood staining his hands and spilling down his throat thundered through his veins. His fangs lengthened, and for the first time since arriving here, he felt on the verge of losing control again.
Killean focused on Simone as he worked to contain his rising need for death. She gazed at him from troubled eyes as her love and confidence in him shimmered across their bond. Looking at her and feeling her unwavering faith in him helped him regain control.
“What happened?” Declan inquired of Ronan. The knuckles of his hand on the banister were white as he gazed at Nathan and Ronan.
“A bar caught on fire last night in Plymouth. All seventy-two people inside died,” Lucien said.
“That fire is no coincidence following a Joseph sighting so close to it,” Saxon said.
“No, it’s not,” Ronan grated, and his eyes latched onto Killean. “Do you think you’re ready to return to the fight?”
When Simone’s apprehension rippled through his mind, Killean returned to her side and took her hand. “I am,” he said.
Ronan’s gaze ran appraisingly over him. “If you think you might require more time, you can have it.”
“I don’t need more time,” Killean said firmly. “I want that fucking prick dead more than you do.”
He glanced pointedly at Simone, whose lips were nearly white as she pressed them together. More than her terror for him was bothering her now, but also her terror of Joseph and what would happen if he found her. Killean would make sure Joseph paid for what he’d done to her and that sheneverhad to fear him finding her again.
Killean looked back at Ronan. “I haven’t had any hallucinations in over a week, and Simone, as well as feeding every day, keeps my more lethal impulses at bay. I’m ready for this.”
Ronan glanced between him and Simone before replying. “I believe you, but I still can’t have you in the compound.”
When Simone’s breath hissed out, Ronan held up a silencing hand. “If it were only us, I would have allowed him back weeks ago, but the hunters are nervous,” Ronan said.
“They need more time,” Nathan explained to Simone. “You saw how well some of them handled it when I made my announcement about the Alliance and my decision to transition into a vampire. Even those who chose to stay with me after I became a vampire don’t like the idea of having a vamp who has killed innocents living amongst them and their children.”
Simone closed her mouth; she couldn’t start spouting off about how they should get over it when she left after Nathan’s announcement about the Alliance. The hunters who remained with Nathan were more accepting of his decision than her, and she couldn’t condemn them for balking against this when she would have done the same.
“They will come around,” Nathan continued, “and Killean fighting with us again will help them do so.”
“I understand,” Simone murmured. She didn’t like it, but she did understand.
“If I hunt with you tonight, Simone can’t stay here alone,” Killean said.
Her hand crushed the bones in his together when she squeezed it. “Killean—”
“You have to be somewhere safe when I’m not here,” he interjected before she could argue with him.
Killean still didn’t know if Ronan and the hunters had remained on the same property after he left or if they’d moved, but she would be safe wherever they were now. Though he was curious about their current location, he hadn’t asked, and he wouldn’t; they would tell him when they were ready.
“I’ll send men to pick her up before the sun sets and bring her to the compound,” Ronan said. “Or I can have some trainees come here to watch her.”
“I’ll stay,” Simone said at the same time Killean said, “She’ll go to the compound.”
“Killean—” Simone started.
“There is no discussion about this. I’m not entrusting your life to trainees. You’ll be safer at the compound, and you’ll be with Kadence and your mother,” Killean said. “You can return here afterward.”
Chapter Forty-Three
