When she had enough of his blood, he pulled his wrist away and cradled her as the first spasm racked her body and she whimpered.
* * *
Elyse wasn’tsure how much time passed before she could think about something other than the agony squeezing her muscles and tearing at her organs. When it eased, she felt like she’d been reshaped into an entirely different being. And then she realized she was something else when she heard the distinct thump of Saxon’s heart beating like a drum in the room.
“Your heart… it’s so loud.” It surprised her how hoarse her voice sounded.
“You must feed,” he said as he stroked her back. “It will ease the lingering pain.”
“Why is everything so loud?”
“You’ll get used to it,” he assured her. “It will take some time, but you’ll adapt to your enhanced senses. I’ll help you get through it.”
Or at least he hoped he could help her get through it. He’d never experienced the enhancement of his senses that turned vampires did, but they all managed to survive it, and so would Elyse. He skimmed his knuckles down her cheek as she kept her eyes closed against what little light filtered around the edges of the curtains. He’d hated witnessing her suffering, but she was immortal now. She was stronger, and it would be a lot more difficult for someone to take her from him.
Elyse whimpered when another spasm raced up her spine and shot like fire across all her nerve endings. Saxon shifted his hold until she found her mouth against the pulsing vein in his throat.
At some point during her transition, he’d cut open her cast, and as she moved her arm, she realized it no longer hurt. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, and her new fangs pricked her bottom lip. Her astonishment over havingfangsbarely pierced through the hunger tying her stomach into knots.
Unable to stop herself, she lunged for his vein and sank her fangs into it. Warm blood rushed into her mouth; she nestled closer to him as it seeped through her system and eased the ache in her brutalized body.
She thrust her hips demandingly against his as the scent of her arousal filled the air. Resting his mouth against her shoulder, he bit into it and rolled her onto her back. She opened her legs and encircled them around his waist as he entered her.
Passion swirled and built between them as they moved together. When the pathway between their minds opened, their thoughts and feelings mingled. Peace and a sense of rightness stole through Saxon as he realized he was finally complete.
Epilogue
Four years later
Elyse sat with Kadence,Vicky, and Simone while they watched Vicky’s son, Wyatt, playing on the swing set in front of the hunter mansion. Across the way, a new group of recruits came into view as they ran laps around the massive compound.
The recruits had arrived last week, and much like the recruits who entered the military, they’d done nothing but run and work since stepping foot on the grounds. They were a small group of only five turned vampires and one purebred, but Saxon said they all showed a lot of promise.
With the arrival of this group, the number of fighters at the compound had swelled to nearly two hundred and fifty; that didn’t include the hunter women, elders, and children who didn’t fight. Not a day went by without the sound of hammers and saws filling the air to erect a new building or home.
Every fighter here was well-trained and lethal, but it was a small army. Some of the other hunter compounds were also working with vampires and building their armies too, but Elyse worried it wouldn’t be enough when the time came to face the demons and Savages again.
And the time would come. They’d had four years of relative tranquility, which meant the demons had been working for four years to rebuild and rethink their strategy. They were still encountering Savages on a fairly regular basis, but Saxon said it was more like the numbers they fought before Joseph started working with a demon to build an army.
During the relative peace, the Alliance had relentlessly worked to prepare for the upcoming battle. Elyse only hoped it would be enough to defeat those assholes when the time came. They hadn’t encountered another demon since the one Saxon, Declan, and Lucien killed. Sometimes she hoped that maybe they were wrong and there was only one demon. Or maybe there were only two of them as the one Killean saw was different, but she wasn’t letting down her guard.
But most of the time, she was aware something bad was out there and it was coming for them; it might be coming for the whole world. Despite the summer sun, Elyse shivered and focused her attention on the recruits as they made their tenth lap around the property.
Making his way from one of the guard shacks to the vampire mansion, Declan stopped to watch the recruits. An almost wistful look crossed his face before he shook his head, scowled, and walked away.
“She’s such an idiot,” Vicky muttered like she had the other nine times the recruits came into view.
Elyse knew thesheVicky meant was the pretty, lithe blonde running with the others. For the first time, a group of recruits included a female—Vicky’s sister, Willow. When Elyse asked Saxon why there weren’t more women recruits, he’d told her they weren’t against women joining the Alliance; they just hadn’t had anyone from the outside do so, until now.
Some of the other hunter women, Simone, Vicky, Kadence, and herself had all trained to fight the Savages. They were all hunting and fighting the killers, but Willow was the first woman who wasn’t a hunter or mate to join the Alliance.
Vicky was not happy her little sister was here; she’d told her to go home where she would be safer, but Willow wasn’t leaving. Besides, Willow probably wanted the same thing for Vicky and her nephew.
A sharp jab in Elyse’s ribs drew her attention to her belly. She rubbed her stomach to get the baby to remove its foot from her ribs. The baby shifted, and she smiled as its foot retreated and a hand pressed briefly against hers.
Upon learning she was pregnant, Elyse stopped going into the field to fight, but she would return to it after her child arrived. She’d much prefer to stay here, safely ensconced with her baby, but she would do everything she could to make the world a safer place for the life within her.
Before she became pregnant, if they managed to take a Savage alive, she would use her ability to track any vampire they’d changed. Sometimes, they would uncover more Savages, but other times they would find a normal vamp trying to live in peace. They’d recruited a few vampires this way, but the vamps usually preferred to be left alone.
