Unwilling to get close enough to close the punctures on the man’s neck with the healing agent in his saliva, Killean searched for another way to obscure his marks. He discovered a pocket knife next to the lantern beside the sleeping bag and opened it. Gripping the man’s head, Killean kept him at arms-length as he placed his knife to the man’s throat. The man flinched but didn’t recoil when Killean carved a line connecting the two punctures, obscuring what they were.
He closed the knife and returned it. Taking a moment, he gathered his rattled composure before facing the man again. When his eyes fell on the blood trickling down the man’s neck, his fangs pricked. Everything in him thirsted to drink all the blood from this man and experience the rush of life filling him with power.
No one would have to know if he killed this guy.
Simone glanced anxiously at the other tents as she watched the trees. No breeze stirred the air, and in this section of the campground, it was quiet as a tomb. From here, she couldn’t see the groups of humans gathered around the fires or hear the rushing water of the river.
The occasional snore from someone in a nearby tent broke the hush. She supposed quiet was a good thing, but dread crept up her spine, as did the growing certainty something terrible was closing in on them.
Crouching, she leaned closer to the tent. “Killean?” she whispered.
Killean’s head turned toward the flap when Simone’s voice pierced the growing haze of bloodlust clouding his judgment. She’d asked him not to kill the man, and maybe she wouldn’t know if he did, but he would know, and he wouldn’t be able to look her in the eye again or live with himself.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Yes. Are you okay?”
“I’ll be out in a minute.”
Killean edged further away from the man while he still could. He crossed the line when he killed before, but ending the life of this innocent man would make him no better than Joseph. It would forever sever any hope Killean had of somehow saving himself—if he wasn’t already damned.
“Where are your truck keys?” Killean demanded.
“Under the pillow,” the man replied in a wooden voice.
Leaning around him, Killean retrieved the keys from under the pillow. “You scratched your neck on a branch while hiking. You will remember none of this, and you will not report your truck stolen for two days. Understood?”
The man’s eyes remained glazed as he nodded. “Go back to sleep and wake up tomorrow as if nothing happened.”
The man was settling onto his mattress again when Killean pushed the flap aside and left the tent.
Simone scrambled back when Killean emerged. Her eyes shot behind him, but the flap fell into place before she could see whoever was within. The scent of fresh blood tickled her nostrils as her gaze raked Killean.
During his run to the campground, the breeze had mostly dried their clothes, but Killean’s shirt and jeans hugged his lean frame as he towered a good seven inches over her five-eight frame. The scar on his face was whiter than usual and stood starkly out against his bronzed complexion. The lethal air surrounding him caused her to step further away.
“Are they…?” Her voice broke on the question as a tremor raced through her.
Did she really want to know if he’d killed the man or not? Killean was all that stood between her and the Savages and the only one she had to rely on, what would she do with the answer? Run from him? And go where?
She doubted Nathan and the hunters were still at the hotel where she last saw them, so how would she go about finding them? And what would they say or do if she found them? She was a vampire now; the hunters may have formed an Alliance with the vampires, but what would they do with her? Even if they took her back, she certainly couldn’t just resume her old life.
But then, she had no idea what Killean intended for her. It couldn’t be any worse than what Joseph planned, and because of that, she would follow him anywhere right now.
Then his crass words from when she was a prisoner drifted back across her mind and her blood ran cold. “I knew her when she was a hunter, and the little bitch thought she was better than vampires. I think it’s time she learns what it’s like to have one between her thighs.”
Was all this because she’d broken their kiss on the beach? Had he come after her and taken her from Joseph just to punish her? She may not know him well, but she wanted to trust Killean, and if he took that trust and destroyed it, he may just ruin her too.
“What you said to Joseph about me in that place, is that why you came for me?” she blurted.
Killean frowned at her; he was still fighting against going back into the tent and finishing what he’d started, so he couldn’t recall what she was talking about. “What did I say?”
“That I thought I was better than vampires and it was time to… to…” Her words trailed off as fire crept into her cheeks.
Killean almost groaned as he recalled his words; he’d known they would come back to haunt him. “To have one between your thighs?”
Simone couldn’t look at him as she edged further away. Killean almost grabbed her and hugged her close, but he didn’t think she would react well to such a thing right now. His fingers flexed as helplessness filled him.
“No, Simone, that is not why I came for you.” Distrust and hope shimmered in her eyes when she finally lifted her head to look at him again. “You will never have to worry about me being a threat to you. Ever.”
Simone gulped as his eyes burned with golden fire. She wanted to believe him, but she barely knew him. However, even though his vulgar words echoed in her mind, a part of her believed she could trust him. He may be one of the surliest and most distant men she’d ever encountered, but he’d saved her life, and she doubted he’d risk his own life to free her just so he could punish her for breaking their kiss.
“I mean it, Simone. I will never be a threat to you, and I will never force myself on you.” Over the years, he’d been many things, but never had he pushed himself on a woman, and he never would.
“Then why did you say those things?” she asked.
“Because they were what Joseph wanted to hear.”
“I see.”
Killean knew she didn’t, but they didn’t have time for this. “We have to go.”
He was right, but she had to know if he’d killed whoever was inside that tent. She’d spent her entire life locked behind walls and doing everything expected of her because one misstep might not make her a contender for Nathan’s wife.
And all her obedience had gotten her was Nathan choosing another woman over her.
She was so unbelievably tired of being afraid of offending or annoying someone, even if it was a vampire who could easily break her neck.
“Is the person in that tent dead?” she asked with a lift of her chin.
“No,” Killean replied in a clipped tone.
He brushed by her and stalked over to the truck. Unlocking it, he opened the passenger door and held it for her. Simone hesitated before walking over to the truck; there was no reason for him to lie to her, and even if he was lying, she had no choice but to go with him.
She was almost to the truck when Killean thrust out his arm, blocking her from the vehicle. Stunned by the action, she tilted her head to look up at him and froze when she saw the bright red color of his eyes and the firm set of his chin. He radiated violence as he searched the woods surrounding them.
“What is it?” she whispered.
“A Savage,” he murmured as he scented the increasing stench of rot on the air. Then he spotted the shadow slipping through the trees a hundred feet away from them.
Simone’s heart leapt into her throat as she glanced around in panic. Joseph had found them! They would take her back, return her to chains, and destroy Killean! No! She didn’t care what happened, she would never return to that place alive.
“Let’s go,” she whispered and grasped his arm to tug on it.
“I think there’s only one of them.”
“So?”
“So, it has to die.”
“No, Killean. We can go. We can drive away from here and never look back.”
“If we do that, this one will alert the others to where we are and what we’re driving. They’ll be on us before we get ten miles down the road.”
Simone bit back a moan as her terror escalated. She couldn’t go back there, and if something happened to him…
She’d be done for. She knew nothing of the human world. She’d be as vulnerable to unsavory people as she was to the Savages. Not only that, but she didn’t want anything bad to happen to Killean. There was no denying he was powerful, but if he went after this Savage, he could lose, and it would be her fault. She’d weakened him by taking his blood; he’d fed since then, but was it enough to get him through a fight?