Chapter 15 Kyle
Kyle
“Fuck!” I yelled the word and jerked forward, awake in an instant.
New Orleans scenery whistled by outside the windows, and I sat up on the rear bench seat of a truck.
“What’s going on?”
Brock glanced over his shoulder from the driver’s seat. “What the fuck do you mean, what’s fucking going on? I’m five fucking men down.”
I rested my head back and released a quiet sigh.
“Five?” I ran my hand over the back of my head and winced as I skimmed the lump that Sebastian had created.
Luckily, he’d opened the French doors before launching me from the balcony or I’d have been picking chunks of glass from my flesh before I could heal.
He slammed his fist on the steering wheel. “Fucking Duponts. We had to retreat.” He shook his head and thumped the steering wheel again. “Fucking Duponts.”
He pressed his foot on the gas and the truck roared as it picked up speed.
Pain flashed like fire through me, and I bent double in the seat, groaning. What the hell? It burned. Goddamn, it burned. Then Sam’s face was in my head, and her scent surrounded me, and she was all I could focus on.
Only Sam.
She was everywhere around me, inside me… and in so much pain.
Holy fuck. Sam’s pain.
“Stop the truck,” I choked out. “Sweet Jesus, stop the fucking truck.” I had to get to my mate.
Brock glanced at me again. “What? What the hell?”
“It’s my mate,” I ground out. “She needs me.”
I reached for the door handle and Brock swerved to the side of the road.
“What the hell, man? What mate? You’re a soldier —”
But he’d barely finished speaking before I threw the door open. We were close enough to a stop when I leaped out and started running. My whole body still burned. Sam was in pain. She was in immense pain. I stumbled and nearly fell, but I couldn’t afford to be distracted from my goal.
Sam.
I just had to get to her.
Instinct drove me forward, pushing me to take turns I didn’t even consciously know to make.
I could feel Sam somehow, her pain pulsing between us, her vitality waning.
Her screams echoed in my head, growing quieter with each moment that passed.
Someone was hurting her, and someone would have to pay.
How the hell had they even found her? I wasn’t running in the direction of my apartment. I kicked my speed up a notch, trusting whatever force inside me was guiding me the right way. It was like Sam and I were connected, like a thread stretched between us, although it was growing thin.
I’d never moved so fast. I pounded the miles, barely seeing the scenery as I dodged around trees and splashed through swamps. I leaped over twisted roots and ducked under low-hanging branches. Nothing else was as important to me right now as getting to Sam.
Nothing else had been as important ever.
The trees started growing closer together, and the air was filled with the sounds of the bayou. Water lapped softly in the distance somewhere, and night insects chirped and clicked. Creatures scuttled in the undergrowth, moving out of my way, and I paused to assess my surroundings.
Her screams had stopped completely now, but instead of being relieved, fear took control of my limbs and I began to run again, pumping my legs and arms as hard as I could. What if the worst had happened? But no… surely, I’d know?
The connection would be gone entirely. Yeah. It would be gone. Sam was hanging in there, and I needed to get to her. Urgency replaced my fear, giving me another burst of speed.
A small building appeared at the end of the path. A cabin of some sort. Barely a fucking shed. And I knew without a doubt that Sam was in there. My gums ached as my fangs pierced them. Someone was hurting Sam and they were right inside that building. I’d kill them for laying hands on my mate.
I threw the door open, and two vampires stepped forward, both looking more like hired muscle than they shared a brain cell between them. I roared my anger at them as they crowded me, preventing me from moving forward into the room.
I raked my claws down the first guy’s chest before plunging my hand through his ribcage and ripping his heart from his chest. It beat for a moment before I threw it to land wetly on the floor.
The second guy stepped forward before he threw a bewildered glance at the heart between me and the corpse. He tried to run but I let out another roar and grabbed his head, twisting it so hard that I unscrewed it from his neck like a pop bottle cap.
Bloodlust hung heavy in the air, and I inhaled the tang of copper, bringing with it the familiar scent of my mate. Esmé sat hunched against the wall, Sam limp in her arms as she fed. Sam’s blood trickled from Esmé’s lips, dripping, wasted to the floor.
I took two strides and grasped Esmé’s hair, ripping her lips from Sam.
She screamed at me, the high-pitched sound maniacal as she cackled and spat her mouthful of blood in my face.
For the second time since I’d known Esmé, I lifted her and threw her at a wall before watching as she slid down the rough wood.
And for the second time since I’d known Esmé, she picked herself right back up from that action and turned to face me, still laughing.
“You’re going to have to do better than that,” she taunted, as she launched herself at me, her eyes bright with madness but her strength gifted from my mate’s blood.
She was fast now, faster than I’d ever known her, and she darted toward me, slashing at my torso and face.
I danced for a while, weaving backward, evading her slashing claws as she reached for my face.
“Now, now, Esmé,” I muttered as I let her swing for me and connect with my ribs as I moved into a better defensive position.
I had to protect Sam, and that meant keeping Esmé’s focus on me.
Esmé darted forward again, and I stepped aside before smashing my elbow into her back and sending her to sprawl on the floor. She lay still for a moment, winded, and my gaze landed on Sam. She was so pale, and her chest barely moved. How much fucking blood had Esmé just taken?
I shook my head. I already knew… too fucking much. Even one drop was too much. No one would ever drink from my mate but me.
She was no one’s pet.
Esmé raced at me again, but I was done playing and dancing.
I grabbed her and held her tight to me, before twisting her neck and listening for the snap that would incapacitate her but not kill her.
It would give us long enough to get away, and I couldn’t kill her just yet in case it set off more repercussions with Brock.
I glanced at her one last time, checking she was truly down, and she glared back at me, her eyes angry, but she couldn’t manage any more than that.
Keys… I’d seen a car out there. Shit, I needed keys. I looked at Sam, still and quiet on the floor, but I could feel her inside me still, so she was still alive, even if barely. I needed to get her away. Back to safety.
I was her safety. As long as she was with me, she’d be safe. That much, I knew.
One of the guys I’d slaughtered when I arrived must have the keys in his pocket.
I patted both of their waists until the second guy jingled, and I grabbed the keys before scooping Sam up and striding from the shack.
I’d won many, many victories in battle since I’d been turned, but this was possibly the sweetest of all, leaving the scene with my mate in my arms.
I pressed the fob button to open the car, then pressed it three more times before the lights finally flashed in recognition. Fucking piece of junk, but I only needed it to get us back to my apartment then I was taking it and dumping it in the nearest swamp, anyway.
Sam moaned a little as I lowered her carefully onto the backseat.
It was the first noise she’d made, and I couldn’t tell if that was a good sign or a bad one.
I glanced around for a way to make her more secure while I drove, but there was nothing immediate and I didn’t have time to waste. I’d just need to drive carefully.
Well, shit. Of course I’d drive carefully. I had very precious cargo.
I jumped into the driver’s seat and rammed the key into the ignition before turning it, fingers crossed as I waited for it to start. The I squealed out of there, my foot pressed firmly on the gas. I only had one objective now — get Sam home.
I grimaced as I laid Sam on the couch, wishing I had something better to offer.
This was worn in patches and, to be honest, didn’t smell great.
It hadn’t mattered so much when this place was only ever meant to be a base for me while I focused on infiltrating the Blackbloods and bringing them down.
Well, my mission was well and truly disrupted now, my focus divided, but I still needed to end the Blackbloods and whatever Brock thought he’d started.
That objective was even more important now — now that it meant keeping Sam safe, too.
I tucked Sam’s blaze of hair behind her ear, worry gnawing at me due to the pallor of her skin. She was so pale. Almost white. Fucking see-through. Esmé had taken too much blood.
I concentrated, listening for Sam’s heartbeat as my gaze tracked the spot on her neck where I should have seen her pulse fluttering.
It was too slow. Too fucking slow. And I never panicked, but there was an unfamiliar flutter inside me that rose and threatened to turn into cords and vines that would strangle me and crush my insides.
I touched her skin and snatched my hand away at the icy coldness I found there.
I only had one way to save her.
Turn her.
Surely, I couldn’t.
But instinct moved inside me again, like something ancient waking up. Turn her. My internal voice was insistent.
And she needed blood. She needed blood so badly. Esmé had very nearly succeeded in killing her, but I couldn’t let that happen.
Before I could think it through any further… overthink it… I ripped my fangs through my wrist and blood sprayed out, painting the wall in ruby red splotches before I got the wound to Sam’s mouth.