He set Simone free.
Chapter Eleven
Scents and sounds bombardedSimone from every direction, but the blood… oh, the blood. It was so tempting, and it waseverywhere. The screams matched the beat of her heart as movement came from every direction. She didn’t know where to go or what to do first as her head bounced back and forth.
She didn’t see people, all she saw was an end to the fire scorching her veins. She wanted to sink her fangs intoeverything.
She didn’t realize she was running until her feet skidded out from under her and her ass hit the floor with a thump. Her breath exploded out of her and her teeth clacked together; she stared dazedly at the red coating the floor and her.
Then the scent of all that red hit her. Saliva pooled in her mouth, and strange sounds issued from her as she realized she’d fallen in a puddle of blood. Unable to stop herself, she brought her hands to her face and started licking the blood from her palms.
A shiver of delight raced down her spine when the delicious, warm taste of it hit her tongue and slid down her throat. She licked faster and faster, cleaning the blood from her skin as she turned her palms before her.Finally, she was getting the chance to feed, but the blood wasn’t enough to ease the hunger shredding her insides.
Dropping her hands, her gaze locked on a man when he fell in front of her. His chin banged off the floor and blood spurted from his broken flesh.Mine!Eat. Feed. Ease. STARVING!
Killean couldn’t tear his eyes away from Simone as she crawled through the blood toward the man two of her fellow hunters had taken down.If she kills him, all of this will have been for nothing.
“When do we feed?” one of the Savages asked Joseph.
Joseph’s gaze flicked to the Savage, and his eyes deepened to a ruby color. “WhenIsay you can,” he sneered. “These people are for the hunters, and it still might not be enough to turn them. The hunters are stronger and resist becoming one of us more than most after they feed. Many of the other captured hunters were starved and set free to kill more than once before they finally broke.”
Killean realized Joseph was talking to him when he felt the man’s stare boring into the side of his head. He forced his gaze away from Simone. “Interesting,” he murmured to Joseph, but not at all surprising. Since their creation, hunters had killed vampires; they would not easily succumb to the manipulations of these Savages no matter how much torture they endured.
“But they all eventually broke, and they’re so worth it when they finally succumb,” Joseph murmured as he surveyed the slaughter with obvious glee. “They’re so much more powerful than a normal vampire turned Savage. Of course, they’re not as strong as us purebreds, but they’re still magnificent to watch.”
Killean had seen the power of a turned hunter in Kadence and Nathan after they transitioned. Would Simone and the other hunters possess special abilities like Kadence and Nathan? Or were the twins unique?
And he would not call these hunters magnificent to watch. This was the worst of vampire nature, and it disgusted him how badly he wanted to take part in it.
He focused on Simone as he tried to calm his tumultuous emotions. She reached for the man who had fallen before her, lifted his arm, and sank her fangs into it.
No!The denial screaming through him was not only because he didn’t want her to kill, but also because seeing her feed on a man twisted his insides into a ball.She’s mine!
It was supposed to behisblood she drank, not some stranger’s.
Killean didn’t stop to think how irrational his thoughts were considering he planned to free her from here, return her to her people, and never see her again.
Joseph gestured some of the Savages forward. “Stop any humans from escaping out the windows, but no sampling,” he ordered. “Anyone who takes even a nibble will be destroyed.”
The Savages spread out through the room as more humans broke out windows, but those people were brought down by hunters or pushed back by Savages. The groom had backed the bride into a corner behind the bar and was using a stool to bash at the hunters closing in on them. On his next swing, a hunter ripped the stool from him and tossed it aside.
Joseph was focused on watching the Savages pushing and pulling the terrified humans back into the room. He smiled cruelly when one of his flunkies couldn’t resist sinking his fangs into the throat of a young woman in a fluffy pink dress.
“Now, it’s time for me to play,” Joseph said and glided across the room toward the Savage.
Glancing behind him, Killean saw a few Savages with their gazes locked on him. He had no doubt they’d been ordered to keep an eye on him, but there weren’t many hunters and Savages between him, Simone, and the windows.
Most of those sent to keep the humans inside were shoving their victims toward the hunters while a few stood in front of the other windows. Andre was one of those corralling the humans; he laughed as he pushed a screaming woman toward the hunters before kicking out the knee of a man. Joseph was near the bar feasting on the Savage who’d disobeyed him.
Eighty feet separated him from the tables and windows across the way. The once pristine, white cloths covering those tables were streaked with blood, as were the walls and floor but none of the tables blocked the windows.
If he could get to Simone…
He didn’t think about what would happen to him or Simone if they caught him. The time for thinking was over; if he didn’t stop her, she would help to kill that man, and if he didn’t go now, he would lose his chance.
Killean sprinted across the dance floor, leapt over a table, and landed beside Simone. His feet skidded in the blood, but he caught his balance before he fell as a shout sounded from the Savages behind him. Though the screams of the humans were dwindling as more of them perished, the cries of the dying drowned out the alarm the Savages raised.
Bending, Killean wrapped his arm around Simone’s waist and yanked her back. When he tore her fangs from the man’s arm, she screeched, and her hands and legs flailed. Clasping her against his chest, he placed his hand on her forehead and pinned her head to his shoulder to suppress her.
