“I’m trying to save you!” he hissed, but even with having fed, she was still too far gone in her hunger to understand him.
Ignoring her screams and the fingers tearing at his forearms, he ran for one of the broken windows. Andre darted in front of him and planted his feet like a football player about to make the block. The grin on Andre’s face infuriated Killean.
Lowering his shoulder, Killean charged him but switched course at the last second and barreled toward one of the unbroken windows. If he weren’t holding Simone, he would have gone straight at Andre and destroyed the bastard, but he couldn’t risk a fight with her in his arms. They only had one chance at freedom, and he couldn’t risk her getting away from him.
Hunching over Simone, he used his body to protect hers when he hit the glass. There was a small hesitation before the window gave way beneath the impact of his body. Curling himself further around her, Killean sheltered her from the glass slicing across his arms and cheeks as the window blew outward.
The air rushing around him whipped at his hair and clothes as they fell fifteen feet before crashing into a shrub. Sticks jammed into his flesh; the bush bent before bouncing them away from the building. Killean’s shoulder crashed onto the dirt road, and he rolled to get away from the window and the glass. As he moved, Killean kept his weight off Simone the best he could, but she grunted when he rolled again.
Fingers scraped down his back and tangled in his shirt. Killean rolled again and lashed out with a kick that snapped the Savage’s head back. He didn’t have time to stop and kill it though as shouts rang out from inside and figures appeared in the windows overhead. Killean kicked again and then once more until the Savage’s face caved in and it released him.
Another one leapt out the window as Killean launched to his feet. Two more followed it.
Jarred and bouncing, Simone tried to process what was going on, but all she knew was someone had ripped her away from her delicious meal. Straining against the iron-clad grip on her waist and head, she tried to break free, but the hold was as imprisoning as the chains she’d been freed from.
I’m free!The thought burst through all the confusion muddling her brain and hope swelled forth before she recalled she wasn’t free; someone still restrained her. She kicked and clawed at her captor, but they didn’t relent as her feet dangled over the ground while air rushed around her.
“Stop struggling!” someone grunted in her ear.
The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. Then, it didn’t matter as she scented her captor’s blood on the air and her mouth watered.
Killean bolted across the dirt road and plunged into the woods with Simone clasped against his chest. The excited cries of the Savages followed him into the shadows of the forest. Branches and limbs slapped at him as his feet easily found their way through the debris littering the ground. The crunching of sticks and the grunts of his pursuers sounded behind him as he jumped over a downed tree before darting around a boulder.
Shifting his hold on Simone, he glanced over his shoulder to discover one of the Savages closing in on them. Killean grasped a tree branch and bent it back until it snapped off. He hefted it in his hand as Simone lunged against his arm locked around her waist. He struggled to keep his hold on her as her fingers clawed at his arm and she tried to lift herself free of his grasp.
“Be still!” he ordered, and spinning, he heaved the branch like a javelin thrower at the bastard pursuing them.
The branch struck the Savage in the chest. It was off the heart, but the Savage yelped as the impact lifted the creature off its feet and flung it backward. He heard the others crashing through the woods behind them, but Killean didn’t see them through the trees, and they sounded as if they were still a good hundred feet away, if not more. He’d bought them some time.
Placing his hand on Simone’s forehead again, he held her more securely against him as he poured on the speed. No moonlight penetrated the thick canopy of leaves overhead, but he saw well enough that he didn’t worry about crashing into anything or tripping over something. Unfortunately, his pursuers could also see well, and they weren’t carrying a pissed-off hunter.
“Stop!” he hissed when Simone kicked him in the shin and almost tripped him.
If he continued to run with her dangling against him, he would end up falling. Slowing only a little, he twisted her in his arms until her chest was flush against his.
“Wrap your legs around my waist,” he commanded.
Either the urgency of the situation, the tone of his voice, or instinct finally pierced through her hunger as she lifted her legs. Her dress pushed back when she locked her legs around his waist. Killean cradled the back of her head and placed it in the hollow of his shoulder as he ran.
Chapter Twelve
The scentof resin and blood filled Simone’s nostrils as she was embraced against a rock-hard surface that flowed with the grace of water against her. Something about the embrace and scent tickled her memory, but she couldn’t quite place it as the blood singing through the veins of whoever held her occupied all her senses and thoughts.
Without thinking, she sank her fangs into flesh and groaned in ecstasy when blood slid down her throat. Unlike anything she’d ever tasted before, this blood flooded her body with renewed strength as it eased the burning in her veins far more than the meal she consumed earlier. She tried to recall what was happening around them, but she was too far gone in the blood filling her and the awakening sensations of her body to pull away.
As power filled her, a growing awareness spread through her body. Her nipples puckered and her body came alive in a way it had only once before. The scent and solid muscles holding her coalesced into a memory of standing on a beach while being kissed for the first time in her life.
That kiss and the tender stroking of his tongue had awakened her to passion. No matter how much she tried to forget him, and the way he’d made her feel, he’d haunted her dreams every night until her capture. And then he’d been in her nightmares too.
Now she knew it was him holding her andhimfeeding her.
Killean, she remembered as she rubbed harder against him and drank deeper.
When Simone locked her legs tighter around him and started grinding against him, Killean almost fell. Out of her mind with thirst, she didn’t know what she was doing as she rode him; often blood and sex went hand in hand for a vampire.
Years ago, it had been the same for him too. Those were the days before age, time, and the death surrounding him battered him into something he barely recognized before stealing sexual gratification from him. Until Simone, he hadn’t had an erection in years, and the few he did have before then were impossible to find any release from.
Killean gritted his teeth against his growing desire, but the feel of his mate in his arms, feeding on him, and taking satisfaction in his body was almost too much for him to resist. However, he had to resist if they were going to survive.
