“How do they do that?”
“Through an exchange of blood and sex. If the mate is still mortal, a vampire will have to make them immortal to complete the bond and protect them better. If a vampire loses their mate, they either go insane or die. Encountering their mate and completing the bond stabilizes a purebred vampire battling their darker urges.”
Many vampires never found their mates and either battled the emptiness forever, turned Savage, or died. Killean expected death to be his saving grace as he’d die before claiming a hunter as his mate.
“And do a lot of purebred vampires have these darker urges?” she asked.
“All the male ones do.”
“What are they?”
Killean shrugged. “It depends on the vampire. For some, they can’t get enough sex or they seek out pain. Others can’t get enough blood or are driven to kill. Some have a combination of one or two things, and the rare unlucky few have a combination of everything.”
“And you battle one of these things?”
“Yes.”
Simone didn’t ask which one. She’d seen Killean in action tonight; every inch of him was a lethal killer.
“I see,” she murmured. “Well, vampire or not, Nathan would still try to save us.”
“He’d try to save you even though the hunters Joseph captured broke off from him because they didn’t agree with his love of a vampire and his decision to combine forces with Ronan?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation.
Killean’s teeth grated together at her unwavering certainty in her ex-intended. “Nathan didn’t send me.”
“Did Ronan?” Nathan would want to save his hunters, but it would make more sense that Ronan sent Killean instead of Nathan. Simone didn’t see Killean taking orders from Nathan.
A stab of guilt tore through him at the mention of Ronan. “No.”
Simone stared at him as she tried to figure out why this man was sitting beside her. If he’d intended to stay with Joseph, then why did he pull her away from him? But if no one sent him, then why was here?
“Then you really planned to join Joseph and his group?” she asked.
His head snapped toward her, and before he could stop himself, he bared his fangs at her. “No!”
Simone recoiled against the door as anger emanated from him.
Chapter Sixteen
Killean’s shouldershunched as he tried to regain control of the fury her words created. He was being an asshole, he knew it, but not killing the man in the tent, sitting this close to her, having her think he would actuallychooseJoseph over Ronan, and being reminded of what he’d become was too much for him right now.
“No,” he said more calmly as he focused on the road. “I did not want to join Joseph.”
Simone eased away from the window as some of his tension ebbed. She didn’t think he would hurt her, but she didn’t understand him. “Then why were you with Joseph, and why are you here now?”
“For you.”
Simone blinked at his response. She wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly. Had he said,for you, orwill do, or evenachoo?
That was it! He must have sneezed, but he hadn’t moved.
“Did you say… for you?” She had no reason to expect him to do anything for her and would feel like the biggest idiot if he had sneezed.
“Yes.”
Simone stared at him, but he didn’t look at her as he pulled up to a stop light on a cross-section of road.
