Rising, he gazed at the covered window before glancing at Simone; he had to get her out of here.
“Killean, what is going on?” Simone asked.
“One of Joseph’s cronies sent them in here to drive us out.” He’d believed it to be a remote possibility Joseph would find them; he’d been wrong.
Simone’s blood ran cold at the mention of Joseph. “How do you know it was one of them and not some other vampire?”
“Because even if Ronan and the others ignored my instructions to stay away, they would have come to us and wouldn’t be playing these games. And that’s exactly what this is, a game. Joseph’s puppet could have sent this couple in here with a straightforward message to leave now, but instead, they created a fight to throw us off and to make me work to discover that their minds were manipulated. They did this with the intent of unnerving us.”
And they succeeded,Simone thought as she gazed at the couple.
“We’re sorry we interrupted your day,” the woman said. “But this is between me and Waldo. Let him up, and we’ll leave you be.”
Killean ignored her as he took his foot off Waldo’s back and delivered a knockout blow to his cheek. Grasping Simone’s hand, Killean pulled her toward the broken door.
“No!” the woman moaned. “Why did you do that?”
Killean didn’t answer as he stalked toward her. The woman stumbled back as she retreated into her room, and Killean followed with Simone. His gaze darted over the king-sized bed the woman plopped onto before taking in the small bureau and the TV hanging on the wall above it. He didn’t detect anyone else in the room; whoever wore the boots must have retreated during the commotion.
“What did you do to Waldo?” the woman practically shrieked at him.
“Where are your car keys?” Killean demanded of her.
Taking their vehicle was the least ideal prospect; whoever was controlling this couple probably knew which car belonged to them, but with his inability to tolerate the sun, Killean didn’t have any other choices. He couldn’t walk around the parking lot looking for a car to steal, and if he started knocking on the doors of the other rooms in search of someone to control so he could have their keys, whoever was watching them would still know which vehicle they were in when they left.
Besides, taking a different car would only draw more human attention to himself. He didn’t want to do what he believed they were being herded into doing, but more Savages would come for them if they remained here.
The Savages didn’t want to attack them here where there could be numerous human witnesses, so they were using this couple to try to drive them out. If they stayed though, Joseph would find a way to flush them out, most likely a fire. If Killean and Simone remained, the humans here would become casualties, and the two of them would be trapped. At least on the road, they would have some options.
Like a volcano simmering toward eruption, the tension in him was escalating toward a breaking point. He labored to keep the demon leashed while his body clamored to set it free and let it tear apart anyone who came near Simone. His head buzzed like a swarm of bees filled it, and he found himself teetering on the edge of madness.
“Car keys?” Killean demanded of her again and, to him, his voice sounded as if it were coming through a thick fog.
“I’m not telling you!” the woman spat at him.
Reacting on instinct, Killean clamped his hand over the woman’s mouth and sank his fangs into her throat. Unable to take control of her mind to suppress it, the woman’s pain blasted against him at the same time Simone’s shock rippled through their bond. The woman’s hands pushed feebly against his chest before they froze, and her endless, voiceless scream echoed in his head.
A rush of excitement filled him as her blood slid down his throat. He’d needed to feed before this started, and as her agony battered him, the demon part of him purred like a contented cat as Killean fed it the misery and power it craved.
“Killean,” Simone whispered.
She knew the strangeness of this situation had him on edge, but she hadn’t expectedthis. However, she should have suspected this breaking point was coming. Not only was he a vampire, but Killean was far more volatile than the other vamps in the Alliance. He wasn’t the same as the Savages who imprisoned and tortured her, but he was stuck somewhere in the middle, and that middle made him unpredictable.
“Killean.” When Simone rested her hand on his arm, the sound he released reminded her of a wolf guarding its dinner.
Before she could pull away, he twisted his arm and his fingers clutched hers. Everything in her wanted to jerk her hand away and condemn him for this brutal act as pain twisted the woman’s features, but she couldn’t turn away from him when he needed her. She’d told him she could handle the darkness inside him, and she would.
However, this couldnotbe a constant thing. She would not tolerate him killing innocent people, and she’d go mad if she had to continue watching him feed on other women. No matter what he was to her, no matter what he’d done for her, she would not let him destroy others and trample her feelings to satisfy himself.
When the woman’s heartbeat slowed, excitement pulsed through Killean; he wassoclose.
“Killean, don’t,” Simone whispered when she detected the decrease in the woman’s pulse. “Stop. She doesn’t deserve this.”
On the brink of feeling the rush of power that came with the end of life, Killean almost finished the woman, but Simone’s growing distress stopped him. She was his mate, and she didn’t approve of this.
Retracting his fangs, Killean stepped back from the woman and wiped the blood off his mouth with the back of his arm. The woman’s dazed eyes briefly met his before they rolled back in her head and she slumped onto the bed.
Killean watched the steady rise and fall of her chest before turning to Simone. Shame coiled through him when he saw the displeasure in her eyes. He shouldn’t have lost control in front of her, but there was nothing he could do to take it back.
