“Where to next?” he inquired.
“Down the ledge,” she told him. “I’ll lead.”
“No,” he said and started down the ledge before she could protest.
“It ends abruptly!” she shouted into the wind at his back.
A firm squeeze of her hand was the only indication he’d heard her. She stared at the back of his head as they walked. The bottom of his hair had been singed; it wouldn’t repair itself, but at least it would grow back. The bow and quiver he’d reclaimed from where they’d hidden them away in the cave bounced against his back. He came to an abrupt halt when they arrived at the rock wall at the end of the ledge.
“We have to climb down!” she yelled to be heard over the wind whipping through the mountains and tearing at their hair and clothes. The villagers leaned forward to look over the ledge; two shook their heads and stepped away. “You either climb, or you go back and take your chances in the town!”
Their gazes darted between her and the steep cliffs; for a minute, she didn’t know what decision they would make, but they finally began to nod. “I’ll lead the way,” she said. “Follow where I put my hands and feet; keep your body close against the cliffs to avoid the wind pulling you free.”
She realized those hadn’t been the best choice of words, when all of them visibly paled. “You’ll be fine,” she assured them.
She bent down to grab hold of the wall, but William seized hold of her arm and dragged her up against his solid chest. Before she knew what he intended, his hand snaked into her hair; he pulled her head back and took hold of her mouth with a passion that left her limp and shaking. His tongue swept in to taste her with a desperation she’d never felt from him before. She clutched his arms as he made love to her mouth with deep, penetrating thrusts of his tongue.
Pulling away, his forehead rested against hers; his mouth hovered inches away from hers. “You should have listened to me, but thanks for saving my life.”
“I did listen to you,” she replied with a smile. “I kept my promise. I sent Pallas on with your patch and your message for your sister. I couldn’t leave you behind, William. I simply couldn’t.”
His eyes searched hers before he bent and kissed her nose. “I would do the same for you. I would do anything for you.”
A thrill went through her at his words. She lifted her head to kiss him again. “We must go. I’d like to catch up to Pallas before they make it to the other side of the caves, in case they run into those things.”
“I’ll be right beside you; let me get off the wall before you.”
He stepped back as she turned to the wall once more. Going on years of practice, and her drive to be free of this place, she lowered herself over the edge and began to climb down. Behind her, she heard the shuffle and the muttered words of the villagers as they followed. Halfway down the wall, she glanced up to see the line of villagers following her like ants at a picnic.
She turned her attention back to the climb down. Her arms and legs quivered with exhaustion; her fingers hurt from gripping the wall so tight. Her hair, torn free from the hood that had been knocked back from her face, whipped in the wind. The strands of it beating against her frozen cheeks stung, but she continued stalwartly on toward the next ledge.
Hugging the wall, she watched as William dropped onto the ledge and did a hasty patrol of the area before coming back and waving at her to join him. He stepped aside to let her down; his warm hand burned through her cloak to heat her back. Her entire body felt like rubber. She barely had the strength to move out of the way of the villagers before collapsing again with her back to the wall.
William settled beside her, his broad shoulder brushing against hers. A minute passed, before she looked up at the six villagers still on the wall. They were making good time for ones so inexperienced. Her gaze traveled above them, but she saw no one else on the ledges or cliff face.
She pushed herself to her feet and rested a hand against the chilled rock in order to keep herself steady. The other villagers collapsed beside her, their shoulders heaved as they bowed their heads. “We won’t have to climb again,” she told them.
“Thankfully,” the one beside her murmured.
Taking hold of her hand, William turned and hurried down the ledge with her behind him. “Up here, on your right!” she yelled to him.
She squeezed his hand when they were almost to the entrance of the final cave. She almost jumped for joy when she stepped into the shadows of the cave, but she managed to keep herself restrained.
She only made it ten feet before William jerked her back. The force of his pull caused her to stumble awkwardly. She was trying to right herself when he spun her away and pinned her against the wall with his back. A startled cry escaped her; the jagged rocks protruding from the wall scraped her skin and bit into her back. Her hands fell onto his shoulders. His muscles tensed and vibrated beneath her touch like a cat ready to pounce on its prey.
She had no idea what had caused such a reaction, but she knew something wasn’t right. Her mouth dropped when she spotted the group of white clad men and women emerging from the shadows of the cave. There were at least nine of them, but they weren’t the ones who drew her attention the most.
Her fingers tensed on William’s shoulders when Kane stepped forth. The smug smile on his lips tugged awkwardly on his scar, pulling half his face up in some kind of macabre theatre mask. His hazel eyes twinkled with delight as he turned and waved a hand at the shadows behind him.
Tempest’s heart plummeted; her stomach curdled when two more white robed figures led Pallas, Abbott, and the rest of the children forward. Agnes clung to Pallas; the tears streaming down the young girl’s face glimmered in the glow of the guard’s torch. Pallas’s eyes shone with unshed tears.
“I’m sorry,” Pallas whispered. “I didn’t know they were following us.”
Kane’s smile grew as his eyes turned toward her. Tempest almost cowered away from the malevolence in his gaze, but she remained unmoving by sheer strength of will. “Well, when I saw my missing resident of the orphanage fleeing from the home and toward the mountains, of course I became curious as to why you would suddenly reappear at the same time as…” his gaze slid pointedly to William, “you.”
William shifted before her, his muscles rippled. The power within him swelled beneath the tips of her fingers, electrifying her skin. He was so strong, so powerful, yet she didn’t think it would be enough. Not against Kane. Tempest bit into her bottom lip as Kane ruthlessly stared at William.
“I thought where there was smoke, there must be fire. I didn’t see her slip out of the cave to return for you, but when we caught up with the children, I knew she’d return for them.”
Tempest kicked herself in the ass for being spotted, but she’d never seen him following her, and there had been no way to remain completely hidden from view. She’d led Pallas and the others to the first ledge before taking a different way out of the mountains and back to Badwin. It had taken her longer to return to the town than she wanted, but she couldn’t put the children in more peril by risking being seen exiting the cave.
Kane’s tongue flickered out to lick his lips when his gaze slid over her. “I don’t blame you for following the girl into town, she is a fine piece.” The growl William emitted caused the village vampires to take a step back. Tempest’s hands tightened on him, in an attempt to keep a hold of him in case he tried to launch at Kane. “I’m going to enjoy using her in every way and breaking her beneath me when you’re dead. Maybe I’ll keep you alive to watch, for a while.”
Her grip on William proved useless when he tore free of her and leapt at Kane with a roar that would have made a wolf cower. Kane braced himself, but the force of William’s shoulder slamming into his chest threw them both into the shadows of the cave and out of view. A scream for him built in her throat; she managed to keep it suppressed as she spun toward the remaining white clad vampires.
Their eyes shone red in the firelight playing over them. Smil
es curved their mouths as they adjusted their spears in their hands. Tempest tugged two stakes free of her cloak and braced herself the way William had taught her.
“Do you have any more of those?” a village woman with vibrant red hair inquired of her. Tempest dimly recalled her name was Moira.
She glanced over the other villagers, but they all had the same resolute look on their faces. “You saved our lives. They won’t take us without a fight, not this time,” a man said.
Digging into her cloak, she pulled out the other four stakes tucked within. They took the stakes from her. She handed a fifth vampire one of the stakes in her hand.
- CHAPTER 29 -
It had been foolish, a mistake to rise to Kane’s baiting, but he’d never been known for his cool and level head. He’d meant to stay calm, to assess the situation and do what he could to get them out of it. Then Kane had said that about Tempest and all he’d seen was red, all he’d wanted was Kane’s blood. No one would ever touch her or harm her in such a way, especially not this piece of shit. It had gone on too long; this man had to die. He deserved to die.
They rolled into the shadows together before crashing against the wall with so much force rocks and debris fell down upon them. Caught up in each other, he found it difficult to get a solid punch in, but he drove his fist into Kane’s gut repeatedly. If Kane had been human, the blows would have forced him to curl in on himself as he gasped for air, but he did neither of those things.
Kane’s hands dug at his stomach; his fingers scrambled and tore at William’s skin as he tried to rip into the scar he’d left on him after their first battle. William flung himself back, rolling away from Kane before he could dig too deeply into his flesh. The vampire was stronger than he was, faster. He had to stay on the move if he had any chance of getting the upper hand. Outside the orphanage, he’d had the element of surprise on his side when he’d attacked, now he had none of that. Tempest’s strengthening blood still ran through his veins, but he didn’t know if it would be enough to take Kane down permanently.
He rose to his feet and charged at Kane with his shoulder down; the vampire dashed to the side as William had anticipated. Before he would have hit him, he’d switched direction. He ran back toward the main cave and the sounds of feet scraping on stone, grunts and cries of pain coming from there. When he’d gone for Kane, he’d made the horrific mistake of leaving Tempest out there with those other vampires.
He didn’t have the time to berate himself for allowing his hot-tempered tendencies to get the best of him. He had to get to her and make sure she survived whatever happened here. Kane wasn’t his main concern.
Racing out of the shadows, he crashed into the back of a white cloaked vampire closing in on Tempest. Lifting the vampire up, he smashed him face first onto the floor with enough force to knock the spear he’d been clutching free. The man’s neck snapped from the impact and twisted at such an unnatural angle that his eyes were now looking up at William. His hands scrabbled against the floor, ripping off his fingernails as he gouged away chunks of rock from the floor. William snatched up the spear and drove it through his heart. He yanked it free and spun to face Kane when he came at him again.
William swung the spear up, catching Kane under his chin and knocking him back enough to buy him some more time. From the corner of his eye, he watched Tempest as she squared off against a man stalking her with lethal intent. Tempest swung at the man, who dodged back to avoid the stake in her hand. The vampire leapt forward, but instead of trying to catch him with her stake again, Tempest leaned against the wall and drove her foot up. She kicked him in the crotch with enough force that William was certain the man could now be classified as a woman.
The vamp howled; his hands clasped at his nuts. His face turned the color of a tomato before his legs buckled and his knees hit the floor. Showing no mercy, Tempest pulled her arm back and drove the stake deep into the man’s heart. The vampire’s eyes rolled back in his head, Tempest yanked the stake back out before the man slumped to the floor.
“Who taught you that move?” he inquired as he arrived at her side.
She grabbed the vampire’s spear off the floor. “You told me to do whatever was necessary to win.”
“I did and I approve.” He turned back as another vampire fell to one of the village vampires, but more bodies of the villagers littered the floor. “Stay close to me,” he commanded gruffly.
“I should be saying that to you,” she retorted. The fire in her eyes and the set of her chin showed her anger with him more than her words ever could. He had the urge to cover his manhood as she continued to glower at him.
He squeezed her hand. “Sorry.” The word sounded strange spilling from his lips; over the years he should have offered many apologies; he’d only ever issued a few. “It won’t happen again.”
His bow and arrows beat against his back, but in such close confines, and with so many vampires shuffling about the cave, he couldn’t take the chance of hitting someone on their side with an arrow. It would also be unlikely he’d be able to get off many shots before he was overtaken. The spear was the better option right now, no matter how badly his fingers itched for his bow.
He charged back into the fight, keeping Tempest beside him as he swung the spear at first one vampire and then another, pushing them back. The children and Pallas had all huddled into the back of the cave, sheltered behind some boulders. The flickering light of the torch danced over the rocks as the clash of spears, and the coppery stench of blood filled the cave. Flecks of blood splashed over his face and soaked into his clothes. He worked to carve away the white clothed figures while trying to make his way back to Kane, who was just as ruthlessly cutting his way through the villagers.
He drove his spear through another vampire, and grabbing the vamp’s discarded spear from the ground, he tossed it to the woman with the strawberry colored hair. By his side, Tempest hit a woman who leapt at her with her spear, knocking the woman back. Before the woman could completely regain her footing, Tempest swung the spear low, sweeping her feet out from under her. Not missing a beat, she leapt forward and drove the spear into the woman’s heart.
Fast learner, he thought with pride.
He spun back to the fight as Kane burst free of the crowd and rushed at him. A grim smile spread across William’s mouth; he braced his legs and swung his spear up. Kane’s spear crashed against his, rattling the wood within his grasp. His fingers clenched on the weapon as he fell back beneath Kane’s furious blows.
He fended them off, wielding the spear with the expertise of his training. His arms ached, his hand vibrated as the spear was beat repeatedly. He turned to the side, avoiding Kane’s lunge and managing to crash his own spear down onto Kane’s back.
The blow should have knocked Kane to his knees, but he managed to catch himself before falling down. William spun the spear so the arrowhead pointed at Kane’s back. The vampire spun and grabbing the bottom of the spear broke the arrow off. It clattered across the stone floor with a rattling ting as it spun into the shadows of the cave.
William didn’t have time to recover before Kane’s arms wrapped around his knees and he was dragged down beneath him. His back slammed into the rock; his head crashed off it causing stars to burst before his eyes when his brain rattled against his skull. He almost lost his broken spear, but somehow managed to keep hold of it as Kane scrambled to grab his legs.
Getting his knees in between them, William thrust upward with enough force to dislodge the smaller vamp. Kane rolled away into the darkness as William staggered back to his feet. He looked toward where Tempest and the others stood; the rest of the white cloaked vampires lying about their feet. There were only a handful of the village vampires left, but at least some of them had survived. Tempest’s skin had taken on an ashen hue, blood speckled her cheeks, but she appeared unharmed. His gaze fell on the cowering children.
“Run!” he yelled at them. “Tempest, take the children and run!”
It was the mention
of the children that finally broke through to her, as he’d known it would. Spinning away, she began to usher the children and others forward with a hurried shooing gesture. “Go!”
William spun toward the shadows as Kane bolted toward him with his shoulders down. He swung his spear up, prepared to drive it into Kane’s back. At the last second, Kane rose up and threw his spear at him. William dodged to the side, but not in time to avoid having the spear tip plunge into his shoulder and burst out the other side.
He bit back a shout of pain, afraid to draw Tempest’s attention to the fight again, but he couldn’t keep back a grunt from the force of the impact. Turning back to face Kane, he didn’t have time to get out of the way as the vampire hurtled across the earth and dove at him. William stumbled back. He realized too late that he’d been standing near the entrance of the cave. With another violent shove from Kane, he lost what was left of his balance and toppled over the edge of the cliff.
***
“William!” Tempest screamed when she saw him tumble away into nothing.
She’d led the others farther into the cave, urging them to run faster, and making sure the children would make it to safety before doubling back to help him fight Kane. She’d been too late to help though, too late to save him. Rage and sorrow left her shaken as tears streamed down her face. The tears fell, but the rage drove her forward with a bellow she’d never expected to come from herself.
Quiet and hiding in the shadows all her life, she knew now she’d never be that girl again. No, now there was no hiding from her problems, they had to be faced head on, and this one she planned to face with the ruthlessness of a mountain lion.