Bound by Danger (The Alliance #6) - Brenda K. Davies Page 0,104

Callie before helping Killean and Saber gather the Savage’s bodies. They placed them out where the sun would hit them soon. He dumped Yannis’s body on the ground before retrieving his brother’s head and dropping it unceremoniously on the body.

He stared at him for a minute before turning away. Yannis was the past; Callie was his future.

When they finished cleaning up the mess, Lucien stalked over to the SUV housing Callie. He pulled open the back door to discover Simone had lowered the seats and settled Callie in the back. She rested with her head on a pillow.

He held his breath as he watched for the small rise and fall of her chest that would indicate she was breathing. His ears instantly picked up the laborious beat of her heart, but it took far longer than he would have liked before her chest rose.

His shoulders sagged before he crawled into the back to settle next to her. He lifted her hand and clasped it in both of his while he studied her abnormally pale features and her black hair spilling across the pillow. Through the hole in her chest, he watched the beat of her healing heart as it lumbered to pump blood through her.

Simone didn’t speak before she slipped out of the vehicle and closed the door behind her. Carefully, Lucien lifted Callie’s head and settled it in his lap. He brushed the hair back from her forehead as he studied her features. Her mouth was pinched, and as her transformation progressed, she twitched and moaned.

He would give anything to take away her discomfort, but he could only sit by her side and watch as she suffered just as he’d watched her mortal life come to a vicious end. The reminder caused his fangs to lengthen as fresh color swirled over the backs of his hands.

He needed to kill, to rend and destroy, but the Savages were all dead. Nothing remained for him to slaughter. Leaning closer to her, he inhaled her sweet scent now intermingled with Simone’s and his.

He was inside her, a part of her, and though she still suffered, when she came out of this, she would be immortal, stronger, and they would seal the mate bond.

Her aroma and the tantalizing promise of their future together helped calm the demon inside him. He stroked her forehead as he bent to kiss her.

Her breath tickled his lips as he whispered, “I love you. Come back to me soon.”

He thought her hand squeezed his, but it was such a fleeting movement he couldn’t be sure.

“It will be over soon,” he promised. “The worst of this will be over soon, my love.”

He longed to crush her against him, but he didn’t dare for fear he would damage her more. As he ran his thumb down between her brows, her eyes fluttered back and forth behind her closed lids.

He spent his time alternating his attention between Callie and Killean, Simone, and Saber as they stood guard over the demon they’d moved into the back of his battered SUV. They’d swathed it in blankets to protect it from the rising sun, but Saber had kept its head out, and they all watched its face like vultures circling carrion.

An hour passed before Willow and Declan returned to join the others. He saw them talking, but no one came over to the SUV. Though he was curious about what they discovered, he wasn’t going to leave Callie, and he was glad no one bothered them.

Then he watched as Willow walked away from the others and stuck the tip of the sword into a Savage’s body. The jewel in the hilt glowed brightly before the body burst into ash. She lifted her head and said something to Declan that he couldn’t hear before moving on to the next body.

They should have thought to use the sword sooner, but they still weren’t used to the weapon, and he didn’t think they ever would be. Willow was still making her way through disposing of the bodies when the sun reached high enough that a flicker of flames pulled his attention away from Callie’s small cries. Her hand clenched around his, and her body twitched as her transformation progressed.

Small fires erupted over the exposed flesh of the remaining dead Savages. Those fires spread until they became a blazing inferno. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling as he took grim satisfaction in watching the Savages burn.

His grin widened when the fire spread to his brother’s body. His hand