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Redemption (The Captive #5) Page 67
Author: Erica Stevens

His lips skimmed back to reveal his lethal looking fangs. "You may not know but I'm sure we'll enjoy trying to figure it out. Did you miss me Hannah?" She tried to twist her face away from his as he placed a sickening kiss against her mouth. Her lips cracked and bled beneath the brutality of his fangs digging into her lips. She cried out as she pushed uselessly against his chest in an attempt to dislodge him. "I missed you," he told her as he pulled away. "I'm going to enjoy showing you just how much I missed you. Then, well then I'm going to make you pay for every one of your betrayals, and I'm going to enjoy that even more."

He brushed her hair back and pressed his fingers against the fading marks Jack had left on her. "Especially this betrayal. Have you seen your good friend Turner lately?"

Fury and frustration tore through her at his taunting words. "You're nothing!" she shouted at him. "There's nothing you can do to break me, nothing that will ever make you anything other than the coward you truly are!"

He laughed as he pressed his face closer to hers. "By the time I am done with you I will be your everything Hannah. I will be the only thing in your world for the years that I choose to keep you alive. You'll pay for turning to him, you'll pay for costing me everything I earned here, and I will make you suffer for your indiscretions for many, many years of your life."

She had seen that torture room, if he got away with her now, she knew that she would most likely be praying for death by the time he was done with her. Desperation drove her, she couldn't lose everything she loved so much; she couldn't lose Jack. She swung back with her arms and finally managed to drive an elbow into his ribs. He released a loud grunt as his grip briefly loosened on her.

Turning within his grasp, she was able to break free of one of his hands and twist to the right. Through the curling smoke still filling the air, and the bodies pressing around them, William emerged from the conflict. His sapphire eyes were intense as he lifted the crossbow he kept at his side and fired at Calvin.

The bolt created a small breeze in the air as it rushed past her. She felt the brush of the feathers against her ear before it slammed into Calvin's shoulder and knocked her free of his tenuous hold. "Hurry!" William shouted as he held his hand out to her.

She raced forward and was nearly to him when Kane rose up from the smoke behind William, seized hold of his shoulder, and drove his sword through William's back. The tip of the blade ripped through the flesh of his stomach and burst out the other side. Shock and pain caused his eyes to enlarge as his gaze fell to the offending instrument tearing through his muscle and bone. His hands instinctively curled around it, but there was nothing that he could do to stop the weapon destroying his body.

A loud scream escaped her as she rushed to get to him, but she knew that even if she'd already been by his side, there was nothing she could have done to save him. Kane kept hold of his shoulder as he ripped the sword free of William's hands and body. The scrape of metal against bone was a sickening sound that made her wince as she poured on the speed to get to him. Blood spilled from the corners of William's mouth as he took a staggering step forward. Hannah leapt forward in an attempt to catch him before he hit the ground, but arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her away before she could get to him.

Her fingers stretched toward William but came up with nothing as she was swung away from his crumbling body. "No," she moaned as Calvin's hand snaked back into her hair.

"Don't mourn for him dear, he got the better deal out of the two of you," Calvin whispered in her ear.

She knew that this was true but even still her heart was breaking as she looked back at the young man lying face down in the street. He had deserved so much better than this. Tears streaked down her face, a sob wracked her body as she realized how truly devastated Jack was going to be. Her heart broke as she fought to get free, to get to William, to do something to try and help. She'd only known him for a short amount of time, but in that time he had become an important part of her life.

Calvin kept her restrained as he pushed through the crowd. There was a growing puddle of blood spreading around William as he remained motionless upon the ground. She tried to detect a heartbeat from the human but if there was one she couldn't sense it amongst the crowd gathered around her. She ineffectually beat and clawed at Calvin's back as he ruthlessly shoved people and vampires out of his way.

Aria's heart wrenching cry pierced through the commotion surrounding them as Calvin grabbed the horse's reins. "William!''

***

Jack had spotted the smoke miles before they rounded over the last mountain. "Hannah," he whispered as he moved with renewed speed toward the town nestled in the valley below.

The sounds of battle drifted through the air as steadily as the smoke still wafting from the ruined remains of what he now could tell had been the tavern. Braith was a little ahead of him as fear drove them faster than he'd thought possible toward the town they'd mistakenly left behind.

As they moved closer to the town they passed many humans and vampires running toward them to escape the chaos. Jack didn't stop to talk with them, didn't stop to ask them what was going on. There was no time for that, and no matter what was going on, he wasn't going to stop until he had Hannah in his arms again. They were just arriving at the outskirts of town when Aria's broken hearted scream pierced the air.

Something within him curled up and shriveled as within that scream he heard all the sorrow and anguish he knew only one of the twins could exhibit if the other had died. A roar erupted from Jack at the realization that his friend had fallen; his fangs sprang forth as he followed Braith's relentless pursuit of Aria.

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