Page 87 of Bound By Blood

Someone—most likely Nadiya—had killed the elderly couple who owned the house. Their bodies lay side by side on the kitchen floor, both drained of blood.

Zack stared at them for several moments. He hadn’t killed many people in the course of his existence as a vampire. Sure, there had been a few early on, before he learned to control his strength and his hunger. And a couple of hunters he had killed in self-defense. But he had never killed wantonly.

“You’re going down, Nadiya,” Zack muttered. “Sooner or later, you’re going down.”

Every dark cloud had a silver lining, he mused as he dropped the two dead vampires on the floor. Thanks to Nadiya’s cruelty, he wouldn’t have to bury the bodies. He found two cans of gas in the garage and carried them inside. He used the first can to douse the bodies of the vampires, splashed the second can on the floor of the living room and the kitchen, and set fire to the place.

He stood outside for several minutes, watching it burn, before transporting himself back to Wolfram Castle.

Kaitlyn stood in the shower, eyes closed as the hottest water she could stand sluiced over, washing away the blood and tissue that had splattered over her. Never in all her life had she imagined her father was capable of such violence, such brutality. She had seen Zack destroy Marius, of course, but still—the scene in the basement had been like something out of a slasher movie. So much blood and gore.

And she had killed a man.

She washed her hair twice, her body three times, and wondered if she would ever feel clean again.

Stepping out of the shower, she dried off, then pulled on a furry bathrobe. Too restless to sit still, she paced the bedroom floor, unable to dispel the images of Zack and her father from her mind. She had grown up among vampires and never known they were capable of such carnage. She had watched her father change from a cat to a man and back again and thought it cute. But there had been nothing cute about Zack’s transformation into a wolf. She hadn’t been able to take her eyes off of him as he battled one attacker after another. In wolf form or his natural form, he had fought with a kind of lethal beauty that had been as mesmerizing as it was horrible.

She was half vampire. Was she capable of such violence? The thought that she might be was frightening. She had rarely tapped into her vampire half, never tested the limits of her powers. True, she had killed a man tonight, but it had been swift and she had taken no pleasure in it. The fact that it had been self-defense made it only nominally easier to bear. She wondered if he had a wife and family, tried to tell herself it wasn’t her fault, but Nadiya’s. But the man was still dead, his blood on her hands.

She had collapsed in her father’s arms when the battle was over. He represented home and security, but even as he had stroked her hair, she had been wishing it was Zack holding her tight, Zack whispering words of comfort in her ear.

Now, alone in her room, she tried to come to grips with her mixed emotions. It was disconcerting, knowing that Zack and her father could kill so quickly, so efficiently. Still, it was comforting to know that the two men she loved the most could protect her, even when the odds were stacked against them. She knew the horror of what she had witnessed—the grotesque images of torn flesh, the sickly sweet smell of blood and death—was forever burned into her memory. And yet, the horror of it would fade, in time.

The one thing she would never forget, she thought as she crawled into bed, the one truth that would forever remain engraved in her mind and her heart, was the knowledge that they both loved her enough to risk their lives for her.

Drake and Zack were sitting in the main hall when Elena entered the room.

“How is she?” Drake asked.

“She’s asleep.”

“Did you have any trouble removing the shackle from her ankle?”

“No.” Elena shuddered. “I threw it away.”

Drake nodded, his arm wrapping around Elena’s shoulders as she took a seat beside him.

“Was it awful?” she asked.

“Awful?” Drake glanced at Ravenscroft. “What do you think?”

Zack shrugged. “I found it kind of exhilarating myself.”

Elena stared at him, her eyes wide with disbelief. “Exhilarating?”

“Yeah. I guess that doesn’t make me a very nice guy, but I don’t care. I’ll rip the heart out of anybody, male or female, who hurts Katy. And that includes Nadiya and anyone else she sends against us.”

“You should have seen him,” Drake said, a note of admiration in his voice. “I have never seen anyone fight like that.” He clucked softly. “One minute he was a wolf, ripping out throats, and the next he was a vampire, ripping out hearts.”

Elena shuddered. “Sorry, but I’m glad I missed it. Don’t get me wrong,” she added, looking at Zack. “I’m glad you were there, I just don’t think it’s something I’d want to watch … although that changing into a wolf thing must be something to see.”

Zack looked at Sherrad, one brow raised in amusement. “Scarier than a cat, that’s for sure.”

Elena grinned.

Sherrad scowled at him.

“So,” Zack said, “what’s our next move?”

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