“You’re one of us now, Nash,” Kyan said in a low tone. “Time to prove it.”
Monroe lowered down, helping me to my feet and taking my chin in his grip as he looked at me. I didn’t know what he was going to say or do, but the swirling storm of hate in his eyes made me afraid.
I guessed he found whatever he was hunting for in my eyes as he released me, stepping towards Kyan and taking the knife from his outstretched hand.
“Don’t,” I gasped, knowing that if he did this, he couldn’t go back. He really would be tied to the Night Keepers. He’d be bound to them as fiercely as I was.
He ignored me, dropping over the man and sinking the blade between his ribs and that moment burrowed into my mind, never to be unseen.
“I killed him,” he growled like he was proud, like he really would have done it for me if he’d gotten to him first. And I realised with a terrifying clarity, that they all would have.
I didn’t know why they were saving me, but they were. These creatures who had used and tormented me were banding together to defend me from this. We were bound by blood, this secret living between us and forever latching us together. They could have disposed of me, told the cops what I’d done and let them lock me away. But instead they did more for me than anyone had ever done. All four of them.
They were the beasts who hated me, broke and tortured me. And now for reasons I couldn’t fathom…they’d protected me too.
My eyes were fixed on Tatum as we stood around her, all of us taking a moment to accept what we’d done before anyone could speak again.
“We’re blood bound now, the five of us,” Kyan said darkly. “That’s a bond as strong as family. Stronger even.”
My lip peeled back as my gaze landed on Saint. The son of the man whose family had destroyed mine. My soul reason for pursuing everything I had in life. The man I’d hated from the very first moment I’d laid eyes on him even if he’d never known it. Family? That was unthinkable.
But as my gaze found Tatum’s again, I could almost feel it. That pull to protect her still humming through me fiercely.
I’d done it for her. For a girl who’d breezed into my life and flipped it upside down, made me question everything and made me think and feel things I’d begun to believe I wasn’t even capable of.
There was one, single reason why I’d just pushed that blade between that rapist’s ribs. And it was her.
Because as insane as it sounded even to me. I was willing to kill for her.
I just didn’t know what the fuck that meant for the rest of my life.
Blake moved forward suddenly, gripping Tatum’s head between his hands and drawing her forehead against his as he released a shaky breath. She reached up to grasp his forearms as her eyes fluttered shut and for the strangest moment it seemed like she was taking comfort from this creature who I knew had worked tirelessly to destroy her.
“Thank you,” Tatum said, her voice rough. “All of you.”
None of us said anything to that and I wondered if their silent answers could possibly be the same as mine. That she didn’t need to thank me. That I’d do that a thousand times and more for her. Kill for her. Paint my soul in blood for her. It made no sense to me but it was true. I’d just proved it. Were they wishing they could say that too? And was their silence guilty like mine was? Were they cursing themselves for not being faster. For not helping her sooner. For letting that foul creature who lay dead beside us get his hands on her for one single second?
Were they wishing she wouldn’t thank them and drowning in the need to apologise for being so late. Almost too late…
I didn’t know, and with all I understood about them I wanted to seriously doubt it. But it was hard to ignore the way the three of them were staring at her. Hard to deny the depth to those looks. The intensity in each of their gazes.
And harder still to ignore the bond this secret put on us. All of us. Together.
What the fuck did that mean for me?
“Strip, now,” Saint barked and my gaze flipped to him again as Blake released Tatum and the three Night Keepers instantly ripped off shirts, kicked off sneakers and downed sweatpants. Tatum stripped the watches off of her arms too, dropping them with our clothes.
“Everything but your underwear, baby,” Kyan said, reaching out to brush his knuckles against Tatum’s cheek and causing her attention to fall on him.
The look she gave him made my gut clench and writhe in a way that I couldn’t even try to pretend wasn’t jealousy.
“We can’t deal with the body now,” Saint added. “If we’re gone much longer we’ll be missed. We need to get back out there and help make sure these motherfuckers are all gone for good.”
My gaze fell to the body beside us and the blood slowly pooling across the floor. Had the Night Keepers done this before? Did they know exactly how to deal with a body because they’d had a lot of practice?
“Now, Nash!” Kyan snapped and as my eyes flicked back up to him standing there in his boxers, I caught a wild kind of fear in his gaze which made me think not. No, they hadn’t killed before, but they knew how to destroy evidence.
They were all standing in their underwear waiting for me, Tatum’s arms crossed over her bare chest as she looked my way with a desperate apology painted across her beautiful features.
I quickly stripped out of my clothes, dropping them with the rest and stepping over the puddle of blood to join them.
Blake moved to lock the gate, stooping down to switch off the rapist’s cell phone too and plunging us into darkness. A moment later, Kyan’s phone illuminated the way on and he started jogging up the tunnel towards The Temple.
We soon emerged in a wide space that had been converted into a gym and I glanced around at the state of the art equipment.
“Wait here, Tatum,” Saint commanded and she fell still wordlessly as the Night Keepers jogged up the stairs and out of sight.
I didn’t follow them and they didn’t look back.
Tatum turned to look up at me, her blue eyes glimmering as she drew in a ragged breath. “I’m so sorry,” she breathed, drawing closer to me to keep her words private. Her hands and stomach were coated with blood and there was a savage kind of beauty to her as she stood there in nothing but her panties with her arms wrapped around her chest, smeared in the blood of her attacker. Her jaw was set tight and the determination in her gaze let me know she didn’t regret what she’d had to do for one second. She was a warrior embodied, refusing to bow down no matter what was thrown at her. And only rising stronger each time she fell.
“I’m the one who should be sorry,” I growled. “If I’d just gotten to you sooner after you called, I-”
“But now you’re tied to the Night Keepers for life because of me,” she protested and the look in her eyes said she knew what that must have cost me even if she didn’t fully understand what Saint’s family had done to mine.
“Not because of you,” I growled. “For you. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
A soft sob escaped her and tears gathered in her lashes for a moment which I knew were entirely for me and nothing to do with that fucker we’d left cold in the catacombs.
She moved towards me so suddenly that I almost didn’t know what was happening as she fell against my chest, her arms wrapping around me and her bare flesh pressing to mine in so many places that it overwhelmed me entirely.