Bound by Torment (The Alliance, Book 5)

  BOUND BY TORMENT

  Brenda K. Davies

  Copyright © 2020 Brenda K. Davies

  All rights reserved.

  BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

  Books written under the pen name Brenda K. Davies

  The Alliance Series

  Eternally Bound (Book 1)

  Bound by Vengeance (Book 2)

  Bound by Darkness (Book 3)

  Bound by Passion (Book 4)

  Bound by Torment (Book 5)

  Bound by Danger (Book 6) Coming 2020

  Hell on Earth Series

  Hell on Earth (Book 1)

  Into The Abyss (Book 2)

  Kiss of Death (Book 3)

  The Edge of the Darkness (Book 4) Coming 2020

  The Road to Hell Series

  Good Intentions (Book 1)

  Carved (Book 2)

  The Road (Book 3)

  Into Hell (Book 4)

  The Vampire Awakenings Series

  Awakened (Book 1)

  Destined (Book 2)

  Untamed (Book 3)

  Enraptured (Book 4)

  Undone (Book 5)

  Fractured (Book 6)

  Ravaged (Book 7)

  Consumed (Book 8)

  Unforeseen (Book 9)

  Forsaken (Book 10)

  Relentless (Book 11) Coming 2020

  Historical Romance

  A Stolen Heart

  Books written under the pen name Erica Stevens

  The Captive Series

  Captured (Book 1)

  Renegade (Book 2)

  Refugee (Book 3)

  Salvation (Book 4)

  Redemption (Book 5)

  Broken (The Captive Series Prequel)

  Vengeance (Book 6)

  Unbound (Book 7)

  The Coven Series

  Nightmares (Book 1)

  The Maze (Book 2)

  Dream Walker (Book 3)

  The Fire & Ice Series

  Frost Burn (Book 1)

  Arctic Fire (Book 2)

  Scorched Ice (Book 3)

  The Kindred Series

  Kindred (Book 1)

  Ashes (Book 2)

  Kindled (Book 3)

  Inferno (Book 4)

  Phoenix Rising (Book 5)

  The Ravening Series

  Ravenous (Book 1)

  Taken Over (Book 2)

  Reclamation (Book 3)

  The Survivor Chronicles

  Book 1: The Upheaval

  Book 2: The Divide

  Book 3: The Forsaken

  Book 4: The Risen

  CONTENTS

  Books by the author

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Epilogue

  Where to find the author

  About the author

  CHAPTER 1

  Willow threw out her hands to avoid the branches slapping at her face as she bolted through the woods. The limbs beat against her skin, tore at her hair, and clawed at her clothes. If she didn’t know better, she’d almost believe the trees were alive and trying to hold her back from fleeing the monsters pursuing her.

  Her breath thundered in her ears, and her heart raced as footfalls sounded behind her. She wanted to believe they were friends instead of enemies, but the stench of rot buried her brief surge of hope. She had no idea where the other members of the Alliance were anymore, but she knew where the Savages were, and judging by their footsteps, they were gaining on her.

  It was supposed to have been a simple, one day and back mission. It had turned into a nightmare. When she went to investigate the tunnels with the others, she hadn’t expected to be ambushed by Savages hiding in the woods while a horde of them poured out from the earth and descended on them with the wrath of gods.

  They’d all believed it was a simple check of cameras that went down in the thunderstorm the other day. The cameras were always going out, even on good weather days, and they often sent a group to fix them.

  According to Roland, the hunter head of security, it wasn’t unusual for three or more cameras to go down at a time. So when six of them went down during the storm, it wasn’t surprising.

  She’d gone to check the numerous cameras set up to monitor the woods around the tunnels and the entrances a couple of times before. During those times, the most exciting thing that happened was discovering a couple of deer grazing near one of the openings the Alliance blocked with explosives five years ago.

  Every time she came here, they fixed the cameras, checked to make sure the tunnels remained blocked, left Maine for Boston, and shared a couple of drinks before returning to the compound. She’d fully expected the same thing today, had already planned on ordering a rum runner to go with her whiskey shot, and crawling into bed tired but happily buzzed.

  Instead, she was fleeing from a herd of Savages who had dug their way into the tunnels during the brief time the cameras were out. She had no idea what they sought in the bombed wreckage, but there they were.

  Some of those monsters caught fire as dozens of them poured from the bunker. They were like a swarm of bees coming up from the earth and descending on them with all the wrath of pissed-off hornets. There was no fighting them; the five of them didn’t have a chance against so many, but they tried to hold their ground until Lucien commanded them to run.

  Lucien. She had no idea where her commander was anymore. The last time she saw him, he was fighting off a horde of Savages as he made his way toward the trees. Despite his command to leave, she tried to stay, to fight, but staying equaled death or a fate worse than death, and the only way any of them could survive was to run.

  She was the last to leave Lucien behind, and she was paying for that now as the Savages footsteps sounded behind her. The shadows of the forest must have put the fires on them out as she didn’t smell smoke anymore, but then, the ones chasing her might not be so lost to their Savagery that the sun would kill them or badly burn them.

  When they went to check the tunnels, they assumed the daylight would keep them safer, but they were so wrong, and she’d been running for hours. Fear trickled through her as she glanced toward the darkening sky as the shadows deepened around her. Once the sun set, more Savages would join their fellow monsters in the hunt.

  She leapt over a
fallen tree. When she landed, her foot caught on a buried rock, and her ankle twisted to the side. Pain coursed through the wounded extremity, but she didn’t let it slow her as she pumped her arms and pushed herself onward.

  Her lungs burned, her legs ached, and she’d moved beyond exhaustion hours ago, but months of rigorous training to become a member of the Alliance had made it so she could endure worse and run longer.

  And she would run until the sun rose again if that was what it took to survive these things. She didn’t try to be quiet; instead, she concentrated on fleeing.

  Willow kept her attention focused on trying to dodge the trees racing by her in a blur, as behind her, the joyful yelps of the Savages filled the growing night. A muffled shout from her right came before the thud of what sounded like a body hitting the ground.

  Willow’s heart leapt into her throat when a man let out a muffled shout. If she had any doubt the cry belonged to a member of her team, it ended when it became more high-pitched and filled with agony.

  The Savages were damn close to her, but she couldn’t leave one of her own behind. Detouring to the right, she nearly slammed into a large maple tree when she ducked to avoid a branch that would have caved in her skull if she ran into it at full speed.

  Needing to go for stealth, she eased her pace and was more careful where she put her feet as she came around a boulder. She removed a stake from inside her jacket as she prepared for battle.

  When she stepped out of the shadows of the boulder, she discovered three Savages feasting on someone. With the victim’s head turned to the side, she couldn’t quite make out who it was, but it didn’t matter; the members of the Alliance were her family.

  She couldn’t tell if their victim was alive or not, but while they were distracted, she could kill them. Bolting through the trees, she raced toward them. A blur of motion coming at her from the right caught her attention, and she spun as a Savage burst out of the woods.

  Relying on training and muscle memory, Willow turned her arm sideways and plunged it into the Savage’s heart. Its eyes widened, and its fingers clawed at her stake before she tore it free. The dying Savage fell away, but three more raced out from between the trees.

  Shit!

  Lifting her foot, she kicked the first one in the stomach and shoved it back as the second leapt at her, and the third came at her from the other side. She drove her fist into the nose of the second one. It flattened beneath her blow, and blood gushed from it.

  The stench of the rotten blood caused her nose to wrinkle as she turned toward her second attacker. She adjusted her hold on her stake before pulling back her arm and letting it fly. The Savage dodged to the side to avoid a killing blow, and the stake embedded in its shoulder instead of its heart.

  Willow removed another stake and waited until the things were closer before acting like she was going to throw it again. The fake-out caused the Savage to duck as it charged her, so the creature didn’t see that she wasn’t weaponless.

  When it was almost to her, Willow twisted to the side, grabbed the back of its head, and lifting her knee, smashed it into the vamp’s face. The Savage released a garbled shout and tried to jerk away, but she didn’t give it time to recover before plunging the stake through its back, into its heart, and yanking it free.

  The other Savage had recovered and was coming at her as more of them emerged from the trees. Feeling her life slipping away from her, Willow sprinted toward her fallen brother. The three feeding on him were still so distracted they didn’t hear her coming.

  Willow staked another one and shoved the creature away. Realizing death had come for them, the other two released their bite on the man she now recognized as Leonard. He was a young hunter who only recently completed his training and been allowed to go on missions.

  Willow buried her sorrow when she realized the young hunter’s heart had stopped beating. There would be time to mourn the loss of the fallen later, but if she didn’t get out of here, she’d be mourning the end of her life.

  She lost count of how many Savages emerged from the woods before she sprinted into the trees. Because she’d stopped, the Savages were closer than they’d ever been. Their hideous laughter was like fire nipping at her heels as it spurred her to speeds she hadn’t believed possible, but impending death or incarceration until she turned into a monster were great motivators.

  The trees were nothing more than blurs, and the blows their limbs dealt her left welts and bruises on her skin. One slapped her in the corner of her eye, and she wasn’t sure if involuntary tears or blood spilled from it. She didn’t bother to wipe it away as she concentrated on not running straight into a tree or boulder.

  She had to come up with a plan that didn’t consist of running all night and possibly all day. She was a purebred vampire in peak physical condition, but no one could outrun so many of them forever. There were far too many of them, and they would eventually overtake her.

  Another tortured scream came from her left, but this one was too far away for her to attempt trying to locate the victim. By the time she got there, they would either be dead or taken prisoner, and that was a fate worse than death.

  Only five of them came on this mission led by Lucien. And now, as far as she knew, only three remained, and that was if she included Lucien, but he was probably the first one taken down.

  She didn’t know how he could have escaped the horde swarming him. She tried not to shudder at the thought of her commander taken out by a wave of Savages, or worse, being held by them until they turned him into one of them.

  He’d rather be dead; she’d rather be dead, and she was so not ready to die. She was young and had so much to live for still. And she would leave so many heartbroken people behind.

  Mom. Dad.

  The reminder of her parents brought tears to her eyes, and she blinked them back. Her mother was so upset when Willow announced her decision to join the Alliance. She’d hated her mother’s tears, but she was determined to be a force of good in this world. Her father had stoically handled her decision, but she saw the concern in his eyes and felt it when he hugged her on the day she left.

  “Come back to us,” he whispered in her ear.

  “Of course,” she vowed.

  And now the lie of that promise whispered like a tiny, evil devil in her ear. A devil telling her she wouldn’t make it, she would never see them again, and they wouldn’t recover from this. They had nine other children and a growing number of grandchildren, but they would never be the same if they lost her. A piece of them would die with her, and she couldn’t let that happen.

  Her siblings would be devastated too, and poor Wyatt. She had a lot of nieces and nephews, but since joining the Alliance last summer, she’d grown a lot closer to her sister Vicky’s son.

  Wyatt was five now, and she was one of his favorite people. Every time his mom was mad at him, Wyatt would run to her, and she would spoil him rotten, which irritated the hell out of Vicky. Her sister’s annoyance was a bonus.

  She’d grown closer to Vicky, but they still loved to needle each other like they did when they were kids. Vicky wasn’t thrilled when Willow joined the Alliance, but over the past nine months, she’d accepted this was what Willow chose to do with her life.

  The howls and chatter of her pursuers reverberated off the trees and through the rise and fall of the hilly terrain. She couldn’t keep this up. Even if she could eventually outrun them, she might end up injuring herself worse than a twisted ankle, and when she did, they would tear into her like jackals.

  CHAPTER 2

  She dodged another branch as a grunt sounded from somewhere nearby. Turning, she strained to see through the shadows and the blur of the trees, but she was moving too fast to make out anyone in the shadows. Her split-second distraction cost her as she turned back in time to see a tree trunk in front of her.

  Darting to the side, she tried to avoid plowing straight into the tree, but her left shoulder caught the corner of it, and the blow staggered her back a few step
s. Her fingers on her left hand went numb, and her shoulder sagged awkwardly, but she didn’t have time to examine the injury.

  She didn’t miss a step as she seized her arm and yanked it upright. Her teeth clamped down as a crack issued from her shoulder. She tried moving her fingers, and at first, they remained hanging limply at her side, but then two of them twitched as feeling gradually returned to her healing shoulder.

  A higher-pitched howl split the night from somewhere nearby. The hair on her nape rose as the cry intensified. Just as it faded away, more howls sounded until they reverberated all around her and drowned out the sound of her labored breathing.

  With those awful howls filling the air, she couldn’t tell if one of them was closing in on her. But they probably intended to confuse her when they started their chorus. When some of them faded away, more of them filled the night, until it sounded as if a pack of wolves was on her ass.

  Throwing up her hands, Willow plowed through a series of low-hanging branches that battered her flesh and caused fresh welts to pepper her skin. She was moving so fast she nearly collided with a patch of briars on the other side of the copse of trees.

  Skidding to a halt, she ran parallel to the thorns while she looked for an opening in the thicket. She couldn’t plow into them; they’d tear through her clothes and flesh. She healed fast, but they would track her through the blood sticking to her clothes and skin. The last thing she felt like doing was fleeing a bunch of Savages while naked.

  Finally encountering a break, she bolted forward as a howl cut off and a series of curses and grunts issued from the woods behind her. One of the Savages hadn’t avoided plowing into the briars.

  A branch snapping was like a gunshot in her ear. She turned toward the sound as a weight crashed into her back and knocked her off her feet.

  Before she could get up, a hand embedded in her hair while another tore at her clothes, and the monster planted himself on her back. Stunned from the impact, it took her a second to react, but when it jerked her head back, adrenaline surged through her.

  She wouldn’t let them take her alive, and she wouldn’t let them feast on her either. Reaching over her head, she clawed at its face. Shredded skin embedded beneath her nails, and the Savage twisted her hair until involuntary tears burned her eyes and strands of it tore free.