Holding on to Hope by Sid Love Read Free Book Online Page B

fixing a dangerous gaze on his father. He made to step forward, but the vamp quickly took hold of Brad’s head.
    “Uh-uh!” Volund warned. “Don’t make that mistake again, Ronan. You have already lost your mother because of it. You don’t want to lose your boyfriend too, or do you?”
    Ronan swallowed visibly and stepped back. “Leave him alone, Volund. I beg of you.”
    Volund smirked. “I knew the day would come when my son would fall in love.” He gave a cold laugh. “Tell you what, son, let’s make a deal here.”
    “What do you want?”
    “That pretty human girl over there.” His words and the lustful stare directed toward her seemed to cut through her very soul. Leslie was not at all interested in being eaten up by a vampire. She stepped closer to Ian and held his arm tightly.
    “Go to hell,” Ian spat.
    Volund looked innocently between the two dhampirs. “But I assumed you brought her as an offering in exchange for your boyfriend,” he said.
    “We have brought nothing but death for you, you bloodsucking fucker,” Bo said, walking into the room with Kol. Those two looked like they had bathed in fresh blood. “There are no other vampires in sight, except for this one,” Bo informed Ronan.
    Leslie could see the fear on Volund’s face, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. Finding himself alone and outnumbered by dhampirs that were against him, he must have thought it best not to piss them off anymore.
    “Fine, let’s make a different deal,” he said, finally letting go of Brad’s head. “Promise me that you will let me get out of here safely and I will let your boy-toy live.”
    “Not happening, old man.”
    “Fine.” Volund exhaled. “I’ll just kill him then.” He reached to hold Brad’s head once again.
    “No!” Leslie screamed, fearing that she would be experiencing another death before her eyes, and this time Brad would be the one to die.
    Something else happened, though.
    It appeared to be a perfectly timed move that Ronan made when he suddenly took a leap, landing right on his father before he even had the chance to touch Brad. Volund grunted and kicked his son off him. Ronan flew across the room, hitting one of the walls. Kol was the first one to attack Volund after that, and Bo followed suit. As she had seen them fighting before, Leslie knew there must be a reason why they weren’t trying hard. Neither of them tried to kill him with one of the weapons that they hid inside their leather jackets. She realized all they were trying to do was help Ronan to kill his father. After all, Ian did say that it was the only way to break the dhampir curse.
    Ronan managed to recover from the dangerous fall, and he too joined the duo in fighting his father. He had retrieved a gleaming knife out of his coat pocket to use in his assault.
    “Let’s go help Brad,” Ian whispered, and she was pulled back from her thoughts.
    She rushed to Brad’s side and knelt down before slowly putting his head on her lap. “Hey, wake up. Brad!” She slapped his cheek gently, trying to get him out of his daze.
    “He won’t wake up, Les,” Ian, who had also knelt down by her side, told her. “He has been glamoured to stay like this.”
    He checked Brad’s neck. Blood was still flowing a bit out of the bite marks on it. “Can’t you like glamour him out of it?”
    Ian looked up into her eyes and smiled sadly. “No, I can’t. My powers went away after I killed my dad last year.”
    Leslie stared, becoming aware of the fact that she could never get used to hearing this stuff. She glanced over at the fighting. Bo and Kol had managed to hold Volund by his hands, making it very easy for Ronan to kill him. She could see how Ronan was burning with rage.
    “How dare you even look at Brad? Your eyes… I am going to cut them out,” he hissed and did exactly that. Volund’s horrible scream echoed as the knife went directly through his right eye. Leslie immediately looked away, cringing and cursing under