Page 33 of Bound

The wind roared in my ears. Bats scythed around us in an ominous cloud. “You don’t have him.”

Vlad shook his head. “No.”

“So why am I here?”

“Because I need a meeting with Guillermo Montemayor. And I need your help to secure it.”

I barked out a laugh. “Get real. You think he takes my calls?”

“We don’t have long, so let’s dispense with the posturing. We know exactly who you are. We know your mate and his brothers will track you here. Within minutes, if I had to guess. He’s cute, by the way.”

“He’s not my mate.”

A smile quirked at the vampire’s lips. “No? A pity.”

“If you don’t tell me where my brother is—"

“Your brother is being held by the Vampire Nation.”

“Where?”

“An undisclosed location. Kieran Greer can be moved at any time. All it will take is a single phone call. The covens have survived for centuries by never staying in one place long enough to get pinned down. It’s why we so rarely recover survivors in cases like these.”

“You talk as if you’re separate from them. From the Vampire Nation.”

“I command the largest vampire resistance faction on the planet. The People’s Insurgency wants independence from the covens. We seek to form an alliance with shapeshifters in anticipation of the conflict that is coming with humans.”

“That’s why you want the meeting with Guillermo.”

“Precisely.”

“There has to be something else. The Council doesn’t negotiate with terrorists.”

Through the pack bond, I felt West closing in. I had no idea how close he had to be before his witchy powers of persuasion would start to take effect. But he wasn’t my primary concern. It was River who posed the more immediate threat, River, who could shred Vlad’s mind from blocks away, erasing all information on Kieran’s location.

Back off, I silently snarled to all of them.

“We didn’t take your brother. We aren’t the terrorists. My people are fighting for a world where you aren’t branded as someone’s property at birth. You saw what things were like within the covens during your time as a captive. You were there. You know what the conditions are like for the shifters they’re trafficking and for the lower caste that’s been enslaved for centuries, forced to do the bidding of their masters or be turned out into the sun. We aren’t so very different, you and I.”

“I’m nothing like you.”

Vlad stepped closer, voice urgent. “I know what you’ve been doing. Word reaches us, too. I know Kieran Greer isn’t the only one you’re searching for. That you and your pack are out there, trying to aid the others, ones you owe no allegiance to, was ironically the reason we decided we could trust you.”

“So tell me where he is.”

“Zara and her followers have him. Now that they know what you can do, they’ll seek to recruit you to work for them. By force, if necessary.”

“You know, back when I was being held, there were all sorts of rumors making the rounds about you. A runaway from the lowest caste sparking a world-wide panic then disappearing into thin air? Half the people I talked to didn’t believe you were real. The other half thought you’d gone mad from being forced to drink too much shifter blood.”

“And what do you think, wolf?”

I shivered as West’s presence seared through the bond, incandescent as starlight. “No offense. But I’ve known too many vampires.”

Vlad turned towards the north, face a mask. “Our futures are cast at birth. Those born into the aristocracy lead privileged lives built off the enslavement of the lower caste. Because consuming shifter blood causes Acute Lycanthropic Degenerative Disease in vampires, the aristocracy won’t risk drinking it themselves. They force the lower castes to consume it in their place and go out to fight their wars, slaughter, murder and rape until no one is left alive.”

“You know what they did to me.”

“All too well.”