Page 67 of Bound

Rowan nodded. “My life at the compound was highly restricted, but I never knew anything else, so for years I didn’t question it. When I asked why I couldn’t leave the compound like my brothers, I was told I was very sick—genetically predisposed to a deadly blood cancer through my werewolf sire. This was the reason I needed so many blood transfusions, as well as biweekly screenings.” She flexed her fingers, staring down at her wrists. “No one was allowed to feed from me directly. I was given nourishing, iron-rich meals, and my blood was harvested twice a week intravenously. And for sixteen years, I didn’t question it.”

August swore. He was no stranger to invasive medical testing.

“One day when I was sixteen, I pried open the shutters over one of my bedroom windows on impulse after a fight with my mother and bared my wrist to a shaft of sunlight.” She paused. “And nothing happened. In that moment, it was as if my whole world shrunk in on itself. I hadn’t been burned by the sun. What else had Zara and my bodyguards lied to me about? In the following days I discovered that I, too, could dematerialize in short jumps across my bedroom. Every time they came to draw my blood after that, I asked myself if I had ever really been sick at all.

“I should have waited, but I was furious, frantic. I needed answers. Vlad was out of the compound that week training. I confided in our older brother Cristof, and he went to our mother, warned her I was growing suspicious.” Rowan’s voice hardened. “I was immediately moved to one of my mother’s high security compounds, put into a room that was warded so I wouldn’t be able to dematerialize out, and cut off from the rest of the world. For the next two years I had no contact with anyone but her and Cristof. When Vlad finally managed to locate me and break me out of that gilded cage, I vowed to do whatever it took to stop our mother from taking any more blood slaves.”

August let out a low whistle, nodding to Vlad. “You’re Zara’s son.”

“Yes.”

“The younger one everyone believes was killed by a rival coven.”

Vlad said, “In the eyes of vampire society, I’ve effectively been erased. On the night I revealed vampires to the world, I emptied several of my mother’s private accounts. After I cut the trackers out of me and Rowan, we both dematerialized to a car I had waiting. We’ve been on the run from our mother ever since.”

Brody shot a dark look at London. “If you’ve got anything to tell us, now’s the time, cause if I’m about to find out these are really your second cousins twice removed—”

She smirked. “You mean like how Rowan’s already offered to induct me into the coven as an honorary member? We’re doing the blood exchange right after cupcakes.”

West snorted.

London rolled her eyes. “Lighten up, Alpha.”

Vlad turned to me. “We’re going to work up a rescue op to extract your brother and the other prisoners they’re holding whether your pack agrees to an alliance or not. They have dozens down there—many of our people, too. That said, getting in won’t be easy. We’d be grateful for any assistance you could offer.”

“We won’t stand by while they do this,” Rowan said quietly. “The People’s Insurgency was formed on the belief that all of us, no matter the circumstances of our birth, should be granted the same rights under vampire law. We won’t stand by while they take your people. That isn’t who we want to be. I remember what it was like to be in a cage. And I think you do, too.”

I nodded, throat suddenly tight. “Thank you.”

“But you need to understand that if you refuse to stand against Zara,” Vlad went on, “if you leave us to face her alone, if Guillermo Montemayor and his werewolf council dismisses us as terrorists and decide our tactics raise uncomfortable questions about right and wrong they’d rather not address with their hard-liners, then we won’t be the only ones who have a problem.” He tilted his head. “War is coming and varewolves are the Vampire Nation’s genetically engineered solution to ALDD. Their blood allows vampires to day walk, gives the advantages of shifter healing, but without the same destructive properties of full shifter blood. If the Vampire Nation has their way, varewolves will be bred and kept in cages in every coven across the continent, their blood harvested to be fed to full-blooded vampires.”

“I think we can all agree that’s an outcome none of us want,” West said carefully. “But at the risk of sounding indelicate, why should we trust you? You attacked Lacey and Dallas back at Thanksgiving, and now you say you want an alliance.”

“Because we went to great risk to steal the sample of Eclipse once we learned it existed. I knew there was no chance you would believe me if I called your pack up, said who I was and told you I wanted to help.” Vlad shrugged. “We arranged a minor skirmish with your brother and his mate so you would witness the drug’s capabilities and take appropriate action.”

“And don’t forget we’ve been protecting your pack ever since Zara took an interest in you last fall,” Rowan added, nodding to me.

Vlad cleared his throat. “We don’t want your blood. None of our people do. We’re still searching for a therapy for those in the early stages of ALDD. And for those not yet affected, we don’t ever want them to develop the sickness.”

“Which means you need a source of human blood,” I said.

“Yes.”

West’s lip curled. “Do you expect us to just sit by while you prey upon the humans in our territory?”

“No. We know what it is to exist as someone’s slaves. We have no desire to form a society that treats anyone, vampire, human or wolf, as a commodity to be trafficked and exploited.” Vlad spread his hands. “At the same time, without blood, we die. We would prefer to find another way… willing donors, blood banks.”

“What about animal blood?” I said.

“It only works for short periods of time, and eventually results in episodes of madness much like your feral wolves experience.” Vlad’s gaze flicked to each of us in turn. “The question the public will have to wrestle with is whether it is possible to consume human blood products and still fundamentally be a decent person. A patient getting wheeled into the operating room isn’t called a monster because he will die if he doesn’t receive the contents of a blood bag.”

Brody muttered, “Good luck selling that argument on primetime.”

“It’s hard enough finding blood donors as it is,” I pointed out. “You introduce vampires into the supply chain, that’s going to cause shortages worldwide.”

“We would seek to cultivate our own pool of donors, test their blood for impurities, and then pay them. We don’t believe it would affect the human blood supply as it currently exists.”

“The covens can afford this?” River asked.