Page 74 of Bound

I trapped the vampire’s hand under my boot. “Not so fast.”

West said, “All you have to do is open the cell blocks.”

“Are you mad?” The girl on the floor rasped, and as I stared down at her pale green eyes I noted how young she looked, barely a teenager. “Do you have any idea what they’ll do to me if you get away?”

Vlad knelt beside her. “We have places you would be safe. You don’t have to do this.”

“They have my family.”

The vampire began to shake, fighting Sofia’s mental hold. I felt the buzz in the back of my mind as her form began to desolidify.

“She’s going!”

Kneeling, River pressed fingers to her temple. He lowered his head, face a mask of concentration.

“Don’t do this,” Vlad said urgently. “We can help you. There’s another way.”

The girl’s signature scattered, dissipating like grains of sand thrown out over a windy beach. I blinked and she was gone. River cursed.

“Austin Fire is onsite.” August frowned, straining to hear information coming in over his headset. “APD is treating it as a possible shooter situation, but still no confirmation. Given all the calls they’re getting about an explosion, my guess is they’ll evacuate campus before long. With fifty thousand students, that will take some time.”

“Most of those are commuters,” West countered.

“But many of them live within a few miles of campus. They’ll have to evacuate the immediate area if they think it’s a gas leak,” I said. “They’ve got old gas lines and too many kids living right on top of each other. They won’t want to take any chances.”

“River?” Sofia demanded as her son rose, swaying in place.

He shook his head. “I’m fine. The wolfsbane knocked the crap out of me and I didn’t get anything before she jumped.”

Sofia swore.

Striding over to the next bloodsucker lying prostrate on the floor, River wiped his knife blade clean.

“Wait.” Jori emerged from the shadows dragging an unconscious vampire. His dark hair was trimmed short. Several tats peeked from beneath the sleeves of the dark blue uniform all the guards wore. She slung him onto the pile of battered crates. “This is Galen. He’s one of ours. Wake him up. He can get us into the cell blocks.”

* * *

With law enforcement bearing down on us and two cell blocks to clear, we split up. West, Sofia, August and the rest of Alpha team took the corridor that branched away south from the entry chamber, while Phoenix and I followed River, Vlad and Naomi down the north row of cells. The dimly lit corridor seemed to stretch out for miles. Vampires were light-sensitive, particularly to direct sunlight, which could kill them within seconds of exposure, but even certain forms of manmade light sickened them in high doses. I had a feeling a team of federal scientists on the paranormal research division was going to have a field day testing whatever sort of lighting set up they’d used here.

Heavy steel doors lined both sides of the corridor. None had any distinguishing features other than a narrow sliding panel at their base to allow a meager tray of food to be inserted. The silver alloy built into the cell walls and doors pulsed in the back of my skull like someone had poured battery acid into my veins. Silver numbed the senses and was dangerously addictive if used long term. Just being down here for a few minutes was so caustic I could barely think straight, my ability to sense vampires wavering like I’d just downed an entire bottle of tequila. I didn’t want to think what being in a cell like this for close to a year would have done to Kieran, physically or mentally.

“Each door has to be keyed open separately; there’s no master switch,” Vlad said as Galen hurried ahead to the next cell and began punching in access codes. “Additionally, the cells are on a timed system. Open too many at once, or too many without enough time elapsing, and it locks down the system entirely.”

“It can’t be tripped remotely?” River asked, frowning back down the corridor the way we’d come where Phoenix and Ian, one of Vlad’s people, were guarding our way out.

“Another safeguard to prevent hacking.”

River grunted at this, though whether from annoyance or admiration, it was hard to say.

“Kieran Greer is my brother. Do you know which unit he’s in?” I demanded as Galen moved to the next cell, fingers flying over the keypad.

“For security purposes, the cells are only marked as shifter or vampire, not by name.” Galen pressed his palm to the biometric panel, allowing it to scan his temperature. “I’ve only been on site for a few hours. They transferred me to another assignment two weeks ago after someone thought I was asking too many questions and got suspicious. Last I heard, your brother was being moved to solitary.”

My blood froze. “For what?”

“They said he attacked another prisoner. One of Zara’s high profile captives.”

The heavy steel door clanged open. Light flooded the hallway, so blinding it was as if we’d stepped out directly into the sun. The smell hit me next. I staggered back, eyes watering.