Page 65 of Bound

“You really think she could be in danger?”

Shrugging, River pushed his empty bowl away. “Maybe I’m overreacting. But… I’ve overheard things. Guillermo’s struggling to maintain discipline among certain factions within the Council and the Tracers. Everyone’s on edge with the threat of our families being wiped out by leeches or getting the call they’ve been hauled away by the feds. Lot of hot tempers.”

“You can’t go to Guillermo, tell him what you’ve overheard?”

“I have, but that’s not how it works. Not for us. Tracers solve our own problems in house. Civilians don’t… can’t understand the sort of things we see on a daily basis.” There was a deadly chill to his tone. “You have any idea what it’s like? Ripping the thoughts out of someone’s head, stealing a part of their soul while they silently scream? You don’t forget a single face. Not a single frame of memory. Your targets will never remember. But you do. All of it. And some days I…"

He trailed off before the thought could form, the hollowness in his voice clawing at my soul with gnarled fingers. And suddenly I wanted to take my youngest brother by the shoulders, shake him until he looked at me, really looked at me.

“I push it out of my head because that’s the only way you can live with it. For some of the others, those who don’t practice good mental discipline, who don’t know their own limits and allow arrogance to blind them to what can safely be done… eventually too much rewriting causes you to lose touch with what’s real and what’s not real. They become… damaged.” River stared down into his cocoa, weighing his next words. “I’ve warned Guillermo there are neural manipulators who need to be taken out of rotation, but we’re stretched thin as it is between the vampires snatching shifters off the streets and threats of raids by the human government.”

“Forget about them for a second.” I threw a glance at Ethan, who shook his head slightly. Maybe it was smarter to keep my mouth shut. Maybe it would keep the peace in our family for another week, another month. But someone had to say this to River before it was too late. “You know we’re all proud that you serve. So don’t think for one second I don’t appreciate the sacrifice that you and every other one of the Tracers makes to keep us safe. But I can also see it’s eating away at you. And, god, Riv. Permanent damage? You really want to mess around with that shit?”

His voice was deadly calm. “We’re at war. I’ll do what I have to if it means keeping the people I love safe. It’s easy to stand there as a civilian and pass judgement, to decide that every action can be broken down into black and white. It gets a bit more complicated when you’re facing the possibility of werewolves everywhere being taken away to internment camps, being used for medical experimentation, or kept as blood slaves. Shifters have to maintain a strong military presence because if we don’t have the ability to defend ourselves from those who would seek to exploit us, that’s it. We’re finished. And for better or worse, this is my gift. This is how I was called to serve. Just like Mom.”

I shook my head. I was getting this out, even if River didn’t talk to me for the next month. “I think you serve for all the right reasons, Riv. But I also think you being up in Dallas is tied to whatever happened between you and Brody the night before Dad disappeared.”

For the briefest second, eyes the pale silver of starlight flashed to mine. Our mother’s eyes. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Bullshit. You brought August home from Austin because he was having an episode. Dad and Brody went into the study. You overheard something. I know because August said he heard the two of you arguing later. What happened that night?”

The temperature in the room plummeted.

Ethan leaned forward. “Let’s everyone take it down a notch. Whatever it was, West, whatever you and August think you overheard, what happened to Dad wasn’t anyone’s fault—"

River’s voice was a shard of ice. “Whatever you think you know about that night, you don’t. So both of you do yourselves a favor and drop it.”

10

Topher

West: Not that it isn’t hot when you channel your inner Aragorn during his brooding Strider phase, but would you please just tell me what’s wrong?

West: And is this punishment for watching Game of Thrones without you the other night?

Topher: I mean, not for nothing, but who’s going to pass you Dean during the scary parts if I’m not there?

West: Given the whole biting thing, I’m still unconvinced of his potential as an emotional support guinea pig. You remember the last few episodes got so intense we had to make an emergency Chunky Monkey run?

Topher: *cough* Had to?

West: Please just tell me what I did. You’ve been acting weird all day.

I shut down my phone.

“I don’t like this,” August said, glancing over to where River paced by the window. “They agreed to the meet. We set the time and place. Where the hell are they?”

Hard to say what was a bigger mood killer—the rumors that were now flying around town about how we were all closeted werewolves or the fact that we were expecting fanged company any second now.

“Give them a little bit longer.” I rubbed a hand over my face. “They said they’d be here.”

“You’re not worried it’s a set-up?”

“They have no reason to trust us, and even less to trust the Vampire Nation. At this point, all we can do is hear each other out.”

“Which is why we’ve all got to be together on this,” Brody said as he checked his phone from over by the bar. “Any word on Ellie?”

“She’s fine,” River said. “Upstairs with Ethan and Hayden. Asleep.”