Page 72 of Bound

“Sorry,” my mate growled. “He’s taken.”

I turned away as he slashed the undead’s throat. Topher tossed the body aside, then knelt beside me.

“You went dark through the bond. I thought—”

I gripped the back of his neck, kissing him roughly as he dragged me to my feet. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

His eyes flashed gold.

We found the others back at the door to the compound. The bodies of five dead vampires had been moved to one side of the tunnel.

“That won’t be the last of them.” River nodded to my arm. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. Looks worse than it is.”

“Says the English teacher.” Topher was already digging in the med kit.

“Patch him up fast. We need to move. They could send another wave at any time now. Brody and London are ready to go at the secondary door.”

“You have to stop shielding,” my mom said to Vlad, frowning at the bodies of the five vampires. “I can’t differentiate between their minds and yours. It took me too long to neutralize them. Next time we might not be so lucky.”

Vlad shook his head. “Non-negotiable. I’m sorry.”

“It’s the only way. Usually I grab all the minds in the immediate area that feel the same—vampire minds. Shifters and humans feel different when you touch them. Now that we’re all fighting together—”

He smiled humorlessly. “Little harder when you can’t just kill anything with fangs on spec?”

“You think we didn’t have reservations before agreeing to this mission?” River got up in the vampire leader’s face. “Like any one of you couldn’t jump us into the middle of one of your coven houses right now and leave us for dead? We’re all risking our asses here, too.”

I closed my eyes, feeling my Omega power pulse beneath my skin. It was fading, the dose of Eclipse taking effect. I had to hold on long enough to do this. Moon magic filled my veins. I felt the fabric of the pack bonds ripple beneath my fingertips, the vampires outside that magic, but not unreachable. Not to me. Beside me, face cast in shadow, Topher inhaled sharply. Phoenix’s eyes snapped to his. Gently, I touched each of them. Not to bind them to me. Not to claim. Not like I had bound Topher to me. He was ours, the only one we wanted to hold, I crooned to my wolf as I lightly marked each of them with an echo of my magic, leaving a marker my mother would be able to pick out of the sea of minds, passing over any mind that felt like me.

The tension bled from the group. I let the moon energy fade from my blood, suddenly so exhausted I could have slept for a week. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my mother nod.

“Trust goes both ways.” I shot a pointed look at River. Turning to Jori, Vlad and Rowan, I said, “Sofia is right. This is how her gift works. She can’t protect us—all of us—if she can’t separate your minds from theirs. Don’t make it any more complicated than that.”

River said, “August, are you nearly ready?”

“All set.” He got to his feet. “Everyone, get back. This is gonna pack a punch.”

“Delta Team, on my mark.”

Phoenix glanced up from where he was monitoring the tunnel we’d entered from. “Without the heavy silver alloy content of the door, they’ll be able to materialize people in and out of the prison as soon as the door is breached.”

Sofia said nothing, watching River as he frowned slightly. But whatever my youngest brother was overhearing he seemed to dismiss after a moment, coming to stand with the rest of the group. We moved further back into the tunnels. August activated the timer on the detonator and came to join us.

“Now we see if your calculations are correct or we’re all going to be buried under a thousand tons of concrete,” Rowan whispered into his ear.

“Out of curiosity, exactly how many bomb making classes do you think they offer in the college of engineering?”

“Dude,” Topher muttered, securing a self-adherent bandage around my arm over a layer of gauze. “Not making me feel any better.”

Seconds later the detonation punched me in the sternum, knocking the breath from my lungs as a cloud of dust and debris rushed through the tunnel. Topher wrapped himself around me, shielding my body with his as the concussive wave shuddered through the passageways.

“Let’s move,” River ordered. “Both teams, form up.”

We started forward, taking up position on both sides of the door. Through the smoke and haze, I caught the arc of a small cylindrical projectile as it sailed through the breach in the wall where the door had stood moments before. It hit the concrete and rolled, knocking into one of the dead vampires and coming to rest at my brother’s feet.

“River!” Sofia shouted, but he’d already seen it.