Page 63 of Bound

I frowned, a crazy-dangerous idea threatening to take form. I looked around the bar. Hayden had slid into Ethan’s lap, her fingers trailing lightly through the hair at the nape of his neck. Topher, who had been called in to cover for someone earlier that day, was still in his EMT uniform—we would seriously be revisiting that later. August studied his phone, the dark circles under his eyes more prominent than ever. My family, who would have done anything to keep me safe.

I turned to Topher. “Do you trust me?”

His eyes held mine. “Yes.”

I pulled out my phone.

West: I have a proposition for you. One you’ll like even better than mushroom ravioli.

Three blinking dots appeared.

Vlad: You’re aware I don’t sparkle, right?

West: #TeamJacob. And you should know that we’ve been approached by Zara’s people.

There was a long pause.

Vlad: Hmm… what did they offer you? No, wait. It will be more fun if I guess.

West: You were marked for death by the Vampire Nation the day you betrayed them. The fact that the People’s Insurgency is gaining power is only making the aristocracy more desperate to take you out. You need an alliance with my uncle because the one thing Zara understands is strength in numbers.

Vlad: But you can’t get me that meeting. If you could, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

West: My brothers will be meeting later tonight. You should come. You don’t have to decide anything now. But come and listen. I think you’ll make the right decision. We’re the kind of people you want to have as friends. Also, pretty sure there’s going to be BBQ.

The blinking dots paused. Restarted.

Vlad: Will there be chicken? Don’t tell Dallas, but I follow his cat on Twitter.

I started to tap out a response when the door burst open. Ellie Crowe stalked through the front door dressed in cat-print scrubs, her dark, curly hair on top of her head in a messy bun secured with two wooden chopsticks. A beat later the dark figure of River followed. I hadn’t seen Hayden’s younger sister in nearly a year, not since the terrible day we’d all been brought before the Council to deal with the matter of Hayden’s stalker, the torture and abuse Topher had sustained, and the abductions that had been taking place for months in Austin. Though Hayden had tried to keep her werewolf bite and subsequent infection with lycanthropy a secret, Ellie had put the pieces together and figured out we were all shapeshifters. Guillermo had given her a choice: be turned into a werewolf herself, or have her memories erased. And when she’d chosen the latter, he’d forced River to perform the memory rewrite on the spot.

Hayden leaped to her feet. “Ellie, what are you doing here? Don’t you have school—”

Ellie blew out a breath that sent stray curls dancing across her forehead. She wrapped her arms around herself as if the sudden rush of air conditioning was too much, burrowing deeper into a black hoodie that smelled suspiciously like River. “I had to come back. I remembered. I remembered everything. I know what you are.”

August cursed. Topher and I exchanged a look. From the way Ellie couldn’t stop shaking, she was clearly anything but okay.

Hayden glared at the hoodie like she wanted to set it on fire, or maybe just its owner. Dragging her sister into her arms, she hugged her fiercely. “Please don’t hate me. I wanted to tell you. If I had, they just would have ordered your memory wiped a second time, and that could have caused permanent damage. You don’t know how worried I’ve been.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Hays. None of this was your fault—” Ellie frowned suddenly, rubbing her temples. “I’ve been having nightmares for months. I told you, right? I think I’ve always known something was wrong in the back of my mind. I just couldn’t quite hang on to what. And any time I would try, when I would remember being back in the corn maze the night of the thunderstorm and seeing that wolf attack us, I would get terrible headaches. But it wasn’t until River showed up today that I remembered.” Turning to where he was hanging back by the door, she glared. “You are unforgivable, by the way. You have an IQ higher than anyone in five counties. You could do anything. How many crises is this planet currently facing that could use a mind like yours? And instead you decided to become Kylo Ren, evil mind laser and werewolf henchman.”

He flashed a brittle smile. “There’s the Ellie I know.”

Hayden bared her teeth. “Why are you still here? Haven’t you done enough?”

Ethan came around the bar, stepping between River and his wife. “Ellie, are you hungry? We’ve got cocoa. Dallas is sending more food over from The Spoke. We can tell him to pack all his vegetarian sides, a loaded baked potato… I think he has this really good chef salad with hard-boiled eggs Hays likes—”

August rose from the bar. “Topher and I were about to go pick everything up.”

Hayden shot him a grateful look. “Thank you.”

Ellie shook her head. “I’m not hungry.”

“You need to sleep,” River said quietly. When Hayden whirled on him, he held up both hands, but his eyes stayed locked with Ellie’s. “The altered memories and real ones are both there now, competing to sort themselves out. You’ll make yourself sick if you keep fighting it. I brought you home for a reason. Your mind needs to rest and heal.”

“Hays, I need to talk to you.” Ellie rubbed her temples. “Alone.”

“Go upstairs.” Hayden slid an arm around Ellie’s thin shoulders, leading her towards the stairs in back that led up to the apartment she and Ethan shared. “I’ll make you a pumpkin spice latte and be right there.”