Bound By Blood

“What about Zack?”



“He’s a vampire.”



“Why would that upset your father?”



“He isn’t one of us. He’s one of the Others.” Stefan stared at her. Like all of their kind, he had grown up on tales of the Others, of their bloodthirsty nature, their willingness to kill mortals indiscriminately. They could not reproduce, so they did not have any family ties; instead, they lived singly, friend to neither mortal nor their own kind.



Stefan shook his head. “No wonder your father is upset.”



“I love Zack. I don’t care what he is.”



“I felt the same about Cosmina, but take it from one who has been there. No matter how much you care for Ravenscroft, you are better off with one of your own.”



“You loved Cosmina very much, didn’t you?”



He nodded.



“So much that you can’t bear to be with another woman?”



The sadness in Stefan’s eyes deepened. “When I buried her”—he shook his head—“it was like burying my heart. My soul.”



“I’m so sorry.” She couldn’t stay angry with her uncle for siding with her father, not now, when she knew how he felt. She couldn’t blame him for wanting to spare her the kind of pain he had known.



When the song was over, he thanked her for the dance and left the ballroom.



Kaitlyn stared after him. With a sigh, she started toward her mother, who stood in a corner of the room with several other women. She stopped abruptly, suddenly overcome with the feeling that Zack was nearby, searching for her.



Zack stood on the steps of the Fortress. Earlier, he had gone hunting in the town located a few miles away. While there, he had bought a pair of black dress pants, a dark blue silk shirt, and a long black coat. It paid to look sharp when calling on your best girl.



He stared at the large double doors. There were a few drawbacks to being a vampire, one of them being that he couldn’t enter a home without an invitation. With that in mind, he knocked on the door, heard the sound of it reverberate inside the building.



A few minutes later, a tall, dark-haired woman opened the door. “Yes?”



“I’m here to see Kaitlyn Sherrad.”



“Is she expecting you?”



“I don’t think so.”



“Please wait,” the woman said, and closed the door in his face.



Three minutes passed. Four. Five.



“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Zack muttered. But he hadn’t come this far to turn back now, not until he’d seen Kaitlyn.



When the door opened again, Drake Sherrad stood there. “You are not welcome here,” he said brusquely.



“I’m not leaving until I see Kaitlyn.”



“Very well. Follow me,” Sherrad said, his voice cool. “We need to talk in private.”



Zack felt a rush of preternatural power as he crossed the threshold, but it didn’t repel him. His gaze moved from side to side as he followed Kaitlyn’s father up several flights of stairs that ended at a small wooden landing.



Warning bells went off in Zack’s mind as Sherrad opened a squat wooden door. Zack was about to dissolve into mist when three men materialized behind him. Before he could react, one of them—a human male— dropped a thick silver collar around his neck. The silver burned through cloth and flesh, rendering Zack helpless. A long silver chain was attached to the collar.



Zack glared at his captor as the man dragged him through the doorway and into the room beyond. Only, it wasn’t a room, but the ruins of what had once been a tower. Moonlight shone through a jagged hole in the roof.



Zack struggled against his captor as the man shackled his feet with heavy silver chains, then secured the chain dangling from the collar to a thick bolt set deep into the wall.



“The three of you may go,” Sherrad said. “I trust you will say nothing of this to anyone.”



With a bow of acknowledgment, the three men left the tower.



Zack glared at Sherrad. “Now what?” He glanced at the jagged opening in the roof. Come morning, moonlight would be replaced by sunlight. And while he wouldn’t burst into flame and disappear as some believed, if he remained in the sun too long, it would char his flesh down to his bones. Not a pleasant prospect. Or a pretty sight.



“I am going to leave you here to think things over.”



“I love your daughter,” Zack said. “Nothing will change that.”



“You may feel differently by tomorrow night.”



“Why are you doing this?” Zack frowned. “It’s more than just Kaitlyn, isn’t it? It’s what I am. One of the Others.”



Sherrad folded his arms across his chest. “My people have sworn to destroy your kind.”



“Why didn’t you do it back in Lake Tahoe?”



“In front of my daughter? I think not.”



“So, how are you gonna explain my absence?”



“You will simply disappear.”



“She knows I wouldn’t do that.”



Sherrad glanced at the hole in the roof. “In a few days, it will no longer be your problem.”



Zack swore. “You’ve really got your daughter fooled, don’t you? She thinks you’re wonderful.”



A muscle twitched in Sherrad’s jaw.



“What do you think she’ll say when she finds out about this?”



“It does not matter. I will not have my daughter align herself with your kind.”



“We’re not that different, you and I.”



Sherrad didn’t answer. Instead, he stalked out of the tower.



The door clicked shut behind him with dreadful finality.



Chapter 21



Kaitlyn walked through a long black tunnel. Vampires lined both sides, their eyes red and glowing, their fangs gleaming brightly in the darkness. They hissed at her as she passed, their expressions cold, their voices angry as they shouted that she was a traitor, an outcast. She turned to her father for help, but found no succor there, only disappointment when he looked at her. Tears stung her eyes when he turned his back on her. She looked at her mother, certain her mother wouldn’t reject her for loving Zack.



“I’m sorry,” her mother murmured. “So sorry.” And then she, too, turned away.



Tears ran down Kaitlyn’s cheeks as one by one, her aunts and uncles disowned her for loving Zack.



Zack, who stood at the far end of the tunnel, his dark gray eyes filled with pain and sorrow.



All she had to do was deny her love for him and she could go back to her own people. They would forgive her. They would welcome her with open arms.



She paused, torn by conflicting emotions. She loved her parents, but she was a grown woman now. She had a right to love anyone she wished. Didn’t she?



“Katy. Katy, come to me.” Zack’s voice, filled with grief.



How could she deny him?



“Katy . . . Katy.” The agony in his voice tore at her heart.



He needed her.



How was she to decide between her parents and the man she loved? It wasn’t fair. But Zack needed her. She could hear it in his voice.



“Ka-ty . . .” His voice, weaker now, threaded with pain. “Katy!”



She bolted upright in bed, the sound of his voice ringing in her ears. “Zack, where are you?” She glanced around the room. She hadn’t imagined his voice, or the underlying agony.



Throwing back the covers, she hurried out of her bedroom and into the hallway. She paused there, listening. And then she heard it again, Zack’s voice, echoing in the back of her mind. He was in pain. He needed her.



She glanced up and down the hallway, then shook her head. He couldn’t be here.



Katy.



She turned toward the sound of his voice, followed it down the corridor to the small door that led up to the ballroom, then stopped. This was ridiculous. What would he be doing in the ballroom, of all places?



She opened the door and peered into the darkness, her feet climbing the stairs seemingly of their own volition. Up, up, up, until she came to the ballroom.



She tiptoed inside, and looked around, then moved toward the windows on the far wall. She had never been up here this early in the morning. The scene before her was breathtaking. A few scattered clouds hung low, drifting puffs of white against the lightening sky. The rising sun painted broad strokes of ochre and crimson across the horizon and splashed the clouds with glowing shades of pink.



Katy.



She turned away from the window as his voice sounded in her mind once again. “Where are you?” she cried in exasperation.



This was the highest room in the Fortress. If he wasn’t here . . . Turning on her heel, she ran out of the ballroom and hurried up the short flight of stairs that ended on a small landing. She had never been in the room beyond. Her father had warned her to keep out, saying that the tower was in ruins, the walls crumbling, the floor unsafe.



She stared at the squat door. There was no latch. Placing her hand on the wood, she pushed, but nothing happened.



“Zack?” She pressed her ear to the door. “Are you in there?”



“Katy.” Her name was a sigh on his lips.



A well-placed kick broke the barrier between them. Scrambling over the broken bits of wood, she stared at Zack, momentarily too stunned by what she saw to speak.



With a groan, he shifted his weight. The sound spurred her to action and she hurried toward him. “Are you all right?” She dropped down on her knees beside him.



It had been a foolish question. His neck was raw and blistered from the thick silver chain around it. His ankles, too.



“Who did this to you?” she demanded.



“Your father.”



Kaitlyn shook her head, unwilling to believe that her father, the man she had idolized all her life, was capable of such wanton cruelty. “Why? Why would he do this?”



“I’m the enemy.”



“You’re not my enemy,” she said, biting back her anger. She glanced at the patch of blue visible through the hole in the roof. When the sun was overhead . . . She refused to think of what would happen then. Instead, she grabbed hold of the chain that bound his ankle and pulled with all her might.