Soul Bound

Chapter Thirteen

Blythe stretches her arms out over T.K.'s body to adjust her glasses. "Yes, fine. I'll watch your little meatbags. Go, quickly." She shoos us away with her hand and ushers Niki towards her desk. "Sit here. Touch anything and I will eat you both for breakfast."

Niki looks after me wide-eyed.

"She's joking! I'll be right back!" I yell to him as Dunn and Hicks usher me up the stairs to Finn's office by my elbows.

Finn opens his new door just as we step in front of it and pulls me inside. "Wait out here," he says to Dunn and Hicks, practically shutting the door in Dunn's bewildered face.

Finn leans in close and whispers so quietly even I have to strain to hear him, "Is River with you?"

I pull up my pant leg and show him, what I can now see as well: River in boa constrictor form.

"Why am I wearing a River leg warmer?" I ask. "He's really got an issue understanding personal space."

River coils tighter in response and I shake my leg to get him to stop.

"He's back up. He'll have the element of surprise if we need it."

"Hopefully we won't. You behave down there," I say as I carefully pull my pant leg back over River's snake body. "Finn, what's going on? We had to bring Niki and T.K., that's not okay! Where's Simon?"

"No choice, love. He's safe. You were right to give them to Bltyhe, she'll watch over them." Finn starts to pace. "Judge is back. He wants to know whose side of this fight we're on."

"What? We're not on either side! And why should I be? I don't want any part of this."

Finn puts a finger to his lips to quiet me down and then leans close to my ear, "Ya have to tell him you're loyal to the Order." He takes my wrist. "He will try to kill you otherwise. I need you to lie. Lie through your teeth."

"Why? Why should I pretend to be okay with what they've done?" I'm whispering, but I know my facial expressions and gestures are making up for what I lack in volume.

"To save us all from being thrown deeper into this mess. We need to stay out of it, Falon."

"Or maybe we need our own side! River told me what they do to us, Finn. And no one seems to care!"

"I do care, love. But we don't have time to argue morality right now. Just for today, until Judge leaves, I need you to pretend."

River's words resound in my mind. We're a dying species, Falon. Vampires will be the end of us.

I've only just found someone like me. My whole life there's been this emptiness; something's always been missing. Finn, and Dunn and Hicks, and the kids, they've filled that void a bit. They're my pack. But what about my people? What about my family? 

"Let's go talk to him, then," I say, staring hard at the floor.

Finn kisses the top of my head and leads me out of the room.

"You two don't leave her side," Finn says to Dunn and Hicks, who jump to attention when we exit the room. "Keep your guns holstered; let's make sure this is just a conversation, not a shoot out."

I follow Finn, with Dunn and Hicks on my heels, as he heads towards an office I've never been in before. He opens the door to a large room with no windows and bright lights. It's hot in here. Hotter than anywhere else in the Bank. This room must be for keeping vampire nerves at ease. There's nothing more ornery than a cold vampire.

Judge stands in the middle of the room, back turned to us. He doesn't bother turning around when we come in. A new pair of manservants stand rigidly against the right wall. Finn motions for me to enter and I walk past him, feeling his hand pat my shoulder as I go.