Page 11 of Bound

His manner takes on a distinctly academic tone. “The Fae areinterested in you as a bondmate. Certain Fae have psychic abilities that aregreatly enhanced in the presence of a female whose brain is tuned to theirs. InBeck’s case, it’s more urgent. Beck was born with a symbiotic twin, Cian. Thinkof them as halves of a whole. Beck is the practical half. He’s the warrior.Cian is the intellectual half. When symbiotic twins turn twenty-five years old,a bondmate is found for them, if they aren’t already contracted. The femaleforms a triad with the males. She bridges their minds through hers, and they’reable to function together. It makes all three stronger. When Beck’s uncle tookover Tír na nÒg, he closed the plane. He did this for several reasons, but nodoubt one was to keep his nephews from finding a bondmate. They’ve been forcedto look elsewhere.”

“So Beck is twenty-five.” He seems older, but perhaps it’shis regal authority that makes him seem that way.

“My cousin turned thirty nearly three months ago,” Dantereplies, all teasing gone from his attitude. “Cian is fading. The intellectualhalf is in desperate need of the bond. It is killing him to go without. If Cianfades, all that will be left is the warrior with nothing to balance him. Beckwill likely go mad. If that happens, he’ll have to be put down.”

I don’t understand completely, but I hate the idea ofsomeone putting Beck down like he was a rabid animal. “That’s horrible. But howcan he be sure I’m this bond thingy?”

A slow smile curls the vampire’s lips. “There’s only one wayto know for sure. Tell me, sister, was it good for you?”

Embarrassment flashes through me as I realize what he means.The scene in the tent was Beck’s way of telling if we’re compatible. He eventold me what he was doing, but the thought of everyone knowing what he’d donemakes my skin turn hot pink. The vampire throws back his head and laughs.

“You are so rude.” How long will this take? When will theystart?

Dante shrugs, but the grin doesn’t leave his face. “I don’tsee what’s rude about it. It’s a simple fact of life. We all like to getfucked, sweetheart, and from what I’ve heard, old Beck there knows how to do itright. Of course, it would be slightly different with a bondmate. Even withoutthe full bond, during sex, you would have a connection with him.”

“I would feel what he felt.” I can’t help but think aboutthat odd, erotic moment when I’d been able to feel his hard-on, feel my pussygripping his fingers as I came.

“Congratulations,” Dante says almost sweetly. “You’re abondmate. I’ve heard it’s the most intimate connection a being can have.”

I’m not here to fall in love. I shouldn’t be here at all.When I have the chance, I’m going to get away, and no intimate bond is going tostop me. “Okay, that explains the Fae. How about the vampires?”

Dante leans in, fangs showing beneath his wide smirk.“Darling, the vampires are here because you taste really fucking good.”

Cara leans over my lap and slaps the vampire. Dante takes itwith good grace, merely leaning back as though he’s slapped by females on aregular basis. “Stop teasing the girl. Miss, the vampires are looking for whatthey call a consort. You have to understand there are two types of vampires,the peasant and those of royal blood.”

“Don’t call them peasants.” Dante whistles under his breath.“Them’s fighting words. One day you call them peasants, and the next day theyunionize.”

Cara ignores him. “The royals are the vampires with ancientblood. They are pure vampire. If they can find a proper consort, their livesare greatly elongated by taking his or her blood. The consort also receives amuch longer life by taking the vampire’s blood into his or her body. Theconsort’s blood makes the vampire stronger than he or she would normally be. Iheard your sister recently married her consort, Mr. Dellacourt.”

Dante’s nose wrinkles in distaste. “Yes. Now our house isfilled with love and roses every day. I’m not having any of it. What’s thepoint in an extra couple of hundred years if you can’t party? Susie and Colin.They walk around like lovestruck teens. It’s disgusting. See, the bad partabout finding a superhot piece of tail like you is the inevitable, long declineinto idiocy.”

“He’s trying to say that vampires fall deeply in love withtheir consorts,” Cara says primly.

“You say potato, I say potahto,” Dante sings.

“You, miss, could serve as either a bondmate or a consort,”Reeve interjects over the increasingly impatient crowd. “The psychic connectiongoes hand in hand with the differences in the blood. Normally, there would beplenty of suitable men and women. It is a common thing in Fae creatures. It’swhy our poor king is related to that one. Mr. Dellacourt’s father took theking’s aunt as his consort. The Fae and Vampire planes are closely linked.”

“Well, they were until that bastard Torin took over,” Dantesays.

“Why does everyone speak English?” I’m still trying tounderstand this strange place I find myself in. “I don’t get it. Dante soundslike every half-assed player prowling the bars on a Saturday night.”

Dante touches his chest and looks horribly offended. “Nowwho’s rude? For your information, I speak English because my people created ita long time ago. You can’t possibly think your ancestors were intelligentenough to come up with such a convoluted and ridiculous language. At some pointin time, my people found the door to your plane and taught you a thing or two.It probably happened around the time your people started standing upright. Bythe way, fire? Also a vampire discovery. You have us to thank for that, I’msure. As to my speech patterns reminding you of your home plane, I can onlysay, ick. I don’t mean to sound like some human. It’s an unfortunate truth thatour planes are closely connected. If our research on the subject is correct,there are a lot of similarities between the two. Think of it like this—ourplanes started out on the same track, but humans took over your plane, andvampires were the evolutionary winners on mine. There are bound to be many,many similarities.”

“Like the potato song,” I muse.

“You have that, too? Funny how that happens sometimes. I’veheard you can run into yourself on planes like that. The Vampire plane and thehuman plane are parallel. I wonder if there’s another me on the human plane. Ibet I’m getting an enormous amount of tail there.”

“Hush,” Reeve says. “It’s starting.”

My heart threatens to stop as a line of men walk out fromthe far side of the arena. A masculine voice booms throughout the space,announcing each as they walk through. It’s easy to tell the Fae males from thevampires. The Fae wear only pants and boots. Their chests are bare, and theirlong hair is pulled back and knotted behind their heads. The vampires have onlong sleeves and gloves on their hands. They wear sunglasses like Dante’s, andtheir shirts come with a hood covering their heads.

“We burn easily,” Dante explains when he notices me staring.“Our skin is delicate. The sun on our plane isn’t as strong as the others. Wedon’t have a lot of ultraviolet light. Dellacorp is currently working on acream that will protect the skin.”

“Yes, it’s called sunscreen. It blocks UV rays.” Finallysomething my plane did better. “We piddling humans came up with it long ago.”

“Seriously? You don’t happen to have any of that on you? Icould make a killing with that.” Dante’s business sense is quickly shelved as avampire walks into the arena. Dante stands and strides to the railing, hissunglasses flowing as he moves into the light. “Well, if it isn’t KinseyPalgrave, you stupid ass. You suck, Palgrave! And your profits were down tenpercent last quarter! Yeah, everyone saw it, you pathetic chump. Your stock’sgoing to take a nosedive.”

The other vampire shoots Dante the bird and bares his fangs.“Why don’t you get down here, Dellacourt? Or do you need your sister’spermission?”