Page 28 of Crimson Born

“For a long time, they did. And there are still lots of humans who seem to have no problem living and working with vampires,” he said. “But things have been changing lately. There’s a growing anti-vamp sentiment in the country. Who knows? Maybe it was always there, and we just didn’t realize it. It really started ramping up when Graham Parker came on the political scene.”

“Who’s that?”

He shook his head, squinting a quizzical look at me.

“You really did live a life apart, didn’t you? Graham Parker is a U.S. senator, and he’s running in this year’s presidential race. He’s got a surprising amount of support, considering how long ago the vampire rights movement happened. Apparently all these anti-vampers were just lying low, waiting for their time to come out of the woodwork. It’s been a little frightening to see actually.”

“So that’s why vampires have been moving here? To hide?”

He bristled. “We’re not hiding—we’re regrouping. Planning. Getting ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“The revolution,” he said as if it was self-explanatory.

That was the end of the conversation for the moment because suddenly we were in a crowd. If there was, in fact, some sort of revolution coming, thesehadto be the soldiers.

Every one of the men surrounding us was huge and clad in some variation of the leather pants, boots, and jacket Kannon wore. I might have been intimidated by their size and obvious strength if they hadn’t all been smiling.

One of them slapped Kannon on the shoulder.

“So the victorious warrior returns. How’d youevermanage to bring her in, huh buddy?”

There was laughter followed by another teasing remark from a shorter, burlier man. “When I heard you were having some trouble with your assignment, I pictured you reeling in a shark. Instead you’ve brought us a guppy.Thisis what took you a week?”

Kannon’s cheeks turned red, and he looked at the ground before looking up again and grinning at his friends.

“This,” he paused for emphasis, “is Abigail Byler. And she needed a few days to warm up to the idea of leaving home. Abigail is Amish.”

One of the guys laughed. “Gee, really? You don’t say?”

I looked down at my plain dress and shoes. I’d given up on the bonnet once I’d stopped going out during the day and mixing with humans. But the style of my hair itself must have proclaimed my cultural background.

When loose, it hung past my waist. Right now it was pinned in a bun at the back of my head, as was the usual style for girls and women in my village. I hadn’t seen a mirror for days, so at this point it must have looked rather unkempt.

Since none of the men had introduced themselves to me, I didn’t say anything to them.

Finally, one of them met my eyes and smiled.

“Welcome to the Bastion, Abigail. Imogen will be happy to know you’ve arrived...” His attention swung over to Kannon. “... at long last. We thought this guy was losing his touch.”

Kannon exchanged a few more joking remarks and back slaps with his friends, and then we were moving again, deeper into the cavern.

“What did they mean? That you were losing your touch?”

He swept a hand through the air in a dismissive gesture. “Nothing. They’re just ribbing me. We’ve been working together for years. They’re Bloodbound like me. It’s a brotherhood—we give each other a hard time, but it’s all in good fun.”

He gave a humble dip of the chin. “I have a reputation among the Bloodbound for being able to bring in even the hardest cases, quickly and cleanly. You were supposed to be an ‘easy’ job, by the way.’”

He shot a grin at me, and I returned his smile. “But I was difficult.”

“You certainly were. Because you were hanging onto your humanity so hard.”

“Yes, well, I learned my lesson on that.”

“I hope so,” he said as we left the first chamber. “Because Imogen doesn’t take kindly to human-lovers.”

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