Free Damned if I Don't (The Harker Trilogy Book 2) by Erin Hayes

office. “This is what we call the Marrow,” she explains as she walks. “We’re a group of vampires who run counter to vampire society. There’s just under forty of us here, but we’re all over the world. We’re here to make sure that the Progenitor’s legacy is thriving and that there is no threat to the balance of the world.”
    Right. None of this is making any fucking sense.
    Hannah keeps talking, as if we should be able to follow what she’s saying. “We operate in secrecy to try to keep vampires under control. Much like yourself, Harker. You know, I’ve met a few of your ancestors. You’re the first who has been to this location though.”
    “Oh,” Edie says dazedly.
    “Why?” Carl asks, breaking into Hannah’s preamble. “Why are you guys hiding?”
    “To protect the Progenitor,” Hannah answers. “No one needs to know that he exists—in fact, it’s for the Progenitor’s own good that they don’t, because the more vampires who know he truly exists, the bigger ideas they get to try to take that status for themselves.”
    “And then you end up with someone like Anthony,” Edie states.
    “Exactly.”
    As we walk around the floor, I pay attention to every vampire there. Some are monitoring the internet to see if there’s any chatter about vampires, others are communicating in different languages to other sects of the Marrow across the world via cell phones and headsets.
    Hannah leads us to a door that opens to an office of sorts, complete with a set of couches. Unlike the rest of the floor, this office has floor-to-ceiling windows, showing the sprawl of Houston just outside.
    “This is my private office,” Hannah says. “Where we can talk about bigger things and people won’t be able to hear it. It’s sound-proofed, secure.”
    Edie stiffens, as the vampire steers her to a red velvet chaise lounge. “You had better sit down,” she says.
    I don’t want to sit down, but we do. Hannah is watching me the entire time as she sits, her eyes glittering. I know that once she starts speaking, she’s going to blast open the doors to my past and I don’t want to peek. I have the feeling that it’s not going to be all butterflies and flowers.
    “Where to even start?” Hannah wonders aloud.
    I’m wondering that myself.
    “I guess with you, Alejandro ,” Hannah says, turning to me, and her voice takes on a sultry cadence as she says the name. “Do you really not know who you are?”
    I gulp and shake my head. “No. I don’t.”
    She lets out a long breath. “Well, this will come as a shock to you then.”
    I lick my lips. “What?” My heart pounds in my chest. “I already know that Anthony sired me.”
    Please be it. Please let there be no more.
    She lets out a guffaw. “Oh, not just that,” she says with a laugh. “You really don’t know, do you?”
    “No.”
    “Anthony didn’t just sire you. He’s your brother.”

Chapter 10
    Edie
     
    “Wait, what?” Carl asks in disbelief.
    All emotion leaves me and the world begins to spin around me. No, this can’t be true. This Hannah vampire, whoever she is, has her facts wrong. There’s no way. No fucking way that’s the truth.
    Fuck. My. Life.
    “Anthony is Ale ’s twin brother,” Hannah repeats, putting that final nail into the proverbial coffin. “I know that’s hard to believe, but…” She turns her attention to me and clasps her hand over mine. “Think about it,” she says gently.
    I do. I honestly try, but the pieces don’t want to fall into place, because I have such a block—on the very suggestion—that they’re even remotely related.
    “It can’t be true.” The voice is so rough and raspy, it takes me a beat to recognize it as my own. “They don’t even look alike.”
    Even as the words leave my mouth, I freeze even deeply. Anthony’s face is so scarred and melted that I couldn’t tell you what he looked like before that happened. There was some sort of horrible trauma that happened in his past, and I