Bound and Unbound Summary: A Vampire Romance Duology
TL;DR: Two Love Stories in the Revenant World
Bound and Unbound collects two connected novellas in one volume.
Bound centers on Veronica “Vero” Mercer, an art history PhD candidate and skilled manuscript forger, who is recruited by the revenant Dr. Viktor Ashworth to forge a 9th-century text as bait for a killer.
Unbound follows Viktor’s sire, Lilit of Nineveh, and her decade-long secret affair with human ER doctor Roman Martin, while an assassin hunts vampire elders in Chicago.
- Central subject: Two romances between ancient revenants and mortals, set against a hidden society with strict rules.
- Key ideas: Consent in transformation, the ethics of immortality, and the cost of protecting the people you love.
- Reading experience: Fast pacing, sharp banter, and sudden violence in equal measure.
Bound and Unbound Summary: What Happens in Both Novellas
Spoiler warning: This section covers the full plot of both novellas, including their endings.
Part One: Bound
Veronica “Vero” Mercer is a fifth-year art history doctoral student at Rockhaven University, raised by her late grandmother Grace, a professional art restorer.
To save McManaman’s, the failing antique shop where she works, Vero uses her restoration skills to forge a 19th-century Latin manuscript leaf. The forgery sells for $90,000 and pulls the shop back from the brink.
Her work catches the attention of Dr. Viktor Ashworth, a professor of theology and philosophy who is secretly a 1,200-year-old revenant born in 8th-century Normandy.
Viktor has purchased all of Vero’s past forgeries. He has Pierre and Arlo abduct her and bring her to his dehumidified estate library.
Viktor offers Vero $1,000,000 to forge a perfect replica of Ars Moriendi, a 9th-century Coptic manuscript that contains the ritual for creating revenants. Vero accepts, drawn by the intellectual challenge and the price.
She moves into his workshop and begins the painstaking work of aging vellum and brewing iron gall ink.
She discovers the household’s true nature when a young fledgling named Samantha wanders into direct sunlight and suffers severe burns.
Viktor slits his wrist and feeds Sam his blood to heal her, revealing his identity to Vero. He explains that he wrote the original Ars Moriendi 1,000 years ago as a young monk, and that a rogue revenant named Silas is hunting the book to build an army.
Viktor needs Vero’s hand because a battle scar on his finger prevents him from transcribing with high enough precision. Vero returns to work and falls into a routine of dissertation research by day and forgery by night. Sam recovers and bonds with Vero. Pierre hints that Viktor’s interest in Vero goes beyond employment.
On campus, Vero meets a red-haired graduate student who claims to be Viktor’s mentee. The student is actually Silas, observing her in disguise. Vero does not realize it.
One evening in the snowy garden, a massive beast sent by Silas tackles Vero to the ground. Viktor rushes out, kills the creature, and is stabbed with a poisoned blade in the fight. He spends four days bedridden while his body metabolizes the poison.
When Viktor wakes, he confesses that he drank Vero’s blood months earlier to track and protect her. He also admits he tried not to want her and failed. In uncial script on parchment, he writes her a confession. Vero chooses to stay.
The two become lovers. Viktor drinks Vero’s blood again with her consent, establishing a telepathic mental link between them. Vero realizes she would do anything to stay with him, including accept immortality.
Once the replica is complete, Viktor anonymously submits it to Wiegand’s auction house in Boston as a trap for Silas. Vero calls Roxanne and learns that her best friend and Roxanne’s seven-year-old daughter Rorie are inside the auction house.
Silas moves the showing time up. Vero grabs the original manuscript and confronts him in the snowy parking lot. She reveals the auction house book is a forgery. Silas’s henchman strikes her from behind and Vero dies in the snow.
To save her, Viktor performs the crossing ritual and feeds Vero his blood. She wakes six weeks later at Lilit’s European manor as a full revenant.
Roxanne, Rorie, and Pierre are all safe. Viktor enters, and Vero runs into his arms, confessing her love aloud and through their new blood bond.
Part Two: Unbound
Lilit of Nineveh is a 5,000-year-old revenant elder, born in Upper Mesopotamia, and Viktor’s sire. For ten years she has carried on a secret affair with Dr. Roman Martin, an ER physician in Chicago known for his gentleness and skill. She has never told him what she is.
Lilit believes an immortal is a blight on a mortal’s life. She repeatedly tries to pull away from Roman so he can find a human partner and start a family.
Meanwhile, an elder council meeting in Chicago is disrupted by news that a revenant named Grigori has been murdered. Wenceslaus accuses Viktor and Lilit of the killing.
Roman meets Lilit at their usual diner and breaks off the affair. He claims he has met another woman and wants a real relationship. Devastated, Lilit accepts and leaves.
Minutes later, Roman texts her a photo of her military-grade sunglasses on his kitchen counter. Lilit realizes an intruder has been in his house. She calls Roman, orders him to stay downstairs, and rushes over.
A rogue revenant leaps from a second-story window and attacks them. Lilit overpowers the attacker, breaks his skull on the pavement, and drinks his blood to track his sire. Roman witnesses the full display of her supernatural strength.
Lilit takes Roman into hiding at a high-security hotel. She explains the basics of revenant biology. To track him if they are separated, she drinks a few drops of his blood. The feedback reveals a truth Roman was hiding: he is terminally ill.
He fabricated the “other woman” to push Lilit away before he deteriorated. Lilit offers to perform the crossing to save his life. Roman refuses, afraid of losing his humanity.
Lilit meets Atukhos at the Garfield Park Conservatory. He claims Imhotep ran him over with a car and murdered Li Xiu. Lilit agrees to confront Imhotep at an emergency council the following night.
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Back at the hotel, Lilit pieces together a flaw in Atukhos’s story. She realizes Atukhos himself murdered Grigori and Wenceslaus and kidnapped Li Xiu out of psychotic jealousy over her past lovers. She forms a plan with Roman’s help.
At the emergency council, Lilit exposes Atukhos as the killer. Roman rescues Li Xiu from Atukhos’s compound. Li Xiu appears behind Atukhos and stabs him with his own sword, ending his reign of terror.
Roman recovers at home with Lilit. She declares she will stay with him regardless of how much time he has left. He opens his mind to her, allowing her to see his memories. He admits his refusal to transform came from fear she would tire of him.
Reassured of her eternal love, Roman consents to the crossing. Ten years later, Roman is a thriving revenant and medical researcher studying vampire biology. He and Lilit live in lasting telepathic harmony alongside Viktor and Vero.
Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Veronica “Vero” Mercer | Art history PhD candidate at Rockhaven University and a master manuscript forger raised by her restorer grandmother. |
| Dr. Viktor Ashworth | A 1,200-year-old revenant born in 8th-century Normandy, former monk, and professor of theology who authored Ars Moriendi. |
| Lilit of Nineveh | A 5,000-year-old revenant elder born in Upper Mesopotamia and Viktor’s sire. |
| Dr. Roman Martin | An ER physician in Chicago and Lilit’s long-term secret lover who undergoes the crossing. |
| Silas of Gaillimh | An ancient rogue revenant and mass murderer who seeks Ars Moriendi to build an army of fledglings. |
| Atukhos | An ancient warrior revenant elder who assassinates fellow elders over Li Xiu. |
| Li Xiu | An ancient revenant elder and Imhotep’s lover who is kidnapped by Atukhos. |
| Imhotep | An ancient Egyptian scholar revenant elder and peacekeeper among the elders. |
| Pierre | A French revenant and close associate of Viktor who assists with security. |
| Arlo | A revenant driver for Viktor who is fiercely loyal to him and protective of Sam. |
| Samantha (“Sam”) | A gentle fledgling revenant in Viktor’s house who was turned against her will 80 years ago. |
| Mortimer McManaman | The anxious owner of McManaman’s antique shop who gets Vero involved in forging manuscripts. |
| Roxanne | Vero’s best friend and an antique jewelry consultant. |
| Rorie | Roxanne’s seven-year-old daughter who learns calligraphy from Vero. |
| Wenceslaus | A paranoid, religious zealot revenant elder who falsely accuses Viktor and Lilit. |
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Book Details at a Glance
- Genre & Subgenre: Paranormal Romance / Urban Fantasy Romance / Academic Romance
- Core Narrative Tropes: Kidnapping and forced proximity, immortal-mortal pairing, secret society court politics, competence-driven protagonists, fake relationship to real love
- Tone & Atmosphere: Witty, sensual, gothic-academic, suspenseful
- Primary Conflict: Stopping rogue revenants who threaten mortals while two couples navigate the cost of immortality
- Pacing Style: Fast-paced dual novella structure with sharp dialogue and sudden bursts of violence
- ISBN: 979-8217192359
- Pages: 416
- Book Structure: Two novellas in one volume — Bound (10 chapters plus epilogue) and Unbound (16 chapters plus epilogue), 28 sections total
Quotes from Bound and Unbound Book
“An apt name for the best forger I have encountered in my lifetime. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“We prefer the word ‘aptrgangr.’ We are those who walk again.”
“I tried not to want you. It didn’t work.”
“I have taught him happiness. To keep me, he would cheat, and scheme, and betray his own moral code. Without hesitation.”
“You are special, Roman. You are one in a million—and I mean that as close to literally as possible. There have been so many, and no one was ever like you.”
“I think you are too good at getting what you want to let this go any other way. But if it doesn’t . . . Remember that I love you, and that the happiest moments of my life were the ones when you loved me back.”
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