Unbroken Bonds: The Bonds that Tie #6, page 19
The savage look on Gryphon's face explains why, but Nox is staring at Oli with the sort of hunger that he only just allows himself to show around her, and it tempts me to abandon my plans and just drag her upstairs instead.
She gives me a coy smile, patting my chest for a minute. “We have time, Bonded. We have a whole lifetime ahead of us. Go and do what you need to do. I will wait for you back home.”
She's the perfect Bonded for me and for everyone else, there's no question of that.
I wasn't expecting the cells underneath the Tac Training Center to fill up so quickly with people that we can’t process because of their relationship to my Bonded Group.
As I walk down the long hallway, still covered in the blood and gore of the Wasteland, I peer into each of the cells at the people that are our biggest issues to work through at the moment.
Gryphon’s mom is in one of them.
Aurelia is in another, and Jericho is rooming next to her.
They stare back at me with varying levels of distrust as I walk past them, their eyes tracing over the filthy Tac uniform I’m wearing, a clear indicator of where I’ve been today and the lives I’ve taken. Gryphon's mom stands from the bed and walks over to the glass, pressing her hand against it as she stares at me with distrust written all over her.
I would rather not have this confrontation with her right now, but I know how much she means to Gryphon and Kyrie. The fact that she had brought Oli's parents’ ashes home without question for her son, even when the General had tried to refuse, also makes my steps slow a little. I bite my tongue and step forward to speak with her.
“Are there any other survivors? Anyone at all?”
I shake my head, the corners of my mouth turned down in disgust, but I try not to let it show, another concession. I shouldn't have to hide the repulsion I have for this woman, but I do it for Gryphon.
“Why did you go? You could have stayed here, just refused to leave the house. He would still be here raging about it, and the rest of those people would be here too.”
It's not fair of me to say. The entire catastrophe that has taken place isn't exactly her fault, but some of the blame can be laid at her feet. With no one else left to share that burden, it’s placed all on her.
She sighs, looking thirty years older than she had only a week ago. “No, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t listen to me about this. He never did. I can have all the regrets in the world about what happened, but he never would listen.”
Her eyes fill up with tears, and I have a sinking feeling in my chest. I've seen Bonds lose their Central before. I've seen it a lot, unfortunately. They turn into an empty shell. You can see that the person left behind has had everything good sucked out of them. All their past joy is forgotten and every future opportunity is torn away as well. There’s no hope for that light to return, no chance of ever feeling anything positive ever again.
It’s not like this.
This is the regular kind of grief, the grief that says you've lost someone very important to you. Someone you shared a life with and had children with. This is not like losing a piece of your soul, something so vital to you that without it, your life is rendered meaningless.
This is not how Gabe’s mother reacted when his father died.
Trying not to arouse her suspicions, I get out my phone and send a quick message to Nox, something I don't usually have to do anymore thanks to the mind connection. I don't want to force Oli to keep secrets from her Bonded though, and I don't want Gryphon involved just yet.
I'll rely on technology for now.
“Is there anything that I can do? Anything except sitting here in this cell and rotting?”
I give her a cold look and shake my head. “There really isn’t. Everyone that could be spared went out to the Wasteland to fight, but it was too late. You’ll just have to wait here until we can decide what we're going to do with you.”
Her eyebrows dip down low at that, confusion clear on her face. “What are you going to do with me? It doesn't make any sense to leave me in here. I was a victim of the Resistance out there, you know.”
I shrug back at her apathetically. “You’ll stay here until a decision is made. I can’t exactly let you out now that we all know what you think of my Bonded and the rest of the Draven Bonded Group, now can I? We can’t very well let someone who was part of the defection freely roam the streets. If harm came to my Bonded… Well then, you might finally see the monster I can be.”
Her jaw drops open a little as she glances around, but I continue, “Gryphon went home with our Bonded to break the news of the General’s death and what we found in the Wasteland to Kyrie. He deserves to get some rest after everything that’s happened. He doesn't have time to come down here and coddle someone who left him.”
She closes her mouth and opens it again, no sound coming out.
I lean forward and lower my voice, my rage clear in my tone. “You did more than just leave your children. Every time the General snapped his fingers because he was so angry or jealous about something that his son was doing, instead of feeling proud of him, you left. You told Gryphon and Kyrie you were doing it to get him away from them, to give them a break, but you never even tried to stick around. Your son is far more understanding than I will ever be. Loyalty means everything, and you have plenty of it—just for the wrong person. Now you really can rot here for all I care.”
I turn on my heel, and she slaps her hand against the glass to get my attention. “You're never going to pick someone else over your Bonded, Draven. You can't judge me when you haven't been put in that position yourself.”
I turn to look back at her, shaking my head, aware that Aurelia and Jericho are watching this entire exchange and finding that I just do not care anymore. I really have lost the ability to put up with people's bullshit. Something inside me has snapped, and it won't ever go back together.
“I will never have to make that decision because I will never let it come down to a choice between my Bonded or my child. I will sacrifice everything else instead. I will never, ever do that to my children, and I already know my Bonded feels the same way because she’s a good person… The very best. I will never put myself before them. All you’re proving is your weak character. I hope you rot down here, but know that if you do get out, you should stay very far away from me, because it was not at my request. I will let my shadows consume you the moment they see you.”
I stalk back down the hallway, ignoring the challenge in Jericho’s eyes as I do, the way that he leans against the wall separating him from his Bonded.
I hate the whole lot of them.
Sometimes I wish that we could fill this entire space up with gasoline and light a match just to be done with it all. Some things aren't that easy.
I find the god-bond sitting at the small table, his palms flat against the wood as he watches me enter the space. He doesn't try to speak to me or comment on the little display he's just watched. He just stares until finally, with a sigh, I reach out to the Crux, offering him my body in exchange for the information that I require.
The Crux
The god-bond looks too healthy sitting in the seat across from me as I take over my vessel. It looks too well-fed, too taken care of here, too pampered, considering the threat that it is to my Eternal.
I raise this complaint with my vessel, but it gives me the paltry excuses of the human folk, things like ‘the Geneva Convention’ and ‘acts of war’ and ‘setting a good foundation of expectations’ and ‘making us different from our enemy’.
I do not care for any of that.
I especially do not care about the mistreatment of those who would harm us. They deserve death, blood-soaked and gory. They deserve pain and torture before my Eternal eats their souls and turns them into nothing more than a life source for us, something to increase our power and our hold on this earth.
They deserve the worst that we've got.
“I thought you had been here for longer? You're not very good at hiding how you feel yet, or hiding the robot nature.”
I incline my head at it. “We're not here to discuss me. You have information that I want. You can either give it to me without blood and pain or we can make this very fun for me and very unpleasant for you.”
He stares at me for a moment, looking me up and down. “Why do you and the Corvus always look the same? Why are you always born into the same family, untouchable to the rest of us? The Draven bloodline has protected you all for generations. Even when the others tried to stop you from coming, you still found a way.”
They were behind the manipulation of the Bonded Groups, the pairing of Gifted to people who were not right for them in an attempt to stop us from cycling.
All it did was make us stronger.
The vessels that we were born into now are more powerful than they ever have been before. I brought the shadow creatures to my vessel, but they are not the only weapon in our arsenal now. I know that the Corvus has even more abilities lurking within him. I don't know how my brother managed to win over his vessel so quickly, but he has access to it all without there ever being a fight.
The truth of the matter is that my vessel doesn't want me taking over, so I have not learned yet how to act in the way that the Gifted do in this time. I haven't had the opportunity to mimic them. Instead, I have nothing but the long and shifting sands of time under my belt, the old and tired soul who desperately hopes that this is it. That this is the last time I will be here. That this will be the one perfect lifetime that I will get to have with my Eternal before we all go to rest together in whatever comes next, finally finished cycling.
“Are you going to answer my questions or not?”
The god-bond in front of me sighs and shakes his head, muttering under his breath, “You haven't even asked any yet. Do you know how to make friends, or is that too hard for you in this lifetime as well?”
“I don't need friends. I have a Bonded Group and the Eternal. That is all I need. Tell me which gods are awake, which gods are here. Tell me who has already woken and died. Tell me everything you know in this lifetime.”
He sighs again, splaying his hand out on the table and staring down at the scars there as though there are a hundred stories behind them, a whole life that he has lived here on this earth this time along with his vessel.
I care for none of it.
“When I woke, there were six of us. Now there are only four.”
My eyes narrow at it. “Including yourself.”
He nods. “They killed my Bonded, and your group took out another. They were hunting for you from the beginning. They knew you were due back, but none of them guessed that you’d all arrive together. They made a mistake.”
Of course they did, but I cannot blame them.
The Draconis was not due to wake again for another hundred years or so, his cycling taking much longer than anyone else’s. The fact that he has awakened in the first place is a miracle of its own.
“That's why they took the Eternal and didn't just kill it. They wanted to see how far they could push things, what they could force it to do. They really didn't think the rest of you would find it before they had taken their fill.”
The room around me explodes into darkness, the shadows forming so suddenly and completely around us both that the god-bond is choking on them. The black smoke curls around him, smothering him, engulfing everything until there is nothing but perfect night around him, the sort of darkness that is terrifying in its completeness.
“Which one? Which one took it and did that to it? They are all marked for death, but I need to know which one.”
It makes a gurgling sound as the words squeeze out. “Pain. Pain has always been the ringleader. It’s always pulled the strings and done everything it could. It doesn't just wield pain. It is pain. It cares for nothing but suffering for all of us. It doesn't want its Bonded. It wants everything to burn, over and over and over again. While the rest of us search for completeness, it wants nothing but destruction. The last cycle, it killed its own Bonded, and if its Bonded comes back again in this lifetime, I'm sure it will do the same. It wants nothing. Madness like that needs to be dealt with swiftly, or it will swallow the rest of us whole.”
My vessel agrees completely, eager to be done with all of this.
“Tell me how you did it,” the god-bond says as the shadows leak away, slowly drying up as they filter back into my body.
He's shaking like a leaf, his teeth chattering together. Even in this state, he begs me for what he truly needs. “How did you all wake up together? How did you keep the Eternal safe? How? I just want my Bonded. I just want what you have.”
I shake my head slowly. “You'll never have what I have. When we are done with the rest of them, the Eternal will kill you and consume you too. You'll never cycle again.”
I stand to leave and he stands with me, his hands flying out from his sides. One of the Gifted watching from their own cell startles at the sight of it. “I’m trying to help you! There's no use in killing me.”
“You said it yourself… You're tired. You want this to be over with. We're going to make sure that that happens. This time, we'll make sure it's permanent. You should be thanking us. The time of the gods warring on this earth is over. There will be nothing but peace for my Eternal.”
He shouts again, trying to get my attention to beg for his life, to stop me, a hundred other things, but I let go of control of my vessel as we exit the cell, creeping back into the dark recesses within his mind as I plan.
I plan to deal with everything to give the Eternal a better life. The life that it deserves, where it knows nothing but joy and pleasure, a life that they both deserve.
The Eternal and the perfect vessel it lives within.
Both of them mine.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Oli
The soft, luxurious fabric of my dress itches as though it were made out of some disgustingly inferior fabric, though I am very aware that North picked this out for me, so there is every chance that it is cashmere or some other luxury fiber handmade by artisans. It doesn't matter though because, as far as I'm concerned, it’s made out of barbed wire.
“Stop fussing,” Sage murmurs at me as she lifts the curler from my hair, and I shoot her a sheepish smile.
“I can't help it. I hate this. Can't we just… call in sick or something? I'm sure Felix could write us a doctor's note.”
She grins at me and shakes her head lovingly. “I'm the only one allowed to use my Bonded for nefarious purposes like that, Fallows. You and Sawyer need to get in line.”
I press a palm against my chest as though I am deeply insulted by her words, gasping dramatically. “And here I was sharing North Draven’s power and prestige openly with you. I'll be rethinking that in the future, so you better not set any more buildings on fire.”
She cackles and pulls out another section of my hair, winding it around the curling wand for me carefully.
I hate curling my hair or touching it in any way, shape, or form, especially since it has gotten even brighter. When North had informed us all of the town meeting he was calling, he'd made it clear that we all needed to show up in our finest attire with our best attitudes to show a united and confident front.
He'd argued with Nox about it for days.
I wouldn't be surprised if Nox showed up in nothing but a garbage bag and a cloak made of shadow creatures just to really ram home his opinion on such things. He vehemently hates them all and hates that North is going to be dealing with them on our behalf.
I care little for it all.
Just the thought of their eyes as they look up at me with a mixture of fear and loathing grates on me, but I know that it's not my fault. I was born the way I was, and at least I'm doing something good with my Gift.
“I still think that North should just send out a decree about what he's doing and let people just deal with it the same way that kings used to. It makes no sense to me that we are going to grovel for them right now,” Sawyer says as he steps into the room, buttoning up the dress shirt that Aro’s forced him into wearing.
He had every intention of showing up in an old band tee and sweatpants as an act of rebellion, but his Bonded has him firmly wrapped around her finger. A single word from her had him scrambling for his Sunday best.
I roll my eyes at him. “We're trying to make sure that the community doesn't think that we’re vicious dictators who think of them as nothing but pawns in a war. I'm pretty sure that sending out decrees would kind of set us back.”
He shrugs with a grin, ducking his head so that he can look into the mirror and fuss with his hair. “North owns this place. I know it, you know it, everyone knows it. And to be honest, he could tell me that he’s building a giant statue of himself and putting a throne at the bottom of it for him to sit on, and I’d still lick his boots every day. The alternative is to go back out there into the world and hope that I can face the Resistance, and now god-bonds, by myself. There's no way. I know exactly what those people did to my Bonded and her family. I know what they did to Gray’s family. I know what they did to you. That's enough for me. I'm more than happy to stay here with my sister and my Bonded Group and know that we're safe because of people like North Draven. Even if he does turn out to be an evil asshole, it'll be worth it for me.”
My bond does not like Sawyer calling North an evil asshole, but I can appreciate what he's saying.
He always did have a special way with words.
There's a bang on the bathroom door and then Gray's voice calls out, “The three of you really need to get a move on. We're going to be late at this rate, and I'm pretty sure North will throw a fit if his Bonded isn't there on time.”
Sage winces and shoots me a look, fussing with my hair one last time before finally declaring herself done.
