“Stop being ridiculous. I’m healed up and perfectly safe here. I have Brutus with me and, I’m not sure if you know, but my gift is to literally rip people’s souls out, killing them instantly. I think I can handle a toilet break without you having a complete meltdown over it.”
His eyes narrow at me but I turn my back on him as I wash up. Brutus curls around my ankles and supports me like he knows that the ache in my thigh is now more of a burning sensation that has my knee buckling a little.
“At least I know you’ve woken up as yourself again, no mistaking that sass.”
I turn to grab a hand towel and flash him a grin. “You missed it though, right? You hate to admit it, but you missed my smart mouth.”
He steps forward and grabs my wrist, pulling me into his arms and ignoring Brutus snapping his jaws in irritation. “I’ll admit to every part of what I’m feeling. You left here again, but this time it was worse because you weren’t just the idea of a Bond to me anymore. You’re you. You’re mine, and you walked away from us again.”
I snap, “I went after your—”
“I know. You went after my sister for me, and I can both love you for it and be fucking furious at you for doing it. I’m never leaving you behind again. I’m never trusting anyone, not even our own Bond Group, to watch you ever again.”
I’m just going to skip over the usage of the L word, because I’m sure it’s just a little slip up, so instead I nod to him. “I like that plan. The feeling of you leaving was… let’s not do it again. There’s no real reason we can’t just stay here together from now on, right?”
His eyes narrow like he doesn’t trust what I’m saying, which is ridiculous because he can literally sense my lies and I’ve never been so honest with him in all of the months we’ve known each other. But after a minute, he gets over whatever it is that’s bothering him and pulls me back into his arms to get out of the bathroom and back into… whatever the hell the room we just left is called.
Hell, maybe?
Purgatory, or maybe even Limbo because I’m stuck there not knowing what the ever-loving-fuck is going on with North Draven and the soft eyes he just gave me.
Soft.
I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t been inches away from them and staring up at him like he was the goddamn sun. Hope that maybe he believes me now blooms like a weed inside of me, impossible to kill off, even though it could choke the life out of me if it turns out to not be the case.
I need to stop myself from thinking about it.
Embarrassingly, as we step into the hallway, we bump into none other but Kieran and Kyrie, my Bonded’s sister.
Kyrie smirks at us both wobbling along together, or maybe the fact we just walked out of a bathroom together, which is a little bit cringe-worthy.
When Gryphon just stares at them both, a slow grin stretching across his face at the sight of his very alive and unharmed sister, she huffs at him and snaps, “Let your Bonded go so I can hug you. It’s also creepy seeing you smile like that, tone it down a little.”
Gryphon helps me brace myself against the wall and then tugs her into his arms, squeezing his eyes shut as he sighs a little in relief. “How about you never let yourself be taken again so my goddamned Bonded doesn’t go charging after you? Such a pain in my ass, Ky.”
She makes a watery sound and then shoves at him. “I didn’t ask her to! Although, she’s handy to have around. You should hear how they all talk about her, like she’s the harbinger of death or something. It was freaking weird… until I saw people dropping dead everywhere. It made a little more sense then.”
Gryphon makes a dismissive noise under his breath and snaps, “They deserved a much slower death after everything they did, but at least, for once, there were no survivors.”
Kieran makes an equally pissed off sound, butting into their little tirade, and says, “Yeah, except that the asshole who is responsible for all of this got away. He’s still out there and still obsessed with your little murderous Bonded, Shore.”
Then the three of them turn to look at me, where I’m slowly shuffling down the hall away from this conversation, and I grimace. “Listen, I wasn’t going to be able to kill that man anyway, so it was leave him alive or die trying, and I know that I, for one, am happy with how it turned out.”
Kyrie steps over to me and is a little bit faltering and cautious as she gives me a hug, but it’s clear she’s more worried about hurting me than touching a Soul Render. “Thank you. The little beast at your feet saved me instead of stopping you from being carved open, and I’ll never be able to repay you for that.”