Where is he? What happened? I send out to both of my Bonded, but neither of them have an answer for me. He’s out there somewhere by himself.
My web finally finds him in one of the larger holding tents and I take off at a sprint in that direction. The bodies are thick here, most of them my kills, but there are a few with bullet holes and visible Gifted wounds. There’s a Flame doing some serious damage around here and I quietly admire his work even as I move towards my Bond.
I can appreciate these people feeling some pain before their inevitable deaths.
The girl doesn’t like me thinking like that, she doesn’t like what that means for her morality, but such pettiness belongs to me. What use are morals to a God of Death? Nothing. They are nothing to me or mine.
When I duck into the tent, there’s rows of cages filled with haggard and terrified-looking prisoners and a large pile of dead men in front of the Shifter. He’s been shot, a through-and-through wound on his arm that looks painful but not life-threatening. It still makes me furious to see him bleeding, and I stalk over to him with a scowl.
He looks very alarmed to see me, his eyebrows shooting up his forehead as he holds his good arm out as if to stop me. “I had two choices. I chose the one that had us all surviving. I’ll heal just fine, Bond. Calm—”
I roll my eyes at him as my gift bursts out of me and into him as I cut him off. “No. No more being hurt. Not for anyone, do you understand? I will not tolerate it.”
He stares at me, looking into the depths of my eyes before he nods slowly, pressing the fingers at the end of his freshly healed arm to the comms earpiece and muttering, “Oli is in full bond mode, are you all aware of this?”
I hear it in my own earpiece, and then the damaged Dark One says in a drawl, “The piles of dead bodies everywhere did give that away, yes.”
My dark Bonded says, “Just keep her with you and don’t let her near the abducted Gifted. I’m not sure what she’ll read off them, and I don’t want her killing anyone who might be useful.”
The Shifter watches me and when I cock my head at him, he mutters, “That’s easier said than done. She is listening to us right now.”
The damaged Dark One says, “Figure it out.”
Then the Everlasting One says, “I’m coming to you both. I’ll help get her out of there.”
The Shifter stumbles on one of the bodies and mutters, “How many of them have you taken out? Jesus.”
The Everlasting One scowls at him and moves as though he’s going to strike the Shifter, then glances at me and changes his mind. “Don’t talk like that. Her bond might be at the helm but Oli is still in there, and she doesn’t need to hear you making fucking comments.”
I ignore them both but the girl has a lot of feelings about the conversation. Feelings mean nothing to me.
We arrive at the clearing and find that the men and women wearing black and vests with lots of weapons are standing around taking stock of the damage here.
It’s mostly my work.
The Shifter and the Everlasting One direct me over to a group and begin talking to some of the men, all of whom are watching me from the corners of their eyes like they think I’ll be taking them out next.
What fun that would be, but not right now.
As my bond finally leaves me with that last little delightful thought, slipping back into the inner recesses of my mind, I shake out my limbs until I feel more like myself again. There’s some pain in my legs that I’ll need to stretch out later but, otherwise, I’m okay.
We got through that experience okay.
“If you’re about to lie down and take a nap, lemme know. I’ll call Shore to come carry you around again,” Kieran snarks at me and I shoot him a look, rolling my eyes.
“Thank you for your concern, but I’m fine. Look at us getting a camp cleaned out without having our asses handed to us first! Not a broken bone in sight. I’m proud of you, Black!”
The guys around him all snicker under their breaths, but they shut up quickly when he turns to give them all a death glare. They might not revere him the way they do my Bonded, but he’s clearly still respected.
I can see why.
Atlas moves to stand a little closer to me as we wait everyone else out. I can see every last one of my Bonds, except North. I’m not worried, because I’d know if there was something wrong with him, but it still makes my skin itch a little.
Where are you?
He’s quick to answer. In the holding tents. Are you back now, or is this just another small moment of clarity?