I do one last check through all of the weapons and ammunition strapped to my body to make sure that I’m fully armed and everything is where it should be before we move off together. Gryph does the same, though he’s faster and does it mostly by touch, then he moves over to do the same with our little poisonous Bond. Again, she watches his every move as if there’s going to be a test on it later.
Strange behavior, I take note of it for later.
I don’t believe that she’s actually going to accept it if we have to deal with her little friend and that Bond Group. I doubt Gryph is going to take it well either, if we’re being honest about it. Aside from North and I, Kieran is his oldest and most trusted friend. They went through training together and served on TacTeams together for years, witnessing the worst of what the Resistance can do to innocent lives.
There’s a connection there that isn’t going to just disappear because of the Benson girl’s treachery.
I move off and take the lead, leaving the Bonded pair behind as I work my way towards the lake houses. Rahab and Procel stay close to my side, while the rest of the shadows form a perimeter around us. When Gryph and his Bonded start moving behind me, the shadow creatures have the three of us completely covered.
I’ve trained them well over the years, a desolate and disturbing childhood has channeled that need, and it’s like second nature for them all to follow my every command. Azrael, even with his recent rebellion of fawning all over the girl, will jump at any direction he’s given.
I will never be helpless again.
We walk in silence until we reach the area where the trees begin to thin out, my feet slowing down as I begin to focus on staying undetected. There’s a different feeling here, the sounds of small animals disappearing and the wildness melting away as we reach the area of human life.
I’d rather stay amongst the trees and leave the bullshit toxicity of the Gifted community behind, but, alas, I promised my brother I would help defend the smaller and innocent people who live below our own standing.
Once we make it through to the edge of the tree line, I can see through to the water and have to change the way that I’m moving forward once again to make sure I'm still covered. The lines of houses along the waterline runs along the entire circumference of the lake, spaced out and each of them with private decks and piers with boats and watercraft on them.
I shouldn’t call them houses. They’re mansions built by the richest families in the Gifted community of the West Coast to come out and relax away from their pathetically sheltered lives. I’d always assumed that they were just typical Top Tier cliques, too elite and rich to mingle with those ‘beneath’ them but our community is in a time of crisis right now. Definitely not the time for a holiday
There are a lot of people here.
A lot more than you would expect during such a volatile time of conflict, and instantly, I know that North's assumptions about this area being a Resistance sympathizer hotspot is correct.
Nobody takes a holiday within driving distance of their house while members of their community are being gunned down by the Resistance unless they have a reason to believe that they are safe. Nobody.
I make note of which houses are lit up. When I glance back at Gryphon, mostly to see if he agrees with me, he's doing the same, his eyes shrewd as he clocks every single one of the traitors who are here. I’ll assume all of the Gifted who have property here are traitors, but the ones actually staying here right now are further up the ‘take-down’ list.
When we reach the O'Neills’ property boundary, we have no choice but to give the perimeter a wide berth to avoid detection. Harriet, Langton, and Grant O’Neill had always been fairly high up on my list of potential Resistance sympathizers, and the smoke coming out of their chimney only confirms for me that they are.
If this wasn't a quiet mission of getting in and out without detection, I would happily send my shadows in to dispose of them all right now. Top Tier families with more money than is good for them, happy to sacrifice the lower families in their never-ending pursuit of power and recognition; it’s sickening. It also says a lot to me about their Gifts and what they're able to do if they feel this way.
I have never once felt the need to exert my power over those underneath me.
Only when someone has been unnecessarily flexing have I used my Gift against them to prove a point. I would bet that every last one of them are compensating for what they are lacking, and I can't wait to wipe them all from the face of the earth the moment the girl is no longer with us. If she weren't here right now, Gryphon would have changed the plan. I’ve worked with him for long enough to have no doubt. He would have taken one look at the frivolity and carefree disposition of these people and he would have gone in, guns blazing. But because we have his Bonded with us, we'll have to stick to the quiet mission North set out for us.