I glance up at him to find him grimacing, wiping away sweat on his forehead and leaving a trail of blood from his hand behind. There’s none of the sophisticated councilman left on his face at all. Here, he is the Death Dealer, someone who I'm sure is the worst nightmare to the men that we are around.
He glances over at the others and then reaches down to help me to my feet, drawing me away from the shadow pups. “I’m sorry if I sound unreasonable about this, Oleander, but it’s a major distraction to us for you to be here. Things aren’t going according to plan.”
I shrug. “Not as much of a distraction as a bullet hole in Gryphon’s shoulder. At least, I hope it’s just a bullet hole and nothing… worse.”
I don't mean to be snappy, but my nerves are completely fried from feeling Gryphon and the pain he's in.
Nox looks between the two of us and then gestures behind us to an area I hadn’t noticed as I’d raced towards August. There’s a shimmer in the air where the Shielding here is different somehow.
“While we’re here, you might as well take care of that for us.”
I frown, but then I see it.
The shimmering is the spot that the Resistance are using for Transporters to arrive, a small space that they are keeping unshielded to bring in more Resistance.
There’s an arrival while we all are standing there, a dozen men who look fresh and ready to fight, appearing out of thin air.
I'm a little leery of just wiping people out, thanks to finding Aro, but without so much as moving a muscle, I wipe out everybody that is standing there. The collective sound of their bodies hitting the grass is loud enough that a shiver runs down my spine.
I don't feel guilty.
North’s eyes are hard on me as he watches me struggle with this, but I shrug and attempt to convince us both. “I do not feel guilty, because all of them are a part of the Resistance. All of them. Aro was an exception.”
“Who the hell is Aro?” North snaps, and I cringe a little.
His eyebrows creep up his forehead, and I rush to finish speaking before he can freak out about it. “I found a member of the Resistance who was not here willingly, and my bond doesn't want to kill her. You guys have all said that we need to trust my bond because it knows more than the rest of us. Well, the girl is coming home with us, has come home with us. Kieran has already taken her to the cells.”
North blinks at me as though he has never seen me before. I think my arrival might have broken him a little, and he's not coping with me being here, as well as hearing about Gryphon’s injury and our separation from him.
He still has questions, because of course he does. “Are you sure that it's coming from your bond? Are you sure that it's not just you seeing a little girl?”
“She's not a little girl. She is at least my age, and I have killed people my own age a million times before. Okay, that's an exaggeration.” I feel the need to point that out before anyone freaks out about my death toll.
Nox rolls his eyes at us both. “My bond agreed. Both of them wanted her alive and with us.
That gets North's attention.
He flicks a look his way but, without even acknowledging it, Nox continues, “All of the research says that we need to do better about listening to the things living inside us. I'm listening to mine. Fallows is listening to hers. You need to accept that that bond is a part of you, and listen to it as well, brother.”
Oof.
That is a fight I do not want to get into.
I glance at Gabe, and he looks the same way that I'm feeling. Atlas steps over to us all and nods politely at North to indicate that the transporting has stopped. I think they finally figured out that my bond has arrived and anybody else they send is going to be cannon fodder.
We all take a second to breathe, our next big mistake.
There's another explosion on the other side of the Wasteland.
Screams of pain and terror fill the air, and I feel searing burns down my legs. Gryphon was close to the explosion.
The look of horror on my face tells all of my Bonded here everything they need to know. I take off at a run, disregarding my own safety entirely as the pain ripples through my legs. The shadow creatures take the lead, bounding before me as I sprint over the carnage to where the explosion was.
I reach out in my mind to him, but there’s a wall there, a blankness that I can’t get around, and the panic bubbles in my chest.
I can feel Gryphon's pain, but I also can feel him in my chest still, so I know that he is conscious and alive. I'm pissed that he's blocked me out of our mind connection, but I also understand that he is probably in a lot of pain right now and can't focus enough to speak to me.