Well, fuck.
“Did you bring me a gift? I love it. Delicious. Strong souls are my favorite,” my bonded says, and the grin on her face makes it very clear she's not lying.
She lifts both hands over the unconscious body and her eyes take on that otherworldly glow that they do as she works. There's nothing that you can see as she tears the soul out other than the body jerking a little as it releases its last breath, but the euphoria on her face as she takes in that level of strength is a beautiful thing.
My dragon wants to go hunting.
It wants to find more of these beings to bring to her feet as a sacrifice to our love, to bring her everything that she could ever want.
Everything.
Gryphon groans under his breath. “Jesus fucking Christ. If there's going to be more of these for us to have to contain, we’re fucked.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Oli
I don't remember much of our trip back to the Sanctuary, only my bond happily munching on a soul inside of me. I know that we’re now a hell of a lot safer having dealt with the Trigger. The only bad thing, freaking terrible thing, is that we were unable to recover Unser, the main reason that they’d gone out in the first place.
Everyone feels defeated.
We arrive home right as the sun is coming back up, and I feel that bone weary exhaustion that comes from a lot of hard work all night and after a particularly long day. I need a long soak in the bath and at least three days of sleep. My bond munching means that though I’m sure I’m hungry, there’s no way I can stomach food right now.
Bleh.
When we had gotten to North and Atlas, North had some burns on him but was mostly unscathed, thanks to Atlas’ Gift covering him. My bond had healed him easily and poured some of the extra power from the souls into him for good measure.
I can tell that Atlas is angry at himself for not being able to fully cover him yet, especially after seeing Gabe’s fully formed dragon. Those two have become the sort of friends who are also just a little too competitive with one another. I squeezed his hand, using our mind connection to remind him that North is alive and that’s what counts.
North had refused to have an immediate debrief, very unusual for him, and had instead found an ATV to load me into to get us back to the house together so I didn’t have to walk the distance. I have to admit, I love the man a little more for that move.
Every inch of my legs is sore, a stark reminder of just how many miles I’d covered last night.
I’m tired and a little cranky by the time we pull into the half-finished garage, ready to get clean and pass the fuck out. North swings me up into his arms the moment I step out of the vehicle.
“Aren’t you also tired as hell right now? I can totally manage the walk to my room, no need to kill yourself getting me there.”
He hitches my ass a little higher and mutters, “You healed me, and now I feel as though I’ve just woken up from the best rest of my life. Let me take care of you, Bonded.”
He does.
He gets me inside and into a bathtub in under three minutes, the water set at the perfect steaming temperature as the bubbles slowly rise around me. I groan as I lean back and immerse myself in it. My arms and legs are pretty gross, caked in mud and God knows what else, but North doesn’t care about that as he strips and climbs in.
He slides into the bath behind me, his body taking up more than half of the space, and the water gets dangerously close to overflowing. I’m waiting for him to fuss about it, ever the perfectionist, but he’s only focused on one thing, and that is me.
It’s a special sort of joy to be the complete focus of North Draven and his obsessive ways.
Nothing about the bath has healed my body or rejuvenated me, but at the feel of North’s skin sliding against my own, my bond perks up in my chest. It abandons the rest of the soul, leaving it tucked safely somewhere around my kidneys until it’s ready to come back to it, and it floods me until I let it take over again, surrendering to the waves of desire it has. We share the space in my head, though the bond takes over our movements and what we’re saying. I can still feel and experience everything alongside it.
“What do you need, Bonded?” North says, and my bond turns in his arms to face him.
He doesn’t look worried about the void eyes anymore, no longer concerned about the ramifications of whether or not I’m going to be hurt by what my bond does with him. Honestly, I want the same things as it does.
I want more.
North nods, whether he heard my bond or maybe this is just a part of his knowing ways, but he cups the side of my neck with one one his hands and draws me into a possessive kiss. The type of kiss that leaves no doubt who I belong to, who is kissing me, or who is going to worship me like the god I am.