Blood Bonds(The Bonds That Tie #3)(14)

When his scream finally dies out, the crunching of his bones follow us out of the basement.





Chapter Five





Oli


I wake up with a stiff neck and an aching ass from the chair. It’s frustrating that my body has already forgotten how to sleep sitting up like this, especially since I slept in my car a lot while I was on the run as well, but months at the Draven mansion have spoiled me, apparently.

I groan under my breath and shift as much as the restraints will let me, wiggling my legs out to attempt to get some feeling back with little success.

“How the fuck did you actually sleep like that? And how has no one killed you yet for how badly you snore?” Kieran snarks from the ground at my feet where he’s still huddled up, his hands resting awkwardly on his chest.

I yawn as I shrug. “I don’t usually snore, this is extenuating circumstances, and you learn to do a lot of shit in this place. How long have you been awake?”

He rolls his eyes at me. “Long enough to know that the sun rose at least two hours ago, and we’ve missed the breakfast round. It smelled like bacon. I thought about waking you just to get some.”

I scoff at him with a grin, rolling my shoulders back and staring right at the camera so they can see I’m awake. Being a VIP here has its perks, and I’ll take the sleep in. Gryphon never let me have them, and hopefully it’ll mean less time with that man today.

Doubt it, but a girl can hope, right?

“Stop grumping, they’ll bring us something.”

He pulls himself up into a sitting position without using his hands at all, like he’s doing a crunch in hard mode, and it makes me miss Gabe and Gryphon like a hole in my chest. I’ve drooled over the both of them doing that about a million times in TT and training. Shirtless too, which I really shouldn’t think about or my bond will start whining about getting them back.

“If they bring us slop, I’ll remember it and get you back once we’re home. Mark my words. Tell me why they leave you to sleep and feed you so well? Just because you’re a Render? That seems like an even better reason to deprive and torture you.”

I wiggle my toes in my shoes, trying not to think about how stinky my socks will be in there, and my ass starts to get some feeling back. “They want me whole, undamaged, and at peak performance. I get tortured here plenty, just not like that. I’m sure you’ll get to see it so just, like… prepare yourself for that. It’s going to suck.”

He stares at me and then says slowly, like I’m dense, “Suck… That’s the best descriptive word you can come up with for actual torture? Is this a coping mechanism or something?”

“I compartmentalize like a pro and, well, you’ll see once it happens. Davies won’t make us wait for it for long. He never could keep his hands off of me.”

I’m saved from having to explain much more than that to him by breakfast arriving. Both of the women I’d seen when I’d first woken up bring the plates in, except this time, the younger one is more subdued. She doesn’t speak to either of us. When she leans down to hand Kieran his plate, I see the scratches and bruises forming on her cheek.

Once she’s loosened my restraints and hands me my plate, I jerk my head at her and ask, “Fighting in the camps? Or did someone smack you around for your smart mouth? You should probably learn to keep it shut.”

Her lip curls at me, but the older woman butts in, “Don’t answer her, Zarah. We’re not supposed to talk to her. She’s just fishing for information. We’ll leave them to eat our food that we’re being so kind as to share with them.”

I scoff at her and Zarah looks as though she’s going to snarl something at me again, but the older woman snaps her fingers and they both walk out.

Kieran, who hadn’t spoken but watched the entire interaction keenly, breaks off a piece of bread to dip into the egg yolks and then mumbles around his mouthful, “Something happened last night. It was a long time before dawn, probably closer to midnight. Lots of yelling and screaming. I was surprised you slept through it all. There were enough footsteps that whatever happened, they called in for backup. I didn’t hear Davies specifically, but Franklin was there to stop any gifts in the mix.”

I nod and get to work on my own plate of eggs, dipping the bacon in the yolks because I wasn’t given any cutlery to eat with so I’m making do.

Kieran grunts and says, “Are there fights here a lot? Have you ever been in them? I thought you were green when you started at TT.”

I huff at him, because of course he wants to talk about it and not just stuff our faces. “There’s usually beatings and ambushes in the shower stalls, all sorts of shit you don’t want to hear. Fighting where the Resistance gets hurt? I’ve only seen it happen once before, and the guy who managed to get the hit in was put on the rack… publicly. They’re really good at making you watch people die in terrible ways here.”

He nods slowly, scraping up the rest of his eggs with the last little hunk of bread, and then says, “We’re getting you in therapy when we get back. I’ll make sure they all know how much you need it.”

Over my dead body.

I don’t know why I feel so adamant about that. Talking through my issues would probably be for the best, but my bond in my chest instantly rejects the very idea of it.