Blood Bonds(The Bonds That Tie #3)(22)

The Healer shoots him a rueful look and says, “You had sepsis, your kidneys were shutting down, and you were about twelve hours away from complete organ failure. Sorry it’s taking a minute to stop your impending death.”

Sage makes a little gasping sound in the back of her throat, lifting a hand to cover her mouth and muffle any other sounds of horror that she might have.

North curses and snaps, “Just tell us where Oleander is. You can stay here and receive treatment, there’s no need for you to be going back out there. We have enough Transporters to get to her and take control of the situation safely.”

Black grunts and lets out a low groan as the crunching sound of his bone resetting bounces around the room, panting to answer, “I can’t… I don’t know exactly where it is… I just followed the insurgents back there. I can map back, but I… don’t have coordinates or a location.”

I curse under my breath, because of course it couldn’t be that easy for us, and snap, “How much longer until Davies is back at the camp then? We’re running out of time while you’re being pieced back together.”

Black grunts again as there’s another crunching of his bones, and snarls at me, “I sent him to the Hail Mary to buy time. I’m not a fucking idiot.”

Fuck.

That’ll just about do it.

I watch as half the room takes a breath, because Black is right, he’s definitely not an idiot if he sent Davies there. The Hail Mary is the safe house in Massachusetts, and it’s a rabbit warren of traps, barbed wires, and security surveillance. I know the place intimately, thanks to my uncle William dropping North and I both off there when I was a teenager over a security issue. Even with all of my nightmare creatures, I couldn’t make my way out.

North meets my eye across the room as he pulls his suit jacket off, revealing just how many different weapons can be hidden under a Tom Ford, and then says, “If you’re coming with us, then you need to be in full Tac gear. You too, Gabe. We leave the second Felix is done and Kieran can move.”





The moment our feet hit the ground at the camps, it’s very clear that things have changed dramatically since Black left here. I pull the gaiter up over my face and let my nightmare creatures out, checking in with Azrael, but Kyrie is still in the cages. Except now the tent’s guards are all dead in a heap on the ground and the other women are shaking and sobbing at the trauma of what is happening around them.

Kyrie isn’t.

A typical Shore reaction to this. She’s sitting on her haunches, waiting for an opening to get the fuck out of there and take out whichever Resistance she comes across.

I lean towards Gryph and murmur, “Tell Kyrie we’re here and heading to her. The prisoners are all looking shaken up.”

He turns to look at me and scoffs, flinging out a hand. “We’ve just walked into a massacre and our Bond is lying injured in here somewhere… you’re not even going to attempt to find her first?”

I look over at the piles of bodies, dozens of them lying wherever they’ve fallen in death, and then back at him. “I’m not an idiot. This? This is our little poisonous Bond. She’s doing just fine. There are other Gifted here who can’t kill people at will.”

North pushes past us both, his own creatures coming out in full force, and he snaps, “Find our Bond first, then we’ll take in the prisoners and any survivors.”

Gabe stalks after him, looking a little shell-shocked, even though he’s the only one of us to see her death powers up close, but he’s also unwavering as he hunts for her. Gryph barks out commands to his team before he goes after the two of them, completing the triad of lovesick idiots going after a girl who does not need to be rescued.

Taken from here before Silas Davies gets back? Sure.

Rescued from the Resistance thugs he left her behind with? No. Anyone with eyes and two brain cells knocking around in their skulls can see she’s got it handled. The only part of me desperate to get back to her is currently standing guard in the women’s prisoner tents, so I’ll be heading there to check that nothing has actually happened to Azrael or Kyrie before I trip over myself after some Bond.

Rahab, Procel, and Mephis follow closely after me as we work our way through the tents, all of them taking on their savage Doberman forms. The other creatures are all scouting in various shapes and sizes, checking for the moment Davies arrives back here so they can devour the piece of shit. There’s no real need for concern about the Resistance left behind though.

Everyone is already dead.

She’s good, I’ll give her that, and to be able to kill this many without burning out? She’s more powerful than any of us had given her credit for. The small amount of reading I’ve been able to do, around the intel-sifting North and I were elbows deep in, was entirely focused on what little we know about Soul Renders, and nothing I read comes close to this scale of destruction.

The void eyes make a lot more sense now.

Mine.

I curse and pull the gaiter up further, obscuring my face so that none of the Alpha team freak out at how furious I look when it’s just my bond and the creatures I’m dealing with. Bonds are dangerous, I’m not leaving myself open like that, and even if every last one of my creatures fall into obsession with her like Azrael has, I still won’t have her.

Not even for a taste of that power.