Blood Bonds(The Bonds That Tie #3)(64)

The shadow blinks at me and I know that the Dark One is seeing through his eyes, that’s why he is pausing.

The girl inside speaks directly to him before I deal with it myself. Atlas didn’t attempt to hide her or talk her way out. He just asked to take her in instead of killing her, for now. I think we can give him that, right?

There’s a pause and then the shadow is off, moving faster than my eyes can properly track as he chases the enemy girl down. The Everlasting One takes a deep breath and watches but doesn’t attempt to interfere. I feel a deep need to destroy his family once again, to hunt them all down and feast on their souls until they are nothing but ash and dirt beneath our feet.

The Dark One speaks directly to us again. I’ll have August bring her to Kieran for an immediate jump. I don’t want her talking to Atlas and attempting to manipulate him. Let’s keep it as clean as we can for now, Bonded.

I look out at the carnage around us and say, “The Dark One is getting her out now, taking her back to be detained. She’s alive and will stay that way.”

The Everlasting One gives a curt shake of his head. “I don’t want to see her. I don’t want to see any of them. Let’s finish this and get the fuck out of this shithole.”

There’s another explosion of fire and he wraps his arms around me again, ready to cover my body with his own to protect the girl from the heat and damage. There’s a Flame there controlling the fire, making sure to only burn the enemy and their camp without taking out our own. My Shifter is in full wolf form and tearing through the camp, snapping and tearing men apart with nothing but his powerful jaws. Pride swells within me at the magnificent sight of him.

I want to be involved but I also want to watch them work, to know what my Bonds are capable of and to know that they’re worthy of the Bond Group they’re in. It’s good to see that they are.

Then I feel it.

One of my Bonds is hurt.

My eyes shift and it’s game over on the whole night, the mission, these men and women. My bond just wipes the entire camp clean of them all as I cast out my web to find which one of them has been hurt and where the fuck they are. Tearing their souls out is easier than breathing and there’s a satisfaction to the unanimous thump nose as they all fall to the dirt as one.

There’s shouts and chaos around me from the TacTeams but I ignore them, single-mindedly stalking through the mess.

Gabe, the girl whispers, and my heart skips a beat. I mean, rationally I know that it has to be the Shifter or the damaged Dark One. If it was one of my Bonded, I’d know exactly who it was and how they were hurt, and the Everlasting One is bullet-proof.

Where is he? What happened? I send out to both of my Bonded, but neither of them have an answer for me. He’s out there somewhere by himself.

My web finally finds him in one of the larger holding tents and I take off at a sprint in that direction. The bodies are thick here, most of them my kills, but there are a few with bullet holes and visible Gifted wounds. There’s a Flame doing some serious damage around here and I quietly admire his work even as I move towards my Bond.

I can appreciate these people feeling some pain before their inevitable deaths.

The girl doesn’t like me thinking like that, she doesn’t like what that means for her morality, but such pettiness belongs to me. What use are morals to a God of Death? Nothing. They are nothing to me or mine.

When I duck into the tent, there’s rows of cages filled with haggard and terrified-looking prisoners and a large pile of dead men in front of the Shifter. He’s been shot, a through-and-through wound on his arm that looks painful but not life-threatening. It still makes me furious to see him bleeding, and I stalk over to him with a scowl.

He looks very alarmed to see me, his eyebrows shooting up his forehead as he holds his good arm out as if to stop me. “I had two choices. I chose the one that had us all surviving. I’ll heal just fine, Bond. Calm—”

I roll my eyes at him as my gift bursts out of me and into him as I cut him off. “No. No more being hurt. Not for anyone, do you understand? I will not tolerate it.”

He stares at me, looking into the depths of my eyes before he nods slowly, pressing the fingers at the end of his freshly healed arm to the comms earpiece and muttering, “Oli is in full bond mode, are you all aware of this?”

I hear it in my own earpiece, and then the damaged Dark One says in a drawl, “The piles of dead bodies everywhere did give that away, yes.”

My dark Bonded says, “Just keep her with you and don’t let her near the abducted Gifted. I’m not sure what she’ll read off them, and I don’t want her killing anyone who might be useful.”

The Shifter watches me and when I cock my head at him, he mutters, “That’s easier said than done. She is listening to us right now.”

The damaged Dark One says, “Figure it out.”

Then the Everlasting One says, “I’m coming to you both. I’ll help get her out of there.”

The Shifter stumbles on one of the bodies and mutters, “How many of them have you taken out? Jesus.”

The Everlasting One scowls at him and moves as though he’s going to strike the Shifter, then glances at me and changes his mind. “Don’t talk like that. Her bond might be at the helm but Oli is still in there, and she doesn’t need to hear you making fucking comments.”