Forced Bonds (The Bonds That Tie, #4)(21)

I’ve trained them well over the years, a desolate and disturbing childhood has channeled that need, and it’s like second nature for them all to follow my every command. Azrael, even with his recent rebellion of fawning all over the girl, will jump at any direction he’s given.

I will never be helpless again.

We walk in silence until we reach the area where the trees begin to thin out, my feet slowing down as I begin to focus on staying undetected. There’s a different feeling here, the sounds of small animals disappearing and the wildness melting away as we reach the area of human life.

I’d rather stay amongst the trees and leave the bullshit toxicity of the Gifted community behind, but, alas, I promised my brother I would help defend the smaller and innocent people who live below our own standing.

Once we make it through to the edge of the tree line, I can see through to the water and have to change the way that I’m moving forward once again to make sure I'm still covered. The lines of houses along the waterline runs along the entire circumference of the lake, spaced out and each of them with private decks and piers with boats and watercraft on them.

I shouldn’t call them houses. They’re mansions built by the richest families in the Gifted community of the West Coast to come out and relax away from their pathetically sheltered lives. I’d always assumed that they were just typical Top Tier cliques, too elite and rich to mingle with those ‘beneath’ them but our community is in a time of crisis right now. Definitely not the time for a holiday..

There are a lot of people here.

A lot more than you would expect during such a volatile time of conflict, and instantly, I know that North's assumptions about this area being a Resistance sympathizer hotspot is correct.

Nobody takes a holiday within driving distance of their house while members of their community are being gunned down by the Resistance unless they have a reason to believe that they are safe. Nobody.

I make note of which houses are lit up. When I glance back at Gryphon, mostly to see if he agrees with me, he's doing the same, his eyes shrewd as he clocks every single one of the traitors who are here. I’ll assume all of the Gifted who have property here are traitors, but the ones actually staying here right now are further up the ‘take-down’ list.

When we reach the O'Neills’ property boundary, we have no choice but to give the perimeter a wide berth to avoid detection. Harriet, Langton, and Grant O’Neill had always been fairly high up on my list of potential Resistance sympathizers, and the smoke coming out of their chimney only confirms for me that they are.

If this wasn't a quiet mission of getting in and out without detection, I would happily send my shadows in to dispose of them all right now. Top Tier families with more money than is good for them, happy to sacrifice the lower families in their never-ending pursuit of power and recognition; it’s sickening. It also says a lot to me about their Gifts and what they're able to do if they feel this way.

I have never once felt the need to exert my power over those underneath me.

Only when someone has been unnecessarily flexing have I used my Gift against them to prove a point. I would bet that every last one of them are compensating for what they are lacking, and I can't wait to wipe them all from the face of the earth the moment the girl is no longer with us. If she weren't here right now, Gryphon would have changed the plan. I’ve worked with him for long enough to have no doubt. He would have taken one look at the frivolity and carefree disposition of these people and he would have gone in, guns blazing. But because we have his Bonded with us, we'll have to stick to the quiet mission North set out for us.

When we finally make it to the edge of the O'Neill property and onto the land behind the lake house Giovanna and Riley are staying in, I send one of the shadows out in front of us to figure out where exactly in the house they are for extraction. I choose Mephis, and he shrinks down to barely more than a palmful of smoke, moving faster than my eyes can properly track. He’s the most persistent of my creatures, like a bloodhound when he’s given a task, and I have no doubt this will all be over in under a half hour.

Gryphon catches my attention and shakes his head, sending a message directly into my head, thanks to his Gift. They're not in there. The house is empty.

For fuck’s sake.





The girl is infuriating. “Let your bond out.”

She looks at me as though I have suggested she slit her wrists in front of me just for my enjoyment. Gryphon gives me a stern glare as well, as though he believes the same of me.

He’s gotten a lot more vocal about my supposed poor treatment of his precious little Bonded, and I don’t have the heart to tell him that this? This is nothing. This is me on my best behavior.

It could get so much worse.

After three hours of watching the lake house in silence, waiting for some sign of either of the targets and coming up with nothing, we’d moved back to where we’d stashed away the packs to regroup. I was perfectly happy standing in silence, but Gryph had made the order and he is the lead here. I’ve been on enough of these missions to know that there’s no scenario where you don’t follow your lead, that’s how you end up with pointless deaths and people being captured by the enemy.

She takes a deep breath and works at keeping her voice steady, though she’s not quite successful at it. “There's no need for me to let my bond out. None of us are in danger. Whatever it is that you need me to do, I can do it myself.”