Unbroken Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #6)(83)

I stand and look over the lines and lines of Tac personnel with a critical eye. With this many bodies, you would think that there would be some dissent or disorganization, but as a testament to how the entire Sanctuary has pulled together since Vivian's death, there is none of that.

More surprising than anything else, there have been lots of new recruits. Dozens of people from Top Tier families have finally come forward to offer their services, adding a huge arsenal of Gifts to our skill set, and I can see the respect in North, Gryphon, and even Nox at the families’ apparent change of heart.

I haven't been brave enough yet to ask Gryphon if there’s an ulterior motive in play.

I'm sure there has to be one, but instead, I focus on what this means for whatever comes next with the god-bond. The god-bond who wields Pain and has reportedly gone insane because of the years of rebirth. The one who killed Nox while targeting North, happily taking out his brother instead.

I get the feeling we will need all the power we can get our hands on.

I watch Gryphon as he scrutinizes the recruits. It’s one of my favorite things to do, to guess how he's feeling about their progress before he opens his mouth. I like to see if I can read him as well as the rest of them can read me. It's surprising to me how quickly I have come to know my Bonded as well as I know myself.

The reactions these days hardly ever surprise me. Even when I'm caught off guard by something, I have such security now in our relationships, both individually and as a whole. I know exactly where I stand with all of them, and there's nothing quite so incredible as all of us working together as a cohesive unit.

I wait until I'm sure that Gryphon is too busy to notice whether I'm here or not before I head back up to North's office, leaving him behind with a quick, cordial nod of my head. I see the dark look in his eyes as he watches me walk off. I know that he is far happier with PDA than North is, but it still feels entirely inappropriate to engage in such things in front of his TacTeam. Especially only meters away from where the flowers for Vivian's monument still stand, growing little by little every day as the community continues to mourn him. I get choked up if I stare at them for too long, and I duck my head as I step into the building.

There's a few operatives in there, a couple of them getting changed in the locker room, but each of them smiles and nods at me respectfully as I move towards the elevator without a word.

It kills me a little inside to know that it took Vivian's death to bring people together like this. When the doors open to North’s office, I find him sitting behind a table, working through the plans for the council vote. There is a coffee cup the size of my head sitting next to him, already half-empty, and the vicious muttering under his breath lets me know exactly how well this is all going.

“I don't for the life of me understand how there are so many ways to cheat at voting. The corruption in this world is baffling.”

I smile and shake my head at him. “You always told me I was naive for thinking people could be good. Sounds like you're confused.”

He places his pen back down on the desk and then leans back, his hands rising above his head as he stretches, and I enjoy the sight for a moment. The long lines of him, even covered in his suit like this, are a welcome sight.

His voice is a seductive drawl to me. “I’m well aware that men will always be corrupt. It just pisses me off that it becomes my problem to deal with.”

I blow out a breath and move to the window to look out at the lines of Tac personnel as they’re put through their paces on the sparring mats. I watch as a son of one of the Top Tier families uses his Telekinetic power to throw someone away from himself, marveling at his ability to do so.

My bond is quiet in my chest, happy to sleep and build up energy for what’s to come, and I leave it be. It has always known best about these things, even when it didn’t know how to communicate that to me.

North’s old assistant, Penelope, is the perfect example of that.

The hatred and utter loathing it had for her, even before it knew why, was something that we should have never ignored.

To think that we had a fledgling god-bond in his inner circle for so long sends a chill through my body now, as facing the Elemental had only days ago. I’d watched the entire fight through my bond’s eyes. Seeing Penelope there with her arms stretched out wide, her eyes glowing, black voids, all of it had set my temper off all over again.

I’ve been very good about not rubbing North’s face in it, but probably only because of Vivian’s death.

“Are you really that worried about corruption now, considering the way everyone's acting?”

He can hear the resentment in my voice, so he steps up behind me to sling an arm around my waist, moving me closer into his body as he watches the sparring with me. “It wasn't just Vivian, Bonded. It was the council dissolving as well. You know? A lot of those men and women down there felt as though they couldn't join TacTeams because of their family legacy. If they ran off on a mission and died, who would take up their council seats? What would happen to their families? There's a lot of responsibility on all of them, one that I understand keenly. Dissolving the council and making it a popular vote has changed a lot of things for some of these kids.”

I scowl for a moment out the window, but I know there's no point in arguing with North. He wouldn't lie to me anyway. It serves no purpose.

I grumble under my breath, “So now they're just free to go off on missions and die without having to think about what their parents will think of it? That also sounds pretty crazy.”