Page 18 of Blood Bonds

I can go back to ignoring him, because there’s no way he’ll let Kieran die right now. He’s spent too long trying to find my Bonds. He’d never let one die without experimentation first. It’s the whole reason I lied in the first place.

Davies sighs, making a big show of it, as though I’m an unruly school child he’s being forced to deal with. Then he straightens back up, finally selecting a new knife from his tool desk as he runs a hand down the side of it lovingly.

My heart starts to beat a little faster, panic slowly working its way down my spine, and I have to start focusing on my breathing to stop myself from hyperventilating.

Be blank, Oli. Be nothing.

He leans over me again to murmur right in my face, “I already know you won’t break so easily, Render. I’m just making sure your Bond knows it too. Let’s see how long it takes me to break him though, shall we?”

The moment the knife touches my skin, I start to disassociate. My bond creeps up to the forefront of my brain, ever watching what’s happening and waiting for the right moment to step in for me, but simple cuts are easy enough to block out. When Davies really starts to get creative with his slicing, my leg begins to shake involuntarily and a pool of sweat starts on my lower back. I can almost keep it blocked out, almost, until he starts cutting off my pants and working his way up the sensitive skin of my thighs.

My control slips for a second and my body is instantly flooding with Gryphon, his bond reaching out to me and breaking down the last of my barriers in a single sweep, and his voice is booming in my head.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

I watch as Davies’ eyes flash wide and I slam my barriers back up, cursing myself a thousand times over for slipping and letting my Bonded in. One split second and I’ve ruinedeverythingthat I’ve spent five years guarding and protecting with my goddamn life.

Fingers as cold as ice and spattered with droplets of my blood trail over my cheek, leaving behind a red trail as Davies leans down to whisper to me, his lips touching the rim of my ear, “And who was that, my precious little Soul Render?”

Two years.

I was a prisoner in one of these camps for two whole years, and not once did I so much asthinktheir names. I knew them,oh my Goddid I know their names. The moment I’d woken up in that hospital with Nurse June standing over my bed with teary eyes and a file tucked under her arm, I’d memorized their names. I remember thinking how scary it was that North was almost a decade older than I was. The five years between me and Gryphon and Nox seemed like so much as well. I wanted so badly to know Gabe and Atlas because they were only a few months older than me, and I wanted friendship until we were old enough to Bond.

I spent a few short hours in that hospital planning and hoping and wishing that they’d hurry up and take me away from the horror of what had happened to my family.

And then I never thought of them again.

I never let myself.

And with three desperate words sent through our Bonded link, Gryphon has revealed himself to the biggest threat our Bond Group will ever know.

On instinct, I think of nothingness. I let the panic ride me even as I force myself not to think of the details, the exact reasons why I’m panicking so badly. I triple check my barrier to my Bonded, and then I check on my bond because I might have to let it take over to distract Davies from what he’d heard.

My bond is ready and eager to be let out.

I’ll take the pain for as long as I can and then I’ll let my bond take over to finish this session off. If Davies forces me to kill innocent people then… well, I’m a monster, because if it keeps my Bonds and our loved ones safe, then I’ll fucking loathe it but accept it.

I hate myself, but it’s the line I’ve drawn here.

“Fine. Fine, insist on being a stubborn little shit. I have more than enough tools to bleed it out of you. If I need to have you screaming to find out who he is, then I guess we’re going to need a bigger,blunterknife. How do you feel about being hacked to pieces with a butter knife, little Render? It’ll be hard work for me but, oh, the satisfaction.”

Deep breaths.

Deep, long breaths—in through the nose, hold for two counts, out through the mouth.

I can survive it.

I manage to convince myself of it too, right up until he actually starts hacking at my thigh, and then a scream rips out of my mouth, ragged and hoarse. Gryphon is pounding at my barrier, my head thumping with it, and I need to puke.

This is also when the entire scene becomes too much for Kieran and he shouts at Davies, startling me because I’d almost forgotten he was in here with us thanks to all of the pain, “Get your hands off of her, and I’ll tell you where he is.”

The knife buried in my thigh stops moving, but Davies doesn’t take it out entirely. The muscle clenches around it like my body is trying to force it out, but his hand is firm on the handle.

I blink my eyes open finally, but Davies is focused on Kieran. When I glance over to where he’s chained, he still looks like he’s halfway to his grave, but there’s a determined gleam in his eyes as he says, “Her other Bond, the one in her head, you’ll want him. He’s stronger than I am. If she Bonds with him, she’ll get the kick of power you want from her. He’s a Neuro, like you… he’s a lot like you, actually. From the moment they met, he’s been in her head. If anyone will be able to help you control her bond, it’s him. Just stop fucking cutting her up, and I’ll tell you where he is.”

I want to scream at him to shut the fuck up, but I can’t speak around the lump in the back of my throat caused by all of the pain and the moment I think that I see the triumph in Davies eyes. He knows that Kieran is about to give him another piece of the puzzle, another toy to play with to make me the weapon he so desperately wants. After years of getting nothing from me, there’s no way he’s going to even question Kieran about it.

He’ll just take it and find my Bond, drag him back here to live through all of this right alongside me.