Page 19 of Blood Bonds

Davies decides to prove a point and presses the knife down harder, slicing through the muscle there, and my bond finally kicks in, taking over for me to spare my mind from the agony, and then I finally feel nothing. My bond soaks it all up for me like the greatest sponge in the world.

My eyes don’t shift though. My bond knows better than doing that here.

Kieran has no idea that the pain just ended for me though and snaps, “Massachusetts. He’s in Massachusetts. Give me a pen. I’ll write down where, just stop cutting her.”

There’s a horrific spurt of blood that comes out of my leg when Davies finally pulls the knife out. Kieran’s brow furrows at the sight of it, but Davies grabs a cloth and one of his tourniquets to staunch the bleeding. He’s an expert at directing blood flow, but usually he uses it to keep me conscious for as long as possible during this process.

He wipes his hands off on a cloth and then he steps over to where Kieran is restrained on the other side of the tent, staring him down as though he’ll be able to tell if he’s being lied to.

He doesn’t have that ability though.

Kieran plays his part well, staring back at him with no signs of deception as he lists off an address and even coordinates of a place that I’ve never heard of.

Davies smirks slowly, deciding he’s been victorious, and steps back to his work desk. “If you’re lying to me about this Bond and where he is, I’ll come back here and I’ll really torture her. This? This is just a warm up, but if you send me away for no good reason and I don’t come back with this Neuro? I’ll amputate her leg. No pain relief either, she doesn’t need both legs to be my weapon. It was my next course of action when I last had her to get her to talk. I’m excited to give it a try.”

I want to pass out at the very sound of that, but then he’s back at the table and pushing a needle into my neck, injecting me with something that kicks in immediately, my brain fuzzing out.

“Extra insurance to keep you here, little Render. I’ll be back with your next Bond soon. Be a good girl and wait here for me.”

Then he walks out, and I lose track of what the actual fuck is going on here. I don’t know up from down, the table feels as though it’s spinning into space, and my skin begins to crawl as though a thousand fire ants have just been injected into my veins.

I lose my shit entirely.

There’s a cracking sound and a muffled scream, like someone biting down on fabric to stop themselves from making noise but failing kind of miserably, and then there’s some retching. My stomach doesn’t like that sound one bit, protesting immediately, and I turn my head to vomit. My restraints are too tight to move much and I’m sure there’s vomit running down my chin, but I can’t feel anything, nothing but the sensations that the drug fills me with.

I think I’m crying.

Not that I want to, not that the tiny slivers of my sane brain are feeling that sort of emotion, but my breath is sawing out of my chest and I start to taste salt.

There’s grunting and the sound of a heavy sack dragging along the dirt, and then somehow Kieran’s face appears in front of mine. I have no idea how the hell he’s here—it’s probably a hallucination—and I think the sobbing gets worse.

He’s trying to speak to me but his words are distorted, because even though I can see his mouth is moving, the words are all coming through wrong.

“Kill… just him… get help… Oli, please… kill… know you can…”

I scowl at him and finally take a gasping breath, but whatever the fuck Davies shot me up with turns my stomach again and bile rushes up my throat.

There’s a moment of darkness, nothingness I want to climb into and stay in forever, and then there’s Kieran’s face again. There’s vomit on his shirt and pants, my vomit, I think, but he’s not angry or disgusted.

He’s desperate.

“Kill him, Oli… kill Franklin…”

I don’t understand what he’s saying.

But my bond does.

And then there’s nothing but death and pain, blood and destruction. I might be utterly fucked from the drugs, but my bond has always been stronger thananyonewill ever comprehend, andno onethreatens me without facing the dark god living inside me.

Chapter Seven

Nox

Three nights.

She’s only been gone this time for three nights, and yet the chaos she’s left behind is insane. Gryphon’s foul moods and obsessive behavior makes sense to me because the idiot was stupid enough to fully Bond with her, but the rest of them?

Pathetic.