Page 22 of Blood Bonds
The momentour feet hit the ground at the camps, it’s very clear that things have changed dramatically since Black left here. I pull the gaiter up over my face and let my nightmare creatures out, checking in with Azrael, but Kyrie is still in the cages. Except now the tent’s guards are all dead in a heap on the ground and the other women are shaking and sobbing at the trauma of what is happening around them.
Kyrie isn’t.
A typical Shore reaction to this. She’s sitting on her haunches, waiting for an opening to get the fuck out of there and take out whichever Resistance she comes across.
I lean towards Gryph and murmur, “Tell Kyrie we’re here and heading to her. The prisoners are all looking shaken up.”
He turns to look at me and scoffs, flinging out a hand. “We’ve just walked into a massacre and our Bond is lying injured in here somewhere… you’re not even going to attempt to find her first?”
I look over at the piles of bodies, dozens of them lying wherever they’ve fallen in death, and then back at him. “I’m not an idiot. This? This is our little poisonous Bond. She’s doingjust fine.There are other Gifted here who can’t kill people at will.”
North pushes past us both, his own creatures coming out in full force, and he snaps, “Find our Bond first, then we’ll take in the prisoners and any survivors.”
Gabe stalks after him, looking a little shell-shocked, even though he’s the only one of us to see her death powers up close, but he’s also unwavering as he hunts for her. Gryph barks out commands to his team before he goes after the two of them, completing the triad of lovesick idiots going after a girl who does not need to be rescued.
Taken from here before Silas Davies gets back? Sure.
Rescued from the Resistance thugs he left her behind with? No. Anyone with eyes and two brain cells knocking around in their skulls can see she’s got it handled. The only part of me desperate to get back to her is currently standing guard in the women’s prisoner tents, so I’ll be heading there to check that nothing has actually happened to Azrael or Kyrie before I trip over myself after some Bond.
Rahab, Procel, and Mephis follow closely after me as we work our way through the tents, all of them taking on their savage Doberman forms. The other creatures are all scouting in various shapes and sizes, checking for the moment Davies arrives back here so they can devour the piece of shit. There’s no real need for concern about the Resistance left behind though.
Everyone is already dead.
She’s good, I’ll give her that, and to be able to kill this many without burning out? She’s more powerful than any of us had given her credit for. The small amount of reading I’ve been able to do, around the intel-sifting North and I were elbows deep in, was entirely focused on what little we know about Soul Renders, and nothing I read comes close to this scale of destruction.
The void eyes make a lot more sense now.
Mine.
I curse and pull the gaiter up further, obscuring my face so that none of the Alpha team freak out at how furious I look when it’s just my bond and the creatures I’m dealing with. Bonds are dangerous, I’m not leaving myself open like that, and even if every last one of my creatures fall into obsession with her like Azrael has, I still won’t have her.
Not even for a taste of that power.
Kyrie jumps onto her feet the moment she sees my outline, and I see her deflate a fraction when she realizes it’s me and not her brother. I’m not going to be offended. They were close growing up and losing their parents only made them lean on each other even more.
She slumps back against the bars and groans, “Thank God. Please tell me you’ve gotten Oli out already?”
Why is everyone so single-mindedly focused on getting her out when she’s strong enough to hold her own here?
“The others went to get her. I thought you’d be more worried about getting out of this little cage you’ve found yourself in?”
She scoffs at me and reaches up to pull her honey-colored hair away from her shoulder, revealing where Azrael is hiding in his smallest form. “She gave me this, even though I’m sure he would’ve been helpful to her. He saved me from being gang-raped in the showers by Resistance scum, so excuse me for worrying about the kid.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
I step up to the cage and motion for Rahab to get the door open. He’s the most brutal of my creatures and with one yank, he breaks the lock and gets Kyrie free. The moment she steps out, Azrael jumps down from her shoulder and lands at my feet in his full-grown Doberman form. The others all snap at him, their own way of greeting him, but he sniffs at my feet like he’s scenting everything that’s happened since we were last together.
Which is nothing but a ton of frustration and Resistance intelligence records.
Kyrie does a little shiver, like she’s shaking off a bad case of the creeps, and drawls, “No offense, but I’m glad to not have it anymore. Gimme a gun and a switchblade over a nightmare any day of the week.”
I scoff at her and then I unstrap a Glock from my shoulder holster to hand over. She was a TacTeam operative for five years, only quitting to take over her mother’s cafe when it was clear that Gloria was out to undercut it and drive them out, so she’ll be more than up to scratch to cover my back as we get the others out.
I glance up at the other women, all still huddling and eyeing me like I’m a monster. Kyrie glances over her shoulder and scowls, snapping, “This is Nox Draven, here to rescue us, so you had all better treat him with respect, or I’ll assume you’re Resistance sympathizers and put you down.”
I shoot her a look, but she just shrugs. “Gryph taught me how to deal with that monster bullshit early on. Nip it in the bud and move the fuck on. We don’t have the time or energy to baby them through this.”
She stalks over to frisk the corpse of one of the guards for keys and then gets to freeing the now-sheepish and quiet women. There’s still a tent here of men to get out, and then the clusterfuck of getting everyone transported to deal with. I have no idea how long it’s actually been since Davies went to the Hail Mary, but we must be running low on time.