Page 28 of Bonding Beasts (Bonding: The Ultimate Guide #3)
King
My would-be executioner watches me warily from across the table as she sizes me up, and I do the same. I keep my body relaxed as my mind spins with different thoughts.
She was tortured. How and when? How old is she? Death doesn’t have a hold on her, so it’s anyone’s guess.
The things I saw in her mind were horrifying. Short flashes of different types of torment in a kaleidoscope of pain and blood. She has suffered immensely.
Much like my sister so long ago. I now have an in-depth view of the things that were done to her.
I force that thought away before it consumes me with old guilt layered over new.
I aided in part of her torment, and she has glossed over the remembered pain as a tiny fragment. To me, it is a glaring atrocity too big to ignore.
I have no issue with torturing an individual who is guilty. But my leanings are more towards the psycho-logical than the physical.
Beatrice is guilty of nothing more than wishing to help us. To ease our suffering and make us well again.
I tried to destroy that.
I harmed the female that is my second mate.
True, I was under command at the time, but the guilt will always remain.
I don’t remember feeling the pull of matehood towards her while I was under Iris’ control. She had too much control over me for it to be a consideration.
My first sight of Beatrice appearing from the dark miasma of smoke that is her guard felled me. I shut down every emotion as I watched her embrace Mitri like a long-lost loved one. Her fear of Psycho, who they call Kimi. Then, her mental break when she saw the instruments laid out for her use.
Everything came into sharp focus then.
My mate was in danger, where no one else could reach. Trying to soothe her was instinctual. I failed because she has never known true comfort or care. The things I once took for granted are foreign and frightening to her.
It saddens and enrages me in equal measure. She knows struggle, sacrifice, and pain. And lies . Many, many lies.
I look at Mitri’s intense focus on her, Kimi’s blank stare, and her guard’s misty hovering presence.
When I turn to Mal, he glances away from me. The pain of our disconnect is sudden to me, while he has been somewhat aware of my neglect for years. A ploy to keep us separated and untrusting of our matehood.
If I could kill her again, Iris would be in this chair, and her suffering would be never-ending.
How do I fix this? And then add another female to our matehood without causing us all to shatter?
“Are we talking, or is this the terrible blind date that won’t end?” She interrupts my musings and brings my attention back to her.
Mal grumbles wordlessly at my side and eyes me.
“We’re talking,” I reply quickly. I’ll be honest with her inquiries. She deserves better than to have even more lies thrown at her.
“Iris was sent to us from the House of Delegates, just as any other agent has before.”
I pause here to let it settle into her mind that her still being in the house with us was an anomaly that should not have been allowed.
Her eyes narrow as the point swiftly slides home and I continue.
“I believe our team of spies is now out in the open.”
Mitri gives a stiff nod and Mal curses.
“She was sent to keep an eye on our activities. I knew it,” Mal snarls and glares in my direction. “I told you!”
I ignore the accusation and carry on, “It took her a year to fully ingratiate herself. Her mental control was never mentioned in any of her documentation.”
“The Delegates know that we’re not really acting in their interests. You’re going to ignore that?” Mal snaps.
“I can only control so much, otto ,” I protest.
“Yeah, I figured that out,” he snarls back and turns away from me.
“You guys are TGT agents to keep an eye on the Delegates?” Beatrice asks, her nose wrinkled up in adorable confusion.
“The Assembly and the Delegates have been corrupt long before they invented the names,” Mitri tells her flatly.
“Figures,” she mutters with a long sigh. “Back to GV again. The hexes gave her a boost then? Wait, that isn’t right. Those weren’t placed before the Witches were kidnapped, right?” She looks at her guard for confirmation .
I can gaze at it only when it is docile, like now. Whatever its essence is made of repels me on a visceral level when it becomes the slightest bit agitated.
I meet its eyes for the first time, gazing deep into the odd violet and pink orbs to see what hides in its center and find myself in an abyss of hunger .
The need is so complete that my stomach begins cramping with the urge to assuage it, and my mouth fills with saliva.
I can feel it when its monstrous lips curl up as its eyes narrow on mine knowingly.
I shut my eyes to break the connection and take a moment to catch my breath. I’ve been using more force than necessary out of habit, slamming into minds instead of tiptoeing, and I need to change that. No one should feel me enter their mind.
My suspicions are confirmed. I’m using more force because that is what I have had to do for many years. At my age, the use of my power has steadily become weaker and weaker, requiring more concentration.
Yet now, I am back to the pinnacle of everything. My mind and body refreshed as if I were a youth instead of nearing the end of my existence. Because of my second mate.
She strengthened me. My bond with Mal has been reinforced somehow, holding steady and strong despite the block he has erected there. And I believe she has forced my body to regress into a younger, more powerful age. Was this by choice or chance?
I open my eyes and study her again. Not the inside of her mind’s working, but her physical appearance.
Despite the obscene amount of bruising and swelling overtaking most of her body, she is attractive.
In the homely way of Humans, her features are softened and dulled to an ordinary-looking facade. Her pale blue eyes appear fatigued, dark rings circling them, and her dark hair is in wild disarray around the crown of her head. Her shirt is slowly sliding down her left shoulder.
I would believe she was trying to seduce me if she were a different person. With her character, it has to be absentminded disdain for the physical.
The skin revealed is swollen, tight, and covered in black and purple bruises. She has to be in considerable pain, yet she sits across from me with a bland expression of insolence. A far cry from the menders I have heard about, but undeniable in her power.
“It wasn’t until she attained the ring that we began to succumb to her manipulations,” I abruptly begin again.
“What ring?” Beatrice frowns in confusion and glances down at her thumb. The pieces of the artifact lie around it innocently, and the downturn of her lips becomes a scowl as she looks back at me.
I’m strong enough that the artifact means nothing to me now. She’s already guessed correctly without saying a word.
“A gaudy piece. Gold with an opal at its center, diamonds around the edges,” I inform her.
“I thought you bought that for her? It was hideous,” Mal inserts with surprise.
“Not I,” I scoff with disbelief. “You are the only one I would give gold to.”
Mal looks away towards the table, hiding his thoughts from me, and I do not like it. Where once our union was solid and sure, it is no longer. We have a disconnect that I want to wipe clean. I want my mate back.
“Wait,” the thing interrupts. Ben is such an innocuous name for a being so abominable even I can’t stand to look at it. The cloud gets closer to Beatrice, and I stiffen, suddenly even more uneasy with its presence .
She seems to be listening to it, even though I can hear nothing. Her attention comes back to me abruptly as she nods.
“Was the ring about this big?” She holds her thumb and forefinger two inches apart in a demonstration.
“Yes,” I confirm with a frown.
“And Tremaine wore a ring just like that?” She pauses and then turns to glare at the smoke. “Of course I will, but you have to step past the shyness and speak for yourself at some point, ok? Ben says it was so big it took up her entire finger. So, an artifact to amplify her power or something?”
“I think the ring itself was the manipulation,” I glance between them in confusion. It isn’t speaking because it’s shy? I can’t see a being like this as embarrassed by much if anything.
“Why didn’t you break it?” Beatrice glances meaningfully towards the pieces of the ring she wore, then back to me.
I won’t mention that I would not have had the strength to at that point as I had weakened with age.
“She was able to manipulate us through touch with the ring. The more contact she had, the firmer the hold on a person’s mind.”
“And you were having sex with her,” she winces in a sympathetic display and bites her full lower lip as if she hadn’t meant to say the words aloud.
“Correct,” I calmly reassure. I have no feelings for my sexual activities over the past few years.
I vaguely recall the act with her, but not with any substance, and I would prefer it to remain that way.
“She kept her hold over us, slowly losing the need to touch us the further we fell into her web. Until you arrived.”
“Me?” She asks in confusion. “What did I do?”
“You’re a mender,” I remind her. Does she not know the extent of her power ?
“So what? I didn’t do anything to anyone the entire time I was there,” she winces, and her shoulders rise up towards her ears, eyes sliding from mine towards Mitri with a guilty glance. “Except that one time.”
“I knew it,” Mal snarls suddenly and glares at Mitri, struggling anew. “She healed you, didn’t she? Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I asked him not to,” she rushes to explain, reaching towards Mal as if to physically stop his anger.
“When was this?” I ask and eye Mitri suspiciously myself.
“You picked him up,” Kimi’s voice washes over us in a soft and curiously flat tone.