Page 40 of Bonding Beasts (Bonding: The Ultimate Guide #3)

I make sure that Mike gets out of the SUV after Mal. I don’t know what he has, but I don’t like it. I don’t like him being here, either. The amount of knowledge he has on dragon behavior and the fact that he called me a mender concerns me.

Then again, he’s headed into a house full of homicidal maniacs, so I’m considering it a safe call. It’s not like he’ll get out if he’s some kind of Human spy.

He’s definitely terrified. He was horrified that we left the scene of a crime without qualm.

Everything points to him being a Human caught up in things he doesn’t understand.

Trying to blurt out whatever he has in the vehicle without regard to the fact that someone we don’t know was driving us?

And who knows how many faeries hitching a ride?

I never noticed they were in the truck until they bailed out at the first sign of trouble.

I guess bailed out isn’t the right way to put it. More like eagerly committed crimes at the first opportunity. I need to reassess this friendship with Mab ASAP.

All this useless worrying comes to a halt, much like Mike does when he walks face-first into the ward and bounces back to fall on his ass. He had been following close to Mal with no idea what was coming. I forgot the thing was even there. What’s Mal’s excuse?

I eye the knowing smirk that flits across his face as he continues his stately walk towards the front door.

No excuse, just pure mischief. Who knew he had it in him ?

“Sorry about that, Mike.” I wince as he rubs his nose and his eyes water.

I have no idea why I’m apologizing to him. I don’t trust the guy. What happened to me being a stone-cold bitch? Am I maturing or something? If this is growing up, I don’t want it.

“Mal, would you mind asking Ben if he can lift the ward for him?” I’m sure the answer will be no, and he’ll just ignore me. Why am I bothering to ask?

Also, if it stopped Mike, how did everyone else get in? Ben was so confident that it was infallible. And why am I only now realizing this shit? Does maturity equal stupidity? I should blame my mental see-saw. It’s stuck in a lowered-to-the-insane side tilt. I think it’s stuck there.

To my surprise, Mal opens the door and leans in, yelling, “Hey Ben, we have a visitor that needs access.”

What’s this ‘we’ shit. And would it kill him to be nice about it? Maybe a please?

We need to start locking the door if the ward is failing. Although, why I think a locked door would help us is beyond me.

Maybe I’m just grumpy. I don’t remember a sip of coffee passing my lips this morning. It's a sure sign of the apocalypse that Others rave about.

I’m standing just past the fence when Ben stomps out and heads right for me. Uh-oh, smell attack incoming. I hurry across the ward to prove I gave some thought to my safety. I’m sure it won’t help.

True to form, Ben immediately begins smelling my body all over. I wait, resigned to my future of constant sniffing, and watch King come out.

He glares at Mike, his face twisted in disgust before he looks at Mal. Mal won’t look at him, focused solely on the spectacle of Ben circling me and huffing at whatever scents he finds .

He spends the longest on the side where Mal and I touched, making grumbling noises.

I shrug and roll my eyes at Mal, prompting him to smirk, and King’s glower intensifies. Mal would be dead ten times over on the porch if looks could kill.

“ This is Mike?” King gestures towards the Human standing on the other side of the fence, watching Ben with a look of absolute horror. I guess the whole sniff attack is pretty weird to other people. Ben is right. My adjustment period for odd things is at an all-time high. Your service, insanity.

Mitri and Kimi stand behind King in the doorway, unable to get out unless they want to shove King out of the way. I figured Kimi would be ecstatic over adding a new person, but his face is completely blank.

Is it wrong for me to worry about it? He absolutely terrifies me, so it makes no sense, right?

Smell test passed; Ben turns to Mike with a contemplative look.

Mike starts screaming. Loud . It sounds like a frightened pig got set loose in the front yard.

His pitch gradually rises until he’s a terrified little girl, and he’s trying to crab walk, at speed, back to the SUV.

“Mike, what are you doing?” I ask in complete confusion.

Ben slowly looks at me with his eyebrow raised. Is he mocking me silently? The look on his face with his pursed lips says yes.

“Get away from it!” Mike squeals and leaps to his feet with an agility I marvel at. He must have cleared a good four feet going from ass on the ground to his feet.

He runs to the vehicle and frantically pulls on the locked door. He looks over his shoulder and shrieks louder when the thing doesn’t open .

“Dude, you’re going to break it,” I stomp over to him with a glower and pull his arm back. He’s so focused that he doesn’t pay any attention to my approach.

“That isn’t mine, no breaking. I can’t afford to pay for it.” Great, now I’m treating him like a dog, shaking my finger at him in reprimand.

Mike abruptly stops screaming and appears confused as he looks around. “What?”

My head rears back in surprise at the sudden change. “Are you… ok?”

“What do you mean?” He asks me, just as baffled as I am.

“You were just freaking out. Did you have some kind of psychotic break?”

“What are you talking about?” He jerks his arm away from me, spots his backpack near the fence, and heads over to pick it up.

Halfway there, he looks up from the ground and begins screaming again. He runs straight for me, and I dodge out of the way for him to get back to the SUV.

I watch the phenomenon with disbelief. It isn’t until he starts trying to break the window with his elbow that I intervene, pulling him back again.

As soon as I touch him, he looks at me and blinks a few times. The screaming stops as he stares at me in confusion again.

“I think you need to lie down,” I say cautiously. I don’t know what’s going on with him, and my spark is back to fluttering after healing Mal, so I’m hesitant to scan him.

“What do you mean?” He asks, and I get a déjà vu feeling as my eyes widen.

“Uh, Bees?” Ben interrupts our stare off.

“Yeah?” I continue looking at Mike warily.

“Do you remember me telling you that I have an effect on people? ”

“The fear and insanity thing?” I have yet to see this in action. He just wants to be a badass, and I support him 100% in everything, so I just go with it.

His eyebrows rise, and he gestures towards Mike as if he’s on a game show, showing me what I’ve won.

“Bullshit,” I start cracking up.

I notice Mal and King staring at me with mouths open in disbelief. My laughter tapers off as I watch them give hesitant glances in Ben’s direction behind his back.

“It’s bullshit… right?” I ask them, and they both shake their heads no.

“You were serious?” I breathe out in dismay.

“Of course I was,” he angrily scowls at me. “Did you think I was lying?”

“No,” I deny quickly and start shaking my head adamantly. “I just thought you meant in your other form…” I trail off with a wince.

Ben pulls himself up straight and waves a hand at me, thoroughly irritated. “Let him go.”

“What?” I hate when he’s mad at me. It makes my stomach sink, and my eyes burn like I’m about to cry. My anxiety begins to churn up again.

“Let him go.” He suggests and crosses his arms over his chest.

I look back at Mike, worried now, and release him.

Mike looks just as confused as before.

“Look at me , Human, not her,” Ben says in his normal everyday voice.

As soon as Mike turns with a frown, his expression changes to absolute disgust and horror. The screaming begins again. This time, he cowers behind me and grabs my shoulders, pressing his face between my shoulder blades and chanting, “It’s not real. It’s not real, Mike!”

I stand there frozen, staring at Ben in shock .

He gives me a mocking ‘I told you so’ look and a grim smile.

“But I’m not scared of you,” I defend myself with wonder and a tiny bit of unease.

“I know,” his arms drop to his sides as he says it, anger fleeing his expression and replaced by resignation. His shoulders droop a bit as he stares at me.

“Mitri isn’t scared of you,” I gesture to the blank-faced immortal leaning casually in the doorway.

“He’s a sociopath. He doesn’t know what fear is,” Ben glares over his shoulder.

“He knows what fear is. He just doesn’t feel it,” I grumble back. That is a little frightening on its own. I digress.

“Kimi isn’t afraid,” I hurry to press on.

“Yeah, I don’t know why,” Ben’s frown transfers to Kimi, who stares blankly back.

“He’s a good guard dog,” he says flatly as if that explains everything.

“It isn’t as effective when I’m like this,” he waves his hands down his body. “But delicate minds react poorly to even this form.”

Hence, Mike’s total freak out. He’s still trying to convince himself that Ben is a figment of his imagination with his face jammed in my back. And damn you, Mitri, for reintroducing me to the word hence. It’s going to pop up every chance it gets.

“He stopped as soon as she touched him,” King points out, openly gleeful at Mike’s fear.

“Yeah, Mom said something about it,” Ben’s head tilts to the side, his voice taking on its dual tone. “The closer she is to the victim, the better their resistance.”

“I swear, if you say, ‘that’s interesting,’ I will smack you,” I shake my finger at him accusingly. I’m lying. I would never hit him, but I can threaten with the best of them .

He huffs out a laugh as I try to internally process this. Does this mean that, in his entire life , only Scilla and a few rare individuals are the only ones who could hang around him? How lonely would that be? Happy, sweet, glass half full, Ben? He must be miserable!

My hands drop to my sides with shame, “I wouldn’t really hit you.”

“I know,” he smiles as his head tilts. He is adorable! How are people afraid of him???