Page 95 of Broken Ties
North’s eyes bore into mine. “Yes, he does. He quoted the exact laws to me, then he also listed every major amendment I’ve broken. After he hung up on me, he used his time in class to email me a far more detailed and incriminating list with times and date stamps as though he’s some trumped-up non-Gifted lawyer here to intervene on Gifted rights violations.”
My worst fears are manifesting before us all and he can no longer deny it. The ties he bound that poisonous Bond of his with are coming loose, only it’s not her escape I’m worried about. If she’s no longer restrained, how long before she takes the inevitable liberties with the Bonds already trapped in her snare? How long until she’s chaining them to her side and forcing their submission and their blind obedience as she takes her sickening pleasures?
How long until she’s breaking me open until there’s nothing recognizable left behind?
After drinkingenough whiskey to fall asleep without dreaming of that girl, I’m startled awake hours later on my bed with no recollection of my brother getting me back here or hisreaction to my drinking. He is the only person who could corral me back without my shadows killing him though, so it had to be North’s doing. I also have no idea what’s woken me but I’m furious regardless.
Sleep is almost impossible for me at the best of times and it’s far from that.
Hauling myself into the bathroom takes twice as long as it should, but my legs eventually work well enough to keep me upright. By the time I’ve cleaned myself up, there’s a fire in my blood that has my skin writhing with unspent energy. Something is happening, serious enough to wake me, and I need to find North to figure out what the fuck is going on.
The moment I step out into the hallway, I come face to face with the problem. The girl startles as if she’s not the interloper outside my bedroom, like this isn’t some great plan, but she’s probably sneaking further down the hall to my brother’s room. Sick of her games, she must be ready to take what she wants from him.
The writhing doubles the second I lay eyes on the girl, standing there with a bag slung over her shoulder and looking homeless. Her hair is glowing white, eyes bright despite the dark circles underneath them, and her lip curls the moment she’s recovered from her shock at my appearance.
I can’t stand to look at the girl, this unbroken Bond of mine.
I need to keep her away from my bond. I’ve done everything in my power to stay away from her as its obsession grows. There’s nothing pleasant about its desires for her, nothing sweet or gentle. It’s the only reason I’ve been able to stomach it— for the most part. It wants to break her open and consume every inch of that girl. The craving is a dark demand, a possessive and demanding psychosis that proves my brother has been right all along. There is a monster living inside of me, and god only knows what it’ll do to that wretched girl if given the chance.
My bond won’t let me look away.
In an instant, I lose control of my body.
My bond washes over me, the essence of who I really am and not just my physical self, to direct my eyes at the maid and to dismiss her in my voice. “Leave us.”
Everything I thought I knew of myself, my bond, this unprecedented experience I’ve lived my entire life and kept secret as though that life depended on it, all of it is shattered in an instant.
It’s not unusual for my bond to awaken within me, a common occurrence now thanks to the girl. It’s also fairly routine for my eyes to void out as it takes control of me. There’s obvious signs beyond the color of my eyes to discern which of us is in control; the way my body moves, the expression on my face, all the way down to my speech pattern and the tone I use.
I’ve known about the other being within me for long enough to come to a place of agreement with it, to study it, to find out where I end and it begins. When it takes control of my body, it feels as though I’ve simply lost access to the control panel, never that it is controllingme.
Not until now.
Paralyzed by fear, I falter instead of fighting back against my bond. A rush of satisfaction flows through it and over me until I feel my grip on sanity start to slip. My bond is ignoring me entirely, but every heartbeat of triumph it feels hits me like a bullet, as though it’s taunting me with the girl and what it plans to do to me.
My mind splinters, the damage to the most visceral parts of me already irreparable. The cracks bloom in intricate spiderweb patterns in the fragile glass of my psyche, slowly at first with the chiming of bells, but soon the shattering is thunderous in my ears and I lose my senses entirely. My bond is interacting withher, it’s using me to lure her in; my eyes, my voice, my derision, my utter loathing.
It doesn’t understand the interaction, but it will use it to get her.
It would useanythingto get her.
Using every trick I’ve learned to disrupt my bond’s control, I know I can only buy myself a little time and I use it to snarl at the girl. It’s not just blind hatred, it’s a calculated tactic. If I can get her enraged, maybe she’ll leave before everything goes catastrophically, irreparably wrong.
If the thing that lives under my skin forces me to bond with her, I’ll kill myself. I will never be trapped and forced into submission by a Bonded ever again. The terror I swore I’d never allow myself to feel again washes over me, sweeping away the haze in my mind as a perfect clarity seeps into my bones. The strength of that feeling subdues my bond a little, making it easier to hold control of myself for a few extra moments.
“Why are you dressed like a common whore? Did North have to hunt you down at some frat house? You sure know how to piss my brother off, don't you, Poison?"
I’ve called her a whore before but only when North is forcing her into our company. With any luck, she’ll turn on her heel and run away from me now as she has before. No matter how many times I try to tell her to leave, to get the fuck away from me, that I’d rather die than stand in this hallway with her, the words die before they can ever take form.
The girl belongs to us.
You, I snap back at it.I don’t want her and I will never belong to a fucking Bond.
It doesn’t respond, but it doesn’t have to; its intentions are clear as it fights to wrest complete control of my body from me. If I don’t get her the fuck away from me, it’s going to Bond with her.
My stomach violently revolts.
Oblivious, her eyes shine as she lifts her chin at me to stare me down. "A girl has to get her fun where she can, Nox. Why do you care so much? It's not like you want me. You have more than enough on your plate, right?"