It’s getting harder by the day to keep my face passive and the contempt off of it while dealing with Gifted that we know are members of the Resistance. Daniella Jordan is no exception.
I’ve never trusted the slimy lawyer, and though North has always said I was just being difficult for the sake of it, it feels good to know that I was right. She doesn’t like me standing in on their meetings, especially when I stand on North’s side of the desk in his home office, behind his seat like I’m preparing to take a bullet for him as though he’s not the most dangerous man in our entire community. She doesn’t like the advantage it gives me, or that I’m looking down on her.
Well, I’ve never been looking down quite so hard before because this fucking bitch knows where my Bonded is. I know it. North knows it, and while she’s sitting there talking about asinine Council bullshit, she knows it too. We’re all just playing our parts and pretending the giant elephant isn’t in the room. It’s making my skin itch.
There’s no way her sister was working alone to mess with Bond Groups. There’s no way that Daniella has wormed her way into the good graces of North Draven for innocent reasons, and how much confidential information has she gotten directly from him in the last five years?
I’m going to call dibs on killing her, no matter how badly Nox wants it. There’s a reason he’s not here today. He’s terrible at keeping a poker face in this kind of situation.
Daniella paints a frown onto her face, the picture of a concerned lawyer worried for her boss’ Bond, but there’s something about the very careful way that she speaks around me that’s always flagged on my radar. Now we know why.
It takes everything inside of me to stop myself from reaching across the desk and choking the life out of her, at least until some useful intel falls from that sharp tongue of hers.
The way she smiles at me, she knows it too.
“I’ll get these documents drafted up for you, North. The Alpha and Bravo Teams will find her. They found her last time. I’m sure they have her scent already, it’s only a matter of time,” she says as she collects the papers in front of her and slips them into her briefcase.
North stands and runs a hand down his suit jacket as though he actually gives a shit about looking professional in this moment, just another part of the act, and then walks her out to Rafe, who will see her all the way out of the mansion.
I count to five after the door locks behind her before I murmur, “I have no idea how you put up with her. I would have killed her long before we figured her out.”
North shrugs and shakes out his hand, the one with the thin black ring of smoke circling it, one of the many little warning signs that he’s riding the edge of his control. “Being on the Council is exclusively dealing with people I don’t like. It’s that or I give up the seat, which I couldn’t do while we were looking for Oleander. Now I need to keep it so we can find her every time she disappears on us.”
It’s the first time he’s mentioned it without putting his fist through something, so I’ll call it progress.
He moves back to the desk and unlocks the drawer to collect his own stack of papers, all of it relating to Oli and her code name.
The code name that Atlas Bassinger conveniently knew without her telling him.
North checks his watch. “It’s dinner time. We both skipped breakfast and lunch today. With what we’re doing tonight, we’ll need the fuel.”
No argument from me there, though I don’t really want to deal with half the people coming to the table anymore.
The Benson kids and Felix Davenport have moved into Draven mansion with us. While there’s a part of me that takes great pride in caring for my Bonded’s closest friends in her absence, there’s a part of me who resents having them here while she’s gone. Salt in the wounds of her being taken from me again while we’re stuck here, sitting on our goddamned hands, because they’re not in any of the known camps.
When Atlas handed me her GPS chip, I wanted to strangle the life out of him with my bare hands. That feeling had only gotten worse when Gabe had debriefed us fully on how much Atlas really knew about her… right up until Gabe got to the part about Noakes’ treachery.
North also didn’t take it well.
He hasn’t taken any of this well, and the more information we get about Oli’s time with the Resistance, the closer to losing control I see him getting. It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen him this close to the edge. The last thing that set him off, well, no one blamed him for losing it on his brother’s behalf like that.
I certainly didn’t.
With every day that she’s gone, we’re all starting to unravel. I’d thought it was bad the first time around, but back then, we’d lost the idea of a Bond. The hopes and dreams we’d all had about her, not the girl herself.
Losing the real, flesh and blood Oleander Fallows is like dying a death of a thousand tiny cuts.
Hearing her voice in my head had almost brought me to my goddamned knees in the middle of a debrief with the TacTeam we’d left behind, Team Delta, who had one fucking job. That was to keep her safe. The fact that she’d given me absolutely nothing to go on is both infuriating and completely expected. I’d had to point out to North that she survived in those camps as a fourteen-year-old for two years. We need to stop with the bullshit and just… trust her. For a few days, while we use every goddamned resource at our disposal to find her and bring her the fuck home.
We don’t really have much choice about it. The moment I’d done what she’d asked and spoken directly to Kieran, Oli had blocked me back out. I’d been frustrated until North had pointed out the obvious.
“There are a lot of Gifted who can pick up on that sort of communication. She’s keeping herself safe. She’s keeping you both safe.”
It’s the only level-headed thing I’ve heard him say about this entire fucking mess, and it gives me just a little bit of hope for the two of them, that maybe they’ll figure their shit out when we have her back.
When.
There are no ifs here.
When we get to the dining room, Nox is already there. His nose is still buried in a textbook as old as the Draven bloodline itself, the way it has been since he found out about Oli’s gift. I knew he’d be this way, that he’d research and track every little part of her power until he’s absolutely sure of what we’re dealing with.
I wish him good luck, because I’ve never heard of a Soul Render like her before.
We take our usual seats and start to fill our plates, the usual spread laid out with fish and lobster as though my Bonded were still here to enjoy it. I fill my plate with it just to feel some sort of connection to her, like a fucking sap, but no one says a word to me about it.
When the doors open again and Gabe joins us, he looks as though he’s been dragged through the mud. There are dark circles under his eyes and some streaks of blood down his throat and chest, peeking through the holes in his shirt. He’s been down at the shifter fight clubs again, biding his time and working some of the frustration out, but he’s obviously getting sloppy with his wins.
I don’t mince my words. “You look like shit.”
He shrugs and slides into his usual seat, his brows tugging together as he glances at Oli’s empty seat. When he scrubs a hand over his face, his knuckles are bloodied and dirty too. “I don’t give a shit.”
There isn’t a whole lot of information that can be found at the shifter fight club, but if it’s keeping him out of trouble and getting some of the aggression out of his system, then I’m all for it. There’s not a huge amount he can do for the search here until we have a location.
Then, we’ll all be going after our Bond and killing anyone responsible for keeping her away from us.
As the door to the kitchen opens, the others arrive for dinner. Sawyer walks into the room with a laptop open in his hands, his eyes glowing white as he works through the very classified and incredibly above his clearance-level data that North has him working through. Sage and Felix follow behind him, both of them looking exhausted and frazzled. It seems no one in the house is sleeping well. That’s also soothing somehow, that we’re all a little lost without my Soul Render Bonded.
Felix gets one look at Gabe and reaches out to heal him, until Gabe stops him with a curt, “Don’t.”
Felix gives him a wry look back, his hand still hovering in the air between them. “Punishing yourself with bleeding knuckles and scratches is just stupid, Ardern.”
Gabe shakes his head at him, his eyes on his plate still. “Oli doesn’t like us being healed by anyone but her. If it’s not life threatening, just leave it.”
Felix’s face drops and he glances over at Sage ruefully, obviously regretting saying anything, but she just takes a breath and says, “Oli always let Felix heal her. She wouldn’t mind it if it were him doing it, Gabe. We both know it.”
He just shrugs and tucks back into his plate without another word. The table falls silent again, only the sounds of cutlery scraping on plates and the clicking of keys on the laptop to be heard. It’s stupid, and I know I shouldn’t, but I try to reach out to Oli again, not to speak to her but just to feel that she’s okay. I can tell she’s alive. We’d all know if she died, but there’s a lot of bad shit that can be happening to a girl without killing her.
I try not to think too much about that because my bond starts acting up about it otherwise.
Sage clears her throat and then steels herself to speak to North, “Is someone going to let Atlas out of his cell sometime soon? We all know he’s not a Resistance member.”
Nox scoffs and lifts his glass of whiskey to his lips. “Do we? Because he’s a Bassinger. Nothing here makes more sense than him being part of that scum.”
It’s like watching Sage grow a spine in front of my very eyes. I’m careful to take in every second of it so I can share it with Oli later. Soon. I’ll share it with her soon.
“I watched him dote on her for months. If I was going to believe anyone in her Bond was trying to hurt her, it would be you, Draven.”
Oof.
I share a look with North, expecting him to come running to Nox’s defense, but he just looks back down at the transcripts we’ve found of the experiments on the IW.
The Resistance records of the torture sessions of my Bonded.
Nox smirks back at Sage, oblivious to the nightmare that his brother is sifting through, and says, “And that’s how the Resistance keeps winning, by putting on a kind and loving face to win simpering women over.”
Gabe slams his knife and fork back down onto the table, and Sawyer shoves his laptop away from himself with a snarl. There’s clearly about to be a brawl. Nox just smirks and his eyes flash black as he prepares to get them all off of his back with his creatures but instead, he stiffens for a second, and then he snaps at North, “She’s given the creature to Kyrie. He’s not hers to just give away.”
North’s eyes snap up at him, but then Nox curses under his breath and mutters, “She handed him off… for protection in the camps. She knows what happens to the women there.”
There’s quiet for a moment and then Sage throws a hand at him in a cutting gesture, snapping, “What a terrible, ‘simpering’ woman she is, running off to save people! Even when she’s trapped in one of those fucking camps, she’s thinking about others. So you go right ahead and tell me what idiots we both are for believing Atlas, because your word means nothing to me. Nothing, Draven! You’re just a bitter, twisted man who needs a fucking therapist and to sober the hell up.”
Still, North does nothing to intervene.
Whatever is going on between the brothers, I’ve never seen them act this way before. Never. North has protected, cared for, coveted, and coddled Nox through his teenage years. He has never let him fight his own battles like this without stepping in and throwing his gift into the mix.
Gabe ignores Nox and turns instead to North to snap, “Are you going to speak to him or are we just… leaving him in there to rot until we get Oli back? Is there a plan here, or are we just hoping he disappears?”
Nox shoots me look from the other end of the table, but I don’t want to talk too much about it in front of the others. Sawyer glances around at all of us and leans back in his seat as he waits for an answer, shifting closer to his sister protectively.
North chooses his words carefully but doesn’t back down. “He’s proven that he has knowledge that only someone with connections in the Resistance would have. He’s lied to us, or at the very least, omitted the truth.
Gabe shrugs in that very youthful way of his. “Oli did too. None of you are suggesting we lock her up when she gets home.”
North’s eyes narrow back at him. “Oleander is not a part of this discussion, and she was taken by the Resistance. She’s a victim, not a possible conspirator.”
Sage stares at him and then lets out a breath and butts in, “Oli would be pissed, and you all know it. There’s nothing I can do to get you guys to let him go, but I’m warning you, she’ll go eight different levels of terrifying Bond on you all when she finds out—”
North interrupts her, “He’s in isolation. He’s in his own room, being fed three square meals a day, with access to all of his usual amenities, except for his phone and the internet. He is in no way suffering, and I can assure you that when Oli is home, I will speak directly to her about it. I’ve taken her thoughts and feelings into consideration, don’t doubt it.”
After saving her from the burning building and covering for her, North has clearly won some brownie points from Sage, and even though she gives him a stern once-over, she nods and gets back to her food.
It’s the worst dinner since Nox stopped dragging women in here to antagonize our Bond. I finish my plate as quickly as I can choke it all down. The moment I’m done, North packs away his files, his own plate still half filled as he abandons it without another thought.
We leave through the kitchens and into the service hallways that run through the building for the staff to use. As I move to follow North, Nox grabs my arm to stop me, his eyes dark in the muted lighting. I urge North on without me and then turn back to Nox.
He’s not drunk, but he’s definitely drinking more at the moment. We’re going to have to cut him off soon.
“North told me about your gift, the extra that you can do now that you’ve Bonded with her.”
Her.
He says it like even just her name is poison on his tongue. It never bothered me before, I know all of the reasons why he’s like that, but right now it’s like a thrill of acid in my blood, burning everything it touches.
I give him a nod, not trusting my voice, and he takes it as a cue to go on.
“Don’t ever practice that on me. I say this as your oldest friend. I will kill you if you look inside my head, even for a second.”
I don’t have to look at him to know that he’s telling the truth. I also didn’t have to be warned by him.
I know what horrors are hiding in there.
I shrug and murmur, “I won’t. I’ve spoken to North about it, and I’ll work my way up to getting into his. You’ll be let out of this.”
There’s only one elevator that goes downstairs in the house, for good reason.
You don’t want house guests stumbling on the work we’ve done down here, or the captives we’ve brought back from the council offices. And we definitely don’t want any visiting council members to see Noakes chained to the floor, covered in blood, and trying to free the traitorous, despicable piece of shit.
He’s looking in particularly bad shape tonight. I suppose three days down here without food or water will do that to a man. When he hears the elevator and the sounds of our footsteps on the concrete, he jerks against his chains.
“I have nothing else to say!” he mumbles, thready and weak, and North scoffs at him.
“We’re not here to question you. We’re past all of that now.”
What little blood is left in Noakes’ face drains away, and he scrambles up onto his knees. His voice is barely more than a croak as he rushes out with, “I had one job. Find your Bond and get her tracked. That’s it! They were going to kill my children! What was I supposed to do?”
North’s eyes don’t even bother flicking to me. We’ve done this type of interrogation more than a thousand times by now. He knows how I move when I’m hearing lies. I shift on my feet, exactly how I am right now, because they taste wrong in the air to me.
North blows out a breath and straightens his tie, the picture of calm and control. “You should really know better than to lie in front of Gryphon. You were on the committee that picked him for the TacTeams. You put forward the recommendation for him to become the Lead. Have you forgotten this in your betrayal of us all?”
Noakes’ nose scrunches up and he simpers, “He’s got it wrong, I’m telling the truth. They’ve only asked me to track the girl. I didn’t give him anything else!”
I crouch down so that I’m at eye level with him. “You knew about the explosive though, didn’t you? You knew you were putting my Bonded’s life in danger.”
He whimpers and sputters out, “I thought they were lying about that! I didn’t think they’d be crazy enough to do that to some girl. They’re not complete monsters.”
North scoffs and holds out his hand, his palm slowly turning black. “No, but we are. Isn’t that right, old friend? You were happy to help cultivate the rumors of the Monster Bond.”
North’s gift feels a lot like Oli’s does, a tightness in your chest as he calls on it, and a slow smirk stretches over my face. He usually disposes of prisoners once we’re done with them by using his death touch. Quick, efficient, and clean. That’s him down to a T. Oli disappearing again has snapped his control, and I, for one, am glad to see it.
Glad that she’s dug her way as deeply under his skin as she’s burrowed under mine.
Noakes sputters and coughs in response and mumbles, “I did no such thing!”… lie, “The community was worried about what you were capable of, all of you! There was nothing I could do to stop the spread of misinformation,”… lie, “You can’t blame all of that on me without credible evidence! I don’t deserve to die like this!”… the biggest lie yet.
I scoff and meet his eyes one last time as August pops out of North’s palm, salivating and snarling already, to say, “A monster sticks an explosive in a nineteen-year-old girl’s head just to save his own skin. A monster walks into a fourteen-year-old girl’s hospital room after her entire family was killed in an accident to threaten her into captivity. You think we’ve been monsters so far? You haven’t seen what we’re truly capable of yet… but now you will.”
When his scream finally dies out, the crunching of his bones follow us out of the basement.
