The moment the fighting starts around us, Kieran disappears to sound the alarm to the TacTeams in place for backup. They were close to moving out anyway, but as the waves of Resistance begin to arrive, we need all of the help we can get.
North and Nox move to flank our small group, their shadow creatures thick in the air, and Gryphon’s eyes shift to white as he throws his Gift into the mix, hacking into the brains of the Gifted around us to shut down their Gifts as he renders them nothing more than mindless, quick meals for the Dravens’ creatures.
Gabe’s dragon is quick to move off, and Atlas stays at my side, watching my every move obsessively as I lose myself in the Soul Rending. I become nothing more than a machine, filtering the souls of our enemies into power for my Bonded. I take from them and give it to my most beloved until they’re all terrifyingly powerful, indestructible gods.
The Resistance were prepared for that though.
Their strategy is easy to read. Each wave of Gifted they throw at us is stronger than the last as they attempt to chip away at us little by little, weakening us so that when Davies finally arrives, there’s no way we could possibly beat him.
The human part of me is worried that it’s working.
The god is too busy devouring the glut of lifeforce and power that we’re destroying around us to be worried about something so trivial as strategy and warfare. No, it’s writhing with joy in there, unrestrained and consuming everything around us to its heart’s content, because there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect my Bonded.
Nothing.
Instead of taking over completely, my bond just shifts into my mind so that we’re working together, my eyes shifting to black and helping me to see through the carnage.
The Resistance just keep on coming.
I let North and Nox work their way through the ones who arrive in the waves, and I focus on emptying out the rest of the camp. Tent by tent, I work through them all, but I’m also thankful when Gabe is able to wipe out rows and rows of the tents himself from the air.
I’m relieved to see that the TacTeams had already emptied out the prisoners’ tents, the Transporters heading straight there to get our people out before they became casualties of the fighting. Now I only have to differentiate between the TacTeams and the Resistance when I sweep the area with my Gift.
Gabe is good at picking out the rows of tents that have Resistance hiding in them, those too terrified by the Draven Bonded Group to come out and fight for themselves. Whether they know that Lydia is dead or not is irrelevant. A lot of them have no experience fighting, and their loyalty to the cause doesn’t stretch as far as coming out to face the shadow creatures or a fire-breathing dragon.
Little do they know, I don’t need to be able to see them to kill them.
Any worries that I had about my bond still needing rest melt away as the souls slowly filter through my body and into my Bonded as pure power. Gryphon’s eyes shine brighter and brighter, still the same white color of his Gift, but he doesn’t hesitate to use what he has access to, shutting down the minds of those around us even as he is directing his TacTeams.
Bodies are littered around us everywhere, but it’s mostly the enemy as they are shredded to pieces by the shadow creatures. The ground around us is churned up, a sea of blood and flesh and charred remains, thanks to Kieran transporting Sage and Gray in to fight on our perimeter as well.
It still might not be enough.
Nox and North both have their void eyes on as they live up to their titles as Death Dealers. Their bonds have not had to take over, content to sit back and watch as their vessels do what they have been trained to do. For a moment, I think that Atlas is set on just guarding me and watching what is going on around us.
That’s until I hear him curse viciously under his breath, hooking an arm around my waist as he turns me. I feel the wave of his power burst out from him again, the same way it had when his bond had taken over.
I let my eyes flutter open to look behind me, only to find mangled bodies in his wake.
“They’re getting too close, Sweetness. There’s too many of them,” he murmurs, and I nod my head.
“The camp is empty. It’s only the new waves coming through for us to deal with. I’ll shift back to helping here.”
He nods and moves me to stand in front of his body, his arms bracketing my sides and one palm sitting over my chest. It’s as though I’m wearing a living bulletproof vest, one that can fight back if I need it to.
They’re coming in too fast. They’re getting too close to Oleander. North, pull in. We need to close the gap, Nox calls out through our mind connection. I watch as they all move seamlessly around Atlas and I to cover us with the shadow creatures more fully. Azrael is still sitting obediently at my feet as though he’s just waiting for the chance to tear some Resistance scum apart, but he loves me too much to risk leaving me.
There’s more fire around us, this time from Sage as she takes out another section of the newcomers, but they’re strong, too strong for any one of us to take by ourselves, and Gryphon has to wade into the fight to help her. Without access to their Gifts, she’s able to roast them alive.
It’s good to do it without having to listen to their dying screams.
Gabe’s dragon roars above us as it dives towards the far end of the camp, swooping down to grab at a group of Resistance, and then it hurtles back into the air, dropping its victims to the ground as though they’re nothing more than rocks.
For hours, we fight.
We fight for ourselves, for each other, for our community. We fight to fix the evils these people have wrought, for the family we still have and the family we’ve lost. We fight to finish this once and for all, because we can’t live like this forever.
We deserve better than this.
The air around us is on fire.
Every inch of my body aches, and even Atlas is panting behind me as the next wave of Resistance arrives. TacTeam personnel are thick on the ground, the bodies of the Resistance already dead everywhere. I feel as though this hellish day might never freaking end, then I feel him arrive.
My bond pushes back to the surface as I reach out to my Bonded, Davies is here. He’s here now.
Gryphon replies right away, He brought others with him. Get the shadow creatures to take him out before he can touch Oli, and we’ll deal with the others.
North and Nox don’t bother trying to answer him; they simply get to work, moving their creatures to do exactly that, streaming back towards us as they prepare for the final death we need today. The one that counts.
Davies turns and his bloodshot eyes collide with mine across the charred, blood-soaked grass. My bond reaches for him, but he lashes out at the same time. Atlas roars in pain behind me as it hits him. He stays standing though, wrapped protectively around me. Gryphon feels it too, stumbling over his feet a little as he fights the nerve pains shooting through his head. It’s a very specific type of pain, one that I know well.
I don’t feel it.
I’m strong enough now not to feel it. My bond has been awake and around for long enough to keep me safe from this pain. North and Nox are both unaffected as well, but Gabe’s dragon lands in the small clearing that’s now covered in bodies as it lets out its own screech of pain.
They’re all newly awakened, without the time to settle into the space and become all-powerful, so Davies’ Neuro ability is tearing into their brains and wreaking havoc there. I need it to stop. I need to stop him from hurting them, and me, because I swore I’d never let them feel the pain that man can bring.
I step away from Atlas, casting my Gift out towards Davies again. I’m going to take his soul if it’s the last goddamned thing I do.
A shield slams up around me, cutting me off from all of my Bonded.
It won’t last forever, the Dravens will see to that, but Davies doesn’t need forever to kill me.
“NO!” North screams, shadows slamming out of his body as black as the night as they consume everything, but even as the world plunges into the depths of darkness I can still see perfectly as Davies rushes me.
My Gift isn’t strong enough yet to pull his soul out, but it stays wrapped around it in his chest, gripping it and squeezing at it. I filtered everything I’ve collected through to my Bonded, so I don’t have enough to kill Davies myself. I’d need to pull more power, but there’s no one left. No one but our own men, and I’m not going to take them.
I’m not a fucking monster.
He puts a hand around my throat, his eyes manic as he gets his hands on me once again. He can’t use his Gifts on me anymore, but that’s not the only way to kill a person. Hand to hand, he’s twice the size of me. Gryphon prepared me for this moment with months and months of training against him. So when Davies gets his other hand around my throat as well, it’s hard but not impossible to dislodge him. I take him to the ground, my knee coming up to catch him in the side, and I feel his rib crunch. My legs always have been my strongest asset, and I’m proud of that fact when I smash my knee into his side again, his roar of pain a fucking beautiful sound.
He made me scream like that so many times.
He gets a hand back around my throat and lands a punch on my cheekbone, my head snapping back and stars bursting over my vision. I’m in danger here. If I don’t get my brain unscrambled and away from him, he’s just going to beat me to death right now.
He doesn’t get the chance, and neither do I.
His body is ripped away from mine by a huge pair of jaws, the shadows of Azrael twisting and shifting until he has Davies pinned to the ground. Davies thrashes against him, but there’s no fighting the Dravens’ shadows, hundreds have tried and failed already.
Then Nox appears through the darkness, clear as day to my shifted eyes. He looks like Death himself standing there. His eyes touch over the bruise forming on my cheek, and it’s game over for Davies.
I want to weep with relief.
“If you think killing me is going to end this, you’re fucking stupid, Draven!”
“I don’t want you to die. I want you screaming,” Nox says, his voice wavering as his bond fights to the surface. “She gave the power away, but that’s okay. I have it. I’ll take care of this with fucking pleasure. Who would’ve thought these demons of mine would come in handy?”
Davies’ mouth opens wide, flapping like a fish out of water, but Nox’s eyes are soulless voids as he unleashes the Madness onto him. The last gift his mother ever gave him is the one he wields now to protect his Bonded, the real one, that was made for him.
The one who followed him to the edge of the afterlife and called him back onto this plane of existence, who loves him as sure as the sun itself.
He breaks Davies open again and again, and none of my other Bonded moves to stop him. No, even North stands there and watches my torturer die a slow, painful, and terrifying death, locked in his own mind as his body shuts down out of pure terror.
At the last moment, Nox’s bond offers Davies’ soul to mine.
A gift of power, if I choose to consume it.
I seriously consider it and the poetic justice of taking his power away and into myself. In the end, I don’t want the stain of that man touching me ever again, not even his soul being filtered through to me. I let it go instead, watching with my void eyes as it disappears into nothingness. The man who haunted my every waking minute, the monster in all of my worst nightmares, is dead.
Nox Draven killed him for me.
I deflate like a goddamned balloon, all but collapsing onto the ground. I don’t cry, not even tears of joy, but there’s an ache in my chest that might be relief, or maybe it’s just a physical pain, because we fought for our lives today.
It’s anyone’s guess, really.
Nox steps over Davies’ body. I’m expecting him to stand by me, maybe offer me a hand up. Instead, he drops down to wrap his arms around my shoulders and draws me into his chest. The breath he lets out is shaky, but the beat of his heart is steady and sure.
There was never a question in my mind about him, not about what he’d be willing to do for me today and definitely not what he’d do for his family. To finish the fight and have him here, alive and unharmed, is all I could ever hope for.
We’re all alive.
North comes over to stand by us both, and Nox eventually stands, pulling me with him, and then he pushes me into his brother’s arms. North cups my face in his big palms and presses our foreheads together as he checks in with me.
I pull away to survey the area around us. The smoke is still thick in the air around us, choking me until I’m a coughing mess. It wasn’t so bad while we were fighting, but now that my mind isn’t focused on our survival, I feel as though I’m being suffocated by it.
As I look out towards the burning tents, I squint a little, blinking rapidly in an attempt to clear my eyes, but nothing I do changes what I’m seeing.
Senator Oldham.
The non-Gifted, pain-in-North’s-ass senator is just… standing in the middle of the war-torn camp as though it’s a regular Tuesday morning for her.
Gryphon frowns at the look on my face, turning to see what has me so messed up. When he gets an eyeful of the woman there, he shifts on his feet, his hand coming down to rest over his gun. North glances over his shoulder as well, shock sliding across his features unchecked, and Nox steps up to my side with a scowl. Atlas and Gabe both glance around, unsure of what’s so concerning about this small, unassuming woman, but they trust us all enough to switch on to high alert.
She shakes her head at us gently, her voice quiet but firm and easily heard. “Well, well. I wasn’t expecting you all to survive Davies’ psychosis. I was sure he’d get the god-bond out of the little girl. Such a shame that I’ll have to finish what he failed to do.”
Then her eyes shift to the black god-voids.
I know nothing but pain as the darkness takes me.
