Bizarre Bonds (Pack of Outcasts #2)

Chapter 1

Periwinkle

Imay have made a slight mistake.

No, “mistake” is what you call grabbing the salt instead of the sugar or ordering the chef’s special only to realize it’s about ten times bigger than your stomach. What’s the word for “my essence is doing some bizarro thing I didn’t know I was capable of or what it even is”?

At least the strange effect I’ve unexpectedly produced doesn’t seem to be bad.

The energy streaming out of me is a warm glow that lights up the chests of the four men it’s veered toward.

Unlike the blazes that’ve surged out of me in a gush of joy in the past, there’s nothing searing or blinding about my current shiny outburst.

But it’s come with other unfamiliar sensations. Like the thud of four heartbeats echoing alongside my own.

The layered rhythm resonates down to my bones. I might actually enjoy the heady vibration if the four men those heartbeats belong to weren’t staring at me like I’ve sprouted a third arm.

As I glance down to confirm that I haven’t actually gained any extra limbs, the beams fade away into the regular afternoon daylight of the forest we were walking through.

Amid the trees, all four of my teammates—two of whom have become my lovers, the other two I’ve hoped are something close to friends now—remain as rigid as the looming trunks.

Their heartbeats keep reverberating through my body. Alongside the uneasy pounding, four currents of emotion whirl into me, as if I’ve stepped into a river of flavors. Lemon-sour discomfort mingles with tangy-pickle confusion and moldy-bread anxiety.

I’ve never picked up on their moods so strongly before. It’s like I’ve somehow opened a direct tap into their internal states rather than relying on the foam that spills over the top of the mug.

My mouth opens and closes and opens again. “Oops?”

I’m struggling to come up with any better word to address this unprecedented situation.

The men clearly don’t have any more idea what I’ve done than I do. Jonah takes a tentative step toward me, his cedar-brown face tight beneath the fall of his wavy black hair. “What was that, Peri? What just happened?”

He hasn’t put any of his sorcery or his teacherly authority into the question, but I know I have to answer all the same. Which would be easier if I had an actual answer.

I twist my hands in front of me. The eager rush of my delight that sparked the glow has faltered just like the supernatural light did. “I don’t know. That’s never happened before. I didn’t mean to do anything. I was just so happy…”

Raze’s eyes, the black basilisk irises hidden behind his conjured green contacts, widen. Tension ripples through his huge, sinewy frame. “I felt it—how happy you were. But you’re… worried now. Why do I know that?”

They can pick up on my emotions too? Does the tap go both ways?

I don’t think that’s logistically possible with actual faucets, but with whatever strange brewing system I’ve spontaneously created, who knows?

Mirage tugs at his henley shirt. He peers past the collar at his lean chest and lets out a laugh that sounds much more awkward than his usual good humor.

With his nimble fingers, the fox shifter plucks at the buttons to part the fabric farther down. “The glow isn’t all gone. It stuck to me.”

A circle of the pale light about the size of a cherry pulses against the golden-brown skin of his upper chest in time with the heartbeat that must be his. I think the glowing spot might be right over his heart.

My breath catches in my throat. I put that luminescent mark there—I must have.

So why do I have no clue how?

Hail has been standing stiffly this entire time. Now, the winter fae yanks at his own shirt to check beneath it.

His pale, gorgeous face tenses even more than it had before with a flash of his dark blue eyes. “There’s one on me too. What the fuck is that?”

All trace of the friendly warmth he’s offered me recently has vanished from his voice. The look he shoots me is only accusing. I taste the bitter punch of his frustration.

I splay my hands in a helpless gesture. “I really don’t know. I didn’t mean to do anything at all. I’ve never left my glow on anyone before, even in the biggest outbursts.”

Jonah and Raze are checking their own chests. Their expressions and flickers of uneasy emotion tell me they’re seeing the same thing as Mirage and Hail.

It occurs to me to peek beneath my T-shirt, the black one with the pink flower print I thought was just the right mix of tough and cute.

Between the abundant slopes of my human-like body’s breasts, a matching glow throbs alongside my own heartbeat. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t leave myself out of this odd club I founded?

The two beings who’ve been leading our trek back to civilization move closer.

Rollick, the demon who runs the academy we’re meant to be returning to, studies each of us briefly before his gaze settles on me.

“Why don’t you explain exactly what you experienced starting right before those beams shot out of you, Peri? ”

Rollick might not look all that imposing to mortal eyes with his tall-but-not-towering form and symmetrical-but-not-stunning face, but he has an aura of power so intense I suspect he could knock me over with a blink. If anyone can figure this out, he can.

I think back to the moments before the glow coursed out of me.

“I was relieved that we finally stopped the sorcerer and that we managed to do it by working together—that we’d been such a good team.

I was looking forward to seeing how much more we could accomplish.

The thought made me so happy—and the light rushed out of me in those beams. I didn’t aim it at anyone. That part happened on its own.”

The demon cocks his head. “And then?”

“I don’t know. I got the impression of their hearts beating. I can still feel that now. And I can taste their emotions a lot more strongly than before. But maybe that will fade too, like the light did? None of my outbursts have ever lasted very long.”

“Except we can feel Peri too,” Jonah says in a strained voice. “Raze just said— And I’m picking up on her emotions right now. I can tell that she really is confused, and nervous… and her feet are hurting.”

Raze’s brow knits. “They are. Why didn’t you tell us they were bothering you?”

“I—” I don’t know what to say. The ache from my past wounds—dealt by the cruel sorcerer who just kicked the bucket—is dull enough, familiar enough that it doesn’t really bother me.

I can never spend all that long on my feet in physical form without the old injuries waking up.

“I guess I’m used to tuning it out unless it’s especially bad. ”

Also, when I do mention it, Raze has a habit of sweeping me off my feet. Which makes me all giddy but also is kind of embarrassing when we have an audience.

“This is fascinating.” Rollick rubs his chin, peering at Mirage’s mark and then glancing over at Sorsha, the phoenix shifter who helped with the last stage of our mission.

“It’s almost like an opposite version of the first shadowbloods’ marks.

Except from what they’ve said, they only developed those through more… intimate entanglements.”

Shame and guilt flare through my connection with Jonah. Not the kind of draft I’d like to have on tap.

He speaks hastily. “Nothing like that has happened between Peri and me.”

My own cheeks heat with a different sort of embarrassment.

I didn’t realize I’d end up needing to discuss the details of my intimate fun with the school’s headmaster.

“I’ve gotten close with Raze and Mirage.

But not today. Obviously not right when it happened.

And nothing like that glow happened when we did. What are shadowbloods?”

Before Rollick can answer, Hail lets out a sputter. “The two of them? But you— This is fucking ridiculous.”

An edge of resentment creeps through his uneasiness, like a bitter thread of baking soda that didn’t get blended into the pastry right.

I didn’t blend it right. This whole mess is my fault.

“We’re still figuring out what this is,” Rollick says mildly, and turns his attention back to me.

“The shadowbloods are a small group of unusual beings who, like Sorsha, are hybrids, a mix of human and shadowkind. Only in their case, they were created by human scientists experimenting in labs. Their romantic involvement has led to dark blotches forming in a similar area on their chests. Not quite the same, though. And not lighting up.”

Sorsha frowns. “And their marks don’t seem to work like these ones. They can tell where each other is and there’s that power-swapping trick they can do, but they’ve said they only sense emotions from each other when it’s something extreme.”

Rollick hums to himself. “Yes. I suppose it makes sense that a similar bond might appear differently when it’s initiated by a being whose powers are focused on emotions.”

“A bond?” Hail repeats, his tone even harsher. “I don’t want to be bound to her. I don’t want to be attached to anyone.”

He rounds on me so swiftly my nerves jump—which maybe the men can feel, because Raze growls.

My reaction doesn’t deter the fae man’s anger, though.

Hail jabs his finger at me, an icy breeze that I don’t think came from the forest rippling through his white-blond hair.

“Why would you do this? What are you trying to prove? You didn’t even want— I’m not going to belong to you like some kind of ‘mate.’ You can’t just claim people or whatever the fuck you thought you were doing. ”

A burn of tears forms behind my eyes. “I promise, I didn’t think I was doing anything. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. You don’t owe me anything.”

Mirage chuckles, his five fox tails that are the same bright red as his shaggy hair appearing for a quick swish.

He speaks in his singsong voice. “All tied up, all the way through.” But a shudder ripples through the emotions he’s giving off at the same time: a splash of saltiness that tastes almost frantic.

Rollick clicks his tongue at Hail. “There’s no need to have a tantrum about it.

Very few shadowkind form permanent supernatural bonds.

We don’t know that what’s happened here won’t simply fade over time.

Peri doesn’t appear to have any more control over you than she would have before.

You can simply ignore it. Unless a small bit of glow will put such a cramp in your style? ”

Hail’s lips pull back in a grimace. “She’ll be looking right inside me even more than she could before. I can’t stop knowing what’s inside her, whether I care or not. She obviously thinks she owns us somehow or other. It was only us she hit with that light, not you two.”

“The four of you are my team,” I say quietly, hugging myself.

It’s true that I was feeling particularly affectionate toward them. Did I set off some other dimension of my powers that I didn’t know I was capable of?

Just when I think I’ve gotten a handle on my abilities, something new has to pop up and tip everything upside down.

Jonah swipes his hand across his forehead, guilt still trickling off him. Is he worried that he provoked this “bond” with the attraction he admitted to me but said he couldn’t act on?

Mirage spins around, his mouth set in a stiff smile that jabs at my heart. I don’t think he’s actually happy about this development, as fond as he’s acted toward me in the past.

Having a delicious interlude in the woods is a very different thing from being constantly tied to me.

Even Raze, for all the devotion he’s shown, is feeling more uneasy than pleased. None of them wanted this.

Of course they didn’t. Even triple chocolate cake tastes awful if someone forces it down your throat.

And I’m not sure I can say I’m triple-chocolate-cake amazing no matter how thoroughly I beat my fears this morning.

I inhale deeply, dragging whatever shreds of optimism I can out of my whirling head. “I’ll try to remove it. Maybe it won’t be that hard. If I did it, I should be able to undo it, right?”

Hail taps his foot impatiently.

Rollick shakes his head. “I doubt it’d be that simple. These sorts of things rarely are.”

“I have to try. It’s only fair.”

None of these men should be bound to me if they don’t want to be.

The thought sends a fleeting pang through my chest, but I dismiss it, focusing on the thump of their heartbeats. On the memory of the glow that streamed out of me.

It’s lingering in them. Can I detach it, reel the light back into me, and snap the connection at the same time? Turn the tap right off and chuck it in the trash?

I picture the glow on their chests and clench my hands as if grasping hold. With all the mental strength I have in me, I yank at the light.

Come back to me. Be a good bond. Let go of them and come back.

Nothing happens that I can sense.

When I look into the men’s faces, I can tell nothing’s changed for them either. The glowing mark shines on where Mirage has left the collar of his shirt unbuttoned.

A sensation as heavy as a ball of lard sinks into my gut.

I can’t take it back. We’re stuck like this.