12
COOPER
Avri jet forming around me in a rush of luminous deep green pixels, my hands wrap around the control sticks as they manifest. As we’ve been practicing, I rise at the very back of the V shape created by Ezla and my brothers.
She’s leading us, of course, taking up the point of that V, while Alby’s on her left, and Scotty’s on her right.
Behind him is Tate, and the last spot is taken up by Tiger, leaving me directly behind our Bonded further back.
Fuck, is he suicidal? What on earth is he doing coming straight for us? And, not to be arrogant, just self-aware with the motherfucking Champion at our helm, the most dangerous Bonded group, too.
Get rid of him, Ezla sends back blandly, finding the fast-approaching man so uninteresting that she doesn’t even spare a glance for him.
I hesitate along with my brothers as we slow down.
If Player 42 was actually attempting to kill us, I wouldn’t—no matter how much I hate violence, I’m not about to let anyone harm my woman or my new brothers.
But he isn’t. He’s not even firing. And I realise my initial thought might not be too far from the truth at all.
Love . . . Scotty begins uncertainly, but Tate, the only one of us who didn’t falter, is already moving.
Yanking his jet around with a purred, Yes, Havoc, he fires a missile straight at the approaching Evot without preamble.
And the man, whose name I don’t even know, is close enough to see now as that brilliant streak of green lights up the night, its glow highlighting the glossiness of his eyes as he charges right for his death, meeting it head-on.
The boom shakes the city as blood and emerald Avri pixels explode everywhere.
Alby’s horrified cry meets my ears, but I can only stare at the space Player 42 once was as his remains drop down to the concrete below.
“Player 42: Eliminated.”
He just . . . he just killed herself. Doesn’t matter if it was Tate’s finger on the trigger, he came right at us on purpose .
. . because he knew he’d never make it to Final Battles.
Knew that if he did and somehow survived the Games, he’d be right back here again next year, having to do this all over again.
Fuck . . . Jesus fuck. What has our world come to?
***
Ezla’s pissed at us.
All of us but Tate, anyway.
I know we all would have obeyed her; I’ll give my Bonded almost anything she wants.
But none of us, again with the exception of Tate, are like her—we can’t kill whoever we want whenever we want and not feel guilty about it.
I don’t think she understands that, or she does and it doesn’t make sense to her, because destructive wrath and jealousy have been drenching the bond since, and she can’t even keep it from us when we need to have it open for communication.
She’s truly fucking possessive, and I admittedly do love that, but I think we need to work on her reactions to another human in our vicinity, because it really wouldn’t be ideal to kill every one we come across on her orders.
I mean, besides the fact that we don’t bloody see anyone but her in the first place, her existence consuming me and my brothers completely, I don’t think a single one of us is even attracted to men, so I’m not sure what the fuck she’s thinking.
I can give her some leniency as I do understand she’s not used to this and the new feelings that I know are building in her, even if those emotions are the only bloody ones she does consistently conceal.
However, that does not mean she should be straying from the plan to leave us behind while she spins her Avri jet around in rapid circles and fires bullets nonstop like a madwoman.
“Go on, Havoc, baby!” Tate calls out in a groan while I curse him and the rest of the world furiously, shoving down the bond, Vengeance, get your ass back here!
Scotty attempts more gently than my own words but with tension threaded throughout, Love, do you mind getting back into formation? The V was your idea, remember? Intimidate, then separate and surround . . . ?
Ezla completely ignores the two of us, and Alby and Tiger are no help whatsoever; their eyes are huge as they zip along with us as we try to keep up with our Bonded, both of them awestruck as she lets out an evil cackle.
The Players remaining alive are obviously more advanced, so there’s much less kills per Game from the third one onwards, but two bodies crash down in quick succession as a result of Vengeance’s wild attack.
“Player 19: Eliminated.”
“Player 6: Eliminated.”
Fuck, the first was from my school. He was the last other than me, and I didn’t even know his name.
Tate unsurprisingly doesn’t give two shits about his fellow EvTS 202 student as he licks his lips and sinks his teeth into the bottom one like he’s ravenous to tear into the feast that is Ezla.
My lungs deflate in relief, at least, when our Bonded starts to return to us now after having her fun. And I realise a little petulantly that I’d been feeling spikes of jealousy myself in the midst of all this with her letting the globe hear her laugh . . . no matter how demonically.
Christ, she’s ruined me.
So distracted by her and my motherfucking unwavering need for her after just witnessing more of her maliciousness and the way she relishes in the violence I’m supposed to despise so much, I’m caught entirely unawares when a blur of crimson slams into me.
The air is punched out of me as I’m thrown through the air, my Avri vacuuming back into the pads on my boots.
“COOPER!”
My name is a chorus of all my brothers’ voices as they whip their jets around in a flash.
But what really takes any breath I had remaining in me away, what has relief and happiness spilling through me in this heart-stopping moment, is the sharp spike of fear mixed in with staggering fury from my Bonded.
At least I know Ezla truly cares about me before I meet my brutal end on the concrete below.
***
Tate’s large hand seizes my bicep.
Grip bruising, the brother I’m always butting heads with hauls me up onto the seat that extends to make room for me. Front slamming into his back, I wheeze out a curse as I grip onto him.
He was much closer to me than Ezla since she’d been so far ahead having her fun, but I’d never expect him to be the one to save me.
I’d have thought, especially after yesterday’s argument, that he might be inwardly pleased if something were to ever happen to one of us that would mean he gets more of our Bonded for himself, that he might even plot the paths to our demises himself.
So to say I’m shocked is an understatement.
“Thanks, man,” I get out, heart racing like crazy from the near-death experience.
His grunt sounds just as angry as usual in response.
Then I can’t help myself, no sense of self-preservation when I know Tate only needs a minor prodding to be blown off the edge when he’s on it.
And I have a feeling he’s right on the line of changing his mind and tossing me off his jet while claiming it was an accident.
Tone low, I ask as he flies us back over to the others, “Why’d you do that? ”
He’s quiet for a moment before he mutters, “Havoc.”
And that’s all he needs to say. He must’ve felt her alarm through the bond as well.
But I don’t have more time to think on what this means for our Bonded group because there’s madness all around—Aider and his bonded Exots are attacking my fucking woman and brothers.
And if the way Ezla snarls and throws herself off her jet and onto Player 87’s is any indication, I’m thinking it must have been him who crashed into me.
“Ezla!” Alby shouts in a panic, even though we all know full well she can handle herself out here.
But she doesn’t spare him a glance, too consumed in the fight, her armoury sticks out along with the man’s as they go at each other without holding back.
The two of them are stood up, gradually edging towards the back of his jet, and a wave of anxiousness washes over me the closer the two of them get to the edge.
A hissed curse leaves me as Tate has to dodge a stray emerald-glowing bullet, my stomach evacuating my body at the sudden drop, and a quick glance to the right shows me two Evots furiously battling each other fifty feet away along with the rest of the Players scattered about in the air before I zip my gaze back in front of me.
Scotty’s jet is zipping around Player 84’s in a blur of green and red, but there’s not much bullets flying over there, both of them cautious about firing on each other when their Bonded groups are in such close quarters, while Alby and Tiger have ended up with Aider.
I know they’re both skilled, but I really don’t fucking like that asshole. He seems like the type to have too many underhand tactics up his sleeve, and he definitely is too smart to come at our group like this without a plan that he’s convinced could work.
Nerves winding up higher as Tate closes in on our Bonded, I start to say, “Tate, Ezla doesn’t need us. Go to Tiger and Al—”
Brilliant luminance lights up the night sky.
“NO!”
Ezla’s volcanic shout is almost as loud as the resounding BOOM! as Tiger and Alby are launched off their jets and a blinding flash of heat sears my vision. Green pixels explode everywhere, and an echoing gasp from the audience down below travels up to meet us.
Debilitating terror pounds down the bond from Vengeance.
“TIGER! ALBY!” Scotty roars, unable to help them as Player 84 uses his distraction to jump onto his jet and tackle him.
“Tate, go!” I bellow, and he’s already moving.
Except it’s not in the right direction.
Or maybe it is. Because as searing pain floods the bond and my eyes lock on Ezla again, my ears ring to muffle all my brothers’ distraught cries, the force of Tate’s shaking my own body. I feel the blood drain from my face as I take in the scene before me.
Never before has Ezla been hurt badly in her five previous years in The Bonding Games. Never, not even when she was just thirteen years old, did she get more than a minor injury.
But now, a long curved sword is jammed clean through her middle, the hilt meeting her back and the lethally sharp crimson energy coming out through her stomach.
I think she’s in as much shock as I am, stunned that she, the Champion, has been struck like this, because she’s unmoving, completely motionless.
Aider is a fucking maniac under the polished front he puts on.
I mean, he just fucking blew himself up.
But he’s incredibly intelligent, and a downside of letting the world see the growing relationships in our Bonded group is that people that are cunning enough to will exploit that when they can.
And that’s exactly what Aider’s just done.
He’s used Ezla’s care for Alby and Tiger against her.
Used the only thing that could possibly capture her attention when she’s in the middle of battle.
She turned her back on her opponent for them.
With a shove, Player 87 pushes Ezla off his blade.
The Bonding Games Champion tips off the edge of his jet as if in slow motion and drops down to the concrete below.