26 #2
“In this case, it cannot do any,” Ezla informs us as she picks up her knife and fork from the table.
“It is limited to specific functions and locked in for security. I have told you about the elimination button, however, and I will not lie to you and say functions cannot be added—in the future, and with a lot of effort and trial and error, he may be able to attempt something similar through the devices—which is why it is important I— we”—her correction is made with a sour expression that’s almost cute—“find the tablets before anything can happen. But he cannot edit them himself; he must have The Council’s scientists work on that, and that will take time.
Therefore, we do have some breathing room.
Though, admittedly, we do need to get them sooner rather than later. ”
Brows furrowed in concentration, Scotty nods slowly. “So where are we looking first?”
Taking a bite of . . . I have no fucking clue what that is, but it looks nice—there’s some sort of lemony-looking sauce on tender, tanned meat—Ezla is quiet for a moment as she chews, and my brothers and I watch fixatedly.
My eyes track the movement of her throat as she swallows before she takes a sip of her water, and we all wait for her patiently.
I’m so fascinated that I nearly startle when she finally speaks again: “I do not know what he has done with them,” she admits with a grimace she tries and fails to hide.
“It is a possibility that he has them back in the Avri labs with the other citizen tablets, but after the . . . incident, I do not think he would trust them there. It does not make sense for them to be anywhere but in that penthouse.”
My stomach turns over.
Tate says gruffly, “I destroyed that bedroom, flipped everything in sight over. I don’t think they’re in there.”
“There are several other rooms in that place, my beast.”
“So you want to go back there?” I bite out, trying to keep my angered dread under control. “Vengeance, I can’t let you. I never want you back in that place.”
“You do not tell me what to do.” With that rigid posture of hers, she picks up her napkin and dabs at an invisible mess.
My jaw works. “We’ll go alone. You’re not going back.”
Nostrils flaring, Ezla sets the napkin down and slides malicious eyes my way. “Why must you challenge me on everything? This is not a debate.”
“Because—”
“No,” she cuts me off harshly. “I have compromised. I have said you can go with me, that we will do this together.”
My mouth slams shut.
Scotty exhales heavily, rubbing at his forehead. “Ezla’s right, Cooper. I don’t want you going back there either, Love, but this is your decision.” To the other three as well, he says seriously, “And at least we’ll all be there to protect our Bonded this time.”
A pang of guilt twists up my organs, and I deflate. “Sorry, Vengeance. I know. Fuck, I know.” I drag a palm over my face roughly. “I’m really a world-class asshole.”
“Now that is something we can agree on.”
Tiger snickers at my expense, and Tate barks out a laugh and slaps me on the back too hard to be anything joking as the breath is knocked out of me. “Agreed, Havoc. I can beat him up for you?” His teeth flash as he speaks in a not-so-subtle warning for me to talk to our Bonded better.
“No. That is quite alright. I have yet to punish you for the marks you left on my sensible one.”
Tate’s head swivels her way. “He deserved it,” he defends fiercely. “He was being an asshole.”
“He was, and I will punish him for that myself. However, I did not like to see him in such a state. You are all soon to be facing punishments for transgressions as of late.”
“Even me?” Alby squeaks.
“Yes,” Ezla replies tonelessly. “You almost died.”
“S-sorry!” he rushes out. “I didn’t mean to!”
“I am well aware, Puppet. However, punishing you will calm my mind to remind me I still have you in my grasp to do what I please with.”
“That logic is a little twisted,” I mutter, stabbing at the beans on the side of my plate.
“Twistedly delicious.” Tiger triple winks at HC.
Tate’s wink is much more natural than his. “Agreed, baby. You can punish me all you want, for anything you want.”
She hums, then gets back on topic. “We do not have time to search the penthouse before Game 5, but we will do so afterwards. As for The Maze again, we will of course simply find each other by figuring out who is closest to whom as we work our way towards the middle. Kill whoever you come across.”
“Easy-peasy,” I grumble.
Vengeance slides an unimpressed look my way, then demands, “Questions?”
Scotty blows out a heavy breath after a few beats. “I don’t think so.”
“Good.” And that’s that.
Looking down at my plate after my gaze lingers on Ezla as she eats quietly, I copy her actions with my own food.
Honestly, there really isn’t much more to say about Game 5; what she said encompasses it all.
And I know both from TV and from lessons at EvTS that the middle of the maze holds an Avri platform that’s not connected to any one individual’s cluster that will raise us up and out of the contraption when it senses our full Bonded group on top of it.
It will carry us all the way to the arena floor outside before returning to its position.
“Isn’t she so pretty?”
Blinking, I freeze mid-chew, flicking my eyes up to find Tiger attempting to whisper with Alby, who looks mortified, obviously aware—unlike his best friend—that those words were not as quiet as he thought they were.
“So cute,” he gushes, continuing on without pause. “And we’re so going to do that thing Cooper and Scotty did. She’s so seduced by me, she won’t be able to resist when I ask her next time—”
“Tiger.”
He pops up, eyes wide. Then he plasters a wide smile on, elated by Vengeance’s attention. “Yes, Ezzy?”
“I can hear everything you are saying, and even if I could not, your unspoken thoughts about attempting to fit inside my pussy at the same time as Alby are even louder than your whispers.”
Alby chokes on his water, and Scotty pinches the bridge of his nose, but he can’t hide his amusement.
“But since you are so eager, why not try asking me politely?”
“Oh, of course!” Wasting no time, no shame at all, he clasps his hands together in a prayer motion and gives her puppy-dog eyes. “Please let me and my bestie stuff you full of us in every way we can! I’ve been waiting so long!”
She stares.
“Pleeeeeease!” he wails next, tipping his head back to the ceiling. “I was such a good boy last night!”
“Hmmm . . . you were,” Ezla muses.
“Is that a yes?” Eagerness wraps around every inch of him.
“Hm.”
“It’s a yes!” he cries and throws his arms out wide. Then he whips his head Alby’s way. “Did you hear that, Bestie?!”
“Y-yes,” he squeaks, pupils blown out to expose his desire while his entire face burns several shades deeper.
“Do not be afraid. I will guide you through it all. I may also use the opportunity to punish you together as you thought to . . .” Her jaw stiffens.
“As you were hit together in Game 4. I need . . .” Brows scrunching, she looks down at her lap, and her voice lowers.
She hasn’t closed the bond, so I sense the faint wisps of embarrassment as she admits, “I will need you in quite a few ways. I do not like to think of Air Battles. The entire Game was . . .” Unable to put it into words, which is understandable as I myself struggle to cope with the barrage of distressing emotions that slam into me without mercy at the memories, she simply repeats as she raises her chin, composing herself, “I do not like to think of it. So I would like to feel your lives, and I would like to know I still have control over those lives. You will keep breathing for me. I will make sure of it.”
My heart skips a beat even though her words aren’t directed at me.
Alby unsurprisingly looks teary, and Tiger visibly swoons, their love and pain and adoration and desire all mixing into a potent concoction that flows freely into Ezla, and therefore all of us. “I love you too, Ezzy,” Tiger breathes.
Appearing moments from melting into the floor, Alby whispers, “I-I love you as well, Ezla. And—and I want to do everything with you.”
Ezla’s swallow is visible, though she keeps her head held high as if to hide the effect all this is having on her. But again, she doesn’t close off the bond, and I feel so much . . . warmth, confusion . . . happiness.
By this point, my heart’s pounding, and I murmur roughly, “I love you, Vengeance.”
“I’ve always loved you, Havoc,” Tate rumbles next.
Scotty smiles softly. “I love you with all that I am, Ezla.”
She’s sitting even straighter than before as she roams her mismatched gaze over each of us slowly, taking her time on us individually with that overwhelming attention of hers.
Her mouth opens slightly. Closes. Hands now clasped in her lap, her lips part once more, and the blood starts to rush by my ears, my palms growing clammy. “I . . . I . . .”
Hope radiates from all of my brothers, but it diminishes the longer those words we’re yearning for, dying to hear, don’t come.
“I . . .” Ezla’s head shakes before she orders, “Finish eating. Then we will return to the Training Centre.”
Eyelids taking her from view, my head drops. The mood’s plummeted in the room, and a suffocating silence descends.
It’s so much to expect from her after all she’s been through—I know that . . . But I crave those words more than anything. And again, the bond’s still open, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a hell of a lot she’d kept supressed just then.
So how the fuck do we get her to let the last hidden pieces of her out?
***
“Cooper.”
On the way to my bedroom, I pause in the middle of the hallway.
We finished dinner about an hour ago, so no one’s gone to bed yet, but me, Tiger, Alby, and Scotty were planning to stay out of our Bonded bedroom for the next few hours to give Ezla and Tate some time alone like she promised him.