Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Oleander’s bond
The Manipulation god is here.
It’s not the one that I wanted to be dealing with today, but they’re all marked for death at my hands.
The Pain god is long overdue for a blood-soaked and violent death, but I suppose we are encroaching on the Manipulation god’s space.
The fact that she had cycled into the same bloodline as the Cleaver’s vessel is insult enough, but the idea that she has used that bloodline to build such a long-reaching platform only makes it worse.
The Transporter pops out of the room, taking the mouthy Gifted with him and leaving me alone with my Bonded.
I enjoy the sight of them all for a moment as I look around, each of them awake and staring back at me.
It has been too long since I looked upon them, and never have I been able to see them all together at the same time.
When the Pain god had woken the Soothsayer up, my mind was still scrambled from the attack, but now I'm thinking clearly. Seeing them all here together is everything I have always hoped it would be.
A hundred lifetimes with these men wouldn't be enough.
A thousand lifetimes with all of them together would only be the beginning of what I need from them.
Even as the situation around us becomes dire, I already know that I would choose this life of ours.
This never-ending cycle of birth and rebirth, death and destruction, pain and horror over and over again.
I would because it would mean knowing them, knowing the devotion and love that they have given me, knowing the devotion and love that I pour back into them.
I don't know what a peaceful time will look like for us, something that the girl has also questioned, but I find myself eager to figure it out with them.
The Draconis hasn't shifted beyond his eyes turning black, but the way he moves his head is telling, as is the way he pushes his nose in the air as he scents the newcomers, disgust curling his lip.
He never did like anyone but me. He tolerates the Bonded Group, the few times he'd interacted with them, thanks to how long it took for him to cycle.
“They’re watching us, testing us. We should take it alive,” the Corvus says, and I tilt my head at him.
“We don't need answers. We need it gone.”
The Crux looks between the two of us. “It’s been here longer than us, and there is every chance it’s been searching out the others. It would be useful to know how many we need to find.”
The Soothsayer turns to look at me again, its eyes shining brighter as it calls on its Gift. “We don't need to question it. I'll get the information out of it, and then we can kill it.”
The perfect kind of compromise, one where our enemy is still dead at our feet.
I smile at the Soothsayer, happy and relieved to get my way, and then I follow the Crux as he walks back up the set of stairs, letting my power stretch out over the entire building and the street as I take stock of the souls around us.
“Stop.” I speak before the feeling fully forms in me, the extra senses I have beyond those of the vessel coming alight, and the Crux doesn't hesitate to follow my command.
“What is it?” the Soothsayer asks from downstairs, and I turn back to look over to my Bonded, each of them watching me and trusting that I know best in this situation.
“Something is wrong up there. Something is here for our demise.”
The Soothsayer's eyes flash into the brightest of voids, and I open up the mind connection between us all so that we can see what he can.
The Manipulation god is up there, though we don't have much information from it. The Soothsayer is stronger than any other Neuro, especially now that we've Bonded, but still, the gods can keep him out of their heads if they’ve been here long enough.
There are other Gifted here with it as well, and the moment I realize what she's doing, I tear their souls out, but it's already too late.
As the Flame’s body hits the floor, the building is already alight, the house around her body burning. The shadow creatures move around us, searching for an exit, but the Cleaver shakes his head.
“My vessel has already said there's one way in and one way out. We need the Transporter back here.”
The Soothsayer reaches out, but I already know what the answer is going to be. “There's a Shield keeping him in the Sanctuary. They knew we were coming.”
I shake my head. “They've had a long time to prepare for our arrival on this earth; this is just the first of the traps they will have planned for us.”
The Corvus nods as well. “They will be prepared for our every move. We need to be smarter than this.”
It doesn't matter how smart we need to be in the future. Right now, we need to get out of this building before it burns to the ground around us.
I look down at the rest of my Bonded, and they’re quick to start moving.
The Corvus, intent on collecting the information his vessel is so eager for, starts making a pile with the rest of the boxes so that when we’re ready, we can get out of here.
We can't take the computer with us, but the paper copies will at least be something.
The vessel is sure it will help, so we will trust him, trust them all to navigate this time period better than we can.
The Crux descends the staircase again, taking my hand and leading me down as the smoke begins to creep underneath the door above us.
“We need to remember that the vessels aren't all indestructible, so we need to deal with this quickly,” the Soothsayer says.
The Cleaver turns his head from side to side as though preparing himself to fight. “Not all of them, but some are, and I am more than ready to face our enemies.”
My net shifts over the Manipulation god, an invisible force ready to take it out. Soon. I will kill it soon, rid the earth of its evil and carve out a new way of living for us all.
I shake my head. “I don't want to be split up like that.”
The Soothsayer glances over at where the Crux is now helping the Corvus with the information, both of them working seamlessly together as though they are cut from the same cloth.
The Soothsayer looks back up the staircase to where the smoke is now starting to come in thick around us, assessing every little thing before he turns back to me. The air is heating up, and we’re quickly running out of time.
“Come with me, Bonded. I might not be able to reach the Transporter, but you can.”
I let my eyes slip shut as I push into my Bonded’s mind, following along with him as he reaches out to the Transporter.
The Shield is still in place, but it’s then that I find out what the power boost of the fully Bonded Group has done for me.
Thousands of miles away, without ever seeing his face or knowing his name, I tear the Shield’s soul out of his body.
Together, we are indestructible.
* * *
I like the Transporter.
Even if he didn’t belong to the Flame and the girl didn’t adore him, I would like him. As he appears in the basement with us that is quickly being filled with smoke, he seems cool, calm, and confident, on the outside.
On the inside, he’s shitting himself.
It's a subconscious thing, something that any living creature would feel when they know they're in the presence of a predator, a pack of them really, and any wrong move will be their last. I'm sure that in his years of service to the Gifted, he’s had many opportunities to stare down monsters, but none quite like us.
“I will get you all out of here,” he says respectfully, dipping his head in the Crux’s direction as he glances over his shoulder at the Soothsayer.
The Corvus starts directing everyone to grab boxes, getting the last of the information together as we leave the building.
The Cleaver compiles a small mountain, balancing the boxes precariously as he lifts them with ease.
I tuck a single box under my arm, the only one they will allow me to hold.
While they never doubt my abilities or my power, they’re still protective of me, as though some paper might strain me.
Thousands of lives together and still they love me so purely.
We appear back in the Sanctuary in the rooms that the Crux’s vessel claims as an office. The moment we set the boxes down, I place my hand back on the Transporter, smiling when he flinches.
Silly little Gifted.
“Take me back to where you first dropped us off. I have some words to share with the god-bond there.”
He nods without hesitation even as his eyes race over the other god-bonds, but none of them question me. They merely step back up to him and hold their hands out, waiting for his arm, ready to fight and face whatever may come in the hopes of building a life together.
The Transporter glances around at them, and the girl pushes me to reassure him from where she watches in the corner of my mind.
It seems petty and trite to do so, but I speak for her. “I will not let that god-bond kill or harm you in any way. I understand that you are important to our vessels, and no harm will come to you.”
He doesn't look very reassured at my words but he Transports us all the same.
I do like an obedient Gifted.
If we're going to set down roots in this world and live here permanently with each other, at least we'll have these types of Gifted around us.
With an inferno of flames consuming it, the house is quickly falling apart.
The Transporter brings us to a small park across the road from the house, a few feet away from the danger.
There's already a crowd of humans huddled around the area, murmuring and whispering amongst themselves. Their thoughts and opinions on the matter mean nothing, they’re only here as a distraction, something to stop me from finding what we came here for.
My eyes settle on the god-bond.
Its vessel is a woman in her forties, a short, severe haircut and a slash of red lipstick across her lips. She’s attractive and well put together. She looks like a rich woman with no concerns over a house burning down.