Chapter 5 #2
When she walks out in the clothes I left there for her, I curse myself for not choosing longer shorts.
I’m sure it would’ve been fine if I hadn’t given her one of my old shirts to go with it, but now she looks as though she’s only wearing my shirt.
I get one look at her and my mind starts to wander dangerously.
She’s a living, breathing temptation, carved out of my deepest fantasies, and I’m furious about this entire situation all over again.
Gabe startles at the sight of her and the way he immediately snarks at her to cover it up speaks volumes for how trying this week has been for him.“I was about to come in there after you. You can’t hide from Vivian, you know. He’d just go in there after you.”
She shrugs, looking around the room as though she’s not worried, and Gabe rolls his eyes back at her. I don’t have to use my Gift to know what he’s thinking and I agree with him entirely.
There’s no amount of nonchalance that’ll save her from Vivan Wentley.
The assholes around him all start making jokes about them both, erring on Gabe’s side in the exchange, but the side eyes they’re all giving him make it obvious that they’re just trying to save their own skins.
He annihilates them all in the ring, beating them without breaking a sweat, and none of the gutless assholes want to risk any extra damage if Vivian decides to throw them into the rings today.
“You wanna explain to me why I was given a file for this Bond of yours with no Gift listed? I know North has her filed away in his Top Secret shelf, but I have to know what I’m working with if you want her to learn anything here.”
Shrugging, I project my answer to him.
Your guess is as good as ours, she claims to be Ungifted and all attempts to test her have come back with nothing. If you can figure her out, Draven will probably put up a shrine for you in the main courtyard. If you can convince her to drop her attitude, he’ll probably cast it in gold.
When Oli stalks over to us, I glance over to her without thinking but instantly regret it.
I can’t look at her for longer than a second in front of Vivian without him picking up on all sorts of signals from me that I do not want my old drill Sargent knowing, so I fix my gaze on him instead, watching him take stock of her.
When his only reaction is to frown down at her, my Bond stares blankly back at him until, finally, he gives her a dose of his infamous, derisive wit. “You’re the Bond? You look about twelve years old, are you sure you’re old enough to be here?”
She crosses her arms over her chest, my old training shirt pulling up until I can confirm she is, in fact, wearing the shorts underneath them. “Nope, can I leave now?”
Across the room, Gabe almost faints at her smart mouth being directed toward Vivian and I turn my attention back to my Bond as a warning, hoping to deter her from taking it too far and forcing me to step in.
Disrespecting Vivian would also destroy any chances of my opinions shifting in her favor, but before I can worry too much about that, it becomes clear she does have some street smarts in her.
Despite answering back at him, she carefully toes the line of sticking up for herself without lashing out at him the way she does with everyone else.
Giving her a once over, it’s obvious Vivian can’t read a thing from her. “I was expecting more. What’s your Gift? You’d better have something good for me.”
She shrugs. “Nothing. I’ve got nothing for you.”
Lie.
A big one, big enough that my throat is coated with the vile taste as well as my mouth, but that’s not all I get. Nope, my Gift thrums with little scraps of clues that drip from the words she refuses to speak.
She’s a Top Tier Gifted.
Whatever she’s got, it’s big and it’s mighty pissed off that we’re all treating her like this. I can’t stop the scowl from taking over my face as I glance at her, but the reaction from my own bond to her lying again is so unexpected, it’s practically unhinged.
It’s demanding I kill Vivian for questioning her.
This man is a highly respected member of my community and, personally, he’s one of my closest confidants. I turn to him for advice, his approval means more to me than any other, and right now I’m struggling to stop myself from cracking his mind open like a fucking egg.
What the hell is going on with this Bond of mine?
Clueless to the violence I’m grappling with, Vivian’s eyes narrow at my Bond as he scowls down at her, clearly trying to pry something out of her, and when he comes up empty-handed once more, he mutters, “I’m going to work this attitude out of you, you know.
You’ll break before the end of the day, I’m sure. ”
I’d bet every last dollar of the Draven fortune that she won’t.
She paces herself well enough, but we watch for a full hour as she all but destroys herself on the circuit Vivian gave her. Each time she finishes the round of machines, she just starts again, never questioning us on how many she should be doing or when this torture is going to end for her.
The elliptical alone has broken half the student body, yet she’s on her fourth round of reps and gritting her teeth through it like it’s a regular Wednesday afternoon for her. There are a lot of opinions from the other students about it for me to sift through, but nothing flags.
When Vivian’s voice cuts through the rest of the mind-chatter, there’s no doubt he’s speaking directly with me, considering the man has better control of his mind barriers than half the Neuros attending Draven.
She’s going to die if we leave it up to her.
He’s not wrong, and it’s only after I hunt down a whistle to blow that she even notices she’s the only one who hasn’t tapped out of the warm-up yet, the eyes of the entire room pointedly on her, but even with her flushed cheeks and the sheen of sweat covering her, the defiant look in her eyes has only grown steely.
Shit, maybe I’ve spent too much time with the Dravens, because the idea of testing that resolve of hers is too tempting.
Pushing and prodding at her until she snaps, it’s never really been a thing for me, but fuck, do I want to do it all with her.
Vivian gestures for me to take the lead, his interest still on my Bond, though he’s not too obvious about it yet. “That’s your warm-up over with, get your asses into the control room so we can go over today’s lesson plan.”
My bond reacts.
To what, I have no idea, but the vehemence of its sudden rage takes me by surprise and almost to my knees.
It’s only decades of practice and control that stops me from lashing out, but there’s nothing going on to set it off.
From the corner of my eye, I see Gabe’s eyes flash where he’s standing across the room from me, a sign that his is chiming in as well.
As the students move into the control room, I pick apart the entire room just to be sure there are no signs of danger, but there’s nothing there, not a damn thing.
The students are all from Top Tier families or here on scholarships, and while many of them have shitty opinions on my Bond Group and the situation we’re in, none of them mean us any direct harm.
I wouldn’t allow them in the room with Oli in the first place if they did.
When there’s nothing left to pick over, I push at Gabe’s mental barrier until I can speak to him again without risking anyone overhearing us.
You felt that, right? Tell me I’m not going crazy here, there was definitely a threat, right? Can you sense anything now?
He’s good about not showing anything on his face. I felt it, but I’ve got nothing for you. Except… well, my bond has been acting up around her all day. My Shift has been as well. I thought it was just me. I thought I was handling being around her poorly.
I scowl at him and discreetly shake my head.
You’re not taking anything ‘poorly’, Gabe.
If anything, you’re bottling too much up just to try to prove something you don’t need to.
My bond is giving me grief around her, too; reacting to people in ways it shouldn’t be, and seeing normal situations as threats to her.
If yours is doing the same, it’s something we need to bring up with the others.
When our Bond finally turns away from him, Gabe nods back to me. It is doing that. My bond wants to take out the entire room just for breathing near her… it doesn’t exactly discriminate either. It—shit, I would never think this way but it—
Clarity hits me all at once, and I cut him off before he spirals into self-loathing over something he shouldn’t feel shit about in the first place. It’s certainly not Gabe’s fault.
Your bond wanted to kill Nox for what he did to her, didn’t it?
When he called her out in front of your entire class?
Mine did, too. There’s no shame here, Gabe, not between us.
I get you’re probably feeling hesitant about telling North and what his reaction may be.
It’s frustrating for me, too, and there’s a lot I can’t tell you about why he’s protecting his brother, but you can always come to me and I’ll speak to the Dravens instead.
No matter what you tell me, no matter how strange or violent or bad it is, I won’t ever judge you or think less of you.
He swallows roughly and then lifts his water to cover the action, the Gifted around him all quieting down as though they can feel the Shift writhing just underneath his skin.
Our Bond is the only one who looks completely at ease being so close to him, and doesn’t that just add another misshapen, ill-fitting piece to the puzzle before us.
If she ran away from her so-called ‘Monster Bonds’, why isn’t she actually scared of us?
Sure, she’s been scared around us. She’s had waves of fear rolling from her so thick I was choking on it, but it was never aimed at one of us. Not once has she shown any discomfort from being specifically in our presence, other than being told she can’t leave.
What would it take to rattle her? What lengths would we have to go to in order for her bond to come out to protect her?
Vivian glances at me and then takes over once more, splitting the class up into groups to go about the training exercise. He chooses the easiest course, still a nightmare for the uninitiated, and none of the students look happy about how their afternoon is about to proceed.
As Gabe moves into the next room alongside our fuming Bond, he sends me one last message without even glancing in my direction.
I’ll keep an eye on her and take note of things… even the small stuff I’m embarrassed about. I’ll let you know, Gryph, I promise.
He’s a good kid, turning out to be an even better man, and no matter how difficult these coming months are, I’m glad I can count on him. My reply to him is easy and true, just as I’ve always promised I would be within my Bond Group.
All of this is uncharted territory for us and I’ll be honest with you, too, no matter how hard it is. This is the only way to… navigate this situation without risking her.
When the last of the students file through the door, I’m left with my TacTeam, who are all scowling and muttering among themselves in front of the screens, and Vivian, who has a nice, wide perimeter around him, thanks entirely to the frown he’s wearing as he stares at the image of my Bond on the screen before him.
I sidle up to him and murmur, intent on keeping this between the two of us. “Well?”
Vivian glares at the screen for an extra second before he huffs out a breath. “You’re not gonna like it.”
I shrug. “I haven’t liked much of this, what’s a little more?”
He scoffs back. “Yeah, well, North’s gonna hate it, too, so you can console yourself with that little nugget. I’ve got nothing.”
Expected but still frustrating. I nod but then he cuts me a look. “Nothing ‘concrete’, at least. Nothing I can stick in a nice little manilla folder for North, because it’s not my Gift talking.”
My eyes narrow as I turn my back on the monitors. “Your gut? What does it say about her?”
“Entirely off the record, here, Shore. I don’t want Draven up my ass—she absolutely has a Gift, she absolutely knows what it is, and she is absolutely determined to ensure none of you find out about it… why that is, I have no clue, but I’m sure of that.”