44
TIGER
The levels of terror my body’s managed to bear over the past week are astronomical, but this time, I’m not so sure I’ll make it.
“Ez!” I cry, my heart pounding in my ears unrelentingly as I lunge for her.
Obviously, I can’t see the invisible camera in her fist, but I can’t bring myself to care in the slightest when she loses it as her hand shoots up to her face to cover her right eye.
Not having it, Cooper seizes her wrist, undiluted fear etched into every crevice of his face as he pulls it away to see the crimson fluid leaking from not just her eye, but her scar now, too.
“Fuck, fuck! Please, not again— Vengeance, what’s happening?
!” His voice raises, echoing around the room as more blood starts to pour from her and the dark red Avri in her face starts to melt away.
“I do not— Fuck!”
Her cry of pain tears me apart, and Tate’s eyes have become that concerningly unhinged way in an instant, but I think I catch less of it there than usual as one hand yanks at his hair before both come to rest on Ezla to keep her upright even though Scotty’s arms are already there as she stumbles.
“The—the Avri!” Alby cries, and I struggle to process anything, only remembering all the times we’ve almost lost the love of our life in the past two weeks alone. And it’s all because of hi—
Him.
The realisation slams into me at the same time blood starts pouring from Ezla’s face profusely as the Avri that was once there glints in iridescent colour before fading out of sight completely:
“It’s because of him! Because Joseph’s dead!
Remember what we were taught in school?!
When someone dies, all their Avri forgets its commands and is drawn back into an Avri pole!
” I shout, and I’m really trying to control my beathing, because I can hardly hear myself think as I blindly reach out to try and get a hold on my Bonded too.
The frantic faces all around me pale a handful of shades, becoming ashen.
Cooper lets Ezla’s arm go so she can press her hands over the eye that splits down the middle like it did in that traumatising memory we saw the night of the Halfway Ball, and he rasps as his own hands follow hers in a desperate attempt to provide any help possible, Joseph’s phone forgotten as it thuds against the taalk at our feet, “His Avri’s lost its orders.
It can’t hold her skin together anymore. It can’t hold her eye together.”
“SHIT!” Tate roars.
“What do we do?!” Alby sobs. “How didn’t we think of this?!”
Gritting her teeth, I can tell Ezla’s trying to keep her sounds of pain in, and I know she’s only demanding us through the bond because her voice wouldn’t be stable enough out loud when she says, Take me to the infirmary.
I will be perfectly fine. It is deplorable the number of times I have been in such disgracefully vulnerable situations recently.
I’m not sure if she meant to send the last part or if that was more a thought for herself, but I don’t think a debate about that is at all needed right now as Cooper explodes, “Perfectly fine?!” while attempting to lift her into his arms.
A little dizzy, she concedes with too much calm, then proceeds to bark while using her free hand to shove at him, Unhand me, Cooper! I am not dying!
Scotty’s eyes are huge and alarmed, but he steadies his voice as it rises above all the noise when he orders, “Cooper, let her go! We need to get her to the infirmary as fast as possible! Ezla, Love, you lean on us if you need us or we’ll have to pick you up, alright?
” His arms are already hovering by her as she unsteadily but quickly marches for the door, but the moment she stumbles, he mutters under his breath, “Fuck this,” before sweeping her right off her feet.
A spew of curses pour freely from her mind to all of ours, and I fly after them with Alby, Tate, and Cooper already a step ahead as we speed out of the cinema.
“Don’t you—dare—forget—that phone!” Ezla struggles out, and I almost trip over my own feet as I dart back into the room before I can even understand what’s happening, by body wired to respond to any and all commands she gives.
“Got it!” I throw out through my laboured breaths as I whizz through the penthouse to catch up with them, blinking rapidly to try and clear the stinging moisture from my eyes.
It’s a blur as Ezla smacks her bloodied gloved thumb into all the scanners necessary on our way out of the Techtis Council building.
Luckily, it’s late, so there’s almost no workers down here, and the few who gape as they try to understand the scene before them are quickly deterred when Ezla—half hidden between all of us in Scotty’s arms—spits out through her pain, which only makes her sound more terrifying than usual, “If your eyes have found themselves anywhere near me or my men, you will soon find them swimming in pools of blood on the floor.” The same treatment is given to the Neutral staff member we pass along the way to our destination in the Headquarters’ T-shaped building, and then we’re bursting into the infirmary.
“HELP HER!” Tate roars with our disaster of an entrance, and every staff member whips our way in utter shock before bursting into action in what’s fortunately less than a second.
“Place her down here for me,” a brown-haired nurse instructs hastily, leading us over to one of the many beds lined up along the left wall of the room. A couple more nurses and a doctor make their way over too, one wheeling a trolly along with her. “What on earth happened?!”
“You don’t usually ask for details,” Scotty gets out tensely as he forces himself to move back to give the staff room to work, though he’s shaking with restraint just like the rest of us.
“Apologies, but this is not the usual situation! There has been a lot of speculation about your scar, Miss Zefron—”
“No Zefron!” Ezla barks out through the pain as she lies stiffly on her back, hands crushing the bedsheets in them. “I am only Ezla, but you call me Empress.”
“Of course,” the nurse rushes out before continuing in a calmer tone as if just finally comprehending the gravity of Ezla being her patient, “It is my understanding that Avri was holding your skin together, as you would likely not have had a scar otherwise, and—”
“Is there a point to this?” Cooper grits out, clearly trying to be polite and respectful but rightfully losing his motherfucking mind right now as the doctor moves to the top of Ezla’s bed and places two fingers at either of her temples while another jabs a needle into her arm and injects an Avri-containing serum into her and oh my god I think I’m going to pass out.
Too much is happening, and I’m absolutely petrified even though Ezla’s said she’s not dying.
“Yes, of course, and that is that I am not so sure this is the usual case where the energy can get to the open wound and simply fix it. We will do our very best, but the properties in this Avri are designed be commanded only to heal fully, as we would never want a job to be only partially complete, and I am assuming that scar had been on her person for a few years at least, which, as you all likely know, is far too long after the incident to be healed by Avri—”
“You’re telling me you might not be able to heal my motherfucking girl?! My everything?!”
“Tate, calm down,” Scotty hisses, only just managing to grab him before he can tackle the nearest nurse. “If you don’t, they’ll just sedate you, and that’s not helping—”
Be calm, my beast. I will be okay, Ezla sends down the bond, and he stills at once where he’d just escaped Scotty’s hold, too strong and large to be contained by anything.
Anything but a simple command from our Bonded.
I would never leave you. I thought I made that clear.
None of you will ever escape me. We are one.
Chest heaving, he stares at her with wild eyes.
Her face is coated in bright red blood, her right eye a gory mess, and yet I can tell she stares right back. I will always be with you. If they cannot fix me this way, there is always the old-fashioned way, even if I will be without an eye.
And just at that moment, my heart drops right down to my stomach, then out of my body as the doctor shakes her head and turns to look at the nurses with an urgent expression.
“We will need to do this the older way! I’m unable to command the Avri we have here!
The wound’s been open too long, and not even the energy I direct at her eye is able to obey my orders! ”
Alby makes a terrified sound from beside me, and I quickly clutch onto him to support us both as one of the nurses—
“Use our Avri!”
Cooper’s voice booms through the room as he waves a frantic arm towards Ezla. “It doesn’t have the limiting properties! Just take it! What do you need?”
The brunette shakes her head. “That won’t work. It’s still been too long. We can only return it to exactly what it was before or stitch—”
“Then do it! Fucking take it!” Through the bond, Cooper sends quickly while digging his fingers into his chest as if he’s planning to attempt to rip the energy right from his suit, voice full of determination, He’s already taken too much from you, Vengeance. He’s not taking your damn eye.
“Our microchips can’t control your Avri. We don’t have any—”
“I can do it.”
My neck does a one-eighty with impossible speed.
An Exot man strides over to us, evidently having just come in.
He looks familiar, but through all the chaos, it takes a moment for the light bulb to ping on in my mind.
When he nears and I take in his dark beard, it immediately comes to me: he’s the father we spoke to in the Avri labs yesterday, the one who wants a better world for his children.
“Enzo,” the doctor greets him, mild shock colouring her tone. “What are you doing in here? Are you sure—”
“Good question,” Tate growls, and with his panic, he sounds even more dangerous and untamed than usual. “Did you fucking follow us?”