I turn and focus on the man for a second, watching him gulp as he falls fully under my attention. “He’s my Bonded. I would rip your heart out of your throat without a second thought, but Bonds cannot hurt one another. He was made for me, perfection incarnate… even when he’s being difficult.”
There's footsteps behind us, and I glance back to see my Bonded and the Damaged One walking along with the two Gifted that we had been stuck in the library with. The older man is holding the little boy's hand, clutching at it as he sweats profusely.
“Alistair and Joseph are coming back with us. We need to clear a path to get them out.”
The Transporter stalks over from the mezzanine floor that he was standing on, startling for a second as he sees my eyes, but dipping his head respectfully in my direction. “I can't get us out of here unless we're outside, so we need to figure out what the fuck we're doing, and fast, because that Trigger is not letting up out there.”
I shrug and step towards my Dark Bonded, placing my hands on his chest, irritated that there is a bulletproof vest in the way. “Take me outside. I'll fix it for us all.”
He looks down at me, and then his eyes flick over to my Bonded. “What are the chances you can get a gauge of them from here?”
My Bonded steps forward and stares at the TV screen that shows the enemy all outside working towards breaking their way into the building. “I can, a bit. I don't think that she's going to be able to deal with Silas Davies yet… and I don't think she'll be able to sort the Trigger out. The rest of them should be fair game. The Shields are strong, but none of them are even close to what Dara or Franklin were. If we can get rid of everyone else, hopefully that spooks the other two enough that they disappear, for now.”
North nods slowly. “That means leaving the Transporter for them alive as well, so they have a way to get out of here.”
The Damaged One steps up, still glancing back at the child as though he's ensuring that he isn't going to disappear the moment he looks away. “So, our plan is to scare them away? She isn't the only weapon we have, brother.”
The Dark Bonded one nods slowly and raises his palm until more shadows start leaking out of him in various different forms, falling round his body like a cloak of inky night until he really looks like death incarnate.
We were truly made for each other.
I smile as though the sun has come out from behind the clouds and is warming my face. I love them just as much as I love all of my Bonded. I see the serpent fall artfully to the floor, and my smile shifts into a manic grin.
It slithers over to me and wraps around my legs affectionately. I pet its head as it nuzzles my palm, and there is more disbelief and horrified chatter around me at the sight of our affection.
“The snake… she's petting the snake,” one of them says and gets shushed by the men around him.
“Bonded, your job will be to take out everyone except Davies, the Trigger, and the Transporter. Do you think you can be that accurate?”
I ripple with frustration at them questioning my abilities and their insistence on keeping the men alive.
I am a god living among them, and they should know better.
I nod. “Of course. I could kill everybody in this room and out of it, if I wanted to. Everybody in this state, if I really felt like it.”
My Bonded reaches out and takes hold of my wrist as though he is trying to calm me down, but it has little effect on me. They’re all being irritating today, and I’d rather we just got to the killing part.
I want to go home to the fucking part too.
The Dark Bonded One looks to his brother. “We leave everyone else to our Bond and we focus on the other two. Everyone else is just there as a backup in case they have snipers or something hiding from the cameras.”
It’s as easy as that. He's given his directives, and all of the men fall into line around us, finding that their backbones are still encased within their bodies after all. It’s a surprise, especially since they’re surrounded by nightmares and gods who walk amongst them.
We step out into the chamber and I find that a ring of men has formed around the man and the child as they follow along with us. The men give my Bonds and me a wide berth, clearing a path for us to lead the charge.
The Damaged One refuses to leave them in the building while we deal with the situation, insisting that he can keep them both safe and protected for long enough for the Transporter to get them out.
The moment we get to the fourth vault on the way out, I start picking off the Shields. Their souls are weak and unsatisfying to me, but I funnel the power through to the Dark Bonded one anyway, watching as the extra kick of power simmers underneath his skin. His chest expands as he takes it all in, and his eyes darken until, eventually, his bond wins out and takes him over as well.
“Just what we fucking need,” my Bonded murmurs under his breath and glances at me. “If he loses it, you're going to have to talk him down, because none of the rest of us are going to be able to.”
I move towards the Dark Bonded one as I work my way through the rest of our enemies outside, one by one feeling their bodies drop to the ground, even though I can't see it. I send back to my Bonded, Why would I get in the way of greatness? He was put on this earth to wipe it clean of our enemies and those who might try to hurt us. Why would I stop him from doing so?
There’s no answer to that, and I smile up at the Dark Bonded one, happy to see him here with me at last. The man has kept him locked away for too long.
Then we move to the last vault, everyone shifting around us as they move into position. They’re nervous but hiding it well enough, none of them sure of what all we’re capable of.
There’s no need for fear.
Our enemy is nothing in the face of my Bonded. Each and every one of them.
The outer doors open with a grinding sound, and the gloomy day is blinding after an hour in the building, but only for a moment before the shadow creatures consume the light as they move forward, working their way towards their targets.
Our Transporter immediately pops out of existence, taking the man and the child with him, and the Damaged One steps forward, his mind now fully on the work in front of us. As his shadow creatures fall around us, I fight the urge to reach inside of him and pull his bond out, to have the three of us reunited here together on this battlefield, and watch as our gifts blend together to seek out our victory, but my Bonded is still very nervous about what's going on.
I’ll show him that there’s nothing to be concerned about.
Instead of worrying about the trivial concerns of mortals, I continue my work of picking out the souls of the lesser Gifted around us, churning up their life essence into pure energy and funneling it through to the Dark Bonded one until I’m sure he’s invincible.
There's another explosion to our left, the force of it knocking us all from our feet, and he catches me, one arm banding around my waist like a steel bar as he steadies my feet. His shadow creatures snarl all around us, advancing towards the group a few hundred feet in front of us, and I have to wait for the smoke to clear enough to get a look at them.
Pathetic, the lot of them.
They might be stronger than I am right now, but I have only been in this reincarnation for a fraction of the time that they have walked this earth, all of them fully Bonded and at the peak of their abilities. We still have so much further to go, and I will do everything in my power to make sure that we get there.