It's the closest she's come to acknowledging that Nox is in the room, not because she is rude or showing favoritism, but because he’s proven that he doesn't want any of her attention. In fact, if she shows him any, then he’ll lash out and do everything he can to tear her down.
I hate it.
I understand it.
I hate that I understand it.
He stands and tightens the straps on his vest one last time. “Are we going, or are we going to stand here and talk meaningless shit for a bit longer? Unser’s fate isn’t going to be secure with us here.”
Gryphon's face sets like stone, but Oli nods her head as though it's all fine. “You're all going to go and I'm going to be fine. When you get back, I'm sure Gryphon will have a lot to say to you about your manners when it comes to saying goodbye.”
He sends her a dark look back and walks out of the room without another word.
I groan and shove a hand over my face, but Oleander pushes herself against my side to force her way into my arms. Not that she has to, I would rather stay here with her than deal with this mess, and I have no hesitation in telling her so.
“Unser is important to us all. I might not be friends with him the same way that you guys are, but I understand what it means to lose him from a community point of view… Just promise me you guys won't do anything stupid.”
She’s perfection. “Of course not, Bonded. I don't know the meaning of the word.”
She scoffs at me and then reaches up onto her tiptoes to give me a quick peck on the cheek. Not the goodbye that I was hoping for, but I'll take it, nonetheless.
“If I kiss you on the lips, we both know that it will be even harder for you to leave, so come home to me if you want a proper one,” she says, her voice full of sass, before she tugs away from me and does the same to Gryphon.
He gets a handful of her ass and pulls her body in closer, stealing a proper kiss from her, even as she squeals and struggles against him playfully. There's a pain in my chest at the sight of them, but we're running on Unser’s borrowed time here.
We need to get out of here.
I'm not a fan of the Transporter that we have to use, but he does the job well enough, moving our small team to the combat zone in one effective pop. The area is only a few miles wide and a few more miles long, but the Shields that surround it are strong, strong enough that there are dozens of people inside that are unable to get out.
They're not strong enough for us though.
As the other TacTeam members spread out, ready to move as one inside the perimeter, Gryphon's eyes flash to white as he hacks into the brains of every last one of the Shields, turning their Gifts off and rendering them immobile.
I let my shadows fall from my body as I move forward, a gun already in my hand because the Wastelands are not a place that you walk into without every possible option of defense, and Nox stays close to my side as we move together.
He's usually happier working alone.
But when I glance at him, there is a ring of darkness around his irises, his bond is sensing something. I check in with mine in my chest, but it's just that same nervous adrenaline that I always have when we're about to enter a fight. I’m not sure if it’s because he has a better relationship with his bond, or if it’s more sensitive, but I slow my pace a little as I scan the area.
There’s nothing I can find.
I share a look with Gryphon, but he shrugs, not hearing anything that could tip us off. Whatever it is, Nox is the only one feeling it. We don’t have time to just stand around on a whim.
But the moment we breach the perimeter, I finally feel it too.
It’s a trap.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Oli
I feel jittery even as I help lift the boxes of tiles into the damaged building that we are working in today.
Gabe and Atlas tried to convince me to stay at home and get some rest, their plan for me to just sleep while my Bonded are away, but there’s no possible way I could sit around right now, let alone sleep.
I needed a major distraction from being away from my Bonded, so I had convinced them both to pull a late night at the houses. Gabe is fine with it, because he’s desperate to get as much done as possible and move people into the buildings. He’s very aware of how much he is capable of helping with this and has taken on the responsibilities of it. I know it’s his way of trying to lighten North’s workload, and also something that will keep him here in the Sanctuary with me.
He’s very concerned about the two of us being split up again, and I don’t blame him for that at all.
Atlas, on the other hand, finds the building work deeply frustrating. While he’s learning quickly and definitely a huge help to Gabe, he’s still inexperienced, and my very alpha male Bonded is struggling with that fact. He would much rather be eating dinner in my giant bed with a movie on right now, and I kind of feel bad for making his long day even longer.
Gabe just gives him shit about it until he huffs and gets back to work.
“You know that they're going to be fine, right? Sending in one Death Dealer is enough to get the job done, but sending in two of them? Fuck, it’s almost overkill, Bonded,” Gabe says as he takes the boxes from me and stacks them where they need to go.
In the last few days, he’s managed to coordinate huge numbers of volunteers to work on the repairs, so now we’re back on track to getting more housing ready for people to move into. North has shifted the priority from getting families into their own houses to taking in more displaced and targeted Gifted people from around the country.
So far, there’s been two or more families sharing houses so that we can get as many as possible. The few people who’d been vocal about not liking that situation have been thoroughly silenced, thanks to the Sanctuary being breached by the Resistance. Something about finding themselves being rescued and their safety prioritized in a way that they never had been before had shifted their opinions on the matter. Safety, understanding, and their basic needs being met goes a long way to gaining favor with people.
As far as I'm aware, it's only a handful of Top Tier families that still have complaints, and I'm still more than ready to deal with those people myself.
North is starting to get close to that point as well.
I let out a breath, wiping the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand. “It doesn't matter who is out there. I'm always going to feel this way about being separated from you guys. Especially with something as dangerous as this, I don't know how the other TacTeam families cope.”
Gabe shrugs as he directs Atlas where to stack boxes. “A lot of the TacTeam personnel on Gryphon's team aren’t Bonded yet. Most of them are hoping that Sawyer’s work with the blood bank will figure out why they haven't been able to find their Central Bonds yet.”
I nod and sigh, it makes sense. My mind is still drifting to all of the terrible things that could be happening to my Bonded right now. It's irrational because there's no way that any of them could hide grievous injuries or anything too dramatic from me, but my brain can't stop going over all of the ‘what ifs’.
North had been so adamant that I stay behind because the Bond was so fresh between his brother and I, but Nox had refused to stay as well. And as often happens, North and Gryphon would both rather give in to his demands than argue with him. I don’t necessarily disagree with them, but it still grates on me that I’ve been left behind.