Gryphon arrives first, always eager to get ready and be on the road as swiftly as possible. He ducks into the locker room to grab his gear and then comes back out to stand with me.
As he pulls his uniform off, he glances over his shoulder at me. ”Did you hear about the girl we brought back? She’s Sawyer and Gray’s Central Bond. You guys did good, finding her and spotting what she was.”
I shrug and run a hand through my hair. “Your Bonded found her, my bond just backed her up. For all I knew, she could have held information that we needed and that was it.”
Gryphon nods slowly and glances out the door quickly to make sure that we're alone and he has time to say this. “She has a brother at those camps. We need to find him and bring him back as well.”
I do not like complications, and I definitely don't want to be bringing more potential risks back to the Sanctuary.
Before I can protest, Gryphon mumbles, ”He’s five, Nox. What do you think they're doing to a five-year-old in that place?”
I don't want to think about what they're doing to a five-year-old. I don't want to admit that I know what they're probably doing to a five-year-old, and I know for sure that I will not be returning today without that five-year-old.
There is a burst of noise as Oli, Gabe, and Atlas arrive together, all three of them bouncing off of each other's energies as they stumble into the room.
Gabe grins and waves at both of us before ducking into the changing room with the lockers in it that are set aside purely for us, and Fallows looks slightly awkward as she glances between us with a smile and scurries after him.
Bassinger stares me down like he's thinking about how exactly he'd cover up my murder, but that’s run of the mill for him, so I don't give him any of thereaction that I'm sure he's so desperately after.
When the locker room door has been closed and locked behind them, I turn back to Gryphon. “So the targets are Unser and the boy… Do we know if there are any other children there? Any other priorities?”
Gryphon turns back to me as he pulls the bulletproof vest on. He has a different type this time that covers a little more of his shoulders, and I'm sure it comes from knowing just how badly he'd panicked his Bonded, badly enough that she’d found Kieran and dragged everyone to the Wastelands after us.
It's a good thing she did too, because he would be dead otherwise, maybe North and I as well.
“Aro didn't know if there were any more children. They were separated as soon as they were taken to the camps, but he’d been brought in a few times to where they were processing her and used as a threat to get her to comply. The only reason they got her into the Wastelands to begin with was by using him.”
I know I don't need to question it, but I do anyway. “And you're sure she's not lying about anything? There was no whiff of deception on her? Being a Central Bond doesn't mean that she's not a sympathizer being sent to feed us false information.”
Gryphon looks around again, which piques my interest. “I didn't just use my lie detection on her. I looked into her memories. I filtered through every little part of her life for the last six months, and there is no way that she is lying. I don't think even Davies himself could have planted that sort of complexity into her brain.”
I nod, and then a slow smirk stretches over my lips. “But you can.”
He looks up at me in shock and I shrug. “I know you think that I haven't noticed any of your boundary-pushing with how far your Gift has grown. But I've definitely noticed some things.”
He bites his cheek as though trying to smother the grin, but he can't. “I am going to tear Silas Davies apart, starting with the innermost part of his mind, and then I’ll work my way to his limbs.”
It sounds like a perfect plan, except…
I reach up a hand and he watches as my palm slowly turns black, spreading down to my fingertips and staining my skin until it slowly creeps up my neck.
“Only if you get to him first.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Oli
North is very clear about what the mission for today is going to entail and what my role is going to be.
I'm once again going to stay with Atlas and Gabe while North, Nox, and Gryphon push forward to deal with as much of the camp as possible. My job initially is to take out all of the Shields and anyone there that my bond senses might be a big player, although North is very clear about what I am to do with Silas Davies if he is actually there.
Absolutely nothing.
“Shouldn’t I see if my bond is strong enough to take him out? Should I at least test it? I mean, I don't think I’m going to be, but isn’t it worth it to try?”
North shakes his head emphatically as he does up the last of the buckles on his vest. He'd been the last person to arrive at his offices to get changed and ready, even after all of the other TacTeams and Vivian himself.
He'd been stopped by one of the other council members on his way over and had gotten into a heated argument. I already vehemently dislike the other council members, and the savage look on North’s face as he’d arrived just makes me feel that little bit more bloodthirsty.
“Nox and I will set our shadow creatures on him. From what we have heard from Atlas, it's our best chance. If he gets too close to us, he can use his Neuro abilities, and that's just not worth the risk. Trust me here, Bonded.”
I pull a face and glance over to where the rest of our Bonded Group is standing together. Nox looks strangely calm, the same way he has for the last few days, and it makes me nervous. Part of me wants to believe that it is because we’ve Bonded now and, though it's coming along slowly, he’s finding some sort of healing peace from that.
But I can't shake the bad feeling.
North glances over his shoulder to follow my line of sight and says, “Don't worry about him, Bonded. He's not going to bother you.”
I shake my head. “He's not bothering me, North. I know you don't believe me, but I'm worried about him.”
He grimaces back to me and presses a hand against the side of my neck, using his thumb to tip my chin back so that I'm looking right at him. “Unfortunately, knowing Nox and being someone he is close to, even unwillingly, means that you're going to worry about him constantly. I'm sorry about that, and I know that if he were capable, he would be sorry about that too.”
I reach up on my tippy toes to press my lips against his, ignoring the fact that there are so many people around us and that he usually tries to keep our PDA to a minimum. “Don't get caught up in an explosion this time. I'm still half tempted to insist that Atlas go with you guys. Gabe’s dragon and I will be more than fine on our own.”
North smirks at my teasing and tugs on the buckles of his vest, the slightly larger one that they have all changed over to after Gryphon’s gunshot wound. “You took care of the Trigger, remember? There's nothing for me to be concerned about anymore.”
I still have a sinking feeling in my gut that that isn't all true.
Gryphon approaches us, his heavy-soled boots loud on the tiled floor, and he slips an arm around my waist, another public show of affection that they’re not usually so open about.