Broken Bonds (The Bonds that Tie Book 1)

I work out very quickly that we’re not dealing with the lower level grunts in this vehicle.

There’s a Dampener sitting on the other row who is rendering everyone they’ve captured gift-less and there’s definitely a Shield on board because we weave through traffic and red lights without a single hitch or horn blaring at us, and after my forced captivity on the Draven campus, I have no idea of where we are or where we’re heading. Sage keeps her head ducked but I can see her discreetly checking out the view and keeping tabs on where we are, so I’m hopeful we’ll be able to find our way back once we figure out how to escape this mess we’re in. I’m very aware that neither of us are Bonded and there’s only the GPS chip in me to help us be located.

It could be worse.

There aren’t a lot of ways it could be worse but neither of us are badly injured or dead, no one is attempting to torture or rape us yet, and there is some way for us to be located, so I focus on that.

The guy who tied my arms back is sitting between Sage and I, his mask still secured over his face as if he’s worried one of us is about to emit noxious gas and knock him out or something. Dammit, where is Zoey when we need the bitch?

There’s three other students in the truck, all of them bound and gagged, and two more of the Resistance. No one speaks, the sounds of the engine and the road outside too loud to make out much in the open back. When the view starts to quickly change from buildings and parking lots into open pastures and sparsely wooded areas, I start to get nervous. I was hoping they had a shielded building in town to keep us in for a few days. That’s their usual MO, waiting until the heat is lifted a little before transporting their cargo of humans.

A field means they’re planning on testing and taking out.

Sage will survive and be transported. If I don’t access my gift, there’s a good chance they’ll attempt to kill me which will only trigger my gift to protect me and then, again, we’re all fucked.

In or out, I have to decide now.

The truck suddenly veers off of the road again without slowing down and my body slams into the guy next to me, knocking the air out of my lungs. The guy grunts and shoves me away as though it’s my fault the driver is clearly fucking insane and I have no free hands to catch myself with. One of the guys on the other row of seats goes flying and ends up sprawled on the ground in front of us all, blood pouring from a wound on his head.

My stomach curls and I have to remind myself that head wounds bleed like a motherfucker and he’s probably not hurt that badly, but it’s hard not to puke over the sight of it anyway. No one attempts to help him up and when we hit another bump, he groans with the pain of being thrown around.

The truck comes to an abrupt halt and the guy in-between Sage and I grunts, slamming a fist on the metal paneling and yelling, “For fuck’s sake, Daniels, get your shit together before you kill us all!”

Daniels.

It’s an old habit but keeping track of as many names as I can has saved my life before, so I slip right back into it. There’s doors opening and slamming around us but no one moves until the back is opened up. It’s frustrating to me that they all have those masks on still because I don’t know if any of them recognize me.

I won’t know until it’s too late.

One of them speaks, but it’s impossible to tell which one. “Get them out, we’re being transported in five and we’re not taking freeloaders or charity.”

The guy on the ground is moved first, pulled and dropped onto the ground, and finally one of the Resistance takes her mask off to look him over. She’s got blond hair cropped close to her skull and a tattoo of a rose under one of her eyes. She doesn’t look evil but I’ve already learned that even the sweetest and kindest looking people can be monsters.

“He’s strong, an elemental. I’d keep him.”

One of the others pulls off his mask and snaps, “Elementals are more trouble than they’re worth. We need fighters, not someone to make sure it’s a nice day out.”

She shrugs and moves the guy to the left, pulling a gun out and shooting him point blank in the head. One of the Gifted across from me in the truck screams, the sound muffled by the gag, but ear splintering all the same.

It occurs to me that this is where my own trauma shows because there’s nothing about the fragments of skull flying everywhere or the blood and brain matter that bothers me. It’s as though the version of me who was queasy over some blood earlier is long gone and has been replaced by survival me. The girl that once… well, let’s just say my hands aren’t as squeaky clean as I’d like them to be.

There isn’t much difference between me and blondie with the gun really.

Nothing but what side of the dispute we’re on.

One by one we’re brought down to be tested. Sage gets an instant pass, shoved along to stand and wait for the rest of us. The other girl is a shifter and she passes. The last guy is also a Flame but he’s not as strong as Sage. They argue for a minute before deciding to keep him. I’m shoved in front of the tester last and my breath catches in my chest.

This close, I recognize her.

I have to force myself not to panic. The plan hasn’t changed, if she recognizes me then I let my gift out and use every ounce of control I have to stop Sage or one of the other Gifted from ending up as collateral.

Then, I run.

Carlin, the blondie with the gun who was a brunette without a face tattoo the last time I saw her, frowns as she takes me in. She doesn’t recognize me, but she also has no idea of what I am or what I’m capable of.

The guy without the mask snaps, “Well? Are we keeping her or not? Because transport is now in less than two minutes, we need to move.”

Her lips curl and she snaps, “She’s too powerful to toss but I can’t see what she is. She’s… blank.”

“We’re not taking freeloaders, kill her.”

Carlin holsters her gun and shakes her head. “Did you not hear me, Daniels? She’s literally leaking power out everywhere, you don’t kill that kind of potential.”

He huffs at her and grabs my arm. “I can’t feel it but fine, you can poke and prod her later to figure out what’s going on under the hood.”

Of course he can’t feel it, only people like Carlin could sense the power I’m desperately tamping down to keep them from knowing about it. I’ve seen her hold toddlers and accurately assess their abilities, she’s stronger than most at what she can do.

She’ll be furious when she realizes who I am.

We’re moved along to an open field, the truck and the Gifted’s dead body left behind without thought, and even though I can’t see a marker, we stop in a very specific spot. Then the Resistance all remove their gloves and grab each other and each of us until we’re all touching, skin on skin.

There’s a popping sound and then out of thin air a woman appears, slapping a hand on Carlin.

The next pop is louder and my stomach lurches as we’re transported.

I fucking hate this shit.

We could be anywhere now. Literally anywhere. I was once moved to Egypt for two weeks to get away from a particularly good scouting TacTeam. The feeling of being moved in this way makes me sick and the moment our feet are back on the ground, I slump down onto the ground, gagging and trying not to actually vomit.

Daniels grabs me and pulls me to my feet roughly, shoving me along with him, and I have to fight the chaos in my head to get a good look around at where we are.

I don’t recognize the camp, but I’ve been in one of these before. It’s a limbo, a way to sort out stock and sift through the Gifted that have been abducted until they find the ones they really want. I spent two weeks in one when I was first taken and I think that was more about scaring me because they knew before they took me that I was valuable.

We’re all moved to a tent and when we’re dragged inside, we find the cages and the babysitters.

By some stroke of luck, Sage and I are shoved into cages next to each other, our hands unbound and the gags removed before the doors are firmly locked behind us. I wait until they clear out before I look around properly.

The babysitters are ignoring us, as though four new faces mean nothing to them, and I’m sure we really don’t register to them at all. Their job is to knock us out if we start trouble and to listen to everything we say, collecting information that could be used against us.

The tent flaps open again and three huge guys walk in carrying another bound and gagged Gifted between them. My eyes squeeze closed as I hold my bond down within myself, forcing it to not react and lash out because I cannot let them know that the Gifted they’re dragging in and I are Bonds.

I squeeze my eyes shut tighter as I hear them drop him to the ground, grunting and lashing out at him as they swing the cage door shut behind them.

“He took out eighteen men, he’s a dead man walking.”

Chills run up my spine but Carlin purrs at them from the doorway, “He’s one of the Bonds in the Draven family, if any of you touch him, I’ll personally deal out your punishment. We’re close.”

Daniels looks in each of the cages, his eyes not seeing anything special when he glances at me. “He gave himself up. Once we’ve got all of the fresh meat in here, we’ll need to find whoever it is that he came after because I’d bet we have his Central somewhere in this group.”

Well, fuck.

Fuck.

Fresh meat.

It’s been years since I’ve thought of that lovely term, five years since I had to have that label attached to me before I wised up and knew how things worked in the Resistance camps.

I’m going to use that shit to our advantage today.

If I can escape once, I can do it again. I’ve already accepted the cost of that.

I close my eyes and finally, finally, let my gift fill my veins, my entire body feeling sharper and more capable the moment I unlock that door inside of me and let it take over. It’s as though I’ve drunk an elixir of pure light, every cell in my body transforming and coming back to life. It’s been three long years of learning how to exist without this, slowly losing myself as my body adapted and became nothing more than… human. Ungifted.

Normal.

Sage’s eyes fly open as she looks at me, her own senses on high alert as she feels my gift radiate out of me. There’s too much power pulsing in my veins for her not to feel it, the curse of my life being that all Gifted can sense how dangerous I am. We all have that power detection built into us to know when danger is close by.

I hold a finger up to my lips to motion to her to keep quiet and she subtly jerks her head in a nod, careful not to attract any more attention from our captors, but they’re all busy moving all of their fresh meat around. Five more Gifted are brought in but I don’t recognize any of them.

I keep my eyes downcast and focus on Gabe’s breathing.

The second he wakes up, we’re getting the fuck out of here.

IT ONLY TAKES ten minutes before the Gifted start talking amongst themselves, whispering and freaking out with each other about where we are, what they’re going to do to us, or how we’re going to get out of this mess. When Sage glances over to me, I press a finger to my lips and she nods, both of us glancing over at the babysitters again.

We have to just be patient and pray Gabe wakes up soon, because neither of us can carry him and our gifts won’t help with this either. So we wait. We sit there and wait while the day stretches on. There’s shouting and screaming outside a few times, but no one else comes into the tent. My fingertips begin to tingle with power, like my gift is pissed that I’ve called on it but done nothing yet, and Sage’s eyes widen at me when she feels it.

When Gabe finally groans, I can’t help but let out a pulse, my relief pushing out in a tangible wave that has the entire tent falling silent.

Both of the babysitters glance over at me, their attention finally piqued enough to come over.

“It was the anomaly, Fiona. You should go deal with her so we don’t get our asses kicked for playing with her.”

Fiona unfolds herself from the cot she was slumped on, her dark eyes flicking over me before they start to shine.

Nothing.

I don’t even register her attempting to knock me out and my power crows a little, smug all on its own that we’re finally not at the mercy of everyone anymore.

I’m less smug because I know better than to be excited about being me again.

“Too strong for you? Well, we can’t have that can we,” the man speaks again, standing up and walking over to me.

His eyes flash at me but when nothing happens, he curses under his breath, “She’s a void, I can’t knock her out either.”

It’s as easy as breathing. The same plan I used the first time to get away from the Resistance. I groan and bend at the waist to clutch at my stomach, feigning an injury. They’re not going to attempt to help but, sure enough, they step closer to get a good look at me.

There’s another groan and a grunt and I glance over to see Gabe awake, his eyes open and staring right at me. I falter for a second, my power stuttering in my veins, because I could maybe convince Sage to keep this quiet, but there’s no way that Gabe would ever keep my gift a secret.

But I stare into Gabe’s eyes and I decide that enough is enough. I can’t lose anyone else, God-fucking-dammit.

It doesn’t matter that I haven’t touched my power in years, the well is still there, waiting for me. It’s like finally taking a deep breath after shallow gasping for all this time, to feel the true power within me come to me as I call on it.

I feel whole again.

Gabe finally notices it, he can smell it on me, and his eyes flare wide. He’s smart enough, and coherent enough, to keep his mouth shut, but I can see the shock etched into his features.

I grit my teeth and focus, my hand trembling where it hangs at my side, but I need to get this right. If I don’t funnel it right, I could lose my best friend and my Bond, and I’ve lived through enough pain and despair. I don’t need to add their deaths to that list, even if I did want to get the hell away from them all.

Fiona finally notices it, and recognizes the power, her eyes peeling back. “Holy fuck. Holy fuck, what is she doing here?’

The man steps forward as if he’s trying to get a better look at me, only my power lashes out and floods their bodies, grasping at their souls. My gift wants to take everything but I hold it back, triggering the darkness in them instead.

It’s still as horrifying as the first time I’d done it, watching the worst of their nightmares and fears and the ugly parts of themselves wash over them until they’re writhing on the ground, their minds irreparably broken.

Trapped in their own horrors, they’ll never escape it until someone puts them out of their misery.

I thank God that neither of them make a sound, usually there’s at least a strangled scream or something as they go down but now that everyone is staring at them in both shock and absolute horror, there’s not a single sound in the tent.

‘Oli, what the fuck was that? What the fuck did you do to them?” I glance over again to find Gabe struggling to sit up with his hand still bound behind his back, his eyes wide as he stares at me, but time is now working against us.

Anyone could walk in here and see what I’ve done.

I reach out until I get my hand around the leg of the guy and, bless her fucking soul, Sage immediately moves to help me pull him over. It’s freaking hard but we manage to frisk him through the bars until we find a set of keys.

“What the hell are you two doing?”

I startle but it’s only the guy in the far corner, finally come out of the stupor that seeing my Gift in action put him in. Instead of answering him, I lift a finger to my lips to signal to him that he needs to shut the fuck up before he gets us found out. He blinks at me like he’s never been told to shush before.

Fucking idiots.

I get my cage unlocked and then Sage’s, moving quickly over to Gabe while one of the other girls starts sobbing. I hope it’s relief and that she’ll get the fuck over it quickly because there’s a long way to go before we’re even close to safe.

Sage gets his cage open, moving on to the next person, while I slip in to get him freed and out of there. He blinks at me blearily, his eyes struggling to focus, and my heart clenches in my chest at the sight of whatever the fuck they’ve done to him.

When I crouch down to him he croaks, “How did you stop them from knocking you out? I’ve seen Zoey do it a hundred times.”

I fumble with the rope around his wrists as I struggle to get him free. “You saw Zoey knock gift-less me out. I’m a little more supercharged right now. I don’t have time to explain this, can you hulk out and get these off?”

His head sort of rolls around on his shoulders and I start to get properly worried that he’s concussed or taken too much damage to that pretty head of his. “One of them drugged me, I can’t access my shift. How the fuck are you still conscious, Oli?”

I huff at him and give the rope one last tug, almost whooping with joy when it finally comes undone, “You obviously haven’t paid enough attention in Gifted 101. I’m higher up the food chain than those little bitches, so far higher, that they’re nothing to me… the exact same way you are and they had to resort to drugging you. Can you stand? We need to move now.”

I help him up and out of the cage. Thankfully he can carry his own weight, he just needs some help staying steady on his feet. When I have to catch his arm to stop him from tipping over, his jaw locks up and I watch as he pulls himself together, blinking furiously and rubbing at his face like he can force the drugs out of his system through sheer will alone.

I clear my throat to grab the attention of the room, all ten of us now out of our cages, and then I mime out that we need to get out of here.

I’m slow, watching each of them to make sure they’re getting what I’m saying. Then I mime, who can still use your gifts?

Sage can, and three others. We have a Flame, a Shifter, and two others who can’t accurately mime for shit because I think they’re either mental abilities, or saying they’ve taken a hit to the head.

Great.

I shut my eyes and cast my gift out and let it create a map for me. This is dangerous, but only if I hit Carlin or another tester with her level of ability. Then, something fucking magical happens.

I find Gryphon.

I feel him startle when my gift hits him. I feel his disbelief and then the surge of adrenaline, relief that I’m alive and here. Wherever we’ve been taken, either it was close by or he also has a transporter. Kieran is with him and I can’t even be mad at that douchebag being here.

Then I find Nox.

Okay, I’m less happy about that one, especially when his gift reaches out for mine. He’s trying to figure out what the fuck I can do, how I’m mapping them all out, and every other secret I’ve ever kept from them.

I pull away from them.

My eyes pop open and I push up onto my tiptoes to press my lips to Gabe’s ear, whispering so softly it’s barely more than my breath, “Calvary is here.”

When he starts to rock on his feet, I sling Gabe’s arm around my shoulders and wrap my arm around his waist as I move us towards the tent opening. I slow my breathing down enough to use my heightened senses.

Fuck, it’s good to have them back.

I’m happy for exactly half a second before the gunfire and sounds of fighting break through.

My Bonds have been found.