Forced Bonds (The Bonds that Tie Book 4)

I don’t like leaving the Sanctuary.

I don’t have anything against traveling or any concerns about my own security or ability to handle any threats that might come my way for being a prominent council member, but the Sanctuary is still in its infancy and far too green to be able to run without someone in charge there at all times. Leaving Gryphon behind is a good start, because everybody there knows that he is able to speak on my behalf, but there’s something about a consistent figurehead at the helm that is so desperately needed right now.

Unfortunately, the non-Gifted community has given me no choice.

I arrive at the Council offices and find Penelope waiting there for me. She’s dressed to the nines, skirt suit and pumps with a red slash of lipstick across her lips, and the flirty grin that she gives me sets my teeth on edge.

She is fully aware that I am Bonded, and that I have never shown her any interest beyond a working relationship anyway, but she still insists on trying to cultivate something of an affair. It had always annoyed me, but now that I know it is such a sore spot for my Bonded, it’s no longer something that I can ignore.

I would never allow Oli to be in the presence of that sort of person, so I will hold myself to the same standard. I might be a controlling asshole, but fair’s fair.

“Give me my paperwork, and then go to your desk and do not interrupt me unless there’s someone here to see me.”

Her face falls at the harsh tone of my voice, but only for a second before she’s smiling again and nodding, following my instructions without another word. To be honest, that’s the only reason she’s lasted in the position, because she never questions anything. Also, I don’t think she has the cunning or intelligence to attempt to use her position to further her career at my expense.

Even that won’t be enough to save her if she doesn’t quit this shit.

I take the paperwork from her and then stalk to my desk, shutting the door firmly behind me so I can go through the paperwork quickly before I have to leave. It’s mostly notes from other council members, their own opinions and wishes on today’s meeting, and all of it is predictable bullshit that I am not going to take into account.

The only two council members who have been cleared fully by Gryphon are Rockelle and Hannity, the two that live in the Sanctuary alongside us, and I’ve already spoken to both of them and come to an agreement. I’ve also spoken to Vivian and Unser about their opinions on the matter and, as high level TacTeam leaders, their opinions matter to me. I would trust my Bond’s life with either of them, as well as my own, and if they have something to say about how our community is being governed, then I want to know about it.

I have, of course spoken, to Gryphon and Nox as well.

It’s not something that Oleander, Gabe, or Atlas have been involved in before, otherwise I would have spoken to them all at dinner about it. With everything else that went on last night, I didn’t want to distress my Bonded with anything else because there was more than enough of a clusterfuck of information for one evening.

I don’t know whether I desperately want Oleander to be right about my parents or if I want her to be wrong. The thought that the Resistance might have taken a real Bonded connection away from the people who brought me into this world and loved me so much fills me with a violent rage, but there’s also a relief there. The potential that my bond and the shadow creatures are incapable of hurting Oleander is intoxicating and… maybe the poison that broke my brother was not something that had gone wrong in a happily Bonded Group.

Maybe what happened to him is the Resistance’s fault as well.

I shake my head to clear the monsters out of it, because there’s no denying that following that path is strong enough to drown me.

I’ve lost more days than I want to admit to at the bottom of a bottle trying to drink away those memories. I will never begrudge Nox for wanting to do the same because while I might live with the knowledge, he lives with the experience.

Neither of us shoulders that very well.

An alarm sounds on my phone to remind me to leave on time to get to the summit, and I quickly check in mentally with my Bonded, mostly to reassure myself and remind myself of why I’m doing this.

She answers straight away. I’m just going to spend the day with Sage and Sawyer going through everything until we figure it out. Can we let her out if we get enough proof of her innocence together?

Irritation rolls down my spine, not at Oli, but at the terrible situation that her friend has ended up in, thanks again to the Resistance. I’m confident now that Sage did not intentionally kill Dara and that something else has happened.

I have known her family for too long and am now watching her father almost kill himself in the Sanctuary, going through blood types and trying to fix the mess that has been made of his family’s legacy. There’s also no way that the sweet, broken little girl who befriended my Bond, even when her own Bonds couldn’t see past our own shit to do so, could ever be a member of the Resistance.

I realize this might sound naive, but when you have been dealing with those people for as long as I have, you start to see patterns and similarities in things. I was surprised when I heard that the blood groups had been messed with, but I also wasn’t shocked into disbelief over it. Knowing their tactics, it made complete sense that they would go after Bonded Groups in hopes to weaken the bloodlines.

I find myself chuckling quietly to an empty room at the thought that maybe they had planted my mother with my father in the hopes that it would thin out the shadow creatures and instead, they had ended up with two more shadow manipulators in the world, both of us more powerful than our father, thanks to the extra abilities our mothers had given us.

Serves the sadistic assholes right.

I tuck the paperwork under my arm and stalk back out of my office without another word, ignoring Penelope when she tries to smile at me again. The fact that she has removed her work jacket and is wearing nothing but a lacy camisole underneath is all I need to see to know that she is going to be fired and I will have to find someone else to fill the role. Preferably someone male, competent, and uninterested in social climbing; so basically a fucking unicorn.

Rafe meets me at the elevator, once having been Transported in, and I enjoy the trip down to our car together catching up with him. He and his family had lived in our mansion for more than two decades, and I had watched his children grow up, move out to go to college, and travel the world. Neither he nor his wife are Gifted, but they are some of the most loyal and kind people I have ever met. When everything had happened with the Resistance, I knew there was no way I could leave them behind. Even if we weren’t close, they would be targets for what they might have seen from being in our household for so long.

“Two new grandchildren, congratulations! You must be so eager to visit them.”

Rafe grins and shrugs. ”We’re hoping that things will settle down soon and we can go see the twins, but we’re not going to rush there and potentially put targets on our family.”

I frown and nod, stepping out of the elevator with him and walking over to the car together. “I’m sorry it’s come to that, Rafe. I would never ask this of you, and it kills me that you have to stay with us and miss out on this moment.”

Rafe opens the back door for me and as I slide in, he smiles his same warm smile at me. “This is what family does. We don’t just stick together when things are happy and fruitful. You have always taken care of us, and we will stick by you now for as long as we need to. My Maria and I are safe with you. And we’re more than happy to video chat with the babies until it is safe.”

I nod, still not happy about it, and let him shut the door behind me, pulling my phone out again as it buzzes in my pocket. There’s a stream of news articles and questions from reporters about today’s summit waiting there for me, and I have to take a deep breath before I open any of it.

It’s going to be a long day.

“We cannot ignore the significant threat that the Gifted have become to this country. For too long, we have stood by and allowed this portion of the population to govern itself, but time and time again, we have been shown that they are unable to live harmoniously as a community without being a threat to themselves and to others. We cannot allow this to continue. There needs to be heavier regulation, more policing of those people of interest who have abilities beyond the norm, and there needs to be a register of some kind to keep tabs, the same way that many other countries have implemented.”

Senator Oldham dips her head as if she is bowing to the table of non-Gifted community members and the crowd before turning her back on the Gifted representatives and stalking back over to take her seat.

It’s very clear what her dismissal means, but I clap along with everybody else in the room as though she hasn’t just dribbled a load of bullshit and prejudice for the last half an hour against my community in an obvious power play to win over her more trigger-happy constituents.

I have been in her presence a few times already, and every inch of my being loathes being close to this woman. Even my bond is repulsed by her and, naturally, she just keeps winning favor with those around her, putting her in my path more and more often.

Lucky fucking me.

I have already spoken here at the summit, discussing the ways in which we are trying to neutralize the Resistance and fight back against everything that they’re doing, as well as pointing out how many non-Gifted charities we support. I also made a point to speak about our efforts to purchase at least fifty percent of all of the Sanctuary supplies, both for building it and for our resources that we consume each and every day, from non-Gifted businesses so as to spread the wealth around.

While that may have gotten us some brownie points with some of the people here today, especially those with businesses themselves who just see dollar signs above my head, Oldham had sat there with a sneer on her face.

She is the bane of my existence.

Enemy Number Two immediately after Silas fucking Davies, and he tops the list for daring to physically torture, as well as mentally torment, my Bonded.

Though, to be honest, I wouldn’t put those tactics past Oldham either.

There’s only one more person to speak after her, and I mostly drown out the sounds of Senator Lilliman droning on and on about the fear that he has for his state.

He lives in New York, which is one of the areas that is least populated by the Gifted in the country, thanks to the population density of non-Gifted and the inability to go undetected there for very long. Most non-Gifted people will stigmatize and ostracize anybody who they know has a Gift because of the fear they have of those abilities. Anybody who is Gifted that moves into such a densely populated area generally doesn’t last that long.

Of all of the states, that’s not the one to be concerned about.

Now the Wasteland that has opened up in Missouri? That’s something that we should all be concerned about.

The last time the Resistance had made their move with such a massive power play was during the riots in the seventies. They had opened up what were dubbed Wastelands, which was an appropriate name for the front lines of war between the Gifted and the Resistance.

Most of the time, these Wastelands are protected by Shields that the Resistance place around the borders of such areas so that any Gifted that they Transport in or that choose to go there in an attempt to rescue others or take to the fight themselves, or even those who stumble into it unintentionally, are unable to get out again.

The fact that they have resorted to these old barbaric traditions again is unsettling, but unsurprising. Having it confirmed just means that now I need to spend some time with Gryphon to figure out what resources we need to keep at the Sanctuary, and what we can send there to attempt to shut them down before the situation gets way worse. It’s not going to be easy; we’re already stretched thin. Our best chance would be to send Oli in to wipe them all out.

That is, and will always be, a last resort.

When the senator finishes up his droning bullshit, the entire room politely claps for him before we all begin packing up to get the hell out of here. The crowd moves as one towards the door, and I find my skin prickling with even more irritation at the situation.

Fucking useless, the lot of them.

There are a few Gifted community members making their way towards me that I ignore completely as I make a beeline for the door. I have no interest in speaking to them, having already denied them access to the Sanctuary because they were unwilling to go through the vetting process, but I’m sure they have now seen the errors in their way. The problem there is that we have no ability to take more people in, thanks to the attacks by the Resistance putting us behind schedule by four months on getting more houses completed.

They had their chance and blew it.

I make it three more steps towards the door before Senator Oldham slides in front of me, blocking my path with that genteel smile of hers. My bond recoils inside of me, unhappy for her to be this close to us, but I force a neutral expression to fall over my features.

“Councilman Draven, I wasn’t expecting you to show up. Rumor has it, you have found your little girlfriend and are ignoring your responsibilities now that you’re shacked up with her.”

I do not like this woman talking about Oleander.

I don’t like the way she is using a dismissive tone, and I hate the language that the non-Gifted use when speaking about something so revered by the Gifted community, but I paste a sedate smile on my face.

“If these are your congratulations, I must admit I find them lacking. I have been busy dealing with the issues with the Resistance and keeping as many of my community members alive as possible while dealing with the worst that humanity has dredged up.”

I also include her in this statement, but from the way she gives me a very political smile back, she misses that fact. “Yes, well, it can be difficult dealing with members of our community who are thugs and criminals, though we find that a good police force and a rigid law system has worked for the non-Gifted communities. Maybe you should consider the same for the Gifted.”

She has no idea of the policies that we have in place, or the ruthlessness that we employ when dealing with the Resistance. I doubt that her community would happily set Dobermans on criminals and watch them tear them limb from limb the way that we do with the shadow creatures. I very highly doubt that they would comfortably watch a nineteen-year-old girl commit mass murder against their enemies, so I find her condescending tone just a little off base.

It’s hard to keep my tone from being scathing but I think I manage it. “Is there something that you would like to speak to me about? Because I have other places to be today that will be more productive than this little chat we have been forced to have as a group.”

She holds a hand up to her chest as if scandalized and simpers, “How can we live in harmony if we are not all keeping open lines of communication, Councilman Draven? Maybe this is why your entire community has been displaced. Maybe you should hand over their safety and security to somebody who is more capable at providing for them.”

I nod slowly at her as if I’m considering her words, rage filling my gut and my shadows writhing inside of me to be let out to just eat the bitch alive, and then I reply, “And how much money does your family have, Senator Oldham?”

She frowns at me for a moment. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business… but it is all on public record that we’ve been very fortunate since coming to this country all those years ago.”

I nod slowly again, and then say, “And how much of that wealth have you personally used to house and feed and clothe and protect and teach members of your community? How much of that money have you given to the Gifted community? People that are completely separate and different to your own, but who may have requirements that are not being met?”

She frowns deeper at me and blusters, “We live in a society in which people are responsible for taking care of themselves. I owe them nothing.”

I nod slowly to her. “Yes, and my community is at war with itself, as well as members of your own community who have chosen to pick a side. So, instead of running away with my money to somewhere safer, I have chosen to stay and protect as many people as I can. I’ve put my money where my mouth is. I will not be told by some half-bred hick that I am incapable of doing my job. Someday, when you choose a cause that actually means something to you, and you do put your money behind it, then maybe I’ll listen. But I don’t foresee that day coming anytime soon, do you?”

Her mouth opens and shuts a few times as she gapes at me like a fish, and I give her one last decisive nod as I skirt around her and out of the building, taking a deep breath of the fresh air before walking over to find Rafe and get into my vehicle.

“Everything okay, Mr. Draven?” Rafe asks and I nod, sliding my sunglasses on against the glare of the day as he pulls out into traffic.

“Same shit, different day, but I already knew that there was no real point in attending.”