Gabe fits his hands across my face, drawing my head down to his as he murmurs, “Kieran is alive. Sage, Felix, Wick, and Riley are all alive. They made it back. I shouldn’t have said anything, Bonded. Just rest now.”
My heart rate slows a little but not enough to distract me from everything that he isn't saying. There's a huffing noise again and he stands, pulling me to my feet. “Come see the Draconis with me. Let me distract you with my bond for a little bit. You know he'll want some belly rubs if you're in here.”
I don't want to be distracted. I want to know what's going on, but I follow him anyway, feeling selfish for my ability to stay ignorant while my Bonded is so conflicted.
“We're asleep anyway, Oli. There's nothing you can do. Just come and say hello to my bond, and enjoy the last few moments before we return and face it together.”
I take a deep breath and turn in his mind, following him into the deep, dark recesses until I find the beast waiting there. It's crouched down as though it's in a small space, but that doesn't make much sense to me.
Nothing here does.
The moment it spots me, its eyes glue themselves to me, drinking me in hungrily. If I wasn't so sure about him, I would assume I was about to be eaten. The all-consuming need the Draconis has for its Bonded is certainly not something to take lightly. It craves me in this form and every other.
“Do you think the Draconis can only shift into a dragon? Or do you think it's just its favorite form?” I query as I lean down to drape myself over the beast, stroking its scales and enjoying the oddly velvety feel of them.
It rumbles happily, slowly moving its head side to side as it gets comfortable with my weight. I would move and find a better angle but the moment I try, it rumbles again, unhappy to lose contact with it in any way.
Gabe watches us both, enjoying the interaction without having to be a part of it. “It's just its favorite form, the one that comes most naturally to it, and I suppose it's the one that does the most damage. I can still shift to anything that I want if I take the reins, but my bond always chooses that one.”
I nod slowly, reaching out to scratch behind the Draconis’ ear, and again, the rumbling happiness vibrates against my belly. I take a deep breath and shut my eyes, letting myself soak in the moment as I feel my body get heavy the way it always does right before I wake up.
“I love you, Bonded,” Gabe says to me suddenly, his eyes tight and worried as he watches me.
I slip my eyes open for long enough to reply, “I love you, too. Whatever happened… that's not going to change.”
The smile he gives me this time is sincere. “I’m not worried about that. I'm worried about them breaking you. I'm worried about you losing something important.”
If my life has taught me anything, it’s that as long as it's not one of my Bonded, I'll survive. It might hurt a whole lot, but most things do.
I’ll survive it.
Gabe looks at me again and sighs, turning his head to look upwards. It’s the last image in my mind as I drift off to sleep, leaving the safety of his mind and returning once more to my own body, waking up to discover exactly what he was trying to protect me from, if only for a moment.
* * *
I wakeup in my own bed back at the Sanctuary, nestled up against Gabe’s bare chest, his breathing slow and even as he sleeps.
I stare down at him for a moment, and he must feel my eyes on him because, with a quiet groan, his own eyes flutter open. He looks at me the same way he does every day when we wake up together, that same soft wonder that he hasn't just found me… he's got me. We're here together, and the simple pleasure of being with each other iseverythingto us both, the only thing that matters in the entire world.
Then whatever it is that's happened filters back into his mind, and I see him slowly shut down as those shadows darken his eyes. Slowly, the joy and wonder disappears, and it's replaced with the exact emotion I don't want to see there.
Grief.
“What's happened, Gabe? Tell me.” My voice comes out as a rasp.
He swallows and opens his mouth and then shuts it again, swallowing once more. My heart begins to beat like crazy in my chest, and he carefully brings an arm around my waist to hold me against his body, fitting us together as though he can hold my mind together the same way.
“The god we left behind, the one in the cells? It got out while we were gone.”
My heart thumps wildly, and though he can feel it against his own chest, I'm sure, Gabe continues ripping the Band-Aid off in one swipe.
“He used his Gift to do it, waiting until everyone was being fed down there. He killed the operative who went down there. He got Xander to shoot himself so that on tape, it looks like a suicide, but we know better. When the operative didn't go back up… Vivian went looking for him. He checked the cameras, but he could only see Xander’s feet. We don’t know what he was thinking, going by himself.”
My heart leaps into my throat.
Gabe swallows again, his voice coming out all wrong. “The god-bond killed Vivian. The moment he entered the basement, he took him over and killed him, then it killed itself.”
My eyes fill with tears, my mind blanking out, the low buzz of white noise taking over. Gabe just keeps on talking, passing along all of the heartbreaking, devastating details to me.
