The reactions these days hardly ever surprise me. Even when I'm caught off guard by something, I have such security now in our relationships, both individually and as a whole. I know exactly where I stand with all of them, and there's nothing quite so incredible as all of us working together as a cohesive unit.
I wait until I'm sure that Gryphon is too busy to notice whether I'm here or not before I head back up to North's office, leaving him behind with a quick, cordial nod of my head. I see the dark look in his eyes as he watches me walk off. I know that he is far happier with PDA than North is, but it still feels entirely inappropriate to engage in such things in front of his TacTeam. Especially only meters away from where the flowers for Vivian's monument still stand, growing little by little every day as the community continues to mourn him. I get choked up if I stare at them for too long, and I duck my head as I step into the building.
There's a few operatives in there, a couple of them getting changed in the locker room, but each of them smiles and nods at me respectfully as I move towards the elevator without a word.
It kills me a little inside to know that it took Vivian's death to bring people together like this. When the doors open to North’s office, I find him sitting behind a table, working through the plans for the council vote. There is a coffee cup the size of my head sitting next to him, already half-empty, and the vicious muttering under his breath lets me know exactly how well this is all going.
“I don't for the life of me understand how there are so many ways to cheat at voting. The corruption in this world is baffling.”
I smile and shake my head at him. “You always told me I was naive for thinking people could be good. Sounds like you're confused.”
He places his pen back down on the desk and then leans back, his hands rising above his head as he stretches, and I enjoy the sight for a moment. The long lines of him, even covered in his suit like this, are a welcome sight.
His voice is a seductive drawl to me. “I’m well aware that men will always be corrupt. It just pisses me off that it becomes my problem to deal with.”
I blow out a breath and move to the window to look out at the lines of Tac personnel as they’re put through their paces on the sparring mats. I watch as a son of one of the Top Tier families uses his Telekinetic power to throw someone away from himself, marveling at his ability to do so.
My bond is quiet in my chest, happy to sleep and build up energy for what’s to come, and I leave it be. It has always known best about these things, even when it didn’t know how to communicate that to me.
North’s old assistant, Penelope, is the perfect example of that.
The hatred and utter loathing it had for her, even before it knew why, was something that we should have never ignored.
To think that we had a fledgling god-bond in his inner circle for so long sends a chill through my body now, as facing the Elemental had only days ago. I’d watched the entire fight through my bond’s eyes. Seeing Penelope there with her arms stretched out wide, her eyes glowing, black voids, all of it had set my temper off all over again.
I’ve been very good about not rubbing North’s face in it, but probably only because of Vivian’s death.
“Are you really that worried about corruption now, considering the way everyone's acting?”
He can hear the resentment in my voice, so he steps up behind me to sling an arm around my waist, moving me closer into his body as he watches the sparring with me. “It wasn't just Vivian, Bonded. It was the council dissolving as well. You know? A lot of those men and women down there felt as though they couldn't join TacTeams because of their family legacy. If they ran off on a mission and died, who would take up their council seats? What would happen to their families? There's a lot of responsibility on all of them, one that I understand keenly. Dissolving the council and making it a popular vote has changed a lot of things for some of these kids.”
I scowl for a moment out the window, but I know there's no point in arguing with North. He wouldn't lie to me anyway. It serves no purpose.
I grumble under my breath, “So now they're just free to go off on missions and die without having to think about what their parents will think of it? That also sounds pretty crazy.”
He chuckles and dips down to press a kiss to my shoulder. “I don't think any of them believe that they would die on a mission, Bonded. Especially when they haven't been out there before. There's a recklessness when they first join that takes a few missions to shake out of them. I have no doubt that some of them are using this as a campaign platform. They're planning on going out on a few missions, and then they’ll run for the next council seat using their experience as a party platform. I have no doubt that a lot of them have ulterior motives, but there are a handful that Gryphon has found who are genuine. Plus, the strengths that they all bring are useful, no matter what has led them to this point. Quite frankly, we can't afford to be picky right now.”
I sigh and lean back in his arms, letting my head drop back against his chest and enjoying a quiet moment with him.
One of our last.
* * *
I'm surprised,but not completely shocked, when the next part of our plan comes together thanks to the work of Sawyer and Nox.
Both Sawyer and Sage have made comments to me about their work together, and I was surprised when Sawyer was so nonchalant and calm about it. He’s only really gotten snappy about the lack of organization on the Bassingers’ part when it came to their digital records.
“Considering how fucking perfectly they’ve archived all of their paper shit, they really did not give a fuck about labeling files or setting up any sort of indexing matrices. Honestly, I feel like showing up at your house and punching Atlas in his smug, rich-boy face in the hopes that his dickhead ancestors feel it. But I also like my soul where it is, so that's probably not the best idea,” Sawyer had snarked at me when I showed up at their house to check in on Kieran and have lunch with Sage.
Unfortunately, even with Felix's full attention and his Bonded’s healing abilities, Kieran is on a slow track to recovery. Every bone in his body had been smashed to pieces, and that’s not exactly something that’s a quick fix. The stress it’s put Sage under makes me feel bloodthirsty all over again.
The only upside to this is the fact that Wick has stepped up to the plate for his Bonded Group and the community in a big way, filling in with Gryphon in the Tac Training sessions beautifully, without complaint or any need for praise. I can see why he was such a great candidate for the TacTeams when he studied at Draven. There’s no mistaking that he is a leader in his own right. Even with the cloud hanging over their house that comes with Kieran’s injuries, I can tell how united and settled Sage’s Bonded Group has become.
It’s an immense relief for me, even while I am concerned about Kieran. Vivian's death has brought up old traumas I was hoping to leave in unmarked boxes tucked away in the back of my mind, never to be opened again, and yet here we are.
Nox and Sawyer aren’t exactly the most obvious duo to pair together on missions, however all of the work that the two of them were doing has paid off. Going through the Bassingers’ files, both digital and the hardcopies that Nox managed to categorize and get home safely, has been a full-time job for them both.
Between that, and the memories that the Corvus has been filtering through to Nox, a plan becomes very clear to him. The problem is that he hates the plan with a vehemence that has him searching for something, anything, else for weeks.
