Page 162 of The Bonding Games: Part 2

Without a word, Scotty pulls her into his arms, and I stay close to her back to offer as much support as I can, but I don’t try to draw her back into me. Scotty’s best at this, and he’s always able to help her the most and knows the right things to say in these situations.

“You’re so fucking strong, Ezla. So strong,” he whispers, and there’s tears in his eyes, but he holds them back as his hand rubs up and down her back, the other smoothing over her head. “No one can hurt you, Love—you make sure of that. And you have five men who would gladly walk through hell with you to reinforce that too, even if you don’t need us to.”

The air is thick and heavy enough to be suffocating, and I can’t find the words like he can, so I remain a steady presence at her back, sending her all my love and devotion through the bond, my desire to slay all her demons and peel the skin from anyone who dares to even think about looking at her the wrong way. I feel the others doing the same, though majorly in a less violent way.

Finally, Cooper lets out a hitched breath.

I tense further.

Swallowing thickly, eyes still coated in a layer of moisture that’s more obvious now, he looks up. “It’s done. I’ve deleted them all and then again on the—

Sharp pain slices into me in time with Havoc’s pained gasp as she abruptly pulls her face away from Scotty’s chest.

A tear of blood drips from her blackish-crimson eye.

44

TIGER

The levels of terror my body’s managed to bear over the past week are astronomical, but this time, I’m not so sure I’ll make it.

“Ez!” I cry, my heart pounding in my ears unrelentingly as I lunge for her.

Obviously, I can’t see the invisible camera in her fist, but I can’t bring myself to care in the slightest when she loses it as her hand shoots up to her face to cover her right eye. Not having it, Cooper seizes her wrist, undiluted fear etched into every crevice of his face as he pulls it away to see the crimson fluid leaking from not just her eye, but her scar now, too. “Fuck, fuck! Please, not again— Vengeance, what’s happening?!” His voice raises, echoing around the room as more blood starts to pour from her and the dark red Avri in her face starts to melt away.

“I do not— Fuck!”

Her cry of pain tears me apart, and Tate’s eyes have become that concerningly unhinged way in an instant, but I think I catch less of it there than usual as one hand yanks at his hair before both come to rest on Ezla to keep her upright even though Scotty’s arms are already there as she stumbles.

“The—the Avri!” Alby cries, and I struggle to process anything, only remembering all the times we’ve almost lost the love of our life in the past two weeks alone. And it’s all because of hi—

Him.

The realisation slams into me at the same time blood starts pouring from Ezla’s face profusely as the Avri that was once there glints in iridescent colour before fading out of sight completely:

“It’s because of him! Because Joseph’s dead! Remember what we were taught in school?! When someone dies, all their Avri forgets its commands and is drawn back into an Avri pole!” I shout, and I’m really trying to control my beathing, because I can hardly hear myself think as I blindly reach out to try and get a hold on my Bonded too.

The frantic faces all around me pale a handful of shades, becoming ashen. Cooper lets Ezla’s arm go so she can press her hands over the eye that splits down the middle like it did in that traumatising memory we saw the night of the Halfway Ball, and he rasps as his own hands follow hers in a desperate attempt to provide any help possible, Joseph’s phone forgotten as it thuds against the taalk at our feet, “His Avri’s lost its orders. It can’t hold her skin together anymore. It can’t hold her eye together.”

“SHIT!” Tate roars.

“What do we do?!” Alby sobs. “How didn’t we think of this?!”

Gritting her teeth, I can tell Ezla’s trying to keep her sounds of pain in, and I know she’s only demanding us through the bond because her voice wouldn’t be stable enough out loud when she says, Take me to the infirmary. I will be perfectly fine. It is deplorable the number of times I have been in such disgracefully vulnerable situations recently.

I’m not sure if she meant to send the last part or if that was more a thought for herself, but I don’t think a debate about that is at all needed right now as Cooper explodes, “Perfectly fine?!” while attempting to lift her into his arms.

A little dizzy, she concedes with too much calm, then proceeds to bark while using her free hand to shove at him, Unhand me, Cooper! I am not dying!

Scotty’s eyes are huge and alarmed, but he steadies his voice as it rises above all the noise when he orders, “Cooper, let her go! We need to get her to the infirmary as fast as possible! Ezla, Love, you lean on us if you need us or we’ll have to pick you up, alright?” His arms are already hovering by her as she unsteadily but quickly marches for the door, but the moment she stumbles, he mutters under his breath, “Fuck this,” before sweeping her right off her feet.

A spew of curses pour freely from her mind to all of ours, and I fly after them with Alby, Tate, and Cooper already a step ahead as we speed out of the cinema.

“Don’t you—dare—forget—that phone!” Ezla struggles out, and I almost trip over my own feet as I dart back into the room before I can even understand what’s happening, by body wired to respond to any and all commands she gives.

“Got it!” I throw out through my laboured breaths as I whizz through the penthouse to catch up with them, blinking rapidly to try and clear the stinging moisture from my eyes.

It’s a blur as Ezla smacks her bloodied gloved thumb into all the scanners necessary on our way out of the Techtis Council building. Luckily, it’s late, so there’s almost no workers down here, and the few who gape as they try to understand the scene before them are quickly deterred when Ezla—half hidden between all of us in Scotty’s arms—spits out through her pain, which only makes her sound more terrifying than usual, “If your eyes have found themselves anywhere near me or my men, you will soon find them swimming in pools of blood on the floor.” The same treatment is given to the Neutral staff member we pass along the way to our destination in the Headquarters’ T-shaped building, and then we’re bursting into the infirmary.