“Well?” Rylan finally asked.
I crossed my arms. “This is up to you.”
“It’s up to you, too, Laz.”
“No, it’s not. This is all you. You know what happened last time.”
“It won’t happen again.”
“Are you sure, Ry? Are you really sure? How do you know it won’t?”
“It’s not like you to be so apprehensive.”
“I don’t want you getting hurt again.” I avoided his gaze. “I can’t do that to you again…”
Rylan walked closer to me and pulled me into his arms. “Just trust me on this. Things will be different this time, and after this is all over, we can figure out how to sever the bond for good.”
I nodded slowly. “Just don’t have any unnecessary feelings, okay? I don’t want it to affect me.”
He chuckled. “I won’t promise anything.”
“Seda, are you listening?” I thought in my head.
“I am. I have relayed your choice to Genesis.”
“Good. Make her aware this is because you asked, and not her. Also, please don’t allow anyone to disturb us. We need absolute silence in order to ensure the bond repairs correctly.”
“I can assist with creating a barrier for you to block out sound elements. Good luck.”
I took a deep breath and nodded to Rylan. He backed up farther into his room, stepping around the mess of clothes and instrument parts, and sat down on the floor. I came up to him and sat down, straddling him. Instinctively, he rested his hands on my hips.
Discomfort plagued me as I settled. This was one other reason I wasn’t keen on doing this. The bond required such an intimate position to connect correctly.
“Relax,” Rylan said with a calm done. “You know I’m not going to do anything.”
I took a deep breath to calm myself and then rested my forehead on his. Rylan responded by pulling me closer, holding eye contact. The two of us synced our breathing until a familiar pressure pulsed in the back of my head. The sensation sent a wave to the front of my head, and I closed my eyes.
The heat in my chest boiled and the temperature of my skin rose. The ashy taste of smoke hit my tongue as I breathed. At the same time, a cold nip from Rylan’s breathing hit my neck. The sensation in my mind pulsed hard, sending a ripple of shorter pulses rushing after it.
My skin grew hotter and Rylan’s chilled. My hands clenched his clothes as the heat of my fire burned under the surface, threatening to burst out of me. Embers licked my lips and I swallowed hard to keep them at bay.
Cold crept up my skin, locking me in place, and heat seeped out of my body, trying to fight it. The pulsating in my mind increased to a hard pressure. This wasn’t anything like the first time we cemented the bond. It’d been uncomfortable, almost wrong, but this time, it felt worse.
Then a new sensation crept in—dull at first, then it grew and centralized around the back of my head. A relaxing, coaxing feeling. Rylan was calling to me through the bond. The bond was nearing completion.
I took a calming breath, the taste of ash thick in my breath, and willed my body to calm. The fire burning inside took advantage of my state and burst out, licking my skin and sizzling against the ice Rylan created.
Then I felt nothing. My head no longer hurt. The fire no longer burned. The ice faded away.
Staying relaxed, I searched for him. An image of him formed and I reached out to him. He took my hand and smiled. “You’ll never be alone. I’ll be there for you when you need me. I won’t fail you this time. I promise.”
I smiled back at him. “You’re mine to protect.”
His image snuffed out in a bright flash, forcing my mental eyes closed. My true eyes snapped open, and the two of us sat in his room, breathing heavy; no signs of our elements raging out of control. A mind trick. I should have known. The first time we’d sealed the bond, there had been some elemental forces at work, but a majority of it had been all an illusion created by the power of our minds connecting.
The pressure in my head was gone, and in its place, a familiar, soothing bubble in the back of my head. It had always been there, but now it was stronger.
I slid off Rylan to put some space between us, and he didn’t fight me.
“You okay?” he asked.
I nodded. “Just getting used to the feeling in my head now.”
Rylan stood up and held his hand out to me. “Let’s get you a drink, then. It’ll keep your nerves down to help adjust to it all.”
I took his offered hand. “How can you act like it’s not affecting you?”
“Because we both know my side of this has always been stronger. Even with the breakdown due to distance over these past years, I doubt it became as dull of a presence as yours.”
I stared at him. “You could still sense me even at that distance, couldn’t you?”
He nodded. “As you moved farther away, it became harder, but it never went away. It helped me stay positive with you gone. But please don’t tell Ryoko. I kept it a secret for her sake.”
I nodded, understanding the importance of that secret. She wasn’t happy about the existence of the bond.
We left his room, and all eyes in the living room fell on us. I stared at them while Rylan went into the kitchen to pour me something.
“What?”
Genesis raised an eyebrow. “It’s all done?”
I gave a curt nod. “Yes. We’re now in an adjustment period.”
The sound of Rylan rummaging through the cabinets and glasses clanking drew their attention to him.
Genesis’ forehead crinkled. “What are you doing in there?”
“Finding out what we have for options in the mixed drink department,” Rylan said without looking away from his task. “I know we have beer in the fridge, but Laz isn’t a huge fan of that option.”
“Oh, but I’d love that option,” Ryoko called out.
Rylan smiled at her, the bond in my head bouncing a bit, indicating how much he enjoyed this interaction with Ryoko. “I’ll get you one once I’m done taking inventory,” he laughed.
“I’ll take one too!” Blaze called out.
Rylan nodded, taking note.
“Wait, wait.” Genesis held up her hands. “You’re going to drink this early in the morning? You can’t wait until noon?”
I leaned on the bar and smirked. “We’re rebels, what did you expect?”
The room erupted with laughter; even Raikidan found it amusing. Genesis shook her head, knowing it was pointless to talk sense into us, and went back to going over her reports.
Rylan finished pulling out drink components and then rummaged through the fridge for the beers. “Laz, take a look at what we have, and I’ll make what you want.”
I entered the kitchen, passing him as he left to hand Ryoko and Blaze their drinks. I looked over my alcohol and mixer choices as Ryoko cracked open her beer can and took a few gulps.
Rylan noticed Raikidan take interest in the choice of drinks. “You want one?”
Raikidan’s nose scrunched. “I don’t ingest anything that smells foul.”
“Tastes good,” Ryoko said. “Promise.”
“I’d disagree,” I said, separating my least favorite alcohols from my favorite. “It tastes worse than it smells.”
She stuck her tongue out at me and then drank some more.
I mixed up a drink for myself just as Rylan came into the kitchen. “I was going to do that for you.”
I shrugged. “I felt like doing it.”
“Don’t tell Azriel you can do that. He’ll try to hire you.”
“I wouldn’t mind.” I grinned. “Means I get to see him all the time.”
Rylan crossed his arms. “You’re not a people person. Seeing Azriel will not make you feel any better about the job.”
“How is he, by the way?” I asked as I mixed up another drink, one I thought Raikidan might like. “Better question, does he even know I’m back in town?”
“Oh, he knows,” Rylan s
aid, pouring himself something. “He’s just been busy, and he knows you have been, too. Of course, he thinks you should stop by and pay him a visit in your free time, too.”
I chuckled. “He’s not wrong. Maybe sometime this week I could swing by.” I gave Rylan a sidelong glance. “Or he could step away from his club for more than five minutes.”
Ryoko laughed. “And mess up his hookup streak? You should know him better than that, Laz.”
She had a point. “He still going on the same one?”
“No, he’s restarted a few times,” Rylan said. “Longest he’s gone is seven months.” He chuckled. “Don’t tell him I told you. He’d assign me to tasks I’d rather steer clear of.”
I grinned. “Okay, I’ll rat you out next time I see him.”
Rylan smacked me in the arm, and I chuckled before taking the two glasses I’d prepared into the living room. I maneuvered around the coffee table and sat down next to Raikidan. I pushed his to him and sipped mine, reacquainting my taste buds with the sweet taste and the alcohol.
Raikidan looked at the offered drink, his brow creased. “What’s this?”
“Something a little less foul tasting, with a lot more alcohol.”
I could see the mistrust in his eyes. “I’ll pass, thanks.”
I shrugged and pulled it in front of me. “Okay.”
Couldn’t make him try it. It’d be ideal, as undercover assignments may put him in a situation where he’d need to consume it, but there were ways around that.
“Well, if he won’t have it, I’ll take it,” Blaze said, reaching for the glass.
“Blaze—no, don’t!” Ryoko shouted. But it was too late.
Watching him reach for the glass I’d claimed as mine, something snapped in my head. Without any control over my body, I grabbed his hand, clenching and twisting it into the coffee table, while I grabbed him by the back of the neck with my other hand and slammed him into the wooden surface. An inhuman growl, sounding almost like a hiss, came from my throat.
Ryoko and Genesis sat up and Rylan ran into the room. Even Seda focused on me.
“Laz, calm down, it’s okay,” Rylan said. “It’s okay. You can let him go.”
I knew everything was okay, but my body didn’t agree. It was as if someone else controlled me while I watched myself do awful things.
“Eira, I’m sorry,” Blaze said in a strained voice. “I didn’t realize you claimed it.”
Rylan came up behind me, pushing on the bond’s presence in an attempt to calm me. A fuzzy feeling fell over me and I realized Seda was trying to help by placing me under an artificial exhaustion.
Between the two of them, my body relaxed, and I was finally able to detach myself from Blaze and sit back. “Sorry…”
Blaze twisted his neck. “It was my fault. I know better than to take things you deem as yours. I just didn’t use my head.”
“No surprise there,” Ryoko jeered. He shot her a dirty look, but she ignored him and focused on me. “Are you okay now, Laz?”
“I’ll be fine.” I pushed the extra glass away. “I’m no longer claiming it.”
I picked up my glass and sipped the drink, hoping it’d wipe away some of the tension still in me. Between the bond coming back and that relapse, I needed the help.
“So, I noticed how Rylan was helping you calm down,” Blaze said. “Was that you using that bond thing you all keep talking about?”
Rylan nodded as he sat down next to Ryoko. “That’s right.”
“What is it, exactly?” Blaze asked. “You all talk about it a lot but have never outright said what it is. What does it do?”
I pressed my glass to my lips and stared off at nothing. “It’s a feeling. A kind of awareness of each other’s condition.”
Rylan nodded, grabbing a magazine from under the coffee table. “That’d be the best way I could explain it. We weren’t told much about it, because the experiment was deemed a failure soon after Laz’s release. We also weren’t told we had to deal with it for the rest of our lives. We don’t even know what made it fail. I suspect this was Zarda’s attempt at creating psychic-like connections without the experiments obtaining telekinetic abilities. That made the connection rather weak in comparison. It only allows feelings to be communicated, instead of words. Based on how the two of us reacted to each other after the connection, it was deemed as too distracting in battle, especially if the two individuals weren’t compatible personality-wise.”
Blaze furrowed his brow. “So, you’re in each other’s head?”
“In a way,” I mumbled. “If either of us is in some sort of trouble or if either of us was in pain, the other party would know.”
Ryoko held up her fist at Rylan. “So, if I punched him, would you feel it?”
Rylan leaned away from her and held up his hands defensively. “Ryoko, don’t! It doesn’t work like that. Please don’t hit me!”
She rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t going to hit you hard.”
“Even when you don’t try, you hit like a train,” Rylan said.
Idiot! Ryoko slammed her beer can on the coffee table and stormed off.
“Ryoko! Ryoko, I didn’t mean it like that!” Rylan called after her.
Ryoko slammed her door, and it cracked down the center from the force.
“Nice going,” I said. “You know how sensitive she is.”
Rylan sighed. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
I scoffed and looked at him sarcastically. “Then tell me, how did you mean it? Because I can’t think of any other way for it to have meant.”
Rylan took the magazine on his lap and tossed it on the coffee table with a sigh. He made his way over to Ryoko’s door and banged on it. “Ryoko. Ryoko, open up. I didn’t mean it like that.” He received no answer. The crack in the door would allow her to hear him, so it was obvious she was ignoring him. “Ryoko, please.”
When he didn’t receive a reply, he jiggled the handle. It was locked. He called her name again to receive no reply. Turning around, he leaned against the door and stared up at the ceiling. He breathed out slowly and ran his fingers through his hair before slamming his head against the door.
“Dude, just leave her alone,” Blaze told him. “She obviously doesn’t want to talk to you.”
“Look who decided to use his brain,” I teased.
“Shut up.”
I shook my head and chuckled. Placing my glass down on the coffee table, I made my way to my room. Rylan wasn’t going to get anywhere unless he talked to her face to face. Ryoko held grudges, and if he didn’t patch this up now, he’d be on her list for some time. Rummaging through my nightstand, I found my lock pick set.
Making my way out of my room, I pushed Rylan aside and inserted a lock pick into the keyhole to Ryoko’s door. It wasn’t long before the lock clicked open audibly. Turning the handle, I pushed the door open. Ryoko was lying on her bed with her arms crossed, brooding darkly.
When she heard the door open, she looked over at us in surprise. “Laz, you traitor!”
I grinned and grabbed Rylan by the shirt. “Go get her, lover boy.”
Shoving him into her room, I shut the door and headed for my room. I tossed the lock pick set into my room carelessly to deal with later. Turning around, I noticed Raikidan inspecting the drink I’d made him. He sniffed it and then gave it a small sipping taste. His face scrunched, and I thought he may not like it, but he tried it again. Ah, he’s unsure. I didn’t blame him. If he’d never consumed alcohol before, this would be an interesting new experience for him. I figured it best to leave him be and headed up to the roof. I needed some time alone to reflect on my earlier actions.
I sighed as the wind toyed with my hair. I had been up here most of the day now. I had checked in on my plants in my greenhouse at some point, but that was the only time I had left this spot. Ryoko had done a nice job keeping my plants alive this whole time, and for that I was glad. It had taken a lot of time finding the different species, and then even more time caring for
them properly.
The sound of a door opening caught my attention. I looked up to see Raikidan walking through the door. He grinned. “Hey there, Butterfly.”
I groaned. “Not you, too. I hate pet names.”
He snickered and sat down next to me. “Well, since you hate them, I guess I’ll have to keep using it.”
I sighed. “Why ‘Butterfly,’ then?”
He touched my bangs briefly. “Beautiful and distracting.” He chuckled with a grin. “And toxic.”
My eyebrow rose in question. “Toxic?”
“You appear harmless on the surface, but in reality, you’re deadly.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Just don’t call me that.”
“What, you’d rather me call you something else?”
“Yeah, my real name.”
“Well, that’s not an option.”
I shook my head. Raikidan looked at me and touched my bangs again. I furrowed my brow and pulled away. “Why are you doing that?”
“Sorry.” He looked away. “It’s just not every day you see a human with such exotic-colored hair. I’m still not used to seeing it.”
I snorted. “I doubt you ever will.” He looked at me again. “Hair with shades of blue will be the most exotic colors you’ll see naturally on any human, elf, or dwarf, and most of them are elementalists, shamans, or soldiers. Violet naturally on its own is just as common as green hair.”
“Green dragons have green hair,” Raikidan corrected.
“They don’t count.”
“And why not?”
I lowered my head to look at him with a stern expression. “They’re dragons?”
He snorted. The two of us went quiet. I stared up at the sky as it slowly changed with the setting sun. I frowned when I realized how discolored the sky was. The city air was so polluted.
“Why so sad, Butterfly?”
I rolled my eyes. Him and that stupid name. “I’m not sad.”
“That’s not what that frown says. What’s bothering you?”
I shook my head. “It’s nothing.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s nothing!”
Raikidan ran his fingers through his hair. “Can I ask you something?”
Destiny (Experimental Heart Book 1) Page 41