each other and each of us until we’re all touching, skin on skin.
There’s a popping sound and then out of thin air a woman appears, slapping a hand on Carlin.
The next pop is louder and my stomach lurches as we’re transported.
I fucking hate this shit.
We could be anywhere now. Literally anywhere. I was once moved to Egypt for two weeks to get away from a particularly good scouting TacTeam. The feeling of being moved in this way makes me sick and the moment our feet are back on the ground, I slump down onto the ground, gagging and trying not to actually vomit.
Daniels grabs me and pulls me to my feet roughly, shoving me along with him, and I have to fight the chaos in my head to get a good look around at where we are.
I don’t recognize the camp, but I’ve been in one of these before. It’s a limbo, a way to sort out stock and sift through the Gifted that have been abducted until they find the ones they really want. I spent two weeks in one when I was first taken and I think that was more about scaring me because they knew before they took me that I was valuable.
We’re all moved to a tent and when we’re dragged inside, we find the cages and the babysitters.
By some stroke of luck, Sage and I are shoved into cages next to each other, our hands unbound and the gags removed before the doors are firmly locked behind us. I wait until they clear out before I look around properly.
The babysitters are ignoring us, as though four new faces mean nothing to them, and I’m sure we really don’t register to them at all. Their job is to knock us out if we start trouble and to listen to everything we say, collecting information that could be used against us.
The tent flaps open again and three huge guys walk in carrying another bound and gagged Gifted between them. My eyes squeeze closed as I hold my bond down within myself, forcing it to not react and lash out because I cannot let them know that the Gifted they’re dragging in and I are Bonds.
I squeeze my eyes shut tighter as I hear them drop him to the ground, grunting and lashing out at him as they swing the cage door shut behind them.
“He took out eighteen men, he’s a dead man walking.”
Chills run up my spine but Carlin purrs at them from the doorway, “He’s one of the Bonds in the Draven family, if any of you touch him, I’ll personally deal out your punishment. We’re close.”
Daniels looks in each of the cages, his eyes not seeing anything special when he glances at me. “He gave himself up. Once we’ve got all of the fresh meat in here, we’ll need to find whoever it is that he came after because I’d bet we have his Central somewhere in this group.”
Well, fuck.
Fuck.
Fresh meat.
It’s been years since I’ve thought of that lovely term, five years since I had to have that label attached to me before I wised up and knew how things worked in the Resistance camps.
I’m going to use that shit to our advantage today.
If I can escape once, I can do it again. I’ve already accepted the cost of that.
I close my eyes and finally, finally, let my gift fill my veins, my entire body feeling sharper and more capable the moment I unlock that door inside of me and let it take over. It’s as though I’ve drunk an elixir of pure light, every cell in my body transforming and coming back to life. It’s been three long years of learning how to exist without this, slowly losing myself as my body adapted and became nothing more than… human. Ungifted.
Normal.
Sage’s eyes fly open as she looks at me, her own senses on high alert as she feels my gift radiate out of me. There’s too much power pulsing in my veins for her not to feel it, the curse of my life being that all Gifted can sense how dangerous I am. We all have that power detection built into us to know when danger is close by.
I hold a finger up to my lips to motion to her to keep quiet and she subtly jerks her head in a nod, careful not to attract any more attention from our captors, but they’re all busy moving all of their fresh meat around. Five more