it out, murmuring to me, “Serves the bitch right.”
I agree completely and when I nudge Gabe with a questioning look, he’s a lot less subtle about it. “She broke the rules Vivian set. You deserved the win and he’s already thrown her out of the class. Her parents are furious but Gryphon went to speak to them. You can’t join a TacTeam if you have no loyalty to your team.”
Well, damn.
It doesn’t even matter to me that it’s not really about me, it’s all about her integrity, it still feels like a win. Maybe being interrogated wasn’t so bad if this is the result.
My good feeling lasts ten more seconds before Nox walks in and sucks the good vibes right the fuck out. He looks good today too, hotter than Hades as he stalks into the classroom like some God of the Underworld, here to torment my goddamn soul.
I need to get out of this town before my hormones lead me straight to hell after him.
Nox’s eyes flick over to where Gabe is now sitting with me but he doesn’t react, no sign of whether he’s surprised or pissed off to see us both sitting here together. He just plugs in his laptop and stands in front of the class and waits until the room falls silent, his appearance is all it takes to command the room.
“Someone tell me about the Tier System.”
I’d rather die than raise my hand in any of Nox’s classes but there’s an entire row of girls all desperate to prove themselves to him, like answering this question will get him dropping his pants and feeding them his dick.
My bond squirms inside me at the thought but I torture myself with if for a second longer, like maybe I can convince it that he’s a total fucking waste of space as far as I’m concerned.
He picks Amy, who’s name I know because Sage loathes her, and even the sound of her voice has my hackles rising.
“When the three Councils of the Gifted communities came together to create the centralized Bonds network, they created a system of categorizing the Gifted and their abilities. The strongest Gifted have three levels of power; primary, secondary, and incidental. Most Gifted have primary gifts, some have a secondary as well, and very few have an incidental.”
Nox nods at her and turns his back without another word, his constant strategy of ‘treat ‘em mean’ that the entire room is forced to sit through. Okay, so I’m sure I’m the only one obsessively watching it and hating every second, but it is what it is.
“Right. So the blood tests and DNA sequencing can tell us more than just who your Bonds are, it can also give signs of what your gift is. Testing is then done within specially considered parameters to gauge what Tier your gift is on. Why is this done?”
More hands shoot up but this is actually something that interests me, so I keep my snarky thoughts locked away for a moment so I can hear his reasoning.
Not that I think he’s always right.
There’s always a sugar-coated bullshit pill given out to the general public and then there’s the truth, and this is one case that I’m sure they’ll lie about.
“Bragging rights. Everyone wants to know who the top dog is.”
I don’t know this girl but her shirt is so low that I’m sure Nox is getting a great view of her nipples right now.
Not that he’s impressed. “You’re guessing and you’re wrong, don’t waste our time here. Anyone else?”
A lot less hands are raised this time, but Nox picks Gabe to answer. I’ve never actually seen them interact with each other outside of the stupid bond dinners we’re all trapped at, and I’m not enjoying having Nox’s eyes on me as he stares us both down.
“TacTeams are picked with the highest Tier of the Gifted. The Council was originally picked from the strongest of our community, but these days it’s also a tag-and-release system. If the Resistance takes someone, then we need to know how strong they are for when they’re sent back brainwashed. Nothing more dangerous than a walking time bomb wearing your neighbor’s face.”
Christ.
How close I’d come to being one of those brainwashed zombies put back into the community with the sole purpose of finding other high Tier Gifted and dragging them back to the Resistance, killing anyone who attempted to stop me… it’s terrifying.
The pen in my hand shakes as my fingers tremble.
Nox turns away and starts