Page 14 of The Bonding Games: Part 2

COOPER

I’m probably suffocating Ezla with how hard I crush her to me, but I need to feel her.

We’ve been using the Ground Training room most of the time over the past few days, Ezla still wanting us to keep the tactics and skills she’s teaching us a secret, and when we’re not in there, we’re in our private training room. It’s meant that Scotty and I have had to keep up the asshole act 24/7, and while I can definitely be a bit of a prick sometimes, the things I’ve had to say are beyond what I’d ever allow myself to in a usual fit of anger. I’ve never felt shittier, and I know it’s killing the other guys, too. Scotty especially looks dead on his feet, the mess Tate made of him still not looking so good, but he refuses to speak more about his current state of exhaustion that his constant caretaker mindset is causing, and I don’t have the energy myself to keep pressing.

But now I’m finally getting to act how I want to with Vengeance for the first time since before that living nightmare of a morning as we zip around the Air Training room with me on the back of her jet amongst the other remaining Players.

All twenty-one of the surviving Evots and Exots are in here, and so I’m not missing the opportunity to act naturally with my Bonded as I would have in front of the fifteen outside of our group a week ago. And if I’m not mistaken, Ezla’s chosen to use this room because she needs this as much as me and the other guys do. There’s no other reason she’d want us to use this space rather than the Ground one, especially since we can’t even train how she likes us to if we want to keep all our hard work hidden from the other Players.

I’m sorry, HC.

I’ve been sending constant apologies down the bond over the days, needing her to know I’m never meaning what I’m saying, and I do it again now even if the last time I had to say something horrid was hours ago in our private training room this morning. But I have no idea if she receives it, if she ever does. The walls in her mind have been up around the clock other than for the short moment when she told us how to behave and that she was looking into the cameras.

It’s maddening, but I understand it. Obviously, Joseph wouldn’t want her speaking to us mind to mind when that’s something so intimate and she could easily expose every truth he wants her to keep hidden, and I’m certain whatever she has to tell us is worse than horrific. So, considering I’m not always great at keeping my reactions in check, I’m sure HC’s being rightfully cautious.

My heart travels to the next dimension as she flips the Avri jet without warning.

“Vengeance!” I yell out in a mix of shock and horror, definitely bloody stealing the air from her lungs now with how hard I’m forced to hold on to her.

She cackles like an evil empress as she spins the vehicle in dizzying spirals through the air, and despite myself and my original reaction, my lips curve up, a huffed incredulous laugh involuntarily leaving me in response. How can I not give her one when she’s gifting me such a beautiful sound, one that’s so rarely heard?

I can hardly think about the hidden cameras as my stomach flips all over the place, both because of Ezla herself, her presence and the way I can’t help but react to her, and because all this spinning has my body questioning if it’s strong enough for this shit, but I’m pretty sure HC’s laugh is wicked enough that her behaviour wouldn’t be considered too out of the ordinary.

When she rights us, it’s to begin lowering us to the ground, and I groan as I try to fix my blurry vision. My helmet thumps against her shoulder as my eyelids fall closed, and just for a moment, I soak her in, exhaling shakily as my fingers press into her waist.

After landing before my new brothers, I can’t help but keep my hold on her, palms wrapped around her sides securely as I go to lift her off—

“Fucking hell!” Clutching at my stomach where her gloved fist connected brutally, I gape at my Bonded with a what-the-actual-fuck? expression on my face as she gracefully swings herself off of her jet. Avri demanifesting as she does, I cry out again when I go crashing to the taalk, landing harshly on the floor.

“I need no one’s help,” Ezla informs me as I let out a choked breath and push myself to my feet with indignation burning through me.

“Hot as hell,” Tate mutters, still no help when HC does shit like this uncalled for as he adjusts himself as shamefully as always while Scotty sighs his signature sigh and slides a hand down his visor.

“And you couldn’t just tell me that?” I huff, and yet I find myself less pissed than I usually would be, because this is the closest to normalcy we’ve been in days. It’s probably fucked up to say I missed it when she’s clearly still kept her love of tossing us about unreasonably even after our special time together, but I don’t have the mental capacity to analyse my response with all the crap going on lately.

“I just did.”

I scoff, and when my eyes skip over Tiger, his lips twitch at the familiar interaction, blue eyes lighting up a fraction. They’ve been so fucking dull over the past few days, often puffy like he’s been crying or not getting enough sleep, likely both. It’s been the same with Alby, and I hate it. I didn’t know my loathing for the Game Master, for Joseph, could grow any more, but every time I glance at one of my brothers and see them looking so crushed, the feeling amplifies to new, unfathomable heights.

Some of the heaviness within me lifts for a moment, but it’s overshadowed by confusion in the next second when Ezla says, “Come. Let’s get cleaned up.”

It’s an effort to keep my brows from knitting as me and my brothers tail her to the exit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pleased as hell to be spending more time with her, but . . .

Vengeance? I try to push her way, continuing even when she gives no indication she’s heard me, Vengeance, what are you doing? Isn’t this too dangerous? Where are you taking us?

Keep your outward appearance controlled, she commands. I am taking you to our Bonded washroom. I visited the Avri labs in the Techtis Council building and was made aware yesterday that both the washroom and our chambers, along with all other Bonded groups’, are warded with specialised Avri which rejects unwanted pixels. That is meaning to say, this Avri is placed around the entrance doorways to both locations, hidden like the cameras are, and will recognise our own energy as belonging to our Bonded group while picking out that which does not and keeping it away. The only people who are an exception to this are the workers when the rooms are first prepared each year for Bonded groups, but after the day of the first Game each year, they are also denied access until the same day the following year. Of course, decorations and such that are already in there, as well as anything healing containing Avri, is also exempt.

Everyone knows Bonded chambers are special, but can I just say, I was not expecting that level of protection, though I guess it makes sense.

A thought occurs to me, and I fire out darkly before I can stop myself, And the Game Master.

There’s a pause before Ezla agrees, Yes. He, too, is evidently an exception. But I am quite certain the rooms are still safe from cameras. They are not made from his Avri, so they would not be registered as belonging to him.

Not giving any of us time to voice any concerns we might have on that, she moves on, divulging, I spoke to one of the scientists in the Avri labs. I have visited them a handful of times over the years, but yesterday, my father was arrogant enough to show me rooms I had not yet seen. I must return soon for more information on the cameras and the other labs I did not get to explore, but a worker with a running mouth shared the facts I have just made you aware of while Father foolishly went for a toilet break. He is concerningly self-assured recently, far more so than usual.

It’s common knowledge that Ezla lives in that building somewhere with her sperm donor, but . . . You’ve seen where all our equipment is made? I ask as we leave the Training Centre and take the first right, moving in the direction of The Dome.

Of course. Why is this surprising? The labs are where I live. Father liked to educate me there.