Page 39 of Forging Bonds: Part One

“How come you guys aren’t in your supernatural forms around the house much?” I suddenly ask as we step through the doors and start to make our way through the lot to the van.

Griff smiles, “We actually spoke about that last time we were at the academy. I think we subconsciously stopped so that we wouldn’t frighten you even though we all know that our other forms won’t scare you.”

I shake my head, “I’m not even vaguely scared, so if it’s something that you would usually do at home, then don’t change for me.”

“We’ll keep that in mind,” River grins, glancing down at me and flashing me his kitsune eyes.

The conversation pauses as we all climb into the van. Evander backs out of the parking spot and then heads through the lot to take us home.

Finally.

“To be honest, we do tend to stay in human form more often than not,” Evander says. “Especially River, Reed, Raiden, and me.”

“Well, I didn’t realize that I had another form that wasn’t the eight-foot-tall black-robed skeletal form,” Raiden says with a smile. “It’s not advised to walk around as a reaper, even if it is only at home.”

I frown, “Yeah, I can see that. It would probably be a good idea for you to practice with your wings just in case we need them.”

Raiden nods, “Agreed. I know that we are all in agreement that we need to make sure that we don’t let on how strong we all are, but we also may not have a choice, and I don’t want to be caught out or unaware and not be able to do something that I would have been able to do if I had been properly prepared and trained.”

Doc nods, “I think that makes sense. We don’t really know much, but we do know that the trials are going to be really fucking difficult.”

“Survive,” Ransom says. “Our goal is to survive. If that means that some of our lesser abilities are revealed, then so be it.”

“I agree on that for everyone but River,” Griff says. “He’s not just rare. He’s not supposed to exist. After the Choosing, we’ve got a lot of complicated things that we need to go through, not just finding the blue fucker, and hopefully bringing him in or killing him, but also the fact that HID is going to be aware of Neith being alive and the complications that Dimitri is going to bring as well. We don’t want to add in River being hunted and possibly the blue fucker’s attention turning to him because he’s so unique.”

“Shit, yeah, you’re right,” Evander nods, his eyebrows dipping into a heavy frown as his gaze stays glued to the road.

“I can keep my tails hidden easily enough with the spell potion that Ransom gives me,” River replies. “No one has ever realized that I have more than six tails, apart from Neith, but I’m one hundred percent certain that she is the exception to the rule.”

Griff smirks, “Oh, definitely. I know that you aren’t due for a top-up, but I think that it’s probably a good idea that Ransom makes you one anyway just to be safe.”

I nod, even though he’s not talking to me. I definitely think that it’s a good idea to make sure that River stays safe. Especially since, as far as we know and as far as history has told us, he is one of a kind. It’s not just the supernatural government or whatever the fuck they’re called that will be interested in River, but Scavengers and Obsidian Market dealers, as well as every nasty fucker out there.

That last grouping will want to own him, train him, and make him a weapon that they can use for their own fucking gain, and they will do that by any means necessary. If that happens, I’ll kill every fucker who tries to hurt him. It turns out that the violent protectiveness doesn’t only go one way. I feel that for the guys too, but then again, I know that from how I responded when that Melody bitch tried to push Raiden. I think that there’s some kind of poetic symmetry or some shit that I threatened to take Melody’s handsfor trying to hurt Raiden, and they actually did take the hands of Kylen and Rupert for threatening me.

I like that.

That’s a massive, momentous understatement.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Ransom agrees, throwing me slightly since I had tuned out momentarily. He continues, “I have everything that I need to make it. Obviously, you know that it will take me a couple of days, but I’ll start it off as soon as we get home.”

“Yeah, I think I would rather that we were safe than sorry when it comes to things like this,” Evander agrees. He glances at Doc in the rearview mirror and changes the subject, “What about that hybrid that we brought in? Are you going to be able to get a chance to study him before we have to go to the Choosing?”

Doc’s eyes widen slightly, “You know, I think for the first time in my life, I forgot about something that was going on at work.”

“No way.” Raiden replies and then adds, “Although, to be honest, I don’t blame you. It seems like a lifetime ago that we were investigating the hybrid case, and you dropped the hybrid's body off here. We’ve had a vision that actually pulled us into it, nearly drowned, and then got told that we had been pulled into the Choosing. I think it’s understandable if we’ve forgotten things that we usually wouldn’t.”

Doc pulls a face like he’s considering Raiden’s words and then nods, “Yeah. You’re right. I would really like to have a look at the body and run some tests before it isn’t viable anymore. Some of the tests that I would like to do need to be done sooner rather than later, so they won’t wait until after we have gotten back from the Choosing.”

Reed nods, “That makes sense. Why don’t you head back tomorrow?”

“Wait, Ty said that we should steer clear of the Training Academy for a while,” Ransom reminds us.

“Shit,” Doc says. “I completely forgot about that.”

“Maybe he will be okay with it if it's only you?” Griff suggests.

“I don’t think that we should be going there alone,” Evander says, “especially after what we did to the Draconian Team. They’ll be looking for any opportunity that they can get to return the favor and make us pay.”

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