BLESSED BONDS

CHAPTER 02

My finger tapped, mentally counting.

1.…2.…3….4….

Four.

Great. All of them were here.

“Well?”

Right.

Time to get this over with.

With much effort, I did my best to raise my head which felt like it weighed more than a ton.

I stretched my neck as it ached, my eyelids heavy as I slowly opened them, although I found myself staring at the almost falling ceiling once more. Taking one final inhale I lowered my eyes to finally meet the sight of four males sitting across the table from me.

Holding the urge to grimace at their hard glares, I one by one assessed them — one wore training gear, next to him had casual clothes on, another in a suit, and the last was decked in designer clothes.

Refusing to make eye contact, I decided that my broken nail was more interesting.

“I’ll talk.” Cringing, my raspy voice never sounded better. The deep sigh from one of them only made me internally scream.

“Miss Sinclair—”

“I’m not her.” I pointedly said, failing to hold back the venom dripping from my hiss.

It was quiet after that, the tension growing thicker you would’ve needed a jackhammer to be able to smash through it.

“I see,” it came as a hum, “That’s why we’re here to confirm it.”

Honestly speaking, there was already no need to confirm anything. Just being this close was enough. I know it. They definitely know it.

I felt it.

Somewhere deep, deep inside but I buried it deeper so it would stay there.

I hope they were doing the same thing as well. Rejecting it as vehement as I did because the one in front of them was a wreck of a being. No one wants to deal with that.

“Can you please look at us?”

I shook my head furiously. I debated if I should just scratch my eyes out, that could be a plan.

“Can you stop cowering like a leaf already? We want this over with as much as you do.”

That type of encouragement only made me gladly not give in.

I was even starting to chip away my acrylic nails that broke during the bar fight. By doing so, it did not give a good message at all.

“This little shi—”

The sound of a chair being roughly pushed reverberated through the room, followed by heavy stomping towards me.

“Wait, Calix—”

Before I could react, a hand took a hold of my jaw, forcefully turning my head to the side and inches away from the face of one of Morana Sinclair’s damned bonds.

I choked out a sound, staring directly at dark blue eyes. I wasn’t fast enough to close mine, seeing his own suddenly glint a deep golden color. I could see the same light flashing my own pupils, reflected on his.

It suddenly felt like I was drowning in unfamiliar sensations that can’t be unfolded.

Harshly looking away, I tried to get out of his grasp on my face. He didn’t let go until the gold finally disappeared, blinking it away.

“f*****g great.” He jeered, pushing my head away. “It is her.” He spat it like poison.

He — Calix — went back to his seat, giving it a kick before slumping down with a grunt.

“Scratch the search party, rain down that reward money, pop that celebratory champagne. Little Miss Runaway finally got caught.”

I glared back at his ferocity. The f*****g nerve of this asshole. Who the hell does he think he is putting his hands on me?

Gritting my teeth hard, I barked, “Touch me again and I’ll break your hands, asswipe.”

He responded in challenge, “Really now, I’d like to see you f*****g try—”

“Enough.” A hand blocks his way out of the chair. I instinctively followed and looked up at the owner. Bad idea.

As soon as I reached up to his face and into his dark eyes, they flashed the same stupid gold as well. Along with the wave of unexplained emotion it brought upon.

“Shit.” I immediately broke contact and clamped down hard on my bottom lip.

How the hell do you shut this off?

I guess you can’t? It just happens momentarily outside of your will. How f*****g inconvenient.

“Felt that too, Hael? That was fate f*****g us all over again.”

“Stop.” Hael — bit back, “Just stop.” Letting out a frustrated exhale as he gestures with a wave of his hand, “Luca.”

From his other side, Luca — nods, trying to relax his tensed shoulders.

“It seems we don't need anymore confirmation, Miss Sinclair.”

“Don’t call me that.” It came out of me as a snarl. I didn’t care.

Although, Luca did not appreciate the tone with how I felt a sharp look from him.

“You don’t expect us to address you by a fake name, do you?”

I try to argue, “I’m not her.” Keyword, tried.

“Bullshit.” The last one lashes out, “What’s the point of lying when we all literally feel it. You can’t deny it. None of us can. Even if you decide to scratch your eyes out, your bond will still leech its way to ours, trying to claim them.”

This time, I purposely made eye contact, scowling at him as our eyes did the same golden flare none of us can withhold.

“f**k you, Kylo.” I spit out his name, completely ignoring the same fuzzy feeling this bond s**t brings along. Of course I know all their names. I had no other choice.

“f**k you too, Sin.” He growled back. I hated being called that and he knew that well enough.

“Name dropping, huh? Didn’t know you two were that close already.” Calix jested like the d**k that he was.

“Stop.” Luca starts, “I know everyone’s on the ledge right now, but I rather exchange unpleasantries in private. Especially not in the presence of a two way mirror in a rundown police station.” He shared a look with Hael, who probably thought of the same thing.

“I’ll go handle her release, then we can all go back to the Capital to talk.”

I watched them in pure disbelief, “Excuse me? I’m not going with you guys.”

“What?”

“I said,” slowly rising from my chair, “There is no way in f*****g hell I’m going to f*****g go anywhere with you assholes. I’d rather glue myself here and f*****g rot, for all I care.”

My over the top cursing was doing a great job with how his eye visibly twitched.

“You have no other choice.” He stated, firm on his stand.

“Uh, who made you king of f*****g anything?”

Whether my plan to just piss them off my ass was working wonders or not — this man was freaking steeling himself.

“I don’t think you understand, Sinclair. You don’t get to make any choices here. We have the right to be here—”

“On whose basis?”

“Since we found out we were all bound to you by fate. We — also have no other choice.” The angry glower on his face made me unconsciously swallow the lump in my throat, still I stood my ground.

“I’m not going.”

“And as I reiterate, you have no other choice.” Hael started making his way to the door. “Unless you want your previous emergency contact to claim you here instead. We can make arrangements for that as well.”

My eyes widened as a cold nasty shiver went down my spine, “You wouldn’t.”

“I’m sure your mother will be ecstatic to know you’re well and uh —” he had the nerve to look me up and down, clearly judging. “In one piece, I guess. I can call her right now if you want?”

“Don’t you f*****g dare, Blackwell!” I slammed my palms violently on the table, my eyes practically stabbing him.

The sudden outburst was a moment of weakness.

“Then you will go with us. That’s final.” Before he could exit the room, leaving me in a mess in my head, I hurriedly mumbled out, “On one condition.”

This wasn’t just for him, but for all of them. I looked over them one by one, meeting Luca’s eyes last, sucking on my teeth as our eyes glowed the undeniable warm amber. This time, I didn’t look away letting the color and emotions melt into my desperation shown through my eyes.

“My mother and my family can not find out about me.”

Rolling his eyes, Calix scoffed, “She’s going to find out whether you like it or not anyways. Especially with our status, words travel faster.”

“Of course.” Nodding, I agree, “But I’m not ready to deal with her now, actually there will never be a time where I am fully prepared to face her.” I mutter low as I sighed.

“My condition is as much as possible, do not get my mother involved. Then I will willingly join you back to the stupid Capital to talk.”

They shared a look before deciding.

“Very well. If you honor your part of the bargain, then we will make sure news of your reappearance will be kept at bay, enough that it will be too far from your family’s earshot.” With a tug on his suit, Hael doesn’t wait for any response from me.

○○○

CALIX

“Sir, what about the—”

“Cancel it all.”

I passed by with a wave of my hand, “Tell them I got more important things to do.”

“But sir, the agency has been trying to get you this interview for months now, your sponsors will be—” I snapped my head at him along with a low hiss.

“I don’t f*****g care. Tell them all to shove it way far their asses that they start choking on it.”

With one look, my latest manager squeaks as he hastily gets out of my f*****g way. f*****g finally.

I fish out my phone, dialing the same number I’ve been trying to contact for the last hour. It rings a couple more before it goes to the automated b***h who informs me that the other line is too f*****g busy. Again.

Holding the urge to throw my phone on the wall, I rang a different number. One that actually picks up.

“Where the f**k is Hael?! He’s not taking any of my calls!” The shout left my throat. Staff who were passing the hallway, instinctively moved out of my way.

“Can you not yell? Jesus.” The other line cusses me out, “He’s not taking mine either. I just called his secretary and told me Hael had taken a private flight already.”

Fucking hell.

I wanted to strangle that guy.

“Can’t the little cunt wait for us for once? He’s acting like a—”

“Calix, I’ll end this call if you’re just going to complain about Hael again.”

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath to try and calm my tone at least.

“Fine, Luca.” I grit my teeth. “It’s just that the way he demanded that all of us drop everything we’re doing out of the blue and sends us paperwork with the minimum context to what the f**k is going on — pisses me off. Especially the part where he ignores our calls and oh, I don't know, leaves without us!”

Looking like a goddamn psychopath, punching the elevator buttons made the people taking it spill out in a hurry, and there I was, left alone raging in this moving box.

I fully expected Luca would hang up given my current mood. Surprisingly, he was still there, waiting for my rambling to end.

“Are you done now?” Man, now I wanted to kill Hael and him. I blew out a scoff loudly.

“I’m going down now. We’ll talk when I meet you at the airport.” I said.

“Okay, I’m on my way there. By the way, can you pick up Kylo on the way as well? He just finished training, so he’s at the school grounds.”

I grumbled out, already in my car and driving out the car park, “Why am I suddenly kid sitting? You do it.”

“I would but I’m trying my best to get through to Hael so he won’t do anything stupid he’d regret later. He’s apparently with William Cole right now. I’m going to call him instead. Got to go.”

He ended the call before I could even respond.

William Cole? Who—?

Ah.

One of the many private investigators Hael Blackwell had sprinkled all over the country.

Hiring them for the sole reason of finding his accursed bond — our fated bond.

I don’t get that man. His desperation was border line comical now. Once more, raising the reward money and even looking over every piece of lead reported back to him and forcing us along every wild goose chase that always ended with nothing but another dead end on an entirely different path from where we started.

I don’t know how but somehow we or anyone professional could not find any sort of trace of her.

Her.

Sinclair.

Morana.

Little Miss Runaway — she deserved such a title because she was too damn good at it.

No one could find her because she wanted no one to find her.

No matter how many times I fought the others about that undeniable fact that she chose to disappear, I guess I was the only one not looking for her anymore.

I did at first.

In fact, I embarrassingly admit I flipped the whole goddamn country looking for her in the first year she vanished. Only to slowly give up, finding out she already had multiple attempts to run from her family and us.

I was angry at first. Confused why she was doing this. She was acting like we weren’t too good for her. It made me feel s**t that my own bond was repulsed by what fate had brought her and decided to run away from all of it.

She ran not just from her home — but the home we could’ve had.

I slammed my foot on the gas, completely ignoring a red light. I didn’t care that I was already over the speed limit. I just wanted this s**t to be over with.

Almost passing by the waiting Kylo, I hit the brakes with a curse. The car ended up a few meters away from the waiting shed in front of the school.

I adjusted the rear view mirror, seeing someone in all black make a jog towards the car. The back door opened and the vehicle shifted a bit with the new weight.

“You almost ran over students in the pedestrian lane.” Kylo said with a huff, throwing his bag next to him.

I could see him slump on the seat and put on his headphones signaling that he didn’t want to start any sort of conversation.

Rolling my eyes, we continued to drive heading for the airport.

It was quiet for a while before my phone did an audible ping!

Kylo’s phone also did the same and thought it probably came from our group chat.

Keeping my eyes on the road, I looked out for any more potential pedestrians I might end up running over.

From the rear view mirror, I could see Kylo sharply sitting up straight, alarming me a bit.

“What?” I asked as he pushed his headphones away.

“It’s from Hael.”

I snapped my head back to him, “Tell that son of a b***h to eat s**t. What did he send?”

“A photo.”

“A photo?”

“Three actually.”

I was alternating looking at the road and at the back seat now.

“So Hael sent us three photos of?”

“Mugshots.”

That made me decide it would be better to park the car at the side of the road so we won’t end up crashing.

“Mugshots?”

I reached for my phone laid out on the passenger seat. Opening the conversation, my eyes narrowed at the set of photos Hael had sent us.

Tapping on it, the photo filled my screen and I was left staring at a mugshot of a girl named Rue Copper.

The girl was a hot mess.

Dyed blonde hair all over the place. Makeup smudged with dried blood slightly coming down her nose and the corner of her lips. There were even a few pieces of jewelry decorating her face. Tattoos ridiculed all over her arms and probably all over her body with how they continued under her ripped shirt.

Her blue eyes glared hard at the camera. Clearly, she was not having a good day.

“It’s not her.” Kylo had babbled, releasing me from the trance I unconsciously was in. I turned to him and he repeated, “It’s not her, right?”

I realized he was asking me for confirmation. The look of slight panic flashing on his face.

Looking back at my phone, I went to my gallery, scrolling and scrolling to look for a photo I remembered I had saved.

Eventually finding it, I tapped and the portrait photo filled the screen.

It was a picture of a young girl.

Long dark hair framing an almost immaculate face, cheeks slightly pink as she smiled sweetly. She wore a white blouse over her pale smooth skin. All dolled up, she looked so graceful and dream-like.

Dark brown eyes innocently looking at the camera.

This was our bond — Morana Sinclair.

Holding my phone out to Kylo, he did the same to his, both photos now next to each other.

Observing together, there was no resemblance between the two entirely different people. Hell, they didn’t even have the same eye color.

“They don’t even look remotely close.” I could tell Kylo was starting to freak out. I nodded, totally agreeing. Or rather forcing myself to agree.

However, the longer we studied and compared both, the more my gut started to feel unease.

“f**k. Ask Hael if he’s there already.” I snapped out of it to start the car and drive.

Kylo yelps as he lurches backwards when I smash my foot too hard on the gas, making the car practically fly.

He hisses a few curses out and I could hear him yank and snap on a seatbelt.

My phone pinged more, messages flowing.

“Luca’s got a plane ready. Hael just sent an emoji of a cop, and uh, a house.”

“That’s it? He drops a bomb and he can’t even be bothered to type out a proper reply? What the f**k’s the matter with him?!” I swear to god that guy was dropped as a baby.

“Well, he kinda did get his message through. He’s probably at the jailhouse already.”

“Are you seriously defending that insensitive f**k right now?”

Our phones pinged again, “Luca is also asking if you brought your medicine with you.”

I let out a low gasp, “Did you just seriously narc on my mental state to Luca?! Dude?!”

I could see him pursing his lips shut from the rear view mirror, his fingers rapidly typing on his phone.

“Stop typing! Stop typing!” It inflamed me to my core, “I swear to f*****g god I will either throw your phone or you out of this f*****g car.”

It didn't take that long to finally reach the airport. I swung the car door open, not even bothering to close it as I marched my way to the awaiting ride.

I didn’t even bother to stop for Luca who was waiting over by the plane’s stairs.

Entering, I went to the cockpit to briefly bark at the pilot to get this thing f*****g flying already. I threw myself on the chair and leered at the slightly shaking flight attendant.

“Booze, now.” I sharply ordered, making her flinch.

“W—we currently only have champagne in the plane, Mr. Ziven.”

“What?”

“M—mr. Ambrose specifically a—asked to take out the hard liquor—”

“Are you f*****g kidding me right now?!”

She jumps, backing away and probably ready to cry. Just in time for Luca to come to the rescue.

“The champagne will do. You can go.” He directs the flight attendant and she gladly complies.

“Can you just chill out, Calix.” Luca sighed as he took a seat across from me. “Please don’t be a headache, we’ve already got a ton of s**t to deal with.” He was massaging his temples before giving me a pointed look.

I wanted to argue more, but was distracted when Kylo just dropped to the floor. It made both me and Luca effectively forget to start another argument. I mean, who wouldn’t shut up? The boy was doing push ups out of f*****g nowhere in the middle of a plane.

A sneer left me, my hand pointed out, “You seriously can’t only comment on my mood when Kylo’s over there losing his goddamn mind! Look at him! He’s now doing burpees for f**k’s sake.”

All I got from Luca was a headshake, “Leave him be. He’s obviously stressed.”

Stressed was an understatement — mental breakdown was more fitting.

I could tell me and Kylo weren’t the only ones freaking out.

It was a giver when Luca had downed the glass of champagne like a vitamin shot the moment the flight attendant served it. He even took the bottle from her when she was too slow to pour more in his glass.

I wanted to comment on it and give him s**t, but I knew it was better to just leave him be like that.

It took an hour before we finally landed, a car already waiting to escort us. I kicked out the driver, taking his place in the driver’s seat. I could tell Luca was about to say something about it but he let it go. He knew if we wanted to get there as soon as possible, I was clearly the better choice.

I drove us according to the coordinates on the GPS. The two in the back had strapped on their seatbelts as I got us there in 30 minutes or less.

We arrived at a shitty looking police station. An officer at the entrance greeted and accompanied us inside and into what seemed to be a viewing room.

I couldn’t help but glare at Hael’s head at the sight of him sitting comfortably without even giving our arrival a glance.

He was too hyper-focused on the window.

“I do not know this girl.”

A voice boomed from the speakers.

I jerked my head towards the same direction Hael was staring at.

My breath hitched. It was the girl from the mugshot — seated with her hands cuffed and chained to the table. A deep scowl plastered on her face directed towards who I realized was one of the many private investigators under Hael’s sleeve.

From the looks of it, they were in the middle of interrogating her.

“Is that uh—” Kylo started, pulling out a chair to watch like all of us.

“Rue Copper.” A cop answered, handing out a file, “Arrested 3 nights ago for causing a disturbance at a local bar.”

“Jesus, assaulted four people in a bar fight?” Luca read out loud.

“She claims self defense and that the other party started it all. There were witnesses to backup her story, however she caused multiple injuries and sent one of them to the emergency room for surgery. Apparently, she was landing blows hard enough to break facial bone and was rearranging another girl’s nose.”

“Damn.” The whistle came from Kylo, flipping through the handouts and grimacing at the photos of several girls' beat up faces and injuries.

“So you’re telling us there were four people against one, yet this individual looks like she sustained the least injuries out of this fight.” That did not convince Luca a bit, “Am I seeing this right?”

The cop didn’t answer. Hael did.

“They said she picked up a bar stool and started swatting them like flies.” He relayed information, “Well, that’s what one of the comments said, written there in the file.” Shrugging his shoulders, he waved the same hand out in his hand.

I scrunch my face, flipping the paper to the back and finding all the comments there, “After receiving a kick to her side, she got up and grabbed the girl’s head and started hammering a knee to the other’s face.” One of the comments said.

Holy crap.

Another said, “Got up on the counter top, flew and elbow dropped another one to the ground.”

My god.

This crazy girl was pulling out f*****g wrestling moves in a bar fight.

What the f**k.

My eyes move to glance at this psycho through the window.

Immediately, I noticed a few changes from her mugshot — she had on a different shirt, too big on her that it hung down askew on one side of her shoulders. I couldn’t help but stare at the visible skin and the snake tattoo winding up around her arm, its head resting on her collarbone.

My eyes traveled up to her face this time, the dried blood wasn’t there anymore along with the heavy smudged makeup, although there was still residue of eyeliner and mascara, indicating she wasn’t able to properly wash it all off. Her lips were cut from the fight and red from her nervously biting down on it. There was already a purplish bruise that bloomed on her left cheek, and several more on her arms that I could see.

“Are you perhaps…..Miss Morana Sinclair?”

“No.”

Her voice was sharp, sounding dismissive through the speakers. I watched how her dark brown eyes blazed in anger — wait a minute.

I looked down on her mugshot in the file, repeatedly.

“She had blue eyes in the photos.” I announced.

“What?” Luca gave me a confused look, before he checked it himself, “He’s right. In the photo she has blue eyes but currently her eyes are a darker color?”

“Oh, I think she said something about contact lenses.” The cop ever so casually forgot to add that in the file.

Now, this changes everything.

Sure, physically there was no resemblance at all. Yet that can be easily explained by changing or adding a few things into her look.

However, you can only change so little when it comes to the eyes.

Even if she covered it up, behind it were still dark brown eyes I was slowly being pulled into — intense and fiery.

“Well, f**k then.” I ran a hand through my styled hair, messing up the work put in by that stylist I had for the interview I was supposed to have.

“f**k, Hael. Even though this chic is vehemently denying it, is there a huge possibility… that it’s…it’s…” my own assumption trailed, Kylo having to finish it.

“Her?”

The room grew quiet, from the corner of my eye I could see the cop in here with us felt the temperature drop and he tried to wedge himself to the corner of the room, as far away from us he can go without ever leaving the area.

I could feel Luca’s eyes dart towards the girl and at me in intervals. Cautious that I would blow up at any second now.

Miraculously, I didn’t. I was too occupied staring at her. Deeply, in fact.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Hael was the one to break first, fingers typing on his phone. We see the investigator in the interrogation room read something on his phone before he gives a firm nod to the window, towards us.

We watched carefully as the smug angry look she had displayed dropped, and her face pales as she is made aware of our arrival and presence.

“Miss Morana’s fated bonds.”

That set her off. Completely.

Even making me slightly jump to my feet.

Her explosion of movement only cemented our doubts.

Hael finally moves, standing tall from where he had the front row seat of this whole interrogation.

He gives a brief tug at his suit, turning to us to head to the door.

“Time to get this over with.”