Second Bonding

“I will let you know when it is safe to come down,” Eric said.

He turned to the work at hand. Lily and Michael were already starting to reconstruct the worst parts of the destruction.

Evan was repairing the foundations underground.

“What are they doing?” Wren asked, watching as they started to move things around.

“They have the ability to fix things just like you have the ability to put a shield around things,” Talon replied.

“I thought everyone could do that.”

Talon shook his head. “Nope. Eric and Evan can contain the area around them to keep humans out while we fight, and Carrie and Emerald can erase the memory of those who have seen things they should not have.”

“I thought people could not see the Beings.”

“They can’t see them, but they can see us.”

“I see.” Wren started to sit up, hugging the beam tightly as the breeze picked up again. “By the way, thank you for the shield earlier,” she said.

Talon had moved down the beam as gracefully as a cat and just as surefooted. He reached down and pulled off one of Wren’s shoes and then the other before helping her stand up.

He moved slowly backward until he was once again against the beam. He winced as his back hit the cold, hard metal.

The wound was deep, and if he did not get it healed soon, it was going to leave a nasty scar.

~Add another one to the collection.~

“Are you sure you are all right?” Wren asked.

She could feel his pain growing as the minutes ticked by.

Talon nodded, closing his eyes for a moment.

“You are shivering,” he commented.

“I am cold,” Wren snapped.

The adrenaline was gone now, leaving her tired and hurting.

“I lost my wrap and you slit my skirt all the way up and took away my shoes. At this point, I am basically naked up here for all to see.”

“Picky, picky, picky,” Talon said.

He winced again as the breeze picked up and Wren pushed into him.

“Sorry.” Wren breathed, pain radiating from Talon and seeping into her bones.

They had been hurt before, but nothing on this scale. She wished she could do something to ease his pain, but there was nothing that could be done until they could come down off the beam.

Talon let out a sigh, a bit amused at her grumbling. She was not one to complain, so it was nice to see that even she got irritated.

He unzipped his coat and pulled her in. He tucked her head under his chin and zipped it back up, wrapping her securely against him.

Wren stiffened and then relaxed, sliding her hands around his waist, making sure to keep them off his back.

“Better?”

“Yes,” came the muffled reply.

They stood there in silence as the others worked on getting them down.

“May I ask you a question?” Wren finally broke the silence.

“What would that be?” Talon used the moment to lower his head and bury it into her neck, in an appearance of moving closer to hear her.

“It is about the training.”

“Okay.”

“This is going to sound really stupid, but I think I am getting immune to it.”

“To what?”

“To the pain of fighting and killing them.”

“Why do you say that?” Talon asked.

“Because… I did not feel the cuts like I have in training. I am afraid that I am…I am going to turn cold and heartless.”

Wren felt foolish even bringing it up. Who else could she tell this to? The others would laugh at her.

Talon was just going to have to suck it up and listen to it.

“Is it wrong to want to feel the cuts so that I do not forget to be compassionate to others, even if they are evil?” she continued when Talon kept silent.

“No, honey, that is not wrong,” Talon wrapped his arms around her more securely.

“You are not losing your compassion, and you will not become a heartless killing machine,” he said, relaxing against the beam as much as his wound would allow him.

“Believe it or not, that is what worries Shorty the most with all of the fighting we do. So he makes the exercises ultra-sensitive. Every time we cut, Shorty has it programmed to force us to feel the pain as well. He hopes that this will remind us to be merciful in our killings. I noticed that you only cut when you had to. Shorty would be proud. You did not torture the Being.”

Wren pulled back enough to look up at him.

“Sounds like you know this from experience.”

Talon looked down at her.

She was covered with small scratches, bits of blood and dirt, but he thought she looked positively beautiful at that moment, with the last shafts of light behind her, creating a soft glow around her.

He pushed a strand of hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear.

“I do,” he said, tucking her head back down and falling silent for a moment.

“Shorty developed that sensitivity for me,” he admitted softly.

“When I worked for the mob boss, after I realized they could never be a family for me, I gave up on those dreams and fought until there was no more emotion in me.”

“I did not care who I hurt, and no matter how they pleaded with me, I had no compassion for them.”

“I had become the perfect tool for my boss. The perfect killing machine.”

“How did you come back once you went down that road?” Wren asked.

Talon thought back to that fateful fight. He owed his life to the young boy who showed him just how much of a monster he had become.

He would never forget the sounds of sobs coming from the boy, losing his only family member. All because he had slighted King.

Talon had seen the eyes of that boy harden and knew he was responsible for the path the boy was going to take. He had sent him on a path that would only lead to his death.

“Shorty beat it into me. Though, to tell the truth, I was still a bit…emotionless until you came.”

“Our connection allows me to feel the pain you feel every time you cut or take a life. It has taught me to feel that emotion again.”

“Do you regret it?” Wren asked.

“No. Never. It means I cannot go back to being that person again. Thank you.”

Wren did not know what to say in response to his words. She felt the tears fall for the man who had lost so much and fought so hard to gain it back.

She felt a tingling sensation start in her body and spread out, similar to the tingling sensation she had felt during the initial bond.

“What is going on?” she asked, afraid that something was wrong.

“Seems we are bonding again,” Talon said, looking around, but there was nothing to anchor them except for his back against the beam.

“Damn. This is really bad timing, with us both being weak from the fighting. Hold on, it is going to be rough, but it should be over in a few moments,” Talon grimaced as pain began to assault the tingling sensation.

With all of their injuries and the exhaustion from the fighting, he was not sure that they would have enough life force to survive this. He should have been paying better attention.

“It hurts,” Wren gasped out.

“Hang on. It will pass. I will not let you fall,” Talon hissed.

She was right, this one hurt, worse than the initial one.

“Which one is this?” Wren whimpered as the pain intensified.

“The emotional one, and it hurts because of the physical state we are in. Hold on a bit more, it is starting to subside a bit. We are almost through,” Talon grimaced, trying to focus on his breathing.

He could feel himself start to black out, and he fought it. If he fell right now…

A moment later, they were both gasping for air and struggling just to stand on the beam.

“Sorry about that. I guess we were finally synced right,” Talon said, stroking her hair and letting his eyes rest on the crown of her head for just a moment.

Their connection flared, a reminder of the bond they had created in the training room.

“I should have been paying better attention.”

Wren closed her eyes, trying to adjust to the emotions running through her. Before, she had just been aware of his presence and strong emotions, but now she could feel Talon’s emotions on a deeper level, and they were overpowering.

“We seemed to have healed our wounds while we were at it,” Wren said.

She could feel that Talon was no longer in pain. She was more tired than she had ever felt.

She tried to keep her eyes open, but it was getting hard. Her body was screaming for sleep after everything they had just been through.

“What is the third bonding?” she asked, trying to distract herself from falling asleep and taking them both over the edge.

“Is it like this one?”

Talon leaned against her; his wound was mostly healed now, but there was still a bit of discomfort.

“No, honey, the third bonding is just like it says. Physical.”

“Physical? Like what we are doing now?”

“No. Like what a man and a woman do in the bedroom. Though, I suppose it doesn’t have to be done in the bedroom either.”

“Huh? You mean…sex?”

“You summed it up in one word, sweetheart.”

He waited for her to digest it and respond with outrage, but nothing happened. He finally glanced down at her and realized she had fallen asleep.

He leaned back against the beam, wondering if she had heard his affirmative. He fought back sleep, knowing it would be very bad if he did.

“Ready?”

Eric appeared next to him on a fire truck ladder.

Talon nodded and lifted Wren into his arms.

He slowly worked his way down the ladder. Eric handed him the key to one of the cars once they were safely back on solid ground.

“We will be a while, so go ahead of us. You are under strict orders to go home and sleep. It seems your injuries are healed enough for now. Tomorrow will be soon enough to have a complete look over,” Eric said.

Talon nodded, too tired to care as he headed to the car.

“Oh, and Talon?”

He turned back.

“We will have to discuss what happened up there. You could have killed each other,” Eric said.