The Binding (The Binding, #1)

by Rebecca Rathe

You call it neurodivergent... I call it superpowers.

Not even an adult could handle the amount of power I just witnessed my eight-year-old daughter channel. Her body is trembling violently with fear and weakness, her streaming eyes growing heavy from exhaustion.

Mine. I must save her. Stop them. Kill them. Mine.

I wonder how she'll react when she learns what we did to save her life. Will it be worth it to her? To be bound to a monster? A monster, a ghost, and an asshole.

"Drink the tea." "No." It's not that I'm not going to drink the tea, it's just that I don't want to be forced to drink the tea. I don't want to be told what to do. Call it immature, call it what you will, but I've had a lifetime of being manipulated and controlled and I'm not starting this new—relationship or whatever it is—with the expectations that I'm going to put up with bullshit.

Draven is heartbreakingly beautiful. He has soft, pale skin and dark hair, cut short on the sides with longer curls on top. His eyes are darker than his hair, although it's too dark and the light of the moon isn’t bright enough to discern exactly what color they are. His dark hair and sharp bone structure makes his eyes seem a little sunken in, or sleepy, but it's an attractive look on him. The sparkle in his eyes promises danger. His lips are pillowy and soft looking, his angular jaw giving him an almost feminine look. His perfect pale skin glimmers in the moonlight, not a mark or line mars his pretty face. He looks so young. Very, very, young. Too young, probably, for what we've already done.

A strange sensation floods over my body, an involuntary reaction to his brutality. A need for him to take me, drain me, make me his, even if it means my death. It concerns me just how much I want to give in to his violent promises, like it’s an instinctual urge that I should want to fight but don’t. My body goes slack, giving up the fight and submitting to him. He pushes me back into the tree, covering my body with his.

This bond is hard, especially knowing I'll never act on the way it tries to force us together. She wouldn't want me that way, and I don't deserve her. I try to keep my distance because it's easier, especially to make sure she can't feel me through the bond.

It’s so sad that this is how he feels immediately, like he won’t even give himself a chance.

"I didn't realize you were going through something, too." "Everyone's going through something, angel. It's part of living.

But also, what the fuck is he keeping in his pants? Because I'm positive something is living in there.

I smile a little that he's realized my corporeal form isn't just for Calista. I even smacked Hawthorne on the shoulder earlier this morning, much to his chagrin. Although, when he realized what had just happened, he looked up in shock in just enough time for me to fly out of there, laughing. It is fun to get under his skin. Maybe if I call him Daddy enough times, he'll spank me. That would be a fun new touch to experience.

"A collar might look good on you," I tease, purposefully riling him up. "I bet we can find one almost as pretty as you are."

Seth teasing the other guys is so entertaining lol

"What about you, shady?" Seth asks. I roll my eyes at the idiotic nickname, especially after Seth starts asking if the real Slim Shady could please stand up when I go quiet.

"He thinks he wants to kill us," she says casually. She has no idea how much she's flirting with danger. "Aw, that's cute." That gets my attention. Did he say cute? I'm not fucking cute. I'm fucking feral and terrifying, and these two beautiful idiots are too stupid to see how much danger they are in.

"Mine," I growl out loud. "Yours," she whispers, wrapping her arms around my neck and pulling herself closer to me.

I remember Hawthorne talking about people who are addicted to shade venom, asking me if I was Draven's filthy blood whore. I fucking am. I'd let him do anything he wanted to me. I'd gladly take his savagery for one more hit, to feel his cock and his bite inside me. To taste his blood and his cum.

"Seth, come over here and feed our greedy little witch your cum before she goes on a rampage and kills us both,"

"Quit fucking around and get out here!" Hawthorne yells gruffly. Seth looks down with a sarcastic, sheepish expression. "Oops," he whispers. "I think we made daddy angry."

Draven looks at me intently, and I realize I haven't bothered shielding any of my thoughts. "Butt out, beast," I say a little grumpily, also trying to cover some of my inner turmoil with humor so he won't worry or try to talk to me about it. He smirks, knowing my game but playing along. "Make me, beauty."

"Hawthorne?" she calls out tentatively, like she's trying to wake him up gently. I'm of the mind that we should jump up and down on his bed and poke him with sharp objects, but she's in charge here.

Draven is such a little devil lol

"I don't believe that people are born inherently good or evil, or that anyone's destiny is preordained. As high up as I've been in the atmosphere, as much celestial work that I've done, there's no one pulling the strings. I'm not a better person because I'm perceived as some 'holy' race, and Draven isn't evil just because the world has painted his kind with a bloody pallet. There are truths and fiction in all of those stories, but overall, we decide who we are."

This entire conversation is thought-provoking, I appreciate it

Draven says he's doing it for Hawthorne, and he and I have randomly been yelling things into the room, like, "Oh Daddy, your wards are down, the shade is in the house and he's on the couch!", or "If you don't wake up, we're going to let Seth put his finger in your butt. You might like it. It's rather nice."

"I don't know. I don't mind the whole grumpy Daddy thing he's got going on. I keep waiting for him to spank us," I say, winking at Calista. That finally gets a grin out of her, and the little flush that creeps up her neck tells me that she agrees with me.

She giggles when I kiss her toes, pulling away when I switch to her other foot.

This entire foreplay-esk worship session is glorious, very indulgent.

There's something coming, Calista. I don't know what. But there has to be a reason you're here, a reason that you called us to you. I'm still researching, but whatever the reason is, we have each other, and we need to strengthen these bonds, not be afraid of them."

I notice Draven look up at me with surprise that I included him, but we don't have time to hold hands and braid each other's hair.