Bloodbond Teaser

Chapter 1

Mako Lowell looked up to the sky.  It was clear blue, small puffballs of clouds dotting through like paintbrush strokes.  Peaceful.  He glanced over his shoulder at the tall wall that surrounded the city he lived in, Liberty.  The capitol city.  Even with the sky perfect and blue, that wall was a constant reminder that everything was not well in his world.  Each of the cities was named with something the world sought to reclaim.  Liberty, freedom, independence, they were all things that the world had lost.  The walls had been up for at least a hundred years, that’s what the history books said.  They had been constructed after some sort of cataclysm.  No one was exactly sure what had happened - the books that had contained that information had been lost.  There were whispers that humans had done this to themselves, that they had decimated their own population.  Those whispers were punishable by law.

He sighed and kept moving away from the university.  Classes were done for the day and it was time for him to head home.  He tucked his books against his chest and kept moving through the sparsely populated streets.  The districts near the university were always quiet at this time of day - younger kids were usually still in school.
He found himself lucky that he was able to attend university.  Not everyone was afforded that luxury.  Mako was from a merchant family - specifically a book merchant.  It was a good, solid career.  With the walls up, people craved knowledge.  It wasn’t always the easiest of jobs - sometimes his father had to venture out beyond the walls to other cities to obtain other books.  But it brought their family money and status.  It also brought Mako an eventual career; his father had been grooming him to take over the family business for years now.

Mako wasn’t sure he actually liked the idea of leaving the comfortable walls of the city.  Outside the walls were fiends, monstrosities that had spawned not long after the cataclysm.  He had seen the corpses of some of them brought in from outside.  They were terrible.  They didn’t look like anything he had seen in the books the family shop had - more like several animals smashed into one.  Odd bits and pieces.  Nightmare fuel.  The wall kept most of them at bay, though there were a few that could fly.  The creatures had pushed humanity to the brink, right up to the edge of complete and utter defeat.  But then there had been a strange reaction between two people.  A blood bond.  One strategist and one fighter had emerged.  And it wasn’t a fluke.  Somewhere along the line of evolution and mutation, humans had developed the ability to bond with one another. The fighters became slightly larger, far stronger versions of themselves.  Their minds were connected, they were one.

In Mako’s mind, it was utterly fascinating.

He much preferred the idea of going to university and learning about hemodesisology, the science of blood bonding.  He wanted to be a scientist; he wanted to know how everything worked.  And he had the mind for it.  He was excelling in his course work and striving to do his best, even if his father thought he was just indulging his eldest son’s whim.  This was where Mako’s passion was.  Science.  He loved books, he loved learning.  But he didn’t want to be a merchant. Dealing with people so often made him nervous, he could do it, but he wasn’t the natural salesman his father was.

He kept moving down the street, speeding up once he moved out of the university’s district.  Mako probably didn’t have anything to worry about in the poor district, but he was small and couldn’t really defend himself if something did happen.  He shifted the books in his arms, trying to keep his nice waistcoat and trousers from bunching up too much.  His looks screamed that he wasn’t from this area.  That he was a target.  He kept his eyes down.  He doubted that anyone would give him trouble right now, not in the daylight.  But his father had always told him to be careful in the poor district, so he erred on the side of caution.

He’d rather be safe than sorry.

Mako’s forehead slammed into something warm and firm, but not hard.  His big blue eyes, partially obscured by shaggy blonde hair, moved up to see what he had hit, his cheeks flushing red as he realized that he had walked straight into a person. “Oh, m-my apologies.  Are you alright?”

The person in question didn’t seem all that fussed.  Mako was fairly sure that the person was a man, with long black hair that was tied back in a ponytail.  His skin was pale, but it was more of a golden tone.  Slightly slanted grey eyes focused on him, but seemed relatively emotionless and very, very predatory.  The man was a good six inches taller than Mako and slender, but still looked quite stronger.  It took a moment for his schooling to kick in, but once it did, he realized that he was staring straight at an un-bonded fighter.

“I’m fine. It was just an accident.” He spoke in a clipped voice, very detached.  He seemed to dismiss Mako, his quick eyes moving on over to the crowd. “…I’d be getting out of this district before someone else finds you.”

Mako nodded fervently, his arms clutching the books tighter to his chest to hide how much he was shaking.  Half of it was from terror, the other from pure excitement.  He’d never been so close to a fighter before! “Y…yes.  Thank you.  I’ll be on my way.”  

He stumbled as he started moving; squeaking as his books almost tumbled from his arms.  But there were steady hands keeping him from clattering onto the concrete.  Mako looked back at the dark-haired fighter; there was no reason for the man to help him.  None whatsoever.  He had heard that fighters were volatile, especially un-bonded ones.  But this one seemed perfectly calm; there was even a hint of a smile on his face.

“Keep safe.” The fighter tipped his head a little, smiling a little more clearly.

Mako nodded, a shaky smile passing over his face. “You too.”  

And with that, Mako was on his way home again.  It was odd, after eighteen years of not running into a fighter ever, he literally runs right into one on the way home from school.  He supposed it was most likely to happen in the poor district.  No matter the status of a fighter, the second they were discovered to have fighter traits, they were pushed ever further down the social ladder than the poor.  He was thankful that he didn’t have any of the traits that would mark him as a fighter - he was happy where he was in the city’s caste.  Right in the middle.  No, Mako was really the opposite of fighter traits.  He was small and slender with relatively narrow shoulders.  There was no way he was a fighter.  There were also several psychological markers as well, but Mako didn’t fall under them either.

Soon enough he was in the merchant district, bobbing his head and offering his smile to an officer on duty, the family shops calming his pounding heart.  This was his home.  This is where he belonged.  At least for now.  At least until he got the courage to tell his father that he was going to be a scientist.  He sighed; he knew that wasn’t going to happen.  He doubted he’d ever have the bravery to tell his father what he actually wanted to do, even though his younger sister Dreyza was better suited to being a merchant.  She was naturally outgoing where Mako was far more introverted.  But his father didn’t think a woman was a proper choice to take over the business.  It was less because of the fairer sex, more because of the fact that they sometimes had to leave the city from time to time and leaving the city was more than a little dangerous.

He passed the family shop, already closed up for the day.  It was their short hour day, only a half day.  That meant that his father was definitely going to be there when he arrived.  That wasn’t a bad thing, Mako just didn’t feel like hearing his father dig into him about how him going to university was just a flight of fancy and that he’d have to come back down to earth sooner rather than later.

He didn’t want his ‘flight of fancy’ to end.  He wanted to be a scientist…and he was determined to actually achieve his goal.  There was little Mako thought he was actually good at, but hemodesisology was one of the few things he knew he excelled at.  It was just something he understood.  He knew he’d do well in that field; and being a scientist was just as respectable as being a merchant.  Maybe even more so!

After all, it was the scientists who were trying to figure out how and why the bonds actually worked.  And helped the strategist/fighter pairs that went beyond the wall.  It was an extremely important role.  The scientists were the ones who helped determine which classifications the pairs went into.  Whether they were an ‘entertainment’ pair, or whether they were a ‘military’ pair.  It wasn’t something that Mako was entirely familiar with yet - but he knew it was a vital part of a hemodesisologist’s job.  Entertainment pairs were set into the cage-fighting circuit.  It wasn’t something he kept up on.  He knew there wasn’t actually killing in the rings, but it was horribly violent.  Military pairs helped try to reclaim land lost to the fiends.  He wasn’t sure of the criterion for either of the sects, but he was sure that he’d do well in the role.  He was smart enough to help decide that sort of thing.

“Mako! You’re running late! We’re about to have dinner, mom’s been looking all over for you…” Dreyza bounded up to him, grabbing his wrist and tugging him toward their house. “Dad isn’t happy that you’re late either.”

“I suppose he wouldn’t be…my lecture went a little long this afternoon.”  And he had run into a fighter.  Literally.  But he didn’t need to mention that.  He didn’t need his father forbidding him from going to university when it was the only thing that really brought him happiness. “I’m sorry if I kept the family from eating…you know I don’t like to burden you guys…”

“No…they were just wondering where you are.  Now get inside.  You know how mom and dad are about us being out after dark.”

Mako chuckled under his breath but started following his sister’s blonde head toward the house. “We’re in the merchant district; dad always said we were fine if we were in our own district…”

There was crime in the merchant district, but it was usually robbery from the stores.  There were more law enforcement officers in their district than there were in the poor district, so there wasn’t as much personal robbery.  Crime was usually well-thought out and planned.  Of course, there was even less crime in the rich district.  Mako and his father had traveled there because of bookselling a few times, but he didn’t get to go there very often.  Even merchants had trouble getting into that district without a good reason.

“Well, you know what mom says, better safe than sorry.  And the flying fiends might come back…”

Mako ran a hand through his blonde hair and sighed.  She had a point.  The walls kept all but the flying fiends out.  They usually didn’t attack, but he didn’t want to push his luck.  He’d already run into an un-bonded fighter and come out unscathed.  He was tempting fate if he kept pushing it today.

“Yeah, you’re right Dreyza, let’s get inside.  I’m hungry anyway.”

He was hungry, but there was still so much adrenaline pumping through his system from his encounter that he doubted that he’d be able to eat much.  And he found it difficult to eat when his father continuously told him that his hopes and dreams weren’t meant to happen.  That he was going to be a merchant.  He squeezed his sister’s hand as she tugged him into the house.  He supposed there were worse things to be than a merchant, even if it wasn’t what he wanted in life.