Page 16 of Awakened Gifts
Hedin swears before walking out, and the man who has fooled the United for centuries comes to sit down beside me, a sigh falling through his lips as he stares into my eyes.
“You don’t deserve to wear the stripes of a captain,” I growl, glaring at him. “So from now on, I’ll just call you Fricks.”
The chains rattle against my hands when I stupidly try to lunge, and more pain shoots through me from the motion.
“I prefer James, but you can call me whatever you want to, Aria. That’s of no consequence to me. You asked how I could do this. Well, what would you do for the one you love?”
My thoughts halt abruptly as I look him in the eyes to see his years of unshed tears. I wrack my brain, trying my best to figure out what he means, when the old story dawns on me.
“The woman you tried to change,” I gasp.
Pain mars his expression as he nods. “My wife. My love. My… everything. They thought they burned her, but Hedin got her out and replaced her with another infected. She was his adoptive sister. A human. She didn’t ask for what I did, but I couldn’t lose her.
“She was sick; years of radiation poisoning had taken its toll on her organs. The prognosis was terminal. So I attempted to change her, just to stall her death. I suspended the transformation with a drug, and though some of the infection set in, the virus didn’t ever touch her mind. If I can heal her, she’ll be mine again. I can get her out of suspended animation for the first time in centuries. I’ve tried so many things, but nothing has worked.”
I laugh humorlessly while dropping my head back. “You mean you’ve killed so many people—not tried so many things. You’ve slaughtered my kind as though we’re nothing.”
“No, I’ve not killed anyone. And besides, there’s no one like you to kill. You’re an anomaly,” he says while standing. “I’m just a pawn in this organization. No one person is really in charge. Everyone wants you for their own reasons. I had mine, and I used the resources the scorpions had to offer. But you should be more concerned about Alice.”
“Is that her name? The woman you love?” I ask, but only to stall. The more info he gives me, the better. Eventually I might find a clue as to where I am. Then I can try again to get a message through to Jase.
“No,” he says sadly. “She’s someone you know, though. She’s also the wild, psychotic emergent that is tearing apart men and infecting the hounds. She’s gone rogue right now. She found out someone within her organization was a traitor, but she doesn’t know it was me. Not yet. When she does, she’ll destroy me. As long as I save Penelope, I’m fine with that.”
Shit. “An emergent like my mother?”
His eyes glaze over as he shakes his head. “No. A true emergent. The thing people feared before your mother. A bitten human that turns into something completely different than the infected or a full blood. She’s stronger—so, so much stronger than your mother.
“True emergents start out savage and unruly, but after about fifty years, they slowly start to become more like a person. But Alice... too many people have tried killing her—hardening her heart. Her humanity is gone. The Scorpions used her as a science project for their cause, and they imprisoned her for over a century. Right now, she hates everyone. Especially you, your mother, and your aunt Angelica.”
I swallow hard as that sinks in.
“Why us?” I whisper, now actually interested.
He smiles bitterly while blowing out a breath.
“Because you’re the family of the man who tried to kill her first. Even though you’re her family, too.”
My heart sputters and stalls, and the sick feeling in my stomach multiplies as I try to move away from the crazy man beside me.
“It’s true,” he says while standing. “Alice Machen is your grandmother—Araya’s mother.”
“No,” I whisper, unable to form a louder pitch. “The emergent that gave birth to my mother died. And her name wasn’t Alice.”
“No. It wasn’t Alice then. She had an alias because she was working with an organization called the Fire Hawks. They’re more discreet than the Scorpions, but their goal is to wipe out the entire race of full bloods—the opposite of what the Scorpions wish to achieve. She wants to achieve total domination. I’m worried that with your blood mixing with her own, she might be successful in achieving the impossible. If that happens, the only ones who will be left standing will be their group. Right now, her focus is on the full bloods because they’re already a dying breed. Evolution is gaining more ground everyday, but the full bloods keep holding everything back.”
“But you’re a full blood,” I murmur, still trying to process everything.
“Not exactly,” he says with a grim smile. “I’m different. I’m a host. I’m like Nicholas—your late grandfather. I’m one who was turned by the actual virus and not by another full blood. It makes me the perfect carrier for strong, upcoming emergent hybrids that can survive past puberty like Kellan Maverick and Araya Crush did. But evolution makes it impossible to isolate the virus without transferring it through a bite anymore. I’m one of the few left who were injected with the original virus before it mutated. Recreating the original virus is impossible—too many ingredients have long been extinct. I’m one of the final links.”
“You know Kellan’s family,” I whisper breathily, ignoring the burn of the uranium as it bleeds into my lungs, and not even bothering to ask the hellacious list of other questions I have.
“I did. The emergent was turned by one like me. One like Nicholas Hawkins. We’re the key.”
Mom thought she survived because my grandfather had injected her with a compound that hid her eyes for centuries and slowed down her powers. All along, she survived because of a technicality—if he’s right.
“What do the Scorpions want?”
He sits back as he looks into space. “The same thing they wanted when Ty Silvers was running the show. They want immortality, but they’re being more realistic than he was. The reason I was invited into their secret society is because of my research. Becoming the hybrid Ty created... That is out of the question. The few that survived your mother’s massacre didn’t make it past a century. Being hybrid is much more taxing than being a full blood. Especially since he unlocked parts of their minds that they weren’t capable of controlling.