Page 17 of Awakened Gifts
“They want to be turned, but unless they have the gene, we both know how that turns out. But my research can cure the infected. The problem is that there aren’t exactly any more of you running around, and it takes two full bodies of blood to complete this process. First I have to cleanse Penelope’s body by filling her veins with your blood. Next I have to refill her veins with your blood. After a few weeks, your blood will meld with her newly generating blood, and she’ll wake up. Well, that’s the shorthand, layman version.”
I swallow hard. They’re draining me not once, but twice. Judging by the amount of blood in that tank, I’ve only been drained once.
“I don’t think I’ll survive long enough to give you the blood you need. The uranium is killing me. I can feel it.”
I wheeze as the blood starts filling up in my lungs, making it impossible to breathe without working hard for every slither of air.
Captain Fricks reaches behind him and grabs a bag of blood. He rips it open with his teeth, and then he pours just a few drops on my dry, cracked lips, and I lick at them, desperate to take all the healing I can get.
“You heal with very little blood. So I’m afraid I can’t risk more than a few drops.”
The sparse amount is enough to make my breathing easier, and I rest my head back to stare up at the white ceiling that reminds me of the sterile labs I always find Simone in. Uncle Clay couldn’t ever cure the infection, and Simone hasn’t ever had any groundbreaking results there either. I doubt the delusional man beside me has managed to cure the incurable.
“And what happens to me when you heal your wife?” I ask, even though I already know the answer.
A slow, regretful exhale graces his lips as he casts shameful eyes toward the floor. “I don’t have the power to keep you alive. If the Scorpions learn I have you and haven’t turned you over, they’ll kill me. And they have the resources to find me quickly. I have no choice but to give you to them. I’d like to love Penelope for as long as I can. Then I’ll leave her to keep her safe, because the Fire Hawks and Alice will hunt me down, but I’ll have a while before they’re successful. I’ll be doing you a favor by giving you to the Scorpions. Trust me. If Alice gets your blood, she’ll be invincible.”
I don’t want anyone getting my fucking blood.
“My mother will find you. And it won’t be pretty when she does,” I say, grinding through the pain.
He frowns while glancing around. “They’re not looking for you, Aria. They think you’re dead. They buried your ashes after your cremation. Obviously I swapped your body in the crematorium, and I gave them ashes they only considered to be yours.”
No. No. No. He can’t be… No. They know I’m alive. They have to be looking for me. Mom wouldn’t give up that easily.
“How?” I ask pitifully, watching my hope start to slip away.
“The same way Ty convinced the world Symphony was dead. I used the poison most commonly known as dead man’s blood—from the old vampire tales,” he says while chuckling, but he then clears his throat and his laughter ceases. “Sorry. But the point is they think you’re gone. They mourned your cold, still body. They listened to the silence of your expired lungs, and they held you. Commander Ericson had to be pried from your body. I know this doesn’t make things easier, but Erin wasn’t his counter. I’m sorry I had to do that to you, but I had to separate you from the compound, and that was the only way.”
My heart heals and breaks at the same time. “But I felt it,” I say shakily.
“You were supposed to feel it. She stole the connection you two feel and she amplified it by several hundred to create the same effect as a counter’s gravitational pull. Her gift was similar to your empathic abilities, but different. She can steal emotions and twist their projections. Or she could.”
“What does that mean?” I ask, referring to the last part.
“Commander Ericson was much stronger than we expected. Either that or his love for you was stronger. He was ready to run instead of falling prey to her. So, we used our backup plan. His vial of blood. It was enough blood to force him to seek her out immediately. Unfortunately for her, he caught on and killed her, as opposed to betraying you. I just thought you deserved to know. I would want to know.”
My heart goes silent yet bangs fiercely at the same time. I feel like I’m screaming into a soundless vat that swallows up every sound, and my ears ring loudly as the room tries to move. Things rattle violently on their surfaces, and Captain Fricks mutters a few curses before I feel the harsh sting of a stab.
I cry out as my body bows off the table, and the traitor tries to shush me when my screams finally find release and shatter the glass in the room.
“How could you?” I scream, my tears feverishly attacking my cheeks.
“I only told you as a show of respect. If you keep screaming, I’ll have to sedate you.”
An animalistic growl rumbles free as I glare at him, and one chain begins to creak, promising to break.
“Try it,” I hiss, regretting it the instant I feel several needles jabbing me at once, slicing through the skin on my back with their uranium tips. The damn table is designed to attack.
More cries escape me, seconds before the darkness tries to take me under. But as my senses slowly start to shut down, I smell something that gives me one more piece of the puzzle.
Chapter 7
JASE
“You couldn’t have heard her,” Kellan argues, punching the wall as his fury bubbles over. “Stop putting shit like that into our heads! We saw her. Buried her fucking ashes, Jase!”
“I know what I heard!” I yell, getting in his face as my fists clench.