Page 21 of Awakened Gifts
“Get the blood out of here. I want to make sure it’s not a trick before I try it. And it needs to be diluted.” She glances over my tragic body, and then back to the men. “Probably need to strain the uranium out of it as well, judging by the looks of her. Then we’ll test it on the other emergents,” she says to the military of men above us. “Take it back to our new base.”
Thank God she’s not sick enough to drink it straight.
Two men drop down to the ground, and they make their way over to my tank. The lines connected to my arms are sliced by the sharp edge of a knife, I drop my head back when my blood begins spurting from the line.
They take away the tank with effortless ease, and they disappear back through the hole. Seconds later, I hear them driving away, carrying my blood off to create an army. I should have just killed myself.
“She has to stay alive for the blood to work. Otherwise it’s pointless,” she says with a smile that makes me sicker. “But make sure she’s in pain,” she adds.
I’m in enough pain. The lashings from the whip are still burning through my veins.
She turns her attention back to Captain Fricks and Hedin, and her threatening smile only grows. Just as she lifts her hand, familiar purple electricity surges through, wrapping around and electrocuting any threat in the room. Kellan shouldn’t be that strong. That’s too strong.
Guns fire wildly as the men holding them begin writhing in pain, and my attention comes back to the room. The first hopeful tear falls from my eyes and I sniffle while daring to smile when I hear the sky above crackle and watch as red lightning drops from the sky.
They’re here. Fucking finally.
A low, snarling growl emanates from the woman beside me before she leaps through the hole, almost looking like she’s flying when she launches herself into the air. Streaks of fire shoot across the opening just as the electricity stops and begins aiming at the threat they now see.
The relief washes away as fear settles in, and my smile turns to a look of terror. I would never have summoned them if I had known Alice would be here. No! They don’t even know she’s the monster that has been decimating compounds.
I cry out when I try to move, desperate to warn them. Jase. He’s up there. That’s his fire. He’s not strong enough. Shit. She’ll kill them all!
“Stop,” I gargle, choking on my own blood as it spills from my mouth.
Captain Fricks and Hedin drop from the wall, thudding to the ground and heaving for air when Alice loses her grip. I hear the roar of power out there and the cries of pain. She’s trying to tear them apart.
“I have to try and kill her,” Captain Fricks says. He’s crazy. Like he can kill her.
“Get me off this fucking table!” I snap, ignoring the blood that once again pools in my mouth.
“I’ll sneak her out the back,” Hedin says, but he’s suddenly flying backwards and crying out by an unseen force.
I’ve seen that power. It burns like uranium, but it’s not. Melania is here.
Rex is the one to drop through the hole first, and he kicks several of the unconscious men on the floor that Kellan took down. I can’t stop the onslaught of tears, and his eyes grow dark when he sees me.
“Not now, Rex! Damn it. Get me out of here before you lose it!” I bark, biting back the scream that begs to be released as the pain sinks deeper into my bones.
Vaguely do I see Fricks scramble to the top, unseen by my brother.
“Blood,” he says to Melania as she lands beside him. “She needs blood. Find Kellan.”
“Hell no,” I hiss, looking at him like he’s crazy. “Find Jase.”
His eyes widen as though I’ve lost my mind, though I can’t fathom why. Surely he knows that Jase killed that bitch because she wasn’t really his counter.
Then I feel it; the pull I hoped I’d never have to face. The tug of destiny’s unrelenting rope that tries to coil around my throat. Chills wash over me as the power calls—he calls. Kellan is savage. It hits me hard across my body, sinking into me and gliding over me with a gentle cling. I can feel it, but it’s nothing like I expected. I thought I was supposed to go into a mindless trance.
The second Rex gets the damn chains off me, I curse them, lashing out as though the chains can actually understand me. They shouldn’t have been strong enough to hold me, but with so much uranium in my system, I was as weak as a human for most of the time.
“Get me up there. I have to help,” I say through a wince, ignoring the slices on my skin.
“You need blood.”
“Good luck finding your way around here. I’ve only seen this one room, so it’s not like I have a damn clue where they store the blood.”
He studies my eyes and then frowns.