Page 22 of Awakened Gifts
“You’re freaking me out,” he says while clutching me.
“Mom’s up there facing the thing that has been tearing compounds and cities apart. Can we have this stupid discussion some other time?”
Fear and realization drench his eyes, and in the next second, we’re topside. Kellan is launching his electricity with more force and beautiful power than I’ve ever seen. My body tries to go to it, screams for me to get closer, but I deny it, backing up and fighting our gravity.
Jase is by his side, launching his flames in rapid succession, and I almost feel the heat from this far away. Mom. No!
“Mom!” I whimper, staggering when I see her body limply tossed on the ground as Uncle Brazen hovers over her protectively, firing at anything that moves toward them.
“Her side,” Captain Fricks yells, lying on the ground as his blood gushes. Kellan screams out and drops to the ground, and my heart thuds in my ears, banging fiercely to let me know my counter needs my help.
“Shoot her in the right side. Just below her ribs,” Captain Fricks says again, grasping for his own gun that is just beyond the reach his extended fingertips.
Rex goes to shoot, but the bitch with violet eyes turns to us, and I feel my body trying to turn inside out. In my weakened state, I fall, praying for death before I even hit the ground. I never thought the whip would seem gentle in comparison to anything.
“Aria!” Jase yells desperately, and Kellan’s roar of determination follows as his savage forces him to get stronger for me.
Simone drops down from a treetop, firing a gun all the way down in her descent, and she strikes the bitch right in the side, but apparently it’s not the right place. Jase starts firing rapidly while running toward me, emptying the clip of his gun.
But something strikes him, and he cries out in pain as he drops to the ground. I’m choking on my own blood as my gargled screams escape. He tries and fails to get up, doing all he can to contain his screams as blood falls from his mouth.
My heart pounds as Captain Fricks continues begging someone to shoot the indestructible bitch. I have to get to Jase, and that’s all I can focus on, but my body is too destroyed to move. I’m stuck in hell as I watch everyone falling, no one measuring up to the woman with the most power.
“You only have a dime size space. Aim for the center of the bottom rib. It’s hard as hell to—”
A bullet strikes from Uncle Brazen’s gun, cutting off whatever Captain Fricks was going to say, and I watch it in almost slow motion as it rips through the otherwise impenetrable flesh of the psychotic grandmother I wish I had never met. She screams out in pain, and grabs her side, her eyes narrowing in on Uncle Brazen as he fires again, striking her through the hand that isn’t so invincible now.
It slices through her flesh, and cracks the same spot. He prepares to use his unparalleled sniper abilities once more, but in a blur, the monster is gone, rushing through the trees and disappearing into the darkness.
“Go after her! They have Aria’s blood!” Captain Fricks yells.
No one follows or acknowledges him. Everyone is too injured to chase down my blood. Simone is trying to help Jase up from the ground, and my heart breaks when I see his arm is broken in at least three places. He hobbles as though his leg has been broken as well, and I try to stand, only to fall back down.
Kellan is suddenly stalking toward me, and I gaze up into the determined eyes of a man ready to claim his counter. I feel it, and if I was a normal hybrid or even a hybrid like my mother, it would be enough to send me in a downward spiral of lust and need. But...
“Stop,” I say weakly, scrambling backwards, but he doesn’t stop.
He leans down, prepared to claim me and make me his in front of everyone, and I scream at him this time. “Stop!”
Mom wearily raises her head just as my counter bends to kiss me. No. He can’t. I have too much of my blood still pouring from my lips.
“Sleep,” I hear Mom whisper in her savage voice, saving me from the love I don’t want.
Kellan drops almost instantly, proving his untamed savage isn’t as strong as her controlled one, even though they’re the same breed of hybrid. He’s breathing peacefully as he thuds to the ground, and I breathe out in relief while dropping back myself.
“You need blood,” Rex says, looking over to Melania who has also been struck by the crazy bitch.
He rushes away, leaving us all while he disappears into the woods. I hear trees cracking when he knocks them out of the way in his mad dash to find blood. Though I don’t know where he’ll find it.
Jase falls to his knees beside me, biting back a grimace when his broken leg hits too hard. He reaches down with his good hand and strokes my cheek as tears try to fall from his eyes.
“You’re really alive,” he whispers in awe.
He bends to kiss me, but his eyes drop to the blood on my lips, and he glances around. “You need to heal. How bad is it?”
I don’t want to tell him the truth.
“Why can’t I hear you?” he asks, his eyes narrowed in on me.