Page 23 of Awakened Gifts
I glance down to see Kellan’s arm just barely touching my leg. Even in his slumber he’s blocking Jase’s mindreading abilities for me. That’s good. Because I feel like a chainsaw massacre is going on inside of my body right now, and I don’t want him to know my true pain.
“How did you deny him?” Simone asks in shock, forcing me to look up.
“That’s the question you have for her right now?” Mom groans as Uncle Brazen helps her up.
She looks like hell. Her battered face is covered in black bruises and swollen skin. Her body looks to be falling apart, and Uncle Brazen scoops her up, seeming unaffected.
“How did a full blood fair better than an emergent hybrid?” I ask, wanting them to talk so that I don’t have to.
I hold back the bloodcurdling scream that is erupting inside my head as the pain only grows. Rex needs to hurry with that blood.
“Simone and I took the treetops to fire down. The bullets were ineffective, and your mom looked like a target. That woman zeroed in on her. Even when I stood over her, she concentrated all of her power on Araya. I swear she has a vendetta against her.”
Christ, this is going to be a tough conversation. How do I tell my mother that her mother wants to kill her?
“I’ll kill her next time,” Mom says, glancing toward Captain Fricks, and her lips curl up in a snarl. “After I kill him.”
“Don’t,” I say through a pained breath. “We’re going to need him. He knows both sides of the players ready for a new war. We need his intel.”
“And you think he’ll just give it to us?” Mom growls, her hands itching to pull the trigger inside her twisted mind.
“I know he will. I’ve got something he needs.”
That’s all I can speak. Jase leans me back and onto my side as blood starts spilling out of my mouth. I look over to see Kellan is bleeding, but it’s not fatal. Thank God everyone survived.
“You won’t be able to kill her now,” Captain Fricks says in a nearly muted whisper, shaking his head as he tries to sit up.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Mom barks, wincing thereafter.
She gazes at Uncle Brazen’s shoulder longingly, acting as though she’s about to heal right here and now, and my stomach rolls.
“She has Aria’s blood. There’s no stopping her now. It was the final piece... of... the...”
His voice trails off as he passes out, the pain taking him down. His legs seem to be broken in ways that would make the strongest stomach sick. I have to look away when I see just how mangled they are.
Everyone turns back around, and Jase wraps his good arm around me and pulls me as close as he can get me. There’s no telling what lies the traitor is spewing. But Jase can read his mind once we’re back home. Right now, I just want him holding me the way he is.
“The woman is strong,” Simone says, still pursing her lips as she studies me like I’m her next science project.
I know what she’s wondering—what they’re all wondering. But the answers they want aren’t anywhere in my mind. I don’t know how I denied my counter, but I did. Kellan... I wish for his sake he could deny me just the same.
“I’ve got blood!” Rex yells, barreling back through the woods on his way to us.
I try to speak, but it’s just too hard. The pain is too much, and my eyes are just too heavy.
Chapter 8
ARIA
They make it hard to sleep when they’re all in the next room, everyone whispering about what happened just hours ago.
I’m healed. My body is in one piece, I’ve been cleaned up, and I have on clothes that don’t show the proof of the torture I endured.
“She’s awake,” I hear Jase say through a relieved exhale, and seconds later, the door is opening as he rushes to me.
I don’t even have time to get up before he’s pulling me to him and holding me like he’s never going to let me go again. My tears creep out as I clutch him with the same ferocity, and he kisses my hair.
“I thought… We all thought…” His voice trails off when he chokes on his emotion, and I just hold him that much tighter.