Page 28 of Awakened Gifts
So Dad knew all along. No wonder Jase never got an idea of what I was beforehand. Dad was too damn good to be fooled.
Jase doesn’t acknowledge my thoughts. His full attention is focused solely on the full blood across the table from me. And he’s not going to like what I have to say next.
“I didn’t come in here to talk about the indestructible monster. Not yet. I came in here to talk about using your blood. We have children who might can be saved. Simone can use your blood.”
Jase snorts derisively. “We’ll just take his blood. We don’t need his fucking permission. I’ll make sure he enjoys the withdrawal as much as you did. And then I’ll let him believe his world is gone—everything he has to live for.”
My tears form in my eyes as I turn to look at him. Broken. He looks so broken and almost lost right now.
“I’m fine, baby. Now. But that doesn’t mean I’m not pissed,” Jase says, finally looking back at me.
“We can’t just take his blood. We’re not them.” I turn back to face Fricks. “If you give your blood willingly, then I’ll give mine for the quest of saving your wife.”
“Absolutely not!” Jase roars, slamming his hands down on the table and forcing it to bow from the force.
Please calm down.
“No! Aria, I won’t calm down. You’re offering him your blood.”
“I completely agree with Jase,” Mom barks, glaring at me like I’ve lost my mind.
“No. I’m not offering him anything. I’ll never let any of them ever touch my blood again. I’m offering Simone my blood. She can take over his research. He can offer his blood to her, and she can save the emergent children at last. She can do a lot more with a hell of a lot less blood.”
The door to the interrogation room swings open, and the room becomes a little smaller when Simone steps in. The tears in her eyes surprise me. “I won’t help him. I’ll take his blood without his permission. After what he did to you… to all of us… I refuse to help this sick bastard.”
I shake my head while looking at her. “Simone, I’m not asking you to do this for him. This could help save all the infected. Humans could have a choice.”
She tightens her lips as the first tear falls, but I can see that she’s thinking logically now. The rational scientist within her will win out over her emotions. Everyone is still adjusting to the fact that I’m alive.
Jase curses and walks away, storming out and slamming the door behind him. Mom follows, muttering threats all the way through the door. But Simone stays in the room with me, begging me with her eyes not to make her help him.
“His wife never did anything to me,” I tell her, trying to explain. “She doesn’t deserve to be punished for his crimes.”
She wipes away another tear, resigning herself to the truth. Once I feel as though she’s really onboard, I turn back to Fricks whose eyes have glossed over.
“Do we have a deal?”
He puts his arm on the table, keeping his inner wrist facing upward. “Take as much as you need.”
Chapter 9
ARIA
“Let the record show that I’m doing this under extreme protest,” Simone mumbles while drawing my blood.
I give her a weak smile, but my mind is all over the place.
“I think I can complete the process with half a body of blood. If it works, I may be able to isolate the healing particles and duplicate them—using my gift, of course. This could be groundbreaking,” she says monochromatically.
“Gee, try not to sound so excited about the fact you might be able to cure the incurable.”
She doesn’t say anything, but I almost think she enjoys the hell out of slicing my arm with the uranium tipped knife.
“You’re mad at me,” I say while she uses her gift to draw out blood.
“I’m not mad at you, Aria. I’m confused, fascinated, confounded, and made to feel inferior by you. You were tortured, yet you want to help the man who tied you down, beat you with a whip, and stabbed you with uranium on a regular schedule for weeks, after he convinced your family and the two men that love you that you were dead.”
Mom walks up, interrupting us with a reverent sigh. “I really don’t like this,” she grumbles, glaring at the blood leaving my arm slowly as I sip on a fresh pack of blood.