Page 40 of Awakened Gifts
His smile spreads, and he grabs me up from the floor to spin me around. I giggle like I’m fifteen instead of centuries-old. Slipping free from his grasp, I toss on a pair of shorts and a shirt that someone must have brought by. Though I was apparently sound asleep.
He reluctantly dresses, but as soon as his clothes are on his body, he returns to me, and my girlish laughter bubbles free once more. Jase’s face nestles into the side of my hair as he breathes me in, holding me so tight, and I cling to him as well. We’re finally getting our moment.
Then…
Wood cracking forces me to jerk my attention over just as two tables explode simultaneously, eliciting a shriek from me, and Jase pulls me behind him protectively just before the bed bursts into thousands of pieces. Small droplets of cotton rain down on what’s left of the bed that looks to have lost a war with a grenade, but there was no grenade.
“What the hell?” Jase says, more to himself than me.
The tingling in the tips of my fingers says it all, and my eyes widen just before the walls start cracking.
“It’s me. Shit, it’s me and I can’t turn it off. Jase, we have to get out of here before I tear the place down!”
He tilts his head, confused, and then the door splinters into as many pieces as the tragic bed that has suffered my unintentional wrath. I’m a frigging nonstop disaster on legs.
“Okay, deep breaths,” he says, keeping his voice light as he tries to calm me down, swallowing hard when the walls threaten to tremble in my presence.
In a blur, I’m suddenly being hauled away from the room too fast for my eyes to focus. It takes a second to realize Jase has me in his arms and he’s running with me.
The ground beneath his feet rumble, and a few gasps escape the mouths of faces I can’t see. Since when is he so fast?
It doesn’t take us long before we’re outside the gates, and my breathing grows panicky as the ground quakes harder, my gift leaking out unbidden and unexpectedly.
“You’re still susceptible to going savage right now. I don’t know what I was thinking by keeping you here.”
We’re both idiots for not heeding the warnings, knowing my sanity was still fragile so soon after being savage.
“You have to get away from me,” I bite out through clenched teeth, overwhelmed by the intense burning that is slowly starting in the pit of my stomach.
No. No. Please, God. No.
Last time there were too many distractions for my savage to unleash hell on the ones I love. It was a miracle it didn’t strike Jase down just like it did Kellan.
“I can’t hold it…” My words sizzle out when the burning becomes too intense, and I force myself out of Jase’s arms as my body slowly starts to shake.
Shit. This is going to be so bad.
Chapter 12
JASE
“Jase, go!” Aria cries, dropping to her knees as though she’s in agony while clutching her stomach.
I’m not going any-damn-where. She shouldn’t be in this much pain. This can’t be her savage—
My thoughts are dropped when the dirt all around us begins to vibrate, the individual grains separating and slowly lifting from the ground. For as far as I can see, more and more grains rise, splitting and holding an independent spot in the air, rising higher and higher until it’s almost chest-level with me.
Holy…fucking…shit.
It almost sounds like the ground is roaring, a dull promise with a thunderous tingle, starting at my toes and riding my body up to my head. It’s as though a thousand small wires are all bouncing wildly inside of me.
I can only imagine what’s going on inside of her if this is merely the side effects.
Her cries of anguish force me to cringe, and I try to go to her, but it’s as though there is an invisible wall holding me back. It’s an almost tangible force that I could beat my fists on, but I can break free.
“Aria!” I yell over the roar that seems to only grow louder, and then a buzzing joins it, forcing me to step back and cover my ears.
The small grains of sand start swirling, spinning around us, and large gusts of wind join them as the land tries to distort. Helpless, so fucking helpless—that’s what I am. Watching her writhe in pain is enough to suffocate me with panic.