Page 43 of Awakened Gifts
“Like I said; Aria is unleashed.”
Chapter 14
ARIA’S SAVAGE
The skin slowly reforms in patterns resembling a computer’s graphics. There’s no pain or disorientation, and it’s a hell of a lot faster than any vehicle could have gotten me here.
The air is tainted with stale sweat, male musk, and desperation. They’ve been here, but like cowards, they ran. For a week, they’ve eluded me. I know they’ll keep running if I keep stalking, and I don’t have the patience to keep tracking them down. So it’s time to change tactics.
Though they’re finally scared of me, they still need me. There’s nothing they won’t do to get to me—to get to my blood. But self-preservation is ruling over ambition.
Right now, they’re running from a huntress, so it’s time to play the prey. Yes. I’m a good little actress. I’ll even give them a wounded wing, making myself look vulnerable. It’ll be all too easy, so I’ll have to drag it out. The lambs at my slaughter will be a mere appetizer in preparation for the main course.
Alice.
She needs a trail to find me, and their bodies will be my breadcrumbs. It’ll all be too easy.
I have something they’re all desperate to have. Blood is everything in a world like ours, but I’ll be damned if they ever touch mine again. If they want me, then they’re going to have to walk through hell to get to me. And I’ll be the devil waiting to collect their souls.
Just like the moths they are, they find my staged flame. The trap is laid, the blood is dripping, and the devil’s grin is hidden behind my feigned cries of mock agony.
The shadows in the darkness creep in with stealth, but I see them all with perfect clarity. Their fear is absent, for they believe the hybrid they’ve sought is coming down from savage and is too weak to defend herself.
So close. Just a little closer.
The red sand vibrates ever so vaguely beneath me, trying its best to warn me of the impending attack. But nature doesn’t know I’m not the one who needs to be warned. My mouth is almost watering in anticipation.
Two, maybe three-hundred. It’s hard to count without being obvious. Each rustle, each movement, and each breath captures my full attention, and I watch and wait, still crying in nonexistent pain.
I’ve never been so hungry for death, and the power inside me hums with the desire be unleashed. The scorpion tattoos are hidden beneath their black tactical gear, but I can almost see through the thin layers of clothing they feel hides them within the darkness.
My patience frays and snaps when they’re close enough. With a loud crackle, the sky darkens as the sweet, divine taste of domination runs through my veins. The rushing figures halt, breaths catching in their throats, and they look at me with fear in their shaky eyes.
Using my empathic powers, I push that fear into all of their hearts and magnify it, creating terror. I don’t want them to merely be afraid of me, I want their hearts to burst because they’re so fucking terrified that they can’t breathe.
The winds pick up at my silent command, and the stir of it becomes more powerful, further scaring the incompetent idiots around me and feeding my insatiable appetite for fear. Their terror fuels me as screams erupt into the madness my violent winds create, and I stand slowly, reveling in the chaos as bones start to crack.
My taste for bloodshed is insatiable, and I’m only getting started.
JASE
“You’re sure this is where you saw her?” I ask, getting out of the vehicle and scanning the seemingly harmless scenery in skeptical disbelief.
If Aria was planning an attack on someone, she’d already be here by now. This was either a brilliant plan of intervention or a fool’s unintentional suicide mission. We’re blind to her, but if she’s here, she’s already spotted us by now.
“Positive,” Rex says, looking around as if uncertain, contradicting his words with his expression. “Well, sort of. The vision was blurry. Ever since Aria rode my vision that day, they’re all shorter and blurrier than ever. But I saw the red sand clearly, and this is the only place with the red sand.”
A thunderous drumming catches my attention, and my stomach sinks as the sounds of screams carry to us on the arms of the unnatural winds. Aria.
“Ten miles south,” Kellan says, panicking as he jumps into a car and speeds away.
Shit. She might kill him this time if he charges in without anyone stopping him. And she’ll never forgive herself.
Rex is two steps behind me when I jump into a vehicle, and Mel hops in right behind him. Araya and Brazen were out looking for her when Rex got the vision, and they haven’t caught up to us yet. I’m actually a little thankful for that, because Araya’s trained savage is an unlikely match for the unleashed version of Aria that Simone has warned us about.
Simone is with Angelica and Grayson, all three of them frantically searching for a way to once again merge Aria’s blood back with her savage. I can’t keep fucking losing her. It’s like living in hell while heaven rests farther and farther in the rearview mirror.
Rex curses when he sees smoke and ashes billowing toward us, and the horrific, bone-chilling screams grow louder with every thrust forward. “He’s such a stupid son of a bitch for going after her alone. If she kills Kellan—”