Page 54 of Awakened Gifts
I keep losing her, I keep fighting to keep her only to have her stripped away. It’s too much. All of it is just too damn much.
“Shit,” Kellan growls, torn between helping me or going to Aria.
“Go. Help… her,” I say through strain, coughing as my body contorts. Damn. This isn’t good. At all.
ARIA
“Aria!” Kellan’s voice is yelling for me, and I curse under my breath while narrowly dodging a savage hybrid’s attack. These fuckers have figured out how to draw forth their savage on command, just like Mom. No doubt they’ve been toying with science and playing God.
“Stay back!” I scream, once again managing to escape another attack.
My body isn’t as indestructible as it was when my savage was in control, and my powers aren’t exactly as awesome, but I’m still the strongest here, despite their savages. But Kellan is just one big distraction. How the hell did he find me?
“Aria, it’s Jase! You have to come with us! He’s fighting his savage, and you being here in the middle of this shit is just drawing it out!”
Fuck my life.
Jase’s cry of pain resonates in my ears, and I whip around to see him on all fours, his body writhing in agony.
“Aria!” Kellan yells just as a red slice appears on my side.
Purple electricity lashes out against my attacker as Kellan swooshes to my side, but I shove him back, hitting him hard enough to drive him back to where Jase is—several hundred feet away.
“I said stay back!”
I turn around, ready to destroy everything and everyone. I’ll find a survivor at the next fake trail they’ve left behind.
But before I can do anything, fire shoots from the ground in the form of geysers. It sprays through the air, incinerating anyone in its grasp. One erupts about ten feet from me, and Kellan jerks me back just as a distinct roar fills the air, creating chills in its wake. Only a powerful hybrid who has gone savage roars like that.
Jase.
“We’ve got to get the fuck out of here,” Kellan says, but my body starts to sway, forcing him to hold me up as the savage version of Jase stalks toward the army of Fire Hawks.
The closer he gets, the more my body sways, and a drunken sensation creeps into my veins. He’s so beautiful.
His mismatched eyes are almost glowing, and the army of United soldiers that followed him here start falling back, seeming as mesmerized by his show of power as I am. Kellan grips me tighter as Jase roars again, ripping his shirt off as his fire breaks free from the earth once more.
He feels like he’s so far away, even though he’s less than a hundred yards adjacent to us. I want to be closer, feel his power as though it’s my own. I just want to touch him.
“Aria, are you fucking crazy? We have to get out of here before he turns on us.”
I hear his words, but it takes several minutes for them to register. I’m too focused on the beautiful beast that is ripping apart the men who’ve done nothing but try to kill us.
“He’d never hurt us,” I whisper, still lost in awe.
Jase throws his hands out, pushing power from his fingertips, and the fire rolls through the crowd, decimating them one by one. I lunge forward, desperate to get closer, but Kellan’s firm grip keeps pulling me back. He’s just strong enough to hold me back, but not strong enough to move me.
“Christ, Aria, are you crazy? Jase isn’t going to turn on full bloods like most savages. He’ll turn on the ones who’ve hurt him most. You and me. We have to get out of here.”
He keeps tugging at me, but I’m stronger, so much stronger than I used to be, and he can’t budge me when I plant my feet into the ground. The other savage hybrids are no match for Jase, and they fall prey to his beautiful flames. As the battlefield turns to dust and ashes, the glowing eyes turn to meet mine, and my body all but gravitates toward him.
I want him. Need him.
That look in his eyes doesn’t intend me harm. That look is carnal, ravenous, and hungry… for me.
Kellan slowly releases me when the captivating savage snarls at him, and I vaguely notice the sharp intake of air my old counter has.
“It’s not possible,” he says softly, more to himself than me, since I don’t give a damn about anything or anyone other than the savage stalking toward me with clear intentions.