Page 60 of Awakened Gifts
Oh that’s so freaky.
The ground starts to move and shift even more, forcing us to stumble, and I trip over the hem of my dress as I try to line up my first shot.
Fuck the gun.
“Get down!” Mom yells seconds before she unleashes hell.
A powerful blast erupts from the palm of her hand, barely missing Jase when he hesitates to drop. I hop up and run behind the powerful blast that slams into the front line of the army that has come for us.
The bald headed man yells loudly, and my eyes almost pop out when Mom’s blast of power fades into nothing before it can do all the damage it could have. It misses him completely, and that’s when I notice the scar that slithers from his lip to his chin, and flows into the open neckline of his shirt.
When the bald, snake-headed guy laughs, more chills consume me.
“That’s not good,” Jase says under his breath, slinging his fire out like a barricade when their others start launching massive strikes of various powers.
That’s when all hell breaks loose. In less than a second, their army has descended on us, and the smell of blood coats the air. Frantically, I swing out my arms, pushing my power out, but the fight is so congested that I can’t use too much of my gift for fear of hurting someone unintentionally.
“Jase!” I yell when I don’t see any fire flaming around.
“I’m fine! Work your way toward the middle! It’s too damn tight for me to use my gift without fucking someone up by mistake.”
Blurs of swinging arms and rupturing powers are all buzzing around me. No humans. All of these are genetically altered hybrids with a thirst for blood. Alice’s thirst for my blood.
Rex cries out, and my heart thunders in my chest. That’s his tell. He’s about to go savage, and in this cluster fuck, someone from our side is bound to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time.
“Mom! Rex!” I yell while dodging, kicking, and doing all I can to break free from the pack and find my way to my brother and Jase. They flooded us on purpose just so they could separate us and keep our strongest powers at bay.
“Rex!” I hear Mel screaming just as a cry of pain hits my ears.
No. No. No.
“Mel!” Jase yells frantically just as she screams, proving she’s hurting as well.
Blood mars my vision as I start using my new strength, grabbing the throats of the false emergent hybrids and viciously ripping them out. My body takes several hits, but I barely feel the scrapes of small scratches instead of the devastating blows they are delivering.
Mom yelps just before calling out Uncle Brazen’s name. I hear more and more of my family as their pained cries ring out. Kellan’s purple streaks of fury slice by me, possibly saving my life when he takes out two hybrids that were dangerously close to taking my head. He rushes through the crowd, his sights aimed on the girl lying on the ground as he mercilessly shreds through the many.
Simone. Shit.
She looks up to meet my eyes, and mouths, “Get out of here.”
She’s crazy. I can’t leave them.
My blood starts burning, promising me my savage is in reach. But I have to deny it. It’ll only make things worse and possibly kill my own family. I can’t get trapped inside my own mind again, because there are too many lives at stake.
Kellan grabs Simone by the waist just as Uncle Grayson’s power lashes out, incinerating a line of the hybrids. Or it should have incinerated them.
I watch in disbelief as the men Uncle Grayson just hit with his powerful blast keep walking through the mess. They’ve lost their clothes amongst the burning inferno, and their skin is charred, but they’re upright and still stalking toward us.
“Aria! You have to get out of here before they take you!”
Like hell I’ll get out of here and leave everyone else to be slaughtered. They want my blood. I dare them to try and take it from me.
It’s so hard to see each and every person, but when my savage was in control, she used my empathic power as an offensive weapon. She fed off their fears, their terror, and their pain. I just have to force my people to retreat.
I reach out with my senses, tasting the fear and the need for self-preservation from both sides. A divide happens almost instantly, each side backing into retreat, but I don’t know how long I can keep them divided.
The small bit of space offers our men the chance to fire rapidly, and I throw out more power.