Page 75 of Awakened Gifts
Confused. I’m confused.
“How… You’re… But how are…”
All of my thoughts collide, and none of them come out fully as I gape at the girl who is slowly standing up, her eyes finding humor in all of this madness. I don’t know if there’s a thump somewhere around me, or if that’s the sound of me swallowing.
“Aria always did assume I’d be just like Araya, considering her savage blood made me this way. All the phases of Araya’s savage blood went into altering my mother’s code. It altered mine even more. I’m kicking her ass for this later.”
The abilities to speak and move have abandoned me, and Simone grins softly while leaning over to kiss me softly on the lips. Now breathing seems to be just as lost among the other failing functions in my body.
“You’re safe, Kellan. We have to hurry before—”
Lines of blurry red acid burns between us, and I curse when it slices through my arm. It barely misses Simone, and we dodge the next streak very narrowly. She glares across the room as a smug, violet-eyed man walks toward us. His long, dark hair gives him away, and a dark grin crawls into place. He’s the front leading man of our kidnapping.
I buzz the electricity through my fingertips, waiting for the right second to strike as he challenges us with that smug look of superiority.
“Little escapees. I’m impressed,” he taunts with thick condescension. “You’re lucky we need you for bait. I was just coming down to collect an eye from the counter of the girl we seek.”
Apparently they haven’t heard the latest news. At lease we have that bit of an edge.
“Then come and get it,” Simone dares, her grin actually scaring me a little.
When his eyes darken and dilate, turning into a controlled savage, I take a step forward, trying to get between him and Simone. Son of a bitch!
A loud grunt passes through my lips when she shoves my chest and slams me into the wall, proving her savage is a hell of a lot stronger than I realized.
The second he raises his hand to strike, I lash out, tossing my streaks of electricity, but the fucker easily dodges it, and what little bit does hit him doesn’t faze him. But at least his attention is on me.
I accept my fate calmly, hoping Simone is already retreating, as the red acidic liquid starts forming around his hands. But before he can use it, he’s suddenly gasping for air. The liquid disappears as he grabs his throat, his eyes wide with panic as he coughs and gargles.
I turn to look at Simone who has a sinister grin on her face as she leisurely walks by me on her way to the struggling man. My jaw falls slack, losing the ability to close as I watch in disbelief. Simone… there’s no way.
“Bitch,” the guy says through garbled strain, and then he cries out as the blood in his body suddenly bursts through his mouth, his eyes, and his ears and floods the floor. When his useless, drained body collapses, it looks like a mummified corpse—dry and frail.
She turns to me and winks, and my knees buckle, dropping me to the floor. “You’re stronger than Araya?” I ask in disbelief.
Araya wasn’t able to kill any of them. She almost died instead of making a dent.
The grin she wears is a mixture of confidence and wickedness. She’s not quite Simone, but she has enough control to keep herself grounded.
“Apparently,” she says at last. “Told you I was unique. Let’s get out of here.”
She threads her fingers with mine, and I inwardly kick myself. Leave it to me to be with yet another powerful woman. It’s a damn good thing my ego was overly inflated to begin with, because it’s been plummeting for a while.
“Pouting?” she muses in a whisper, a teasing lilt lying in the undertones.
And she’s a hell of a lot more perceptive than I wish she was. Fucking perfect.
“No,” I lie, ignoring the way her grin grows. It’s amazing to see her so savage, yet so amazingly calm and… normal. Not even Aria has that sort of control.
“Down!” she yells, jerking me out of my reverie and making me look ahead instead of at her just as several shots fire in our direction.
If they’re shooting, they’re not the new hybrid, and I don’t waste time slinging out my power, dodging most of the bullets. The few that rip through my flesh don’t slow me down. Dozens pour in, and the powers get stronger, but they’re no match for the beauty behind me.
Their blood becomes her toy, and simultaneously, she draws every drop from their bodies. They drop like dead weight, and we rush through the doorway, following the winding, dimly lit corridors as they appear. The labyrinth style of this place reminds me of Seminole, considering it seems like we’re running in circles.
New faces emerge, and Simone plows through them, never seeming to falter in her strength. I really hope that means my savage is going to get stronger, because I’d hate to feel like I wasn’t fucking good enough. Again.
Simone smiles at me, blood of the fallen cloaking her once clean clothes, and she sighs in relief. We’re almost—