Gifted Curse (Curse Trilogy)

by C. M. Owens

“Captain Banner,” he answers.

  “Sir, this is Corporal James Verlon. We’ve got a situation in Hensen, and our United officers are taking fire,” the man panics, and my heart almost drops to the floor as I stare into Hale’s terrified eyes.

  “Commander Jude and the others, what’s their status?” Hale prompts.

  “They’ve been hit hard. These people have uranium dipped bullets and other weapons built for the demise of our stronger kinds. We’re trying to get to them, but we’re outgunned, Sir. They’re cut off from communication any other way, leaving you in charge, Sir. They don’t have shelter. Right now the only thing protecting them from the hailing uranium bullets is a small, natural bunker. They’re running low on ammo, and we can’t get close enough to supply them with more. We don’t have much time either, Sir.”

  “I’ve already sent a message to the three nearest armies, and they’ll be there within three hours. I’m on my way right now,” Hale asserts, and he grabs his keys before swishing by me in a blur.

  “I’m coming with you,” I blare from behind.

  “No you’re not. It’s too dangerous,” he counters, and we’re outside within a blink.

  He races over to a convertible, and I flash over to the blood bank.

  “I’m going with or without you,” I snap, and I break the door free from its hinges when I feel the locked resistance.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he barks.

  “They’re going to be hurt. They’ll need blood to heal,” I explain.

  “They’ll have blood there.”

  “If they’ve got our weapons, they won’t have enough blood to go around by the time we get there,” I counter.

  He lets out a dramatic huff and starts aiding me in my fervent attempt to fill the trunk of his convertible. I don’t give him another second to argue before he slams it into drive, and I jump in the passenger seat.

  “I don’t want you coming,” he growls.

  “I really don’t give a fuck. They don’t have shelter, and the atmosphere’s timer is ticking. The sky will lose its tint and be in full glow for an hour in less than forty-five minutes. The armies are three hours out. The fight will be over with by then. We can be at Hensen in less than forty minutes if you drive the way I remember you driving. I’m not letting Brazen turn to ash just because you don’t want me coming,” I bark.

  “I can still drive, baby, but five minutes is all we’ll have to get them out of there,” he worries.

  “Five minutes is all I’ll need,” I murmur as the demons within me start to howl.

  My human half has never held me back the way it does the rest of our kind. I’m stronger, faster, and damn near impossible to stop when I’m pissed. Right now, I’d register a full blown fifteen on a scale of one to ten.

  “What happens if you-”

  “I haven’t done that since before you left. My emotions are in check,” I interrupt, quickly halting his concerns.

  “What if something has happened to Brazen? Will you be okay then?” he continues.

  I take a deep, steadying breath before answering, “Then you’ll have to bring me down before I hurt someone.”

  He doesn’t breathe another word. I think he was basically asking for permission to do what only he can. The demons of my past, the monster inside me, and the daily struggle just to live is constantly taking its toll on me. If anything happens to Brazen, they’ll all collide at once.

  I see the dust stirring, and I hear the screams as the bullets continue to spiral mercilessly through the air. Each whistling zip strikes with deadly intent. I’m relieved to see no gifts are in play, meaning they don’t have gifted hybrids. Clay is the only gifted hybrid in our crew here, and he refuses to use his gift for anything but science.

  I jump from the car before Hale has a chance to even stop it. It took us thirty-seven minutes to get here. That gives me seven minutes to end this, get them out, and make sure Brazen is tucked inside a heavily tinted car before the sky’s tint fades from view.

  “Captain Banner,” a man says with a salute.

  “We’re going in,” Hale asserts, and the man starts grabbing armor to pad our chests.

  “We don’t have time for that,” I growl, and I dash toward the firing squad holding our people down.

  “Araya, you can’t go in there without some protection. You’ll-”

  “I’ll be fine long enough to get them out. Just have the tinted cars ready to conceal the full bloods,” I instruct, and I rush into the blazing fires and bullet storms.

  The whistling of a uranium loaded grenade whizzes by my ear, and the bullets begin snapping against my body as I walk through the hazy swarms of them. I know I’ll only have a few minutes to do this before my body weakens and I lose my invincible shield. I have to kill them all soon in order to get Brazen and the others out.

  I look toward the barricade I know they’re nested behind, and I see a group of men coming in from the backside. Bullets are still flying from the barricade, which lets me know they’re still alive. Brazen had better be alive.

  The bullets, small missiles, and flames continue to prove ineffective against my body when I flip the scales upside down and take control of the battle. I concentrate on the scenery, and smirk when I feel my incredible power building as I release my gift. The trucks hiding the attackers lift into the air, and then I slam them to the ground in unison with barely the flick of my wrists.

  The bullets screeching toward me are halted, and I return them with another flick to take out the army of men firing to freely. More and more screams erupt, and I feel the burning starting. My build is becoming too strong, and my cursed gift reminds me of the toll it takes on my rare invincibility.

  My skin shreds from my side and arm when a new storm of bullets blindside me, but I stop the rest before they finish their deadly attack. I scream to the barrier, and I only hope I hear a familiar voice.

  “Brazen?” I plead as more bullets tear at my weakened flesh.

  “He’s alive, but he’s in too much pain to talk. Get us the hell out of here,” a man’s voice pleads.

  “Get down,” I command, and then I feel the explosive power exuding too strong for me to control.

  The dreaded, deadly blast erupts from my body, burning through me and into the mass of gunmen. The remaining attackers are blown from their feet, their skin is shedding from their body as the lifeless corpses start folding to the ground.

  “Araya!” Hale screams in panic.

  “It’s still my power… just my power!” I yell back to squash his worry. “Get the fuck back.”

  The metal of the gun wilts, folds, and gives in to the unbearable pressure radiating from my body. Glass shatters as I shred the fragile vehicles they had once been hiding behind. The dust screams out in pain as my forceful eruption travels through it. The sound barrier is ripped when the sounds try to catch up to what the eyes see first, exploding it into the air. The blast continues around me, and it takes all my strength to stop it from traveling too far - though I don’t know how to actually stop it.

  My hands fall to my side as the crashing remnants of my overexertion sound off against the ground. I have nothing left to give now. My stomach tight with knots, I start looking around at the chaotic destruction I’ve evoked. The dust has clouded my view of the barricade. Dead bodies are all that surround me, filling me with a darker, draining knot forming in my throat. I only pray that barricade shielded them all from my deadly blast.

  “Brazen!” I panic.

  “He’s here,” Clay says, and I rush over to see the gashes covering our commander.

  My eyes move to the man lying in his lap, and my heart pops up in my mouth as a cold heat floods through me. I can barely tell it’s Brazen. His eyes are open, but he’s almost strangling to try to talk. His lips are cracked, singed. His charred skin hides the beauty he normally displays as the red pours from his gaping, fatal wounds. His labored breaths tell the secrets of the excruciating pain he’s in, forcing my tears to pour ou
t in abundance.

  “A uranium grenade almost hit me. Brazen stepped in front of me to absorb the blast,” Clay explains with guilty eyes, but he looks as if he was almost blown up too.

  Hale and the others swoop in just in time to start grabbing people up. I stand frozen, staring at the man I’ve promised my life to as he suffers in agony.

  “Get the full bloods to the tinted vehicles now. The rest can be treated here. Bring the blood. All of it,” Hale commands, and men scramble to do as he asks.

  I snap out of my moment of terror, praying I can subdue the devil within. Hale’s eyes flash over to me as he gauges my pupils. He looks away when he sees it’s still just me.

  I follow the man carrying Brazen to the vehicle, and I grab four packs of blood before I leap in with him. I use my teeth to rip open the bag, and I start pouring the blood into his mouth before I assess his damages any farther.

  “You’re okay. I’m here now. You’re going to be okay,” I almost cry, and then my shaky hands grab another bag to tear open.

  I almost drown him in this one when my hands tremble too much and the bag gushes the blood into his throat.

  When I reach down to grab another, his hand pulls it up for me. Tears surge free from my swelling eyes as I watch his wounds healing from the heaps of blood I’ve forced down him. They begin sealing up very slowly, and his broken bones begin cracking back into place. He gasps when air finally flows into his lungs without obstruction, and he takes several easy, deep breaths. He casually opens the third pack himself, and he begins sipping it as if it’s just a snack.

  “Well, I suppose I must look pretty damn terrible for you to be holding such heavy tears,” he smoothly rolls out, his hand motioning for me to come to him, and my wails ring free as I lean into his chest.

  “I’m okay,” he coos as he holds me to him, stroking my windblown hair with his hand. “Look. They’re all gone now.”

  I see the threat of the tint dropping from the sky, and I scramble to roll up the dividing glass from the back to the front. I sigh in relief when I finally know he’s safe - from everything. Very gradually the size of the knots in my stomach and throat begin to lessen.

  “I didn’t think I was going to make it in time,” I whimper.

  “You did. It’s rather emasculating to need my girl to save me, but I’m damn glad you got here when you did. They fried our radios right away, and then another pulse killed our cell phones. The ones in charge left before it was over. We didn’t even-”

  My lips silence his rambling ones. I just want to feel his touch. I don’t want a debriefing just yet. His hands grip against my back, and I lie on top of him in the back of the tinted vehicle.

  “I was so worried,” I breathe.

  “I was too,” he confesses. “I sure as hell wasn’t ready to go before I got to see you walk down the aisle,” he playfully adds.

  I cry and laugh at the same time until his lips halt mine’s quivering again. I hear the front doors opening, but the dividing glass is too dark for me to see who’s driving.

  “Who’s there?” I worry.

  “It’s Hale and me,” Clay says, and he sounds better than he looked earlier.

  “Are you healed?”

  “Thanks to you and Hale I am. It’s a damn good thing you brought so much blood with you,” he sighs out with relief.

  My eyes burn in the direction of the driver’s seat where I know Hale will be sitting. I was right. We did need the blood.

  “That was Araya. I just drove here. She did the rest,” Hale softly interjects, his tone sounding distant and slightly dismayed.

  “You’re hurt,” Brazen suddenly blurts out, and I see panic on his face when he gauges the massive blood stain shining through my shirt.

  “I’m fine,” I murmur dismissively.

  There are gashes all over my body from the breaking storm of bullets I endured after my invincibility dropped. I can taste my own blood in my mouth sliding down my throat. I suppose it’s a good thing we don’t feel the need to blood fuck ourselves when we taste our own blood.

  A small smirk tries to come to my face after my dirty thought rummages around my mind, and Brazen turns my face to meet his.

  “Take this one,” he says while handing me the fourth pack I brought.

  “No. You need it to get your strength back. I’ll be fine. I’ll get some when we get back to the compound,” I argue.

  “How bad is she hurt?” Hale asks through the closed window to prove he’s listening in.

  “Bad enough to leave at least two pints of blood worth of stain on her shirt. It’s still dripping too,” Brazen growls, and now he’s trying to force the blood into my hand.

  “You drink it. I’m not going to,” I assert.

  “Drink the damn blood, Araya. You’re not as fucking invincible as you think you are,” Hale barks, and I see Brazen scowling at the man we can’t see.

  “I’m not drinking it. Brazen just came damn close to being blown up, and I’m sure we’ve depleted the supplies we brought by now. I’ll be fine until we get back. And for the record, I know I’m not invincible. I’m just a hell of a lot tougher than you assholes are giving me credit for,” I snarl, and Brazen has to stifle his grin.

  He winces as he tries to sit up better, and I pull out a jacket to roll up as a pillow.

  “Stay down and drink that,” I command while pointing to the bag.

  “I’m not taking this when you need it,” he argues, and then genius strikes.

  “I’ll just share it with you,” I seduce.

  His eyes narrow, and I very slowly pull open the bag with my teeth. I pour a little in his mouth, and then I lean over to kiss him before he has time to swallow it. The diluted taste of human blood fills my mouth. It’s just too weak to make this as seductive as I would like for it to be, but it’s hot enough to get him aroused - as evident by the growing in his pants.

  I straddle him as I take a mouthful of the blood, and then I lean down to let it flow from my mouth to his. He stays quiet, but his hands grip my hips with a near savage intent.

  I should have done this sooner. I could probably deliver blood straight from a human’s vein to his mouth, but that would mean he’d want to fuck her too. Not happening.

  He moans slightly when I pour more of the blood from my mouth to his, and he grips me tight enough to tear my shirt.

  “Whatever is going on back there needs to calm down. I really don’t want to overhear too much,” Clay cautions.

  I hear Hale shifting awkwardly in his seat, but I don’t give a damn. Brazen is mine right now, and there’s nothing I want more than him in this moment. He jerks back, and his eyes stare at my healing wounds in relief. Then those same, soft pale eyes narrow to scold me for my surprise seduction. He sits up a little better before pulling me into his arms.

  “You done?” I muse.

  “For now,” he whispers in my ear.

  The chill bumps pop up on cue, and our casual drive back is starting to piss me off. It’ll take two hours to get back at this pace. Brazen pulls me into his lap, and we kiss each other in the pitch black backseat.

  “How did they get you guys pinned down?” Hale asks to ice the heat between Brazen and me.

  “They came out of nowhere. We were investigating their campsite, and we saw it was still warm. The next thing I remember, our men were screaming as the vests started sounding off with bullets pouncing,” Clay answers.

  The shards of Brazen’s vest are lying in the floor as a sign of what could have been, and a tear drips from my eyes when I think of how close he came to not holding me ever again.

  “I’m okay,” he soothes, and his lips graze my ear.

  “It’s fortunate anyone survived that. How many did we lose?” Hale inserts.

  “Several of the humans. The blood from their bodies caused some problems with the-”

  He stops short to keep from offending Brazen, and I see my man starting to brood.

  “You don’t have to hold your tongue jus
t because I’m in here,” he growls.

  “Did they take any of it?” I ask curiously.

  “The dead blood spilled just got them killed. Dead blood is spoiled blood, and it tastes horrendous,” Brazen mumbles.

  “I actually did not know that,” I murmur with a little embarrassment. “So why was it bothering them?”

  “Because it still smells good when shooting free from the vein,” Brazen grouses, and it looks as if he’s almost in pain.

  “It bothered you too, didn’t it?” I whisper.

  He nods with a touch of humiliation for his animal side, and then he turns to stare out the window only his eyes can penetrate.

  “Several of the full bloods were killed when distracted by the freshly spilled human blood, and then we also lost several of our men as well when we were trying to pull both free from the slaughter alley. I never saw the uranium grenade until Brazen fell on top of it to save me. I don’t know how he survived it,” Clay says guiltily.

  Tears start to shed from my eyes, and the dividing glass lowers to reveal the tinted sky has returned. Brazen’s lips graze mine to reassure me once again that he’s okay.

  When I look up, I see Hale’s eyes carrying a stinging pain in them. I shouldn’t feel guilty for kissing my fiancé, but I do. I feel like a fool when I withdraw a little from the overly affectionate contact without a real reason for doing so.

  Fortunately Brazen is now engaged in idle conversation with Clay, and he doesn’t notice my ridiculous behavior. But Hale does. His eyes soften and stare into my hybrid blues very longingly despite the hand still holding mine. He knows what I just did.

  Fuck. What did I just do?

  “We’ll be there shortly, and we can discuss it in more detail then,” Brazen says, and I snap out of my eye-fucking trance with Hale.

  What am I doing right now?

  “I love you,” Brazen whispers into my ear, and I smile endearingly at him while mouthing the same affection back.

  I’m ashamed that I let my hair fall to block Hale’s vision of the silent response. Brazen seems oblivious and gives me a wink to show me how much better he’s feeling.

  He pulls off the scattered fragments of the shirt still on his body and tosses it to the floor to join the remnants of the vest. The quickly approaching compound is just ahead, and Brazen’s pants tell a devastating story with all of their rips and tears as well.