by C. M. Owens
“I love you. I’m yours,” I murmur again, and he jerks my head back so he can see my pupils.
I grab his hands as my body starts moving up and down, and I pull them to be around my neck as the steady motion begins to feel so incredible inside me.
“I love you. I’m yours,” I say as my mantra continues.
His hands tighten around my neck, and he begins pushing against my thrusts. His jaw clenches as his breaths hitch, and the surreal feeling of his body slowly melding with mine is unbelievably and undeniably perfect.
He jerks me to him while keeping his hands closed around my neck, and he begins thrusting harder as my hips stabilize, suspended in the air. My moans are muffled by his mouth, and his need becomes more fervent as he grips me tighter to the point where the arousing lure of strangulation becomes almost more than I can bear.
I scream out, but he doesn’t stop. He keeps thrusting despite my quivering as he releases his choking hold. He lifts me from the small bed, and suddenly my back is pinned against the wall as my legs wrap around him. He thrusts in harder and harder as his lips devour mine, and I cling to the back of his neck as my over-sensitized body shakes against the incredible stimulation.
“I love you. I’m yours,” I whisper, and he still pounds into me without returning the affection.
His teeth start to break the surface of my skin again, but he sheathes his blood bringers and uses his normal teeth to invite the exquisite biting sensation instead. I gasp and moan in unison as the pace quickens to a punishing rhythm, and his lips continue to tangle with mine.
“I love you,” he breathes, and then I gasp loudly as the building inside me releases again.
My hands grip him all the tighter after my second release, and it’s almost painful to feel him still fucking me now. His relentless motion gives me no reprieve until he finally fills me with his warmth.
His coarse breaths rattle against my neck as he heaves for air, and my legs stay wrapped around his waist. He shakes as the sweat dampening his body presses against me.
He finally moves back to the small infirmary bed, and he pulls me into his arms as he collapses to it. His panted breaths continue to pull in the resistant air, and I snuggle against him as my body drapes over his.
“Araya,” he murmurs softly, “I told you not to fuck with my head, baby.”
I smile as my lips stroll over his chest, and his grip tightens on me as I curl around him.
“I know. I’m not. I’m yours if you still want me,” I utter so sincerely, and tears nestle in the backs of his eyes as I rise up to stare into them.
“You’re just under the effects right now,” he strains out.
“I told Brazen I love you. I told him you’re the one for me before I left to come here,” I say to squash the doubts still lingering in the air around us.
He jerks me to his lips, and I feel the passionate relief flowing from his mouth to mine as he clings to me even tighter. A few small tears fall from my eyes as I kiss the man meant for me.
“I love you, baby,” he murmurs through the kiss, and I can’t help but smile bigger.
“I love you.”
His smile mimics mine as he pulls me back to his newly reaffirmed erection. I smirk as my lips begin trailing down to find it, and he pulls his hands behind his head very playfully.
“This is going to be a good night,” he sizzles out, and I smile as I proudly start the game of fuck-and-scream all over again.
Hale’s body lies against mine, in the cold infirmary room we’ve never left. His head rests on my chest as his arms hold me to him. My fingers stroll through his hair as he sleeps, and my mind races for answers I can’t find.
He could have died. He should have been dead, but my blood brought him back.
What is so special about my blood people are willing to kill for it? What will happen if they ever get it? Who the fuck is behind all this?
So many questions and very few answers. An emergent mother, a full blood father, purple eyes, and disgusting memories of my past. Cheyenne has something to do with this, but what? What could that hell hole have to do with any of this?
Hale stirs slightly, and I smile as I stare down at him nestling in closer to me. I’m his again. I’ll be his for the rest of my life. My feelings for Brazen aren’t gone, and I’m sure they never will be, but my feelings for Hale surpass them.
The door cracks open as Clay walks in very quietly, and I look outside to see the night sky in full bloom.
“Hey,” he whispers so as not to disturb Hale.
“Hey, I murmur softly in my blood stained, dry and cracking, leather attire I was barely able to get back on.
“I’m sure you’d like to get out of here. The chief was pretty pissed about Hale being worse off than he knew. He invited him out here, and he feels responsible for what happened. He feels even worse for not having checked on him personally. What happened?”
“Hale said it was delayed exploding bullets. He didn’t know how bad he was hurt until they got him in here. Then We-”
I stop short as something comes to me I should have already figured out.
“Fuck,” I growl, and then I roll out from under Hale without waking him.
“What?” Clay prompts as I storm out of the room, grabbing my guns on the way out.
“Wendy. I can’t believe I’m so fucking stupid,” I murmur aloud.
“What about her?” he demands.
“She told the chief Hale was fine. Hale said she was in the fucking room when the bullets exploded inside him. He said she freaked out and ran off. Hell, that’s why he thought I came to save him.”
“Shit,” he gasps in disbelief.
I round the corner as her scent guides me, and I kick open the door where I smell her the strongest. She jumps from her bed, and I fling her across the room using my gift.
“Who the fuck are you working for?” I blare, and she gasps for air as the crushing force exuding from me pins her against the cracking wall behind her.
“Araya, please. It’s me,” she strangles out.
“I know it’s you. It’s been you this whole fucking time, you spying little bitch.”
She strangles more, and then suddenly she’s gone. I can’t see her, and I can’t feel her anymore until something brushes past me.
“Fuck,” Clay squeals in a new octave as the sound of invisible feet running through the hallway erupts.
I fling my hand again, and I hear a thud as I connect. She reappears, and in a blink she’s charging full speed toward me. My body moves faster than my mind can think, and in a blur, her throat rips free before she collapses to the ground.
“Holy shit,” Clay sounds off again.
I swear he’s turning into my own personal cheerleader, though all of his cheers include profanity.
“She was one of them. She was fucking one of them this whole fucking time,” Hale growls as he walks toward us. “How the hell did I miss that?”
“Because she smelled so human. Because she acted so human. Because they’re one step ahead of us all the time,” I grumble while walking over to the hallway sink to wash off the new blood staining my hand.
He pulls me to him as his lips fall over mine, and he stares into the eyes not covered by the blue contacts now that the acid in my tears have washed them out.
“How did you know?” he asks so softly.
“Because you almost died. She knew. She fucking knew,” I whimper, and he pulls me to him to kiss my head as he coos into my ear.
“Hey, I’m fine now, baby. You got there in time.”
“Her body has to be burned,” Clay says to a man walking up, and I recognize the dusted hair on the aging face.
He points to a guy and motions for him to do as Clay said, and then he shakes his head in disbelief.
“Well, I suppose my new policy will from now on exclude humans as well as full bloods. This is crazy,” he murmurs.
“What did you want to tell me?” Hale asks softly. “You said you’d tell
me everything when Araya got here. Why was it important for her to be here?”
“It’s important for all three of you to be here. Araya is the key to this puzzle, and she’s the saving grace for us all. She’s the only child of an emergent to ever live past puberty. And yes, there have been others. She was always stronger, smarter, and so much more evolved than the others though. Her compassion exuded anything I’ve ever witnessed.”
“You speak as though you know her. How did you know about her being an emer-”
“I do know her. You know me as Garth, but my original name was Gabriel Monetello. The purple eyes give her away, but there’s more to the story.”
I gasp as I realize this aged old man is the boy I once saved from a brutal lashing. He was barely five, and I was in my teens at the time.
“Gabe?” I gush.
He smirks as he nods, and then he motions for us to walk into a room off to the side. Hale takes my hand as we walk into the room full of sleek furniture and color splashed all over.
“Araya stepped in front of a whipmaster beating me for no reason. The devil was in his eyes, and he accused me of mouthing off after he gave me an order. I was a child, and she caught the whip. I’ll never forget her words, ‘if you like beating someone, then do it to someone who thrives on pain, you son of a bitch.’ It still gives me chills. She was my hero, and it wasn’t the only time she saved me from a beating. She made them believe she enjoyed it, when really she was just damn good at hiding the pain. It made it less enjoyable for them since they felt as though she was unaffected by the beatings. She fucked with their heads and took away the power they thrived on by standing up for all of us.
“That’s why I felt I owed this to you. I came out here to get away from the life of the forgotten, and so many followed me. I never thought of myself as a leader, but thanks to Araya, I knew how to stand up for those who needed a defender. Now I have an organic, thriving hybrid colony.
“The people you’re looking for came here looking for recruits. They thought since we believe in hybrids living with hybrids only, we would be compelled to create a world without any other species. The only problem is, I’ve learned not all full bloods are as vicious as the ones we endured at Cheyenne. I also know our breed would die out eventually without the other two producing our kind. Not to mention, what they’re proposing isn’t hybrid, it’s a new species all together, and one with deadly consequences. If they stabilize the components though, there’s going to be a war coming soon.”
My heart is pounding fiercely, and Hale’s arm rests over my shoulders as he leans back to let it all sink in.
“They need Araya’s blood, but why?” Clay asks.
“Her blood is the key. The emergents would have eventually led us into a world where all hybrids were like Araya, but the evolution fizzded out when the full bloods killed them all. Araya is special, different, and much stronger than she even knows. I played along for a while in order to gain as much information as possible, but when it got too deep, I bowed out. I knew you would be looking into this, and that’s why I risked it.”
“Gabe, that’s too dangerous. You shouldn’t have done that,” I murmur guiltily.
“You’ve spent your life watching after the rest of us. You saved my life, and you inspired others to do the same. Not to mention, I know it was you who leveled that hell. It’s time the rest of us follow your lead. If these hybrids are fully generated, they’ll eventually kill off those of us ungifted - possibly even some of the lower level gifted ones as well.”
“Indeed. So what do you know about the girl?” Clay asks curiously.
“What I know is something you’re not going to take very well at all. I’ll bring you a picture caught by my surveillance cameras when they came by.”
He walks over to a safe on the far wall of the room, and he returns with a file. Clay opens it up first, and his eyes widen as his skin pales.
“It’s not possible,” he breathes in disbelief while sitting back in his seat completely speechless.
“What?” Hale asks as he walks over to view the file, and then he pales as well.
“It’s Symphony,” he gushes in the same shock.
“What? She’s dead?” I murmur in complete objection as I walk over to see the impossibility for myself.
I’m dumbfounded, shocked, and completely astounded by the clear picture in front of me as the mystery girl in the hood is revealed. I lower myself beside Clay, and I pull his hand in mine as tears etch in his eyes.
“It’s not possible. I wept over her corpse,” he strains out. “I held her in my arms as she took her last breath. I mourned for her for years, I buried her body her for fuck’s sake. She can’t be here now.”
“She is here. Whoever is leading the rings injected her with dead man’s blood. As you know, that’s a strong serum which gives one the appearance of being dead. That’s why you couldn’t bring her back. It’s one of the few things that overrides blood need. For ten hours, someone appears as dead as a true corpse. You buried a girl who was still alive, and they were her heroes.”
The tears drip from Clay’s eyes, and he has to walk away from us as he tries to regain his composure and digest all the information.
“Symphony was Clay’s only love. They never got to find out if they were counters or not because Clay’s savage lies so dormant, and Symphony’s never emerged either,” I say to Gabe.
“I know. That’s why I knew this was going to be hard for him. It’s also why I wanted you here when I revealed it.”
“It didn’t matter. I loved her as though she was my counter,” Clay says with emotion rattling free.
“I’m sorry, but I knew you had to have the whole story,” Gabe says so softly.
“She wouldn’t do this,” Clay says while wiping the tears from his face.
“She wouldn’t have when you knew her, but they’ve done something to her. Her eyes are the same as a full blood’s at times and a hybrid’s at others. I don’t know what’s going on, but I know full bloods are involved as well. Someone used your blood to aide with their sun allergy, but they can only withstand the full glow for months at a time before the serum wears off.
“It’s one of the reasons they’re aiding the hybrid conspiracy. But they’re also doing this because full bloods can be changed into the new hybrid if they carry the right blood.”
“What?” I gasp in disbelief.
Clay seems catatonic at this point, and I’m not sure if he’s listening or not.
“I know. I was shocked too. I was more shocked to learn of full bloods wanting to be turned. It’s all dangerous though. If this new breed does find the last piece of the puzzle, they will be able to exterminate us all - all but you. You’re the strongest. They can’t control their power, and eventually they’ll implode. They’ll never be able to stabilize such power. That’s why you’re the only one of your kind to have ever lived for so long. You found balance where they’ll fail.”
The meta blockers Nicholas gave me to conceal my identity, they saved my life. My powers came to me gradually instead of all at once. I inched my way into my fully badass self instead of having it all thrown on me like the others.
Hale takes my hand in his as he looks over all of the other faces without names.
“Is this all of it?” Hale asks softly.
“It is. That’s all I know. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”
“You’ve been more help than we could have imagined. You should be incredibly careful now though. They’re going to be on guard and on a mission now that Wendy has most likely told them what we were doing here.”
“Fucking bitch. I don’t know how I missed that,” Hale growls.
“Because the humans are their strongest allies. No one suspects the weak,” Gabe sighs. “They’ve been cattle, we’ve been outcasts, and soon the full bloods will be a target- at least those of them they can’t change. They have to feed on full bloods in the early stages to complete the change. After that, they’re just li
ke us, only much stronger.”
“This is too big to sit on for long. Clay, I want to take Araya back tonight and speak with the United heads.”
“Do whatever,” he numbly mumbles, completely disinterested in all things around him; lost in his own world of pain.
Hale looks to me, and then his eyes motion for Gabe to leave. They both walk out of the room, and I walk over to the man I’ve called my friend through so much shit.
“She’s still alive, Araya,” he whimpers when he feels the others gone. “She’s been alive for years, and she didn’t come looking for me. She’s not my counter or she would have.”
My heart breaks for the man I never see fall apart. He buries his head in his hands as he sobs wildly.
“Clay, you don’t know that. She might be still, and even if she isn’t, you’re still allowed to love her as though she is.”
“Not now. Now we’ll have to hunt her. I can’t run that. I can’t be in charge of that mission.”
“We don’t have to hunt her. You heard Gabe. She’s been tampered with. Whatever they did, you can use your gift to reverse it. You know I’m right.”
“I don’t know. My gift is far too advanced for even me to control to that extent. I don’t know if I can save her. I’ve already failed her once, Araya. I don’t know if I’ll survive failing her again.”
I rub his back and then wrap my arms around him in an embrace, one of comfort just like he has shown me so many times.
“We need you. She needs you, and I know you can do this.”
He wipes his eyes, and his breaths slowly steady as he nods. His shoulders roll back, his head rises from the ground, and the Clay I know reemerges from the broken shell.
“Then let’s go do this before I change my damn mind,” he growls, and I smile victoriously as my arm loops through his. “If it comes down to you or her, don’t hold back,” he adds in a painful whisper..
“It won’t.”
“You saw what she did to that compound. Whatever they’ve done to her has made her stronger.”
“We’ll bring her back, Clay.”
