Page 14

ARIA’S SAVAGE

The skin slowly reforms in patterns resembling a computer’s graphics. There’s no pain or disorientation, and it’s a hell of a lot faster than any vehicle could have gotten me here.

The air is tainted with stale sweat, male musk, and desperation. They’ve been here, but like cowards, they ran. For a week, they’ve eluded me. I know they’ll keep running if I keep stalking, and I don’t have the patience to keep tracking them down. So it’s time to change tactics.

Though they’re finally scared of me, they still need me. There’s nothing they won’t do to get to me—to get to my blood. But self-preservation is ruling over ambition.

Right now, they’re running from a huntress, so it’s time to play the prey. Yes. I’m a good little actress. I’ll even give them a wounded wing, making myself look vulnerable. It’ll be all too easy, so I’ll have to drag it out. The lambs at my slaughter will be a mere appetizer in preparation for the main course.

Alice.

She needs a trail to find me, and their bodies will be my breadcrumbs. It’ll all be too easy.

I have something they’re all desperate to have. Blood is everything in a world like ours, but I’ll be damned if they ever touch mine again. If they want me, then they’re going to have to walk through hell to get to me. And I’ll be the devil waiting to collect their souls.

Just like the moths they are, they find my staged flame. The trap is laid, the blood is dripping, and the devil’s grin is hidden behind my feigned cries of mock agony.

The shadows in the darkness creep in with stealth, but I see them all with perfect clarity. Their fear is absent, for they believe the hybrid they’ve sought is coming down from savage and is too weak to defend herself.

So close. Just a little closer.

The red sand vibrates ever so vaguely beneath me, trying its best to warn me of the impending attack. But nature doesn’t know I’m not the one who needs to be warned. My mouth is almost watering in anticipation.

Two, maybe three-hundred. It’s hard to count without being obvious. Each rustle, each movement, and each breath captures my full attention, and I watch and wait, still crying in nonexistent pain.

I’ve never been so hungry for death, and the power inside me hums with the desire be unleashed. The scorpion tattoos are hidden beneath their black tactical gear, but I can almost see through the thin layers of clothing they feel hides them within the darkness.

My patience frays and snaps when they’re close enough. With a loud crackle, the sky darkens as the sweet, divine taste of domination runs through my veins. The rushing figures halt, breaths catching in their throats, and they look at me with fear in their shaky eyes.

Using my empathic powers, I push that fear into all of their hearts and magnify it, creating terror. I don’t want them to merely be afraid of me, I want their hearts to burst because they’re so fucking terrified that they can’t breathe.

The winds pick up at my silent command, and the stir of it becomes more powerful, further scaring the incompetent idiots around me and feeding my insatiable appetite for fear. Their terror fuels me as screams erupt into the madness my violent winds create, and I stand slowly, reveling in the chaos as bones start to crack.

My taste for bloodshed is insatiable, and I’m only getting started.

JASE

“You’re sure this is where you saw her?” I ask, getting out of the vehicle and scanning the seemingly harmless scenery in skeptical disbelief.

If Aria was planning an attack on someone, she’d already be here by now. This was either a brilliant plan of intervention or a fool’s unintentional suicide mission. We’re blind to her, but if she’s here, she’s already spotted us by now.

“Positive,” Rex says, looking around as if uncertain, contradicting his words with his expression. “Well, sort of. The vision was blurry. Ever since Aria rode my vision that day, they’re all shorter and blurrier than ever. But I saw the red sand clearly, and this is the only place with the red sand.”

A thunderous drumming catches my attention, and my stomach sinks as the sounds of screams carry to us on the arms of the unnatural winds. Aria.

“Ten miles south,” Kellan says, panicking as he jumps into a car and speeds away.

Shit. She might kill him this time if he charges in without anyone stopping him. And she’ll never forgive herself.

Rex is two steps behind me when I jump into a vehicle, and Mel hops in right behind him. Araya and Brazen were out looking for her when Rex got the vision, and they haven’t caught up to us yet. I’m actually a little thankful for that, because Araya’s trained savage is an unlikely match for the unleashed version of Aria that Simone has warned us about.

Simone is with Angelica and Grayson, all three of them frantically searching for a way to once again merge Aria’s blood back with her savage. I can’t keep fucking losing her. It’s like living in hell while heaven rests farther and farther in the rearview mirror.

Rex curses when he sees smoke and ashes billowing toward us, and the horrific, bone-chilling screams grow louder with every thrust forward. “He’s such a stupid son of a bitch for going after her alone. If she kills Kellan—”

“She won’t,” I interrupt, trying to convince myself of that more than him. If she does, that means Aria is completely lost inside her own mind, and it hurts too much to acknowledge.

“You can’t go after her this time, Jase,” Mel says cautiously, her voice nearly trembling. “This isn’t the same savage. You know that. If she—”

“Pretty fucking positive I know better than anyone what Aria needs, so just drop it.”

I don’t bother admitting that I couldn’t even catch a small glimpse inside her mind the second my Aria was pulled behind the puppet master’s curtains. But she’s right—I have to be careful, because Aria wouldn’t survive killing me.

A rough slam that cracks the front windshield brings the car to a halt, and my eyes widen as I take in the obtrusive object that is slowly sinking into the windshield breaking it more. Blood crawls into the spider-veined cracks of the glass, reddening each one to make it more visible as a web, and my eyes widen at the headless person that has been launched at us like a heavy rock.

Breaking the door off, I leap out of the car, my eyes searching the chaos for the beauty behind the beast. Blood is spilled and darkening the sands that were already red. Bodies are mangled and raining from the sky in pieces. It’s the most brutal, stomach-churning massacre I’ve ever seen.

Laughter finds me like a vicious stab to the gut, and I look up to find the mesmerizing eye of the storm. It’s her world to rule right now, and she’s lost inside her own mind. Every bit of delight she gets sends a new chill down my spine. Only she could make something so sadistic look so beautiful.

I feel helpless, looking on with no way of helping. She’s dancing, drenched in the blood of the slain, and she’s smiling happily while taking in each and every fallen foe. She’s high on the kill, like the true predator she was built to be, and I know I’m not enough to bring her back this time.

My stomach only knots tighter when I see the blonde hair slowly being brushed by the winds. Kellan is lifeless on the ground, his body unmoving and unresponsive to the pandemonium and cries of pain around him.

Rex stumbles to a halt at my side, and then he lurches forward and retches. Shielding his eyes, he continues heaving until his stomach loses all it has to offer, and I clench and unclench my fists. The only thing keeping me from dropping to my knees in tears is the fact that there are scorpion tattoos on most of the visible body pieces. This was a planned ambush; she sought them out for revenge.

Even Alice hasn’t wreaked this much havoc in her disasters sites. In fact, I’m starting to think she’s more merciful than Aria’s detached savage, and it’s just a matter of time before the uncontrolled being slices through her enemies and aims her focus on the innocent.

As a ravaged arm drops to my feet, I step back, allowing Rex to dry heave in privacy while I try to figure out the best way to drag Kellan toward us and examine him. I pray he’s not dead, but considering how everyone else in this bloodbath looks, I highly doubt there will be any saving him.

The tight constriction around my heart becomes painful as realization settles in, and I hold my breath, trying not to let out a sound. Aria might be gone forever.

“Shit,” Mel says softly, looking on with me as Aria continues her happy dance in the center of the raining body parts. “She’s psycho.”

Sadistic, twisted, and terrifying are the best ways to describe the thing in her body right now.

“It’s not her, Mel,” I whisper back, tightening my lips. I’ve never felt so motherfucking helpless in all my life, and I’m almost strangling on my own heart.

If she hadn’t detached from Kellan to be with me, would she have lost herself like this? Would her savage have broken free from all restraint if it sought the comfort of its counter? Is this my fault?

All my questions are answered by the pounding guilt inside my chest. I played with fire that I didn’t control, and now the girl I love is being burned by my insolence.

She’s seems unaware of our presence—fortunately—and continues her blood dance with her eyes closed, spinning like a child in the rain.

“I can hear your hearts beating, so don’t think I’m oblivious to your intrusive viewing,” Aria’s savage says while slowing her spinning, menace rolling off her in heavy, almost tangible waves.

The smile she gives me doesn’t do much to quell my worst fears. The promise of death, the abundance of rage, and the bitterness of a pissed hybrid fuels the eerie turn of her lips.

Mel wisely takes a step back, and I step between my sister and the creature who has hijacked my girl’s body. A spiral of dizzying emotions swirl within me, and it takes a moment to realize that it’s the savage projecting with Aria’s empathic powers. It’s enough to drop me to my knees.

“This is more fun than I thought it would be, pretty hybrid,” she says, her dark smile only growing with the promise of domination. “She’s so weak. But I’m not. The world she fears is mine to rule. This is just the start. And this is your only warning. Stop seeking me. If you don’t, the next time I let you find me… Let’s just say you won’t be observing.”

As the last few limbs of the fallen drift slowly to the ground, Aria’s savage steps out of the red debris. Triumph glosses over in her eyes as she focuses her gaze on me.

“You should heed my warning.”

Just like before, she’s suddenly gone, nothing but her destruction left in her wake. And is it ever a destruction zone. Son of a bitch.

When I finally manage to haul my ass back to my feet, I stagger like I’m hung over, inadvertently taking a diagonal route to Kellan’s collapsed body that is soaked in the blood of the dead.

“Is he—”

“He’s alive,” I say in interruption to Rex’s question, relieved when I see his chest draw in air. “Just unconscious. I’m not sure what the hell she did to him, but we need to get him back to Simone, and we need to feed him blood. Just because we can’t see the wounds, it doesn’t mean they’re not there.”

Rex is still struggling to catch his footing after vomiting for the entire show. His reaction to the gruesome massacre probably stalled him from approaching her, and it quite possibly saved his life.

Kellan groans, muttering something that even I can’t hear, and I instantly kneel closer putting my ear closer to his lips.

“Say it again,” I prompt, praying he has insight into what’s going on, considering he’s her counter.

My stomach roils at the thought of what he means to her, but this isn’t the fucking time for a pissing contest.

“Blood. Hers. Pocket.” The three words are rasp and barely audible, but he passes out before I can question what the hell he means.

Pocket.

With quick motions, I check all of his pockets, trying to make sense of his ramblings, and finally find a napkin that is saturated in red. I have no idea what we’re supposed to do with this, but maybe Simone can help. Aria’s blood is useless the second it hits the air, but maybe Simone’s gift can bring it back to life. Not that it’ll do a damn bit of good for us even if we get a single answer to the ever-growing list of questions.

“What’s that?” Rex asks, his body still shaking after its vile reaction. He does all he can to shield his eyes from the sight. He’s a strong hybrid who has endured the sight of slaughtered people, but never at his sister’s hand.

It’s all I can do to keep my own body in check.

“Aria’s blood. I think.”

He looks as puzzled as I do, but Mel beats him to the question.

“What good will it do us?” she asks.

As I stare at the napkin, I look into the nothingness where Aria once stood. “Either it has the answers to the universe, or it’s another dead end. Call everyone. No one goes after her anymore. She left a warning this time.”

“You honestly think she’ll follow through?” Mel asks, shaking visibly. “Aria’s still in there somewhere.”

My heart clenches, and I fight back the tears. “Right now, Aria’s just as scared as we are. And she’s even more helpless.”

“So she really can just vanish?” Simone asks in a mixture of disbelief and awe.

“Yes,” Rex and Mel say in exasperated unison.

“Sucks being second guessed, huh?” I ask dryly, still staring at Kellan’s still body that is resting on the table.

It took us three days to get back here after dealing with the fallout of everyone finding out about the rogue savage on the loose. All nations are quivering in fear right now. It’s almost as though Aria’s savage planned that brutal site—a strategic chess move. But I can’t imagine what would be in it.

She enjoyed their vicious dismemberment, but she had a reason behind it. I couldn’t hear her thoughts, but the emotions she projected have started sorting themselves out, and amongst the madness is the taste of calculation. But what’s her angle?

I know they were Scorpions, and obviously she had ample reasons to want them dead. Just as she has reasons for wanting the Fire Hawks dead. But she’s setting up moves for future plays.

“Why isn’t he waking up? Any clue what she did to him? We’ve fed him numerous packs of blood, and there aren’t any lethal pathogens or substances in his bloodstream. What’s keeping him down?”

Simone sighs while caressing the cheek of the sleeping hybrid who could have answers we need. Somehow he got her blood, and he needed us to know he had it. But why?

Her mind is a cluster fuck of incoherent and unfinished thoughts, just like everyone else’s. Her eyes dart up to the monitor that hangs from the ceiling when a beep sounds off. Unsure of how to read all the random equations and numbers on the board, I just watch her face. When her studious expression drops to make way for paling horror, my stomach knots up.

“What?” I prompt, doing my best to pick apart her frantic, even more jumbled up thoughts. Nothing she’s thinking is understandable.

“Zero percent,” she says in a whisper.

She drops to the floor, landing hard enough to crack the tile, and she continues staring numbly at the screen.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Rex demands, his fear almost rolling off him as he clutches and bends the table under his hand.

Simone stares blankly for a minute, and Mel steps up to read the shit that has stunned or terrified the blood gifted scientist. After several tormenting and suspenseful minutes, Mel looks at me, her eyes wide.

“She’s stripped herself of her counter,” she says on a gasp, and I take a deep, slow breath. “That’s probably why he’s unconscious. That would be excruciating. They’re at zero percent. And you’re at zero percent as a match as well. She stripped herself from everyone.”

“Then why am I not unconscious?”

My voice betrays the fact that I’m trying not to get sick. Deep down, I was hoping that my Aria was still in there and holding onto me.

“Because you were barely registering in the percentage,” Simone says in a raspy voice, slowly getting back up from the floor. “She and Kellan were counters. It would have been like losing half his soul to be cut off that quickly. She… If Aria had any control at all, if she was in any way still tied to her own body, she would have never allowed herself to hurt Kellan. She sure as hell wouldn’t have allowed her ties to you to be stripped.”

My stomach twists even tighter, and a wave of nausea slaps me like a powerful uppercut. When my knees start to buckle, I drop to a chair. What if the damn savage has destroyed my girl already?

“I’m going after her.” Araya’s voice is sudden and startling, and we all whip our heads around to look at her. She looks as though she hasn’t slept in weeks, her clothes are worn and wrinkled, and her usual confidence is missing, allowing fear to reside in the depths of her violent eyes. “Brazen has some leads. They’re thin and possibly pointless, but I have to try.”

“She’ll kill you,” Rex growls, shaking his head. “We need to find a way to get her back before we go after her. She’s not going to just come willingly, and believe me, you’re no match.”

She can’t go, but my mouth refuses agree with Rex. My words get trapped in my throat, because reality is one cruel bitch, and right now, I feel as though my lungs are trapped in a merciless vacuum that is sucking the air out of me.

“I’m the only one who has a shot, and we have no idea how to cage the savage. It’s not like ours. It doesn’t seem to ever expire, and the longer it’s in control, the more powerful it seems to become.”

Brazen walks in, his eyes already narrowing into thin slits as he glares at his wife. “If her savage kills you, the guilt will kill Aria if she ever emerges. You can’t fucking go after her.”

His breaths are shallow, and he seems as though he’s slept even less than her. It’s doubtful any of us can sleep right now. If I can’t get her back, I’ll probably never sleep again.

“Any suggestions on drawing her back?” Mel asks, looking hopeful as her eyes land on Simone.

Simone frowns and stares at the hybrid still resting in a mystical sleep. “If we could somehow reconnect her to her hybrid counter, then maybe. Our counters ground us, and they can rein in the beast when it’s unleashed. If we could reconnect them and somehow hope they link better, then maybe. I’d have to play with his blood and see if I can repair the damage the savage done. My gift might somehow reconnect them if I figure out a way to do that.”

My heart gets stuck in an invisible vice and twists until I can’t breathe. No matter what we do to get her back, I still can’t have her. It was a forbidden match from the beginning. But I’d rather give her up to save her life, than to lose her completely.

My whole life is nothing but one scrambled, fucked-up hell. Always has been. Living a life where I had to hide my true self was what I thought the low point was. I was so wrong. So, so wrong.

“What do you need to attempt something like that?” I ask, but my voice is barely even a whisper.

No one says anything for a long moment, but I refuse to look up to see the pity in their eyes. I’ll fall apart when they’re not watching me. Right now, I have to be strong and save the girl I love from her broken half.

Simone finally decides to break the uncomfortable silence. “The blood I have of hers can be separated and reused. Her savage blood is different from her normal blood, which I also have. If I can fuse the two—”

Her words are interrupted when a coughing fit forces Kellan to jerk awake. His body shakes with his coughing, and he leans over on his side, heaving as though he can’t collect enough air. For several stunned seconds, all we do is stare in disbelief, but finally Simone rushes to the sink and grabs a glass, quickly filling it with water.

Half of it sloshes over the sides in her quick, graceless haste to return to Kellan, and he spills more when he rips it out of her hand and swallows it down. His coughing and hacking continues, and Simone refills the glass to bring him more.

“Shit, Kellan. We’ve been worried to damn death,” Rex groans, walking toward his sister’s true counter.

I slink back, trying not to lose my motherfucking mind. I’ve never hated anyone as much as I hate Kellan right now, and it’s only because I envy him with everything in my body.

“Blood,” he whispers, his voice almost gone.

Simone does her quick steps to the fridge, and she throws a pack of blood to Rex, who quickly hands it over to Kellan. After several sips, Kellan finally stops coughing.

“I was talking about her blood,” he says in a somewhat stronger voice, even though he winces as though it hurts to speak. “I got it. You have to use it.”

“We found the blood. Why and how did you get it?” Araya asks, walking around the table to stand in front of her daughter’s true future as I do all I can to disappear.

“I bit her. Her guard was down because she was too fucking strong.” His coughing comes back, and he quickly sips the blood again. After a minute, he takes in the faces of all of us. I know I’m fucking pale and furious at the same time.

“You blood fucked her?” Simone asks, confused. He couldn’t have. We got there only minutes after he did. Didn’t we?

As my blood boils and stews in my veins, Kellan shakes his head. “No. I thought if I bit her, she’d realize I was her counter and her attention would focus on me. I was trying to save her—or at least stop her. But she knocked me away. That’s when I spit out what I could into the tissue I had. I thought I could leave it behind while she took me away, and then you’d have her savage blood to study.”

He’s forced to take a second of rest, but no one speaks while he sips on the pack of blood some more. After he catches his breath, he finally continues.

“The venom burned through me, calling me like it was supposed to, but she seemed fucking immune and denied it. Not only that, she told me she was done with the stupid strings and she was cutting them. To everyone. I swear I thought she was splitting me open. That’s the last thing I remember. How long have I been out?”

I turn away while Simone answers. “Days. But we have a new problem. Aria has stripped herself of you, and now we have to figure out a way to mend the severed ties.”

Kellan frowns and looks around at everyone. “Shit. I fucked up. I was trying to save her.”

Simone looks over at me, but I refuse to meet her eyes. She’d see the murderous intent if I gave her a single glance.

“Fuck, it hurts,” Kellan growls, clutching his side while sitting up a little better. “I think it’s getting worse.”

He fights hard not to scream out when something apparently hurts him even more, and the table beneath him starts to squeak. Simone gets closer, doing what she can to try and relieve his pain.

His nostrils flare as she steps between his legs, and his eyes shift from cool to crazy, his violet hue seeming to burn brighter. Just as Simone goes to lift his shirt to get a look at the side he’s clutching, Kellan strikes.

It all happens so fast. The wild gleam in his eyes grows darker just seconds before his blood bringers connect with her shoulder, and Simone cries out just before she moans. What. The. Hell?

“Kellan!” Araya and Brazen yell in unison, but it’s too late, and there’s about to be one hell of a show.

He doesn’t release his hold on Simone as he drinks from her, and her moans get louder as she curls into his body, turning herself over in a way that promises she’ll be naked soon. Of all the fucking stupid things for him to do right now.

“Sorry,” he says against her shoulder, his body seeming to heal quickly as he drops to the ground.

He picks her up with one fluid motion, and his lips seal themselves to hers. “No choice,” he says against her lips, and then he’s suddenly gone, carrying away our only fucking scientist that can save Aria.

“Son of a fucking bitch!” Rex yells just as I slam my fist into the wall.

“What the hell just happened?” Grayson asks as he and Angelica become noticeable. “We walk in and Kellan is drinking from Simone like she’s a damn fountain.”

“Kellan just fucked us, and now it’ll be who knows how long before we get Simone back,” Araya groans. Aria doesn’t have that sort of time. I have a whole new reason to want that fucker dead now. “Could we get one day of normalcy? Or just one fucking thing to go our way?” she adds.

“Do you think there’s a way to make her blood tie to me?” I know the answer, but right now, everything is crazy and unpredictable.

Brazen frowns and stares at the screen full of undecipherable madness that swears I’m never going to have her back.

“I wish. If Simone can rejoin Kellan to Aria, it’ll only be because she was already tied to him. The two of you were in the minimum percentage. I thought… I honestly thought this was all playing out to be very different.”

I’ve seen their thoughts on what he’s talking about. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, because I knew it was impossible. Even Aria’s mind had let it slip, but she had even less hope for the possibility that she was somehow trying to make me her counter. Nothing that good ever fucking happens.

“That stupid asshole,” Rex growls, glaring at the door like he expects Kellan to hurry up and return with our only hope.

I’m tired of wasting my time on hope, because all it does is let me down.