Page 169 of The Curse Trilogy

“What span are you?” he asks curiously.

“Apparently a very long span,” I grouse.

“You don’t know?”

“I never wanted to hear my results, and Cheyenne - my old home - blew the fuck up along with all the information in it.”

“Was anyone hurt?” he gushes.

“Not the hybrids,” I mumble, and he knows what that means.

“What did they do to you?” he whispers, and I hear Hale’s footsteps pacing lightly.

He’s worried I’m going to go savage, and then he’s worried he’ll have to be with me. Fuck that.

“Nothing I care to share.”

“What happened five years ago?” he bluntly asks.

“What? Where did you hear about that?” I gasp.

“I overheard Commander Jude speaking to your ex… captain.”

Hale’s footsteps halt, and I know he’s terrified about what all Grayson has heard now.

“Your hearing is already getting better I see,” I murmur, and then I sigh, “It was a fucked up few months of tracking down bizarre leads to an underground legion of freaks. There were full bloods attacking at random, and I thought they were building an army of infected. As it turns out, they were playing scientist. They had hybrids, humans, and full bloods hidden underground for experiments and later… dissection. It was the most horrific scenes I’ve ever seen.

“We busted up three of their underground facilities, but on the fourth one, they had set a trap. I played right into their hand, and Hale almost died because of my willingness to prove how clever I was. I had been the one cracking their codes and finding their places. They had four grenades set up, and I didn’t have my invincibility up. I caught the brunt of the impact, and the ones who had sit in waiting for me to arrive carried me out. They left the rest of our crew to be slaughtered.

“Clay and Hale were late to enter, and Hale nearly died when he ran through the hailstorm of bullets raining down behind the men carrying me. I was too weak to use any of my gifts due to the blood I lost. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Hale going phase three savage.”

“Shit,” he gasps. “What did they do to you?”

“They did experiments. They punched holes in my body with metal rods used for conducting electricity, and then they healed me with blood they forced down my mouth. They would shoot energy through me until they forced my body to convulse.”

“Why didn’t you use your invincibility or other gifts to escape?”

“They knew my weakness. My gifts are useless when I’ve got electricity coursing through me. I can barely function.”

“Damn. What did they want?”

“My savage. Our blood changes when we’re in our savage form, and they wanted to see mine. It wasn’t just me, they did it to every hybrid there. I just endured the pain longer than the others. I suppose I have my years at Cheyenne to thank for that,” I mumble. “Now go to sleep. I think that’s enough of my gruesome history for one night.”

“Araya?” he murmurs before I shut the door.

“Yeah?”

“If you lived through so much hell, how did you turn out so great? I swear you’re the most compassionate person I’ve ever met.”

I smile lightly, and I hear the bed next door squeak as Hale sighs out.

“I’m not exactly great. I’ve got my own demons to battle daily, but I’ve learned hybrids are resilient. We’re the forgotten, not the forsaken. We always have each other, and sometimes we make friends in unusual places. Hope is what keeps me alive. It’s what keeps me sane. Everyday I have something to hope for. So many of those things have come true, and it gives me hope for more hope.”

“Thank you for giving me hope. There hasn’t ever been anyone to take a bigger chance on me than you have.”

I smirk as I look at the blond girl still unconscious to the world.

“There will be. She’ll believe in you no matter how badly you fuck up. Just don’t hurt her, and she’ll be yours forever,” I murmur softly, and I hear another sigh from the other side of the wall.

I finally walk out, and I collapse to the other bed with my robe still being the only thing I’m wearing.

Why sit and listen when you know what I’m going to say? I love you Hale Banner, and I fucking wish I didn’t.