Page 92 of Secret Gifts
The screen goes blank, as though the footage is wiped from there on out, and he turns off the screens.
“So they are testing on my kind,” I huff out.
“They’re not just testing, they’re looking for weaknesses too. We all have something that weakens us.”
My mother is allergic to electricity. Besides uranium, there's nothing else I'm truly weakened by, and even uranium wounds heal on their own. The problem is, without my gifts being fully functional, I'm easy to restrain with almost anything. It sucks to be powerlessly powerful.
“So what now?” I ask while cringing and gripping my side.
He releases a sympathetic breath, his eyes falling to the bloody mess I'm holding.
“You really should take my blood. It’s just a blood fuck for healing,” he says too casually once more.
“I told you, it’s too intimate for me.”
“If you keep denying your hybrid needs, your powers will never surface again. You are too timid, worried, and fragile. You have a strong emergent bloodline, possibly the strongest. Then you have a strong hybrid line as well. You have to be hybrid to be hybrid. It’s the way of our world. Denying your hybrid needs will hold you back.”
That explains why my gifts have sucked for-damn-ever and then go crazy during a blood fuck.
“What slaughtered the people in that room? Was it Kellan Maverick?”
He sits back, his eyes shifting to the ground.
“I can assure you it wasn’t. Whatever it was, it had a hell of a lot of power than he does. It’s nothing to overlook. I think it was one of their experiments gone wrong. I'm pretty sure it escaped a few years ago, and I think it came back to seek revenge. Whatever it is, just pray it doesn’t come for you. I don’t know if I’ll be able to save you from that.”
I feel dizzy, and my body starts to fall when his arms wrap around me, offering me that steamy scent of melted chocolate and dark cherry up close again. His hand strokes my hair, and he scoops me up to pull me to his body.
“You’re still healing,” he murmurs while looking at my wound in disbelief.
“I know,” I mumble, my eyes feeling heavy.
“They won’t find you here. I need to take you back topside for your rescuers, but I can’t leave you asleep. I can’t stay because they’ll start tracking me immediately. I need you to take my blood and heal so I can make sure you get back safely.”
His sweet accent and smooth voice is so comforting.
“Just carry me out. By the time we get back, I’ll be healed enough to stand. I promise I won’t let them come after you,” I murmur in a yawn while trying to force myself to stay awake.
His hands grip me to him, and he stands with me in his arms while letting the scorching heat of his breath find my face.
“You’re so much prettier than I expected you to be up close,” he utters softly into my hair as his hard mask presses against my head.
“I can’t compliment your looks because you’re still hiding from me,” I joke to lighten the moment.
“You’ll see me soon. When you’re ready,” he murmurs gently while gliding down the stairs without jostling my body.
I feel the seat of the car, and the sticky blood still on the seat grabs at my remaining shards of clothing.
“How am I denying my hybrid? Just the blood fucks?” I ask as he climbs in, and he lets a bit of a laugh free.
“That’s part of it,” he says while cranking the car again, and I feel us moving in reverse as he studies the lot behind him. He turns the car, and suddenly we’re zipping through the tunnel. “Do you ever have a moment when you feel empowered, seductive, irresistible, and completely unstoppable while on a mission to get what you want?”
My mind flashes back to the day I put that full blood boy in his place. Then I think of the night I went after Jase right in the middle of camp. And of course, our first blood fuck comes to mind.
“Yeah,” I murmur thoughtfully.
“That’s your hybrid telling you to let it free. If you deny it, it’ll eventually take over. You have to stop thinking you’re like your mother. Her human half diluted her emergent side. You have no idea what you’ll be capable of once you embrace all of you and stop acting so damn reserved. If you don’t, you’ll lose yourself for who knows how long, and I need you lucid to help me when the time comes.”
Thank God someone doesn’t think I’m like my mother.
