Chapter 17

JASE

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," I growl, glaring at Kellan like he's the biggest idiot I've ever known.

He had her. I had to turn her over to him, and he rejected her after the hell he went through trying to take her from me.

"We tried to stop her, but she knows how to control her gifts now. All of them. She vanished into thin air, and she went after Alice. We have to talk to Fricks. He's the only one who knows where they keep this damn secret society."

I should have known she'd never go along with it, especially if she saw Kellan and Simone have developed feelings for each other. For over a week I've sat in that damn terrible room, my stomach in knots from staring at her chained up. But the chains were the only way the United would allow her to live.

I've been in one meeting after another, doing all I could to keep anyone from retaliating against her. She didn't hurt anyone except for the monsters we're all already after. Fortunately. They agreed to leave her be as long as we chained her down—pointless as it was.

"I'll grab my keys, and you track. We have to find her. And we're not using Fricks to do it."

Kellan mutters something, so I glower at him once more.

"I can't read your mind, so you need to speak up if you have something to say."

His eyes come up to meet mine, and I see all the bitterness in them that I feel. "I can't track a phantom that doesn't want to be found. Aria isn't running; she's vaporizing into the wind. I can't track the fucking wind. And if we do find her, what do we do to stop her? She doesn't want to be with me, and she knows Simone and I are falling for each other. She knows I don't feel anything for anyone but Simone. She has empathic abilities, for fuck's sake. She wants you to go find your true counter—but she knows she can't endure watching it. She wants everyone safe, but she feels like as long as she's alive that we're all in jeopardy. And she's stronger than any of us. So how do you stop her?"

Every time I think my soul can't be shredded any more than it has been, something like this happens to prove me wrong.

"I'll make her realize that she's not the only target. I'll remind her that there are numerous others who will become the main focus of groups like these if she's not around to help us stop them. I'll tell her that we're strong enough to endure it, when others may not be. I'll remind her that we're just a small piece of the universe, and more lives will be affected than ours if she sacrifices herself in vain. I'll tell her the truth, Kellan."

He backs down ever so slightly, and then he releases a string of curses before running a hand through his hair.

"Then you've got to let me talk to Fricks. I can interrogate him better than Araya can. I know all the right buttons to press, and he won't refuse me. It's the only way we're going to get a clue about her whereabouts."

Reluctantly, I relent. I'd rather see that traitor with a bullet through his eyes, but until we don't need him at all, I have to let him keep breathing.

"Fine, but do it fast. The sooner we find her, the quicker we can save everyone. You know as well as I do we can't beat Alice any other way, and we're running out of time. Once she's healed, she'll be invincible."

Kellan nods, and he leads the way down the hall while I make the call to have Fricks brought to the interrogation room. As soon as I hang up, Kellan takes that as a cue to speak.

"I can track Alice if I have a lead as to where to start. But if Fricks can get us all the way there, then we can cut Aria off before she does something stupid."

Man, I wish I could just punch him right now.

"Do you even fucking care if she does something stupid anymore?" I growl.

He cuts his eyes toward me and grabs my arm. I stare at the contact, debating on whether I want to break his hand or his face.

"Of course I care. I just don't feel like I have to have her anymore. Simone—I just wish things were different. If Aria and I can't care about each other without some stupid counter bond tethering us, then why should we have to try? There has to be a way to fuse the two of you together."

My urge to hit him turns into an urge to fucking cry like a girl on his shoulder. I don't do either. I'm barely holding my shit together. After begging Simone to try and fuse my blood with Aria's, I sat in that cold steel room, waiting on her to finish the test. Nothing. Not even a little bit of a match. The closest she could get us was ten percent. I don't know how much more I can take, and running a nation is damn near impossible when my mind is so scattered.

I'm running on no sleep, barely any food, and even less sanity. My own savage is barely staying contained. I spent centuries wondering if I even had a savage, and now it's all I can do to keep it caged.

"Since I found Aria this last time, it feels like my savage is clawing me to pieces, trying its damnedest to get out. When we find her this time, I need to rest and regroup, possibly take a break of some sort. The last thing we need is for me to lose it, especially since we have no idea what my savage will be like. No others like me have lost it—no half full blood, half hybrids. That bitch was lying about going savage—it was all staged to trick Aria and me."

Kellan purses his lips, probably confused about why I'm suddenly speaking to him about things other than the necessary. I guess I'm too tired to filter my thoughts.

"My savage seems to be so damn calm right now. I spent a lot of time feeling like it was clawing to get out—usually when you touched Aria in front of me. Now… I've never felt so at peace."

We reach the interrogation room, which forces our unusually civil conversation to come to a halt. Kellan nods toward me, and then he heads in. I don't even know if I can view this. Just seeing Fricks might set me off. I'm too close to the brink of insanity, and I need my head clear to find Aria. The last thing I need to do is stalk after my fucking counter that I don't want.

After thirty minutes, Kellan walks out, and his grim expression leaves me with little hope.

"Nothing?"

He motions toward the doors, and I jog to catch up when he starts moving faster than I anticipated.

"No, he gave me more than plenty. He gave me five locations Alice prefers to be. He also told me that Alice knows Aria is a master tracker, and she has numerous traps laid out for her to follow. I've already sent a text out, and everyone is divvying up the faux trails to see if they can track down Aria. They'll call if they run into any trouble. I figured we could take the trail that seems to be the most promising."

Kellan and I working together without wanting to kill each other. This world really is fucked up.

"These could be dead ends. It's nothing more than conjecture to assume she'll fall for it. Aria is by far one of the most brilliant trackers ever known. There's a better chance of her figuring out it's a trail for a trap."

He nods, a slow grin tilting up. "Of course she'll know. But she knows with a trap comes people to question. She's falling into their trap to set one of her own. That's conjecture with logical integrity."

Okay. So apparently Kellan is smarter than I've been giving him credit for. It's a lot easier to see someone for who they are when they're not after your girl.

We reach the cars quickly, and he takes the driver seat, considering he has all the Intel and the tracking abilities. Several of my men follow behind us without being told to do so. Sometimes I forget I'm the commander. Especially lately.

"How far from here?" I ask as he slings the car in drive and jerks away from the parking area.

"About thirty miles from here. Fortunately not too far. The reason I think Aria would choose this trail is because it's the one that is the closest to the United border. She knows Alice would have left from wherever she was staying before, and she would have been trying to keep tabs on the new Aria. She's not trying to draw her out this time. She wants to find her and destroy her in her own sanctuary. Since this is the only trail that isn't deep within the Unaligned borders, it'd make perfect sense for her to use it, because Alice will be close by, and the sooner she finds her, the better—in her opinion."

He's definitely impressing me. I only wish I didn't have to hate him later. But I will. The second Simone reconnects him to Aria, I'll hate his fucking guts.

Kellan drives like man on mission, and I watch for anything at all just so that I feel useful.

"How'd you get Fricks to talk so quick? He wouldn't give us any information on how to find Alice before."

Kellan's cocky smile quirks up, and I tilt my head. "Araya still doesn't know Alice is her mother, and honestly, none of us want her to know. Especially Fricks, since he's the one who saved her. I threatened to tell Araya why her daughter is in danger right now, and then I might have mentioned she'd probably slay his wife right in front of him. It was a brutal threat, but he sung like he couldn't tell me everything fast enough."

I've really been underestimating Kellan this entire time.

I get a little dizzy, and I'm forced to steady myself with both hands while closing my eyes. I can feel, rather than see, Kellan's concerned look.

"You really do have to sleep at some point. You're of no use to Aria if you're not on top of your game."

The fucking burn is back. It feels like my insides want to cave in on themselves to give way to the inner beast. I've had more olophine than I can remember, but I break the skin on my wrist while breaking open another bottle, and then I push the meds in.

"Just up ahead is where the trail is supposed to end—"

Whatever he was going to say gets lost when we top the hill and stare across the plains at the massacre underway. My heart starts pumping too fast, burning up the meds I just used, and a strong tingling sensation spreads over me. It's her.

Bodies are being flung around, shots are being fired, and Aria is in the center of it all. Even though she seems perfectly fine and in control, my whole body is tensed while dread sucks out my air.

Kellan skids to a halt, stopping us several hundred yards away, keeping us at a safe distance.

"We have to find a way to keep her from fucking vanishing again," he says on a long breath, running a hand through his hair.

I can't focus on anything as I watch savage hybrids attack her. She deflects each attack with effortless ease, but my heart won't stop pounding. My ears start ringing as the burn I've been fighting grows to be more intense, forcing me to my knees as my spine tries to detach from my body.

Everything comes to me in one large blast. All the pain, the misery, the fear… It hits me without mercy, and I can't even brace for impact. All the lingering, unresolved pain from Aria's staged death, feeling like I had lost the only thing worth living for… all of it. It drives through me and cuts me deep, and then the rest of it is like salt on gaping open wounds.

I keep losing her, I keep fighting to keep her only to have her stripped away. It's too much. All of it is just too damn much.

"Shit," Kellan growls, torn between helping me or going to Aria.

"Go. Help… her," I say through strain, coughing as my body contorts. Damn. This isn't good. At all.

ARIA

"Aria!" Kellan's voice is yelling for me, and I curse under my breath while narrowly dodging a savage hybrid's attack. These fuckers have figured out how to draw forth their savage on command, just like Mom. No doubt they've been toying with science and playing God.

"Stay back!" I scream, once again managing to escape another attack.

My body isn't as indestructible as it was when my savage was in control, and my powers aren't exactly as awesome, but I'm still the strongest here, despite their savages. But Kellan is just one big distraction. How the hell did he find me?

"Aria, it's Jase! You have to come with us! He's fighting his savage, and you being here in the middle of this shit is just drawing it out!"

Fuck my life.

Jase's cry of pain resonates in my ears, and I whip around to see him on all fours, his body writhing in agony.

"Aria!" Kellan yells just as a red slice appears on my side.

Purple electricity lashes out against my attacker as Kellan swooshes to my side, but I shove him back, hitting him hard enough to drive him back to where Jase is—several hundred feet away.

"I said stay back!"

I turn around, ready to destroy everything and everyone. I'll find a survivor at the next fake trail they've left behind.

But before I can do anything, fire shoots from the ground in the form of geysers. It sprays through the air, incinerating anyone in its grasp. One erupts about ten feet from me, and Kellan jerks me back just as a distinct roar fills the air, creating chills in its wake. Only a powerful hybrid who has gone savage roars like that.

Jase.

"We've got to get the fuck out of here," Kellan says, but my body starts to sway, forcing him to hold me up as the savage version of Jase stalks toward the army of Fire Hawks.

The closer he gets, the more my body sways, and a drunken sensation creeps into my veins. He's so beautiful.

His mismatched eyes are almost glowing, and the army of United soldiers that followed him here start falling back, seeming as mesmerized by his show of power as I am. Kellan grips me tighter as Jase roars again, ripping his shirt off as his fire breaks free from the earth once more.

He feels like he's so far away, even though he's less than a hundred yards adjacent to us. I want to be closer, feel his power as though it's my own. I just want to touch him.

"Aria, are you fucking crazy? We have to get out of here before he turns on us."

I hear his words, but it takes several minutes for them to register. I'm too focused on the beautiful beast that is ripping apart the men who've done nothing but try to kill us.

"He'd never hurt us," I whisper, still lost in awe.

Jase throws his hands out, pushing power from his fingertips, and the fire rolls through the crowd, decimating them one by one. I lunge forward, desperate to get closer, but Kellan's firm grip keeps pulling me back. He's just strong enough to hold me back, but not strong enough to move me.

"Christ, Aria, are you crazy? Jase isn't going to turn on full bloods like most savages. He'll turn on the ones who've hurt him most. You and me. We have to get out of here."

He keeps tugging at me, but I'm stronger, so much stronger than I used to be, and he can't budge me when I plant my feet into the ground. The other savage hybrids are no match for Jase, and they fall prey to his beautiful flames. As the battlefield turns to dust and ashes, the glowing eyes turn to meet mine, and my body all but gravitates toward him.

I want him. Need him.

That look in his eyes doesn't intend me harm. That look is carnal, ravenous, and hungry… for me.

Kellan slowly releases me when the captivating savage snarls at him, and I vaguely notice the sharp intake of air my old counter has.

"It's not possible," he says softly, more to himself than me, since I don't give a damn about anything or anyone other than the savage stalking toward me with clear intentions.

My body seems to move on its own, guiding me closer, and Jase's muscles flex, drawing my eyes down the hard lines of his chest and stomach, all of it leading to that detailed V that disappears behind the waistline of his jeans. Beguiled and lost, I barely even notice when he finally reaches me.

His hands roughly grab me by my waist, and he jerks me to him, forcing me so close that I have no choice but to wrap my legs around his waist and lock my arms behind his neck. His kiss is as bruising and demanding as his hold, but it feels so good.

His tongue sweeps into my mouth, claiming me as he growls low in his throat. I hear mutters behind us before cars start to leave, and Jase starts carrying me away. My fingers tangle in his hair as his hold gets even tighter, more possessive.

A door bursts off its hinges, flaming as it flies by, but I don't give it a second glance even as Jase breaks the kiss. The bunker he's carrying me into smells of ripe fruits and gunpowder, and the stone walls carry ambient lighting through a tunnel that guides us downstairs.

We've just destroyed all the occupants, so it's empty and perfect. It's hard to gauge my surroundings when Jase's crushing kiss returns, and his tongue… Damn, his tongue moves in all the right ways, twisting and turning with mine as he fucks me with his mouth.

My legs tighten in response, and his growl rumbles in his chest. I don't react when he tosses me to a bed, because he's all I can see or care about right now. It's maddening, exciting, fascinating, and enlightening all at once.

My black gown isn't pulled over my head or brushed off me delicately. Jase shreds it as he drops to my body, and then he grabs both of my hands and pins them above my head with one of his as he kisses me even harder.

My breathing becomes erratic as my excitement builds, each of my nerves on high alert and anticipating his touch. I hear the shredding of fabric, but I'm bare beneath him, so I know it has to be his pants.

Then I feel his bare body nestling between my legs as he continues to rule my mouth with his. Everything else fades, leaving just the two of us in this moment, and he growls once more as he thrusts in hard, claiming me as his once and for all.

It's only just shy of painful, and my body bows as I cry out. Then I feel the strike on my shoulder, the erotic venom following the sting and turning it into a fire of desire. I moan while bringing his lips closer, begging him to take more. It all feels so good, almost too good.

His hips continue to thrash against mine, and my heart pounds as hard against my chest as he's pounding into me. He grabs my hair as he abandons my shoulder, and he pulls my head towards his chest, prompting me to do what he knows I want to.

With the violent motions of our bodies, it's hard to unsheathe my blood bringers and hit my mark, but I manage to strike his chest and latch on. His growl turns into a moan, and then almost a howl, as my body burns with the new blood and lustfully perfect burn. I release his flesh so that I can revel in the feel of our blood joining in erotic unison.

When he quickens and deepens his strokes, I fall over the edge, losing myself in the madness as I call out his name. Explosions detonate behind my eyelids, and I feel the powerful release tingling through every part of my body, down to the tips of my toes. Everything on me tries to curl, but his demanding assault isn't over, promising me there's so much more to come.

His forceful thrusts could almost kill a normal hybrid. Thank God I'm not normal, because I love it, even if my entire body is too sensitive right now. I start to feel the build, knowing this one is going to rip me apart, and when it comes, my body actually shakes and jerks under his, forcing him to hold me down as he continues to push deep inside me with an unrelenting rhythm.

Just when I don't think I can take anymore, he thrusts in harder and stills himself at the deepest point. The animalistic sound that carries through the room almost sets me off again, but not as much as the look on his face.

He's still savage, still hungry, and still desperate for more of me. This is going to take a while.

I can't help but smile.