Chapter 9

ARIA

"Let the record show that I'm doing this under extreme protest," Simone mumbles while drawing my blood.

I give her a weak smile, but my mind is all over the place.

"I think I can complete the process with half a body of blood. If it works, I may be able to isolate the healing particles and duplicate them—using my gift, of course. This could be groundbreaking," she says monochromatically.

"Gee, try not to sound so excited about the fact you might be able to cure the incurable."

She doesn't say anything, but I almost think she enjoys the hell out of slicing my arm with the uranium tipped knife.

"You're mad at me," I say while she uses her gift to draw out blood.

"I'm not mad at you, Aria. I'm confused, fascinated, confounded, and made to feel inferior by you. You were tortured, yet you want to help the man who tied you down, beat you with a whip, and stabbed you with uranium on a regular schedule for weeks, after he convinced your family and the two men that love you that you were dead."

Mom walks up, interrupting us with a reverent sigh. "I really don't like this," she grumbles, glaring at the blood leaving my arm slowly as I sip on a fresh pack of blood.

In an effort to deflect, I shift the subject. "Things seem tense between you and Uncle Brazen."

Mom's head drops back, and she groans while dropping to a chair. "He's just… confused right now. He believed my love for Hale stemmed from our attraction as counters. That's why he waited for me—which is something I told him not to do. He reconciled that decision by saying it was destiny versus us. I always loved Hale, and he knew that, but somewhere inside, he tried denying that just so he didn't… I don't know. It's giving me a migraine."

"He's being unreasonable," Simone says simply. "Aria isn't like us —she's not like anyone, really. He can't hold his expectations that high."

Mom smiles weakly, shaking her head at the scientist who seems to have lost her spark over the past few months. Simone has changed so much, and she always seems so distant and sad.

"I loved two men. I always said Hale was my counter and Brazen was my soul mate. I almost think fate did that on purpose."

I don't understand her pain, because I've never loved two men. I've only ever loved one, but two men love me. With tight lips, I look up at Simone, and a burdened sigh leaves me. I don't want Kellan to be like Brazen, because there won't be a happy ending in it for him.

"You have to help me. Kellan needs to find a way to detach himself from me, because I can't attach myself to him. As you can see, men in love grow very desperate—like Fricks. And I'm not like Mom."

Simone starts to speak, but a deeper voice startles us. "She may not have to help you," Uncle Brazen says, coming close to me, but still not looking at Mom.

I never even heard him come in. How long has he been listening to our conversation?

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, let's look at the facts. Simone says your results have faltered for the counter test. And honestly, Jase is probably a better fit both biologically and emotionally. The love shared is undeniable. And as Simone just said, we know very little about the true emergent hybrid."

Crap. He heard a lot.

Mom squirms uncomfortably, but he doesn't pay her any attention. "What are you trying to say?" I ask. "And how do you know about the counter tests?"

He offers Simone a sympathetic glance while sitting down beside me. "Well, since all of you seem to keep unloading on the poor girl like she's your vent machine, Simone needed someone to talk to. Seems she's taken the spot of Clay, only she has a lot more to deal with than he did because you all keep asking her to do a thousand things at once and berating her for the results."

I haven't berated her for any results, but I have a feeling Kellan has. I hate it when Uncle Brazen gets all paternal and sounds like he's scolding me without actually scolding me.

"We need to set a list of priorities, and curing the infected is low on that list. Our priority is to the children."

"What do you mean about Aria?" Mom prompts, and Uncle Brazen stands to go to her, cupping her chin and tilting her head back before pressing a gross kiss on her lips. Well, gross to me.

He leans away from her lips before turning to answer the question, but he's answering it as though I asked it. "In all actuality, Jase is more compatible. You overheat easily, and he has the ability to cool you down—this proved especially helpful during the blood calling. Your blood is so different and so unique that even it grows curious—that goes for both of you. Your empathic abilities both strengthen and weaken you, but Jase understands because he's reading your thoughts as you go along, and he gives you what you need when you need it the most. All in all, evolution wasn't keeping up, so you subconsciously took it upon yourself to speed up the process. You're turning Jase into your counter and you're tearing yourself away from Kellan, slowly relieving the claim your blood has on him."

Everyone stares at him in stunned silence. I… I don't see how it can be true. It can't be.

Simone drops to a chair when her legs give out, because she's just as flabbergasted as I am. Her mouth even opens and closes several times when she tries to think of a way to rebut it, but it's as though she's calculating the facts.

"Holy shit," she says on an exhaled breath. "I think you're right. It only makes sense. But… how?"

"Aria is getting to choose her counter, and Jase doesn't exactly seem to have a problem with it. Her blood is claiming him, and he's allowing it without a fight. Kellan is resisting the detachment, but eventually, I think it'll all be stripped away with painful abruption. The question is… what happens when she rewrites evolution? But it's not a question we have time to answer right now."

Simone drops back and then she grips her head. "Her empathic abilities," she groans randomly, as though something just clicked, but I have no idea what. "That's why I attacked Kellan and Jase like I did. If she has been slowly exchanging her counter, then her emotions have been in a wild tailspin. I've been emotionally vulnerable, especially with everyone else finding their counters while I longed for mine... It makes sense now. I became a receptacle for her empathic runoff."

None of that makes a damn bit of sense to me, but for some reason, Simone looks like she's just had the entire world lifted off her shoulders. Laughter bubbles out of her, and tears start streaming as she jumps up and almost tackles me in an embrace.

"I'm not just crazy," she says, laughing and crying while hugging me closer.

I had no idea how completely fucked up she's been lately until right this minute. I almost taste her emotions rolling out of her. Why is it she was feeling something from my empathic side, but I couldn't feel all this misery inside her? Now that it's almost bursting out of her, I feel it fleeing.

It'd be really damn awesome if at least one of my powers worked the way it's supposed to.

I hug her back, smiling as her tears of relief drop to my shoulder. Mom and Uncle Brazen kiss like they're making up, and my nose scrunches up in disgust.

"You should go talk to Jase. This has all…" Simone's words trail off as she wipes her eyes and leans back. "He took your dea— Um… disappearance harder than anybody. Mel had to put him on suicide watch."

My stomach roils after hearing that admission, and Uncle Brazen frowns.

"Where is he? And where is Kellan?" Mom asks, looking at the door. "I assumed he wouldn't be able to stay away from Aria the second we found her, and neither man seems to want to be around her."

"Kellan is… pissed. Understandably so," I murmur guiltily. "Jase needed to calm down after dealing with Fricks. He's also pissed, but his reason is different. He's mad that I'm giving my blood to Simone for infected testing. Mel told him to go play commander since he's mostly neglected his duties after I went missing. I think she was just trying to keep him from combusting."

Mom nods slowly, and Uncle Brazen drapes his arm around her shoulders.

"Do you want to clue him in on our hypothesis?" he asks me.

If I tell Jase, he'll get all excited. Just like I am. But this is just some crazy theory my stepfather has. Nothing about it makes it true. In fact, it almost sounds too good to be true.

"I think we should keep it between us until we know for sure."

They don't seem to be thrilled with that, but everyone respectfully agrees with me. I don't really know who deserves to know first—the counter I'm dismissing or the counter I'm stealing.

How did our world get so completely complicated and twisted?

***

ARIA

"No," Jase says into the phone, his back turned as I silently enter the room. "The transfer won't be necessary."

I don't even pay attention to the person on the other line as I watch him. He's staring outside, his whole body tense, as though he's going to snap in half at any moment.

"I don't want him simply found. I want him found, beaten, fed blood, and brought to me so I can do to him what he has done to her," he growls.

I've somehow managed to keep him out of my mind for this long, but he's worrying me right now. I can feel it, which means his mismatched blues are in place, giving me insight into his soul.

It almost makes me sick to feel the myriad of emotions, but the fear has turned into anger, and it's almost tangible right now. He's still trying to wrap his mind around everything that has happened, but he's on the verge of falling apart.

"No. He's not to be killed. That right is reserved for me." He has to be talking about Hedin, considering he's the only one besides Alice who escaped.

He drops his phone to the table beside him, and he continues staring out the window.

"Simone is focusing on the emergent children for now," I say softly. His shoulders jerk a little from the surprise that I'm in the room, but he doesn't answer or turn around.

"Are you mad at me on my first day back?" I ask softly, and his shoulders sag in defeat as he turns to face me.

The tears in his eyes tell the story his emotions are trying to, and within a few, swift steps, he's in front of me, pulling me by my waist and by the back of the neck until our lips collide. My hands immediately go to his soft, dark hair, and I pull him as close as physically possible, moving up to my tiptoes so that he doesn't have to bend so low.

He breaks the kiss, and we both pant breathlessly while he holds onto me. "I thought you were gone," he says through an emotional whisper that tears at my heart.

"I know. I'm sorry. I tried so hard to send you messages. I sent over ten different ones."

He tilts his head, obviously finding that confusing. "I only got two. Both came just before Kellan went savage."

That explains why it took them so long to find me. I guess it's a good thing Kellan went savage, otherwise I'd be Alice's chew toy.

Jase grimaces, and I curse myself. I must have somehow let the block down to my mind.

"I wish you'd stop trying to shut me out. I actually have to try to listen to you these days. I preferred it when all your thoughts were open to me. It sure as hell made everything easier. When are you going to tell Araya about Alice's true identity?"

Shit.

Groaning, I go to sit down on the bed, and he follows me. He remains standing while I drop my head to my hands. "I guess you must have overheard that in my mind. I don't know how to tell her or when to tell her. Mom has been through a lot. Since I've been back, everyone's emotions are just toppling out of them, and it's like I'm getting a double dose of everything I'm already feeling. She's pretending to be strong right now, but she's on the verge of breaking—I feel it. This… this just might be the straw to break the camel's back."

He starts to speak, when his phone rings. After muttering a few curses, he answers and turns his back, as though he's afraid to let me see his facial expression.

"The Unaligned want a meeting, Commander," a very formal man says.

"What for? I've already signed the treaty. There's no reason for us to meet."

"Prisoner exchange, sir. They're releasing all the prisoners of war, but they want us to bring all of ours and exchange them on semi-neutral ground."

Jase turns back toward the window, looking confused. "I've already spoken to their commander, and we agreed to exchange the prisoners in small spurts. That way we can be cautious. Doing a massive exchange is a little dangerous, considering all the attention it will draw to our location. Not all of the Unaligned or the United are ready for this time of peace. Some still want blood for those they've lost—understandably so."

"I understand, sir, but his people are pressuring him to do a full exchange. They want their loved ones back, and they don't feel like waiting until each wave is released to know if they're husbands, wives, sons, or daughters are still alive. So, he's demanding a full exchange. Tomorrow. It'll be close to midnight. Daylight will draw too much attention. He wishes to have your answer before nightfall today."

Jase hangs up without saying anything else to the man. "Can he just demand something like that?" I ask, scooting to the edge of the bed.

"He just did."

"Why?"

Jase moves onto the bed and pulls me to be right up against him. "Let's not talk about this right now," he murmurs against my neck, kissing a line up to my jaw.

As much as I'd love to let him continue, reality isn't dissipating or climbing under a veil just yet.

"Do you have to go along with it? And if so, why is it such a bad thing?" I ask, eliciting a groan of discontent from him.

"If I refuse, then what will our people think? They want their loved ones back just as much as I would. It'll make him look like the merciful, loving ruler, and it'll make me look like the cold and heartless tyrant. I almost think the calculated bastard set this all up, because he thinks I'll refuse and then chaos will ensue. People will turn on me. It's actually a pretty brilliant plan.

"In an effort to keep things secure, we'll have to essentially bring an army. With this limited time frame, it'll be hard to fully scan the histories of each person to find out if they're carrying a grudge or not. Which, since he's probably been planning this for a few weeks, he's already scanned all his people to ensure he has a safe squad. And, if one of our people goes and does something stupid—such as shoot at the Unaligned to exact their revenge—the terms of the treaty will be broken. United territory will become compromised, because the terms state that if the treaty is broken, the wall is torn down, and the offending party loses control of their borders. They'll seize control of our borders, and the war they were losing will tip in their favor."

It does sound like a calculated plan. "Then we'll go with you. Rex can strain for a vision to see if he can give you a warning. Mom can put any of our people to sleep, should you hear them ready to pull the trigger. They're underestimating you."

He pushes me onto my back and covers my body with his, and then he silences me with a hard kiss. Just as I wrap a leg around him, he withdraws, but just barely.

"Baby, I wish I could prioritize right this minute, but I spent over two weeks thinking you were dead. Now you're in my arms, and it's not a dream. I don't want to talk about the reality of our lives right now. I just want to enjoy this. Since we found you beside that canyon… I thought you killed yourself because of what you saw, and I didn't even have the chance to tell you what was going on. I didn't want to liv—"

His words are cut off when my lips crush his, and he pulls me to him as weeks of pent-up frustration pours into this one kiss. His hands become needy and grip me to the point where it's almost painful.

I tug his shirt over his head, and he tugs at my pants until they are down. We ignore the buzzer when it starts ringing, because the only thing we care about right this second is each other.

"I love you," I say against his lips as his kiss and hands grow to be more desperate.

His mission to remove my clothes becomes almost frantic, and after a few sounds of fabric tearing, we're both bare. Jase kisses along the side of my neck as he teases me with his body.

"I love you," he breathes, dusting my lips with the unspoken promise.

He pulls my hand down to kiss my ring, and I reach up to cup his cheek. He leans into my touch, and his emotions roll over me, giving me a taste of the pain and misery he has suffered through over the past two weeks.

It almost suffocates me, and a tear drops from his eye as mine start pouring out. He sinks into me slowly, filling me as we continue to ignore the buzzing box. Whoever wants him will have to wait, because right now he's mine.

"Always will be," he murmurs against my ear as he rocks out and in, taking his time.

It isn't as wild and unkempt as I expected, but I almost see our souls intertwining as he stares into my hybrid violets.

The door blows off the hinges, and Jase jerks the covers over us, his body still impaling mine, and he holds himself over me as Kellan and Uncle Brazen, along with several United officials, storm into our bedroom.

Awkward is too frail of a word to describe this particular moment.

Kellan's jaw grinds the second he sees us, but Jase doesn't move. "What the fuck are you doing in our room?" Jase growls.

Uncle Brazen's eyes are wide as he looks anywhere but at us, and several of the tagalongs are snickering into their hands, averting their eyes as well. Jase's expression changes as he reads the minds of some of them, and I grow anxious while his pale blues block out the revelations he has discovered.

"Sorry to bother you, sir, " Kellan says with venom dripping from his tone, biting out every word as though it's painful to speak to Jase, "but they've just caught Hedin. We're going out there now to retrieve him from Silan, but they said you demanded to be present when he was questioned."

"Just let me get on my clothes," Jase says, his jaw set in a hard line as he glares challengingly at Kellan. "Five fucking minutes ago they didn't even have a lead."

Uncle Brazen tries not to grin as he turns and walks out, and Kellan cuts me with a pained gaze. There's got to be a way to fully free him from me, and I need to figure out the quickest way to do it.

Once they're gone, I breathe out in relief. That was sure as hell uncomfortable.

"We'll continue this when I get back," Jase says against my lips, thrusting in hard one last time before pulling out and leaving me bereft—and admittedly a little frustrated.

"I'm going with you," I grumble, standing up as his bare body starts getting clothed.

"No. Not for this. I don't want you anywhere near Hedin. He's had a grudge against you for centuries, apparently, and I won't risk your safety. I lost this battle between you and Fricks, but I won't lose this argument. There's no reason for you to speak to Hedin."

Hedin certainly has fewer redeeming qualities than Fricks, but that doesn't make him any more dangerous than Fricks. That's probably not the best thing to point out, considering Jase is still apparently pissed that I went anywhere near the traitorous captain.

"I won't speak to Hedin. But I want to be there—for you. I'm scared to separate right now. Jase, we're pretty much a target for two enemies, and possibly the Unaligned as well. We're stronger together."

He glances at the door where everyone retreated, and he sighs. "Not this time, baby. Not for this. I'll let you go with me when I meet with the Unaligned, but this… Not this. If you go with me, I might kill the bastard before we get any answers out of him. Fricks won't tell us where to find the Scorpions because he wants us focusing on Alice. But Hedin is weak. He'll tell me all I want to know, as long as I don't rip his head off first."

He would have killed Fricks if Mom hadn't gotten me in there. Something tells me he doesn't want me there for the exact opposite of the reason he's giving me.

"Fine, but I want to be close by."

"You are close by. Silan is only two hours from here. That's plenty close enough. I need to go, but I'll call you in a little while."

A chaste kiss is all he gives me as he keeps his inner war hidden behind his pale blues that I can't see through. Then he's gone, leaving a breeze in his wake, and the door shuts behind him with a light click.

Something about this doesn't feel right, but then again, this is all scaring the shit out of me. We're on everyone's hit list right now.