Chapter

Kellan is walking on eggshells, uncertain of how to act as I lie down in the bed, trying not to show him the pain I'm in. The detoxifier is working, making all the pain I already had even more severe.

"How did you know we were counters?" I ask as he lies down beside me, careful not to touch me with his hybrid heat.

He sighs, seeming to reminisce. "I knew it a long time ago, after my first savage episode, though I didn't really realize it then. I suppose I wasn't ready to realize it. I was in a lot of pain at the time. My mother had just died. I lost it, electrocuted her attackers to the point they were nearly unrecognizable.

"Then I felt a draw, something pulling me away. I ended up at Hershian while you were visiting Simone. I saw you with her, the two of you buying scarves at the shopping cart area. I came down from my savage, shaking for hours after. That one glance brought me down better than olophine could have. I knew it, but like I said, I wasn't ready.

"I followed you around, discreetly of course. I saw your violet eyes that day, realized you were just like me. You were upset about something, and Simone was comforting you.

"I learned all I could about you, studied you for years. Then it all made sense. When I started saving you, I felt it more, like you were feeling exactly what I was. It was so obvious then.

"The night I found you at the Catagar, I actually stopped at Seminole to look for you. I learned you weren't there, but it's not like I could ask someone where you were. I saw the commander there looking for you as well. I knew he'd find you before me and I had planned to follow him, when I felt that magnetic pull drawing me, guiding me. That's how I knew he was on his way. I got there first though. I beat him because I felt where you were. I felt you being seduced by someone, which angered my hybrid," he grumbles.

That confuses me. I wasn't being seduced by anyone. I was getting groped quite a bit, but never seduced.

"But no one was even close to tempting me," I murmur in objection, my head almost hurting too much to bear.

I feel the sweat starting to drip from me as my body tries to catch on fire. It hurts. Damn it hurts so much.

"I suppose you were feeling the seduction with your empathic ability. To me, it felt the same."

I suppose his hybrid got really mad after he left and I fucked Jase. That night was incredible.

I nod, not really knowing what else to say. We just lie there, staring at each other, both of us struggling to bridge the uncomfortable silence. Just as I feared, without sex, we don't have much to say.

It took us a very short time to cover everything we felt like sharing. Am I supposed to spend an eternity having sex with nothing else?

Hours tick by, and I'm almost praying I pass out when the pain gets surreal, unfathomably so. I can't hide it from him any longer. I clutch my stomach that feels like it's about to rupture, and I yelp out a strangled cry of excruciating pain.

"Fuck, Aria. How bad is it?" he asks, panic ringing out as he touches me with his painful heat.

I start sobbing, batting his hand away as I curl into a fetal position, doing my best to turn into a small ball. White noise forms in my ears as the pain forces a stabbing, merciless action.

"Shit," he grumbles, scooping me up and making me cry out more.

"Please, stop. Please put me down," I scream, the pain overwhelming me when his heat adds to the ferocity of the fiery heat that is consuming me.

"I'm taking you to him. This was so fucking selfish of me. You're not like me... not like anyone. Your senses are heightened, making every emotion stronger. Making everything stronger. Your pain included. Damn it, I'm so sorry."

I cry harder, shaking my head, but I can't object. I can't speak anymore.

The blurring action he uses leaves my head in a spin. He knocks. using his foot, as he cradles me in my misery.

The door swings open to reveal Jase, shirtless and stupefied.

"Fuck," he murmurs while jerking me from Kellan's arms.

The relief creeps into me slower this time, the pain dawdling, reluctantly leaving at a snail's pace.

"It got too bad. I can't do that to her," Kellan murmurs through strain, leaning over to kiss my cheek before turning away. "I'm sorry."

With that, he's gone, leaving me in the arms of my horrified full blood. I press my face to the bare skin on his smooth chest, trying to drink in his chill and relieve myself of the burning-alive conundrum I have.

I feel the bed before I feel us moving, and he pulls me to him. I wrap around him, greedily soaking in the chill, but it's not working this time. I'm still on fire.

I strip out of my pants, praying for some relief, hearing the air conditioning whining to keep up with the rising heat flooding the room. Jase helps me, pulling my shirt over my head and pressing my skin to his chilled touch.

The sheets start smoking, proving I'm much hotter than I've ever been before. Jase pulls me off them, jerking me to be on top of him and only him as he kicks his own pants off, offering me nothing but skin on skin with the exception of his boxers and my lacy panties that are sizzling against my touch.

My bare breasts press against his exquisitely firm chest, considering I never put on a bra. He slides his fingers through my damp hair, cradling my face in his neck as his breath trails down my body.

It's still not working. I'm starting to worry my heat might hurt him. Before I can say it aloud, his lips are on mine, pushing his cool breath into my body to try and cool me from the inside out.

That works. I feel relief from the painful burning for the first time, and he continues, blowing his sex and candy chill into me, releasing me from the pain as my body slowly comes down from its inferno state.

His body under mine, barely clothed, becomes distracting, heating me up in a different way. I slide my hands into his hair, pushing my tongue into his mouth as my hips start rotating, feeling his incredibly firm erection through the thin fabric.

He moans, gripping my ass to him, pulling me tighter before flipping me to be underneath him and taking control. My body chills to the point of almost being perfect in that instant, despite the heated entanglement we've found ourselves in.

His tongue battles with mine for dominance, and he rips my panties from my body, letting his fingers find the most sensitive spot on me. I moan, spreading my legs and inviting him in, needing him inside me.

"Fuck," he gripes while dropping his face to the pillow beside my head.

I don't care what his hesitation is. I don't care if I do have a counter. I just want him right now. I'm aching to feel his glorious body connected with mine in a way no other man has made me feel.

"Aria," he mutters while pressing his lips to mine, and I wrap my legs around him to pin him in place. "Shit," he growls. "I can't. You can't have sex for forty-eight hours. I would gladly, so gladly, give you exactly what you want otherwise."

Fucking shit. I forgot about that.

He groans while rolling over to his side, bringing me with him as he presses my bare body to his. I feel so good now, when just moments ago I almost prayed for death.

"Why do you want me so much when you're with me, yet you don't want me when you're with him?" he asks, letting his fingers trace the lines of my back.

I sigh out, painfully acknowledging the toll this is taking on him.

"I always want you. That's never the issue. The fact of the matter is I'm not supposed to. I'm supposed to feel this way about him. I don't even want to be with him when I'm with you. I barely want to be with him when I'm with him. It's fucking ridiculous."

For the first time, I said it all aloud to him. It feels so good and so painful at the same time.

He sighs, silently agreeing with how crazy this has all become. He's read my mind though. He knows what I feel for Kellan, and it's nothing in comparison to what I feel for him.

"I wish you were my counter," I murmur in such a soft whisper that I wonder if I even really said it aloud.

Tears start slipping free from my eyes with a new purpose, and he presses his lips to my head, letting his delicious chill cool me more.

"So do I, but I'm not strong enough to be such a thing," he says, making me rise up with quizzical eyes.

"You mean... because you're full blood," I say to correct him.

He shakes his head, his lips thinning. "I have something to tell you, and I pray you take it a little better than you took learning about the fact I was commander. You'll be the only one in your family who knows."

I tilt my head, bemused.

"O... kay. Tell me."

He looks toward the door, making sure it's shut, keeping the room soundproof, and then he leans back, staring into my eyes with his pale blues. I gasp when they turn a cosmic blue... a hybrid blue.

"Jase! What the hell? You can't be a-"

"I'm not," he says in interruption, letting his breath come out heavily. "I'm a full blood hybrid. Just like the children with mismatched eyes. When they hit puberty - when the change hits - they'll be able to choose their eye color just as I can. Just as... Melania can. They can also choose their temperature, if they're like me instead of her."

I cover my mouth while staying against him. This is huge. This is so fucking huge.

"It is," he murmurs, scared of my reaction.

I pull him to me, letting my lips find his again, and then I feel the relief flood through him as the thin material of his boxers starts to let me feel his desire in firm form again. I push my hand to be beneath the fabric, finding his skin, and he gasps.

Then I pull back, narrowing my eyes as I stop playing vixen. "So Melania... she's like you? She's not really a forgotten? She's really your sister?"

He shakes his head. "I never told you any of that. Your uncle did. I didn't want to lie to you, at least not to the extent he did. Melania isn't my sister, but she wasn't a forgotten. She is like me, just like me, just not as strong. My father is hybrid, my mother is full blood. Apparently that's a stronger combination. Mel's father is full blood and her mother is hybrid. Though we would both be considered level sevens, her power isn't anywhere close to being as strong as mine."

This is all so surreal.

"So... why did she claim hybrid and why did you claim full blood?" I ask, confused by all of this.

"Our full blood parents lived together. They pretended to raise us as their own, while our hybrid parents lived together, pretending as though they were just friends. Funny thing is, their apartments were and still are side by side, so they just go through the private door installed between the two for them to swap discreetly.

"We were both supposed to pose as full blood once our eyes changed and we could quit wearing contacts. Our blood is immortal, just like yours. Mel's gift slipped up and came out though. At a training seminar, a guy snuck up on her, threw her against a wall. He was showing how guarded you should always be, but he was the one caught off guard when she used her gift to bring him to his knees. She has the ability to force you to feel the burn of uranium.

"Needless to say, we had some explaining to do. Hale Banner stepped up. I came to learn that he knew about us all along. He's the one who introduced our parents and gave them the solution of how to keep their secret.

"The committee called my parents to meet with them and the commander, though they had no idea Hale was in on it. Mom was freaking out, worried about what would happen to Mel. Her mom was twice as panicked since she couldn't even be there.

"When they got there, Hale told the committee he knew Mel was hybrid, and he suspected she might one day be gifted. Mom said he was awesome. He had complete composure, didn't seem the least bit rattled. He excused her eyes by presenting cases of others whose eyes really had changed to mimic the eyes of the ones raising them. He even told them they had told others she was full blood because they didn't want her to know she was adopted until it was time.

"All in all, he downplayed the whole situation, and the committee lapped it up. They laughed it off like an overreaction on their part, and they thanked the great commander for his time in the matter. That was the first time I realized what a great man was running the United.

"Then, several centuries later, Hale looked me up. I was a Lieutenant at the time. He told me to meet him at Seminole because he had something he wanted to discuss with me. Turns out, he wanted me to take his place. He knew he could trust me, and he knew I would do anything to keep others like me safe.

"He groomed me, prepared me for the life of the commander, and when the committee went to make a selection, Hale Banner's vote carried the most weight. They all trusted his decision, because they all knew a war was coming. They trusted the commander knew what he was doing by choosing me. I often wanted to meet you, but I never got the chance."

With his eyes hybrid blue, it makes it easier for me to read his emotions, feel them like I never have before. Every emotion he felt while speaking was as clear to me as if it was my own. I've never had such clarity with my empathic ability before.

"Really?" he muses, running a hand through my hair before kissing me quickly.

"I think your eyes open you up to me. It makes it each emotion so vivid, vibrant... honest. With your pale blues, I feel a connection, but with your hybrid blues, I feel like I'm inside you."

He smiles, but it's brief. He starts thinking, and it's almost as if I can read his mind by reading his emotion. Waves of heartbreak, pain, and dread. That's what I feel, and it breaks my heart because I know why he feels that.

His eyes go back pale blue, cutting me off from his emotions so quickly that it stills my breath.

"You don't need to suffer my pain as well as yours," he murmurs, answering the question I was going to ask.

Tears bubble up as my lips find his against all sane reason. He pulls me to him, gently returning the kiss, but I can taste his reluctance.

"I saw it, Aria. I know he's meant for you now, and though it kills me, I won't steal that from you."

His words slice me into, and I look at him with my tears teetering.

"What do you mean?"

He frowns, staring into me.

"When Kellan and I were on the verge of fighting, he dropped his guard. He let me into his head for the first time ever. I saw it. I saw the magnetic pull the two of you share, felt it even. I saw everything leading him to this conclusion, and though it kills me, I see it. I understand it's real. It just... it feels wrong, but that's because I'm a selfish asshole who wants you for myself."

A burning pain shoots through me, all of his efforts to keep the pain away now fail as I'm forced to feel nothing but misery. He coos to me as I sob into his chest. Hearing him admit I belong with Kellan is the most painful thing I've felt all night.

"Aria, don't think that, baby. I'm just trying to make you happy."

I look at him, realizing I honestly can't lose him. Selfishly, I shake my head, refusing to leave him when I've begged him to move on. "I don't want to be with him. I've tried. I really, really have, but I don't even want him touching me. I love you ."

He steals my breath with a kiss that happens almost too fast, and I'm back on my back, pinned under him as he slides against me. I can feel him again, feel his love for me as he lets his hybrid blues come back.

It makes me gasp to feel how real this is. I thought my heightened senses were making me love him so much more than he loves me, but I don't. He loves me just as much, and it warms me in a way that makes the tears pour harder.

I choose you.

He kisses me harder, making me feel alive so fully before he pulls back. "You'll only choose me until the bond. You know that don't you? Once he goes savage in front of you, you'll bond and I'll be a memory."

I cry for a whole new set of reasons. This is so agonizingly painful, but I doubt even the bond of a counter could make me love Jase any less. I know I can never love anyone any more than I do him.

"Aria, don't make this decision right now. Wait until you're better and you can think clearly. Right now, you're just confused. I mean... hell, we're practically naked and you need me to keep you from being in pain. Right now, touching him is so terrible because his heat makes you sick. Once you're better and you don't need me, then you can tell me what you want."

I nod, not really believing what I feel will subside. I love him.

"I'm going to have blue balls for a year," he grumbles while rolling over and spooning with me from behind, making me laugh while crying too.

Then something hits me with a sickening threat, he shivers, reading my mind.

"If Melania has a counter, then you will too," I murmur in a hoarse whisper.

He sighs out, not answering right away as we stew in the suspended silence, dread filling us both.

"I didn't know if it was possible until Mel found Rex. We know very little about us. It's not like there's anyone else to pass down their knowledge."

I don't want to think about anyone else ever touching him, and that's nothing but selfish of me.

"So your mind reading is a level seven gift? I would have thought it was a level two at most," I murmur, breaking away from the heavy subject.

He smiles against the back of my head as our skin stays connected.

"That's not my gift. That's just something else I've got."

That piques my curiosity, making me turn around to face him. I try to ignore how incredible his body looks right now. I'm almost glad that I have an excuse to be touching him, though the touch doesn't have to be quite so intimate.

He smirks, leaning in closer to kiss my shoulder, teasingly dragging his teeth over my skin and making me ache to feel his blood bringer.

"Don't start those thoughts. I still haven't recovered from your teasing dreams."

I blush instantly, laughing while burying my face in his chest. "Answer my question. And then you can explain yourself. Back at my Mom's room, you said you could block out thoughts, but you told me once that you couldn't."

He chuckles lightly, reveling in my reddened cheeks.

"I'll answer the second thing first. I can block out thoughts, but I can't block out yours. I think it's because of your empathic signals mingling with my mind reading waves. I didn't want to tell you because I was worried you'd think I was lying just so I could keep reading your mind."

I smirk, amused by his devilish grin. "And the first thing?" I prompt, not mad at all.

I sort of like the fact I'm the only person he can't block out.

"Do you?" he teases, tickling me suddenly and making my head pop back as my laughter rolls free.

"Yes," I giggle out, making his tickling attack more ferocious as he holds me down.

He climbs on top of me to give him more leverage, and I thrash beneath him, writhing as he makes me expel unladylike phrases and cackles. He finally stop, though I still have some lingering chuckles as I try to catch my breath.

"This," he murmurs while holding his hand up.

I stare at it quizzically, not seeing what I'm apparently supposed to be seeing.

"Um... Your gift cooperates about as well as mine it seems," I tease.

He gives me a smug smirk, and then he leans back, staring at the ceiling. I glance toward the ceiling, and my mouth falls open as I stare in disbelief at the flames consuming it, but not scorching it.

"How the fu-"

"Like me, the flames can be hot or cold. I control their temperature just as I control my own. They'll burn as hot as I want them, or they'll be as docile as I need them to."

I'm captivated by the flames I've seen before. The blue center extends until all the flames turn that incredible blue. I reach up, wanting to touch them, and he lowers them from the ceiling to reach me, spiraling them around my hand.

I gasp at the cool touch that feels just like him. They run across my bare body, wrapping around me, and then they stop, disappearing all together and leaving me breathless.

"It was you. You were the one who saved us the day of the jets, and you tried to save me that day they took me. Why didn't you tell me?"

I turn back toward him, pressing my breasts against him as I curl in closer, needing to feel the closeness like we just shared a blood fuck. Damn I want his blood.

"Stop," he chuckles out, kissing my forehead where my scandalous mind rests behind. Then he murmurs, "I wanted to. You had so much on you at that time though. I didn't want to add to your mound of crazy. This really wasn't a good time either, but I wanted you to know. I'm worried with this war escalating, especially with all the new player, that my secret might come out during a fight. I didn't want you to find out with everyone else, because you're not everyone else."

My girly grin slips free, and I pull him to me, kissing him sweetly as a reward for trusting me. I only thought I knew him while I was dating him, now I know him so much better. I want to be with him.

"Your mind drives me crazy," he murmurs with a shit-eating grin that makes me laugh.

Is that all that drives you crazy?

His hand slides over my lacy panties as he tugs me closer to his center, making me feel how crazy I apparently make him.

"This drives me crazy," he says while sliding his hand down the curve of my ass, and then he brings his hand back up, cupping my breast in his hand before releasing a shaky breath. "This drives me crazy."

I bite back a smile, and he tugs at my lower lip. "This makes me crazy," he says before kissing me, letting his tongue slip in as he starts driving me crazy.

My hand slides down his boxers, finding the proof of his desire, and then I push them off completely, sliding to be on top of him and threatening to say to hell with the forty-eight hour rule.

"Fuck, Aria. We can't," he groans, even though his body is protesting when he grips me and jerks me to him, almost breaking through my panties with his thrust.

Fuck the rules. I'll chance it.

He flips me to my back, jerking my panties off and pressing against me, almost making his way inside my throbbing lower half. His disgruntled breath rings out, and he stops, lowering himself instead to kiss me in the most intimate place a man can kiss a woman, making my breath shudder out.

He smiles, kissing the inside of my legs, and then he comes back up.

"You can't have an orgasm because it'll make your hybrid heat soak up all your detoxifier, stopping it from killing the parasite living within. Until the connection is broken with whoever consumed your blood, I'm not taking any chances. You mean too much to me. Now, let's find another way to pass the time since it's apparent that neither of us are sleepy. We'll start with putting on clothes. I have robes."

I start laughing immediately, and he rolls his eyes while kissing my neck and rising up to fetch the robes. I watch his glorious body leave the bed, and I smile as he boldly strides across the floor, enjoying the way he knows I'm staring at him.

"Yes I am," he says from down the hall when he disappears from sight, and I let a silly giggle free in response.

My headache is slowly starting to return, but he's back before it does. He's wearing a sexy black robe that really makes me feel hotter. He starts laughing and then he hands me a satin robe, a pale pink.

I tilt my head curiously, wondering why he has a girl's robe on hand, and he offers me a shrug.

"I love you. What can I say? I keep a few things on hand in case you ever decide to just show up and fall back into my arms."

My heart dissolves and I frown. "That's what I'm trying to do right now, but you seem to have had a change of heart," I murmur while tying the robe shut.

His lips find the back of my neck as he pulls me to him, and I lean back on him, enjoying his touch that does so much for me. He kisses me softer as I prop against him, and he presses a button on a remote that drops a screen from the ceiling to show an old movie I happen to love.

"I want to be with you, Aria. More than anything. I just don't want to do it while you're under so much strain. I want you to choose me once you're fully recuperated and you can make that sort of decision. I'm letting you know I'll let you go if you decide you should be with him. That's all I'm saying."

I sigh out, just relaxing against him, and then I cuddle against him. "What's your favorite dessert?" I ask, somewhat randomly with no premeditation, so he's caught off guard.

"Um... chocolate cake I suppose. Why?"

I shrug, nestling into him more. "Your birthday is coming up. I wanted to make you your favorite dessert."

I feel his smile before I see it, and then he curls into me. From there, the conversation sparks, and the old movie playing on the large screen becomes forgotten.