I start to fling my hands, but a shocking stab of pain shoots through me as the electricity surges into my body. I scream out as the terrors of my haunted past come back to life, and the man’s eyes grow wide when my pupils dilate.
One of our men rushes over and jerks the cable from my body before the next wave of currents can strike.
“Big fucking mistake,” I eerily release toward my attacker.
He stumbles backwards before I sling him across the wall, and I hear the bones shattering under my raging force. Brazen’s eyes widen, and he darts toward me, leaving Grayson unattended. He throws a vial through the air, and I catch it to see it’s olophine.
He’s prepared. Why?
I quickly inject myself to kill the raging savage inside before it fully takes over, and then I feel another strike from behind as a girl’s uranium dripped blade stabs me in the back. I fall to the ground, but before I can react, she’s incinerated in front of my eyes. I gasp as her body falls to ashes, and then I look over to see the dilated pupils of Grayson as he stands to his feet with blood oozing from his gaping wounds.
Holy fucking hybrid. There’s no way. He’s not supposed to be gifted.
Suddenly the raging crowd’s roar is brought to a desolate whisper as they stand in front of the hybrid ashing the front line with barely a flick of his wrist. A shriek from the back draws his attention, and I gasp when I see Angelica.
“Daddy,” she screams in a panic, and Grayson’s eyes glue themselves to her.
I know that look. I’ve had that look. I’ve seen that look from a man who had to have me. It’s the same look Hale and I share when we’re under the trance, and she’s automatically glued to his eyes too. The first connection of the bonding. She’s so young. It’s not…
I scream as a man tries to charge between them to halt Grayson’s approach, and he ducks before he can be ashed. Grayson isn’t planning on using his gift in the direction of Angelica though. She really is his counterpart. Fuck. Nicholas is going to flip the fuck out.
I run to Brazen, and he grabs me in his arms as we watch the first contact of the two hybrids.
“Please tell me you have more olophine. He’ll kill every full blood here the moment he’s spooked.”
“I do. Here,” he ushers, handing me the vial, and I rush toward Angelica.
Brazen starts to follow me, but I fling him backwards before he catches up.
“He won’t respond to you. Imagine someone who doesn’t love you acting the way I did,” I explain, and he swallows hard as he thinks back to my savage episodes he’s barely scratched the surface of.
“Grayson,” I coo, and his eyes barely meet mine.
“Araya,” he murmurs eerily, and I take a step toward Angelica. “Don’t,” he cautions.
“I’m not going to hurt her, and you know that. I came to help her understand how much you care about her,” I mislead, and his head tilts as he thinks it over.
“How do you know? You love a full blood,” he snarls.
“I also love a hybrid, just like you love Angelica.”
“We just met,” she sighs in a hypnotic trance.
I hate first-timers. She won’t be of much use to me if she’s too fucking out of it.
“I know you just met, Angelica, but he’s the man you’ll always be tied to in some way. He needs you right now, and I know you can feel it. It’s hard to deny, isn’t it?” I gently coach.
“Yes,” she hums, and I roll my eyes.
I hope I don’t look this fucking stupid when I’m tranced out.
“He needs to take medicine so he doesn’t get sick. Can you talk him into it? He’ll hurt himself if he doesn’t.”
Her eyes perk up to show some sobriety, and then she looks at me in a near panic when the initial hypnotic phase ends.
“What’s happening to us?” she worries.
“It’s a hybrid thing. I’ll explain later. Make him take this,” I almost whisper, and she looks at the man longing for her just as he touches her for the first time.
