Chapter 5
The Road to Hale is Paved with Savage Intentions
Nicholas sits across from me, and I can see his nerves dancing carelessly over his skin as he squirms under my glare.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” he asks shakily.
“No, but I also need to know what I’m capable of before I hurt someone. If you feel it has any bearings on such, then tell me now before I back out.”
He takes a deep breath, and Angelica’s eyes waver with pain showing her sympathy for the father she grew up with. Just being in the same room with him damn near makes me want to go savage. Fortunately I was wise enough to give myself several injections of olophine before coming in here.
He finally releases his breath as he starts from the beginning. His voice is meek, worried, and very close to trembling as he tries to explain.
“Your mother was my informant, as you already know. She had the right gene, and we needed her information. Everything should have gone right, but it all went terribly wrong instead.
“Her name was Cleo Everest. She was beautiful - more so than humans should be. She was an emergent,” he reveals, and every breath becomes trapped in our mouths - other than Grayson who looks clueless.
Brazen walks in just as the big bomb is dropped, and he sits beside me to take my hand in his.
“Emergents were just urban legends,” he rebuts, and I lean into his comforting embrace as Nicholas continues.
“That’s what we wanted everyone to think, but emergents were very much real - as real as you or I. We kept a lid on their existence, and all emergents were put to death. She had somehow passed the tests for full blood initiation without us finding out. The second I took her blood, I knew it was wrong. I could taste the difference, and she had managed to hide her secret for years despite the numerous blood donations, physical exams, and so much more. She had help, but I never found out who. She was the only living emergent I’ve ever known.”
I’m almost pale after hearing the revelation, and my lips don’t even attempt to move for fear of quivering out of place. Brazen’s grip tightens around me as he puts my wavering emotions ahead of his anger.
“What the hell is an emergent?” Grayson asks with some irritation.
Clay sighs as he leans forward gripping his head, and Nicholas explains, “An emergent is an evolved human that mutates upon the virus being injected. It often takes a couple of years before it shows itself. They become stronger, faster, smarter, but viciously uncontrollable with only the thirst for blood being their driving force, their only desire, and the deadliest catalyst you’ve ever seen. They’re strong enough to slay full bloods without so much as breaking a sweat. They’re strong enough to withstand the force of a gifted hybrid as well. In one rampage, Araya’s mother killed fifteen men without ever taking one shot. We brought her down the only way we could, and it cost us a facility. It was one of the most emotionally taxing things I’ve ever gone through.”
Tears drip vigorously from my eyes, and Brazen starts cooing in my ear as he tries to soothe me. I lightly sob into his chest as he strokes my hair. His lips press softly against the top of my head, and I cling to him as if he’s the only thing holding me steady - because he is.
I was born from a monster.
“Is that why you put me in Cheyenne?”
Nicholas’s eyes droop to display the mounds of shame and guilt mingling with pain as he murmurs in a near muted tone, “Of course not. You were never supposed to be there. First of all, emergents were thought to be sterile, and it was rapidly apparent she was pregnant. You were the first child to ever be born from an emergent, and that makes you special, not like her. You’re nothing like her,” he promises.
“She didn’t know she was going to be like that either,” I bellow.
“She did know, Araya. She wanted to be changed so she could exact her revenge on her old gang. Don’t pity her one bit. I don’t blame her for keeping it a secret, but I do hold her accountable for the damage she did cause and intended to cause.
“I didn’t send you to Cheyenne. I had you placed under the care of my human assistant until I could come care for you myself. Your eyes were a vibrant violet, stunningly so. I had never seen anything like it. I didn’t ask questions because I loved you no matter what. Then your mother turned almost a year after you were born. I was ordered to relinquish you for ashing. They didn’t want to take the chance of you growing up to be an even more deadly version of an emergent. I couldn’t do that. I had stared into those eyes, and I knew there was nothing wrong with you. You were a miracle, not an abomination. You were something incredible, new, and so much more evolved than the rest of us, and I was right. I gave you a metablocker, and I watched your eyes turn blue with just the faintest purple rim daring to reveal the truth about my precious baby girl. It was strong, and I prayed it kept your secret buried deeper than a shallow grave.
“After that, I did the only thing I could think of, and I called an underground hybrid runner. I had busted her ring years earlier to find she was helping hybrids out of the nations to find peace in hybrid compounds in the unaligned. If they were gifted, they had to keep it silent, and they weren’t hurting anyone so I let her go. I called her, and she was glad to take you to find a suitable home. Another troop busted them on the run, and she was beheaded for her treason. The hybrid children were dispersed, and you were among them.
“As soon as I found out about the attack, I tried to find you. I went compound to compound, but I never could recover you. I never would have dreamt you would make it all the way to Cheyenne, and I only recently discovered you were taken there days after I had searched for you in that same place. After several decades, I decided I had to give up. I didn’t want you to know me because I felt as if I had let you down. I tried so hard to find you,” he chokes out, and the tears drench his face as he tries to swallow the enormous wads of emotion.
“I saw a picture of you in a United special not too long ago when you received an award. Those purple rimmed eyes gave you away. I framed the picture and hid it in my desk drawer. I was so proud to see you had grown into a magnificent woman. I was so happy I made the right decision, and then I learned of how you suffered. It ached to read those gruesome details. It made me physically sick, and I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror. Obviously I couldn’t tell you then.
“Then one day I’m sitting in my office, and your résumé slides in front of my eyes. I was dumbfounded, terrified, and shaking so hard the paper rattled in my hands as I read your request for a job. I should have said no, and I debated for a while about how to proceed. I decided it wouldn’t be fair to you for me to selfishly bring you in under the guise of a job when all I wanted to do was get to know my daughter. I came here to the Seminole to get the grant for the hybrid school, and I literally ran into you. I had to speak to you, so I brought up the job. You jumped at the job I never thought you would take considering Seminole is a much bigger, more prominent place. I was excited and at the same time I felt the weight of the guilt for what you had gone through. I’m so sorry, Araya. I never meant to hurt you or to let you be hurt.”
The volume of his tears are as overwhelming as mine. Angelica hides her face in Grayson’s chest so as not to let her own tears impose on our moment. It’s too much for me to digest right now though, and I have to get more medicine. I thought I had enough, but I don’t. I don’t know whether to forgive him or hate him even more. The weight he has unloaded has landed on my chest, and it’s suffocating me.
“I need to get some air,” I wheeze out, and Clay quickly hands me a vial of olophine.
I inject myself without hesitance as I climb to my feet. I start to speak to Nicholas, but I can’t. My mouth opens, but the words refuse to be shed. He looks away to hide his shame when I don’t offer him anything at all, and then I dart out of the room before the savage burns through the medicine that doesn’t feel as strong as it used to.
“Araya, baby, stop,” Brazen calls from behind as I rush to get away.
