“Why? Because now I’m a forgotten they can’t forget? If I had been able to unlock Symphony’s ability to block your power before your phase three blood, I could have had you sooner. If I could have done this,” he says, and suddenly he vanishes from sight while letting his voice carry on. “I could have kept a better eye on you until time to collect you again,” he says dangerously close to my ear, and then he reappears.
My breaths become shallow, rapid, and disgusting to taste as his exhaled ones fall into my mouth.
“But, now I can. Your blood gave me the ability to heal sections of my brain that shouldn’t work. Your phase three blood is so much grander than anything I’ve ever seen.”
He doesn’t know about the unspoken.
“Ty, please don’t do this,” I plead, but he ignores me as he carelessly walks around the empty room.
“All I had to do was disappear while holding you, and you were just as invisible as I was. Then my sweet Symphony held the door open to secretly allow me to climb in with you by packing her bags in the backseat. She told the officer she was leaving Hale, and she was sorry for anyone’s day being interrupted. Then she pulled out with us in tow. They never even questioned the fleeing, considering it wouldn’t be the first time you’ve left a fiancé.”
“You set me up. You were the anonymous tipper.”
“I knew they wouldn’t learn the truth. You’re too smart to let them find out who you were born from. You’re too wise to show them how powerful you really are, now aren’t you? But I needed the place on lockdown in order to keep the crowds at bay during our escape. Not to mention, I needed Hale, Clay, and your sister focused on something else. By the way, her blood is useless. It’s hard to believe you’re really sisters.”
“That’s why you took her? You thought she was like me?”
“Of course I was curious, but I knew there was so much more to you. I smelled it the second I sliced open her veins with the tip of a uranium dipped blade. She was normal - gifted, but normal. I had no further use for her. I would have killed her, but I couldn’t do that to you.”
“You couldn’t do that to me? My father died, you son of a bitch.”
“Your father?” he scoffs. “The full blood who sent you to one of the worst places a hybrid child can go?”
“He didn’t mean for me to go there, and he saved me by sacrificing himself. That’s love. Hale saved me more than once, that’s love. Brazen laid his life down for me numerous times. That is love. Not this. This is insanity.”
“What can I say? I watched the girl I love fall into a trance the moment Hale arrived. You ignored the fact I was even standing there when he started flirting with you. You didn’t hesitate to fall into his arms like a mindless drone the first time he went savage in front of us either. I was there. I had to hear my girl rolling in the bed with another man while Clay had people restrain me. That’s enough to drive any man mad,” he growls.
“I broke up with you before Hale went savage. I had already chosen him before I even knew he was my damn counter. You just couldn’t accept it.”
He slams his fist into the wall, and then suddenly he vanishes from my eyes again, reappearing directly in front of me - close enough for me to feel his harsh breaths creeping across my skin with an ominous crawl again.
“Now I have you back. Soon the machine will have all of your data processed, and I will be able to merge your blood with my drug. You’ll love me, Araya. You’ll love me more than you ever loved him.”
Not possible, psycho.
“Don’t do this, Ty. Please don’t do this. If you love me like you say you do, then let me go. Don’t try to enslave me.”
He smirks a terrifyingly chilly grin, and then he walks back toward the door.
“I won’t try… I’ll succeed. I’ll have the girl Clay loved first and the girl who was taken from me. You’ll both be drowning me in your affections for all time. I’ll have an army of new hybrids foaming at the mouth for a chance to show off their new gifts. I’ll have everything, Araya… absolutely everything. This world is going to belong to me very, very soon. You should be thankful I’m bringing you along for the ride.”
Fuck.
I don’t even know how many gifts he has. He showed me his invisibility, but that isn’t all he has up his sleazy sleeve. Hale has to know I wouldn’t run out on him. He has to know.
The small glimpse of light still filters through the crack in the wall. The dripping sound has started to drive me crazy, and the putrid stench of the stagnant water puddled near my feet makes me feel nauseated to the point I can barely breathe in the disgusting air.
I’ve been down here for three days with no food, no drink, and no hope of my gifts coming back to me. How is she forcing my gifts into hiding when she is nowhere around?
My weakened hands tug at the chains hoping they’ll rattle off, but they barely even make a sound. My languid body slumps against the wall as the tears start to drip from my eyes, and Ty walks in with triumphant smile.
“Almost there, baby. Almost there. Your blood is close to merging with my concoction. I’ve decided to call it my love potion. Good name, huh?” he smugly inserts while sipping on a glass of amber liquid.
“Go to hell. I’ll never love you. Even if you enslave me, deep down I’ll still loathe the very sight of you,” I growl, my days of exhaustion and irritability shining through.
“That’s what you say now, but you’ve not seen how incredibly well it works,” he murmurs, and then Symphony walks in like his puppet bound by strings.
He smiles as her arms slide around the back of his neck, and his lips devour hers as he pushes her against the wall. I tilt my head curiously when I see a total lack of passion exuding from her. I realize she’s a prisoner, not in love. She’s not relishing his touch, hell she doesn’t even want him touching her. She’s just doing as commanded with a vacancy showing in her eyes.
