Page 3 of Secret Gifts
She rolls her eyes, but her tight lips become firmly placed as she stares straight ahead at the chaos she evoked with barely a flick of her wrist.
“My power is too great to exhibit too often. Without your father or Clay here to help me cover up my messes, I have to be a little more careful now.”
I sigh as I too look around at her sleeping beauties that have been forced to shut out the world.
“I know, but Uncle Brazen could have been commander. The United basically begged him to be. He could do just as much damage control as Dad. You could still be helping us."
She looks down, and I almost see guilt riddling her face.
“I know, and he would have been, if I hadn’t asked him to turn it down.”
“Why?” I muse, a little startled by her seemingly selfish confession.
“Because… Aralia, I’m not supposed to be immortal, dear. You know this. At some point they’re going to wonder why I’m still strong and breathing. Brazen stepped down as admiral today. He’s taking a civilian leave, and I’m leaving the United as well.”
What the fuck?
“Are you serious? You can’t do that. You’re the only reason we started pulling out of the worst of the war. You’re the only reason we’re winning at all right now. Not because of your gifts but because of your interrogations. You're so… so selfish!” I snap, and her eyes lower all the more.
“Honey, I’ve lived a while. There’s always a war, there’s always a fight, and there’s always some bad guy wanting to take over and rule things in true tyrant fashion, but I can’t fight them all if I’m not supposed to exist.
"You know what they would do if they found out I’m the daughter of an emergent. You know how they would act if they found out my true power. I won’t risk you, Rex, Brazen, Angelica, Grayson, or anyone else I love, because that’s who they’d go through to get to me. Either I die, or I pretend to die. Living in the United is no longer an option.”
I sigh out, knowing how right she is. Our world has evolved, and it’s better because of my mother, but they wouldn't accept that. She pulls my hand in hers before continuing her sad monologue.
“This war started when Hale died. They didn’t think anyone else was strong enough to hold them back with Clay and Hale both gone. This is hard from me to walk away from, so don’t for one minute think it isn’t. I’ve met our new commander though, and he’s going to be the one to get everyone out of this. He’ll be the knight in shining armor everyone needs. He’s a good leader, and though I disagree with his choice in keeping his identity a secret, I understand his reasoning. If he’s right, then he’ll make one hell of a dent in this fight.”
“So you and Brazen are going to fake your death, and then what? Disappear?”
“No. We’re going to find a home, live our lives outside the United and Unaligned bickering. We’re too old for this shit,” she laughs out. “No one will be looking for the dead, but we’ll cut ourselves out of communication circles for a while. When I reemerge, I’ll look different, and no one will suspect anything when they see this.”
She smirks as she pulls out her hybrid blue contacts, and then she replaces them with a pale blue full blood color instead.
“Well I’ll be damned. You look full blood now. I suppose it helps that our scents mingle and mix these days, considering your blood healed them from their curse.”
She smiles softly, and then she changes her contacts to put her hybrid blues back into place, giving me only a glimpse of her true violet stained eyes during the exchange.
“Well then. I suppose I need to wake up your captain and the rest of your crew. You’ll need to tell them it was-”
“Yeah, I know. It was uranium sleeper gas. You might want to leave some of our men down and wake some of the Unaligned so that it doesn't look so obvious when only our people rise.”
She smirks, and then she kisses my forehead before taking my hand in hers. Very slowly, all of our men start rising to their feet as Mom walks over to rejoin her newlywed husband. He smiles salaciously as he folds his arms around her waist and pulls her to his body the way he has only dreamed about for centuries.
I sigh out as I walk over to my captain, but he quickly goes to cuffing all the unaligned while they stay under the sleeping spell cast through my mother’s lips.
I wish I could do that. Hell, I wish I could go savage.
I feel like the daughter everyone expected to be so powerful, when really, I’m the disappointment they never saw coming. I feel like a child instead of a centuries old hybrid. I feel… so alone… but I shouldn’t.
I stare at my mother with Uncle Brazen, and though it’s so different from the she was with my father, it’s still so amazing. I want that.
C
hapter 2
Officially United
My mother’s bomb wasn’t the way I wanted to start out the week, but it’s official. She was granted leave to spend the last fifty years of her span in peace. I only hope she’s right about them never finding out she is still alive. They’ll never stop hunting her or the rest of us if she’s wrong. One day, I’ll have to do the same thing.
