Page 65 of Secret Gifts
He laughs a little and shrugs.
“You’re giving me too much credit, Ms. Banner. I like you feisty though,” he teases, his lips coming to mine as he avoids answering my question.
Ah crap. He’s too cute, and I suck at interrogation.
My lips give into his, and he grips me tighter to him just as my phone buzzes in my pocket. I smirk while rolling my eyes, and he gives me a wink as I answer the number I don’t know.
“Aria Banner.”
“An aerial strike is five minutes away, shoot them down or run,” says the strange male voice with a foreign accent I've only ever heard on the old movies.
“Who is this?” I prompt, but I hear Jase screaming behind me to get everyone out of the damn hole we’re in after he overhears the warning.
The dead line doesn’t answer me back, and I hear the distant jets zooming toward us. Who the fuck travels by air? It’s the most dangerous way to go.
“Aria!” Jase screams as I run away from his protective grip.
I rip up a rifle from the ground as I rush toward the top of the ridge. My legs burn against my pants as the friction builds up. My body blurs across the scene to meet the jets halfway, and I dive onto the ground while rolling to a halt to set up my sights.
They’re three miles away, but this rifle has the capability of making that distance. My breaths steady as I line up the scope with the jet hatch. I don’t have long until they’re right on top of me.
Suddenly, Jase is beside me, rifle in hand, lining up his shot on the second jet. I smirk as I finally calculate the wind and speed of the jet, and my shot rings out in unison with Jase’s.
Both jets go crazy - the pilots dead - and they collide in the air while raining down their destructive debris.
“Do you ever do anything the easy way?” He sighs.
“No, do you?” I say with a smirk, but then I hear more… so, so many more.
My stomach turns, knots, and I get so fucking sick. When we see there are too many coming toward us to shoot down, Jase grabs my hand to jerk me away.
“Call in the damn drones!” Jase yells to someone, his voice barely carrying over the thunderous approach of the jets.
I can stop this if I can just use my stupid, stubborn gift. Damn, I wish Mom was here.
“Go, I’ll stall them,” I say to Jase while trying to turn away.
“Like hell you will,” he argues while pulling me back to his body, his grip tightening on me.
“Jase, everyone will die if I don’t fucking try,” I bark.
His jaw tenses, and he shakes his head as cars begin peeling out and heading down the road.
“I’m not losing you. I’ll take care of this. You go,” he growls while forcing me into the car.
Suddenly a firing craze shoots free from the aerial beasts, and Jase rips me back out of the car just before it explodes from the uranium based bullets. Our bodies thud against the ground, and he jerks me up to start running with me holding his hand. Just as one gets too close to us, it explodes.
I scream as the debris rains down, and then another explodes from the air.
They're not spontaneously combusting, so I know there's a gifted hybrid around here somewhere, but where? What kind of gift is that?
They’re not like my dad’s explosions. They’re similar to Uncle Grayson’s incinerations, but different. It's almost like setting a match to a fire that slowly burns to a gas tank. My dad’s were like throwing dynamite with a short fuse.
That’s what’s happening. The jets are catching on fire. It's a hybrid with a fire gift. The fire sets in again. It’s not like regular fire. It burns brighter with a dark blue center as it surges around the jets like a live wire.
Another falls to the ground, and then I feel the pain in my side. I look down to see blood on my side from the shot I never felt.
The jets all catch on fire at once suddenly, and the fire finds the fuel before igniting them and turning them into fiery comets surging from the sky, exploding them into ash.
