Page 79 of Tainted Gifts
Kellan tenses, but he doesn't say anything. It's a respectable touch, though I wish Jase was more concerned with my needs as opposed to Kellan's.
"So why's Simone fucking some dude and where's the girl we're supposed to interrogate?" Kellan continues, ignoring the contact.
Jase bursts out laughing, turning his head away to let it roar free for Kellan's misconception.
"It's not some dude," I chuckle out. "That's the girl we're supposed to interrogate."
Kellan coughs out his surprise, pounding his chest to let air find the right pipe to travel down.
"What the hell?" Rex grumbles, his ew-face coming out more prominently.
Jase slowly finds a medium between laughter and composure as he answers. "When we got here, the woman's throat had been slashed. We interrupted the killer. Simone had to give her blood-"
He stops, noticing the perplexed faces, and I drop my head to my hands.
Blabbermouth.
"Sorry," he whispers, tensing up immensely for his slip.
"But Simone is hybrid and this chick is supposed to be full blood. Her blood would kill her," Kellan says, not realizing the stupid slip of tongue Jase just had.
"He's your counter, Aria," Rex sighs. "It's not like it's some grave injustice to tell him. Besides, Simone knew what she was risking by doing this. We have to worry about that woman talking more than we have to worry about Kellan."
Obviously he's already told Melania then.
Kellan looks at me expectantly, and I sigh out just as the girls start a new round of scream and play. I cede, groaning inwardly as I start explaining.
"Symphony was Simone's mother as you know. Symphony spent too many years as Ty's pet project. She was the only one Ty could find whose blood was compatible with my mom's without the stage three savage blood.
"She was a force to be reckoned with, but without the phase three blood to seal it permanently, it gradually filtered out of her system. She and Uncle Clay didn't think about it affecting a child, but it did. They knew it the second she was born. Her eyes morphed into the perfect blend of hybrid and full blood. After a while, they didn't change so much, and they stayed more hybrid.
"Mom's emergent blood changed her, made her more like us. She's immortal like us and her blood is harmless to a full blood like ours.
"Simone is registered as a level seven because of the power people know about, but in reality, she's a level twelve. Just like Mom was a registered level eight until her true powers came to life and she became a level fifteen."
Kellan sits back, soaking that in.
"That's almost impossible. Not the part about Simone, but the part about your mom. Your dad was only a level seven, so how was he her counter."
Jase answers that, since he and Dad were apparently closer than I realized. "Because counters are power based from puberty, according to the studies we've done. Araya was subdued until much later in life, making her counter not have to be so strong. Unlike Aria," he murmurs softly, his eyes cutting away.
Kellan starts to say something else, but the door to the bedroom opens, letting the stench of sex drift out.
A woman walks in while tying her red satin robe into place. Kellan's eyebrows cock up as a humored smirk appears.
Her long, wet, dark, and thoroughly-fucked hair sweeps low, and she finger-combs through it when she sees us.
"Aria?" she asks, looking between me and Melania.
"That's me," I murmur quizzically.
"Simone wants to see you," she says while walking over and grabbing a glass of whiskey.
I smirk as everyone stares at the woman who seems to have been in the shower during one of the times they rolled around in that back room.
I stand up, losing Jase's healing touch, and then I head to the back. As I step into the room with an open door, Simone is pulling on a pair of leather pants that aren't hers, and she's wearing a black lace bra that is a little too big in the cup area.
"Why are you wearing those?" I ask curiously.
