Page 89 of Tainted Gifts
I watch him lie there, writhing in pain as he gasps for painful breaths. Jase drops to his knees, finally acknowledging his own tragic wounds. No one else moves. No one else knows how to react.
Kellan looks to me, his eyes begging me to come to his side, and I turn to see Jase's mismatched eyes staring into mine, requesting the same thing. It's no contest. Counter or not, Kellan isn't the one I love, and after this, I know more than ever that he never will be.
"Aria," Kellan wheezes. "He's not-"
"Stop it. Just shut up!" I scream, so pissed I can barely see straight.
Simone walks over, her eyes wide after witnessing Jase's secret blazing across the open air. I can't believe he just did this. Now we're all fucked. There's no telling what the committee will do to him. He's the commander, and they'll see this as treason.
I rush over to him, wrapping my arms around him as I drop to my knees at his side. I quickly cut my eyes away from Kellan's pained expression, not giving him the chance to make me feel guilty for feeling the way I do.
Simone brings over several blood packs, and Jase slowly takes them from her, refraining from wincing when he raises his arm. With the adrenaline gone, he's feeling the pain.
She walks away, offering Kellan the same token of ease. He takes them, his eyes finding the ground to avoid my furious glare.
"Com... man... der Eric...son, Sir, I think we... we need to... um... talk," a man stammers out, dread forging trails over his brow.
I stand up, my fingertips buzzing with power, more so than I've ever felt so readily before. "I won't let you hurt him," I threaten, my body separating Jase from their view.
They all take a step back as my violet eyes burn darker, protectiveness driving me forward. They look at each other, uncertain of how to proceed.
"Aria, it's okay," Jase says as his last wound closes up.
He heals so much faster than me. It's the least of astonishing things going on right now though.
"It's not okay," I whisper while turning around. "They could-"
"It's okay," he says again, kissing me lightly on the forehead. "I'll take care of it, and I'll meet you back at the room."
He hands me a key, kissing me softly on the cheek. Though the kiss is meant to be encouraging, it's anything but.
You've got an hour before I come after you.
He looks at me and shakes his head, telling me no, but I'll be a rebel and he knows it. He runs a hand through his already tousled hair as a sigh of exasperation seeps out. Rex and Melania step up, and she walks over to join him, her mismatched eyes in full view. What is she doing?
"If you're taking him, then you'd better take me too."
Their jaws drop, and they glance between she and Rex several times. Rex clenches his jaw, but he apparently didn't see what she was about to do. He would have stopped her if he had.
"If you touch one fucking hair on her head-"
"I'll take care of it," Jase grumbles, scolding Melania with his eyes.
She ignores his admonishing gaze while falling in at his side, walking with him as they become encircled by the United officials. As the simmer dies down, awkwardness and fear settles in to all those still in my line of sight. They quickly scatter, avoiding meeting my blazing fury of violet.
"I'll take care of all the blood spilled," Simone murmurs while affectionately patting my arm, stealing some of my rage and replacing a smidge of it with gratitude.
We need to be careful with our blood right now. Mine might not be good after being out of the vein, but everyone else's still is.
"Aria," Kellan's more normal, less pained voice says in a bit of dread. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. I wasn't trying to out him, but I thought he-"
I whip around, cutting him off before he can continue. "Thought he what? Fucked me? Hindered my recovery process? He wouldn't do that. And believe me, I begged him to because I want him. Not you. You don't own me, Kellan. I don't belong to you, and I never fucking will. You need to figure that out. I'm tired of trying to tread lightly over the obvious."
He winces, my stinging revelation cutting deep. I don't care. I'm sick of sparing the feelings of others. I'm sick of everyone trying to tell me what to feel. I know what I feel.
"Aria, I'm sorry," he strains out, swallowing his emotion to keep me from seeing it. "I just... it freaked me out. I know you don't understand this, but I love you, and-"
"Love me?" I ask incredulously. "Kellan, you don't know what love is. You think you're supposed to love me, therefore you've got this illusion that you really do. Fucking someone is not loving someone... it's just sex. That's all we've had. There's nothing, absolutely nothing, of any substance between us. You're just too blind to see it. You know absolutely nothing about me. I know nothing about you. That's not love. I love Jase!"
