Page 25 of Awakened Gifts

“You mean ninety-five,” I correct.

She tightens her lips and pulls up the screen. “You were at ninety-five percent. Now you’re at ninety.”

I swear I could throttle her right now. “You’re not making a damn bit of sense. You just finished saying the variables and the percentages never change, and Aria and I are at ninety-five percent.”

She groans while dropping down to the stool across from me. “Exactly. They’ve never changed. Dad used himself and Mom as a controlled test. He used Araya and Hale as a controlled test. He also used Grayson and Angelica as a controlled test. You get the idea. Century after century, test after test—the percentages never changed. He used non-counters as tests, and the same thing. Nothing ever changed. But in less than a few weeks, you and Aria have dropped five percent. I don’t know how to explain it. I’ve gone over both tests numerous times. The machine still works properly, because I used my blood and Jase’s blood as tests and they read the same. Ten percent.”

This is all a jumbled pile of confusion. “Why have you been comparing your blood to his?”

She shrugs. “I was confused and felt compelled to kiss him, just as I felt compelled to kiss you. I tested my blood against the both of yours, wondering if maybe… That’s not the important part. The tests I had with him didn’t change. We’re still at ten percent. But your results with Aria have faltered.”

I drop to the chair in front of her. How did I end up with the counter who didn’t want her counter?

“So you were looking for your counter?” I ask, needing a distraction from my own hell.

“I was. I found my counter.”

She turns and walks away, leaving that suspended in the air.

“Who? When?” I ask, watching her as she takes a deep breath.

With her back still turned, she answers, “Just after the bizarre make-out session we shared. I felt the calling. My counter went savage, and I felt it. I followed the calling, but pain suddenly ripped through me, and I knew it before I found him that he was dead.

“I followed it still, even though it grew weaker by the second. That’s when I found it—one of the battles had led to a complete and utter slaughter. Three men lay in the vicinity to where I felt the pull. I took blood from all three, and tested it, using my gift to make it viable for long enough. One was a ninety-three percent match.”

She turns with tears in her eyes, and my heart aches for her. We’ve all been using her to vent to, and she’s been dealing with this all alone.

“Why didn’t you tell someone?”

She offers me a bitter smile that feels like a knife jabbing into me. “Because my problems were the least important. I sought answers, and I got them. I still don’t know why I felt the compulsion to flog you and Jase the way I did, but I think it might have had something to do with my counter searching for me in savage form. That’s all I can figure out.”

The door opens, and Simone looks away while wiping her tears. I turn just in time to see Aria walking toward me, sympathy oozing from her eyes. It’s almost painful to look at her, knowing she was even able to deny me when it shouldn’t have been possible. My counter hates me.

“Can we talk?” she asks softly, but her eyes drift up to the screen as she awaits my answer.

Her brow arches as she studies the two columns of blood, and she stares at the names on the screen.

“What’s this?” she asks.

Simone clears her throat, and she puts her strong face back on. “It’s the counter machine Dad created. I’m sorry, but I’ve been using your blood to test for compatibility with Kellan and Jase. He needed answers, and I felt like he deserved them.”

Aria doesn’t remove her eyes from the screen. Right now, it’s her name next to the commander’s, and it’s telling her they are not a match.

“We already knew I wasn’t Jase’s counter, so why are you putting it through a test?” she asks, surprising me by the fact she doesn’t even seem fazed by the results. I honestly thought that maybe deep down she believed he was her true counter.

She turns toward us, her eyes briefly showing me sympathy. I don’t need sympathy. I need her.

“You were right to want answers. I wish I could give them to you,” she says, but it sounds so condescending, even though I know she doesn’t mean for it to.

“The variables changed,” Simone says, reminding us she’s in here.

I’ve yet to speak. I don’t even know what to say.

The door swings open to the lab, and Simone groans. “How does everyone suddenly have the access code to my lab space in every compound we stay at?”

“Sorry,” Araya says as she walks in, her eyes oozing sympathy when she sees me. I really hate how sorry for me everyone feels. “James Fricks won’t speak to anyone but Aria, and our commander might kill the bastard if she doesn’t come soon.”

Aria’s eyes widen, and in a blur of motion, she’s running. “Simone!” she yells, and Simone starts running immediately.

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