Page 67 of Ravage
I’m really interested in seeing his reaction when he comes home and sees it.
“So anyway,” she continues when I’m too busy inhaling food to speak. “That was Aiden who knocked you out and left you there?”
“Kellan,” I correct with a mouthful behind the back of my hand.
“Kellan. Got it. And he does the scaley thing, right?”
I nod while hurrying to finish my current bite. “Yup. I’m not sure what to call it because he’s not invulnerable since he does get injured. It’s more…crazy regeneration that goes into overdrive to protect him once it’s activated? And then he uses that to beat people bloody, so he turns his defensive gift into an offensive one.” I cock my head to the side as I recall the other times I’d seen him use it. “He might get stronger too. Or he could just be that strong, I’m not sure.”
“That sounds sick! I wish I could do more with my gift than just tell people what to do.”
“Porsh. I wish I could tell people what to do. You know how handy that’d be with Gifted Enterprise? Hell, even with Aiden. And Dane.” My eating slows to a halt at that thought. There isn’t much I could, or would, tell Dane to do. I’d use that gift more as protection to keep him from not trying to kill me.
I know I almost let him do it. And I would again if stuck in the same situation, because there’s nothing I can say or do to fix it. But I would rather spend my life taking down the organization that did this to us, to Vera, if I had the choice.
She hunkers back down in her chair like she’s settling in for story time. “Oooh! Yeah. Tell me about Dane. This sounds like it’s going to be juicy.”
My lips twitch automatically in response to her behavior and I shake my head at myself for falling for this girl so easily. I swear she has more than just the ability to tell people what to do. She exudes contagious energy that sucks me in and makes me never want to leave.
“It’s a long story.”
She rolls her eyes and then claps her hands at me. “And I’m a night owl whose night has just started. So whooo, whooo, is Dane?” She hoots.
I laugh at her antics and set my food aside. I’ve never opened up to anyone about something real before. Not since the guys before Vera’s death. But then I met Elias, and his help has been invaluable. And now Portia’s somehow weaseled her way in too. I realize then that I care about both of them. And I think…they care about me too. I feel like I finally have others I can trust and confide in. Even if it’s just these two people, it feels…good.
“Well, we all pretty much grew up together on that island where GE had kidnapped us to. I think we were there for…” I try to count the possible years in my head, but it’s difficult when we had no holidays, birthdays, or seasons to use as benchmarks.
“…I think eight years? Ish? Anyway, we all became close because they all shared a bunkroom, and I was right across the hall. But then, we started learning more about why we were on the island and what they were trying to do with us. We thought we were helping people. Or we would be helping to make the world a better place with what we could do.”
I rub my arms as the memories come back at speed in the forefront of my mind. “ I found out that we were just lab rats. Either they wanted to control us, or they wanted to find a way to steal or replicate our gifts. We already had our suspicions before that, but just as we were digging into it together, something happened, and I…killed one of us. Dane’s sister. That’s why he hates me.”
Portia’s mouth drops open. It closes, then opens again.
Shit. Why did I just say that?
I’m getting twitchy the longer she stays silent and shoot upright to my feet. “I should go.”
“No!” She almost jumps out of her chair and then falls back in it. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to gawp at you like an orange karp.”
A what-now?
“I just can’t believe you killed his sister,” she continues, and my nerves just spit and frazzle even more. “Why did you do it? Did she try to kill you first? Did she go all batshit cray cray under all the lab testing? Did she pull a Luke Skywalker and go to the dark side?”
“I think that was Anakin…”
“Who’s that?”
“Never mind. And yeah, it was something like that,” I give her. The chances of her talking to one of the guys about this are slim, and the last thing I want to do is lose the one friend I have. And a friend who feeds me, at that.
“Which one? I don’t remember all of the reasons I gave.” She bounces in her chair and her hair swings behind her.
“Cinderella!” A booming voice echoes out in the hallway. “CINDERELLA!”
I look to the door and frown.
It couldn’t be…
“Is that Prince Charming?” Portia hops from her seat and starts toward her door. I grab her arm to stop her.
