Chosen_Book One

by Rebecca Thomas

  “Caleb?” Kiara stopped him before he could leave.

  “Yeah?”

  “Can I have Lily’s number?”

  “Yeah, of course,” he said, pulling the crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket and handing it to her. “I’m sure she’ll be happy to hear from you.”

  “She can keep us company while you’re gone,” Kiara agreed.

  Caleb nodded and smiled as he left the room. It seemed everything might work out after all.

  One Month Later

  Chapter Nine

  It was chilly in LA considering it was the last month of spring. Usually it was in the mid to high 60s, so 32 was freezing by comparison. Diana was used to a warm climate, having been raised in San Diego. Her family moved there from Shanghai when she was seven, which made it harder for her to integrate than if she had moved as a baby. Now she appreciated it, as she was able to speak two languages from a young age, something she had built upon as the years went by.

  Diana sometimes missed the crystal blue waters and bustling marina in the brief moments where her mind wasn't occupied with her mission. It would have been far more pleasant than being hunkered down in a rundown apartment in Anaheim with Will.

  The Aussie was kicking around an empty beer can as they waited. Fidgeting when impatient was a habit of his as he preferred to keep his mind occupied, probably so he didn't constantly think about what he had left behind when he had agreed to help her.

  Will had been a great find. As a Chosen, with a firm stature and a strong sense of determination, he had the skill set she needed to help her recruit people to her cause.

  "Not falling asleep, are you?" Will said, distracting her from her thoughts.

  Diana narrowed her eyes. "What are you inferring?"

  "Just that we've been here a while with no sign of the target," he told her.

  "Good, because the last time you cracked an old lady joke, you remember how much that hurt."

  "I do. My shoulder still aches from time to time," he grinned.

  Despite his cheeky quips, Will was as strong mentally as he was physically. He carried his burdens without complaint and was a powerful force to be reckoned with in terms of fighting. Diana didn't mess with him unless he needed the discipline.

  "Has there been no movement at all?" she asked, picking herself up off the dusty floor so she could go stand by the window.

  "Apart from a couple drunk folks in fancy dress, nada."

  "Perhaps my source was wrong."

  "Or these criminals are just late. They're not the most reliable people, eh?"

  Diana looked up at him and smirked. "True."

  "What? You didn't choose me just because of my looks."

  "Your good looks?"

  The 28-year-old was so full of himself.

  "I've seen you give me the eye a couple of times, don't deny it."

  "Do you want to keep flirting with me or do you want to go help catch those guys?" she asked him, pointing to the couple of vans that had finally pulled up outside the house opposite.

  "Tough choice."

  Diana shoved him towards the door, which elicited a quiet laugh.

  The reason they were there was because an old friend of hers was supposed to be training a new Chosen and she knew she had a good chance of persuading him over to their side. Unless they were truly faithful to the cause, her story usually pushed them towards what she considered to be human decency.

  “There’s got to be, what, at least ten guys in those vans?” Will said as they made their way down the stairs.

  “I’d say no less than twelve.”

  “Three each, nice and even.”

  “You sure about that?”

  Will glanced back at her with a twinkle in his eye.

  “After four years, you still want to keep score?”

  “Of course, it’s one of the many ways that I’m able to show you that experience trumps innate ability,” Diana told him.

  “You’re on.”

  Will pulled the door open an inch, so he could hear what was going on across the street without having to strain his senses. He always found ways to make it easier on himself, Diana noticed. It was the sort of thinking that made him a better partner.

  Once he was sure that the men had gone inside, he gestured for her to follow him. They clung to the shadows as they made their way across the street and into the alley, approaching the door they had tampered with earlier. Diana moved ahead of him at this point, carefully opening the door so they could slip inside unnoticed.

  Where there had once been walls, there were now patches of plasterboard and piles rubble. The top floor had completely caved in. It wasn’t the most comfortable place to do business, but the criminals didn’t seem to mind. They had lumped a couple of sofas into one of the back corners, with an overturned crate for a table, which was littered with empty snack packets and beer cans.

  Diana and Will crouched behind one of the pieces of plasterboard, able to see the gang of thugs through a small hole. They were milling about while they waited, a couple of them tossing a knife between them. Maybe they would take each other out, that would make their job here easier.

  By Diana’s count, there was fifteen of them, which wasn’t a deal breaker.

  It was a minute or so before Diana saw movement that didn’t come from one of the gang. They were small and fast, keeping low so they wouldn’t be spotted. Clearly, they were the Chosen. That meant that Aaren had to be around here somewhere, waiting for her to make her move.

  And she did.

  Aaren had trained her well, because they didn’t see her coming. She struck out of nowhere, knocking two of them flat on their backs with one well-placed spinning kick. This was Aaren’s cue. Tall and broad-shouldered, he slammed his fist into the face of one of the men at the other end of the group, splitting their attention in two.

  Diana and Will’s entrance would make it four ways.

  To say mayhem ensued would be an understatement. The thugs were left scrambling by the sudden attack, which made it easier for Diana and Will to come in and intercept them as they tried to spread out. Diana had learned that the best way to fight people like this was to strike fast and show no mercy. It was the only way to ensure that friendly blood wasn’t spilled, because criminals like this would always pull out whatever weapons they had to defend themselves if they could. Fighting effectively was made more difficult if you had to spend time dodging bullets.

  Diana disarmed one by kicking his gun straight from his hand, then drove a fist into his gut. Winded, he dropped out of the way, so she was able to tackle a nearby woman head on. They rolled across the floor, Diana maintaining dominance as she peppered the woman’s face with several quick punches, knocking her unconscious.

  “Watch out!” came Aaren’s voice from behind her.

  Diana barely had time to duck her head down as another guy went soaring over her, smacking into the hard wall with a crunch.

  “Brute force and ignorance?” she called to him.

  “Every time,” he replied with a smile, then nutted the nearest person in the face, shattering their nose.

  Aaren distracting her had given Will a chance to get ahead, teaming up with Aaren’s Chosen to wipe the floor with the remaining criminals. How quickly and fluidly they moved was something to behold, she never got tired of seeing it. It had been part of the magic for her, once upon a time.

  After stamping on the last guy’s face to make sure he was out cold, Aaren turned to Diana and said, “Long time, no see, Di. I thought you’d vanished off the face of the Earth after that bar fight in Morocco.”

  “I pretty much did,” she admitted. It had been the day that she had told him all about the Guardians and Chosen, and the day that she decided to do something about her fortunes. She hadn’t expected him to sign up to be a Guardian, but now it might be something that could be turned in her favour.

  “You were a lot scrawnier back then, I remember,” she said, punching him in his tattooed arm. It was of
a runic compass, a mark of his heritage.

  “But I could still throw one hell of a right hook,” he winked.

  “I think some introductions are in order,” Will piped up, approaching the pair of them with Aaren’s Chosen in tow.

  “Will, this is Aaren, an old friend of mine. Aaren this is Will, my partner.”

  “And a Chosen, if I’m not mistaken?” Aaren said, looking slightly curious.

  “Yup. Been in the game a while now,” Will confirmed.

  “Well, this is Priya, my Chosen. One of the best I’ve ever trained.”

  Priya couldn’t have been more than nineteen years old and was only five feet tall. Her green eyes stood out against her skin, something that was hard to miss.

  “It’s a pleasure,” she said, her accent was thick, but her English was good. “Aaren has talked about you before, but I wasn’t sure whether you were real.”

  “Why wouldn’t you think she was real?” Will asked.

  “Probably because I was drunk whenever I talked about her,” Aaren offered.

  “He only lets personal things slip when he’s really wasted, so I try to liquor him up as often as possible,” Priya said with a cheeky grin.

  “I like her,” Diana smirked.

  “Yeah, yeah, of course you do,” Aaren snorted. “Now, I know you didn’t help us out of the goodness of your hearts. You had to have talked to an Oracle to even know we were coming here, so out with it.”

  Aaren usually got right to the point.

  “I didn’t tell you the whole story that night in the bar,” Diana admitted.

  “You know that rule about Guardians not being allowed to have families? How a Guardian’s choice changed things for everyone else? I give you exhibit A,” Will said, gesturing to Diana.

  Diana rolled her eyes at him. She knew that he was sympathetic to her plight, otherwise he would have told her to screw off instead of following her. He was probably feeling cocky because of the four people he took out, when she only beat down two.

  “That was you?” Aaren asked, surprised.

  “Master Mahmid told me that a child got hurt,” Priya added.

  Diana scowled at Priya, which made her shrink back behind Will. “I wouldn’t put much stock in what Ezra has to say. His words mean nothing.”

  “Oi, don’t go off at her,” Aaren told Diana.

  Diana clenched her fists to help contain her anger towards Ezra. This was not the time or the place to rage about the man or what he had done, it would only alienate Aaren and Priya, which was counterproductive to what she was trying to achieve.

  “Sorry,” Diana said, as sincerely as she could muster.

  “Now, explain,” Aaren said.

  “I had a son who was taken from me by the Guardians when he was only a young child. There was an accident, I made a mistake, but that didn’t warrant tearing my family apart. He and his father died days after I was detained. That never would have happened if we had still been together.”

  “That’s horrible,” Priya whispered.

  Aaren agreed. “I’m sorry, Di, I can only imagine that sort of grief.”

  Diana nodded her appreciation, she had accepted too many condolences in the last few years for it to be truly meaningful anymore.

  “It doesn’t answer my question about why you’re here.”

  “I want to change the system. The way the Guardians work now is outdated and unfair. Oracles conscripted at birth, only to be used by the Guardians for their purposes. Guardians forbidden from forming relationships with anyone, from being able to live a normal life outside of their duties. You’re even discouraged from getting close to your Chosen, something which I’ve found makes things more difficult in the long run. None of it makes any sense, they need an overhaul.”

  “How are the two of you going to achieve this?” Aaren asked, still uncertain.

  “It’s not just the two of us. We’re a hundred strong and still rising.”

  This shocked Aaren. Apparently, the Elders had been keeping their missing numbers quiet.

  “What are you going to do, storm the Citadel?”

  “We almost have the power we need to do it. With the element of surprise on our side, and with most of the Guardians scattered across the world, we have what we need,” Diana said.

  Every question that he had, she had an answer. She had done this so many times before and every time, she won them over.

  “What makes you think I’ll join you?”

  “Mari.”

  Aaren clenched his jaw and looked away.

  “Who is Mari?” Priya asked.

  “His childhood sweetheart. He would be married to her now if he could.”

  “You never told me about her,” Priya said, looking up at Aaren.

  “You never got me drunk enough,” Aaren replied quietly.

  “If you help me, we can change everything. We can make the Guardians better than they are right now. You can be with whoever you choose. And you can stop using drink as a way to have proper conversations with Priya,” Diana said.

  Aaren took a deep breath, exhaling through his nose. Diana could see that he was thinking about it. If he had known how the rules would come to dictate his life like this, he might not have chosen this path. Now Diana was giving him another choice.

  “Can I get back to you?” he asked, not wanting to decide there and then. After all, she wasn’t just asking this of him, it would be Priya too.

  “Call me on this when you make up your mind,” Diana said, passing him a burner phone. “Don’t take too long.”

  “I’ll see you,” Aaren nodded, gesturing for Priya to come with him.

  “Bye,” Priya said as they left, waving at Will, who wiggled his fingers in return.

  As the door swung closed behind them, Will looked at Diana.

  “Do you think he’ll come around?” he asked her.

  “I’m pretty sure. The temptation will be too much to ignore.”

  Will didn’t disagree. Instead, he nudged a nearby thug with his foot.

  “What should we do about these guys?”

  “We’ll give the police an anonymous tip. I’m sure they can book some of them for something, once they’ve enjoyed taking their bloody and beaten mugshots.”

  “There’ll be some cracking photos thanks to us.”

  “I only hope it was worth it.”

  Chapter Ten

  “I haven't missed anything have I?” Lily asked, looking at the spread of snacks laid out across her coffee table.

  “Are you kidding me? It's a FEAST!” Hallie declared, bouncing up and down with excitement from the sofa.

  After a few weeks of bed rest, first at the hospital and then at home, barely able to do or eat anything, she was thoroughly looking forward to stuffing herself silly with all the delicious looking food spread out in front of them. Lily had been so good to her while she had been recovering. She was glad that Kiara had decided to get to know her. As someone who had a loving family, she knew how much it meant for Kiara to have a second chance at having one now her Mum had been gone for a couple years.

  Caleb had got back a few days ago but couldn't start training with Kiara until she got the all clear from her doctor regarding her arm and ribs. The university was keeping him busy with work, so the girls were having a lot of fun together, as much as Hallie’s improving situation would allow. The doctors were pleased with the progress that she was making so far. Apparently, it was much quicker than expected, which made her very happy. The sooner she could get back to normal life, the better.

  To mark the last day before Kiara had to start her training and begin studying for her exams, they had decided to all go around to Lily's house for the night, bundle up in their PJ's and watch some of the cheesiest movies they could find.

  Once everything was ready, Kiara popped the movie in and squeezed herself down between Hallie and Lily.

  “Mmm, this is so comfy,” she said, snuggling down for the long haul.

  Hallie chuckled. “Y
ou might not be so pleased when I start breathing garlic all over you,” she grinned as she picked up one of the slices of pizza bread.

  “Not if I beat you to it!” Kiara said, lunging forwards to take a bite out of it before it could reach Hallie’s mouth.

  “Cheeky little!” Hallie tried to sound indignant, but she was giggling. So was Lily.

  “That's why you looooove me.”

  “It is why I love you, but you still owe me a bite of whatever you eat next.”

  “Ooh, I don't know, you might have to fight me for it.”

  “You two are terrible,” Lily said, finding it very hard not to dissolve in laughter. “It’s wonderful.”

  Kiara leaned towards Lily to give her a quick snuggle. “I bet you’ve missed the craziness of having family and friends.”

  “Just a little,” Lily admitted, which actually meant a lot.

  “I would have thought it would be less lonely being able to poke around in people's heads,” Hallie said.

  “The opposite, actually. It always made me realise how much I was missing out on by having to stay in hiding. While I regret the way that we were brought back together, I'm not sorry that I have both of you here now.”

  Kiara hugged her even tighter. “We’re not going anywhere. At least, not for now.”

  Most of the time they were able to breeze over the fact that Kiara was on a clock that was ticking closer to the end every day. It was still quite far away, and Kiara hadn't even begun training yet. But there was the occasional moment where it hit them all again.

  Hallie pushed herself over so that it turned into a big hug pile, wrapping her arms around her babe.

  “Yes, we’re going to do our best to be the greatest family you’ve ever had,” she agreed, trying to steer back towards sentimental.

  Lily squeezed them both gently and smiled. “Are we actually going to watch this film?” she asked.

  “I dunno,” Hallie said as she pulled away. “You know me, I could happily talk all evening and still be entertained.”

  “She can. Once she kept me awake until five in the morning because she wouldn’t stop,” Kiara teased.