Unborn

by Natusch, Amber Lynn

  “What is your point?” Pierson asked, moving toward us.

  “My point is that Ares was not at my birth—he couldn’t have been. The circumstances under which my mother left me with him were most certainly not as he said.”

  “Which then supports our theory that Khara’s existence is completely unknown to him,” Pierson added, his apparent interest in the conversation growing. His analytical nature could not resist the puzzle that Sean and my birth provided.

  “Precisely.”

  “But necessitated the help of others to keep it that way,” Casey called out from the couch.

  “Perhaps,” Oz added. “But wouldn’t the simplest way to keep her safe have been to not tell anyone else about her at all and stash her away unaided? Why risk telling even one other living soul—trusted or otherwise? And why abandon her to whatever fate would befall her? Does that make sense? Are those the actions of a loving mother?”

  “For most, going against the likes of Ares alone would be insanity under even the best of circumstances. To do so when you’re a target in his sights would be suicide. A Light One would not stand a chance against such a maniacasuch provil individual.”

  Oz’s eyes narrowed tightly at Sean’s words.

  “And why do you assume that she was of the Light, Sean?” he asked, saying his name like it was poison on his tongue. Either Oz’s tone or the sentiments it suggested earned him Sean’s hand wrapped tightly around his throat.

  “Don’t you dare question her purity, Ozereus. I let you live once; I will not be so generous a second time.”

  “You flatter yourself, old friend. My survival then was never in question.”

  “Then let us now consider it officially debatable . . .”

  “You think she was a Dark One,” I said quietly while the two postured before me. The thought had only just crossed my mind. Father had long said that I was not built for the darkness of his realm, but perhaps he had been mistaken. Maybe that was precisely where I belonged.

  “She wasn’t,” Sean snapped.

  “And you are certain of that how? You never knew her, and Ares has always alluded to that fact, has he not?”

  “I know because Ares is the greatest manipulator this world has ever seen. I know because if she had been Dark, there would be no goodness in me. And I know because, if she had been what you dare accuse her of being, I would have turned out just as my father had wanted—a soulless killing machine.”

  “That isn’t what you are?” Oz prodded. “Strange. That’s all I seem to remember.”

  “I’ve changed,” Sean snarled.

  Oz smiled widely, though his throat was still being crushed by Sean’s ever-tightening grip.

  “So I see.”

  “Listen,” Casey called out as he lazily pushed off the couch. “As much as I would enjoy the bloodbath your epic fight would surely bring, I feel like this tangent isn’t going to go anywhere productive and I’m over it. Can we get back to the issue at hand? If not, I’m going out to kill something.”

  “I agree, Casey,” Drew interjected. “At least about getting back to the major problem here. We need to know as much as possible about Khara’s current status, and quickly. If her life is in even greater danger because of what she is, rectifying that should be our top priority.”

  “How does the knowledge of what I am put me in any more danger than I have been in since I arrived?” I asked, uncertain as to how that distinction had been made.

  “Because there are perils beyond those that accompany being on the wrong side of Ares, new girl. The Unborn are susceptible to evil,” Oz said calmly, his throat still held captive, though Sean’s grip had loosened slightly. “Highly susceptible.”

  “Nonsense. I would never have survived the Underworld if that were true.” I dismissed his words easily, questioning how Oz could be so naïve.

  “Not all evil is attracted to the Unborn. Most wouldn’t recognize what you were. In fact, the Underworld may have been one of the safest places for you to be. Even if the right kind of evil was present there, they would not be there of their own volition. They would be prisoners—the damned—making them powerless, and, beyond that, Hades would never have allowed them near you, from what you have said. You likely would have never been exposed to them.”

  “And now?” Sean prompted, his eyes still dark and foreboding. It was apparent that he did not wish to receive any kind of aid from Oz, but knew no other option.

  “And now she does not have that luxury. She is vulnerable here. Especially here.”

  “Why?” Kierson asked, stepping in to flank me on my other side. It was an act of protection, though from what I was uncertain. “We can keep her safe from whatever comes our way. Nothing in this city would dare challenge us.”

  “Wouldn’t they?” Oz volleyed back at him. Sean seemed less than pleased by his question and slammed him against the wall, Oz’s throat still firmly in his grip. “Haven’t they already?” Kierson looked thoughtful for a moment, taking in Oz’s implication. “I would not rest on your authority being enough to dissuade an attack on her—another attack, that is. The second you become the least bit complacent, she will fall. It’s that simple.”

  “Attack?” Sean rumbled. “What attack?”

  Drew sighed heavily.

  “There was an incident two nights ago while Kierson was on patrol. A Breather went rogue.”

  “Interesting. Please tell me how that turns into an attack on Khara.” Though his words were well-mannered, there was nothing polite about his tone. Fury was building deep within Sean, and, if not soon appeased, it would be unleashed on us all. I had borne witness to it many times when in the presence of the powerful ones that my father employed. A pretty sight it was not.

  “We wanted to be sure it was an isolated incident, so we took to the streets to do some investigating. Kierson came up with a tip. We followed it . . .”

  “To an old building full of Breathers poised to go rogue,” Kierson added. “There had to be about three hundred of them.”

  “Try eight hundred,” Pierson corrected. “I counted the corpses before I disposed of them.”

  “Of course you did,” Kierson sighed.

  “Three hundred or eight hundred, I don’t care; what I do care about is how all of them congregating in a shitty, old building equates to a battle,” Sean growled, his anger thinly contained while he looked over his shoulder to stare our brothers down.

  “Casey got there first and got them riled up,” Kierson explained. “When the rest of us got to the floor where they were all hiding out, it seemed like a battle was inevitable.”

  “I think you’re forgetting one small detail, brother,” Pierson interjected. “At the time, we did not put it together—the violence escalated far too quickly to take stock of what initially set it off. In hindsight, we think there was a clear trigger for their actions.”

  His eyes drifted to me in an accusatory fashion. Sean’s eyes followed.

  “She was there?” His expression contained a strange combination of disbelief and rage.

  “Had we known that she had anything to do with what was going on, we would never have brought her,” Drew told him, his tone guilt-ridden.

  “She should never have been there in the first place!” Sean roared, the volume of his voice shaking the glass vase on the mantel. He released Oz to turn and face Drew, allowing the full brunt of his anger to assail him.

  “She is a born warrior, same as you,” Drew countered. “How else could she be trained? We thought we were walking her into a controlled situation that would amount to little more than a Q&A session with a handful of strung-out Breathers. We could not have foreseen what took place.”

  Sean was in Drew’s face before I could process his movement.

  “Had7%" align="justify">“The message I was sent by our mother was abundantly clear. Her life is in imminent danger. And you decided to walk her into the enemy’s lair and serve her up on a platter for them.”

  “Had you sha
red the information from that message with the rest of us, perhaps this could have been avoided,” Drew said, his voice soft but defensive.

  “And if you had shared your information regarding her existence with me, it would have been.” Sean’s black eyes were swallowing Drew whole, and I had no doubt that his wrath would soon be upon him. Looking on, I felt a strange, growing need to intercede. I did not wish to see harm come to Drew for his actions.

  “I insisted they take me,” I informed Sean, stepping forward to steal his gaze away from the brother I’d known to be both loyal and noble. “I was adamant. They did all they could to prepare me before we embarked on the mission. They sheltered me from all they could when things took a turn for the worse. Drew told me to run, but I was insubordinate. I chose to stay.”

  Sean’s menacing demeanor softened for a moment, his black eyes speckled with flecks of emerald.

  “Why?” he asked, his voice only a whisper.

  “I did not wish to abandon them. If death was destined to find me, it would. I chose to fight it on my own terms.”

  “So you stayed and fought?”

  “Yes. I killed one Breather. Oz interrupted my attempts to kill several others.”

  The mention of Oz’s name erased any shade of green from his piercing eyes, which quickly shot up and across the room to where Oz remained, standing against the wall Sean had pinned him to only moments earlier.

  “You were there?”

  “I showed up late to the party, but I wasn’t properly invited in the first place, so it was really more of a party-crashing.”

  “And yet you had no idea that she was the cause of this. You let one of your own kind—your most precious—walk into a den of those primed to turn her?”

  “I did not know what she was at that time.” Oz ground his response out through gritted teeth.

  “Liar,” Sean spat as he coiled to attack Oz again.

  “I am many things, Sean, but a liar is not one. I did not know what she was,” he maintained, steadying himself for the attack he knew he was destined for. “Had I known, I would have taken her from this city the second I saw her, but I couldn’t.”

  “And why not?” Sean demanded.

  “Because Light Ones—fallen or not—cannot sense the Unborn. That ability was long ago taken from us.” Something flashed through Oz’s eyes as he said those final words to Sean. Regret? Sadness? I could not tell. “The fastest way for evil to obtain that which they sought was to use a veritable divining rod. That’s what we were. Our ability to recognize the Unborn was the very reason so many were lost.” The distant look in his eyes faded back to a hateful stare in an instant. “As I said a moment ago, there is evil scattered about this city that would love nothing more than to corrupt her in one way or another. Keeping her safe will be difficult, if not impossible, in the long term. The margin for error is miniscule.”

  “Then we won’t slack off. That’s not a problem,” Kierson stated as though his response was the obvious solution.

  “Says the man who can’t keep his dick in his pants long enough to finish a sentence,” Oz mocked.

  I coulustr evil d feel Kierson tense beside me, his fist clenching violently.

  “Nothing will happen to her on my watch. You can bank on that.”

  “Nothing will happen to her on any of your watches,” Sean quickly corrected. “Because she isn’t staying here. I’m taking her somewhere safe.” He moved to take my arm, and I took a step back. The movement shocked everyone, most of all me.

  “I want to stay.”

  “Khara,” Sean started, his eyes as green as the grass I had longed to see in person. “You can’t see that as a logical option. Your mother—our mother—said you had to be found. That you weren’t safe. Her words could not be more true.”

  “Your concern is appreciated, brother, but I am as safe here as I will be anywhere,” I protested diplomatically. “Unless you can get me to the Underworld to my father, this is where I wish to stay.” I felt the words “with my family” press against the tip of my tongue, begging to be released. I did not let them pass my lips. My choice to stay had been shocking to everyone present, their expressions betraying them all. Surely these unspoken words would have only added to their shock.

  “Khara—” he started, his tone soft before I cut it off entirely.

  “On this, I will not bend. If you should choose to try and remove me by force, you will succeed only in the short term. I will find my way back. I am far more resourceful than any of you give me credit for.”

  “Sean is right about this,” Drew added, supporting his brother’s decision.

  “Perhaps he is, but I am willing to take my chances.”

  “She really is bat-shit crazy, isn’t she?” Casey declared from his post. “I think she might be growing on me.”

  Sean exhaled heavily before muttering something under his breath about stubborn women being the death of him. It made me question exactly what other female would be brazen enough to go against his orders. Sean hardly seemed the type that would tolerate dissension well. Perhaps because I was his sister he afforded me latitude that he might not allow others.

  “You really do want to stay here, don’t you?” he asked me, rubbing his forehead between his thumb and forefinger. “Then you may stay. For now. There is less danger for you on the seacoast, but the boys are so bogged down with other dilemmas that keeping proper watch over you might fall lower on the priority list than I would like. At least here, attention to the urgency of the situation will not wane anytime soon. You guys will guard her accordingly. And that includes you, too, Oz.”

  “And why is she suddenly my responsibility?” he asked, his expression the epitome of annoyance.

  “Because she is one of your kind, Ozereus,” Sean boomed. “And because I say she is your responsibility.”

  “Your words mean nothing to me; neither do your orders. I am not one of your lackeys to command.”

  “Do not push me, Ozereus,” Sean rumbled in warning.

  “Your threats are tiring, and I have somewhere to be,” Oz said dismissively, walking toward the front door. “You guys can figure out how to clean up this fucking mess while I’m gone. Let me know when you find a solution.”

  The slamming of the front door as Oz exited echoed through the living room where my brothers and I stood, staring at one another. They looked a mixture of confused, concerned, and, in Casey’s case, entertained. It was not until Oz was long gone that the most simple yet obvious question came to mtioanothe. Silence still permeating the air around us, I broke it with a single inquiry.

  “If the concern is that the Unborn are susceptible to evil, and I am still Unborn, then would it not be easiest to make it so I was no longer one of them?”

  Pierson caught my eye, his gaze narrowing as he contemplated the scenario put forth.

  “What are you getting at, exactly?”

  “Simply put, if the Light Ones are angels who have been made or born, as Oz earlier implied, should we not seek the solution to the problem there? Have me become one of them?”

  “Could it be that simple?” Pierson murmured.

  “It could be, but I’m pretty sure that even you and all your brainpower wouldn’t know how to do it,” Kierson said condescendingly.

  “I may not know, but I’m quite sure that a Light One would. Perhaps even our very own Light One, who is inconveniently not here at the moment,” Pierson retorted.

  “Casey,” Sean snapped. “Hunt Oz down. Bring him back here. Now.” His eyes narrowed at Casey before he delivered his final order. “And don’t return without him. Khara is not leaving this house until we know the way to correct this situation.”

  “With pleasure,” Casey replied, brushing past me on his way to the door. Just before he closed it behind him, he stuck his harshly angled face back into the house. “And Sean? I’m assuming you don’t care what condition he’s in when I bring him back, do you?”

  “As long as he can still talk, I don’t care
one bit,” Sean replied, a cruel smile creeping across his face as he did.

  Casey wore one to match.

  “Then I won’t be long.”

  I wondered if Oz was as predictable as I expected him to be. Would Casey only have to go as far as the Tenth Circle to find him? Undoubtedly draped with the barely clothed women desperate to give him anything he desired and more? If that were true, Casey would be back as quickly as he intended to be. Somehow, though, I could not escape the feeling that we were wrong, and it perplexed me. I had never had such a feeling in the depths of me seek to overthrow the thoughts in my head. For reasons I could not fathom, I knew that Oz was up to something. I just didn’t know what or why.

  “Don’t worry, Khara,” Kierson whispered, wrapping his long arm around my shoulders. “Oz is wrong. We can keep you safe—from anything.”

  “I feel as though I am the only one here unafraid for my well-being.”

  “That’s because you are,” Drew replied in earnest.

  “And I feel as though the few women in my life are hell-bent on getting themselves killed,” Sean added, the hard line of his brow softening slightly as he spoke. “I don’t suppose I could be lucky enough for you to have also been born with my invincible nature?”

  I looked at him incredulously, making him aware with that single glance that my situation was not that fortunate. I’d been harmed badly enough in my time to know that I was far from invincible.

  “I see,” he replied tightly. “I did not hold much hope for that to be the case. It seems that we have not evolved into the same beings. You do not appear to harbor my dual nature, and I have not the wings that you possess—or will possess, once they emerge.”

  “I am accepting of whatever fate befalls me, brother. Come what may, I still have no fear.”

  I continued to stuntitly as hdy him as his face released a tiny bit of the tension it had continually held from the moment he walked into the house. A weight appeared to be suddenly lifting from him, though I could not understand why.

  “I think I shall enjoy getting to know you, sister,” he told me as a Drew-like smile tugged at his lips. “I think I shall enjoy it immensely.”