“About fucking damn time,” Alex said.
Aiden lifted an eyebrow, a bored look in his eyes. “I tried to help you out this time, Alex. I gave you an unfair advantage and sent you to her before you even knew who she really was. You had a chance to woo her and make her love you before her protector showed up. You could have won over Raphael this time but what did you do? In your human shortsightedness, you raped her and made her hate you even more.”
Raphael took a step toward Aiden, his hands clenched in fists at this side. “Why doesn’t she remember?” Torment and rage mixed in his words.
“Alex is correct. She isn’t the Emmanuella you know.”
A slow mournful wail filled the night air. “Why?” His torment carried on the wind, swirling around and filling her ears.
“Because time is running out for us. She loved you as much as you loved her. Alex never had a chance.”
Emma had had enough. “What the hell is going on here?”
Aiden looked at her and smiled, full of pride and arrogance. “You are my greatest creation yet.”
Raphael lifted his head to face Aiden. “Where is my Emmanuella?”
“Gone.” His tone was detached and cold.
Raphael fell to the ground, weeping. Emma’s chest filled with icy fear. Whatever was going on, she wanted no part of it. She took several steps backward, toward the trees.
“Not yet, Emma.” Aiden called to her. “We’re not finished.”
“You all are crazy.” She stood at the edge of the tree line.
“Not all of us, although Raphael seems to have temporarily lost control.”
“You haven’t told me what’s going on. What do I have to do with any of this?”
“You have everything to do with all of this. You are the prize.”
She looked from man to man, her eyes wide with fear and horror. “Prize?”
“The man you choose wins.”
“Have you lost your fucking mind? You can’t do that. It’s the twenty-first century, for God’s sake.”
Aiden laughed. “Oh, this started long, long ago before women had liberties and rights. Besides, you have all the power. You choose who wins or loses.”
“Wins or loses what?”
“Control, power. The world.”
“Do you work for Kramer and Senator Warren?”
Aiden laughed. “Now that is funny. No.” His face hardened. “They’re stupid humans. They’re minor players. My pawns.”
“They didn’t seem so minor when they tried to kidnap me and beat the crap out of me a short bit ago.”
Aiden shrugged. “They’re for my amusement. To add another dimension to the game.”
“It amuses you to see your daughter physically abused? And raped? And chased with guns? I gave up my entire life because of your little game.” she asked, incredulous. “You told the Vinco Potentia about me. You set all of that into motion. How can you live with yourself?”
Alex laughed, but it was cold. “You find it surprising because you equate him with a human father who would love and protect his child.” He put his hands on his hips and turned to her. “You need to think of him more as an ancient god who has little affection or concern for his progeny.”
Emma’s eyes widened. “Wait, are you saying…?”
Alex’s eyes hardened and narrowed. “Yes.”
She shook her head. “No… no… this is too crazy…”
“Is it really so hard to believe after everything else that has happened?” Alex asked.
“Yes! Yes it is!”
“Emma, you’re not that simpleminded.” Aiden said. “Look at me.”
She turned to stare at him, taking in his incredibly sculptured face. The beauty and perfection hinted at his godliness. Her head whipped to Alex. He was perfect too. She’d noticed it the first time she had seen him, wondering why a man as beautiful as him could be interested in her. And Raphael, he too was perfect.
But she was not. How did that figure in?
Her stomach cramped again and she gasped in surprise, bending over in pain for a moment before standing again. “Who are Alex and Raphael? Who am I?”
“Centuries and centuries ago, Alex, Raphael and I were equals. There were others, but they lost their power and turned to whispers and howls in wind. They live in the shadows and creep in the night. We oversaw the creatures that lurk in the darkness. We each had a realm. Air, land and fire. We governed the creatures. And the elements.” Alex said.
“But Aiden was bored.” Raphael’s head lifted and turned to Emma. “So he challenged us to a game.”
“It was a simple game, a dice game and the stakes were low. But Raphael and I were winning.”
“So Aiden suggested we up the stakes. Winner after the next game would take all, literally. Winner would take the others’ power over their realms for a limited time. We figured what did we have to lose? Limited time. What we didn’t know was that Aiden would create an eternal game that looped on and on, neither of us ever winning.”
“Not to mention that we lost our immortality.”
Aiden snorted. “You both are such overreactors. Neither one of you lost your immortality.”
“No, it was just transferred to reincarnation.”Alex said. “Forced to live as humans, a human lifetime and then reincarnated after death. All the while searching for the prize. Aiden’s daughter.”
Emma looked from man to man to see if they were serious. “How long has this been going on?”
Alex took a step toward her. “Centuries. Some lifetimes you were there, or rather your predecessor was. Others, you weren’t. None of us were aware at birth. At some point, usually in our twenties, although centuries ago we found out in our teens. After the Chosen One found you, we would all awaken to our true identity and we would search for you. He was your guardian and protector until we could find you.”
“But there were rules.” Raphael growled. “Aiden and his fucking rules. We couldn’t tell you who you were if you hadn’t remembered yet. And you couldn’t choose until you had come into your full powers.”
Alex stood several feet from her now. “But the more contact we had with you, the slower your powers developed. Ours overpowered yours. And we weren’t supposed to interfere.”
“What do you mean interfere?” Emma asked.
“Your father threw that stupid prophecy out for men to stumble upon. To search you out and try to use you for their own purposes.”
Emma shook her head. “That’s crazy.”
“Just another obstacle in our course.”
“So how were they supposed to win?” Emma cast a glance at the man who was supposed to be her father. She’d rather go back to being fatherless.
“You were to claim one and join their power with yours. Then they could win back their realm. But the choice was yours,” Aiden answered.
“What happens to the one not picked?”
“His realm is shared by the other two and he joins the ancients to live in the shadows.”
“So why don’t you just keep their power for eternity?” Emma asked Aiden.
Alex laughed. “Because he forgot he needed balance. Good needs evil. Light needs dark. Aiden needs an opposite. Without it, the power he stole from us—”
“Willingly gave...” Aiden said with a bored sigh.
“—has begun to fade. And so has ours. He needs this to be over so he can regain his lost power.”
“So, let me get this straight. I’m supposed to choose? What if I didn’t agree?”
“It never got that far,” Alex said.
Raphael stood. “Often you were killed by men. Or we got too close and your powers never fully developed so you could choose. You died while we were forced to live out our earthly life, waiting for the next round. But the last several lifetimes, when you remembered, you remembered your love for me. It stayed with you.”
“So you thought I was her?”
“Yes.” His brokenness filled the single word.
Emma lifted
her chin and squared her shoulders. “So now what?”
Aiden laughed. “Always direct and to the point, Emmanuella. I love that about you.”
“You don’t know shit about me. What’s to keep me from walking away from this entire fucking mess and never looking back? What if I don’t want to choose either one of them? What if I’ve already chosen someone else?”
Aiden’s mouth lifted into a wry smile. “Yes, Alex is right. That was a change that I hadn’t anticipated until it began. But then again, you haven’t chosen Will either.”
His words were like a knife in her heart, twisting and slicing with her own treachery. He was right. She hadn’t chosen him and she had a feeling it would now bite her in the ass.
“He should be joining us in a moment. Perhaps you will want to choose him then?” Aiden asked, a playful smile on his face
She didn’t trust him. Didn’t trust the smile spreading across his face. The man before her was a monster that wasn’t a man at all.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Will sped down the two-lane highway, searching for the gravel road that led to the house Emma had called from. He knew he risked getting stopped by the police, but it was a risk he was willing to take to reach her sooner. His arm tingled, but the feeling was only a slow burn, not an insistent need, so he had no idea what was wrong. It gave him little comfort that her terror hadn’t risen to a level that she could contact him. At least this wasn’t like earlier, when his mark was on fire and she refused to answer him.
A worn, whitewashed sign appeared on the side of the road. He flashed his high beams to make out “Martin” in faded black letters. He turned onto the gravel and cut his lights, letting the moon light the road. No need to announce his entrance.
He drove a half-mile before he smelled smoke. Slowing, he lowered the windows. The glow of a fire loomed through the trees. He stopped and listened to voices floating on the wind.
Will grabbed his shotgun and got out of the car. Emma was supposed to be waiting at the house, but something told him she was close. He made his way noiselessly through the trees, creeping closer to the fire. Voices grew louder, but he couldn’t make out whom they belonged to until he heard her voice.
“So now what?”
He knew her well enough to read her voice. She confronted whomever she spoke to, her tone haughty and demanding, but he doubted anyone else heard the undertone of uncertainty.
Will approached close enough to make out figures by the fire. A man stood alone on one side of the fire. Another man, dressed in black stood in front of a woman in a long white gown. Emma. They both faced the man standing apart.
He crept closer and he saw a third man to the far left side of Emma. Alex. His grip on his gun tightened. Whatever Emma had got caught up in couldn’t be good if it involved Alex. He raised his gun and watched through the magnified sight. The other man by Emma was the man from the bar in Joplin and the parking lot in Kansas City. Raphael. His chest squeezed with a force that caught his breath.
His attention turned to the man standing alone, who seemed to have the attention of the other three. He wore a long-sleeved button-down shirt and khakis, and looked completely out of place in the wilderness of Montana. Will continued to scan the area. He didn’t see any other men, but a small bundle in the woods confused him. He began to make his way toward it, keeping his attention on Emma and the men. She didn’t appear to be in immediate danger and seemed to be holding her own.
He watched her as he moved. Her feet stood shoulder distance apart, a defensive stance, yet her shoulders were raised and her chin lifted. While her exterior portrayed brave and strong, he recognized the fear hidden in her bluff. The mark on his arm only tingled, so she wasn’t terrified. But it also meant he couldn’t communicate with her.
“He should be joining us in a moment,” the unknown man said. “Perhaps you will want to choose him then?”
Emma watched him, torment twisting her mouth. She lifted her chin higher.
“Come out, Will. I know you’re there.” The man turned to look directly at Will.
Will raised his shotgun tip and took a step into the clearing.
“Sorry I’m late. Maybe you can fill me in on what I’ve missed.”
He scanned the faces of the people in front of him. The mouth of the man in charge lifted in a smug smile. He might appear unarmed, but Will didn’t trust him for a moment.
Next was Raphael. His shoulders hunched in despair, his eyes dead in the firelight. Raphael looked like a defeated man.
Emma turned her eyes to his, and he locked on her for a split second. Bruises lined her cheeks. He gripped the shotgun tighter. “Who hurt her?” He turned to Alex, whose expression turned from a scowl to surprise.
“None of us, you idiot. She found us after she escaped from my father’s men. They did that to her.”
Emma took a step toward Will. Raphael swung an arm in front of her, blocking her path. “Not so fast. Where the hell were you when this happened?”
Will clenched his teeth in self-incrimination. “I left her for a short time. It was a mistake and it won’t happen again.”
“Didn’t you say that last time?” Raphael sneered.
Will’s arm muscles tensed. “How the hell would you know?”
Raphael’s eyes sparkled with an evil glint. “What? Didn’t Emma tell you about our late-night poolside chat in South Dakota?”
Will lunged forward and the fire exploded. The man by the fire looked annoyed.
“Now, now,” he said. “We have more important things to attend to than preening our peacock feathers.” He turned to face Will. “I think I should introduce myself. I’m Aiden. I believe you know the others.”
“Aiden? As in Emma’s father?” He swung his head to Emma, who nodded.
“You, Mr. Davenport, are sharp as a tack. Let’s get to business, shall we?”
“I don’t know what you have planned,” Will said, walking toward Emma, shoving Raphael’s arm out of his path. “But I plan to collect Jake from Alex and pretend I never saw any of you.”
Aiden cocked his head with a grin. “Be careful what you wish for, William.”
When he reached Emma, Will stepped behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her back into his chest.
“I don’t have Jake,” Alex said. “Someone stole him from me earlier tonight. Caused quite a mess, I might add. I suspect it was Raphael.”
Raphael squared his shoulders as he glared at Alex. “If it had been me, he would be in his mother’s arms already. I would never keep a mother from her child, you maggot.”
Emma’s eyes widened in panic. “Then where is he?”
“No need to worry, Emmanuella.” Aiden said. “He is safe in my care.”
“You?”
Will’s arm tightened as she tried to lunge.
“Yes, he’s my collateral.”
“You fucking son of a bitch!” She jerked again and Will’s grip lifted her feet off the ground. “Let go of me, Will!”
“Emma, calm down.” He whispered in her ear. “I think Jake’s here and I know exactly where he is. But don’t let on to Aiden or we’ll lose our upper hand.”
Her body relaxed. He loosened his hold and she slid down until her feet touched the earth.
“Now Emmanuella,” Aiden grinned. “That’s no way to talk to your father.”
“What do you want?”
“That’s the crux of it, isn’t it?” Aiden gloated. “What do I want? You all have bored me for so long, so many centuries. I’m tired of this game and I want it done.”
“And you want your power,” Alex added.
Emma lifted her head, the wind blowing her hair into her face. “Too bad because I don’t choose either of them.”
“Somehow, I knew you would say that, thus the need for collateral.”
Emma’s back stiffened against Will’s chest. “You’re using my son, your grandson, to make me pick one of them?”
“No,” he scoffed. “What’s
the fun in that? I propose a new game.”
Alex put his hands on his hips. “As long as it doesn’t involve her picking Raphael or me because she will never pick me in a thousand lifetimes.”
“What the hell are they talking about?” Will whispered in her ear.
“I’ll tell you later.”
“No, it doesn’t involve that at all. In fact, Emmanuella is the strongest of my daughters yet. I might even go as far as to say her powers are equal to yours.” Aiden looked toward the two men. “It shall be a challenge between the three of you.” He turned to Emma and smiled. “See, you don’t have to choose either of them.”
“What do we have to do?”
Aiden’s eyes narrowed. “First, we must even the playing field. You have to give up something you love.”
***
Even as he spoke the words, Emma felt the trickle down her leg. She sank back into Will’s chest. “No.”
“Emma?” Will’s grasp around her waist tightened, his voice anxious.
Pain gripped her abdomen, sharper than before and she doubled over Will’s arm as she felt the gush of blood. He grabbed her arm and held her up.
“Emma, what’s wrong?”
She looked into his face, hazy through her tears. “The baby.” She choked on a sob.
He looked down. Scarlet drops splattered the white gown whipping around her legs. The ground darkened with the pool forming at her feet and his eyes widened with fear. “Oh, God.”
He was terrified for her. “Will.” She doubled over with another shot of pain. “I’m losing the baby. I’m so sorry.” Her voice broke.
“No, no, no,” he chanted. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. As long as you’re okay. I can’t live without you, Emma.”
“Do you intend to claim him, Emmanuella?” Aiden asked, his words mingling with her moans.
Will’s face searched hers for reassurance. She hadn’t even been sure she wanted this baby, why was it ripping her heart in two? Will. The man could drive her crazy, but she couldn’t imagine living without him. The man who loved her so fiercely that its intensity scared her. The man who would give his life for hers, mark or no mark. Suddenly, she knew without a shred of doubt that she loved him. She needed him not just as her protector but as the other half of her. He offered her completeness, not Raphael. She grieved for the baby that bonded them together.
02 Hunted - The Chosen Page 28
