Dark Becoming (An Ema Marx Novel Book 3)

by J. D. Brown

  My jaw fell open and my cheeks burned at the sight of a big black dildo in Valafar’s hand.

  “P-put that back!”

  Valafar tossed it at me.

  I instinctively caught it. “Oh my God!” Panicked, I threw it under the bed. “What is wrong with you?”

  Valafar grinned from ear to ear. “Come on, that was funny.”

  “This is exactly what I’m talking about. You can’t just go through people’s personal stuff.”

  “Why, you got something hidden in your closet?” He winked.

  I sputtered.

  “Ema?”

  I twirled around to find Brinnon’s large frame filling the doorway, his brow lowered in confusion. “What are doing in my room… and who are you talking to?”

  My whole face burned with embarrassment. “Vala—” I waved a hand behind me, to indicate the perverted incubus, but when I turned around, he was gone and my hand shook at empty space. “—far. Huh. He was just here, I swear.”

  Brinnon smiled. “He tends to do that.”

  Frustrated, I tugged on a lock of hair and then glanced at Brinnon. He wore black slacks and a maroon shirt with the top two buttons left open. The dark colors were a striking contrast against his flawless white skin and masculine build. His black hair was freshly washed, combed, and parted down the side. He even smelled good, like Old Spice.

  “Wow. What’s the occasion?”

  Brinnon blushed and his lashes lowered. “Just wanted to get the blood and forest grime out.”

  “How’s your leg?”

  “Good as new. Not a single scratch left. By the way, I didn’t get a chance to thank you for not telling my dad. That was kind of embarrassing, you know? Walking like a ditz right into a bear trap. I should’ve been paying attention.”

  I winced. If I had known there were bear traps in those woods, I might have pushed for a different location. “Hey, it’s the least I could do. Jesu and I really appreciate the help, and I’m sure Jesu didn’t mean to put you in harm’s way.”

  “Ema,” Brinnon’s grin widened. “It was my pleasure. Really.”

  “Okay. Guess I’ll see you at dinner.”

  “See you then.” He nodded.

  I faced the door, making an extra effort to appear nonchalant while resisting the urge to peek under the bed.

  “One more thing.”

  I cringed. “Yes?”

  “If you see Valafar again, tell him I sent his sweater out for dry-cleaning.”

  I nodded like an idiot and then ran. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

  Chapter 13

  An awkward silence kept dinner chatter to a minimum. The clink of utensils and glasses echoed louder than an ensemble of percussionists while the users of said utensils quickly ate their food. I poked a fork at the thin slices of raw lamb on my plate. Jesu watched. I knew he waited for me to lose control and glut myself. Usually, the salty metallic scent woke my inner Nephilim and intensified the urge to feed, but today my appetite just wasn’t present. In fact, the thought of putting raw meat in my mouth was a little nauseating.

  “Prince Jalmari is healing quickly,” said Sara. I glanced across the table at her. She leaned forward, looking at Jesu and me, but because she was the only person to say anything in the past half hour, her voice carried, and everyone at the table stopped what they were doing to listen. Her cheeks tinged pink and she lowered her gaze to her lap.

  “Yes,” Maria added. “I plan to take him off the morphine soon.”

  “We should move him to the holding center first,” Tancred said to Nikolas. “Before he gets his strength back.”

  My stomach twisted at the idea of Jalmari returning to his old psychotic self. I knew vampyres healed fast, but I thought I would have more time before having to worry about Jalmari trying to bust out and attack me again.

  “I agree,” said Nikolas. “We’ll prepare a prisoner transfer. Notify Naamah and make sure all the proper measures are taken care of. We need to do this right, everything on the table.” He lifted his drink to his lips, but paused before taking a sip to glance over the rim at me.

  I didn’t know what the look meant. I glanced at Jesu, who stared at his plate. Beneath the table, Jesu’s fists clenched so hard, his veins popped to the surface. I slid my hand over his knuckles, but he refused to relax.

  “Can it wait?” I asked Nikolas. “Jesu and I would like a word with Jalmari before you move him.”

  “That is not necessary,” Jesu said quickly.

  I narrowed my gaze and squeezed his hand. “I think we should.”

  A low growl rode his breath. “I don’t.”

  “But—”

  “Actually,” Sara cut in, “Jalmari wants to speak to you.”

  “He’s been asking for Jesu?” I asked.

  She blushed and her lashes fluttered in effort. “He’s been asking for both of you.”

  “We’ll go,” I said, before anyone could object. “Right now, in fact. You guys need some time to prepare anyway. We’ll be in and out before you’re ready to move him.”

  Jesu’s mouth thinned in a stern tight line.

  Nikolas set his glass on the table and frowned. “Very well, but bring a guard with you and make it quick.”

  I guess Nikolas was no longer in the business of underestimating Jalmari’s determination to kill me. “You don’t have to tell me twice. Excuse us.” I stood and pulled Jesu’s arm. He didn’t budge. “Ahem, Earth to Jesu? I kind of just promised we’d do this quickly so, you know, chop-chop.”

  Jesu abruptly stood and marched out of the dining room. Tancred motioned to a soldier. I chuckled nervously and then scrambled after them.

  At the infirmary, Jesu paused and took a deep breath before opening the blue door. I followed him into the room, but stayed near the threshold with the accompanying soldier, hoping to give Jesu the illusion of privacy. He needed to get his feelings concerning his brother off his chest, even if he wouldn’t admit to having them.

  Jesu approached the bedside. A thin white blanket covered Jalmari from toes to lower chest—the parts of him that did not suffer the trauma. His arms rested on top of the pillow on either side of his head, his wrists cuffed to the bedposts. I expected bandages to cover his hands and face, but there weren’t any. New tissue reshaped his nose and filled his lips. He even had eyelids, with thick black lashes. Jalmari’s pale skin tone had always been flawless, but this new skin was somehow even more pristine. A translucent silver-white streaked his hands, chest, neck, and face. It was remarkable.

  Jesu lifted a hand over his brother’s face and hesitated. Slowly, he lowered his fingers and stroked the fuzz of fine hairs growing on Jalmari’s scalp. Jalmari stirred, furrowing his stubbly new brow. His metallic lips thinned into a hard line, and then his lids blinked open. His eyes were whole, but his irises were a milky blue instead of their usual emerald green. His blank gaze landed on Jesu’s face, but I knew the prince couldn’t really see his brother. Jalmari likely relied on his other senses to know where to direct his attention. The corners of his mouth lifted, causing the new skin to appear even more translucent as it stretched thin over his fangs and gums.

  “My brother. You came.”

  Jesu removed his hand and chewed his lip. Uncertainty played across his features and his gaze darkened. I had hoped seeing Jalmari would bring Jesu comfort, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. As though sensing his brother’s mood, Jalmari’s grin lessened. His silvery fingers twitched in Jesu’s direction, but the cuffs kept his movement to a minimum. Giving up, Jalmari relaxed his fingers against the metal bars and he slowly turned his head in my direction.

  “I am aware of you, too, Ema.”

  My eyes widened at his use of my name. What happened to Rat, or Little Mouse, or Vile Romani Scum? Not that I was fond of those.

  “Do not speak,” said Jesu. The vindication in his tone hardened. “I did not come for any discourse of yours. I only need you to know, brother, that even though it is not my desire
to turn my weapon against you, I will defend Ema with my life, even if that means ending yours.”

  Maybe I should have waited outside.

  Jalmari scoffed. “For all your submissive charm, you sure do have a dramatic flair, brother.” He squeezed his eyes shut and groaned in discomfort. Jesu’s breath hitched, but the episode passed quickly. Jalmari relaxed, opening his blank gaze again. “So,” he continued. “You came, not to apologize for burning me nearly to death, but to warn me that you would do it a second time.”

  Jesu narrowed his gaze. “You deserve no apology. You could be an ally, Jalmari, but you chose to be a foe. That is not my error.”

  “You speak as if you have no choice in the matter.”

  “You know I don’t.”

  Jalmari cracked a smile. “I’m beginning to believe otherwise.”

  Suspicion rang in my mind. What did Jalmari know? What else did Bridget tell him? I bit back the urge to voice my concerns. This was a dispute between brothers. As an only child, I envied the bond that kept them from truly destroying one another. I refused to be the solvent to that bond. I really should wait in the hall. I turned and went to the door.

  “Stop,” said Jalmari. “I know how you can defeat our father.”

  I froze midstride and then did a one-eighty-degree turn, squashing my personal promise to stay out of the discussion. “What are you talking about?”

  Jalmari’s thin lips stretched into another translucent grin. “I knew that would get your attention.”

  “Whatever.” I rolled my eyes. “We don’t need your help.”

  Jalmari scoffed. “I doubt the incubus is cooperating.”

  My nerves jumped. How on earth did he know about that?

  “Enough,” Jesu growled. “No more games, brother. Either speak your piece, or hold your tongue for eternity in Nikolas’ prison.”

  Jalmari’s milky stare floated upward. “I can’t say.”

  “Figures,” I huffed.

  “I can’t say,” he growled, “because you have an incubus spy in your midst. But I promise, once you know what I know, you won’t need the inbred.”

  Jesu went to the counter space, opened a few drawers, and rummaged through them. He came back with a pad of paper and a pen. Jesu pushed the pen into Jalmari’s right hand. “Write it down.”

  Jalmari scowled at the ceiling. “I’m blind and cuffed.”

  “Tough.” Jesu held the pad against the tip of the pen to indicate to Jalmari where to write.

  Jalmari tightened his grip on the pen, his lip curled back in annoyance, and then scrawled across the top page. Eyeing the electronic cuffs to reassure myself that Jalmari would get a nasty shock if he tried anything, I went to Jesu’s side and glanced at what Jalmari had written. In scribbled over-lapping letters was a single word: Stone.

  I wrinkled my nose. “Well that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. How’s a st—”

  Jesu cupped his free hand over my mouth, silencing me, and glared at his brother. “How?”

  Jalmari wrote three more words: Leena’s book. Hesiodos.

  Jesu released me and then ripped the page off the pad and crumpled the paper in his fist. “This better not be a bluff, Jalmari.”

  “It’s not,” he said, tight lipped.

  Jesu turned his attention to me. “Let’s go.”

  I followed as Jesu marched out of the room. The soldier who’d witnessed the entire conversation brought up the rear. In the hallway, I grabbed Jesu’s arm and made him wait while the soldier passed and went about his way. Then I leveled my gaze with Jesu’s. “Are you going to explain? Because I’m totally lost.”

  Jesu sighed and reached into his pocket. He pulled out his cellphone, pressed a few buttons, and then handed it to me. The screen was on text message mode. Jesu had typed a message there, but he hadn’t sent it to anyone because my cellphone was dead and in Finland. I read the message.

  Jalmari gave us a way to make a philosopher’s stone.

  I gasped. “You’re kidding. How?”

  Jesu took the phone out of my hands, deleted the message, and then typed a new one.

  Leena’s spell book and a man named Hesiodos.

  “Who’s Hesi—?”

  “Shhh.” Jesu glared at me.

  “Sorry.”

  He typed a new message.

  I assume he’s an alchemist.

  I took the phone from him and typed something of my own.

  How will having a philosopher’s stone help?

  Jesu took the phone back and typed.

  Transmutation. We can take Apollyon’s essence just like he did to countless others.

  “Fight fire with fire,” I said.

  Jesu narrowed his gaze to slits and pushed the phone into my hands. I rolled my eyes and then typed.

  Did you know Jalmari had this information?

  Jesu shook his head. I deleted my question, then typed another.

  Do you trust it?

  He shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”

  “Oh sure, you get to decide when we go verbal.” I crossed my arms.

  Jesu pressed a hand to the small of my back. “Come on.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “Back to the dining room. We need to tell others.”

  I nodded in agreement. “One last question, why the communication through text?”

  “You invited the incubus.”

  “First of all,” I said, while counting on my fingers. “I didn’t invite him, he just shows up. And second of all, I’m not complaining about texting, I just think I should get my own phone. Can we make that happen? Can I have my own phone? It would be a heck of a lot easier if I could just call you guys and tell you where I am the next time I get kidnapped.”

  Jesu furrowed his brow. “I can look into it.”

  “Done,” said Maria. She flipped her cellphone closed. “I can be ready in fifteen minutes.”

  Nikolas, Tancred, Brinnon, Maria, Jesu, and I sat in the king’s office. After an hour of them text messaging back and forth—and me reading over Jesu’s shoulder—we came to the agreement that Jalmari’s tip was probably too good to be true, yet we had to give it a try. It was our only lead, and the more options we had, the better. Having our very own philosopher’s stone would give us an advantage. At the very least, it would level the playing field, assuming Apollyon worked on a new stone as well. Fortunately, Jalmari had the foresight to get rid of Apollyon’s original stone a long time ago.

  For the past ten minutes, Maria had been texting her husband, Naamah. After filling him in on everything that had happened since he left, Naamah found Leena’s spell book in the castle dungeon, where I saw it last. He offered to ship the book to us, but with Valafar lurking who-knows-where, Maria felt it better to make the trip to Finland to retrieve it by hand.

  “Prepare the jet for her,” said Nikolas. Tancred nodded and excused himself. The king folded his hands on top of his desk and sighed. “I suppose we should keep Prince Jalmari close by for the time being, see what other information he decides to share.”

  I gulped. “Do we have to?”

  “We do have that old dungeon in the fourth wing basement.” Brinnon shrugged. “We could lock him in there.”

  Nikolas nodded. “I’ll get my men on it.”

  Jesu and I gave the giant king a brisk nod. The three of us stood and then exited the office. Maria rushed ahead, no doubt wanting to make a few preparations before her flight. I waited until she disappeared around a corner, and then grabbed Jesu’s arm.

  “Do you think it’s weird that Apollyon hasn’t made a move yet?”

  “I would rather count my blessings than examine them.”

  “But if you did examine them, you’d agree it’s weird, right?”

  Jesu paused midstride and scanned me. “Maybe.”

  “Do you have any thoughts on where he’s hiding?”

  He furrowed his brow and started walking again. We were at the end of the ballroom, about to enter the main hall. “No
.”

  “Did you know Nikolas has spies?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you know… wait.” I fished his cellphone out of his pocket and entered a text.

  Nikolas’ spies are looking for Apollyon.

  Jesu cocked his brow. “Are they?”

  I nodded. “They’re not doing a very good job.”

  “My father has a gift for being elusive.”

  “That’s not very comforting.”

  Jesu grabbed my hips and then pushed me against the wall. He planted a deep, penetrating kiss against my mouth—the kind of kiss that scorched my lips and stole my breath. I melted against his firm chest and let myself get lost in the haze of his body heat.

  He pulled away and I shivered. His touch burned so completely, the air between us felt cold. A sly grin inched across the left side of his face, rising to the dimple in his cheek.

  “Was that comforting?”

  Yes. No. Physically, yes. Emotionally, no. I cleared my throat and ducked out from under him.

  “I’m, um, not in the mood.”

  Jesu made his disappointment evident in one little syllable. “Oh.”

  “Could you get me a drink? I’m starving.” It was a lie, but I worried that if he followed me, I would break down and admit to eluding his physical advances.

  Jesu lowered his gaze. “Sure.”

  He backtracked into the hall, heading toward the kitchen. I sighed and then continued into the foyer and up the stairs, to my room. Once I was alone behind closed doors, I lifted a hand to my chest.

  Be still, my heart. This won’t last.

  Knowing Jesu couldn’t truly love me hurt. In the infirmary, when Jesu told Jalmari he didn’t have any choice in protecting me, it sounded like Jesu believed it. What if Bridget was right and Jesu had buried himself so deep in denial, wanting to believe he was finally completing his mother’s command, that he couldn’t see the truth? I couldn’t take advantage and string him along when I knew the reality. I loved Jesu and that meant being honest, even if it hurt.