“What do you remember? About the ball?”
“I remember what I’m supposed to. But I know it’s not my memory. I feel something … missing from that night. And I know I don’t need or want to know what that was.”
“You shouldn’t be able to do that.”
“Well, I’m not a hundred percent normal in that regard.” He squeezed her hands.
“How?”
“That same ancient lineage that flows so strongly through you, still flows in me and those like me, but only the tiniest spark. We’re just like everyone else, but we’re more attuned to your kind. That’s why … my ‘people,’ so to speak, are so good at what they do.”
“Stop.” Allie shoved his hands away. “It’s not safe for us to be having this conversation. It’s not safe for you to be with me. That’s why I’ve been so distant lately. We have to end this.”
“I didn’t grow up in that life, Allie. I’m not involved in it. I’d trust you with my life. I am trusting you with my life.”
“So you can see this?” Allie touched her face.
“Only recently. It comes and goes, almost like a mirage. I know a very special kind of weapon did that. I’m so sorry that happened to you.”
“I’m sorry this happened to you.” She pressed her palm over his chest where he was shot. “This was my fault.”
“I know you’ve only wanted to protect me.”
Allie nodded. “I love you, Vince. You represent a life I thought I finally had, and I want to keep you so badly.” Tears slipped down her face, but her voice stayed even. “But if you stay with me, you will get hurt and I can’t do that to you. You’re right; you’re not the guy for me and I’m not the girl for you. If you’d died.…”
“I didn’t, Allie. Please don’t blame yourself.”
“Your life is precious and I won’t risk it anymore. It’s two times now. Did you know that? I’ve almost killed you twice.”
“I know. And that wasn’t your fault either, but that’s when it all started coming together.”
“Do you remember anything?”
“No, but I can guess. Did we…?”
“No, but we were headed there.”
“It’s probably best we didn’t. I would never have let it go that far if I knew we were coming to an end.”
“I’m going to miss you.” Allie sniffed back her tears.
“Why? I’m not going anywhere.” He smiled.
“Do you really think we can still be friends?”
“I hope so. I hope you know you can always count on me for anything. I will never ask questions, but I’ll be there for you whenever you need me. Even if you just need to hang out with someone who makes you feel normal for a change.”
“Thank you.” Allie smiled. “I’ll always be here for you. No matter what, no matter when.”
“That means a lot.” He stood to leave. “If you ever need to know anything about the world I come from, just say the word. I’ve got your back, and I’m not as helpless as I might seem. You cut me, I bleed, but I sure as hell fight back. I may not live that life, but there are a lot of people who would force me into it and I’ve had to learn to defend myself. I don’t actually have an after-school job. I have training. Every damned day.”
“Seriously?” Allie gaped at him.
“Seriously. But probably not as intense as yours. Take care of yourself, Allie.” He pulled her up from the lounge where she sat and hugged her close, one last time.
“You too.”
As he turned to go, Allie grabbed his hand to stop him. She saw him so clearly now. And his future. A new vision flashed in her mind, but this one made perfect sense. If he ended up with Kayla, he would live a long and happy life. If he resisted her, that path would lead him back to the Coalition, despite all his father’s work to leave it behind.
“Don’t keep running from her, Vince,” she said in a voice she barely recognized.
“Who?”
“Kayla.”
“She can do so much better than me.”
“But she won’t. Trust me. You’re it for her. She’s it for you. Don’t let that scare you just because you’re young.”
“You should try listening to your own advice.”
“Yeah, well, this isn’t about me.”
“I’m better on my own, Allie.” He stared back at her in the growing darkness.
“That path will lead you to ruin. Your father fought hard to escape that life. Don’t risk undoing it.”
“I’m on a need-to-know basis, Allie. Don’t tell me anything … especially about the things you can do.” Vince turned to leave again.
“She had a baby!” Allie blurted. She never intended to reveal Kayla’s secret. It wasn’t hers to tell. But she had to get through to him.
“What?” His shoulders went rigid, but he kept his back to her.
“She gave the baby up.”
“Are you certain it’s mine?”
“Positive.”
“She doesn’t know what that means.…” He ran his hand through his hair. “You’re sure?”
“The baby was conceived right around the time your mom died.”
“I have to go.”
“I’m sorry, Vince.”
“Thank you for telling me.” He reached for a last embrace, whispering softly in her ear. “You know … there is precedence here, Allie.” His voice wavered. “I’m not the first mortal to stand beside his Immortal friends. I’m here for you. I mean it.”
~~~
CHAPTER
EIGHT
“Darius! Let’s go already, we’re going to be late!” Sasha called across the courtyard.
“Sorry, I got in trouble for sleeping in class again.” He rushed to catch up with them. Darius was definitely enjoying his second round of high school, but the classes seemed to get in his way.
“Did you forget the whole ‘you're here to protect us’ part?” Sasha rolled her eyes. Darius was supposed to be their bodyguard when they left campus twice a week to attend classes at the Cleveland Institute of Art, but he tended to forget that minor detail.
“Come on, girls, we have to get you to class now. No time for goofing off,” Naomi said, sounding like a soccer mom twice her age.
Allie’s temper flared at the sound of her voice. The woman was obnoxious, the way she treated the girls like children and the boys like equals. And she seemed to get a special kick out of giving Allie a hard time. Naomi was acting as Aidan’s bodyguard while he attended classes at the Cleveland Institute of Music. But Allie was pretty sure they spent the whole time flirting and very little time observing their surroundings.
With her eyes flashing like green fire and a death grip on her steering wheel, Allie drove out of the student lot, waving at Imogen as they left the grounds. Her anger always simmered just below the surface and Naomi knew exactly how to push her buttons.
Today was their first official day of college. They’d all qualified to take a few courses during their senior year and Allie intended to take advantage of the opportunity to get a jump on her college education.
“Naomi, you sound like my mom.” Darius elbowed her. “Give it a rest.”
“Don’t forget, we have a job to do,” she said smugly. “The kids need us to be responsible adults.”
“Say that when you haven’t been sucking face with my little brother every chance you get.”
“Darius, shut the hell up!” Aidan glowered at him in the rearview mirror. His ears turned red as he glanced over at Allie.
She gave him a grimace of a smile, an attempt to support his ‘relationship’ with Naomi.
“Sorry, bro. And forgive me, Naomi, for taking the opportunity to enjoy high school more than I did the first time. You should try it sometime.”
Sasha shoved him playfully. “How in the world did you even manage to get this job?”
“No idea, but I’m not complaining.” His dark blue eyes sparkled with mischief. “But maybe it has something to do with my uncanny ability to mak
e my little sister smile?”
Sasha’s grin was hard to miss; it was so rare these days. Darius was the only one who could pull her out of her funk. Sasha blamed herself for Quinn’s capture, but ever since she came back from her summer job with the Senate, she hadn’t been herself. Allie knew enough not to ask questions. Sasha would talk when Sasha was ready.
“Do you even have any artistic skills?” Allie asked, eyeing Darius in the rearview mirror. He was posing as a student with them and she wondered how he intended to do the work.
“Not even a little bit, unless you count forgery as an art form. But Greyson has promised to look the other way and pretend I’m not there.”
“Professor Greyson Hauser.” Sasha sighed with a goofy smile.
“What’s he like—besides gorgeous?” Allie giggled.
“Really? The long hair and accent does it for you, Red?” Darius rolled his eyes.
“What’s not to like?”
“That is my father you girls are mooning over, Alexis.” Naomi’s voice dripped with venom.
“Oh, come on, Naomi, your dad is hot,” Sasha said.
“He’s had a hard life.” Allie frowned, thinking of his past with Emma. Technically, she really hadn’t met him yet, but she knew him from visiting Emma’s memories, and they’d almost met in person last fall at the art museum.
“What do you know?” Sasha asked. “He had a thing with Emma, didn’t he? Did she show you anything juicy?”
“It’s not really my story to tell.” Allie glanced back at Naomi.
“He was in deep with the Coalition for a long time, trying to earn his Complement’s freedom. He never has,” Naomi said sadly. “I guess she would have been my mother if we’d ever had the opportunity to bond. Dad’s never stopped trying to find her. It consumes him.”
“She’s still a captive?” Allie frowned. “After all this time?”
“We’ve never been able to find out where she’s been held.”
“Poor guy,” Darius said.
Greyson had a long time to come to terms with his wife’s absence. But Allie watched Naomi in her rearview mirror. Her normally tough exterior grew even harder. Allie knew what it was like to have a mother she’d never met. But for Naomi, watching her father obsess over a woman she didn’t even know probably accounted for her need to be the center of attention. No wonder she’s got issues.
So maybe you could give her a break then? Aidan said. Can you imagine what it’s like to compete with a ghost for your father’s love?
~~~
They arrived early, as Greyson—Professor Hauser—had asked of them.
“Allie.” Greyson beamed his beautiful smile at her when they entered the empty lecture hall. “I’ve been looking forward to officially meeting you. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“It’s nice finally meeting you too,” Allie said breathlessly. He was so pretty it almost hurt her eyes.
“It’s been a while since I’ve had the pleasure of teaching young Immortals.” His accent was a fascinating blend of ancient and modern influences. She thought she could happily listen to him all day. No wonder he was such a popular teacher. Dressed in clay-dusted jeans and a faded Nirvana T-shirt under a well-worn corduroy jacket with the sleeves rolled up, Greyson looked more like a student than a tenured professor. He was about the same age as Gregg, but he appeared much younger, with only a slight touch of gray in the dirty-blond hair that hung down his back. He kept the hair at his temples swept back and braided with a leather thong—much as he had when she’d last seen him in Emma’s memories from several hundred years ago.
“I called you here early to give you the courtesy of a warning.” Grayson casually perched on the edge of his desk, giving them his undivided attention. “Sasha probably knows of my gift, but I wanted Allie to be equally aware. I think Emma must have hinted at it by now?”
Allie nodded.
“I can discern what your gifts are and how you can use them. For instance, that night at the museum when we almost met, I could sense your solar gift was emerging right at that moment. Since then, I see you’ve learned to use it as a weapon.”
“Reluctantly so.” She smiled shyly. “I’m not a fan of actually using it.”
“I don’t always show such transparency with Immortals I’ve just met, but I wanted you both to understand that I can see a great deal about each of you without much prying on my part. It’s an instant recognition that I have little control over. I see what I see. So I probably already know more about each of you than you’d care for me to know. In fact, as young as you both are, I may know more about your power than you do. I’ve survived a very long time with such knowledge, so I can assure you, I know how to keep your secrets.”
Allie felt a little surge of fear. She did not like the idea that Greyson might know more about her than he should.
“Rest easy, sweetheart. I’m a friend—not an enemy. Trust me, I would not want to get on your bad side.”
Allie didn’t have a chance to respond before the other students began arriving. It felt like Greyson was trying to tell her something, but she wasn’t sure what it could be.
“Take your seats, ladies. Darius, just … try to behave.”
“Hey, I’m taking my bodyguard duties seriously.”
“Let’s hope so.”
Allie was in her element once class began. Greyson sat on the edge of the desk, talking about the fantastic images on the screen behind him. He engaged the class, kept it interesting—fascinating, in her opinion. But at the same time, Allie was hyper-aware of Darius cramped in the seat beside her. There was something different about him. She didn't know if it was just the way she was seeing him as part of their group now, or if there was something more there––something that made her heart flip around in her chest just at the sight of him. Something she did not want in any way, shape or form.
As she sneaked a glance at him, he looked miserable.
“Bored?” She arched her brow. The classroom was huge and the seats were narrow, packed close together like movie theater seats. He was stuck between Allie and Sasha, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else.
“Out of my mind.” He leaned back as far as the seat would allow.
“I can imagine your job would be much more interesting than an art history class.” Although Allie was deeply engrossed in the lecture on prehistoric art, she knew it wasn’t his thing at all.
“Well, my job is a little more exciting than this,” he admitted. He was the youngest homicide detective for the Cleveland Police Department, recently promoted from narcotics. “But I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get to know you better.”
“Real smooth, bro,” Sasha quipped and Darius kicked her playfully.
Allie liked Darius more than she should, but he was nearly a decade older. Not a huge amount between Immortals—most would put Darius at the kids’ table with the rest of them—but it was still too weird for her mortal brain to grasp.
“I hate to make you give up your work to follow me around. It’s gotta be a huge inconvenience,” she said.
“Don’t worry, killer. I still have plenty of time for work after school. My teachers have been conditioned to never expect me to do actual homework. It’s like a dream come true.”
“So you work, you train, and now you’re a full-time babysitter too. Busy guy. How do you have time for a life?”
“I don’t, but that’s nothing new. There’s a serious lack of Immortal women my age … so I’m stuck in a bad place. I’m either too old or too young. So I work, hang out with Scott, and train with George.”
“Poor baby,” Sasha interjected.
“Sasha, we are trying to focus on the lecture,” Darius mocked. “I’m intrigued by this seriously hot Willendorfal statue thingy.” He gestured at the figure on the screen.
“Venus of Willendorf,” Allie corrected him.
“Why exactly is she holding her enormous breasts with her tiny hands? Is this supposed to be caveman porn?”
; “She’s a fertility statue. She represents the essence of motherhood—a phenomenon that was greatly revered nearly thirty thousand years ago when humans were still trying to propagate the species.”
“Very good, Allie,” Greyson said softly for their benefit. “But she dates back even further, possibly back to the heyday of the Queens of Indriell when fertility rates dropped just after the Great War. I’ve often wondered if an Immortal carved this statue. Its survival in this condition is borderline miraculous.”
Allie flinched at the mention of her ancestors and quickly pushed thoughts of the prophecy to the back of her mind, stuffing it in that box with the rest of her problems she wasn’t ready to face yet.
~~~
CHAPTER
NINE
Allie wiped the sweat off her brow and adjusted her sai securely in her grip as she moved through the forms with Aidan at her side. She enjoyed their one-on-one training sessions in the yard. It was never about him teaching her or her teaching him. It was always about them working together as equals, pushing each other’s boundaries and allowing the other to drop all the hesitations and walls they normally put up when sparring with others.
“You warmed up, Red? I’m in the mood to beat the snot out of something, and you’re it.” He gave a flourish of his blades and his most arrogant smirk. His favored weapon was a lot like her sai, but Gregg had modified the length to fit his enormous wingspan. He was a marvel with his dual blades. It didn’t matter if he fought with them joined as a single weapon, like a quarterstaff, or if he separated them in mid-fight—those blades were an extension of his body, much as Allie’s sai were for her.
“Bring it.” She moved into the grassy clearing to take her stance opposite him. She twirled her sai over the back of her hand as she settled into a crouch and held her lead weapon up at the ready. Aidan was usually the one to strike first, but Allie was more comfortable fighting now and she was the first to make a move against him.
Gregg had done a great job choosing her weapon. She moved more naturally with the sai, like her resistance to fighting melted away when she held those blades. She wasn’t sure it was the weapon so much as the fact that the sai once belonged to her mother and she could feel a connection with her when the blades sang. She ached to hear that sound. She drew strength from it, as if the sound came from all the women of her family urging her on.
Emerge: The Judgment: (Book 2) Page 6
