Emerge: The Judgment: (Book 2)

by Melissa A. Craven

  “Hmmmm,” Allie mumbled, her head nodding against him.

  “I never realized I've been waiting my whole life for you, my little sister—my family. Not Gregg's or anyone else's. You and Kahlynn are my whole world now. Who knew I'd be such a softie for a couple of little girls.”

  Allie felt the rumble of his laughter as she fell into a peaceful sleep.

  ~~~

  CHAPTER

  FOURTEEN

  “Hey, Allie. Come on in.” Scott held the door open for her. She’d never been to the apartment Darius shared with Scott, aka Fitzie. It was a huge warehouse loft downtown, probably big enough for four or five roommates, but she imagined the top floor was probably outfitted for Darius’s training.

  “Hey, killer! Be down in a sec,” Darius called from the upstairs.

  “I’m pretty sure he was late for his own birth,” Scott said as he led her into the gigantic living room.

  “This place is gorgeous.” Allie took in the view of the city from the floor-to-ceiling windows.

  Aidan, this isn’t a date. But can you—?

  Make myself scarce? Yeah. I’m out with Naomi tonight anyway and I think she’s going to break it off with me. I’d like to not have an audience for that. She’s the ‘dump them before they dump me’ type and I haven’t been around much lately. And she’s—

  He threw a brick wall up so fast, Allie had to shake her head from the impact.

  Dude, what the hell was that?

  Nothing.

  What don’t I know about Naomi?

  You’ll just get mad.

  Tell me.

  She’s kinda into Liam now, he said in a rush.

  What? No, not my brother. He can’t possibly fall for that. You have to stop her.

  How? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Naomi does what Naomi wants. Nothing I say is going to change her mind.

  Aidan.…

  Don’t ‘Aidan’ me, Lex. I’m not getting involved. Liam’s a big boy; he can do what he likes.

  Sorry about the whole getting-dumped thing. I know you like her.

  It’s fine. We make better friends anyway. The chemistry’s just off. She blames it on my feelings for you and she’s probably right. She deserves better than that. So if Liam makes her happy, then I say she’s long overdue for some happiness.

  You’re right. I just wish she’d find happiness somewhere else.

  “Crap, Fitzie, I’m sorry.” Allie shook off her spaced-out look and shot Scott an apologetic glance. “That was so rude.” She and Aidan had gotten really bad about checking out of a conversation with those right in front of them.

  “It’s fascinating to watch you two communicate, but you have to be more careful. It’s fine to drop all pretense with me, but you cannot do that in public.”

  “I know. We’re working on it. We were so good at concealing it for so long, but once we didn’t have to hide it anymore, we just developed some bad habits.”

  “You ready, Red?” Darius took the stairs two at a time on his way down.

  “Yeah.” Allie turned to greet him. Her heart doing that weird flippy thing it did when Darius was around.

  “Try to remember to be alert, both of you?” Scott warned. “I’ll be in the area if you need me. And don’t forget, Darius, if you run into anyone you know—”

  “I know. I’m not Darius the cop, I’m his little brother, Dan, who looks an awful lot like him.”

  “Let’s go, Dannie boy,” Allie said playfully. She forgot the world would see him as an eighteen-year-old boy, and that helped her mindset tremendously. She was used to him blending in with the kids at school, but his age was a sensitive issue for her.

  “Wait! Darius, show me how to do the thing with the map again?” Fitzie held out his iPhone like it was a bomb.

  “Seriously, you haven’t mastered this yet?” Darius took the phone from him and went through a painstakingly awkward lesson in navigating Google Maps.

  “I just got used to texting and Darius decided it was time I upgraded to this century and get a smartphone. I think it was too soon,” Scott said irritably. “I hate technology.”

  “You gotta get over that, bro. It’s only going to get worse.”

  “I know, I know. That’s what I get for keeping my head down for too long. The world doesn’t stop turning and we can’t stop moving with it. Night, kids. Have fun.”

  As they walked down the hill to the flats, Allie decided not to let the age thing be an issue tonight. They were just friends, and she intended to enjoy the evening.

  Darius slipped his hand around hers and pulled her to a stop. His eyes seemed troubled.

  “What’s up, Dare?” her voice came out all weird and trembly and she had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at herself. Her reactions to his attention never seemed to match her emotions.

  “I’d like to have a good time tonight and not let the age thing feel awkward.”

  “You sure you aren’t a mind reader?” She grinned.

  “What’s little brother up to tonight?” He tapped her forehead and she knew that was what bothered him. She realized, possibly for the first time, how strange it must be to look into her eyes and know Aidan was present in there to a certain degree, like a third wheel.

  “Getting dumped, actually. He’s not here, Darius. We mutually decided on total privacy tonight.”

  “Can you do that now?” His eyes widened in surprise.

  “It’s not always easy, but we're getting better. I still feel him there, skating on the edge of my thoughts. I’d have to stop and focus on what he is thinking or doing. That’s as private as it gets these days.”

  “Dumped, huh?” He grinned. “Bummer.” He draped his arm around her and they ducked into the club.

  It was a small dive bar that had a reputation for hosting some of the best indie bands. The lights were dim and a mellow bass beat filled the air.

  “Grab a table, killer, I’ll get drinks.”

  Allie slipped into a booth and Darius joined her, sliding in beside her. He set a cold beer in front of her. Underage drinking wasn’t something the Immortal world frowned on. It would only affect her for a few minutes before her buzz would fade. Not like that night in Agra.… She’d never been so completely out of it like that.

  “Definitely not a cop tonight?” She smiled.

  “I made your ID; it’s totally legal.” He turned toward her and rested his arm on the booth behind her.

  “Really? Like, legal, legal?”

  “I have a gift with forgery. I make all our documents. When your identification becomes outdated, like your Social Security number, I’ll create a new one for you.”

  “I’ve never asked—I didn’t want to be rude, but I really have no idea what you can do.”

  “Well, I’m a homicide detective for a reason. My defining gifts actually teeter on the edge of clairvoyance. Nothing like you, of course. It only works with crimes. I can sense them happening all around me. And when I’m surveying a crime scene after something terrible has happened, I can just see it. My gift allows me to recreate what happened.”

  “Like a vision?” It would be really nice to talk to someone who could see the way she did.

  “No, it’s not that evolved. When I’m assessing a murder scene, and there’s a blood spatter, for instance, I can see sort of a reanimation of that spatter—like a ghost image, which helps me replay the events in my mind. Most any forensic tech can do the same thing; I just get there faster and more accurately. I can also see what’s missing, almost instantly. Where most investigators would study what is present in a crime scene, I see what isn’t there, which is usually very important information.”

  “Like the murder weapon?” she asked.

  “You don’t find this gruesome?”

  “Yeah, but it’s fascinating too.”

  “Sometimes I can see the absence of the murder weapon as soon as I walk onto the scene. And if I’m really on fire, I can get a sense of where the murderer tossed it—even if it’s n
owhere near the scene. I call it my CSI sense.”

  “That's kinda awesome, Dare.”

  “Yeah, well … taking a page out of Greyson’s book, I owe you some long overdue transparency.” He sighed, reaching for his beer.

  “What’s up?” She frowned.

  “I’m very observant. I read people. Really, really well.”

  “You want to read me?” She sipped her warm beer and Darius signaled the waiter for another round.

  “No way, Allie. Let’s just say I can see things about people that they don’t often see about themselves. It makes me a killer profiler, but not a very good friend.”

  “So you just know things about me just by looking at me?” She picked at her beer label, feeling a little uncomfortable.

  “It’s kinda like Greyson’s gift, except I don’t see anything about your power. But like him, I can’t control what I see. I learned a long time ago it’s best to keep it to myself. But I like my friends to be fully aware of what I can do.”

  “Thanks for the transparency.” She drained the last of her drink and signaled for another.

  “Listen, I’m always here if you need someone to talk to—but I know Aidan is that guy for you. Let me be the friend who reminds you to have fun and not take things too seriously. And right now, we have a concert to enjoy.” He offered her a fist-bump. And just like that, the serious mood dissolved and they cheered with the crowd when the band took the stage.

  The music was cool and bluesy and the indie band was one of her favorites. The vibrato of the bass guitar seemed richer and the vocals more mellow than she remembered from listening to them on her iPhone. Allie was drawn into the excitement of the crowd as the band played a full set of her favorite songs.

  The slow, sultry beat of the music made her want to get up and dance. This was the first time in ages that she’d actually had fun. She’d needed this night out so badly, and now that she knew how strongly Darius could see, she had a whole new respect for him. If he could look at her and see the worst things about her—and still count her as a friend—then she could trust him with whatever knowledge his gift gave him. There was a weird flirty vibe between them, but at the same time there was an equal desire not to act on it. The result was a feeling of complete trust and a level of intimacy with zero expectations.

  “You’re a million miles away, Allie. What’s up?” Darius asked after the last encore.

  “Sorry, I guess I was just really into the music,” she said breathlessly. Her eyes were bright and she felt energized as they pushed their way through the crowd to the exit.

  The cool evening breeze lifted her hair and she danced a few steps ahead. “The acoustics were fantastic; it was like I couldn’t even hear the crowd.”

  “Oh, that was me. I have this thing with sound too. There isn’t much I can’t hear, but I can also enhance sound or reduce it—make something soundproof. Screech like a siren. That sort of thing.”

  “Like my very own, smart-mouthed, blue-eyed surround sound system?”

  “Come on, killer. We’ve got some time before the last ferry; let’s go dancing.”

  “You sure you can handle it?”

  “Aidan is not the only good dancer in this family.”

  “Bring it on, old man.”

  ~~~

  Rage consumed her … unlike anything Allie had ever felt before.

  The world was bathed in blood. Red, with smoldering fires and churning black smoke billowing in the distance, but Allie could only see the flames dancing before her eyes. She could only feel fury as her blood boiled in her veins.

  An anguished shriek echoed in the darkness. She wasn’t sure if the sound came from an injured animal or if it came from her.

  “Allie!” Darius grabbed her arm and pulled her back onto the sidewalk. “I generally prefer it when my friends stay in one piece.”

  “What?” Allie gave him a blank look.

  “You just walked out into traffic, sweetheart. What’s going on?” They stepped into the shadows of the parking garage near his building. “Your eyes are practically smoldering. What has you so angry?”

  “Nothing. It was nothing. Just a vision.”

  “What did you see?”

  “Fire. Smoke.” She shrugged. “Nothing that makes any sense.”

  “You’re working with Liam and Emma on your dreams and visions, right?”

  “Every day. But the things I see, it’s just junk. It doesn’t mean anything.”

  “That anger you feel. That means something, killer. You need to deal with it before it eats you alive.”

  ~~~

  CHAPTER

  FIFTEEN

  “Are you serious? You want to risk Gregg’s wrath—not to mention Naeemah’s—and our eternal freedom to sneak off to some kind of Immortal nightclub?” Allie flopped onto the sofa beside Aidan, casting a wary glance at the others. They were gathered in his office after training. It was one of those rare nights when they were all up late together.

  “When you put it like that it sounds stupid,” Aidan said. “It is stupid.” Especially for us, he added, “but we have to go.”

  “When you have a big brother who can track you like a tagged seal, sneaking out loses its appeal.”

  “We need to do this, Allie,” Sasha said, surprising her.

  “You’re on board with this?” She didn’t buy it. Sasha wasn’t interested in much of anything anymore. Allie wanted to agree, just because it was so good to see her friend interested in something—anything.

  “What aren’t you guys telling me?”

  “It’s not exactly … safe,” Graham said as he straddled the sofa arm beside her. “But there is a small chance we could find a new lead on Quinn at this place.”

  “You should have led with that. Let’s do it.” She was on board with anything that might help him, even if it was a long shot. “What do we need to know about this place? Why is it dangerous?”

  “The Senate doesn’t approve,” Aidan said. “So the club owners keep the location constantly moving, like a rave, but it’s more than just a party. But the Senate can never seem to catch them before they move on. And for the first time ever, it will be right here in Cleveland. Dad knows about it, but the adults can’t get in.”

  “And why do we think we could get a lead on Quinn there?”

  Graham whipped out a black notebook from his back pocket. She recognized it as the journal he kept for all his techie ideas and sketches. As he flipped through the pages covered in notes about his brother’s situation, Allie realized how much this had affected him. Graham was lost without his big brother, but he wasn’t just sitting around doing nothing about it.

  “So we know he’s with a faction of the Coalition based in Atlanta,” he continued. “But I overheard Dad saying they are pretty sure the same people also run the club. I’ve done some research on them but it’s been one dead end after another. They hide everything behind some fake company called Soma so they appear to be completely above board, but they’re shady as shit. They only hire the best young Immortals they can find and then it’s like they brainwash them, pulling them away from their families until they have nothing left but Soma. We need to get into this club and we need to dig until we find something. We have to do it. The adults would never get past the front door.”

  “And why is that? Why couldn’t Imogen and Lucien go?”

  “No one Proven can get in. It’s only open to the youngest generations,” Aidan said.

  “Then we have to go,” Allie said. “Just to see what we happen to see, right? But what about Chloe?”

  “Chloe will be fine.” Chloe rolled her eyes. “My gift sucks big, fat—”

  “Chloe!” Aidan laughed at the look of disgust on her face.

  “Well, it sucks.” She scowled. “But it only sucks around mortals. It’s not so bad with everyone else.”

  Chloe’s defining gift had manifested quickly after her Awakening. She could see the path of least resistance—meaning she could see the choices tho
se around her struggled to make, and she could sometimes tell which choice would result in the best outcome, but she'd suffered some minor setbacks recently.

  “It’s still not any better?” Allie asked, feeling bad about how out of touch she was with what her friends were going through.

  “Well, imagine if you were telepathic with everyone.” Chloe shrugged. “I can’t hear distinct voices or anything, but everywhere I turn, I’m faced with someone struggling with a decision. I can hear the whispers of their indecision—it’s like really loud white noise. I can’t turn it off or ignore it. So the quick fix has been using my headphones to block the constant noise with music. That helps give me a reprieve between classes so I can get through a few hours of school. But I don’t need the headphones when I’m with you guys. I promise, I will not be a liability. We all need this opportunity to contribute. Quinn is my nephew and I hate sitting around doing nothing when he’s out there suffering somewhere. We’re doing this and I am going to be there. Are we all clear on that?” She gave them all a glare.

  “She’s right. Auntie Chloe can handle herself just fine.” Graham gave her a wink.

  “So what are we going to do when we get caught?” Allie asked. “You know it’s going to happen. Gregg and Naeemah are the freaking governor and you know as well as I do, they’re going to expect us to do exactly what we’re talking about. So if we’re doing this, we have to make it worth the trouble. We need a plan.”

  “We have to be very careful not to draw too much attention to ourselves,” Aidan said. “Amrita is a huge draw for our generation so we need to blend in with the crowd as best we can.”

  “Amrita? What is that, something clever and ancient?” Allie tried to place the language.

  “It means Immortality in Sanskrit,” Chloe said, ever the walking encyclopedia.

  “What’s the draw? It can’t be just a party. What makes it worth the risk? I mean, even for people who want to go for fun … it still has to be dangerous for a bunch of Immortal kids to come together like that.”

  “It’s nothing, really. It’s just an excuse to have a good time.” Aidan gave her a funny look and she knew he was lying. Or at least not telling her the whole truth.