It wasn’t just him; if she knew what he was, then they were all at risk, all of the Warriors. And if he’d somehow sired a child… Exile. From this world, and his own. Imprisonment.
Despite the way it made his chest hurt, he’d almost rather her be working for someone. The Chaolt, scientists, the government. They’d worked hard to keep their secret from any mortal establishments, but with Levi losing control, and the war getting more out of hand, it was harder to keep. Their presence was meant to be a secret from humanity, lest the knowledge upset the balance here even more. If anyone found out about them, they would have other enemies to fight besides the Chaolt. Enemies that would want to explore and utilize their powers for their own purposes. Human enemies, the ones they were supposed to protect.
And if none of that was the case, and he’d actually impregnated her instead?
He pictured the void where Elementals were sent for breaking the laws. The endless embrace of Darkness.
Fuck.
With a check of his mirrors, he turned around and sped back toward her house, a year worth of longing and a gut full of fear driving him. What if he was wrong, about her, the situation? He had to know the truth.
When he pulled into her driveway, only a single light was on in the house. She’d probably gone to bed already. Wind rocked his vehicle gently as he pulled up and sat in the idling truck, debating.
Should he knock? He’d know soon enough if there was no baby.
Ajax got out of his truck, a stiff gust of wind slamming the door shut behind him. Disquiet filled him immediately, alarm bells going off in his brain.
Why? He looked at the windows, but saw no movement, nothing to explain the feeling of wrongness.
Until the wind gusted into his face again, and on the very edge of it, a hint of something dire.
The scent of burning plastic.
He pulled out his knives and ran into the dark, using the air currents to bring him the scent so he could follow it to the source.
Which was in the foothills above her home. What the fuck?
He navigated between the scrub and the trees, using the air currents like radar. There, to his left. Something big moved.
And judging by the acrid smell and the metal-in-a-blender noise in his ears, it wasn’t an animal. The chaos buzz was something he could do without, but now it was the only way to find them besides the smell. He felt his powers draining away as he moved closer, the Chaolt’s proximity nulling it out and forcing him to resort to hand-to-hand combat.
Which was just fucking fine with him.
He leapt from the dark, blades flashing, biting. Any other day, he’d drag this out. Make it his exercise, his entertainment, as well as his job. But tonight, he had more important things to do. And he needed to know why they were close to Emory’s house.
When the Chaolt was bleeding quickly and moving slow, Ajax got behind him and held his blade to its neck. Avoided looking at its face, because even as an Elemental, it just looked wrong.
“Why are you here? What do you want with the human?” Ajax asked.
A high keening laugh was its only answer. He drew back slightly, prepared to slice its throat, when a hot pain sparked between his ribs.
A second Chaolt had snuck up on him.
In a lighting quick move, Ajax kicked hard, planting the face of the first one in the dirt, and spun around, burying his blade in the back of the Chaolt who’d done the same to him. But that second Chaolt turned too, and put its fist into Ajax’s nose.
The crack sent him stumbling backwards into a tree, pushing the knife in his back deeper.
Ajax gasped in pain, shocked at the brightness of it, the stars that blinded him. His legs gave way, and he fell to his knees. He reached behind him with one hand, trying to pull out the knife, so he could heal. He kept his other hand extended, blade ready to defend himself.
But both Chaolt were running the other way.
With a hiss, he pulled the knife out of his back and pulled himself back to his feet, ready to flay them. Goddammit, they’d put another hole in his coat. His back would heal in a few moments, but the hole in the leather was forever.
He only took one step in their direction before the wind carried him another message.
A painful, wailing cry. A frantic voice.
He stood frozen, indecisive. Chaolt were like rabid dogs, always on kill mode. One running from him was about as unnatural as their presence on this world at all. It made the hair raise on the back of his neck. He needed to catch these Chaolt, and figure out why they were suddenly running away. Or where they were running to.
But the wail on the wind drew him down the hills instead, his heart pounding in his throat. It was a baby.
A baby was crying in Emory’s house.
And with his heart pounding in his throat as he approached the back of her house, he felt it. The signature of an Air Erratic nearby, a very powerful one.
And at this moment, an out of control one.
CHAPTER FIVE
Ajax pounded on the door. If the baby was the Erratic and lost control, it might accidentally hurt Emory or itself. When crashing sounds joined the frenetic crying, he shouldered the door open.
“Emory!” he bellowed.
He followed the sounds to a back room, and stopped in the doorway.
The entire room was trashed, toys and clothes and diapers scattered everywhere. A broken lamp dangled off a dresser, still attached at the plug. The mobile above the dresser spun wildly in a wind born of frustration and fear.
Wind.
The whole room was filled with wind, spinning and lifting Emory’s hair as she held her baby in her arms, bouncing and shushing him in an almost deafening wind.
Her wary eyes met his as she patted the baby’s back. “He woke up late for his feeding. I can’t get him to calm down enough to feed him.”
Ajax’s world tilted on its axis, his mind spinning into a maelstrom of disbelief.
The baby was the Erratic, the very powerful one he’d sensed. Emory wasn’t lying, wasn’t working for some unseen organization or purpose.
He’d fathered a child.
Shit.
He found himself looking down at the baby over Emory’s shoulder, with no recollection of making the walk across the room. Using his powers, he stalled the air, made it still. With the racket caused by the wind gone, the child calmed fairly quickly to a whimper, and he opened his eyes.
Ajax lost time, staring into a slow-blinking pair of teal eyes just like his own. Vertigo took him away as they stared at each other. He hadn’t looked in another Air Elemental’s eyes in a long time.
But then the baby started to fuss again, lightly.
“Shhh, baby,” Emory said, taking him and sitting down in the rocking chair. She quickly exposed a creamy rose-tipped breast, and the baby latched on hungrily.
He felt a surge of unexpected jealousy under the disbelief. Possessiveness, followed by something else. Something…satisfying.
The roller coaster of feelings made him sit heavily on the footstool, his arms and legs leaden, his head fuzzy.
When the child was nursing contentedly, Emory looked up at him. The dark skin around her eyes made the rest of her look more pale.
“Thank you, that helped. Sometimes he gets so wound up. It takes a long time to calm him once he gets to that point.”
Ajax just nodded, resting his forearms on his knees and trying to process. A child. He had a child. It was with terrifying awe that it started to sink in. Amazement, with a healthy dose of hell no! mixed in.
“What’s—” He cleared his throat, the word gravelly. “What’s his name?”
“Jackson,” Emory replied without looking away from her son.
“Jackson,” he repeated. It was a good name. Sounded a bit like his.
But, damn… what the hell was he going to do about this?
Emory hadn’t jumped into someone else’s bed, wasn’t milking him for money for a baby that wasn’t his. They’d had a one night
stand, and she’d had his child. It shouldn’t be possible, but the proof was undeniable.
Drain him, he needed to drain him. But he was a baby, an immature human. On a full-grown adult, it made them weak, made them lose memory. What effect would it have on a young child? Had it ever been done before?
Ajax watched Emory rock the baby while he ate, his body tiny and frail even compared to hers. He couldn’t risk taking action without knowing the effect it would have. And he couldn’t ask anyone without rousing suspicion.
He scrubbed a hand over his mouth. Shit. What the hell was he going to do?
There was only one path he could see. Stay with Emory until he could get the information he needed.
And not end up exiled.
“We need to talk.”
She looked up at him. “Okay. He’s asleep now. I’ll put him in his crib and we can talk.”
In one move she closed her shirt and stood, taking Jackson to the crib. She kissed his forehead and laid him down. Her hand stroked the feathery hair on the child’s head.
He settled with a sigh, and she motioned Ajax to follow her out. She turned off the overhead light and shut the door quietly.
He followed her to the couch and she sat on the edge, straight and tense. He took a seat farther down and faced her.
Where to start?
“Tell me.”
“Tell you what?” Her eyebrows rose as she glimpsed at him. “You mean when I realized he wasn’t normal?”
“Yes.”
She nodded, clasped her hands between her knees. It took several seconds and a big sigh before she began. “He was about two weeks old. I was already exhausted, because it’s hard to adjust to that newborn schedule. Nap when they nap, and all that. I thought I could still work and clean house and get up every two hours at night without any ill effects.” Her smile was self-deprecating. “I was determined that I would be the best mother ever.”
She paused for a moment, staring into the middle ground.
“He was over-tired that day, and so was I. I was trying to push his feeding by just a few minutes while I started some laundry, while he was in the swing. He started crying, and I was talking to him from the laundry room. You know, just trying to comfort him with my voice, let him know I wasn’t far and I was going to feed him soon. Trying to keep him calm until I was done.”
Her shoulders rose with a heavy sigh. “I heard glass break, and I ran in there thinking something had broken the window. Maybe it was a ball, or a bird. Only, everything that was light enough was spinning around the living room. It was almost like what I think a mild tornado would be, you know? Just— crazy.” She shook her head, wide eyes meeting his.
“I ran for Jackson and picked him up, and he calmed down almost instantly. So did the wind.”
Ajax reached out, palm up. Hesitantly, she put her hand in his. This was all normal to him, but he could see how crazy it all had been, all was, for her.
“I still thought I’d imagined it, hallucinated it from exhaustion. Until it happened again. And again. And finally, one time, he opened his eyes during one of his fits, and—” She gestured at her own eyes.
The glow. Jackson’s eyes would have been glowing. His hand tightened around hers, and she took a shaky breath, squeezing back.
“It took me a few weeks to reconcile the fact that it was really happening, that I wasn’t just imagining it. And that’s when I knew I had to find you.” She shrugged a shoulder. “Because I knew whatever it was, it sure didn’t come from me.”
That had to be terrifying, crazy for her to go through. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, despite the fact that it implied he’d had some responsibility for the outcome. But he’d thought it literally impossible. It should have been impossible. “I’m not supposed to be able to have children.”
There was more to say, more to explain, but he couldn’t seem to capture any of his thoughts other than one: He had a son.
She spoke before he found any kind of starting point.
“What made you come back?” she asked.
Ajax shook himself mentally and looked up at her. She looked exhausted.
“I had to know what your game was.” He felt his cheeks heat and looked away. “I had to know why you were looking for me, how you knew. Who you were working for, why you lied.” He gave her a quick glance, surprised at just how dense he felt. “Answers. I was coming back for answers.” Well he had them now, didn’t he?
“And now I need answers from you, Ajax.”
He scrubbed both hands over his face, ending up pushing his hair back. “Okay.”
“Where do his powers come from?”
“His powers come from me. Jackson is an Erratic.”
“What is that, exactly?”
“Erratics are humans with elemental powers. Usually latent.” He tilted his head toward Jackson’s room. “Sometimes not. In this case, Jackson is a very powerful Erratic, because of me.”
“Elemental powers. So, the air, right? That’s why it gets windy and crazy when he’s upset?”
“Yes, my power is Air. He inherited it.” Thank goodness windy was all it got. Air powers could be some of the most deadly considering every living being in this world needed oxygen. Even Chaolt. It was a good thing Jackson just moved the air around when he lost control, instead of sucking it all away.
“I’m scared for him, Ajax. I don’t what this means, or who might show up at our door to take him away, or what might happen if he loses control even worse. People are going to notice that he’s different. He’ll never have a normal life. What do I do if someone hears about him and comes for him? What do I do if he loses control in a public place?”
The blood drained from her face as she spoke, her fingers knotting, her breath short.
And she didn’t even know about the Chaolt yet.
Christ, what could he do? He needed to drain the child. Maybe. He’d have to think about that one. Draining their Elemental powers was the standard way they handled Erratics so the Chaolt couldn’t misuse their powers, but they’d all been adults so far, fully mature. What effect would it have on a child? He needed to ask someone if it was possible, if it was safe. But he couldn’t do that without revealing the fact that he had a child, could he?
“I desperately need more answers,” Emory said with a sigh.
What other answers could he give her tonight? He pinched the bridge of his nose.
“But I’m exhausted and have to be up in just a few hours with Jackson,” she continued. “Would you—would you like to stay for tonight, since it’s late?”
His head snapped up. She was giving him time, and inviting him to…“Stay?”
“On the couch,” she clarified, swallowing loudly. “You could stay on the couch for tonight, if you want. We can talk some more tomorrow.”
In every fantasy he’d ever had about seeing her again, none of them had included agreeing to sleeping on her couch, but he’d take what he could get. None of them had included a child either. He nodded. Elementals usually didn’t need as much sleep as a human, but his body felt simultaneously wired and weighed down. Maybe sleep would help. Plus, that meant he could delay the Chaolt talk until tomorrow. He could stay the night, make sure Emory and her baby were safe, and they could talk about it in the light of day. He didn’t want spring the Chaolt and the war on her when she had to wake up in a couple hours. It was heavy stuff, for a human.
“Yeah. Yeah, okay. We’ll talk more in the morning.”
“Okay, good.” Her smile seemed genuine. “I’ll make up the couch for you.”
Emory got linens for Ajax to make his bed on the sofa. Her reasons weren’t entirely selfish. Yes, she wanted answers, but he just found out he had a son, and he’d looked floored. She could forgive him for his callousness earlier, because it was obvious he really believed it was impossible. As he went to take the sheets from her, their hands touched. They both stopped moving with the sheets clasped between them.
She looked up at him. His eyes were dar
k.
“I’m glad you’re here, Ajax. Relieved.”
But even that didn’t encompass all the emotions swirling inside her. Yes relief, because he was here and he finally believed her. She’d get answers to her questions, be able to be the best mother possible to Jackson. But the woman part of her was happy for entirely different reasons.
This was Ajax. The only man charming and funny and handsome enough to make her let go of the good girl she’d become in trying to buy her parent’s love. He’d drawn her out of her shell, made her throw caution to the wind. He was the only man to ever make her want a one night stand when she couldn’t have more. And to still make her want more, even now.
There was a traitorous part of her that wanted to make a different offer than just a bed on her couch. But she had to put all that away, because Jackson had to be her focus now. She needed answers and help from Ajax. She raised up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Good night, Ajax,” she whispered.
He simply nodded, silent.
As she walked away to her own room, the hairs on her arms stood up, in the most pleasurable way. She looked back and saw Ajax still standing there, staring at her.
Once she was in her own bed, the room seemed to spin even with her eyes closed. Her body felt pinned to the bed with exhaustion. But she couldn’t quite sleep. Her heartbeat sped up at the thought of Ajax being in her house. Even if this was far from how she dreamed, hoped, a second night together would go.
All this time she’d kind of wondered if she’d been looking back on that night with rose-colored glasses. Time makes the heart grow fonder, and all that. But no. Even with everything going on, one thing was clear. She still felt that inexplicable connection she’d felt from the very beginning, the one that made her choose a one-night stand over nothing at all.
He was here, he believed her. He was going to help them, and it was obvious he still felt something for her, even if it was just attraction. Maybe there was a chance…
Emory squeezed her eyes shut, heart spasming with hope.
Rise (Elemental Hearts Book 2) Page 4
