Rise (Elemental Hearts Book 2)

by Jayelle Morgan

  Hell, no. His night hadn’t gone anywhere close to what he had planned. But Levi didn’t need to know that.

  “Fantastic,” he said with a tight smile as he swaggered past.

  He pushed the button for the elevator, mind on yesterday evening. Yeah, it had pretty much gone the opposite of what he’d hoped when he’d seen Emory sitting in the bar again. But as complicated as things were now, he couldn’t regret it. He’d wanted to see her again for a year. Maybe not like this… But maybe he’d take her however he could get her for now.

  He pushed the intercom button on Walker’s door. It clicked, signaling he could push the big barn doors wide.

  “Ajax,” Walker said, leaning over the table where the map of Topaz Ridge was spread flat.

  “Walker,” he returned.

  Walker didn’t waste any time. “Micah reported some significant Chaolt activity in this area,” he said, circling it with his finger. “No engagement, just the chaos buzz. I need you to patrol here, and in about a three-mile radius—

  “No.”

  Walker only moved his icy blue eyes up to his, finger still on the map, staring at him from behind a chunk of sandy blond hair.

  Walker was usually as placid as a lake on a summer day, and his looks contributed to that impression. His shaggy hair and scruff made him look like every surfer Ajax had ever seen on T.V. But the placid lake was an illusion; Walker was nowhere near that laid-back. And when pissed off, he pretty much became a tidal wave.

  Any other day Ajax would enjoy stirring up that lake, just a little bit, but today he needed Walker to agree to his plan. Pissing him off would jeopardize that. But Ajax had to bite his tongue to not be too apologetic, because that would just make Walker suspicious.

  “I was driving last night and I sensed the Chaolt here.” Ajax tapped the spot on the map, his finger right about where Emory’s house was. But, if he ‘found’ something on patrol today in order to keep going back to that location, Walker would send the other soldiers to that exact spot on their rotations too. By Emory’s house. And they’d immediately sense that he was there. But if he reported that he didn’t find anything, then Walker would send him to patrol a different location, leaving him no real way to be with Emory and Jackson and figure things out.

  So he moved his finger about three miles north. “Here actually. It was extremely strong. There had to be two or three of them.”

  The lie tasted a bit like burning plastic on his tongue, but he needed time, damn it. And the place he’d touched on the map was close enough that he could stay with Emory, but far enough that other soldiers wouldn’t sense him on their rounds of that location.

  “What’s in that area? Any targets? Any Erratics they’d be going for?”

  Besides the super-powerful, infant Air Erratic?

  “Not that I could tell,” Ajax swallowed and looked at the map, “but I didn’t have enough time to search the whole area. I wanted to go back today to see what might be there.”

  Other than a half human, half Elemental child. His child.

  “Hmm.” Walker’s pause was long before he spoke. Damn the man’s instincts. “Patrol there for today, see if you can determine why they were there and if they’re still present in the area. I’ll have Micah check the other location out on his next shift.”

  Ajax let out a slow breath and wrapped up his meeting with Walker.

  That solved today, and when he gave his report at end of shift for whatever he ‘found’, that would secure the rest of the days until…

  Until what?

  This couldn’t go on indefinitely, but what he needed was time. Time to figure out a plan, a solution, to get information. Time to figure out if he could drain Jackson safely.

  But all he could think of right now was that he’d be back to Emory within the hour. He ran back to his suite and filled his duffel bag with clothes and toiletries before driving back to her house.

  Ajax was halfway back to Emory’s house when it hit him, the seriousness of what he’d done by lying to Walker. His commander, his leader. He’d looked him in the eye and lied about his mission.

  Fuck.

  It was necessary, but man, it felt bad. This was different than just goading his fellow Warriors for an entertaining reaction. This was serious. But he couldn’t see a way to come clean about fudging the location, without revealing the whole situation with Jackson and Emory. And that was just what he was trying to avoid, damn it. There was no good option. Lie, keep his secret, keep his job, figure this shit out. Or tell the truth, lose his job, lose his freedom. Lose Emory, again.

  Not that he ‘had’ her, exactly. But last night’s roller coaster hadn’t diminished the desire he had for her at all.

  Jackson… He still couldn’t believe he had a damn kid, just couldn’t process it. It didn’t feel real.

  Emory would have more questions when he got back, questions with difficult answers. He would be as honest as he could be, because the last thing this situation needed was more lies.

  And yet there would be more anyway, lots more. To Walker, to the other soldiers. Every time he went for shift change, every time he went back to base, every time he even called in a report.

  Emory jumped when she heard the knock on the door. It had to be Ajax, right?

  He’d said not to open the door for anyone but him. Had he expected someone else to show?

  She looked back at Jackson, sitting happily in his highchair. With a hard swallow, she grabbed the gun in shaky hands and peered through the tiny window.

  Relief almost made her drop it as all the tension poured from her muscles. Ajax was back.

  She put a hand to her chest and opened the door.

  “Thank god, it’s you.” Adrenaline made her breathe hard, as if she’d been running.

  He looked down at the gun in her hand and smiled a cryptic smile. “Good girl.”

  Gently he took it from her grasp and put a warm hand to her cheek. She swallowed again, even that little touch making something dark swirl in her abdomen.

  “It’s better to be safe than sorry, right? And you did great.”

  She nodded and stepped back to let him in. Her cheek tingled where his hand had been, and it took conscious effort not to touch it, not to reveal how his touch affected her.

  He checked the safety on the gun and put it back on the table.

  He turned to look at her, and even though her heart was still pounding from nerves, her whole body flushed with his intent gaze.

  “So.” She cleared her throat. “What now?”

  “You have questions.”

  She nodded. “Yeah. This is all crazy.” She'd been so exhausted by everything last night, so thrown by everything, that she hadn't asked any of the questions she needed to.

  Motioning him to the kitchen table, she busied herself with opening the little packets of tea at the counter. Ignoring the siren song of coffee, she started the water for tea, because if she drank coffee, Jackson wouldn't take a nap after feeding from her.

  And god, she needed him to take that nap. But first, questions. Where to start? Too many questions swam around her brain.

  “So what can you do for Jackson?”

  “I'm honestly not sure what I can do, Emory. He's too young to teach him about channeling his powers, and I'm not sure if I can drain him—”

  “Drain him?”

  “I could drain Jackson of his Elemental powers. If he wasn't so small.”

  Hope flared to life as she looked from him to Jackson playing on his tummy on his blanket in the middle of the living room floor. As if he were a completely normal baby boy.

  “If he wasn't so small?”

  “In a normal adult Erratic, the drain process causes physical weakness and fatigue, memory loss, confusion.” Her hope bled away as he spoke, like a disclaimer on a drug commercial. He continued, voice lowering. “I have no idea how it would affect a young child. I've never seen it done, and I've never heard of it being done to someone as young as he is, but I'll leave
it up to you.”

  She was shaking her head before he finished, hope sinking like a stone. If Ajax didn't even know how it would affect Jackson, it would be stupid. She couldn't subject him to that, couldn't risk it. “No, I can't do that to him.” She wasn't going to try to change him if it might hurt him. She was all in.

  Ajax just nodded like he'd known her answer before he even asked. Like he'd come to the same conclusion.

  “Next time I see my commander, I’ll ask him about it, see what I can learn. Find out if it's possible, if it's safe.”

  “Thank you.” She dunked her teabag, thoughts swirling while he sat there studying her.

  “Is there anything I can do for him in the meantime?” She sipped her tea, eyes on Jackson.

  Then Ajax said the words she'd been hoping he wouldn't say. “I honestly don't know what we could do to help him right now, other than what you have been doing. He's too young to teach about control. It seems to happen when he's upset, so just try to keep him as calm as possible. With some time, maybe we can figure something else out.”

  “Like draining him.”

  Ajax gave her a short nod. “Like draining him.”

  With a last dash of hope she asked, “Will he grow out of it?” But she could see the answer in Ajax's eyes even before he began shaking his head.

  “No, I don't think he will, Emory. In fact, he'll likely get stronger. Most Erratic's powers don't even manifest until they are older.” Another thoughtful squint.

  She sighed and took a sip of her tea, trying to melt the ball of stress that she'd been hoping would go away when she found Ajax. It hadn't yet, but she was still glad he was here. She looked over at him again. “What made you decide to keep your powers?”

  His slow, lopsided smile made her heart rate increase. “I'm not an Erratic. I can't drain my powers, but I wouldn't even if I could.”

  “You're not? I thought Jackson was an Erratic or whatever because you…” She motioned at him.

  “No. I'm an Elemental.”

  “Huh. What's the difference?”

  He looked at her for a moment, considering. “An Erratic is still a human. A human with Elemental powers. I'm not, I'm an Elemental with a human body. I'm from Elementium, an Elemental world.”

  She sat back in her chair, a little bit of tea splashing out of her cup onto her hand. Goosebumps raised on her flesh as her heart pounded. She'd been prepared for something a little weird, expected it even. But this? What was he saying…exactly? Her eyes traveled from his long strawberry-blond hair and short reddish beard, to the swirling black tattoos ending at his wrist.

  He followed her gaze. “These are my glyphs, the visible marks of my powers.”

  “You look human,” Emory said, swallowing. Extraordinarily handsome, powerful, but human.

  “When we come to the Mortal plane from our Elemental one, our form changes. Our energy transforms into a mortal form. Yours is a lower energy world. Thus,” He gestured, indicating his body, “A lower energy form.”

  “Oh.” She nodded like she totally got it even though her brain was stuttering over everything he was saying.

  No matter what he looked like, sounded like, kissed like…he wasn't really, totally, human on the inside. And neither was Jackson. “So, Jackson is like, two races, instead of one?”

  “In the simplest terms, yes.”

  She let out a breath. That was less surprising than she thought it would be after living with Jackson for four months. That first time he'd lost control, that's when she'd had to come to terms with the fact that her baby was different. Her child was not like other children. It was like knowing the answer to an equation, but not knowing what X stood for.

  Turns out, the X was simply Elemental.

  “You're taking all of this really well.”

  She pressed her lips together as she glanced at him, and then back to Jackson. “All of it once would probably be too much to handle. But I guess, I'm lucky to learn about it all in stages. After the day I realized he wasn't exactly like every other child…the rest is less of a leap.” She gave a short laugh. “Sort of. It's a little hard to wrap my head around. Erratics and Elementals and draining…” She took another sip of her tea, mind spinning. She almost wished it had just been him and her, a normal guy and a normal girl.

  Blindly looking down at the table, she tugged on her sleeve, heart pinching over that thought. She loved her son, wouldn't give him up even if she could go back in time. The only thing she regretted was how different, how hard his life might be. Both their lives.

  “How is this all even possible, Ajax? Jackson, you, elemental powers? I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it. If I wasn’t living it.”

  He considered her a moment, as if trying to decide how much to say. “Elementals are an ancient race, much older than humans. We’ve been traveling back and forth between our world and yours since the dawn of time. The lore says that whoever created the worlds made Elementium first, and then came to Terra, to Earth, to try and populate the world with Elementals, but was unsuccessful. Where the elements were living beings before, they were dead here, lifeless. Until by some chance, a living being was created that was a combination of all the elements together. Humans.”

  Emory turned her hand over, palm up. Nursing school had given her insight into the human body, but this was certainly a new way of looking at it. She was made of all the elements. From the minerals in her bones to the water in her blood, and everything in between.

  “In some humans, one element is stronger than the others.”

  “Erratics,” she murmured. He nodded.

  She'd been prepared for something a little weird, expected it even. But this hadn’t been anywhere in her wildest imaginings.

  With a long exhale, she accepted it all, everything he’d told her. She’d seen Jackson lose control too many times now. She’d seen the strange light in Ajax’s eyes in the alley behind the bar, and he was just…more…than any other man she’d ever met.

  Ajax was Jackson’s father, and they were both something more than human.

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?” Ajax asked, brows raised.

  “Yep, okay.” There was no sense denying the truth, no matter how unbelievable it was. She’d rather move on to dealing with it than spend energy trying to deny what her heart knew was true.

  “Okay.” Ajax nodded slow, his lips pursed. “Then there’s more we need to discuss.”

  “Can we move to the living room?” she asked as she stood. Jackson was starting to get fussy.

  “Sure.”

  Ajax followed her, and sat on the couch in front of her as she knelt by Jackson. She gave her son a toy, and he was content again. Clasping her hands together in front of her, she took a deep breath. “Okay.”

  “You know I’m an Elemental soldier, and I’m here fighting a war. The Chaolt are the enemy.”

  “Okay,” she said, nodding. Chaolt are the enemy. Elementals good, Chaolt bad. But the way his jaw tightened, the way he speared his fingers back through his hair, said she wasn’t quite getting it.

  “Who are the Chaolt?”

  “Not who, more like what.” Ajax sat forward, hands dangling between his knees.

  Emory took her place by Jackson on his blanket, waiting for Ajax to continue.

  “Chaolt are the minions of Chaos. When they find an Erratic, kill it, the Elemental power inside them is used for a purpose opposite of what was intended. It feeds Chaos.”

  “Feeds chaos?” Kill Erratics? The little bubble of relief she’d built up with Ajax here burst from a fresh dose of terror for her son.

  “Chaos is a force that pulls on you, just like gravity. It is always present and affects every being in this world every day of your lives. The amount of Chaos here, it continues to increase, largely due to the activity of the Chaolt. And just like if gravity was increasing, your world would eventually be destroyed, the same will happen if there is too much chaos.”

  She stopped playing with Jackson and
stared at Ajax, everything in her vision wavering with shock and fear. “You’re talking about the end of the world.”

  He held her a gaze, a bit of teal glow appearing in his irises.

  “It’s not going to come to that. That’s why we’re here, to prevent it. That’s why I’m here.”

  “What happens if they succeed?”

  “They won’t. Not as long as we’re here fighting them.”

  Her slight relief at those words was short lived when he spoke again.

  “The first night I was here, are you sure that it was hunger that woke Jackson? Not a nightmare?”

  “I’m pretty sure. I mean, he does wake up sometimes crying, but he always wakes up around that time for a feeding. Why?” Why would it matter if it had been hunger, or a nightmare?

  Ajax scrubbed a hand down his face.

  “We think the Chaolt use nightmares to get to Erratics. The nightmares somehow open them up to Chaos, and at a certain point their latent powers reach a critical stage and the Erratic basically self-destructs. Chaolt try to orchestrate it to happen with maximum devastation and casualties to tip the balance of this world ever more toward Chaos.”

  “What?” What was he saying? “I need more here, Ajax. They want to use Jackson to—to—kill people?” she asked, inhaling sharply around a squeezing feeling in her chest.

  Ajax looked away while her heart stuttered. When he turned back to her, there were grim lines bracketing his mouth.

  “The Chaolt may attempt to get to your baby—” He swallowed. “To Jackson, through his dreams. He’s very powerful, very valuable to them, because of me. And he’s very young, which makes him vulnerable. It doesn’t seem like they know about him yet, but they’re too close.”

  She got off her knees and sat down heavily on the blanket. So not only did she have to worry about the government and scientists, now she had to protect Jackson from something called Chaolt too? The edges of her vision grayed, the room spinning. Ajax must have noticed because suddenly he was kneeling before her, hands on her upper arms. He gave them a gentle squeeze.