The Chosen: A Resurrected Series Novel

by S. M. Schmitz

I smiled weakly at our hands folded together above the small white table between us. “Do you think she already is?”

  Aiden’s eyebrows pulled together as he stared at me. “Already is what?”

  “With a good family. What if she’s happy, Aiden? She’s eight. She’s a child. What if we’re about to ruin her life?”

  “What if we’re about to save it?” Aiden countered.

  “How could we possibly know without traumatizing this child? What am I supposed to tell her? I was your sister on another planet? This body was dead but you used all of the energy you once were to bring it back to life?”

  “Uh… I don’t think I’d start with that,” Aiden said. “I was thinking something more like, ‘Hi, I’m Bella and this is my friend, Aiden, and we’re going to help you and bring you somewhere safe.’”

  I smiled weakly at him and squeezed his hand. “You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”

  Aiden looked over the balcony at the lights of Atlanta and sighed softly. Despite Eric’s arrival and the news he’d brought with him, despite where we’d been just that morning and what we’d seen and done, I wished more than ever that I could have one hour alone in my body with just my thoughts. I’d never met anyone who literally took my breath away, and sometimes, like at that moment, I found myself breathless.

  “Years ago, before we had proof we weren’t alone in this universe,” Aiden said, “I used to wonder if there was something really wrong with us humans. Like somewhere along the way, evolution took a wrong turn or something because there was no way any species could be this cruel and violent and be normal. I think nothing hurt my faith in a god more than finding out we were normal after all.”

  Breathless.

  Definitely breathless.

  God, I think I’m falling in love with him.

  Do you realize you keep invoking a god you don’t even believe in? Mason supplied helpfully.

  Do you realize you keep giving your opinion when I don’t want it? I retorted.

  Aiden turned his attention back to me and that sexy, lopsided grin reappeared. “Arguing with your dead husband again, aren’t you?”

  A small laugh whispered through my lips. “How did you know?”

  “My first clue is that you always get quiet. My second clue is that you usually get this really annoyed look on your face.”

  Mason laughed and I gritted my teeth because I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

  And then Mason stopped laughing as we both seemed to have the same thought, or maybe it was because somehow, our thoughts were connected, but whatever the reason, his purpose for returning suddenly seemed so much clearer than simply waging our own insurrection against the men who had murdered him and might get away from Lottie’s war.

  Lily… he whispered.

  “Yes,” I whispered back.

  “Yes what?” Aiden asked.

  “I don’t know,” I answered, feeling stupid for being so sure of something yet at the same time, so completely uncertain. “But we’re thinking Mason is here because of Lily. I want to bring these bastards down. I want to burn their world around them because of what they did to him, but there’s a little girl who needs our help and she’s so much more important.”

  “I agree,” Aiden said. “But how does Mason fit into this? How can he help us with your sister?”

  “He knows things we don’t,” I guessed. “He’s already led us to two different men who work for this company. I may not go after Andrews myself but someone will. He’s too important for Dietrich to let him get away, right?”

  Aiden nodded. “He won’t get away. We’ve got guys in New York who’ve already picked him up.”

  “And once Andrews is in your custody, you can probably find out who the third guy was in the room with Mason.”

  Aiden offered me a small smile. “I told you, Bella. Once we cast our net, we’ll bring in the entire ocean.”

  Only Mason cringed at what they would likely do to those caught in that net. I was too caught up in feeling conflicted about not being the one to kill Andrews myself.

  “But Andrews is no longer coming here,” I confirmed.

  “Eric didn’t say, but I doubt it. If Lottie knows about any of this yet, she’ll have made Lily a priority anyway.”

  I arched an eyebrow at him and teased, “I didn’t know we were working for an alien.”

  Aiden snorted and shook his head. “Might as well be. Rumor has it Dietrich is incapable of telling her no.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a healthy relationship.”

  “You were married to a guy for almost two years and never even slept together.”

  Ouch. Told you he’s an asshole, Mason complained.

  “And he’s annoying you again, isn’t he?” Aiden asked.

  I laughed and nodded. “He doesn’t like that you pointed out the obvious. He apparently has a problem with the truth sometimes.”

  “Ah,” Aiden responded. “Honestly, I don’t blame him. If I were him, I’d hate me, too. He knows I like you and that can’t be easy to watch.”

  “Do you?” I asked, feeling like a sixteen-year-old girl with a high school crush. Not that I’d ever been a sixteen-year-old girl with a high school crush, but pretty much how I’d imagined being a teenager and awkward and all that. Or pretty much like being on the balcony of a hotel in Atlanta with an insanely beautiful thirty-one-year-old spy.

  I doubted there was much difference between that sixteen-year-old girl and me right then.

  But Aiden just smiled at me and said, “Of course I do. I thought that was incredibly obvious from the moment I met you or at the very least it was incredibly obvious from how jealous I got when you thought Dietrich was hot. Or how jealous I got when you had pizza with Mario in your room.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him and retorted, “Dietrich is married! And even if he weren’t, yeah, he’s hot, but I…”

  I bit my lip and Mason immediately told me trying to play coy now wouldn’t get me out of having to finish that sentence.

  And Aiden immediately begged me to finish it.

  I wanted to tell them both to shut up.

  I tried to pull my hand out of his, but Aiden wouldn’t let me go. “Look at me, Bella,” he pleaded. “I know how creepy this sounds, but it was my job… I had to monitor you, and I’ve been crazy about you for so long and…”

  Aiden inhaled a deep breath and closed his eyes. I hated how dark it was then. I couldn’t see the unique color of his eyes, the hazel-green rim around those baby’s breath blue irises. “It is kinda creepy,” I admitted. “But you’re also talking to a woman who wasn’t even born in this body, which is probably creepier on the scale of all things creepy. Actually, this body used to be dead. I’m pretty sure I win the creepy contest.”

  Um, Bella? What the hell are you doing?

  I have no idea… I admitted. Goddamn it. I just totally blew this, didn’t I?

  I’m thinking… yes. You probably lost him at “this body used to be dead.”

  Fucking. Idiot.

  Mason didn’t argue with me.

  I didn’t argue with myself.

  Aiden had opened his eyes and was watching me, but I couldn’t even begin to imagine what thoughts were going through his mind. Probably something like, “Why did I think I was so crazy about this woman?”

  But Aiden was always full of surprises.

  “Are you sure you can handle a creepy contest?” he asked. “Because you’re talking to man who once ate a fried tarantula on a dare.”

  “That… is not creepy. It’s just disgusting.”

  “Bella, I ate a spider. Willingly. That’s got to be up there with being in a body that used to be dead.”

  Yeah, it was pretty much that moment I realized I was in love with him.

  Later that night, after I’d gone to my own room and had nothing but my own thoughts and Mason to occupy my mind, I realized something else: for all of Mason’s struggles with his own jealousy, he had quickly intervened and scolded
me for rambling when he thought I was about to blow my chances with Aiden.

  Because that was just how Mason had always been and always would be. He knew I was falling for this man and despite how difficult it was for him to watch, he wanted me to be happy.

  It was after two a.m. when I finally lay in my own bed, giddy over the ridiculous conversation Aiden and I’d had about who could win in the I’ve-had-the-creepiest-experiences contest. With Mason in my mind, there was a mountain of sexual tension that continued to simmer and build between us but we continued to ignore it or at least pretend to. But there was no ignoring Mason now.

  Bella… your sister. Someone must have brought her here. She couldn’t have traveled on her own.

  I stared into the darkness of my hotel room and whispered, “I know.”

  Shouldn’t they have a record of crossing over, too, then? Wouldn’t they be on that checkerboard?

  What difference does it make? She’s with Schultz and that’s who we need to get her away from.

  I’d like to know if your parents sold her or if they kidnapped her. That’s all.

  I sighed and closed my eyes. Either way, there was nothing we could do about it.

  Even if they stole her, Mason, I doubt my parents mourned for long. Eight children and only one son. She must have been one more disappointment.

  Mason’s anger boiled in the back of my mind, but I’d long since learned to accept the painful truth that most of us girls simply weren’t wanted.

  Mason had been proof that there were exceptions, that life could occasionally surprise us with its beauty. But he’d also frequently earned the harassment of his brothers and father; he’d being paying the price for not fitting in and being different his entire life until it finally demanded his very life from him.

  What will you do, Bella? he asked once his rage had subsided. What will you do with this child? You can never tell her who you really are.

  I threw my arm over my eyes and bit my lip. No, Lily could never know that in a different life, in a different world, I was a sister she’d never had the chance to know. She would be a child continually lost and confused as to why her life had been mysteriously turned inside out, and she would have no one to blame except me. Because I wouldn’t let Eric or Aiden go after this girl and terrify her. I would go to my sister myself. I would let her hate me and fear me for dragging her from the only existence she knew, one that may very well be happy and safe.

  And I would risk never seeing this child again if it meant knowing I’d done everything I could to protect her from the company that most likely thought it owned her and would soon be sent to Hell in Lottie’s fires of vengeance.

  Eight a.m. rolled around far too soon and I sat at the table in the diner near the hotel’s lobby sipping on my coffee and picking at my hash browns and scrambled eggs. I used to like hash browns and scrambled eggs, and then I’d taken the only job I could find as a waitress at a Waffle House.

  I wrinkled my nose at my plate and pushed the eggs to one side and the potatoes to the other. Aiden reached across to my plate and stole my bacon, giving me a look that told me I should have eaten it sooner.

  I was too freaking tired to argue.

  “What kept you two up so late?” Eric teased.

  “Turns out, your underling is gross,” I told him.

  “Uh… forget I asked,” Eric responded.

  I snorted and pushed my plate away from me. “We were just talking, Eric. We got started on who could claim the title of having the most bizarre life stories, and while fried mutant spiders is disgusting, it hardly beats out how I got here in the first place.”

  Eric’s eyes lit up as they darted between us. I’d been told… or perhaps warned… that he was a perennial jokester, and I had a feeling lying and letting him think we’d been having sex would have been so much easier. “As bizarre as your beginnings here might be, did he tell you about Egypt?”

  “Dude,” Aiden warned. “I don’t care if you outrank me. I’ll kick your ass all the way back to Egypt.”

  “What happened in Egypt?” I asked.

  Both men ignored me.

  Eric scoffed, “Please. Don’t make me humiliate you in front of your girlfriend.”

  “I’m your girlfriend?” I asked Aiden.

  Aiden’s cheeks darkened as he scowled at Eric. “Why can’t you ever keep your mouth shut?”

  Eric shrugged and stabbed his fork through a bite of his pancakes. “Don’t know. I blame my sisters. Try growing up with three of them and see if you turn out normal.”

  “I had six,” I interrupted. “But come to think of it, I’m not that normal at all so never mind. And I still want to know what happened in Egypt.”

  Aiden folded his arms across his chest and continued to glare at Eric. “Nothing. I was on a training mission with him and Dietrich years ago and they dared me to do something stupid, kinda like a fraternity initiation thing.”

  I rolled my eyes and pushed my coffee away from me, too. “Seriously, does our government know what they’re paying you for?”

  “Probably,” Eric answered. “And honestly, it’s still not enough. I don’t have a Maserati.”

  “I’d settle for a Viper,” Aiden said.

  Eric nodded thoughtfully as he sipped on his coffee. “It’s domestic. Maintenance is probably more affordable.”

  “If I can lay down over a hundred grand on a car, I don’t think I’m worried about the cost of maintenance,” Aiden argued.

  “I could start moonlighting as a landscaper,” Eric responded. “In another fifty years, I could totally have my Maserati.” I had no absolutely no idea if he was serious. All I knew was that I’d asked about Egypt twice and still didn’t know what Aiden had been talked into doing.

  Bella… there are some things in this universe you’re probably better off not knowing. Trust me. I’m a guy. Or was. I think I still am?

  I sighed heavily and Eric and Aiden stopped arguing about cars to look at me. “Dead husband or the two obnoxious men you’re having breakfast with?” Aiden asked.

  “Both,” I said. “You know what? I don’t care about Egypt. I think. Just tell me how we’re going to save my sister.”

  Eric wiped his hand on a napkin then tossed it on the table and pushed his chair back. “Let’s go get her.”

  “What?” I squeaked.

  I wondered how often I’d squeaked that same word in the past week. I also wondered if all of their superspy high-tech gadgetry could get me to stop squeaking. Or exclaiming, “What?” every time someone caught me by surprise.

  Eric lifted a shoulder at me and dug keys out of his pocket. “I rented a much cooler car than a Caravan. Ok, it’s a Prius, but it’s still cooler than a Caravan.”

  “But… where are we going?” I stuttered.

  Aiden took my hand and smiled at me. “Let’s find out together.”

  Now, seriously. How was I supposed to say no to that?

  Pretty easy, actually. Just open your mouth and…

  Shut up, Mason, I sighed.

  I held onto Aiden’s hand as we followed Eric into the parking lot to his rented Prius. He didn’t tell us anything until we were inside the car and headed toward the interstate. I gripped Aiden’s hand tightly the entire time, and Mason was mercifully silent about it. He must have understood that this time, it was far less about sexual attraction than needing Aiden’s presence and comfort.

  “It’s summer so school is out,” Eric explained. “Lily is enrolled in a daycare program. We’re going to have you go inside to pick her up.”

  I opened my mouth but quickly closed it again before that nefarious word could squeak out. I swallowed and took a deep breath and Aiden squeezed my hand, offering me a silent assurance that I could handle this.

  “I’m a stranger,” I said weakly. “They won’t even let me past the office.”

  Eric glanced at me in the rearview mirror and shook his head. “Nope. You’re in their system now as a hired caregiver. You have permission by S
chultz himself to pick her up if you want to.”

  “Oh, my God,” I breathed. “I can’t… I can’t make that kind of decision by myself! How long do we have before you go after Schultz?”

  “About sixteen hours,” Eric said. “But the problem is once you make contact with Lily, she will tell people about this strange woman who visited her at the daycare center and told her she was hired to start caring for her. It’ll obviously tip Schultz off, which is why she has to come with us today.”

  “His adopted daughter disappearing will tip him off,” I shot back.

  “She’s not his daughter,” Aiden clarified. “I looked over all of her files and he never adopted her. She’s just his ward.”

  “And this poor child is going to be abducted for the second time in her life,” I mumbled. “This time, by her own sister.”

  “This time,” Aiden said quietly, “because you want to rescue her. You know whatever Schultz is planning can’t be good.”

  I shook my head slowly as Eric pulled onto the interstate. I still didn’t like driving or heavy traffic, and the heavy morning Atlanta traffic made my palms sweaty. I cringed when I remembered my hand still happened to be inside Aiden’s and sheepishly tried to pull it away, but he held onto me and assured me again, “We’ll make sure she’s ok, Bella.”

  I put my palm on the seat beside me and Mason stirred. Something troubled him.

  Do eight year olds need car seats? he asked.

  I answered him with a breathy laugh. How the hell should I know?

  What if she doesn’t want to leave with you? What if she gets to the car and sees these strange men and freaks out because why wouldn’t she? What if she starts screaming and crying and…

  “I don’t know, Mason!” I shouted.

  Eric glanced at me in the rearview mirror again but said nothing. Even Aiden didn’t seem to know what to say.

  Mason continued to squirm uncomfortably in my thoughts for the rest of the ride to the daycare center on the other side of Atlanta. The men living outside of my head occupied our time by explaining exactly what I needed to do and who I was pretending to be, and what they would do as soon as I returned with the child. I would have never even thought she might have some sort of tracking device in her bags or shoes or jewelry, but then again, I was a bookkeeper. Why would something like that have occurred to me?