The Chosen: A Resurrected Series Novel

by S. M. Schmitz

  I hugged her back and vowed, Mason, I don’t know how, but I swear this girl will heal. She will know love and peace and security and normalcy and I will give it to her.

  I could almost feel Mason’s arms around me then as he whispered back, I know you will, Bella. You are the bravest and strongest person I’ve ever known. And I know you will.

  Aiden knocked softly on the door and asked us if everything were all right. I reluctantly let go of Lily and told him we needed a few more minutes then helped her into the swimsuit. I smiled broadly at her and told her she’d made the perfect choice. Her little fingers ran over the dark blue fabric of my swimsuit and she smiled back at me. “I like yours, too.”

  I tried to talk Aiden into buying one as well so he could join us but he stubbornly refused. He winked at me and told me there wasn’t a pair of trunks in here that could hide what he thought of me in that swimsuit. Lily’s eyebrows pulled together as she asked him how clothes could hide his thoughts since they couldn’t even talk.

  Only the cashier thought it was funny.

  Fifteen minutes later, Lily and I were in the pool together. Not surprisingly, she’d never been given formal lessons, but since Schultz had a pool at his house, she’d learned how to tread water and could move around the shallow end. The apartment complex Mason and I used to live in had a pool and one of the first things we’d learned to do together was swim in that pool. I put my hands beneath her stomach and taught her how to kick her legs and rotate her arms and promised her that wherever we went, we’d find somewhere to go and I’d teach her how to hold her breath under water next.

  Aiden sat on one of the loungers beneath an umbrella pretending to read a book, but I knew he was watching us the entire time. I would occasionally sneak glances in his direction and marvel at how convincingly he could lay there and scan pages, occasionally flipping one, appearing as if he were completely absorbed in a book he’d only just picked up in the gift shop.

  I supposed they were taught how to do that. Or maybe the circumstances of their job soon provided them the experience they needed to effect such nonchalance. Although he hadn’t taken me up on my offer to buy himself a pair of trunks to swim with us, he had changed into shorts and his t-shirt lay draped over the back of the lounger. I kept peeking in his direction to admire his long, tanned body, the sculpted, well-defined muscles in his arms and chest and abdomen. More than once, I’m sure I stopped breathing again.

  “Bella!” Lily squealed.

  My heart leapt into my throat as I searched the pool for her, but my blood pressure slowly stabilized when I saw her splashing and smiling at me.

  “Did you see me?” she asked. “I almost made it all the way across!”

  I backed up to the other side of the shallow end of the pool and held my arms out. “Do it again,” I encouraged her. I couldn’t admit I’d missed it the first time because I’d been drooling over a half-naked man.

  Would serve you right, Mason mumbled.

  Isn’t it time for you to go… home… yet? I asked.

  I pictured Mason shrugging as his green eyes sparkled with the delight of teasing me.

  Just a few hours ago, she would barely speak to me. Now she’s leaping into my arms, I told him.

  Truthfully, I was terribly conflicted about Mason leaving. His return had reminded me how desperately I missed my best friend, but I obviously wanted and needed my privacy back.

  Kids are remarkable, he answered. She feels safe now. And wanted. I don’t know how you’ll help her cope with the emotional trauma of her past though. It’s not like you can take her to a therapist because they’d claim she’s psychotic and put her on all sorts of medications she doesn’t need.

  Lily reached me and I wrapped her in my arms and praised her. She grinned up at me and asked me to wait on the other side so she could do it again. I already knew there was nothing I wouldn’t do for this child.

  I waded to the other side of the pool to wait for her and caught Aiden smiling at me. I couldn’t help smiling back.

  After eight years of everything going so wrong on this planet, everything finally seemed to be going right.

  I should have known better than to think that way.

  I should have known I was cursed and would only jinx myself.

  After another half hour of swimming across the pool, Lily threw herself into my arms and whispered in my ear, “I have to pee!”

  I laughed and whispered back, “So do I.”

  We got out of the pool and wrapped our towels around us, and Aiden walked with us to the restrooms by the outdoor bar. In hindsight, I suppose we should have gone back to our room, but Lily insisted she couldn’t hold it and Aiden was waiting right outside the door.

  But as Eric knew well, that hadn’t stopped them in Dallas and that didn’t stop them now.

  Lily scurried into a stall and I chose the one next to her. I made sure to remind her to wait for me before unlocking her stall door and we’d wash our hands together. I wasn’t taking any chances.

  I’d just pulled my swimsuit back up when I heard the noise above us. Just a scuffling sound but given who we were running from, I was suspicious of everything. I reached for the lock on the stall door, mid-sentence in telling Lily to hurriedly join me, when I could no longer move or speak. I had become completely paralyzed, unable to scream for help or run or even lower my arm. I could still breathe and my heart still beat and my eyes blinked, but those were autonomic functions, movements of the body that were necessary in order to survive.

  Somehow, I had no control over my own body anymore though.

  And I had no control over my body as it lifted into the air and disappeared from Aiden and the others through a hole in the ceiling Schultz’s men had somehow quickly created.

  After six years of running from him and on the verge of freedom, I ended up his prisoner after all.

  Chapter 16

  I assumed they’d taken Lily, too, but I didn’t see her until we were both thrown into the back of a mostly windowless van. I landed on my side and sharp pains shot through my arm and leg, but the pain in my chest as I glimpsed Lily’s tear-streaked face was far worse. But whatever they’d done to us prohibited her from actually crying. Only the tears fell from her eyes.

  We were still damp from the pool and the inside of the van was cold. Our bodies began to shiver involuntarily. The men who I couldn’t see since I couldn’t turn my head thought that was funny. I thought I’d never wanted to kill anyone so badly.

  My mind drifted back to my hellish nightmare, Mason’s memory, and my own eyes watered at the thought of them doing that to Lily. Mason’s shock finally broke and he spoke to me for the first time as those images flew through my brain.

  Stop it, Bella. Imagining the worst won’t help either of you now.

  Being naïve won’t help us either.

  No, Mason agreed. But it’s not naïve to concentrate on figuring a way out of this for you and Lily.

  How? I demanded. I can’t even move! They paralyzed us!

  I don’t know! Mason yelled so loudly I actually winced. At least, I thought I winced. I could picture him running his fingers through his light brown hair and pacing nervously, biting his lower lip as he tried to work through a problem that challenged everything he knew and believed. Mason’s pacing, even though it was only in my mind, suddenly stopped. If they want to question you, they’ll have to free you. There’s your chance.

  If I could have sighed at him, I would have. Mason, they’ll tie me up first.

  Maybe, he acknowledged. But you’re a woman. They’ll also underestimate you. They don’t know you killed Percy Jacobs and probably think it was connected to what Johnson and Aiden were doing in that neighborhood.

  I blinked at Lily and begged my body not to cry, to be brave and strong for her. How did they know? How did they find us so quickly?

  Eric and Aiden checked her bags for tracking devices. I don’t know how else they could have found her so quickly though. They must have misse
d something.

  They’re in the fucking CIA, Mason! They don’t miss something like that!

  Apparently they do, Mason snapped.

  They even checked her shoes! I stubbornly insisted. We both knew it didn’t make any difference now, but arguing about it temporarily distracted us from the reality neither of us was ready to face: after everything we’d sacrificed and suffered, these bastards had won.

  Because it wasn’t supposed to work like this. The bad guys don’t win. The prince can fall in love with the pauper’s daughter and turn her into a princess. The good guys live happily ever after. These are your fairy tales, after all.

  But we’re not human, Mason whispered. And we never belonged here.

  No. We never did, I whispered back.

  The van rolled to a stop and I heard the window sliding down and a series of beeps followed by the sound of a gate rolling back on its tracks. The driver accelerated again and as we lurched forward, the indifferent chattering of the men inside the van ceased. Wherever we were, they’d switched into business mode.

  The brakes squealed as the van stopped. The engine cut off and moments later, the backdoors opened, casting blinding sunlight onto us. I reflexively squeezed my eyes shut and wondered if I’d be able to open them again if I wanted to. For the second time, no one had to touch me to move me. My body lifted from the floor of the van and the hot sun washed over my skin. A few seconds later, I heard the van doors slam close. I could only hope that they’d keep Lily with me.

  With my eyes closed, I had to rely on sounds but I heard nothing to orient me to our new surroundings. I only heard their footsteps against a hard ground.

  “Get the door,” one of the men ordered.

  When I moved again, I was surrounded by cool darkness and my eyelids opened on their own. I supposed human curiosity was close enough to an automatic physical response.

  “Put them in the corner,” the same man said. “Let Stuart decide what he wants to do with the woman.”

  I was tossed into a corner and my body crumpled like a rag doll’s as more jolts of pain shot down my spine and legs. Lily’s small body slammed into mine and I grunted and immediately wrapped an arm around her… and immediately realized I could move again. I sucked in a deep breath and my lungs burned as if they’d been deprived of air this whole time. I coughed and tried to sit up but the man warned me, “Don’t move unless you want to be constrained again.”

  Lily coughed as they freed her, her tiny hands clutching feverishly at my swimsuit as she tried to scramble even closer to me.

  She recognized this house.

  Mason, help me!

  Bella, I don’t…

  Stuart Schultz’s tall, thin frame appeared in the doorway to the massive sitting room. In the six years since I’d last seen him, he’d lost more hair and what was left had turned grayer, but everything else about him was just as I remembered in my nightmares, even the navy pinstripe suit.

  He tugged on the bottom of his jacket and clicked his tongue at Lily. “You’ve been a bad girl today.”

  Lily whimpered and buried her face against my chest. I put my left arm around her and blinked back tears from the excruciating pain the movement caused. Those assholes had broken my arm.

  We need to stall them, Mason said. We have to trust that Eric and Aiden are coming for you and will find you, but you need time!

  I know, but I’ve got a broken arm and I’m in a room full of armed men! What the hell am I supposed to do!

  Mason’s desperation began to creep over me and I swallowed it back but it bubbled at the surface, threatening to spill over into hysteria.

  Oh, my God, Mason breathed. That’s why I’m here. That’s why you needed me.

  I wanted to yell at him, but Schultz had ordered one of his men to take Lily away from me and he was already moving toward us. Lily screamed and her small fists dug into my flesh as she tried to hold on even tighter.

  Tell him about me! Mason shouted.

  “What?” I shouted back.

  The man glanced at Schultz who tilted his head at me. “Her fate is none of your business, Bella.”

  Tell him I’m here and get him to listen! For some reason, I scared these guys, and it’ll buy us some time!

  “Ok,” I said. “Mr. Schultz, Mason wants to know why you had him tortured and killed.”

  All of the men in the room laughed at me. I kept talking.

  “He left me when Jacobs turned him in, but he didn’t go to New York. You had him brought there. Where did they find you, Mason?”

  Bridgeport, Connecticut.

  “Bridgeport? Why the hell did you go to Connecticut?”

  The man who had been approaching us shuffled his weight nervously and glanced at Schultz again, who ran his tongue over his teeth as he glared at me. “The CIA did its research, I see.”

  I shook my head but I was still talking to Mason. “Seriously, why Connecticut?”

  I had no idea where I was going! And don’t knock it. Connecticut has some great scenery.

  I rolled my eyes, but he was probably right. It’s not like I’d ever been there. “And where were you trying to go? Canada? It’s not like dodging the draft, Mason.”

  I don’t think the U.S. has had a draft since Vietnam.

  “Are we really going to argue about history and my use of analogies right now?”

  “Do you think you’re funny?” Schultz asked me.

  “No,” I retorted. “You killed the half of this partnership that was.”

  Schultz sighed and nodded toward the man. “Grab Lily and take Bella outside and shoot her. I don’t want blood on my carpet.”

  “Why do you have carpet? You could afford hardwood floors,” I said.

  Bella, Mason groaned.

  “Well, you’re not telling me what to say!” I argued. “If you don’t provide the words, all the wrong ones come out.”

  Ask him why Mirowski came to see me in New York.

  Mason had never mentioned Mirowski’s appearance in New York before so the question surprised me, but I remembered how Mason had recognized his picture and never even thought to ask him how.

  “Why would someone as important as Abram Mirowski go see Mason in person?” I asked.

  Schultz’s eyes narrowed but he kept his voice level and calm. He was a master of pretending. Mason and I should know.

  “Your new friends picked up Mirowski a couple of years ago. I’m sure they were quite convincing in getting him to disclose all sorts of information.”

  “They picked him up because of Lottie,” I pointed out. “They didn’t know who Mason was so wouldn’t have asked Mirowski about him.”

  “Perhaps not,” Schultz said. “But they almost certainly asked him about other… resurrections.” He even wrinkled his nose when he spit out that word like it both smelled and tasted bad. “And Mason was the last one before Lottie.”

  “Ok, Mason, this isn’t working,” I muttered.

  The man who had been ordered to kill me reached down and grabbed Lily’s arm, and she screamed again, an ear-splitting, headache inducing kind of scream that made me flinch but I held onto her as tightly as I could with my good arm.

  Mason’s panic welled up again and he shouted, Tell him I know the real reason Mirowski came to see me!

  “Let her go!” I yelled. “Mason knows why Mirowski went to see him!”

  Schultz snorted and waved me off. “You may be beautiful, Bella, but no wonder he tired of you. I’m already tired of you.”

  Asshole.

  “Asshole,” I said.

  You weren’t supposed to say that part!

  “Then stop saying things I’m not supposed to say and just say the things I’m supposed to say!”

  The man still gripped Lily’s arm but his eyes flickered between Schultz and me. We were running out of time and Mason and I both knew it.

  It had nothing to do with Liam’s resurrection. Barker and Andrews and whoever else was there had done this before and knew what they wer
e doing. He showed up because he’d cheated Schultz out of a small fortune and wanted to find out if Jacobs knew and had ratted him out.

  “Holy shit,” I mumbled. “They really are the alien mafia.”

  Just tell him exactly what I said, Mason sighed.

  I relayed his message and Schultz lifted his chin in the air, eyeing me for a few moments before he responded. “And what, exactly, do you want me to believe? That you can talk to ghosts?”

  “Just one apparently,” I answered.

  Schultz looked me over again then shook his head. “If Mason knew then he told you. I know you’re trying to stall and buy your friends time. Don’t count on them saving you. They won’t be able to find you nearly as easily as I found her.”

  “How did you find her so quickly?” I asked.

  His eyes drifted to Lily but he didn’t answer me.

  “Oh, my God,” I whispered. “It’s in her, isn’t it? The tracking device. Where else could it be?”

  “Get this over with, Todd,” Schultz ordered. He turned to leave and Mason shouted in my head again and I shouted with him.

  “What do you want to know? What did you always want to know? What I remembered from my resurrection? Why? I know what you believe now and what good would any of that information have done any of you? If you’re right, it’ll keep happening until you’re gone because of what you’re doing. That’s the only way this can end.”

  Schultz faced me, his eyes burning and nostrils flaring, and hissed, “We have never been driven off any planet and we won’t be driven off this one. There’s a way to stop it. And we’ll figure it out.”

  An airy laugh broke free and Mason asked, “And what did you learn from me that’s helped you against Lottie?”

  Schultz snickered and smiled at me. “Not to waste so much time.” He glanced at Todd again and told him, “Lock her in her room. Chris and Marty, take our Academy Award winner outside.”

  Todd snorted and reached for Lily’s arm again, but he fell to his knees instead. I backed closer to the wall and pulled Lily with me as I stared at the bloody hole in Todd’s head. Lily tried to look behind her to see why she hadn’t been ripped away from me yet, but I put my good hand over her cheek and murmured, “No, baby, please. Just close your eyes and hold on to me.”