Emerge- The Betrayal

by Melissa A. Craven

  With a deep breath, Ezra aimed and released his arrow.

  The vise gripping Aidan’s heart immediately relaxed at the loud thud that told him Ezra had at least hit the target. A collective sigh rang out among the group. It wasn’t over yet. Not even close.

  “Start with the mother,” Spencer said, crossing the field to stand with Ezra. Her eyes blazed red, making the red streaks in her hair look like blood.

  “Rowan’s bad enough but this one is too much,” Neela mumbled, her gaze on her feet.

  “I can’t watch.” Ivy sniffed stepping closer to her Syntrophos.

  “I can’t. Please don’t make me,” Ezra pleaded. “Maybe a goat or pig instead? Something bound for the slaughterhouse anyway. Just not a dog. Anything but this.”

  Rowan didn’t even bother responding before she drew her blade again and sliced Wes’s abdomen open. Her cuts were never deep. They didn’t need to be. With nothing more than her touch, she could make Wes feel like she’d disemboweled him.

  Aidan braced himself for the worst. Naomi reached for his hand, hers warm with her power. The moment Rowan’s hand touched Wes’s belly, he cried out and Aidan’s vision blurred with the white-hot agony ripping through his lower half. Convinced his guts lay on the ground at his feet, Aidan almost fell to his knees. But Naomi held him up, her warmth snaking up his arm, lessening the pain.

  A gasp of surprise left her lips, as her brow furrowed. This was dangerous. He wanted to throttle Naomi for trying something new out in the open like this, but Rowan was focused on Wes and Ezra now, her minions watching her with little reaction. Little Lola and Ace always stood by watching quietly with dead eyes.

  “We’ve got this,” Naomi whispered, her hand trembling in his.

  “Careful you two.” Pilar took a small step in front of them to shield them from notice. “Keep your eyes down.”

  Naomi was taking Aidan’s pain. Sharing it with him so it was manageable.

  Wes tried not to react to Rowan’s torture, but he couldn’t hold back his screams any longer.

  “I’m sorry, Wes! I’m sorry. I’ll do it. Just please, Rowan, please stop hurting him,“ Ezra begged. “Give me a minute, please?” But that was not how Rowan operated.

  “Do it now.” Spencer shoved him toward the dog.

  “I’m so sorry,” Ezra whispered, kneeling down to hold the mamma dog in his arms. He looked to Aidan for help, but there was nothing Aidan could do to ease the suffering of the dog. He could only help humans.

  “It’s okay, Ezra,” Ivy said. “Do what you have to do for Wes.”

  Ezra nodded, wincing at Wes’s screams of agony. The dog began to whine, pulling away from his strong arms. “I’m sorry, girl,” his tone was soothing, but tears streamed down his face. That was when Spencer touched him with her brand of torture. Ezra sobbed, clutching the dog to his chest, siphoning off her vitality and strength, as Spencer manipulated his emotions to make it that much worse. Where Rowan tore through layers of skin and flesh to expose every raw nerve of her victims to enhance their physical pain and suffering, Spencer reached into their minds, laying their emotions bare, making them feel more emotional pain than they could bear. For someone as kind and sensitive as Ezra, Spencer’s torture was far worse than Rowan’s.

  “That’s right,” Spencer whispered in his ear. “Feel her fear. The way she fights for her life. The lives of her pups.”

  The mother growled and struggled in Ezra’s arms but she was weakening. Her pups whined and cried, sensing their mother’s distress.

  “Please,” Ezra cried. “I have taken enough. More than enough. Let me spare her life so she can recover. There is no need for death here.”

  “No.” Rowan carved a path along Wes’s chest, peeling his skin away to expose his raw nerve endings. “Finish it.”

  Wes’s legs gave out and he sagged against the beam behind him, hanging from his restraints. “It’s okay Ezra,” he managed to gasp, his body covered in a sheen of sweat.

  Aidan stood rock solid, measuring his breath and praying he could stay on his feet long enough to get through this.

  “It’s done. Let him go.” Ezra stumbled away from the dead dog. Her pups cried and howled, sniffing their mother and finding no spark of life left. “It’s done.” Ezra’s breath came out in a shaky gasp.

  “Run,” Rowan demanded, tearing the skin away from the left side of Wes’s chest, eliciting an inhuman scream from her victim. Dark spots narrowed Aidan’s vision and he clutched Naomi’s hand, hating that she likely felt the same sensations.

  “It’s okay,” she murmured. “We’ve got this.”

  Ezra finished the lap around the field seventeen seconds faster. He snatched up the bow and arrow with purpose, his eyes blazing with the heat of his power and laser sharp focus. As his arrow hit the heart of the paper target, the bull’s eye flamed for a moment, curling the paper before it smoldered to ash.

  “We are done,” Ezra said, his voice stronger now with the life of the mother dog enhancing his natural abilities.

  “The puppies.” Rowan continued to carve up Wes’s body, working on his back now.

  Wes’s breath came in labored, shallow pants. He was losing too much blood and Aidan wasn’t sure he had much life left in him.

  Fortified by the life of the mother, one by one, Ezra took the innocent lives of three puppies before Rowan was satisfied that with each life, his performance improved by a predictable fraction.

  “We are done here,” Pilar said. “I don’t want you killing my student. It will just throw us all behind schedule waiting for Wes to regenerate. His recovery time will be slow enough as it is.”

  “You will keep the last two pups,” Spencer said. “Raise them and learn to love them. They are to be with you wherever you go.” Her voice had taken on a rasp of her power, making her appear insane as she leaned over Ezra. “Feed them. And watch them grow. And when you least expect it, you will end them just as you have their mother.”

  “He is holding back,” Rowan said. “He wants us to believe just one life is enough.”

  “I’m not. I promise,” Ezra said. “My gift. It works just fine if I syphon off a few moments of life from many things, so little they wouldn’t even notice. I do not need to take a life to achieve more.”

  “We know that.” Spencer laughed. “But you need to understand your place, darling. When you are given an order, you do not question it. Period.”

  “Yes ma’am.” Ezra’s face hardened. “Understood … loud and clear.” He took a step away from the crazy woman.

  “Don’t forget your puppies. They’ll die without help.” Spencer’s maniacal laughter chilled Aidan’s blood. He wanted to slay these crazy bitches where they stood, but he couldn’t afford to display that kind of power. It wasn’t the time.

  Sam and Bennett stepped forward to take the pups, but Rowan shot them a look that sent them back in line. “Ezra will care for them. And only Ezra.”

  With a nod, he knelt to scoop up the puppies. They were terrified and snuggled into his arms. Their whimpers faded, but Ezra looked like he wanted to die.

  “It’s like watching Old Yeller,” Neela whispered, clutching Ivy to her side.

  “From now on, Ezra, you will begin your day just like today, taking a life to increase your own potential. It will get easier with time. And one day when it really matters, you will not hesitate to take a life when it becomes necessary.” Without a word, Rowan and her team left the field, dropping Wes in a puddle of his own blood.

  “Bastards,” Neela fumed after their retreating forms. The only response was Spencer’s peal of laughter.

  Once the doors closed behind them, Aidan let out a strangled breath as he and Naomi collapsed.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Allie

  Kelleys Island, April

  “You really love him, don’t you?” Allie asked. She’d always thought Livia preyed on Navid’s emotions. That by calling him “Dad,” she was just buying his goodwill. Allie had been convinc
ed her sister was playing on his sympathies to earn his trust and eventually her freedom. But Livia was a wreck since losing Navid.

  “He is my father.” Livia crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes red from lack of sleep. “And I am stuck in this god forsaken cell with this stupid collar around my neck, unable to do anything about it. When all I want to do is lay waste to the world of dreams until I find him.”

  “It’s not really a cell anymore,” Allie said. “You can leave whenever you want.” She still couldn’t bring herself to release Livia from her collar.

  “It still feels like a cell.”

  “We will bring him back,” Allie said, but she didn’t know how. It had taken Quinn’s team nearly two years to find the prison dreamscape. How long before they found it again?

  “I didn’t want to love him.” Livia shook her head. “When he first came to visit me here in this cell, I didn’t want to have anything to do with him or you. I’ve never had a true family. I love my mother, but we’ve spent more time apart than we have together. Marcus made sure of that. I hardly know her anymore.”

  “But he is Navid.” Allie sighed. “You want to hate him for all the lies and manipulations.”

  “But you can’t because he’s our father, and his love is the most genuine I’ve ever known,” Livia said. “God, I wanted to hate him for all the lies. For letting Marcus take me from my home when I was only four years old, knowing the next time I would see my parents would be the night Marcus ordered me to kill the Chief Justice.” She hung her head in shame. “I vowed I would never forgive Navid for letting that happen.”

  Allie cringed at the mention of their mother’s death. She hated Livia for what she’d done, but she saw it in her sister’s eyes. Kassandre’s death tormented her. In that moment, Allie realized what an immense burden that grief must be for her sister to carry all alone. Livia was just a tool, a weapon Marcus used to destroy his enemy. He was the true murderer. He was the reason Livia and Allie had lost their mother before they ever got a chance to know her.

  “Navid is humble, and he has such a quiet strength,” Allie said. “He never rushes you. He kind of just lets you find your way back to him. And before you know it, you love him like he was always your father, and you’d forgive him anything.”

  “It’s kind of hard to stay mad at him when he and Kassandre were only trying to give us the best chance they could,” Livia said. “He once told me the path they chose for me was the one life where you and I would be friends, working on the same side. I laughed in his face and told him it would never happen.”

  “I don’t know, we’re not exactly friends, but if we both trust him and love him, maybe that’s enough for now,” Allie said.

  “You still got the better life,” Livia teased.

  “I know.” Allie gave a reluctant smile.

  “But you got a crappy deal, too, kid.”

  “Same side of the fight?” Allie examined her sister with her gift, searching for any signs that she might not be as trustworthy as she seemed. Over the last two years of her captivity, Livia had changed. The woman before her now finally matched the things Allie’s gift had always seen in her.

  “You have nothing to fear from me, Allie. I want Marcus to pay for the terrible things he’s done more than anyone.”

  “Our parents made the right choices for me. I forgave them for that a long time ago,” Allie said. “It’s difficult to see how their choices for you were the right ones, but I know we need to move on from our pasts. I can’t forgive you for what you did to Ming Lao. Every time we speak, I feel like I am betraying Chloe. Even though she’s gone now, pursuing a life of her own making, she will always be like a sister to me.”

  “If I could change it, I would,” Livia’s voice grew distant. “I thought I was trapped and I—”

  “You protected yourself the only way you knew how.” Allie interrupted. “Logically, I know that.”

  “I don’t need you to forgive me, Allie. Hate me for the things I’ve done. Let Chloe hate me for as long as she needs to. What I did to her family is my shame. But if you can separate your hate of my past actions and terrible choices from the woman I am trying to become, I will never let you down again.”

  Allie nodded, overcome with a desire to know her sister. “One day at a time. That’s all I can manage right now.”

  “I despise my gift,” Livia said. “I always have. I would be rid of it in an instant if there was a way to make sure the gift died rather than manifest in another.”

  “I can relate,” Allie said carefully. Only three people knew what she was capable of. For the first time, she felt like she might be ready to trust Livia with her secrets. The green aura of her gift danced in her peripheral vision, telling her she needed to confide in her sister, that this moment of growth would set them on the right path forward.

  “You think you can understand what it’s like to rip Complements apart? To kill one and leave the other to survive?” Her tone wasn’t filled with contempt like it once was. Hope shone in Livia’s eyes at the thought that Allie might actually understand.

  “Not in the way you do. But I do understand what it’s like to have a gift you’d give anything not to have. A gift you can never relinquish to another for fear of what they might do with it. The sense of duty to keep such a gift simply because you know it’s your destiny to bear the burden of it.”

  “You don’t have to tell me,” Livia said. “I can tell by the way you speak of it, you do understand.” Livia reached for her hand, hesitating. Allie took her sister’s hand, giving a gentle squeeze.

  “I think I’d like you to know my secret. You could use it against me someday, but I’d like to think you wouldn’t betray me like that.”

  “I will take your secrets to my grave, little sister.”

  “I can also kill with my gift.”

  “Lots of people can kill with their gifts, Allie.”

  “Kill Immortals?”

  “Explain,” Livia said, sitting on the edge of her seat.

  “You know how Navid’s judgment gift works?”

  “He can weigh an Immortal’s character and if his gift finds them guilty, he can send them into a deep sleep for a time to a place in the dreamworld similar to Brecken’s towers. Like a prison sentence.”

  “I can also punish the guilty, but my gift strips the criminal of their immortality. So, in a way, I send one Immortal to a mortal death, leaving their Complement to a life of solitude. I do understand the gravity of what you can do and how it weighs on you.”

  Livia sat back in her seat, her leg bouncing.

  “I can’t hurt anyone,” Allie rushed to explain. “Not without cause. I can’t just go around taking immortality willy-nilly. It only works if my judgment gift finds them guilty of a heinous crime.”

  “Why they haven’t put you in a cell down here next to me, I don’t know.”

  “I know,” Allie said softly. “It would be safer for every one if I did stay down here.”

  “No, Allie. Safer for you, silly girl. Do you know how many Immortals would hunt you if they knew what you could do? Do you have any idea what Marcus would do to you?”

  “Believe me, I’ve had that lecture from Liam and Gregg often enough. I know how our world would react if they knew. But they don’t. Only four people know. Including you.”

  “Do you remember seeing me in New Zealand just before your Awakening?” Livia asked.

  “I’ll never forget that day.” Allie smiled. “It was the catalyst that changed my life forever. We moved to Sydney a few days later to be closer to Navid. I didn’t know it at the time, but he was keeping watch over me.”

  “The moment I saw you with your mortal father, I knew you were special. I knew you were exactly the kind of young Immortal Marcus liked to collect and I felt a strange desire to protect you from him. For the first time, it struck me that someone like you could be the child of prophecy he sought. A girl. The perfect ruse because Marcus Servius would never anticipate the powerful c
hild of prophecy could ever be a woman. Each time our paths crossed, little sister, I was trying to get to you before Marcus could. I was trying to protect you. Always.”

  Allie didn’t know how to respond to that, but the ice around her heart, keeping her sister at bay, was finally thawing despite her best efforts to resist.

  “Have you ever … used that ability?” Livia asked.

  Allie nodded. “Just once. The night of the Blood Moon when you came for us. One of your people attacked Aidan and tried to take his gift. I lost my shit when I saw it, and it just happened. It took me a while to figure out what I’d done.”

  “That’s why I can sometimes sense Michael down here. He’s in another cell?”

  “We don’t know what to do with him.” Allie wiped the moisture from her eyes.

  “Leave him there to rot. He deserves it and if you knew half of what he’s done, you wouldn’t feel bad about it. I ran Soma with an iron fist, and I did some awful things there, but there was one difference between me and those like Michael. He enjoyed torturing kids like Santi and Quinn, but I hated every minute of my life there. Every life I ruined will weigh on my conscious forever. Do not waste a single tear on that man, you hear me, Allie? He isn’t worth your tears. You did the world a favor.”

  “But he has a Complement out there just waiting for him, not knowing he will die. That’s a second life ruined who didn’t deserve it.”

  “She’d likely thank you for it. The Complement bond is not always a fairytale romance. There are times when two people who are madly in love just aren’t good for each other. Marcus loves my mother but he abuses her. She let him for a long time. I was never so proud of her as I was when I learned she’d escaped him. I hope she never goes back to him. Michael’s Complement might be just like him and they could do awful things together, or he or she might be a wonderful person he would have corrupted. You can’t blame yourself for doing what you did to save Aidan from a terrible fate.”