Chrysalis: The Emergence of Emery (The Gifted Series Book 1) (20 page)

The pain stops. It’s so sudden that I can’t control my body as all my limbs fall limp in Tristan’s arms. He leans down and rests his head against mine, stroking my hair.

“You’re okay,” he tells me gently. “You’re okay.”

“You wanna pass my girl to me.” Kade’s voice is tight as he growls the demand through his teeth, even so it fills my chest with peace, knowing he’s okay. I’m passed into the arms of the man I belong to. Without saying a word, he carries me up the stairs and into bed and I fall to sleep with his hand holding my face. When I wake, Kade is still sitting on the edge of the bed beside me.

“They tried to control you,” he tells me, staring at the wall with his back still to me. “I went out to do some recon, I thought you’d be okay here, I thought this place was secure.” He rubs the back of his head. “But it’s not, I was careless, Miles knows about this safe house. We have to move from here soon.”

I say nothing just reach up, placing my hand on his back. His muscles bunch then relax under my palm.

“You needed to sleep. That gift is rare and strong. I’ve never seen anyone resist it, not until you. You were in so much pain because your body wouldn’t allow you to be controlled. I felt you and knew that you needed to sleep, you were exhausted, but now we must move. We still need to go and get Sicily, and today something occurred to me that hasn’t before.” He twists on the bed and stares at me. His eyes move languidly across my face, taking in all my features before he brings his thumb to my bottom lip and runs over it with his pad. “We’re stronger together.” His eyes close for a second and a look of pain passes over his face. “I was away, doing something that someone else could have done when I felt your pain. It sliced through me, it was like my heart was being ripped out. It wasn’t pain enough to stop me coming for you, but I knew that I was close to losing you. What I didn’t know was that they were trying to take you over, and I would have lost you to the dark… not to death… and honestly? I’m not sure which is worse. I do know
is
that neither option is acceptable.” Leaning down to me he kisses my lips softly. “If you’re with me then no matter what I can protect you. There may be times when we’re split up, but leaving on purpose to go on a mission is a no-go, not anymore. My place is beside you.”

“I love you,” I say the first words I’ve spoken to him today, and I know that’s all I need to say when his eyes glow golden and he kisses me again, harder, faster and more passionately.

“Come on, grab some things, there should be a backpack in the closet. We need to leave in ten minutes.”

I nod as he moves out of the room then I touch my lips for a second knowing that with all the threats on my life right now, there’s still nothing I regret. I’ve been with them for just under three weeks now, but it feels like three years.

I’m still learning, still gaining power, but I feel like this is where I belong.

This is my family.

And I know, dead or alive, Kade is my future.

Where are we going?
I ask Elijah.

We’re once again walking in a line, except for Katarina, who has been sent on a recon mission. Kade leads us and Elijah pulls up the rear. I’ve been placed in the middle with Tristan to my front and Tess at my back. Kade told me this was because I’m the one everyone’s after, an attack could come from anywhere, and he wanted me protected. There was no point arguing. When we first started walking I was talking to him internally, then he began ignoring me so I started talking out loud. That’s when he decided to send his thoughts to me. Those thoughts didn’t make me happy. Basically he told me I was to be quiet so he could concentrate. Something about how he wasn’t going to let anyone get in the way of my safety—not even me. I rolled my eyes but also shut up.

I hear Elijah’s chuckle in my head.
Baby sister, I never know what your boy has up his sleeve.

Well, I asked Kade, but he told me to stop talking and pay attention to our surroundings.
I whine.

Maybe you should listen to him
. Elijah says.
Watch out, Emery!

The moment Elijah’s scream rips through my brain, I jerk backward smacking straight into Tess and am just missed by a flying body aiming straight for me. Looking to my left the culprit is already on the ground with Kade on top raining punches down onto his face. No sooner have I taken in that situation when more people run in from different directions, crashing into us all.

I feel a fist connect with my cheek, and I fall back until I’m horizontal and looking up at a fuzzy sky. Blinking a couple of times, and trying to decide whether my eye is about to pop out of its socket, I manage to catch a momentary glimpse of Kade. What I see has all the power in me buzzing to life. He’s underneath a mound of bodies, I can’t see a way out, and there must be at least thirty people on top of him while another twenty swarm around the outside, waiting for their shot.

He’s gonna die
. The words rush through my head and the next time the guy on top of me lands a punch he shatters into pieces without me doing anything. I jump up and realize there are at least ten more surrounding me. Their smirks match the arrogance rolling off them.

“Little Emery Laird, I’m going to enjoy this,” a guy on my right sneers.

“Do it, Marr,” someone says behind me.

But I don’t take my eyes off him…
Marr
. His stance is confident, he thinks he’s got this in the bag. The dirty blond hair, slightly unkempt, and a scar running from his cheekbone to his eye and up through his eyebrow gives him a menacing air. However, as I take a breath and reach inside of me I know, with one hundred percent confidence that I have no fear of him, of any of them. The only thing that I’m scared of now is that someone from my family is going to die.

My eyes move around the field, just like the small group that I’m surrounded by, the others are in similar situations. Tess is surrounded in the same way as me. Elijah and Tristan have their own dark beings to deal with, although they are fighting, much like Kade. I risk a glance in his direction and see at least three people shatter one after the other, which means he’s fighting them off.

Before I know what’s happening two men move toward me from behind, but the moment they touch my arms they both shatter. I can feel a spiraling power starting in my core, it’s pushing throughout me, spreading quickly and my body can only yield to it. My breath hitches and I know Marr thinks it’s because I’m scared when I see him smile. My limbs pull taut, and the sensation clawing underneath my skin is unlike any other I’ve experienced in my life. My blood is buzzing, it must be moving through my body so fast, because it feels like it’s going to burst through my skin. Suddenly, everything calms, and I can take a deep breath. That’s when I know I’ll be okay. My main focus now is the others.

“Well, well, it seems the little princess here does have her charms,” Marr speaks again. “Forgive me for being so rude. I’m Marr, and I’m going to kill you today,” he tells me so matter of fact. All the other people surrounding me laugh.

I tilt my head slightly. “I don’t think she’ll let you,” I tell him with a smile.

I watch as his eyes flash with anger.

“And who might
she
be?” he snarls at me.

“The Convergence.” My smile spreads and I watch for the briefest of seconds as his eyes widen, then I feel the heat and power that has collected in my chest pulse, before shooting out of me from every side, bathing the bodies surrounding me in a green light. They all shatter.

I look around at the fighting and don’t know where to go first.
Tess
. The voice inside me says, and I know that’s not my family speaking to me, I know this is
her
talking to me. My eyes zoom in on Tess, she’s fighting one on one with a guy, but she’s still surrounded by a group and it doesn’t look like she’s going to make it much longer.

Without even taking a second to think on what I’m doing, I shoot my arm out and blast the guy she’s fighting with, this time it’s a blue light that hits him and I know it’s all me.
She
is always in green. The guy drops to the floor and his eyes roll back in his head. My brain catches up with my actions, and I know that he could have only been a level five. He didn’t shatter, which means Tess is weaker than I thought.

Making my way into the circle I push my back against hers and whisper in her head.
I’m here. We’ll be fine. Trust me.
She doesn’t say anything and I don’t know whether she’s heard me or not. I don’t have time to dwell as a woman comes at me, anger in her eyes and her teeth bared.

“That was my brother you just killed,” she hisses.

I raise my eyebrows and hit her with the same blue light that I did to her brother only moments before, her eyes widen before she shatters.

“Sorry,” I whisper before turning to the next in line.

Tess jerks behind me as I simultaneously fight with my fists and my powers until one by one all the assailants are either shattered or on the ground. It doesn’t take long.

“Tristan!” Tess screams and my eyes take in the scene not twenty feet away.

Tristan is being held by three big men, while two others are throwing blast after blast at him, and it looks like he’s minutes away from death. Before I get a chance to help Elijah is there, in the blink of an eye he’s killed the two men taking pot shots, and he’s ripped another from Tristan’s arm.

I run over and get in-between the other two. Tristan groans as they pull him in different directions, the strain in his voice betrays how close we are to losing him. I reach forward and grab one of the men by his head, I pull, and he’s no match for me as we both fall backward with him on top. I push the top half of my body up – taking his with me - and cock my elbow, giving myself enough room to slam my fist into his nose. It wouldn’t be with much force if it weren't for my super strength. The crack that follows tells all—his nose is now broken as he falls sideways off me.

There’s a quiet moment, where everything slows down and I take time to breathe. Closing my eyes I assess everyone internally. Tess is scared but even so she’s fighting full on with the other man who held Tristan, her heart beats fast and she hasn’t got a lot left in her.

Tristan is angry and trying to pull himself together to fight, to help his sister. He’ll be okay now, and between them they will dispose of the guy.

Elijah is completely focused, so focused that he can’t feel me digging inside. The man trying to kill him will die, Elijah is about to land the final blow.

I center myself and move to Kade. He’s angry, frustrated, and scared. He doesn’t know where I am. I look across the expanse of field that separates us. He’s still surrounded, there are less of them, but he’s buried and won’t be able to see me.

I need to get to him.

The thought brings me back to the now, and everything moves at normal speed again. I stand up and quickly the man I was fighting jumps up to face me, blood running through his fingers as he cups his nose.

“Bitch,” he seethes.

His eyes widen and my hand flickers just once before I bring it to his chest, touching him until he splinters, then I turn on my heel and run. My legs burn as I pump them harder than I knew possible as I almost fly across the field. When I get to the mound of men and women, all dark beings, I listen to their feelings—they just want to kill us,
kill Kade
.

A few individuals that surround the scrum of fighting bodies move, the moment they do I’m spotted. A group of six dark beings, all wearing the same sinister smile, break from the thrall and approach me. They form a circle around me and gesture to one another, smirking and laughing. Like a woman is no match for them despite who I am, their arrogance rolls menacingly off them.

A tall man with a ginger tinge to his hair takes a step forward. “So this is the famous Laird? I thought she was supposed to be stronger than her brother, she doesn’t look more than a level two, barely worth calling her gifted,” he says to the others. They laugh again but stop the moment another man steps into the circle.

“Marvin.” The ginger one gasps and steps back. Marvin looks exactly like the first dark guy I shattered today, not ten minutes ago, except he doesn’t have a scar.

“Be careful, do not underestimate this one. She has an insane amount of power, much like Kade over there,” he tells his men—calmly, quietly, knowingly. The men grumble, but I look toward Kade, who only seems to be left with about thirty men to overcome. He looks fresh like he’s just had a full night’s sleep followed by a hearty breakfast, not like he’s just fought twenty plus people off. Elijah moves up beside him and they’re now back to back.

Princess, tell me you’re okay?
Kade demands.

I’m okay.
I reply calmly and I know, even though I have seven men to contend with, I’ll win. Just like I knew the outcomes of Tess, Tristan and Elijah only moments ago. I also know without a shadow of a doubt that these people cannot harm me. The Convergence is telling me so.

“She has more powers than we realize, probably than she realizes. We need to get her to Elodie,” Marvin tells the herd.

The name of my twin causes a ripple effect in my stomach like my lunch is trying to crawl up my insides, ready to make a reappearance.

Marvin smiles. “We are tied to our twins in a way that you cannot yet begin to imagine. Normal humans always talk about having a connection, but when you have gifts, it’s so much more than that. Elodie is strong, maybe not as strong as you… yet.” He rubs his chin and glances toward Kade before bringing his attention back to me with a frown. “For some reason you took the majority of the power, but we just need to get you back to her and then she can Siphon from you.” He quickly glances back to Kade and I know what he’s looking for, he wants to check that both Kade and Elijah are occupied.

“Grab her,” he commands and the other men move quickly, but not quick enough for me.

Move!
I demand in my own head, and in less than a blink I’m out of the circle and standing in front of Marvin. His eyes widen momentarily before he schools his features. I can see a plume of green smoke where I just stood, and can feel that Kade and Elijah are distracted from their fighting worried about me.

I’m fine.
I reassure them both before my attention moves to Marvin.

“You know, you look like him,” I speak quietly, loud enough so he can hear me, but not enough to make a statement. The words I’m choosing are for impact, not attention, and I know they are coming from
her
. I don’t have a vengeful streak but, without a shadow of a doubt,
she does
.

“Him?” he replies, full of arrogance that doesn’t mask his concern.

I reach up and run my finger down his face while biting my lip. “Except he had a scar,” I say with a smirk. Two things happen right then. Kade appears and wrenches my hand away, then pulls me behind him, at the same time a roar bellows from Marvin’s mouth.

“You killed him!” he screams. “You. Will. Pay.”

He jumps back and Kade pulls me until my chest is pressed against his back.

We will talk about you touching him later.
He confirms what I already knew and I smile inwardly.