Emerge: The Awakening (6 page)

CHAPTER

NINE
 

“Dude, the shoes are killing me!” Allie giggled as she made her way up the stairs.

“You were drooling over those damn things just last week!” Vince reached down to take them off her feet.

“Yeah, because they’re awesome—Oh, that’s nice.” She wiggled her toes. “They’re so much more comfortable in the box.”

“You’re sleeping in McBrien’s room?” He frowned. “Bet he loves that.” He followed her into the messy bedroom.

“He’s certainly not going to be here.” She flipped on the music and the room filled with Aidan’s favorite late night songs. “We’re doing some early morning birthday thing they’ve been all secretive about.”

“Well, if I had a chance to get my sheets smelling like you, I’d offer you my bed too. You always smell incredible.”

“No more interruptions?” she asked when he locked the door behind them.

“Nope.” He moved to capture her mouth in a slow, lazy kiss. “I’ve been trying to do that all night. You look smoking hot in that dress, if I’ve failed to mention it.”

“Thanks, but I have to get this thing off. It’s killing me.”

“Seriously? There’s not much to it.” He nipped at her earlobe.

“The only thing holding this dress up is tape and prayer.”

“Well, I’d be ever so glad to help you out of it.” He grinned.

“Nice try.”

“Had to give it a shot.”

She closed her eyes, rubbing her temples absently.

“Headache?”

“Yeah, it’s the pins.”

“Alright, let’s get you out of that dress and those pins out of your hair. I promise I’ll behave.”

“Fine.” She gestured with a twirl of her finger for him to turn around.

With Vince’s back to her, she quickly slipped into a silky black tank and her favorite worn jeans. Then she slipped back into his arms and he held her close as she titled her head up to meet his kiss. Allie’s heart raced as his lips moved slowly with hers.

Vince pulled away, carefully running his hands down the length of her arms. He frowned at the nude bandages still covering the worst of her burns.

She flinched. For a moment, she’d forgotten about them.

“You’re gorgeous, Allie. Scars and all, inside and out. Don’t ever forget that. Besides, they make you look bad ass.” He grinned. “Now, let’s take care of those pins.” He sat down in the chair by the bed and pulled her onto his lap. She felt a surge of guilt. It felt so wrong to be with him like this—in Aidan’s domain—listening to his music.

She moaned when he pulled the first sharp pin from her hair and ran his fingers through her curls, hunting for the next one. She melted against his chest, enjoying the easy intimacy they shared.

“Mmmm, that feels nice,” she sighed drowsily, curling up against him.

“Better?”

“Much, thanks.” She felt his warm hands slide up the back of her shirt and enjoyed his deep growl of appreciation at the softness of her skin.

“Allie?” Sasha called. “You up here?”

“I’m going to start throwing punches,” Vince said.

Allie scrambled up to unlock the door.

“Sorry to interrupt, but we need you downstairs for your real party.”

“My real party? Where were you during all the club hopping ridiculousness?” She zipped her Cliffton basketball hoody over her tank.

“Time for presents and cupcakes!”

“I never say no to a cupcake,” Allie said as they joined the others in the living room. She sorted through her presents, shocked and amused by the expensive Marchesa bag stuffed with a package of toasted coconut from Kayla, who was still in the hospital but in good humor.

“This one next.” Graham tossed her a small package.

Allie read the card from the boys and her parents. “You guys! My gift from you was the party!”

She tore the wrapping paper off and scowled. “Funny, you’re giving me the phone I’ve been looking for all freaking day? I thought I lost it.”

“Lex, I picked your pocket earlier so we could pass your phone around for everyone to take pictures and add their favorite music to your Spotify.”

“Quinn and I added some cool features I’ll show you later,” Graham said.

“Aw, that’s an awesome gift!”

“Alright, this one’s from Chloe and I,” Sasha said.

With a huge smile, Chloe passed her a long rectangular package that covered most of the coffee table. Allie tugged at the ribbon and stared at the white box with the iconic black label, looking at the girls before she peeked.

“You. Did. Not!” She shook her head. “Jimmy Choo boots?”

“You maybe want to take the lid off so you can see them?” Sasha giggled.

“In a minute. I’m trying to think of a reason for you to take them back.”

“Well you better stop trying because we bought them on sale and they are non-refundable-Allie-sized-boots.” Chloe smiled.

“I hoped you’d say something like that.” She grinned, pulling on the gorgeous black boots.

“How are shoes better than a pimped out iPhone?” Graham asked.

“Girls and shoes, man.” Quinn shrugged.

“Well, she looks hot. Other than that, I got nothing,” Vince said.

“Oh, honey! These are Jimmy Choo
boots.
” She pointed at her feet as if the boys were slow.

“Yeah, we don’t get it, Lex.” Aidan winked.

“Dude, stop winking at my girlfriend,” Vince growled irritably.

Allie rolled her eyes and reached for another cupcake. She settled back with the people she loved, realizing she was happier in that moment than she’d ever been. She was finally right where she belonged.

“Ouch.” She flinched, reaching to rub her temple.

“Time for the birthday girl to get some sleep.” Aidan sounded apprehensive as he checked the time.

“Yeah, I suppose I should get going.” Vince yawned.

“I’ll walk you out,” Allie said.

They stepped into the cool night, walking hand in hand toward his car, a seventy-six Dodge Challenger that totally complemented her Impala.

“Happy birthday, Allie.” He pulled her close and she inhaled the scent of him.

“Thank you for my bracelet, it’s my favorite.”

“Well, it’s no iPhone or Jimmy boots…or achingly sweet Impalas I’m itching to drive.”

“Jealous?” She tilted her head back with a grin.

“Absolutely green with envy.”

“Alright you two,” Chloe called, “time for the birthday girl to get some rest.”

“Chloe, you could hire yourself out as highly effective birth control,” Vince said.

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CHAPTER

TEN
 

“Stupid headache.” Allie crept into the bathroom in search of an Excedrin, but found not so much as an aspirin—or any other medication for that matter. No half-empty bottle of antibiotics, no expired prescriptions, not even an old box of Band Aids. Nothing.

Weird.

Before she thought about what she was doing, Allie had her bag packed, eager to crawl into her own bed. She hastily scrawled a note to Aidan before she stepped into the hall. It was the middle of the night, but she heard voices.

“Stop pacing! You’re driving me nuts!” Sasha snapped.

“Allie, what are you doing?” Aidan gaped as she made her way down the stairs.

“I don’t feel well. I-I just need to go home.” She felt dizzy, like she might faint. She took another step and a blinding light split her skull. Allie tumbled down the stairs with a blood-curdling scream. Aidan flew to her side as she clutched her head in agony.

“H-hos-pital!” Something was terribly wrong. She’d never experienced pain like this.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, Alexis Ann! Do you do everything the hard way?” He scooped her up like a rag doll. “You need to trust me, hospitals aren’t going to help.” His face grew blurry and his voice distant.

“Aidan, I—” Her words came out with a strangled choke. A spasm ripped through her body, stealing her breath.

I have to get out of here!
She needed fresh air. Needed to clear her head. To think. She struggled out of his arms and shakily rose to her feet. The room swirled as nausea threatened to overwhelm her. She stumbled for the door. The wind whipped her hair around her face. The sky was an eerie red with strange clouds. The ominous storm she’d dreaded was closing in on her.

“Allie! Stay with me!” Aidan’s voice echoed weirdly. She felt the sting of his slap to her cheek. Then she was running, her heart pounding in her chest. Allie stumbled along the path through the woods—their favorite running trail, where they first met. The gusting wind stirred the trees, but did nothing to alleviate the burning fever blazing hot inside her core.

It’s a nightmare. I’m back in Aidan’s warm bed having a scary dream.
She tried convincing herself with a pinch. Nothing. She was still running. He pursued her, but she couldn’t control the anxiety rising within her. She feared what would happen when he caught her. She heard his voice. Naeemah’s too.

“Allie!” She sounded faint. “I heard her scream. It’s started so early and with such a vengeance.”

“She’s fallen into the trance already,” Aidan said.

“I had hoped she would sleep through the beginning at least. I suppose it is fortunate she has fallen so soon. She will think she dreams. It will be a long day. Are you certain you can do this for her, son?”

“I can handle it.”

“She must let it happen, and then she must fight for control.”

“I know.”

Allie lifted her tear-streaked face to the sky but couldn’t feel the wind on her face. Gripped in terror, she couldn’t think, couldn’t react. She wasn’t alone. Someone chased her. The sensation was familiar. Just like the morning she met Aidan. He pursued her now, but this time she saw his face and it frightened her. He was a stranger. His friendly brown eyes were cold and hard, with a shifting golden light reflected in their depths. She heard a scream—possibly her own, but didn’t recall making the sound. She ran faster as the perversion of Aidan closed in on her. The lake at her right, and the dense forest at her left, she had no escape as the storm closed in on her.

The spike of pain drove into her skull and she stumbled to the ground, spewing the contents of her stomach. Early morning fog swirled around her, hiding her from sight. Allie’s hands fisted in the rich soil. It called to her somehow. A burst of sunlight shone through the clouds and it lifted her soul. Her body churned and shifted, but the pain of it held her rooted where she crouched. Tilting her face to the sky, the sun warmed her and gave her the strength to face him. He would find her soon and she would be ready. The storm wouldn’t hold back much longer.

She stood her ground, her face twisted in anguish, forever frozen in that moment of transformation, her body stiff and immobile, but still a raging tempest within. She saw Aidan now—his expression full of loss and regret. He did not catch her in time. Her metamorphosis complete, she had escaped him. Lifting her arms to the sky, she felt one moment of sweet relief and then the red clouds had her.  

“Lex, I know you can hear me!” His voice came to her now, full of concern. This was her Aidan, not the monster that chased her. “Don’t resist me.” She felt his hands encircle hers, but she was lost in the darkness, no longer in the forest. She drifted.  

The heat came first, then rage, as some intrusive force pressed against her mind. She recoiled from his touch.

“Easy, Allie. I know it goes against the grain, but you gotta let me help you.”

She reluctantly obeyed his distant plea. A sense of calm swept through her, but only for a moment.

She wandered in the tempest, lost in the burning ache shattering her skull. It felt like everything that made her
Allie
was changing. She could literally feel her mind expanding.

“We should have prepared her for this somehow,” Naeemah murmured. “We train our children for this moment all their lives. How can we expect her to succeed in ignorance?”

“The shock would have done more harm, but she isn’t completely ignorant. Allie has strong instincts and she’s a fighter. She’ll figure it out.” He stroked Allie’s palm and she felt his calm reassurance, but struggled to define reality from her nightmare. 

“I suppose your way was best, but it seems monstrous to let her suffer. She is resisting when she needs to submit to it. You have to convince her, Aidan. Soon.”

“I will, Mom. Just let us do this alone. Please.”

As the door closed behind Naeemah, Allie screamed. Her eyes flew open wide and she caught his worried gaze. It was a raw moment of stark reality. She was back in his bed, but she was sweaty. The sheets twisted around her body as if she’d thrashed around for hours. Her mind worked rapidly, attempting to take in everything at once. It was too much. The jackhammer reverberating through her brain made it impossible to focus.

“Take a deep breath.” He reached for her hand. It was a fleeting comfort. Her body seized violently, consumed with convulsions that left her incoherent.

“You have to stop resisting. It will only—”

It has to be a nightmare! Please…just let me wake up!
But deep down, she knew it wasn’t a dream. Whatever was happening, she’d known it was coming; had anticipated it for weeks. She clawed through the cloud of confusion, determined to hear Aidan. 

“W-what’s happening?” she gasped.

“Shhh. Look in my eyes, Lex. Stay with me.”

Her eyes were wild with fright, but she was finally lucid.

“You know we’re different, Allie. At sixteen, everything extraordinary about us begins to emerge. It’s called an Awakening. You are in the throes of it right now—a trance-like state. Not quite awake, but definitely not asleep, and you are resisting it.”

She bolted upright, her stomach roiling with dry heaves.

“An Awakening is a traumatic rite of passage, but I need you to trust me. I know exactly how much this hurts. But please don’t be scared. It will end, but you must allow it to happen. Only then will you have the strength to fight for control when you need it most. I’ll be right here with you, I promise—look at me!”

She focused on him for an instant. But it was long enough to help ease her fear.

“I won’t leave you, and I will not let you fail.” His words gave her hope, but still she struggled.

“Let go. Trust me. Submit to it. Then, when it’s time, you’ll have the strength you need.”

With a deep breath, she stopped fighting. Trusting him at his word, she knew she had nothing to fear. It felt like drowning, struggling in that last moment before succumbing to the inevitable. It was almost a relief.

She spiraled into the trance again. The pain was still there, but it was subdued for the moment.

“That’s my girl. You’ve got this!”

Her mind whirled with confusion and pain until that blinding light burst and she was back in her nightmare. Aidan was still by her side, but she was no longer aware. Long forgotten memories flashed before her eyes, leaving her nauseated and dizzy. A stifling concussive force gripped her now. Allie’s head exploded with scorching hot light, like the brightest sunlight. The pressure built, settling around her ears with a shrill high-pitched wail. Then the visions came.

She saw her mother and father, chasing a giggling child with blazing red hair as they walked along the beaches of South Africa. The memory was not one Allie recalled, but the little girl had to be her. She broke away from Lily and ran, screaming with laughter toward two figures in the distance. She screamed for them, her laughter dying, replaced by tears.

The shadows returned before she could reach them. The hot light preceded each vision and highlighted every significant event of Allie’s life. She revisited her home in Nigeria when she was a baby; she watched the expression on Lily’s face when a local woman took a special interest in Allie. They left for Egypt not long after. Then the Sudan. Joss left home for school in London. She didn’t see her big sister for several years after that. Whenever someone got just a little too close to the young Allie, they left. Seeing it now, it was obvious. They were running—running from those she connected with. Those like Aidan and his family.

A sudden move to rural Scotland bought them some time when she began school. But one of her classmates made her cry with his strange stories. They left that night for Germany where they spent the next several years bouncing around Eastern Europe. She recalled these memories more easily. They spent a year in Amsterdam when she was only nine, but the new neighbors down the street threatened her family, so they ran again.

They landed in the Philippines next. Allie fell in love with the ocean there. But they didn’t stay long. Brazil came after, then back to Egypt. Year after year, they stayed on the move, but someone always seemed to take notice of Allie.

Finally, she saw the little beach house in New Zealand. They spent nearly two years there. Allie vividly remembered the day she and her father came home from a long kayaking trip to find one of Lily’s grad students leaving. She was tall, her dark hair pulled severely back from her perfect face. There was something familiar about the way she moved, graceful and fluid, like she was comfortable with her height and slender limbs. She was angry, afraid and confused all at once. She was searching for something and hadn’t found the answers she wanted.

They left the next morning for Sydney where Navid became part of Allie’s daily life for the first time in years. He was like the others, but her parents trusted him. He was safe—at least until his last visit. They fled halfway across the world that night.  

It was all related: the moving, the strange connection she shared with Aidan. His burned, but healed, hands. The things Allie just knew—those things she’d always attributed to her strong intuition. Her parents were aware enough to bring her here, to people she could trust, people who could help her, but she also understood that Aidan and his family didn’t need to know that. 

This is real.

Something strange and powerful awoke deep within her. It was both wonderful and frightening at the same time. She couldn’t deny what was happening was positively terrifying, but somehow it was also the most natural thing in the world.

“Wake up, Lex. You have to fight for it now. You must gain control of that immense power stirring in your chest. You are strong. So much stronger than you know. You can do this!”

Her body raged, but she still couldn’t speak. She didn’t know how to fight this. She only wanted to sleep.

“Wake up!” She felt his slap, and her eyelids fluttered, but she couldn’t shake it off.

“Too much,” she murmured.

“No, it’s not. It is never more than you can bear. Everyone’s Awakening is different. Mine was violent and lasted twenty-two hours before I fought it off. If I can do it, you can do it.”

Twenty-two hours! I’ll be nothing but ashes by then!

“I know you hear me, you stubborn redhead! Come on, Allie, don’t lie down and give up now! That’s not you. Fight it. Take control and end this!”

How?
Whatever this was, it was winning. She fought just to take a breath. Her heart raced like it would beat right out of her chest.

“Your power is raging inside you. You have to tame it, push it back. If you don’t you’ll never recover. I will not let that happen. Now take deep, long breaths and ignore everything else.”

She did as he said, holding on to the sound of his voice. She felt the heat radiating in her chest; a swirling mass of raw power. She did the only thing she could think of. She visualized it. The heat enveloped her, creeping down into her limbs. If she let it cover her whole body, she was gone. With every deep breath, she imagined that heat receding back into her core.

“That’s it! That’s my girl!”

The warmth eased back from her biceps into her shoulders and chest. She gasped for breath, sweat poured down her face. She pictured the heat searing her legs, willing it back up her thighs until her core blazed white-hot. With a last shuddering breath, she seized control, confining the raging tempest into the deepest, strongest part of her body.