Rise (Elemental Hearts Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  About This Book

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  EPILOGUE

  Coming Soon: CRUSH

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  About This Book

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  EPILOGUE

  Coming Soon: CRUSH

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  RISE

  An Elemental Hearts Novel

  JAYELLE MORGAN

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  Copyright © 2017 Jayelle Morgan

  Published by Jayelle Morgan

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations used in articles or reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places, incidents and dialogs in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  Cover designer: Joanie Mullins Editor: Clever Pen Editing

  He gave her a night she would never forget… And a child too.

  A year ago, Emory met the handsome, mysterious Ajax and threw her good-girl nature aside for one night of passion. She was fine accepting the consequences for her actions, and loves her son more than life itself.

  But now she desperately needs to find Ajax, because there’s something wrong with their baby…

  She’s the only woman who’s ever taken his breath away.

  Ajax never forgot about Emory, but he couldn’t keep her, because she is perfectly, completely human. And he’s not.

  When she walks back into his life, it’s for the last reason he expects. Emory says the baby is his, but there’s just one problem: all Elemental Warriors are sterile.

  Which means she’s playing some kind of dangerous game, and he needs to know what it is.

  When the enemy rears its ugly head, he’ll have to choose between protecting his new family and protecting his secret. Can Emory find something meaningful with the extraordinary father of her child? Or will he sacrifice them in his mission to save the world?

  CHAPTER ONE

  When an Elemental Warrior needed to satisfy the distracting urges of his mortal body, he looked for a certain type of woman. A woman who didn’t take relationships too seriously. Who could accept what he was offering, enjoy it for what it was, and then let him go with ease when the night was over. Or the hour, if that’s all it took. Once he had glanced over tonight’s choices, he’d immediately found the one he wanted.

  Problem was, she didn’t look like that kind of woman.

  In a place where the dim lighting was meant to soften all the hard edges, she stood out simply because she didn’t have any.

  She had noticed him too, but unlike the rest of the women here, she had ducked her head and pretended she hadn’t. She tried to disguise her shy glances in his direction by glancing at her watch while she sipped her drink. For some reason that had made him smile.

  There was a softness to her that was unfamiliar to him. Her red hair was braided on top of her head in a wispy crown, eyes that flashed his way a mossy green. Her skin seemed to glow, most of it covered by a modest sweater and skirt that said she wasn’t here looking for company for the night. He wanted to be her company anyway.

  She was a wet dream wrapped in pink cashmere. What would all that smooth, creamy skin feel like under his hands? How many kisses would it take before she lost her shyness and opened up for him? He wanted to find out with a hunger that surprised him.

  A hunger that was stronger than the physical one. He was out of the energy bars that fed his Air powers and kept his body from feeding on itself, and his stomach was growling. He should be going back to base to eat, but instead he was going to stay here, and imagine what feasting on her would be like.

  “You’re not seriously considering that redhead are you?” Levi asked, breaking out of his bad-tempered silence.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about the woman you’ve been staring at for the last half hour.”

  Ahh, he hadn’t been nearly as subtle as he’d thought.

  “Maybe,” he murmured, not taking his eyes off her. She was checking her watch again.

  Levi leaned his elbows on the table. “That’s not a one-night stand kind of woman. You can’t be that dumb. She’s not your type.”

  The church-on-Sunday was the opposite of his type actually, but it didn't stop him from wanting her.

  “Fuck you,” he said mildly, taking another pull of his beer.

  Motioning with his beer bottle, Levi said, “Whatever, man. Just trying to save you some shit.”

  “Do me a favor and go back to your drink, Levi. I don’t need your shitty advice.”

  Heat blasted from Levi’s side of the table, and Ajax smiled behind his beer. Levi had always been fun to poke at, but even more so now that he’d started losing control of his Fire powers. Because Levi couldn’t hide his reactions, and he knew it, and that made it all the more fun for Ajax to stoke the flames.

  “You’re an asshole, Ajax.” Then quietly Levi added, “Twenty bucks says she won’t leave with you.”

  “You’re on.”

  But that was no easy task he set for himself. Could he get what he wanted and still extract himself cleanly in the morning? Time to find out.

  Bottle in hand, he walked over to her table. Halfway there, he stopped and looked around the bar. Almost as soon as the feeling registered in his senses, it faded. Had he felt another Elemental nearby? One he recognized as Elemental, but with a power he couldn’t identify. He looked from Levi nursing his beer, to Micah sitting stony and silent on the other side of the table, to Walker at the bar ordering a drink. None of them reacted at all.

  Huh. He must have been mistaken. The closest other Elementals were several hundred miles away in Colorado.

  Putting it out of his mind, he continued on to her table. She’d been watching him, but her eyes widened and she glanced around the room as he approached.

  “Can I join you?”

  “U
m,” she bit her lip. “Sorry, I’m waiting for someone.”

  “A date?”

  She nodded, and since she wasn’t the kind of woman you wooed in a bar, he had to assume whoever was waiting for her didn’t know her very well. “A blind date?”

  She hesitated and nodded again, glancing at the dainty watch on her wrist. “He’ll be here any minute.”

  Considering how long she’d been checking her watch, no, he wouldn’t. The guy was beyond late; he wasn’t going to show up.

  Ajax grabbed the chair and turned it around, sitting on it backwards with his arms crossed over the back. “It’s me. I’m your date.”

  Like a little bird, her head tilted to the side. “You’re… Henry?” she asked suspiciously.

  He shrugged and sipped his drink. “Might as well be. You planned on a blind date. But he’s not coming, and you’re pretty. So.” He splayed his hands with a grin.

  She blushed at his compliment but otherwise ignored it. “How do you know he’s not coming?”

  “This is not your kind of place,” he said simply, “Which means you didn’t set it up, he did. If he set it up, he knew when to be here. And if this is his kind of place, that means he’s not your type.”

  The look on her face at his statement said she knew what he was saying was the truth.

  “You’ve been waiting here a while, so if he was going to come, he would have by now. I’m going to help you appreciate the favor he did you by standing you up.”

  “If this is your kind of place,” she said, twirling her straw in her glass, “then you’re not my type either.” Her prim voice was a cool contrast to the warmth and gentleness of her face, and it made him grin.

  “This isn’t my kind of place, usually. But I was in the mood for something a little different tonight.”

  He was lying. This was totally the kind of place he and the other soldiers liked. Loud, dark, and a steady stream of alcohol and human women when they had an appetite for either.

  Maybe it was because he hadn’t eaten a bar in a while, but tonight, he was hungry for something a little softer, a little sweeter. How to convince her to give him a taste?

  Instinct told him his usual method of charm and alcohol wouldn’t get him very far. But it couldn’t hurt to try.

  “What are you drinking? I’ll get you another.”

  “Coke,” she said.

  Hmm, okay. No alcohol, so that left charm.

  He held up a finger to the waitress.

  “Jack and Coke, please. I’ll have the Jack, she’ll have the Coke.”

  And if he was lucky, he’d leave guilt-free with Levi’s twenty bucks and her taste on his tongue in the morning.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Thirteen months later

  Ajax bristled. If he heard “I love you” one more time, he was going to stab something. Probably Levi.

  This was the training room for fucksake.

  The purpose of the room was to help them practice their combat skills, keep them sharp. Not to make kissy noises at each other.

  “You two. Do me a favor.” With a practiced twist of his wrist, Ajax feinted against an imaginary opponent. “Get a fucking room.”

  Levi’s hand dropped from Brooke’s cheek as he turned toward him, his gaze sharp and hot. But then he smiled his crooked grin, the fire in his eyes cooling.

  Damn. His fellow Elemental was a lot harder to needle these days. To be denied the simple satisfaction of a blow-up from Levi added insult to injury.

  “Do me a favor, Ajax, and shut the hell up.” Then Levi chuckled and grabbed Brooke’s hand, pulling her out the door. Presumably to take Ajax’s exact suggestion. A bright laugh and squeal came from the hallway as they departed.

  As huge as the old warehouse was, it was still too small sometimes. He could almost hear their laughter, their hushed whispers, through the many walls between them.

  He stopped his motions, closing his eyes against the salty sweat dripping into them, and quieted his mind. Was he using his powers without realizing it? He’d only lost control once, and it had only been a tiny bit, but what happened with Levi had taught them all to be cautious.

  Controlling air currents could be mighty handy when he wanted to hear something from far away. A huge pain in the ass if he didn’t want or mean to.

  But his power was quiet, brushing along gently under his skin. Which meant his brain was to blame, his emotions.

  He opened his eyes and pushed harder, fought faster against his imaginary foe.

  He knew what it was—Chaos. It was so thick in the mortal world that he could almost smell it. And it smelled like burning plastic, like the enemy. It smelled like Chaolt.

  Levi had lost control of his powers due to chaos, almost nuking all of them several times before he finally regained it. And now all of the Warriors were starting to feel the effects. Power leaking when they didn’t intend to use it, lack of control when they did use it.

  Everybody except him.

  He wasn’t losing control of his powers; he was just losing his goddamn mind.

  The burning in his gut, the distaste and unreasonable anger every time he ran into the happy couple on a love high—all signs of the Chaos in his blood. Which would be more shameful, losing complete control of his powers or revealing the obsessively jealous thoughts that he couldn’t control? At least he didn’t have to worry about the first one yet.

  The second one was a bitch though.

  He jabbed the air, itching for the feeling of his knives sinking into something more substantial.

  “Fuck it,” he muttered, and started gearing up. It was early in the day, and things had been a lot quieter since Levi had crispy-fried all the Chaolt in the area. But maybe he’d get lucky and find a straggler.

  And if not, well, maybe he’d get some peace instead.

  The possibility was infinitely more appealing than staying here. He needed out.

  He left the training area and went back to his suite to change his shirt, and he sheathed his knives, covering everything with his leather jacket.

  He made for the elevator. Ten feet away from freedom, he heard Levi call his name.

  “Shit.” Turning around and not trying to keep the impatience off his face, he said, “That was quick. What do you want?”

  Levi’s smile didn’t falter as he pushed back his dark hair that had been messed by Brooke’s fingers. “Where you off to, Ajax?”

  Shrugging, he said, “Just going out for a little distraction.” Maybe Levi would think he meant a woman, though he hadn’t been interested in anyone in months. Not since her, the one who made the other couple’s happiness so fucking bitter to Ajax. The one he’d had to leave behind.

  He shrugged again, trying to look bored and leave that thought behind.

  “Wait up. I’ll go with you.”

  Irritation bristled the hair on his arms. He wanted to be alone.

  “I’m going to the bar,” Ajax lied, ignoring the fact that Levi couldn’t miss the bulge of weapons under his jacket. He only went to the bar for drinks these days, not entertainment. Which meant he never stayed long.

  “Good. You’re better off getting laid than going out looking for a fight.”

  “I said I’m going to Gemstone.” Gemstone was the bar where he and the other soldiers spent most of their off time. Which sucked, because that often meant they were there together. But there wasn’t really anything else to do in the old mining town of Topaz Ridge, Nevada.

  “Yeah, so? I heard you. I’m coming along. I’m celebrating.”

  “Celebrating? Celebrating what?”

  Levi shrugged, a strange smile on his face and a lightness in his amber eyes that had nothing to do with his powers. “Being alive. Let’s go get a drink.”

  Ajax didn’t try to keep the sneer off his face. “Your woman going to be okay with that?”

  With a hard slap to his back, Levi said, “Why wouldn’t she be? I’m just going for a drink. You’re the one who needs to get laid.”

  H
is deep laugh as he walked to the elevator made Ajax want to stab him. Not a in a life-threatening way…yeah, maybe life-threatening.

  Levi must have seen the look on his face as he joined him in the elevator, because his eyebrows went up, but he didn’t say anything.

  Lucky.

  The doors slid shut. Levi crossed his arms. “You’ve been pissier than normal lately. What’s eating you?”

  Not lucky after all. “Not a damn thing.”

  “Okay. Sure.”

  Nothing he could name, anyway. Even before Brooke had moved into the base and he’d had to tolerate her and Levi’s sugary-sweetness around him, something had been there. Like a thorn in his shirt, it was a constant, shallow scratch that was becoming deeper and more intolerable by the day.

  Only, the thorn had mossy green eyes and the softest skin he’d ever touched.

  Well, he could name it, but he didn’t want to. He wanted to forget about her, had to forget about her. Unlike Levi, he didn’t have a damn choice.

  Levi let out a small cough. “Brooke told me that there might have been someone on your mind. A specific someone. If that’s the case, man, I’m—”

  “Are you fucking serious,” Ajax said, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms. He wanted to forget, but Levi apparently wanted to remind him all about it with an elevator therapy session. “She’s mistaken.” Ajax had been training Brooke in combat since she’d moved into the compound, but she’d stopped recently, claiming an increased workload or some shit. The idea that she might have done that out of pity was galling. “And stay the fuck out of my business. Tell Brooke that, too. There’s nothing and no-one bothering me except for the two of you.”

  “You’re an asshole, you know that?” Levi said, his words hot as the power inside him.

  Ajax shrugged. “I don’t care what you think of me.”

  “So that’s what makes you an asshole, huh, you just don’t care if people have a bad opinion of you?”

  No, he really didn’t. “I’m here to fight Chaolt, not to win a pageant with my congeniality.”