Contained (Evolution Series Book 5) (10 page)

Taking one last look at him with love in his eyes, I opened up my mind to him and waited for him to see what he’d just saved me from.

Confusion swept through his mind. He understood what he was seeing but he could never in a million years see that I’d turn that into a reality. And yet, he’d just ripped me away from the start of the exact scene from his mother’s vision. And no matter how much he believed in me, my visions were getting harder and harder to explain.

Running his hands down his thighs, Aiden diverted his gaze to the floor as he tried to come up with a plausible possibility that we could both believe, but there wasn’t much error in Anna’s vision. It had happened exactly like a vision should. If she had been sleeping, she could’ve easily put it off as a dream, but the fact that she had touched me, and then was cast into another time… there was no denying it was true. And the fact that I’d seen what she’d seen… I didn’t even want to go there.

Wrapping his mind around it as much as he could, Aiden shifted so that he was facing me, placing one knee up on the bed. He picked up my hand in his and rubbed his thumb across the back. “Look, I know you’re thinking I just pulled you out of making Anna’s vision come true, but we don’t actually know if that was what you were going to do there.”

“But you saw it. I—”

“I saw you freaking out. I didn’t see the wicked gleam in your eye. I didn’t see the evil smirk on your lips. I saw the frightened look in your eyes. I saw the terror on your lips. And I also saw that I was there and I wasn’t in the vision. That was not what you went there to do. You probably transported there by mistake because you’re so scared you’re going to make her vision come true.”

I dropped my gaze to our hands entwined on my lap. I didn’t understand how he could have so much faith in me when my genetics were against me and the visions were living proof that I was going to do these horrifying things. Yet, there he was, not questioning my intentions or my insanity.

He cupped my cheek in his hand, making me look at him. “You are not going to become that girl.”

I wanted to believe him but the evidence was stacked against me. I was destined to commit those crimes, but the only question was, when?

Sitting on the bed with Aiden, wallowing in my own self-pity of what was to come, wasn’t helping anyone. There were two rooms full of people that various authorities were hunting down, and I was partially responsible for them being put in that situation. “We better get back to them all,” I said.

Aiden shook his head. “They can handle things for a bit. I want to make sure you’re okay.”

I choked on a laugh. “How am I supposed to be okay? You saw what I did.”

“No,” he said with a serious look on his face. “I saw what was possible.”

I started to object but Aiden cut me off. “The future isn’t set in stone.”

“How do you know? Every single other vision I’ve had has come true.”

“Do you think Nathan would’ve done what he did if he knew where he was going to end up? He could never have predicted that and gone along for the ride. He would’ve ended you if he’d had the chance.”

I drew my eyebrows together. “Did he even get visions? I mean, are visions something that all next gens get?”

He looked off to the side as he tried to remember if his father had ever mentioned having them. “Not that I know of.”

All hope I’d built up in those ten seconds came crashing down. “Exactly.”

“But do you really think he wouldn’t have been able to do that—especially after everything he’d done to you and me?”

He had a point, but it wasn’t enough to restore my faith in another possibility that I may stay with the light over evil.

“Did you see any memories of visions when you were going through Nathan’s mind?”

Opening my thoughts to Aiden, I slowly shook my head as I ran through what I’d seen. I was only interested in one thing when I was inside his head—Aiden. I wanted to know what happened at that first day on the beach. The only other thing I sought was verification that my mother had been telling me the truth. I’d never bothered with his other memories, which was kind of silly considering there was still so much we didn’t know. We didn’t know his true identity. Or who Lucas’s and Georgia’s birth mother was and that was something I was sure they would love to know. “I’ve got to go back and see him.”

“I agree. But I don’t think now is the time to do it,” he said. “We’ll need Kai’s help with disarming the ward’s security cameras so no one from the institution suspects there’s truth to what he’s been saying.”

“Good point.” The last thing we needed was to accidently tip off the authorities about him.

Putting his hand on the back of my neck, he pulled me forward and kissed my forehead. “We’ll get through this. You’ll see.”

“And if it turns out that it’s set in stone?”

He looked at me, a million thoughts running through his head as to what he would do. Not one of them involved leaving me. He never for a second believed I would do those heinous crimes—willingly. “Then we’ll deal with it as it comes.”

Once again, I wished I could’ve had half the optimism he had, but knowing he’d stick by me, made it a little more bearable. “You know, you’re a little too good to be true.”

He smirked. “I’ve been told that one or two times.”

I smiled, thinking how lucky I was to have him.

Aiden leaned down and kissed me again.

No matter how much I wanted to stay curled up in his arms, in our own little wilderness escape, I knew we had responsibilities. “I guess we’d better get back.”

“I guess so.” He put his hand on my thigh and smiled one more time before transporting us to the conference room where his parents were.

Aiden landed us just off the stage so we were hidden behind the curtains. The people in the front row could sense that someone else had arrived and were wondering if it was us.

The rest of the crowd was oblivious to our arrival, consumed with their thoughts, as Dave continued his spiel.

“There has been a lot of media coverage over the last few days, about Jade and Aiden and what they’ve done. And I’m sure most of you have seen that. There has also been a flood of requests from innocent victims of crime, illness and diseases asking for their help. Now, some of you may think they’re heartless pricks for not going to the aid of people pleading for their help, but you don’t know our reasons for standing back. A lot of those reasons we will not go into tonight, but you all need to know that we don’t plan on leaving the sick that way. We’re not going to just sit back and do nothing.

“Why should only we have that power? Shouldn’t the rest of society be given the same chances as us?” A woman shouted.

“We
will
help and we
are
working on a way to isolate the gene that allows our bodies the ability to heal.”

“And meanwhile, those little babies could die. Children will lose their mothers or fathers and parents will lose their little ones,” another woman said. “That’s not fair to them when we have the solution right here.” She pointed to the veins on her arm.

“We don’t know what your blood will do to these people. You may have good intentions, but do you really want to be responsible for the death of someone? Let’s face it, that’s a completely plausible possibility.”

“But we saw that girl heal the human in the Church, and she was fine,” a guy said.

Dave cleared his throat. “Jade is not like any of you.”

There were a few laughs in the crowd followed by someone saying, “You do know we are all the same.”

“No.” Dave shook his head. “You’re not like this girl.” He paused while thinking how unexplainable so many things about me were. “She’s different. And you all just have to trust me on that.”

A guy choked on a laugh as he stood. “We don’t know you to trust you. For all we know, you could have another agenda for keeping us quiet.”

“Yeah,” a woman said, standing up. “How do we know that you’re not being paid off by one of the governments to give them exclusive information.”

Another stood. “And how do we know that you don’t have an ulterior motive for yourself?”

“How do we know that
you
aren’t the bad one?” another asked.

Hundreds of people got to their feet and started shouting their opinions but that was nothing to their thoughts flooding my mind. I couldn’t take it anymore.

Letting Aiden go, I phased out and reappeared beside Dave. Silence ensued and that old saying fit, you could hear a pin drop. Every single person’s attention was on me and every single person knew who I was. But what they didn’t know was what I could do.

“She doesn’t look any different,” a guy said. “If you expect us to believe you, then show us the proof.”

Not wanting to let me stand out there on my own, Aiden transported to my side.

Dave looked down at me, trying to think of how he could explain what I was without mentioning what my father had done. Because there was a possibility that at least one person could be sitting out there in the crowd who wanted more power and was willing to sacrifice anything to obtain his goal. Dave wondered if it would be enough to just convince them that I had naturally evolved past them. And of course the first thing that came to his mind that would prove my difference without them getting suspicious was if I were to tell people what they were thinking. It had worked for Anna and him.

I nodded, giving him my approval.

Turning back to the crowd, Dave said. “There is one thing this girl can do that none of you out there can—”

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?” the same guy called out, wondering what shit we were going to pull. He seriously doubted there was anything special about me, and in a way, I wanted to keep it that way. If people knew what I was truly capable of, yeah, they’d fear me, but then, there may also be someone wanting to become like me; who would stop at nothing to find me. All my family and friends would be in danger and I didn’t want to put them in that kind of situation. They’d all suffered enough. But I had to give Dave this.

I pointed to the man who’d just given Dave flack about me. “You’re thinking he’s full of shit. But you’re also worried there might be truth to what he is saying and if I am different, what does that mean for you?” I smiled as the man’s mouth hung wide open. “Proof enough?”

“She can hear his thoughts even though he’s got his block up,” the woman sitting beside the man said.

“That’s just general shit. Anyone could’ve guessed that,” a guy in the front row called out. He then started thinking of obscure references to prove himself right.

“Mother duck, sixty-eight, tennis shoes, jumping jacks…” I trailed off as his eyes went wide, his thoughts instantly turning to something he didn’t want his wife sitting beside him to know about.

Ignoring everyone’s comments about how I must be getting it right, I said silently to the man named Tom,
“You fucked your wife’s best friend and yes, I do know. And now you’re wondering what I’m going to do about it. Well, that lady sitting beside you loves you more than life itself. But that’s not going to continue. You are an asshole and you need to be…”
I trailed off as a man somewhere down the back of the crowd caught my attention, pulling me away from Tom’s infidelity issues. The new man’s thoughts were dark. I sucked in a sharp breath as I searched for the face of the man who reminded me too much of my own father. He wondered if I was going to be a problem and whether he should seek me out after the meeting was all over and try to befriend me for his own personal agenda.

All of my morals about staying out of other people’s memories went out the window when his thoughts went to what he’d done earlier that day.

Anger consumed me. A moment later, our eyes locked on one another and he knew that I was onto him and I didn’t look at all happy. He winked and phased out, but I pulled him back to his seat. He didn’t know what he was up against.

It took him a second to realise what had just happened and when his eyes once again locked on mine, he tried to pull away. Again, I pulled him back to his seat.

His nostrils flared with anger as he reached for his pocket to pull out the knife that he always carried to inflict fear into humans. Except this time, he was going to use it on the woman sitting next to him to distract me long enough so he could get away.

Without thinking, I whipped him out of his chair and lifted him over the crowd, our eyes never leaving each other’s.

Confusion and fear broke out in the crowd and some jumped out of the way while others stood there in awe.

“Jade,” I faintly heard Aiden say as he tugged at my hand. “What are you doing?”

I ignored him. I was too consumed with what the man had done to all those innocent victims. The world was bad enough, but to add someone who had our kind of abilities to the mixture was unfair. Those women never stood a chance. And yet, he acted as if he owned them. They were his to do with as he pleased. Never, in all the horrible things that Nathan had done, had I ever felt as sick to my stomach as I did going through that guy’s head.

Putting him down on the floor in front of me, I took away his ability to control his own actions and made him kneel before me. The fear in his eyes matched the fear of his victims and I wanted him to feel what they’d felt. He needed to pay for his crimes, and I was going to make sure that each and every one of his victims had retribution for what he’d done to them.

Tilting my head to the side, the corner of my lips turned up as I began my payback. Screams shattered through his mind but he was unable to use his mouth to let them escape. I’d started with his very first victim and luckily for him, the woman had died quickly at his hands. But I wasn’t going to let him get away with it so easily. I was going to bring him to the edge and then back again so he would have to live through another and another and another until he lived the nightmare of the last woman he’d tortured only hours ago.

He begged me to stop just like she had to him but I kept going, making him feel every single moment of her pain. I took pleasure in knowing he would’ve passed out by then if it wasn’t for me keeping him conscious. I needed him to feel the pain. I needed him to feel the humiliation and most importantly, I needed him to know what it’s like to be powerless against someone.

Just as I felt him slipping away, I pulled back and prepared for his next onslaught only he didn’t come back. He was still writhing in pain and the next thing I knew, the light in his brain had switched off and he crumpled to the floor, smacking his head inches in front of my feet.