Contained (Evolution Series Book 5) (5 page)

“Let’s go, then,” Aiden said.

“You guys go ahead. I need to stay back for a minute.”

Aiden studied me for a few seconds before turning to Lucas. “Take the girls to my house in England.”

Lucas nodded then phased out, taking both girls with him.

“What is it?” Aiden asked, cautiously.

I shook my head as I continued to stare at the chopper. “I just need to see something.”

Aiden put his hand on my shoulder as he waited patiently for me to be done with whatever it was I was searching for.

The helicopter was getting closer and the detail became increasingly clearer. It wasn’t long before I was able to confirm my suspicion. The man staring down the telescope of a military riffle was the same man from my vision. His eyes widened a fraction when our eyes locked on one another and he realised that I could see him just as plainly as he could see me. Yet I was looking at him with my naked eye.

“Let’s go,” I said, not taking my eyes off the man.

Aiden and I transported to the main lounge in the castle. Just as my feet touched the floor, I phased back out, returning to the boat. I wanted one last look.

The man was frantically searching for us through his lens and stopped breathing when he saw me once again standing on the boat, locking eyes with him.

I smirked.
“You have no idea what I’m capable of,”
I spoke into his mind, shocking myself. Why I had said that was beyond me. I was playing with fire and eventually I would get burned. Well, that was the saying, but in reality, everyone around me would be the ones to burn. I could walk through fire and come out the other side, completely unscathed.

“Jade!”
Aiden’s voice rang through my head, breaking me out of my… whatever the hell I was doing.

I transported back to England where I was once more met with Aiden’s worried expression.

“You have got to stop doing that,” he said, his heart hammering with fear for me.

I bit my lip as I grabbed his hand. “I’m sorry. I just…” I trailed off, realising we had company. I didn’t want anyone else to know my secret.
“I had to see if I was right.”

“And were you?”

Giving Aiden a quick nod, I turned and put on a smile. “Anna.” I gave her a hug. “It’s good to see you again.”

She pulled back. “I would say the same if it was under different circumstances. But whatever had you jumping back there, is kind of worrying.” Her voice was filled with nerves.

Hating myself for doing it, I pushed into her mind and saw for myself that she’d seen what was going on in the world. And I was pleased to find that her thoughts mirrored mine. Anna knew we couldn’t do anything hasty. Whatever we decided, it needed extensive consideration.

“I think we need to talk,” I said.

She nodded. “Do you want Dave and Kai here? Or just me?”

Stepping back to Aiden, I said, “Just you for now.”

“Where’s Dave?” Aiden asked, taking a seat on the oversized plush lounge. The fire was burning for mood, something Anna always loved, but never really needed.

Curling up beside him, I said, “He’s out with Jack.” When Dave and Gemma’s dad became friends was beyond me, but it was inevitable. They both had a common goal, to keep me, Aiden and the rest of the world safe from the man who had terrorised us for so many months.

“How did they know you were there?” Anna asked, getting the low down from Chelsea’s thoughts.

“Are you sure you screwed with the boat hire guy’s head?” Chelsea asked Aiden.

“It wasn’t that,” I said, jumping to his defence. “Aiden didn’t screw it up.”

“Then what about others?” she asked. “There could’ve been someone standing around that you didn’t know had seen you.”

I glared at her. “I could see a helicopter that none of you were able to see and I knew who was on board.”

“Should I take the girls to play some pool or something?”
Lucas asked.

“Yeah. That’d be a good idea.”

He smiled sadly.
“Let me know what’s going on later won’t you?”

“Of course.”

He transported the girls to the rumpus room without giving them warning so they didn’t have a chance to refuse.

I was so grateful to have him in my life. He was everything I could ever wish for in a sibling, and Georgia was everything I never wanted.

As if on queue Georgia appeared in the room. “What’s taking you…” She slowly turned her head to face me, the hurt instantly surfacing when she saw me curled up in Aiden’s arms. “Oh. It’s you.”

“Aren’t you forgetting whose house this is?” I snapped.

“Not yours,” she snapped back.

“Girls,” Anna butted in. “I really thought we’d put all this behind us.”

“Hey, Georgia,” Aiden said. “This will always be Jade’s house. And you’d better not forget that you’re just a guest.”

Anna’s eyes widened in horror. “Aiden!”

“What?” he asked with a smirk. “It’s the truth.”

Georgia took a second to recover then laughed. “You two make it out that you’re soul mates. And you’re going to be together forever.” She smirked. “Well, that’s what you used to say about—” Georgia clutched her cheek. “Fuck!”

Crap!
I phased out of the room, transporting to the pier.

Aiden appeared by my side in seconds. “You hit her didn’t you?”

I couldn’t bear to look at him. Even though I knew that their relationship had been over for years, it didn’t stop the insanely jealous part of me from surfacing. And it seemed to have gotten worse since whatever it was had snapped inside of me when Nathan was squeezing the life out of me. I was becoming uncontrollable. In the end I nodded, afraid of confirming his suspicion aloud.

He wrapped his arms around me from behind and hung his head in the crook of my neck. “You’re not evil. And you’re not going to change.”

I looked down at the deck and sighed. “You don’t know that for sure.”

“Yes, I do,” he said without hesitation. “And I also know that she deserved what you did to her and probably more. That girl has had a bitch slap coming to her since the day you two met. I’m actually surprised it’s taken you this long to give her one,” he said with a humours tone.

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I said, “You’re probably right. But that’s not what’s freaking me.” I took a deep breath, held it for a moment too long for a normal then breathed out. “It’s how easily I was able to cause Georgia to feel like I hit her when essentially I never touched her.”

“And?” Aiden asked, wondering what the problem was.

I twisted in his arm to face him. “And the problem is how easily I could do it. I don’t even need to concentrate. It was just a reflex and if I’m capable of doing that without consciously making the decision, then what’s to say I couldn’t do something worse?”

He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Because I know you. And I know that you’re not capable of fulfilling your vision.”

“Well, theoretically—”

“I mean, in here.” He pointed to my heart. Aiden believed with his heart and soul that I was nothing but the sweet, caring, loving girl that he had built me up to be. He leaned down and kissed me softly, exhaling deeply as he pulled away. “We will get through this.”

I knew without a doubt I would give him that. He had been supportive above and beyond his boyfriend duties, and I was going to make sure he got the peace he deserved. I was just afraid of the steps I might need to take to fulfil my promise.

When I could no longer feel Georgia in the castle, I transported Aiden and me back to Anna. She was sitting on the lounge with her feet curled up beside her as she sipped at her tea.

Two coffees were sitting on the table, which I knew was her way of making peace. She’d also sent Georgia out for a bit so there was no tension in the house. Of course, Georgia hadn’t been happy, but who was she to argue when she was merely a guest of the Scott’s.

Aiden reached out for the cups and I hit his hand away.

“Has Harry checked the water for drugs?”

Anna nodded. “Nathan had contaminated our water supply but Harry was able to fix it. And just to be sure, I had Bernard make these with bottled water—which I picked up from a supermarket in the Netherlands.”

I had to laugh. Anna was sure going to extremes to ease our fears. “Thanks.”

Aiden and I picked up our mugs and sat on the adjacent couch.

“So, how’s Bernie?” I asked.

Anna smiled as she thought about the man who’d fainted at the sight of Aiden’s blood on the carpet. The thought of Aiden’s near death still sent chills down her spine but Bernard’s reaction to the blood on his carpet was priceless, one that they hadn’t let him live down. “He’s good,” she eventually said. “A bit smitten by your Grandma actually.”

My eyes widened. “Seriously?”

She bit down on a smile. “Yep. He’s been taking a lot of personal time lately.”

“Grandma’s still over in Italy?” Aiden asked.

“Yeah. I think she and Marie have found themselves a new home.”

Crap!
I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten about Marie. I’d promised to take Chelsea to see her mum, but I hadn’t. I made a mental note to remember to take Chelsea to Italy before we left—providing it was daytime over there. Before I forgot, I pulled out my phone and added Rome’s time zone to the world clocks. I was pretty sure they weren’t actually in Rome, but I didn’t know where, exactly, they were, and I figured there wouldn’t be a great time difference across the country. The time showed that it was about an hour ahead of England so I guessed it would be safe to say they were already up and about. Old people were like that—especially ones who had the energy of a teenager.

“So,” Anna said, her hands still clutching her mug even though it was empty. “What’s going on?”

Exhaling loudly, I recounted the helicopter I’d seen.

“How did you know they were looking for you guys?” Anna asked.

“It’s just a feeling I had.”

She looked at me, her expression remaining straight but her thoughts were anything but. Anna was sceptical, but kept it to herself. “And have you ever had this feeling before?”

I shook my head. “This was the first time.”

“And are you sure you never missed wiping someone’s memories of you since you’ve been in Thailand?”

My cheeks turned red.

Aiden scratched the back of his neck. “We haven’t exactly been anywhere that warranted that ’til today.”

She looked confused for a second before it dawned on her. “Oh,” she said. “Well, I guess we can rule that one out then.”

Anna put her cup down on the coffee table as an idea came to her. “I don’t suppose you saw this in a vision?”

“I…”

Aiden narrowed his eyes at me. “Did you see this happen?”

I shook my head. “Look. I can’t explain how they knew we’d be there but what I can say is that they were definitely coming for us.” I then added to Aiden only,
“I went back to see if I could recognise anyone or any organisation they were from, and I did. One of the men was the man from my vision.”

Aiden’s body tensed ever so slightly but his mum had picked up on it.
“The one who was decapitated?”

“Yeah.”

“Um…” Anna looked between Aiden and me. “Is something going on that I should know about?”

“You don’t want to tell her, do you?”

Thankfully I was able to restrain the choked up nervous laugh that had tried to escape.
“No. I can’t let anyone know about me.”

“Aiden?” Anna asked but when he didn’t respond she turned to me. “Jade?”

I rubbed my hands up and down my thighs and instantly regrated it because apparently that was a sign of nervousness.

“There is something you’re not telling me isn’t there?” Anna’s eyes were still trained on my hands that I’d clasped together in my lap.

Aiden put his hand over mine, forcing them apart, then entwining our fingers. He’d noticed my nerves as well.

Knowing I had to come up with something, I blurted the first thing that came to my head. “I think they were military.”

Anna tilted her head to the side. She wasn’t sure if that was what I was holding back, but there was a good probability the people in the helicopter were from some government agency. After all, there had been so much talk in the media about different agencies around the world wanting us to turn ourselves in.

Feeding on her thoughts, I asked, “Do you think they would really try to bring us in?”

Anna nodded. “There’s a good chance that at least one country wants to be the first to bring us in. Think about what it would do for them, the power they think they’ll wield. There are hundreds of countries who would do anything to have that kind of power or hold that chip.” She was referring to a bargaining chip. We’ll turn the freaky kids in and you’ll give us billions in return. There were a lot of people, not just from government agencies, who would do anything to have that kind of power.

“So, now the question is, how did they know we were there?” I asked, solemnly.

We all sat there in deep thought, trying to work it out when Kai phased in, standing next to the fireplace in his usual casual surf attire. He spotted Aiden and me on the couch. “I thought we wouldn’t be seeing you two back here for a couple of months, or maybe even years, now that Georgia’s moved in.”

“She’s not here. Anna sent her away,” I said.

“I did not send her away.”

I raised my eyebrow at her.

Anna sighed. “Well, not permanently.”

Kai smirked. “Bet she would’ve loved that.”

Anna glared at him. “Please don’t make the situation any worse.”

“Any worse?” Aiden asked.

Anna shook her head. “Nothing you need to worry about.”

Aiden smiled but didn’t say anything. He knew that I would already know what was going on and I would fill him in as soon as we were alone. The funny thing was, Anna also knew that I’d divulge to Aiden what had been going on with Georgia as soon as we were gone, but took solace in knowing she could still hold her head high.

Kai plopped himself down next to Anna. “So what were we all talking about?”

Anna filled Kai in on what I’d told her so far.

“You said Gemma was there with you?” Kai asked thinking that must’ve been how they found us, thanks to her obsession with her phone—that apparently hadn’t been encrypted.

I was about to agree with him when Gemma appeared with Lucas and Chelsea.

“You have got to see this.” Gemma was staring at her phone as she sat beside me.

My heart sank the moment I heard her thoughts and both Aiden and Anna picked up on my concern. Lucas was standing with Chelsea, both looked uneasy. Kai, on the other hand, was putting two and two together as to how the military would’ve tracked us down. He would need to confirm his suspicion with Gemma but he was pretty sure she was the culprit—unknowingly of course.

“What is it?” Anna asked, scooting over to our couch. She sat down on the other side of Gemma.

Aiden leaned over me to watch Gemma’s phone as she pressed play on another YouTube video. The screen came to life with a man named James Turner, minister for defence. He was urging all civilians to be vigilant and only leave their premises if necessary, as these people—meaning us—were dangerous. He went on to say the government was offering a reward of ten million dollars for anyone who would give information leading to the capture of any one of us. And by no means should any member of the public approach us, as they considered us to be lethal killing machines who wouldn’t hesitate to destroy anyone we encountered. We would not show any mercy.

My thoughts instantly went back to the vision I had when I decapitated that military man. I had shown absolutely no mercy. I was a lethal killing machine. I was everything James Turner had portrayed us to be.

Aiden shot me a sideways glance. Seeing my unease, he draped his arm over my shoulder and positioned himself so I was wrapped in his embrace but still able to watch the video.

Turner continued to say that they were aware that not all of the people with those special abilities were dangerous. And they knew there were many advanced humans living peacefully amongst us. They were putting up a proposition for someone with these extra abilities to come forward and work with the government to bring the people on the footage Nathan had leaked under control. We were the ones they were afraid of. He went on to promise that whoever might step forward would have immunity, and would not be punished for another’s crimes. The government wanted to work in harmony with this advanced civilization, and help to protect not just their country, but the rest of the world as well. The world needed people who could be trusted and could help bring peace to the many war-torn countries.

The clip ended and everyone remained speechless.

Kai eventually broke the silence. “There is no way they want to work with anyone and not use them as a pin cushion.”

“Of course they won’t,” Anna said. “They’re afraid of us. People are always afraid of what they don’t know. They can’t help it.”

“But they made it out as if we’re all dangerous,” Gemma said.

Chelsea choked on a laugh. “If only they knew that you guys were the one’s keeping them safe from a psycho who didn’t care about any normal getting in the way.”

“And we’re not going to tell them,” Anna said before Chelsea could finish her train of thought. “We can’t come forward. They’ll never believe us.”

“Unless you make them,” Chelsea said.

Lucas smiled and pressed a kiss on the top of her head, making her stomach do summersaults.

God, that girl was so on board with everything we could do. I’d wondered many times that, if I was in her shoes, and she was the next gen, would I have been as accepting of my BF’s secret life. Chelsea was an amazing girl, and deserved every bit of happiness Lucas was giving her.

“We can’t make everyone in the world accept us without meeting them face to face,” I said. “And even if it were possible, I don’t know that we’d be able to do it to however many billion people there are in the world.

Chelsea’s face slumped, joining the rest of our expressions. “So what are we going to do?”

Anna slowly shook her head. “I don’t know.” She sat forward and clasped her hands together in her lap. “Why don’t you all go do something for a couple of hours and let all of us try to come up with an idea?”

“Good idea,” Kai said, getting up.

Anna grabbed his arm. “Not you.”

“Damn it,” Kai said with a smile as he sat back down.

Just as we were about to phase out, Anna looked at me and jumped up from the couch. “Can I talk to you for a sec?”

I sighed, already knowing what she wanted to discuss. “Sure,” I said as Lucas, Chelsea and Gemma left.

Anna looked to Aiden. “Alone?”

“Does that mean me, too?” Kai interrupted.

Anna glared at him.

Kai slouched back, accepting that he wasn’t going to get out of being one of the adults who were going to be responsible for coming up with a way to handle the crisis going on around the world.

Aiden waited for me to give him the okay before saying, “I’ll go take a shower.”

I nodded, then he phased out, leaving me alone with his mother to have a conversation I so didn’t want to talk about.

She sat on the oversized couch and patted the spot next to her.

Doing as she requested, I sat beside her and waited for her question.

“So, tell me, what’s going on?”

I was lucky she never suspected the worst of my worries and I didn’t want her thinking that my concerns were far greater than what she assumed, so I played on it, overdramatising my response. Shaking my head, I said,
“I just wish this was all over. I really thought Aiden and I could finally live our lives in peace.”

“You know, if you want some privacy, I can go wait somewhere else so you don’t need to pretend I’m not here and I don’t know that you’re having a conversation you don’t want me to hear,” Kai said.

“You stay right where you are,” Anna said with a small laugh. She loved Kai’s sense of humour. Even when the world was crumbling down around them, Kai was always… just Kai. He had a charisma about him that always brought a smile to her face even during the worst times. But when it came to the crunch, he was there for us.

As I predicted, Anna said,
“I know it’s hard, honey, but I wasn’t talking about that. I meant with what you did to Georgia.
”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I narrowed my eyes at her.
“She deserved it.”