Contained (Evolution Series Book 5) (9 page)

As silly as it was, standing arm in arm with the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, I gazed around the room wondering what our wedding would look like. And just hoped we would get there one day.

Butterflies erupted in my stomach and I had to try my hardest to squash them back down. It was not the time to be thinking about such things, when we had more pressing items at hand.

I looked to Aiden who had a grin on his face. In all my dreaming, I hadn’t realised he’d noticed what was on my mind.
“One day,”
he said.

Smiling, I leaned my head into his chest and took comfort in knowing that no matter what we had to go through, it was always going to be Aiden and me.

Arriving back at the stadium, we found the crowd was getting restless. It had already been six minutes since the message went live but there wasn’t a siren or helicopter to be heard for miles. We were safe. There was still time, which was a relief, considering the monumental task ahead.

Mum came over. “You sure you can do this all on your own, sweetie?”

I gazed across the crowd standing before me and tried to work out how I was going to take so many people at a time. The answer wasn’t clear. I was going to have to go with potluck and pray it worked out like it seemed to every other time.

Dave put his hand on my back and said, “Come with me.” He transported the three of us to the first row of the seating area. “Can I have everyone’s attention,” Dave called out.

Heat rose within me as I witnessed everyone’s reaction at seeing me, the person responsible for letting the world know about them.

Unlike me, Aiden stood tall, squared his shoulders and pulled off the confident vibe he was going for. Realising I was still tucked under his arm, looking like the shy, scared little girl I didn’t want to portray, I did my best to match Aiden’s stance but in their eyes I was nothing but a freak show.

“Now, I want everyone to split down the middle into two groups,” Dave said, pointing his hands to where he thought they should divide.

Everyone stood there for a moment, wondering why we would be asking that of them. None of them had any idea what was in store for them.

A moment later, the first group started to part and the others quickly followed suit.

Dave turned to me.
“You ready?”

“No.”

He chuckled because that was what I always said. I was never ready for anything, but it never stopped me.

Aiden said,
“Let’s do this then.”

“Take us with the group on the left and your mother can have the group on the right,”
Dave said.

Nodding, I took a deep breath and readied myself for the impossible. The most I’d ever transported with me was less than twenty people and now I was looking at approximately five-hundred.

Aiden leaned down and kissed the top of my head.
“You can do this. Just trust in yourself.”

Those words had always stayed with me since the very first time he’d said them to me. I never trusted in myself but I somehow always managed to feign it. It was as if there was something building inside of me, waiting to explode and unleash a power far beyond anything anyone had ever imagined. I absently wondered what would happen if I actually did trust in my own abilities. I’d probably end up being the person whom I feared more than Nathan—the girl from my vision.

Shoving the thought to the back of my mind, I focused on the task at hand.

There were so many of them. I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull it off, but if I didn’t manage then, at least I could always come back for the rest.

Knowing it was now or never, I ran my gaze over the group to the left and squeezed Aiden’s hand as we slowly phased out. We reappeared in the conference room and so did the others. Dave, Aiden and I landed safely on the stage, whereas the others had to deal with landing in an area filled with seats. It wasn’t pretty and there were many people phasing in and out as they righted themselves before smacking their heads on the floor.

Trying to hide my smile at how funny they looked, I did a quick count of the numbers—they didn’t look right. “I’ve left some behind,” I said as Anna, Kai, Lucas and Chelsea appeared beside us.

Aiden nodded and we disappeared back to the stadium. There was a group of about fifty I’d left standing at the back of the field. All, including the group that still remained on the right were wondering where everyone disappeared to.

Not bothering to answer their unasked questions, I transported the remainder to the conference room, making sure I landed them to the side where they wouldn’t have to contend with falling over open chairs or the first group who was trying to settle into some sort of order.

The UK clan were on the stage and Lucas had Chelsea tucked away to the side, away from all the prying eyes.

I had to refrain myself from giving him a big kiss for thinking to manipulate Chelsea’s mind before coming here so that each time her thoughts went to something we didn’t want revealed, they would immediately turn to puppies. And if anyone tried to enter her mind, Lucas was ready to whisk her away.

“Thanks,” Dave said.

I smiled. “No worries.”

“We’ll be back later,” Aiden said then led me toward Chelsea and Lucas.

“That was awesome,” Chelsea said. “I can’t believe you were able to do that.”

“You do know I stuffed up don’t you?” I asked.

She waved me off. “I wouldn’t call transporting hundreds of people you’ve never met before ‘stuffing up’.”

“Neither would I,” Lucas said. He wished he could do the same but was happy that his father had decided to leave him out of his experiments—as far as we knew.

“We’d better go,” Aiden said.

I nodded then looked back to Chelsea. “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

“See you,” she said.

Aiden wrapped his arm around my shoulders, preparing to go back for the next lot when Anna called out, “Wait a sec.” She put her hand on my arm and her eyes instantly turned from warm and loving to shock.

Anna was thrown into a vision and I could only watch on in horror as I saw myself standing in an all too familiar area. I was back at my house on the Gold Coast. Well, actually it was my neighbour, Mrs. Carson’s house. I was in her back yard and my dog, Tyson, which I’d left with her, was standing about five metres away. His hackles were raised and he was snarling at me.

I stood there staring at him, not even trying to get him to recognise me. It was as if I didn’t care.

The corner of my lips turned up into a smirk then a second later Tyson lunged at me, ready to rip me apart. Except he didn’t get a chance. As he leapt into the air, he just stopped. It was as if his life force had been turned off and he came crashing to the ground, landing with a thud.

Mrs. Carson rushed out of the house screaming. Tears ran down her cheeks as she ran to his side. She crumpled to the ground as she realised he wasn’t breathing. He was dead. She slowly turned her head and opened her mouth but never got a chance to say whatever was on her mind. In an instant, she was slouched over, on top of Tyson. She was dead. I had killed them both.

Anna was ripped out of the vision when Aiden broke her grip on me. Her eyes remained wide open, staring at me in disbelief. She didn’t know what to think. Anna hadn’t had a vision since giving birth to Aiden. She’d thought that she’d lost the ability shortly after Aiden was born and thought it was a side effect of the changes to her body. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe Nathan had been drugging her family since the beginning.

“What’s wrong?” Aiden asked.

Neither Anna nor I replied. We were both locked in each other’s gazes.

Aiden put one hand on each of our shoulders.
“What happened?”

It took a couple of moments before Anna pretended to shake her thoughts away and turned to Aiden. “Nothing.”

He raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

Anna forced a smile. “You two had better get going,” she said out loud then added for me,
“We’ll speak about that later.”

I once again didn’t know what she was thinking. And it wasn’t because I couldn’t hear her thoughts. Anna truly didn’t know what to think. She was completely stunned by not only what she saw, but also the fact that she’d actually had a vision. Part of her didn’t want to believe what she’d seen, but she knew as well as I did visions generally came true.

Not able to look into her eyes any longer, I closed mine and phased out. When I landed, I realised I’d forgotten Aiden. I quickly brought him to me and saw the panic in his eyes as he materialised in front of me. A second later I was privy to his thoughts and they were running wild with possibilities to what the hell went down between his mum and me.

“I’ll tell you about it later,”
I said.

Mum rushed over. “We need to leave now. They’ve figured out the hidden instructions in your message and the police are on their way.”

Of course it was Gemma who’d warned them of what was coming and I had to smile at the little brat who was quickly taking up a spot in my heart. I found her in the crowd and gave her a knowing look.

Gemma smiled then returned her gaze to her phone.

Police sirens were blaring in the distance. None of the next gens could hear them yet so I knew we still had a couple of minutes. But I didn’t want to cut it too closely. I wanted to get it over and done with so I could bury my head against Aiden’s chest and once again fall to pieces at the ever-growing probability that I was going to commit those crimes.

“Get them ready,” I said to Mum as calmly as possible. The last thing I needed was to have my mother catching on to my problems. The fewer people who knew about my visions, the better off I was.

She looked at me for a moment before turning to the crowd. “Right. I need everyone to stay together.”

“Where are you taking us?” a woman in the front called out.

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

A few people didn’t like the sound of not knowing and were about to cause a scene, demanding we tell them or they walk. Not wanting to let things get out of hand, I quickly looked over the crowd and phased out, hoping to take as many of them with me.

The landing that time round was worse than the previous group. This time the people had to contend with tables, chairs and decorations. There were a few stumbles but majority of them were able to relocate themselves to safety before they toppled off a table, chair or another person. It was a mess. But that was the price we had to pay for the time constraint we were under.

Taking Aiden with me, I quickly returned to the stadium and found I’d left only a dozen people behind. Looking over them, I closed my eyes and phased out, reappearing with everyone in the wedding room.

“They’re all here now,” I said to Mum.

“Thanks, honey. You did good,” she said. “Now, are you two going to…” Mum trailed off when she saw the look on my face. She’d mistaken it for fear of being in front of a crowd of people who probably wanted to know more about me. Her unorthodox motherly instincts kicked in. “How about you two go back…” she looked around the room for somewhere out of view where Aiden and I could stay while they discussed our concerns. But there wasn’t anywhere. It was a dedicated wedding reception venue in a hotel, just one large room with nowhere to hide. Returning her gaze to me, she said, “Why don’t you go join the Scotts.”

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” I asked.

She chuckled.
“After everything your father put me through, these guys will be a piece of cake.”

“Thanks Mum.”

She reached out to rub my arm in what was meant to be a loving gesture and to let me know she cared, but I freaked and transported away before she had a chance to touch me. All I could think was that if Anna was able to have a vision when she touched me, maybe the same might happen with my mother and any other next gen. I couldn’t deal with anyone else seeing something I was destined to act out and I couldn’t bear to watch myself do it, either.

When my feet landed on the ground, I opened my eyes and was instantly cast into Anna’s vision. I was standing in Mrs. Carson’s backyard with Tyson standing by the back fence. His ears pricked up and he turned his face in my direction.

I froze, just like I had in my vision.

Aiden’s voice faintly wafted in the back of my thoughts but I couldn’t concentrate on anything apart from the movement of the dog that I’d loved enough to leave behind, away from the mess my life had become. Except, I was about to bring him right into the middle of it all and make myself a killer.

Just as Tyson got to his feet, I felt Aiden pull me away as he transported us to another destination. I didn’t care to look around to see where he’d taken me, I knew we were alone and I no longer had to hold it together.

My knees slowly buckled and Aiden gripped me around the waist, bringing me back into a standing position. He supported me as he led me over to the bed and I recognised that we were back in our room in the snowy mountain cabin.

Aiden sat beside me at the foot of the bed and waited for me to say something, but I couldn’t. How was I supposed to say that if he hadn’t whisked me away at the moment he did, I would’ve ended Tyson’s life. I was seconds away from becoming a murderer just like my father… I
was
my father’s child.

“Please let me in,” Aiden eventually said.

How could I? If I did, I was sure he would never look at me the same way again. There was no way he would be able to love someone who could do something as monstrous as killing an innocent animal. For the last week or so I had been on cloud nine knowing that Aiden truly loved me, but I also knew that within seconds, it could all be gone.

Aiden’s face softened and even though he couldn’t hear my thoughts, he knew what I was thinking, or more so, what I feared. “I’m not going anywhere. It doesn’t matter what happened, what matters is that you don’t shut me out.” When I didn’t open up, he pleaded silently,
“Please.”