Tormented (Evolution Series Book 2) (23 page)

“He’s like you,” Aiden said. “He freaks out when people are emotional.”

“And today…” Lucas raised his eyes to meet mine. “Today was too much for me.”

“And everyone else,” I said without thinking, which got me a surprised look from Lucas. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. If I were you, I would have run, too.”

“I did stay ‘til I saw you guys show up,” Lucas said.

I put my hand on his arm. “It’s okay. I understand.”

He smiled briefly,
then
pushed himself off the rail. “So do you guys want to do something?” Lucas asked, walking back inside.

Aiden turned around. “Yeah, sleep.” He picked up my hand, lacing his fingers with mine, and we went back inside the apartment.

Lucas was sprawled out on the black leather sofa. “Seriously?” His eyebrows knitted together as if he thought we were nuts.

“Yep. I need to catch up on my beauty sleep.” I gave an exaggerated yawn.

“I don’t think you’ve got a problem there,” Lucas said softly, making Aiden’s body tense momentarily. “But Aiden, on the other hand, he needs all the sleep he can get,” Lucas added a little too quickly.

I wasn’t certain if he had actually meant it as a dig at Aiden, or if there was a hidden truth to what he had said.

“Ha, ha. Very funny,” Aiden said sarcastically, playing along, although I had a feeling that he was still a little unsure of Lucas’s comment too. Maybe we were jumping to conclusions because of what Georgia had said about her brother thinking I was hot. Maybe that had been her intention all along, to drive a knife through their friendship to get back at Aiden and piss off her brother in the process.

“So what are you up to today?” I asked, trying to release the awkward tension that hung in the air.

Lucas had his arm draped over the back of the sofa and was tapping his hand against the leather. “Probably just try to piss off Georgia some more,” he said with a cheeky grin. “She’s bringing a couple of her girlfriends over and gave me strict instructions to vacate the apartment before they arrived.”

“Sounds like you’ve got a fun afternoon ahead of you,” Aiden said, sitting down on the sofa armrest. He pulled me into his lap and wrapped his arms around me. I wasn’t sure if he was holding me so close out of love or because of what Lucas had said, as I was sure Aiden hadn’t completely relaxed since. One thing I was glad about, though, was that neither he nor Lucas knew a damn thing I was thinking, because I was pretty sure that everything wouldn’t have smoothed over so quickly if they had.

I put my arm around his neck. “Do you mind if we head home now?”

“Sounds good.” Aiden turned to Lucas. “I’ll give you a call when we’re awake.”

“But then won’t you be asleep?” I asked, still getting a grip on the whole living in two time zones.

Lucas shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. Call me when you guys are up again. If I don’t answer, then you’ll know I’m asleep.”

The faint sound of girly laughter approached the door, followed by the jingle of a key being inserted into the keyhole.

“That’s our cue to leave,” Aiden said. “Have fun.”

I waved goodbye, then we disappeared before Georgia and her friends entered the room. When we got back to Aiden’s house on the Gold Coast, he didn’t mention a word about what Lucas had let slip, which made me wonder if I had just imagined the whole thing. Maybe Lucas had said it, but he hadn’t said it the way that I imagined. Maybe he
had
meant it as a dig at Aiden, but I wasn’t about to bring it up with him.

CHAPTER 22

A familiar faint smell that I couldn’t quite place played on my mind as I drifted in and out of sleep. I’d had the best night’s sleep I’d had in a long time. A small smile crept up on my lips as I remembered the dream I was having just before I started to wake. I was four years old, and my mum had surprised me with a trip to
Movieworld
for my birthday.

It was the first time I had ever been to a theme park, and all I could think about was that I was about to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Minnie was my absolute
favourite
character, and I couldn’t wait to give her a big hug and have my picture taken with her.

But Minnie was nowhere to be seen. In fact, I hadn’t spotted a single Disney character in the entire park.

I had balled my hands up into fists and begun crying my little eyes out. My mum bent down, wrapped her arms around me, and whispered in my ear for me to close my eyes. A moment later, she told me to open them again, and what I saw made me squeal with delight. Minnie Mouse was standing not more than a few feet in front of me, waving at me. I had been so excited that I never
realised
that my entire surroundings had changed. We had been at Disneyland.

The faint smell of my mother wafted through the air. I breathed in deeply, trying to capture her scent in my memory. I missed her terribly, and I wished I could just figure out a way to get her back to me. I was lying on my side, facing towards the edge of the bed. I slid my hand up under my pillow, and my heart froze when I touched an all too familiar warm wetness. Aiden stirred behind me, probably subconsciously reacting to my ragged breathing.

With my heart pounding against my chest, I slowly opened my eyes. I started to let out a scream, but only the tinniest of sounds came out. Lying beside me was a bag of blood.

The top was slit open, allowing the contents to spill over the crisp white sheets. I lifted my hand. Blood was smeared across the palm and fingers. My body started convulsing, trying to keep down my dinner. I quickly jumped up out of bed and made a mad dash for the bathroom.

“What’s wrong?” Aiden asked in a sleepy voice, followed by, “Shit.”

I hung my head over the sink and tried to get control over my body. Once the convulsions stopped, I turned on the tap and let the water wash my mother’s blood down the drain, taking the faint smell of her with it.

I didn’t get why I could smell her scent in her blood. I had never been able to smell anyone's scent. Maybe it was something like how Aiden had explained that we could sense people, but sniffing her in a bag of blood was taking it to a whole other level, one that I didn’t think even his parents knew about.

I dried my hands on the hand towel hanging on the rail beside the sink,
then
cautiously walked back into the room. Aiden was sitting on the sofa to the side of the bed. He had already stripped the sheets and mattress protector, leaving no trace of my mother’s blood or the bag.

“You okay?” he asked, standing up.

“Yeah.” I ran my hands through my hair, unable to tear my eyes away from the spot on the bed where the bag had been left next to my pillow. “I just wanna go downstairs.”

My phone started vibrating on the bedside table. When I made no attempt to answer or even to see who was calling, Aiden crawled over the bed and picked up my phone.

“It’s Chelsea,” he said, climbing back off the bed.

He held out the phone, but I didn’t take it. I didn’t want to speak with her until I was calmer. All I wanted to do was escape from DD’s sick, twisted game, but no matter where I went, he was always there, tormenting me. I would probably be too afraid to fall asleep again, knowing that the sick bastard had been right next to me without me even knowing. I had absolutely no control over my life, and I couldn’t stand it. I was supposed to be part of some superior human race, yet there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop DD. He seemed untouchable.

Aiden put my phone into his pocket. “You can call her back later then.” He placed his hand on the small of my back and ushered me towards the door.

We walked down the stairs and into the lounge room. The sun’s morning rays beamed in through the window. I sat on the sofa, while Aiden walked over to the window and drew down the sunscreen blinds.

He then picked up the remote, turning the TV on as he sat down beside me. “What do you feel like watching?” The news appeared before I got a chance to answer, and a photo of Ben was displayed on the screen as the reporter told the story.

Aiden quickly changed the channel to a cartoon show,
then
lowered the volume to create only background noise. He put his arm around me, drawing me into his side. My body started to relax almost instantly when I snuggled into his bare chest. His rhythmic heartbeat lulled me into a false sense of security.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“About?”

“That I can’t keep you safe.” He sounded truly ashamed.

I didn’t know what to say. I let my mind open up so that Aiden could hear all my thoughts. I didn’t get why he felt like that. Or how he could even think that it was his job to keep me safe. When it came to DD, I didn’t think
anyone
was safe, let alone two seventeen-year-olds whose abilities were only just coming to them. Sure, Aiden and I had some strange variations to the others’ abilities, but we were still trying to work out how to use them.

Aiden sighed. “It’s just that… your mum kept asking me to keep you safe. That was almost all she thought about when she was around me, and she must have known that there would be a reason why I needed to keep you safe. But I don’t get why she thought I could, if she was like us and she couldn’t.”

I ran my fingers over his stomach, tracing the curves of his muscles. “I just wish that she would have talked to me about it. I don’t get why she kept everything so secret. I mean, if she thought my life could be in danger, then why did she still feel the need to keep what we are a secret from me?”

I felt Aiden’s shoulders rise into a shrug. “I don’t get it, either.”

“I hope you have some pants on over there,” a familiar voice called from behind us.

I quickly put up my mind-blocky thing.

“Maybe you should’ve knocked then,” Aiden replied without turning around.

“You know I don’t do that.” Kai walked around the side of the U-shaped sofa with his eyes closed.

If Aiden wasn’t going to let him know that we were both decent, then I would. “You can open your eyes.”

“You sure?” Kai asked
,
his eyes still tightly shut. He had his arms stretched out to avoid bumping into anything. “’Cause the last thing I wanna see is Aiden’s hairy ass.”

“My ass isn’t hairy,” Aiden snapped.

Kai bent down, hands searching for the chair. When he found it, he turned around and sat down. “That’s not what I’ve been told.”

“Oh, my God. I don’t have a hairy ass,” Aiden said, getting a little exasperated. He turned to me. “Tell him.”

“Well, it might be just a little,” I said, making Aiden’s eyes bug out, and Kai crack up. “I’m kidding. It’s as smooth as a baby’s bum.”

Kai slowly opened his eyes and sighed with relief when he saw that Aiden did indeed have on shorts. I, on the other hand, only wore one of Aiden’s shirts, which left a whole lot of my thigh on display.

As if hearing my thoughts, Aiden pulled the throw blanket from the back of the sofa and laid it out over our laps. “Better?” he asked Kai.

“Much.”

“So why are you here?” I asked, hoping he wasn’t the bearer of some other horrible news.

Kai’s expression went serious for a moment, something I didn’t see too often. “Well, after you had an uninvited visitor show up here this morning, the Scotts thought it might be best if you had someone here with you both, and I’m on first shift.”