Tormented (Evolution Series Book 2) (26 page)

Kai ran his hands through his sandy blond hair. “Well, I think we can positively say that it’s a bomb, but where it’s
gonna
go off, I haven’t a clue.”

“We have less than thirty seconds to figure this out,” Aiden said, his voice filled with panic.

Another message came through.

Twenty-eight

Twenty-seven

Twenty-six

It was a countdown to the end of at least one person’s life.

“Maybe it’s
Chrissy
,” Aiden suggested. “After all, he did try to have her run down. Maybe he’s just following through on that.”

I shook my head. “No, that doesn’t feel right.”

Nineteen

Eighteen

“Shit,” Kai yelled. “This
guy’s screwing
with us. How can he expect us to figure this out?”

Ten

Nine

“I know these numbers,” I mumbled under my breath. “It’s not a time, it’s a date.”

Six

“Chelsea!” I disappeared without explaining further. There was no time. The numbers were her birthday.

I landed in Chelsea’s bedroom. She was pulling a green tank top over her head. I didn’t bother to let her know I was there. I placed my hand on her back and transported her outside to the front of her house.

“What the hell?” Chelsea said when she had finished pulling the top over her head and could see again. I didn’t bother to respond. I was thinking about Marie, preparing to transport myself to her. My heart tightened, and my eyes went wide in horror as I heard a faint click, then…

Boom!

The house began to explode, and I was once again in slow mode.

Fragments of the house began to fly as the explosion rippled through the air. I fell to my knees. Chelsea’s mum would already be gone. There was no way I could have saved them both. I felt like puking. Another person was dead because of me.

Chelsea let out a deafening scream, tearing my heart apart in the process. I had just robbed her of her family. I turned to face her and almost stopped breathing.

Chelsea was kneeling beside her mother. I crawled over to her, desperately hoping that Marie wasn’t a hallucination. Her eyes were shut, but her soot-covered chest rose and fell with each breath that she took.

I suddenly
realised
what I had just done. I had brought someone to me. And I didn’t think that was the first time that I had done it, either. My mind flashed back to the memory of that day when
I was being carved up by the psycho
. I had called out for Aiden. He had told me that he had felt summoned to me, but shook off the idea because it didn’t make sense.

Without thinking more on how or why, I closed my eyes. Tears streamed down my face as I prayed desperately that I was able to bring the one person that I wanted there with me more than anyone. I was almost too scared to open my eyes, for fear that she wasn’t there, but I forced them open.

The moment I saw her body lying in front of me, I burst into tears. My mum was really there with me. The bullet was still in her head, but I didn’t care. We could get it out, and then she would be back.

Aiden appeared beside me. When he saw my mother lying on the ground, he dropped to his knees. “How?”

I didn’t answer. I was still trying to work it out myself. I removed the barrier blocking my thoughts, so Aiden could see into my mind while I processed what I had just done. The faint sound of sirens filtered through the air. I knew we couldn’t stay there to discuss how I had managed to save not only Chelsea and her mum, but my own mum, too.

Hearing my thoughts, Aiden nodded. “
We’ll talk back home.”
He bent down and scooped my mum up in his arms.

The three of us disappeared, leaving Chelsea leaning over her mother.

When we got back to Aiden’s house, Anna came rushing out from the kitchen. “Kai told us what hap—” She stopped short when she saw my mother lying on the sofa. “Oh, my God!”

I had kept my mind shield down so that I wouldn’t have to explain. Anna was bending over my mother. “Is she okay?” I asked.

“I think she’s okay, but we better get this bullet out of her as soon as possible.”

“This shouldn’t be possible,” Aiden muttered, shaking his head. “We’re not supposed to be able to do that.”

“I know, but… how else did she get here?” I asked. “And then there’s Chelsea’s mum. I mean
,
she was still in the house while Chelsea and I were on her front lawn. Then, the house exploded, and the next thing I knew, Marie was lying on the grass beside us.”

Dave gently pushed Aiden and me to the side. “We can work out how the hell Jade managed to do this later. Right now, I think we should work on getting this bullet removed from this woman’s head.” He sat down on the couch. “Kai, can you give Nathan a call and tell him what’s happened? We’re going to need him to help.”

“Sure thing.” Kai pulled out his phone,
then
walked into the kitchen while he waited for Nathan to answer.

“She’ll be okay,” Aiden said, putting his arm around me.

God, I hoped he was right, but seeing her lying there… she looked dead.

Aiden, knowing how I was feeling, sent some calming endorphins my way.

“Thanks,”
I said, before shutting my mind off to everyone again.

“Nathan said for us to bring her to the room that he transported that brain-dead guy to for your experiment,” Kai said, walking back into the lounge room.

“You know which one he’s talking about?” Dave asked me.

I shook my head. “No. We only went into the room that the guy was in originally. But I can just transport us all over to Nathan, provided he is in the room.”

“He said he would go there as soon as he got off the phone,” Kai said.

“Good,” Dave said. “Then take us all there.”

“I’m coming, too,” Kai said, rushing over to where the Scotts and I were huddled. “There’s no way I’m missing this.” The gleam was back in Kai’s eyes. “So how do we do this? Do I need to touch you or something?”

I let out a small laugh as I thought about having five people having to be attached to me. “No, you don’t all need to be touching me. But because I don’t know where the hospital bed is, it might be good idea if someone was able to hold mum so she doesn’t end up on the floor.”

“Gotcha.” Dave scooped my mum into his arms.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on taking everyone in the room to Nathan.

“Holy shit,” Kai said. “I can’t believe you’re actually able to do that.”

I opened my eyes. We all stood in front of Nathan in an almost identical hospital room to the one from the other day. Dave walked over to the bed and laid my mother on it.

“So how did you manage to get her?” Nathan studied my mother’s face. “Never mind. We can talk about that later.” He reached over to the small bedside table and picked up a gleaming surgical tool that brought the fear of God into me. The last time I had seen one of those, the psycho was going to use it to carve into me. I quickly turned to Aiden, burying my head in his chest.

Aiden wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tightly. “We can go someplace else while we wait.”

“I won’t be long,” Nathan said.

I breathed in deeply, trying to get a hold of my fear. “I wanna stay.”

Aiden kissed the top of my head. “Okay.”

I kept my face buried in his chest for what seemed like forever, but was probably only minutes before Nathan said, “All done.”

I slowly raised my eyes to look at Aiden. He had a small smile on his face as he nodded slightly. I turned around to look.

My mum was still unconscious. The wound in her forehead was open and bloodied, but at least there was blood, which told me that she was still alive. Her body was starting to regenerate. How long it would take was anyone’s guess.

“Let’s get her back to our place,” Anna suggested.

“And which place is that?” I asked.

Her lips curled up slightly. “The England one, of course. It’s the bigger of the two, and let’s face it, we’re going to have a lot of people staying over and will need the rooms.” When I pulled my eyebrows together in confusion, she added, “He’s going to be pissed that you’ve got your mum back, and who knows what he will do next?”

I honestly hadn’t thought about that. I was still so stunned and excited that I had somehow gotten my mother back that I hadn’t even stopped to think of the possible repercussions from DD. He would be pissed that the biggest leverage he had over me was back in my hands.

“Yes, that’s a good idea,” Nathan agreed. “I can imagine that he would be quite upset.”

“Where should I take her?” I asked.

“She can have the room opposite mine,” Aiden suggested.

He walked over to the bed and picked up my mum up. I transported the three of us to her room.

Aiden laid Mum on the king-sized bed, and we both sat down beside her. I could feel that the others had returned to somewhere in the house, but nobody came into the room. I guessed they were giving us some time alone. They had already done all they could, so it was a waiting game as to when Mum’s body would heal itself.

Aiden nudged me with his shoulder. “It’s happening.”

I looked down at my mother’s wound. It was slowly starting to close. I watched until there was no evidence left on her forehead, apart from some smears of blood. I saw a barely noticeable rise and fall to her chest, but she still wasn’t awake.

“Give her time,” Aiden said, putting his arm around me.

We both leaned back against the headboard and waited for any sign from her. I was so glad I had Aiden with me. I could only imagine the state I would be in if he wasn’t there. He was my straight jacket that held me together when all I wanted to do was flip out.

Mum’s lips suddenly parted, and a small breath escaped her mouth. I watched obsessively as her breathing become more regular.

“I told you she would be fine.” Aiden kissed the top of my head.

I picked up my mother’s hand and held it in my lap. Tears slipped down my face when her fingers started to move ever so slightly. Soon, she had enough strength to squeeze my hand.

Her eyes suddenly popped open, and she gasped. For the first time in my life, I was able to hear her thoughts. She was wondering where she was. The last thing she could remember was—

Her mind went blank. She had put up her wall. “Jade?” she said, tilting her head to look up at me.

Tears flowed down my cheeks as I dove into her arms. She hugged me tightly. I eventually let go of her, and she was able to sit up.