A whimper caught my attention and I tilted my head to listen. My eyes widened when I heard it again, my heart beating rapidly when I realised what, or rather who it was. No, not again! Fury gave me the strength to lock my spine into place and drag my feet to my room.
Pushing open my door a pain stabbed me in the chest with the rage at what greeted me.
“Elina!” Lettie cried out, her tiny face flooded with tears, her long dark curls twisted around Blaine’s fist. “He’s hurting me!”
My eyes snapped to Blaine. “Let her go, Blaine. She’s six, damn it! She’s never done anything to you!”
A cruel smile twisted his lips as I was pushed forward from behind, the surge making me fall to my knees. Lettie cried out and I spun my face to hers, forcing a reassuring smile. “It’s okay, sweetie. Blaine will let you go now I’m here.” I swung my eyes to Blaine. “Won’t you?”
He tipped his head as Ruben, Dillon and Marcus stood in a semi-circle around me, their cruel smirks making my mouth dry up. I knew time was up and I’d have to give in to them if Lettie was to be kept safe.
“Well.” He quirked an eyebrow at me. “That all depends on you, Princess.”
“If my mother found out about . . .” I hissed at the pain when one of the men behind me smacked me around the head. Ruben bent down, bringing his face close to mine, close enough for me to smell the whisky on his breath.
“But she won’t find out . . . will she?” he spat. “Not if you want your precious little friend here to make it to her teenage years.”
I gulped at the bile, my teeth gnawing on my bottom lip. I looked at each of them, imploring with my eyes. “Maybe we can come to some other . . . arrangement?”
Blaine scoffed before he grabbed Lettie’s throat, her tiny neck nothing under the strength of his large hands.
“Fine!” I cried when Lettie’s lips started to turn blue and her eyelids drooped low. “Fine, just . . .” I took a big breath then blew it back out. “Just promise me you’ll leave her alone from now on. I do this, then it guarantees her safety.”
Blaine dropped Lettie immediately, her tiny body collapsing in a heap at his feet. She scrambled along the floor to me, flinging her arms around my neck and hugging me close. “I’m sorry, El, I only wanted a lollipop. I didn’t mean to come into your room without you.”
“Hey,” I whispered, “that’s okay, you know you’re welcome any time you want.” I smiled at her, stroking my hand down the side of her hair as I tried to ease the knot that Blaine had twisted in it. “Let’s go get you that lolly, but you need to save it for after your dinner.”
She took my hand when I held it out to her and climbed off the floor, trying my best to ignore the narrow eyes from the men who knew I was stalling.
“What colour today?”
She pursed her plump little lips as if the question required delicate consideration then pointed to the yellow one buried deep near the bottom of the jar. She turned her wide eyes to me, a smile playing on her lips. Although only six years old, Lettie’s mental and emotional age was massively enhanced, her IQ one of the highest in the world for her age. Most of us had enhanced senses, but the treatment had intensified Lettie’s intelligence, making her very clever, as she proved with another delay tactic.
I smiled back softly, giving her a stealthy wink. “Yellow it is.”
I started to take each lolly out, placing them on the table beside the jar. “I’m sorry, El,” Lettie whispered to me.
I scowled at her and shook my head. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“But . . .” She swallowed and flicked her eyes to Blaine. “He’s . . . they’re going to be mean to you.”
“Don’t be silly. As if I’d let them hurt me!”
She regarded me and I produced a big smile, biting back the distress as I handed her the yellow lollipop. “Here you go. Now go get your dinner and don’t eat this until you’re back in your room.”
She stared up at me. “Will you come visit me later?”
Swallowing heavily, I shook my head, knowing after Blaine and his ‘friends’ had finished with me I would be in no fit state for anything. “Not tonight, sweetie. I’m really tired, but I promise I’ll come find you at breakfast.”
She looked worried for a moment and grabbed my hand. “Promise.”
I nodded and smiled, tucking a random curl behind her ear. “I promise.”
“Time to go, little bitch,” Blaine ordered.
“Hey,” I turned on him. “Don’t call her that!”
He rounded on me causing Lettie to whimper and grab at my leg. His fingers curled around my throat as he brought his face in close. “If you don’t hurry the fuck up, I’ll be doing much worse to her than calling her fucking names!”
“No!” Lettie wept, her little hands clinging to me.
I narrowed my eyes on Blaine. “Get her out of here.”
Blaine signalled to Ruben who stepped forward and lifted Lettie up, clamping her thrashing body in his arms. She cried harder and reached for me, both her arms outstretched for me but I smiled widely. “It’s okay, sweetie. Go get your dinner then go straight to your room and I’ll see if I can find you something special tomorrow.”
She didn’t reply but nodded through a river of tears. Her misery upset me more than the knowledge of what was to come. She shouldn’t be here. And Janice was a sick bitch for what she was doing. How could the government justify testing on a little girl? That should see them all burn in Hell.
“Go,” I whispered, giving her a final nod, attempting a smile but producing a choked sob.
“I love you, El,” she shouted as Ruben disappeared around the door with her. “I love you!”
“I love you too,” I whispered as they rounded on me. “So much, baby.”
Three hours later, unable to move for the pain between my legs, both front and back, Lettie slipped back into my room, climbed into my bed with me and placed Josie, her ragdoll, in my arms.
“I love you, El,” she whispered as her little hand stroked down my hair. “You’re so beautiful. I believe in angels.” I opened each swollen eye to look at her, her pretty face soothing my heart. “Because God gave you to me,” she finished.
I couldn’t stop the tears. I hated them, didn’t want her to witness them. “You are so wrong, sweetie. I’m not an angel.”
“Yes you are.” She leaned into me gently, her awareness grounding me. “Because angels are made from other people’s sins, and no one has sinned as much as Janice. That makes you the strongest angel there is.”
I smiled, my tears stinging the split in my lip. “Don’t you miss being a child, Lettie? You’re six, you should be colouring and playing with dollies.”
She shrugged, her fingers softly stroking the bruise on my cheekbone. “I like lollipops.”
I chuckled, wincing at the pain it brought on. “I’m twenty-two and I love lollipops, and I think I’ll love then until I’m ninety two.”
“And that’s why we’re best friends.” She giggled. “Go to sleep, El. You need to revitalise.”
I rolled my eyes at her usual demand. She always believed that sleep healed everything. How easy it would be if that were the truth; I’d just sleep my life away.
However, I nodded, exhausted. “By the way, what happened to Ruben? He never came back.”
She shrugged, pursing her lips. “He said he had a stomach ache and left me in the dinner hall. I thought he came back to . . . to you.”
I shook my head, then hissed at the pain.
“Sshhh,” she said softly as her hand stroked over my head and down the length of my face. “Shush, El. Tomorrow brings a new day.”
And that was the problem.
“I DON’T TRUST HER, Reid. I’m sorry, but I don’t.”
I glared at Heather. She was loyal and tough but sometimes the bitch ground on every fucking nerve in my body. “I don’t care, we need her.”
She returned the glare and huffed, folding her arms over her ample tits. I s
mirked when she slid her arms lower to perk them up a little, for my benefit no doubt.
“Well I think she’s okay,” Jonah murmured, sliding the glass to his mouth and taking another pour of Jack. “She saved my life, Heather.”
“Your life wouldn’t have been at risk if she wasn’t there!” Heather spat. She sighed when Jonah scowled at her but turned to me. “Reid, come on, Janice is her fucking mother. How the hell does that make her okay?”
“It doesn’t make her anything other than Janice’s daughter, Heather. Parents are their own people, their lives have no reflection on their kids.”
Both Jonah and Heather stared at me, perplexed. When their staring became too much I stood up. “I’m bedding down. I suggest you do the same.”
Not giving them a chance to answer, I took the stairs, closing the bedroom door quietly and switching on the small lamp that stood in the corner of the room. It hissed when the hot bulb burnt through the inch of dust that had settled over it.
The room was sparse with just a bed, a simple wooden chair, and a lamp, but it was safe and that was all Elina needed at the moment.
My gaze landed on her. She was curled on her side, her brow pinched as sweat trickled down her nose. Her lips parted and a low moan echoed from her chest, the sound clenching my gut.
Sighing, I slumped into the chair and pulled the thin blanket from the back over me. I was tired, and that wasn’t good. If my energy levels dipped too low, I was no use to anyone. Closing my eyes, I flexed my neck, calling on the atmosphere in the room. The lamplight dipped and I pulled its energy in, feeding me. I hated this fucking shit but I knew I’d need everything I could muster.
Heather was right in a way. Elina was a risk, a huge one. She brought Judgement, and they would come again. The plan wasn’t nearly ready yet and it was too soon.
I clenched my teeth, refusing to think about her when all my mind wanted to do was picture her. I couldn’t allow her in my head. My emotions would rule me and ruin everything.
Elina whimpered again, this time her head shaking from side to side. “No, please, no. Don’t . . .” The pain in her voice opened my eyes and I frowned, studying her. Her legs flung outwards as her chest heaved below the blanket. “No, don’t. Oh God, please . . .”
Pushing the blanket aside, I rose and slowly walked over to her, watching as she flipped and cried out, more sweat dripping down her flushed cheeks.
“No . . . Blaine . . . please . . .”
My teeth cracked at the sound of his name. I’d hoped never to hear his fucking name again. What the fuck was he doing in her dreams, or rather her nightmares?
Her fingers twitched with the sparks spitting from her pores, her head thrashing from left to right as she rambled. Her teeth vibrated with the rage coursing through her, her eyes opening and rolling back into her head as a fierce growl ripped up her throat.
Shit! Her energy was reacting with her nightmare.
“Elina.” I absorbed the current as much as I could but she was frantic. I tried again but failed when she cried out and drew her legs to her chest, hugging them tightly. Her wrath was growing, the light bulb splintering with the energy she emitted. Her skin was clammy and pale, her breathing erratic and shallow.
“Fuck.”
Her arms flew to her head when I closed my eyes and found her signal in the air. She refused me, building her wall so fast that I had to be quick before it became a fortress inside her.
“Let me in, little girl,” I growled. My heart rate spiked as I made a swift reach for her. I found the crack and forced my way in, smothering her in tranquillity and warmth as I went, pleading with her to calm down before she surged the whole house.
“I need your mind, baby. Give it me.”
My stomach tore up my throat when I found it, bile ripping away from the lining of my stomach when I bared witness to her nightmare.
Jesus fucking Christ.
I pulled out, gasping for air as I stumbled backwards, my head rocking back and forth as I stared at her.
“Oh, fuck.” I couldn’t breathe, my throat completely locked down and choking me. My heart threatened to tear from my body, its beat harsh and crazy. My mind was seared with their brutalisation–all three of them.
“No . . . NO!” I couldn’t do anything, my body refused to work as I fell back, my arse hitting the floor with a thud as my hands instinctively fell behind me to steady myself. “What the fuck . . . ?”
I flung myself around, vomiting, my heaves loud and my stomach cramping in pain as tears ran from my eyes with the onslaught.
There were dreams and nightmares. That was neither. That was a memory, a replay of things that had passed . . . had broken.
Every single electricity point in the house blew when my rage found its outlet, leaving my body in a violent scream; a scream that shattered every piece of glass in the house, scorched every piece of furniture in the derelict building, melted cables within the walls and finally took out the electricity supply to houses within a three mile radius.
They were going to die. All three of them. Painfully and as gruesomely as possible. I wanted the blood they had stained her with to fucking choke them. And it would; that was the only thing I was certain of in this crazy fucked-up life.
MY EYES SNAPPED WIDE as the door burst open, the wood splintering as a gasp left me, both in simultaneous harmony. A faint smell of burning hit my nostrils as shouting and darkness enveloped me.
“What the fuck, Reid? I told you! I fucking told you she was trouble!” a female voice shouted.
Oh great, not her again. The bitch hated me.
I pushed up into sitting position and tried to see something through the smoke and blackness but all I could make out were silhouettes.
“What’s going on?” I asked to whoever was there.
“We need to get out of here.”
“Jonah?” It was a relief to hear his voice. I’d passed out after the shit at the house and I presumed we were in a different one. But as long as Jonah was with us, my plan had worked.
“Come on, sugar.” I was scooped up into strong arms, my body curling into Jonah instinctively. “We have to go.”
“What happened?”
He raced through the house, his heavy pants becoming wheezes the thicker into the smoke we got. I started to panic, my heart beat pounding in my ears as my mouth dried. It was so dark. The scent and sound of a blaze somewhere made my heart beat way too fast. “Jonah, what the hell is going on?”
“Shush, it’s okay,” he whispered as he pushed a piece of cloth over my face. “Hold this against your nose and mouth. Don’t inhale the smoke, Elina.”
I didn’t like the way he kept turning to look behind him, his brow furrowing more each time, his features tightening with worry.
Suddenly he spun us around, his arms hugging me even tighter to his body as he rammed the door with his shoulder. When it didn’t budge, he took a couple of steps back and charged at it. We crashed out onto a lawn, Jonah spinning so he took the brunt of the fall and I landed on top of him.
Rolling off him, I spluttered into the grass, gasping for clear air as my chest screamed at the pain. I couldn’t get enough as both Jonah and I gulped, forcing the oxygen to dilute the smoke in our lungs.
Jonah was on all fours, drinking air as hard as I was but barking a cough at the same time. He held up a hand to me when I scurried over to him. “I’m okay,” he wheezed. “I’m okay.”
He flopped to the floor and rolled onto his back, his chest heaving as he fought to breathe. “Fuck!”
“What happened?”
“You . . .”
“You fucking crazy bitch!” Heather screamed as she launched herself at me, her body pinning me down as she wrapped her fingers around my throat and her legs around my thighs. “You are a fucking ticking bomb!”
“What?” The bitch was stoned or fucking fruit looped. “What the fuck, Heather?” I screamed louder when she pinned my face with her other hand and dragged my head up then forced
it back so hard my skull vibrated painfully.
Each star in the sky swirled and blurred into one when her hold on my throat tightened. “I am gonna kill you! You fucking freak!”
I shook my head as much as I could.
“Heather!” Jonah shouted. “Get the hell off her!”
“Move, Jonah! Reid’s still in there. She’s fucking killed him!”
I was sure hands clawed up from the earth below me and tried to take me back down with them. My heart stopped. My lungs clamped down. No. No! I didn’t have time for that shit. I needed the other part of me, the part that enjoyed pain, not feared it.
I zeroed my gaze on Heather, on her rage and her hatred and allowed it to consume me, taking in each of her vicious words and making myself believe them. It wasn’t too hard. She was right. I was a monster, a freak against Mother Nature who didn’t deserve to breathe if Reid died because of me and my inability to control the disease that lived inside me.
She flew backwards into a tree trunk when my skin erupted with energy, every single pore on my body fighting with me, the enemy inside me for once my ally. It was only then I realised there were no lights on in the street. Only my body illuminated the area around us. I didn’t have time to wonder what the hell was happening to me as I tore across the garden and back into the house.
Jonah’s screams and shouts of my name mingled into the loud crackle of the intense fire, the now angry flames whipping for me as soon as I entered. I stumbled back, the heat and intensity of it was ferocious. Fuck. I looked around, trying to figure out which way to go. Where the hell was he?
“REID!”
All I could hear was wood splintering, fire hissing and things crashing. Sirens filled the air. Shit! Something else we didn’t need.
“REID!” It came out a spluttered cough, my lungs hacking up some sludge at the same time. I pulled my shirt over my face and moved farther in. A door to my left felt hot, the tell-tale bright orange glow sneaking out from under it warning me that way wasn’t an option. “Shit! Reid,” I choked out, tears filling my eyes. “Don’t do this. Don’t make me your murderer as well.”
Judgement 8 (Subject Alpha #1) Page 7
