EVO SHIFT
by K.J. Chapman
EVO NATION SERIES: BOOK TWO
Copyright ©2015 K.J. Chapman
All Rights Reserved
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Names, characters, events, locations, organisations, and businesses are a product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.
No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical without express permission from the author.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Six
Chapter Twenty Seven
Chapter Twenty Eight
Chapter Twenty Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty One
Chapter Thirty Two
Chapter Thirty Three
Chapter Thirty Four
I dedicate this novel to my husband, Nathan.
Thank you for putting up with my disappearances into my worlds of make believe. Just know that I will always come back because you make reality the best place to be.
I love you xxx
Other books in the EVO Nation Series:
EVO Nation: Book One
Available via Amazon Kindle or Kindle Unlimited
CHAPTER ONE
When Jude said he had a yacht, he wasn’t lying. Mansion on water is the term I would use. Under different circumstances I’d appreciate the luxury more, but being on the run and using her as a hideout, makes her nothing more than a glorified safe house.
I sit sideways with my legs over Adam’s lap, my head resting on his shoulder. He holds his hand just in front of my face and I play with the blue electricity dancing in his palm, enjoying the satisfying buzz as the sparks caress my fingertips. We don’t talk, we don’t have to. There is something intimate and absorbed in experiencing his gentleness with an otherwise deadly ability.
“Do you two have to do that?” Jude moans, walking by. “If you electrocute my little Telekin—”
“I would die before I hurt her,” Adam interrupts.
Jude stops, his eyes flicking between Adam and I. “I know.” His face is sincere, if not a little sad. He restlessly scruffs at his long, dark hair and ties it back into a man bun.
He lost Tess for a second time last night. Once is enough for anyone, but twice is plain cruelty. I’ve read his mind and I know how much he loved her. Even after six years believing she was dead he still loved her.
I get up and wrap my arms around him. He holds me back- really holds me- not the restrained embrace I experienced time and time again from Isaac. The thought of that man turns my guts. How could he pretend to be my father knowing he was going to sacrifice me for his sick plan to dominate the Non-EVO? I’m glad he’s dead and I’m glad it was me who killed him.
I squeeze a little tighter, bringing my thoughts back to Jude. I’m focussed now the rose-tinted glasses are gone, and I know Jude is genuine. He is my Uncle- my blood.
“I’m sorry about Tess,” I say into his ear.
He pats my back and walks away. I get that he doesn’t want to talk about it and I respect that. It’s best to leave him to pour himself a drink and drown his sorrows until he can face them. I know from witnessing my Mum, Shana’s, downfall that alcohol is never the answer, but who am I to tell anyone how to grieve? I’m not even sure I know how.
We’re the only ones awake. I can’t sleep. My head aches from crying and every time I close my eyes I see dead faces; Golding’s and Haydn’s most vividly. Once we made it to the yacht in the early hours of the morning, time stood still. You could have been fooled into thinking that it was all a bad dream, if not for the pain and fear that hung in the air like a bad smell. I didn’t speak one word all day- I couldn’t. It was only when everyone headed to bed a few hours ago that I felt I could finally breathe.
Although huge, the yacht hasn’t been built to sleep eleven people. Maggie, Yana, and October have bunked up in the master. Emiko and Wheeler have taken the double, and the two men who escaped the complex with us, Fabian Nuti an Aerokin, and Dom Cooper a Pyrokin, are top and tailing in the third room. Seth and Jude have taken the sofas.
Adam and I have the corner couch to ourselves. I stretch out, resting my head on his lap. His fingers trace the outline of the dressing on my back, another set of stitches to match my arm. Considering everything that happened last night, a piece of glass in my back is a mild escape. What I wouldn’t give to bring back Golding and Haydn- Tess too. I thought, at the time, that killing Isaac would be vengeance enough, but it was far from it. It hasn’t brought my friends back. It hasn’t erased these last fourteen days. Fourteen days- it feels like a lifetime.
“I think you should take the pills Jude offered. You need to sleep and they worked for Yana,” Adam whispers.
I shake my head. “I’ve had enough of being drugged for one lifetime.”
“I know, but I’m right here—”
“And having you here is enough,” I say. “I’ll try to sleep if it’ll make you feel better.” He nods, sliding down to lie face to face with me. Taking his hand, I bring it up to my chest. “Will you do it again? It’s comforting.”
A dim, blue glow of electrokinesis emanates from his palm, illuminating his brown skin and green eyes beautifully. I could happily stare at him for the rest of the night, but the pulse of energy in my fingers, and his hot breath against my skin makes my eyelids heavy.
***
I’m dreaming. I must be dreaming because I’m back on the rooftop. Tess’ body lies frail and lifeless on the hospital bed. I switch her life support back on, but there is no change on the monitors.
I’m alone. Isaac is where I left him at the bottom of the pool below me. It’s easy to look at him; the man who had everyone fooled. As I watch his face ripple under the water, I’m sure I see it contort into a twisted smile. ‘I’ve won,’ he’s saying.
My attention is broken by the sound of footsteps coming up the stairwell to the rooftop. Spinning around with my hand outstretched to the door, I wait. My own heartbeat drowns out any other sound.
The door swings open and Golding breezes through- blonde Mohawk, thick eyeliner, and all. I swear my heart has stopped beating if only for a split second. I race the length of the roof. My best friend is right here and he is alive. I have to get to him.
The sound of my footsteps thundering over the gravelly surface of the roof startles him, and his head snaps in my direction. A shriek catches in my throat and I stumble, skidding on my stomach until I stop at his feet.
It’s not real. It’s not real. It’s not real.
“But this is real, Teds?” says Golding’s voice, answering my private thoughts. “I’m dead- kicked the bucket- popped my clogs- croaked it- snuffed it. And you left me behind just like you did your Dad and Haydn.”
“I’m sorry,” I say,
barely louder than a whisper. “We had to leave you.”
His grey face has a mummified, leathery look of decomposition to it. My lip trembles, but I manage to hold in my screams. It’s happening again, exactly as it did when I was under the hallucination at Facility One and saw my Dad’s eyeless, rotted face.
“They say you’re a powerful Dual EVO, Teddie. Why didn’t you save me? You could have saved me. You said I was your best friend, and yet, you let me die.”
Burying my face into my forearms I chant, “You’re not Golding. You’re not Golding,” over and over again.
“Look at me, Teds!” he screams. “Everyone around you ends up like me. Who is next- Yana, Maggie...Adam?”
I clutch my hands to my ears. “Shut up, you’re not Golding!” I scream. “Shut up!”
There is silence. I open my eyes and see Golding stood not a metre away from me, his hands grappling at the collar around his neck, and a look of fear in his eyes. His face is normal, beautiful, scared.
He drops to his knees right in front of me. “Am I going to die, Teddie?” he whispers. The exact words he said last night.
“Please don’t make me relive this,” I scream at nothing. I crawl to him, wrapping him in my embrace. “I can’t go through this again.”
“I love you, Teds. Make sure you finish this,” he says, smiling through tears.
This is too real. He kisses me and his body falls limp in my arms. I scream and scream and scream.
“Teddie, wake up,” says Adam’s distant voice, his soft tones rippling through me like water. “Wake up, Teds.”
I start awake to the couch shaking violently. Seth is sprawled on the floor in a tangle of blankets and cushions. The pictures drop from their positions on the walls, and Jude holds the coffee pot in place whilst trying to brace against the cupboards. My first thought is an earthquake, but it can’t be because we’re at sea.
“It was just a dream, Baby,” Adam soothes. Both his hands cup my face. “Calm down.”
I’m causing this. I pull my telekinesis back and the shaking stops. Beads of sweat have materialised on Adam’s face and his thumbs stroke away the tears on my own. My heartbeat thuds throughout my whole body, followed by hollowness at reliving Golding’s death.
Everyone has filed into the lounge area looking shocked and dishevelled from their violent wake up call.
“What’s going on?” asks Wheeler. His dark, curly hair has the look of a bird’s nest.
“Everyone go back to bed. It was nothing,” says Jude, resting a gentle hand on my head.
“She did this, didn’t she?” snaps Cooper, gesturing at the destruction. “Are you trying to kill us in our sleep, Telekin? God knows what Tess has done to her, but she clearly isn’t in control. We’re not safe with her on the yacht.”
Adam tenses at his words. “Well, you better start swimming then.”
Cooper’s chest puffs out. He’s a muscular man, not as tall as Adam, but I’m sure he can handle his own. His dark hair is short and messy, and he has a mousey brown beard that adds years to his face. Yesterday, he told October that he was twenty-five, but I’m not one hundred percent sure that he was being truthful. He has an unnerving habit of playing with fire. He’ll click his fingers and let the flames dance in his palm. He seems unhinged, and common sense tells me that fire and recklessness shouldn’t be mixed.
“I’m just saying what everyone is thinking,” Cooper says, holding his hands in the air.
“If you agree with Cooper put your hands up,” says Adam. Not a single hand rises. “That settles it. Keep your mouth shut or I’ll shut it for you.”
Cooper strides up to us, pointing a finger in Adam’s face. “Is that a threat, Lovick?”
Adam stands, squaring up to him. “No, it’s a promise.”
Cooper’s lips twist slightly and he shoves Adam hard in the chest. Adam staggers, but remains standing and shoves him back. Punches start flying as they scuffle, and in one swift movement Adam has Cooper in a headlock. The look on Cooper’s face is worth photographing; he underestimated Adam. It’s moments like this when I see the TORO training he has in him. Cooper struggles to free himself as Adam squeezes tighter.
Jude holds out his hand and they both fly away from each other, Cooper clattering into the fold down table, and Adam landing on the couch beside me.
“As far as I’m concerned the only person welcome on this boat is Teddie,” says Jude. “If you have a problem with her, you have a problem with me, and I won’t think twice about kicking your asses overboard. So, if you don’t want to die in the middle of the ocean, put up and shut up. You got it?” He carries on pouring his drink as if he hasn’t just threatened to drown a yacht full of people. “Anyone want a coffee?”
Cooper straightens his t-shirt and pushes passed Fabian into the bedroom.
Adam takes my hand and leads me up the stairs to the deck. I don’t refuse; I need fresh air and to be away from the mess of my dream downstairs.
The sea has the quiet, stillness of dawn, and a blue haze fills the sky; the second sunrise without Golding and Haydn. How can life keep moving on when so many pieces of my heart are stuck in different times?
Adam sits on a lounger, pulling me down with him. “Sorry, but Cooper has been sniping about you since we got on this bloody boat. The guy’s an asshole.”
“You never have to apologise for having my back,” I say, resting my head against the warmth of his neck.
He smiles and lowers his mouth to mine. His lips are the best place to be. I can be so totally absorbed in him that everything else fades away.
He pulls away slowly, lifting my chin. “You know that Golding would want you to be safe, right? We had to leave him.” His eyes search mine. “And you are not to blame. Isaac killed him. You did what Golding asked- you finished it.”
“How’d you know...Oh my God, did I share my dream with you? I’m sorry, I can’t control the telepathy. Cooper’s right, Tess has done something to me and I have no idea what to do with it.”
Adam moves his hands to my neck. “You can share anything with me. No matter what, you can tell me anything or show me anything. We’ll figure this out.”
I press my mouth to his again, running my fingers up his arms and over his stubbly neck. “You make me feel better. You’re the glue that stops me falling apart.”
The sun has started to crest on the horizon. Adam laces his fingers in my hair and fans it out, so the sunlight filters through, streaking his face in strips of shadow and amber light. “You’re beautiful,” he says, barely louder than a whisper. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
I lean in closer to reply, but the door to the stairs bursts open and Yana rushes out.
“You two might want to see this,” she says, her Swedish accent stronger due to anxiety. Her slender, shaking hands push her blonde hair off of her sweat slickened forehead. “The British government has just broadcast.”
CHAPTER TWO
Someone has done a good job of tidying the mess I made. You wouldn’t have known anything had happened if not for Cooper’s face of thunder. A laptop sits on the breakfast bar and everyone has gathered around it.
“Is it safe to have that on board?” asks Wheeler.
“This is technically an E.N.C boat. No one can track the signal, well, not easily anyway. My contact just sent me this,” Jude says, opening an email. “I think it’s someone you Facility One kids are familiar with.”
A news reporter introduces footage of Sergeant Major Towley. His face is still as slimy as ever, although, he looks tired and on edge. His usual mousey hair is a little ruffled, and his small eyes appear puffy and red. Every time I saw Towley he was pressed to perfection- ugly, slimy perfection. This image betrays his stress.
“I have been informed by British intelligence that Isaac Woodman has been killed along with numerous EVO Nation Corp supporters. British and Italian intelligence traced Woodman to his headquarters in Italy last night, and Italian special operative teams stormed what we
believe to be an EVO hotel complex. Woodman was pronounced dead after being eliminated by a special operative, and I have also received confirmation that the Dual- EVO was found deceased at the scene. As for the situation in Britain at present, we will maintain a state of martial law for the foreseeable future, and we urge all citizens, Non- EVO and EVO, to cooperate with the military on this. I have no further details.”
The footage ends, yet Towley’s voice lingers in my mind.
“Why is Towley addressing the press? The UK is under martial law, shouldn’t the Chief of the General Staff...” Adam’s sentence trails to nothing. “Tell me that Towley’s not Chief of the General Staff.”
Jude raises an eyebrow.
“Where’s Bramwell?” Wheeler asks. He looks just as shocked as Adam.
“Bramwell’s EVO, hence the new General Sir Towley.”
“What did they do to him?” I ask.
“He took early retirement and they clubbed together to buy him carriage clock. Seriously, Princess, what do you think they did to him?”
I hold up my hands in submission. It was a ridiculous question to ask. I expect all EVO in positions of power have been ‘dealt’ with accordingly.
“Towley shouldn’t be in that position,” Adam continues. “It makes no sense.”
Jude pinches the bridge of his nose. “Government see Towley as top dog where EVO are concerned. Who better? It’s a time of many changes. The British military aren’t exempt in that.”
“Why are they taking credit for Isaac’s death?” Emiko asks. Even when she is tired and make-up free Emiko is a Japanese beauty, and even more annoyingly, she’s smart with it.
“It makes them look good,” says Fabian, his Italian accent is as smooth as butter.
I would place him in his late twenties, with floppy blonde hair, brown eyes, and a surfer vibe. He moves a napkin around the table with an invisible breeze emanating from his palm. These E.N.C guys definitely have restless personalities.
“If it was to get out that Isaac was killed by an EVO it would only make us look less intimidating. They want the Norms to fear EVO. I think that your government has been waiting for a reason to start this war for a long time. This will spread worldwide- it is already spreading worldwide as we speak,” he continues.
EVO Shift: EVO Nation Series: Book Two Page 1
