“Congratulations, you have survived, but what now, Teddie? Without my sister you are nothing.”
“You don’t get to walk away from this,” I say, telepathically, wrenching the device from my head and launching it at him.
He skips out of the way as it smashes on the floor. “You really are a naive, little girl, aren’t you? Don’t you see? Even without Tess I have won. We’re out and proud.”
“Or you have just killed us all,” I say, out loud. “You won’t get away with this.”
He rolls his eyes and in a split second I am shrouded in his energy blast. I feel it compressing my bones. I can’t breathe. The pressure on my skull is immense.
I retaliate, blasting my telekinesis out from my skin, pushing Isaac’s energy away. His steely expression falters. My telekinesis forces his energy back further, wrapping it around his own body. He can know what it feels like for a change. He staggers, releasing his force on me and I slam into the roof.
“Did my little sis leave you with a parting gift?” he asks, panting. “Okay, let’s see what you’ve got.”
I brace for another energy blast, but instead he runs to the edge of the roof. Adam flies backward slamming into a wall, crumpling to the floor unconscious. Isaac laughs to himself, and Adam’s lifeless body soars through the air, plunging into the pool. Wheeler and Jude race to the water, but are catapulted away. Adam floats face down, unmoving. No one can get to him. I need to help him, he’s drowning.
“I will kill each of them in turn and by the time I’m done you’ll be begging for death,” Isaac says, through his teeth.
There it is- that rage burning through my veins again. No more playing games. I thrust myself toward Isaac, landing face to face with him, grabbing at his shirt before he can use his ability against me. I don’t think, I just launch both of us over the edge of the roof and we sail through the night sky.
Time appears to slow as I hold us suspended above the pool below. Reaching my telekinesis down to Adam’s lifeless body, I feel the warm crackle of electricity run through me. I lift him from the water and lower him on the tiles. He stirs, his eyes meeting mine in a blaze of love and panic.
I enter Isaac’s head. It is easier now. Tess has opened the flood gates. “You can blame Roscoe, Norah, anyone who wronged you, but your hatred is all your own. It was yours to let go, just as it was yours to nurture into this evil that has enabled you to murder your own family.”
“You know nothing of the torture I feel,” he screams into the night air.
“Oh I do. In fact, I know it tenfold.” Taking all the pain that aches in my chest for Golding, for my parents, for Haydn, I force it into his mind. Every ounce of my heart break will imprint into his soul.
“Do you feel that?” I’m now physically screaming at him. “Do you feel that pain? I let go of his jacket and he hovers just below me. “That’s the pain you’ve put me through. You’re just as much a monster as Roscoe.”
“If you kill me, you’re no better than me, no better than Roscoe,” Isaac says, sneering. He shakes his wet hair out of his face, his teeth bearing under his thin, twisted lips.
“Maybe it takes a monster to kill a monster,” I scream, and then I release my hold on him.
He tumbles away from me. He doesn’t even bother to fight it. The tendrils of my ability reach down to him, holding his thrashing body under the water. I hold firmer, firmer, firmer until his fight dissipates. My nose bleeds in a watery stream down my mouth and chin and I’m weak, but I will not let up until I’m sure the life has left him.
“Adam, the water!” shouts Jude.
Adam stumbles forward, sending a blast into the pool. Isaac’s body convulses violently as volts shoot through him in waves of blue and brilliant white. After a few seconds, the blue sparks retreat back into Adam’s palms and the water goes dark once more. The pool lights spark and wane to nothing.
I force myself higher into the air, and using the building as an anchor, I lower myself back onto the rooftop beside Golding. I levitate him into my arms and shake him again. He is gone. Clenching my eyes shut, I try telepathy, but there is no trace of him. A guttural, pain-filled cry rips out of my throat. I walk him to the edge of the roof and I lower us both to the ground.
“He’s not dead. He’s not dead,” Yana chants to herself.
Adam’s arms wrap around my shoulders and he presses his face into my hair. I cry harder, rocking Golding back and forth on my lap.
Maggie places a finger on the side of Golding’s neck and shakes her head, her cheeks streaked with tears. Yana wails and collapses into Wheeler.
Jude steps forward, slowly prizing my fingers from Golding’s shirt, loosening him from my grip. He lays him on the warm tiles and closes his eyes with two fingers.
“He’s just sleeping,” I scream, grasping for Golding again. “Maggie tell them!” I look to her, but she shakes her head. Another agonising wail bursts from my throat. I lie down beside Golding, wrapping an arm over his body. “He’s okay. He’ll be okay.”
“You have to let go of him, Baby,” Adam soothes, lifting me away from Golding’s body.
“I can’t leave him here.” My whole body trembles from shock. “He can’t be dead.”
The gate screeches open and a van roars into the complex. Emiko and Seth jump out.
“Hurry,” Emiko shouts.
Seth searches for Golding, finally seeing the devastation of the lifeless body lying at the poolside. He begins to fall, but Jude grabs him around the waist and wrestles him into the van with the rest of us.
“We can’t be here,” Wheeler shouts as Emiko speeds out of the gate.
***
The back of the van is dark. We sit huddled on the bare, metal floor. Adam’s shirt is wet from the pool, but I press my face into it regardless. He holds my head close to his chest, so I listen as his heart beat slows back to a normal rhythm. His free arm is around Seth. He sobs into Adam’s shoulder, and I feel Adam’s chest shudder from keeping his own emotions in check.
Eleven of us have escaped that place. Me, Adam, Wheeler, Jude, Yana, Maggie, Emiko, Seth, October, and two men from Jude’s meeting. The others must have fled once Tess killed the E.N.C members.
“We’ll all be on the CCTV,” says Wheeler. “What are we going to do?”
“We disappear. Although, I reckon we’re the least of their worries,” says Jude, handing over his mobile phone.
The images are of riots in London and every major city in the United Kingdom- fire and death everywhere. EVO and Non-EVO killing each other like animals.
“Isaac has got exactly what he wanted. Emiko head for the docks,” he says.
“He may have got what he wanted, but he also got what he deserved- a painful death,” I say.
***
Jude’s speed boat is moored on the jetty. We climb aboard whilst Adam and Wheeler release the lines. Jude turns on the engine, racing the boat out onto the moonlit ocean.
“I’ll take us to my yacht, we can plan our next move from there,” says Jude. He doesn’t sound convinced, but no one offers a better suggestion.
The boat bobs against the waves, the sea spray soaking everyone through. I slide my arms inside Adam’s wet shirt as he holds onto the side steadying us. His skin is cold and goose pimpled.
“Everything’s changed. I don’t know where I fit anymore.”
“Listen to me,” he says. “You fit right here.” He tucks me against his chest, his arm strong around my back. “This is home for both of us, okay?”
I nod. “I love you. I love you. I love you,” I say into his neck.
“I love you too, Baby.”
After what feels like an eternity, the dark outline of Jude’s yacht looms in the distance. It stands alone- silhouetted against the inky sky- isolated from the rest of world much like we are. For now, she can be our port in the storm.
END OF BOOK ONE
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EVO Nation: EVO Nation Series: Book One (science fiction/ urban fantasy) Page 29
