“I think she’s one of us,” Marissa said thoughtfully. “We were watching her and then she just disappeared... well, not like turned invisible or anything, but we suddenly couldn’t see her anywhere, so either someone turned her into air and made sure she flew low enough not be seen or she did it herself. The cops actually showed up to try to disperse the crowd and arrest her for disturbing the public peace and for an illegal gathering, but she managed to escape.”
“Wait, you were at that gathering. What did she say? Did you see her use mind control on people? If she can do that, she could turn everyone against us.”
“No,” Marissa said. “We didn’t see any shimmering or any signs of one of us with her. She was merely talking about the danger that tainteds represent for our society and said that more should be done to catch the murderers. When the cops showed up, she yelled something about the government being mind-controlled and protecting the bad guys. And she called you and Jaiden cowards for not showing up. The crowd was mostly cheering for her, but only her supporters came, anyway.”
“How many of them?”
“Maybe a thousand or so.” Marissa cringed. “They were yelling vile things.”
“Do you think she mind-controlled them to support her?” Ashley asked. “Could she do that to a thousand people?”
“I don’t think she had to do that. Some people actually agree with her,” I said.
“But if she’s one of us, why rile everyone up? Sooner or later someone will find out about her and tell the press all about it.” Marissa’s forehead wrinkled.
“Not if she gets rid of Jack Maiers and everyone who knows about her, or if she mind-controls her enemies. Maybe that’s why she’s not using her elements in public, because then tainted elementals could see her.”
“Well, if Jack told you two, then she’s not really doing a great job, is she?” Noah said.
“But we don’t know when he was mind-controlled,” I said. “It could’ve been while Sophia was still inexperienced with her abilities, or it was someone else. Maybe the same person who mind-controlled Jaiden into letting Jack go.”
“What? Someone mind-controlled you?” Noah’s eyebrows shot up as he looked at Jaiden.
“Let’s not talk about that now,” Jaiden said. “We don’t know what Sophia is capable of or what her ultimate goal is, but now we know we don’t have to engage her, just make sure we catch her when she’s being careless and get proof against her.”
“Okay,” Noah said. “How do we do that?”
“We follow her,” I said.
“And how are we going to know where she is unless she announces it?” Sam asked.
“We’ll try to track her elemental energy. If she’s one of us, that should work,” I said. “Jack has some devices that we could use.”
“But if she isn’t using her elements...” Marissa started.
“She’s probably using them when she thinks no one can see her, or at least someone around her could be using theirs. Those elementals who attacked us might be like us, or maybe not. But they were still using their elements, so maybe Sophia doesn’t want to use hers because she doesn’t want to hurt people or something... if she’s telling the truth about that. But elements are probably being used in some form to keep her out of everyone’s reach.”
“And how are we going to keep ourselves out of the cops’ reach?” Noah said. “Especially you and Jaiden.”
“We’ll have to use disguises,” I said. “And we’ll have to be very careful with using our elements. And I hope the cops have worse tracking devices than Jack because I’m sure there are tons of energy spikes all over the city now that everyone is upset about this.”
“Maybe Sophia does us a favor and announces her next public appearance,” Noah said. “That would be so much easier.”
“Yeah, but I doubt we’ll be that lucky. Just get ready.”
“And what if one us could infiltrate Sophia’s group and get what we need?” Ashley said. “Surely we could ask around and find out how to join.”
“No, she’d be suspicious,” I said. “And if she has a mind controller with her or can do it herself, I’m sure she’s using it to make sure there aren’t any spies in her group. We’ll stick to our plan. We don’t want to fight her in the open where people could accuse us of being the bad guys. We’ll just find a way to expose her, okay? When I find out who that Terry guy is, I’ll send you his photo or description so we can look for him too.”
Everyone nodded, and Noah looked up at me.
“I met two new tainteds,” he said. “They’re just kids, but they don’t seem like bad people.”
“Okay, do they need help or anything?”
“I found them a safe place to stay and taught them how to hide their elements so others couldn’t see them, but other than that... I’m not sure what to do with them.”
“We’ll figure something out later.”
“Sure.”
“Is there anything we can do to help?” my dad asked, putting his arm around my mom’s waist.
“Yeah, since Lily can’t help us, I hope you’ll be able to track elemental energy once we get the device for it.” I knew my parents didn’t want to be excluded, but I also didn’t want them in danger, so the safest for them was to stay here and monitor energy levels. We needed someone for that anyway.
“Sounds good,” my dad said.
“Honey, I know I keep saying it, but please be careful,” my mom said.
“I will.” I looked at Jaiden. “Let’s go. We need to find a good disguise.” Actually, we needed it to hide from everyone, not just from Sophia.
“We need weapons too,” he said. “I don’t want to rely on our elements only to find out we can’t use them.”
“Do you think she hates us and what she is so much that she wouldn’t want to use her own elements, or even that she’d choose to block them somehow?” I asked as Jaiden and I strolled down the hallway.
He shrugged. “I don’t know, but we should be prepared for anything.”
“Right.” I wished I could understand Sophia’s mind. Knowing what tainted elementals could do was scary, but couldn’t she also see that Jack was the one responsible for everything? Sure, she promised to stop him too, but she didn’t mention him in her speeches or ask people to hunt him down. And how had she even sent him that message?
She could have gotten her revenge on him months ago or when Jaiden had unwillingly freed him, but why hadn’t she? Was there something she needed from Jack first? And if there was, what could it be? Then again, maybe she only wanted him to see his dream fall apart as everyone hunted down tainteds instead of wanting to become like them.
“What did your father say Terry’s last name was?” I asked as we reached the computer.
“Garrly,” Jaiden said, settling in one of the chairs next to me.
“Okay, let’s see if we have any luck with him.” I wasn’t overly excited because without Lily’s superior equipment, we could only use public searches, and I doubted Terry had a social media profile. Still, maybe he’d gone to college like Sophia or participated in something else. Although, if he’d done it under a different name, we still wouldn’t be able to find him.
“We should check Sophia’s given name too.” Jaiden squinted at the bright screen as I scrolled through the search results. “If we don’t find anything, we’ll have to ask my father for help.”
I groaned. “Yeah, he’ll be so pleased about that.” Letting go of the mouse, I shook my head. “This is pointless. Even if there’s an old address for them, I don’t think they’ll be hiding there. And somehow I don’t think we’d find any family members either.”
Jaiden lifted his head. “Then I guess we’ll have to use our elements.”
“Use them how?” I raised an eyebrow at him.
“My elements are pretty strong right now. I think I could connect to the minds of passersby and check if anyone had seen Sophia after she disappeared from the square. If they don’t know anything, they
’ll just go on with their business, and if they do, they’ll approach us, tell us, and forget it ever happened.”
“Um, we don’t know how much energy that serum gave you, but wouldn’t that cause a big spike of energy?”
“Not if we find a way to mask it...”
“Or make sure they can’t track us.” A slow smile spread across my lips.
“What do you mean?” Jaiden gave me a curious look.
“We’re going to send someone to destroy the cops’ tracking system. Only one station has it, right? All we need is for one person to disrupt the power grid.”
“Yeah, but sneaking into the station is tricky if they have other types of detectors or if the building goes into immediate lockdown.”
“That doesn’t matter if the elemental doesn’t go inside,” I said. “Their electricity comes from a power plant. There have to be some wires or something that can be disconnected or destroyed.”
“But how do we find those?” Jaiden frowned.
“We can help with that,” my mom said from the door.
“You can?” I turned toward her and Dad.
“Yeah.”
“Great.” I got to my feet so I could free the computer for my mom. “Are you sure this old thing can do all that?”
“Oh, it looks old, but it’s good,” my mom said.
“Okay then.” I faced Jaiden, who stood up. “We should contact Nick about this. Sounds like a good job for him.”
Jaiden nodded. “He could definitely cut some wires or cause something to explode.”
“Good.” It was time to go find Sophia, before she or someone else hunted us down.
Chapter 14
Once we were ready to go, Jaiden and I looked at each other.
“You look... different,” I said, staring at his light blue eyes that were looking at me from under a dark green hoodie.
“Good.” He offered me a smile, and at least that seemed familiar. “You look fine as usual.” He gave me a quick once over. I’d used green contacts to hide my eyes and I’d tucked my long brown hair under a blond, curly wig. My black leather jacket was tightly hugging my body, and my black sneakers and pants were comfy enough in case I needed to fight.
Jaiden took a phone out of the pocket of his dark blue jeans and stared at the screen. “Do I really have to call him?”
“Yeah, we don’t have a choice. He’s the only one who can get us a photo of Terry. I’m sure he has it somewhere in his old files.” It didn’t make me happy that we had to rely on Jaiden’s father for information, especially when we couldn’t make sure that he wasn’t being mind-controlled or lying, but there was no other way we could obtain a photo of Terry without losing too much of our precious time. Besides, we didn’t even know where to look for it.
“Fine.” He sighed, his shoulders slumped, and he lifted the phone to his ear. While he was waiting for his father to pick up, I headed to the computer room to check on my parents.
“Honey, you...” My mom gaped at me. “It’s like you’re a completely different person.”
“I know. Guess the disguise is good.” A smile crossed my lips.
“Yep, it’s perfect,” my dad said, his lips spread into a smile, but there were lines around his eyes that told me he was still worried about me.
“I’ll need you to alert me if there are any big spikes of energy,” I said.
My mom bobbed her head. I sensed a presence behind me, and turned to see Jaiden at the door.
“We can go, I got the photo.”
With a reassuring smile at my parents, I followed Jaiden into the hallway. He handed me the phone and I checked the photo. Terry was a guy with short, curly black hair, and hazel eyes. His dark stubble made him look older than he was. “Any other info on him?”
“My father wasn’t really forthcoming.” He rolled his eyes. “But Terry should be around Sophia’s age, and he doesn’t have any family. My father says he didn’t care about the rest, so there wasn’t anything else in his files.”
“Wonderful.” But at least we knew who we were looking for... if this guy was indeed working with Sophia and had been another experiment.
“Come on.” Jaiden let his air envelop his body. I did the same, and we flew out into the dark, chilly night. After we materialized in one of the allies, my phone vibrated and I immediately answered.
“Hey, it’s me,” Nick said. “I destroyed the cops’ tracking system. Well, I think I did. The power is off and I think it killed the device because there was smoke coming from the inside. I guess most of their devices died.” There was a satisfied undertone in his voice.
“Good, thanks. Guess that means we can use our elements more freely now.”
“Yeah, but it works in Sophia’s favor too. Now she can attack or do something without having to worry about the cops.”
“I know.” Not that Sophia seemed particularly worried since she had basically paraded all over the square. I had no idea how many people worked for her, but then again, maybe she was mind-controlling them, so of course she could have a ton of followers and didn’t have to worry about anything. Her connections could all be a result of mind control rather than some agreements or friendships.
“What should I do now?” Nick asked.
“Stick around. Make sure the cops don’t fix the device too soon.” I didn’t want to count on the device not working if it turned out to be some kind of a super device that could withstand a lot of damage yet still work. Although, if the cops had it, then it was more likely crap and not overly sophisticated. They lacked the funds rich men like Jack had. I ended the call, pocketed my phone, and turned toward Jaiden. “Nick did it. We can use our elements now.”
We walked the busy streets, keeping our eyes wide open for anything suspicious. I didn’t know if Sophia would appear anywhere nearby, but maybe someone had seen her at some point. Still, finding that out was harder than expected. Since we had to make sure other tainteds who worked for Sophia couldn’t see our shimmering threads and cause panic or attack us, we had to be careful with our elements.
As a woman passed close to Jaiden, his arm brushed hers, his shimmering thread slipping under the sleeve of her coat and rushing toward her head. Since she didn’t stop, we knew she hadn’t seen Sophia. For a moment, I wished we could just read minds, although the idea that someone could do it to me didn’t sound appealing at all.
Lowering my shimmering thread to the ground, I slowly led it toward the man who was walking in my direction. He didn’t even flinch when my air snuck into his mind, but he just passed by, as if nothing had happened. Had no one seen Sophia around here or was everyone just passing through and didn’t come here regularly?
One girl flinched as Jaiden’s element tried to reach her, her hand shooting for her head, and she squinted her eyes. “God!” she cried out, and the friend who was with her placed a hand on her back.
“What’s wrong?” the blonde asked, concern flashing across her features. Jaiden immediately withdrew his element.
“I just had the worst headache.” She straightened her back. “But it’s gone now.”
“One of us?” I whispered as we made our way down the street.
“Most likely. She looks the age.”
“I really hope your father didn’t have any more successful experiments on adults.” Especially the Sophia kind of crazy ones.
“Me too.”
My phone went off again. “Yeah?”
“There was a spike of energy. Not too big, but enough to be noticeable,” my mom said. “Since you answered the phone, I assume it’s not you causing the spike.”
Jaiden and I had been using our elements, but that shouldn’t have caused too large of a spike. “Can you tell me where it was? It might have been us.” Maybe Jaiden’s improved elements left a stronger spike than before, not that his father had bothered to point out any possible side effects of the new serum.
“I’ll send you the map.” My mom ended the call and a couple of moments later an image flashe
d on the screen. Jaiden leaned over the phone, inspecting the map.
“That’s two blocks away,” he said.
“Yeah. We should check it out.” I slipped the phone back into my pocket and we strode down the street, not willing to risk flying and being seen by Sophia’s men. We reached a crowd in one of the alleys, a big fire lit at the end. The fire had to be elemental, so that was why it had caused an energy spike. People were huddled close together, and they were chatting very loudly, so it seemed impossible to get through them and reach the fire to see what was going on. Maybe it was just a party or a gathering.
“I’ll go check that side.” Jaiden pointed to the left, and I nodded. Squeezing myself between two people with beer cups in their hands, I advanced toward the fire, lifting myself up on my toes to try to see over people’s heads.
“Thanks everyone for meeting me here.” Sophia’s voice rang out and everything quieted for a moment. “We must show those tainteds that we’re not afraid of them and that we’ll protect our city with all we’ve got. They won’t conquer us!”
The crowd raised their arms and cheered loudly, and I clenched my teeth together. If they knew she was one of us... but yelling it out wouldn’t do any good, because I was sure I couldn’t prove it. And the angry mob would be on me in a second. Elbowing my way through the crowd, I tried to get closer to Sophia, but people were standing too close together.
“I can’t stay for long, my friends,” Sophia said. “I have important work to do. Those two cowards need to be caught!”
The crowd cheered Sophia’s name and I finally pushed my way through, just as Sophia was walking off a small, makeshift stage, hiding in between a group of men, who were probably her guards. Straining my neck, I saw her pulling a black hoodie over her head and walking away while another girl took her place in between the guards. Where was she going? Would she really go anywhere unprotected?
Hunted (Tainted Elements, #5) Page 8
