His hands slide up my jumper, and a breath escapes me. I move closer to him on my knees, lifting my arms, so he can slide it over my head. His hand trails down my neck and shoulder, leaving blue electricity dancing over my skin in his wake. I pull at his t-shirt until it slides free of his head. His torso is black and blue from the torture he endured at the hands of the government. I kiss the bruise on his chest, moving up to his throat. He groans, lacing his hand in my hair, tilting my head to him, and forcing his lips to mine. The room is aglow from the electrokinesis enveloping us like a lightning orb, and the hairs on my arms stand on end from static. I start to lift my vest over my head, but he pulls away.
“Maybe, I’m stronger too. I don’t know why, but this feels different. I’m losing control and I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t,” I say, kissing him again.
He succumbs a little to my persistence, and then forces me from him. “No, Teddie! How can you know that?”
“You didn’t scare me when I was five, and you don’t scare me now. I want you.” I kiss his shoulder and on up to his neck. His rasping breaths and rising chest spurs me on. More sparks jump from his skin to my lips.
“No!” he snaps, getting to his feet. “I can’t. I won’t hurt you.” He throws open the door to the en-suite. “I’m taking a shower,” he says, slamming the door behind him.
I flop onto the pillow in frustration. I can hear the water running in the shower, and I know he’s removing his clothes in there. I literally can’t think of anything else. Get a grip, woman. I pull the cushion over my face and growl with frustration. He won’t hurt me. I know he won’t. Yes, it felt different, stronger, but it felt right.
Sod this. I burst into the en-suite. Adam stands under the stream with his forehead pushed against the tiles. He looks at me in bewilderment.
“Don’t ask me how I know, but I just know that you won’t hurt me. Call it Telepath’s intuition,” I say. The water runs from him, and I can’t avert my eyes. I remove my vest and trousers, so I’m in nothing save my bra and knickers. With one click my bra falls to the floor.
He bites at his lower lip, fighting with his self-control.
“We’re linked, so to hurt me would be to hurt you. And more importantly, I am not going another minute without you touching me.” I step out of my knickers and kick them to the side of the room.
In one step, he is out of the shower and pulling me to his wet skin. As he kisses me, I feel a shift inside me, an unfamiliar power coursing through my veins. I dig my fingers harder into his flesh, pulling him closer, unsure of what to do with this power I feel. He exhales loudly. I’m not sure if it’s from pain or pleasure, but he grabs at my legs, wrapping them around his waist.
In the next instant, I’m under the hot stream of water. Adam smooths my wet hair out of my face- kissing me- pushing himself up against me. He takes my wrists, pinning them above my head with the one hand and searching my body with the other.
I glide my hands over his wet skin, the blue of electricity following my fingers.
“I love you,” I say straight into his mind. It doesn’t even feel like telepathy. It feels like we are one mind.
“I love you too, Baby,” he replies, but I already knew he was going to say it. I can pre-empt him, and him me.
As the rhythm builds, I can barely contain my abilities. I look up, and the droplets of water that fall from the shower no longer rain down on us; they hang in globules in the air above. Our entwined bodies are suspended in an orb of electricity and telekinetic energy. Only, the telekinesis is not my own- I’m not in control. I am linked, but separate at the same time. The bathroom furniture starts to shake violently and everything lurches into the air.
As his name bursts from my lips, Adam gasps, and we drop into the tub. The water falls on us in a torrent. The window shatters outward, and the crash sounds like thunder rolling throughout the house.
“That was me. I did that,” he says, panting. “How?” He holds out his hand and lifts the shattered mirror back onto the wall with an invisible force.
I watch in amazement, my heart beat drumming in my ears. I hold out my own hand and blue tendrils shoot from my palm. The mirror light blinks on before exploding in a shower of sparks. Adam holds my hands palms up, examining every inch of my skin and his. He ignites a blue spark in his palm just to ensure he still can.
“Have we gained each other’s abilities?” he says in my mind without me having to link. “Shit, I never meant to do that. Shit, I can’t stop.”
I’m as scared as hell, but I know how wayward my abilities can be. If he has the full force of my ability, he’s probably frightened to death. The telepathy alone can be like a hammer to the brain.
He clenches his eyes shut for a few moments, his breathing gradually slowing. When he opens his eyes, they blaze straight into me. “What does this mean?”
He helps me out of the tub with shaking hands. My legs don’t want to behave and I’m not sure if it’s from shock or Adam’s lasting effect on me.
The door swings open, and Crow and Cooper enter, guns raised. The others pile in behind. I jump behind Adam’s naked body and fold my arms across my bare chest, shielding myself with a small hand towel. Adam can do nothing, but cup his manhood. They avert their eyes, resting instead on the destruction, and the rain lashing into the room through the non-existent window.
“Are you okay, Teds?” Cooper asks. His look of concern makes Adam bristle. “Teddie, are you hurt?” he asks with more force, ignoring Adam’s glare.
“We’re fine,” I reply.
“Did you have some technical issues?” Brick says, laughing. I know they’re all thinking the same thing: we were getting down to business and I lost control. I suppose they’d be right, but it wasn’t just me.
“Don’t say anything,” I say to Adam.
Adam rubs at his lips. “Something like that.”
I sidle closer to him and feel his uneasy breathing and pounding heart. I look to Jude and Leoni and blow out my cheeks, hoping they’d understand my meaning from the look in my eye.
“Okay, let’s give them a little privacy, shall we?” Jude says, clapping his hands and ushering everyone out of the room. “Teddie must be embarrassed enough without you lot ogling her.”
Thanks for that Jude. If I wasn’t embarrassed before, I am now.
Crow looks over his shoulder. “You’re good, right?”
“Golden,” I reply without hesitation.
Jude, Leoni, Wheeler, and Cooper wait in the bedroom whilst we dry and dress.
“What was that about?” Leoni asks when we re-emerge.
Adam lifts the vanity table back to its correct position with an outstretched hand. Wheeler almost falls over, scrambling away in shock.
I step out from behind him, holding out my glowing hands; the electricity dances like flames in my palm.
“I have telepathy too, but I’m too bloody scared to use it. If Teddie struggles, I don’t stand a chance.” Adam adds.
“What the hell happened?” Jude asks.
I simply shrug. “It’s the link.”
“I hate to say I told you so,” Leoni says to Cooper.
Cooper holds his hands up and steps away. “You called it.”
“This has happened before?” Jude asks, mouth gaping.
“No,” Adam replies.
I twist my top in my hands. “Well...” Adam raises his eyebrows at me. “Kind of.”
“Teddie was linked with Adam during a nightmare whilst asleep in the van. She blew a pylon,” says Leoni.
“And you didn’t think to mention this?” Jude asks.
“I wasn’t certain until now.”
Jude sits on the bed, rubbing a hand over his unshaven chin. “This is beyond anything I experienced with Tess. I’m worried for you guys.”
“Me too,” says Leoni, straightening out my jumper. “You did nearly kill us in the van, Teddie. I’m not sure that un-manipulating you was such a wise idea.”
“Manipulating her in the first place wasn’t a wise idea,” says Jude. He’s not angry, just drained. “But the un-manipulation wouldn’t have made a difference. She was already un-manipulating herself. You just sped up the process.”
Leoni sits beside Jude, her shoulders sagging. “We need to think about this logically. This has gotten worse since you both have been reunited.”
Jude looks from Leoni, to Adam, and back to me. He nods his agreement, chewing his lip.
“Nothing you can say will make me leave her.” Adam takes my hand, pulling me toward the door.
Jude grabs Adam’s forearm. “No one is asking you to.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “You saw how wary Crow was, and rightly so. Maybe Adam and I should-”
“Should what? Leave?” Jude laughs at the thought. “Where would you go? You have no money, no contacts, and the world knows your faces. You’re safer here with us- with Shift.”
“But you might not be safe with us,” I say, sighing.
Leoni takes my face in her hands and kisses my forehead. “Just don’t admit that to anyone but us, okay? Jude’s right, you’re safer here. And I know how strong you both are. You can handle this.” She hugs us both, placing a hand on each of our faces, finally looking like the mother she has longed to be. “We’ll head out if needs be, but for now, we stay.”
Lizzie rushes into the room in a fluster. “TORO soldiers have just broken twenty-nine EVO children out of a detention centre fifty miles from here. That’s why they’re killing them. They’ve lost control of them.”
The scorched pile of TORO burns in my mind. That’s it. That’s why they’re murdering them. “Oh, my god. There is no one to maintain the TORO any longer. They’re un-manipulating themselves. That’s why they’re killing them.”
“How do you even know that?” Cooper asks Lizzie.
“Kesh has used his technokinesis to link to the device that I received all my communications from- Towley’s. Anytime that device sends a message or makes a call we will know about it. Crow has called a meeting. I think he wants to go after them and bring them back to Syndicate?”
Adam takes Leoni’s hand. “Those men will need your help, Mum.”
“I know, Sweetheart. I’ve seen the horrors locked inside your mind,” she says, following Crow and Lizzie out of the room.
It feels as if someone has tipped a bucket of water down my back. The icy chill spreads through my skin. I look to Adam, knowing the colour has drained from my face.
“I know, Baby,” he says. “Now that I have the telepathy, I’m going to start un-manipulating my conditioning memories from Facility One.”
My lower lip trembles and I clasp a hand to my mouth. “I’m so sorry.”
He places his hand over my heart. “We have time to figure something out.” He smiles, but I know it’s purely for my benefit.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Jude steps up to Crow. Crow’s bigger, but there has always been something intimidating about Jude. “Since when do you call the shots?”
This is a macho display if nothing else. Jude doesn’t want to take orders from a younger man. It doesn’t sit well with him. The corner of Crow’s mouth twitches with annoyance.
“Crow is our leader,” I say.
Jude scoffs, rubbing a hand over his unshaven chin. “Are you one of them. Have you chosen Shift?”
“She’s our little Cub,” Brick says, ruffling my hair.
“Whether you like it or not, you’re one of us too,” Crow says to Jude. “Syndicate don’t want you. Feel grateful that we’ve got a place for you. After all, you’re not exactly Shift loyal.”
Jude laughs. “Not a chance. My old man would turn in his grave.”
“Rafe would be proud of you,” Leoni says, kindly. “You’re not the man you were then.”
Although he hasn’t said as much, I know he’s accepting of his role in Shift. He’s just playing hard to get.
Cooper saunters passed Jude. “Why are you kicking up such a stink? You’re not the damn plan man, right?”
Jude swings for Cooper, connecting with his jaw. Cooper staggers, but quickly lunges back at him. Adam grabs Cooper, swinging him away from Jude.
I force myself between them- arms outstretched- telekinesis holding them apart. “Cooper, go and wait outside,” I bark at him. He’s toying with the idea of having another pop at Jude. I can see it in the way his fists clench and unclench. “Please, just wait outside. Do it for me, eh?”
He grunts in his throat and pulls out of Adam’s grip. “Fine,” he says, sauntering out the door.
“How the hell did you get him to do that?” October asks.
Jude snorts, wiping at his bloody nose. “Our Teds and Coop are best buddies now, ain’t ya, Princess?”
“What?” exclaims Seth. “You are m-m-mates now?”
He’s hurt. Cooper hasn’t done himself any favours in the way he treated them before, but if they only got to know him, then they’d know the truth. I can’t tell them his story, it’s not my place, but I can try and make them keep an open mind.
“He’s just a little misunderstood,” I say. Seth laughs, and I roll my eyes. “You don’t know what I know.”
“I know he can be a total prick,” Jude says, spitting blood out of the window. “Teddies, right though. He has a history.”
October gently brushes her hand over my forearm, reading my emotions. “You think highly of him, don’t you? He is important to you.” She looks a little perplexed. “It’s like you are family now?”
Adam lets out a nervous cough.
“He’s as good as my brother, and one of the best men I know.” I feel Adam tense beside me. I won’t lie to him or them. Cooper is important to me, and will be a big part of my life in the same way that they are. “He looked after me when I needed him. He taught me to fight, so I could protect myself from the Taggers who were hell bent on raping me, and he threw himself on top of the man who did this to my face before he could carve the word freak into my forehead. So yeah, he is important to me.”
A hush falls over the room. I’ve shocked them. Good.
“Right, let’s load those vans,” Brick says, breaking the tension.
***
The girls raid my wardrobe, making kind comments, but clearly appalled by my lack of fashion sense. Throwing my rucksack over my shoulder, I head downstairs, leaving them fighting over my jerseys.
Adam helps Brick and Pug load anything Crow deemed useful from the house. I expected to feel something more poignant when seeing parts of my old life get ripped up for dressings or broken down for firewood, but I feel nothing of significance.
“Baby, can you wake Cooper? He’s on the couch,” Adam calls from the van. “Kid’s too scared to try.”
“We don’t call him Psycho for nothing,” Kid shouts back.
Cooper lies in the foetal position. There is something about the way he sleeps that is childlike in nature.
I tap him on the head. “Oi, Asshole, time to wake up.”
He opens one eye, grunting and cursing at me to leave him be, so I shake his shoulder until he can’t ignore me any longer.
“Okay, I’m up. I was on watch with Pug until three, you know?”
“And Pug is up already and loading the vans.”
“Then, he’s a bloody fool.” He sits on the edge of the couch, rubbing at his eyes. “Are you alright after earlier? Adam’s worried. He asked me to help him keep an eye on you.”
“Did he speak with you?”
“Yeah. He came to me after the scuffle with Jude. He thanked me for taking care of you- blah blah blah.”
A weight lifts from my shoulders. “He trusts you now,” I say. “But I don’t need mothering, thanks all the same.”
“I told him that I weren’t your damn babysitter, and that you can look after yourself. He asked me to keep on with your fight training. I reckon he’d do it himself if he wasn’t such a pussy about hurting you.”
“He knows that you won
’t go easy on me. Besides, I’m up for another chance to pummel you.”
He raises his hand, and I block it effortlessly, only for him to crack me in the guts. “Pummel me, huh?”
I groan from the pain, and the corner lamp explodes, casting us into darkness. We both stare at each other.
“Let’s keep that between us,” Cooper says, getting to his feet.
“What was that?” Adam asks from the doorway. He switches on the main light, his eyes surveying the demolished lamp.
I bury my face into my hands. This is a bloody mess. I feel like I’m back at stage one, when I was unable to control my telekinesis. I could chalk it up to this house, it seems to bring out the worst in me, but in truth, it has never been the house. I have too much power to handle. How are we both going to cope with this?
I push my face into Adam’s chest. “What the hell are we going to do?”
Cooper slaps me on the back. “You blew a table lamp. Get over it. I blocked the toilet earlier and I ain’t worried.”
“I doubt you are,” I say, laughing.
He shrugs and heads out to the vans.
“When I was looking for candles, I came across some photographs in the dresser.” Adam pulls a photo from his pocket. “I thought you’d like to keep this one.”
He hands me a picture of Dad and I at the cove. I remember it clearly because it was my sixteenth birthday. He set up the tripod, we posed, and then the flash didn’t work. He fiddled with the buttons, and then came sprinting towards me because the timer had started again. The result was a picture of the pair of us in fits of laughter.
“I thought she burnt them all when she kicked him out,” I say, weeping. “Thank you.” I hold the picture against my heart, sobbing into my hand. “Adam, I need to go to the cove.”
***
The rocks are as wet as the night Dad and I made our escape down them. I don’t attempt them now. I just stand on the cliff edge, staring at the choppy sea below.
“Dad had a small speedboat moored to the rocks over there,” I tell Adam, pointing to the rocks that are barely visible through a sea fog. “The TORO were already on to us, so we swam for it. The chopper appeared from over there.” I point to the far cliffs. “Dad was shot in the chest, but he got us out of this cove and into the next.”
EVO Nation Series Trilogy Box Set Page 48
