Contained (Evolution Series Book 5) (16 page)

“Sounds about right.”

I laughed. “Seeya.”

“Bye.”

With a smile on my face, I transported back to Aiden. I ended up in a hotel room somewhere in the world where it was dark.

Aiden was sitting on the bed, his face stricken with worry.

I crawled up beside him and leaned my head against his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

He slipped his arm around me. “You have got to stop disappearing on me.”

“I know, I know,” I said. “But I’m also sorry about your parents. I didn’t want to come between you guys.”

“That’s not your fault.”

“Ah, yes it is.”

He shook his head. “No, it’s not.”

“You didn’t see Anna’s vision.”

“I didn’t need to.”

My heart was thumping against my chest. I knew I had to show him but I also feared what his reaction would be. “Yes. You do.”

Before he could say no again, I brought down my barrier and replayed the vision I’d seen through Anna’s mind and what I’d done to Mrs. Carson that morning.

Aiden’s eyes went wide but his grip around me stayed firm.

“I can’t believe you’re not even tempted to leave,” I said.

“I told you, I’m not going anywhere.”

“But what if I kill you.”

“You wouldn’t do that.”

“How do you know?”

“I just know.”

“But, you can’t just know.”

He twisted around to face me. “I can’t explain how, but I just know you would never hurt me. There has got to be a reason—”

“A reason why I’d do that!”

“How do you know that it’s even real? Or that Anna’s visions really will come true.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure Mrs. Carson would tell you they will. That’s if she was able to speak.”

“Even that doesn’t make sense to me. I mean, your vision showed you being conscious and walking away from the scene, and yet, you wake up not knowing anything about what you’ve supposedly done and there’s a team of army guys surrounding you.” He chuckled. “I bet your vision didn’t show you getting Tasered.”

My heart stopped. I had completely forgotten about getting Tasered. I hadn’t mentioned it to Harry, either, and I feared what that would’ve done to my baby. I quickly climbed out of bed. “I have to go see Harry. I forgot to tell him something.”

He edged out of bed. “I’ll come with you.”

“No,” I said, garnering a confused look from him. Hating myself for doing it, I quickly pushed inside Aiden’s mind and made him be okay with me going alone.

“I’ll be back soon,” I said then transported back to the room.

Harry looked up from his computer. “Back so soon.”

I sat down on the chair near him. “I was Tasered when I was at Mrs. Carson’s. Will that hurt the baby?”

Harry blinked a few times in surprise. “Ah… I’m not sure.”

“There’s something wrong with my baby?” How quickly I had turned from not wanting to believe there was a new life growing inside of me, that I wanted no part of, to worrying about the safety of my unborn child. I felt sick to my stomach with fear.

Harry put his hand on my shoulder. “Stop worrying about it until we know for sure.”

“And how long is that going to take?”

He ran his hand through his hair as he thought about what our options were. “Okay, you’re probably not going to like it.”

“Do it. I don’t care.”

“And we’ll also do a scan while we’re there.”

I nodded.

“Give me two minutes then transport to me, okay?”

“Okay.”

He looked at me with sorrow in his eyes. “We’ll know soon. I promise.”

Harry disappeared, leaving me alone with my thoughts. And boy, did they run wild. My stomach was churning. If I had killed my baby there was no way I could keep going, living in hope that I could control myself. My whole future was resting on the well being of the little one growing inside of me. I realised in that short time I wanted my baby more than anything. It deserved to live… “Shit,” I muttered realising that the next few minutes were going to be my defining moment. If my baby was dead, there would be no stopping me. I would seek revenge, not just for my baby but for every other next gen whose lives could be changed forever by the normals who were wanting to contain us.

It was probably the last chance I had to inject myself with the contents of the vial that was only metres away from me. But if I did, and my baby was alive, then for all I knew I could kill it by doing so. It was a catch twenty-two to the highest degree.

A mixture of fear, rage and power built within me. The man who Tasered me didn’t know it at the time but the consequences of his actions could mean the end of the world as he knew it. I wouldn’t take the drug. I would seek revenge.

It was time to find out the fate of the world. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly then transported to Harry.

My heart stopped the moment I saw the contraption before me. “I am not putting my feet in those,” I said pointing to some stirrup looking things that I’d seen in way too many pregnancy comedies.

Harry bit down on his smile. “Don’t worry, you won’t be needing to do that today, will she?”

I’d been too caught up in the contraption to realise we weren’t alone. Turning around I saw a middle aged man standing in the corner.

“No. She shouldn’t need to put her feet up there.”

“I thought it would be best for an expert to conduct the other test,”
Harry said.

I gave him a nod. Harry had already altered the minds of the obstetrician and his staff so that none of them would remember us ever being here. The doctor thought I was one of his regular patients and he was conducting an exam he’d organised days ago.

Dr. Nguyen went over to the cupboard and pulled out a sheet. “Now if you want to—”

Before he could tell me to take off my clothes, while they stepped out of the room of course, I quickly made him change his instructions. There was no way I was taking my pants off for ‘just in case’ he needed to do a certain examination; that was so never going to happen.

He put the sheet back in the cupboard none the wiser to my tampering. “Can I get you to lay down on the bed?”

“That I can do,” I said.

Harry tried to stifle his laugh but it came out anyway.

Doctor Nguyen gave him a curious look before turning his attention back to me. “Okay, first we’ll do the scan and then we’ll do the amniocentesis.”

My heart fluttered as he squeezed the gel onto my tummy. I knew it was stupid, considering there was a huge possibility that he wouldn’t pick up a heartbeat, but I couldn’t help it. If the baby was alive, it would be my first time to see her or him.

The doctor picked up the scanner thingy and pressed it against my skin.

I held my breath as the image on the screen became clearer. Tears welled in my eyes as I not only saw my baby for the first time, but I also heard its heart beat—and it was loud.

“Whoa,” Doctor Nguyen said, pulling back the transducer. “That is one strong heart beat.” He fiddled with the volume control on the machine before continuing with the exam.

As he moved the device around, I got to see all the little features that I didn’t think would be developed so early in the baby’s life, but they were. The machine was amazing. I could see so many details. Tiny little fingers moved around like a wave as if it knew we were watching and the Doctor had a hard time getting images of its back because every time he moved the scanner, the baby would turn with it.

My heart felt as if it were going to explode. I had never felt so much emotion and I only wished Aiden were there to experience it with me. But, there had been no way I was going to let him see that I had not only killed my dog and neighbour, torn up his family, but I’d also possibly killed his baby. Instead, I was going to wait a day or two for things to calm down and then give him the news. And I would arrange for another one of those scans so he, too, could see his little one—providing he wanted to be a part of its life.

The screen went blank and I realised the doctor had finished the exam. Everything was normal. Actually, everything was better than normal. There had been abnormal brain activity for a foetus at that stage of development, but both Harry and I had already expected that. If there was one thing we knew for sure, my baby wouldn’t be normal—even by next gen standards.

Harry thought there was still the slightest possibility that the Taser had done damage that we couldn’t see in the scan, but the images we’d just seen removed all my doubts and most of his. I knew in my heart that the baby was okay. Better than okay—perfect.

I breathed out a sigh of relief and looked over at Harry who was standing in the corner of the room, trying to contain his excitement. He looked like a kid on Christmas morning. Harry had watched every movement my baby made and his mind was reeling with possibilities of why that was. He knew my baby was special and couldn’t wait to see exactly what that meant.

A moment later the doctor returned with the biggest needle I’d ever seen. If I hadn’t had so many happy endorphins running through my body, I would’ve fainted from fear. But I was okay. I was more than okay. I wanted to confirm what my heart already knew. I wanted to know without a doubt that my baby was okay.

“Now, I’m not going to lie to you, this is going to hurt a little, but after the initial sting, it should be uncomfortable but bearable.”

“Okay.”

He placed the tip of needle against my skin then pressed it into my tummy, carefully watching on the screen where he was pushing it. Seconds later he pierced the amniotic sac. I watched on in awe as he began to withdraw the fluid.

Slowly, Nguyen removed the needle. “All done. Now I’ll send…” He walked over and handed the needle to Harry.

“Thanks,” Harry said. He didn’t want any evidence of my baby or me left behind.

Nguyen handed me some paper towels to wipe the gel off, then went over to the machine and printed out a photo.

With a smile from ear to ear, I took the first photo of my baby from him as I sat up. She was perfect. My head snapped back a little. I had just called it a she and wondered if it was an honest mistake or if I somehow knew it was a girl. Shaking my thoughts away, I slipped the photo into my back pocket then jumped into the doctor’s mind and reinforced everything Harry had already altered in his memory. There was no way he would ever know that he’d had a phenomenon on his table.

Harry and I transported back to the room.

“Where have you two been?” Mum asked, concern written all over her face. She’d heard from Anna.

“I… Umm…”

Harry concealed the needle behind his back in the least obvious way he could. “Jade came with me to check on Grandma and Marie.”

“Thanks,”
I said to Harry.

“I told you it was your news to tell,”
he replied.
“But you may want to pay them a visit after you’re finished here, and make them think we were there.

“Will do.”

“How are they?” mum asked.

Harry went behind his desk and sat in his chair. “They’re good. Still loving all this extra energy Jade’s given them.”

Mum still felt uncomfortable with me giving them my blood but she understood why I helped Marie, and she was grateful that her mother was still alive because of me.

Walking over to me, she said, “Anna called…” Mum reached out to touch me but pulled back, remembering the last time we’d seen each other I had insisted on no physical contact. And this time I was reinforcing it even more. I didn’t want her knowing I was pregnant just yet. Aiden deserved to know first. “She’s worried about Aiden.”

“I’m not going to hurt him.”

“I know,” she said but what she really meant was that she knew I wouldn’t hurt him intentionally. And as far as she was concerned, Anna’s vision showed direct intention on my behalf. “But, I think we need to figure this out.”

“And Nathan may hold the key,” I said what she was thinking.

“Yeah, he might.”

“How are we going to get in there without Kai’s help?”

“Why wouldn’t he help us?”

“Ah, because he’s friends with the Scotts.”

“But, he also has a mind of his own.”

I shook my head. “There’s no way I’m going to drag him into all this shit. We can do it on our own.”

She looked at me smugly. “Too late. He’s already agreed.”

My mouth fell open, not only because he had agreed, but because for some reason I didn’t know what she was going to say. Putting it down to my brain going on an emotional roller coaster, I shoved the thought to the back of my mind.

“He want’s to go now?” I asked in surprise.

“Yeah. He’s waiting for you back at the place where we’re staying.”

“Umm, okay,” I said, getting nervous about seeing Nathan again.

Mum picked up on my unease. “You don’t have to do this. I mean, Nathan’s not able to block any of us out of his mind. One of us can go searching if you’d like.”

I shook my head. “I want to see for myself.”

She nodded. “Well, then we’d better get over there.”

“Actually, I just have to go get Aiden. He wants to come with me.”

“And you can’t just bring him to us?”

I smiled innocently letting her jump to a conclusion herself about what I meant. Of course, she thought the worst of us after having the two of us sleeping in my bedroom all those years. She knew exactly what went down but just deemed it as a necessary evil. Keeping me safe was worth turning a blind eye to Aiden and me getting to know each other over and over again.

“Fine. Just hurry up.”

Hoping her assumption would buy me enough time to go to Italy then back to Aiden, I said, “Will do.”

Harry stifled a laugh.

“Don’t you start,” Mum said.

“See you, Mum. Bye, Harry,” I said then disappeared.

Landing in the lounge room of the little cottage in Italy, I realised my job was going to take longer than expected.

“Jade.” Chelsea jumped up from the couch.

Lucas had been sitting beside her and had moved to the edge of his seat as he watched her hurry toward me.

Chelsea threw her arms around my neck. “I heard what happened.” She pulled back. “Georgia totally deserved what you did but do you think Anna’s right and you’re going to turn into a psycho?” She laughed. Chelsea didn’t think for a second that her life was in danger, or that I was capable of hurting Aiden, but Lucas wasn’t so sure. Sensing his nervous energy, Chelsea turned to him. “You can sit back and relax. Jade’s not going to kill me.” She laughed again.

My heart sank as I looked at Lucas. He didn’t want to believe, but he also didn’t want to let his guard down and, potentially, let something happen to Chelsea. I loved him for protecting her like that but I hated that he doubted me.

“Don’t worry, no one’s had a vision that involves me killing Chels,” I joked, only it fell flat.

“I don’t want to believe you could do that—”

“Then don’t,” Chelsea said. She linked her arm with mine. “I’ve known Jade since we were two, and I know that she doesn’t have a murderous bone in her body.”

But I did, and I would if, anything showed up in my baby’s blood results, but that would be different. My natural instincts to protect my child would come into play.

“I’m sorry,” Lucas said but both Chelsea and I knew, he wasn’t ready to put his faith in me.

Swallowing my hurt, I said, “Don’t worry about it.”

Chelsea laughed. “Yeah, she’s right because in all honesty, if Jade did become a monster, none of you would be able to stop her.”

Again, she was joking but it hit home to Lucas in a big way. He knew he didn’t stand a chance against me and he also knew there was no place on earth he could hide Chelsea where I couldn’t find her. I was unstoppable—except for Nathan’s concoction, which only I’d considered.

She skipped back over to Lucas and sat on his lap. “I was only joking, you know.”

He wrapped his arms around her. “I know, but I wouldn’t be a good boyfriend if I didn’t watch out for you.”

Chelsea sucked in a sharp breath, forgetting all about his apprehensive behaviour. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing you say that,” she said quietly then kissed him.

“Anyway,” I said, looking around the room. “I just need to see your mum and Grandma quickly then I have to get back to Aiden.”

“How’s he coping with what happened?” Chelsea asked.

I bit my lip as my heart sank. I hated what I’d unintentionally done to his family. “He’s doing okay, considering.”

“Well, hopefully they’ll get things sorted out,” she said.

I nodded. “That’s what I’m going to try and do. Kai’s organised for me to see Nathan as soon as I’ve finished up here.”

“What do you expect to find out with Nathan?” Lucas asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe an explanation for these visions. Find out what exactly he did to Aiden and me. Something. Anything.”

“And you didn’t see anything last time you were in his head?” Lucas asked.

I looked to the ground. “I bypassed a lot of stuff when I was in there.”

Lucas sighed. “Well, I hope, for all of our sakes, that you find something.”

“So do I,” I said. “Anyway, where’re the oldies?”

Chelsea chuckled wishing her mum were there to hear me call her old. “They’ve gone down the road for a bit. They shouldn’t be long.”

I looked at my watch. “I’ll have to come back.”

“Okay, well, I’ll tell them you dropped by.”

“Thanks,” I said. “Wish me luck.”

“Luck,” Chelsea said.

“I hope you find something,” Lucas reiterated.

“Thanks.”

Taking one last look at my best friend, in the arms of my brother who no longer trusted me, I phased out. Rather than going to Aiden, I went back to what
was
our new home and hid the photo amongst my things so Aiden wouldn’t accidently find out before I told him about the baby.