Captive (Tainted Elements, Book 4)

by Linwood, Alycia

  “That doesn’t mean he didn’t have ulterior motives.” My mom gave me a pointed look.

  “Don’t worry.” I laughed. “Once you get to know him better, you’ll change your mind.”

  My mom’s shoulders sagged, and she shook her head.

  “Your mom has trust issues when it comes to boys. Took me ages to get her to fully trust me, too,” my dad said and grinned at me. “How’s Jaiden doing, anyway? I heard he got shot.”

  I cringed. “He’ll be fine. Just needs time to heal.”

  “I suppose he got shot defending you,” my mom said.

  “Um, no, actually, I was shooting at Blake and... one of the bullets hit Jaiden.”

  My mom’s eyes flew to mine. “Oh.”

  “Well, enough of that,” my dad said. “How about we go grab something to eat? I’m starving.”

  My mom actually rolled her eyes. “You always think only about food.”

  “True. Can’t help it. So, are we going?”

  “Sure.” I could use a bit of normalcy in my life. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had lunch with my parents.

  As we passed through the hallway, I saw the agents who’d been fighting Blake with me. They were all mostly fine, just a bit bruised. Noah lifted his head as I passed by, and he got up from his seat and jogged toward me. He had a bandage on his head, but he seemed to be all right.

  “Hey,” he said. “I was wondering how you were. I mean, they told me you were okay, but...”

  I waved at my parents, indicating I’d be right there with them, and my mom immediately tugged at my dad’s hand and dragged him down the hallway. Why did I have the impression that my mom would be much happier if I’d chosen Noah as my boyfriend?

  “Yeah, I’m fine. What about you?” I asked.

  “I’ll live. Hit my head on a fire hydrant when Blake tossed me back. The doctors say I have a mild concussion.”

  “Ouch. Did Lily tell you what she’s planning to do?”

  “Yep.” He flashed me a smile. “It’s a good thing. No more hiding for us.”

  “Do you think the world will accept us?”

  He waved his hand in dismissal. “They will. If they accepted element preservers, they’ll do it with us, too. Lily will explain everything in a nice way and show everyone we’re not a threat.”

  “Listen...” I was a bit hesitant because I wanted to speak to Lily first and not go behind her back, but I could at least ask Noah what he thought. “If one of us founded an organization to help those like us and deal with our problems instead of Lily, what would you think about that?”

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “If it’s a good organization, I don’t see a problem with it.”

  “Great.” I offered him a smile. “I have to go now. My parents are waiting for me.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “Okay, but is there something you’re planning to do?”

  “You’ll see.” I winked at him and left before he could ask anything else.

  Chapter 26

  Three months later

  Lily had summoned all tainted elementals who wanted to come to her headquarters, and at least fifteen of us were standing in front of her in her big brand new conference room. The huge windows were letting in enough sunshine to illuminate the stage. A microphone and a projector were ready for her presentation, because today was the day when the world would finally know the truth about tainted elementals.

  “I’m so glad so many of you have come.” Lily’s voice was slightly higher-pitched than usual. “You already know what happens today, but I’d like you to help me out. It would be great if some of you could stand on the stage with me so people can see that you’re just like them. Moira?” She looked at me. “Can I speak with you in private for a second?” And then her eyes fell on Jaiden. “You, too.”

  Jaiden and I followed her out of the room and into the hallway.

  “Just to be clear, I’m not going on that stage,” Jaiden said. “Too many people out there know me for all the wrong things. You don’t need that kind of press.”

  “I didn’t want to discuss that, but yeah, you’re probably right,” Lily said.

  “So what did you want to tell us?” I’d planned to talk to Lily after the announcement, but maybe I could tell her what I wanted now, but I needed to know what she wanted first. Jaiden and I had hatched a plan for the new organization and I wanted her to hear it from me first and not from others.

  “Now that the shock has worn off, I’m going to explain what happened with Blake,” she said. “But there’s something you need to know. I didn’t want to bother you with this while you were still recovering, but the results of the autopsy revealed that Blake had all four main elements in him.”

  “What? But one of his elements was ice. What happened to that?” I frowned. “And I’m sure he used sub-elements against us, too.”

  “Sub-elements are just weaker versions of main elements, so once he took water into himself, his ice sort of melted into it. And he had enough strength to use an element with all of its abilities, including the abilities of sub-elements.”

  “Do you know how he took all those elements?” Jaiden asked.

  “Yes, and that’s the part that changes everything,” Lily said. “He had magic disease.”

  “What?” I gaped at her. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. We know he didn’t have the disease before, and that he went through genetic manipulation, so the chances that he inherited the disease from his mother are practically nonexistent. That means he was probably infected. I think someone managed to find a way to spread magic disease that doesn’t include a direct elemental contact with an infected person,” Lily said. “He injected himself with that mysterious liquid, so I think that’s how he got the disease.”

  “Isn’t there a chance he was in close contact with a carrier?” Jaiden asked.

  “There is, but...” Lily bit down on her lip.

  “It makes sense, actually,” I said. “The prophecy said that the chosen elementals would get incredible power and take other people’s elements. It just didn’t specify how that would happen.”

  Lily nodded. “We need to find out who did that and why. If they plan to infect more people, especially tainted elementals, this could turn into a disaster.”

  “Yeah.” I didn’t even want to imagine that. Genetic manipulation was a way to ensure children wouldn’t be born with the gene for magic disease. And aside from inheriting it, the only way to contract the disease, as far as I knew, was to be very close to a magic disease carrier while your element wasn’t hidden deep inside of you.

  The disease could somehow reach out as if it were an element and exchange itself briefly with a healthy element during bodily contact. It couldn’t spread solely by touching elemental energy or its manifestations, though. Once a healthy elemental was infected, their element would start to gradually grow weaker and become unusable, and the disease would get stronger and make the elemental crave other people’s elements.

  For some reason, that was different for element preservers, whose elements remained strong despite the presence of the disease, and I wasn’t sure how this whole thing worked on tainted elementals. But if the disease could be transmitted with the help of some special liquid, it would be very easy to spread it.

  Suddenly, I was even more glad Lily hadn’t told me earlier about Blake, because I’d have been worried I’d gotten infected somehow, but enough time had passed now and I hadn’t had any symptoms. I’d been in close contact with Blake, but his elements had been blocked at the moment I was closest to him, so the disease had to have been blocked, too.

  Even if it hadn’t been, my elements had been tucked deep inside of me, which would have made it impossible for the disease to reach them. And I doubted Blake knew how to reach out with his disease while he’d been still able to use his elements. I didn’t think there was anyone who could do that. The disease might have a presence like an element, but it definitely wasn’t one, and its reach
was very limited.

  “What could anyone gain from infecting tainted elementals?” Jaiden’s brow furrowed. “Do you think someone found the cure and wants to sell it?”

  “I don’t know,” Lily said. “It’s possible, but they wouldn’t need infected tainted elementals for that. Many carriers would pay a fortune so they wouldn’t have to live with the disease anymore. I really hope we’ll find out soon enough. There’s one good thing about all of this.”

  My eyebrows shot upward. “And that is?”

  “Now we can say Blake was a very dangerous magic disease carrier and not just a deranged tainted elemental.” Lily smiled a little. “That should help me convince people that you’re not all murderers.”

  “Right,” I said bitterly. “Jaiden and I wanted to talk to you about something.”

  “Oh?” She leaned forward.

  “I want to use the money my grandfather left me to found an organization that would protect and help tainted elementals,” I said, waiting for her reaction. “You’ve done a great job with this whole thing, but I think tainted elementals are more likely to trust one of their own, especially now that we don’t know how everyone will react to the news you’re about to deliver.”

  She folded her arms across her chest, her gaze flicking upward. “Leading an organization is not an easy thing. I know you mean well, but that would only divide tainted elementals from the rest. I’d prefer to treat everyone equally.”

  “You’ve got a point, and we’d let you continue with your work, but I think tainted elementals need someone they can turn to. We would be working with you, of course, but they wouldn’t have to go directly to you with their problems,” I said. “I’ve seen the list you’ve had of tainted elementals. There wasn’t a lot of them on it. If we kept the list and you requested information only when it was absolutely necessary, maybe tainted elementals would feel more comfortable about the whole thing.”

  “Do you really think they’d trust you or him?” She nodded toward Jaiden.

  “No, I don’t. That’s why we’d appoint others as the organization’s leaders. We haven’t spoken to them yet because we wanted your opinion first,” I said.

  “So you plan to steal my agents.” Lily groaned. “Great.”

  “It’s not like that...” I started to say.

  “Actually, it is,” Jaiden said. “Sorry, Lily, but you don’t know what to do with tainted elementals or how to train them. You think they’re like any other elementals, but they’re not.”

  “And I suppose you’re an expert.” She glared at him.

  I glanced at Jaiden. We wanted to stay friends with Lily, not ruin every chance of cooperation.

  “Yeah, I am,” he said, avoiding my gaze. I sighed. He was right. His experience from his days at Elemontera was invaluable.

  Lily just stared at him. “If you think that’s what’s best, then fine. We’ll see what the others think. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an important announcement to make.” She strode toward the conference room, not looking back.

  “That went better than I expected,” Jaiden finally said.

  “Your expectations were too low.” I groaned.

  “She’ll be happy to let us deal with tainted elementals once this is over and the world erupts in chaos.”

  I arched my eyebrows. “Do you think people will freak out?”

  He just shrugged, and I glanced over my shoulder. Reporters were coming out of the elevator and chatting loudly. I suddenly didn’t want to be anywhere near the conference room.

  “Come on.” Jaiden grabbed my hand and tugged me in the direction opposite from the conference room.

  “Come where?” I frowned.

  He abruptly turned to me and I bumped into him. His arms went around me, his hands trailing down my back. “Somewhere more fun.” He squeezed my ass.

  “What about the announcement?” I asked, leaning forward until our lips were only inches apart.

  “She already told us everything.” He closed the distance between us, his mouth hot on mine. Maybe we could skip the damn announcement and watch it later on TV. Jaiden deepened the kiss and I stumbled until my back hit the wall. I closed my eyes and threw my head back, letting out a soft moan. He pressed himself against me, his tongue trailing a wet path across my neck.

  A shiver ran down my spine as he lightly bit down, and I curled my fingers into his shirt. Someone was watching us. I could feel it, but I didn’t care. Shouts pierced the air, and Jaiden pulled away from me. I opened my eyes and realized there was a commotion in the conference room. Jaiden and I looked at each other and both immediately broke into a run.

  “Shut it down! Now!” Lily yelled. A video was playing on the wall. The face of a woman with long dark brown hair and blue eyes covered the whole screen.

  “This is a special transmission,” the woman said. “Please keep watching if you want to hear the real truth, and not what the government wants you to believe.”

  “Someone do something!” Lily put her hands on her head, and her tech team surrounded the computer and the wires.

  “She’s hacked into the network system. We can’t just shut it down,” one of the team said.

  “You have to do it,” Lily said.

  “We’ll try to cut the feed, but it’ll take time.”

  “Fuck. The whole world is watching this! Make it quick!”

  “You’re probably wondering who I am,” the woman on the screen said. “My name is Sophia Mornell, and I’ve dedicated my life to protecting this city and its people. You should know that you’re all in grave danger. The government just revealed that there are elementals among us with abilities that could destroy the world we know. They want you to believe these tainted elementals are not a threat, but they are.”

  I glanced at Jaiden, who was frowning.

  “I will show you a video that the government doesn’t want you to see. And, my dear reporters and journalists, if you’re sitting in that conference room, please take a closer look around and see for yourself that the government is letting these murderers and monsters walk freely.”

  A gasp escaped my breath as a video of me started to play on the screen. The clips showed me fighting and killing people in Elemontera when I lost control, and then a video of me stabbing Blake taken from a window across the street. Another video showed me appearing and disappearing from view, and there was even a clip of me with Sheridan as she collapsed to the ground. Some of the clips were blurry and of low quality, and I wondered if the woman had hacked into someone’s system and stolen all of that, or if someone had been stalking me.

  “As you can see, tainted elementals use their powers to terrorize our people and don’t even refrain from killing their own kind and the people they work for. The government is either too afraid to act against them or they have been mind-controlled.”

  Several heads turned toward me, their eyes shocked and scared, but some turned the cameras toward me. I couldn’t move; I was too shocked. Jaiden immediately grabbed my arm and turned us both into air so people wouldn’t be able to see us. Other tainted elementals had already fled.

  “And this is not all,” Sophia said. “Look at these images.”

  This time the video followed Jaiden dressed in Elemontera’s gear as he was walking through some kind of a hallway, his eyes briefly lifting toward the camera. The next shot was of him standing in front of a man who was on his knees. A couple of seconds later, the man convulsed and fell to the ground. I looked away from the video as someone started to shout, and the guards barely managed to catch the guy before he attacked Lily.

  “As you can see, these elementals have no regard for other people’s lives. They can kill with a single thought and there’s absolutely no way to prove they did it. Do you want to live in a world where everyone can take control of your mind, end your life, and disappear into the night? Do you really think these elementals should be allowed to walk freely among us? We’ve tried to stop magic disease, but genetic manipulation has created something muc
h, much worse.” The expression on Sophia’s face was grave.

  Images from the meadow filled the screen, showing Blake, Hayley, and me right before Lily’s men showed up.

  “These elementals are very power thirsty. They were even willing to kill one of their own to get the power of all elements and take it from us. If we don’t do something, they’re going to enslave or kill us all. I’m warning you. We have to stop this before it’s too late. Don’t be afraid. There’s more of us than them. We can hunt them down! So get ready, my dear friends!” Sophia’s voice rang through the room, the images getting fuzzy. “We’re at war!”

  ###

  Thank you for reading!

  Want more? The fifth book in the series is called Hunted and it continues Moira’s story. For more information go to: http://alycialinwood.weebly.com/tainted-elements-series.html

  If you want to be notified when I publish my next book, sign up for my newsletter (no spam): http://eepurl.com/bbaZLH

  More books (prequel series) set in the same world as the Tainted Elements:

  The Element Preservers series:

  DANGEROUS (Book 1)

  RUNAWAY (Book 2)

  DIVIDED (Book 3)

  NO ONE (Book 3.5)

  RESTLESS (Book 4)

  INDESTRUCTIBLE (Book 5)

  http://alycialinwood.weebly.com/element-preservers-series.html

  Other books by Alycia Linwood:

  HUMAN

  More info: http://alycialinwood.weebly.com/