Forbidden Mind (Forbidden #1)

by Kimberly Kinrade

  'Sam, what's wrong?' Drake could feel my distress.

  I sensed his fear and worry. Staying conscious required all my focus, too much for me to talk, even mentally. Especially mentally. I summoned the guard, who ran to my side.

  "I feel sick. Need to lie down."

  He steadied me with his right hand and led me back to my room.

  I dressed in a baggy shirt so no one would notice my new bump. Not because of looks—though the idea of being huge the first time I met Drake in person didn't thrill me—but because I didn't want them to declare me pregnant. I needed to keep my freedom awhile longer.

  We clearly needed to step up the plans. I couldn't keep my condition secret much longer.

  I ran my hand over our baby, and the hard bump moved slightly. My hunger, which had gone missing for a few weeks, returned in full force. I used the much hated bell to summon the nurse.

  Susie arrived with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. "What?" 'I'm so sick of this job and these whiny kids… need to find someplace else to work… this sucks… how can she be so stupid to not know she's pregnant?'

  "It's nice to see you too. I got sick during my break outside and—"

  "I told you not to exercise."

  "Be that as it may, I think it was from hunger. I think I'm getting better, and my body needs more food. I know dinner isn't for a few hours, but could I get an early snack?"

  She glanced at my stomach and looked quickly away. I pretended to be looking somewhere else. My clothes hid the bump. I just needed to keep the staff away from my body.

  "I'll bring you something."

  "Thank you." She left before I finished talking.

  Ten minutes later, I had my fill of green Jell-O—hardly real food—and almonds, with a little box of milk. I hated milk, but forced myself to drink it.

  I rested after my mini-meal, my body at peace for the moment.

  My eyes flew open. Our baby fluttered inside my belly like a butterfly, and a new consciousness swished through my mind. Our baby had linked to me.

  "Can you feel this?" I asked Drake.

  I tried to feel the sensation mentally, and our baby's mind connected with both of us. The link filled me with profound joy and love, such as I'd never known. I could sense her. I knew her.

  Her. Our baby was a girl.

  "Drake?"

  'I sense her too. I feel it. She's beautiful. Amazing.'

  We held this moment in a bubble of time, afraid of bursting it, of facing the realities of our situation.

  "What should we name her?"

  He laughed. 'I'm sure the name will come to us.'

  "Drake, it's time. We can't wait any longer. Are you ready to move as soon as the drugs are out of your system?"

  'Yes. But, Sam, be careful. I can't stand the thought of anything happening to you or our baby.'

  "I will."

  I hoped.

  Chapter 9

  Our plan should have been simple. In theory.

  Reality didn't agree.

  Nurse Susie came into my room with dinner at the expected time.

  "Did you tell the doctor I'm feeling better? Does he know when I might be able to go back to New York?" I didn't need to read her mind to know how much she loathed me.

  "He will check on you tomorrow."

  I didn't have long.

  I linked to her mind. 'So sick of my life… where else could I go… money helps… never get this kind of pay as nurse somewhere else… do people think I'm pretty?... she's really pretty… boys must love her… it's not fair… she gets it all… but I guess not since she's trapped here and doesn't even know it… stupid girl… I thought these paranormals were supposed to be smart?... six hours left on my shift and already I'm exhausted… what do I need to do?... that boy needs a change in IV… I'll do that after this….'

  Perfect!

  I implanted a thread into her thoughts—a command, really. 'You're not feeling good. You'll leave your keys and badge on the dresser. You won't remember leaving them. You feel so sick you'll be stuck in my bathroom for ten minutes. You won't remember being sick. You'll keep the door closed and not respond to anything for ten minutes.'

  I put the full force of my will behind this instruction.

  "I'm not feeling well." Nurse Susie dropped her keys and badge on my dresser and darted to the bathroom, locking the door behind her. She'd left my bedroom door unlocked.

  I pulled my IV out, grabbed her keys and badge, and slipped into the hall, heart pounding so loud I thought for sure everyone could hear it. Her thoughts, and my brief moments outside, revealed that there weren't many people in this building.

  I pulled images from Susie's memory to find the room with the medical supplies.

  Cameras monitored the halls and rooms. I had no idea if my powers would work like this, but I scanned everyone I could find within a fifty-foot radius.

  Susie… sick in my bathroom. Drake… anxious for me to finish. Dr. Pana… reviewing paperwork and—

  I paused and focused on his thoughts. 'Amber… Kelley… Lucy… Lauren… match them with best genetic specimens to create more powerful paranormals… drug to control them seems to be working… all is going well… Sam is more docile than I was led to believe… told them she wouldn't suspect… Drake is a different story… dangerous… wonder what's for dinner… no late night tonight….'

  Amber, Kelley, Lucy—they were from Rent-A-Kid, and each was approaching her eighteenth birthday. Like me. Lucy! They planned to get her pregnant. Maybe they already had. Oh, my God, I can't let this happen.

  Focus! I scanned more minds, found the one I needed—the security guard who controlled the cameras— and linked with him.

  'Bored… need a cigarette break… don't really need to be here… nothing ever happens… wonder if I should call that babe from the bar last night… she was hot… should wait… make her wonder….'

  I planted some commands. 'You're bored. You need a break. Go smoke a cigarette. At least ten minutes. Take your time. Nothing ever happens here. Switch off the recorder before you leave. Forget you did it. Blame it on a power surge.'

  When I knew he'd left, I squeezed through a crack in my door and found the closet that held the IV bags. I stumbled, dizzy, perhaps from so much use of my powers, or maybe the pregnancy, or nerves. The concentration required to focus on so many minds made the simple act of walking difficult, but this was our last chance.

  "I'm here. I'm switching the labels now."

  'Be careful, Sam. Please.' His voice thickened with desperation.

  I shook and jumped at every perceived noise, but at least I walked around freely. Must follow the plan. Be proactive. These assholes had Drake chained up like a dog. What would that do to someone like him? Someone so strong?

  I used Susie's keys to open the closet, and found the IV bags. Drake's drugs, which looked just like the saline, were labeled with his name. I switched the labels with the saline bags and then switched the bags, disposing of the bags with his meds so no one would grab one by mistake. Now he should just get saline, and his system would be cleansed of whatever concoction they'd run through him.

  I headed back toward my room, trying to avoid anyone else, and did a mental check on the doctor, Nurse Susie, and the guard. All were still in place, just as planned.

  'Sam, you okay? Did it work?' Drake's voice quivered.

  "Yeah, no problems. Just staying focused until I get back to my room."

  I rounded the corner to my room, and—

  Crap! He must have just left his office.

  "What are you doing out of your room, Sam?" The doctor tried to stay in control, but the edge in his voice and his bright red face betrayed him.

  Bile rose in my throat, but I swallowed and tried to cover my fear with concern. "Nurse Susie is sick in my bathroom. I don't know what's wrong with her, so I came looking for you."

  Years of role-playing had made me a convincing liar, but if necessary, I could always resort to the mind tricks. Yet somethin
g about controlling others left me feeling mentally unclean, like I needed to scrub my brain with a scouring pad.

  I'd adapted too easily to controlling other people's minds. Sure, it was for the right reasons, but it felt wrong. Should I, or anyone, have the right to alter people's thoughts and control them in that way? But then, did I have a right to spy on people's thoughts, as Rent-A-Kid forced me to do? Was I the abomination of Nurse Susie's stinging opinion? Were my powers best left unused? Should I refuse to use my powers on my captors, and let them abuse me and keep me prisoner, as a matter of principle?

  No time for answers. Right now, I had a doctor to convince.

  I linked with him. So far, he doubted what I'd told him.

  With the keys and badge hidden in my jeans pocket, I led him to my room. I linked with Susie on the way, amending my orders so she would remember being sick after all, but would not remember leaving her keys and badge. I would have to find a way of getting them back to her.

  She still occupied the bathroom when we walked into my room.

  I gave the doctor a knowing look. "Let me check on her first. She might not be decent." I headed for the bathroom before he could object, and mentally told her to unlock the door.

  Once in the bathroom, I put her keys and badge in her pocket, and 'told' her to forget that I did, and that she was feeling better and should explain to the doctor.

  We walked out of the bathroom together. The doctor stood with his arms folded, a frown on his face.

  "I'm sorry, doctor. I think it was something I ate for lunch. I'm feeling much better now."

  And she looked better, though still a bit pale.

  "You can never leave the patients unattended like this." He looked at me with renewed suspicion, and turned back to her. "It puts everyone at risk."

  "Where is your IV?" he asked me.

  I'd forgotten all about it. "I had to take it off to get help. I tried ringing the bell, but no one came, and I was worried."

  I sat on my bed as Susie reattached the IV.

  "Everything is fine, Doctor," she said. "I'm sorry she bothered you with this. It was just a bad food reaction."

  I'd probably gotten her in trouble, but I had a hard time feeling too bad about it. To avoid suspicion, I linked to the guard, told him to get back to his station and get the cameras up. Then I linked to the doctor and told him everything was fine, erasing his memory of anything that might cause problems for me.

  So much for ethics. No wonder Susie hated me so much. I might hate me too, one day.

  The doctor and Susie left the room. I sighed and fell back on the bed. Not 'my' bed. Once upon a time, Rent-A-Kid had been home to me—dysfunctional as hell, but still home. Dreams of New York had gotten me through the rough patches. Now I had only myself, someone who'd let everyone take advantage of her for eighteen years. What good was I to my baby?

  'You have me,' the comforting voice in my head whispered.

  Yes, Drake and I were in this together. We hadn't met in person, yet I felt as if we'd been friends since childhood, just waiting to see each other again after a short time apart. When you're linked to someone in such an intimate way, it's impossible not to develop that strong bond. Or kill each other! Add to that a baby and… we couldn't turn back.

  'Nurse Susie is here to change my IV.'

  We both stopped breathing, waiting to see if she noticed the switch—the make-or-break moment in our plan. At least, the first such hurdle we'd have to clear.

  How would we get out? Where were we? Where would we go? Who would help us? Who would believe us? Too many questions. No matter. I wasn't going to die here, unless it was while fighting for our freedom.

  'She's done. She didn't seem to notice anything different.'

  "Do you notice anything different?" Was it too early to hope?

  'Not in my powers, but this doesn't burn me inside like the drugs did. It feels cooling and cleansing. My mouth doesn't feel stuffed with cotton balls anymore.'

  I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and held it for a few seconds before releasing it in a slow sigh.

  "So now we wait."

  Chapter 10

  I never expected to play hero, and didn't really want the role. Several other paranormals would have been better at this than me. Not for the first time, I wished for another path, a normal life in New York. My wishes were made on dead stars, it appeared.

  I stretched my body and raised my arms to the sun during my daily exercise routine. My reinvigorated appetite had made my body stronger. Still, my pasty skin and flaccid muscles did not approve of me. I did my best with the time and body I had.

  Three days had passed since we'd made the switch. Drake still didn't have his powers back, and I couldn't fathom another possible way to escape. We would both need access to our full powers. Already it seemed an impossible feat.

  I finished stretching and went into a push-up/sit-up/strength-training routine, pushing myself not to give up. Superhuman body parts might not have been part of my special powers, but I would use what I did have to maximum effect.

  "Drake, how do you think they find us?" I sweated through my T-shirt in the hot sun.

  'I don't know. I've been trying to figure that out myself. They didn't find me for a long time, which seems odd. Maybe because I moved so often.'

  "You were a secret ninja!" I joked. Not very funny. "What if they have a seer, someone who finds us with a third eye kinda thing? How do we escape someone who can do that?"

  'I don't know.'

  "I've been thinking. We both use mental powers to manipulate the mind. What if we could figure out a way to join our powers, strengthen our ability to control those frequencies, and link with whoever tries to find us? Link with them and mislead them?"

  The idea had been building in my mind for a while, but what if it didn't work?

  'That's a brilliant idea, Sam. And it just might work. We should try it here, see if we can link to people farther away. Maybe we can start with your friends. You couldn't link to them alone, but maybe together we could. That will give us a sense of our power and range.'

  "I'm not going to start controlling my friends." I felt bad enough doing it to anyone. I was not about to start adding people I loved to this.

  'Of course not. We'll only practice that skill if they let us, and only with things they approve. Agreed? Whichever twin we practice on, the other can tell us if it worked.'

  Would this harm them? I didn't know. Let them make the choice on their own. We had to know what we could do.

  "Okay, but if they're uncomfortable with it, that's it. No pressure!'

  'Should we try now?'

  A guard stood by the hospital door, not really watching me, but obviously there because of me. Impossibly high electric fences surrounded the area. What did he think I would do out here by myself? Sprout wings and fly away?

  I sat on the bench by the empty basketball court… an ironic venue given they only allowed us out here alone.

  I rested my elbows on my knees. To anyone observing, I would look as if I were cooling down from my work out.

  "Ok, I'm ready."

  It's not as though we had an instruction manual for this, so we both just linked and imagined our minds as one. The sensation frightened me. My mind and thoughts expanded to include his, and I felt his do the same. It wasn't like the one-way link I normally made, nor was it like the mind-talk link we had going.

  We immersed ourselves in each other—mentally naked, vulnerable, scared. After a lifetime of hiding who I really was from almost everyone, to stand before anyone completely raw made me jittery. So be it. We had to save ourselves.

  I waited for the judgment, the pulling away, the fear. When none came, I relaxed and breathed easily again.

  He followed my lead, since I knew what mental vibrations to look for. It wasn't so much like traveling over a geographic area as turning to the right channel on the television.

  When the link switched on, it flared strong and sudden.

  Lucy
screamed in my head, and we almost dropped the link. Luke's thoughts drifted next to hers, which surprised me. I'd never linked with so many people at once—like a party in my head. I suddenly had an image of "Being John Malkovich."

  "Shhh, calm down. It's me, Sam. Drake is here too. We're testing our combined powers."

  'Oh my God, Sam, I've been worried sick about you!' I could hear the tears in her voice.

  "Are you okay?"

  'We're fine' Luke said. 'It's been hard without you here, and all the staff is getting weird. We haven't managed to send pictures to Drake's friend. They're cracking down on security since you left. Even assignments have been cut back.'

  'I wonder what's going on,' Drake said.

  "Oh my God, you guys, Rebeka is here. And very pregnant. She looked miserable." I'd tried to link with her several times, but couldn't find her. I worried something terrible had happened.

  Lucy sounded sad. 'That's awful. She was sweet. Her para-power should have been kindness instead of seeing through walls.'

  "Yeah, it broke my heart to see here. Oh… and it gets better. I'm starting to show. We're going to have to escape soon, before they realize I know everything."

  My head pounded as if a team of construction workers had moved in. How long could I maintain this link? My muscles spasmed, and sweat flowed from my head in small rivers.

  We explained quickly. Much to my friends' credit, or insanity, they readily agreed to be guinea pigs for us.

  We experimented, making Lucy jump up and down, Luke sit in the corner, and Lucy stand and sit over and over. We had to sync our thoughts and focus really hard to make it happen. We had a lot of misses at first, but we figured it out through trial and error, and our successes became more consistent.

  "Thank you for letting us do this," I said. "What does it feel like?"

  'It's like your body and mind split," Lucy said, "and somewhere inside, you know you're not in control, but then it doesn't matter. Those times you told me to forget, I have no memory of anything.'

  "You are the best friends. I miss you so much. We will escape, and we will find a way to get you guys out. I swear. I wish we were all together, in our apartment in New York, debating what to do on a Saturday afternoon. Not living this nightmare."