Ty swallows hard and walks away with his tail between his legs. Adam glares at him as he passes, but Ty won’t look up from the floor. So much for ‘not being scared of Lovick’. The question of Adam’s ability weighs on me again.
Yvette laughs with one of the E.N.C members. The sound is shrill and rings through my head.
“Yvette,” I say. My voice is laced with so much hatred that I barely recognise it. “This won’t be forgotten. You will be getting yours. I’ll make sure of it.”
For a moment, she looks scared. What is her memory manipulation compared to my telekinesis? She knows what I can do, and I’m glad. You better squirm, Bitch.
“Right guys, in you go,” says Jude, gesturing behind us.
Turning around, we’re faced with an archway trailed in flowers. It is beautiful and that strikes me as odd. Either side are topiary bushes and hanging baskets. Where the hell are we?
Once through the archway, a vast swimming pool lit with under water lights ripples in the warm breeze. All around the pool are chalets with deck chairs and poolside showers outside each. A man in board shorts and a dark top is making his way around, leaving what looks like shower soap on the showers along with fresh towels. He glances in our direction, but the sight of seven emotional people having bags whipped from their heads doesn’t seem to affect him.
Another rumble of thunder echoes in the sky and the purple clouds lights up with sheet lightning. We enter into the stark lighting of a foyer. It is detached from the other buildings, but still has an intimidating presence. It’s just as fancy as the outside and smells slightly of tanning oil. I feel like I should take my shoes off before walking in. No one stands behind reception. The logo on the front of the glass desk reads ‘Hotel Evoluzione’. What else would it be called?
The E.N.C members bustle us up some stairs. It’s difficult with both Maggie and Golding gripping my hands for dear life. For a moment, I’m jealous of Yana. I want to be the one being looked after. Adam should be holding my hand. Then, I look at Yana’s shaking body, and feel the weight of Maggie and Golding on my hands, and I know that I can be strong. I’m thankful that Adam is taking care of Yana. Haydn isn’t in any state to look after himself, let alone anyone else.
The landing opens up into a bigger space with four doors. Jude takes us through the first door into a large office space. A carved, mahogany desk sits before us in front of a tropical fish tank. The tank stretches floor to ceiling and separates the office from what looks like a penthouse suite. A figure moves behind the glass.
Jude places a hand on my shoulder, guiding me further into the room. “It’s fine. You’re safe,” he whispers into my ear.
I search for Adam. He is already watching me. Feeling guilty enough to avert my gaze, I allow Jude to lead me to Isaac.
Golding exhales loudly. “I’m going to be sick,” he moans. His face shimmers from sweat and his eyes are bloodshot.
The mysterious figure disappears from behind the tank, the door opens, and a man enters. He wears black trousers and a black shirt that hangs open at the neck. His blonde hair is slick from his face, and I recognise the nose and eyes instantly. It is Gabe. Golding’s resemblance to him is uncanny.
Gabe crosses the room, stopping behind his desk with a pre-eminent air about him. He grins at us, and I already want to knock the smug look off his face. His eyes fall on Golding, who glowers back with an intensity I’d never thought him capable of.
“It’s good to see you, Son,” says Gabe.
Golding doesn’t respond. The E.N.C members look to Golding in shock, all except Jude. They are clearly in the dark about who we are- who Golding is.
“And Isaac, I see age hasn’t been kind to you,” he says, smiling. “So, this must be the elusive Theyda Woodman? Or should I say Teddie Leason?” says Gabe, tilting his head slightly. A thoughtful expression fills his eyes as if he recalls a memory.
“What is this about, Gabe?” Isaac replies. He pushes Golding and me behind him, keeping a hand on my arm. Daddy Lion protecting the cubs.
Gabe laughs. “Don’t act dumb, Isaac, it doesn’t become you. This is about the man who locked up our children and experimented on them like rats. The man who was about to turn your daughter into a weapon to use against her own kind.”
“And yet, you’re working with the woman who helped that man,” snaps Golding, jabbing a finger in Yvette’s direction.
“Yvette made some mistakes working for that Norm, but thanks to Adam entering the TORO project she has been able to amend those wrongs. She successfully got you out of Facility One and bought you all here.”
“If I hadn’t manipulated Adam I would have never learned of the E.N.C. It was his memories that set the ball rolling,” she adds.
Adam looks like he is about to throw up. I second that feeling. My brain is mashed, sloshing around in my skull, unable to make sense of the last few hours.
“Yvette told me that Adam was conditioned eighteen months ago,” says Isaac. “Why so long to make a move?”
“Because I had to locate Theyda and that wasn’t as easy as I first thought. Shana did a good job at concealing her. You really pissed her off, didn’t you?”
Isaac’s jaw sets hard.
Gabe laughs and claps his hands in amusement. “Yvette told me about the EVO-TORO that escaped from Facility One, and you can imagine my surprise when she told me his name was Isaac Woodman. And I was even more surprised when she said you had contacted her for help. Golding was already in Facility One, and the only way I could draw you out of hiding was through Teddie. I knew I couldn’t just rock up on your doorstep. It was a double whammy- get to you, and help Golding at the same time. I knew that you’d swoop in and save the day. That’s why I tipped Roscoe off about your girl. Getting Adam out was just a bonus. The rest as they say, is history.”
“If you only wanted them, then why are we even here?” says Yana, in a small voice.
Gabe looks at her curiously, like he hadn’t noticed her before. Haydn is back to himself, and she clings to him like a koala. Adam stands by himself, and for a big man he looks so small and alone. I leave Golding and Maggie with Isaac and move back to Adam, wrapping my arms around his waist. He kisses the top of my head. Gabe raises an eyebrow at Isaac.
He turns his attention back to Yana. “Because, my love, all EVO are welcome in the E.N.C, and Yvette said that Golding has grown attached to you.”
“I was attached to Norah and Boyd too,” Golding spits.
“I won’t apologise for the Norms,” says Gabe, folding his arms across his chest. He says it with such disgust; it’s as if the word leaves a bitter taste in his mouth.
Golding rushes him, knocking him back onto the desk. He lands a punch before being restrained by Jude and Seth. “Stop calling them that. They were good people and they didn’t deserve to die at your hands!”
Gabe straightens himself out, and Seth turns Golding to face him. Seth looks white as a sheet, but Golding composes himself, pulling out of his grip.
Maggie stifles a sob in Isaac’s shoulder. I squeeze Adam a little tighter. I thought I had lost him and I never want to feel that way again. I make up my mind. E.N.C or not, I won’t give up on him.
“I don’t care if you’re E.N.C,” I whisper. “I know you’re not like them.”
Adam turns me into his chest, enveloping me in his arms. His hands tremble against my back.
“You haven’t answered my question. What is this about, Gabe?” says Isaac again.
“You’re here because I need your help.”
It’s Isaac’s turn to laugh now. “You kill my mother and my best friend, and then have the nerve to ask for help? Go screw yourself.”
“I knew that would be your response, so I bought an incentive,” says Gabe.
Grabbing a remote off the desk, he turns on the large flat-screen that hangs on the far wall. Footage of a woman strapped to a bed fills the screen. She is asleep or at least looks asleep. She wears a device exactly the same as the spiny one
that Roscoe had put on my head. The woman’s face crinkles and her fingers flex.
“Tess,” Isaac gasps, fixated on the screen.
“Mum’s alive?” Golding asks. His wide eyes search Gabe’s face for an answer.
Gabe nods. “She has been in a coma for the past six years. I know you thought I had killed her, but now, I finally get to vindicate myself.”
“Where is she?” snaps Isaac.
“Where do you think? Facility One. That Norm has had my wife for the past six years, and my own son believed I had murdered her.”
“I can back that up. Tess was the first EVO acquired by Roscoe. The only problem being that she was in a coma after a car crash. Roscoe has kept her on life support all these years whilst he figures out a way to use her,” says Yvette. “Tess is a Dual EVO. She has both telepathy and influence- it’s unprecedented. Do you have any idea what that means? If he can weaponise her, Tess could control every EVO and all abilities. She could potentially control us all and become the deadliest military weapon this world has ever seen.”
“It wasn’t until Yvette came to me that I even knew Tess was still alive. Yvette has been monitoring the situation with her, but things have changed recently. Tess has been showing signs of recovery. I won’t let Roscoe have her.”
Tess is at Facility One and has been for six years. Thinking it to myself doesn’t make it sound any more realistic.
“We’ll help,” says Golding. He turns to Isaac. “We’ve lost Norah and Boyd. I’m not losing Mum...again.”
Isaac stands motionless, his eyes switching from the screen, to Golding, and back to Gabe. I can’t bring myself to look at Tess. Knowing she is in the place we escaped from, and we just left her there, is sickening. Okay, we didn’t know, but Yvette did.
“What do you say, Isaac?” asks Gabe.
“I don’t know what exactly you are asking of me?”
“We’re going to bring her home. As hard as it is to admit, my negation won’t help against the Norms. I need you by my side. I trust you.”
“You trust me?” says Isaac, frowning.
“In regards to Tess, yes. And you’re stronger than any EVO I’ve met to date. And as a show of trust, I will remove your cuffs,” says Gabe. He taps on the tablet and the cuffs click open. “Are you in? We can bring Tess home together.”
“Where exactly is home?” Golding asks, gesturing out the window.
“Italy,” I say. Gabe tilts his head at me in curiosity, and I smirk at him. “What? You’d do better training monkeys to be your minions.”
Gabe grins. “Let me guess, Ty? His weakness is the ladies.” He flashes a look to Jude, who simply shrugs in response.
The footage of Tess ends and another file starts playing. A sleeping girl lies strapped to a bed. My lungs clamp shut- it’s me. Yvette walks into view, leaning over me, examining me. A TORO stands right behind her. The lettering, TORO 61, stands out from the screen. Yvette jumps away as I arch against the restraints. It is surreal watching this from another perspective. The memory of it is burned into my mind, but this feels detached.
I’m fighting the restraints, my face contorted from screams. I grab Yvette’s hand, and TORO Adam steps forward, twisting my fingers back on themselves. The one-way viewing glass is visible in the far corner of the screen and I know that Roscoe is talking to me from behind it, but the footage is silent.
Items on the desk start to levitate as the bed rattles fiercely. Adam moves forward, pressing down on my chest. I remember that moment as the moment when I lost control. As he restrains me, the desk soars into the air, hovering precariously. Yvette is screaming at the one-way glass. Then, everyone is airborne. Adam and Yvette rise from the floor until they’re practically touching the ceiling. The bed follows, slowly rising to a vertical position. My body hangs limply in the restraints, and then there is what looks like an explosion.
The footage breaks momentarily, and when it returns, the image is shocking. Roscoe stands in the hole where the one-way viewing glass once was, and the millions of shards hang in the air around us. Everything flies into the ceiling, and then slams back into the ground. I’m not visible as the bed is pinning me to the floor, and all that I can see of Yvette is her heeled feet writhing just behind the bed. The most sickening thing is the sight of Adam lying crumpled at the fore front of the screen.
Yvette quickly switches the screen off. My attention snaps back into the room with every pair of eyes on me. Even the E.N.C members look stunned. Adam’s hands haven’t moved from their positions on my back, but they’re now hot and sweaty, and his body rakes in breaths.
“What grade is she?” asks one of the E.N.C members.
Gabe waves a hand dismissively. “She is a grade three, possibly a grade four.”
I can cope with the looks from the E.N.C, but not from my friends. Adam simply stares at the image of his lifeless body on the screen. Only Jude seems to have a smile curling at the edge of his mouth. I impress him.
Gabe scowls at Yvette, and she sheepishly removes the USB from the TV. I get the impression that the footage of me wasn’t supposed to be seen, but it has been, and now, I can’t breathe. I need air.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
I run out towards the pool with the warm rain soaking through to my skin. It’s just as stifling out here as it was in there. Thunder rolls overhead and the lightning follows straight after. The pool guy sees me and nods politely before dashing out of the rain into the closed restaurant.
I head back through the archway, staring at the locked gate. A guard sits in a small booth beside it. He eyes me suspiciously, and then speaks quietly into a radio. His eyes never leave my face, and his hand rests on a gun that he hasn’t even bothered to conceal.
Arms wrap around me from behind, a chin resting on my shoulder. I breathe in the deep scents of Adam.
“Did you see their faces?” I ask him. “I’ve never seen myself like that before, and now, I understand what Shana had to put up with for five years. I’m dangerous. You saw it for yourself. I could have killed you.”
He steps around to face me. “You must have been terrified of me,” he whispers. “Your face when I held you to that bed.” His nose crinkles as he says it.
His words catch me off guard. He has just seen footage of me nearly killing him, and still, he reckons I was scared of him.
“That was TORO 61, not you. Why are you not terrified of me?” I ask.
“You could never terrify me, and anyway, you are strong. You know you can control it now. I’ve seen you control it,” he says.
“Moving the gun was different. I can’t control an episode like that.”
“Lovick’s right, you can control it,” says Jude.
He walks out under the light and waves to the guard who goes back to his magazine. He steps closer, taking my hands, and leads me away from Adam. I let him. Adam’s lips tighten again as he watches Jude through narrow eyes.
Jude places his hands on my shoulders. “I stand by what I told you on the plane. Stop thinking about your ability as a separate thing with its own mind and understand that it is a part of you. You can control it just like you control your limbs,” he says. “Tell me what you feel right before you use your telekinesis.”
“I feel like my body is charged with electricity. Like my skin carries a current—”
“No, that’s pretty much what all Kin feel. Tell me what a Telekin feels,” he interrupts.
I look at him stuck for an answer. “I feel out of control.”
He sighs, placing a hand across my chest. It’s not too low to be inappropriate, but I hear Adam shuffle uncomfortably.
Jude suppresses a smile and looks me in the eyes. “Concentrate. Close your eyes,” he says. “Allow your telekinesis through. Do you feel that course of energy in here?” He taps his fingers against my breast bone.
I do feel it; the surge is familiar and terrifying. I could blast it from my body like a bomb explosion. “Yes.”
“Well, ignore it,” Jude repl
ies. “Ignore it, and concentrate on that weight in your mind.”
As soon as he says it, I feel it. It has always been there, but I’ve been so consumed with the power I feel in my chest, it gets forgotten.
“It feels heavy, steadier, doesn’t it?” he says. Jude moves his hand from my chest and places it across my forehead. “Visualise yourself steadying it. Hold it still and bring it to the fore front of your mind. That is your telekinesis. That is part of you. It’s ready to do whatever you tell it to do.”
The cars are still parked on the road, and he turns me to face them. I feel the weight in my mind and raise my hand toward a black sports car. I hold myself steady, and as soon as I think about lifting the car, the weight of energy spreads throughout my body. It’s as if invisible tendrils burst through my palm and wrap themselves around the car. It is part of me. I only have to think what I want and it obeys. Why hadn’t I realised it could be so easy? It’s just like putting one leg in front of the other. The car soars vertically into the air, and Adam gasps.
Jude laughs. “Careful, that’s my car.”
I lower it slowly, placing it on the ground like I’d put a cup on a table. Allowing the weight to dissipate, I grin at them both. I’m buzzing both physically and mentally. I jump on Adam and he catches me effortlessly.
“Now, that’s how you do it, my little Telekin,” Jude says.
“I told you you’re amazing,” Adam says, kissing me, turning his back on Jude.
I’ve not seen Adam so brusque before - TORO 61 yes, but not Adam. He doesn’t like Jude. I shouldn’t like him either. After all, the man ordered Norah’s and Boyd’s deaths, but he has just helped me. I feel taken under his wing.
“Why are you helping me?” I ask.
He ignores my question. “Lovick, Yvette wants to get started on you,” he says. “You guys better say your goodbyes just in case.”
“In case of what?” Adam asks.
“In case the Lovick I know doesn’t want anything to do with this one,” he says, gesturing to me.
EVO Nation Series Trilogy Box Set Page 16