 
### EVOLUTION

By Kelly Carrero

Copyright 2012 by Kelly Carrero

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons either living or deceased is purely coincidental. Names, places, characters and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author holds the rights to this work. It is illegal to reproduce this novel without written expressed consent from the author herself.

## Chapter 1

It was amazing how my perception of reality changed in a single instant. How I could pinpoint the exact moment when I realised that I would never be the same. The world I'd known all my life ceased to exist, and a new reality began.

That moment hit me as I stood naked, staring at myself in the mirror.

To the unknowing, I still looked the same. Only I had noticed what was different about me. I was thankful that not a single doctor or nurse at Holy Spirit Hospital had picked up on it. If they had, I certainly wouldn't be getting discharged as soon as I left the bathroom. In fact, I was pretty sure they would lock me up in a psych ward, or worse, haul me away to some top-secret government facility, never to see the light of day again.

Not knowing if my eyes were betraying my sanity, or if what I was seeing was really possible, my whole body went numb as I watched the only sign that I had just been in a car accident disappear.

What I was seeing belonged on the screen of a Hollywood blockbuster, not in real life, and especially not in mine. It defied everything I had ever been taught. God, it defied everything anyone had ever known.

The inch-long slice above my right ear was no longer there. It was as if my head had never gone through the car window. I was, once again, in perfect condition.

I stood there staring, too scared to move or think. I hoped what I was seeing was just a side effect of the head trauma I ought to have experienced. The accident should have killed me.

But if what I was seeing was real, what did it mean? What would become of me? And more importantly, what the hell was I?

A knock at the door jolted me out of the hysteria I could feel myself slipping into. "Jade?" It was my mum. "Is everything okay in there?"

Panic rippled through me. Things were the complete opposite of okay. What if I went out there and they noticed my head was no longer being held together with the stitches they had put in no less than an hour ago? Or what if the cut really was still there and I was having hallucinations? Were hallucinations even a side effect of severe head trauma?

I stepped closer to the mirror, rubbing the stitches. I hoped the cut would reappear, and I could blame the incident on my eyesight being affected by the accident – that would be the best explanation. But sure enough, the cut was gone.

"Jade?" Mum called again. Her voice was etched with concern.

"Yeah?" I replied automatically, my voice barely a whisper.

"Do you need a hand?" Mum tried opening the bathroom door, which thankfully, I had locked.

I had to quickly pull myself together. I knew I couldn't let them see me like that. "I'm fine, Mum. I'll be out in a minute," I called out, throwing on the clean clothes she had brought in for me.

Taking one last look in the mirror, I let down my long, dark brown hair, trying to cover the spot where my cut should have been, and stepped out of the bathroom to face her.

Even though my heart was beating so hard I was sure it would pop out of my chest, I tried my hardest to put on the same carefree face I'd worn before my life turned upside down only seconds ago. And it worked.

I was discharged without anyone noticing my cut was no longer there, and my mum was still too caught up in the fact I had somehow cheated death to pay any attention to my wound – or lack thereof.

After listening to my mother going on and on about how lucky I was to be alive, and how I should be more careful when I was behind the wheel, we finally arrived home, and I was quick to make excuses as to how tired I was before I headed off to bed. Reluctantly, she let me go after I promised I would let her know if I got worse or needed her for anything. I swear, I thought she was going to insist that she stay with me all night, which was more than a little disturbing.

The last thing I wanted was sleep. My mind kept replaying the vision of my wound healing before my eyes. How was it possible? It defied logic. It defied science. But I saw it with my own eyes, and for some reason, I was sure I wasn't going insane.

My freakishly fast healing wasn't the only thing bothering me. There was something else. Something at the back of my mind that kept slipping away just as I thought I was grasping it. All I could catch was that it was important. Something I desperately needed to remember but couldn't.

A soft tap on my door snapped me back to reality. What was with her? I didn't need her making sure I was okay. What I needed was some time alone to try to figure out what the hell was going on with me.

I decided to ignore the knock and pretend I was asleep when the door handle started turning. All I had time to do was make sure my hair was covering my stitches and make a mental note to cover them with gauze as soon as I was free from my mother's watchful eye.

To my surprise, it wasn't Mum checking in on me. It was my boyfriend, Aiden. "Hey, I wasn't sure if you would be sleeping," he said in his usual soothing tone. His eyes scanned over me, checking that I was okay. Normally that kind of attention would send the butterflies in my stomach into full flight, but at that moment, I wanted him to look away. I was afraid that if he kept looking at me, he would figure out something was wrong with me. That I wasn't normal. That I was possibly not even human anymore.

In that instant, Aiden's eyes showed he was satisfied with what he saw, and he made his way over to my bed.

"I guess Mum's told you what happened?" I asked, already knowing the answer. I was sure that before Aiden had come up to my room, he would have had to listen to her tell him all about my brush with death – not that I came anywhere even close to dying. But Mum being a reporter and all, well, it was in her DNA to be overdramatic.

Aiden nodded. He sat down on the bed, put his arm around my shoulder, and drew me to his side. I had been on edge all day, but almost instantly I could feel my nerves start to subside. It was the same unexplainable reaction I always had around him. The world could be falling apart—or in my case, me going insane—and the minute we were together, all the craziness would somehow come to a halt, and my soul would be at peace.

"So... was it as bad as the version I got out there?" Aiden cocked his head towards the door.

I scoffed, "I doubt it." I could only imagine the overdramatised story my mother had given him.

"What really happened?"

"I'm not exactly sure. All I remember was driving down the highway, and the next thing I knew, I had ambulance officers hovering over me telling me how lucky I was to be alive. All I got was a small bump on the head, which has given me a bit of a headache—but apart from that, I'm fine." The first part was true, at least.

"Which reminds me." I glanced over at the alarm clock sitting on the bedside table. "I'm due for my next dose of painkillers." I looked up at Aiden, putting on my best helpless, 'I need you to look after me' face.

"And I suppose you want me to get them for you." It was more a statement than a question. He leaned over and kissed my forehead before standing up. "I'll be back in a sec," he said, leaving my room.

I felt like the worst girlfriend ever. I had never lied to Aiden before, but what choice did I have? I couldn't tell him the truth. Thankfully, he seemed oblivious to my deception.

Making the best of the little time I had before he was back with painkillers for my non-existent headache, I jumped up from my bed and turned the lights off, leaving only the moonlight coming through my window to illuminate the room. I quickly changed into a T-shirt that was lying on my pillow and managed to climb back into bed just as Aiden came back into my room.

He sat down on my bed and handed me the pills and a glass of water. "Is your headache that bad?" he asked.

"Uh-huh," I said, swallowing the pills. "I think I'll probably need to sleep it off..." I faked a yawn.

"Is that my cue to leave?" Aiden started edging off the bed.

"No!" I grabbed his arm, pulling him back. "Do you mind staying for a bit?" I knew the longer Aiden stayed, the greater the chance of him discovering my secret, but I really didn't want him going. For the first time since I had left the hospital, I was able to relax.

"I was hoping you'd say that," he said, as he climbed over the top of me, stopping briefly to give me one of his irresistible kisses that left my lips wanting more. Sadly, just as suddenly as it started, it was over. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I hope I didn't make your headache any worse."

I swear I could see a smirk on his lips, but it was gone before I could be sure. I was probably just being paranoid.

Aiden lay down beside me, pulling me into him so my head was resting against his chest. "Now get some rest," he said, stroking my hair.

"Okay," I replied in my best sleepy voice. I wasn't sure how long it would take me to fall asleep, but I didn't want to enter into any conversation just in case he caught me out on my lies.

Listening to the steady beat of his heart, I forgot all my worries and drifted off to sleep.

***

The next morning I awoke to an empty bed. Strangely, I no longer felt the fear of what I had become, although I still didn't know what that was.

Somehow my rapid healing felt normal, as if that kind of thing had happened to me all my life. Even though I had gotten over my shock, I knew that I couldn't say a word of it to anyone.

Pondering my newfound acceptance of my freakishly fast healing abilities, I made my way down the hall to the bathroom to get ready for school. Although I was sure Mum would allow me to stay home to recuperate, I would have to face everyone at school sooner or later. I figured I may as well get it over with. At least that way the rumour mill wouldn't have hit epic proportions, and I might have a chance of convincing everyone it had been just a minor accident and nothing to gossip about. The less attention I received on the matter, the better off I would be.

After showering, dressing, and bandaging my non-existent wound, I walked down the stairs, bracing myself for a heated discussion. All I found was a note on the kitchen bench from my mum, saying she had to catch a flight to Sydney for some story and would be back in the evening, with a 'P.S. stay home from school,' at the bottom.

Yeah, right. I picked up my iPhone and called Aiden, hoping he hadn't gotten to school yet. He picked up on the first ring. "Hey, beautiful. How are you feeling this morning?"

I heard a knock at the front door. "Better, thanks. You're not at school yet, are you?" I walked to the front door to see who was there.

"Nope."

"Good." There was another knock at the door. "Coming," I called to the persistent knocker.

I took a deep breath and braced myself for any onslaught he might throw at me for wanting to go to school so soon after the accident. "Can you pick me up on your way to school?" I opened the door and found my persistent knocker snickering. Aiden was standing there, looking as gorgeous as ever.

"Want a lift to school?"

I grabbed his shirt and pulled him inside. He wrapped me up in his arms, lifting me off the ground momentarily before setting me back down. All I wanted was to melt into his embrace and never let go.

"I'm glad you're feeling better," he said, then kissed the spot where the gauze was covering my stitches. I swear there was something more to what he was saying. Like he knew there was nothing under the bandages. Maybe he had taken a peep when I fell asleep last night. I knew I shouldn't have asked him to stay with me. God, what was I thinking!

"Come on." Aiden released me. "You'd better hurry before we miss first period." He pulled me back into his arms, his body pressing against mine. "Unless...." He didn't need to say any more.

I knew exactly what was on his mind. And no matter how tempting it would be to spend the day in bed with Aiden, I had to face everyone at school.

Not wanting to end our embrace, I forced myself to say, "Not today."

I thought he would be disappointed, but I saw understanding in his eyes.

"God, you make it hard on a girl to do the right thing," I said, looking at what I was passing up to go to school. His dreamy green eyes, short brown hair, chiselled jaw line covered in just enough stubble to be sexy. Add to that his tanned skin and perfectly-toned body—what could I say? I had to restrain myself from tearing his shirt off right then and there. I should have been locked up in a psych ward for refusing such an offer—maybe I wasn't really human, after all.

I let go reluctantly, went back into the living room, picked up my bag, and headed for the front door, stopping briefly to look in the hall mirror to make sure I had covered the stitches properly.

Satisfied that nobody could see my non-existent wound, I grabbed my keys and joined Aiden in his black BMW convertible.

## Chapter 2

My first class was chemistry. I quietly opened the door, praying I could slip into my seat without Ms. Drake noticing I was late. To my luck, I made it over to my seat next to my BFF, Chelsea, without Ms. Drake noticing. She was busy preparing the chemicals for the day's lesson—it looked like I wasn't the only one unprepared for class.

Chelsea took the chance to grill me about the events of yesterday. "So, I guess you're still alive?"

I gave her a 'what the hell' kind of look.

"Chrissy was telling everyone that she heard from someone that you died in a car accident last night," Chelsea said, answering my unasked question.

"And you believed her?" I asked sceptically.

Chelsea gave a little laugh. "I don't believe anything that girl says anymore." She shook her head, obviously thinking about how much Chrissy had changed over the years.

We had all been best friends for years—that ended soon after Aiden transferred to our school. It turned out Chrissy thought she was a better match for Aiden and tried everything she could do to break us apart. I just couldn't believe she would throw away our friendship over something so silly.

"What really happened?" Chelsea asked, her eyes gleaming. She was always eager for a good story.

I tried to play it cool. "Nothing much. It was just a minor car accident—"

"Minor accident, my butt!" Chelsea cut me short. "Ben said he saw your car on his way home from the gym last night. He said it was a write-off!"

It was just my luck Ben had seen the car. Ben was one of Aiden's friends, and there was no way that I would be able to convince anyone he was lying. For all I knew, Aiden had been giving him a lift home from the gym, and that was how he ended up at my house last night. That kind of made sense, because I hadn't planned to see him 'til today, and he didn't exactly explain why he had come over so late. And I was pretty sure my mum hadn't called him.

All I could do was go with the facts and try to minimise the gossip. "All I got was a small cut on my head." I pointed at the gauze.

Chelsea's eyes dropped with disappointment.

"They released me from hospital almost straightaway, and then I went home. Aiden came over...." I trailed off as I watched Chelsea's eyes gleaming once again as another thought popped into her head.

"Ooh. Do tell." Chelsea was sitting on the edge of her seat, her head resting in her hands, waiting eagerly for me to divulge any juicy details.

"Oh my God! Is that all you think about?" Thanks to her non-existent love life, Chelsea seemed to live all her romantic fantasies through me.

"Ah-ha, so there is something you're not telling me."

I shook my head, bewildered by her persistence. "You really need to get your own love life. And before you say anything else, nothing happened last night. Okay?"

Chelsea sat there staring at me. "I know you're hiding something. You've got that look on your face."

"What look?"

"Ladies, please!" Ms. Drake snapped. "Class is not the time to be discussing your love life—or lack thereof." Ms. Drake gave one of those demeaning smiles to Chelsea. "Now, if you don't mind, we'll get back to the reason we are all here today," she said, turning her attention back to the rest of the class. "We are already behind schedule."

"Yeah, no thanks to you," Chelsea muttered under her breath, which got her a warning glare from Ms. Drake and a few snickers from nearby students.

Ms. Drake quickly moved on. "If you can all move quickly over to your lab stations and put on your protective wear, we might just get out of here on time."

Chelsea and I were, of course, lab partners. We got up from our desks and headed over to our lab station.

"Are you going to put me out of my misery?" she asked.

I gave her a questioning look, not knowing what the hell she was on about.

"You. Aiden. Last night?" she said as if she couldn't believe I wasn't following her. "What are you hiding?"

God, that girl never gave up. I was just thankful that all she thought I was hiding from her was a sex-frenzied romp, instead of the truth.

I ignored her prodding and decided to turn the tables on her. "You know Ben likes you. Maybe you should give him a chance."

"Ben?" Chelsea scrunched up her nose. "Are you serious?"

A small laugh escaped my mouth, which I quickly shut off to show just how serious I was. "Come on, give the guy a break. He's changed a lot over the last few years. It's about time you gave him a shot."

Ben had had a thing for Chelsea since we were five. Chelsea was the pretty, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, girl next door type of girl that everyone thought was cute as hell. And Ben, well, he was kinda geeky back then. Actually, he stayed that way until he was about fifteen, when he finally filled out, swapped his glasses for contacts, and got his braces off. His popularity had soared ever since. And with his ever increasing climb up the social ladder, he never once strayed from his adoration for Chelsea.

Sure, he would date other girls, but that's where it would end. He was really only interested in one girl—Chelsea. And the poor bugger didn't stand a chance. She would forever see him as the geek he'd been.

Chelsea was about to say something when Ms. Drake instructed us to turn on our Bunsen burner. The experiment was 'how to make seawater into drinking water.' She could have picked something a little harder for a grade twelve experiment.

Anyhow, I followed Ms. Drake's instructions. "Just think about it," I whispered to Chelsea, while I waited for the next step to the science experiment.

Chelsea stood there, chewing on her bottom lip. "Okay."

I shot her a sideways glance. "Did I hear right—you're actually going to give him a chance?"

"Yeah, but only if you..." She grabbed me by the shoulders to whisper something in my ear, and that's when it hit me. At the moment of contact, sheer terror surged through my body. It was like nothing I had ever felt before. I was literally terrified beyond what words could describe. A searing pain ripped across my neck, and all I could see was blood, swallowing me into a pool of darkness until everything went black.

I awoke seconds later, being blasted with foam from a fire hose Ms. Drake was pointing at me.

I screamed out for her to stop and shielded myself from the spray. But she didn't. She was relentless in her desire to cover me in the thick white foam. I had to get away from her. I continued to shield my face as I clambered to my feet.

"Just stay calm!" Ms. Drake shouted and continued to spray the hose at me. "I need to make sure the flames are properly extinguished."

I didn't listen. I ran.

As I rounded the corner at the bottom of the stairs, I ran straight into Aiden. I collapsed into his arms, tears streaming from my eyes. He wrapped his arms around me, instantly calming me. I felt safe. I felt like nothing in the world could hurt me while I was with him.

"It's gonna be okay. It will all make sense soon," he whispered into my ear.

I pulled back, studying his face, trying to figure out where the heck that came from. Aiden's face suddenly went blank. He was looking over my shoulder. "We have to go." He grabbed my hand, dragging me towards the exit.

"What's wrong?" I didn't understand why he was freaking out. I mean, I was the one who'd had the crap scared out of me, been set on fire, passed out, then was woken by the teacher spraying a fire extinguisher at me.

He pulled me through the front doors. "They're coming for you," he said, not looking back. He was too fixated on getting me out of the school, but I still had no idea why.

I waited for him to explain his absurd reaction, but none came. "Who's coming for me?"

He continued to drag me towards the parking bay. "Ms. Drake, Chelsea, and a couple of others from your class."

"So?"

Aiden didn't answer my question until we had reached his car. "Look at you. They're going to wonder why?" He spoke as if it was so obvious. Aiden was no longer looking into my eyes but down at my dress.

My eyes followed Aiden's, wondering what the hell he was on about. I gasped, unable to comprehend what I was seeing. My school uniform had been burnt through, yet my skin was untouched. I had been set alight, the flames had engulfed my dress, and yet, there wasn't a mark to be seen on my skin. How was that possible? I know I saw the cut on my head heal right before my eyes, but there was always the possibility I was going insane. And now, knowing that Aiden could see the hole in my dress, I couldn't possibly be insane. This was real. Something was wrong with me. No human could possibly heal so quickly. Did this mean that I wasn't human? And if I wasn't human, then what the hell was I?

I could faintly hear Aiden calling my name, but I was too caught up in my own freak-out to respond.

Aiden reached out and lifted my chin so that I was looking at him. "You need to get in the car." He didn't seem at all concerned by my lack of burns, and I couldn't understand why. All his eyes portrayed were understanding and desperation.

"Do you trust me?" he asked, looking me directly in the eyes.

I couldn't seem to make my mouth work, so I nodded.

"Good. Then get into the car, and I'll explain everything later." He already had the passenger door open, waiting for me to get in.

As I was climbing into the car, I heard Chelsea calling out to me. I looked up to see her, Ms. Drake, and a few others running towards me.

"Just get in the car," Aiden said when I paused to look at them.

I sat down and watched them all come to a halt as Aiden pulled his car onto the road.

It wasn't until we had pulled into Aiden's garage that I finally found my voice. "What the hell's going on? What's wrong with me? What am I? Wha—"

Aiden interrupted my endless questions, "I'll explain shortly, but first you need to come upstairs and get changed into something a little less... holey." He had a smirk on his face as he looked down at my dress.

How could he be joking around? I was about to say something about his inappropriate behaviour while I was going through the biggest freak-out in history, but he cut me off again.

"Sorry. I know you're worried, but it really is all going to be okay. Just go upstairs, get changed, then we'll talk." Aiden got out of the car, walked around the side, and opened my door. I hadn't moved. I didn't want to get changed. I wanted him to tell me what was happening to me before I got out.

"It's best that you get changed before I explain anything. You'll have too many questions, and you'll wish that you had cleaned up first."

How did he know what I was thinking? He always seemed to know when something was wrong or on my mind. Was he just being "observant," as he had once put it, or was there something more to it?

Aiden laughed. "You'll find the answers to all your questions soon enough." He held out his hand. "Now, will you just get out of the car?"

Taking his hand, all my anxieties slipped away just like they had when I ran into him in the hallway at school. I looked up into his eyes, wondering what just happened.

"After you get changed," Aiden replied to my unspoken question.

## Chapter 3

For the second time in two days, I found myself unable to comprehend what I was seeing in the mirror.

I had left Aiden downstairs and was in his walk-in closet, supposedly getting changed. I knew I had answers waiting for me downstairs, yet I couldn't seem to tear myself away from the mirror. I had a badly singed hole the size of my fist in the middle of my dress but not a mark on my body.

On closer inspection, the skin on my stomach looked the same as it did before the accident. But after getting burnt with fire, I would have thought there would be something different. Yet it was the exact same bronzed colour as the rest of my skin. Even the tiny little hairs that covered my body were still there.

I lifted my hand up to my neck, trying to see what had caused the searing pain that had ripped across it before I blacked out in chemistry. But—of course—there was nothing there to show for it either. At least the hole in my dress confirmed I hadn't lost my mind. What the hell was I? I mean, what I was seeing wasn't normal, and yet... I couldn't deny what I was seeing.

I looked at my reflection in amazement, wondering how any of this was possible. I needed answers, and I knew the mirror wasn't going to give them to me. Reluctantly, I pried my eyes away, grabbed the closest T-shirt off the hanger, stripped, and put on Aiden's shirt.

Without taking another glance in the mirror, I left his room and made my way back down the stairs.

I didn't see anyone in the living room. "Aiden?" His place was enormous. He lived with his sister Anna and her husband Dave, in a three-storey waterfront mansion in Paradise Waters.

"I'm in the pantry. I'll be there in a sec," he called back.

By pantry, he meant their butler's pantry, which was really more like a second kitchen. It was about the same size as the only kitchen in my house. But they didn't have a butler. His sister just liked to be able to keep all food prep where it couldn't be seen and keep the kitchen looking like something out of a magazine. So they had two of everything—stoves, ovens, dishwashers, microwaves, fridges. One was for display, and the other for use.

I sat down on the massive U-shaped, white leather sofa and waited impatiently for Aiden to finish whatever he was doing so he could finally explain what was happening to me.

My mind raced with possibilities, going from the logical—I was insane—to the absurd—I was an alien, vampire, or some other Hollywood phenomenon.

A muffled laugh came from the pantry, leading me to think that Aiden might really be able to hear my thoughts. "What's taking you so long?" I called out, unable to contain my growing annoyance any longer.

"Umm... I'm waiting for Anna." It sounded like he was still in the pantry.

"Come on!" I got up and started walking toward the kitchen. "You said that you would explain everything once I had changed. Well, I'm changed."

He didn't respond.

"Aiden," I pleaded.

"Okay, okay." He came out from the pantry, trying to hide a smile.

"You can hear my thoughts, can't you?" Deep down, beyond my rational thoughts, something was telling me I was right.

Aiden steered me back to the sofa and gently pushed me down onto it, then he sat down on the coffee table in front of me. He stared at me for what seemed like an eternity before he finally spoke. "I didn't want to tell you like this. I was supposed to wait for Anna and Dave. They should have been here by now." He looked around the room as if he expected them to appear out of thin air. "But... seeing as though they're not here, I'll give it a go."

"Why would you have to wait for them?" I didn't understand why they had to be around for him to tell me what was wrong with me. I mean, whatever he had to say didn't really have anything to do with them. "And besides, aren't they supposed to be in England or France or something?"

"Um, yeah, they're in England."

"Don't think that I'm waiting for them to come home before you tell me what's going on. You said you would tell me after I changed," I said, more than a little frustrated. I was so not good at the whole patience thing.

"They won't be long, they..." Aiden put his head in his hands, rubbing his temples with his fingertips.

For the first time since I'd known him, he was lost for words. Where was the confident, almost cocky guy I needed?

"Why can't you just tell me what's going on?" I pleaded. I wanted to know so badly, and I couldn't understand why he wouldn't just tell me.

Aiden looked at me. "I've never told anyone before. I really thought Anna or Dave would have been the one to tell you." His facial expression was agonised. He looked like he was about to tell me a horrible secret, like he was really a vampire—or maybe he was going to show me. My mind started racing with images of all the vampire movies and TV shows I had ever seen.

Aiden started laughing. "Would you stop thinking I'm a vampire?"

I sat back in shock. He really could hear my thoughts.

"Yes, I can hear your thoughts. Actually, I can hear everyone's thoughts. Well, except for my paren..." Aiden quickly shut up.

I looked at him suspiciously. I was sure he was about to say parents, but they had both died almost five years ago. Obviously he couldn't hear the dead. None of this was making any sense.

Aiden sighed. He reached forward, took my hands in his, looked directly into my eyes, and said, "Here it goes." He took a deep breath before continuing. "My parents never died like I told you they had. Anna and Dave..." he paused, lowering his head, like he didn't want to see my reaction. "Anna and Dave are my parents."

"What? How? They're only, like, in their twenties. They can't possibly be your parents, unless..." My mind trailed back to my vampire theory. Vampires were known for their immortality.

"We're not vampires." A smile had spread across his face. "There's no such thing as vampires."

Obviously, my thoughts were amusing him. I mean, what was I supposed to think? What human being could go through what I had and not even have a scratch? Okay, so technically, I did have a scratch, which only proved my theory. What human being could watch their wound heal right before their eyes within a matter of seconds? No one. Not a single soul in the history of mankind could do what I did. And the only things known to us able to do those things were vampires. Even though they were fictional and all, they were the only things that came to mind. But to be a vampire, I would have had to be bitten, and I definitely didn't remember anything like that. But I guess it could have happened while I was sleeping...

"As tasty as that sounds..." Aiden licked his lips. "I'm just kidding," he said, seeing my reaction.

I couldn't sit still anymore. I got up from the couch and began pacing by the window. My frustration was reaching boiling point. Instead of answering any of my questions like he'd said he would, he was somehow creating more.

Aiden followed me to the window and placed his hands on my shoulders, stopping me from pacing.

His face slumped. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you upset, it's just that I have never told anyone this before, and I guess I'm making a mess of it."

"What is it?" I begged for what seemed like the fiftieth time in the last hour. "How could they possibly be your parents? And what the hell does all this have to do with what's happening to me?"

"Just come and sit down." Aiden led me back to the couch, where he again sat on the coffee table in front of me. "We are immortal, but not in the vampire kinda way."

It was my turn to laugh. "You're seriously telling me that you're immortal?" Even though those words sounded absurd, the moment they left my lips, I knew they were true. It explained why I was able to heal so quickly, and how I had survived the car accident.

"Hmm." He thought about it for a second before answering. "At least, I think we are. Nobody I know has died, so I guess that makes us kinda immortal."

"So, there are others?" I asked sceptically. "I mean, besides Anna, Dave, and yourself?"

"Of course there are." He laughed. "We're not this way because of some freak science experiment gone wrong."

I leaned back against the sofa, crossing my arms in frustration. The situation seemed to be so amusing to him. The whole immortality thing may have been like second nature to him, but it was all new to me, and it scared the hell out of me. My whole life was being turned upside down, and all he could do was laugh.

"For Christ's sake, Aiden, I thought you would have handled this a little better." A harsh voice came from behind me.

"Holy crap!" I turned around to find Anna standing behind me, hands on her hips, shaking her head in disappointment.

I stumbled to my feet and backed away towards the door. "You're... you're... you're not supposed to be here. You're supposed to be... I don't know where, but you're not supposed to be here." There was no way she should be standing there. Even if she got back today, there was no way that she could have come into the room without walking past us. What I was seeing was impossible, but impossible seemed to be the new norm around here. This situation was still freaking the crap out of me, and all I wanted to do was run. Get away from all the craziness. Wind the clock back a few days to when I was ignorant to the truth.

Within the blink of an eye, she was standing by my side.

"Holy crap," I repeated, pushing my back against the wall.

"Calm down, honey," Anna said and reached out to me.

The moment her hand touched my arm, a surreal calmness washed over my body. I no longer felt the impulse to run or the fear that gripped me only seconds ago. I looked up at Anna in shock.

"Come on, honey. I think you and I need to have a talk." Anna glared at Aiden, who was slumped back on the couch. The two of them stared at one another, their facial expressions changing as if they were arguing, except neither spoke a single word.

They continued that way for almost a minute before Aiden broke his gaze with Anna, looked at me briefly, and turned his head towards the window. There was no humour in his eyes anymore. They only showed sorrow.

I turned from Aiden to Anna. "What was that all about?" What had I just witnessed?

"Nothing for you to worry about," she said, blowing it off, as if the last minute had never happened. "Now, let me get a cuppa, and then we can sit down and talk about what's going on." Anna put her arm around my shoulder and ushered me over to the sofa. "Go on, sit down, and I'll be back in a minute." She turned around and headed for the pantry.

Aiden looked up at me from the couch, his face worried, but his eyes full of hope. It was as if he feared I would be afraid of whatever Anna would tell me. "Are we okay?" he asked, his voice etched with concern.

I sat down beside him, placing my hand over his. "I thought you could read my mind," I teased.

His face relaxed. "Very funny." He put his arm around me, drawing me closer so that I was leaning into his side. "You're so muddled up, I didn't know what to think."

"We're okay," I said. I pulled my legs up onto the couch, once again enjoying the safety I always felt when I was in his arms. I wondered if that feeling was similar to what Anna had just done to me.

Aiden squeezed my arm. I turned my face up so I was looking at him. His eyes once again looked worried. "I just want you to know that no matter what you find out about what I can do, you have to believe I never once used any of my abilities against you for my own advantage."

"What are you talking about?" I pulled my eyebrows together in confusion.

"You'll understand soon enough. But just think about what I said before you jump to any conclusions."

I was about to press him further about his cryptic confession when Anna walked back into the room, carrying a tray with tea and biscuits. She placed them on the coffee table and took a seat on the other side of the sofa.

Looking at Anna, it was hard to imagine she was old enough to be Aiden's mum. There looked to be barely five years between them. The similarities were definitely there, as they would be if she were only his sister. But she wasn't.

"Now, Aiden's right. Before I start, I want you to know that we have never used any of our abilities to sway your thoughts or decisions at any time," Anna said.

"Okay," I said sceptically.

"Have you ever wondered what you could do if you weren't limited to using only one eighth of your brain?" Anna asked.

I thought back to a discussion we'd had in school a few years ago. The teacher was talking about how primitive human minds still were. Yeah, our brains had grown since our ape days, but we were still nowhere near our potential—but maybe that would come in time. Maybe in a thousand years, our descendants will look back and think what primitive creatures we were, like how we think of the Neanderthals.

"Of course I've thought about it. Who hasn't?" I finally replied, wondering what the conversation was leading to.

"Jade... what if I told you some people are more advanced? What if there were some people that could use the other seven eighths? What if being able to use the other parts of your brain was just the next step in the chain of evolution?"

I was gobsmacked. I didn't know what to say to that. Was she being serious? Her face looked serious, but I sure as hell didn't see that one coming. Yet the vampire idea came so easy... God, I really needed to get a grip on my imagination.

Both Anna and Aiden muffled a laugh, making my face turn bright red. They looked at each other for a moment. I was sure they were saying something about me, not that they had even admitted they could converse telepathically. I couldn't help but wonder what they were saying to each other.

Before I could come up with any theories, Anna spoke. "Why is it that some people are able to see things that others can't? Or predict things like psychics do? Most people think they are just nuts, or that they have done their research before speaking with their clients, or that the things they say are so generic anyone could adapt it to themselves. Don't get me wrong; most psychics are phonys. But there are also some that really do know things they shouldn't. You see, they're able to use a little more of their brain than the average person, but they don't know that is the reason for their abilities. They think they are connected to some spiritual world. And then there are others who are able to do much, much more and are aware of their own possibilities. Like how you saw the cut above your ear heal right before your eyes. And how—"

"Hang on, hang on," I said, cutting her off as I got up off the couch. Whatever Anna had done to me earlier was starting to wear off, and I couldn't seem to sit still, so I began pacing again. "Let me get this straight. You're saying that you're, like, part of some superhuman race that can read minds, move way too quickly, and can do some freaky calming shit?" The enormity of the situation was only just starting to sink in.

"I've never put it like that, but yeah, I guess," Anna answered.

"And you think I'm...." I couldn't bring myself to finish the sentence. But I guess I didn't have to; they already knew what I was thinking.

Seeing Aiden and Anna nod in agreement confirmed my thoughts. I was like them. I was part of some superhuman race. God, I was frigging immortal! I didn't understand how that was possible. I wasn't like Aiden; my parents weren't immortal.

Sure, my mum still looked young, but that was because she was young. And my father, well, all I knew about him was that he was some idiot who knocked up my mother when she was fifteen. He split as soon as he found out she was pregnant, and he hasn't been seen or heard from since.

This was all getting too much. I felt like I was suffocating. "I need some air," I managed to get out in between ragged breaths. My voice didn't seem to be working properly, and neither did my body. After fumbling with the lock, I finally managed to open the bi-fold doors and step out into the midday sun. I ran down the back steps and past the pool until I reached the end of their yard. I leaned against the glass fence, hanging my head and watching the water hit the rocks below. I tried desperately to understand what Anna had just told me. And yet I couldn't accept that I was like them. How was it that I could be so different, and not know? I was oblivious to the truth of my own existence.

I could hear Aiden's footsteps coming up behind me, but I didn't turn around. I didn't want him to see me like this. If I was supposed to be part of some advanced human race, then why was I falling to pieces?

Aiden wrapped his arms around my waist and leant down so his head was resting on my shoulder. "It's gonna be okay," he whispered in my ear before kissing my neck. "You just need a bit of time to get used to the idea."

Used to it! How the hell was someone supposed to get used to something like that? Things like that shouldn't be possible. When I really thought about it, it made sense that Aiden and his family were special. They were all insanely good looking and smart. They weren't obnoxious like one would expect people with such power would be. Instead, they possessed a compassionate, understanding wisdom. How could I even compare myself to them? No matter what Anna was telling me, I couldn't seem to wrap my head around the fact that I could be so special, too.

Aiden reacted to my unspoken self-belittling. "Are you kidding me?" He turned me around so that I was facing him.

I kept my head down, trying desperately to fight the tears that were threatening to spill from my eyes.

"I can't believe you never saw it sooner," he said.

Looking up at him, I pulled my eyebrows together in confusion. I didn't understand how I could possibly have worked it out any sooner. It wasn't as if I had ever been set on fire before or survived a car accident that should have killed me without even a scratch.

"I don't mean that. What I mean is... well, look at you." Holding my hands, he stepped back to get a good look at me. "You're like the poster girl of perfection. You're a straight-A student without even trying. You can stuff your face full of junk food every day and not put on a single pound. You have looks that every girl would die for." I gave him an incredulous look, but he continued speaking. "You have perfect eyes, skin, and don't get me started on those legs."

I was sure my face had turned bright red. "Okay, okay," I said with a laugh, a few tears slipping from my eyes. I grabbed onto his shirt, pulling him into me, trying to stop him from going on any more.

It didn't work. He nuzzled my ear. "Perfect ears." He kissed my nose. "Perfect nose." He moved slowly down so that his lips brushed against mine. "Perf—"

Before he could say anymore, I pressed my lips against his. He cupped my head in his hands, kissing me softly, then quickly increasing the intensity. With all the drama over the past two days, it was only in that moment the world stopped spinning me around. I forgot about my freakish healing abilities, and the fact that I was supposed to be special. All that occupied my mind was Aiden. No matter what life threw my way, he was my constant. He made me feel safe. I was wrapped in his arms, but it wasn't enough. I wanted more; I wanted all of him. I wanted him to take me in his arms and carry me up those stairs.

That thought was quickly squashed when I realised that not only Aiden could hear my desire, but his mother could, too.

Abruptly pulling away, I mouthed, "Oh my God." I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks at the realisation of what exactly it meant that they could hear my thoughts. My mind reeled with all the indecent thoughts, fantasies, and things that we had got up to in our relationship that not only Aiden knew about me, but his mother and father did, too.

Aiden laughed.

"This is nothing to laugh about," I said, pushing him away from me. "God, they know everything!" I felt like I was going to puke. I didn't know how I was going to face them ever again. "Oh my God," I repeated over and over.

"Jade." When I didn't answer, he grabbed hold of me by my shoulders.

I wriggled in his arms, still cringing from my realization.

He laughed again. "I think there are some things that not even a mother wants to hear."

"She may not have wanted to hear it, but she sure as hell heard it from me."

"Jade. Listen to me." He still had a smile plastered across his face. I stopped muttering so he could talk. "We can choose to tune out someone's thoughts."

"Even if that were true, they would have caught the first part of it before tuning out, so they still heard things!" I had never been so embarrassed in my entire life.

"Trust me, they tune out before they hear anything."

"How? How could they possibly know to tune out before I even had a single thought?"

Aiden had a smile that stretched from ear to ear. "Well, you sort of give off a vibe before you start thinking about me. Your heart starts beating faster, and that's when they know to tune out."

"Oh, God, that's still bad enough." I buried my head in my hands. I didn't know how I was going to face them ever again. It was even worse knowing that they weren't his sister and brother-in-law, but his parents. God, nobody wants their boyfriend's parents to know about their love life. And thinking about just how often they had to 'tune out...' That alone was enough for me to die of embarrassment—if that were possible.

"Lucky that's not a possibility, then, isn't it?" Aiden said, referring to my unspoken thoughts. "Come on, come here." He pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly. "You'll just have to find a way to deal with it like I had to."

"What? You've found a way to deal with my thoughts?"

"No, that's not what I meant," he said, shaking his head. "I meant that they are my parents, and they have also had to tune out my thoughts before I learnt how to block them."

I pulled back enough so that I could see his face. "You can block them?"

Aiden cupped my head in his hands. "Yes, so there's hope for you," he teased, before kissing me softly. "Now." He took my hands in his. "Let's go back inside."

Inside was the last place I wanted to go. I still didn't know how I was going to face Anna, knowing what I did.

"You're going to have to face her sometime, so you may as well get it over with." Aiden pulled at my hand, trying to get me to go inside with him, but I didn't budge. I knew I had to face her at some point, but I didn't see why that time needed to be now.

"Anna still has more to tell you. And I know you have more questions that need answers."

Yeah, I still had, like, a zillion questions, but at that moment, the need for answers didn't seem to outweigh my fear of facing her again.

"Come on," he pleaded. I stood my ground for a few more seconds before giving in. He was right. I had to get this over and done with, and the more I delayed it, the worse it would be. "Okay, I'll go back inside. But I'm not staying."

Aiden sighed. "You know, you are going to have to get over this whole 'she can hear my thoughts' thing sooner or later."

"I say later," I protested. "I've waited seventeen years to find out who I am, so what's another day... or five." Truthfully, I wished it could be forever, but I didn't think I would be able to avoid them for that long.

"Fine. We'll go back to yours just as soon as you face Anna," Aiden said, pulling me back towards the house.

With my heart pounding against my chest, we walked back through the bi-fold doors and into the living room. My eyes darted to Anna, sitting there and looking just as uncomfortable as I felt.

"I don't want to talk about this just as much as you don't, Jade. Trust me when I say there are some things a parent does not want to know about their child, and their love life is at the top of the list. I have never, and will never, pry into that part of your life," Anna promised. "Now, let's forget we ever had this discussion."

A wave of relief washed over me. I had actually gotten through one of the most awkward moments I would probably ever have in my entire life. "Agreed."

## Chapter 4

For most of the way home, we sat in silence. I had always thought we had the kind of relationship where we could go for long stretches of not talking without it being remotely awkward. I wondered if we were really as comfortable with each other as I thought, or if it was just me that was okay with the silence. It wasn't like Aiden was stuck with his own thoughts. No, he would be sitting there listening to all my silly inner ramblings. And believe me, superhuman or not, I've had my fair share of dumb-ass thoughts.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see his lips twitch. I had seen it a million times before and had always thought it was a cute quirk of his. A slight imperfection to his otherwise perfectness.

I turned my body so that my back was leaning against the car door, allowing me to watch his reactions to my thoughts. Why the hell should I pretend my thoughts were for my mind only when he could hear every damn thing I thought?

"You all right there?" Aiden turned his head so that he was completely facing me and not the road. A couple of days ago, that would have freaked the crap out of me, but knowing that I couldn't die—or even get much more than a cut—kind of changed things.

I kept staring at him, willing myself to be able to hear his thoughts, too. If only it were that easy.

Aiden's phone rang, interrupting my attempt at what seemed the impossible. He glanced at the screen before answering.

"Hey, Chels, what's up?" The moment I heard her name, an unsettling feeling that I couldn't explain swept over me.

Her voice came through the car speakers. "Hey, I just wanted to check to see how Jade's doing. I know she looked okay before you took her to the hospital this morning. I can't believe she didn't even get burnt. I do not know how Ms. Drake put the fire out before it managed to burn through her uniform."

I glared at Aiden. Is that what he had done to them right before we got in the car? Did he feed them a load of BS? Could he even do something like that? He didn't admit it with Chelsea listening in, but the little smirk Aiden threw my way made me think I was onto something.

"Anyway, how is she? They didn't find anything wrong with her, did they? Are you still with her?" God, that girl could talk.

"She's fine. And yes, I'm still with her." Aiden put his hand on my knee. I was still facing him, with my back against the door, so my knee was all he could reach without leaning over.

"You okay?" he whispered to me. I knew he wasn't asking me if I was okay for the same reason Chelsea was. He was asking me about the creepy feeling that kept growing inside of me. I shrugged. Truth be told, it was starting to scare me a little.

"Hi, Chels," I piped in. "And before you say anything, I am fine." I knew that she would have asked me even though Aiden had just told her I was okay.

"Good," she said, letting out a sigh. Knowing her, she wouldn't have really believed it until she heard it from me herself. "You must be like a saint or something, only instead of performing miracles on others, you're using them all on yourself." She laughed.

I thought about what she had just said. Everyone must be thinking something was up with me. I mean, how many times can you come so close to death and live to see another day? I made a mental note to try to be more careful. I didn't want to bring any more unnecessary attention to myself.

"So, anyway, I have your things you left at school this morning. Do you want to meet up after school? Ben asked me to go to Baxter's with him, but I can come over to your house instead." She sounded hopeful.

I didn't want to intrude on what I thought was some sort of date Ben was planning. But even more so, I didn't want her coming around my house just yet. There were too many things I knew she would ask, and I didn't want to answer. So I opted to make it a double date. "We'll meet you at Baxter's." Although I couldn't see Chelsea, I could tell she had been hoping that I would save her from the whole date thing. "I've been stuck in the hospital almost all day, and I really feel like some fresh air." I lied about the hospital part, not the needing fresh air.

"Okay, then. So I'll see you guys in an hour?"

An hour! I looked at the clock, and sure enough it was just after two in the afternoon. Where the hell had the day gone? Oh, yeah, I had found out that I was Superwoman, that's where.

"We'll be there," Aiden said, covering for me because I was once again lost in my own thoughts.

"Don't be late," Chelsea said before hanging up.

I turned around in my seat so that I was facing the dashboard. The nauseous feeling had started to subside, but it was still creeping the crap out of me.

"What was that about?" I asked Aiden, hoping that he would be able to explain what was going on.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Haven't a clue." Aiden looked over and saw the disappointment on my face. "Don't worry, we'll figure it out."

He laced his fingers with mine, and the tension instantly drained from my body. "What did you just do to me?" I asked. I had completely forgotten to ask about what he and Anna could do by just touching me.

"You mean this?" He squeezed my hand, sending an extra wave of calmness coursing through my body.

My eyes widened in surprise. My whole body pulsated as waves of whatever the hell it was seemed to flow through my veins, sending me into a state of calmness I had never felt before. I finally managed to find my voice. "Yes, that."

He laughed and sent another wave pulsating through my body, making me gasp as I felt 'it' enter my body.

"The easiest way to explain it is that we are able to manipulate your endorphins by way of touch," Aiden explained. "I can also make you angry, too. Want to see?" A mischievous smile spread across his face.

"No," I said, pulling my hand away from his. If he could make me feel this good, I sure as hell didn't want to know how angry he could make me feel.

Aiden laughed. "Maybe later, hey?" he joked, which I didn't find half as amusing as what he seemed to.

"How 'bout never," I warned.

"Hey?" Aiden said, grabbing my hand, which I reluctantly let him hold.

"What?" I wondered what else he was going to try to do to me. Aiden's expression was serious, making me even more nervous.

"I will never manipulate your feelings like that," he promised. I hoped he was just referring to the whole making me angry thing, because the calming endorphin thing he did was definitely okay with me. Aiden sent another wave pulsating through my veins, letting me know that yes, I was still getting some of the good ones from him.

For the remainder of the drive to my place, I tried to get past the calm feeling that consumed my body and tried to make sense of the creepy feeling I had when I heard Chelsea's voice. I knew there was something important I was missing, but for the life of me, I hadn't a clue what that thing was. By the time we arrived, I was still no closer to figuring it out.

Aiden parked in the driveway. I got out and made a quick dash for the side gate, hoping none of my nosy neighbours were watching me run across my front yard in a T-shirt that barely covered my ass. I half-hoped invisibility was one of my gifts, but by the look on my next-door neighbour, Mrs. Carson's face, I was in no such luck. She gasped and placed her hand over her heart as if my public display of fleshiness was giving her a heart attack. She was lucky I hadn't burned a hole through my underwear; otherwise, she would've probably ended up in the hospital. A small laugh escaped my lips at the thought of what her doctor's notes would say: "Patient Diagnosis: Minor heart attack, caused by Jade Sommers' booty."

Thanks to my abrupt departure from school, I had left my bag with my keys in the science lab. I hoped Mum had returned the spare key to our 'oh so secret, nobody would ever guess' hiding place, which was actually in plain sight.

I opened the side gate and barely managed to close it behind me before Tyson came bounding up to greet me with one of his over-the-top kisses. It was really more like a loving mauling of any body part of mine that he could manage to fit between his massive chompers.

"Hey, boy," I said as I tried to remove my hand from his mouth. He reluctantly released his loving grip and settled for a rub behind the ears.

I moved my hand down to the front of his neck and was relieved to find that Mum had returned the key. We figured that if any would-be robber could get the house key from the collar of a fifty-kilo Rottweiler, they deserved to get into the house without having to break a window.

With Tyson sniffing where he shouldn't, I quickly opened the back door, jumped inside, and left a sulking, overgrown puppy outside. I loved my dog, even though he was a handful. We had once sent him away to a doggy training camp that claimed to be the best in the business. Four hundred dollars later and they couldn't even manage to get him to walk beside them for more than a second. Mum of course made them give her money back, even though they wanted to keep some for boarding and feeding him. We weren't sending Tyson there so we could go off on a holiday, so Mum kindly told them that if they didn't refund us in full, she would do a story on how incompetent they really were; they were suddenly more than happy to refund us in full.

I opened the front door and let Aiden inside. He went to grab my hand. "I don't think you want to do that." I pulled my hand back and held it to the side. "Dog slobber." I looked at the glistening goo covering my right hand.

Aiden stood back as if he was going to catch cooties from the drool. "I'll just wait in the living room while you go wash that shit off." It was even funnier to watch his reaction to dog saliva, knowing he was practically Superman. Yet something so pathetic could turn him into a little girl.

"You know I'm far from a little girl," he said, raising his eyebrows.

"Oh, really... Well then, why don't you come upstairs and show me just how much of a man you really are?" I said, holding out my slobbery hand.

His eyes darted down to my outstretched hand, which I'm sure was a little too close for comfort. "I would, but then we would be late, and Chelsea would kill you if you left her alone with Ben."

"Your loss," I said, turning around and walking upstairs. I could feel his eyes on me, wanting so badly to take me up on my offer, but not enough to confront his fear.

After showering to get Tyson's slobber and the stench of smoke, burnt clothing, and fire-extinguisher fluid out of my hair, I dressed in my new barely-there white swimmers and threw a light blue kaftan on top. I wanted to try to go swimming at the beach before I had to get back home before Mum did; she would probably freak if she knew that I'd been out all day, especially when she had told me to stay home.

I looked at myself in my full length mirror, admiring how damn cute I looked, then grabbed my beach bag and towel and went downstairs.

"I'm ready. Let's go," I called out as I headed to the front door.

Aiden was by my side within a blink of an eye.

"Whoa." I wasn't used to how quickly he could move. I wondered if I would ever be able to move that fast, too.

"Whoa yourself," he said, taking a look at me, giving me exactly the reaction I was hoping for. Aiden wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me close. "You know, I think Chelsea wouldn't mind so much being left alone with Ben," he whispered in my ear, his hands making their way down to my arse.

"Oh, no, I think you were right before. She would definitely kill me if I didn't show up on time." I pushed my hands against his chest, breaking his hold on me.

Aiden puffed out his lips like a little child who had just been told that he couldn't have the lollipop he wanted so badly. "That's so not fair," he complained.

There's always tonight, I thought.

***

We arrived at Baxter's ten minutes early; neither Ben nor Chelsea were there. There was one booth left, which was amazing—they were usually snapped up first by the after-school crowd. I slid in first and Aiden sat beside me, leaving the opposite side for the hopefully blossoming lovebirds.

The waiter came before I had a chance to look through the menu, but thankfully I knew it by heart, which I knew probably had something to do with my 'brilliant mind.'

I ordered my favourite, reef 'n beef pizza, and Aiden ordered meat lover's pizza, garlic bread pizza, beef nachos, and a side of chips covered in a creamy bacon and mushroom sauce.

"You know they're going to catch on to you sooner or later," I said. He would always pretend that he liked to have a bit of everything, but I knew better. What Aiden was really doing by ordering such a spread was making sure there was enough food for everyone to share. He had money, and the majority of our friends did not. So rather than being turned down when he offered to pay for the meal, he would just order enough to go around. Surprisingly, nobody had caught on yet. They were so used to Aiden sampling almost everything on the menu and thought they may as well not let his leftovers go to waste.

"And until then, I'm gonna keep buying." He flashed me one of his devilish grins, making me think that maybe that day would never come. For all I knew, they had already worked it out but were feigning ignorance. I mean, they got a free meal, and Aiden got to pay for it like he wanted.

"Hey, guys," Ben said, sitting down opposite Aiden. "Is Chelsea here yet?" he asked, looking around the café.

I shook my head. "Nope. Sorry."

The look of disappointment that came over his face was almost too much. He obviously couldn't wait to see her. God, he was a lovestruck puppy.

"Calm down, mate, you don't want to seem too desperate," Aiden said with a laugh.

"She'll be here soon." I looked up towards the entry. "Actually..." I couldn't finish my sentence because as soon as I laid eyes upon her, my stomach twisted in knots. I couldn't explain it. Why was I okay around everyone except Chelsea? Even speaking to her on the phone had made me feel sick.

"You don't have to wait any longer," Aiden said, finishing my sentence. He put his arm around me, giving me as much of a comforting embrace as he could without everyone wondering what was up with me.

Ben followed our gaze, and the moment he laid eyes on Chelsea, his face lit up.

"Sorry I'm late," Chelsea said, trying not to look at Ben, but also trying not to look like she was purposely not looking at Ben—it was a funny thing to watch.

"Don't worry, we only just got here, too," I lied. "Move down and let the poor girl sit down." I motioned to Ben to wiggle down so that he would be sitting in front of me.

I didn't have to be able to read minds to guess the profanities that Chelsea was swinging at me in her head. But I didn't care. At the moment, I wanted to be as far away from her as possible. And if that meant only one extra seat away, then that's where she was going to sit. I really didn't get why I was feeling like that. Normally, Chelsea and I were practically joined at the hip.

"Thanks," she said through gritted teeth. I could tell she wanted to sit opposite me so that she would be able to get swept up in a conversation with me and not have to focus on Ben. Bad luck for her. Besides, I knew the two of them would be perfect for each other—even if she didn't agree.

Once Chelsea was seated, she started quizzing me. "So, you look okay... How is that possible?" She was looking me over, obviously wondering how I'd managed to escape death twice in two days.

"I'm fine, I—"

Aiden cut me off. "You don't have to worry, she's fine," he said, trying to get her off my back. Chelsea looked like she didn't really believe him, so he added, "I've seen for myself."

Her face turned bright red. I knew exactly what she was thinking, and I knew Aiden did, too. And that was the exact reason he had said it. Right about now, Chelsea would be living her love life through me, which was another reason why she needed a nudge in the right direction—towards Ben. She needed her own love life, and maybe then she would stop obsessing over mine.

The waiter brought over our assortment of food and, as usual, everyone dug in without any thought about who had paid for it all.

Thanks to the unexplained sickly sensation I got around Chelsea, I no longer felt like eating. I sat and picked at my food, not really listening to the three of them rambling on about something that had happened at school.

Before I knew it, Aiden squeezed my leg, letting me know they were finished and getting up to leave.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Chelsea asked with a concerned tone.

"I'm just a bit tired. Sorry."

"Well, I guess we can count you out on ice cream," she stated more than asked, looping her arm through Ben's. I had to look twice. Yep, I saw right, Chelsea really was snuggling into Ben. What the hell had I missed?

Chelsea noticed my open mouth. "Bet you never thought you'd see this, hey?" She gave him a kiss on the cheek. Ben was... glowing. I thought that description only applied to pregnant women, but sure enough, he was glowing.

You're going to have to fill me in on what the hell happened there, I thought to Aiden.

When I turned to leave, Chelsea grabbed a hold of my arm. "Wait—"

I didn't hear the rest of what she said because the moment our skin touched, flashes of Chelsea strapped to a chair went through my mind. She looked terrified, as if she was scared for her life. She was shaking her head, begging someone not to hurt her.

Tears were streaming down her face; seconds later, she let out a blood-curdling scream as her face contorted into absolute agony. A split-second later, the same searing pain that had engulfed me in the science lab ripped from the bottom of my right ear and across my throat, ending just below my chin. It was the most excruciating pain I had ever felt, then it was over just as quick as it started. The image of Chelsea was no longer there. The pain in my neck was gone, too.

I looked down at Chelsea's hand; she was no longer holding on to me. She was holding her hand out wondering what the hell was going on. "What the hell did you do that for?" Chelsea yelled at Aiden. Ben was standing there with the same confused look on his face that was plastered on Chelsea's.

I didn't see what Aiden had done to deserve that reaction from them, but if I had to guess, I would say Aiden had broken her hold on me not so subtly. Within seconds, though, they were no longer looking at Aiden like he was crazy. Instead, they were gazing into each other's eyes like the closing scene out of some romantic movie. It was as if the previous fifteen seconds never happened.

I turned to Aiden, trying to figure out what the hell was going on, but his facial expression told me nothing.

Nothing was making sense anymore. It was as if two days ago, I'd woken up on some other planet.

"Okay, we'll leave you two lovebirds to it," Aiden said as he picked up my bag with one hand and ushered me out with the other.

At first I didn't budge. I wanted to work out how I had somehow landed in the Twilight Zone. But Aiden had other ideas, and seeing as he was the stronger of us, he won out. Unable to find my voice, I waved a good-bye and let Aiden lead me out onto the esplanade.

We didn't go home right away. Instead, we headed to the beach.

"So, what happened back there?" I asked as I sat down on the sand dunes, hugging my knees to my chest as I looked out at the sea.

There was the usual after-school crowd trying to get in a surf before sunset. I had never learnt to surf, which was kinda crazy since I grew up in the surfing capital of Australia. And at that moment, I wished so badly that I had learnt. Apparently, it was good for the soul—a way to release the stresses of the day. Boy, did I need to let go of some of mine.

Aiden sat down behind me so that I was sitting in-between his legs. "I don't—"

I cut him off. "Don't give me any of that crap about you not knowing, or that it would be best if Anna tells me, 'cause I don't want her to tell me. I want you to explain it to me now."

"Look," he paused, pulling me back so that I was leaning against his chest. "I really don't know what happened when Chelsea grabbed your arm. From what I was able to get from your thoughts, it kinda seems like you had a vision of some sort—but I've never experienced anything like it before."

"A vision? Does that mean that... Is it really going to happen?" I shuddered.

He didn't answer. I turned my body so that I could see his face. His expression was that of someone about to give the worst possible news.

I buried my head in his chest, tears spilling down my cheeks. I felt like I was going to throw up. I had just pre-emptively witnessed what was probably my best friend's murder. How could that be possible? How could that happen to her? Who would do that to her? No one hated her enough to do something like that to her. I didn't even know anyone who was capable of such a thing.

"Hey, hey, come on," Aiden said, trying to console me. "I don't think the future is set in stone." He stroked my hair. "And I know you don't want to hear it, but I think we should speak with Anna."

He was right. I needed to speak with someone who could help me save Chelsea, but I couldn't stop crying. The fear in Chelsea's eyes kept replaying over and over. The way her face contorted in agony was just too much for me to handle, so I stayed wrapped in Aiden's embrace until my eyes ran dry. In the end, it wasn't that long, because Aiden sent waves of endorphins pulsating through me.

## Chapter 5

Anna was waiting for us in the garage when we arrived at Aiden's house. I climbed out of the car and was met by her warm embrace. She didn't say anything; instead, she filled me with that amazing peace and serenity she had given me earlier. This time, however, I did not freak out; I welcomed it into my body. The feeling was almost indescribable. It was like the way I felt around Aiden, but on steroids.

Once I was completely content, Anna broke our embrace. My legs started to buckle. I felt like I had been given drugs and was well on my way to La La Land. Aiden scooped me up in his arms before I hit the floor.

"Oops," Anna said, giggling. "I guess I got a little carried away."

I tried to say that I had never felt better, but what came out was slurred. I guess maybe she did go a bit overboard, but I wasn't complaining.

Aiden carried me up the stairs and laid me down on the sofa. He propped me up with a mountain of cushions, which I slid down from so that my head was lying directly on the sofa.

I could barely keep my eyes open, so I closed them and tried desperately to remain conscious.

My phone started to ring. There was no way I was getting up to answer the thing. It stopped ringing a second later, followed by Aiden saying, "Hi, Nikki."

Crap. Mum was going to kill me for not resting at home, but at the moment, I was too dazed to care.

I tried desperately to stay awake long enough to hear the rest of the conversation. However, whatever it was Anna had done to me was too much for me to fight, and I quickly drifted off to sleep.

***

"Hey, sleepyhead," Aiden said as he tucked a few strands of my hair behind my ear.

"Hi," I whispered, gazing up into his hypnotic green eyes. I was still feeling amazing from whatever Anna had done to me, and all those loving feelings were heading his way.

His perfect lips parted into a smile, filling my body with even more desire.

A not-so-discreet clearing of the throat came from across the room. I looked over to find Anna sitting across from me on the other side of the sofa, holding back a smirk.

Normally, I would have died from embarrassment knowing that my boyfriend's mother knew what I was planning to do with her son, but I was still too much in Zen mode to care. I did, however, manage to stop any further thoughts on that subject.

Pulling myself up so that I was once again leaning against the mountain of cushions, I looked out of the window to find darkness had set in. It was pitch black outside, bar the twinkling lights coming from the houses on the other side of the seaway.

An ever-so-slight panic flittered over me at the thought of the shit I would be in with my mum for not staying at home. A small laugh escaped my lips. If she only knew just how rested I really was. God, I had never been so relaxed in my entire life.

"Don't worry about your mum. I told her that you didn't want to be alone today, and Anna volunteered to keep you company, except she was waiting for a package to be delivered, so you came here instead," Aiden explained.

It was actually a pretty good cover. I'm sure it made Mum feel guilty for leaving me and grateful that I had been properly looked after.

"You're not just a pretty face," I said to Aiden and caressed his cheek.

Aiden grabbed my hand, kissing it softly before placing it in his lap.

"Sorry to burst your happy bubble, but we have to talk about your vision," Anna said, snapping me back to reality.

At the thought of Chelsea's murder, a small pain shot through my heart. Actually, it was more like a light buzzing feeling.

"The easiest way for me to know what happened is for me to see exactly what you saw," Anna said, tucking her golden brown hair behind her ears.

I squinted my eyes as I looked at her, as if that was going to make what she just said clearer to me, which of course it didn't.

"What I'm going to do is go inside your mind—mentally, not physically." Anna laughed, but I was still too zoned out to catch on to her joke.

Aiden wasn't laughing either, so maybe it wasn't that funny. Which, when it came to Anna, wasn't that uncommon. Her jokes sucked. Maybe it had something to do with her age; I still had no idea just how old that really was.

Anna cleared her throat at the same time Aiden burst out laughing, which stopped my inner ramblings and made me feel the tiniest bit of guilt over what I had just thought. Something told me that I just might feel a little sorrier tomorrow.

"Anyway," Anna continued, stopping me from thinking anything else I might regret. "I will be able to see exactly what you saw, so I'll know precisely what we're dealing with. Now, this may feel a little strange, but just remember, this is not going to hurt you a single bit."

"Go for it." I was still too out of it to care what she did. And at the moment, I didn't think I was even capable of articulating anything that would describe what I saw, anyway.

Not knowing how long the whole mind reading thing would take, I snuggled into Aiden's side, mostly trying to get comfortable, but also because I still had the whole loving vibe going on, and I wanted to get as close to him as possible.

Aiden wrapped his arm around me while I rested my head against his chest. Listening to the steady beat of his heart, I waited for the invasion to begin.

It was hard to explain what happened next, because there literally was no explanation in any human language for what it felt like when someone entered your thoughts. One minute my head was my own, and the next I could feel her penetrating my mind. It only lasted about ten seconds, then she was gone.

Anna didn't say anything straight away; she just sat staring at nothing in particular. Finally, she turned to us, her expression unreadable as I waited for her to say something, but she didn't.

A couple of seconds later, it was Aiden who spoke. "Come on, it's time for bed." He squeezed my arm, motioning me to get up.

I was too caught up in the fact he was about to take me home to care that Anna hadn't offered up any explanation of my vision. "But I only just woke up," I whinged. I really did not want to go home. The truth was, I didn't want to be alone. I wanted to be with Aiden. At the moment, he was like a security blanket I couldn't be without.

Aiden scooped me up into his arms. "Well, lucky for you, you're not going anywhere," he said with a smile.

I scrunched my eyebrows together in confusion.

"I called your mum about an hour ago to let her know you were still asleep. She said to just let you sleep, and she would see you in the morning," Anna explained.

Mum didn't have a problem with Aiden and me spending the night together. I think it comforted her to know I had someone to watch out for me during the nights she spent working on some new lead.

She wasn't worried about what went on behind closed doors, either. After all, her parents had been as strict as they came, and she'd ended up sneaking around with a guy and wound up pregnant with me at fifteen. Her parents freaked. They wanted her to give me up for adoption, but my mum wouldn't hear of it, thank God. So they gave her an ultimatum. She either had to give me up for adoption or move out. She moved out and into a cheap motel when she was six months pregnant, and somehow raised me as well as found herself a successful career. All without the help of her parents or my biological father, who hadn't wanted anything to do with her or me once Mum told him she was pregnant. I guess she figured that teenagers would be teenagers. And tonight, we would definitely be teenagers, I thought, breathing in his intoxicating smell.

"I'll just go now," Anna said, disappearing suddenly.

I looked up at Aiden, waiting for him to explain Anna's sudden departure.

He laughed. "I guess you forgot she can hear your thoughts," he said as he carried me up the stairs.

"Oops," I whispered, blood filling my cheeks.

"Don't worry, she wanted to get back to my dad anyway." He carried me into his room.

"It's so weird you calling Dave your dad," I thought out loud.

He set me down on his bed and sat down beside me.

"Do you really want to be talking about my parents right now?" he asked with a mischievous grin. "'Cause I heard that you couldn't wait to get me alone." He ran his hand along my thigh, making my whole body quiver beneath his touch.

My heart was racing as I crawled on to Aiden's lap. Bending forward, I pressed my lips against his. He welcomed me, kissing me passionately. I had never felt like this about anyone before I met Aiden. It was as if every relationship I had before him was meaningless, as if I was just filling in time until he came into my life and awakened all those senses that had been lying dormant.

Aiden ran his hands up my thighs, stopping when he reached the end of my kaftan. He lifted it up over my head and kissed my lips softly before working his way down my neck. With one hand on my lower back and the other gently supporting the base of my head, he swung me off his body in one smooth motion, carefully lowering me onto my back. He pressed his heaving body against mine, careful not to crush me under his weight. I let my mind succumb to the passion, forgetting about the last few days, and just enjoyed all the love he was sending my way.

## Chapter 6

My stomach twisted when I saw Chelsea walking up my driveway. It was dark, and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing outside my house. The last thing I remembered was falling asleep at Aiden's house, wrapped in his arms.

Although most of her face was covered by her hoodie, I could still tell she was beaming. It was clear she'd been bitten by the love bug and was coming over to gloat. I made a mental note to ask Aiden what the hell happened between her and Ben—I had obviously missed something huge.

As I sat on the porch, waiting for her to get closer, I felt something was wrong. I wasn't sure what exactly had my stomach doing flips, but the feeling was getting stronger by the second.

"Hurry up!" I yelled out to her. I wanted her to get inside and away from whatever it was that was making my skin crawl. Chelsea didn't quicken her pace.

"Chelsea," I called again, but it was as if she didn't hear me.

Alarm bells were going off inside of me. Something was seriously wrong.

"Run!" I yelled to Chelsea as I saw a man wearing something that resembled a ninja getup step out from a nearby bush.

"Chelsea!" I screamed. She continued plodding up the driveway, oblivious to my warnings.

What the hell was wrong with her? Maybe she was listening to her iPod. I started flapping my arms around, trying desperately to get her attention, but it was as if I wasn't even there.

Despite the fact that I was yelling, the man continued to creep up on her. I couldn't believe the nerve of the guy. He was seriously going to try something with a witness not only watching, but calling out to the whole neighbourhood to come see what all the commotion was about.

I looked around at all my neighbours' houses. Not a single soul came out to see what was going on. Not even the nosy Mrs. Carson.

When I looked back, he was going for the attack. Chelsea let out a deafening scream as he tried to put a bag over her head.

Despite the confusion of why nobody seemed to acknowledge my existence, I knew I had to do something. I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to Chelsea. Maybe my visions had been warning me of that very moment, and it was up to me to save her.

Without thinking of how I was actually going to save her, or what I was going to do if the psycho turned on me, I ran across the front yard and tried to tackle the guy. I had no self-defence experience, nor had I ever been in an actual fight, but I'd be damned if I was going to let him take her without even trying to save her.

As I sailed through the air in full-blown attack mode, I hoped the fact that I was some sort of super human would offer me some help in getting us both out of this situation. But I was wrong. I didn't even have a chance.

Instead of ploughing straight into his chest like I had planned, I actually went straight through him and landed without a thud on the grass behind where he stood.

I looked around, trying to work out what had happened, and saw that he was dragging her off towards a van parked on the street.

My body started trembling as I pulled myself up onto my knees and watched my best friend being shoved into the van. And the worst part was, despite all my efforts, there wasn't a thing I could do to save her.

I was trembling uncontrollably, and within seconds, I blacked out.

The next thing I knew, I was waking up. I was still trembling uncontrollably, but I was no longer kneeling on my front lawn. I was back in Aiden's room, lying in his bed with his arms wrapped around me.

Neither of us said anything while I waited for the trembling to stop. I kept telling myself it was just a dream, yet somehow my brain wasn't buying it. That hadn't felt like any dream I'd ever had. In fact, it felt more like the visions I had been having the last few days, which scared the hell out of me.

When the trembles finally stopped, I turned to face Aiden. I was hoping that he would be able to confirm that it was just a dream, because if it wasn't, Chelsea was in some serious shit.

Aiden seemed to be as shaken by my dream as I was, which didn't make me feel any better. He kissed the top of my head. "Sorry, I don't mean to scare you. It's just... I've never heard of anyone having visions like that."

My heart lifted in hope. Maybe it was just a dream.

Aiden's face grew sorrowful. "I don't think it was a dream, either..."

And with those few words, any hope I had shattered into a million pieces. To tell the truth, I already knew that it wasn't a dream, but hearing it come from Aiden's lips made the whole thing real somehow.

I didn't know what to do, but I knew I had to do something to try to save her. "Come on, we have to try to figure this out, and we're not going to do it lying in bed," I said, throwing the covers off us. "I need to find Chelsea. We've got to make sure she isn't ever alone because she was alone when she was taken. And if that's all I can figure out so far, then that's what we've got to eliminate."

"Do we have time for a shower?" Aiden asked, crawling out of bed after me.

"Nope." I searched the room for my bikini and kaftan. Once I had located my missing attire, I quickly changed and turned around, half expecting to see Aiden still in his birthday suit, but thankfully, he was already dressed and ready to go.

"I was only half serious about the shower," he said in his defence.

"Sure you were." I kissed him softly, savouring his sweet taste before pulling away too soon for either of our liking.

With our hormones in check, we headed down to his car. Aiden threw his bag into the back seat next to where mine had been dumped yesterday, then jumped into the driver's seat. I was already waiting next to him.

We made a quick detour to my house so I could get changed into something more decent. Mum wasn't home—no surprise there. She had left another note on the kitchen table saying that she promised she would be home for dinner at seven. "We'll see," I said to myself as I closed the front door and headed for the car.

Mum generally had the best of intentions for the two of us to spend time together, but most of the time she would arrive hours later, apologising profusely that she hadn't realised the time. It used to bother me when I was a kid, but these days it kind of worked out for the best. I mean, how many teenagers really want to spend 'quality time' with their parents? I love her and all, but I would rather be spending time with Aiden and my friends.

Even with us arriving at school with only five minutes until the bell rang, Aiden's usual parking space was still available. In the past, I'd been stumped as to why no one ever tried taking that spot, but I had got a pretty good idea it wasn't a coincidence at all.

Aiden gave me a wicked grin, making me think that there was a whole lot more he could do than he had told me about.

We got out of the car and made our way towards our usual morning meeting point. From a distance, I could only see Chrissy, Megan, and Ben. I was hoping that Chelsea's tiny frame was hiding behind Ben's bulky body, but by the way Chrissy was trying to flirt with him, I knew my best friend wasn't there.

"Where's Chelsea?" I blurted, a little more forceful than I'd intended.

They all turned to face me, but only Chrissy opened her mouth to speak. "Well, hello to you, too." She sounded a bit put off by my abruptness. If it was anyone else, I may have felt bad, but it was Chrissy we were talking about. There wasn't much that would make me feel sorry for her anymore.

"Just answer my question," I snapped. "Has anyone seen Chelsea?" The sickness in my gut was getting heavier by the minute, and I really couldn't deal with much more of Chrissy's crap.

"No!" Chrissy snapped back.

"How often is she here on time anyway?" Megan said sweetly. She was obviously trying to defuse the tension building between Chrissy and me.

I really didn't want to get into an argument. Actually, I kind of did, but I didn't have time for it. I had to try to find Chelsea. "Look..." I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself before continuing. "I just really need to find her. Have any of you seen her?"

Megan and Chrissy were looking at me like I was high on something, but neither of them said anything.

"Has something happened?" Ben asked. He looked genuinely worried about why I was freaking out.

I didn't want to worry him too, so I lied. "Oh, nothing, I just need to speak with her about something," I said dismissively.

Ben still looked worried. "Are you sure everything is okay?"

I waved off his concern. "Everything is fine, really."

Thankfully, the bell rang, saving me from any further questions, but I still hadn't seen Chelsea.

As the others hurried off to class, Aiden pulled me into his arms, trying to ease the panic building up inside of me.

I buried my head in his chest, trying desperately not to shed the tears that were threatening to spill from my eyes. I didn't know what I would've done if I didn't have access to those feel-good endorphins he was sending my way. They were already releasing the fear that had gripped me only moments ago.

"You know, she could just be late," he said, trying to ease my concerns.

"Yeah, maybe," I agreed half-heartedly.

"But you don't really think so, do you?" He bent down and kissed the top of my head. "Are you sure you're up for this?"

I leaned back enough so that I could look him in the eyes. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

I could tell he didn't believe me by the way he was looking at me, but he accepted my decision to go to class nonetheless.

"Okay." He bent down again and kissed me good-bye. "See you at lunch."

"See you," I called out as I hurried off to maths—what a start to the day. It was not one of my favourite subjects. Don't get me wrong, I was good at it, I just found it mind-numbingly boring. I would spend most of the class letting my mind wander off. It used to annoy the hell out of Mr. Heithcliffe. He would try to catch me out by asking me a question about whatever he was discussing at the time, but I always knew the answer. It all came to me so clearly, like I had a photographic memory or whatever it was called. Until now, I'd never understood how other students couldn't wrap their heads around the simplicity of it all, which made me wonder just how it would feel to have a brain like your average Joe Blow. Maybe it was bloody hard, and I should be thankful for who, and what, I was.

When I got to class, Mr. Heithcliffe had already separated the desks and had placed some exam papers facedown. I had completely forgotten he was giving us a practice exam before our finals, which were coming up in less than a month.

I couldn't believe the school year had gone so quickly. We were all facing the end of our lives as we had known it for the last thirteen years. Somehow, thirteen years of school didn't seem as long as it used to. But I guess when you're faced with eternity, thirteen years is barely the blink of an eye.

I completed the exam and looked up at the clock at the front of the room. It had taken me less than twenty minutes to get through the exam that Mr. Heithcliffe had allocated two hours to complete, and most of that time I had spent thinking about the previous night's vision.

When Mr. Heithcliffe first became my teacher, he would approach me after I had finished an exam and suggest I review my answers to be sure I had completed them all correctly. After a few times, he realised he was wasting his breath. I didn't need to make sure I had answered everything correctly, because I never got anything wrong.

When the bell finally rang, I made my way to the cafeteria and grabbed my lunch from the canteen. It was my usual, consisting of a hamburger with all the trimmings and a strawberry milkshake.

I looked over at our table; Chelsea wasn't there, and Ben's eyes were darting around the room in search of her. The poor bugger. He was probably thinking she had serious regrets about what happened between the two of them yesterday, and she had skipped school in an effort to avoid him. At least his theory of why Chelsea wasn't at school was a lot more comforting than mine.

Not wanting to worry Ben any more than I already had, I walked casually over to our table and greeted everyone in my usual chirpy manner.

I leant over to give Aiden a kiss on the cheek as I squeezed in between him and Chrissy, who shot me a supposedly friendly smile, but her eyes were laced with daggers.

"Oops, sorry," I said, as I accidentally-on-purpose nearly shoved her off the end of the bench.

I didn't wait to see the daggers reappear in her eyes before I turned my attention to Aiden, but I could feel them digging their way into my skull.

Leaning closer, Aiden wrapped an arm around my waist and whispered in my ear, "Are you sure you don't have any mind reading capabilities yet? Because you were pretty much spot on with what Ben was just thinking and the daggers Chrissy is throwing your way."

"Really?" I couldn't hear anyone's thoughts, but maybe having a sixth sense about what people were thinking was the first step. "Is that how it happened for you?" God, how I wanted to be able to know what everyone was thinking.

"No. It came to me all of a sudden. One moment I was like you, and the next my mind was invaded by everyone's thoughts. Yours may or may not come suddenly. Some people's abilities come and go for a while before they click." Aiden spoke low enough so that no one would catch on to what we were talking about. "And it's not all it's cracked up to be. People can think some pretty mean and horrible things."

I was pretty sure Chrissy was throwing a ton of horrible thoughts my way.

"You don't want to know," Aiden said with a laugh.

He was right; I didn't want to know. What I really needed to be thinking about was Chelsea. I should have been trying to figure out where the hell she was.

I put a smile on my face and turned to Chrissy. I wanted to see if the queen of gossip knew anything about Chelsea's whereabouts.

I waited until I saw a break in the conversation she was having with Megan before I butted in. "So, Chrissy, have you seen Chels today?" I asked as casually as I could. I was hoping that I hadn't drawn Ben's attention to my conversation; I really felt sorry for the poor bugger. Thankfully, Aiden had him engulfed in a discussion about a debatable try from that morning's P.E. class, so I knew it was safe to continue.

"Nope, she didn't turn up to class this morning," Chrissy said through a mouthful of food, then turned back to Megan to finish their conversation. They were trying to decide what we should all do this weekend, which to her was a lot more important than Chelsea not being at school.

At times like that, I wondered why I still put up with her. But I had known her since we were in primary school, and I guess I had grown used to her selfish ways. She hadn't always been so bad. Ditsy, yes, but always wanting to be the centre of attention only really started when Aiden moved to the Gold Coast. She'd been trying to divert his attention away from me to her, and even though she had not been successful, she still kept with the attitude.

I took my phone out of my pocket and called Chelsea's mobile, but it was switched off. I quickly dialled her home number, hoping that she would answer so I could put my mind at ease, but there was no answer. "Damn," I said under my breath, and nobody noticed.

I was contemplating what my next course of action would be when my phone started ringing—it was Chelsea's mobile. Thank God, she must be okay.

"Hey, Chels, where the hell are you?" She didn't respond. "Chelsea, can you hear me?"

"Jade," the voice sounded shaky.

It was not Chelsea. It was Marie, her mother. My heart started thumping. Why would Marie be calling me, and why on Chelsea's phone?

"Jade, have you seen Chelsea? She wasn't in her room when I went in to wake her up. She left her phone on her bed, and I don't know where she is."

My heart stopped as my mind started replaying the scene of her abduction. This couldn't be happening. It wasn't supposed to be like this. I was supposed to stop it from happening.

"Jade?"

I gulped, unsure of what I was supposed to say. It wasn't like I was about to tell her that I'd had a vision of her daughter being taken by some psycho. So I told a half truth. "No... I don't know where she is," I replied, my voice a little shaky.

"Oh." She paused. I could tell she was disappointed. "Well, can you please call me if you see or hear from her?"

"Will do," I promised before hanging up.

I had crushed whatever hope she had that her daughter had uncharacteristically gotten up early, made her bed, and headed to school; most mornings Marie had to almost forcibly drag Chelsea out of bed so that she could just make it to school before the bell rang. But at that moment, I think it was better for her to have a little hope than for me to smash her heart into a million pieces by telling her that her daughter had possibly been kidnapped.

"What's wrong?" Chrissy asked. She actually seemed concerned.

I looked up, realising all eyes were on me. "Chelsea... she's gone," I said softly, not wanting to believe the words coming out of my mouth. "Her mum went in to wake her this morning, but she wasn't there. And the police won't do anything until she has been missing for forty-eight hours." My vision came true, and there wasn't a damn thing I did to protect her, I added mentally for Aiden.

I badly wanted to be alone so I could let out all the emotions I was holding in. Aiden pulled me closer to him, letting his feel-good vibes enter my body. At least I knew that I would soon be feeling better; I just had to hold myself together until then.

"Stop worrying, she is probably just off with her cute mystery man," Chrissy said.

"What mystery man?" Ben asked before I could. He looked wounded, like he was waiting to be crushed by what she was about to reveal.

"I don't know his name. She wouldn't tell me when I asked her a couple of days ago. I saw her getting into some hottie's car. She looked pretty friendly with him. Didn't she tell you?" She directed the question at me. When I didn't respond, she said, "I thought you guys told each other everything." Chrissy seemed to be relishing the idea that she knew something about Chelsea that I didn't.

"Yeah, I did too." I was surprised Chelsea had kept that from me. But I was also hurt, as was Ben, who looked like he had just had his heart ripped out and stomped into a million pieces.

I looked over at Megan, wondering if she knew anything about the guy Chrissy said she saw Chelsea with, but she just shrugged her shoulders.

Once Chrissy was satisfied that her shock revelation had done what she'd hoped for, she went back to her conversation with Megan about their plans for the weekend.

Aiden leant over and pretended to kiss me on my neck. "She's lying," he whispered in my ear. "She only said it to get to Ben. She saw the two of them together yesterday after we left and, to put it nicely, she is not happy."

My mouth dropped open. How could she do that? For all we knew, Chelsea could be missing, and all Chrissy cared about was trying to manipulate the situation for personal gain. I couldn't take it anymore. This time she had stepped over the line. Without thinking things through, I turned around, raised my fist, and slammed it into her face. I moved so fast she never saw it coming.

The cafeteria went silent. Everyone turned, mouths wide open, staring at where she lay. She had flown back with such force she had broken the table behind us when she landed on it.

"Oh my God," I said, bringing my hands up to cover my mouth. I couldn't believe what I had just done. She looked like she was unconscious—or dead!

Megan scrambled over to where Chrissy lay. "Someone get help!" she yelled, shaking Chrissy's body in an attempt to wake her.

She wasn't waking up. Fear rocked my soul at the thought that I may have actually killed her.

My eyes darted to Aiden. I was met by a reassuring look in his eyes, then a voice in my head said, "Don't worry, you didn't kill her. She's just unconscious." But it was not my subconscious speaking to me—it was Aiden.

My head started spinning. This was all too much. How was I supposed to function at school with all that was happening? Chelsea's disappearance, me turning into Supergirl. Oh, and I had just knocked out my former best friend, even though she became a bitch from hell and deserved it. It was all too much. Everyone was staring at me, trying to work out what had happened. Maybe they had seen me do it, and I was going to have to add assault to the list of things I had to deal with. I needed to get away from all those prying eyes and the scene of what I had just done.

Suddenly, everyone in the cafeteria came to life.

"Come on," Aiden spoke in my head again. "Let's get out of here." He pulled me to my feet.

We made our way out of the cafeteria as students and teachers rushed over to Chrissy, who was still completely out of it.

Once we were in Aiden's car and away from any prying ears, I turned to him, trying to make sense of what I had just done. "I...I..." I could not finish my sentence—I could barely even start it.

"You don't have to say it," Aiden said. He laced his fingers through mine and brought them to his lips, sending those feel-good endorphins of his pulsating through my body. "Remember, that's one of the benefits of my abilities."

I looked into his eyes; they were so intense, yet so caring. Just being in his presence seemed to make all my worries go away. I wondered what I would do if I didn't have him in my life. How would I get through all of this?

Once again his voice was in my head. "Don't worry, you will never have to go through this alone."

"How is this possible?" I asked, not understanding how I could hear him in my head. I knew Aiden and his mum had been doing the whole having-a-conversation-without-saying-a-single-word-out-loud thing. But when it was actually happening to me, it kind of freaked the shit out of me.

"You've obviously worked out that we can communicate telepathically."

I nodded.

"Well, all I do is think what I want to say to you, but rather than speak the words from my mouth, I am able to project them mentally to you." When I gave him a confused look, he added, "How about for now, we'll just stick to speaking the old-fashioned way?"

I gave him an appreciative smile. Any other day, I would have thought that being able to talk with my boyfriend without anyone hearing would have been the best thing ever. But with everything else that was going on, it just seemed a little too much to deal with.

Aiden started the car. "Where to?"

Ignoring his question, I fished out my mobile phone from my pocket. "Damn," I muttered. The battery was dead. I had wanted to call my mum to see if she knew anything. I knew the police would have told Chelsea's mum she couldn't file a missing person's report until she had been missing for forty-eight hours, but maybe a cop with a heart was looking into it unofficially. And if that was the case, maybe Mum knew something. I thought that she must have an inside source, considering the kind of info she was privy to.

"The charger is in the glove box," Aiden said as he reversed out of his parking spot.

Finding a charger was so much easier because almost everyone had an iPhone. Thanks, Apple. I pulled out the charger, connected it to the outlet, and plugged in my iPhone.

As soon as my phone showed the slightest bit of battery life, I turned it back on and called my mother. The phone rang twice before she picked up. "Hi, honey, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just calling to see if—"

"Sorry, honey, I gotta go. The boss is calling. We'll talk more tonight. I love you." She disconnected the call.

I sat there looking at my phone in disbelief, although I wasn't sure why, as she had done the same thing a million other times. It was always promises of talking later that never seemed to happen.

An alert came through telling me that I had new voicemail. For some reason, my heart started beating faster and my stomach churned while I listened to the recording say I had one new message, received that morning. Before hearing anyone's voice, my sixth sense told me it was from Chelsea.

## Chapter 7

I sat on Aiden's sofa and stared at my phone, which was sitting on the coffee table. I couldn't believe she had called me only moments before the time that I thought she was taken. And if that was true, then maybe if I hadn't been so caught up getting my rocks off with Aiden, I would have been able to save her, instead of just having that stupid vision where I couldn't do a bloody thing to help her.

"Aww, honey, don't think like that," Anna said, walking down the stairs with Dave in tow. Even though I had been led to believe that Dave was Aiden's brother-in-law, looking at him now, it was a wonder I hadn't seen the similarities between them sooner. They both had the same bone structure and the same dark brown hair, but Dave's blue eyes threw me. He didn't share the same hypnotic green eyes that both Anna and Aiden had.

"She's right. You can't live your life with 'what ifs,'" Dave said, before disappearing from sight. "Otherwise, you'll have a bloody long and depressing life," he said, ruffling my hair from behind the sofa. I wondered if my eyes would ever be able to follow the speed at which Aiden and his family moved.

"Well, that depends on how we move. You see, if I move really fast, then yes, your eyes will eventually be able to track our movement. But if I teleport, you won't," Dave explained as he teleported (I think) so that he was sitting on the opposite side of the sofa.

"Yes, he just teleported." Anna sat down beside Dave. "But we can talk about that later. Right now, I think there is something a little more important," she said, looking at my phone.

My stomach started churning at the thought of having to listen to Chelsea's message again.

"I would tell you to go wait outside while we listen to it, but I know you'll want to torture yourself some more," Aiden half-joked as he put his arm around me.

He was right. There was no way that I was going to sit out of this one. Even if it did mean that I was probably going to puke.

With all eyes on me, waiting for me to play the message, I leant forward, dialled through to my voicemail account, and pressed speaker. The voicemail lady said that I had one saved message from today at five thirty a.m.

Moments later, Chelsea's voice filled the room. "Hey, Jade, I'm guessing you're a little tied up with that hunk of yours wrapped around you... Oops." She laughed. "I probably shouldn't be talking like that anymore, you know, seeing as I have my own man now and all. Or can I still do that? Do you think Ben would get all jealous if he heard me talking like that?" She stopped, probably to ponder the answer to her question.

"Well, seeing as though you're not answering your phone, I'm gonna come over to yours, 'cause I've got some gossip for you...," she sung before trailing off, probably daydreaming over Ben—I still had no clue how that happened. "Anyway, I'll see ya soon. Oh, and you two better have your clothes on by the time I get there." She snickered and disconnected. I was too sick with worry to care about Chelsea's comments about Aiden and me in the sack.

Nobody spoke straight away, but that didn't mean much with Aiden, Anna, and Dave. For all I knew, the three of them were having a telepathic conversation with each other, trying to work out what to say to me.

"You're so paranoid." Aiden squeezed my arm before leaning down and kissing the top of my head. "They're just trying to work out what to do next. It's much quicker if they don't have to speak their thoughts out loud."

"He's right, sweetie," Anna said. "Do you mind if the two of us have a look at the vision you had this morning?"

"Go for it," I said. I pulled my legs up and wrapped my arms around them. I knew it didn't hurt when they went looking through my thoughts, but it still made me nervous. I mean, as natural as it was for everyone else in this room, it was still in the freakish science fiction category for me.

Within seconds, I felt them enter my mind. It was a little more intrusive than the first time, probably because I had two people inside my head. By the time I came to that conclusion, they were finished and out of my head.

I looked from Anna to Dave, waiting, hoping that they would say it was just a coincidence, and I had only dreamed Chelsea had come over to my house that morning. "Well?" I finally asked.

"It's not that easy." For the first time since I had met Anna, she sounded unsure of herself. She looked to Dave for help.

"You see, what you saw this morning wasn't like a normal vision. Normally, a vision is more like what you saw when you were with Chelsea at Baxter's yesterday. You were just observing what was going on. But this last one..." He paused, shaking his head as if he was still trying to work something out.

"In a way, you seemed to be partially there," Anna said, picking up where Dave left off.

"And that's not how it's supposed to be." Dave slumped back against the sofa.

I was dumbfounded. If they couldn't work out what was going on, then how the hell was I supposed to?

"Don't worry, we'll figure it out," Aiden said.

I looked up into his eyes. They were filled with such optimism. I wished I had even half as much belief that we would find Chelsea before anything bad happened to her.

Dave cleared his throat. "Anna and I are going to see if any of the others know anything that might help us figure this out."

"Others?" I asked.

"Aiden can fill you in after we leave. We will be in touch as soon as we know anything more," Dave said, placing his hand on Anna's knee.

"And if you need to speak to us for anything at all, call at any time," Anna added before they both disappeared into thin air.

As soon as they left, I turned to Aiden, waiting for him to explain.

Aiden sighed. "Okay. Do you want the short version or the long version?"

"The short one will be fine."

"They have gone home to talk with a couple of their friends, who are also like us. And Anna and Dave are hoping they might have heard of someone being able to do whatever it is you did when you saw Chelsea get taken in front of your house."

"Hang on. Did you just say 'gone home'?" I must have heard wrong. They had just left their home. They had all lived here for the last couple of years.

Aiden looked at me without saying a word. I wished that I was able to read his mind, because whatever it was that he was trying to decide on telling me must be big.

He turned in his seat so that he was facing me. "Right now, I wish I had the ability to see into the future, so I would know whether I should be telling you this or not. But I don't, so here it goes," he said, picking up my hands.

"We don't really live here," he confessed.

My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "What?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. My throat felt like it was closing up on me.

Aiden continued, "Well, that's not entirely true. I pretty much live here now, but Anna and Dave still live over in England."

"You live in England!" I had found my voice once again, and I was ready to use it in its full glory. "What the hell is all this?" I stood up, waving my hands at the house. "And what am I? Am I just someone you hook up with when you're in Australia?"

Aiden burst out laughing, which only made me more upset. "See, you don't even take me seriously. Here I am finding out that my boyfriend isn't real. For all I know, you have your real girlfriend tucked away back in England."

"Calm down, will you?" Aiden got to his feet.

"Don't you tell me to calm down! And don't you do any of that calming shit on me either." He reached for my hands, but I quickly pulled them away.

Aiden flopped back on the sofa without saying anything more.

I looked at him, waiting for him to say something, anything to explain this, but he didn't say a word.

"You're not even going to try to fix this? Do I really mean that little to you?" My throat started to close up on me again. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I felt like my whole world was falling apart.

Reaching up, Aiden pulled me down so that I was sitting on his lap. "There is no one else," he said as he wrapped his arms around me. "If you would have just waited until I had finished explaining, instead of chucking a hissy fit, you wouldn't be feeling like this."

I opened my mouth to say something in my defence, but Aiden closed my lips with his fingers. "Just listen, okay?"

I nodded, and Aiden removed his fingers from my lips.

"Before we came here, we lived in England. Dave had some business on the Gold Coast that he needed to take care of, which was going to take a couple of months to finalise. So Anna and I came with him to get away from the cold weather. Anyway, we were about to head back home, to England that is, and then I met you." A mischievous smile spread across his face, making me think that there was an inside joke I was missing.

I thought back to the time we first met. A group of us from school were playing a game of beach footy when I spotted a drop-dead gorgeous guy coming out of the surf. There was water dripping down his body that was clinging in all the right places, leaving me unable to tear my eyes away from him. I was floored by how hot he was—jaw-dropping hot.

Aiden, of course, noticed me looking at him all googly-eyed and flashed his mind-blowing smile, bringing me to a halt. That was worse than it sounded, because I was the one with the ball, and we were playing a game of tackle. And wouldn't you know it, I was slammed down into the sand. When I got up, there he was, right in front of me. I'd had to swallow the sand in my mouth because I hadn't wanted him to see me looking like a slag as I spat out the sand – yeah that would have been a real turn on – not.

"How's a guy supposed to leave a girl who's prepared to eat sand for him?" Aiden said, laughing.

My cheeks flushed in embarrassment. I hadn't realised he knew I swallowed sand that day.

"It's just part of the reason why I fell in love with you."

Every time I heard him say those three little words, my heart erupted with elation. And this time was no different. I swung myself around so that I was facing him. I couldn't believe how lucky I was. He was everything I could dream of, and more. And best of all, he was mine.

## Chapter 8

Tyson started howling as soon as he caught sight of his lead. Feeling guilty about neglecting him the last couple of days, I decided to take the big fella for a much deserved walk. Plus, it served as a distraction from continuously thinking about Chelsea while I waited for my mum to come home.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" I mockingly asked Aiden before I slipped out the back door.

"Nah, you go ahead, I wanna watch the end of this game," he said, turning the volume up on the football game he had just flicked on.

"Yeah, right." I closed the door behind me. It was a girls' touch football game on one of the local networks. There was no way he would rather watch a bunch of girls running around in oversized clothing than stare at my ass for the next twenty minutes while I built up a sweat—which I happen to know he finds very sexy—if it wasn't for the devil dog running beside me.

After wrestling with Tyson to get the halter over his head, we headed out the side gate, where I caught a glimpse of the nosy Mrs. Carson peeking out from behind the curtain on her front window. I waved at her, more to let her know that I caught her snooping than to say hello. She didn't reciprocate. Instead, she shifted her gaze upwards, as if she was checking for any rain clouds in the clear blue sky, but I wasn't fooled. She was spying on me.

Lately, I had been getting a feeling of what people were thinking about. That morning when Aiden had said I was pretty much spot on with what Ben was thinking convinced me that I was developing my ability to hear people's thoughts.

"Come on, boy," I said to Tyson.

Ignoring Mrs. Carson's blatant attempt at deception, I started jogging down the street. Tyson trotted beside me with his tongue hanging out, panting like he was about to have a heart attack. I probably should have waited until a little later in the evening before taking him out, rather than submitting him to the treacherous, midday heat.

I was about to turn back to head home when the stupid cat that poops in our front yard jumped from behind the bushes and snarled at us. Here we were, a human and a giant Rottweiler who would scare the crap out of anyone in their right mind, and that cat was baring its fangs and getting ready to jump us. "Dumbass cat," I muttered under my breath.

Tyson was startled for only a second before he decided to show the stupid cat the size of his teeth. He let out a deep growl that sent my blood curdling—and he was my dog.

Before I knew it, the cat took off, and so did Tyson, dragging me behind him. I tried desperately to pull him up, but it was no use; Tyson was set on teaching that cat a lesson. How was it that I was able to punch Chrissy with such force to send her flying into the next table, yet I couldn't even seem to restrain the dog?

The only choice I had was to let go of the lead, otherwise I would be flat on my face, being dragged by a fifty-kilo killer on a mission. So I let go and watched the cat run for its life, Tyson right on its tail.

Pain seared through the upper right side of my body when I pressed gently on my shoulder. My arm felt like it had been ripped from its socket, which it probably had, considering the speed at which Tyson took off after that cat.

I gently supported my hurt arm with my uninjured one and trudged back home, dog-less.

Aiden was waiting for me on my front porch. "I'm sure you had that devil of yours on a lead when you left," he said, getting up from the step.

"Aren't you even the least bit concerned about my arm?" I whined. I was sure that he would have swept me up in his arms and carried me inside to look after me.

"You hurt your arm, not your legs, but if you insist." He swept me up into his arms and planted a kiss on my lips, making me forget all about the pain that should have been radiating from my arm.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the old prude next door shaking her head at us through the window. I pulled my lips away just enough to mutter, "I think we better take this inside."

"You didn't have to stop kissing me to tell me that," he reminded me telepathically.

I had completely forgotten that we could do that. I had been communicating by talking for the last seventeen years, and it was going to take some time to change that.

"So, how's the arm?" Aiden sat down on the sofa, still holding me in his arms.

I jerked myself up into a sitting position when I realised that the pain was no longer there. I prodded and probed my shoulder with my left hand. Nothing. I couldn't believe it. My body was seriously capable of healing itself. I wondered how far that would go. If I jumped off a cliff, would I walk away unharmed?

"Promise me you're never going to test that one out." Aiden wore a seriously concerned look on his face.

"Of course I'm not. Do you really think that I would do something like that?"

"No, but..." He paused, his facial expression contorted as if remembering something bad. "People do some crazy things when they think they're invincible."

"What is it? What were you just thinking of?" I wasn't sure if I really wanted to know.

He sat there looking at me for a moment, probably considering whether he should tell me or not. "When I was younger, my parents told me about how our bodies are able to heal themselves quickly. Well, I decided to see for myself. Most of the kids in my neighbourhood were going through their superhero stage, where the really daring—and stupid—ones would jump off the roof of their single storey houses. Well, I thought that I could do one better, considering I was invincible and all. So I climbed out of a window of the top floor of our home and jumped off."

I gasped, covering my mouth with my hands. Everything obviously ended up okay, considering he was sitting with me, but by the look on his face, I didn't think it was all that easy for him.

"Let's just say, I plummeted to the ground. Broke a few bones, my leg was facing the wrong way, and a whole heap of internal bruising." He winced, remembering the pain.

My heart sank just thinking about the pain he must have suffered. I couldn't even imagine what it must have been like, and there I was, wondering if I could do the same thing. "I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Just promise me you'll never do anything dangerous, okay?"

"Cross my heart."

***

It was seven p.m. and Mum was a no-show. Tyson had come home about half an hour earlier without any signs of fur in his mouth—cat one, Tyson zero.

When Mum still hadn't shown up by seven thirty, Aiden and I decided to order Chinese and the latest Fast and Furious movie. That series was the ultimate guy/girl movie date. The boys got their fair share of cars and girls, and the girls got more than our share of eye candy. The whole car racing thing was kind of hot, too.

The Chinese food arrived at eight, and Mum still wasn't home, so I sent her a text asking her if she was still coming home.

About a minute later, my phone beeped with a new message. Sorry, hun, I'm caught up at work. I won't be able to come home till late tonight, sorry xxx.

So we started the movie and dug into the Chinese without her.

Mum still wasn't home by the time the movie ended, so Aiden ordered another random movie that I had never heard of and, quite frankly, didn't care to watch. But I was happy for the distraction. Anything that would stop me thinking about Chelsea was okay by me.

Just as I dozed off in Aiden's arms, Mum opened the internal door to the garage, waking me up in the process.

"Oops. Sorry, sweetie, I didn't mean to wake you."

"Nah, you didn't wake me. I was just resting my eyes." The last thing I needed was for her to feel guilty about her lack of motherly involvement and take time off work, because then she might actually have time to notice there was something not quite right with me. The less attention I received from her, the better.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, sitting down beside me.

"I'm fine."

She looked sceptical. "Has she really been okay?" Mum asked Aiden.

"You know, I'm not seven. I can answer for myself, and I told you, I'm fine," I snapped. "Why won't you believe me?"

"Because I know you. You'll say anything to get me off your back." She was obviously trying to lighten the mood.

"She's been okay. She's mostly just tired, that's all," Aiden assured her and, at the same time, giving me a way out of any further interrogation.

"Sorry I snapped. Aiden's right, I am really tired. I think I just need a good night's sleep." I faked a yawn.

"That's okay, honey. Why don't you take yourselves up to bed, and I'll see you both in the morning."

Aiden and I got up from the sofa. I leant down and kissed Mum on her cheek. "Night, Mum."

"Good night, honey. Take care of her for me, will you?" she said to Aiden.

"I always will," Aiden assured not just Mum, but me as well.

We headed for the stairs. I loved that Mum didn't have a problem with Aiden staying over, especially then. I was afraid to leave Aiden's side, for fear that I might fall to pieces the moment I wasn't in his presence. I couldn't risk it. I needed to be at my best if I wanted to have any chance of saving Chelsea. Speaking of... "Oh, Mum, just a quick question."

"Yeah, darl?" She turned around in her seat so she could see me.

"Have you heard anything about Chelsea's disappearance?"

"Chelsea's missing?" She took a second too long to answer.

She was hiding something, and I really didn't feel up to trying to get it out of her. And besides, Aiden would be able to tell me what she was thinking anyway.

"Her mum thinks so. She wasn't in her bedroom when her mum went to wake her up this morning, and she didn't turn up at school today." I was sure Mum already knew the story.

"Maybe she'll turn up tomorrow."

"Maybe." I turned around and walked up the stairs with Aiden in tow. No matter how much I hoped that she would show up tomorrow, I seriously doubted it would be that easy.

"Tell me," I said, closing the door behind me. "What was she hiding? I know she was hiding something."

"She was definitely hiding something, that's for sure. But exactly what she is hiding, I'm not really sure. You see..." Aiden paused while he lifted his shirt up and over his head, leaving me unable to concentrate on a word that came out of his mouth. Even after all this time, the sight of his god-like body left me as mesmerised as that first day at the beach.

"Should I put my shirt back on?" Aiden asked, snapping me back to reality.

I shook my head, blood rushing to my cheeks. I hated being caught out, especially when I should be concentrating on finding my best friend. "Continue. I promise I'll keep focused."

Aiden hopped into bed. "All I was going to say was that your mum started thinking about how she'd heard about Chelsea's disappearance. Then her thoughts were all over the place. She didn't stay with one thought for long enough for me to catch on."

"Do you think she's hiding something to protect me?" I crawled in beside him.

He shrugged. "Don't know."

I hated not knowing. And more so, I hated that she might have information that could help us find Chelsea but wouldn't give it up, probably in some noble attempt to protect me. God, I already knew Chelsea was missing. What I needed was some honesty.

"We will try to figure this out tomorrow, but for now, we need some sleep. You won't be any use if you can't keep your eyes open tomorrow."

Sometimes he sounded wise beyond his years, making me wonder if he was really seventeen. For all I knew, he could be fifty-something years old and just pretending to be a teenager. I mean, his parents could easily pass for being in their early twenties, which meant that Aiden would look younger than them, even if he was really old, too.

"My God, you over-analyse everything, don't you?" Aiden asked, smiling.

"Well?" I hoped I was wrong.

"Well, I was just thinking that if you stay up all night worrying about what your mum is or isn't hiding, then you're going to be tired and grumpy as hell tomorrow." I was too annoyed by him calling me a crabby little so-and-so to call him out on dodging my question.

"I'm not grumpy when I'm tired," I snapped, proving him right. Okay, so I was buggered. And maybe I do get a little irritable when I'm tired, but did he really need to point it out?

"Well, yeah," he said with a smirk. "Because I'm the one who has to put up with you all day." He ducked out of my reach as I swung my arm in a playful punch, hitting the pillow instead.

## Chapter 9

Chelsea wasn't at school the following day, and I couldn't find out anything from her mum, who was a blubbering mess when I called her. I was so not good around highly emotional people. If I could, I would avoid them at all cost.

My own mother knew more than she was letting on, and I was going to get it out of her one way or another. But that would have to wait until later. Aiden and I were at his house, waiting for Anna and Dave to get back to let us know if they were able to figure out anything about my vision.

"Why do we have to wait for them to come here? Can't we just go to them?" I asked. Even at the best of times, I was not good at waiting. All this sitting around and doing nothing was doing my head in. I wanted to be out trying to find Chelsea. And if my vision was really a vision, then she was in some serious trouble.

"Neither I nor you can teleport yet, so we're just going to have to sit and wait," Aiden said, not taking his eyes off the TV. He was playing some car racing game on Xbox, which was really starting to get on my nerves.

Aiden's phone rang—it was Ben. "What's up?" he said, answering the phone.

His expression quickly went sour. Aiden didn't say anything, he just listened to Ben, who sounded pretty pissed off. I couldn't hear well enough to make out what he was pissed off about. All I could pick up were snippets, and it was something about Chelsea.

"Why don't you come over to mine?" Aiden suggested. "Yep. See ya soon." He hung up the phone.

Aiden switched the TV off, then turned to me. "You're not going to believe this. Ben has just come back from the police station."

"What? Why?"

"They were questioning him about Chelsea's disappearance. Apparently, someone said that they saw him with her the night she disappeared."

I was gobsmacked. There was no way Ben could have taken Chelsea. That boy worshipped the ground she walked on. And why the hell would he abduct her after he'd finally gotten her to like him? It just didn't make any sense.

"I know, I know." Aiden looked as bewildered as I felt. "He's coming over now, so he can tell us all about it when he gets here."

Dave and Anna suddenly appeared before my eyes. They were sitting almost exactly where they had been just before they disappeared yesterday.

"Ben!" they exclaimed in unison. I guess they had already heard about him from our thoughts. At least we didn't have to waste time explaining.

"I don't know who would have told the police, but there is no way it could have been him," Aiden said.

Dave scoffed. "Of course it wasn't him."

The front security intercom buzzed. I could see the video monitor from where I sat. It was Ben. "Geez, that was quick," I muttered. He had only called a few minutes earlier.

"He was just around the corner when he called," Aiden said, getting up to let him in.

A moment later, Aiden returned with Ben, who looked seriously pissed.

Aiden ducked into the kitchen, while Ben joined Anna, Dave, and me on the sofa.

"I suppose you all heard I'm officially the prime suspect," Ben said, running his fingers through his sandy blond hair before folding them behind his head.

"I heard that the police questioned you, but prime suspect... how?" I asked.

He thought for a moment before answering, "I dunno. Apparently someone reckons they saw me with Chelsea around midnight the night she disappeared. That basically means that I was the last person to see her, and that makes me prime suspect."

Aiden came back into the living room with his arms full of bottles of Coke. He handed them out, then sat down beside me and gave me mine.

"I wasn't even with her at midnight," Ben continued. "I was at home, in bed, sleeping. But apparently, that's not a good enough alibi. They said that I could have easily snuck out in the middle of the night." He stopped to take a swig of his Coke. "And the worst part of it is, they won't even tell me who the bloody person is who reckons they saw me."

"Of course they won't," I muttered to myself, which I wish I hadn't because everyone heard, and it just made Ben more upset.

"How can they not? This person is accusing me of something I didn't do!"

"They're protecting their informant," I explained. "And yeah, it sucks big-time when you're innocent," I added, letting him know I believed him.

Ben threw his head back against the sofa and stared at the ceiling without saying another word.

Moments later, Anna's voice appeared in my head. "He's definitely innocent."

I jumped. I had become used to hearing Aiden's voice in my head, but hearing Anna's startled me. Thankfully, Ben was too caught up in his own problems to notice my reaction.

"Sorry," Anna mouthed to me.

"Don't worry about it. You just took me by surprise." I hoped that what I said came through to her as mental speech rather than just as a thought she was overhearing. I wanted to be a part of their world, and I needed to hone my abilities so I would be included in their silent discussions.

Anna gave me a barely noticeable thumbs up, confirming I did it right.

"That's my girl." Aiden's voice shone with pride.

"I don't know what to do," Ben said, still looking up at the ceiling. He was completely oblivious that there was another conversation going on that he wasn't privy to. And to think that only a few days ago, I was just as ignorant as him.

Anna scooted over to sit next to him. "Don't worry about it. We'll help you get this mess sorted out." She placed her hand on his arm in what looked to be a comforting motion, but I knew better. I was sure she was sending some of those feel-good endorphins pulsating through his body. I just hoped she wasn't going to give him an overdose like she had to me.

Almost instantly, Ben's mood picked up. The worry lines that plastered his face disappeared.

"Don't worry, I'm not about to make that same mistake again." Anna laughed in my head. "And besides, I don't want him hitting on you, or me for that matter."

I stifled a laugh, my cheeks flushing with embarrassment at how openly I had wanted her son, and now his father knew, too.

"So what are we going to do?" Aiden asked, changing the subject.

"Hey, why can't you two just transport to wherever Chelsea is?" I asked.

"It's actually teleport," Anna corrected. "And I wish we could, but unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. You see, we can only teleport ourselves to places, not people. We have to know the exact place that we want to go to, hence why Aiden has to call us to tell us where he wants us to meet him."

"Oh," I said. I knew it had been too good to be true, but I'd still hoped. "So what can we do?"

"First, we have to find out who told the police they saw Ben, and then we may be able to find out something that might help us find Chelsea," Dave said matter-of-factly.

"And how do we do that?" I asked, hoping there was an easy solution to finding the person.

"The only way we can find out who this person is is by listening to everyone's thoughts," Aiden said.

"That could take forever," I said.

"Unfortunately, it's the only way," Aiden said.

Something clicked inside my brain. Call it intuition if you like, but for some reason, I suspected that my mother was more than just occupied by her usual busy workload. I was sure she was avoiding me. Maybe she knew who the person was. If so, that probably meant that I knew the person who had told the police they had seen Chelsea with Ben the night she disappeared. Why else would she be avoiding me?

"Not a bad theory," Dave agreed.

"Why are you all so quiet?" Ben asked, looking between the four of us with a confused look on his face.

"You hungry?" Aiden asked, avoiding his question. "We can go out and see if I overhear anything."

"What have you got?"

"Let's go out for dinner instead," I quickly suggested. I didn't like our chances of actually finding anything out tonight about who'd told the police about Ben. But at least we would be out there trying.

"Come on, let's go," Aiden said, pulling me to my feet.

## Chapter 10

Even though it was Thursday night, Baxter's was packed with the usual crowd. So far, Aiden hadn't picked up anything that might help us figure things out.

News about Chelsea's disappearance had started circulating, but everything was just speculation. In a way, I was glad that I couldn't hear what they were actually thinking, because my intuition was telling me that news of Ben was out.

Nobody was pointing any fingers, and there were no obvious stares. But the hushed whispers were starting to get to me. If Ben wasn't completely oblivious to what was going on around him, I would have snapped.

Just before we were about to head home, the café fell silent. All eyes turned to the enormous LCD TV sitting on the back wall. An announcement of breaking news had cut through whatever program had been on beforehand. The news anchor was saying that a second teenage girl was missing. Photos of Chelsea and another girl I had never seen before were plastered on the screen. He then went on to say that the police hadn't confirmed that the two disappearances were linked, but they were warning everyone to make sure all their windows and doors were locked and to only venture out if absolutely necessary. The police also confirmed that they already had a lead on the case and would continue to update the public as more information came to light.

I looked around the room as the TV went back to playing the top thirty music countdown. Everyone's eyes were no longer glued to the screen; they were focused on the three of us—Ben in particular.

Ben opened his mouth as if he was about to defend himself, but Aiden cut him off. "Let's just get out of here," he said, placing a hand on Ben's shoulder.

We left Baxter's with all eyes still locked on Ben.

None of us talked on the way back to the car. I was too caught up in the fact that Chelsea had been confirmed missing. Ben was probably freaking out, and Aiden had to deal with all of Ben's thoughts, as well as mine and his own.

Aiden squeezed my hand. "Don't worry about me. I just want to make sure you're okay."

"I won't be okay 'til we find her."

"We will find her."

I knew Aiden was right. Somehow, I knew we would find Chelsea. But I wasn't sure she would still be alive when we finally found her.

Aiden put an arm around my shoulder and drew me into his side. "Well, then, we just have to make sure we find her in time." He kissed the top of my head.

***

We dropped Ben off at his car then drove back to mine, hoping that my mum would be there. I couldn't believe my luck when I saw her car parked in the driveway. She was probably ducking in to grab something before heading out again, otherwise she would have parked in the garage.

I knew we wouldn't have long to get anything out of her, but we had to try.

As we made our way to the front door, Mum came rushing out with her shoes in one hand, her laptop in the other, and her laptop bag slung over her shoulder. Talk about sudden departures.

"You're seriously leaving again?" It was as if she'd heard Aiden's car pull up and grabbed her things without actually having time to put her shoes on or her laptop in the bag, all in a mad dash to get out of the house without seeing me.

"Sorry. The boss wants me back ASAP." She stopped quickly to give me a kiss on the cheek before rushing to her car.

"Mum," I called, but she ignored me. "Just stop for a minute!"

She threw her things in the backseat of her car. I was sick of her avoiding me. I needed to know what she knew.

Mum stopped what she was doing and let out a heavy sigh. She looked at me without saying a word. Her face was so full of pain that I almost felt guilty for speaking to her like that. Maybe she knew something I wasn't ready to hear. I hoped not.

"Look, I know you're busy, but I really need to know if you know anything about Chelsea."

She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it.

"Please, Mum," I begged.

She thought about it for a minute before conceding. "The police aren't one hundred percent sure that the two disappearances are connected. But if they are, then they are worried that the kidnapper may be a serial killer..."

I gasped in horror, thinking that a body had been found.

"Not that anyone's body has been found," she continued.

I let out a sigh of relief. I don't know what I would have done if she had told me that they had found Chelsea's body.

"What about Ben?" Aiden asked.

"The police still consider him a prime suspect, but I don't believe he did it." She opened the driver's door. "That's what I'm working on. I know he didn't do it, and I'm trying to find the person who did take Chelsea."

I smiled at her. "Thanks, Mum."

"We will find her." She hopped into her car and started the engine.

"Oh, just one more thing," I said, knocking on her window.

"Yeah?" She rolled the window down.

"Do you know who told the police Ben was with Chelsea the night she disappeared?"

"Sorry, I don't know." She quickly looked away. She was lying, but I wasn't about to call her on it. "I gotta go. I'll call you when I can." She reversed down the driveway.

"Did you find out anything?" I asked Aiden, wrapping my arms around his waist.

Mum beeped twice before driving off down the road.

He put one arm around me and ran the other through his hair. "Her thoughts were all over the place again. As soon as she started with one thought, she quickly changed to another. And the only thought that actually stayed with her was how worried she was about you."

"Me?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah. But the really strange thing is how she kept praying I wouldn't leave you alone."

I scrunched up my nose in confusion. Why would she be so worried about me being alone, yet running away from me every chance she had? "Well, one thing is for sure; that woman is not acting normal. She is definitely hiding something."

"You got that right."

We headed into the house.

## Chapter 11

I never would have thought that I would be glad it was Friday, rather than the weekend, yet today I was. We needed to try to find the person who was lying to the police about Ben. I was sure I knew the person we were looking for, otherwise why would my mother be so determined not to tell me anything about them?

Aiden and I arrived at school long before classes started. We wanted to be two of the first people there. We sat on a bench just inside the main entry gate, that way we were almost guaranteed to come in contact with everyone who attended All Saints High.

"Still nothing," Aiden informed me after twenty minutes of us sitting there. "Everyone's just speculating whether Ben is a serial killer or if he has been framed. I hope for his sake he stays home from school today. Don't turn around yet, but we are about to cop it."

A couple of seconds later, a voice boomed from behind us. "You two need to go to the office right now." I turned around to find Mr. Heithcliffe standing there with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

"What for?" I asked, wondering what the hell we had done to put that smirk on his face.

"Oh, let's see..." He tapped his finger against the side of his cheek as if deep in thought. "How about the fact that the both of you have not stayed at school past lunchtime for the last few days? Or, Ms. Sommers, how you may or may not be responsible for attacking Chrissy Jeffreys the other day?"

"Okay, okay," I said. He seemed to be relishing his chance to finally see me get into shit with the principal. Aiden and I got up from the bench and turned to head for the office, and that's when I saw her. The moment I laid my eyes on her, I knew she was responsible.

She must have slipped past us at the gate when Mr. Heithcliffe was giving it to us. But I wasn't about to let her get away. I took off without saying a word to Aiden.

"You bitch!" I grabbed Chrissy's shoulder to yank her around to face me. The second my hand touched her body, I was no longer standing in front of the school.

I knew instantly I was having another vision. I was at the cinemas with Megan, and it was almost midnight. The movie had just finished, and we were on our way to the loo when I spotted Chelsea arguing with some guy who had his back to us. Chelsea turned to leave, and the guy grabbed her by the arm, turning just enough for me to be able to make out his face. It was Ben.

Next thing I knew, I was being ripped away from her mind, and I was once again back at school. Aiden had his arms wrapped around me. He must have been the one to yank me from her mind.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Chrissy snapped, rubbing her hand over her shoulder.

"I..." I couldn't think of anything to say, not just because I couldn't explain my reaction, but it was also the shock of seeing the damage I had done when I hit her. The area around her nose and under her eyes was blue and swollen.

Chrissy scoffed. "And you chose this over me," she said to Aiden, pointing at me like I was some kind of freak.

I hadn't noticed before, but there must have been at least half the school standing around watching, waiting eagerly for it to turn into a fight.

Aiden laughed. "Don't flatter yourself. You never had a chance." He leant down and kissed my forehead. She really couldn't have chosen a worse time to compare herself to me, what with her smashed-up face and all.

I watched as Chrissy's eyes started welling up with tears, and the crowd erupted into laughter. She quickly turned around and fled towards the toilet block.

"Everyone get to class. There's nothing more to see here," Mr. Heithcliffe yelled to the students still surrounding us.

Mr. Heithcliffe turned his attention back to Aiden and me. "If you keep going at this rate, you'll both be expelled by the end of the day." He seemed to be enjoying this all a little too much for my liking, and if I wasn't too consumed by my own thoughts, I probably would have said something I might have regretted.

"Come on, let's get this over with," Aiden said, ignoring Mr. Heithcliffe's comments. With one arm still strung over my shoulder, we headed towards the school office.

With all the new information coming to light, I wasn't sure I could concentrate enough to wiggle myself out of this situation. We were probably going to end up with after-school detention for the next month.

Aiden pushed his hand against the door to the office. I looked up at him, wondering why he was stopping me from opening it.

His eyes were gleaming mischievously. "What do you say about adding another day to the list?"

For a second, I thought about doing the right thing. But what was the right thing to do? Was it right for me to stay at school, wasting time, when I could be out there looking for a clue that would help us find Chelsea? It didn't take long for me to rationalise skipping another day of school. "Let's go."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Mr. Heithcliffe attempt to chase us as we headed for the car, but he gave up before we got out of the gate. "He really should lay off all that fried food," I muttered. "We are going to be in so much trouble." I laughed as we hopped into the car. "Come Monday, he'll probably get his wish," I added, referring to Mr. Heithcliffe's hope for our expulsion.

Aiden started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. "I'm sure I can charm our way out of that happening," he said, a gleam in his eye. I think he secretly loved being able to get whatever he wanted.

"Yeah, it's awesome," he agreed, picking up my hand. "But most of all, I love the fact that I can finally share it all with you." He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it softly, sending the butterflies in my stomach into full flight. I couldn't believe that he still had that effect on me, even though we'd been together for so long.

Aiden's lips parted into a smile, revealing his perfect teeth. I wanted to lean over and press my lips against his, but I turned away. I had to keep focused. I needed to be thinking about what to do next. If only I could somehow have another vision that would let me see who the hell the kidnapper was.

Then an idea came to me. The other times that I'd had the visions, I was physically touching the person. And seeing as though Chelsea wasn't around for me to touch, the next best thing was her possessions. Maybe if I held something of hers, I would be able to have another vision.

I felt sick in the gut at the thought of what I was about to do.

## Chapter 12

Even though it was my idea, I begrudgingly got out of the car and walked up the path to Chelsea's front door. She lived in a small townhouse complex about a ten minutes' walk from my house; it was a small three bedroom, two bathroom home, but it was big enough for Chelsea and her mum.

They used to live in a much bigger house next door to mine. But after her father passed away, her mother couldn't cope with living in such a big place and all the constant reminders it gave her of her husband. He had died almost two years ago in a horrific car accident with another woman in the passenger seat. It turned out that he had been having an affair with the woman for just over six months, so I completely understood why she needed to move.

It was hard enough for her when all she knew was that she'd lost her husband forever. But when the police investigation revealed that the woman sitting in the passenger seat was not just a work colleague that he was giving a lift home, but his mistress, it almost destroyed her.

She quickly put her house on the market and sold on the first offer, accepting a bid for less than what the house was really worth. She didn't care. She just wanted out of the house and all the memories it held. I hoped I would never have to go through what she had been through.

Aiden squeezed my hand. "I have a feeling you'll never have to worry about that."

I took a deep breath, bracing myself for what I was about to do, then pressed the doorbell and waited for Marie to answer.

The door opened to reveal a fragile woman, one that I had not seen since Chelsea's father's death. She wore a pink, fluffy bathrobe that was looking a little worse for wear. Her normally blonde, wavy hair was an oil slicked, matted mess she had pulled back off her face in a loose bun.

Her eyes were swollen red and had dark circles surrounding them. It looked like she had not stopped crying since Chelsea disappeared.

When she realised who was at the door, she lunged forward, wrapping her arms around me and sobbing into my shoulder.

I tried pulling back, but she wasn't letting go. She held on so tightly that I thought I was going to be stuck like that for the next hour. I immediately felt bad for thinking that. The poor woman. I could only imagine what it would feel like to be in her position. The thought brought tears to my eyes.

Marie eventually let go of me and invited us inside.

The house was a mess. There were empty tissue boxes and dirty tissues littering the floor. Empty coffee cups and empty bottles of water filled the coffee table. And piles of clothing, which I wasn't sure if they were clean or not, were thrown all over the sofa. It didn't look like she had cleaned anything since Chelsea went missing.

Aiden and I sat down on the three-seater sofa, carefully trying to avoid the rubbish that had started to accumulate there, and Marie sat in the adjacent armchair.

She dabbed at her tearing eyes with a tissue she had grabbed from the box sitting on top of the lamp table beside her armchair. The table was covered in the evidence of her swollen eyes. There were tear-soaked tissues everywhere. It took all my willpower to ignore the mess surrounding me. All I wanted to do was grab a trash bag and clean up. But I didn't want her feeling like I was judging her.

We sat in uncomfortable silence. I didn't know what to say. I needed to find a way to get up into Chelsea's room and away from her mum, who looked like she was about to crack up again.

As soon as I thought it, it started. "They have to find her," she wailed. "I don't know what I will do if... if...."

I interrupted her when I saw that she was struggling to speak. "They will find her before anything happens to her," I tried to assure her, but I wasn't really sure if I believed it myself.

What if they finally tracked down this psycho after he had already mutilated Chelsea's body? If that happened, it would probably kill Marie, too.

She dabbed at her eyes again, nodding.

"We just have to keep positive, for Chelsea's sake," I said, knowing nothing I could say would make her pain go away, except the four words she was aching to hear—they found her alive. They were the only words that would end her misery. They were the only words that kept her holding on. They were the only words I wanted to hear, too.

After that she had calmed down a bit, I made my move to get out of there. "Um, Marie?"

She stopped dabbing her eyes. "Yeah?"

"Do you mind if I go upstairs? I left something of mine in Chels's room."

"Of course." She wiped her nose with a snotted-up tissue.

Before she could say anything else, I jumped up off the sofa and headed straight for the stairs.

"Aren't you coming?" I asked Aiden silently, when I realised he was still sitting with Marie.

Without looking at me, he replied, "No, you go ahead. I'm gonna stay down here."

I hurried up the stairs alone, wondering why Aiden would rather stay downstairs with an emotional basket case. I couldn't get away from there quick enough. I didn't know what it was, but I really couldn't handle being around people who were so emotional.

Holding my breath, I opened the door to Chelsea's room. I didn't know what I was expecting to happen when I entered, but I certainly hoped I would feel something. Instead, I felt nothing. I looked around her room; nothing was out of place. Clean and dirty clothes covered the floor, bed, and every other piece of furniture in the room.

Hoping that something might come to me if I touched her things, I ran my fingers along her dusty white dressing table, which still had two dirty glasses on top from the last time I was there. Nothing.

I ran my fingers over the jewellery that was hanging off the top corner of her mirror. Nothing. I made my way around her room, touching everything I could, but I felt nothing.

I flopped down on her fluffy pink comforter and stared up at the ceiling, wondering what the hell we were going to do next. How were we supposed to find her if I hadn't a clue where to start looking?

My previous visions didn't hold any clues. Yeah, I had seen the guy who took her, but his face was covered by a balaclava. His van looked like a million other vans that flooded the streets around here. Without a license plate, there was no hope of tracing it.

The sound of my phone ringing jolted me from my thoughts. I took my phone out of my pocket. It was a blocked number. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Jade Sommers? This is Detective Brendan O'Neil." His voice sounded rough.

My heart started racing at the sound of the detective's voice. "Yes, it is," I confirmed. I'd had a feeling the phone call was coming, but I was still not ready. The call seemed to make Chelsea's disappearance that much more real.

"Jade, we would like you to come down to the station to discuss the disappearance of Chelsea Carmichael. You will need to bring your guardian along with you, as you are still a minor. When should we be expecting you?" He spoke in a professional manner.

"Umm... I will have to check with my mum to see when she will be able to get away from work. Do I have to come down there now?" I wanted to delay the interview for as long as possible. After all, what could I possibly tell them?

"No, anytime up until ten p.m. will be fine." He said good-bye before hanging up.

I got up off Chelsea's bed and put my phone back in my pocket before leaving her room.

When I got to the bottom of the stairs, Aiden stood up. "Can I get you anything before we head off?" he asked Marie.

She shook her head. "No, I'll be fine."

Marie got up and walked us back to the front door.

I turned around to Marie to try to give her some sort of comforting words before we left her alone, but I was too taken aback by the amazing change in her composure. What I was seeing was not the same woman I had seen only minutes earlier. She was no longer immersed in sorrow; she was standing tall and confident.

"Don't worry, Jade, they will find her. You'll see. She will be fine." She placed a hand on my arm, trying to assure me.

"O-kay," I said, unsure of what had changed her whole attitude in the few minutes that I had been upstairs. It wasn't like how she would be if Aiden had done his calming thing on her. This was different.

She was smiling. "Now you two go home and get some rest. You look exhausted, Jade." She rubbed my arm soothingly, which only made me that much more disturbed by her sudden change. "And don't worry about me. I know the police will find her before anything serious happens to her."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "See ya," I mumbled as I turned around, completely stunned, and headed back to Aiden's car.

Marie waved us off. It was like she really believed that Chelsea would be found safe and sound, and that some sadistic, psychopathic killer was not holding her captive.

I hopped into the car, not taking my eyes off Marie, while Aiden made his way around to the driver's seat.

Aiden started the car and pulled out onto the road while Chelsea's mum gave another wave from her front door.

As soon as I could no longer see her, I turned to Aiden, wanting to know what the hell happened back there. "You did that, didn't you?"

"Did what?" He was pretending to be hurt by my accusation.

I slapped him playfully on his arm. "You know what I mean."

He smiled at my pathetic attempt to get something out of him.

How I loved that smile. No matter how bad I was feeling, my face would light up at the sight of it.

"Okay, okay. I did help her out back there. I couldn't leave her like that when it was so easy for me to make her feel a little bit better. So I gave her the hope that she needed to get her through until we find Chels."

Aiden went on to explain. "I have the ability of suggestion, which means I can suggest something to a person without them knowing I'm doing anything. It's like they think that they came up with the idea on their own." He pointed to his head. "It's like how I can hear thoughts, and I can also suggest."

"It sounds more like mind control," I said, fascinated by his choice of words.

He cringed at my words. "I don't like that phrase. It sounds so evil, but it's not."

"So have you ever used suggestion on me?" I was slightly panicking that I had done things I hadn't made the decision to do on my own. I mean, how did I know that I'd even made the decision to date Aiden? For all I knew, he could have made that decision for me.

"I told you before that I have never used any of my abilities against you. Besides, it's not as if I force people to do things that are bad or that they will regret later. I don't use it like that." He sounded truly hurt by my last statement. "I want you to be with me because you want to be with me, not just because I want to be with you."

"This will be a harder one to accept," I said, mainly to myself. I knew he was right. How could I ever not want to be with him? Aiden was someone who would always draw attention from other girls and guys wherever we went. The females wished they were me so that they could have him. And the guys wished they could be him so that they could have the same effect on girls that Aiden had. "Okay, I believe you."

"Good." He sounded relieved. "And please, try not to think that I have used any other abilities on you as you learn what I can do."

"I will try." It would take some effort, but I would try to keep my promise.

"Oh, and you're wrong about guys wishing they were me so that they could get all the girls. The guys wish they were me so they could have you. Do you really not notice how they look at you? You're gorgeous!"

"Nope. I only have eyes for you," I teased. I still thought guys would rather be Aiden so that they would never have to try to get a girl. All they would need to do was walk into a room, and they would have all the girls swooning over them, like bees to honey.

I reached forward and turned the music up, then leant back to rest my head against the seat for the remainder of the trip home.

Before I knew it, we were pulling up in front of my house.

Mum's car was parked in the garage. The garage door was still open, which meant that she didn't plan on staying long. I hurried inside, hoping that I would be able to get information out of her. She knew more than what she was telling me. Trying to figure out why Aiden couldn't pick up on what she was hiding was doing my head in.

" _You know I can't read her mind. I can only hear her thoughts."_

"Sorry." I threw Aiden an apologetic glance before walking in through the garage door.

I was expecting Mum to say something about us not being at school, but she almost seemed relieved to see me. "Hi, Mum."

"Hi, honey." She smiled warmly. "Come and sit down." She patted the sofa seat beside her. I walked over and sat down next to her.

"Hey, Aiden," she called as he came in through the garage door. She looked at him a little too intensely before returning her gaze to me.

I scrunched up my face. "Are you okay?" I asked her before Aiden had a chance to respond to her.

She was acting really weird. The last couple of days she had been avoiding me like the plague, and now she was acting overly sweet.

"Of course I am, sweetie." She brushed my hair behind my ear. She was definitely not okay, but I knew I had to pick my battles. Finding out what she knew about Chelsea was more important than figuring out what was with her strange moods the last few days.

"Listen, I've got to get going soon, but I wanted to talk to you about something first," she said, her tone serious.

"Okay." What had her so on edge?

She smiled. "Well, I was thinking that you should take the next... however long off from school." Her tone was less serious this time.

I was too stunned to say anything. Was she seriously saying it was okay for me to ditch school in my final year? She was confusing the crap out of me.

"I mean, I'm sure you're not concentrating too much at school anyway, what with Chelsea's disappearance and all. So I don't really see the point in you going back there until we've found her," she explained.

"Are you serious?" I thought she must be joking around and was about to crack at me for skipping school.

"Yes, I'm serious, silly. You've been through too much this last week, and I think it's best that you take some time out to recover from it all properly. I'll send an email to the school this afternoon.

"Oh, and I was also thinking that you might want to stay at Aiden's house for the next few days, as I'm probably not going to be around here much. I would prefer if you had someone watching out for you. And don't worry about Tyson, I promise I'll feed him." She turned to Aiden. "Is that okay if she stays with you?"

"Ahh, yeah, of course." He sat down on the armrest next to me. His facial expression was just as confused as mine, which didn't give me much comfort. I mean, he was the one who was supposed to be able to know what people were thinking, yet he didn't seem to have a clue either.

Before I could say anything more, Mum stood up. "Well, I've gotta get going now. I'll call you soon." She leant down and kissed the top of my head. "Take care of her for me," she said to Aiden, walking away and leaving us gobsmacked.

I quickly turned around. "Mum?" I remembered my conversation with the detective.

"Yeah, darl?" She picked up her bag.

"I forgot to tell you. I had a phone call from the police this morning. They want me to come down to the station today for questioning."

Mum nodded. "I thought you would get a call soon. It's just routine questioning." She was trying to ease any concern I might have about the impending interview.

"How about I meet you there at..." she paused to look at her watch, "let's say three. That should give you enough time to get your things together for your stay at Aiden's, shouldn't it?"

"Yep. Three's good."

She seemed a little too keen to get me out of the house. "Okay, see you then." She fumbled with her Bluetooth to answer an incoming call. "Love yas," she added before answering the call. "Hello, this is Nikki," was all I heard before she was out the door again.

I snapped my head back to Aiden.

"Before you start asking me what's with her, the answer is, I have no friggin' idea," he said, reading my thoughts. "Her thoughts were still all over the place. And the only thing she stayed with long enough that I could grasp it was that she wants me to stay with you at all times." Aiden looked just as confused as I felt.

"Do you think she's worried that whoever this psycho is might take me next?" That seemed like the only logical explanation.

He took a moment to think. "At first I thought that, but now I'm not so sure." He pulled his eyebrows together as if he was trying to make sense of something. "You see, it's a little strange that lately her thoughts have been so scattered I can't hear anything except her wanting me to protect you somehow." He opened his mouth to say something but decided against it.

"What are you not telling me?"

"Nothing." He shook his head.

"Aiden?" I was starting to worry. Maybe Mum knew more about all of this than she was letting on. Maybe she knew that the kidnapper was coming for me next.

He moved off the armrest and sat down beside me. "Nah, it's nothing like that," he reassured me. "I was just thinking that it's almost like she knows I can hear her thoughts, and she's scattering them around so that I won't know what she's hiding."

"How could she possibly know that?" It wasn't as if Aiden went around flaunting his kind of creepy talent. And it wasn't as if she'd somehow found out from me. She hadn't even been around me long enough since I found out for her to have overheard us speaking.

"See, I told you it was nothing worth mentioning." He brushed off his theory like it was completely impossible. Yet something about it still played on my mind.

I didn't mention anything more on the subject, and neither did Aiden. We had a couple of hours to kill before I had to be at the police station, and I didn't want to spend that time trying to work out my mother's strange behaviour.

Snuggling into Aiden's arms, we settled in to watch some reruns of Seinfeld. The last few days had almost made my mind explode, and I wanted nothing more than to stop thinking and have a few laughs.

## Chapter 13

With my bags packed with enough clothes to last me for another week or so, I locked the front door to my house. Tyson was sulking at the side gate, so I asked Aiden to put my bags in the car whilst I gave him another pat good-bye. Aiden was only too happy to oblige.

I knelt down and slipped my hand through the small opening in the fence, and Tyson greeted my hand with slobbery kisses. I felt guilty for leaving him behind, but Mum had assured me she would take care of him. I had to trust that there was reason enough for her to want me to stay away from the house, even if she wasn't willing to tell me what that reason was. She had been so evasive the last few days, but sooner or later, I was going to find out what she was hiding.

At that moment, though, I had other things to think about. I had to be at the police station in twenty minutes, and who knew what they might ask me.

Mum had said they would only be doing their routine questioning, but I knew that somewhere along the line, I would have to lie to them. And I was pretty sure obstructing an investigation was a criminal offence. Yet how could I tell them the truth about my visions? I couldn't. And that meant I had to be on guard, ready to lie whenever necessary, but without bringing any suspicion to my involvement. The last thing we needed was for some hot-shot police officer with a hunch following us around.

"Come on. We better go if we're going to make it there on time." Aiden's voice rang through my mind.

I turned around to see that he was already in the driver's seat with the engine running, waiting for me to hop in. I turned back to Tyson and gave him one more rub around his ear before getting up.

When I turned around, I caught Mrs. Carson peeping through her side window. My eyes grew wide. If Chelsea had been kidnapped in front of my house like in my vision, my neighbour, with her obsessive snooping, had more than likely witnessed the crime.

As soon as Mrs. Carson realised that I had spotted her, she quickly pulled the curtains in front of her, disappearing from sight.

My head whirled with possibilities. What if Mrs. Carson had seen the attacker before? What if he had been watching Chelsea for some time? What if she knew what he looked like?

Hope and anger flooded my body as I raced next door to face Mrs. Carson. I knocked on her front door, but she didn't answer. "I know you're in there!" I pounded on the door. I hoped to God that my hunch was right; at the same time, I would be mad as hell if I was right, because that would mean that the old bat knew all along who had taken Chelsea and wasn't planning to tell anyone.

"What's your plan?" Aiden asked, pulling me back and stopping me from bashing down her door.

"She knows something." I ignored Aiden's question. "And one way or another, I'm going to get it from her." I tried to break free from his arms so I could try to bust down her door, but he only held on tighter.

"You don't need to bash down her door... Just give me a sec... and I'll be able to... get her to come out," Aiden said between my struggles to get free.

I stopped my struggle to break free from his arms. "You could have told me that before."

Aiden rolled his eyes. "If you weren't always so quick to rush into things, maybe I could have."

" _Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just hurry up and make her come out already."_

He let out a sigh. "Yes, your majesty," he said out loud.

It was my turn to let out a sigh. Maybe I was a little too quick to jump into things without thinking it through. I didn't have any more time to think about my actions, though, because the front door was opening.

"Well, hello, dear," Mrs. Carson sang in her overly pleasant voice.

"Ah..." As she was standing in front of me, I realised why Aiden had asked what my plan was. I mean, it wasn't as if she was going to volunteer the truth.

Thankfully, Aiden stepped in. "Hi, Mrs. Carson. Jade will be staying over my house for a little while." Mrs. Carson didn't hide her disapproval of such 'shenanigans.' She tsked, shaking her head. Before she could lecture us on how children our age would never have done that in her day (and believe me, I've had my fair share of lectures from her over the last year), Aiden continued. "You know, with the two abductions over the past few days, Jade's mum thought it might be best for her to stay somewhere where there were people around her all the time."

"Oh. Yes, I have heard about that. Such poor girls. In my day—"

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but we have to be down at the police station in a few minutes."

"Oh?" She obviously hoped Aiden would elaborate, but of course he didn't. I was sure he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible, and I was glad he was doing the questioning. I don't think I would have been as charming as him.

"As I was saying, Jade will be away for a while, and we were wondering if you would be able to keep an eye on the house and the dog. Jade's a little worried that her mum may not feed the big fella all the time. You know, with the odd hours she keeps."

I gave a slight smile, nodding in agreement.

"Oh, of course I'll keep an eye on things," Mrs. Carson said. "And don't worry about that dog of yours either. I'll slip him some leftovers from dinner."

"That would be a huge relief," I said, finally managing to enter the conversation.

"Okay. Thanks for that, but we better get going. We don't want to leave the detectives waiting." Aiden turned to leave, leaving me wondering what the hell happened to us finding out if she knew anything. I expected him to turn back, yet he kept walking to the car. I mean, it wasn't as if he was able to read minds like his parents could. And it wasn't as if he asked Mrs. Carson anything that may have got her thinking of the attacker. But then again, what would I know? I couldn't hear anyone's thoughts. Maybe she'd thought about it as soon as she'd opened the door.

Aiden was almost at the car when I decided I'd better catch up. "Thanks again." I put on a fake smile for Mrs. Carson before running back to his BMW.

"What's the go?" I asked, sitting down in the passenger seat. "Did she give it up as soon as she saw us?"

"Nope." He turned the ignition and put on his seatbelt before pulling onto the road. "When I told her about you staying at mine because of the abductions, her mind went straight to the morning she saw Chelsea taken."

I sat up in my seat. "Are you serious?" I couldn't believe my ears. I had hoped to God that my hunch was right, but I wasn't sure we would be so lucky.

"Sure am." A smile was plastered across that gorgeous face of his.

## Chapter 14

On the way to the police station, Aiden called Anna to let her know what we had found out from Mrs. Carson. She and Dave were at our school to talk with Chrissy—well, not really talk. They were there to read her mind. They were trying to figure out why she'd said she saw Chelsea with Ben at the movies when her whole memory of the event didn't seem to be true.

Once Aiden explained that Mrs. Carson may have a description of the kidnapper, but he hadn't been able to get it from her thoughts, Dave left Anna to 'speak' with Chrissy, and he headed over to Mrs. Carson's.

I let out a sigh of relief as we pulled into the police station car park. We finally seemed to be getting somewhere. And who knows, what Dave might find out from Mrs. Carson might just be enough for us to nail the bastard. And more importantly, save Chelsea.

All I had to do was get through the interview with the detective without letting on that I knew more than I was telling.

I was surprised to see Mum's car already parked a couple of spots across from ours. She was leaning against the driver's side door and talking on her phone. If all the talk in the media were true about mobile phones causing cancer, then my mum would have no hope with the amount of time she spent on hers. I really hoped it was just another myth.

We walked up to her and motioned for her to follow us, trying not to disrupt the conversation she was clearly engrossed in.

Aiden held the door open for us, but Mum decided it was better to stay outside until she had finished the call, so Aiden and I went in without her.

I walked up to the counter. There was an officer sitting at the desk doing paperwork. He looked to be around sixty-five years old. He was balding, with white hair, and wore thin, wire-framed glasses that were almost falling off his nose. I guessed that he was probably holding out for retirement, which looked to be coming up very soon.

He didn't look up as we approached. Instead, he continued with his paperwork, which was starting to irritate me. I was about to say something when Aiden squeezed my hand. "Don't, you will only get him offside – I'll get his attention."

A second later, the police officer put down his pen and finally acknowledged our presence. "Sorry about that. How can I help you?" he asked in a croaky voice.

"My name is Jade Sommers. I am here to speak with Detective O'Neil. He asked me to come down today for questioning about the disappearances," I said nervously. I really did not want to be here, but there was no turning back.

"Take a seat, and I will call through to him." He motioned to the benches pushed up against the wall to the side of his desk.

"Thank you." Aiden and I sat as instructed.

Mum had just finished her conversation and walked through the doors. She sat down next to me. "Hi, honey."

"Hi." I still sounded a bit nervous. I didn't know why, but being at the police station gave me the heebie-jeebies.

"Don't worry, sweetie, this is just routine questioning."

"Have you heard anything else yet?" I asked Mum quietly. I seriously doubted she had as good a lead as what we were following, but when it came to my mother, anything was possible. Although the way she'd been acting lately, I could be wrong.

Ignoring my question, she turned her attention to the front door. There was shouting outside, which sounded as if it was getting closer. A drunken man shouting obscenities was being led through the doors by two police officers, who didn't look at all amused by his antics.

They nodded to the officer behind the desk. "Hey, Jonesy," they said in unison.

Then the bulkier officer said, "Just another drunk driver. We caught him trying to drive off after spending hours at the pub getting himself sloshed, and he doesn't even think that he's drunk." He was shaking his head in dismay.

Jonesy chuckled. "Don't they all."

"Yeah, but this one took almost five minutes to unlock his car. He was either searching in the dirt for the keys that he dropped, or trying to put them into the key slot in the car door, only to finally figure out that he hadn't even locked the damn car in the first place," the skinnier officer said in disbelief. "I mean, he didn't even see our car twenty metres away from him until we put the siren on when he started to drive." He was shaking his head. "Unbelievable, hey."

Jonesy chuckled to himself as they led the drunken man through into the back office—probably towards a holding cell until he sobered up.

I was trying to hold back my laughter when a man in his late forties entered the waiting room. He was wearing beige pants and a pale blue shirt that needed to be ironed. His face was rough, but there was a kindness that flickered in his eyes. Somehow, I knew he was Detective O'Neil.

"Jade?" he asked.

"Yeah," I answered nervously.

"I'm Detective Brendan O'Neil. Please, come this way." He gestured towards the door he had just walked through.

Detective O'Neil looked at Aiden, realising he was with us, and said, "I'm sorry, you will have to wait out here while I question Jade. We won't be too long."

I shot Aiden a sympathetic look. I would have preferred to have him in the room with me, but who was I to argue with a cop?

He led Mum and me through a corridor until we reached his office. He motioned for us to sit in the seats opposite his desk. We sat down, and I looked around the room. I had expected a camera to be on me, like I had seen on TV when people were being questioned, but there were no cameras in sight—not even a glass mirror that other officers sat behind like on the crime shows.

"This won't take long, Jade. I will be as quick as possible," the detective said, looking through some paperwork.

I noticed a picture of Chelsea in the file he was flipping through. It was the same photo that was used when they'd announced her disappearance on TV. I remembered the day that picture was taken. We had just come back to my house after spending the day wakeboarding behind Aiden's speed boat. A lone tear slid down my cheek. She was so happy that day, and more importantly, she was safe. I tore my eyes away from the picture before the floodgates opened. I'd never get through this interview if I started crying.

Officer O'Neil put down the folder and looked up at me. "Did you notice anything unusual about Chelsea in the days leading up to her disappearance?"

I shook my head. "No, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary."

Detective O'Neil jotted down my response in Chelsea's file.

"Did she mention anything to you about not being happy at home?" He still had his head down, waiting for my response.

"Nope. Things have been much better lately. Chelsea and her mum seemed to have finally gotten past what happened to her father, and they are now closer than ever." I didn't want the detective wasting time by having to rule out a possible runaway. And I knew that he was fishing around that whole possibility, even if he wasn't going to come right out and say it.

"I'm glad to hear that," he said, his eyes still on his notes.

Detective O'Neil started to ask me another question, but I was interrupted by Aiden's voice in my head and couldn't concentrate on a word the detective said.

" _Jade. There's a change of plan."_

"What? Now?" I couldn't believe he was doing that to me while I was in the middle of the interview. God. I'm sure that the detective just asked me another question, which I hadn't a clue what it was.

" _Yeah, I know it's bad timing and all, but Anna and Dave have just turned up, and you were right. Mrs. Carson saw it all."_

"What!" I couldn't believe it. I knew the old bat had seen something, but I couldn't believe she was that much of a bitch to not tell anyone about it. She had to know the kidnapper could kill Chelsea, but she didn't seem to care. I could hear Detective O'Neil saying something to me, but I was too caught up in this revelation to care.

" _She even saw the guy without his mask on, and—"_

"Honey?" Mum put her hand on my arm. "Are you okay?"

I looked between her and the detective. They were both clearly concerned by my zoning out. Although Mum was more concerned with how I was coping with the situation, and the detective looked to be more suspicious, as if he thought I was hiding something from him.

I nodded. "Ah, yeah. Sorry," I said to Mum. I looked at Detective O'Neil. "Is it okay if I go to the bathroom?" In my head, I kept repeating, "Please, say yes; please, say yes," as if that was somehow going to work like Aiden's 'suggestion' ability.

Detective O'Neil put down his pen. All of his suspicions seemed to have vanished from his face. "Yes, of course. It's just down the hall, second door on the left."

"Thanks." I pushed my chair back as I stood up.

Leaving Detective O'Neil's office, I followed his directions and ended up in the women's bathroom.

Entering the cubicle farthest away, I closed the door behind me but was too freaked out about germs to sit on the toilet seat. Even if I was only going to be sitting on the lid, it was still too gross for me.

"Okay. Talk," I said to Aiden.

"You know your immune system is too efficient for you to get sick from germs," he said.

" _Talk to me about it when you get over your dog slobber issue. Now, what does Mrs. Carson know?"_

" _As I said before, she saw the whole thing. Apparently, the guy who took Chelsea had been staking out your place for the last couple of days before he took her. She even saw her actually being kidnapped, and Dave said it was exactly like your vision."_

I didn't know what to say. What person in their right mind wouldn't call the cops if they saw some psycho kidnapping a teenage girl?

" _Anyway, Dave was able see what the guy looks like from her memories."_

"Are you serious?" I was so excited that I almost spat the words from my mouth.

"Sure am. But here's the tricky bit. You're going to have to go back into the interview, and tell the detective that you had noticed some random guy watching you and Chelsea. I'm guessing that they are going to ask you for a description of the guy."

My heart tightened with fear. I was not very good at lying.

"You'll be fine," Aiden assured me. "I was able to get an image of the asshole from Dave, so you'll have no problems creating a profile of him when they ask you."

"Yeah, I'll be fine, so long as you're in the bloody room with me." I was really starting to freak out, so much so that I almost sat down on the toilet seat. I could really have done with some of those calming endorphins.

" _You'll be fine. Just take some deep breaths, centre yourself, and most importantly, trust yourself. And remember, the sky's the limit if you would just believe in yourself."_

He was right. I had to get myself together for Chelsea's sake. And he was right about the other thing, too. I really had to start trusting in my own abilities if we were going to save her.

I took a few deep, calming breaths before I opened the toilet stall door and headed back to Detective O'Neil's office.

"Feeling any better now?" Mum asked as I sat down in the chair beside her.

"Yeah. Thanks."

Detective O'Neil gave a slight smile. "Right, then, let's get back to it." He returned his eyes to the file. "Do you know if Chelsea has been hanging around anyone new lately?"

"Ah, no, she hasn't."

"Right then, has she—"

"But," I said, interrupting the detective, "now that I think about it, I did notice someone watching us."

The detective's eyes shot up as he realised the interview was going to be more than just the routine questioning he originally thought.

"I didn't think that much about it before. But now that I think about it... he was definitely watching us."

"Hang on, hang on." He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a tape recorder. He placed it on his desk and pressed record.

I looked over at Mum, who was staring at me with her mouth wide open. She was in shock and must have felt hurt. I could tell she was wondering why I hadn't told her about it before. Why I had not trusted her. I would have to make it up to her when I got out of the police station, and I just hoped she would forgive me.

I looked back at the desk. The sight of the recorder made my heart beat faster and faster, until it was practically pounding through my chest. "What if I stuff up? It will be caught on tape," I said to Aiden.

"You won't. I'll help you through. I know you can do this." I wished I had half the confidence in myself that he had in me.

Detective O'Neil saw that I was taken aback by the device. "Sorry, I know it can be daunting. Just try to pretend it's not there."

" _You'll be fine."_

I was so glad Aiden was with me, if only mentally.

Detective O'Neil spoke again in a professional manner. "Jade, could you please tell me what you were doing when you first noticed this man?"

"Okay, I can do this," I said, more to myself than Aiden. "The first time I noticed someone watching us was about a week ago. We were on the beach at Surfer's. He was standing on the boardwalk, looking down at the beach. At first I thought he was just taking in the scenery, but then... you know how you can feel when someone is watching you? Well, when I turned around to see, our eyes locked briefly before he turned away."

"Is that it?" Detective O'Neil asked, thinking that it was just some guy checking out girls on the beach—big deal. That kind of thing happened every day around here.

"Well, I thought that was it, as he was gone the next time I turned around. It wasn't until we went back to our car that I noticed him parked across the road from us, and he was watching us again."

"Go on," the detective said, seeming a little more intrigued.

"At first I thought it could have been just a coincidence, but you should have seen the way he took off when Aiden," I pointed my thumb to the waiting room, in case he had forgotten who Aiden was, "showed up with one of our friends, Ben."

Detective O'Neil pulled his eyebrows together as if trying to work something out.

"You know Ben? The one you all thought had taken Chelsea," I explained, which earned me a raised eyebrow from the detective.

Thinking back over what I had just said, I realised how it had sounded. I was practically calling them all morons. "Oh no, I didn't mean for that to come out rude or anything. I was just trying to tell you who Ben is."

I didn't get any further warning glares, so I continued. "And what really got me thinking that something was really off was when I noticed his car parked outside her house the next day, and I got that same funny feeling that I had on the beach the first time I saw him. You know, that I was being watched. Now I know what you may be thinking, maybe this was all just a coincidence. But something tells me it's not."

Detective O'Neil nodded. I wished I knew what he was thinking, but until I learnt to hear people's thoughts, I would have to do it the old-fashioned way. I would have to wait for it to come from his mouth before I knew what was going on inside his head. Not that I thought he would say what he was really thinking. People rarely do, cops especially. I was pretty sure they liked to hold their cards close to their chest. Kind of like how Mum was being lately.

Before I could reflect too much on Mum's strange behaviour, a small smile spread across the detective's face. "I think we finally have something."

A wave of relief swept over me. He had bought my lies.

"Do you think you could give a description of this guy to one of our officers to help complete a comfit of the man?" Detective O'Neil asked.

"A what?" I didn't have a clue what he was talking about.

"Comfit. It stands for Computer Facial Identification Techniques."

"Yeah, of course. I also remember a few things about his car that might help you."

Detective O'Neil's face lit up. This was obviously the break that he was hoping for. "What do you remember about the car?"

"He drove a white Toyota HiAce. I wasn't able to get his full license plate, though."

The detective's eyebrows shot up. "You saw his number plates?"

"Yeah, but they were covered in dirt. I was only able to make out an R and a 6—the R was the first letter and the 6 was the second last digit."

Detective O'Neil looked at me, astonished that I could remember so much about a car that hadn't seemed important at the time.

"I have a photographic memory," I explained. If only he knew just how true that really was.

The detective finally gathered his thoughts before continuing with his questions. "Has Chelsea contacted you since her disappearance?"

I shook my head. "No, she hasn't tried contacting me."

Detective O'Neil put his pen down and looked me in the eye. "Do you know anything else that might help us find her?"

I had to hold it together for Chelsea's sake. "No, I can't think of anything else."

He didn't seem to mind that that was all I could tell him. After all, he had already gotten more out of his interview with me than he could have hoped for.

Detective O'Neil stood up, pushing his chair against the wall. "Well, we're all done here, but do you mind staying so we can complete the comfit as soon as possible?"

I nodded. "Yeah, no worries."

I turned to Mum, who was still in shock. I really hoped she would forgive me. "Do you mind if I take a few minutes before going through his description with the officer? This has been really hard on me," I lied to the detective. The bit about the interview being really hard on me was true, but I really wanted to take a break so I could talk to Mum about what I had said to the detective.

"Yes, of course." He seemed to know how difficult the ordeal must have been for me.

We were led back to the reception area. Aiden was waiting patiently for us to return.

"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Mum said, putting her arm around me.

We walked out of the station and down the steps.

"Why didn't you tell me you saw this guy following you and Chelsea around?" She was obviously hurt that I had kept this from her.

"I'm sorry, Mum." I didn't like lying to her. We had an agreement to not keep anything from each other, which had worked great up until recently, but I wasn't the only one reneging on that promise lately.

Mum folded her arms across her chest. "I don't understand why you wouldn't tell me."

"How was I supposed to tell you?" I snapped. "I've barely spoken with you since my accident. And now you've shipped me off to Aiden's because, once again, you won't be home." I regretted saying it as soon as it had come from my mouth. I didn't really feel that way, but it was easier to blame her than tell the truth. The thought of trying to explain that I had gotten all the information I had just given the police from a conversation I had with Aiden while I was in the female toilets and Aiden was in the police waiting room was too much. Oh, and he had gotten the information from his brother-in-law, who was really his father, who had got the description of the guy from entering our nosy next-door neighbour's mind. Yeah, that would have been so much easier—not!

Mum's expression went from shock to guilt. "I'm so sorry, honey." She pulled me into a hug. "I didn't know you felt that way."

"I... I don't," I stammered. I didn't want her to blame herself. And the last thing I needed was to have to worry about her thinking she was a lousy mother, which she wasn't. "I'm sorry. I'm just really tired, and everything that's happened over the last few days...." I cried into her shoulder.

"It's okay, honey, it's okay." Mum squeezed me tightly before pulling back to look me in the eyes. "I thought I told you that you never have to worry about telling me anything. I am always here for you, good and bad."

"Do you forgive me?" I hoped it would be that easy. I really didn't need to add any more drama to my life.

"Of course I do," she said with a smile. "Now, do you want me to stay here with you while you give the officer that description?"

I shook my head. "No, it's okay. I'm sure they'll let Aiden in there with me this time." Even if that wasn't by their own choice. After what I'd seen Aiden do to Chelsea's mum, I was sure he could convince them to do anything he wanted.

"Good. It'll probably be a late one for me again, so the sooner I can get out of here, the sooner I might be able to get home to bed." She looked beat. I wondered how much sleep she'd had lately.

I looked over at Aiden. "Do you mind staying here with me for a bit longer? I have to give them the description," I said, mostly for Mum's benefit. Aiden already knew what I was going to do. Hell, he was the one who was going to have to feed me the description of the guy.

"Of course I don't mind," he said, playing along.

"I almost forgot to tell you. They found the other missing girl," Mum said, referring to the girl that we had seen on TV at Baxter's.

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Sure am. Turns out she was just another teen runaway," Mum said. "Anyway, I better get going. Are you sure you'll be all right in there?" She cocked her head towards the police station.

"I'll be fine."

Mum looked to be having second thoughts about leaving me, but Aiden said, "Don't worry, I'll make sure she's okay."

Mum smiled. "Well, call me if you need anything."

"I'll be fine," I said once again. How true that was, I didn't know. But I knew I had a better shot of getting through the sketch of the kidnapper with Aiden by my side.

Mum hugged and kissed me goodnight before hurrying back to her car, jumping in, and driving off. She had gotten more than she bargained for with my interview and, like the police, she was going to try her utmost to track down the kidnapper guy.

I turned to Aiden. "Let's get this over with."

## Chapter 15

We walked back up the stairs into the police station.

Officer Jones immediately looked up from his desk. "Detective O'Neil asked me to let you know when I was ready to give the description of the suspect," I advised him.

Officer Jones pointed me towards the seats to the side of his desk before picking up his phone and dialling. "Fritzie, I have the girl out here ready to go through the description of the suspect with you." He nodded a few times at whatever Fritzie was saying, then hung up.

Officer Jones did not say anything to us. He just went back to whatever he was doing before I had come back in the station.

The door opened to reveal a young female officer. She had short black hair that she wore in pigtails at the back of each ear. She had a silver stud in her left nostril and didn't wear the normal police uniform. She was wearing black pants with a funky red top displaying the name of what I thought to be some local band, as I hadn't heard of them. She looked like she had just come from a rave. Or maybe that's where she was heading.

"She had just finished her shift and was about to head out to meet up with her friends when Detective O'Neil asked her to stay back to complete the profile with you," Aiden explained.

"Jade, I'm Fritzie, could you please come with me?" She gestured to the door she had just come through.

Aiden and I stood up from our chairs.

"And you are?" She directed the question to Aiden.

"I'm her boyfriend, Aiden Scott," he answered politely.

"I'm sorry, you will have to wait here."

Aiden stared at her for a moment. I knew what he was doing and hoped it would work.

"Ah, what the hell. Come on through. Maybe you'll help stop Jade from getting nervous with completing the profile like so many others do." She waved her hand, beckoning Aiden to follow.

I shot a glance at Aiden. "You did that, didn't you?"

"Sure did," he said smugly.

We followed Fritzie through the doors and down a few corridors before entering her office. We sat down and waited for her to rearrange her workstation so we could start.

"Do either of you want a coffee or something else to drink?"

"No, thank you," we replied. The sooner we got started, the sooner we would be out of there.

She clicked open a computer program. "Now, take your time and try to give me as clear a description as possible. It doesn't matter if we need to go back and change a few things. We will work on it until the face on the screen resembles the face you remember."

This was not what I had imagined. I had thought that I'd be sitting there with a sketch artist who would draw his face as I spoke—this would be much easier.

"Let's get started," Fritzie said, not taking her eyes off the computer screen. "What shape was his head? Take a look at these and try to remember which one best resembles the suspect." She was pointing to an array of face shapes on the computer screen.

"Which one is he?" I pretended to concentrate on the faces, as if I were trying to remember which was the closest to the guy I had supposedly seen.

"He had an oval-shaped face. Point to the one on the second row, third from the left," Aiden instructed me.

"It's that one," I said, pointing.

"Good," Fritzie said, clicking the face with her mouse. "Now, what shape were his eyes?"

Fritzie had brought up rows and rows of different shaped eyes. I had no idea that there could be that many options.

" _First row, last on the right."_

I pointed at the eyes that Aiden told me. "These ones."

We continued through the software application options until we ended up with a complete face staring back at us.

The face chilled me to the core. Not because he looked sinister, but because I recognised the man. My mind went into overload as the memories came flooding back to me.

I had never seen the man in person, but I sure as hell had seen him.

The accident I'd had the other day finally made sense. I realised why I had lost control and plummeted into the light pole. It was because I had a vision—my first vision ever—which I had somehow forgotten when I woke up in the ambulance that day.

"Does this man look like the man you saw?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing would come out. I felt like my throat was closing up on me. All I could do was sit there, staring at the man on the computer screen.

Fritzie misread my blank expression. "Don't worry, we'll keep working on it 'til we get it right."

"I know this is really hard for you. And yeah, holy shit. But you just need to answer her question, and we can get out of here," Aiden said.

Tears started to well in my eyes as I nodded, confirming that the image matched the man that I had supposedly seen following Chelsea and myself around the last few days before she disappeared.

My tears overflowed and were streaming down my face. How could that man be that cruel? How could he kidnap Chelsea? He was not a man; he was an animal.

I stood up, pushing my chair back. I had to get out of there. I needed fresh air.

"Make sure she comes back to sign off on this before you leave tonight," Fritzie called out to Aiden, who followed me through her office door as I ran outside.

I pushed open the police station's doors, gasping for air. The cool night air filling my lungs did nothing to calm me down. I was consumed by mixed emotions. That man I just described was the same man that I had seen in a vision. Only I couldn't remember the damn thing because I had crashed my friggin' car.

"Hey, hey... calm down," Aiden said, pulling me into his arms.

"I should've known... I should've stopped it," I wailed, burying my face into his chest. Images of my vision flooded my mind. Chelsea was strapped to a chair, her arms were restrained behind her back, and her mouth was taped shut. Her hair was a mess, and her face was smeared with blood.

Standing in front of her was the man—no, the animal—whose face had been added to the police file. The look in his eyes was that of a monster. His mouth was moving, but I couldn't hear what he was saying. Suddenly I could understand him—he was calling my name.

Just as quickly as the visions appeared in my mind, they stopped.

"What just happened?" I asked, pulling my head back so I could see Aiden's face. I expected him to have a guilty look on his face, but he seemed just as confused as I was.

"There you are," Anna said, coming out of nowhere. "You did really good in there. You should be proud of yourself." She walked over and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"I know you don't have long," she continued, not giving me a chance to figure out what had just happened and what it all meant. "I just wanted to pop by to see if you two needed anything before we head back home." By home, I knew she meant England.

"Nah, we'll be all right," Aiden said.

"Okay, well if you need me for anything..." Anna said, putting her hand on my shoulder.

"We'll call, don't worry," Aiden finished the sentence for her.

She smiled. "Okay. Well, you two have a good night. And you especially," she said, looking at me. "Try to get some sleep."

Anna started to walk away when I remembered about Chrissy. "Oh, what happened with Chrissy?"

Anna stopped. Taking a second too long to respond, she said, "Oh, you know Chrissy. She'll do anything for attention. And you know what? I think that girl has told so many lies that she is actually believing them herself these days."

A few days ago, I would have believed her, but my instincts were telling me that she was hiding something from me. Before I pressed her about it, what she had just said began to make sense to me. Chrissy probably had told one too many lies. Maybe the vision I had of her seeing Chelsea was no more than one of her lies, and her mind could no longer tell the difference between truth and fiction. Something still didn't sit quite right, though.

"You'd better go back inside. They're probably getting ready to send out a search party for you," Anna said with a laugh.

I turned my head towards the door to the station, half-expecting an officer to walk out and prove her right. But there was no one there.

When I turned back to Anna, she was gone. Aiden, who had stayed silent, finally spoke. "Come on. Let's get this over with." He ushered me back towards the station.

I followed without saying anything more about what had just happened—or not happened—with Anna. I knew there was something wrong, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure it out. My mind felt like it was covered in a blanket of thick fog whenever I tried thinking about it.

We walked back into the station and into Fritzie's office. She was eating a packet of chips and sipping on a Red Bull energy drink.

Fritzie motioned for us both to sit down in the chairs we had vacated no more than five minutes ago, and she took a sip of her drink. We sat down while she rummaged around her desk. She found the pen she was looking for and placed it in front of me, along with the papers.

"You will need to sign these to confirm this is the man you saw following you and Chelsea around." She pointed at the signature line on the page in front of me.

I picked up the pen and signed the paper.

Fritzie turned to the next page. It was the picture of the psycho. "Just sign down the bottom, and then we're all done."

The sight of him sent chills down my spine. I quickly signed the paper and handed it back to Fritzie. I did not want to look at the picture of him any longer than was necessary.

"Thanks for doing this for us," Fritzie said, picking up the papers. "Hopefully, he's already in our system so we can nail this prick."

I gave her a weak smile before walking out of her office.

"Thanks," Aiden said to Fritzie. He followed me out of the room, for what I hoped would be the last time.

We walked back out the doors and into the night. It felt like we must have been in the police station for hours. I looked at my watch—it was 8:20.

I sighed. "I just want this all to be over with."

Aiden opened the passenger side door and waited for me to take my seat before closing the door behind me. "It will be over soon." He walked around the car and got into the driver's seat.

"How can you be sure?" I asked.

Aiden started the car. "They were stoked with how detailed your face description was. And even though the licence plate was covered in dirt, you were still able to get a couple of letters, which will help narrow down their search. Now we just gotta hope the car wasn't stolen."

He pulled out of the car park and onto the road. "When you left Detective O'Neil, he rushed over to some other officers to give them the details of the suspect and his car."

"Yeah, a car that looks exactly like the thousands of other delivery vehicles driving around the streets of the Gold Coast every day."

He placed his hand on my leg and smiled. "This was really the break they were looking for. And who knows, maybe the licence plate details you gave them might narrow down the search from a thousand cars to twenty. Twenty is something they can work with. Before they spoke with you, they were completely clueless. It could have been any one of the hundreds of thousands of people who live on the coast."

I sat there silently, staring out at the passing houses and wishing that I had as much hope as Aiden did that the police would find Chelsea. Unfortunately, I didn't. Somehow, I knew it was up to me to find her, yet I hadn't a clue how I was going to do it.

Before I knew it, Aiden was pulling into his garage. The lights inside flicked on automatically when the garage door opened.

We got out of the car and walked up the stairs into his house, which was lit up by amazing new wall lights that looked like a work of art.

"I'm just going to get myself a drink before I come upstairs. Want one?" Aiden asked.

I headed up the stairs to his room. "No, thanks." Even though my throat felt a little dry from all the talking I had done in the last few hours, I just wanted to get into bed and fall asleep.

I changed into one of Aiden's T-shirts before I climbed into bed and pushed his quilt onto the floor with my feet. It was way too hot for anything more than a sheet, even with the constant air conditioning in his place.

I lay there, trying to fall asleep, but the day's events kept playing and replaying in my head.

Aiden walked into his room. "Can't sleep, hey?"

I flipped myself around to face the door and saw that he was holding a glass of water, which he offered to me.

I pulled myself to a sitting position and took the glass from him.

"I can't stop thinking about today."

Aiden took off his T-shirt and climbed into bed. I put the glass on the bedside table.

He lifted his arm so I could snuggle into him.

We lay in bed and talked about the day's events, trying to think of how we could find Chelsea. Who was the guy that I had described? And what might I have missed in one of my visions?

I replayed them in my mind, trying to come up with anything that could help us, until eventually I passed out from sheer exhaustion.

## Chapter 16

I woke up shivering, reaching for blankets that were not there. I opened my eyes, trying to work out why Aiden's bed felt rock hard and cold. I quickly realised I was no longer in his bed. I was lying on my stomach on a cold, hard cement floor. There was wire fencing not more than a foot in front of my face, and there was a stench I couldn't quite place.

I lifted my head, trying to figure out where I was. "What the..." I pulled myself onto my knees. The last thing I remembered was falling asleep in Aiden's arms, but I was inside a cage of some sort, like the ones in dog kennels.

Turning around, I realised I had woken up in my worst nightmare. Bile started rising in my throat as I took in the scene before me. There was a girl strapped to a chair against the back wall of the cage. Her matted, blood-stained blonde hair fell over her face. Her head hung forward lifelessly. I couldn't see her face, but I knew it was Chelsea.

It was the strangest sensation to have my feelings divided over what I was seeing. In one way, seeing her there made me sick to my stomach. It made me want to scream, cry, and puke all at the same time. Yet another part of me was hoping that what I was seeing was another vision. Yeah, it was probably the worst vision I could have hoped for, seeing her dead and all, but if it was a vision, then I could use it to try to figure out something that might help us find her. Then the vision might not come true.

There was only one way to find out. I had to try to touch her. If my hand passed through her like some apparition, then I was definitely having another vision. But if my hand made contact with her skin, then... Well, I didn't want to think about what that would mean.

I crawled on all fours over to her, hoping to God that I was having some sort of vision and there was still time to save her. I reached out slowly... and made contact.

My hands trembled uncontrollably. I couldn't save her. I quickly turned away, unable to look at her for another second. This was all my fault. I was supposed to save her, but she was dead because of me. Because I couldn't work out what was already inside my mind. It had been there all the time, but I failed her.

I knew I was going to puke, yet I tried my hardest to fight it, causing my body to go into convulsions while I tried desperately to keep it down.

Then the inevitable happened—I spewed my guts up. Once it started, I couldn't seem to stop.

"Jade?" a raspy voice whispered behind me.

It took me a minute, even with my supposedly superior brain, to work out what was happening. And it took me another minute for my dry heaving to stop.

Once I had finally gotten control over my body, I turned around, hoping that I had heard correctly.

Sitting in the chair was Chelsea, with her head up. She was alive.

Without thinking, I lurched toward her, wrapping my arms around her. I couldn't believe I found her. I actually found her. And most importantly, she was still alive.

"Jade," she whispered.

I pulled back so I could look at her. "Yeah?" I couldn't believe I was actually holding her in my arms. The slice across her throat, which I had seen in my vision, was right there on her neck, but it didn't look half as bad as it did in my vision. Looking down at her blood-stained clothing made me think that she had lost a fair amount of blood.

"I'm glad to see you and all." She gulped hard, leading me to think she must be in desperate need of some water. "But you kinda stink."

I looked down at myself. Vomit smeared my clothing, as well as Chelsea's. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry," I said, pulling away from her.

"Don't worry about it." She laughed. "We'll be able to change into something else soon."

I laughed too. I couldn't believe that she still had her humour about her. If I had been abducted and held captive for three days, I was sure I would be a friggin' mess. I sure as hell wouldn't be joking around.

My smile faded when I realised why she was in such a good mood. She was looking around behind me for someone else. She wasn't looking for the psycho who took her. She was searching for her rescuers. She thought that I was part of her rescue party.

"Where are they all?" she asked, her eyes finally returning to mine.

"Um...." I paused, not wanting to give her the bad news. There was no rescue party. There was nobody but me—that's when it hit me. Fear gripped me around my heart, and squeezed tighter and tighter. I was actually with her, but I hadn't a clue where we were. I didn't know how I got there, and I didn't know how I was going to get home.

"Jade?"

I looked at her, too scared to say the words out loud. Too terrified of what the words circulating through my mind meant.

"Jade?" There was a catch in her voice.

"It's just me," I finally replied, my voice barely audible.

A lone tear rolled down her cheek, and her eyes glazed over as she lost all hope that her nightmare had come to an end.

"Come on." I moved around to the back of her chair and attempted to free her from her restraints. It was useless. Her kidnapper had used zip ties. "Don't worry, we'll get out of here. You'll see."

She didn't respond. If I was her, I wouldn't believe me either.

"Jade?" Aiden's panic-stricken voice screamed through my head, making me jump. Chelsea was too caught up in her own misery to notice.

"Aiden!" I was so relieved to 'hear' his voice.

"Where are you?" His words were a lot calmer this time.

" _I'm with Chelsea."_

"What?" Aiden's voice was once again filled with panic.

"I don't know how I got here. The last thing I remember was falling asleep with you, and the next thing I know, I'm waking up here with Chelsea." Tears started running down my face. I was so relieved to hear his voice, but I was so terrified of not having him with me.

"Are you hurt? That psycho hasn't done anything to you, has he?" I could hear the fear in his voice, making my heart tighten. I could only imagine the fear he must be experiencing, not knowing where I was. If the situation was reversed, I would be a total mess.

"No, he hasn't done anything to me. I don't think he even knows I'm here." I hoped that would ease his mind a little.

"You're the one trapped with that psycho, and you're feeling sorry for me?" He sounded surprised.

A small laugh escaped my lips, which got Chelsea's attention. "What's so funny?" she asked.

Oh, crap. I was so not ready for this. Aiden had years of practise covering up his secrets, but I had to learn to cover up that I was having a telepathic conversation with someone who wasn't in the room whilst also trying to concentrate on finding a way to get us out of there before the kidnapper came back.

"Jade?" Chelsea said.

"Just calm down," Aiden said. "You'll be fine."

"Oh, nothing, Chels," I replied. "I just can't believe I'm here."

"Neither can I." She looked at me for a moment, as if she was trying to figure something out. "Actually, how did you get here?"

Oh, crap again. When I thought about it, I could only come up with the possibility that I had somehow transported myself there. But that didn't make sense. Apart from the fact that I had never transported myself anywhere before, Anna had said that you had to know the exact place where you wanted to go, and that it wasn't possible to transport yourself to a person without knowing where they were. "Umm... I don't know," I finally replied.

She sat there thinking for a minute without saying anything. "He must have drugged you," Chelsea mumbled. That was probably the most logical explanation she could come up with, which wasn't a bad thing to go with.

"I'm not sure. Maybe..." I tried sounding confused, but I was pretty sure that he hadn't drugged me. Then again, how else could I be there?

"Look, I know you're freaked out and shit, but we really have to figure out where you are," Aiden said, bringing me back to my conversation with him. "Can you see or hear anything around you that might give us a clue?"

I looked around. The only light in the room filtered in through a few small windows too high up for me to see out of. Besides, they were frosted glass with security wire laced through them. Even if I could get up there, I wouldn't be able to see through them.

"Don't waste your time," Chelsea said. "The only way out is through that door." She cocked her head to the right. "And even if you could get to it, he locks the damn thing."

I hated to admit it, but Chelsea was right. There was no way out of here. We were both locked in a cage at the mercy of some psycho. For all I knew, we could be in another state.

"Hey, hang on." An idea had come to me. "If we can talk to each other, then don't we have to be close to one another?" If I was right, then Aiden should be able to find us that much easier.

" _I thought about that, too, but I can't feel you."_

" _Feel me, what the hell does that mean?"_

" _Okay. I guess I should have explained this one to you earlier."_

"You think?" I hated that there were things about me that I should have known and didn't.

He sighed. "Now's not the time to get your knickers in a knot. Let's focus on finding you, and then you can let me have it. Okay?"

Okay, maybe I was a little quick-tempered. "Sorry."

"As I was saying, I can't feel you. And by that, I mean that I can sense when you are close by. And the closer you get, the stronger I feel you."

Okay. That was kind of creepy.

"It's not creepy. How can I explain?" He paused for a moment before continuing. "I guess it's kinda like how a blind person knows if someone is in the same room as them, even without that person making a sound. They have developed their other senses way past what a seeing person has."

"How's my mum?" Chelsea asked, interrupting my silent conversation with Aiden.

I thought about the frail woman I had seen when we first turned up at her house yesterday. And then I thought about the woman I saw after I left her alone with Aiden. "She's doing okay," I informed Chelsea. I just hoped that whatever Aiden did lasted more than five minutes. "I don't know if she is just in denial, but she really believes that the police will find you unharmed." Thanks to Aiden, but I didn't tell her that.

A wave of relief seemed to wash over her. "I was so worried that she would revert back to how she was when Dad died."

"No, Chels, she's not at all like that."

"Yeah, it lasts longer than five minutes," Aiden said, butting in to my conversation with Chelsea.

"Okay, I'm back," I said, returning to my conversation with Aiden.

" _I'll explain it more in depth to you later, but in short, we can sense a person's energy. Every person's energy is different, and I can't feel yours. What's really strange is that I can still talk to you, and even hear your thoughts."_

"What's so strange about that?" I didn't understand. I mean, yeah I still found the whole telepathy thing kinda freaky, but I didn't think Aiden had a problem with it.

" _No, it's not that. It's... well, I shouldn't be able to hear your thoughts or talk to you unless we are in close proximity."_

"So, what you're saying is, we shouldn't be able to talk to each other unless we are close, which should mean that we are close. Yet, if we were close, then you should be able to sense my presence. So what does all that mean? Are you nearby or not?" This was really starting to do my head in.

"I don't know what it all means." Aiden sounded just as frustrated and confused as I was, which wasn't helping to calm my nerves.

"Well, do your parents know?" I hoped they might have some answers, but more importantly, I hoped they would help get us the hell out of wherever we were.

"What does she think happened to me?" Chelsea asked.

I looked over at Chelsea, who stared back at me, waiting for an answer. All I wanted to do was finish my conversation with Aiden, not that she knew I was even having a conversation with him.

"Look, how about you talk with Chelsea while I go call Anna to see if she has any ideas on what's going on? You've barely said two words to each other since you've been there, and I'm sure you two want to catch up on what's been going on the last few days."

He was right of course—again. Thinking about it, I must have looked pretty rude, sitting there not saying anything to Chelsea, not asking her if she was all right or what the kidnapper had done to her since he took her.

"Mum, I mean," Chelsea clarified. She must have thought I didn't answer because I was confused by who 'she' was.

" _Okay. But don't be long."_

I turned my full attention to Chelsea. "Oh, yeah, sorry. The police originally thought that Ben had something to do with i—"

"Ben!" Chelsea interrupted me. "How could anyone think Ben could have done this to me?"

"I don't—"

"How is Ben? The police know it's not him, don't they?"

I smiled at her. She sounded more like the rambling girl I knew and loved.

"What?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Nothing. I'm just glad you're alive."

She sighed. "Me too." She turned her head to the side, not looking at anything in particular. "A couple of days ago, I thought he was going to kill me for sure. But now...." Chelsea shook her head. "I really don't know what he wants."

I waited for her to continue, but she didn't.

"What do you mean?" I asked. If she wasn't going to give it up in one of her usual storytelling rambles, then I was going to have to probe it out of her.

"The whole thing is kinda strange." She bit her lip as she thought about what to say. "Well, when he first brought me here and strapped me to this damn chair..." Chelsea lifted her arms futilely. There was no way she was getting out of those restraints any time soon. Unless, of course, I got some of the strength back that I'd hit Chrissy with the other day.

"This is gonna sound a bit strange," she continued. "I've been racking my mind the last few days and can only come up with one logical answer. And I don't want you to get upset or freak out or anything, though I probably would if I was you. I'm not you, and I'm still freaking out. But that could be because I'm the one tied to a chair. And I guess I could be wrong about this. But I don't think I am. But I could—"

It was my turn to cut her off. "Would you just say it, for Christ's sake?" She was doing her rambling thing, which in past experience could go on for the next ten minutes without her getting to the point.

"Okay, okay. No need to get your knickers in a knot."

I glared at her. What was with everyone talking about me and my knickers? I wasn't that quick tempered, was I?

"Only sometimes," Aiden said, butting in.

"Have you spoken with Anna yet? Does she have any idea what's happening with us?" I asked Aiden, wishing that I had let Chelsea ramble on for a little bit longer. At least that way I would have been able to have a conversation with Aiden without having to worry about fully listening to Chelsea.

"Well, as I said, this whole thing is strange as hell." Chelsea continued speaking, making my conversation with Aiden that much harder to maintain. "When he first brought me here and strapped me to this chair, I was sure he was going to kill me. He kept going on and on about me being so special. That I was going to be worth the wait. I had absolutely no idea what he was on about. You see, I still had a bag over my head at that stage. And then when he took it off, he completely flipped out. The look on his face when he saw me... It was like I wasn't who he thought I was. And then he slit me with that knife of his." She flipped her hair to the side, revealing the slice across her neck.

Instinctively, I put my hand up to my throat, in the spot he had cut her. Her cut was in the same place as where I'd felt like my throat had been sliced open that day in science class.

At the time, I'd had no idea why I'd had the searing pain rip across my throat when it was my stomach that was on fire. Now it was all making sense. It wasn't the fire at all. It was a vision of what was going to happen to Chelsea.

"It's not as bad as it looks. I think it's just a superficial wound," Chelsea explained. I think she thought that I was in shock about her getting sliced, which I guess was better than her knowing that I'd seen everything that was going to happen. I didn't even know what the hell the visions were at the time, but I wasn't sure she would see it like that after everything that had happened to her. And I wouldn't blame her. I would be pissed at me too, even if there'd been nothing I could do to stop it.

"Anyway," she continued. "After about fifty f'n this and f'n thats, he walked through that door and hasn't been back since."

"That was three days ago. Hasn't he given you anything to eat or drink?" I asked. Who would go to all the trouble of kidnapping someone without bothering to feed or even torture them? It didn't make any sense.

"Now you know why my voice is so damn raspy. I don't suppose it sounds like a sexy bedroom voice, does it?"

I shook my head. "You're unbelievable," I said, laughing. "Even when you've been kidnapped, slashed, and left for dead, you're still thinking about sex."

"Hey. How do you think I got through the last few days?"

"Chelsea!"

"Thinking about Ben." She sung his name.

"Oh, God." I cringed, thinking she was going to give me the juicy details.

"Hang on," I said, just as she was about to open her mouth. I remembered there was something that Chelsea was worried about telling me, and I didn't think that her fantasizing about Ben was it. "What were you so worried about me freaking out about?" It was amazing how conversations with Chelsea so easily strayed from the topic where it started.

"Oh, yeah." She sounded disappointed. I was sure she would have much rather been talking about Ben. It was funny how quickly she'd changed her mind about him. And I still hadn't asked Aiden how that happened.

"As I was saying before, I've been racking my mind the last few days and can only come up with one logical answer." She paused, as if she was working up her courage. Chelsea took a deep breath, then blurted, "He thought I was you."

"What?" I asked, thinking I hadn't heard right.

"Well, it makes sense. He took me from your house just before six in the morning. I was wearing my hoodie, so he couldn't see the colour of my hair. And let's face it, at that time in the morning, who else would be crazy enough to be up and about? He probably thought that I was you sneaking back home from your boyfriend's house or something." She stopped her rambling and looked at me with a serious expression on her face. "Think about it."

A sick feeling settled over me as I took in what she had just said. No matter how much I wanted her to be wrong, it made sense. That was why I had heard him calling my name in the vision I'd had during my car accident. I was the one he wanted. It should've been me strapped to that chair, not her.

"I could be wrong. Maybe I'm a little delusional. After all, I have been here without food and water for three days. That's gotta do something to a girl."

I was about to interrupt her when a chilling voice stopped her in her tracks. "I've been waiting for you."

## Chapter 17

Without turning around, I knew it was the kidnapper, and I knew he was talking to me. The sound of his voice sent chills down my spine. Instantly, I knew that everything Chelsea had just said was true. He was never after her. He wanted me. And he had me exactly where he wanted me, and there was no way out.

Slowly, I turned around to face my predator. The sick bastard was leaning against the door to the room. He looked exactly like the picture I had given the police yesterday at the station. His shoulder length, shaggy brown hair hung limp from the sides of his face. His deep brown eyes were ice cold. He appeared detached of all emotion.

"You have to try to transport yourself out of there!" Aiden's voice boomed through my head. I couldn't answer.

"Jade, listen to me," he screamed, snapping me out of the hysteria I was slipping into. "You have to try to get yourself out of there."

" _How? I'm in a cage, for Christ's sake."_

"I don't know how, but you've gotta try," he pleaded.

The psycho started to approach the cage. The closer he got, the tighter my heart squeezed.

" _Don't you think I would if I could?"_

" _Look, if you got yourself there, you must be able to get yourself out."_

No matter how much I wanted that to be true, there was simply no time to try to work out how to get myself out of there. All I could hope for was that somehow my sporadic superhuman strength or a fluke transportation would get me out of the situation.

He stopped in front of the door of the cage and tapped something he was holding against the floor. My eyes worked their way down his body, and my heart stopped when I saw what he was holding by his right leg. It was a gun. He was going to kill me. He was going to shoot me dead where I stood.

"No," I murmured, my voice barely audible, as I slowly backed up against the bars of the cage.

Looking again, I realised that it was no ordinary gun. He was holding a tranquilliser gun.

"I think it's a tranquilliser," I said to Aiden.

"Shit. Just try to buy some time, try to get him..." But before Aiden could finish his sentence, the psycho lifted the gun and aimed it at me.

"No, no. Please don't!" I begged him.

He let out a sinister laugh, then pulled the trigger back, sending a dart flying into my chest.

I looked down at the protruding dart. My mind was telling my hands to reach up and yank it out, but my body would not respond. The sedative was working too quickly, and I didn't stand a chance of fighting back.

My head swirled as the light started fading, and I fell to the ground with a thump. Darkness engulfed me and I blacked out.

## Chapter 18

"Jade?" Ahh, there was the voice I knew and loved. I was slowly rousing from a deep sleep, but I couldn't manage to open my eyes. Thinking that he was curled up beside me only made me want to stay asleep more, untouched by the nightmare that had become my life.

"Jade," Aiden's loving voice called to me again. "You've gotta wake up."

I tried to reach out to him, but my arms wouldn't move. I was still so sleepy.

"Jade, please wake up!" Aiden's voice no longer sounded like the happy, loving voice I'd heard only moments ago. It sounded desperate, but I was still so sleepy.

" _Please wake up. I need to know that you're okay."_

"But I'm so tired," I moaned. "Just give me another few minutes."

" _Jade, you gotta wake up! You're in danger. Don't you remember? The tranquilliser..."_

Suddenly, memories came flooding into my mind. How I'd found Chelsea. Her theory that she was mistakenly taken instead of me. The psycho. The tranquilliser gun—Oh, my God. Where was I? What had he done to me?

I needed to open my eyes, but my body was not responding to my demands. I wasn't about to give up, though. I had to keep fighting to gain control of my body. It was the only way I stood a chance against him. I needed to be at my best, or at least have my wits about me.

A few moments later, I managed to open my eyes a few millimetres before they closed again. All I had seen was a blinding light. I knew I had to open them again, but my eyelids felt so heavy. I concentrated all of my energy on forcing them open, but all I could see was the blinding light hovering above my face. I squinted, trying to see anything beyond the light. It was too much, and I had to close my eyes again.

"You have to try again," Aiden insisted.

I forced my eyes open, and although the light was not quite as blinding as the last time, I still could not see a thing. I managed to turn my head slightly to the left. I saw what looked like a table, but I couldn't be sure because my vision was still blurry.

I closed my eyes, hoping that the next time I opened them, my vision would be restored.

Once again I opened my eyes, and my heart stopped as I realised that what I thought was a table was actually a trolley, and sitting in the middle of the trolley were surgical tools lined up in a perfectly straight line.

Tears started welling up in my eyes. The situation I was in was far worse than I could have ever imagined. All the bad things that I had feared would happen to Chelsea were nothing compared to what I was about to face.

"Good, you're awake." It wasn't Aiden's desperate voice filling my head. It was the voice of a monster.

I followed his voice. He was standing at the bottom of my makeshift bed, and I gasped in horror as I realised I was only wearing my bra and undies. My heart hammered inside my chest as I thought about why he had undressed me. What he had planned for me.

"If he touches you..." Aiden's voice was filled with such anger. The next time he spoke, his tone was much calmer. "You've gotta keep him talking. I need more time."

"How much more? You've gotta get me out of here. I don't want him to..." I couldn't finish my sentence, but I knew he would understand what I meant. The thought of the kidnapper touching me made me want to scream, shout, and curl up into a little ball and cry my eyes out.

None of those things were going to help me. The only chance I had was to give Aiden more time, so that is what I had to do.

I closed my eyes and tried to centre myself. I couldn't show any fear. That would only ignite the power he already felt he had over me. But at the same time, I couldn't piss him off, because that would only fuel his anger and make him kill me that much sooner. It was a fine line I would have to tread, and I would have to get it right.

" _You can do it. Just believe in yourself."_

"Thanks, but I don't think I can do this with you talking to me at the same time." Instantly, I felt bad about what I had just said. "It's just... I'm not as good at this whole having two conversations thing as you are, and I'll probably stuff up."

" _You don't have to say another word. I'll keep my thoughts to myself."_

"Thanks," I replied, relieved that he hadn't taken offence.

"Just one last thing. I love you." Even at the worst of times, hearing him say those three little words filled my heart with strength and hope.

"I love you, too," I said before closing my eyes, trying to focus my full attention on buying more time. It's funny how the whole conversation I'd just had with Aiden would have taken ten times as long if we'd actually had to talk—the mind can think a lot faster than the mouth can speak.

Once I had centred myself, I opened my eyes and began playing my part. "Who are you?" I asked. Although I was pretty sure he wouldn't give me his real name, I needed to keep him talking. The more he talked, the more chance I had of getting out of there.

He tilted his head to the side. "You don't really expect me to tell you that, do you?"

I shook my head and kept thinking, tell me your name, tell me your name.

"Michael," he blurted.

The look on his face made me think that he hadn't meant to tell me. So I quickly asked another question to keep him from wondering why he had given me his name. "Why me?" I asked, my voice cracking.

It worked. "Ahh... now that's the million dollar question. What makes you so special?" He paused in thought, circling me as if I were some mythical creature the world has been trying to capture, and he was about to unlock the secrets to my existence.

"Let's see. If we look at this from a psychological profile point of view, we should rule out some of the possibilities." He sounded like he must have some experience in that field. Maybe he was a psychologist or a police officer.

"Could it be that you remind me of my negligent mother, and somehow I am trying to find a way of punishing her?" He paused for a minute, considering that theory. "No. No, you don't." Michael continued to circle me, watching me with morbid curiosity.

"Maybe it's because..."

A thought suddenly came to me. And if it worked, I'd be free in no time. Just before he had told me his name without wanting to, so maybe I could 'tell' him to free me—could it be that simple?

As he continued to rule out the various psychological profiles of a killer, I focused on 'making him' let me go. Unfortunately, it didn't work. Nothing ever seemed to work when I needed it most. It was hopeless. I was at the mercy of the psycho, and even though I was supposed to be able to friggin' transport, control people's actions, and have the strength of Superman, yet whenever I needed them, I was just as normal as the rest of the human race. My only option was to keep him talking, which seemed to be working quite well, I thought, as I tuned back in to what he was saying.

"No. I think whatever it is, it definitely isn't anything as superficial as the way you look. You see," he paused to pick something up from the trolley before continuing, "I think that it might have something to do with what's underneath... all this." He waved a scalpel inches from my body.

The sight of the knife glistening under the bright light brought the fear of God into me. "He's going to kill me," I cried silently to Aiden.

" _You've gotta calm down and try to get yourself out of there."_

"I can't. He's about to carve me up." No matter how much I knew that I had to calm down, every time I saw the gleaming surgical tool in that psycho's hands, my mind went reeling in fear.

" _Look, he can't kill you. We can't die."_

That's what I was afraid of most of all. I would have to live through being carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey, praying to God that I would just die, but knowing death wasn't even a possibility for me.

The psycho, still looking at me like I was the biggest mystery in the world, came to a halt at the left side of the bed.

He bent down and ran the scalpel across my stomach, gentle enough not to puncture my skin. He was toying with me.

"No, please, no!" I cried as he rested the tip against my bare skin.

His only reaction was a sadistic smile, which quickly disappeared as he once again became fixated on what lay beneath my skin.

I realised then that there was no way I was getting away. There was no way he was going to let me go. I was about to go through the worst imaginable horror, and just like a nightmare, I couldn't die, which only made me that much more terrified.

"Keep trying. You can't give up," Aiden pleaded with me.

"Now let's find out what makes you so special," the psycho said, then slowly pushed the knife into my skin.

"Get the fuck away from her!" Aiden's voice screamed through my mind.

The moment the scalpel punctured my skin, I let out a blood-curdling scream. I wasn't screaming in pain, but for Aiden.

For some reason I couldn't feel the pain as Michael slowly dragged the knife along my body. I absently wondered if that was also one of my abilities, being able to switch off the pain receptors to my brain when needed.

Suddenly, Michael stopped dead in his tracks. I looked up at his face; it had turned pale. His mouth was hanging open. His eyes were wide, and they were no longer looking at me.

I followed his gaze. Standing on the other side of me was the person I wanted with me more than anyone in the world.

"Aiden?" I whispered, afraid that if I said it too loud, he would disappear. He didn't.

Aiden stood there, a little shocked himself. His expression quickly changed from shock to anger when he saw me lying strapped to a bed, half naked, with a small, bloody line across my bare stomach.

"I said, get away from her." Aiden's voice rang through my ears, confirming he really was there and not just a figment of my imagination.

Even though I felt the knife pull out of my stomach, I couldn't seem to take my eyes off Aiden. It was strange that I could feel that, yet I still couldn't feel the pain from the damage it had done.

"What the hell... How did you get here?" the psycho finally managed to ask, holding the blood-covered knife above me but pointing towards Aiden.

Aiden didn't respond. He just kept staring at the blood on my stomach. When he did speak, his tone was icy. "You will pay for this." He raised his eyes from mine to Michael's. I had never seen Aiden so angry, but at the same time so calm. He did not take his eyes off Michael.

Suddenly, the psycho dropped the knife and lifted his hands to cradle his head as he screamed in agony. "Stop. Please, stop!" He fell to the floor.

Aiden stood perfectly still, not taking his eyes off Michael. Aiden looked like he was in some sort of trance. He was so completely focused on Michael, as if in that moment, nothing else in the world existed but the psycho convulsing on the floor.

My eyes went from Aiden to Michael. I watched as he twisted in agony for what seemed like five minutes, but I knew it was probably only seconds. Then there was silence. Michael was no longer moving. His body lay limp on the floor, no longer a danger to anyone. I didn't have to ask. I knew he was dead.

Aiden's stance changed back to the one I knew and loved. The anger in his eyes was gone. They were once again filled with love and concern.

He removed the straps that bound my hands and feet to the bed and shoved them in his pocket. The fear slowly drained out of me as he lifted me into his arms and held me tightly.

I didn't know what happened to Michael, and I really didn't care. I was safe and in Aiden's arms, and that was all that mattered.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered in my ear.

"What for?" I pulled back so I could see his face. "You saved me."

"I should never have let this happen. I was supposed to protect you."

"And you did."

"Not soon enough." He sat me down on the table, my legs dangling over the side so he could inspect the cut just below my belly button. It didn't look as long and deep as it had when Michael was cutting into me. Aiden had been right about being able to heal quicker than most humans.

"It looks pretty superficial now. I think I got here before he did any serious damage." He wiped the blood from my stomach with his thumb and wiped it off on his shorts.

"How did you get here?" The last I knew, he couldn't transport. But then again, until the previous night, I couldn't either.

"I have no idea. One minute I was at home, living this nightmare through your thoughts, and the next I was here."

"So your transport abilities are coming now, too."

He thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't know. It was more like I was being summoned by you." He shook his head again. "Nah, that doesn't make any sense. Nobody can bring someone to them. That's just silly. It must be something like what you did. I must be able to transport myself to someone without knowing their location, too."

I thought about what he had said. I had called out to him. Maybe I did bring him to me. But he was right, that didn't make any sense. The probability of him getting his transportation ability just in the nick of time was much higher than me being able to bring whoever I wanted to me, like I was somehow able to control the world—yeah right!

"God, you're facetious," Aiden said, stopping me from trying to work out the impossible. "We may as well get this over with as soon as possible. I think you and Chelsea have both gone through enough. Where are your clothes?" His eyes were scanning the room.

He stopped searching. "Found them." He bent down and retrieved his own T-shirt, which I had fallen asleep in the previous night.

My attempt to cover up was in vain. "The bastard cut the bloody thing off me," I said in disbelief, holding out the tattered shirt.

I looked over to Aiden, wondering what I was going to do. I really didn't want to walk out of there half-naked. And of course he was no help; he was shirtless, too.

Aiden nodded towards Michael's lifeless body.

"Hell no. I would rather be naked than wear anything of his." Suddenly, I was okay with my bra and knickers. The alternative was too repulsive.

Aiden walked over to Michael's body, bent down, and picked him up, slinging him over his shoulder with ease.

"What did you do to him?" I asked, hopping off the table.

"The doctors will probably put it down to a brain aneurism." He headed towards the door.

"That's not what I asked."

He let out a sigh before turning around to face me. "Can't we do this later?" He noted that he was carrying an eighty-five kilo man over his shoulder.

I knew that Michael's weight wasn't the issue, which only made me that much more curious to know what he was hiding from me.

"I'm not hiding anything from you. It's just that... I'm still trying to figure it out myself." He walked over to me and grabbed my hand. "I've never done anything like that before."

"Oh, God. Sorry. I didn't think." I looked at him in a whole different light. He had just killed a man. Even if he did it to protect me, the fact remained that he still killed someone. And I didn't think it was something that he could ever be okay with.

Aiden dropped his shoulder, allowing Michael's body to flop to the ground. He wrapped his arms around my waist and looked into my eyes with such pain in his. "Having to deal with ending someone's life is nothing to compared to losing you. The pain I felt when I saw him...." He cringed. He was obviously thinking about when he saw Michael slicing into me as if I was no more than a piece of meat. "I would kill a thousand men if it meant saving you."

I leant into Aiden, resting my head against his chest. I always knew he would do anything to protect me, but hearing him say those words somehow changed things. In that moment, I knew he would always be there for me. No matter what, I could always count on him. But I'd be dammed if I was going to make a habit of him having to go to such lengths again.

"Come on." He leant down and kissed my forehead. "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get home."

We made our way back to the cage, where Chelsea was still being held captive. She was in shock at seeing Michael's limp body slung over Aiden's shoulder.

"Aiden?" Chelsea was obviously trying to work out what he was doing there, but then quickly turned her attention back to Michael's body. "Is he...." She couldn't finish her sentence.

"Yes, Chels, he's dead," Aiden assured her.

"But how?" She didn't understand, and quite frankly, neither did I.

Aiden didn't respond to her question. He inserted the key he had grabbed off the hook on the outside door and opened Chelsea's cage door, dumping Michael's body inside.

Chelsea leant back as far as she could in her chair, like every millimetre she was able to distance herself from the body was necessary. She looked confused as to why Aiden was dumping his body next to her and why he was wiping everything with his tattered shirt.

Still ignoring Chelsea's question, Aiden turned to me. "I'm going to need you to stay here. You need to pretend Michael took you two, and he just dropped dead in the cage. The autopsy should confirm your story."

"Why can't I come with you?" Before he could respond, it dawned on me. "My fingerprints."

"They will already be everywhere, and this is the only way to explain them all." He snapped those damn zip ties all too easily.

Chelsea made no attempt to get up. I guess she was still confused as hell about why Aiden was there and what we were talking about. "What's going on?" she asked, rubbing her wrists. "And why are you in your underwear?" She directed her last question at me.

"Don't worry, she'll go along with your story," Aiden said, referring to Chelsea.

"What story?" Chelsea asked. She was getting frustrated that her questions weren't being answered.

"I don't want you to leave," I said softly, tugging on his shorts.

"Come here." He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me. "I will be just outside waiting for you. Call the police in a couple of minutes. That will give me more than enough time to find my way out." He leant in for another kiss and turned his head to Chelsea, still holding me in his arms. Neither said anything. I knew that he was making her confirm my story.

He turned back to face me. "I'll see you soon, okay?"

I nodded.

"I love you," he whispered into my ear, then kissed my forehead.

"Love you, too," I whispered. Aiden handed me the keys, headed out of the cage, and closed the door behind him.

The moment he was gone, the room no longer felt safe. Even though I knew that we were no longer in danger, it didn't feel the same as when Aiden was in there with us.

A moment later, Chelsea let out a short, sharp scream. "He's dead," she whimpered.

I quickly rushed over to Michael's body and pretended to get the keys out of his pocket. "Let's get out of here." I jingled the keys in my hand.

As soon as we were out of the cage, we went in search of a phone. Before long, we heard the wailing of the police sirens, which were getting louder as the police cars approached.

The two of us stood on the footpath outside the creep's house, waiting for the police to arrive. It was easy to understand how he'd been able to keep Chelsea in his basement for three days without anyone knowing. There wasn't a chance in hell anyone would have heard her scream. He lived in one of those cliff face houses in the Gold Coast hinterland, his nearest neighbour half a mile away.

When the police arrived, Chelsea backed up my story of how Michael had suddenly dropped dead inside the cage—there was no mention of Aiden ever being there. It still surprised me how he could erase all of Chelsea's memories of him being there. I wasn't sure why, considering all the other incredible things I'd witnessed him do.

The ambulance arrived shortly after the police. The EMTs checked us over to make sure there were no immediate injuries they needed to take care of, but we were in pretty good shape considering everything that had happened. I didn't need to worry about explaining the slice across my tummy, as it had healed to no more than a tiny scratch. Besides, both the police and EMTs were more concerned as to why I was only wearing my bra and undies. It took some convincing on my behalf that I had not been sexually abused, but they believed me in the end.

Before they would let us go, they insisted we had to go to the hospital for a thorough check-up. Apparently, that was non-negotiable.

"I'll meet you at the hospital," Aiden promised.

I hopped into the ambulance, looking around for Aiden, but I could not see him. At least I had Chelsea by my side, and I could tell she was glad to have me with her, too.

For the entire trip to the hospital, I thought about how lucky I had been that Aiden came to me when I needed him the most and what would have happened if he didn't.

Thank God Aiden developed his ability to transport the same way I could. I just wished it didn't have to go that far before he was able to come to my rescue. Even more so, I wished that I knew how to control my own abilities so I wouldn't have needed rescuing. I wondered what else I might be able to do when my abilities got stronger. Would I be able to read people's minds like Aiden? And what had he done to Michael? I shuddered at the thought of the power Aiden had over people.

The ambulance officer thought I was still cold from shock and pulled out another blanket to wrap around me.

"Thank you." I gave a slight smile to the officer. It was easier to pretend I was cold than to explain the real reason behind my shudder.

## Chapter 19

Chelsea and I arrived at the hospital. It was the second hospital visit in a matter of days for me, and I was hoping this wouldn't become a habit. We were immediately surrounded by doctors and nurses who asked us questions about what Michael had done to us and if we had any injuries. I answered politely, not giving them any more information than what they needed. I also skipped the part about how he cut me just below my belly button. They took some blood just to be sure he hadn't given us anything harmful while we were unconscious.

The doctors and nurses were talking about their plans for us when I felt a calming sensation wash over my body—the feeling was getting stronger by the second.

I looked over at the door, and a few seconds later, Aiden's smiling face appeared.

"Hey, beautiful." Aiden leant over and kissed my forehead. "What happened? He didn't do anything to you, did he?" Aiden was playing up for the doctors, pretending he hadn't seen me already, but he was laughing silently.

I glared at him and said, "I'm fine," through gritted teeth. I really didn't want to recite my story so that he could look like the concerned, ignorant boyfriend they would expect to see for someone in my situation.

I looked up at the doctors, who were all huddled in a bunch just inside of the doorway. "Can I go home now?" I asked no one in particular.

The doctor with thinning grey hair turned to face us. "We would like you to stay overnight for observation."

I looked over at Aiden. "I don't want to stay. I want to go home with you."

"As if I'm going to leave you here. I'm not going to let you out of my sight for the rest of your life, which you know is a very, very long time." He laughed silently.

The doctor suddenly had a change of heart. "Actually..." He flipped through my chart. "Everything looks good. You can go home as soon as I complete your discharge papers, which I will get to once I have finished assessing..." He paused as if he was having second thoughts. "Oh, I suppose the other doctors can do that. I'm sure you want to get home as soon as possible. I'll go get your discharge papers now." It was amazing to see how people had absolutely no idea they were being manipulated.

"Thank you," I said to the doctor, but my gratitude was meant for Aiden.

"See, I told you one day you'd wonder how you ever got along without our abilities," he said, laughing silently. His lips curled slightly, but he quickly composed his expression because we still had company in the room.

"Get your things together. I will be back in a couple of minutes with the paperwork," the doctor said before leaving the room.

There wasn't much for me to get ready because I hadn't been at the hospital long enough to accumulate the usual stack of get-well gifts and flowers.

I got out of bed, grabbed the overnight bag Aiden had brought with him—just some clothes for me to put on over my bra and undies—and headed to the bathroom to get changed out of my hospital gown.

Standing in front of the mirror, I assessed myself. I looked awful. My dark brown hair was in serious need of a wash, and the hospital gown really didn't do me any favours.

I quickly got out of the gown and put on a pair of shorts and a singlet. I searched through my toiletry bag, hoping Aiden had included a hairband to get the awful mess of hair off my face, although I wasn't sure a guy would think that deeply into what a girl might need. Thankfully, I was wrong. A hairband was tied around the handle of a brush. Not bothering to brush my hair, I stuck my hair up in a ponytail, picked up my bag, and opened the door to my room.

The doctor was holding my discharge papers.

"That was quick," I said.

"Just sign here, and you can be on your way." He held a pen out for me to take.

I grabbed it off him and signed the forms.

"Do you have any other questions before you go?" the doctor asked.

I shook my head. "Nope."

"Right then." He turned to Aiden. "Be sure she goes home and gets plenty of rest." He turned around and headed for the door.

Aiden picked up my overnight bag off the bed and slung it over his shoulder, and the two of us followed the doctor out the door.

We were almost to the elevators when I thought about Chelsea. I hadn't seen her since I was admitted.

I stopped abruptly in the middle of the corridor. "I want to see Chelsea before we leave. I want to make sure she is okay."

Aiden put his arm around my shoulders. "No worries." He leant over and kissed the top of my head.

Chelsea was in another room down the other end of the ward. The doctors had wanted to put the two of us in the same room because of the trauma we had endured together, but I had insisted that I wanted to stay in a private room. The less I had to lie to Chelsea about what happened out there, the better.

We stopped outside her closed door. Through the window, I could see her mother in the room, her back to us, holding onto her sleeping daughter's hand.

"Can you..." I asked Aiden silently, not wanting to intrude on her private moment.

Aiden smiled and said, "Great minds think alike."

I stood in silence and watched Aiden remove all the fear and anxiety Chelsea would have had after the last few days. "She'll be fine," he assured me.

## Chapter 20

When we arrived back at my house, it was late afternoon. I wondered where the day had gone. It had been barely lunchtime when the police arrived, and now the sun was starting to set.

Aiden leaned against his car as I made my way up the pathway to my house. Ben had called to see if we had heard about Chelsea being rescued. What Ben didn't know, and what Aiden was filling him in on, was that I had been there, too.

I picked up my pace, trying to distance myself as much as possible from Aiden so I wouldn't have to hear him explaining to Ben what had supposedly happened. I had already explained it too many times, and all I really wanted to do was get inside, flop on the couch, and try to forget about one of the longest, most terrifying days of my entire life.

Grabbing my house keys out of my pocket, I turned around to see if Aiden was still on the phone. He held up his finger and thought, "I'll be just a sec."

Reaching for the door handle, I realised it was already unlocked. Mum must be home. I pushed the door further ajar and threw my keys onto the hallway stand.

"Mum?" I made my way into the living room, but there was no answer. That was when I saw the blood. My heart stopped, and I was gasping for air, but for all my efforts, I couldn't seem to fill my lungs with anything that remotely felt like oxygen.

Her light brown hair had turned a crimson red, and she was staring directly at me—her eyes were lifeless.

My legs could no longer hold my weight, and I buckled, falling to the floor and screaming as my heart was wrenched out of my chest.

Aiden was by my side in a split second. He pulled me into his arms for what I thought would be a comforting embrace, but I was wrong.

His voice ran through my head, but the words had no meaning. They were drowned out by the gut-wrenching numbness that consumed my mind. My vision had blurred as the world swirled around me.

Next thing I knew, I was no longer doubled over on my living room floor. I was standing in the Gold Coast International Airport.

An announcement came over the loud speaker. It was calling for passengers to commence boarding flight V165 to Singapore from Gate 21.

"What are we doing here? Mum needs help. We have to call an ambulance!" I sobbed softly. I knew deep down that calling an ambulance wouldn't do any good. They couldn't help her. They weren't in the business of bringing people back from the dead. But I felt like I needed to be doing something, anything, other than stand in an airport. Why wasn't I with my mother?

Aiden was speaking, but his words were still muted by the numbness that consumed me.

The next thing I knew, the numbness was almost gone. I still remembered that I had just walked in on the scene of my own mother's murder, but the gut-wrenching pain that soared through my entire body was no more than a dull ache. It was as if it had been months or even years since her passing, not just the few minutes since I had walked in and found her lying on the floor.

"What just happened? What did you do to me?" I asked, knowing exactly what he had done, but I wanted to hear his reasoning.

I realised that Aiden had been holding me up, and I quickly broke away from his embrace.

He grabbed my hands, pulling me back to him, trying to avoid a scene. "I know I promised I would never, but I had to. You were a mess."

He must have seen the anger building up in my face. Of course I was a mess. Who wouldn't be a mess in my situation?

"And of course you have every right to be a mess with what you..." He didn't finish the sentence. "Jade, whoever did that to your mother... They were still there, waiting for you."

"What?" I didn't get it. He had killed someone with nothing more than his mind, yet he ran from my house.

"I could feel their presence, but their thoughts were blocked, which means they were like us." He paused, letting the full effect of what he had just said sink into me. The person who killed my mother was untouchable. She hadn't stood a chance. Why did they stick around, waiting for me?

" _I don't know. But I had to get you out of there, and I needed you to be thinking clearly. All I did was dull your emotions enough so that we could get out of there safely."_

There was real angst in his eyes. He had broken his promise that he would never use his mind control thing on me. Yet, I could completely understand why he did what he had. If the situation was reversed, and he was as traumatised as I had been, I would have done the same thing to him—even if there was no immediate danger. I couldn't bear to see someone I loved go through what I had just experienced. And really, with his latest revelation, there were bigger things for me to worry about than Aiden dulling my emotions.

"It's okay," I assured him. Although he already knew that I was okay with what he had done, I wasn't planning on giving up on talking just because he already knew what I was going to say.

"Are you ready?" He was holding his arms out, waiting for me to embrace him.

Another announcement came over the loudspeaker. It was the last call for passengers flying to Singapore on Flight V165 to board through Gate 21.

Aiden's words replayed in my mind. "We're going to Singapore?" It finally made sense why we were standing in the Gold Coast International Airport.

"We have to get out of here. It's not safe right now. There is no time to explain. Please, just trust me."

Of course I was going to trust him. After what I had witnessed, I would be crazy not to. "But how? We don't have tickets or passports."

"Just trust me."

I moved forward into Aiden's embrace. The moment we connected, my vision went blurry again. When I was finally able to make out what I was seeing, we were no longer standing at the entrance to the airport; we were standing at the entrance to the plane.

A stewardess standing near the plane's door and giving directions to the passengers almost passed out when she saw us suddenly appear before her eyes. As her eyes started to roll to the back of her head, she suddenly stopped and went into a trance.

"Go and find a couple of seats for us. First class preferably. I just need a couple of seconds with her," he said to me, cocking his head towards the zoned-out stewardess. "I'll be with you in a few seconds."

I took my seat on the plane and waited for Aiden to join me. A few seconds passed, and he wasn't to be seen. I knew he was all right. After all, he could convince people to do anything he wanted, but I wondered what could be taking him so long. My mind was instantly put at ease when I saw his smiling face appear around the corner of the plane's entry door.

"Hey, beautiful," he said, sitting down beside me.

I smiled in return.

"Sorry. One of the pilots popped his head out of the cockpit, so I had to make sure he didn't remember us being on board, either," he explained.

Aiden picked up my hand and laced his fingers with mine. "We will be okay. You'll see." He was trying to ease my mind.

All I could think about was what our future held. Where would we live? Who would want to kill my mother? Was her murderer really after me? And would we be running from this person forever?

"I don't know," he replied to my thoughts. "We'll speak with Anna, Dave, and a few of the others once we're safe, and we'll figure this out."

The vision of my mum's lifeless body flashed before my eyes. Tears started welling as I realised that she would still be alive if it wasn't for me.

"I can make this feeling go away. If you want, that is," Aiden said.

"It's okay. I mean, I'm still sad and all, but what you did to me before was amazing. I still feel the pain, but it's nowhere near as intense. I can handle this. I want to feel something. I need to feel something."

We were all instructed to fasten our safety belts as the plane headed towards the runway.

My heart felt heavy as realisation set in. These were the last few moments of my life as I had known it for so many years. All of my friends... Chelsea—how I would miss her. I didn't even get to say good-bye. I hoped that one day she would forgive me.

Aiden took hold of my hand and kissed it gently. "Are you ready?"

The plane hit the runway, speeding up to ascend into the clouds above.

"Yep," I whispered. Looking into his eyes, I knew that I would never be alone. Our lives were only just beginning. And whatever the future held, we would get through it together.
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