Vengeance (12 page)

When Aiden noticed my change in mood, he came up to me from behind, wrapped his arms around my waist, and hung his head beside my ear.
“Want to get out of here for a bit?”

“Yeah.”
I let out a strained laugh.
“But Nathan’s sure as hell made that impossible for me, hasn’t he?”

“We don’t have to leave this place. I just thought you might want to go somewhere else so we can talk about tonight.”

“Your turn,” Lucas said to me.

Aiden jumped in. “We’re going to sit this one out.”

“But we’re only halfway through the game,” Chelsea said.

Aiden shrugged. Taking me by the hand, he led me over to the black couch and sat down in the corner, pulling me down beside him. I swung my legs to the side and rested my back against his chest. Aiden put his arm over my shoulder, his hand landing on my chest and making me wish we had someplace we could go where there were no cameras.

“So did you find out anything about your mum?”
he asked, pretending to watch Chelsea and Lucas play.

“Not much. There were so many holes in her memory. It was like someone had gone in there and erased certain things.”

“That’s weird, but then I guess she always has been hiding one thing or another.”

“She didn’t have any idea why I disappeared, and I’m pretty sure she didn’t recognise Nathan. But I don’t think I’ll truly know where everyone stands until tonight.”

“Have you thought any more about how or when you’re going to tell everyone else about him?”

“How am I going to tell Lucas?”
I asked.
“I mean, how are you supposed to tell someone that their father is the sicko who’s been killing everyone?”

“I don’t know,”
Aiden said as he traced invisible circles over my arm.
“But I do think they need to know.”

I chewed on my bottom lip. I kept forgetting Lucas had a sister who, no matter how much I hated to acknowledge it, was my sister, too. And why should they listen to me? Why the hell would they believe someone they had just met instead of the father who had raised them?
“I think I’m going to need some proof before I tell them.”

“And how do you suppose we get that?”

“I was hoping you’d be able to tell me.”

We tried to think of ways we could get proof, but we both came up empty. We weren’t experts in dealing with people like Nathan, which meant we needed to find someone who could help us.

I told Aiden,
“I think we’re going to have to get everyone from the U.S. to help—if they’re not in with him, that is.”

“Let’s just hope they’re not.”

The thought of finding out where everyone stood made my stomach churn.
“I feel sick.”

Aiden kissed the top of my head.
“You’ll get through it. I know you will.”

“What choice do I have?”

“None.”

Chapter 13

“Come on, Jade,” Chelsea said, leaning against the door to the wardrobe. “Everyone’s already here.”

Facing Nathan and my mother together for the first time since I could hear their thoughts was going to be one of the biggest moments in my life. I wasn’t sure I was ready for it.

“Come on,” she whined.

“Okay, okay.” I grabbed the pair of jeans I’d been ohing and ahing over for the last ten minutes and put them on.

“Here.” Chelsea shoved a shirt at me.

I rolled my eyes but didn’t object to her choice.

As soon as I put on the shirt, she grabbed me by the wrist. “Let’s go.”

“A little eager, aren’t we?”

“I… we shouldn’t keep everyone waiting,” she said.

“Don’t you mean you don’t want to keep Lucas waiting?”

“No.” She turned away so I couldn’t see her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

“Chelsea Carmichael,” I teased, “I never thought I’d see the day when you’re not openly flaunting your lust over a guy.”

“I’m not lusting over him.”

I raised my eyebrows and smirked at her.

She laughed. “Okay, so maybe I do have a thing for him. But that doesn’t mean I want him knowing about it. And the only reason why I don’t want him to know is because there’s no way we could ever be together. I’d just be some poor little normal human girl lusting over a god that she didn’t stand a chance with.”

Ever since I’d found out Lucas was my brother, hearing Chelsea talk about him felt weird. “Let’s just go.”

I transported us to the hallway outside the dining room. I wanted a chance to suss things out while I walked up to the table. Chelsea opened the door, and I took a deep breath before stepping inside. The scene looked like any normal dinner party, yet I knew it was going to be anything but.

“Hi, girls,” Mum said.

“Hi, Mum,” I said at the same time Chelsea said, “Hey, Nikki.”

Aiden was already sitting at the table. Chelsea and I took the two seats to his left.

Aiden put his arm around my shoulders, leaned over, and kissed my forehead.
“You okay?”

“No,”
I replied.
“Anything happen yet?”

“Just your normal, boring, adult dinner conversation.”

“Can’t you two save all your love confessions until some other time?” Georgia said. She was pissed at seeing us so openly in love. I almost laughed out loud—if only she knew.

“Can’t you stop being a bitch just for one night?” Lucas asked.

Georgia turned her scowl in her brother’s direction. “Bitch, eh?” She looked at Gemma. “See? This is what you get when you hang around a normal too much.”

“What the hell is your problem?” Chelsea spat.

“
You’re
my problem,” Georgia replied.

Kai laughed. “If only I could put this shit on YouTube.”

Georgia looked at me, waiting for me to jump to my best friend’s defence. As usual, I kept quiet because I was able to see the truth behind her words. Georgia didn’t really feel that way toward Chelsea. She was just bitter about Aiden’s and my relationship. She was still hung up on him, and Chelsea and Lucas were the ones bearing her wrath.

“Well,” Lucas said, “if this is the type of reaction I’m going to get from you after spending a few hours with Chels, then I think I need to spend more time with her.”

“Lucas, please stop antagonising your sister,” Anna said.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Georgia added. “You couldn’t get your best mate’s girl, so you’ve moved on to the next best thing.”

Ew. I had to force myself not to let my face show how grossed out I was with the thought of it.

Lucas huffed. “Grow up, will you? You know damn well I never felt that way about Jade.”

My attention was pulled away from the bickering when I heard Nathan’s thoughts. But I didn’t dare avert my eyes from Georgia and Lucas. Nathan was happy for the distraction the fighting provided so he could watch me closer without being noticed. The silent talking between Aiden and me had raised his suspicions. Nathan had decided he needed to step things up. And that only meant one thing. My breath was sucked from my lungs as I heard what he planned to do.

Chelsea was going to be murdered that night.

Nathan picked up on my reaction but wasn’t sure if it had something to do with the fight going on or if it was something else.

Quickly turning my attention back to Georgia, I said, “There’s no need to be such a bitch toward Chelsea just because you’re still hung up on Aiden. You know you’re never going to get him, so you’re just taking your frustration out on these two.” Oh, God. I never meant to air her dirty laundry, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say to squash Nathan’s suspicions about my lack of reaction.

All eyes fell on me, and more amazingly, everyone fell silent, except for Kai, who was practically pissing himself laughing at Georgia’s stunned expression. But most importantly, Nathan was no longer worried that something else was wrong with me.

“Where the heck did that come from?” Lucas asked, surprised to see a snarky side of me.

Aiden and Chelsea were glad I had finally stood up for myself. The rest of them weren’t so happy.

Gemma laughed. “So she’s got balls after all.”

“Gemma, please,” Mum said.

“You don’t say anything to Jade after what she just said, yet you come down on me?” Gemma said, getting all pissed. “Yeah, great parenting.”

Kai grinned. “We have so got to do more of these lunches.”

Anna shook her head. “You’re as bad as they are.”

“Come on. Where’s your sense of humour?” Kai asked.

Anna rolled her eyes. “Okay, can all you kids just please try and get along tonight? And if you can’t, can you just not talk to each other, so we can all pretend to have a good time?”

None of us said anything. Georgia wouldn’t start anything anymore. What I said had embarrassed the hell out of her, and she wasn’t about to come back for round two anytime soon.

Mum wondered why Nathan didn’t stop his children’s argument. But then she figured that she didn’t stop me either, so who was she to judge? Besides, she didn’t know if the fighting was a normal thing that he had to put up with and had given up trying to stop. She didn’t know him at all and that was way too weird.

“How come none of you have ever met before?” I asked. “I mean, in the whole time since you’ve all known what you are, how is it that nobody knows each other?” I turned to Mum. “And how is it that neither Anna nor Dave knew you were like them?”

“Ah…” Mum stumbled, trying to figure out what to say.

Anna picked up the serving tongs, grabbed some Moreton Bay Bugs, and put them on her plate. “I guess your mum worked out a way of hiding it, and we didn’t look into it too much because we had no reason to suspect anything.” Anna picked up another bug and offered it to me. She hoped we kids would start eating and stop bickering.

I held out my plate. “Thanks.” But I wasn’t going to let a little thing like eating stop me, even if it meant making Anna feel uncomfortable.

She dropped the bug on my plate and went back for two more for me. “Who else wants some?” Anna asked, holding another bug in the tongs.

“I do. Thanks, Mum,” Aiden said, and Anna filled his plate as well.

Taking note of what Anna was trying to do, Mum served herself and Gemma. The table grew quiet as everyone began eating.

I ripped out the bug meat and realised I didn’t have any seafood sauce. I reached for the bowl, but I couldn’t quite reach it. Nathan leaned forward, picked it up, and passed it my way.

“Thanks,” I said.

His hand brushed mine as I took the dish, and I gasped as I was thrown into another vision, but not just one. The vision was a multitude of terrifying pictures. Images flashed through my mind, never once settling on a particular scene but jumping from one to the other then back again. The common denominator was blood. My mind was a blood bath, but I couldn’t see who the victim was. As soon as I had that thought, the vision focused on one particular scene. Nathan was planning to do to Chelsea what he had done to Chrissy but on a much bigger scale. With Chrissy, he had stopped with her neck, but Chelsea wouldn’t be so lucky. I screamed when I saw her mutilated body with a carved inscription in her flesh:

SAY GOODBYE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW AND LOVE.

The message was followed by sixteen vertical lines, with a line through three of them. Nathan was going through a list of people he knew I cared about in one way or another, eliminating them one at a time.

The next thing I knew, I was ripped out of the vision. Everyone was staring at me. I had screamed out loud, and they all knew I’d had a vision. They also knew my visions came when I touched something or someone that could induce it. The only things I had touched were the bowl of sauce, the spoon, and possibly Nathan’s hand.

Time was up. Everyone was drawing their own conclusions as to what had caused my vision, and Nathan knew it. That was the end of trying to figure out Nathan without him knowing. I shoved my way into his mind.

His eyes lit up with the realisation that I was in there and that I knew who he was. And more importantly, I could no longer be controlled. He shoved me out of his mind.

Anger flared in his eyes, but nobody else noticed. He was controlling what they saw. They all just focused on me.

“You fucking bastard,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Watch your language,” Mum said.

I blocked her words from my mind. She didn’t suspect Nathan at all, and that was all I needed to know.

Without any warning, Nathan snatched up a knife. A whip of emotion flared up beside me, and I watched through Aiden’s eyes as Nathan lunged at me.

I snapped back into my own mind, but Nathan was already gone. Aiden was hunched over me with the knife protruding from his chest. He had sacrificed himself in the second he realised he loved me as he watched the knife go toward me.

“No!” I tried to turn Aiden over, but his body fell to the floor. My scream was echoed all around the room when everyone realised what had just happened. I knelt beside him and reached inside his mind, praying for some sort of activity.

Nothing.

I didn’t understand how that was possible. We weren’t meant to die.

Blood covered my hands, and tears streamed down my face as I tried to remove the knife. I knew you weren’t supposed to do that, but Aiden wasn’t normal.

Hands grabbed at me, trying to pull me away from his body. But I wouldn’t let them.

“Jade,”
both Anna and Mum said silently.

I ignored them and threw myself back into Aiden’s mind. There was life.

“He’s alive,” I wailed, choking on my unshed tears.

I lifted his head onto my lap and tried to wipe the blood from his face. I only manage to smear it, making him look even worse.

“Jade,” Mum said, “we need you to let Harry take a look at him.”

“
Harry’s not a doctor!” I shouted.

“No, he’s not,” Mum said. “But he knows more about Aiden’s injuries than you do.”

“He can look, but I’m not going anywhere.” Aiden was practically dead because of me, and there was no way I was leaving him alone in case Nathan came back to finish him off.