Vengeance (16 page)

I laughed nervously, thinking that was code for my becoming a pincushion. “One day,” I said, hoping that day would be a long way away.

“So how are we going to get the blood into Marie?” Aiden asked Harry.

“I’ll have to come to the hospital with you and inject it into her.”

“She’s getting her bandages changed right now, so it might not be a good idea to go there just yet.”

“Can’t you just give it to us, and we can make one of the nurses inject it into her IV drip?” I asked.

“Well, then can’t I just come with you two and make the nurses forget I was ever there?” Harry didn’t really care who injected the blood into Marie. He wanted to watch her reaction to my blood.

I shook my head. “You really love this stuff, don’t you?”

A sheepish smile spread across Harry’s face. “I can’t help it.”

“Fine,” I said. “You can watch.”

“Thank you,” he said with relief.

I laughed. “No, I should be thanking you.”

“Being able to see how she heals with my own eyes is payment enough.”

“You really are weird,” I said.

“Hey, don’t complain, Jade.” Aiden said. “At least now we won’t have to look at her burns to see if it’s working.”

I shuddered, thinking about the last time I’d seen her wounds.

Harry rubbed his hands together, trying to contain his excitement. “Let’s do this then.”

“You ready?” I asked, noting he hadn’t picked up the blood.

“Woops. Almost forgot.” He picked up the syringe.

“Are you sure that will be enough?” Aiden asked, looking at the tiny amount of blood he had taken from me.

Harry shrugged. “I think so, but we can always draw more if it isn’t.”

“I’m sure it’s enough,” I said a little too quickly, making Harry laugh.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Ready,” Harry said.

I transported us back to Marie’s room. The nurses appeared to be almost finished, and thankfully, her burns were already covered.

“Oh, my God,” one of the nurses said, holding her hand over her heart when she saw us appear out of thin air. I quickly jumped inside her mind and removed the memory of what she had just seen.

Once I finished, I looked at the other two nurses. They were standing still, as if they were in some sort of trance. The next second, the first nurse got the same expression on her face.

“What are you doing here?” Chelsea asked Harry.

“I’m here to help.” He walked over to the side of the bed where the IV drip was.

“What’s he talking about?” Lucas asked.

“He’s about to give her some of my blood,” I said.

“Why?” Chelsea asked, then the penny dropped. “Like your grandma.”

I nodded. “If my blood could make Grandma heal, then why shouldn’t it do the same for your mum?”

“Oh, my God.” Chelsea jumped up and threw her arms around me. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”

I laughed. “You’re strangling me.”

She released her grip around my neck. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” I smiled. “It’s not as if you could really choke me anyway.”

“True.” Chelsea went back to her mother’s bedside.

Harry turned to Chelsea, “I really thought we’d have to convince you that it was the right thing to let us try this on your mother.”

Chelsea screwed up her face. “Why?”

I put my hand on Chelsea’s shoulder. “Chels is completely on board with anything and everything we can do. Hell, she’d jump at the chance to become one of us.”

“Of course I bloody would,” Chelsea said. She wondered who the hell
wouldn’t
want what we had.

And sadly, the answer was me. If I had just been a normal human, Ben and Chrissy would still be alive. Marie wouldn’t be in hospital, and Aiden would never have been stabbed.

Lucas stood up and joined us beside Marie’s bed. “Let’s hope this works.”

Harry put the syringe in the tube and injected my blood. We all watched the clear tube turn red as my blood made its way into Marie’s arm.

“Let’s see if this is working.” Harry peeled away the bandages covering her face.

“I can’t watch this,” I said, turning around.

Aiden put his arm around me and I buried my face against his chest. I didn’t need to see it. I would know everything that was happening to her through the thoughts of the others.

Her wounds weren’t healing straight away as Harry had hoped. Chelsea thought it was because my blood wasn’t working on her mum like we’d thought it would.

“Give it time,” Harry said to Chelsea, not taking his eyes off Marie.

Chelsea sucked in a sharp breath as she watched what she thought and hoped were her mother’s burn wounds healing. “Did you see that?” was what she wanted to ask, but her throat felt as if it had closed up on her.

“It’s working,” Harry said, desperately trying to contain his excitement so as not to attract any attention from nearby staff.

I turned my head and watched Chelsea’s face light up with excitement.

Lucas put his hand on Chelsea’s shoulder. “It’s working. Your mum’s going to be okay.”

“Don’t get too exited just yet,” Harry said with his eyes still trained on Marie’s slow-healing skin. “We don’t know if her burns will completely heal just yet.”

The four of them stood there for the next fifteen minutes, watching Marie heal while I kept my head buried in Aiden’s chest.

When I knew there were no more open wounds, I turned around and saw what my blood had done. Although Marie’s skin had grown over, it still looked very thin, almost transparent. “Is her skin going to stay that way?”

Harry bent over Marie. “It might take a little while for it to thicken, but we won’t know until it does or doesn’t happen.”

“It doesn’t matter either way,” Chelsea said, then realised how awful that sounded. “I mean, even if her skin stays this way, it’s better than what it would’ve been if you hadn’t have given her your blood.”

“It’s okay, Chels,” I said, putting my hand on her arm. “I know what you meant.”

The next time I looked at Marie, I was sure her skin was the slightest bit thicker. “I think her skin’s improving.”

“I think you’re right,” Harry said, his face only inches from Marie’s head. “We’re going to have to move her.” Harry straightened. “She can’t stay here anymore.”

“Where is she going to go?” Chelsea asked.

“I think she should stay with me, so I can keep an eye on her progress,” Harry said.

“I’ll speak to Kai about covering up the hospital records,” Lucas suggested.

“And I’ll make everyone forget,” I said.

“Do you know whose memories you’ll need to alter?” Aiden asked.

I had never altered memories on such a large scale. “Ah, no.”

Aiden’s lips curled up in a smile. “I think I might help you then.”

I scrunched up my nose. “That might be a good idea.”

Harry turned to Lucas. “Can you go find Kai now and ask him to do his thing right away?”

“Sure thing,” Lucas said. He was about to phase back to England when he realised no one was there anymore. “Where are they?”

“They’re in Greece,” Aiden said. “I’ll need to take you to them, then I’ll come back.”

Lucas nodded.

Aiden leaned down and kissed my cheek. “Be back soon.”

Both Aiden and Lucas disappeared, then a moment later, Aiden reappeared. “Let’s get started.” He slipped his arm around my waist. “Is it all right if Chelsea goes with you?” Aiden asked Harry.

“Can I?” Chelsea asked Harry. She didn’t want to leave her mother’s side.

“Sure thing.”

“What do we do with them?” I asked, referring to the nurses.

“Leave them until last. Nobody will notice they’re missing because they’re supposed to be in here for another ten minutes or so,” Harry explained.

“Good thinking,” I said. “We’ll come over when we’ve finished.”

“Okay,” Harry said.

“See you soon.” Chelsea thought,
Thank you
over and over for helping her mother.

Aiden and I left Harry and Chelsea with Marie and made our way down the hall to the nurse’s station. Nurses were rushing around everywhere, making it that much harder to find specific ones. I concentrated on pushing into each of their minds. Once I was in, I removed all memories of the burn victim in Room 6B. The task was easier than I thought it would be. Within seconds, I had altered everyone’s memories. The problem was that not every nurse who knew about Marie was there. Some were on later shifts.

“We’re going to have to come back.”

“I know,” Aiden agreed. “Let’s just find out when the others are scheduled to work.”

The woman sitting behind the screen stopped what she was doing, her face taking on the ‘Aiden’s screwing with my mind’ expression. I couldn’t hear Aiden’s thoughts, but I could when he was inside the nurse’s head. He was making her bring up the roster. We took note of who was rostered on that day and who was missing, noting when their next shift would start. The nurse’s expression went back to normal once Aiden was no longer in her mind.

Aiden draped his arm over my shoulders. “Let’s get out of here.”

I wrapped my arm around his waist. “Back to Harry’s?”

“Or maybe to Kai.”

“Right.” We needed to make sure Kai was on top of making Marie disappear from the hospital records. And we also had to go back for Lucas, since he didn’t know where Harry’s house was and couldn’t get there without us.

Closing my eyes, I transported us to Lucas. When I opened them, we were standing on a balcony overlooking the crystal-blue waters of the Greek islands. “Oh, my God. This place is amazing.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Lucas said. He was sitting on top of the thick stone balustrade with his back resting against the white wall of the house.

I turned to Aiden. “We are so coming back here again once all this stuff is over.”

Aiden laughed. “Whatever you say.”

Lucas made a whip-cracking noise, making Kai laugh.

“How’s it going?” I asked, walking over to Kai, who sat at a patio table with his laptop.

“Almost done.”

“Awesome.”

Kai wasn’t thinking anything about what we had done to Marie, and I was thankful that Lucas had been smart enough to not tell him. “We’ve got to go see my mum for a bit. Will you be okay if we go now?” I asked Kai.

“Pft.” He raised his eyebrows. “I think I can manage without you guys.”

“Are you sure?” Aiden asked.

“Anyway,” I said quickly before Kai got a chance to respond to Aiden’s snark. “Can you tell Anna and Dave we’ll be back later to speak with them?”

“Where are they anyway?” Aiden asked.

“Sleeping,” Kai replied. “It’s after midnight UK time, and you know how tired seniors get.”

“Then shouldn’t you be in bed, too?” Lucas asked.

Kai glared at Lucas. “You are so lucky I’ve got more important things to do.”

“On that note, we’ll see you later,” I said.

“Later,” he replied, going back to the computer screen.

I took one last look at the amazing view and transported us to Harry’s room. Marie was lying on the bed with an IV drip still in her arm.

“Wow,” I said. “Her skin is still improving.”

Chelsea looked up at me from her mother’s bedside. “I know, right?”

Harry stood from his chair in the corner of his room. “She just might make a full recovery.”

“That’s awesome,” I said.

“Do you two mind coming with me?” Harry asked Aiden and me. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.” He turned to Chelsea. “And no, it’s not about you or your mum.”

She held up her hands. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“Right,” he said sarcastically.

“Where do you want to talk?” Aiden asked.

“Let’s go back to the room.”

We transported back to the windowless, doorless room.

Aiden hopped onto the bench. “What did you want to talk to us about?”

Harry sat in his swivel chair and rolled out into the aisle so he could be closer to us. “I wanted to tell you that I got your blood results.”

I walked over to Aiden and put my hand on his knee, already knowing what Harry was going to say.

“I’ve been drugged, haven’t I?” Aiden asked.

Harry narrowed his eyes at Aiden. “Don’t tell me you can hear my thoughts, too?”

Aiden shook his head. “No, but Jade can, and she looks a little stressed.”

“Right,” Harry said, realising just how in tune Aiden was with me.

“It was the same thing that was in my system, isn’t it?” I asked.

Harry nodded. “At least I already have the antidote for it.” He got up, went over to the cupboard, and retrieved a needle. He then picked up the antidote and walked over to us. Aiden stuck his arm out to the side. Even if I wasn’t the one getting jabbed, I couldn’t stand to look at it. I turned my head so I couldn’t see it and closed my eyes to be on the safe side.

“You really are a wimp, aren’t you?” Harry said with a laugh.

“Pathetic and proud,” I said, keeping my eyes shut.

“Ow!” Aiden jumped beside me.

I whipped my head around, and they started snickering.

“It’s already finished,” Aiden said, still laughing.

“That’s so not funny, especially after what happened tonight.”

Aiden’s smile dropped, and he put his hand over mine. “I’m sorry.”

Harry was about to say something when Aiden cut him a ‘don’t go there’ look, making Harry shut his mouth.

“Okay,” I said, trying to break the uncomfortable silence. “Do you know what Aiden will be like after your antidote kicks in?”

“You mean, will he be able to do what you can?” Harry asked.

I nodded.

“I’m not sure. I mean, he could’ve just been caught in the crossfire when Nathan was drugging you.”

“So my parents could’ve been drugged, too?” Aiden asked.

“It’s possible. I can test them if they’d like.”

“Thanks,” Aiden said, hopping off the bench. “I’ll let them know.”

“Well, I’ve got a few things I need to do here, so you two may as well go back to my house,” Harry said. He walked over to the bench and put down the tray with the needle on it.

“Sure thing,” Aiden said.

Aiden and I transported back to Chelsea and Lucas. Marie was still sleeping. Her skin looked even thicker than it had just a few minutes ago.