Villainess (16 page)

Natalie grabbed my arm and shook, my teeth rattling. “Tell me what you saw.” Her face twisted with rage and I shrank back from her.

“Two men. I just saw their faces and I don’t know what it means.”

“It’s the truth,” empath boy said. And it had been, at least just enough of it to register as such.

Natalie let me go and I slumped back into the hard wooden chair I’d been sitting in. She glanced over her shoulder, speaking to whoever was on the other side of the glass. “She’s too weak, even after the treatments. I don’t want to waste any more time with her. You know what to do.”

Tick…tick…tick…tick…

“No! Stop! Please!” I sobbed as the needle plunged into my neck.

“Now,” Natalie said to the empath boy, but I guess he was more than just that. “Erase her memories.”

“I don’t know if I can do it right. What if I erase everything?” His voice shook with nerves. “I’ve never taken so much before.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Tick…tick…tick…tick…

“Leila, you can wake up now.” Jonah’s voice pulled me back to the present; at least I think it was. Nothing was clear anymore.

I sat up slowly, swiping at my face and coming away with tears and sweat. Both Jonah and Matt were staring at me. “What? Do I look that bad?” I chuckled as I smoothed my hair down.

“Leila—” Jonah started but looked away from me sharply. He ran his hand over his freshly shaven head before meeting my gaze head on. “The things that we’re uncovering in your sessions—I don’t know what to think.”

I raised my eyebrows. “And what does that mean exactly?”

“You remember everything from this session? What you just shared with us?”

“Yes.”

“Well—”

“It’s some major conspiracy theory type shit,” Matt interrupted. “Experiments on kids. People with psychic abilities. I don’t know if I can believe any of it.” He swung his head around to eye Doctor Yoshihara speculatively. “Is it possible it’s like the alien thing? Maybe you just need to dig deeper?”

“That is a possibility. But only more sessions will reveal the answers. The truth is… I’ve heard stories of illegal experimentation happening even in this day and age. You’d be surprised.”

“But the psychic shit?” Matt still looked skeptical.

“We as humans only use a portion of our brains. What if, as we evolve, so does the percentage that we use? Who knows what abilities we’ll be able to unlock in time?” Jonah sighed heavily, his gaze flicking back to mine. “You feeling okay to talk about all of this, Leila? No more hypnosis until the next session. Your mind needs a break.”

Yes, I want to get you alone.
“I’ll be fine.”

“Matt, please leave us then. I don’t have to remind you, do I, that what you heard in here today is not to be repeated to anyone under any circumstances? You may not be under the doctor patient confidentiality clause but—”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Matt said. “I’m not sure anyone would believe me even if I wanted to.” He pulled himself up from his chair and lumbered towards the door. “I’ll be outside with Mike.”

As soon as the door shut I was on my feet and rushing towards Jonah. I wanted to feel his arms around me. I needed his comfort and reassurance in that moment. “Thank God he’s gone. I—”

“Stop!” He raised his hands up and I froze in the middle of the room from his harsh tone. “Cameras,” he murmured.

I scowled. “Right. I forgot.” I forced myself to merely perch on the edge of his desk like it was what I intended the entire time. “Will I be getting another evening…session tonight?”

“I don’t know. But for now we really do need to talk about what we just uncovered.”

I laughed. “It doesn’t feel real, does it?”

“I believe in the possibility that the mind can do things beyond what we can even begin to fathom, and just like I told Matt, if we begin to use more of our brains, then who knows what the limits, if any, will be.” Jonah shifted through some papers on his desk and scribbled some notes down before returning his dark eyes to mine. “Do you believe what you remembered? How does it feel to you? Or do you think Matt’s right? Is it more symbolism that your mind is hiding behind?”

I wasn’t sure what to say. I believed. I definitely believed because I still got visions, and they were much the same—weak and erratic. That wasn’t the hard to believe part. The part that I was having trouble wrapping my mind around was the two men’s faces I’d seen as a kid… Jonah and Theo. I just had to hope that I hadn’t killed the one meant for my salvation. But of course I couldn’t say any of that to Jonah. I was surprised he was even willing to consider extra-sensory-perception of any kind.
He has to be my salvation. He just has to be.
And as much as I wanted to talk to Jonah about my visions, I was reluctant. Did he really believe, or was he trying to see if I did? If Jonah thought me utterly mad, it would change everything between us, and not for the better. I couldn’t be too careful.

“I don’t know about any of it, Doc. Why don’t you tell me?”

Theo

“What the hell is goin’ on in there?”

“I couldn’t stop it. What do you want me to do?” Matt mumbled. Even though he stood a good couple of inches taller than me, he was clearly intimidated.
Which is good because he knows what I’m capable of.

“I want you to do what you’re there for. Your whole fuckin’ purpose.”

“I can only do so much without it looking suspicious. I tried to make it seem ridiculous—”

“I know you’re fuckin’ her. You don’t think I wouldn’t?” I veritably vibrated with anger. Leila was never mine, not really, but a part of me felt ownership over her.
I made her what she is. I decide who she fucks.
But it was more than that. If Leila set her eyes on Matt, he would be hers, at least in some manner. I knew all her secrets and I still couldn’t resist her innate ability. She was more than a natural manipulator. She had the power to influence people, to put them in her thrall—to own them. Even I had to fight hard not to be a victim. Even now, on some level, I was obsessed with her.

“She seduced me, I swear, and then it was—”

I laughed, long and low. “Yeah, I know how she is. I’m the one who made her that way. She’s my creation, don’t you ever forget that.” I’d honed her, polished the diamond in the rough.
She’s mine.
I ground my teeth together, fighting the familiar possessive urge.

“Why are you doing this? Any of this? It doesn’t feel right.” Matt met my gaze with defiance, and that’s when I saw it.
She’s got him, hook, line and sinker.
Matt wasn’t just fucking Leila anymore—he cared about her. Him and Jonah both.

I smirked while flipping open my lighter. “It’s not your job to know why, yours is just to do…” I inhaled the first drag of my cigarette, sighing with relief. “And hopefully not die.” I winked at Matt before walking across the parking lot. Some might find it brazen to find him there, but not me. I do what I want, when I want.

This is the last test for her. If she passes then I’ve succeeded. If she fails…she dies. At this point it could go either way.

Jonah

Leila seemed different somehow. It was as if the first hypnosis session had broken down not only the walls to her past, but to the ones she’d built around herself. Normally when a woman got demanding with my attention, I pulled away, case in point with Ella.
It’s different with Leila. I only want to take care of her more
. For what seemed like the thousandth time since I met her, I wondered what it was about her exactly that brought out a different side of me.

I felt torn on how to proceed with her case. I wanted to continue treating her all on my own, but my instincts were telling me to be wary. If what she’d revealed in her session today had even an inkling of truth, then that would mean her mind had been tampered with on purpose. If I went kicking around in her brain with the limited experience I had with such things then I could end up hurting more than helping her.

And what if what she revealed in the end is dangerous?
I had to fight not to be a bit paranoid about such things. I’d heard horror stories about experiments with conditioning done by none other than our government. The kind of people who would do such things would kill to keep their secrets without hesitation. If I fucked up with something like that then Leila’s life wouldn’t be the only one on the line. Hell, the whole hospital could end up dead in some freak accident of some sort.
Yeah…accident.
I laughed without humor. Conspiracy theories were often based in truth, and that was the truly terrifying part. It’d become hard to tell the difference in our modern world.

“Kristoph!” I muttered my old friend and colleague’s name with excitement. Why hadn’t I thought of him before? He was exactly what I needed. He was technically retired, but could most likely be persuaded to help me with Leila’s case. He was retired not dead. People like us never stop being intrigued by the human brain. And Kristoph specialized in occults and deconditioning. He’d even done some work with some captured Soviet spies, years ago during the cold war. He never told me exactly what he’d done because he couldn’t but if he was trusted with such cases he obviously knew what he was doing.

I picked up my cell and searched for his name. Hopefully his information was still good. It’d been quite some time since I’d talked to him. Normally I’d have to go through Ella for approval for such a thing, but I didn’t want anyone to know. If I had to sneak Kristoph in to see Leila, I would. When dealing with such things it was always better to be safe than sorry.

“Hello?” Kristoph’s aging voice said over the line.

I heaved a sigh of relief. “Hello, Kristoph, this is Doctor Jonah Yoshihara...”

“I’m sorry about all the cloak and danger,” I muttered to Kristoph, my face heating. It felt ridiculous in his presence to be giving in to such paranoia. Like someone would jump out of the bushes to kill me for knowing the little bit of information that I did about Leila.

Kristoph’s weathered face fell into a scowl. “I’m concerned that your paranoia might actually be warranted, Jonah. Very concerned.”

Great.
“Well… that’s unexpected.” I cleared my throat and motioned for him to follow me. I led him around the back of the hospital. There were still cameras there, but Ella only paid attention to those if there was a problem. Usually only maintenance used that particular entrance.

“I must admit, with such a high profile case, I couldn’t stay away. You’ve piqued my interest.” Kristoph smiled faintly, his eyes shining with curiosity.

“I didn’t know who else to turn to—who I could trust. I don’t want just anyone kicking around in Leila’s head.”

Kristoph grabbed my arm, his sinewy hands digging into my flesh almost painfully. “Please tell me you’re not involved with her…in any way beyond being her doctor. If you are—you need to walk away. Now.”

I averted my gaze, embarrassed. “It’s not what you think.”

“It isn’t?”

“No—I—if what I think is true then none of it was her fault.”