Unforgettable (Talented Saga #6) (19 page)

“
You’re supposed to be
clearing your dirty mind,” Talia scolded mockingly.

“
Then you probably
shouldn’t touch me,” I volleyed.

“
Seriously?” she asked,
fingers already massaging my neck.

Giving in to temptation, I rolled over
and placed my cheek on her stomach.

“
No,” I answered, relaxing
into her touch. “I mean, yes, you are distracting, in the best way
possible. But no, keep rubbing my neck. It’s helping me settle
down.”

Closing my eyes, I took a brief moment
to breathe in Talia’s scent, and then focused. Even with her so
close, with her hands on me, concentrating was surprisingly
easy.

Instantly, I was drawn to Willa’s
mind. The girl was in agony, feeling Kenly’s emotions as if they
were her own. I was almost scared to View Kenly, scared to step
into her reality. For maybe the first time ever, I actually wished
Talia was not there. Knowing the pain that Kenly’s current
situation would cause my girlfriend—she would surely experience it
to some degree, from me—I tried to block Talia while still keeping
my mind open and receptive to Willa’s.

“
Erik, don’t worry about me
right now,” Talia murmured, gently running her fingers through my
hair. “I can handle it, whatever ‘it’ is. This isn’t about me. It’s
about Kenly. Forget I’m even here.”

Right.
Because that’s ever going to happen
,
I thought.

Talia rewarded me with a soft
laugh.

Sparing her a small smile, I obeyed
the command in her whispered words. She’d only used a hint of
manipulation, and I easily could have fought it, if I’d been so
inclined. Instead, I let her orders wash over me and ease my mind.
At first there was nothing but a soft blackness that enveloped me
for what felt like several long minutes. Then, gradually, like
slowly dissipating fog, the images in my head came into focus. I no
longer felt Kenly as Willa did. Instead, I saw the younger
girl.

Kenly was in a study or library of
some sort, the kind that belonged in a castle much like Walburton
Manor. She was sitting on a couch, and there were several other
people in the room with her. Seven, to be exact. Three of them—a
boy and girl roughly my age, and an older man—were off to one side.
The man sat in an armchair, with the other two on either side of
him. His imposing nature and confident demeanor clearly stated that
he was in charge. The pair flanking the leader were most likely his
children, judging by their similar bone structure and golden
coloring.

Once I’d taken them in, my gaze landed
next on the small—no, tiny—girl seated in an armchair on Kenly’s
left side. The scowl adorning her pursed lips caused faint lines
around her mouth, ones she was much too young to have. They
suggested that the dour expression on her face was
ever-present.

Back in my world, Talia gasped and her
pulse spiked. She was witnessing the same scene I was, using my
mind as the conduit. My eyes darted around the study for the source
of her alarm. In front of the fireplace, I found it. A guy, maybe
nineteen or twenty, stood between two guards, who were playing a
game of who-can-hit-the-hardest.

James. His name popped into my head at
the same time Talia muttered it aloud. Any lingering doubts over
whether he’d been involved in Kenly’s abduction vanished.
Understanding dawned. The emotions that Willa was getting from
Kenly, the panic and hopelessness, weren’t really about Kenly at
all. She was scared for James. Scared for what might happen to him
if she did or did not do…something. Since my Viewing abilities
worked differently than Willa’s, I didn’t know what that
“something” was.

So far, my vision was all video and no
audio. Concentrating harder, I fully immersed myself in the scene
in my head. It worked. The older man was speaking to
Kenly.

“
That will do now, let us
all calm down. Please aid Mr. Wellington to his feet,” the man
said, lazily waving a hand at the guard before turning back to
Kenly. “The Isle is owned by, and therefore under the control of,
UNITED. Being that you are Created, Miss Baker, I believe it is
safe to say that you will be placed in containment the moment you
step off the hoverplane. One assumes that this is not the fate you
wish for yourself, now is it? As for natural born Chromes, the
space is limited. To my knowledge, it will be a first come, first
served situation. As I understand it, the Isle, inclusive of all of
its islands, has a capacity equal to one-third of the world’s
Chrome population. It seems this will leave an overwhelming
majority of your lot to fend for themselves.”

The brief history lesson about the
islands seemed to stun Kenly. It wasn’t surprising since, until
recently, I’d known very little about UNITED’s Isle of Exile. I
tried reaching her mind, to read her thoughts and get inside her
head. But my powers either weren’t strong enough, or I wasn’t well
enough acquainted with Kenly to use telepathy from such a great
distance.

There in the study, several moments of
tense silence passed while Kenly debated her next words carefully.
After a minute or two, an odd-yet-familiar look crossed Kenly’s
features. Her brown eyes became slightly unfocused and the anxiety
drained from her expression like water through a sieve. There was a
Mind Manipulator in the room. I’d seen Talia use her powers
countless times, and I knew the signs well.

But Kenly was clearly a decent
blocker, and the Manipulation wasn’t taking hold the way the
wielder had hoped. When Kenly finally spoke, her voice was
hesitant, as if half of her wanted to comply with the orders in her
head and half of her remained unconvinced.

The guy, James, was begging Kenly to
ignore the voices in her head. But her attention never wavered from
the golden-haired girl sitting beside the older man, as if
fascinated by what the girl had to say.

“
All you have to do is
answer a few questions with the absolute truth, and your boyfriend
may remain here, as well,” the golden-haired girl said, her tone
warm and friendly. “It’s that simple, Kenly. Just answer a few
questions. Back in America, you were mates with a girl called
Natalia Lyons, is that correct?”

Now I, too, was captivated by what the
girl had to say. The mention of Talia’s name, her full name, was
disconcerting. They shouldn’t know her name. I didn’t want them
knowing her name, having her on their radar. Talia was mine and no
one was going to take her from me.

As engrossed as I was in Kenly’s
reality, I still felt Talia squirm beneath me. The fingers in my
hair stilled and my girlfriend’s heart began to pound harder. Guilt
bombarded me through my connection to Talia. She blamed herself for
Kenly’s capture, believing that the younger girl had been targeted
simply because of her friendship with Talia.

Eyes still closed, I reached blindly
for Talia’s hand. Instead, my fingers closed around a more
interesting part of her anatomy. When I squeezed lightly, Talia
swatted my hand away.

“
Focus,”
she admonished.

Honestly, the boob-grab had been a
total mistake. I mean, touching Talia was never a mistake, but I’d
only been trying to reassure her. Not provide myself with a cheap
thrill. Regardless, the effect was the same. Talia relaxed and her
guilt abated slightly.

Unfortunately, those moments of levity
cost me. I missed part of the conversation between Kenly and the
blonde, who, judging by the melodic tone of her voice, was the Mind
Manipulator.

The attention of those in the study
had momentarily shifted to James, once again on the receiving end
of several well-placed punches. Instantly, I admired the guy. He
took hit after hit with barely a grimace. All the while, he kept
pleading with Kenly not to give in to them.

“
Wrong answer, Kenly,” the
Manipulator bellowed. “Let’s try again, shall we? Where is Natalia
Lyons?”

Kenly doubled-over in pain, clutching
her head like she’d been the one taking the punches. As much as I
hated Kenly Baker for the attempt on Talia’s life, a part of me
ached for her. She was being asked to choose between Talia and the
guy, James. It was clear from the scene that James’s punishment
would purportedly end if Kenly divulged Talia’s
whereabouts.

Anticipating another infusion of guilt
from Talia, I reached for her hand again, this time finding my
mark. Talia threaded her fingers through mine, but she seemed
distracted. At first I thought she’d gone numb, that the burden
being placed on Kenly was causing Talia so much anguish that she
was shutting down.

Of course, I should have known better.
Talia was empathetic to a fault, but she was also good at
compartmentalizing her feelings when necessary. Especially when she
could take action.

It was like someone had hit rewind on
my thoughts. All of a sudden, images and snippets of conversation
drifted through my head, appearing as blurs and indecipherable
babbling. The odd sensation was almost enough to pull me out of the
vision.

“
No. Focus, please. I’m
almost there, I think. Just hold on a little longer,”
Talia sent.

That was when I realized that my
girlfriend was doing what I could not: sifting through Kenly’s
memories. Using me as a go-between, Talia was able to read Kenly’s
mind. She was going backwards through her mentee’s most recent
memories for some indication as to where she was being
held.

Impressed was a vast
understatement.

Even more impressive was the fact that
it worked.

Andrew’s Rock. Wherever the hell that
was. That’s where the Poachers had Kenly. Also, the location of the
auction.

I SHOT UP
straight in the bed, knocking Erik’s head off of
my lap abruptly. He groaned and rolled onto his back.

“
Andrew’s Rock,” I said
excitedly.

“
I know,” Erik said,
rubbing his temples as he struggled to sit up.

“
I have to go tell
Victoria. Hopefully she’ll know where that is.”

My feet already sinking into the plush
rug covering the floor beside the bed, I turned back to look at
Erik. He was still moaning and groaning. Had I hurt him?

“
Erik? Are you okay?” I
asked, worried now.

“
Fine, Tals. I think…I
think that being yanked out of the vision like that gave me
headache. It feels like a huge Band-Aid was just ripped from my
brain,” Erik said, blinking against the dim light in the room,
which seemed to bother his eyes.

Scurrying back onto the mattress, I
knelt beside him and began to siphon the pain from him. It was the
least I could do, seeing as I was the one who’d ripped that bandage
away. My excitement over finding Kenly’s location had been so great
that I’d yanked Erik along with me when I pulled abruptly out of
her mind.

Only, after several seconds of intense
concentration, I felt nothing. None of the pain Erik was
experiencing transferred to me. Nor did it seem to be leaving Erik.
I swore and tried again, stubbornly convinced that my powers were
stronger and more effective than any painkiller on the
market.

“
Tals, I’m fine,” Erik
said, reaching out to pat my leg. “The headache is already fading.
Don’t waste your juice on me.”

We both knew I wasn’t “wasting”
anything. Taking away pain was usually very easy for me to do and
required little energy. Erik knew I was trying to help him and
failing miserably at the task, and just didn’t want me to feel
bad.

“
Go,” he urged. “Call
Victoria. I’m fine, really.”

Erik sat up straighter and offered me
one of his smiles that I loved so much. And he really did seem
okay. He gave me a quick kiss on the lips and squeezed my inner
thigh, just to show me how “fine” he truly was. I rolled my eyes
and kissed him a second time, lingering longer than necessary for a
simple farewell. With a reluctant sigh, before his hand could climb
any higher, I backed off of the bed and went to retrieve my
communicator from where I’d set it by the door.

Victoria answered on the first ring,
her miniature holographic image popping off of the display to greet
me.

“
Does Andrew’s Rock mean
anything to you?” I asked, dispensing with formality in favor of
brevity.