Resilient (Tainted Elements, #6) Read online

  Chapter 3

  When I woke up, the key card was still where I’d left it, so I carefully pushed it under the blanket and slipped it under my shirt, hiding it inside my bra so no one could see it. I couldn’t spot any cameras here in my room, but that didn’t mean they weren’t hidden somewhere or that someone wouldn’t come in at the least opportune moment.

  Getting to my feet, I padded over to the door and cracked it open. No one was in the hallway, so I slipped outside. When I got to the bathroom, I stopped in front of the sink. There were dark circles under my eyes and my hair was disheveled, but at least I no longer felt as if a herd of elephants had run me over. The only question was how much time I had before Kira took me for another testing or harvesting, whatever they called it. I needed to know what happened to that guy and why he’d been in pain.

  The door swung open and a dark-haired woman in a white coat came inside. She dashed for the locked door at the end of the bathroom, right behind the shower stalls, and took off her coat. She draped the coat on a hanger in front of the door, grabbed her key card and whatever was in her pocket, and opened the door. The people who worked here seemed to have a special bathroom that the volunteers weren’t allowed to use, which didn’t surprise me.

  But as I stared after her, my gaze fell on her coat. I needed to make sure that guy was okay, and the only way I could do that was if no one saw me. Biting on my bottom lip, I wondered what to do. Gathering my courage, I scurried toward the coat, grabbed it, and draped it over my shoulders. The woman had long dark hair similar to mine, so if I kept my head down, no one would notice. All I had to do was get to the guy’s room, make sure he was fine, and come back here. It was simple, right? No one would know, and I would be quick enough to return the coat before the woman finished her shower.

  I strode into the hallway, avoiding eye contact with anyone who passed by. If they stopped me and asked questions, well, I’d have to come up with a really good excuse. Maybe I could say I got my shirt dirty or that I was cold, so the woman had lent me her coat.

  It didn’t take me long to reach the door behind which the guy’s room was supposed to be. As I raised the key card, I paused to listen, trying to hear if anyone was in there. Maybe he was no longer inside either, but I had to make sure. The light went green and I pushed the door open, slipping inside.

  The guy’s eyes were closed, his chest falling and rising steadily. He looked fine, except for the bruises around his wrists. I took a step closer, spotting the edge of something black peeking right above the sleeve of the guy’s white shirt. Gently tugging the sleeve up, I gasped as I revealed a tattoo identical to mine. His eyelids fluttered and he cracked them open.

  “Who are you?” he asked, ripping his arm out of my grasp and sitting up, his dark brown eyes wide. “What are you doing here?”

  At last, there was finally one volunteer who spoke the same language as I did. “Hi, my name’s Moira. I... I’m one of the volunteers. I just came to check on you... in case you needed anything.”

  “If you’re one of the volunteers, then why would they send you to check on me?” He narrowed his eyes at me. “And why are you wearing that coat?”

  “It’s a long story, really. I’m just helping out, but if you’re fine, I can leave.” He was all right, so there was no reason for me to stay, although one part of me wanted to. Actually, no, it insisted I shouldn’t just leave him here alone.

  “No, I...” He licked his lips, looking at the room around him, a frown creasing his brow.

  “Why do they keep you locked up in here?” At least I could leave my room whenever I wanted. “Does it have something to do with what they did to you yesterday? I saw you when...”

  “Yeah.” His shoulders relaxed a little and he ran his hand over his face. “Something’s wrong with my elements. They say there could be some unexpected reactions to the treatment, so... My name’s Jaiden, by the way.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I said, although there was something about his name that sounded familiar. Maybe we’d met before and I couldn’t remember, but in that case he should’ve probably recognized me. “That tattoo on your arm...” I pointed at the black letters. “Do you know when and why you got it?”

  He glanced down at his arm, pulling his sleeve over it. “No idea. My memory’s a little fuzzy from the treatment. I thought all volunteers had these tattoos. Maybe as some kind of an inspiring message. I don’t know.” He shrugged.

  “I have the same tattoo.” I lifted my arm and showed it to him. “But I didn’t see it on anyone else here.”

  “What do you think it means?” His eyebrows shot up.

  “I’ve no idea. Do you know anyone else here? Do you have a friend?”

  He shook his head. “No, just my father. He’s one of the scientists who work here.”

  “Oh.” I tried to remember my family, but all I was getting was a big hole in my memory. “So you came here with your father. Do you know where we are? My mind’s been... a mess lately, too, and I just can’t recall some things.”

  “At Sinders Research Facility,” he said immediately.

  “Yeah, but where is it? What city? Or what country? Some of the people here speak languages I don’t understand at all.”

  Jaiden gave me a long look. “I don’t know,” he finally said.

  “I didn’t know donating elemental energy would cause memory loss.”

  “It doesn’t.” He shifted to get more comfortable. “It’s probably because of the drugs they give us to enhance our elements.”

  “Right, but can you remember anything from your life before you got here?” I tilted my head. “Like where you went to school... who your friends are. Things that you like to do.”

  “I know I went to school and that I have friends, but... I don’t know anything about them.” He scratched his chin. “I don’t remember most of my life. Just that I got here with my father and that we’ve been doing various tests and...”

  I’d understand some memory gaps, but this? It was too much, and it affected Jaiden and me in a similar way. There was something wrong about this. Something... I blinked, unsure of what I’d just been doing. “I was thinking about something and now I can’t remember what it was. Does that happen to you too?”

  He nodded. “And I think we might... we might’ve met before. You just seem so familiar and...”

  “Maybe.” I glanced at the door, wondering how much time I had before someone discovered me in here. But even though I thought I should leave, something inside me still didn’t want me to do it. Why did my stomach flip at the mere thought of leaving Jaiden alone in this room?

  “What elements do you have?” he asked.

  “Fire and air.”

  “Me too.”

  “You said there was something wrong with them. Do you know what?” I leaned forward. Shouts rang out in the hallway, and I wondered how everyone would react when they found me here. Would they be mad? If yes, then why? What was so bad about visiting another volunteer? Maybe they were just worried about me because they didn’t know where I was.

  “Not really, but I think they’re not good enough.” He looked away.

  “I’m sure that’s not true.” I offered him a shy smile.

  “How could you know?” He looked up at me, his dark eyes piercing.

  “I don’t know. It’s a feeling.” I shrugged. The door swung open and Kira and two men dressed in black stormed inside.

  “Moira?” Kira asked, a tremor in her voice. “What are you doing here? And why are you wearing that coat? Who let you inside?”

  “Sorry, I was just trying to return this.” I waved the key card. “I found it under my bed and I didn’t know who to give it to, so I went to the bathroom, and there was this coat, and I assumed someone left it and that I could just return both to their owner.” I shrugged out of the coat and handed it to Kira, along with the key card. “Now that you’re here I can give it to you.”

  “You weren’t supposed to touch any of that. You could’ve
just called one of us. And someone must have gone to shower, so they left the coat outside. And now they won’t be able to find it.”

  I chewed on the insides of my cheek and shuffled my feet. “I’m really sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I thought I could help and...”

  “It’s okay. Come with me.” Kira grabbed me by the arm, her grip strong, and dragged me out of the room. I glanced at Jaiden over my shoulder and bit down on my tongue to stop myself from telling Kira not to leave him alone in there. I just couldn’t understand why that was so important.

  “Just stay in your room, okay?” Kira said as she let go of me and we entered my room.

  I nodded. “I’m really sorry if I upset you. It wasn’t my intention to...”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Kira’s lips spread into a smile, but there was a tightness around her eyes. Something was wrong. I just had to figure out what.

  Chapter 4

  I sat down on the bed and stared at the empty white walls. Rolling up my sleeve, I looked at the tattoo again. Why would both Jaiden and I have the same tattoo? And why couldn’t we remember anything? Sighing, I pulled my knees up and rocked back and forth. Maybe Jaiden and I had been friends, and maybe we’d even come here together, so that was why we had matching tattoos. But you had to be a very close friend with someone to get something as important as that, so why couldn’t I remember absolutely anything about him?

  A frown creased my brow and my head felt as if it were filled with heavy rocks. I blinked at the door, wondering what I was supposed to do until they needed me for another testing. Getting to my feet, I hopped over to the closet, but inside were only clothes and shoes. Seriously, what was I usually doing here? For how long had I been here exactly, anyway? I put my hands on my head and let out a frustrated groan. Finally, I headed to the door, but when I went to push it open, I realized that it was locked. Had they decided it was better not to let me outside again? But I wasn’t supposed to be a prisoner here. I’d done nothing wrong, or at least I thought I hadn’t.

  Tracing my finger across the wall, I circled around the room. The wall’s surface was rough and hard under my touch. If only I had a TV, a book, or anything to occupy my mind. I came to a stop in the middle of the room. Maybe I could practice with my elements. But as I reached inside me, my elements didn’t budge. My whole body started to tremble, so I let go of my elements, and the feeling of dread immediately vanished from my stomach.

  Why was this happening? Why would I feel guilty about using my elements? Ah yes, because using my elements was a waste of energy that should go into the element collectors. And it could mess up my tests and everything if I used my elements too much, but surely a little bit of fun wouldn’t hurt anyone or significantly affect the levels of my elemental energy.

  Taking a deep breath, I focused on my elements again, trying to push my fire out a little to warm up the air around me. Nothing happened, and my fire kept resisting. I repeated the process with my air, but I couldn’t get it to do anything either. Lifting my sleeves up, I checked my arms for any devices or bracelets that could be blocking my elements, but there weren’t any. I looked around the room, but unless there was a blocker in the wall, I didn’t know why my elements weren’t working.

  Still, I went back to the wall and closely inspected it, but no matter how much I touched and probed it, I didn’t find any indication that there was some kind of a protection in it, although it was possible it was well-hidden. But my elements felt differently when there was a blocker in the walls. I wasn’t sure how I knew that, but somehow I did. Something was telling me that I’d been using an element-blocking bracelet and had been in a protected room before, and the feeling wasn’t anything like this. This seemed more as if my elements were disobeying me on purpose.

  I paced up and down the room. Maybe the walls had a different kind of protection or maybe... I closed my eyes, trying to picture myself going to the lab for more tests. My elements didn’t have any problem surging out then, so if I imagined I was there, maybe the bad feeling would go away. I tried to picture Kira strapping me into that chair and turning on the machine, and I reached for my elements again. A few moments later, my fire surged out, coating my fingers, and I opened my eyes to look at it, a smile spreading across my lips. I’d done it! Pulling my fire back, I let my air swirl around me, ruffling my hair.

  The door beeped and I immediately called my elements back and sat on the bed. A man with black hair and dark brown eyes entered the room and offered me a smile.

  “Hello, Moira. My name is Dr. Price, and I’m here to check on you,” he said, a blue notepad in his hand.

  “Um, hi. Is something wrong?” I didn’t know why I needed a special visit from a doctor, especially in my room.

  “No, not at all. Just a routine checkup.” The guy looked me up and down, then sat on the bed next to me. He pulled a small black device that looked like a phone out of the pocket of his coat and took my hand, pressing the device to it. The device beeped and beeped, and Dr. Price’s face was expressionless as he monitored the screen. I leaned forward slightly, but I still couldn’t see what was on the screen. Price picked up his notepad and started scribbling something in it, leaving the device lying on my bed.

  “Everything looks fine,” he said, getting to his feet. The device was still on the bed and he was intently staring at me. I wondered why he used that notepad when he probably could’ve just gotten that device to send the results to a computer or something, but when he turned toward the door to leave, I realized what he was doing; he was testing me. He was planning to leave the device with me to see if I would return it or if I’d try something with it.

  “Dr. Price!” I yelled before he could leave, and he turned around. “You forgot this!” I picked up the device and handed it over to him with a small smile on my face.

  “Oh, thank you.” Surprise filled his eyes for a moment, but he quickly masked it. When he was out of the room, I chewed on my lower lip. What the hell had that been about? They clearly didn’t trust me, but why? I’d volunteered to come here. I wasn’t a threat to them and I didn’t endanger anything they were doing, so why were they so upset that I’d gone to see Jaiden? It didn’t make any sense... except something was wrong. I could feel it. I just didn’t know what it was, but I was going to find out no matter what. At least the door no longer seemed to be locked.

  Chapter 5

  “Come with me, Moira,” Kira said, poking her head through the door of my room.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, slowly getting to my feet. If they were suspicious about me for reasons I couldn’t even begin to understand, would they want to do something to me then? That didn’t make any sense since they were generally nice to me, but my gut was telling me otherwise. Unlocking my elements had cleared my head a little.

  “To the lab. One of our scientists will give you a little something to increase your energy levels.” Kira strode out and I followed her down the hallway to the green double door.

  “Sounds great,” I said, although my throat constricted a little. What if they were planning to hurt me? But why would they do that?

  “Take a seat and wait until Mr. Maiers comes,” Kira said as we entered a big lab. There was a desk with three chairs in a corner, a chair similar to the one I’d been strapped to, a bunch of vials and containers on the shelves that lined the wall, three computers, and a big table in the middle covered with books and various equipment.

  “Okay.” I settled myself in one of the chairs in front of the desk, and when Kira left, I glanced at the files and folders on the desk. One of them had my name on it, and I bit down on my lip. If I reached for it, the camera in the corner would see me. Letting my air seep out of me, I waited for any alarms to be raised, but nothing happened, so I guided my air down my leg and under the desk so no one could see it.

  Wrapping the thread around the folder, I tugged at it until my air pulled it out from under the other files and then quickly slipped it under the desk. Straightening my
shoulders, I blocked the view of the camera behind my back as the folder landed on my knees. Opening it carefully under the desk, I found a file with my picture on it.

  Aside from my name, my energy levels, my elements, and basic information such as height, weight, and eye color, there wasn’t anything else, but as I flipped the page, I saw the list of abilities that I apparently had. One of them was mind control. I stared at the word until I was sure I would burn a hole in the paper. The ability listed right next to it made my pulse race. Killing with my mind. Footsteps echoed from another end of the room, so I quickly closed the file and used my air to put it back in its place, just in time before a man with dark hair and gray eyes approached me.

  “Hi, Moira. So good to see you,” he said, the lines around his eyes more prominent.

  “Do I know you?” I looked up at him, but he just shook his head.

  “No, I don’t think so.” He went to the table and picked up a vial of some yellowish liquid. He didn’t think so? What was that supposed to mean? The truth is in the mind. I glanced once again at my half exposed tattoo. Mind control. I was under mind control, and I’d known I’d be, or at least it seemed so.

  How could I fix this? If I could kill people with one thought, then I could see through someone’s mind control, right? I just couldn’t remember how, and my head was starting to spin just thinking about it, which confirmed that I was right. Someone had mind-controlled me. Shit.

  “What’s that?” I nodded toward the vial, hoping to keep the man occupied while I figured out what to do.

  “Something that will help your elements become stronger. Think of it as a cure that can heal your tainted elements and turn them into strength.” He eyed the vial, not even glancing my way.