Bent (The Gifted Series) (2 page)

              “Well,” Leah replied, trying to decipher the two, “isn’t that what we do when we hypnotize? Isn’t that what Marnie is doing right now to all those driving by the entrance?”

              Declan joined in. “Hypnotism lasts anywhere from seconds to hours, bending’s indefinite.”

              “Not always,” Bo quietly added.

              Reagan, who’d stood subdued and deep in thought, suddenly stepped forward; with urgency, she embraced Bo.  “I’m sorry.  I never considered …” She snorted humorlessly.  “I am vile.  I had no right to say those things.  I didn’t consider that something might have happened to you. I guess I never thought anything
could
happen to you.”

              Initially taken back, Bo froze, but then his arms eased around Ray, pulling her close.  The two lingered in the embrace before Bo replied, “No worries.  I’m just glad you and Leah are safe—no thanks to me.”

              Leah added a sullen, “You could have confided in me.”

              It was Reagan who defended, releasing her hold on Bo. “No, Leah, he couldn’t.  Do you remember how difficult it was for you not to use your gifts while living in Lakepoint?”

              Leah nodded.  For the last few years of her life, she was in constant battle to refrain from using her gifts.
 
It was like not scratching a mosquito bite—make that one hundred bites.

              “Well, it was ten times worse for Bowen.  Once we give into our abilities they become reflexive.
 
I’m sure you’ve noticed this over the last three months.”

              Leah nodded again.  She couldn’t imagine shutting her abilities down. It would be like cutting off an appendage.

              Reagan further explained. “Just like it took all of my strength to communicate with you in my mind warp, it took Bo just as much strength to suppress his gifts.” She wielded back toward Bo.  “I can’t believe you risked being near us in Lakepoint.  The temptation had to have been brutal.”

              Bo shrugged. “Well that little lass and her damn aura made it tough.” He swung his hand toward Leah.

              Reagan snorted, adding, “Yeah, tell me about it.”

              “Again,” Leah growled, “no one told me I even had an aura!”

              Tiago wrapped strong arms around Leah’s back and pulled her against his firm body.  He chuckled in her ear. “It’s okay, baby.  You know now, and that’s all that matters.”

              Leah hated being coddled, but Tiago soothed, and she just loved being wrapped in all that strength and comfort, so she settled against him, welcoming his peppered kisses along her cheek.

              Mattis thrust out a hand as a sign of truce.  Bo shook it as Mattis added, “I’m glad you’re okay and glad you watched over Leah and Ray, using whatever means you could.”

              “Well … I’m damn good with these”—he lifted his fists— “and fair with a gun.” He glanced about and then sighed a long exhausted sigh. “Look, I should have called the agency sooner, but I knew Landon had infiltrated some divisions and I needed time to figure out which agency to contact.  When I realized you”—he acknowledged Mattis— “were at Northwest, I made the call.”

              Declan stepped forward.  “I’ve never known anyone to escape once bent.  How’d you manage it?”

              “I’m baffled by it myself, but I believe it depends on how long you’ve been kept in that state.  I was captured not long after Caroline was murdered—blokes found me in Edmonton.  They'd been on my ass for nearly a year," he added.
 
"It took seven months for them to successfully bend me.”

              “Again, I’m lost.” Frustration noted Leah’s tone.

              Reagan clarified, “With bending you need a group of hypnotics—the stronger the individual being bent, the more hypnotics required to maintain control over the individual.   It’s quite exhausting really.  To maintain a bent state the hypnotics must remain in a constant state of hypnosis—it’s like a full-time job that literally drains one mentally.”

              Bo cut in, “Patrice has a strong hold full of hypnotics—it’s all they do.  Eat, sleep, and drink bending.  Once the process is a success and they know we’re under complete control, she assigns us to missions.  Her finest hypnotics always accompany.  Patrice instructs them and they instruct the bent gunman.  We’re just puppets on a string …” Bo’s voice hollowed at the end, clearly remembering.

              “Anyway,” he pressed onward, “they controlled me for a time, and then I slowly began building a tolerance of sorts.  I continued to play along, biding my time for an opportune moment to escape.”

              “How?” both Declan and Tiago asked.

              “We were going after some little lass in England.  She was hidden in Suffolk County near Dunwich.” He scoffed. “What a blasted barren place … maybe a hundred people tops.  This lass must have been a strong thing because they sent five of us to retain her—claimed she’s telekinetic.” He snorted at the notion.  “Not saying I don’t believe it, but I’ve certainly never seen the likes of it.”

              At this comment Leah’s back straightened and she glanced toward Declan.  He, too, stood rigid.  Her memory of their private conversation flashed.  He’d mentioned a relative, a woman, who could move things with her mind.  This relative was supposedly in hiding.

              Declan quickly asked, “Did they find her?”

              Bo shook his head. “Don’t know, but my guess is yes. They’d given us motorcycles to ride.  She and a few family members were supposedly living along the coast in a remote location.  I knew once I took off on the motorcycle that this was my opportunity, so I bolted.  The moment I reached twenty miles distance from the hypnotics, I was free from their hold.  I then locked down my gifts and pick pocketed my way to London.  Once there, I bummed cash and necessities from the Cossingtons—”

              “Richard and Bev?” Reagan asked expectantly.

              “Aye,” Bo nodded, adding a grin. “They’re doing well.  Their boy, Drew, is with the agency and proving himself worthy.  Anyhow, they got me squared away with an ID and a passport and Russ Harrison was born.”

              “So this lass,” Declan asked, “do you recall her name?”

              Bo eyed Declan suspiciously, then nodded slowly. “Hmm … I think she went by Katherine or Kathleen Sotton, but I overheard one of Patrice’s right hands, Stephan, refer to her as … Jocelyn, I believe.”

              Declan released a notable gasp.

              Leah stepped forward, questioning Declan, “Is that her?”

              “Who?” Tiago and Smits barked in unison.

              Declan ignored; his focus on Bo. “Did you catch her last name?”

              Puzzled, Bo shook his head. “Nah, I don’t recall, but I take it by your reaction that she’s possibly friend or family."

 
Declan thrust a hand through his hair and muttered, “Aye, it’s a definite possibility.
 
One that scares the hell out of me.”

Chapter 2

“Ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine … one-hundred.”  Panting lightly, Joss’ hands dropped from behind her head and landed on the floor.  That was only two hundred sit ups for the day, but knowing she had countless hours to kill in her twelve by ten plexiglass palace, she opted to live on the edge and finish her workout later. 

              Opening her eyes, she squinted at the florescent light that hung above; she then shot her lithe body to her feet.  She was given twelve hours of light per day, estimating that they clicked on around seven am, but again, it might be noon for all she knew.  She glanced around the see-through cell, looking out into the dank basement.  Her eyes roamed the dark emptiness that surrounded her.  All the other captives were kept in traditional holding cells in a different wing of the basement, but with her interesting gift, they couldn’t place her in normal holding quarters.  They learned that lesson the hard way.  A slow smile crept along her cheeks at the sweet memory.

              She then scowled.  The bastards deserved worse for what she suspected they had done to her kin.

              Shaking the thought, she began to hum a little tune, nothing recognizable but something to fill the silence. Sometimes she liked the distance and quiet but found that after one year and nine months, the loneliness was beginning to take its toll.  Not to mention the assignments that Patrice Landon forced upon her. Again she quickly shook off the memories of all the pain she’d inflicted and all that she’d suffered: humiliation, debasement, agony, and the list went on. 

             
Just continue to pull away from their hold
, she reminded herself,
you’re gaining ground and getting mentally stronger
.  She didn’t risk saying the words aloud because for the first six months, Joss’ cell was monitored, but once they’d bent her, they pulled the video cam out. And thankfully she knew Patrice’s readers couldn’t break her screens.  Gaels had freakish blocking abilities, and she was glad of it.  

              On a sigh, she sauntered over to the shower in the corner.  Although they gave her a frosted plexiglass privacy wall around the toilet, the shower was exposed for all to see, not even a curtain.  The perverts. 

              She snickered at how modest she was when she’d first been captured and forced into this living hell.  But within weeks modesty was nonexistent.  She didn’t give a rat’s arse if Patrice’s cronies got their jollies while watching her shower.  Even though Patrice claimed that she was no longer being visually observed and the camera had been physically removed, she wasn’t about to put faith into the words of the devil.  Instead, she remained visually emotionless whenever the lights where on, while constantly reminding herself that somehow, someway retribution would be served on a very bloody platter.

              She turned on the water and quickly stripped out of the thin white tank top and gray yoga pants. She then yanked the rubber band from the messy bun at her nape.  Her white-blonde hair fell in a twisted heap to her waist.  This was the longest it had ever been, but that’s what happens when you're denied hair cuts for almost two years.  Off hand, she chuckled at the moronic thought that surfaced: about a year before her capture—as a twenty-second birthday gift—she’d splurged and had electrolysis done under her arms and her privies. She always hated the nuisance of shaving and waxing. 

              “It matters not,” she mumbled as she soaped up.  Her body was no longer her own anyway.  It now belonged to Patrice, and regardless of how sick and twisted the acts were, Patrice did whatever she desired with all of them. 

              Joss glanced down, noticing what remained of the fading spray tan.  Last week Patrice sent her to Maui on a vengeance mission—at least Joss believed the location to be Maui.  Regardless, it was tropical, hot, humid, and Joss was forced to be further waxed, sprayed, and beautified in order to lure a Landon associate into a trap. 

              The mission went smoothly.  No sexual acts were involved, which was always a plus, and in all honesty, Joss had no moral qualms with offing this particular bloke.  Especially after he so rudely thrust his unwelcomed claws into the knickers of her string bikini. 

              On the hypnotics command, she’d let her gift roar and sent a five foot bamboo bedpost through the flagin’ man’s chest.  Of course, once the task was complete, Joss was placed in her usual trance and transported back to … well, she wasn’t quite sure of her location.  Definitely the United States as she recalled American accents whenever out of her cell.

              She continued to scrub, washing away the sweat and wishing she could wash away the gift that landed her here in the first place.  “This
bloody
gifted world,” she mumbled.  All she ever desired was normalcy: marriage, children, a peaceful home filled with laughter.  Such simple expectations.

              “Shut it!” she muttered, cutting off her thoughts.  They’d only depress, and God forbid they stirred blasted tears.  Emotion was something she couldn’t afford.  She mentally cursed her telekinesis and cursed the fact that many in the gifted world found telekinesis to be a farce.  Since the age of thirteen, she’d been able to move naturally occurring objects with her mind, but never told a soul other than her family and closest gifted friends.  She’d been warned repeatedly to shield such an ability, and she desperately wanted to know who sold her out to the Landons.

              The Gaels were a suspicious and wary clan, especially after so many had been murdered during the uprising—the half-bloods hated the purests back then, and Joss couldn’t blame them.  A good majority of gifted pure bloods were grade A wankers with authority complexes.  They controlled the agency, oversaw the gifted council, and many pures (her family excluded) openly snubbed the half bloods.  God forbid you were a gifted simply born with abilities; they were considered more lowly than half bloods.

              Especially by the Landons, who were one of the wealthiest pure blood families and vehemently preached loyalty to pure lines and retaliation against those who didn’t share their sentiment.  They had their spies everywhere and in everything.  Her capture was proof of this, but she wasn’t the only pure blood they’d targeted.  Joss knew Patrice’s cousin Marcus had been searching for his estranged daughter.  The rumor being that she was of family lines dating back to the Tuatha De Danann—just like her kin.  

             
Mother Mary of God
, would any of them ever be free from the hate-filled Landons and their supporters?  Would they ever live in peace? 

              Although she didn’t know the story behind Marcus and his estranged daughter, she prayed Marcus never found her, prayed that this poor woman would remain untouched from the Landon’s sadistic world.  But her prayers might be a moot point as another recent rumor drifted about the compound.  One that claimed Marcus had been killed.  Patrice and her closest confidants never spoke openly about it, but Patrice had been absent for a couple of weeks now, and all recent missions had been vengeance based.