Modified

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Volume 5 Sneak Peek

  Modified

  Volume 4

  by

  Kat Stiles

  katstiles.com

  Wellington, Texas

  But born and raised in Iselin, NJ

  Modified Copyright © 2018 by Kat Stiles

  Cover illustration by Jasper Yu © 2018

  For information on the cover art, please contact Jasper Yu, www.jasperyuart.com.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes. If you are reading this book and did not buy it or win it in a contest by the author or authorized distributor, you are reading an illegal copy. This hurts the author and publisher. Please delete and purchase a legal copy from Kat Stiles.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, any place, events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Dedication

  For all my fellow Jerseyans,

  who know what pizza should taste like and expect 1,000 different menu items at a diner

  who understand why it totally makes sense to go right when you want to make a left

  who let you know exactly where you stand

  who get the sheer joy of profanity

  this series is dedicated to you.

  stay Jersey, it’s beautiful

  Chapter 1

  Little known fact #4: Getting “sedated” or pumped full of tranquilizers, leaves you with the WORST head-splitting migraine when you wake back up.

  I found myself in a sparsely furnished white room that contained only a table with two chairs and a bed against the far wall. My head pounded like I had seven shots of synth, a 250 proof alcohol from the 20s. Stuff went down like acid but it did the trick, and fast. If you didn’t die from alcohol poisoning the following day, the pain from the hangover would make you wish you were dead.

  There was a thick glass wall on my left from ceiling to floor. The whole setup seemed odd until I realized it was some kind of modern prison cell. I scanned the room for any exits and found two—a huge metal door on the glass wall with a high-tech lock, and a regular door on the opposite wall, adjacent to the bed. I slowly made my way to my feet and approached the metal door. Of course it wouldn’t budge, and looking at its elaborate locking mechanism, I knew I wasn’t getting out that way.

  The other door led to a white bathroom, complete with a small shower stall. I splashed some cold water on my face at the sink to shake off the grogginess. How long was I out? Without a clock or view of the outside, it was impossible to tell.

  Then, it really dawned on me. I’m a prisoner. Of Derek Barker, of all people. Why didn’t I make his brain go poof, like the others?

  Oh yeah, Steve. And his little girl. I may not be a hero, but I’m no villain either. I couldn’t let him lose his daughter forever.

  I patted my skin dry with a towel and as I exited the bathroom, I heard a voice.

  “That is a very impressive power you have, my dear.”

  Derek’s pompous voice filled the cell. I looked around but didn’t see him anywhere.

  “As much as I enjoy your company, I’m afraid I can’t risk another… incident.”

  “Fucking coward,” I muttered.

  “Not cowardice, simply a reasonable precaution. I’ll be better prepared the next time we meet again in person.”

  I wasn’t surprised that he could hear me. I held up both my middle fingers to confirm he could see me as well.

  “Ah, I see you’re back to your old self.” He chuckled. “Feel free to take a shower, I’ve left a change of clothes in the bathroom cabinet.”

  “Thanks, I feel so at home.” It unnerved me to only hear his voice. “So with all your fancy tech, audio is all you can manage?”

  “Miss my face, do you?”

  An image nearly the size of the far wall appeared, and Derek came into view. He sat behind his desk, wearing a different expensive suit. Daylight streamed in through the windows behind him.

  Okay, so I was unconscious all night. Plausible, considering how many little darts they shot me with.

  “Is that better, my dear?”

  “Yes, thank you. Now I feel less silly flipping you off.” I raised both fingers high in the air, directed at the image on the wall. Even turned them on the side for the gangsta effect.

  “Oh kitty Kate, you are a fun one. It’s almost a shame you won’t survive the extraction. Seldom ever do.” He swiped something on his tablet.

  I lowered my arms and folded them across my chest. “That’s only if I don’t escape first.”

  “You’d have a better chance escaping Rahway prison. No one gets past my security.”

  After the famous jailbreak of 2022, Rahway prison was redone from top to bottom, equipped with all the latest tech. It was a fortress, and not a single soul has been able to penetrate the security since.

  “Whatever. Not the first time some dickhead male has underestimated me.” Of course, I had no earthly clue how I would possibly escape. But I had to keep appearances up. With someone like Derek, confidence, even the fake kind, went a long way. Being an egomaniac, I suspected he got off on arrogance. Probably masturbated to a picture of himself.

  “I look forward to seeing you try.” His smile faded. “You did surprise me last night. That was…unexpected.”

  There was a change in his demeanor that unsettled me. Just looking at his expression, his body language, it was clear he was still upset at the momentary shift of control. I hoped his head still hurt from the pain I was able to inflict. Or at the very least, I hoped his suit was ruined.

  “So when do you plan to kill me?” I asked. “You know, so I can pray to a higher source, get my affairs in order…”

  His menacing expression grew more agitated. “This isn’t a joke. You will know pain unlike any you’ve ever experienced.”

  “Ooh, that sounds uncomfortable. Maybe we can schedule it for next week? I’ve already reached my pain quota this week.”

  He slammed his fists on his desk. My lips parted open in shock. I wanted to smile and do a little a dance, I was so happy to get under his skin.

  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then exhaled. “Soon. You’ll find out soon, my dear.”

  I plopped down on the bed. “Okay. I’ll see if I can clear my schedule.”

  He didn’t respond but simply observed me. “You really are quite unique, despite your many obvious flaws.”

  “Yep, that’s me, rainbow unicorn. Hey, speaking of schedules, I got a lot on my plate this afternoon, could we, uh…” I motioned the kill signal, a horizontal line across my throat.

  The sound he uttered was like a groan/growl combination. It was the creepiest thing I’d ever heard, and that was saying a lot, being from Jersey.

  “Until next time.” He cut the signal before I could fuck with him again.

  I took a deep breath and ran my hands slowly down my face. When I looked up, I gasped. Just outside of my cell stood Jay. What is he doing here?

  I ran over to where he stood and placed my hands on the glass. His pressed his hands on the other side of the glass, lined up with mine. “Kate, I’m so sorry.”

  A red light flashed from down the hall, and a strange white smoke billowed from inside the cell.

  Oh no. Is Jay in on this? Is
he one of Derek’s guys too? Before I had a chance to figure it out, the fumes rendered me unconscious.

  Chapter 2

  When I came to, Jay was gone. The headache I had before I was gassed took on a whole new dimension, making my eyes tear with pain.

  “Look on the table,” a voice boomed. It wasn’t Derek, but a man with a much deeper voice, more foreboding. Slavic or Russian accent, I guessed. I glanced at the wall but there was no image.

  On the table sat a glass and a plate with two purple pills.

  “For the pain,” the voice continued.

  I was understandably cautious, as I approached the offering. What if this was just another attempt to sedate me? Or somehow extract my power?

  “Who are you? How do I know you’re not lying to me?” I mumbled, wincing. I’d never experienced pain so intense. Even speaking those words exacerbated my condition, my head pounding with each syllable.

  “You don’t,” the voice boomed. “Your choice, stay in pain or get relief.”

  Fuck it, death would be better than this, I thought, as I downed the two pills. At first nothing happened, but then the pain subsided some.

  “Thank you.” I knew it was ridiculous to thank my captors, but the pain was so unreal. “Who are you?” I repeated.

  “No one of consequence.”

  There was a strange kind of melancholy to his voice, but yet he still managed to sound scary. I was glad I couldn’t see an image of him. “Ah, so another one of Derek’s minions. You a freak like me?”

  The voice didn’t answer, which to me was answer enough. “Why did you gas me?”

  “There was an intruder. We couldn’t risk your escape.”

  Jay. He was here, he must be the intruder. I breathed a sigh of relief. He’s not one of them. Still I had so many questions. Like what was he doing here and how did he get in?

  “You know him.” The voice stated it as a fact, a revelation.

  “Don’t see how that’s any of your fucking business.”

  “No matter. They capture him soon enough.” The voice sounded so sure, as if Jay’s imprisonment were inevitable.

  A sudden feeling of regret welled up in me. Jay was just a friend at work, and now he was caught up in all this shit. Because of me. What will happen to his family if they do get to him?

  Everything I touch turns to shit. I felt a single tear roll down my cheek, before it all began to flood. I curled up in a ball on the bed, hoping I could just somehow disappear.

  “What is… what is wrong?” the voice asked. As unbelievable as it sounds, there was concern in his voice.

  “He’s an innocent. He has nothing to do with all this, and I’ve endangered his life,” I said between sobs. I wiped the tears from my eyes, in an attempt to get it together. If Derek saw me this way, he’d take it as a sign of weakness. And I couldn’t give that fuckface the pleasure.

  “No, you are not understanding. That man, he has p—”

  Before the voice could finish his thought, the alarm went off. I looked up, and Jay was there in the cell with me.

  “Hurry!” he said, as he grabbed my hand. To my surprise, we teleported out of the cell.

  What the fuck just happened, did I somehow teleport us? I wasn’t familiar with where we were, but it looked like an apartment of some kind—a little nicer than mine, but nothing extravagant. I was about to ask him about it, but he fell, appearing to be unconscious.

  “Are you all right?” I slapped his face lightly, but he didn’t respond. His chest rose up and down, so I surmised he just passed out. I grabbed a pillow off a couch nearby for his head and took hold of his hand. “Come on, Jay, come back to me.”

  What the hell is going on? Not knowing this place, I didn’t see how it was possible for me to teleport us to it. Unless…

  I wasn’t the one who did the teleporting.

  I tried to think back to recent events with Jay, to figure out if there was any indication of anything unusual with him. Just as I remembered the time in my bathroom when he touched my face, I felt a tingle, and then a massive heat build up in my hand that held his.

  A surge of warmth originating from his hand traveled through me, jolting me, but not in a painful way. It was more soothing than anything else, and my lingering headache seemed less acute. Jay’s eyes fluttered open, and he sat up.

  “What happened?” He shook his head, in what I guessed was an attempt to reorient himself.

  “I was going to ask you the same question.”

  Jay took off his glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. When he made eye contact with me, I gasped. His brown eyes were covered in a haze.

  Chapter 3

  Without his colored glasses to mask his eye color, I saw his eyes for the first time, in all their hazy gloriousness. He was a freak, just like me.

  I staggered back from him. A million questions ran through my mind. Why did he help me? How is he involved in this? What is his power?

  “Kate, it’s okay. I’m like you.” Jay made it to his feet and approached me slowly, as if I were a skittish animal about to bolt.

  “What… why didn’t you tell me?”

  He half-smiled. “Not the kind of thing that comes up in casual conversation. Hey, I wrote this new app to convert json to c#, and oh, by the way, I have a super power…”

  I held my arms against my body. He did have a point, it’s not like I told him about my power either. “What is it?”

  He took hold of my hands. “I believe you felt it earlier, when I came to.” The sensation of heat and tingling resurfaced, just like before. But this time it was more intense—it was so hot I wanted to rip my shirt off. He withdrew his hands and the heat subsided.

  I took a deep breath and exhaled. My headache was completely gone.

  From the lack of pain I experienced that was so acute only moments ago, coupled with the memory of us in my bathroom—when the cut on my face healed in record time after his touch—it had to be…

  “Healing,” I said.

  His response was a geeky giggle, followed by a sheepish grin.

  I couldn’t help but smile. What an unexpected hero. But still I wondered how he was able to pull all that off.

  “How did you get past the dampening field? And how did you know how to find me? And where the fuck are we?”

  He led me over to the couch, and said he’d be right back, as he headed towards what I guessed was the kitchen. Glancing around, it seemed like a furnished apartment, devoid of any personal touches whatsoever. If this were his place, I’d expect at least a nicer TV. But more than that, I’d expect to see his family.

  Jay returned with two glasses of water and handed me one. “As a healer, I can give myself a boost of energy. It was enough to counter the effects of the dampening field.”

  “A boost of energy?” I remembered what happened in Derek’s office, when I felt a surge of heat and my powers returned. Did he have something to do with that?

  “Jay, is there any chance you can…I don’t know, send that to other people?”

  He smiled. “It’s called distance healing. And yes, I sent it to you last night, when I got to your apartment and realized you were missing. Did you feel it?”

  “I did. It felt amazing. And it gave me my powers back.” I remembered how shocked Derek looked when I fucked with him, turning the pressure on. The memory brought a smile to my face. “Your timing was perfect.”

  “Did they hurt you?” he asked, in an entirely cute, protective kind of way.

  I snickered. “Do you know what my power is?” I looked into his eyes, tempted to probe his mind. But I knew my power violated people, uncovering their secrets without their consent. I didn’t want to use it on Jay.

  He took a sip from his drink. “My suspicion is it has something to do with telepathy.”

  Jay never failed to impress me. Observant, intelligent, and loyal. I couldn’t ask for a better friend.

  “Not surprised you figured it out,” I said. “Thank you so much for helping me.”


  “I’m here whenever you need me.” The expression he wore was serious, and without trying, I saw inside his mind. He wanted nothing more than to lean in and kiss me.

  I stood with a sigh. Am I a fucking married man magnet? First Chad, then Alex…now Jay. Eager to change the mood, I asked, “You never told me, where are we?”

  “This is my other apartment.”

  “Your other apartment?” I didn’t take Jay for the kind of person to have a mistress pad, but men have disappointed me so many times before.

  “This one is safe.” He joined me and gently touched my arm. “Don’t worry, you’re safe here.”

  I closed my eyes. No, not Jay. How could he be that asshole?

  I felt his warm fingertips brush my cheek. “Kate, are you okay?” I watched the scene unfold in his mind: he carefully pushed the hair from my face and kissed me. It was so sweet, not something I would think to see in the mind of an adulterer.

  I jerked away from him. “I would be, if I knew where your wife was.”

  “Wife? What are you talking about? I’m not—”

  The sound of a crash in the adjacent room startled us both.

  Chapter 4

  “Motherfucker!”

  It was a relief to hear Viola’s voice. Both Jay and I joined her in the kitchen. She was sitting on the floor with the remains of a broken chair, removing a piece of wood stuck in her leg. While the short skirts she wore were certainly sexy, they weren’t exactly functional.

  “I really have to work on my landings…” she muttered.

  Jay joined her on the floor. “Let me take a look.”

  Vi glanced at him skeptically. “Aren’t you a geek? I mean, no offense, but what are you going to do?”

  “He’s a healer,” I explained. “That’s his power.”

  “No, seriously?” Vi said, awestruck. “That’s so cool!”

  Jay went to work on her injury, placing his hands just above her bloody thigh.