Free EVO Shift: EVO Nation Series: Book Two by K.J Chapman Page A

under my bare legs. I wear nothing save one of Silvain’s shirts that hangs off of me like a tent. Emiko took it upon herself to wash everyone’s clothes, and I’m not going to lie about how much I am going to appreciate clean underwear.
    Adam and I have one of the top floor bedrooms. The view over the bay is unreal, yet I choose to stare at the ceiling, listening to the hurried chatter from downstairs, and the inaudible rumble of the television.
    Adam’s pacing was driving me crazy. He would stare out of the window, then back to me, and out of the window again, all the while wearing a hole in the carpet. I sent him downstairs for a cup of tea, and to give my sanity a fighting chance. That was thirty minutes ago. I know he’s talking with Jude, but I don’t want to know what about.
    His head pops around the door. “A cup of tea for my girl,” he says, trying to keep his voice light and breezy.
    “Thank you.” I take the tea with a smile. “What’s that?” I ask, pointing to a small box in his hand.
    He offers it to me, kissing my shoulder in the process. “Hair dye.”
    I inhale deeply. “Okay, I guess that makes sense.”
    “It’s a dark brown. If October had her way you’d have been green. Silvain picked it up for you. Apparently, he was stopped and swabbed again. The town is swarming with the police and the army. He drove passed Wheeler’s and it has been gutted. They know the identities of all of us, but for some reason they’re focussing on you.”
    “They know I’m Dual- EVO.”
    “We don’t know that.”
    “They know I’m Dual-EVO, Adam. They know everything.” The thought is a terrifying one, but I can’t deal with it now. “How do I use this stuff?” I ask, brandishing the dye.
    He shrugs, looking at the box like it’s something from another planet. “I’ll go get the girls... and Seth,” he says, jogging out of the door.
    ***
    Emiko rinses out the dye; black water runs over my forehead and into Silvain’s pristine bathtub. Yana, Seth, and October sit on the floor rummaging through the contents of Silvain’s toiletry baskets.
    Emiko scrunches the last of the water out of my hair and turns the shower off. “It’s going to be dark,” she says, wrapping my hair in a towel.
    “As long as it’s not red,” says October. “That hair was like a ‘wanted criminal over here’ beacon.”
    “Can I look?”
    “No,” Emiko and Yana says in unison.
    “Never look at it wet. It’ll be a whole different colour when it’s dry,” Emiko adds.
    I don’t protest. She leads me out of the bathroom by the elbow and shoves me on to the bed. 
    The hairdryer has the ferocity of a jet engine, so we can’t hear each other over the noise. I take to sitting in silence whilst I await my new look.
    Yana gives me a sympathetic smile that does nothing to ease my apprehension. “It suits you,” she says, kindly.
    I look in the mirror and shrug. The government have succeeded in taking my bloody hair colour from me. As if it wasn’t enough to take my family- friends- my life. The brown hair makes my brown eyes all the darker, and I look older, more drained.
    Emiko continues to fiddle with my hair as we enter the kitchen. All eyes are on me, and I know Adam can sense my distaste.
    ‘I hate it, ’ I say to him, telepathically.
    “You still look beautiful,” he says out loud.
    “I look like Morticia Adams.” My pale skin and dark hair contrast noticeably.
    Adam smirks. “Actually, you look like—”
    “Me,” interrupts Jude.
    Adam nods his agreement.
    “Holy crap, you really do,” says October.
    “Well, then, we should have gone with green,” I say.

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    Adam throws me onto the bed in a caveman fashion. I giggle as we play fight, and he struggles with the buttons on my shirt. Adam is my best and only form of distraction. He knows that I need this; I need him to be normal with me. I want to do normal couple things. His mouth is warm against mine, and a sudden thought pings in