Vital Found (The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy Book 2)

by Kaydence Snow

  He’d winked at her as he let us pass. “You have one hour max. I don’t want to lose my job.”

  I’d gaped at her. The mystery of who she’d been seeing in secret had been solved, but as we continued into town, she’d persisted in acting totally unaffected by it all, even under my onslaught of questions.

  Normally students had to sign in and out at the gates. All Vitals had a personal security detail, but I wasn’t a Vital as far as anyone knew, so all the agents were under instructions to report my absence to Tyler. This was really only a safety precaution in case someone forced me to leave under duress; I never left campus without one of my guys or someone under Tyler’s orders.

  At least, not until today.

  “I don’t know.” I chewed on my bottom lip, feeling as if I was doing something behind my guys’ backs. “What if something bad happens?”

  Zara rolled her eyes. “We are literally in the most heavily guarded place on the East Coast right now. Even if shit goes down, there are Melior Group badasses everywhere.”

  As if to illustrate her point, two black-clad, armed women passed us, heading in the opposite direction. Bradford Hills was crawling with them.

  We fell into a companionable silence, walking side by side. As we rounded a corner onto Main Street, Zara turned to me.

  “OK. We need a better distraction. Want to get some ice cream?”

  “I don’t know. It’s freezing.” I pulled my scarf a little tighter around my neck, tucking the pendant into the front of my shirt. If I couldn’t see it, maybe I would stop worrying.

  “Who cares? Do you want ice cream or not?”

  I smiled, glad she seemed to be getting over the fact that Dot and I had lied to her. “Let’s do it.”

  With a satisfied nod, she pulled me along. “There’s a little gelato place at the other end of Main.”

  “Thanks for talking me into this.” I kept my eyes on the street ahead as we passed boutique shops, little cafés, cozy restaurants, and lovely old buildings, with giant oaks lining the street the whole way, their branches bare. “I hardly know the town, and I’ve been living here almost a year. It’s really nice. And I wouldn’t mind trying some of these restaurants.”

  Zara remained silent. I looked over to see a deep frown on her face, her eyes fixed on the sidewalk.

  “Red? You OK?”

  “Huh?” Her head snapped up. “Sorry. I was in my own world.”

  I smiled warmly. “That’s OK. I was just saying thanks for talking me into this. It’s nice. I wish Beth was here.”

  “Me too,” she whispered sadly as we slowed to a stop in front of the gelato shop. It was a little separated from the rest of the Main Street buildings, its front door on a diagonal, almost hidden from the main road.

  “Oh no. I think it’s closed.” The shop’s Closed sign hung unmistakably on the door. I glanced around for another café, but there were no other establishments at this end of Main, the street curving up a hill and disappearing into the trees.

  “Is it?” Zara stiffened next to me, the arm looped through mine going rigid. “You sure?”

  She dragged me right up to the door.

  “Pretty sure.” I chuckled. “I know you want ice cream, but the sign is pretty clear.”

  “Yeah . . .” She looked behind me, scanning the street with nervous eyes.

  I frowned. She was acting strange.

  “Let’s just walk back up the street. We can get coffee and cake instead.” I tried to tug her away, but her grip on my arm was like steel. “Zara, what the hell—”

  An unassuming gray van suddenly pulled into the driveway leading to the back of the building, cutting my words short. It stopped right next to us, blocking the footpath and the view of the rest of Main Street.

  I hardly had time to register the prickles on the back of my neck before the door slid open and two masked men stepped out.

  They moved fast. Two sets of rough hands closed, vicelike, around my upper arms. As they wrenched me away from my friend, she released her hold. I didn’t even have time to try to run, yell at Zara to run, do anything.

  They dragged me backward toward the van, and one of them shoved a face mask over my nose and mouth—the kind you would see in a hospital operating room. Something sweet smelling with a sharp alcoholic tinge filled my lungs, probably some form of ether.

  All the training I’d done had been for nothing. The endless hours of torture in the gym with Kane, the runs with Ethan, the sparring—I still had no idea what I was doing.

  As the ether did its job, stealing my consciousness away at an alarming rate, my mind registered only two things.

  The first was the chemical formula of ether: C4H10O. Completely useless in this situation.

  The second was the cold, hard look in Zara’s eyes as she willingly climbed into the van after us.

  The last thing I heard before blacking out was the thud of the van door slamming shut as the betrayal slammed through my heart.

  My eyes slowly opened, the sense that something wasn’t right pushing through the haze in my brain.

  I groaned and rolled onto my back, screwing my eyes shut again. The ground was cold—concrete—and I could hear rain, a rhythmic metallic sound in the background. If it weren’t for the fact that I was freezing and on the hard ground, the noise would have been soothing. I lifted my right hand to rub my temple, and my left came with it.

  They were bound at the wrists with a zip tie.

  A jolt of adrenaline shot through me, fear finally catching up to the murkiness in my head, but I tried to shove it down. I had to remain calm. I had to assess the situation.

  I was in what looked like a basement. The concrete floor matched dank, dirty concrete walls, and timber beams ran across the low ceiling. It was dark, but thin windows situated high on one wall were still letting in some faint light, so it couldn’t have been more than a few hours since I was taken. Zara and I had headed out around midafternoon.

  Zara!

  The detached look in her eyes as she closed the van door flashed through my memory.

  Confusion, worry, betrayal, and fear churned inside me, all battling for dominance. But I couldn’t give in to the overwhelming feelings. I needed to stay focused.

  Moving my legs, I realized my ankles were bound too. I tried to push myself up, but halfway there my stomach did a flip, and I collapsed onto my elbows, vomiting—a side effect of the large dose of ether they must have given me to knock me out so fast. I puked until there was nothing left, fighting my body to stop dry retching.

  Once my breathing calmed a little, I managed to scoot into a sitting position, away from my own vomit, and look around for something, anything, to tell me where I was or what was happening.

  There didn’t seem to be anyone around, but the basement looked large, the area farthest away from the windows cast in shadow. Stacks of crates sat at intervals along the length of one wall, and multiple shelves held neatly arranged gardening implements and tools. A wall was at my back, and stacks of crates towered over me on either side. Metal bars stretched between the two stacks and, I realized as my eyes adjusted, all the way around, completely enclosing me.

  A cage.

  Panic began to set in. I lifted my bound hands to swipe away the tears pricking at my eyes while my brain grasped for control by providing relevant statistics. Kidnapping statistics for US adults are elusive, as the crime of kidnapping is not recorded separately to all missing persons cases. When it comes to minors, 86 percent of perpetrators in non-family kidnappings are male, while the victims are predominantly female. Nearly half of all victims are sexually assaulted.

  I was fairly certain my particular situation had more to do with my being a Vital than with someone wanting to rape me, but the idea only added to the terror clawing at me from the inside out.

  My wrists were beginning to hurt from the tight restraints, but they were also itchy. I cursed under my breath; I’d completely dropped my control of the Light flow, distracted by dread and na
usea.

  I leaned my head against the cold metal bars and closed my eyes, consciously taking deep, slow breaths. Without any of the guys here to transfer to, the Light could get overwhelming very quickly.

  My eyes flew open. The guys! I had a way out! It was on a chain around my neck. My bound hands flew to my chest, where the feeling of the little metal bar had become so familiar I forgot it was there most of the time.

  I couldn’t find it.

  How could they have known to take it off me? I hadn’t told Zara about the little distress beacon.

  Forcing myself to take another calming breath, I pulled my scarf away, running my fingers over my throat more carefully. The chain was there! The pendant had just gotten twisted so it hung down my back.

  I tugged on the chain, pulling the little metal bar to the front, and didn’t waste any time, yanking the two pieces apart with shaking fingers.

  I knew four alarms on four cell phones had instantly gone off, but for me it was a little anticlimactic. I was still bound and caged, sitting on the cold concrete with no idea where I was or how long I’d been there.

  My shoulders slumped. I stuffed the silver bit into the pocket of my jacket, then did my best to pull the jacket closer around myself. The adrenaline was beginning to wear off, and the cold seeping into my bones was taking its place. All I could do now was wait and hope they got to me before . . . I didn’t let myself entertain the myriad horrible possibilities, focusing instead on bringing my Light flow under control.

  But my mind wouldn’t stop trying to puzzle things out. The men who had grabbed me were trained, efficient, and identically dressed in black, with masks that brought back gruesome memories of the invasion. Judging by what I knew about Melior Group’s suspicions, and about how the Vitals had been taken, I was pretty certain I was firmly in the clutches of Variant Valor.

  And Zara had told them my secret.

  My gut twisted. I pushed the thought out of my mind and counted my breaths instead.

  After at least an hour, I managed to get into a meditative state and bring my Light flow under control. But it slipped away again violently the moment a painful tugging sensation stabbed through my chest. I gasped, my hands flying to the spot to try to rub the ache away.

  One of the guys was in trouble. I hadn’t felt the pull this bad since that first night when Ethan had blown up a car and I’d run to him in the middle of the night.

  Panic squeezed my lungs as the Light poured into me, desperate to be released into whoever had me feeling as if I might die if I didn’t get to him now. Would I have to sit here, feeling the pain in my chest get worse and worse as one of them lay dying? A sob of hopeless frustration choked me, my body folding in on itself; the pain and the pull were becoming unbearable.

  Just as I was about to curl into a fetal position, a loud metallic clang shattered the basement’s quiet.

  A light flipped on, illuminating the area in front of my cage as boots thudded down the stairs.

  I sat up straighter, on alert, but the tears continued to slide down my cheeks, the pain in my chest refusing to be ignored.

  As the group came into view, I released a strangled sound—something between a sob and a wail.

  Two men were hauling a limp Josh across the concrete. They each had a firm grip on one of his arms, his feet dragging across the ground, his head hanging. His chinos were covered in dirt from the calf down, and his white shirt was torn at the right shoulder and crumpled.

  Blood was everywhere. A thick, gluggy drop of it fell from someplace on his face I couldn’t see and, as his feet dragged through it, left a macabre streak on the dirty concrete floor.

  Behind them walked Zara and another woman, whose pantsuit and neat hairdo seemed out of place in the dank basement. The woman was looking down at her phone as she walked, her heels clicking.

  The two men dragged Josh over to my cage, one of them reaching for the lock. I awkwardly shuffled over to the bars, everything in me screaming to get to Josh.

  “I wouldn’t put him in there. She’s his Vital.” Zara’s detached voice made them pause, and they both looked over to the older lady. There was something vaguely familiar about her, but all my attention was on Josh.

  She looked up, sparing me a disinterested glance. “Put him in another cage. We can’t have a fully charged telekinetic disrupting the schedule.” Her voice was quiet, her words articulate, and I once again got a pang of familiarity before she turned and focused again on her phone.

  My kidnappers dragged Josh away from me, and the ache in my chest got impossibly worse, making me sob. They opened the door to another cage, on the other side of the crates to my left and at a right angle, and dumped him inside, his body crumpling lifelessly to the concrete.

  They locked the door and walked back the way they’d come, the fancy lady leading the way.

  “Right, now I’d like a full report. How the hell did he find us? Are you idiots sure you weren’t followed?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” one of them answered. “We followed protocol to the letter and . . .” His voice trailed off as their footsteps got fainter.

  I switched my attention to Zara. She was just standing there, looking at Josh’s prone form. I couldn’t make myself look at him again. Not yet. I needed to talk sense into Zara. There was no point in pleading with the black-clad men or their boss, but Zara was my friend. Or so I thought.

  “Zara.” My voice was strained and gravelly. More tears fell down my face.

  She just kept staring at Josh, her expression disturbingly flat.

  “Zara!” I managed to yell, and she turned her blank eyes to me slowly. A sick, hollow feeling settled in my stomach. She was not OK, and I’d been so wrapped up in my own shit, in supporting Dot through losing Charlie, that I hadn’t paid attention to what was going on with my other friend. I’d always seen Zara as such a strong person; it never occurred to me that she could be the one struggling the most.

  “What are you doing, Red?” My voice broke again, but I hoped the use of my nickname for her would spark some emotion. “Why?”

  All she did was blink slowly, her arms slack. I began to worry she was having some kind of mental break.

  Another sickening stab of tugging pain made me double over, struggling to breathe. When I looked back up, she’d moved closer to my cage. Her expression was still indifferent, but she’d tilted her head to the side and seemed to be focusing on me better.

  “Zara?”

  Before I could formulate another way to get through to her, she spoke. “We’re doing important work. We are. We need Vitals to fix it. And you’re a Vital. I told them. I helped them get a Vital. A powerful one. We need more powerful ones. The others keep failing. Dying. It will all be worth it in the end. She’ll understand once it’s over. Once we fix it.”

  She looked away as she spoke, gazing at some imagined sight in the middle distance. Her right hand began to twitch next to her leg, little flicks of the wrist that didn’t look deliberate.

  “Fix what? What are you trying to fix, Zara?”

  Her hand stilled. “The genes. The Light can switch them on. I think Josh is going to die.”

  She wasn’t making any sense, and the rapid change of topic had me crying harder. I’d lost another friend. She was standing right in front of me, but Zara was gone. And if the excruciating pain in my chest was anything to go by, I was about to lose one of my Variants too.

  “I think you’re right. Josh is dying.” I fought hard not to break down completely, my breaths becoming more and more erratic, my tears soaking the scarf at my neck. “Help me save him, Zara. Just let me touch him. He doesn’t have to die. Please, we can—”

  “No,” she cut me off. “He doesn’t matter. Only you matter.”

  She turned on her heel and left. I crumpled to the ground, watching my last hope of saving Josh walk away, indifferent.

  With my face on the cold hard ground, my tears staining the gray concrete black, I finally looked through the two sets of bars at a dyin
g Josh. He was on his front, his head angled toward me. The half of his face that wasn’t squished into the ground was red with blood.

  He didn’t even look as if he was breathing, but the awful pain in my chest told me he was still alive. As long as the pain was there, there was something for the Light to be drawn to. I was dreading the pain disappearing.

  I pushed my hands between the bars, reaching in his direction; it was pointless—our cages were feet away from each other—but I couldn’t help trying. The tight zip ties around my wrists dug in, angrily chafing my skin, but that wasn’t what demanded my attention as I moved my arms in front of me.

  I was glowing. There was so much Light pushing inside of me in anticipation of releasing into Josh that I had gone nuclear again.

  Twenty-Two

  At the sight of my glowing skin, I cracked. The pain, the worry, the despair, and the hopelessness churned together into something closer to frustrated anger. I growled, screwing my eyes shut and bunching my hands into fists, my nails digging into my palms hard enough to leave marks. Then I opened my fingers, stretching them wide.

  My eyes flew open at the warm, tingly sensation that spread through my hands, as if I were holding them under a giant faucet, the running water firm but pleasant. But it wasn’t water flowing over my hands. It was Light. And it wasn’t flowing over me. It was flowing out of me.

  I watched, mesmerized, as the Light shot across the distance between the two cages and slammed into Josh.

  I didn’t dare move a muscle or think a thought. I had no idea how the Light could transfer without contact, but I wasn’t about to question it. Not when it was saving Josh’s life. I knew I’d done it that day on the train platform—my Light had leaked out to Ethan and Josh even though I hadn’t been touching them—but I hadn’t done it since, and we still had no idea how it worked.

  The glow on my skin slowly faded, the pain in my chest abating until it no longer felt as if I were being torn in two. Eventually the Light pouring out of me stopped.