by Jena Leigh
No one spoke to Alex. No one even looked at her.
She was still sitting there silently when the room finished emptying and Declan walked back in.
“Jesus, Alex… are you okay?” He came to a stop beside her and paused to take in the scene. “What the hell happened?”
Alex didn’t answer.
Declan reached out and caught her gently by the chin, turning her face so that he could look her in the eye.
She jerked away from his touch before the transfer could begin.
“Did Jessica…?” he trailed off.
Alex felt warm tears burning behind her eyes and slammed them shut before any could escape.
“Here,” Declan placed the wet rag he’d been using earlier into her hand before kneeling to pick up the shattered remains of her work.
Alex opened her eyes and focused on her breathing.
In.
Out.
In.
She held her breath for a few long moments.
Out.
Alex steeled herself as best she could. She gripped the rag tightly. For the next few minutes, she focused solely on cleaning up the mess created by the spilled glaze.
The paint had missed Declan’s jacket, but had stained the top of her thighs. Her jeans were ruined.
She mopped the glaze up off the floor, her workstation and, finally, her ruined mask.
Declan placed Alex’s tray back on her desk.
She tried not to stare at the wreckage.
It’s just a few stupid sculptures, she reminded herself. No big loss. Don’t you dare start sobbing in front of Declan. You’ve dealt with this a thousand times before. This is nothing new. It’s fine…
You’re fine.
Except that she wasn’t.
Because hadn’t Jessica merely spoken the truth? Vee’s death was on her head. If it hadn’t been for Alex, she’d still be alive.
So would Alex’s own parents. Grayson’s wife. His team members. Declan and Nathaniel’s families…
Veronica had become just another in a long list of casualties caused by Masterson’s obsession with Alex.
“I’ve got to… um.” Alex picked up her tray, moving to shelve it beside the others. “I should get going. Cassie and Kenzie are probably wondering where I’m at.”
“I’ll walk you to your car,” said Declan.
The look of pity on Declan’s face caused her stomach to twist. It was too much.
“No!” Alex winced at the anger in her own voice. “I mean, thanks… I’m good. I’ll see you later, Decks.”
Shouldering her messenger bag, Alex left the art room without so much as a backward glance.
* * *
Kenzie walked silently beside Alex as they wound their way into the woods, her flip-flops sinking into the dark gray sand of the path. The redhead cringed at the sensation of dirt grinding between her toes.
Even in the shade of the forest, the sweltering heat of the afternoon seemed unbearable. How on Earth did Floridians survive living in this bug-filled sauna year-round? Crazy people. Didn’t they know there were alternatives to living in a swamp?
“How did you guys find this place?” asked Alex.
Kenzie batted an overgrown palm frond out of her face and huffed. “Aerial photos. I think. I don’t know, honestly. Grayson told us it was here just after we moved.”
“Why don’t we just use your property to train?”
They certainly had enough room. Their ten-acre seaside compound in the gated, Bay View Heights development was a veritable tropical oasis. Not that she’d expected anything less, given Grayson’s expensive taste.
Good thing he could afford it.
Kenzie was reminded, yet again, of just how lucky she and her brother were to have someone like John Grayson taking care of them. They’d wanted for nothing over the years. Except, perhaps, a little more freedom.
She grinned over her shoulder. “I’d like to see you trying to explain to our curious neighbors how you managed to accidentally blow up our swimming pool or something.”
“You really think I’m going to be that out of control?” Alex’s voice cracked.
Kenzie quirked a brow. “Alex, I love you like a sister, but you’re one of the most out-of-control Variants I’ve ever freaking met. You’re unstable nitro tied to a jackhammer. One wrong bump, and I’m pretty sure you could take out an entire building. Or a swimming pool, as the case may be.”
“And you still think training me is a good idea?”
“The bad idea would be to ignore your training entirely and have it come back to bite you in the ass later on.” She stopped walking. “Listen, Alex. I know this is all new to you, but you need to understand just how different you are from normal Variants.”
“I know, Kenzie.” Alex crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly defensive. “I’m a freak amongst freaks. Thanks for the reminder.”
Kenzie shook her head.
Alex’s moods were all over the place today.
She fought back an urge to scan her thoughts and find out why. Alex had gotten lazy about keeping up a wall around her mind, but that was far from an invitation.
Alex was the sort of girl that valued her privacy.
“That’s really not what I meant. At all,” said Kenzie. “You’ve seen what my brother and Nate can do, right? How powerful they are?”
Kenzie stared off into the woods. “I mean, Decks can jump a car. An entire car! That’s practically unheard of for a jumper. And Nate? The things I’ve seen him do…” she trailed off. “That sort of power isn’t common for Variants. It’s the exception, not the rule.”
She started off down the trail again. Alex followed a few steps behind her.
“You may not be able to hold onto your powers for long, Alex, but believe me when I tell you that while you do have them, you’re capable of things Declan and Nate could only dream of doing. I can sense it coming off you in waves. All that potential. You’re unique.”
They broke through the edge of the woods and into a large clearing.
Overhead, the cloudy sky had turned dark purple, threatening rain, but the sun still shone brightly across the field. The unusual play of light and shadow made for a gorgeous contrast.
Okay, said Kenzie, admiring the view. Maybe this swamp life isn’t all bad.
A blast of anxiety crashed against her mental barriers. She turned to face Alex. The girl swayed lightly on her feet as all of the color drained from her face.
Kenzie reached out and snagged Alex by the elbow, as much to steady her as to keep her from bolting. She recognized the look in her friend’s eyes.
This time Kenzie couldn’t resist the urge. She dove headlong into Alex’s thoughts—and then backpedalled as quickly as she could. The onslaught of fear and scattered images left Kenzie sick to her stomach. She released Alex’s elbow and took a step backward.
Alex went completely still.
Kenzie tried to make sense of everything she’d just seen.
The anxiety and the fear were mostly tied to Alex’s concerns about losing control and hurting someone, but interwoven with those same emotions was an undercurrent of guilt and shame.
Below all of that, however, was the thought that had stopped Alex dead in her tracks. Recognition. Her friend had seen this clearing before… in a dream.
No, not a dream. A nightmare.
No wonder she was so freaked.
Nathaniel was walking toward them from the center of the field. “Hey, Red.” He smiled, oblivious. “And Alex! Long time no see. How’ve you been?”
No one moved.
“It was just a dream, Alex,” said Kenzie.
That seemed to snap Alex from her reverie. Hurt and betrayal flashed in her eyes.
“Don’t, Kenzie. Just…just don’t.” Alex turned to Nathaniel with an apologetic smile. “Hey, Nate. It’s good to see you. Listen, I’m really sorry.” She began edging her way back into the forest. “Can we try this tomorrow instead? I’m suddenly not feeling so grea
t.”
Nathaniel shrugged. “Of course.” He sounded a little disappointed. “See you tomorrow, then?”
Alex nodded once before turning on her heel and jogging back into the forest.
Nathaniel crossed his arms over his chest and turned to Kenzie, exasperated. “You dug through her head, didn’t you?”
Kenzie grimaced. “I didn’t plan on it, Nathaniel. It just sort of happened.”
“She going to be okay?”
Kenzie looked back toward the path. She could just make out Alex threading her way through the trees and back toward where they’d parked the jeep.
“I really hope so.”
— 5 —
A flash of pale skin was the only warning Nathaniel had before Kenzie’s bare foot made contact with the bridge of his nose. In the span of half a heartbeat, Nathaniel jerked his head backward, threw up a hand, and transformed his adoptive sister into a living statue.
She stood there smiling up at him, her right leg stretched high in the air and her core oddly twisted, paralyzed halfway through her attack.
“Ow,” he mumbled, rubbing his nose ruefully. He’d halted Kenzie’s forward motion before she could do much damage, but taking a spinning heel kick to the face—even at half-speed—hurt like a bitch, regardless.
It was his own fault. He hadn’t been paying close enough attention to her movements, otherwise he would have seen the attack coming.
Instead, he’d been musing about Alex and the way she’d reacted to seeing the field.
Was she really that nervous about beginning her training?
Or was it something else?
“Point!” Kenzie chirped happily, still frozen in place. “Now let me loose, jackass, before I strain something.”
Behind them, Declan was chuckling.
Their brother had arrived late and then proceeded to take a seat in the middle of the field, idly watching Nathaniel and Kenzie while they sparred. He claimed he was practicing with the spheres Alex had recently shown him how to create, trying to teach himself to control them.
Which was bullshit, because Nate knew for a fact that Declan had gotten a handle on the spheres less than a week after discovering them.
He was just slacking off because Alex wasn’t here.
Had she been here, he likely would have been showing off instead.
“Nice follow-through, Red. But you’ve got to stop locking up your leg before you kick.” Nate tapped her lightly on the kneecap. “Start from a forty-five degree chamber. Not a full extension. Otherwise you’re going to screw with your accuracy. Or, knowing you, you’ll end up hurting yourself instead of your opponent.”
“Says the guy still rubbing his nose,” said Kenzie with an eye roll. “Now let me down.”
He released her and she switched gracefully back into a ready position, bouncing lightly on the balls of her bare feet.
“So are you two going to tell me what’s going on with Alex? Or do I have to drag it out of you?” asked Nate.
“She’s still freaked about her abilities,” said Declan. He was toying with a sphere, the crackling ball of violet light expanding and contracting above his palm. Alex had been able to grow a sphere to roughly the size of a large beach ball. Declan had yet to create one larger than a grapefruit.
Nate had been tempted on more than one occasion to console his brother with the old saying “size doesn’t matter.”
Kenzie and Nate continued to circle each other, looking for openings.
“It’s more than that,” she said.
“Oh?” said Nate, throwing a cross that Kenzie easily dodged.
“Something happened today with Jessica Huffman,” said Kenzie, still circling. “I didn’t get all the details, but the gist of it was that Jessica is blaming Alex for what happened to Veronica.”
Declan cursed. “Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Why would she have told you?” asked Kenzie.
Nathaniel pounced on her distraction by punching her lightly in the ribs. “Point.”
Declan grumbled behind them. “Well obviously she didn’t tell you, either, seeing as how you had to dig that bit of information out of her head.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Kenzie rubbed her side. “Whatever.”
“Who the hell is Veronica?” asked Nate.
Declan dissolved the sphere with a flick of his wrist. “She was the one with Jessica that day at the dock.”
“Wait… the dark haired girl?” he asked, trying to keep his guard up and search his memory at the same time. “The one Masterson killed?”
“Yeah,” said Kenzie.
Jessica blamed Alex for that? She’d done everything she could to protect those girls. They were only there in the first place because they’d been hiding in the bushes, spying on Alex and Connor.
It had been a terrible case of wrong place, wrong time, but that wasn’t Alex’s fault.
And it certainly wasn’t Alex’s fault that Masterson was a psychotic bastard with a taste for blood.
Kenzie dropped to the ground and swiveled around, delivering a low spinning sweep kick to his ankle.
Or, at least, she would have, had he not stopped her an inch away from his shin.
“No point,” he said.
She muttered a few not-so-nice-words in his general direction. “That was so totally a point!” she argued, stuck in mid-sweep.
“Look at your positioning.” He gestured to her twisted form. “You might have made contact had I let you go through with it, but you’re also a split second away from busting your ass. No point.”
She growled as he let her loose and, sure enough, fell promptly on her backside.
Declan laughed again.
“Oh, shut-up, Decks,” muttered Kenzie. “I’d like to see you do better. I know for a fact that your spin kicks need a lot more work than mine do.”
“Any time, any place, little sister.”
Nate sighed. “Let’s just call it a night. This session was more for Alex than for us, anyway. We’ll pick up again tomorrow, provided the rain holds off.”
Nate glanced up at the unnaturally dark clouds hovering overhead. He was surprised it hadn’t started pouring already.
“Hey, Decks,” said Kenzie, gathering up her flip-flops. “Give me a lift home?”
Declan shook his head. “Not in those shorts and shoes, Red. I brought my bike.”
“Nate?” she asked. “You brought the Charger right?”
“I’m parked on the other side of the woods,” he said, tying the laces on his sneakers. “Over by the beach. But I think I’m going to hang out here a while. Get a run in before I head back.”
“You, sir, are a glutton for punishment,” Kenzie said, smiling.
Resigned, Declan held out his hand to Nate. “Keys?” he said. “I’ll take Red home and come back for you and the bike later.”
“Why don’t you just jump?” asked Nate.
“Because I’ve had a long-ass day that’s not even close to being over yet. It’d be a waste of energy. Now give me your keys.”
He tossed his car keys to Declan. “One scratch, Decks, and you’re a dead man.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know the drill. See you in twenty.”
As Declan and Kenzie disappeared into the tree line, Nathaniel started his run.
Less than thirty feet later, a black cloth fell over his face, blocking out his view of the field. He twisted toward his attacker and the heavy material was cinched tightly around his throat.
Nate fell to his knees.
An iron grip clamped down on his shoulder and he felt the pressure of a jump. Already short of breath, Nate struggled to overcome the agonizing pain that spread through his chest and radiated behind his eyes.
Ignoring his need for air, he grabbed hold of the hand on his shoulder. Taking his attacker by surprise, Nate yanked hard on the man’s wrist and twisted it to the left.
A sickening crack rang out beside Nathaniel’s ear.
“Son of a bitch!”
Using the distraction to his advantage, Nate tugged roughly at the fabric covering his head—and found himself kneeling on the hardwood floor of a lavishly furnished office.
The room reminded him of Grayson’s den. Bookshelves lined the walls and twin black leather seats had been placed before the desk. Richly stained mahogany furniture was scattered throughout the room.
The person seated behind the desk, however, was decidedly not Grayson.
“Language, Harrison.” The woman’s mouth was drawn down at the corners. Her attention shifted to Nathaniel. “Was that really necessary?”
With a tired sigh, Nate got to his feet. He spared a glance at the large man standing behind him. The agent, Harrison, was cradling his injured arm and staring daggers at Nathaniel.
Nate turned back around. “Was the sack over my head necessary?”
The older woman’s frown deepened and her gaze flicked to Nathaniel’s escort. “Harrison,” she said sternly. “Take care of that wrist.”
The large man hesitated, “Sir?”
“Get out, Harrison.”
“Yes, sir.”
Harrison jumped, vanishing from the room in a ripple of violet light.
“I would have come willingly, you know,” said Nathaniel, adjusting his disheveled shirt. “Or, better yet, I could have just met you somewhere. If Declan or Kenzie saw your goon jump me, it’s going to be a hell of a lot harder to explain than if I’d just disappeared for a while.”
Director Carter seemed to consider that, taking a moment to appraise him before replying. “Circumstances have changed. I couldn’t be certain of your loyalties anymore.”
It was Nathaniel’s turn to pause.
“My loyalties are exactly the same as they were two weeks ago,” he said carefully. “Nothing’s changed.”
“Everything has changed.”
Nathaniel tried and failed to read something behind her expression. His fists clenched. “And our deal? Has that changed as well?”
The Director’s smile was icy. “You lied to me, Nathaniel. When our deal was struck, it was under false pretenses.”
“No,” he said. “I never lied to you.”
Another pause.
Nathaniel felt the tickle of desperation begin somewhere deep in his chest. He couldn’t afford to let things fall apart. Not now.
