Revival (The Variant Series, Book 1)

by Leigh, Jena

  Declan dropped her hand and walked out, leaving her standing alone in his darkened bedroom.

  — 10 —

  Alex woke to the smell of coffee and blueberry muffins.

  She wasn’t sure which one had convinced her to leave behind the blissful dream she’d been clinging to—a dream of Connor and a life before she fried the computer lab—but eventually she managed to pry one eye open and fix a baleful glare on the digital clock atop the bedside table.

  6:27 A.M.

  The events of the previous day came back in a rush. Alex found herself wishing more than ever that she could find her way back into last night’s dream. She settled instead for pulling the duvet over her head and groaning into a pillow.

  After the abrupt end of her training session the night before, she’d made her way back to her guest room and discovered two suitcases, filled to bursting with clean clothes, toiletries, and half a dozen books plucked from Alex’s to-read pile back home, sitting on the edge of the bed.

  Cil had apparently stopped by while she and Declan had been down by the lake.

  The initial rush of gratitude she’d felt at the sight of her belongings was soon replaced by an even stronger wave of disappointment. Her aunt hadn’t even bothered to leave a note, much less find her to discuss things again before leaving. She’d just gone.

  Then again, what was left to say?

  Alex pushed down the duvet. She could hear movement downstairs and a light shone in the hallway on the other side of the bedroom door.

  Might as well join them. She certainly wouldn’t be going back to sleep any time soon.

  Throwing on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt (her aunt had obviously known about the weather here and packed accordingly), she padded barefoot out into the hall.

  The sounds of movement from below were soon joined by the ringing report of a dropped metal pan.

  “Oops,” she heard Kenzie say.

  “Well if she wasn’t up before, she is now. Good going, Red,” Nathaniel’s disembodied voice carried up the stairs.

  “Heh. My bad.”

  Alex made her way down the stairs and into the kitchen… and then stopped dead in her tracks.

  The massive kitchen was a culinary war zone.

  The beautiful black granite countertops were covered with potato peels, eggshells and what looked to be muffin batter. At the center of the long room stood an immense island, one end covered with discarded pots and pans of various size that someone must have pulled from the dark mahogany cabinets before deciding on the ones currently atop the stove. Some strange green liquid sat in a blender next to the stainless steel fridge… and in the middle of the chaos stood Kenzie, Nathaniel, Declan, and Brian, each occupied with a different task.

  Kenzie noticed her first. “Morning, sleepy-head!”

  “Sorry if she woke you,” said Brian. He was standing on his tiptoes pulling dishes from one of the overhead cabinets.

  “No, no. It’s okay. I was up,” said Alex. “Can I… help?”

  “Nope,” Kenzie replied, pressing down two slices of bread in the toaster. “This is a finely oiled machine we’ve got running here. You just have a seat.”

  Surrounding the hulking island at the kitchen’s center were six barstools. Alex carefully made her way toward one of them just as Brian went whizzing past her with a stack of plates in his arms. She deposited herself on a stool facing the melee and took in the scene.

  Nathaniel appeared to be manning two of the kitchen’s three stovetops—alternating his attention between a pan of bacon, two pans filled with eggs, a skillet filled with hash browns and a covered pot Alex couldn’t see the contents of—while Kenzie carried baskets of what looked to be toast and muffins into the dining area. They were both far too awake for this side of seven A.M.

  Declan, meanwhile, just stood there, a statue amidst the chaos, staring into the open refrigerator. Judging from the intensity of his gaze, the secrets of the universe were hiding somewhere behind the orange juice and would be revealed to him if he simply glared at the container for long enough.

  He looked… Well, to be honest, he looked a little hung-over.

  Like Alex, the others were already dressed for the day, but Declan was still sporting the pair of flannel pants and faded gray shirt he’d slept in. He’d obviously not bothered to glance in a mirror yet, because his hair was sticking up at weird angles. Somehow, despite the odds, even dazed and disheveled looked good on him.

  Kenzie sidled up behind Declan and cleared her throat. He flinched at the sound.

  “Either move it, Decks, or hand me the eggs. Your choice.”

  Declan let the refrigerator door close and stalked toward the island at the center of the kitchen. “There better be some coffee left.”

  Kenzie shook her head and retrieved the egg carton. “How do you like ’em, Alex?”

  Alex, who had been staring thoughtfully at the rumpled form of Declan while he filled his mug, started at the question. Like who? Declan? At the moment, she was fairly certain he was an ass. But maybe that was just her.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Your eggs,” said Kenzie. “How do you like them? Scrambled? Over-easy? Up on the sunny side?”

  “Oh! Um, scrambled, please.”

  Kenzie deposited the egg carton on the counter next to where Nathaniel stood frying bacon. “Adam and Eve on a raft and wreck ’em!”

  Nate smiled. “Two scrambled eggs, coming right up.”

  Next to Alex, Declan stood savoring his coffee as if it were a lifeline. Definitely a late night for that one.

  “You want some?” he asked, holding up the mug she’d been staring at. His voice was still a little rough from sleep. Alex tried not to find it attractive.

  Honestly.

  She tried.

  “I’d love some,” she said. “Thanks.”

  Declan filled a mug with coffee and nudged the cream and sugar in her direction.

  On the other side of the room, Kenzie raised an eyebrow. “Well at least last night’s bender at The Corner Hole didn’t fry your brain to the point you completely lost your manners. I suppose that’s something.”

  “Corner Pocket,” he corrected automatically. “And I told you, that’s not where I went.”

  “So then where did you go?” asked Brian as he wandered back into the kitchen.

  “On a little fact-finding mission.”

  “Yes.” Kenzie plucked the lid off of the large pot and stirred its contents. “Because you can learn so many interesting things from Jim, Jack, José and Johnny. Full of information, they are.”

  “I thought Grayson didn’t want us looking into the Brandt thing.” Nathaniel set the bowl of eggs he’d been whisking back onto the counter.

  “Yeah, well.” Declan shrugged. “What the boss don’t know won’t hurt him.”

  “Uh-huh.” Nathaniel turned his attention back to the stove. “Cause that’s worked out so well for you in the past.”

  Brian pulled out the barstool next to Alex and slipped onto the seat. He looked back and forth between Declan and the out-of-reach coffee pot.

  With a resigned sigh, Declan filled another mug, dropped in a spoonful of sugar, and slid it toward the boy. “I’m telling you, kid, you keep drinking that stuff and it’s going to stunt your growth.”

  Brian just smiled and sipped at his coffee.

  “So what did you find out?” asked Alex.

  “Not a lot. Brandt’s been off the grid for the last few months. Near as I can tell, our run-in with him at the bookstore was the first time anyone’s seen him since January.”

  “So what’s he been doing in the meantime?” asked Nathaniel.

  “That, brother, is the $64,000 question.”

  “Maybe he was on vacation,” said Brian.

  Everyone turned to look at him.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Psychopaths-for-hire don’t take vacations, Brain,” said Kenzie. “Not one’s like Brandt, anyhow… Not without leaving a t
rail of charred corpses along the way.”

  “Oh,” he said slowly. “Right.”

  “On that note,” said Kenzie. “Who’s hungry?”

  * * *

  Alex was stuffed.

  Eggs, muffins, bacon, coffee… Oh, and the pot on the stove with the mystery contents? Turns out, it was filled with grits. So naturally she’d had some of those, too.

  Why hadn’t someone stopped her? All sense of self-restraint had flown out the window after the first bite. Now she was miserable.

  Her sudden voracity wasn’t all that surprising, given that her last meal had been a latte at Bayside Brews the previous afternoon.

  The others had invited her to have dinner with them the night before, but Alex had declined and gone to bed early. Or at least, she’d tried to. In the end she’d simply lain there, staring at the ceiling and over-analyzing everything until exhaustion finally claimed her around two A.M.

  At least the coffee was helping with the lack of sleep. She was fairly certain she’d consumed enough of the dark liquid to fuel a small country for at least a week.

  “Alex! Just the girl I’ve been looking for,” said a voice from above.

  She set down the book she’d been trying in vain to focus on and leaned back on the couch to get a better look at the upstairs hallway. Nathaniel was leaning over the banister with a smile on his face.

  “In the mood for a walk?” he asked. “Figured I’d give you the ten-cent tour. I’ll show you the rest of the house and then maybe we can walk around the property. Thought you might like to know where everything is since you’re probably going to be stuck here for a while.”

  “Yeah, that sounds great!” said Alex, springing to her feet. She’d say yes to just about anything right now if it got her off of the couch and out of her own head for a while.

  Tour the property with Nate? That one was definitely a no-brainer. Besides, this would be the perfect chance to get to know him a little better.

  Couldn’t argue with that.

  “Just let me get my shoes and—”

  “Sorry, bro,” Declan interrupted. He was making his way down the stairs, hair still wet from showering, clad in jeans and a black t-shirt, with the jacket he’d worn yesterday hanging from one hand. “She’s already got plans.”

  “I—what?” she sputtered. “What plans do I have?”

  “Training,” he said. “You’ve still got to work on sticking the landing.”

  “Can’t it wait an hour or two?” she protested. “We’ve got all day and Nate was going to show me around.”

  Declan came to a stop next to her and slipped on his jacket.

  “Yeah, Decks. There’s no reason the training can’t wait a little while,” said Nate. Alex didn’t miss the look that passed between the two of them. “You can have her back in a couple hours.”

  Declan just smiled and snaked an arm around Alex’s waist. “Catch you later, Nate.”

  They jumped.

  One moment she was staring at a vexed Nathaniel, and the next she was dropping clumsily into the sand by the lakeshore. She rose to her feet, but then doubled over when a wave of nausea hit her like a freight train.

  She really should not have had that second muffin.

  “Easy there, champ,” he said. “Probably should have warned you. Jumping on a full stomach… Well, it takes some getting used to.”

  Alex flattened one hand against her torso and took a deep breath.

  Declan patted her hard on the back as he made his way past her and down the beach. “Regretting that second muffin yet?”

  Her hand flew to her mouth. Oh, geez. For the love of God. No more talk of muffins.

  “No,” she lied as she forced herself upright. “But I do regret that I didn’t get to put on a pair of shoes before being abducted.”

  She lifted one bare foot and wiggled her toes for emphasis.

  “You’ll be fine,” he called over his shoulder. “It’s the beach. So you’ll get a little sand between your toes… You’re from Florida. You should be familiar with the sensation.”

  Alex trailed after him. “Says the guy in the Doc Martins. Do you have any idea how cold this wet sand is?”

  Her voice was whiny even to her own ears.

  She couldn’t help it.

  She’d really wanted to take that tour with Nathaniel. Leave it to Declan to keep that from happening. Her list of reasons to get back at him was growing longer by the hour.

  If she could only figure out how...

  Maybe she could enlist Kenzie to help her. Something told Alex the redhead would be more than happy to take on the assignment.

  Alex winced. Her toes were already going numb.

  Oh, yeah. His payback was going to be hell.

  A thick, early-morning fog blanketed the lake and limited her sight to only a few feet in any direction. Declan had vanished into the mist up ahead. Alex began jogging in an attempt to catch up… then nearly collided with him when he appeared out of nowhere, headed in the opposite direction.

  “Come on,” he said, walking past her and disappearing into the fog again.

  She did an about-face and followed him. After a while, they came to a stop at the same site they’d used for training the night before.

  Declan paused by the remains of their fire and stooped to retrieve the towel Alex had dropped prior to launching herself at him. He looked over at her with a wolfish grin.

  Alex rolled her eyes.

  The jacket she’d borrowed from Kenzie, her socks, and her shoes were still where she’d left them, laying next to the fallen tree. She marched toward them.

  Socks! Warm, wonderful socks…

  Ew. Okay. So they were damp, slightly chilly socks.

  She didn’t care. They were still socks.

  As she finished tying her laces, she realized she should probably thank Declan for bringing her back to her shoes.

  That was about the time he teleported, leaving her alone on the lakeshore.

  Alex sighed, wondering if all of their training sessions were destined to leave her waiting alone on a beach for long periods of time.

  Declan returned a moment later, minus the towel. He must have taken it back to the house. She wondered vaguely why Declan didn’t just teleport everywhere. It sure beat walking.

  “Better?” he asked her.

  “Much. Thank you.” Alex slipped into the jacket. “So what’s the plan, Yoda? You’re not going to make me stand on my hands while I try to levitate rocks, are you?”

  “Was that a Star Wars reference?” Declan called over his shoulder. He was already off and walking down the shore again. “You are a complete dork, you know that?”

  “Hey now. The Empire Strikes Back is a classic. Besides. You’re the one who knew what I was referring to,” she said, catching up and falling in to step beside him.

  “Touché,” he said. “No rocks just yet.”

  “Where are we headed?” she asked.

  “Nowhere in particular.”

  “Nowhere?”

  “Nope.”

  “Is this some sort of test?” she asked. “Some part of the training?”

  “What, this? This is a walk down the beach.” He shoved his hands into his pockets.

  “But you said we were going to train.” Alex stopped walking. After a moment, so did Declan. “What’s so important about a walk on the beach that it couldn’t wait for me to take a tour with Nate?”

  He shrugged. “If you’re so ready to leave, go ahead. I’m not keeping you here. Jump. You’ll be back at the cabin in no time.”

  Alex considered it. Then she considered the dense fog covering the lake. If she jumped and ended up in the water, chances were good she wouldn’t be able to see the right strip of shoreline in order to swim back. She could end up anywhere.

  Her mind made up, she spun on her heel and started walking back in the direction of the cabin.

  “Alex,” Declan called.

  “What?”

  “I’ll train you
.”

  Alex hesitated. Declan closed the distance between them and held out his hand.

  “Come with me,” he said.

  It was a request, not an order.

  She thought of the bookstore. Of Declan’s outstretched hand and his plea for her to trust him. The situations were entirely different, but for some reason, his eyes held the same weight of urgency now as they had then.

  And just like in the bookstore, Alex couldn’t say no.

  She took his hand… and they jumped.

  This time they landed in the middle of a circular clearing surrounded on all sides by towering spruce trees. For once, Declan had materialized relatively close to the ground and she was able to keep from losing her balance.

  She took in her surroundings. “Are we still near the cabin?”

  “About half a mile from it, but yeah.” He let go of her hand. “This is where we usually go to train.”

  “Half a mile, huh?” she repeated. The figure made her curious. “Just how far can we jump?”

  “As far as we want to.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  Declan appeared to be mulling something over. Before Alex could analyze what that look might mean, he took hold of her shoulders and they jumped again.

  — 11 —

  It was too cold for April.

  Grayson shifted his weight on the park bench, glancing up from the newspaper he wasn’t reading to look across the rippling waters of the Tidal Basin. He was rewarded with a clear view of the Washington Monument through the blossoming cherry trees.

  What was taking Bartlett so long?

  Flipping the page, he pretended to focus on an article about the government’s plan to subsidize alternative energy initiatives.

  Grayson wasn’t a man prone to fidgeting. The longer he sat there, however, the more restless he became. He needed this intel and Bartlett was the only one of his contacts who had access to it anymore. Everyone else had either died since he left the Agency, or retired to someplace tropical. He often wished he could do the same.

  The Bahamas were probably nice this time of year.

  Someone settled onto the seat next to him, leaned back, and propped their elbows on the back of the bench.