Reckoning (The Variant Series, #4)

by Jena Leigh

  “Hmm?” Holly’s gaze trailed after her father and Declan as they disappeared into the kitchen.

  “What do you know,” Alex asked, “about what’s going on with the Agency right now? I mean, what are people saying?”

  Holls turned her attention back to Alex, one pierced eyebrow raised. She shrugged. “They’re saying the Grayson family is leading an uprising against the Agency. And most of us are saying that it’s about feckin’ time.”

  “Even here in Ireland?”

  Holls looked confused by the question. “The Agency’s control doesn’t end in the US, Alex. It simply began there. They’re a worldwide organization that’s growing more powerful by the day. They’ve been sticking their damned ugly noses into our lives for too long now, and it’s only getting worse. If we don’t take care of them soon, that catalog of theirs will be the least of our worries. They need to be stopped.”

  Alex mulled that over for a while before saying, “Seems like your dad’s not too supportive of the idea.”

  Her smile was sad. “It’s true, the Agency has plenty of supporters, but I’m happy to say me da’s not one of ’em. His problem is that he’s not willing to fight for what he believes in. He doesn’t want me brother Murph or me to stand against ’em, neither. He’s afraid of the potential consequences.”

  “And you’re not?”

  Holls’ grin became wry. “What do you think?”

  Alex returned her smile. Maybe it was the blue hair, the near-constant swearing, and the nose ring coloring her opinion, but she thought that Holls wasn’t afraid of much anything.

  “Thanks, Holls. For helping me, I mean.”

  Holls shrugged. “Least I can do for the Variant Hybrid. You’re all people want to talk about these days, you know. I told me flatmate Sara I’d met you once and she nearly choked to death on her ale. Everyone’s curious to see what you’re going to do, seeing as you’re the most powerful of us since that radge bastard Masterson.”

  To be honest, Alex was curious about that herself. She was starting to wonder if she’d ever be able to live up to these unexpected expectations everyone appeared to have for her, now that the extent of her abilities was no longer a secret.

  Declan came striding back into the living room, his face twisted into a scowl. “Time to go, Lex.”

  Holls huffed. “And what did Da say this time?”

  “Nothing,” he said, giving his friend a quick hug before swiftly claiming Alex’s hand in his own. “Thanks for the help, Holls.”

  “Yes,” said Alex. “Thank you, Holls. You’re a life—”

  The ensuing jump caught Alex by surprise, prompting her to struggle against the suffocating sensation instead of surrendering to it. The moment she fought back against the pressure bearing down on her, all the terror and dread she’d experienced during the small eternities she’d spent trapped in limbo came back to her in one overpowering rush of panic.

  Another heartbeat, and she was free again. Her alarm turned instantly to fury.

  “—saver,” she finished through clenched teeth. “Seriously, Decks?! What have I told you about warning me before you jump?! I was in the middle of saying… goodbye…”

  Finally taking stock of where they’d reappeared, Alex cut herself short, her fear and anger draining away as she blinked in confusion.

  “Why are we here?” she asked.

  Declan crossed the vacant expanse of concrete floor with a determined look on his face.

  The garage that stood adjacent to the Grayson family cabin in the Adirondacks still smelled of diesel and sawdust and pine trees, but the pristine line of high-end cars—along with one slightly worse for wear 1970 Dodge Charger—that once filled its bays, had long since been relocated.

  Some of the vehicles had accompanied the family to their recently abandoned home in Bay View. The rest, Alex assumed, Grayson had placed in storage.

  Clearly, it wasn’t the cars Declan had returned for.

  Tugging at a white cord that hung from the ceiling, Declan pulled down the retractable ladder leading to the storage space on the second level and started to climb.

  “Declan?”

  “Back down in a sec,” he said, before disappearing into the attic.

  Alex moved to the base of the wooden ladder, gazed up and into the black rectangular opening, and commenced to wait.

  Every so often she could hear a box being shifted across the floor, or would glimpse the electric blue light of the sphere Declan had conjured to combat the darkness.

  A few minutes passed before Declan reappeared with a dust-covered leather journal in one hand.

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  As he reached the bottom rung of the ladder, Declan held the book out to Alex.

  She took it, flipping open the cover.

  The words “Property of Hanako Nakamura” had been written on the inside flap in a flowing script.

  “Hanako,” Alex whispered. It was a name she wouldn’t—couldn’t—forget.

  Hanako Nakamura was the first person to die at the hands of Samuel Masterson, all those years ago.

  Hanako was the first person to give up her life in order to keep Alex safe. The first of so very many who would eventually sacrifice themselves in order to ensure Alex’s continued survival.

  Alex flipped through the pages. “Is this… her journal?”

  “Hanako was Kento Nakamura’s cousin,” said Declan. “Apparently there’s something in here that Kento thinks we need to see for ourselves.”

  “Did he say what it was?” she asked.

  Declan glowered at the journal in Alex’s hands. “Not in so many words.”

  What was that supposed to mean?

  Declan held out a hand. “Come on,” he said. “There’s one more stop I want to make before we head back to the safe house tonight.”

  * * *

  “How’s it looking, hoss?”

  Nate glanced up from the dancing flames of the charcoal grill to find Kenzie walking toward him with two large platters, each overflowing with seasoned burger patties, kabobs, brats, and uncooked hot dogs.

  “Fire will be ready in a minute,” he said. “Just set those on the table over there, would you?”

  At any given time, there were more than a dozen people taking their meals at the ranch, and feeding their small army was a job that no one beside Nate wanted to take on.

  Just as well.

  He’d tried the others’ cooking before. It was safer this way.

  At least he only really had dinner to worry about. During the day, everyone sort of did their own thing.

  Kenzie deposited the trays on the picnic table and was halfway back to the front entrance of the main house when it occurred to him to ask, “Hey, are Lex and Declan back yet?”

  “Not yet,” she said. “Why? Did you need something?”

  Yeah, he thought. I need to know if those two have sorted their shit out yet, or if I’m going to spend the rest of my life providing couples therapy.

  “Nah,” he replied. “Just send Lex my way next time you see her, alright?”

  “Sure thing.”

  Judging from the fact that Alex and Declan’s “quick trip” to Ireland was about to head into its second hour, he was probably safe in assuming that they’d finally found a way to bury the hatchet.

  He was just trying hard not to imagine the details of how.

  The cell phone in his pocket buzzed and he slid it out. The screen was lit up with a text.

  Tell Mr. G we got him. The 3 of us will b there later tonite. PS - Looks like u owe me a beer, bitch.

  He snorted in amusement.

  So Trent had managed to pull off a miracle, after all. Nate had not seen that coming.

  “Hey, Red?” he called. “We’ll be needing three more cots. Ask Ozzie if we can move some of his tech around in cabin four so that we can find room for the extra bunks.”

  “You want to move the Oz-man’s tech?” Kenzie laughed in disbelief. “What are you? Suicidal?�
��

  “Not me,” he shouted back. “You. Get it sorted, Red.”

  “What?! There’s no way I’m—”

  “I’ll be sure to burn the kabobs,” he threatened.

  Kenzie groaned dramatically. “That’s a low blow, Nate. Even for you,” she said. “Fine, but if he kills the messenger, I’m going to spend my afterlife stealing vital parts from the Charger’s engine and dropping them into the Marianas Trench.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  The violet flash of a jumper’s teleport caught Nate’s attention, and he turned to see that Cil had returned with Grayson—and an added guest.

  Nate dropped the spatula in his hand, swore, then caught the falling utensil with his telekinesis a split second before it landed. The metal glinted in the sunlight, floating roughly an inch above the dirt.

  Carson Brandt noticed that he was staring, smirked, and waved a hello—a gesture that prompted the flame in the grill behind Nate to triple in size, singing the hairs on his arm.

  “Son of a…”

  The spatula hit the dirt.

  Nate glowered at the fire-wielder’s back.

  “Well, that’s unexpected,” said Aiden. He bent to retrieve the fallen implement, then straightened, following the trio with his eyes as they disappeared into the main house. “The hell’s Grayson thinking, bringing that burnout back to the safe house after he bailed on us like he did? Dude’s about as untrustworthy as they get. Not to mention the fact he’s also batshit crazy.”

  “Boss must have his reasons,” said Nate, rubbing his forearm. “And you gotta admit, he has been helpful in the past.”

  “Carson Brandt’s only helpful when he’s getting paid or when being useful is in his own self-interest,” said Aiden.

  “True enough,” said Nate. “Wonder which one it is this time.”

  From the open windows of cabin four, Nate could hear Ozzie shouting, “Over my lifeless corpse! What do you think you’re—DON’T TOUCH THAT, you chowderheaded mook of a girl! You’ll damage the hard drive!”

  Aiden stared at the cabin, perplexed, and Nate went about dusting off the spatula with his T-shirt.

  “Who was dumb enough to touch the gremlin’s precious circuit boards?” asked Aiden.

  Nate tried, and failed, to hide his smile. “I made Kenzie do it. Trent and Jezza will be here sometime later tonight. We needed to make room for three more cots.”

  It took Aiden a second to process Nate’s words. “Hang on. Three cots? The moron actually did it?”

  Nate grinned. “The moron actually did it. Although you know as well as I do that Jezza’s smile and girlish charm probably did most of the work.”

  “Well, hell,” said Aiden. “Now I owe that asshole a beer.”

  “And according to his text, he fully intends to collect on our debt,” said Nate.

  “Anyone told Alex yet?” asked Aiden. “That Trent and Jezza are coming, I mean.”

  Nate shook his head. “They both wanted to surprise her, so no one’s said anything. At least, as far as I know.”

  Aiden crossed his arms. “God, it’s so weird. From Alex’s perspective, she just saw them a month ago…”

  “And for those of us taking the long road, it was over a year,” he finished. “I know. Hard to get your head around sometimes.”

  Nate began transferring food from the platters onto the grill.

  For so long he’d lived with the secret of what had happened in Seattle.

  For so long he’d waited for Alex to show up in his life again… and then, once she had, he’d waited months more for her to make her journey to the past.

  And then finally—finally—the Alex he’d met in Seattle had been returned to him.

  He’d waited ages for that moment, praying that when it happened he’d at long last be able to breathe again. Instead, they’d been drawn into a war with the Agency. The breath of relief he’d been hoping for would have to wait.

  Again.

  “Even for Declan, it’s only been a couple months since Seattle,” said Aiden.

  Nate’s fading smile disappeared altogether. “Yeah.”

  Aiden noticed the sudden change in his mood. “Is Decks still giving you crap for what happened?”

  Nate shrugged.

  “He’ll get over it, man.”

  “Yeah, see,” Nate said, “that’s the thing. He’s right to be angry.”

  “What?”

  “He told me the other night that he could forgive me for the deal we struck with the Agency to save his life,” said Nate. “That that’s not what he’s so mad about.”

  “Seriously? Then what the hell’s his problem?”

  Nate shoveled a few more burgers onto the grill before answering. “He’s pissed that I let Alex make the jump home—back to our time, I mean. And the bitch of it is, he’s right, Aiden. I never should have allowed her to attempt it. There was every possibility that she was going to get stuck in that limbo place for all eternity and I … I just let her go through with it. I didn’t even try to stop her.”

  Aiden huffed. “Okay, A, you didn’t allow Alex to do anything. Our gal Trouble was going to attempt that jump come hell, high water, or the freaking Armageddon, and the idea that you could have stopped her from trying it is, quite possibly, the dumbest thing that’s ever come out of your mouth.”

  Nate shook his head.

  “And B,” Aiden continued. “Last I checked, Alex made it back here entirely in one piece. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a textbook case of, ‘no harm, no foul.’”

  Nate turned the kabobs then stared, unseeing, over the top of the grill. “She’s been having nightmares every night since she got back.”

  “What?” Aiden asked, surprised. “And how do you know that?”

  While the guys had been split up amongst the cabins—a group of smaller buildings that had formerly served as the cowhands’ and guests’ quarters back in the days when their “safe house” had still been a fully functional ranch—Grayson, Cil, Kenzie, and Alex had been bunking in the three bedrooms of the main house, with Kenzie and Alex sharing one of the guest rooms.

  “One night last week I couldn’t sleep so I went for a walk around the property,” Nate said. “It was cool out, so I guess Alex and Red decided to leave their bedroom windows open while they slept. I was on the other side of the house and all of a sudden I hear this screaming. Scared the hell out of me, man.”

  “And you’re sure it was Alex?”

  Nate nodded. He’d heard her scream like that once before—in a parking garage in DC the night Grayson went missing. The same night Alex nearly lost her mind after accidentally borrowing his sister’s telepathic ability for the first time.

  “Kenzie must have sensed me approaching, because a second later she was in my head, warning me off. She kept telling me that Lex was fine and I should just go back to bed. But the way she screamed, Aiden. The sound alone was enough to give me nightmares.”

  Aiden shoved one hand in his pocket and used the other to scratch the back of his head. “Is that why you started siding with Declan whenever Grayson divvies up our mission assignments? You think these nightmares are a sign she’s off her game, so you’re hoping to keep her benched?”

  Truthfully, there were plenty of reasons Nate wanted to keep Alex from being involved in the more critical elements of any of their missions.

  In part, it was because Nate worried over Alex’s clearly mounting exhaustion, her relative inexperience, and the volatile nature of her borrowed abilities. But if he was being honest with himself, the real reason was simply that he, like Declan, was hoping to keep her safe and out of harm’s way.

  It was naive and it was stupid and it was utterly selfish, but Nate didn’t want Alex to be anywhere near the frontline of this war.

  So far, they’d been lucky.

  Since the uprising began in earnest, there had only been four actual battles.

  The first, months earlier, when they’d raided an Agency facility with the intention of
rescuing Alex and a handful of other Variants being held prisoner on the lower levels. Halfway into the incursion, Alex and Declan made their jump to the past.

  The next battle had lasted mere minutes and had taken place during their second attempt to rescue Alex from the clutches of the Agency’s Director Carter. That time, they’d nearly demolished the Grayson family’s cabin in the Adirondacks.

  But the resistance had made it out with Alex in tow, and so they’d chalked it up as a win.

  The third and fourth conflicts had been a result of infiltration and acquisition missions gone wrong, and not everyone on the side of the resistance had made it home alive. It would have been generous to say that those conflicts ended in a draw.

  It was only a matter of time before one of their missions went sideways and Alex was placed directly in the line of fire. Though, after today, he was beginning to realize the girl was more than capable of creating her own risks in the field.

  And, yeah, Alex would be furious if she knew that during those closed-door meetings with Grayson, Aiden, and Decks, that Nate was actively trying to get her sidelined.

  And, yeah, Alex had more than proven she could take care of herself—and everyone around her—when the heat was on.

  But dammit, that didn’t mean he wanted to put her in another situation where she’d be forced to prove it.

  “Did you ask Alex about it?”

  Aiden’s voice jolted Nate back to reality, and he was slow to understand the question.

  “Ask her about what?”

  “The nightmares.”

  Nate shrugged. “Wasn’t sure how to bring it up. I talked to Red about it, instead.”

  “And?”

  “And apparently, nearly every night, Alex has this reoccurring nightmare about being trapped in limbo,” he said. “Comes out of it screaming like a banshee every freaking time.”

  “Well… damn,” said Aiden. “I mean, Decks kept referring to that limbo place as some kind of ‘torture dimension,’ but I figured he was just exaggerating.”

  “He wasn’t exaggerating,” said Kenzie.

  Nate jerked in surprise, stopping just short of dropping the spatula for a second time. He hadn’t heard her approach.

  “I was curious,” she said. “So one night I went digging in Alex’s head while she was having the nightmare. I wanted to see it for myself. I guess I thought if I saw what she was so afraid of firsthand, I’d finally know what to say to make her feel better when she woke up.”