Page 19 of Revival (The Variant Series, #1)

  * * *

  “Alex, wake up.”

  “Mmpff.”

  Alex recognized the familiar tug and click of a ceiling fan cord being pulled. Light flooded the room and Alex burrowed deeper beneath the pillows in protest.

  “Alex,” said an insistent, distinctly feminine voice from somewhere above her. “So help me, Lex, if you don’t get your butt up right now, I’m coming back with the ice water. It will be Rebecca Anderson’s third-grade slumber party all over again. Do you really want that?”

  “That sounds like a fun story. Let’s hear about that,” said a second voice.

  Declan.

  “If she tells you anything, I’ll have to kill her,” Alex mumbled into a pillow. “Then I’ll have to kill you. So if she knows what’s good for her, she won’t say anything.”

  When Alex finally pushed aside the pillow she was greeted by the sight of Cassie, hands on her hips, glaring down at her. Declan stood across the room, leaning against one of the dressers with his arms crossed.

  He looked bored.

  How long had he been standing there?

  “Look at that,” he said. “Issuing death threats and she’s not even fully awake yet. Impressive.”

  “Finally,” said Cassie. “You’ve been dead to the world for ages.”

  “How long was I asleep?” It felt like she’d only laid down a few minutes ago. Surely she couldn’t have been out for that long.

  “Well, seeing as how it’s nearly six in the evening here in the lovely state of New York, if I were to guess? I’d say, roughly fifteen hours.”

  “What?” Alex bolted upright, resulting in a rather painful rush of blood to her head. She fell back against the bed. “Ungh… why did you let me sleep so long?”

  “Trust me, it wasn’t my first choice.” Cassie sat down on the mattress beside her. “The others said you needed it, though, so I let you sleep. We’re only waking you up now because Mr. Grayson’s back and he wants to see everyone downstairs.”

  “Family meeting,” said Declan, the words coming out at a crawl. She looked up. Declan was studying her from his spot across the room. His expression of boredom had morphed into one of confusion. “You feeling alright, Lex?”

  “I’m fine. Why?”

  Cassie appraised Declan. “What’s with the look?” she asked.

  “Something’s… different,” said Declan. “Alex?”

  “Yes?”

  “If I told you to jump right now, could you?”

  She’d managed a jump last night, just before she went to bed. Whatever that pulse had done to her in the parking garage, it appeared to have been temporary.

  “Sure, I…” she trailed off.

  Declan was right. Something was different.

  The soft thrum of electricity she’d grown so accustomed to these last few days was missing once more. Her connection to Declan had been severed.

  But it wasn’t just that.

  Her thoughts were entirely her own again. Even without the mental walls in place, she couldn’t hear Cassie, or sense the presence of anyone else in the house. No matter how hard she concentrated, Alex couldn’t feel or hear any of them.

  And even though she hadn’t made much headway practicing her telekinesis last night with Nathaniel, Alex was fairly certain that that had disappeared as well. For the first time in months, Alex felt almost…. normal.

  She sucked in a ragged breath as panic set in.

  “That’s what I thought,” said Declan.

  Three days ago, Alexandra Parker would have given anything to be normal again.

  Now, on the run from the government and a psychopath who’d already killed two people and kidnapped her best friend, Alex’s only means of protecting herself and the people she cared about had just vanished.

  She was defenseless.

  “It’s gone,” she whispered. Icy tendrils of fear were coiling inside her chest. “All of it… just gone. How can it be gone? Declan, what do I do?”

  “What’s gone?” asked Cassie. “Alex, what is the matter?”

  “Hop up, Cassie,” said Declan.

  For once, Cassie didn’t argue. She moved aside and Declan took her place, sitting down on the bed next to Alex.

  Without saying anything more, he reached up and placed his hand on the side of her face, cupping her cheek.

  “Declan? What are you doing?” Alex asked, but didn’t pull away. She sat perfectly still, transfixed by the look of worry in Declan’s hazel eyes.

  After a few seconds, the heat radiating from Declan’s palm was joined by a second sensation—the familiar quiver of electricity.

  It was back. Declan’s touch had reawakened her ability.

  The look of relief that flooded his expression caused Alex’s breath to catch in her throat, but it was the smile that followed that threatened to do her in entirely.

  “That’s better,” he said. “For a moment there, I thought I’d lost you.”

  His gaze journeyed south, fixing on her mouth, before flickering back up to meet her eyes.

  “Will one of you please tell me what’s going on?”

  Declan dropped his hand, but made no move to get up.

  “I don’t understand, Decks,” Alex’s voice was barely above a whisper. “What just happened?”

  He surprised her again by offering his hand. “Just in case,” he said with a shrug. When she still didn’t move, he added, “You’re getting your abilities from touching other Variants. I don’t know how it works—or how long the contact needs to last—but I figure, better safe, than sorry. Now, hup to, princess. Grayson and the others are waiting.”

  Alex looked down at herself, suddenly self-conscious. She’d collapsed into bed the night before in a pair of yoga pants and an oversized sweatshirt. Not exactly her best look. She swept her unruly hair up and into a messy bun using the elastic band around her wrist, stealing a quick glance at her disheveled reflection in the dresser mirror.

  Great. She looked like an extra gone AWOL from the set of a Flashdance remake.

  Alex supposed it could have been worse. At least she hadn’t ended up in the lake yet today.

  Accepting Declan’s outstretched hand, Alex slid from between the sheets, cringing when her bare feet met with the frigid hardwood floor. For a split-second, she gave serious consideration to diving back into the warm, comfortable bed, settling in beneath the duvet, and spending what was left of the day hiding from the world outside her bedroom.

  It seemed like a perfectly acceptable response to the mess she was in.

  World got you down? Discovered you’re a mutant? Pesky psychopath on your trail?

  The solution was simple: Go back to bed!

  Alex was fairly certain that she could solve all those problems and more, if she could just have five more minutes of sleep.

  Cassie led the way into the hall. Declan followed just a step ahead of Alex, arm twisted behind him, long fingers still entwined with hers. The longer the contact lasted, the more clearly she could sense the electrical currents in the people, objects, and air surrounding her.

  Alex wondered, briefly, if Declan’s offer to keep hold of her hand had been given solely to ensure the return of her ability, or if he might have had another motive… and then promptly decided that that line of thinking couldn’t lead anywhere good.

  Whether it was from the chill in the air, or the tingle of electricity flowing through their joined hands, Alex wasn’t certain, but she couldn’t hold back a shiver.

  The currents surged.

  Declan cast a quick glance at her over his shoulder. When their eyes met, the corner of his mouth quirked upward in a crooked grin.

  Nowhere good.

  As they reached the landing, Alex gazed down upon the living area below.

  Brian and Nate were seated on the couch on either side of Kenzie, laughing at something the redhead had said. Grayson, meanwhile, stood near the front door, arguing in a low voice with Aiden. It was the most dressed-dow
n she’d seen the patriarch thus far, in a pair of dark jeans and a pressed, white button-down shirt. He turned his head when he heard them descending the stairs.

  The skin surrounding his left eye gleamed a nasty shade of purple, and had nearly swollen shut. Alex felt a wave of guilt wash over her. That one must have hurt.

  “Ah, Alex, you’re awake,” said Grayson.

  Aiden’s black look was replaced with a soft smile and a nod in Cassie’s direction.

  Well that was an interesting development. She’d have to corner her friend later and grill her for details.

  “How are you feeling?” asked Nate.

  The trio reached the foot of the stairs and everyone moved to find a seat in the living room.

  “I’m alright,” she said, releasing Declan’s hand and settling in next to Nate in the last open space on the couch. Declan sat on the arm of the couch beside Alex, as Cassie claimed the love seat, Aiden the ottoman in front of it, and Grayson returned to his spot on the hearth. “I had an unpleasant surprise waiting for me when I woke up, though.”

  “What, you mean my brother?” said Kenzie. “I suppose waking up to his face would be a shock to anyone’s system.”

  “Kenzie,” said Grayson. It wasn’t so much a warning as it was a subtle reproach. “What happened, Alex?”

  “I woke up and my abilities were gone.”

  “What, all of them?” asked Kenzie.

  “All of them,” she said.

  “Alex’s ability—her real ability—seems to be the power to absorb another Variant’s abilities through touch,” said Declan. He looked pointedly at Grayson. “And I can’t help but wonder how she wound up with an ability that only one other person on the planet has ever laid claim to.”

  Grayson’s jaw clenched.

  “What? There’s someone else out there like me?” she asked. Something akin to hope stirred within her chest. Somewhere out there was someone who could understand what she was going through.

  Alex wrung her hands. Declan reached down, reclaiming her hand in his.

  Declan’s voice was overflowing with accusation. “You going to tell us how Alex wound up with Samuel Masterson’s ability, Grayson?”

  “Wait… what?” Alex yanked her hand from Declan’s grasp and climbed unsteadily to her feet. “Masterson? The same Masterson that went crazy and murdered all of our parents? I have his ability?”

  She spun around to confront Declan. “You’ve known this since last night and you didn’t say anything?”

  Even Declan couldn’t handle the surge that followed. The lamps on the end tables and the overhead lights blew out simultaneously, leaving the room lit only by the darting flames of the fireplace.

  “I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for sure,” he said in the silence that followed. Even in the dim glow of the fireplace his expression appeared earnest, a silent entreaty for her understanding in his eyes. “I needed to be certain.”

  Unable to look away from Declan, Alex sank into a seated position on the coffee table.

  How cruel the universe could be.

  It wasn’t enough that her strange gift separated her from her aunt. From Declan, Nathaniel, Kenzie and the others. Now she knew that the only other person to ever have been like her—and the only one who might ever have been able to help her understand what she was—was the same man who had brutally murdered her parents.

  A man who had been dead for years.

  “But I thought…” She closed her eyes and tried to steady the funny tremor that had worked its way into her voice. “Grayson, I thought you said abilities were inherited. Please tell me Samuel Masterson isn’t… tell me that he isn’t…”

  “No, Alex,” said Grayson, with finality. “Samuel Masterson isn’t your father.”

  “Then how—” she began.

  “Samuel Masterson was not born with the ability the two of you possess,” said Grayson. “He made the both of you what you are today.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Cassie. “What do you mean he made them like they are?”

  Declan frowned at her. His earnest expression had been replaced with annoyance and what appeared to be righteous indignation.

  He was angry that she was so angry.

  Didn’t he get it?

  Didn’t he realize that he’d crossed a line when he decided to keep the truth from her?

  She’d had enough of being lied to. In her mind, Declan was no better than her aunt.

  “Is that why he wanted her, Grayson?” asked Declan, his voice low. “Is that why our parents died trying to protect Alex?”

  “What?” Alex choked out.

  She flashed back to what Grayson had told her on the first day she’d arrived. One day, a powerful Variant named Masterson got it in his head that… Well let’s just say, he came after one of our own. The team tried to stop him.

  Alex felt sick to her stomach.

  It was all her fault.

  They were all dead… had all died protecting her.

  With his back to the fire, Grayson’s face rested in the shadows, his words traveling to them through the darkness. “I’m sorry, Alex,” he said. “We should have been honest with you from the beginning. I should have been honest with all of you from the beginning. It’s time you all knew the truth.”

  A flash of violet light illuminated the large room.

  Alex turned to face the new arrivals.

  Her aunt had appeared behind her, and stood in the faint light on the other side of the coffee table, leaning heavily against none other than Carson Brandt.

  Alex rushed to stand, but misjudged the location of Declan’s feet in the darkness and, after a creative two-step, fell into a seated position… in Nathaniel’s lap.

  Klutziness: 204,231, Alex: Zip.

  Declan and Aiden were on their feet in an instant.

  “It’s alright, everyone,” said Grayson. “I told you. Brandt’s a… friend. Of sorts. Anyhow, you can relax. He’s on our side.”

  “Harmless as a kitten, me,” said Brandt, helping Cil over to the love seat. Aiden stepped aside as Alex’s aunt settled onto the ottoman.

  “Aunt Cil?” Alex squinted to see her aunt better. “What’s happened to your leg?”

  “I see you haven’t gotten to that part of the story yet, Jonathan,” said Brandt. “Why on Earth are you lot sitting around in the dark, anyway? Someone forget to pay the electric bill? Ah, well. No matter.”

  Brandt drew a small flame away from the fireplace and looked about the room. He found what he was searching for on the mantle and sent the flame sailing toward it.

  After the hurricane lamp was lit, Nathaniel floated it from the hearth to the coffee table at the center of the room.

  “Thank you, Mr. Palladino,” said Brandt, smiling at Nate in a decidedly creepy manner. Then again, everything about this man struck Alex as creepy. He settled onto the ottoman next to her aunt. “My, my. You do have your mother’s eyes, don’t you?”

  His arms still around her, Alex could feel Nate’s shoulder muscles tense as he scowled at the newcomer.

  Alex’s attention slid past Brandt and onto Cassie, who was curled up in the love seat, staring nervously at Brandt. Alex wasn’t the only one who’d noticed her friend’s discomfort. Aiden settled back onto the love seat beside Cassie, surreptitiously taking her hand in his. She relaxed only slightly and inched further back into the cushions, as far from Brandt as she could get.

  Despite Grayson’s assurances, Declan made no move to sit down. Everyone else remained seated quietly, staring uncertainly at Brandt.

  The tension in the room was almost palpable.

  “Honestly,” Brandt muttered. “D’you see what I mean about the ruination of my good name, Jonathan? It wasn’t me! It was Samuel Masterson and only Samuel Masterson. I had none to do with it, I promise you.”

  In the silence that followed, you could have heard a pin drop.

  “Are you saying Masterson’s alive?” said Kenzie, finally givi
ng voice to the question Alex had been too stunned to ask.

  “Well,” Brandt said with a smile. “Now that I’ve gone and spoiled the ending… Jonathan, I suppose you’d better start at the beginning.”

  “Yes, I suppose I should,” said Grayson, annoyed.

  Declan finally turned around, intent on resuming his seat. He paused at the sight of Alex and Nathaniel, arching an eyebrow.

  “Are you two comfortable?” he asked quietly. The low tone stripped his observation of any inflection, but the look in his eye more than made up for it.

  Alex slid off of Nate’s lap without another word and Grayson began his tale.

  — 22 —

  Declan’s boots sank into the muddy grounds of the training field. The heavy rains from that afternoon had transformed the darkened clearing into a mire.

  She wasn’t here, either.

  He jumped.

  After Brandt showed up, Grayson spent the next twenty minutes providing them with a rundown on the history of one Samuel Masterson.

  The guy had been something of a whiz-kid. A boy genius that joined Grayson’s unit at 17 with doctorates in both genetics and biomedical engineering already under his belt.

  Grayson hadn’t wanted to put him in the field on account of his youth and relative inexperience, so instead, they had created an entire research and development team around him.

  Masterson immediately set to work on the creation of gene therapies that specifically targeted Variant DNA. Therapies that, they had hoped, would one day help Variants who possessed some of the more debilitating abilities lead normal, productive lives.

  It hadn’t taken long for Masterson to make a breakthrough.

  Declan landed on the cement drive that led up to Alex’s home. The lights were out and he couldn’t see any signs of movement inside.

  Another dead end.

  He jumped again.

  Masterson created two treatments. The first was designed to completely strip a Variant of their ability. The second allowed one Variant to absorb the abilities of another.

  It was the second therapy with which he’d become obsessed.

  But there was a catch. The second treatment wouldn’t work on just anyone. Certain characteristics needed to already be present in the subject’s DNA before the treatment would take. As fate would have it, only two people on the team carried those traits.

  Masterson… and James Parker, Alex’s father.

  Within a year, Masterson developed trial versions of both therapies.

  Parker refused the testing. He was happy with his ability, and had no desire to change himself, even if it would make him more powerful.

  Masterson, on the other hand, was desperate to try it.

  Grayson warned Masterson to wait until the initial tests had been completed, but he hadn’t listened. He’d tried the therapy on himself.

  In the end, Masterson became the Agency’s first successful trial. If you called making himself batshit crazy in the process a success.

  Declan reappeared on the dock where they’d met Masterson the day before.

  The jetty was empty. Declan wasn’t surprised. The place had probably lost most of its charm for her, after all that had happened.

  He hesitated before making another jump, taking a moment to think back over the series of events that had led them to this point.

  Shortly after Masterson completed his treatments and knew that the therapy worked, a fire destroyed the contents of his lab. Grayson claimed ignorance as to how the blaze broke out, but Declan had his theories.

  In any case, not long after that, Masterson set his sights on Alex.

  Not to kill her, which was what Declan had always believed he’d been trying to do. No, Masterson wanted to take her. For what purpose was anyone’s guess, at the time. Now it seemed fairly obvious.

  Alex Parker possessed the same rare trait as her father.

  In a last-ditch effort to stop him, Grayson, Alex’s Aunt, and Brandt shot Masterson and placed him in a cryogenic suspension—a deep freeze from which he’d recently managed to escape.

  Grayson hadn’t been too forthcoming on those details, either.

  Their efforts to stop Masterson hadn’t made a difference, in the end. Somehow, Alex had been given the treatments.

  And now they knew the truth.

  Well, Grayson’s version of it, anyway.

  Declan wasn’t sure what to believe anymore. He simply couldn’t trust anyone to give it to him straight these days. In that respect, he could empathize with Alex.

  He shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat.

  Now if he could just figure out where Alex had disappeared to.

  She’d jumped shortly after the meeting ended, stating that she needed to get some air and then teleporting before anyone could stop her.

  He racked his memory, trying to think of where else she might have gone.

  Jump

  Not at Connor’s.

  Jump

  Not on the boardwalk.

  Jump

  Not on the beach.

  Jump

  Not on the pier.

  He groaned, exhausted from so many jumps. Where had she gone?

  Didn’t she realize how dangerous it was for her to be out on her own like this?

  Out of ideas, he readied himself to jump back to the cabin… and then realized that there was still one place he hadn’t looked.

  Declan landed softly in the grass beside Alex.

  She didn’t look up, just continued to stare off into the distance, with her arms wrapped tightly around her legs and her chin resting atop her knees. Her round face, slender hands and bare feet were as white as snow in the darkness, her alabaster skin shimmering in the light of the full moon.

  You know, for someone who lived at the beach year-round, Alex sure was pale.

  A breeze picked up.

  Declan shrugged off his jacket and placed it around her shoulders.

  He sank into the grass beside her and they remained there for a long while, two silent and unmoving statues, gazing up at the starry expanse of sky that shrouded the Irish countryside.

  “I’m so sorry, Decks,” Alex whispered. Silver rivulets of tears glistened on her cheek.

  “Sorry for what?” he asked. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

  “I do. I have everything to be sorry for. If it weren’t for me, they’d still be alive. Your parents… Nate’s mom… It’s my fault, Declan.”

  Three days ago, he would have agreed with her.

  Three days ago, he’d been a benighted, self-absorbed asshole.

  But after meeting Alex—after getting to know her and learning the truth about what had happened—Declan had been forced to admit something. Something he’d always known, deep down, but had never wanted to accept.

  His parents had made the right choice.

  Where the fate of an innocent child was concerned, there wasn’t even a choice to be made. It was simply the right thing to do. Protecting Alex had been the right move, no matter the consequence.

  Declan had since realized that, had he been in their place, he would have made the same decision—that he’d already made the same decision.

  He would protect the girl sitting next to him. Would fight for her until his dying breath.

  “No, Lex,” he said. “The only person to blame for what happened is Masterson. Don’t you ever think that it was your fault. You hear me? It wasn’t. No one blames you for any of it.”

  Declan studied her profile and wondered how, in such a short time, she’d managed to leave him so completely undone. How, out of everyone, it had been Alex that had somehow managed to sneak past his defenses.

  Alex had slipped past the walls he’d spent a lifetime building, and she didn’t even realize it.

  He’d gotten so good at not caring. At distancing himself. But she’d changed everything without even trying.

  Declan’s world could never go back to the way it was.

&nbs
p; And, heaven help him, if it meant losing the reckless, stubborn, beautiful girl sitting next to him… then he didn’t want it to.

  Alex turned her head to face him, resting her cheek against her knee. She wiped the tears away with the sleeve of his jacket. “I just… I don’t know what to think anymore, Decks. Every time I turn around, I find out some new horrible secret. About my family. About myself. About Masterson… It’s too much. It’s all too much.”

  He closed the distance between them, hesitantly placing his arm around her shoulders. Declan held very still, afraid she’d pull away.

  “I know,” he said. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. They shouldn’t have lied to you. I shouldn’t have lied to you. I should have told you what I knew about Masterson from the start.”

  She leaned back into the crook of his arm and rested her head on his shoulder. “Promise me something, Decks?”

  “What’s that?”

  “No more lies?” she said.

  “No more lies,” he agreed.

  They sat there in an amiable silence for another five minutes before Declan grudgingly fished the cell phone he’d been ignoring out of his pocket.

  Huh. No messages.

  He’d been gone for over an hour, looking for Alex. Surely someone should be wondering where they were by now.

  “We should get back,” he said. “Don’t want the others to worry. And your Aunt said she wanted to talk to you about something.”

  “Great,” said Alex, getting to her feet. “That conversation ought to be about as much fun as a root canal.”

  They jumped back to the cabin.

  The living room was deserted.

  Alex walked to the pass-through and peered into the kitchen. “Where is everyone?” she asked. “Surely they’re not all in bed. It’s only ten o’clock.”

  He jumped upstairs.

  Up and down the long hall, bedroom doors stood open, the rooms beyond bathed in shadows.

  “Kenzie?” he thought, dropping the walls he’d had up. “Are you there?”

  No answer. Wherever his sister had gone, it must have been a long way from the cabin.

  “Declan!”

  The strangled cry echoed through the empty house.

  Lex.

  He jumped back to the living room. Brandt stood in front of the fireplace, gun leveled at Alex.

  “Brandt?” Declan had appeared at the foot of the stairs, roughly eight feet behind Alex. He took a few slow steps forward. Brandt cocked the gun. Declan came to a halt. “Brandt, what are you doing?”

  “I’m afraid Carson Brandt isn’t here at the moment,” said the man. Brandt’s Scottish brogue had been replaced by posh English accent. “I’m just borrowing his face, you see. I’d intended to… how did he put it? Ah, yes. I wanted to see if I might ‘ruin his good name’ a bit more. Little did I know, I was late to the party.”

  “Masterson,” said Declan.

  “Winner, winner, chicken dinner,” he said in a passable southern drawl. Declan couldn’t help but wonder what the man’s real voice sounded like. “But, please… call me Sam.”

  “Okay, Sam,” said Alex, taking a step backward, one hand behind her back. “Where is everyone? What have you done with them?”

  Alex wiggled her fingers. Declan got the message: two more feet, and her hand would be within his reach. They’d be able to jump.

  The only problem with that plan, was that Masterson had already proven himself capable of following them.

  “Oh, come now, pet,” he said, returning to an English accent. “Such little faith you have in me. I wasn’t the one that took your friends. They were already gone by the time I arrived. I’d merely dropped by to return the firearm Jonathan was kind enough to lend me.”

  What the heck was he talking about?

  Declan eyed the pistol in Masterson’s hand. It was the same model Ruger that Grayson carried. But if it really was Grayson’s gun, then how had Masterson gotten his hands on it?

  “If you didn’t take them, who did?” asked Alex.

  “I have every faith you’ll figure that out on your own, pet,” he said. “Oh, and I do apologize, but I’m afraid our lessons are going to have to be put on hold for the time being. I’ve had some matters arise that require my immediate and undivided attention. An unfortunate delay, but a necessary one. And anyhow, you’ll have much more free time during your upcoming summer holiday. As it is now, this current break of yours is nearly over and I would so hate to distract you from your other studies.”

  How considerate of him.

  No doubt about it. The guy was nuts.

  “Lessons?” Alex repeated.

  “Certainly. Gifts such as ours aren’t mastered overnight, you know.”

  The hand Alex had been holding behind her back dropped to her side.

  “How… How did I become like you?” she asked, taking a step toward Masterson, and moving further out of Declan’s reach.

  Dammit. What did she think she was doing?

  “Did you do this to me?” she pressed.

  “You’re asking the wrong question. The question you should be asking is not how, but why.” He smiled. “And, alas, that is a story for another day… Fare thee well, pet. We’ll be together again before you know it.”

  With that, Masterson set the pistol on the fireplace step and disappeared.

  “Time to go,” said Declan. He grabbed Alex by the arm and jumped before she could reply.

  They tumbled onto hard-packed, rock-covered sand.

  Ouch. Okay, so not his best landing. That’s what he got for jumping to a place he’d never actually seen in person. All that really mattered right now, is that they were miles away from anything remotely resembling civilization. And from Masterson, or so he hoped.

  “Where is this place?” asked Alex, dusting herself off.

  The sun had yet to set in this part of the world, but judging from the thin line of yellow on the horizon and the rapidly falling temperature, it wouldn’t be up much longer.

  A towering rock formation loomed half a mile in the distance, positioned at the center of two long dikes that stretched out in opposite directions like a pair of craggy wings before sinking into the flat plains of the desert.

  Shiprock.

  He’d seen it on TV once, although he hadn’t been paying much attention at the time. All he could really recall was that it was located in the Navajo Nation and that, in their culture, the peak was considered sacred.

  “New Mexico,” he answered. “I think.”

  “Why the desert?”

  “Because it’s isolated,” he said. “And because whoever took the others might still be watching the cabin. We couldn’t stay there.”

  “But wouldn’t it be a good thing if they were watching the house? Maybe we could sneak back and figure out who they are.”

  Was she serious?

  “Alex, there were eight people still at the cabin when I left. Three of whom possess enough destructive power to level that entire house, and six of whom are expertly trained to defend themselves,” he said. “Did you see any broken furniture? Chairs knocked over? Shattered glass? Water or fire damage? Did you see anything there that was out of place?”

  “No.” Alex deflated. “No, I didn’t.”

  “Whoever they were, they managed to incapacitate and abduct the others without so much as scuffing the hardwood floor. Now, do you really think we’re just going to sneak up on people like that, without them realizing it? We’d just end up getting captured ourselves—or worse—and then who would be left to rescue us?”

  “Could they have gotten out?” she asked, still clinging to hope.

  “No,” he said, checking his phone again. “Someone would have called to let us know what happened by now. And Masterson seemed to think they’d been taken by someone. Not that I particularly trust the word of a murderer, but… I don’t know. I think he might be right.”

  “Alright,” said Alex, determined. “Then what do we do now?”
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  “Now,” he said, “I think it’s time I paid my friend Oz a visit.”

  “Oz? As in ‘Oz, the Great and Powerful’?”

  “I’m sure he’d like you to think so. In reality, it’s more like, ‘Oz, the Short One from Schenectady.’ But I’ll tell him you said that. Knowing Ozzie, he’ll take it as a compliment.”

  “You’ll tell him? Aren’t you taking me with you?”

  “You’ll be safer here, Lex. I won’t be gone long.”

  “Are you kidding? You’re not the only one with family missing, Declan. Besides that,” she gestured to their surroundings. “We’re in the middle of nowhere, it’s freezing cold, and I’m barefoot—again, no thanks to you. You know what? No. I am not going to just sit here and wait while you run off to play hero. You’re taking me with you.”

  Thrilling heroics hadn’t exactly been on his to-do list. He was merely hitting up Ozzie’s in search of intel, but Alex’s tone brooked no argument.

  He sighed and took her by the arm.

  Stubborn.

  — 23 —

  Alexandra Parker was currently standing smack dab in the middle of a daydream come to life. She’d finally made it to a place she’d wanted to see ever since she caught her first Monty Python’s Flying Circus re-run on PBS as a little kid.

  Alex was in London.

  She shivered.

  Okay, so in those daydreams, she wasn’t usually standing barefoot on a snowy rooftop in the middle of the night wearing paper-thin yoga pants while a handsome blonde swore angrily at a jammed access door, but she’d take what she could get.

  While Declan wrestled with the stuck (or, as was far more likely, locked) metal door, Alex crept closer to the rooftop’s edge and stared out over the sleeping city. The world below was bathed in the golden glow of street lights and covered by a fraction of an inch of quickly vanishing snow. A sparse amount of foot traffic meandered along the sidewalks below, oblivious to her presence.

  The London Eye was lit beautifully by blue and purple lights in the distance, and just to the left of the soaring circular Ferris wheel, and across the River Thames, was the Palace of Westminster and its iconic clock tower, Big Ben, shining like a beacon in the night.

  Alex sniffed the air. An enticing aroma was wafting from the direction of a Tandoori restaurant and takeaway up the street. The ensuing growl from her stomach reminded her she hadn’t actually eaten anything since the day before.

  Declan was still struggling with the door.

  “Oh, come on.” He kicked it in frustration.

  “Use the force, Luke,” she said in her best Obi-Wan impression, smiling at the aggravated look on his face.

  “Funny,” he said, sizing up the door. “Very funny.”

  What was it with guys and admitting defeat to inanimate objects?

  Sink’s broken? Someone get me a wrench. No, no. It’s supposed to spit water like that. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.

  Car making an odd noise? Someone get me a wrench. No, no. That metal bit is supposed to fall off every time we take a left turn. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.

  Watching Cassie’s dad, her older brothers, and Connor over the years had left Alex with an even greater appreciation for her Aunt Cil. At least her aunt was sensible enough to call a repairman when she knew she couldn’t fix something.

  Declan formed a sphere of electricity and took aim at the door.

  “Declan,” she chided. “What are you—”

  “Trust me,” he said. “I know what I’m doing.”

  Alex sighed. “That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”

  She drew the sphere out of his hand and shrank it until the crackling blue light blinked out of existence. Grabbing the sleeve of Declan’s hoodie, she dragged him to the back of the building, where it overlooked the alley below.

  Empty.

  Alex jumped, taking Declan with her. They reappeared in the shadowy passageway.

  “It’s called a front door, Declan.”

  Yick. What she wouldn’t give for a pair of shoes right about now. Alex led the way on tiptoe, picking her way carefully across the cobblestones and back toward the main road.

  “Which one is it?” she asked when confronted with a long row of identical white doorsteps, each flanked by a pair of white columns and four thin steps leading up to a small stoop and glossy, black lacquered doors.

  “You can’t guess?” said Declan as they continued on down the street.

  A few residences down, one doorstep stood out from the rest.

  Attached to the wall, the columns, and even hanging from the ceiling above, were close to a dozen CCTV cameras, each focused on a different area of the doorstep and the street in front of the building.

  They climbed the steps and Declan reached forward to press the buzzer on the intercom.

  Alex half expected an angry ginger man with a curly mustache to pop out of nowhere and ask who rang that bell. Instead, the cameras mounted above swiveled down to focus in on them.

  “Declan!” said a happily surprised—and somewhat nasally—voice though an intercom speaker. The giddy tone was immediately replaced with suspicion. “What are you doing at my front door?”

  “Need some help, Oz,” he said. “And the door on the roof was locked.”

  “Hm.” One of the myriad cameras above twitched to the left, focused on Alex, and zoomed in. Alex pulled Declan’s jacket tighter around her. “Who’s that with you?”

  “She’s a friend, Oz,” said Declan. “Can you just let us in already? It’s freaking freezing out here. And she doesn’t have shoes.”

  The camera panned down. “What are you doing in London in the middle of the night with a shoeless brunette, Declan?”

  “Enough with the shoes already,” muttered Alex. She leaned toward the intercom. “Hello, um, Oz, is it? Yeah, hi. We’re really sorry to bother you Mr., um… Mr. Oz, but we ah…” A different camera twitched in her direction. “We need help, and Declan said you were the man to see. Can you please just let us in?”

  Silence.

  “Mr. Oz?” she asked again.

  The intercom buzzed and a lock in the door released. Declan pushed the varnished door open and led the way inside.

  The front entryway stood bare, bereft of any furnishing, and a staircase disappeared into the darkness at the end of the foyer. Rooms branched off on either side of the long hall. Declan chose one on the left. Alex followed.

  Like the entryway, the room was empty, save for a large bank of monitors set against the far wall. Declan came to a stop in front of the display and commenced to wait.

  “I don’t get it,” said Alex. “Where is he?”

  “Patience, young Jedi.” Declan crossed his arms and stared at the array of monitors. “He doesn’t actually live here. This is just someplace people can visit when they want to reach him. Ozzie’s a man who values his privacy. Oh, and I should probably warn you, he’s a little… neurotic. Helpful. But neurotic.”

  One of the monitors lit up, displaying the grainy image of a bald man in his mid-thirties, wearing square-rimmed glasses and a bow-tie. He looked a little like the rock star, Moby.

  Well… Moby, if Moby woke up one morning and decided that being a rock legend wasn’t quite cutting it, and decided to change professions to become an accountant. The man looked as though he were fully prepared to either DJ at an LA club filled with Mathletes… or file someone’s taxes. Alex wasn’t quite sure which. Nor, for that matter, was she entirely sure what to make of him.

  “I’ll take that as a compliment, halfwit,” said Ozzie. “As a wise man once said, ‘Everything great in the world comes from neurotics.’”

  Alex recognized the quote.

  “‘They alone have founded our religions and composed our masterpieces,’” she finished.

  “I—What?” Declan asked, looking back and forth between them in confusion. “What are you two talking about?”

  “It’s Proust, you ignoramus,” said the man in the b
ox, first rolling his eyes dramatically and then flashing a wide, gap-toothed smile. “I like this one, Declan. She reads!”

  Technically, she’d read it in a coffee-table book of quotes that Cassie had given her Aunt Cil as a Christmas gift two years earlier.

  Of course, she wasn’t about to admit that now.

  “Much better than that last floozy you brought with you. Fairly certain that poor girl was destined either for a short-lived foray into the arena of adult entertainment, or for a scintillating career in the fast food industry. Possibly both.”

  Alex leaned toward Declan and said in a quiet voice, “Floozy?”

  “It was for a case,” he said, defensively. “Chrissy was a client. I was helping her find her brother.”

  Chrissy?

  Ozzie harrumphed. “Some things that are lost are better left that way,” he said cryptically. “Chrissy’s brother being a prime example.”

  “Focus, Oz,” said Declan. “We need your help.”

  “Yes, I suppose you do,” said Ozzie with a sigh. A second monitor lit up, displaying a four-way split-screen, offering out of focus, black and white video feeds from some sort of surveillance system. “This was taken last night.”

  Three figures were moving in and out of the frames, making their way through an office of some sort. Alex squinted at the monitor, struggling to make out more detail.

  The figures moved closer to one of the cameras and Alex raised an eyebrow. She’d recognized them.

  On the screen were Grayson, Carson Brandt and—

  “Hang on.” Alex stepped closer to the screen. “Is that my aunt?”

  “Where is this place, Oz?” asked Declan.

  “An abandoned underground facility in the mountains of western Virginia. Former headquarters of the Agency and home to Grayson’s original unit. They shut it down after the Masterson debacle twelve years ago.”

  “What were they doing there?” asked Alex.

  The four-way split was replaced by a single feed that stretched to fill the large screen, causing the image to blur. Three figures—who Alex assumed to be Grayson, Brandt and Cil—had entered a large room and were approaching a row of towering black objects, but the distortions in the image prevented her from making out any other details.

  “They were there to check in on an old friend,” said Oz. “Those black masses you see at the center of the frame? They’re cryogenic chambers.”

  “Masterson,” said Declan. “They must have gone to check on the unit. Make sure he’d really escaped.”

  Ozzie snorted. “Yeah? Well they screwed up.”

  “How so?”

  Ozzie didn’t have to answer, the video did it for him.

  They watched as a fourth figure materialized behind Cil and seized her, prompting Grayson to remove a human body from one of the chambers. Then they watched as Cil was shot in the leg by Grayson’s gun.

  “So that’s what happened to her leg,” said Alex.

  “Who’s the other man, Oz?” asked Declan.

  Ozzie selected a portion of the image—framing the mystery man—enlarged it, and ran some sort of clean-up application.

  The result was a fuzzy but identifiable image of a handsome man in his mid-twenties, with short dark hair and an aquiline nose.

  “Impossible,” said Declan. “Oz, how—”

  “No idea,” he said. “I don’t have a clue how he pulled it off, either.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Alex. “Who is he?”

  “That’s him, Lex,” said Declan. “You’re looking at an image of Samuel Masterson.”

  She studied the image, filing the blurry profile away in her memory. At least she’d know him if she ran into him on the street now. Provided he wasn’t wearing someone else’s face, that is.

  “Well, I guess that explains how Masterson ended up with Grayson’s Ruger,” said Declan. “Alright. We can ask Grayson about all this later. After we get them back. Oz, we saw the three of them after this happened. What we need to know now is who took them from the cabin.”

  “Getting to that,” said Ozzie.

  Half a dozen screens lit up, a few flashing through digital dossiers of Declan’s family while the others offered security camera feeds showing different scenes from the last few days. Alex and Cassie on the boardwalk. Kenzie and Nate wandering through the parking garage looking for Grayson’s rental. Traffic camera feeds showing the same black BMW traveling through the streets of DC.

  “You’ve been pretty busy lately. And I think it’s safe to say that the Agency has taken a very keen interest in the Grayson family.”

  One of the screens flipped to a security feed showing two men dressed in plain clothes, kneeling beside a car in a parking garage. A small box sat opened in front of them, a flashing light inside. One of the men reached into the box and the feed cut out.

  The pulse.

  “So it was Agents that came after us in the parking garage,” said Declan.

  “Yep,” said Ozzie. “And I happen to have read a fascinating report about two Agents who pursued a 6 Series Beamer off the edge of an uncompleted bridge. A Beamer that then proceeded to vanish into thin air. No video on that, sadly. You’re quite the show off, Mr. O’Connell. I know jumpers much more experienced than you, who never could have managed such a feat.”

  “What does the Agency want with Grayson’s family?” asked Alex.

  “Oh, it’s not Grayson’s family they’re after, my shoeless minx,” said Ozzie.

  The screens went black. Two monitors lit up to replace them. On the first was a scrolling profile detailing the vital statistics of one Alexandra Catherine Parker. On the second, the scanned images of her Bay View High School ID card and her driver’s license stared back at her.

  “The person they want,” he continued. “Is you.”

  “Me?” Alex repeated dumbly. “What could they possibly want with me?”

  “Honestly? I haven’t the faintest,” said Ozzie. “They’ve got most of the files pertaining to you classified and encrypted at a level even I haven’t been able to crack. And that’s saying something.”

  “They took the others to get to Alex,” Declan surmised. “They wanted to bait us into coming after them, so that they could get their hands on her.”

  “I think that’s part of it,” said Oz. “The directives pertaining to Alex are coming down from the top—and I mean the very top—and they’re all saying the same thing: approach with extreme caution and detain, but under no circumstances are they to harm her.”

  Well, at least their orders weren’t to exterminate her with extreme prejudice. That was something, right?

  “I guess that explains why the Agents in the parking garage were such lousy shots,” said Declan.

  Ozzie nodded. “And the good news is that they’re also under orders not to hurt your family. They’re detaining them, but they weren’t harmed when they brought them in.”

  Relief washed over her. Aunt Cil, Cassie and the others were okay. Beside her, Alex sensed Declan relax, his rigid posture loosening with a slow exhalation of breath.

  “Not all that surprising, if you think about it,” said Ozzie. “Can you imagine the political shitstorm they’d rain down on themselves if the Agency was ever implicated in bringing harm to John Grayson or his family? The man’s considered a saint in most Variant households. The Agency would lose what little credibility it has left.”

  “Something’s bugging me, Oz,” said Declan. “Why didn’t the Agency just raid the cabin while Alex was there? Surely that would have been one of their options.”

  “That’s the thing,” said Ozzie. “They’re dying to get their hands on her, but for whatever reason, they’re also terrified of her. Taking your family was probably their round-about way of drawing her to them, while still maintaining some sort of leverage over her.”

  The idea that a shadowy government organization was scared of a 16-year-old seemed laughable to Alex.

  But it also meant that, somehow, they must
know about her ability. And they seemed to believe that she could be as powerful as Masterson.

  Someone should have told them not to worry.

  Even if she could amass his supposedly endless array of powers, she wouldn’t be able to hang on to them for long.

  Alex tried to focus on her jumping ability. Now that she knew what to look for, she could tell that the powers she’d borrowed from Declan were, very slowly, starting to fade. At this rate, she had maybe six hours before she couldn’t sense the currents at all and would once again lose her ability to jump.

  “So where are they keeping them, Oz?” asked Declan.

  “They’re in a military facility near Saranac Lake,” said Ozzie. “Closest thing to the cabin they could find. They must not have wanted to take them far.”

  “I didn’t know there were any military sites in Saranac Lake,” said Declan.

  “And that’s the way the government would like to keep it, I’m sure.” He smiled.

  An aerial image of a large metal roofed building surrounded by forested land appeared on the screen.

  “Thought you might want to see it,” said Ozzie.

  “Thanks, Ozzie,” said Declan, taking Alex by the arm. “I owe you one.”

  “Nah,” said Ozzie, smiling. “Just go and give the Agency what-for, and we’ll call it even.”

  — 24 —

  Alex and Declan reappeared in Alex’s empty bedroom.

  “The cabin?” said Alex, looking around. “What are we doing back here?”

  “Had to risk it,” said Declan. “There’s a couple of things I wanted to pick up before we left. Besides. You kept complaining about your stupid feet. Thought if I brought you back here to grab a pair of shoes, you might actually be able to focus when we go after Grayson and the others.”

  “Really?” she said, surprised.

  “Well, that. And I thought it might make you a little easier to put up with.”

  She rolled her eyes. “What I meant, was are you really taking me with you?”

  “Could I actually stop you at this point?”

  “Not a chance,” she said, smiling. “But it’s nice to see you finally owning up to it.”

  Declan left the room, promising to return in a few minutes once he’d found what he was looking for.

  Alex seized the opportunity to change into something other than her pajamas. She settled on a pair of jeans and a lightweight, long-sleeved tee. She was working her feet into her trusty Chuck Taylor’s when Declan materialized in the doorway with a gun in each hand.

  She gave him a skeptical once-over as she tied her shoelaces. “Easy there, Rambo. You know, when you said you wanted to pick up a couple of things, I didn’t realize that that was what you had in mind.”

  He deposited the Beretta in the pocket of his hoodie and then held up the Ruger.

  “Ever used a gun before?” he asked.

  “My Aunt’s a card-carrying member of PETA and—up until this week, anyway—I haven’t been in too many situations requiring the use of heavy artillery.” She stared at the gun. “Unless you count paintball. But I wouldn’t, because I lasted about two minutes and the only thing I managed to take out was a tree.”

  “Right,” he said, offering her the gun. “I should probably give you some pointers, then.”

  It was heavy. Far heavier than she had expected.

  They always made them look so light on TV.

  After receiving a quick run-down on what-not-to-do with the gun, a lesson on how to remove the safety, and a few tips on firing and how to hold the pistol—and after promising Declan repeatedly that she would only use it if she had no other option—Alex tucked the Ruger into the back of her jeans, and then slipped Declan’s jacket back on in an attempt to conceal it.

  He stood slouched against a bedpost, watching her as she rolled up the too-long sleeves of her borrowed coat.

  The chill of the metal was seeping through the flimsy material that covered the small of her back.

  Alex took a few steps to make sure the gun was secure and wouldn’t be falling out by accident. The weight of it resting against her back was heavy and awkward, and altogether alien. But she had to admit, she definitely felt a little safer for having it there.

  When she could get past the growing fear that the gun might accidentally fire while still in her pants, that is. She’d seen it a thousand times in the movies. Some dummy with no experience with firearms shoves the gun into the front of their jeans and bang! No more pinky toe… or worse.

  She was rather attached to her left butt-cheek. She’d rather not part with any of it.

  “You look nervous,” said Declan. “Maybe giving you a gun isn’t such a good idea.”

  “Are you kidding?” she said. “It’s a terrible idea. But I’m fine. Honest.”

  “Just, please,” he said. “Remember what I’ve told you. And don’t take off that safety until you’re ready to use it.”

  Alex created a small sphere of electricity in her hand, just to test her strength, and then dispersed it. “Hopefully I won’t need to use it. I think I’ve still got a few hours before I’ll lose my jumping ability. Besides, I have a much more powerful weapon at my disposal.”

  “The spheres?”

  “My brain.”

  “Oh,” he said, cracking a smile. “I’ll be sure to add that to our list of assets for next time.”

  “Smartass.”

  “Always.”

  “You should be more careful what you say to me, Decks. I am armed, you know. And it’s never wise to piss off a girl capable of first electrocuting you, and then shooting you, and then dropping you in a lake. It’s only asking for trouble.”

  “Yeah, well,” he said. “I trust you not to kill, maim, or drown me without just provocation. Now c’mere.”

  “Why?”

  “We need to do one last thing before we go.”

  “Oh?” said Alex, taking a step closer. “What’s that?”

  Declan reached out, took both of her hands in his, and drew her toward him. The current flowing between them grew stronger.

  “Figured you could use the pick-me-up,” he said softly, a roguish grin on his face.

  The long list of reasons Alex had conjured to ensure that she stayed away from the caustic, self-assured and insufferable blonde that now held her captive by his gaze, had been utterly forgotten. All the arguments she’d had with herself over the course of the last three days had faded to nothing under the weight of those hazel eyes.

  The lamp on the bedside table flickered.

  Declan’s gaze slid down to focus on her mouth and Alex’s heart started beating double-time.

  She took another step closer… just as the sound of a creaking floorboard reached them from the hallway.

  Declan’s attention shifted to the open bedroom door—and they jumped.

  They landed in a wooded area in the dark of night.

  He dropped her hands.

  Whatever moment they’d been heading toward back at the cabin, they’d left behind them when they jumped. Declan glanced around, finally fixing his attention on a glaring white light that was shining from the other side of a nearby hill. He started toward it.

  Alex followed, tripping clumsily over fallen branches and pitfalls in the darkened forest.

  “Saranac Lake,” said Declan, over his shoulder.

  “What?”

  “It’s where we jumped to. I figured you were about to ask where we were,” he said. “You usually do.”

  She didn’t say anything, just kept following him through the black.

  When they reached the crest of the hill he pulled her down beside him. They knelt there in the underbrush, taking in the scene below.

  The compound was surrounded on all sides by a ten-foot-high fence topped with razor wire, with only a small yard standing between the fence and the metal-sided building. A single watchtower loomed by the front gate. From this height and vantage point, Declan and Alex could see down into the darkened
tower. A lone guard sat in the enclosure, his feet propped up in a square cutout window, watching something on a mini-television.

  In the yard below, a second guard appeared to be walking in a perpetual circle that took him through the yard and around the exterior of the metal building.

  Most interesting to Alex, however, was the sight of her aunt and her friends all seated in the yard at the front of the building. All eight of them appeared unharmed.

  “Something’s not right,” said Declan after the guard finished another lap around the complex. “There are only two guards watching them. Even if they had used a pulse to knock out your Aunt’s ability to jump before… there’s power in the facility. All she would have to do is take some from those floodlights, grab the others, and jump. So why hasn’t she? What’s stopping her?”

  “Maybe they did something else to her,” said Alex, suddenly frightened for her aunt. “Something that took her power away.”

  Declan shook his head. “I don’t think so. They have plenty of methods for disabling other types of Variants, but for Jumpers, they only ever use a pulse. I don’t know what else they could have used on her.”

  Alex examined the group more closely. They didn’t look afraid. Some of them, like Brandt and Aiden, simply looked bored. Others, like Grayson and Nate, looked decidedly pissed about something.

  “Well, standing here hypothesizing isn’t going to help them,” said Alex. “I say we jump over there, grab the others, and jump back to the cabin.”

  “It’s too easy,” said Declan. “This whole thing feels wrong.”

  “Do you have any other ideas?”

  Declan frowned. “We’ll need to take out the guard in the tower.”

  Alex stared down at her hands in the black. She had an idea, but she was frightened that it might not work the way she wanted it to.

  “I think I should go,” she said. “I have something I want to try.”

  “No way, Lex. I can handle it.”

  Maybe he was right. Alex wasn’t really sure her plan would work, and Declan was trained for this sort of thing.

  In the yard below, Kenzie and Brian were sitting off to one side. She couldn’t quite see Kenzie’s face, but she could see Brian’s clearly. He was crying, although he seemed to be trying his best to hide it from the others. He wasn’t doing a very good job of it, though, because his sister had taken notice.

  After watching Kenzie reach over and hug the boy tightly, Alex got to her feet.

  “Alex?” said Declan. “What are you doing?”

  Alex materialized in the cramped watch tower behind the guard. He whipped around to face her, reaching for his holster. Alex was faster. She placed her hand on his chest—and sent a surge of electricity cascading through her palm.

  The man fell from his chair and lay sprawled on the ground.

  Cassie had only been half right, earlier, when she’d said that Alex had no backbone.

  When it came to defending herself? To fighting for what she deserved?

  Alex was a coward. Every time.

  But when it came to defending her family and friends? To fighting for the people she cared about?

  Well, in those all-important moments Alex was a true force to be reckoned with.

  She knelt beside the fallen guard, checking for a pulse. Strong and steady. He was merely out cold.

  Alex smiled and jumped back to Declan’s side in the forest.

  “What did you just do?” he hissed. “I told you not to—”

  “It’s okay, Declan. Calm down! I just knocked him out.”

  “How? Those spheres would have blown him to bits!”

  She wiggled her fingers in the dim light. “I electrocuted him. Knocked the poor guy out like a light.”

  “You… We can do that?” he asked, a hint of awe in his tone.

  She smiled. “So, what now, Decks? He won’t be out for long.”

  Declan shook his head slowly in amusement, then returned his attention to the compound below.

  The guard’s circuitous pacing had led him around the side of the building. They had maybe thirty seconds before he reappeared.

  “Alright,” he said, taking her hand. “Let’s go.”

  They jumped, but as they started to reappear an unyielding pressure pushed against them, forcing them to materialize a few feet from where Declan had intended.

  “Decks! Alex!” Kenzie said, jumping to her feet.

  Declan glanced at the empty space behind him where he’d intended to reappear. “Well, that was weird.”

  “What just happened?” asked Alex

  “It’s like something was there,” said Declan. “We’ll figure it out later, right now it’s time we got you guys out of here. Come on. Before that guard comes back.”

  No one moved to get up.

  “We can’t, Decks,” said Brian.

  “What?” said Declan. “Why not?”

  A tremor rippled through the air, encircling their group. The sight reminded Alex of the rippling waves of heat that hover above scorching blacktops during the middle of summer. The mirage shuddered violently, and in the next instant, fourteen Agents armed with assault rifles shimmered into view.

  They were surrounded.

  “That’s why not,” said Aiden. He nodded toward the massive man that had his rifle trained on Declan. The Agent had a shaved head and every patch of skin visible below his chin was covered in tattoos. Alex was fairly certain he’d be able to bench-press half of Bay View High’s varsity football team with each massive arm, if put to the test. “His name’s Dimitri. He’s from Vladivostok. Two guesses what he can do.”

  Declan, impudent to the last, grinned up at the giant Russian. “Playing hide and go seek with you as a kid must have been a real bitch.”

  Dimitri only smiled.

  “Miss Parker and Mr. O’Connell,” said a woman’s voice. “Welcome.”

  The wall of Agents parted, allowing a petite woman with short gray hair, dressed smartly in a gray pantsuit and pumps, to enter the circle.

  Grayson and the others finally stood.

  “I believe I made you a promise, Jonathan,” she said. “Cil? You can take Brian, Cassandra and Mackenzie home now. You can go too, Carson. You’ll see no more trouble from the Agency. We thank you for your cooperation.”

  “Cooperation,” said Brandt. “That’s a laugh.”

  “I’m not leaving without my niece,” said Cil angrily.

  “Cil, it’s alright,” said Grayson. “I’ll take care of her. You have my word. Please, take the children back to the cabin and wait for us. We’ll be there soon.”

  Cil looked to Alex.

  “It’s alright, Aunt Cil,” she said. “Please, just get them out of here.”

  After a long moment, her aunt took hold of the others and jumped, but she was definitely not happy to do it.

  “Why don’t you let the others go, too?” asked Alex.

  “Leverage,” said Aiden. “That’s right, isn’t it? Alex jumps and you shoot the rest of us? Isn’t that how it works?”

  An almost paralyzing fear gripped her.

  They were well, and truly, stuck.

  Realizing that there was no possible way of escaping this place that didn’t involve someone ending up in a body bag, Alex decided to do the only thing she could do: offer herself in trade for the others.

  “It’s me you want, right?” she said slowly. “I’ll stay—willingly—just so long as you let them go.”

  The offer hadn’t worked on Masterson, but she prayed that the Agency would be more inclined to negotiate. She simply hoped that Ozzie had been right about Grayson and his family being untouchable.

  “Alex, wait,” said Grayson. “Just give me a moment to talk to Director Carter before you agree to anything. She’s a reasonable woman.” His words carried a bitter edge. “I’m sure we can figure something out.”

  Director Carter? So this was the woman behind the Agency?

  Alex had been expecting someone… taller. r />
  “I really don’t think so, Jonathan,” said the Director. “You know her best option is to come with us willingly. The Agency can protect her. We aren’t the bad guys, no matter how hard you try to make us out to be. What I’m offering Alexandra is a chance at a better life.”

  “What?” Alex asked, confused. “What do you mean, you want to give me a ‘better life?’ Are you arresting me?”

  “No, child.” The Director laughed. “We’re not arresting you. You’ll simply become a… a ward of the state, in a manner of speaking. You’ll come to live and work at the Agency. We’ll be your new home.”

  Grayson scowled. “For heaven’s sake, Dana. You can’t just take her.”

  “We can,” she said sternly. “And we will. The blood running in that girl’s veins is the last undamaged resource of VX-2 in existence. That makes her Agency property, Jonathan, whether you like it or not. Now, we’re not heartless. We could put her down and eliminate the threat, but we won’t. We have every intention of training her as an operative and teaching her to control her gifts. We’ll be giving her a better life.”

  There was that phrase again.

  “Will you listen to yourself?” said Grayson. “How could that possibly be a better life than the one she’s got? You’ll be taking away her freedom, not to mention her future. And for what? For the chance of training her as a weapon to be used at your disposal?”

  “We can protect the girl, Jonathan. It’s what Nora and James would have wanted—for her to be safe. Not just from Masterson. She also needs to be protected from the world. Do you know what the extremists would do to her if they knew what she was and what she was capable of? If they knew there was another like Samuel? We can keep her safe. The Agency is the best choice she has.”

  “That’s not a choice that’s a jail sentence. Cil and I can keep her safer than you lot could ever hope to. Alex has the right to be with the people she cares about. To take her away from the life she’s built in Florida is tantamount to—”

  “It’s not that simple, Grayson, and you know it. Alex isn’t the only one who needs protection. We also need to protect the world from Alex. You know she’s far too powerful to be allowed to live amongst the norms while she’s still learning what she can do. She might hurt someone. She’s only a child.”

  Alex bristled at that. She’d be seventeen next month and was more responsible than a lot of the adults she knew. The events of her life had forced her to grow up faster than most.

  To be labeled a child felt like an insult.

  Grayson was furious. “Now listen here, Dana, you’re talking about a human being, not a weapon. And I hardly see how the Agency can help her any better than I can…”

  Their argument continued, but Alex was no longer paying attention.

  Why was it that, every time something major happened in her life, Alex always found herself standing on the sidelines while other people fought her battles for her?

  As a child, her parents and six others had sacrificed their lives in order to protect her from Masterson.

  Every time someone had picked on her at school—every time Jessica, Connor, or anyone else had done anything to hurt her—it had been Cassie to the rescue.

  And now, for the last three days, Declan, Nate, Grayson and the others had done everything in their power to keep her safe and out of danger, ending up bruised, battered and then abducted by their own government in the process.

  But it was all to no avail, because here she was.

  In trouble, yet again.

  Only this time it was her future in the cross-hairs.

  Was she really going to stand idly by while these people decided her fate? Was she really going to let the Agency take her away from everything she’d ever known and everyone she’d ever loved without at lest trying to put up a fight?

  No.

  Alex pulled the gun from her waistband. Raising it toward the sky, she released the safety, pulled the trigger and fired off a round.

  Fourteen rifles were aimed in her direction.

  The arguing stopped.

  She had their attention.

  “That is it!” Alex hissed, lowering the gun. “I’m no one’s asset and I’m sure as hell not the Agency’s property. I’m a living, breathing, thinking teenage girl who can speak for herself!”

  Declan and the others gaped at her. The Director folded her arms across her chest and fixed Alex with a steely glare.

  “I know you think you own me, Director, but you don’t. Grayson’s right. I’m a human being, not a weapon for the Agency. Legally, you have no claim to me. And if word got out about what you were trying to do here, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t like the results. I have a life, I have a family, and I have friends that mean everything to me. I am not about to stand by and watch you take all that away. I have no intention of going anywhere with you. I trust Grayson and his family more than I will ever trust you or your organization. If they’re willing to help me—to keep me safe—then they are the ones in whom I will place my trust. Not you.

  “And you’re not getting my blood. That one’s non-negotiable. The last thing this world needs is an army of freaks like me. There’s no telling what they might do. Look at the trouble one Masterson has caused. Are you really willing to risk the creation of another?

  “What I’m saying, Director, is that I will obey your laws and I will follow your rules, but I will never be your asset. I have no desire to be turned into a weapon. All I want is to be left in peace.”

  Her words were met with a stony silence.

  The Director’s eyes had narrowed to slits. “Very well, Ms. Parker,” she said curtly. “We’ll do this on your terms… for now.”

  Alex let out a slow breath.

  “However,” she continued. “If your burgeoning powers should prove dangerous to the public—or if the Agency should find any reason to doubt Mr. Grayson’s ability to handle your care—then there will be no more room for negotiation. The Agency will at that point become responsible for your… maintenance. You will be taken into custody and dealt with accordingly. Have I made myself clear?”

  “Crystal,” said Alex, handing the gun to Grayson. “Now if you’ll excuse us, Director. I’m taking my friends and we’re going home.”

  With that, Alex and the others vanished from the yard.

  — 25 —

  “Oh, that poor, poor girl.” Cassie lowered her aviator sunglasses and peered over the top of the frames. “What did she do? Go to the spray-on tanning place and request the Oompa Loompa treatment?”

  Alex glanced up from the pages of her novel to see who it was that had so captured her friend’s attention.

  Miranda Pierce—a sophomore Alex and Cassie had hung out with occasionally before the “incident” in the computer lab—was standing at the edge of a makeshift beach volleyball court in a barely-there, lime-green bikini, flirting shamelessly with Connor and half a dozen guys from the varsity soccer team.

  It was the same barely-there, lime-green bikini that Alex had been eyeing in a boardwalk shop earlier on in the week.

  It felt like a hundred years ago.

  Alex tugged at the hem of her tank top, trying to keep the material from riding up high enough for her scar to be visible. While Cassie had been lying stretched-out, working on her tan beside her, Alex had been sitting cross-legged with her back to the water, trying to ignore the rowdy gathering of her former friends partying a short way down the beach.

  Now that she’d started watching them, however, she couldn’t seem to look away.

  It didn’t help that Miranda’s skin was like some strange orange beacon, mesmerizing in its unnatural brightness.

  Poor girl. Alex could sympathize. They both had the sort of fair skin that made sunburns inevitable and a healthy tan almost impossible to achieve. Sometimes, even neon was preferable to pasty. And Alex had seen worse fake tans.

  None that immediately sprang to mind.

  But, you know.

  She was sure the
y were out there.

  Not that Miranda needed her sympathy. With that figure, her skin could have been bright purple and she’d still be holding Connor’s attention.

  “I don’t know,” said Alex. “It’s not that bad. She looks tan… -ish.”

  “There is a fine line between tan, and looking like you just rolled around in a giant bag of Doritos. And Miranda seems to prefer the nacho cheese variety.”

  Alex smiled as she watched their erstwhile friends horsing around and playing volleyball near the pier. They were just close enough that she could hear the sound of their laughter over the crash of waves breaking against the shore.

  She sighed, remembering a time, not so very long ago, when it had been her standing at the edge of that court where Miranda now stood, surrounded by friends, without a care in the world.

  Miranda, she now realized, had become her replacement.

  “Do you ever miss them, Cass?”

  “Who? Those rejects?” she asked, pushing the aviators back up the bridge of her nose. “No. And after the way they treated you, you shouldn’t either.”

  Alex stared down at her hands, wiggling her fingers experimentally, attempting to form a sphere.

  Nothing.

  Not a single watt.

  It was Tuesday—their last day of spring break before school was back in.

  Alex had spent every waking moment since Saturday morning avoiding any sort of physical contact with her aunt. After the events leading up to the weekend, she wanted nothing more than to be ability-free for as long as she could make it last. She wanted to feel normal. Even if the sensation could only ever be temporary.

  The past few days had been relatively quiet. No contact from the Agency. No unexpected visits from Masterson. And she hadn’t been back to the cabin since she left on Saturday morning.

  If anything, her life had taken a turn for the boring.

  And Alex couldn’t be happier about it.

  “So tell me, G.I. Jane—did you really shoot that gun into the air before going all women’s lib on the Director?” asked Cassie, breaking into her thoughts. “Or was that just Aiden trying to liven up the story?”

  “I wouldn’t exactly consider standing up for myself an act of female empowerment,” said Alex. “But I’ll admit. Telling her off felt pretty good.”

  “That wasn’t my question.”

  Alex grinned. “I might have shot a gun in the air.”

  “Like a boss, I’m sure.”

  “Naturally,” she said. “But I still hate the things.”

  Actually, she’d be quite happy to never see another firearm in person ever—ever—again.

  “Damn. And here I’d planned to sign you up for an NRA membership as a gift for your birthday next month.” She settled back onto the red blanket, her bronzed skin glistening with sunscreen. “Speaking of which. You still haven’t said how you want to celebrate. I’m thinking we need to go shopping on the Champs Élysées and find you a hot Frenchman. Or maybe we should hit up Hollywood Boulevard, looking for celebrities. Oh, I know! London! You’ve always wanted to go there, right?… What’s with the face? Come on, Lex. My best friend can zap me anywhere on the planet in the blink of an eye. You know I’m going to find every way I can to con you into abusing this new power of yours.”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  Jessica Huffman had joined the group by the pier. Her first act upon arrival had been to pull Connor off to one side. They were currently arguing about something amidst the pylons.

  Her aunt wasn’t the only one Alex had been avoiding since her return. She hadn’t spoken to Connor since that late night phone call after Declan took him home.

  After two days of Alex refusing to take his calls, he’d resorted to hitting up Cassie for information.

  Vee had been declared missing over the weekend. According to Connor, Jessica hadn’t told anyone about what had happened that day on the dock. Probably a wise decision on Jessica’s part.

  Who would have believed her?

  Alex had gone by the dock only once since returning home—and had been surprised to discover that Vee’s remains had disappeared. Alex suspected that the Agency had probably had something to do with it. She wondered what, if anything, they would tell her poor family.

  Her stomach twisted. Connor had left the group of cheerleaders and varsity athletes and was walking resolutely in their direction.

  What did he think he was doing?

  Surely he wasn’t coming to talk to her. Here. On the beach. In full view of the who’s-who of Bay View High.

  It would be social suicide.

  Alex’s phone rang.

  She reached into the large straw bag sitting in the sand beside their blanket and fished out her new phone, answering it distractedly.

  “Hey, Kenzie,” she said.

  “It’s Kenzie?” Cassie leaned toward the phone. “HI KENZIE!”

  “Christ,” said a masculine voice on the other end of the line.

  “Declan?” asked Alex.

  “I think I’m deaf,” he said.

  “Yeah, well,” said another voice in the background—Kenzie’s. A scuffling sound traveled over the line and her voice developed an echo. They’d put her on speakerphone. “Serves you right for grabbing the phone, butthead. Just set the phone on the console, Nate.”

  “What’s up, guys?” she asked.

  Connor had covered half the distance between them and showed no signs of stopping.

  “Declan wants to know where you’re at,” said Kenzie.

  “Thank you, Kenzie,” said Declan. “I can speak for myself, you know.”

  “Fine. Then speak.”

  “Where are you, Lex?” he repeated.

  “Um. I’m at the—”

  “What does that moron think he’s doing?” Cassie asked. She’d noticed Connor’s trajectory and now sat propped up on her elbows, watching his progress.

  “Dammit, Decks!” Kenzie yelled into the phone. “Slow down! And watch the road!”

  “Beach,” Alex finished. “I’m at the beach.”

  “What does what moron think he’s doing?” asked a third voice. It was Aiden’s. “The road, Declan! Christ. If I die in this car and you miraculously survive, I’m coming back to haunt your ass.”

  “Hey, I was all for letting Nate drive,” said Declan. “Kenzie’s the one who nixed it.”

  “Never again,” said Kenzie. “Ever. You should see some of the nightmares I’ve been having.”

  “Again,” said Nate. “My driving was excellent. Us driving off the bridge was Declan’s fault. Not mine. He’s the one who dragged his feet with the jump.”

  “Same spot as last time?” asked Declan, ignoring his brother.

  Last time? The only time Declan had been here with them was the first day they’d met. And she’d only ever noticed him on the boardwalk and the pier. Not on the beach.

  And certainly not on the supposedly isolated strip of beach where Alex had stupidly decided to remove her tank top, thus revealing her scar and leaving her clad in only a string bikini, so that she could work on those stubborn tan lines.

  “Wait. You were there?” She cringed. “Never mind. Of course you were. No, Declan, we’re closer to the pier this time. Why do you want to know?”

  Connor had dropped to one knee in the sand beside their blanket and was grinning at her.

  Caught off guard and distracted by the phone conversation, she smiled back at him before she could stop herself.

  Cassie sent her a look.

  Oops.

  “Hey, Alex, Cassie,” he said. “How’s it going?”

  “Don’t go anywhere,” Nate was saying. “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  “But—” she protested.

  Too late. The line was dead.

  “Did you take a volleyball to the head?” asked Cassie.

  “No,” he said, confused. “Why do you ask?”

  Cassie sighed. “What do you want, Connor?”

  “Just w
anted to see how you guys were, is all. After what happened last week… I don’t know.” He looked sadly at Alex, puppy-dog eyes in full effect. “I was worried about you. Wanted to make sure you were doing okay.”

  “We’re fine.” Cassie leaned to one side in order to look past Connor’s broad shoulders. “But judging from the attention you’re getting right now, your social life is about to flat-line.”

  Down by the pier, the others had halted their game and were now watching them with interest. Jessica, meanwhile, had her arms crossed angrily over her chest, apoplectic with rage. Alex had started to wonder if the girl’s face was even capable of showing an emotion other than annoyance, or if it had become permanently stuck like that.

  Connor shrugged. “If they’ve got a problem with it, screw ’em.”

  Cassie appeared mildly impressed by his indifference.

  “Lexie,” he said. “I know you’re still angry with me. And you’ve got every right to be. All I’m asking is that you give me one more shot.”

  This was exactly why she hadn’t answered the phone.

  “I’m sorry, Connor. I just… I need some time.”

  “It’s alright.” He stood and began moving slowly backward down the beach. He flashed her a confident smile. “You’re worth the wait.”

  As soon as he was out of earshot, Cassie chimed, “Just say, ‘no,’ Alex, dear.”

  “You make him sound like a drug.”

  “That’s exactly what the guy is, for you. He’s your addiction,” she said. “Trust me. Just say no to crack, spray-on tans, and Connor. All three have the potential to end badly. Especially where you’re concerned.”

  “Ladies,” Aiden said in a slow, goofy drawl from behind Cassie. “Mind if we join you?”

  Aiden, Nate and Declan were approaching from the direction of the boardwalk. Somehow, the trio had done the impossible and grown even more attractive in the four days since she’d last seen them.

  Then again, maybe it was simply the fact that this marked the first time she’d been able to observe the guys without the threat of impending doom hanging over their heads. Frown lines weren’t good for anyone’s features.

  And relaxed and happy seemed to be a really good look for them.

  Alex glanced back in the direction of the pier.

  Most of the girls were blatantly staring.

  She smiled.

  Miranda Pierce, eat your heart out.

  “Where’s Kenzie?” asked Alex. “Wasn’t she with you?”

  Aiden dropped down on the other side of Cassie.

  “Red left us in search of coffee.” Nate settled in next to Alex, taking the last open spot on the blanket and forcing Declan to find a seat in the sand. “Said she needed a caffeine fix.”

  “At six p.m.?” said Cassie. “Won’t that keep her awake all night?”

  “I asked her the same question,” said Aiden. “She just marched off down the boardwalk shouting, ‘Death before decaf!’”

  “Someone should put that on a t-shirt,” said Declan.

  Alex smiled.

  Declan smiled back, bumping her shoulder with his. “Hey, you,” he said softly, below the level of Nate and Cassie’s conversation.

  “Hey, yourself.”

  “You haven’t been by the cabin,” he said, fiddling with his car keys. “Everything alright?”

  “Fine,” she said. “Just needed a break, you know?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I figured.”

  Kenzie was walking toward them with a massive iced coffee in one hand.

  “Death before decaf!” Cassie shouted with a smile, raising a fist in the air.

  “Death before decaf!” Kenzie echoed. “Nice to see a little caffeine-lover solidarity. So few people out there understand.”

  She plopped down in the sand beside Declan.

  “So have they told you yet? Or do I get to be the one to break the happy news?” asked Kenzie between sips.

  “Told us what?” asked Alex.

  “That Bay View High has two new transfers,” she said, breaking into a brilliant smile.

  “What?” said Cassie, sitting up a little straighter. “Who?”

  “Mackenzie and Declan O’Neill, at your service, miss!” she said with a mock salute. “That’s O’Neill with two L’s, by the way.”

  “Hey, that’s great!” Cassie smiled wide.

  “Man, I love getting to use a fake name,” said Kenzie. “I’ll be incognito! At school! How awesome is that?”

  Cassie’s expression became a guise of mock severity. “I do hate to be the one to tell you this, Kenzie… But you see, you’ve made a major tactical error by being seen with us in public. We’re not exactly on speaking terms with the cool kids these days.”

  “Damn,” said Kenzie. “There goes my lifelong dream of being made Prom Queen. And I look so cute in a tiara… Tragic.”

  “Not that I don’t think it’s great, cause I do…” said Alex. “But why in the world are you two transferring to our high school?”

  “It’s to make the Agency happy,” said Nate. “They wanted us to be able to watch you more closely, so… we’ve temporarily relocated to Florida.”

  “Hooray for sunshine and sandy beaches,” said Aiden.

  “What?” said Cassie. “You’re moving too?”

  “Yeah, well. My last place is now in ruins, I lost my job at the docks when I went MIA over the weekend… and Grayson owes me one. Least he can do is rent me a room for a while. And anyway, I’ve been living in the cold and dreary Pacific Northwest for too long. Time for a fresh start in the sunshine state.”

  That revelation had Cassie as happy as a lark. Alex really needed to find out what was going on with those two.

  “Declan, I thought you’d already graduated,” said Alex.

  “I did,” he huffed. “Trust me. I’m not looking forward to going back, but it was either me or Nate—and I’m still 18 for another month, so I’m the youngest. Agency thought I might still be able to pass as a high school junior.”

  “Having you guys around ought to make things a little more interesting,” said Cassie. “I’m all for making things more interesting.”

  “Just… maybe not quite as interesting as last week,” Alex amended.

  “No. Definitely not that interesting,” Cassie agreed.

  “What? Not a fan of living in an action flick?” asked Aiden.

  “You know, it’s funny,” said Cassie. “Getting kidnapped twice in one week really ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

  “Is it still considered kidnapping when it’s a government agency doing the abducting?” asked Kenzie.

  “Semantics.”

  Kenzie leaned toward Cassie and whispered something in her ear. They both smiled wide.

  “I happen to think that’s an excellent idea,” Cassie replied.

  “Alright! All you hooligans off the blanket. Now. Up. Move it or lose it!” Kenzie jumped up, set her coffee in the sand, and began shooing the others off of the bright red stretch of fabric. Everyone scrambled to get up, voicing their protests.

  Kenzie and Cassie grabbed either end of the large red blanket and held it up in between them, standing apart, as if they were about to fold it—which conveniently blocked the group from any potential prying eyes in the direction of the pier.

  Suddenly, Alex knew what they were up to.

  Down the shore, in the opposite direction, a solitary couple lay basking in the sun, the man sound asleep and the woman too engrossed in her paperback to pay them any mind.

  Declan stood staring at them, arms crossed over his white t-shirt, the bottoms of his jeans and his black boots half buried in the sand. He was dressed almost the same as he had been on the first day they met. The only thing missing was the gray military jacket.

  If they were going to do this, the time was now.

  She sighed. So much for boring.

  “What? Are we leaving already?” asked Declan, misinterpreting their movements.

  A
lex got to her feet and shimmied out of her jean shorts, leaving on the tank top. No way she was taking that off in front of him again. She turned around, leaned in close to Declan and took him by the hand.

  “You know what, Decks?” she said in a soft voice. A slight tingle shivered through her palm. Just a few more seconds. “I’m really glad you came by. There’s actually something I’ve been wanting to do since that first day we met.”

  Declan smiled lazily down at her.

  Poor guy didn’t have a clue.

  “You remember?” she purred. “That day you dropped me in a lake? Twice?”

  Alex released Declan’s hand, took three steps backward and nodded to Nate and Aiden. They closed in on him, grinning.

  “What are you doing?” Declan asked warily. Realizing too late that he was their intended target, he tried to turn and make a break down the shore.

  Nate and Aiden were too fast.

  Declan soon stood hostage, only a few feet away, Nate gripping one arm, Aiden the other.

  “What the heck are you guys—” He finally noticed Alex, standing by the blanket, a wicked grin on her face. “Oh, no. No, no, n—”

  His last word of protest was clipped short by Alex’s tackle. As they fell toward the sand, Nate and Aiden released their hold… and Alex jumped.

  They splashed down in the salty water after having reappeared, tangled together in the air, thirty feet from the shore, and too close to the surface for Declan to even think about teleporting himself anywhere dry.

  Back on the beach, the others were cheering.

  Declan surfaced and slicked his hair back.

  Alex smiled at the sight of a very angry, very wet, Declan O’Connell.

  Oh, yeah. Revenge was sweet.

  “I suppose this makes us even?” Declan looked back at her from under an arched eyebrow, his ire slowly fading.

  “Not by a long shot.” She smiled and started back for the shore.

  A strong current of cooler water surrounded her. She swam with the flow, the water providing little resistance as she sailed onward toward the coast.

  “Oh, come on,” Declan groused from behind her as he struggled against a sudden onslaught of unusually large waves. “Cut it out, Aiden!”

  “What’s that, cousin?” Aiden called back. “Can’t hear you!”

  Alex laughed as the helpful tide sent her coasting back toward the beach.

  Maybe she wouldn’t ever be normal again. But in moments like this one, Alex was willing to concede—normal was terribly overrated.

  Want to know what comes next for Alex and her friends? Be sure to check out these other Variant Series novels, now available in both e-book and paperback!

  Resistance

  The Variant Series, #2

  Redux

  The Variant Series, #3