Revival (The Variant Series, #1)

  * * *

  Alex paced slowly around the spacious living room, unsure of what to do with herself and too wound up to sit still.

  After their conversation, Aunt Cil had followed Grayson outside, apparently to discuss Alex’s situation. She had reappeared ten minutes later, intent on leaving once more to carry out some damage control back home.

  Cassie was still out driving around in search of her and something like half the town already knew that she’d gone missing. Okay, maybe it wasn’t half the town, but it sure seemed like it after Cil finished listing all the people she had phoned while trying to find her.

  Cil had also insisted that Alex stay at the cabin until she had things sorted and knew it would be safe for her to return home.

  When she had asked how long that might take, her aunt’s reaction hadn’t been promising.

  Alex sank into the corner seat of the tan leather couch, tilted her head back and stared up at the cathedral ceiling.

  At this point, it wasn’t a matter of processing all these revelations. It was a matter of accepting them.

  Alex let her eyes drift closed.

  Mutant powers—which Alex had always assumed to be the stuff of sci-fi movies and graphic novels—were not only real, they also appeared to run in the family.

  Her parents had been spies and were murdered by a psychopath.

  Oh, and in an attempt to kill her, a crazy Scottish man had incinerated Mr. Ballard and burned his bookstore to the ground.

  Alex fully expected to wake up at any moment and find out this whole nightmare had been just that. It had all been just a dream.

  And you were there, and you were there, and there’s no place like home…

  She opened her eyes to find a smiling face staring down at her.

  “Hi, Alex.”

  “Hi, Brian.” She smiled. She couldn’t not smile at the kid. His grin was infectious.

  “Are you going to be staying with us for a while?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I guess it looks that way, doesn’t it?”

  The boy’s smile grew wider.

  At least someone was happy about the arrangement.

  The door to what Alex thought might be an office opened and Grayson stepped through it.

  “How are you, Alex?” Crossing the room, he took a seat across from her at one end of the immense flagstone hearth.

  “I’m alright,” she said. “Just trying to sort through it all, I guess. Wondering where I go from here.”

  He nodded.

  Brian plopped down beside Alex on the couch just as a blast of cooler air reached them from the front entryway. Nathaniel had appeared in the doorway toting a leather firewood carrier overflowing with small logs. He dropped it beside the hearth and set about building up the fire, using a poker to stoke the pile of glowing embers.

  The front door opened again. This time, Declan and Kenzie strode through it wearing identical masks of exasperation.

  “Ah, good,” said Grayson. “You’re all here. There are some things we need to discuss.”

  Nate paused in his work, stealing a glance in Alex’s direction. He sent her another reassuring smile. This time, she smiled back.

  There was a sudden blur of movement off to her left. Declan had collapsed onto the love seat adjacent to Alex’s couch and was sinking back into the cushions.

  “Hold up. If we’re having a family meeting, I need coffee.” Kenzie disappeared into the kitchen. “Talk amongst yourselves!”

  “Girl’s already wired for sound,” Declan muttered. “She needs to do the rest of us a favor and switch to decaf.”

  “I heard that!” Kenzie’s disembodied voice called from the kitchen.

  “Homework, Brian,” said Grayson, noticing the boy for the first time.

  “But Dad…” Brian pleaded. Grayson shot him a look. The boy deflated. “Yes, sir.”

  He leaned toward Alex.

  “Save my seat! I’ll be back,” he promised in a low whisper, then got to his feet and trudged off toward the kitchen.

  As Alex watched him go, her gaze fell on Declan. He was staring at her as though she were some curiosity that he was trying to make sense of.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” he said, but didn’t look away.

  Nathaniel cleared his throat. “So Alex will be staying here with us, Grayson?”

  “For the time being the cabin will be the safest place for her,” said Grayson. “I’m afraid, Alex, you won’t be going anywhere until we can determine how and why you managed to attract the attention of someone like Carson Brandt.”

  Her aunt had basically said as much, but coming from Grayson the announcement felt like a prison sentence.

  “There’s something I’ve been wondering,” said Alex. “How did you know to send Declan to follow me? What exactly did you see?”

  Grayson’s thin mouth turned down at the corners. “The trouble with my gift is that my visions are sometimes rather lacking in specifics. At first all I could see was a glimpse of you and another young girl sitting on a restaurant patio. A few hours later, I saw a second image—one of you running through a burning bookstore.”

  He rubbed his hands together. Just as he had in the hallway earlier, he appeared to be choosing his words carefully.

  “Cil and I haven’t exactly kept in touch over the years. I knew you were alive and well, somewhere, but I couldn’t be sure that it was you I was seeing,” he said. “Eventually I got lucky and saw a flash of you and your aunt together. Once I knew who you were and where to find you, I sent Declan.”

  “Why didn’t you just call my aunt and warn her? Stop me from going to the bookstore in the first place?”

  “Doesn’t always work like that,” said Nathaniel. “Calling your aunt might have insured that you went, for all we knew. The best chance we have to change something is to actually be there when it starts to happen.”

  “So you sent Declan to follow me instead,” she said.

  “Yes,” said Grayson.

  “Did anything in your visions tell you why Brandt wanted to kill me?”

  Grayson shook his head. “None of this makes sense. You’d never seen him before? Never met another Variant before today?”

  “No,” she said. “Not unless you count Aunt Cil. My life before today was pretty… normal.”

  Well, as normal as you could get when you were a walking power surge, anyway.

  Brian reappeared with a backpack and a laptop and settled back onto the couch beside Alex.

  Grayson sent him a look of disapproval.

  “What?” asked Brian. He hoisted what looked like a calculus textbook. “Homework!”

  The older man sighed, but said nothing more. Brian smiled triumphantly and opened the book.

  “There’s something to all this we aren’t seeing,” said Grayson, returning his attention to the group.

  “You’re right.” Declan leaned back further into the love seat, folding his hands behind his head. “To start with, Brandt wasn’t trying to kill her.”

  Alex raised an eyebrow. “Tell that to the wall of flames that chased me through the bookstore.”

  Declan shook his head. “The man’s a trained assassin. He kills people for a living. If he wanted you dead, it would have taken him two seconds and a wave of his hand.” Declan gave her a look of appraisal. Alex felt her cheeks flare under his scrutiny. “You’re not exactly a threat to a guy like him. Or to anyone else, for that matter.”

  She found herself wondering if there was a power out there that would allow her to melt into the couch cushions.

  “…No offense,” he added as an afterthought.

  Kenzie sashayed back into the room, coming to lean against the back of the love seat. Her arms hovered above Declan, a steaming cup of coffee clasped between her hands. Declan eyed the mug warily and slid a few inches to his left.

  “As much as I hate agreeing with my brother,” she said, “Declan’s got a point. Ca
rson Brandt doesn’t toy with his victims. It’s just not his style. He’s ten shades o’ crazy, but he’s no sadist.”

  Nathaniel tossed one last log onto the fire, crossed the room and then claimed a seat next to Alex on the arm of the couch.

  “Alex’s parents were Variants,” Kenzie continued. “Maybe Brandt knew that her mom’s side of the family could teleport. Maybe he was trying to see if Alex was capable of jumping, too. You know, by frightening her into it.”

  “But I can’t … jump.” Alex wondered if she’d used the verb correctly. “You said that not all Variants pass on the mutation to their children. And even if I could teleport like my mom, or move things with my mind like my dad… I’m almost seventeen. Wouldn’t I know about it by now?”

  Grayson looked about ready to agree with her when Declan interrupted him.

  “She’s a Variant.”

  He said the words with such assurance that every head in the room swiveled in his direction. Even Brian glanced up from his homework with a quizzical expression.

  Alex felt her stomach drop.

  “What makes you say that?” Kenzie asked in surprise.

  Declan pulled himself back into a seated position and looked squarely at Alex. “Ever had a problem with electronics?”

  For a split second she wondered how he could possibly know about that—and then she remembered what had happened in the clothing store that afternoon when Connor had startled her. Declan had been standing right there. He’d seen the whole thing.

  “Ever accidentally short-circuited a microwave when you realized you were running late for something important? Or scrambled the television reception when someone pissed you off?”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Alex’s mouth had turned as dry as the Sahara.

  “Electricity,” he said. The smug smile had returned. “Before I jumped on my own for the first time—before I learned to control it—I used to wreak havoc on nearby electronics. I don’t know why, maybe Brain over there can explain it. There’s something about the electricity we need to be able to harness in order to use our ability. An entry in one of my dad’s journals said that we build up a powerful static charge right before we jump. Until I learned to control it, I had a habit of… frying things.”

  Somewhere beneath the smiling facade, Alex could sense Declan steeling himself, as if the mention of his father’s journal and the tiny glimpse into his childhood were opening the door to other, more painful memories.

  Alex felt lightheaded.

  She wasn’t a Variant. She couldn’t be.

  Kenzie snorted in amusement. “I remember those days. You were public enemy number one to our household appliances for almost a year.”

  “Weren’t we going through, like, four toasters a month at one point?” asked Nathaniel.

  Declan rolled his eyes. “Wasn’t half as a bad as you sending the toaster flying across the room every five minutes. If we’re comparing cost of damages, you’d take the prize, my friend.”

  Grayson cleared his throat and tried to steer the conversation back on course. “Well, if that’s the case, Alex, then–”

  “Yeah and don’t forget Nathaniel’s birthday party when Kenzie locked Declan in the utility closet with Joanne Boathouse!” Brian interrupted. His face lit up in another thousand-watt smile.

  Grayson groaned, sidetracked from whatever it was he had been about to say by the unpleasant memory. “Thought I’d never get that water heater working again.”

  Declan scowled. “Brian, I don’t know why you love that story so much. You weren’t even old enough to know what was happening at the time.”

  Nathaniel leaned in conspiratorially. “Joanne Bode-house was a year older than Declan, built like a tank, with afro-like red hair, an unfortunate case of acne, the temperament of an angry Doberman and god-awful breath. She had a huge crush on Declan when we were younger.”

  Declan looked pointedly over his shoulder at Kenzie. “Still haven’t forgiven you for locking us in there, by the way.”

  “It was for the greater good,” she said.

  “What? And how do you figure that?”

  “You’d just melted my computer’s hard drive! You needed to get your powers under control. I figured trapping you in a closet with the Boathouse might provide you with the motivation you needed to finally jump.”

  The sound of their bickering continued, but it was soon eclipsed by the escalating clamor of Alex’s thoughts.

  She flashed back to the hunted expression that had flickered across her aunt’s face when Alex had asked if she, too, was different.

  All these months of burnt-out hair dryers and crackling cell-phone calls, malfunctioning computers and broken appliances. All this time her aunt had known what was happening to her, but had never said a word.

  In the end, she’d found out anyway.

  Alex finally knew the truth.

  She was like Declan. Like her mom and her Aunt Cil.

  Alex was a Variant.

  The revelation left her feeling like some giant rug had just been pulled out from beneath her. Her world had gone from mundane to impossibly complicated in less than three hours.

  “You okay?” asked Nathaniel.

  “Fine.” The room started to spin. Alex took a deep breath. “I’m fine.”

  She tried for a smile. It felt like a lie.

  Declan and Kenzie were still going at it.

  “Have you known what I was since I first saw you in the store?” Alex asked Declan.

  Their bickering came to an abrupt halt. The room grew quiet.

  “I suspected it,” said Declan. “My suspicions were pretty much confirmed after the coffee shop. I was watching when Brandt startled you. I knew from the way the barista was acting that something had just shorted out.”

  Alex winced at the memory. “It was an espresso machine.”

  Brian snickered. Grayson cleared his throat and the boy was silent.

  The exchange called her attention to the computer in Brian’s lap. “How come I haven’t fried anything since I arrived?”

  If it was emotional upheaval that triggered the surge, why hadn’t she been affecting any of the electronic equipment here at the cabin?

  “I’ve been... managing it since you got here,” Declan said slowly.

  Alex raised her eyebrows in surprise. “You can do that?”

  “So long as you’re close by, yeah. Whenever I sensed an energy spike, I sort of siphoned it off.” He shrugged. “Our mutation isn’t just about teleporting. To some extent, it’s also about controlling electrical current.”

  So Declan would always be able to tell when her emotions were heightened? She wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

  Sure, it wasn’t the same as Kenzie having free access to her thoughts, but it wasn’t far off.

  Alex pushed that notion aside as she considered the events of the last six months. It rarely seemed to be a problem when Aunt Cil was around. Had she been doing the same thing?

  Alex thought back to that afternoon with Cassie at the coffee shop.

  “The camera,” she said. “You did that, didn’t you? You made it take the picture somehow.”

  His expression held just a hint of a smile. “Right now you’re building up a static charge every time your mood fluctuates. Near as I can tell, it’s tied in to our adrenaline levels. A fight-or-flight thing,” he said. “Until you learn how to control it and channel the excess energy, you’re going to keep on having problems.”

  Alex sighed.

  Grayson, who’d fallen silent after the Joanne Bodehouse digression, finally spoke. “I suppose that settles it, then,” he said. “Declan, I want you to start her training. Tonight.”

  — 8 —

  Alex eyed Declan warily.

  To say that he was less than thrilled with the assignment would have been an understatement. After the order was given, Declan had dropped all pretense of civility. He was now openly glowering at both Alex and Grayson.


  What a grouch.

  “Why can’t her aunt train her?” he asked Grayson. “I’ve got plans tonight!”

  “And Alex has a trained assassin after her. Something tells me that trumps your card game,” Nathaniel argued. “What’s the problem, Decks? I think the gang at The Corner Hole can go one night without your company.”

  “It’s The Corner Pocket,” he corrected. “And that’s not where I was going.”

  Card game? And what sort of a place went by a name like The Corner Pocket?

  “She needs to learn, Declan,” said Grayson. “And time is most definitely of the essence. Whatever you had planned can wait.”

  “Why not let Nathaniel train her?” suggested Brian.

  The boy had an excellent idea going there. She’d take Nathaniel’s help over Declan’s any day.

  “He knows enough about the mechanics of how it works to teach her the basics,” Brian continued. “Don’t you, Nate?”

  Alex appraised the tall, dark, handsome and friendly guy in question. He seemed to be considering it. The look in his dark brown eyes was thoughtful.

  The look in Declan’s, on the other hand, was one of pure indignation. For whatever reason, he didn’t like that idea. He wasn’t about to let Nathaniel take the job.

  Crap.

  “It’s going to take more than an understanding of the mechanics to get her to jump for the first time,” said Declan. His expression wavered toward aggravation before settling on determination. “I’ll train her.”

  “Good,” said Grayson.

  Crap, crap, crap.

  “Uh… You sure about that boss?” asked Kenzie. Her stricken expression caused Alex’s stomach to do a back-flip.

  Even his sister thought this was a bad idea. Wonderful.

  “I’m sure Nate could handle it,” Kenzie went on. “And hey, maybe I can help, too.”

  “No,” Declan stood. “I’ll do it.”

  He disappeared into the shadows of a dimly lit hallway.

  Nate turned to face her. “You’ll be fine. Really. Just… try to keep on your toes.”

  Alex swallowed. “Okay.”

  Training.

  The word brought to mind unpleasant images of five-mile runs in inclement weather, obstacle courses filled with mud, cumbersome climbing walls, martial-arts lessons and weapons coaching. Exercises that were meant to hone a person’s fighting skills and strengthen their endurance.

  But what would Variant training be like?

  “Come on, Alex,” said Declan. He’d reemerged from the darkened hallway and was striding quickly toward the front door. “Let’s get this over with.”

  She scrambled to catch up, stumbling over the corner of an end table as she went.

  Kenzie reached her brother first and snagged him by the elbow, bringing him up short. She didn’t say anything. Just gave him a look.

  “It’s okay, Kenzie,” said Declan.

  Alex silently observed them as she worked her feet into her still-damp sneakers. What was that all about?

  She wondered idly if Kenzie could speak into other people’s minds in addition to being able to read their thoughts.

  Declan pulled his arm back from his sister’s hold and walked outside.

  Alex scrunched up the sleeves of her borrowed jacket and wished she had an outlet for the nervous energy now coursing though her system. She stepped from the warmth of the cabin and out onto the flagstone-paved patio, following a few feet behind Declan as he made his way down the twin staircases and over to the winding path that led to the lake below.

  The evening air held a chill, but she hardly noticed.

  One thing she had noticed, however, was the fluffy blue object Declan held in one hand.

  She studied the towel. “Planning to go for another swim?”

  “Not if I can help it.”

  They continued on in silence for a while until the path grew steeper and they neared the lakeshore. Alex tried to focus on her footing. If it was bad working her way up the mountain in this muck, it was even worse trying to go down it.

  And she wasn’t about to start this training session off with a face plant in the dirt.

  Although half of her felt like it was probably a lost cause, the other half was bound and determined not to look like an idiot in front of Declan.

  If he could do it—if her mom and her aunt could do it—then she could too.

  She was going to figure out how to teleport tonight.

  …Or so she hoped.

  The lakeshore here at the cabin was very different from what Alex was used to seeing. Where Alex lived, lakes and ponds were usually bordered with swampy fields of saw grass and an endless array of cypress trees. Reaching the water without a dock often involved trekking through the mud until the water deepened and the scattered cattails gave way to lily pads. Only then might you reach open water.

  Here, however, the dark sand of the lakeshore could stretch for a hundred feet at a time before being interrupted by a rocky protrusion, or a mass of plant-life creeping out from the edge of the forest.

  Declan passed the dock and continued on down the beach, finally reaching the fallen trunk of a massive spruce tree were it lay, half buried beneath the sand, blocking their path. The trunk stretched from the edge of the tree line out into the water.

  Declan tossed the towel over it and then, bracing himself on a few of the sturdier limbs, climbed up and over.

  Alex followed suit, landing softly in the sand on the other side. As she turned around to get her bearings, she found Declan standing in front of her.

  He reached out, put his hands on her shoulders and pressed downwards. She fell into a seated position against the fallen tree.

  “Sit,” he said. “Stay.”

  “That’s cute,” she said. “Tell me to ‘heel’ and see what happens.”

  He smiled at her, genuine amusement shining in his eyes. All that protesting to Grayson aside, Alex wondered if he might actually be enjoying this.

  “All part of the process.” He turned his back on her and started down the empty coastline. “If I’m going to teach you how to teleport, first you have to know how to follow orders.”

  He disappeared into a stand of pine trees roughly ten yards away.

  Alex dug the toe of her Chuck Taylor’s into the dirt and resigned herself to waiting.

  Seconds passed, then minutes. She stared out over the placid waters of the lake and fought back an urge to follow him into the woods.

  Just as the sky overhead began to change from the bright colors of the sunset to the inky-blue shade of twilight, Declan materialized in front of her.

  The sight was breathtaking. One moment she’d been staring at an empty stretch of shoreline, and the next, beautiful tendrils of violet-colored lightning arced from a singular point that hung suspended in midair—a blinding white fleck of light that grew to form the shape of a man.

  In less time than it took for her to draw in a breath, Declan had appeared hovering before her. He dropped the last two feet to the ground in silence, any noise of his landing dulled by the sand.

  She tried to hide the look of awe that had flashed across her face.

  “You didn’t move,” he sounded vaguely surprised. “Good girl.”

  Alex chose to ignore that. “Why did you reappear a couple of feet up in the air instead of on the ground?”

  In his arms, Declan was carrying a pile of rocks he must have picked up during his stroll through the woods. He readjusted his hold on them before he answered.

  “I like the feeling of weightlessness, I guess. Plus, when I teleport, I’m going by the memory of what the place looked like when I last saw it,” he said. “Never know when something will have moved.”

  He knelt near a shallow indentation in the sand and started arranging the rocks around it in the form of a circle.

  The smell of ozone hung thick in the air, sweet and pungent, like it always did before the arrival of a summer thunderstorm back home. Alex could fee
l the tingle of static electricity on her bare forearms. She rubbed her arms distractedly as she watched him work.

  “What happens if you teleport into a wall?”

  “Can’t,” he said, moving more rocks. “You either wouldn’t be able to jump in the first place, or you’d end up a foot or two away from the obstruction.”

  They were quiet for a long moment while he continued his work.

  “What are you doing?” she asked when she couldn’t take the silence any longer. “What are the rocks for?”

  Declan finished the circle and, without bothering to answer her, disappeared into the woods again.

  Alex tried not to groan in frustration.

  What was the point of all this? When were they going to get around to the actual training?

  Alex wondered what her aunt would think about Declan teaching her to jump, and then dismissed the thought entirely. Aunt Cil had given up any right she had to complain the minute she decided to keep the truth from her.

  If training meant that she would eventually be able to control her gift—control her effect on electronics—then train was exactly what Alex planned to do.

  Declan reappeared in front of her, this time with a bundle of branches in his arms. He made for the circle again and dropped the twigs in a pile beside it.

  He started toward her. “Jacket, socks, and shoes. Off.”

  “What?”

  “Take them off.”

  Suddenly wary, Alex complied. The temperature was dropping quickly in the half-light of the setting sun. Shivering, she tossed the jacket Kenzie had loaned her over the base of the fallen tree.

  “Why? Is it more difficult to teleport with clothes on?” A sudden fear gripped her. “Wait. I’m not going to reappear naked, am I?”

  Declan laughed. “Well, it would certainly make my job more interesting,” he said. She felt her cheeks grow warm. “Don’t worry about it. You’ll take whatever’s touching you along with you when you go. Clothes, some of the air around you… Even other people, if they’re touching you when you jump.”

  “Alright. Good to know.” She tugged at the hem of her borrowed black camisole, feeling self-conscious. “So then why am I standing here barefoot and jacket-less in fifty degree weather?”

  There was that grin again.

  “Your eyes. Close them.”

  “Yes, master.” She’d been trying for sarcasm, but the unexpected sensation of warm hands on her bare shoulders caused her voice to catch. His touch held that same electric charge she’d felt when she’d taken his hand in the bookstore. She peeked one eye open. “What are you doing?”

  His expression was serious again. “Eyes closed.”

  She curled her toes into the sand and tried to breathe normally. The heat radiating from Declan’s hands and the faint scent of his cologne were making it difficult to concentrate.

  “I want you to think back to when we teleported here from the bookstore.” Declan guided her along the shore as he spoke. From the direction they were moving and the changing texture of the ground beneath her feet, she thought they were headed toward the water. Alex struggled to keep from stumbling in the loose sand. “Think about how it felt. Replay the motion of it over and over in your head.”

  He brought her to a stop at the waters edge. Alex could feel damp sand beneath her feet and the frigid waters of the lake lapping at the back of her heels.

  “Okay,” she said. “Insane pressure, tingly feeling, falling through the air…”

  She let out a cry of surprise as Declan pushed her backwards. The shove was gentle, but with her eyes closed tight and the wet ground giving way beneath her feet, she’d lost any chance she had of maintaining her balance.

  As Alex began to fall she found herself clinging to the memory from earlier. If she could just teleport herself away from the water, she could fall in the sand.

  Acting on instinct, Alex braced herself. At first nothing happened…

  And then time shuddered to a stop.

  The world around her had come to a standstill. She was no longer falling, but the feeling of weightlessness remained.

  Tendrils of violet electricity arced through the air and coiled themselves around her. Before she could react, a blinding flash of light engulfed her and the ensuing change in pressure forced her eyes closed.

  As the pressure peaked and then abated, a tingling sensation surged through her, every muscle struck useless by the same prickling numbness she was accustomed to feeling when her foot went to sleep.

  And then it was over.

  Her eyes sprung open. She was falling, but not into the sand like she’d planned.

  One second… two seconds… three…

  Alex let out a curse as she sliced through the still waters of the lake.

  She was going to kill Declan.

  — 9 —

  Alex surfaced and took a gasping breath. Cold. So very, very cold.

  The still-setting sun provided her with just enough light to make out Declan’s shadowy form standing on the beach.

  Though it was too far away to be certain, she figured he was probably laughing.

  Desperate to get out of the cold water, she attempted a jump… and nothing happened. Something about being in the water seemed to be stopping her.

  Frustrated, she swam for the shore, the extra towel and Declan’s order to take off her jacket and shoes suddenly making sense. He’d known before they started that she would end up in the lake again. But how? And why hadn’t he said anything?

  Her anger-fueled strokes propelled her quickly toward the shore. The sooner she reached it, the sooner she could strangle him.

  As the sun sank fully below the horizon, a light blazed into existence on the beach. Declan had started a fire.

  Alex dragged herself slowly from the water, shaking from the cold.

  “You knew!” she spat. Once again, she’d aimed for righteous indignation and landed at a whimper. Stupid cold water. “You knew I was going to end up in the lake again, didn’t you? You could have warned me, you jerk!”

  Declan, to his credit, had lost the look of amusement he’d been wearing when he sent her back into the lake.

  He tossed her the towel she’d asked about earlier and she fell to her knees beside the fire.

  Alex wrapped the thin material around her, not caring that the sand was sticking to her borrowed clothes, or that her saturated camisole was probably leaving very little to Declan’s imagination.

  “It was a possibility, yeah,” he admitted. “When you jump, you have to have a destination in mind. If you don’t, you could end up anywhere you’ve jumped recently. It’s like those paths are…” He searched for the word. “Like they’re magnetized. In your case, that meant you were drawn to the path you traveled this afternoon.”

  “And it didn’t occur to you to tell me about the destination thing beforehand? Or to maybe, I don’t know, teleport me somewhere else before we started? Somewhere dry? So that I’d at least have a fifty-fifty shot of not ending up in the lake?”

  “Huh.” His forehead crinkled in contemplation. “I hadn’t thought of that…”

  Alex stared at him in disbelief. She was starting to think he’d taken the job with the sole intention of making her training as difficult as possible.

  Why, oh why, couldn’t he just have let Nathaniel teach her?

  “Look on the bright side.” Declan stoked the fire with a branch before dropping it into the flames. “Hard part’s over. You’ve figured out how to teleport on your own.”

  Alex narrowed her eyes. Somehow, as she sat dripping and shivering on the lakeshore, muscles screaming in complaint, that didn’t feel like much of a consolation.

  He got to his feet.

  The smile was back.

  “Now you just need to work on sticking the landing.”

  Alex stood, dropped the towel, and smiled back at him. A mischievous gleam glinted in her steel-gray eyes. “Stick the landing, huh?”

  Declan, righ
tfully, looked nervous.

  “Alex? What are you—oof!”

  She’d cleared the few feet between them before Declan could react and, by using what she’d just learned, she managed to teleport mid-tackle, taking him with her as she disappeared from the campfire-lit shore and reappeared in the darkened sky above the lake.

  They twisted as they fell through the air. Alex could feel Declan’s strong arms wrapping around her waist as they neared the surface of the water.

  They jumped again.

  This time they reappeared, a horizontal tangle of arms and legs, inside a dimly-lit room Alex didn’t recognize.

  They landed on something soft, crashing into it with all the speed they’d picked up falling above the lake. There was a loud crack, followed by the sound of splintering wood.

  The mattress they’d landed on dropped another foot and a half to the floor as the frame supporting it buckled.

  There came the thundering sound of footsteps on stairs and the door behind them flew open.

  Alex was lying nose-to-nose with Declan, their legs still entwined. She craned her neck around just in time to see Kenzie and Nathaniel burst into the room.

  An overhead light flicked on.

  Kenzie seemed amused; Nathaniel, annoyed.

  “Hey guys!” Declan drawled.

  “This isn’t what it looks like,” said Alex.

  “This is exactly what it looks like,” said Declan. “What’s a guy got to do to get a little privacy around here?”

  Alex managed to get in a good kick to his shin, despite being pinned to the bed.

  “I am not even going to ask.” Kenzie shook her head and walked out as Brian appeared behind her in the hallway.

  “Dammit, Declan.” Nathaniel appeared resigned as he took in the splinters of wood from the mangled bed frame and the general disarray that their arrival had caused.

  For a moment, he looked as though he were going to ask about Alex’s freshly-saturated clothes and sand-covered bare feet. Instead, he glared at Declan.

  “What?” Declan asked, feigning innocence.

  Nathaniel sighed. “You’re paying for a new bed.”

  “It’s alright,” said Declan, cheeky grin firmly in place. “Always wanted a futon.”

  Nathaniel turned on his heel and walked back out, snagging a chuckling Brian by the shirt-collar and closing the door behind them.

  Alex tried to disentangle herself from Declan, but he had her pinned with one of her arms trapped beneath his side. His arms were still wrapped tightly around her. That same electric sensation she’d felt when he’d touched her shoulders earlier was now cascading through her in waves.

  Declan smiled, his face only inches from hers. “Yeah, I’d say you’re definitely getting the hang of it.”

  His scent washed over her, a swirling mix of cinnamon and woodsmoke. For a moment, Alex forgot how to breathe.

  Was it her imagination? Or was Declan actually flirting with her?

  Alex tried to slow her racing heartbeat and worked to ignore the tremble of butterflies in her stomach.

  The cabin was warmer than the beach, but she was still drenched. And still freezing.

  Her eyes narrowed. She wasn’t about to forgive and forget so easily. He’d been nothing but a jerk to her since the moment they’d met. Plus, he’d sent her for an unscheduled swim twice now. And for that, he still needed to pay.

  Placing her free hand on his chest, she pushed him backwards and with a little effort, managed to pull her other arm free.

  “Where are we?” She sat up.

  “My room at the cabin.”

  “Your room?”

  He propped himself up on one elbow and shrugged his other shoulder. “Needed someplace soft to land. Besides. Now when you teleport without a destination you’ve got a fifty-fifty chance of either ending up in the lake, or in my bed. I have to say, I like those odds.”

  “Ha-ha.” She started for the door.

  “Where are you going?”

  Alex cast a glare over her shoulder. “To ask Kenzie for more dry clothes. And to shower—again—because her idiot brother couldn’t resist dropping me in the lake for a second time.”

  “Oh no you don’t.” He leapt from the bed, placing himself between Alex and the door and cutting off her exit. The action made her flinch.

  Alex fought to calm her nerves. Her heart had started to race again, but this time Declan’s close proximity had nothing to do with it. She flashed back to that afternoon with Brandt in the bookstore.

  A crystal-clear image of the shopkeeper’s blackened corpse tore through her thoughts.

  That could have been her.

  “We’re not done with your… training… yet…” he trailed off. “Hey, what is it? What’s wrong?”

  She snapped back to the present.

  Declan was staring at her, brow furrowed in confusion. “You haven’t tried to draw that much energy since we met this afternoon. What’s the matter?”

  Damn.

  She was starting to wish Declan couldn’t read the changes in her emotions quite so easily.

  “Nothing,” she said, trying to push the awful image from her thoughts and quiet her sudden fear.

  Declan’s gaze traveled from the door back to where he stood, blocking her exit. A look of understanding crossed his face.

  “The bookstore?” he asked softly.

  Alex nodded.

  This was Declan. He might be a jerk, but he wasn’t Brandt. He wouldn’t hurt her. At least, she didn’t think he would…

  He walked closer, tentatively placing his hands on her shoulders, the same way he had on the lakeshore. She could feel the electricity passing between them, a one-way stream, flowing out of her and into Declan.

  Alex focused on the electrical currents she was affecting. Declan was right, she was calling up a large amount of energy as her anxiety intensified. Even before he had touched her, she could sense him siphoning off the excess. She’d never noticed it before. Had all this teleporting made her more sensitive to it?

  Declan looked thoughtful. “Before you go, there’s one more thing I want to try and teach you tonight.” He guided her back to the bed. She perched on a corner of the mattress and he sat down beside her.

  Her shoulders felt cold from the loss of his touch.

  A moment passed. Alex looked at Declan expectantly. He was staring at her, but appeared lost in thought.

  He scratched the back of his head.

  “Well?” she said.

  “I’m trying to figure out the best way to do this.” His expression was sheepish. It wasn’t a look she ever expected to see on him. The honesty in it was almost endearing. “Never exactly tried to teach this to someone before.”

  After another minute of contemplation, Declan held up both hands, palm out and gestured for her to do the same.

  “Alright. Close your eyes.”

  She hesitated. “Last time you told me to close my eyes, I went for a swim.”

  He laughed. Alex couldn’t help but smile. The low rumble of Declan’s laughter was quickly becoming a sound that she relished hearing. And oh, that was so not good.

  “No swimming this time,” he said. “Promise. Just close ’em.”

  She complied.

  Their hands were still a few inches apart, but Alex could sense the current flowing between them.

  “Feel that?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, I want you to concentrate on that sensation. Right now it’s traveling one way. From you, into me,” he said. “I want you to reverse it.”

  Alex opened her eyes. “How the heck do I do that?”

  “Eyes shut,” he said again. “Do you ever do as your told?”

  She smiled and closed her eyes once more. “Not if I can help it.”

  “Stubborn…”

  She could hear the smile in his reply.

  Alex wasn’t sure what it was about this guy. Declan seemed to be bringing out a side of her th
at, before tonight, she hadn’t even known existed.

  It was as though he’d somehow managed to light a fire inside of her. A fire that was now slowly starting to consume her, transforming her as the blaze grew brighter, searching for new ways to shine through.

  Sure, he was driving her half-crazy in the process with his obnoxious attitude and that damned cheeky grin… but Alex’s growing desire to prove herself to him was forcing her to be far more brazen than she would have, normally.

  And to be entirely honest, Alex was rather starting to enjoy herself.

  “You reverse the flow by drawing the energy back into you,” Declan was saying. “You did it earlier when you teleported us from the lakeshore, and then again when you got upset, but you can affect the current without doing either of those things. You just need to recognize the electricity for what it is and learn to conquer it.”

  She wondered if he could possibly be more vague. Conquer it? How was she supposed to conquer an intangible force she couldn’t see and could hardly feel?

  “Think of it like water,” he continued. “Stop the flow and then pull it back toward you.”

  Alex tried to do as he asked. She concentrated on the feel of the current, the way it flowed into her and then back out through her palms. She tried to interrupt the process and grab hold of the current.

  The flow reversed. She could feel the energy pouring back into her.

  “Perfect,” he said. “Now comes the hard part.”

  Uh-oh.

  “I want you to ground out the charge.”

  “You want me to what now?” Alex knew she was on the verge of sounding like an idiot, but she really had no clue what he was talking about. She was beginning to wish she’d paid more attention in Mr. Mulvaney’s Physical Science class last year.

  “You need to disperse the charge into something that can’t be affected by it. Get rid of it by grounding it.”

  Alex pulled one hand back, stopping the exchange of energy. She held her palm up and followed her instinct, transferring the energy from one form to another. Moments later, a crackling ball of electricity, roughly the size of a golf ball, hovered above her palm.

  Declan’s eyes grew wide. “What did you just do?”

  She was staring at the roiling mass of static, surprised. “I don’t know! I just knew I wanted to get rid of the energy and there it was.”

  The sphere of electricity hovering above her palm made her think of a different orb she’d seen only a few hours earlier. One that had been made of fire and wielded so skillfully by Brandt.

  Before Alex could stop herself, she tensed.

  The sphere in her hand started to expand, her anxiety fueling the electrical charge building in her palm. If she didn’t get rid of the ball soon, there was no telling how large it would grow.

  “What do I do now?” she asked, panic edging into her voice. “How do I get rid of it?”

  “I don’t…” Declan was shaking his head. “I don’t even know… How are you doing that?”

  Someone knocked at the door.

  The sound made her jump. Her hand jerked and the orb was sent spiraling toward the ceiling. It collided with the ceiling fan, blowing out the bulbs, shattering the ornate glass cover and plunging the room into darkness.

  In a blur of movement, Declan lunged forward and covered her body with his, knocking her back to the mattress as he tried to put himself between Alex and the shower of sparks and falling glass.

  The door opened. Grayson’s lanky form stood silhouetted in the low light of the hallway. “Alex? Declan? What’s happened?”

  “Are you alright?” Declan asked quietly. She could feel the whisper of his breath on her cheek.

  Cinnamon.

  Woodsmoke.

  “Fine,” she said. “I’m fine.”

  Alex, once again pinned to the bed, took in Grayson’s upside-down form. Her eyes were slowly growing accustomed to the darkness.

  “It was my fault,” she said, trying to free herself and sit up. “I, um, sort of fried the ceiling fan.”

  “Ah,” said Grayson. He seemed less concerned once he realized they were both in one piece and that nothing was, you know, on fire. “Not to worry. It’s not the first time something like that’s happened around here. Just need to reset a breaker or two.”

  His blasé reaction surprised her. Even her aunt, who was so laid back about most things, would have been up in arms over something like this.

  Declan’s room was littered with pieces of his demolished bed frame and hunks of broken glass, but Grayson appeared to be taking it all in stride.

  Just how often did Declan and the others blow something up around here, anyway?

  “I was just coming to let you know I’ll be leaving for Washington tonight.”

  “DC? Tonight?” Declan echoed. “Why?”

  The shadows hid Grayson’s expression and his voice remained monotone. “Business. I’m afraid it can’t wait.”

  Declan got to his feet. “Need a lift?”

  “No,” said Grayson. “I need you to stay here. I want you and Nathaniel to keep an eye on the others. Monty’s already at the airport prepping the jet.”

  The jet? They had their own jet?

  Of course they did.

  “I’ll be back in a few days. Sooner if I can manage it. I want you all to stay here at the cabin while I’m gone. Keep Alex safe and out of sight.”

  “What about Kenzie and Brian? They have school tomorrow,” said Declan.

  “They won’t be going. It’s Wednesday. Their break starts Friday afternoon, correct?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Well, until then, if anyone asks, they both have the flu. I’ll send their headmaster an e-mail later,” he said. “While I’m gone, keep up Alex’s training. And no looking into Brandt, Declan. I mean it. I’ll handle it.”

  Declan scowled. “Yes, sir.”

  Grayson turned to leave. Almost as an afterthought, he added, “Call my cell if you need me.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Grayson disappeared down the hallway.

  As Alex got to her feet, she noticed a small cut on Declan’ neck, just above his collarbone. “You’re hurt,” she said, reaching up.

  He caught her hand in his.

  “It’s nothing,” he said. He held on to her for just a moment longer than necessary. She started to say something, but he cut her off. “Better go flip that breaker.”

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

  — 10 —

  Alex woke to the smell of coffee and blueberry muffins.

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

  6:27 a.m.

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

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

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

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

  Then again, what was left to say?

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

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

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

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

  “Oops,” she heard Kenzie say.

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

  “Heh. My bad.”

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

  The massive kitchen was a culinary war zone.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  “I’m sorry?”

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

  “Oh! Um, scrambled, please.”

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

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

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

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

  Honestly.

  She tried.

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

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

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

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

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

  “On a little fact-finding mission.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

  Brian just smiled and sipped at his coffee.

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

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

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

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

  “Maybe he was on vacation,” said Brian.

  Everyone turned to look at him.

  “What?” he asked.

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

  “Oh,” he said slowly. “Right.”

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