The Altered (23 page)

Jordan didn’t
know what to say to that.

They couldn’t
always read each other’s emotions, but sometimes, if the feelings
were strong enough, it was possible. Keira’s were spilling out
unchecked at that moment, and the gut-wrenching sadness made
Jordan’s knees buckle.

“I can’t lose
him,” she whispered, and Charlie was out of his seat in a flash,
gathering her into his arms as Jordan watched, helpless.

“You’re not
losing him,” Charlie mumbled, his face pressed into Keira’s hair.
“He’s just found someone else to lean on for a bit.”

Jordan looked
away when Keira reached up and wiped at her eyes—she wouldn’t thank
him for watching while she cried. “So,” he said, pulling out a
chair and sitting down opposite Daniel. “I guess we should think
about relocating.”

Daniel sighed.
“Yeah, maybe.”

He looked
tired, the last few days taking their toll, and Jordan hated that
he couldn’t do anything about it.

“They might
have been fishing for information, but the fact that they came here
at all suggests they’re curious about us at the very least.” Jordan
had prepared for something like this, though. “There’s a place
we’ve been to before, not too far away. We can go there for a
while. They’ve got three-bedroom apartments instead of hotel rooms.
A lot smaller than this place, but we’ll make do.”

Daniel eyed
him with a look Jordan couldn’t quite decipher. “You’ve thought of
everything. How long do you plan on staying there?”

“Just a few
nights.”

“And then
what? Move to another one?”

“No. We
figured that if we had to move at all, then it was probably time to
leave London altogether.” He met Daniel’s eyes, waiting for him to
realise what he was saying.

“Oh.” Daniel
let his gaze drop to where his hands rested on the table. “Shit.
But what about the gym?”

Jordan
shrugged. “We’ll sell it. We can always open another someplace
else.” He made it sound simple, but then, he’d always known this
was a possibility. While altereds were still sought after, they
would never be truly safe, no matter how careful they were.

“Call them
in,” Jordan said, glancing into the garden. “We need to pack.”

They all left
for work as usual on Wednesday morning, just in case anyone was
watching the house. Sam didn’t go crazy, so Jordan figured the men
from yesterday weren’t nearby. There were no altereds nearby
either, so it was probably as safe as they were going to get.
They’d packed Jordan’s van with minimal belongings while it was
still dark out, ready to leave after work and head for their new
place.

“Are you sure
you can’t phone in sick for one more day?” Jordan asked as Daniel
pulled on his jacket.

“Yeah, I
could. But I’m going to have to go back at some point, so it might
as well be today.”

“Why, if
you’re just going to leave soon, anyway?”

Daniel
stopped, midway through pulling up the zip, and stared at him.
“Leave soon?”

“Yes. If they
don’t know about us already, they will do soon. Did you think those
men coming to the house was a coincidence?” Jordan was confused.
All night they’d been talking about packing up and leaving. “It’s
not safe to stay here any longer.”

“Which is why
we’re leaving
this
house, I get that. But Jordan, I don’t
have anywhere to go outside of London. I can’t go back to my
mum’s—I’m not putting her in danger like that—and I know Matt feels
the same. Ash doesn’t even have that to fall back on. We can’t
afford to just up and leave altogether.”

Jordan closed
his eyes for a second. The conversation didn’t make sense anymore,
and he needed a minute to get his head round it.

“So,” Daniel
continued, clearly on a roll, “I need to keep my job while we work
out what to do.”

“You’re making
no fucking sense. I thought we agreed on everything last
night?”

“But—”

“You sat there
with Matt and Ash while we all agreed to stay at the new place for
a few nights to tie up any loose ends, then travel to Keira’s
cabin. As soon as I hire someone to run the gym, we’re good to go.
We can always put it on the market later.” Jordan stepped forward
and gripped Daniel’s shoulder. “At no point did you say you
couldn’t leave your job.”

“But that’s
because I….” Daniel glanced up at the ceiling and sighed. “I guess
I hadn’t thought beyond the next week or so.”

“So you
assumed I was going to what? Kick you three out after a few days
and make you fend for yourselves?” Jordan shook his head in
disbelief.

“Well you
never fucking said anything.”

“I didn’t
think I had to!”

They stood in
the hallway, glaring at one another in silence.

“Um.” Matt
stood in the living room doorway, his backpack slung over his
shoulder, looking extremely uncomfortable.

Ash appeared
just behind him with Sam. “My stuff’s in the van already,” Ash
said, avoiding Daniel’s gaze.

“Mine too.”
Matt walked forward and slipped his arm around Daniel, pulling him
in close, and Jordan did his best not to bristle. “We can’t stay
here, Dan. It’s not safe.”

“Thanks for
that. I’m not bloody stupid.”

Matt ignored
his sarcastic tone and gave him a squeeze. “I mean we can’t stay in
London anymore. Look, I know you hate being told what to do, but
was there ever any other choice?” He looked pointedly between
Daniel and Jordan and then over at Ash, standing with Sam now
pressed against his legs. “We’ll be in the car with Charlie.”

Matt grabbed
Ash and tugged him toward the doors, leaving a miserable-looking
Sam behind.

As Matt passed
Jordan, he muttered ever so quietly under his breath. “He was just
waiting for you to ask him.”

Jordan had
never wanted to shift so badly in his life—he wanted to roar with
frustration because Daniel could be so bloody pig-headed sometimes.
“Daniel,” he said, trying to remain calm, “I want you to come with
us when we leave for the cabin. I have contacts who can get us
forged paperwork, and we can start again somewhere new.
Please.”

He waited for
Daniel to answer, watching the myriad of emotions cross his
face.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Jordan
hadn’t expected it to be that easy.

“Yes. As long
as you planned for Ash and Matt to come too?”

Jordan huffed
out a laugh. “For fuck’s sake, of course they’re coming too.”

“Well, okay,
then.”

Jordan wanted
to shake him. “Is that really all it took? You just wanted me to
ask?”

Daniel reached
out and took Jordan’s hand, preventing him from turning away in
annoyance. He shrugged. “I’ve made the mistake of assuming things
before, and it didn’t particularly end well.”

Jordan’s anger
and frustration left him in a rush at the flash of hurt on Daniel’s
face. “Hey

.” He put a
hand on Daniel’s shoulder, pushed him hard against the wall, and
crowded in until they were touching from thigh to chest. With his
hands either side of Daniel’s jaw, Jordan gently tilted his head
up, forcing Daniel to look at him. “I want you to come with me. I
need
you. I would never leave you behind, and I’m so sorry
if you ever thought otherwise.”

Daniel’s
breath hitched, his mouth falling open a little, and Jordan kissed
him. He poured everything he had into it, pressing his hips against
Daniel’s and willing him to see that he wanted him in every way
possible. When he eventually pulled back, they were both hard, and
Daniel raised his eyebrow after looking down between them.

Jordan
shrugged. He wasn’t about to apologise for that. “Are we good
now?”

“Yeah, we’re
good.” Daniel pulled him in by his collar until their foreheads
touched. “And I’m….” He closed his eyes for a second, cursing
softly, and Jordan waited. “I’m sorry for being so bloody
needy.”

“Good, because
we don’t have time for any more of that shit,” Keira snapped as she
waltzed down the stairs. She grinned at the blush now colouring
Daniel’s cheeks as he glared at her. “Man the fuck up, seer. It’s
only going to get worse from here.”

She grabbed
her coat, called Sam to join her, and the pair of them disappeared
out the front door, leaving Jordan and Daniel alone in the
hallway.

“Sorry.”
Jordan stroked Daniel’s cheek and tried not to smile at how hot it
felt. “I didn’t realise she was there.”

“
Really?
”

Daniel didn’t
look like he believed a word of it, and okay, Jordan should have
sensed that Keira was still in the house.

“I was
distracted.”

“Whatever. She
may have a point. But don’t tell her I said that.” Daniel appeared
to realise his mistake as soon as he said it—Keira could no doubt
still hear him. He groaned. “Fuck it, let’s just go.”

Jordan hated
to leave Daniel, but he and Keira were going to the gym, taking Sam
with them. Charlie had the pleasure of going to the library with
Ash and Daniel after they’d dropped Matt off at work. “I’ll see you
later, then,” he said, forcing himself to step away from Daniel and
open the door.

Work
sucked.

Daniel usually
enjoyed his job, but today he’d done nothing but clock-watch. Well,
that and jump every time someone walked through the double doors
onto his floor. He’d also handed in his notice, which hadn’t gone
down well. Not that he’d expected it to.

Ash walked
through the doors as Daniel pulled his jacket on, and he looked
about as happy as Daniel felt. “How’d they take it?” Ash asked,
poking at some of the papers on Daniel’s desk.

Daniel leaned
back against the counter. “Surprised.”

“What did you
say?” Ash gave up messing with Daniel’s stuff and sighed.

Ash had wanted
to hand in his notice too. He didn’t like the idea of just leaving
without saying anything. Ash was classed as temporary staff,
though. The library had kept renewing his contract, but he wasn’t
required to give notice. This had pissed Daniel off when he first
got him the job, but he was thankful for it now.

“I told them
my mum was sick and I needed to move back home.” Daniel winced as
he said it, he hated lying to people he liked, and hoped he wasn’t
tempting fate by using his mum as an excuse. He’d never normally
resort to something like that, but he knew they’d accept it as a
reasonable excuse. Daniel made no secret of how he felt about his
mum. “Audrey offered to bake me something to take back for
her.”

Ash sighed.
“God, this sucks.” He glanced up at Daniel, and Daniel nodded.

“Yep.”

“I mean, I get
why we have to leave, but why can’t people leave altereds alone?
They tried to create the perfect soldier—which failed, thank God.
So why doesn’t someone say enough is enough?”

Daniel smiled.
It must be nice to be young and still see the world like that. Full
of hope that people want to do the right thing. “Because there’s
still a demand for it and people willing to pay whatever the cost.
They want the information that only altereds can provide,
regardless of the means necessary to get it. They want to know how
altereds work and what makes them susceptible to the pathogen when
others aren’t, I guess.”

“Them?” Ash
asked, tilting his head to one side. “I never did understand how
other altereds justify treating you like a leper—well, apart from
Matt, obviously.” He smirked then. “And now Jordan.”

Daniel
couldn’t help his smile at the mention of Jordan’s name.

“But
seriously,” Ash continued. “You were altered by the pathogen
too.”

When Ash had
moved in with them, Matt and Daniel had sat him down and tried to
explain everything as best they could. Ash was too young to
remember what happened after the first altereds went through the
change. It didn’t seem quite so horrific when someone told you
after the fact.

Daniel and
Matt had barely turned seven years old when it started, but they
remembered the initial reports in the paper, the disappearances and
the awful rumours that turned out to be the truth, after all.

For Ash it was
cut and dried—if the pathogen changed you, then you were an
altered. He still refused to accept why the majority of altereds
treated Daniel with such hostility, and Daniel kind of loved him
for his stubborn streak.

“You ready?”
Daniel asked, changing the subject. It would never cease to be a
sore point for him.

Ash stood up
straight and turned in a circle, seeming to take in the library for
one last time. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

A heavy weight
settled in the pit of Daniel’s stomach as they walked down the huge
staircase. He’d worked here straight from uni, and the thought of
never coming back left a hollow place inside his chest. He was
comfortable here, knew everyone he worked with well enough to say
hello to in the mornings, but was generally left to his own
devices.

What the fuck
was he going to do now? What were any of them going to do?

They didn’t
have the kind of money Jordan and Keira appeared to have. Daniel
had no nest egg to fall back on, and as far as he knew, Matt didn’t
either. Jordan had made it quite clear he wouldn’t leave them
behind, but Daniel didn’t think for one minute that included
supporting them financially.

And he didn’t
want it to either.

They’d just
have to sort something out when they got settled again.

Daniel pulled
open the outside door and shivered a little at the gust of cold
air. The sun had been out when they’d left the house that morning,
but the weather had turned cold again while they’d been at
work.

“Bloody hell.”
Ash shivered and wrapped his arms around himself. He didn’t have
his usual hat and gloves on and he looked freezing. “Where did this
shitty weather come from?”