Revival (The Variant Series, Book 1) (20 page)

Before Declan could move to catch her, Alex’s body froze in place, leaning suspended in mid-air.

An invisible force gently pushed her upright. Kenzie rushed to help support Alex, wrapping her arm around the other girl’s waist and draping Alex’s arm over her shoulder.

“Nice catch, Nate,” said Kenzie.

Their brother was leaning against the stone wall that lined the driveway, watching them with interest.

Nate pushed off the wall and approached them, shaking his head. “That wasn’t me.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Kenzie.

“I didn’t do it. I’m still drained from moving around those cars in the garage.”

Kenzie raised an eyebrow. “Well, who else could it have been?”

“I think…” Alex’s voice was barely above a whisper. Her head was bowed and her gaze remained fixed on the ground. “I think it was me.”

“Wait…” said Kenzie. “So Alex has
two
abilities?”

“Three,” Declan corrected.

“What?” asked Kenzie.

“Alex has
three
abilities. She can jump, she’s telekinetic… And she’s a telepath. That breakdown she had in the parking garage? It was the telepathy manifesting.”

Alex raised her head, two loose brown curls framing her face. Her eyes were filled with questions he wasn’t sure how to answer.

“In the middle of a city? My god, no wonder she was in so much pain,” Kenzie said quietly. “But three powers? Decks, you know that’s not possible.”

Alex’s legs gave out again. Her full weight proved to be too much for Kenzie to support.

Declan moved to help, but Nathaniel reached them first. His brother scooped Alex wordlessly into his arms and carried her toward the staircase that led down to the patio.

He watched them go until they were out of sight.

“Three abilities,” Kenzie repeated. “I don’t understand it, Decks. Variants never have more than two abilities. It just doesn’t happen.”

“You know that’s not true. It’s happened once before.”

Kenzie stared at him. “Once. And he wasn’t born that way. The Agency
made
him that way.”

“I’m just saying… It’s happened before.”

“Are you honestly suggesting that the
Agency
did this to her?”

“I don’t know,” he said, making for the stairs. “But we really need to find Grayson.”

— 17 —

“H
ow’s your head?” asked a loud voice.

Alex lay sprawled on the couch in the exact same place Nathaniel had set her down ten minutes earlier, her feet resting in Kenzie’s lap and an arm slung across her eyes; a futile attempt to block out the low light shining down from above.

She attempted a reply, but the sound that escaped her throat was something between a grunt and a whimper.

“That good, huh?”

Alex heard Declan settle onto the coffee table across from her. She lifted her arm and squinted in his general direction. The pounding in her head had caused her vision to dissolve into an indistinguishable mix of light and color.

Even without a clear view of him, she knew that he was smirking down at her. She could hear it in his voice.

It was nice to see he found her situation so amusing.

Three abilities. According to Kenzie, it was impossible. Variants could only ever have, at most, two abilities—inheriting one from either parent. And even that was incredibly rare.

To have three abilities made Alex a freak amongst freaks.

She felt Kenzie’s leg kick out in Declan’s direction, heard the subtle
thunk
of her foot connecting with his shin, followed by the much louder sounds of Declan’s grousing.

“
Quietly
, Decks,” Kenzie chided. “You’d feel like crap, too, if a thousand different voices just had a shouting match in your head.”

She spoke just above a whisper, her voice low and soft.

Not like Declan, whose voice would have been better suited for an outdoor sporting event. Or maybe talking over the sound of a jet engine.

She was pretty sure those extra decibels had been intentional.

Jerk.

“Is that what happened?” Alex’s voice was raspy. “I was starting to think someone had just used my head for a soccer ball.”

“Nah,” said Kenzie, patting her leg gently. “Trust me. That would have hurt a lot less.”

“Good to know,” she said, covering her eyes again.

“Most telepaths develop their ability slowly, over time,” said Kenzie. “We’re not very strong at first. The things we hear and see… they’re fuzzy. And quiet. Like barely heard whispers. Or like a radio that’s tuned to the static between stations.”

Alex could feel Kenzie fidgeting with the frayed edges of her jeans.

“Eventually, it gets louder, and as the thoughts become clearer, we learn to control what we let in. That way we aren’t overwhelmed by the thoughts and emotions of the people around us.” Kenzie paused. “And then, sometimes, the ability hits you all at once.”

“When that happens,” said Declan, “you’re pretty much screwed.”

“Judging from the amount of pain you were in, I’d say you were probably tapped into the inner-thoughts of every person in a ten-block radius,” said Kenzie. “All of them, all at once.”

“That’s… a lot,” she said.

“Honestly, Alex? I’m amazed you’re sitting here talking to us right now,” said Kenzie. “Most people don’t recover from what you experienced. They just check out. Get lost in the chaos and never make it back to the surface.”

Alex swallowed.

There’d been a moment in the car earlier when she’d almost done just that. The pain had been so intense. The darkness that lurked beneath the voices had felt so enticing. At the time, she’d wanted nothing more than to surrender to it and never feel anything again.

And then she’d heard Declan’s voice, familiar and reassuring in the midst of the bedlam, and felt his warm hand gently graze her cheek. His touch had amplified the sound of his voice, causing his words to ring out crystal clear through the ocean of thoughts competing for dominance in her mind.

The wall she’d created at his urging hadn’t helped much, but his voice, steady and persistent, had kept her from giving over to the darkness.

Declan’s voice was the only reason she was still here. The only reason she was still whole.

When they finally made it back to the cabin, the voices had vanished as quickly as they had appeared. Alex had been sent reeling by the sudden return to silence.

“How come I haven’t heard anything since we got back?” she asked.

“Because we all keep walls up,” said Declan.

“The guys do it to keep me out,” explained Kenzie. “And I do it to keep from accidentally hearing anything I shouldn’t. Speaking of which. You’re going to want to keep one up all the time, at least until you get the hang of things.”

Alex heard someone flip first one light-switch, then another.

“It’s safe to open your eyes, Alex.” Nathaniel’s voice had come from somewhere behind the couch. “I turned off the light.”

Cautiously, Alex raised her arm and blinked her eyes open. The painful glare of the chandelier overhead had been replaced by the dim glow of the light above the front entryway. She could just make out the shadowy form of Nate as he approached and knelt beside her.

He took her hand and turned it over, shaking a pill from a small bottle onto her palm.

“Only one?” Kenzie sounded dubious.

“Two?” asked Nate.

“Three,” said Kenzie.

“
Three
?” echoed Declan. “The girl is five-two and thin as a rail. What are you trying to do? Knock her out for the next week?”

“Three,” Kenzie insisted. “She’ll be lucky if that even takes the edge off.”

“How about we start with two and if she needs more, we give her another one later?” Nate suggested.

“Uh,” said Alex. “What exactly are you giving me?”

“Pain meds left over from when I broke my leg last August,” said Nate, shaking out another pill. He handed her a bottle of water. “They’re not all that strong. Especially with our metabolism.”

“What’s wrong with our metabolism?” she asked, staring down at the bleary outline of the pills in her hand.

Generally speaking, she didn’t make it a habit of taking other people’s prescription medications. Then again, generally speaking, she didn’t usually find herself suffering from excruciating pain that showed no signs of letting up, either.

She swallowed the pills.

“Variants’ metabolisms tend to run a bit faster than the average,” said Nate. “We burn things off more quickly than most people.”

Well that explained why she never seemed to gain weight, despite her aunt’s valiant efforts and Alex’s borderline-unhealthy obsession with junk food. Cassie often joked that Alex could eat more than all four of her brothers combined.

“Speaking of overactive metabolisms,” said Declan, climbing to his feet. “Getting chased by bad guys all night made me hungry. Is there any pizza left?”

“Fridge,” said Kenzie.

With that, he and Nate disappeared in search of a food, leaving Alex and Kenzie alone in the living room.

“I know you don’t want to hear this,” said Kenzie, “but you’ve got some things to learn before it will be safe for you to leave the cabin again.”

Alex sighed.

“Now that we have both Brandt
and
the Agency to worry about, it would be better if I started your training tonight. You’re going to need to know how to keep out the voices before you even
think
about going anywhere populated.”

Closing her eyes, Alex grudgingly admitted that Kenzie had a point. The wall she’d tried to put up when they were in DC hadn’t done a thing to help her.

“When we were in the car earlier, Declan told me to put up a wall to block out the voices,” she admitted. “I did it just like you taught me this afternoon, but it didn’t work. I was certain I was just doing it wrong.”

“Wrong or right, at that point it wouldn’t have made much difference.” Kenzie shifted on the couch, drawing her legs up under her. “You’d already let them all in. Hard to hold back the water when the dam’s already busted, you know?”

Alex thought back to the sound of all those voices talking over each other and the amount of pain it had inflicted. The memory alone was enough to make her anxious… The thought that it might happen again absolutely terrified her.

The lamp sitting behind Kenzie launched itself off of the end table and shattered as it collided with the wall, causing both girls to jump.

Hand over her heart, Kenzie took a deep breath. “Spending a few minutes training with Nate tonight probably wouldn’t be a bad idea, either.”

*   *   *

“So,” said Declan as he popped open the BMW’s trunk. “Alex has three abilities. Only one other Variant has
ever
possessed more than two powers… And if Alex
is
like that psycho Masterson, then that means she’s able to absorb another Variants’ powers through touch.”

Nate paused in his inspection of the documents inside Grayson’s briefcase.

He could tell by the tone of Declan’s voice that his brother was working his way up to asking a question.

“We can assume that she got her jumping ability from being around her aunt,” said Declan. “And she probably absorbed Kenzie’s ability this afternoon when Red went digging in Alex’s head for that phone number…”

Here it comes.

“But how did she get
your
ability, Nate?”

And there it was.

The question had been laced with innuendo… and just a hint of accusation.

“Grow up, Decks.” Nate closed the briefcase.

Declan already knew the answer. He’d seen Nate holding Alex’s hand earlier when they were standing outside his window. He was only asking the question to be an ass.

What Declan
didn’t
realize was that Nate had known exactly what he was doing when he’d taken Alex’s hand earlier. With Brandt still out there and Grayson missing, he’d wanted Alex to be as prepared as she could be—and that meant giving her his telekinesis.

Nate had been relieved when the truth about Alex’s unique ability had finally come to light.

It made for one less secret he had to keep.

He only wished that someone would have mentioned the mental spelunking expedition Kenzie had taken into Alex’s thoughts that afternoon before they left for DC. Maybe then he would have been prepared for what had happened to her in the parking garage.

The image of Alex screaming in agony wasn’t one he’d soon forget. And it killed him to think that he might have been able to prevent it.

“Hey, it’s a legitimate question,” said Declan. “If it’s physical contact that triggers the transfer, then how did she end up with your powers?”

“Grayson’s stuff isn’t telling us anything,” said Nate.

Declan slammed the trunk closed. “No,” he said. He seemed to have accepted that Nate wasn’t going to answer him. “And this car was the only lead we had.”

“You know what that means,” said Nate.

“Yep.”

“For the record?” said Nate. “This is an awful plan.”

“You have a better suggestion?”

Nate started for the stairs.

“Where are you going?” asked Declan.

“I want to check on Alex again before we leave.” Nate could practically feel the heat from Declan’s glare. “And unless you want to settle for jumping back to the hotel or the parking garage, we’re going to need a little help from Kenzie.”

He made his way down to the cabin and walked inside. Kenzie and Alex were still seated on the couch in the living room. Alex had her eyes closed.

“You’re doing great, Alex,” said Kenzie. “See? I told you it was a piece of cake.”

Declan walked in behind him.

Nate opened his mouth to speak, but his sister held up a hand and gestured for him to stay quiet.

Those pain meds must have done the trick if Kenzie had already started her training.

Eyes still closed, Alex gave a wry smile. “Yeah, well. It helps when the person teaching me actually gives me a little instruction on
how
to do something instead of just telling me to do it.”