Resistance (The Variant Series #2) (13 page)

Still.

At that point in time, moving on from Connor had been a monumental task she wasn’t yet up to surmounting.

At least, not until the rest of her life moved on
without her
and she was forced to play catch-up. These days, fixing things with her louse of an ex had taken a backseat to her continued survival.

It didn’t hurt that her heart-strings were gradually being tugged in a completely different—and far more complicated—direction.

A direction that was currently taking his sweet time catching up with her.

What was Declan
doing
back there? Trying to charm the lunch lady into giving him a free meal?

When the moment passed and Alex still hadn’t replied, Connor tried again.

“How’s everything going with…
you know
…?” He trailed off, glancing around surreptitiously, as though someone might be eavesdropping.

“Fine,” she said. “Things are… fine. How are your folks?”

“They’re great,” he said. “Dad got a promotion at the plant. Oh, and Mom’s craft business is really taking off. She wanted me to tell you hello, by the way. Said she missed being able to ask your opinion on her projects. Apparently me and Dad don’t have a good eye for handmade purses or something.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “And I… I miss having you around, too, Lexie.”

If Cassie ever found out about this little exchange, she was going to lose it.

Alex knew she should go.

She should step around him, continue on down the hall and not look back.

Instead, she gave him a small smile.

And that was all the encouragement he needed. “So I was thinking,” he said. “Senior campout is coming up.”

Uh-oh.

Please,
please
, don’t ask me what I think you’re about to ask, Connor…

“And I thought maybe you’d like to go as my guest?” he finished, flashing her a hopeful smile.

Senior campout was a Bay View High graduation tradition that involved camping out by Jackson Lake. Loud music, no supervision, and all the beer you could drink before passing out.

It was all the senior class had talked about for the last few weeks.

And she—the school pariah—had just been invited by the Bay View Tiger’s quarterback and MVP.

“I… I mean,
thanks
, Connor,” she said, shifting her weight and gripping her tray a little more tightly. “I appreciate the invite—”

“But she already has plans.”

Declan appeared beside her, one hand supporting his tray as the other reached down and settled possessively at her lower back.

“Declan,” Connor greeted, his voice tight. “How about you let the lady answer for herself?”

Even without her jumping ability, Alex could feel a charge in the air around them as Connor and Declan stared each other down.

Declan had lied, of course. Alex had no plans. He was just providing her with an out.

She looked up at Connor, whose attention had shifted back to her. His stern expression dissolved into an encouraging smile.

“So how about it? You, me, a night at the lake?” he said. “It will be just like old times.”

Declan’s body went rigid. He seemed to be having trouble holding back his reply.

“It’s sweet of you to offer, Connor…” said Alex before Declan could voice whatever comment lay on the tip of his tongue. “But I, um, I
do
have plans.”

Connor scrutinized her expression before his cheerful demeanor fell away. He sighed. “You never could tell a lie, Alex.” He shook his head. “Alright. If that’s how you want it, then I’m not going to keep asking. But I’m not giving up, either. One day you’re going to realize that what
we
have is something worth fighting for.”

He sent one last glare Declan’s way before stepping around him and moving on toward the upperclassman cafeteria.

Once he was out of sight, Declan’s hand fell away and he fixed her with a puzzled glare. “Why do you still bother talking to that asshole?”

Alex found herself, somewhat inexplicably, on the defensive. “Oh, come on!” she snapped. “You hardly even know him. Connor may not be winning any awards in the boyfriend department, but that doesn’t mean he’s all bad. He was my friend before anything else, and that friendship isn’t something I can just
throw away
.”

Slowly, silently, Declan turned and walked on down the hall toward the commons.

He didn’t speak to her again for the rest of lunch.

Not that she’d bothered trying to talk to him, either. The black look on his face made it pretty clear that he wasn’t interested in continuing their conversation.

The fact that he spent the entire lunch period flirting with a cute blonde at the adjoining table didn’t help much, either.

By the time seventh period rolled around, Alex was more than ready for an escape.

When combined with Declan’s silence, the vicious looks Jessica and Marcie were sending her way eventually drove Alex to obtain a bathroom pass and disappear into the pink tiled refuge of the girl’s restroom down the hall.

The final bell would ring in another few minutes and if she could just hide out in here for a while…

“Hello, pet.”

In the mirror, Samuel Masterson’s reflection grinned, only a short step behind her.

Alex whipped around, staggering backward until her lower back met with the porcelain sink.

“I apologize for approaching you in such an undignified manner,” he said, gesturing to their surroundings. “But it’s so very hard to get you
alone
these days.”

Alex eyed the exit, calculating her odds of making it through the doorway and out into the hall before Masterson could grab her.

Not very likely.

“Now, now, pet,” he said. “No need for that. I just wanted to have a little
chat
. So long as your answers meet my expectations, I’ll leave without any trouble. You have my word.”

Alex swallowed.

“I’m just here to see if the rumors were true.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

“Rumors?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“Word through the grapevine is that Alexandra Parker has been refusing to use her powers these last few weeks.” He frowned. “And I thought, well, that
couldn’t
be right. My pet would
never
refuse so precious a gift.”

He took a step closer.

“Especially,” he continued, his voice cold. “A gift that I went to such great lengths to give her.”

“I don’t… I mean, I can’t…” Alex’s throat tightened.

“Hush now, pet,” he said. “It’s alright. I understand. It’s why I came. You see,
fear
can be one of two things. Either a terrible enemy, or your greatest ally. The trouble is, Alexandra, you’ve allowed yourself to succumb to its power. You’ve chosen to fear this new world you’ve discovered. In truth, it is this world
that should fear
you
.”

Her attempt to run proved futile. Alex’s body was frozen in place, her limbs refusing to obey. Masterson was holding her still without even lifting a finger.

“It’s time for you to wake up, pet,” he murmured, reaching out a pale hand. He traced the angle of her cheekbone without touching it, his fingers hovering just above her skin. “The only question is, will you choose to embrace your gift without fear? Or will I be forced to remind you what you’re capable of?”

The invisible force holding her in place weakened.

Alex swiveled on her heel and took one running step toward the door, only to find herself paralyzed once again, five long feet from the exit.

“
Wrong answer
,” Masterson hissed in her ear.

Reaching up both hands, Masterson placed his palms on either side of Alex’s face and pressed down against her skin.

— 11 —

K
enzie drummed her fingers idly on the top of her desk. Slouched in her seat, she stared unblinking at the black hands of the clock mounted to the wall above the whiteboard. All around the room, students waited in small groups for the bell to release them and their weekend to begin.

Three minutes until the final bell.

Three minutes, and she’d be free.

Three minutes
, thought Kenzie,
and I’ll be on my way toward my next coffee fix
.

That bell really needed to hurry itself up.

She had places to be.

Kenzie sighed. The longer she went without a fix, the harder it was to silence the thoughts emanating from the sea of humanity around her.

Caffeine meant focus.

Focus meant an easier time of keeping the walls up and the voices out.

She wondered, briefly, what telepaths
did
before the discovery of caffeinated beverages. The thought made her shudder. Control without stimulants in the bloodstream was possible, of course. But it was far from a pleasant way to go. Especially in populated areas.

Wham!

Kenzie jolted upright, the sudden movement causing her desk to bang into the back of the seat in front of her.

Something had just slammed into her mental walls with enough force to send a stab of pain through her temple.

What the crap was
that
?

Around the room, the steady flow of conversation dried up.

It wasn’t just Kenzie. That pulse had hit
everyone
.

Even the norms.

Kenzie got slowly to her feet.

A funny thing happens when norms experience Variant abilities firsthand. Instead of seeing the supernatural for what it is, nine times out of ten, they will translate their experience into something that better fits the rules of their reality.

The brilliant light of a jumper’s teleport becomes a camera flash, the telekinetic movement of objects through the air gets blamed on a strong gust of wind, and mental assaults are automatically translated into something external.

“Did you hear that?” asked a freckle-faced blonde from across the aisle. “Sounded like a sonic boom, or something.”

“Yeah! I heard it, too!” said another. “Wonder what it was?”

She supposed the better question was not
what was it
, but
who was it
?

There were no other telepaths on campus. Ozzie had confirmed it.

So then who?

The wave came again, this time with twice the strength behind it. Kenzie grabbed for the back of her seat to keep from losing her balance.

Fear
.

The wave wasn’t a thought, it was a distilled emotion. Someone, somewhere, was absolutely terrified.

Judging from the nervous expressions on the faces of the students around her, that fear was not only being broadcast to the rest of the school, it was also creeping its way into their subconscious.

Kenzie sifted through the residue of the psychic onslaught in an attempt to identify the source.

The second she caught a glimpse of that all too familiar thought signature, she cursed—loudly, to the surprise of the students standing stock-still beside her—before sprinting toward the door.

Halfway down the locker-lined hall the ground began to shudder, the floor practically roiling beneath her feet.

Earthquake?
she wondered.

But this was Florida. Florida didn’t
have
earthquakes.

Declan appeared at the other end of the hall, running in her direction.

“Where is she?” called Kenzie.

Her brother ducked through a swinging door just ahead of her.

The girl’s bathroom?

Kenzie followed him in.

“
Oh my god
.”

Alex was on her knees in a shallow sea of water, dripping wet, her hands clutching the sides of her head.

Water flooded the room. The porcelain sinks lining the wall lay shattered and in pieces on the ground. A large, spherical indentation was blasted into the wall behind Alex and what could only be
burn marks
scorched onto the ceiling above.

As Kenzie watched in amazement, strands of water began swirling around her friend, encasing her in a glittering sphere of liquid before losing form and crashing back down around her.

A shimmer of light rippled across Alex’s body, distorting her appearance like a mirage on desert sand.

“I can’t…” Alex was sobbing. “There are too many, Declan. I can’t make them
stop
!”

Declan edged as close to Alex as he dared, his expression grim.

Alex finally lifted her head to look at them.

Kenzie took an involuntary step backward. She had seen the way a jumper’s eyes changed color, the brilliant violet light causing their eyes to glow brightly in the moments before and after they teleported, but Alex’s normally gray eyes were now shifting colors with every beat of her heart.

Jade.

Violet.

Ruby.

Azure.

Black.

Alex collapsed.

The rumbling in the floor intensified, sending Declan into action. He sloshed through the water, reaching down to grip Alex under her arms. 

“Get the door,” he called over his shoulder.

Kenzie held the door for Declan as he dragged Alex into the deserted hallway.

“Take my arm,” he ordered, maintaining his hold on Alex. “
Let’s go
, Kenzie.”

Terrified of being this close to Alex during a meltdown, but knowing her brother would leave her behind if she didn’t act fast, Kenzie lurched forward and grabbed Declan’s upper arm.

They jumped with the sound of the final bell ringing in their ears, disappearing from the corridor and crashing down onto the carpeted floor of a darkened room.

Kenzie let go of Declan’s arm as a shock of electricity bit into her palm.

“
Dammit!
” she cursed, swallowing back the pain as best she could.

The sound of shuffling reached her in the darkness and then… light.

Crackling tendrils of blue and violet lightning danced across Alex’s body where she lay face down on the ground.

“Alex, listen to me,” Declan said slowly.