Revival (The Variant Series, Book 1) (12 page)

“Alex! Just the girl I’ve been looking for,” said a voice from above.

She set down the book she’d been trying in vain to focus on and leaned back on the couch to get a better look at the upstairs hallway. Nathaniel was leaning over the banister with a smile on his face.

“In the mood for a walk?” he asked. “Figured I’d give you the ten-cent tour. I’ll show you the rest of the house and then maybe we can walk around the property. Thought you might like to know where everything is since you’re probably going to be stuck here for a while.”

“Yeah, that sounds great!” said Alex, springing to her feet. She’d say yes to just about anything right now if it got her off of the couch and out of her own head for a while.

Tour the property with Nate? That one was definitely a no-brainer. Besides, this would be the perfect chance to get to know him a little better.

Couldn’t argue with that.

“Just let me get my shoes and—”

“Sorry, bro,” Declan interrupted. He was making his way down the stairs, hair still wet from showering, clad in jeans and a black t-shirt, with the jacket he’d worn yesterday hanging from one hand. “She’s already got plans.”

“I—what?” she sputtered. “What plans do I have?”

“Training,” he said. “You’ve still got to work on sticking the landing.”

“Can’t it wait an hour or two?” she protested. “We’ve got all day and Nate was going to show me around.”

Declan came to a stop next to her and slipped on his jacket.

“Yeah, Decks. There’s no reason the training can’t wait a little while,” said Nate. Alex didn’t miss the look that passed between the two of them. “You can have her back in a couple hours.”

Declan just smiled and snaked an arm around Alex’s waist. “Catch you later, Nate.”

They jumped.

One moment she was staring at a vexed Nathaniel, and the next she was dropping clumsily into the sand by the lakeshore. She rose to her feet, but then doubled over when a wave of nausea hit her like a freight train.

She really should not have had that second muffin.

“Easy there, champ,” he said. “Probably should have warned you. Jumping on a full stomach… Well, it takes some getting used to.”

Alex flattened one hand against her torso and took a deep breath.

Declan patted her hard on the back as he made his way past her and down the beach. “Regretting that second muffin yet?”

Her hand flew to her mouth. Oh, geez. For the love of God. No more talk of muffins.

“No,” she lied as she forced herself upright. “But I do regret that I didn’t get to put on a pair of
shoes
before being abducted.”

She lifted one bare foot and wiggled her toes for emphasis.

“You’ll be fine,” he called over his shoulder. “It’s the beach. So you’ll get a little sand between your toes… You’re from Florida. You should be familiar with the sensation.”

Alex trailed after him. “Says the guy in the Doc Martins. Do you have any idea how cold this wet sand is?”

Her voice was whiny even to her own ears.

She couldn’t help it.

She’d
really
wanted to take that tour with Nathaniel. Leave it to Declan to keep that from happening. Her list of reasons to get back at him was growing longer by the hour.

If she could only figure out how...

Maybe she could enlist Kenzie to help her. Something told Alex the redhead would be more than happy to take on the assignment.

Alex winced. Her toes were already going numb.

Oh, yeah. His payback was going to be hell.

A thick, early-morning fog blanketed the lake and limited her sight to only a few feet in any direction. Declan had vanished into the mist up ahead. Alex began jogging in an attempt to catch up… then nearly collided with him when he appeared out of nowhere, headed in the opposite direction.

“Come on,” he said, walking past her and disappearing into the fog again.

She did an about-face and followed him. After a while, they came to a stop at the same site they’d used for training the night before.

Declan paused by the remains of their fire and stooped to retrieve the towel Alex had dropped prior to launching herself at him. He looked over at her with a wolfish grin.

Alex rolled her eyes.

The jacket she’d borrowed from Kenzie, her socks, and her shoes were still where she’d left them, laying next to the fallen tree. She marched toward them.

Socks! Warm, wonderful socks…

Ew. Okay. So they were damp, slightly chilly socks.

She didn’t care. They were still socks.

As she finished tying her laces, she realized she should probably thank Declan for bringing her back to her shoes.

That was about the time he teleported, leaving her alone on the lakeshore.

Alex sighed, wondering if all of their training sessions were destined to leave her waiting alone on a beach for long periods of time.

Declan returned a moment later, minus the towel. He must have taken it back to the house. She wondered vaguely why Declan didn’t just teleport everywhere. It sure beat walking.

“Better?” he asked her.

“Much. Thank you.” Alex slipped into the jacket. “So what’s the plan, Yoda? You’re not going to make me stand on my hands while I try to levitate rocks, are you?”

“Was that a
Star Wars
reference?” Declan called over his shoulder. He was already off and walking down the shore again. “You are a complete dork, you know that?”

“Hey now.
The Empire Strikes Back
is a classic. Besides.
You’re
the one who knew what I was referring to,” she said, catching up and falling in to step beside him.

“Touché,” he said. “No rocks just yet.”

“Where are we headed?” she asked.

“Nowhere in particular.”

“Nowhere?”

“Nope.”

“Is this some sort of test?” she asked. “Some part of the training?”

“What, this? This is a walk down the beach.” He shoved his hands into his pockets.

“But you said we were going to train.” Alex stopped walking. After a moment, so did Declan. “What’s so important about a walk on the beach that it couldn’t wait for me to take a tour with Nate?”

He shrugged. “If you’re so ready to leave, go ahead. I’m not keeping you here. Jump. You’ll be back at the cabin in no time.”

Alex considered it. Then she considered the dense fog covering the lake. If she jumped and ended up in the water, chances were good she wouldn’t be able to see the right strip of shoreline in order to swim back. She could end up anywhere.

Her mind made up, she spun on her heel and started walking back in the direction of the cabin.

“Alex,” Declan called.

“What?”

“I’ll train you.”

Alex hesitated. Declan closed the distance between them and held out his hand.

“Come with me,” he said.

It was a request, not an order.

She thought of the bookstore. Of Declan’s outstretched hand and his plea for her to trust him. The situations were entirely different, but for some reason, his eyes held the same weight of urgency now as they had then.

And just like in the bookstore, Alex couldn’t say no.

She took his hand… and they jumped.

This time they landed in the middle of a circular clearing surrounded on all sides by towering spruce trees. For once, Declan had materialized relatively close to the ground and she was able to keep from losing her balance.

She took in her surroundings. “Are we still near the cabin?”

“About half a mile from it, but yeah.” He let go of her hand. “This is where we usually go to train.”

“Half a mile, huh?” she repeated. The figure made her curious. “Just how far can we jump?”

“As far as we want to.”

“Really?”

“Really.” 

Declan appeared to be mulling something over. Before Alex could analyze what that look might mean, he took hold of her shoulders and they jumped again.

— 11 —

I
t was too cold for April.

Grayson shifted his weight on the park bench, glancing up from the newspaper he wasn’t reading to look across the rippling waters of the Tidal Basin. He was rewarded with a clear view of the Washington Monument through the blossoming cherry trees.

What was taking Bartlett so long?

Flipping the page, he pretended to focus on an article about the government’s plan to subsidize alternative energy initiatives.

Grayson wasn’t a man prone to fidgeting. The longer he sat there, however, the more restless he became. He needed this intel and Bartlett was the only one of his contacts who had access to it anymore. Everyone else had either died since he left the Agency, or retired to someplace tropical. He often wished he could do the same.

The Bahamas were probably nice this time of year.

Someone settled onto the seat next to him, leaned back, and propped their elbows on the back of the bench.

“Grayson,” the fair-haired man said casually.

“Bartlett,” Grayson replied.

This cloak-and-dagger bullshit was beyond ridiculous, but the younger man insisted on it. It left Grayson longing for the old days when he could have settled all this with a phone call.

“We didn’t have anything recent in the system for Parker,” said Bartlett. “Just the standard profile and current address.”

Grayson nodded.

That was good news. It was Agency policy to keep tabs on the offspring of known Variants, which explained the existence of a profile, but they wouldn’t create an active file for Alex until she did something to warrant the attention. Or until her 18th birthday rolled around and they sent an agent after her to find out whether or not she’d inherited the gift.

Keeping it a secret after that would be pretty much impossible.

The question of
which
gift Alex actually possessed, however, was still up for debate. Until Grayson knew for certain, keeping her hidden from the all-seeing eyes of the Agency would be crucial. He just hoped the incident with Brandt wouldn’t reach their attention before he could sort it all out.

Grayson folded his newspaper. “And the other name I asked you about?”

Bartlett had intentionally kept his gaze on the water up until this point, but now he turned and openly addressed Grayson. “That one’s a bit more interesting.”

Reaching into the messenger bag he’d set on the ground beside him, Bartlett withdrew a tablet. He flipped open the cover, turned it on and handed it to Grayson.

The older man read the screen and frowned. “That’s not possible.”

“You know how thorough they are. It’s been confirmed six ways to Sunday,” he said. “Are you sure you got your facts right?”

Grayson didn’t answer. Setting the tablet on the bench, he rose to his feet and started for his car.

*   *   *

Declan managed a graceful landing.

Alex, not so much.

“You really ought to start warning me before you do that,” she said, dusting off her jeans.

They were surrounded by a sea of green.

Undulating hills stretched out in every direction, speckled here and there with the brilliant yellow of buttercups in bloom, hedgerows, low stone walls and the occasional elm and alder trees. Above them, the sun was high in the sky—suggesting that wherever they were, it was probably early afternoon—and glinted off the waters of a small stream on the other side of the knoll on which they had landed.

A chilly breeze rippled through the grass. Other than a herd of sheep that dotted the hillside nearly half a mile in the distance, she and Declan appeared to be the only souls around.

It was beautiful.

“Where are we?” she breathed.

“Ireland.”

“Wait…
What
? But… But I don’t have my passport!”

That earned her a funny look from Declan. “I teleport you half-way around the planet, and your first reaction is to worry about your
passport
?”

“Well, what if we get stopped by a cop or something?”

“You plan on engaging in some sort of criminal activity while we’re here?” Declan grinned. “Not that I mind, I’d just like a heads up.”

“Very funny,” Alex mumbled. “You may have forgotten, but some of us are still working on ‘sticking the landing.’ What would I do if I got stuck here and had no explanation as to how I arrived? How would I ever get back home?”

“And a passport with no entry stamp is going to help you… how, exactly?” 

Okay, so he had a point. Damn him and his cunning use of logic.

He gave another low, rumbling laugh. “Would you just relax and enjoy the view? I can promise you the sheep won’t report you for illegal immigration before we make it back home.”

Alex smiled in spite of herself. Maybe she
was
being a little ridiculous.

And she had to admit. You really couldn’t beat this view.

“Besides,” he continued. “All you’d have to do is jump. Even if you didn’t get the destination you aimed for, there’s only a few places you could end up. Most of them would get you back to the cabin… One way or another.”

Declan sat down, resting his arms on his knees as he gazed out over the scene. He plucked a blade of glass and began to roll it between his fingers.

“This used to belong to my family,” he said after a while.

Alex sank into the grass beside him.

“After my parents died and Grayson took us in, the property went into probate. Grayson eventually tried to settle my parents debts and get it back, but by then it had been sold.”

“So… this is where you were born?”

“Aye,” he said, with a lilt to his speech and a hint of a smile. “This is where I was born.”

“It’s amazing.”

“That it is.” He dropped the accent. “I come here when I need to think.”

She studied him as he stared off into the distance.

Alex had known him for less than 24 hours, but she was beginning to think that, even if she had the next 24 years, she’d probably never figure the guy out.

One moment, he was being a complete ass and doing everything he could to get under her skin… And the next, he was offering her coffee and transporting them across an entire ocean just so he could share with her this magnificent place he’d once called home. The sudden changes in his attitude were giving her whiplash.