Revival (The Variant Series, Book 1) (26 page)

She spun around to confront Declan. “You’ve known this since last night… and you didn’t
say
anything?”

Even Declan couldn’t handle the surge that followed. The lamps on the end tables and the overhead lights blew out simultaneously, leaving the room lit only by the darting flames of the fireplace.

“I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for sure,” he said in the silence that followed. Even in the dim glow of the fireplace his expression appeared earnest, a silent entreaty for her understanding in his eyes. “I needed to be certain.”

Unable to look away from Declan, Alex sank into a seated position on the coffee table.

How cruel the universe could be.

It wasn’t enough that her strange gift separated her from her aunt. From Declan, Nathaniel, Kenzie and the others…. But now she knew that the only other person to ever have been like her—and the only one who might ever have been able to
help
her understand what she was—was the same man who had brutally murdered her parents.

A man who had been dead for years.

“But I thought…” She closed her eyes and tried to steady the funny tremor that had worked its way into her voice. “Grayson, I thought you said abilities were
inherited
. Please tell me Samuel Masterson isn’t… Tell me that he isn’t…”

“No, Alex,” said Grayson, with finality. “Samuel Masterson isn’t your father.”

“Then
how
—” she began.

“Samuel Masterson was not
born
with the ability the two of you possess,” said Grayson. “He
made
the both of you what you are today.”

“I don’t understand,” said Cassie. “What do you mean he
made
them like they are?”

Declan frowned at her. His earnest expression had been replaced with annoyance… And what appeared to be righteous indignation.

He was angry that
she
was so angry.

Didn’t he get it?

Didn’t he realize that he’d crossed a line when he decided to keep the truth from her?

She’d had enough of being lied to. In her mind, Declan was no better than her aunt.

“Is that why he wanted her, Grayson?” asked Declan, his voice low. “Is
that
why our parents died trying to protect Alex?”

“
What
?” Alex choked out.

She flashed back to what Grayson had told her on the first day she’d arrived.
One day, a powerful Variant named Masterson got it in his head that… Well let’s just say, he came after one of our own. The team tried to stop him.

Alex felt sick to her stomach.

It was all her fault.

They were all dead… Had all
died
protecting
her
.

With his back to the fire, Grayson’s face rested in the shadows, his words traveling to them through the darkness. “I’m sorry, Alex,” he said. “We should have been honest with you from the beginning.
I
should have been honest with
all
of you from the beginning… And it’s time you all knew the truth.”

A flash of violet light illuminated the large room.

Alex turned to face the new arrivals.

Her aunt had appeared behind her, and stood in the faint light on the other side of the coffee table, leaning heavily against none other than Carson Brandt.

Alex rushed to stand, but misjudged the location of Declan’s feet in the darkness and, after a creative two-step, fell into a seated position… in Nathaniel’s lap.

Klutziness: 204,231, Alex: Zip.

Declan and Aiden were on their feet in an instant.

“It’s alright, everyone,” said Grayson. “I told you. Brandt’s a… friend. Of sorts. Anyhow, you can relax. He’s on our side.”

“Harmless as a kitten, me,” said Brandt, helping Cil over to the love seat. Aiden stepped aside as Alex’s aunt settled onto the ottoman.

“Aunt Cil?” Alex squinted to see her aunt better. “What’s happened to your leg?”

“I see you haven’t gotten to that part of the story yet, Jonathan,” said Brandt. “Why on Earth are you lot sitting around in the dark, anyway? Someone forget to pay the electric bill? Ah, well. No matter.”

Brandt drew a small flame away from the fireplace and looked about the room. He found what he was searching for on the mantle and sent the flame sailing toward it.

After the hurricane lamp was lit, Nathaniel floated it from the hearth to the coffee table at the center of the room.

“Thank you, Mr. Palladino,” said Brandt, smiling at Nate in a decidedly creepy manner. Then again, everything about this man struck Alex as creepy. He settled onto the ottoman next to her aunt. “My, my. You
do
have your mother’s eyes, don’t you?”

His arms still around her, Alex could feel Nate’s shoulder muscles tense as he scowled at the newcomer.

Alex’s attention slid past Brandt and onto Cassie, who was curled up in the love seat, staring nervously at Brandt. Alex wasn’t the only one who’d noticed her friend’s discomfort. Aiden settled back onto the love seat beside Cassie, surreptitiously taking her hand in his. She relaxed only slightly and inched further back into the cushions, as far from Brandt as she could get.

Despite Grayson’s assurances, Declan made no move to sit down. Everyone else remained seated quietly, staring uncertainly at Brandt.

The tension in the room was almost palpable.

“Honestly,” Brandt muttered. “D’you see what I mean about the ruination of my good name, Jonathan?
It wasn’t me!
It was Samuel Masterson and
only
Samuel Masterson. I had none to do with it, I promise you.”

In the silence that followed, you could have heard a pin drop.

“Are you saying Masterson’s
alive
?” said Kenzie, finally giving voice to the question Alex had been too stunned to ask.

“Well,” Brandt said with a smile. “Now that I’ve gone and spoiled the ending… Jonathan, I suppose you’d better start at the beginning.”

“Yes, I suppose I should,” said Grayson, annoyed.

Declan finally turned around, intent on resuming his seat. He paused at the sight of Alex and Nathaniel, arching an eyebrow.

“Are you two comfortable?” he asked quietly. The low tone stripped his observation of any inflection, but the look in his eye more than made up for it.

Alex slid off of Nate’s lap without another word and Grayson began his tale.

— 22 —

D
eclan’s boots sank into the muddy grounds of the training field. The heavy rains from that afternoon had transformed the darkened clearing into a mire.

She wasn’t here, either.

He jumped.

After Brandt had shown up, Grayson had spent the next twenty minutes providing them with a rundown on the history of one Samuel Masterson.

The guy had been something of a whiz-kid. A boy genius that had joined Grayson’s unit at the age of 17 with doctorate’s in both genetics and biomedical engineering already under his belt.

Grayson hadn’t wanted to put him in the field on account of his youth and relative inexperience, so instead, they had created an entire research and development team around him.

Masterson had immediately set to work on the development of gene therapies that specifically targeted Variant DNA. Therapies that, they had hoped, would one day help Variants who possessed some of the more
debilitating
abilities lead normal, productive lives.

It hadn’t taken long for Masterson to make a breakthrough.

Declan landed on the cement drive that led up to Alex’s home. The lights were out and he couldn’t see any signs of movement within the house.

Another dead end.

He jumped again.

While at the Agency, Masterson created two treatments. The first was designed to completely strip a Variant of their ability. The second allowed one Variant to absorb the abilities of another.

It was the second therapy that he’d become obsessed with.

But there was a catch. The second treatment wouldn’t work on just anyone. Certain characteristics needed to already be present in the subject’s DNA before the treatment would take. As fate would have it, only two people on the team carried those traits.

Masterson… And James Parker, Alex’s father.

Within a year, Masterson had developed trial versions of both therapies.

Parker had refused the testing. He was happy with his ability, and had no desire to change himself—even if it would make him more powerful.

Masterson, on the other hand, was desperate to try it.

Grayson had warned Masterson to
wait
until the initial tests had been completed, but he hadn’t listened. He’d tried the therapy on himself, the first chance he got.

In the end, Masterson became the Agency’s first successful trial… If you called making himself batshit crazy in the process a
success
, anyhow.

Declan reappeared on the dock where they’d met Masterson the day before.

The jetty was empty. Declan wasn’t surprised. The place had probably lost most of its charm for her, after all that had happened.

He hesitated before making another jump, taking a moment to think back over the series of events that had led them to this point.

Shortly after Masterson completed his treatments and knew that the therapy had worked, the contents of his lab had been destroyed in a fire. Grayson claimed ignorance as to how the blaze broke out. But Declan had his theories.

In any case, not long after that, Masterson set his sights on Alex.

Not to kill her, which was what Declan had always believed he’d been trying to do.

No, Masterson had wanted to
take
her. For what purpose was anyone’s guess, at the time. Now it seemed fairly obvious.

Alex Parker possessed the same rare trait as her father.

In a last-ditch effort to stop him, Grayson, Alex’s Aunt, and Brandt shot Masterson and placed him in a cryogenic suspension—a deep freeze that he’d recently managed to escape from.

Grayson hadn’t been too forthcoming on those details, either.

Their efforts to stop Masterson hadn’t made a difference, in the end. Somehow, Alex had been given the treatments.

And now they knew the truth.

Well… Grayson’s version of it, anyway.

Declan wasn’t sure
what
to believe anymore. He simply couldn’t trust anyone to give it to him straight these days. In that respect, he could empathize with Alex.

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat.

Now if he could just figure out where Alex had disappeared to.

She’d jumped shortly after the meeting ended, stating that she needed to get some air and then teleporting before anyone could stop her.

He racked his memory, trying to think of where else she might have gone.

Jump

Not at Connor’s.

Jump

Not on the boardwalk.

Jump

Not on the beach.

Jump

Not on the pier.

He groaned, exhausted from so many jumps. Where had she
gone
?

Didn’t she realize how dangerous it was for her to be out on her own like this?

Out of ideas, he readied himself to jump back to the cabin… and then realized that there was still one place he hadn’t looked.

Declan landed softly in the grass beside Alex.

She didn’t look up, just continued to stare off into the distance, with her arms wrapped tightly around her legs and her chin resting atop her knees. Her round face, slender hands and bare feet were as white as snow in the darkness, her alabaster skin shimmering in the light of the full moon.

You know, for someone who lived at the beach year-round, Alex sure was
pale
.

A breeze picked up.

Declan shrugged off his jacket and placed it around her shoulders.

He sank into the grass beside her and they remained there for a long while, two silent and unmoving statues, gazing up at the starry expanse of sky that shrouded the Irish countryside.

“I’m so sorry, Decks,” Alex whispered. Silver rivulets of tears glistened on her cheek.

“Sorry for
what
?” he asked. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

“I do. I have
everything
to be sorry for. If it weren’t for me, they’d still be alive. Your parents… Nate’s mom… It’s my fault, Declan.”

Three days ago, he would have agreed with her.

Three days ago, he’d been a benighted, self-absorbed asshole.

But after meeting Alex—after getting to know her and learning the truth about what had happened—Declan had been forced to admit something. Something he’d always known, deep down, but had never wanted to accept.

His parents had made the right choice.

Where the fate of an innocent child was concerned, there wasn’t even a choice to be made. It was simply the right thing to do. Protecting Alex had been the right move, no matter the consequence.

And Declan had since realized that, had he been in their place, he would have made the same decision—that he’d
already
made the same decision.

He would protect the girl sitting next to him. Would fight for her until his dying breath.

“No, Lex,” he said. “The only person to blame for what happened is Masterson. Don’t you
ever
think that it was your fault. You hear me? It wasn’t. No one blames you for any of it.”

Declan studied her profile and wondered how, in such a short time, she’d managed to leave him so completely undone. How, out of everyone, it had been
Alex
that had somehow managed to sneak past his defenses.

Alex had slipped past the walls he’d spent a lifetime building, and she didn’t even realize it.

He’d gotten so good at
not caring
. At distancing himself. But she’d changed everything without even trying.

Declan’s world could never go back to the way it was.

And, heaven help him, if it meant losing the reckless, stubborn,
beautiful
girl sitting next to him… then he didn’t want it to.