by Lina Jubilee
Zander laughed, a hearty, growling sound that curled my toes. He stood, shaking his head and clasping Jayden on the shoulder. “If you hand her to your lab rat, she’ll never breathe non-sterilized air again.”
Wade frowned at that but said nothing. A jolt of panic shot through me—had he planned on making me his guinea pig for days?
“I propose something far simpler,” said Zander as he tucked both hands into his jean pockets and strolled over toward me. He towered over me, staring me down, a grin lifting the corner of his lips and something like amusement dancing in his eyes. “May I?”
“May you wha—?”
But before I could finish speaking, he’d bent over, his lips brushing mine.
“Zander!” Jayden shouted, but I didn’t see what he or anyone else did in that moment.
A jolt flew through me—not at all like how it’d been when I’d kissed Tobias. Zander seemed to stagger back a bit, his lips leaving mine, and taking something strong and powerful with them. He righted himself and smiled at me.
“Wow. Well, why hello, darlin’.”
I jumped. I’d just heard—there had been a voice in my head. And it hadn’t been mine.
Zander removed one hand from his pocket and traced his lips with a finger, practically salivating as he looked down at me.
“That was me,” said the voice in my mind. “My Natch abilities include telepathy when I bond with someone. Though it’s mostly projection.”
“Zander, I don’t know where you get off thinking that’s the least bit appropriate—” said Jayden as he grabbed hold of Zander’s arm, but then Zander was behind me, running a strangely feathery-light hand through my hair, yet he was still in front of me, and I screamed, closing my eyes.
He chuckled.
“It’s not funny,” snapped Jayden.
Chastity tsked beside me. “He’s not projecting behind you anymore, dear. You can open your eyes.”
When I did, I saw Wade typing furiously, his focus on the screen. Jayden and Zander were arguing—or Jayden was lecturing Zander and Zander kept staring at me, a mischievous smile on his face—and I was lost. Utterly lost.
“You don’t get it,” said Zander, seemingly not at all bothered by Jayden’s lecture. “I feel amazing.” He put a hand up to Jayden’s face, as if to hush him, and it worked. He turned and focused on the door. “I feel like I could project for miles. If you or someone else I bonded with were halfway around the world, I’d have no problem talking to you.” He focused, closing his eyes. “Maybe I don’t even have to be bonded with someone to talk to them—”
Chastity jumped beside me, shoving her chair back and standing on her feet. “What the fuck? Stay out of my head, Zander!”
Jayden looked puzzled. “You bonded with Chastity too…?”
Letting out a bellowing laugh, Zander clasped Jayden by his upper arms. “No, I’m happy to report for Chastity’s own sanity that I doubt we’re permanently bonded.”
“Thank god,” said Chastity, sitting back down. She squeezed her palms together and brought out a little light spark like she had at the ice cream place during her demonstration. It looked to be just a way to pass the time, a glaze of boredom falling over her eyes.
“And I can project—I can project so far! I think I can project to Hong Kong!” Zander was bouncing on his heels.
Jayden shook his head, aghast. “You can’t project yourself more than a hundred miles or so, Zander, we’ve tried this—”
Zander closed his eyes and focused. Half a minute later, he grinned.
“What’s so funny now?” asked Jayden.
Wade halted his furious typing. “People are posting to social media in Hong Kong,” he said. “About the ghostly spectral man who appeared in front of The Peninsula Hotel for a few seconds and took off.”
Jayden’s jaw dropped and he took a step back, shaking his head. “No…”
“It’s true!” said Zander. “Her lips really can—” Then he frowned. “It’s gone.”
“What?” asked Chastity, closing her hand and letting the lights vanish.
“The boost is gone,” said Zander. He stared at me. “Must not last more than a few minutes, like with her and the flying kid.” He took another step toward me. “So maybe you need to keep going at it for another pick-me-up…”
“Zander, no,” said Jayden.
But Zander had already wrapped his arms around me, lifting me up from my seat and letting the chair knock over, his lips on mine.
I was too shocked to react. But damn, did my toes curl.
Chapter Three
Present day.
I sat there alone at the briefing room table, chewing on a hangnail on my index finger, staring blankly at the feeds I’d tossed up on the giant screens. My tablet still had the Nelian-spotting app running, but it was relatively quiet compared to all the #Renegades posts flitting past the screen.
The Renegades may have mostly only been locally active, but they were still renowned around the country—probably even the globe. Before the Nelians had appeared—also conveniently only in my town—they had been all the rage. The military had learned not to interfere too much with Renegade activity—unless they wanted a lot of destruction to follow, thanks to Renegade members Kouta and Torynt primarily—and so by the time the Nelians had appeared, our so-called armed forces had barely cared. Since the Nelian invasions had yet to spread to the rest of the world, it almost seemed like we’d been totally neglected, left to deal with it all on our own. The local police were slow to act, if at all, in our suburb. So that basically left us. “Why not let Natches battle other Natches and these superpowered aliens?” the mayor had proposed in a televised town hall one day. “They seem to have it under control.”
Sure, sure.
They really did seem to leave all non-Typical crime up to us at this point. I often pondered why Jayden hadn’t negotiated some kind of contract with the town considering, but I knew he valued privacy. Typicals were such cowards. It was a wonder so many still stayed in our city.
I supposed it helped that casualties throughout it all had miraculously totaled zero. So far.
On a slow, elf-free day, Renegade spottings were still likely to start a trend, though. They quickly devolved into debates for and against the rogue team’s activities and whether or not Natches ought to be regulated with their own special set of laws.
Frankly, even if I were an anti-Natch Typical, I wouldn’t have seen the point of special laws. Zander and company were quite capable of breaking the existing ones without additional restrictions.
Whoa! That fire guy just went sailing into a wall. Ouch #Renegades vs. the other guys.
I flinched. Veras was the “other guys.” Fewer people remembered our name. Actually, maybe no one even knew it. It wasn’t like we posted video speeches like Zander did.
But more importantly, “fire guy” had to be Nash. He’d wanted a boost and I’d turned him down. He was hurt because I’d turned him down. I hadn’t even been against it. Nash was hot—I wasn’t too much of his friend not to see that. It was just the kind of clinical way he’d asked—like I was nothing more than a tool—on top of how frequently he asked and the jumble that all these emotions wound up causing in my brain that had made me hesitate.
And then there was the way my thoughts kept dwelling on Zander, even when I didn’t want them to. I stared at the corner of the room where I’d initially seen him, remembering my first day here.
His kiss had driven me wild right from the start—even as my heart kept pounding every time I’d looked at Jayden. Then Nash had joined up a year later—hot, impulsive, and sometimes the sweetest guy you’d ever meet—and he’d been my age, so we’d kind of gravitated toward each other and toward Roulette and Darien as friends. Chastity and Wade were a few years older, but Jayden may as well have been an old man for the way he kept everyone at a distance. Everyone except Zander. They’d founded Veras together because they’d grown up attached at the hip.
I knew Zander
’s fallout with Jayden had been over more than just me—more than just that night—but it still stung that I had played any role in it. Zander seemed no worse for wear—which didn’t exactly earn him sympathy points in my book—but Jayden was devastated over the loss of their friendship.
It might have been hard to tell since he typically kept his emotions in check, but I could tell. It came from years of observation.
Hmm. All these thoughts about Zander and silence. It seemed my friends were keeping him plenty occupied, too occupied for his thoughts to travel to me.
Fire guy’s up! He’s limping, though. #Renegades wreak havoc downtown.
Pounding a fist against my chair’s armrest, I sighed and threw my arms atop the table, sliding down onto my chin and staring at the screens via the awkward way I’d positioned myself. At least Nash was okay—he usually was. Roulette was a healer half the time. That was the reason for her code name—every time she tried to use her power, you didn’t know if she was going to blast out a white ray of healing energy or a searing red jolt of pain. She usually tested it on a garbage can or a rock to be sure. If it went flying, she was dealing out the hurt. If it just shimmered, she could shift her hand and focus it over an ally’s injuries. With my kiss, she healed faster and hit harder, depending on the luck of the draw.
Nash got more firepower—literally—after my kiss and outright turned into Hephaestus on Earth after we had sex. No wonder he was so addicted to it.
Sparkling hot chick takes them out! #Renegades losing? The post accompanied a five-second video and I jumped up, scrambling over to the console to click play. Chastity was kicking ass, spinning in midair—she was a black belt at taekwondo in addition to having powers—and she temporarily blinded Lila, Kouta, and Torynt before dropkicking all three with one blow.
Yes!
It looked like she’d knocked them out cold.
Relief spread throughout my body. Maybe Jayden had been right. Maybe I hadn’t been necessary.
People seemed to be confused about the Renegades’ objectives at the moment. Wade could have run a simulation on the computer and come up with any number of motives. The nearby bank had cash that would fund Zander’s activities—that seemed to be one thing he really missed about us: leaving Jayden’s fortune behind. Or maybe there’d been a Natch spotted nearby—a kid, most likely—and Zander wanted to get there before Jayden or Natch Social Services made a house call, try to get the kid’s parents on his side. Or maybe he wanted to stop some young Natch from being bullied.
Whatever the reason, it all came down to theatrics. Zander relished the attention, the way word-of-mouth spread tales of his activities far better than the most expensive PR campaign. Not that he’d be able to find a PR firm eager to represent a group that thought being a Natch should be a requirement for any world leader going forward.
Fire guy’s back in top form! read one comment. Roulette must have gotten her healing powers to work.
His name’s Flayme! responded another post. And he’s sooooo hot. He can heat me up anytime.
I couldn’t argue with that. Nash didn’t exactly care if anyone called him his code name around HQ, but in Veras we didn’t typically leak our identities to the public.
I didn’t think anyone knew about me, though, as “Succubus Lips” or not.
Zander could have changed that at any time, but he’d never crossed that line so far. He hadn’t leaked our identities, hadn’t told anyone where we lived—hadn’t even paid us a visit at HQ. And that meant he’d made Lila and Kouta stay quiet, too—which had to have been something of a task. Even after the rift between him and Jayden, there was still an undercurrent of mutual respect. To a point. Perhaps only as much as there had ever been.
Another comment caught my eye. Earth guy’s throwing dirt around now. Yuck. Ohhhh, that’s going to stain. So scary. What a dumb power.
I scoffed. Like the average powerless Typical nerd online was in any position to be picky about powers.
Don’t you think Zander’s cute? #RenegadeBae
Zander didn’t bother with code names. He never had.
“I don’t see the need to hide who I am. I’m proud of my abilities.” There he was in my head again. I supposed that meant Jayden was holding back enough that Zander didn’t need to work up a sweat.
“I could take him even at full power,” Zander insisted.
Sure. Because telepathy and projection are so much more powerful than having chunks of earth hurled at you.
I could feel Zander’s scowl through the bond, but I was quickly distracted by a beep from behind me.
“Shit,” I said to no one at all. I jumped up and raced back to the table, quickly swiping at the screen.
Nelians spotted uptown—miles from my friends and foes alike. And this sighting seemed credible. “Double shit,” I said, sighing.
I raced back to the console, typing in the code to bring up communications with Wade. “We’ve got a hot one,” I said before he could even start speaking.
“Where?” he said, all business.
I scrolled through the information on the app and relayed it to him.
I could hear him hitting buttons. “We’re about fifteen minutes—ah! Sorry. Ball of water went flying past my head.” That would have been Kouta. “That’s fifteen minutes if we can get these fuckers to call a truce for half a second.”
Wade didn’t often get aggravated. The Renegades must have been especially annoying today.
“I’ll head there first,” I said, shifting my weight and ready to run.
“Do you really think that’s a good—oh, come on! Damn it, Lila—” He got cut off.
Shrugging, I jogged down the hall, then opened my locker and suited up. With the van and jeep gone, all we had was the Vespa. I was a little shaky on it, but it would have to do.
I sucked at driving the Vespa. I’d hated to have seen how I would have handled a real motorcycle. With my skintight battle suit, I got more than a few honks and catcalls as I slipped my way in and out through congested traffic. It was only when I got closer to the suspected spot of origin that men had things other than checking me out on their minds. Like abandoning cars and just running the hell away.
My comm on the suit had been beeping practically the whole way over, but I’d ignored it. The last thing I needed was distracted driving causing me to lose balance on this little death trap on two wheels. At least its small size allowed me to maneuver around abandoned vehicles. And overturned ones surrounded by giant green vines.
I skidded to a stop when a mom and her kid appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the road in front of me.
“Fuck!” I said under my breath, swerving the scooter sideways. At my speed, I lost traction on the road and went skidding into a wall. I wasn’t sure how much time passed until I got my wits about me. There was some kind of rumbling down the block that shook the ground beneath me. I shifted, sliding my sore leg out from underneath the Vespa and flipping off the ignition in frustration. One of the rims was bent. A little buffing wasn’t going to hide the extent of those dents.
“Damn it!” I said, pounding a fist on the soft seat. Even that stung slightly and I looked at my hand and saw the road burn on the palm. Wade really needed to add gloves to the suits—at least for those of us without hand-based powers who didn’t need them free.
I unclasped the helmet and laughed sardonically when I saw how scuffed that sucker had gotten, too. At least I’d had the sense to snap it on.
“Maybe you should wait for your Nurse Nightingale friend before you get up.”
I whipped around to see Zander’s shimmering form standing behind me.
Scoffing, I chucked the helmet at the scooter and pulled my legs together, wincing. Nothing seemed broken. I probably had Wade’s durable battle suit to thank. I put my forehead down atop my knees, clutching my thighs to my chest. “I wasn’t thinking about you.”
He chuckled. “I know. I’ve been trying to reach you. So have your friends.” He always called t
hem that. ‘My’ friends. Like he hadn’t once fought alongside them all. My comm was still going off, so that explained that. “I don’t need you to be thinking of me to project to you,” he said, this time more quietly.
“How did you know where to find me?”
“Wade relayed your message to Jayden and we managed to… agree to a truce.”
I lifted my head and stared up at him. His devious smile said more than he did—I imagined it hadn’t been a simple matter of everyone just knocking it off and shaking hands.
“You really love fucking things up, don’t you?” I said. There was a hint of anger there. It might have been the crash, the nearby destruction—the people still screaming and running past us, no one bothering to glance over and notice one of us was ten percent see-through. Or it could have just been that anger that had bubbled through me since the moment he’d walked out, vowing to do exactly what he’d done: build his own team of Renegades, approach problems as he saw them through a more aggressive, lawless path.
It could easily have been all of the above.
“This isn’t my fault.”
“It is,” I said, finally standing and stumbling, slapping my sore hand against a nearby wall to catch myself. Zander moved to catch me, but his touch was like a feather—there, but not substantive, even when his fingers wrapped around my arm. That was what it was like to be touched by his projected form—a tease, a taste of what could be.
But what could never be again.
He frowned and dropped his hand, almost as if he couldn’t bear the thought of this teasing touch, either. “We both want the Nelians gone,” he said. “Both Veras and the Renegades.”
Turning, I started limping toward where all the chaos was emanating from, letting out a slight scoff. I leaned against the wall as I moved, my leg too sore to support me.
“You can’t go there alone,” he said, his breezy projected form closing in behind me. “Your friends are on their way—my team is heading around the other side for backup.”