Vital Found (The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy Book 2)

by Kaydence Snow

  It was cavernous, white walls and no windows. Benches and workstations were scattered throughout, as well as beds on wheels. The beds were all empty, but I shuddered to think what they were used for.

  “I told you, you just needed to wait.” The woman speaking had short black hair and sharp glasses perched on her nose. She was holding hands with a man who looked vaguely familiar.

  “Yes, yes.” Davis moved over to one of the benches. “And the others are still subdued? Wouldn’t want any interruptions.”

  “Yes.” The woman rolled her eyes. “Just get on with it.”

  “Gina.” The man holding her hand spoke over his shoulder, directing his words to someone else. “Do you need more Light?”

  A short, stocky woman with curly brown hair stepped out from behind him. “Nah, I’m good.” Her gaze was fixed on me, as if she were watching fish in a tank. “I’m only shielding us from the passive abilities. I could do this all day.”

  The man nodded and closed his eyes again. He was clearly a Vital; the two women, I assumed, were his Variants.

  Davis murmured to a few other people gathered around the bench, some of them jotting things down on tablets, others fiddling with screens and knobs. Then he sauntered back over to me.

  I knew it was pointless, but I pulled on my restraints all the same, testing them. Every instinct I had was screaming at me to get the hell away from this man—not to mention the horrific pain in my chest urging me to do whatever I could to get to my Variants. It now felt as if more than one of them was drained.

  I looked around, trying to spot them, but both my brain and body were sluggish from whatever they’d used to knock me out.

  “What did you do to me?” I growled.

  “Me?” Davis pressed a hand to his chest, amusement playing in his eyes. “Nothing . . . yet. It was my colleague Sarah who incapacitated you and all the others. A very handy ability to have when armed men come storming onto your property, don’t you think? And Gina here made sure young Tyler Gabriel knew nothing about it.”

  The impressive nature of both abilities sent a chill down my spine. To be able to knock people out but choose to leave others in the vicinity conscious was a scary thing to be up against. The fact that the other woman—Gina—was seemingly able to shield whomever she chose explained why Tyler hadn’t seen this coming, why they went in not expecting any of this. He would hate that he hadn’t been able to warn his teams.

  Once again, I frantically scanned the room for my guys, but all I could see were sterile walls, fluorescent lights, clean steel surfaces. The pull in my chest was tugging me to the left, but I couldn’t see around the Vital and his two Variants.

  “Move out of the way so she can see her Variants, would you?” Davis waved, and they shuffled to the side.

  Behind them, all four of my guys were slumped, unconscious and unarmed, on the ground. Guarding them was another couple, one I recognized from when Ethan had pointed them out at the gala. The man was tall; the woman had Zara’s silky red hair. Con and Francine Adams—Zara’s parents.

  A few feet over, leaning on the wall, was Zara herself. She had her arms crossed over her chest, her head tipped back, and she was watching me with a blank look in her eyes.

  Seeing her again would have upset me on any day. Seeing her now, as I was strapped to a chair and out of my mind with worry that one of my Variants was about to die, just about pushed me over the edge.

  I ground my teeth as a half growl, half wail ripped from my chest, and hot tears started trailing paths into my hair.

  Crouched down next to her, his elbows on his knees and his arms extended in front of him, head hung low, was Rick. For every bit of apathy in Zara’s posture, his held defeat.

  It shocked me to see them next to each other. He was responsible for Beth’s death. Zara held him responsible for our friend’s death and had refused to even hear his apology. Yet there they were, side by side, watching me fall apart under the hands of a man who I may have called father had my life turned out differently.

  Rick looked up, his red-rimmed hazel eyes meeting mine. His jaw trembled as if he was trying to hold back tears. I looked away, and my eyes landed on the Vital whose name I didn’t know—the one with the two powerful Variants currently thwarting our rescue mission. He looked familiar because he was an older version of Rick. He had the same honey-blond hair and hazel eyes. I wondered if Sarah or Gina was Rick’s mother.

  “Bring me one of them.” Davis gestured in the general direction of my Variants. Two of his thugs hauled Tyler up and dragged him across the smooth, clean floor as I tried to control the sobs, uselessly struggling against my restraints again.

  They propped him up in a chair identical to mine, directly opposite me, not bothering to fasten the straps.

  Davis yanked a tablet out of the hands of one of the people—I was reluctant to call them scientists—near the bench and pressed some buttons. The odd glass circle above Tyler’s chair lit up with a dull blue light, the machinery in the room making a soft humming, whirring noise.

  Immediately, the ache in my chest began to throb. It felt as if someone had sliced me open, reached a hand into my sternum, and was tugging me by the ribcage toward Tyler. My back arched off the chair, and I screamed.

  They were draining him.

  Whatever the fuck Davis Damari and his lackeys had been doing in this hellhole, one thing was certain: they’d figured out how to harness the Light, and not just from Vitals. They’d figured out how to drain it from anyone with the Variant gene.

  They were killing him.

  Gritting my teeth against the pain, I sat up as straight as I could and focused on Tyler’s prone form. My skin had begun to glow, reacting to his need, and even though I didn’t want to expose my secret to these people, I couldn’t just sit there and watch them kill Tyler.

  I embraced the energy, the power, coursing through me and directed it all at him. With a rush like a waterfall washing over my skin, the Light released and went where it was needed most.

  Immediately, the ache in my chest subsided, and I was able to breathe again.

  Davis turned his horrific machine off and, before I could turn my attention to my other Variants, came right up to me, grinning maniacally.

  “Perfect!” he yelled. “Even brighter than your mother. Dare I say I’m proud, daughter?”

  “You’re fucking sick, is what you are.” My voice was hoarse, my body strained from being under so much stress, despite the fact that it was humming with Light.

  He just chuckled as if I’d made a joke and started untying my restraints. He yanked me out of the seat as his thugs dragged Tyler back to the others, dumping him unceremoniously on the ground.

  Rick had moved away from Zara and was standing next to his parents. Sarah still had that look of concentration on her face, his father still transferring Light to her, but Rick was pleading with them.

  “Come on, Mom, please!” He raked his hands through his hair, not even trying to hide his tears or wipe them way. “We don’t have to do this. Let’s just go. You’re hurting people. I killed someone!”

  “She was just a Dime, son.” His father frowned at him. “Stop worrying yourself over it.”

  I suppressed the urge to gouge the man’s eyes out for referring to my dead friend in such a dismissive, derogatory way, and my eyes flew to Zara. For the first time since before I was abducted, I saw a glimmer, a tiny hint of the old Zara. Her eyes narrowed, and her lips almost pulled into a scowl. But then she met my gaze, and whatever she’d been thinking disappeared from her features as she watched, unblinking, while Davis shoved me toward my Variants.

  I didn’t question why he was letting me go to them. I just ran.

  A blur of movement was all that preceded Zara’s father appearing next to me, and I remembered belatedly that he and his wife both had super speed. He jerked me to a stop, his grip on my upper arm painful. I clawed at his hand and thrashed against him, but he pulled me tight against his chest.

  �
��Probably not a good idea to let her recharge the one with the pain ability,” he spat out, the sarcasm rolling off him so similar to what I was used to from Zara.

  But Davis wasn’t paying him any attention. He held his hand out to Zara. “Come, my dear.” She went to him without hesitation. “Now that Evelyn has so graciously helped me configure the machine, we can see about gifting you with an ability.”

  The smile on Zara’s lips was a little too wide, her eyes glassy. I may have seen a hint of my friend for a second there, but the promise of an ability—of being everything she never could be before—had driven her to insanity.

  “Which ability would you like?” Davis cooed, helping her onto the chair I’d just been torn apart in. Her mother stepped up behind it, running her hands lovingly through Zara’s silky hair, as if she were comforting her on a routine visit to the doctor.

  All these people were completely unhinged.

  “A powerful one” was her answer, her eyes zeroing in on the unconscious bodies just out of my reach. “That one.” She lifted her arm and pointed—right at Ethan.

  Davis snapped his fingers at his lackeys, and they moved to obey.

  “No, no, no!” I thrashed against my captor again. “Leave him alone! Put him down. I will fucking destroy you!” My hoarse voice sounded feral; my legs kicked so violently they were leaving the ground.

  No one even remotely reacted to my outburst.

  The guards struggled under Ethan’s weight, and a third stepped forward to help. They hefted Ethan into the chair Tyler had occupied and stepped away, panting with the effort.

  “Are you sure this won’t hurt her?” Zara’s mother asked.

  “Her?” Davis answered as he punched buttons on the tablet again. “No, completely harmless to her. Him? Well, this is the new part of the experiment. One we haven’t been able to test without a particular kind of Vital to configure the machine.” He glanced in my direction, and I deflated.

  Whatever it was he’d been doing here, I’d just provided him with the final piece of the puzzle. I’d done my glowing thing, drawing Light and sending it remotely to Tyler. I’d walked in here and offered myself to him on a platter. I may have had an IQ of 153, but I was a fucking idiot.

  Lucian had told me how Davis had gained his ability. Now he was about to attempt the same thing with Ethan and Zara.

  “It may kill him.” Davis shrugged as he confirmed my fears, sounding positively chipper. “Let’s find out, shall we?”

  He pressed one last button, and the machines started to whir to life, the circular glass above both illuminating.

  Something inside me cracked.

  There was no time to dissect the implications of what was before me. To puzzle out the quantum mechanics behind this new technology. To analyze the unique abilities of the Variants in the room. To think of a solution.

  I needed to do something.

  Wrapped in a bigger man’s iron grip, with my Variants knocked out cold, there was no way I could do it with my body. So I put my faith in the most powerful aspect of myself.

  I planted my feet on the ground, took a deep breath, and unleashed.

  I allowed the Light to take over.

  I drew on every bit of Light I could access—every tendril I could find. I pulled the Light that was naturally and plentifully always available, but I also drew it from every other source in the room. I counted twelve—twelve other people with Variant DNA and therefore some amount of Light. I pulled it from all of them.

  I glowed brighter than I ever had before, the warm white light bouncing off the white walls and shiny surfaces.

  And I pushed it all into them. Every bit of Light I siphoned I sent to the four men who each held a piece of me.

  At the same time that Davis’s macabre machine came to life and I started transferring Light to my Variants, Rick lost his shit.

  His pleading with his parents had failed, and in a moment of pure desperation, he used his ability. Other than the day he’d protected me from Franklyn, this was the first time I’d seen Rick use his ability since the day it had killed Beth. Only this time it wasn’t an accident, and it wasn’t random. The electricity came to his hands effortlessly, and he let out a pained yell as he aimed it right at his mother, hitting her square in the chest. Her eyes flew open and then went dull as she crumpled, falling into her Vital’s arms.

  With most people in the room shielding their eyes from my lightshow, I was the only one who saw Rick take down his own mother, then run to Ethan. With strength I didn’t know he possessed, Rick hauled his friend out of the seat, shoving him out of the way and taking the brunt of whatever the machine was doing.

  As the intensity of my glow began to fade, Rick collapsed onto the chair, facedown.

  People started to get nervous, fidgety, but Davis remained fully focused on finishing his experiment. His shouted orders were now all about keeping everyone away from the range of his machines so the process could be finished.

  I stopped pulling Light and transferring it to my guys; they were replenished and overflowing. Now I just had to wait for them to come to.

  Con’s grip on me loosened. He was the closest Variant to me, and I’d pulled the most Light out of him. He was weakened, so I seized my opportunity.

  I braced, remembering some of the ruthless drills Kane had put us through, and leaned forward as far as I could before slamming my head back into his face. It hurt like a bitch, but his grip loosened further. Just as I was about to kick him in the shin though, he was wrenched away.

  I turned just in time to see Alec swing his fist, knocking the older man out cold.

  I’d never been happier to see his scowling, cruel face. Behind him, Tyler and Josh were getting to their feet, shaking the rest of the daze from their heads.

  Alec shoved me almost harshly in their direction, and I heard a low growl as he launched himself at the guards between us and Davis.

  Before any of them could take a shot, Josh disarmed them, their weapons twisting into unusable chunks of metal over their heads.

  “Could’ve used one of those, man,” Tyler grumbled as he pushed me behind him. Josh closed in on my other side until they were boxing me in.

  “There you go,” Josh answered, and a handgun came flying toward Tyler. He caught it effortlessly and fired, taking out an assailant who was about to hit Alec from the back.

  I bent to see around Tyler, and the first thing I caught sight of was Ethan, still sprawled on the ground near that awful machine. Why wasn’t he waking up like the others? He was too close to all the dangerous people, all the flying fists and whatever that machine was doing.

  I ducked past Tyler and Josh and ran, sliding on the ground to come to a rest next to Ethan.

  “Dammit!” Tyler swore, hot on my heels. Josh was swearing too but not following, so I had a feeling he was dealing with something else.

  I ran my hands over Ethan’s bulky form, placing my palm flat to his neck, but he didn’t need more Light, and he was breathing. He was just taking a little longer to wake up. A tiny bit of relief leaked through the panic as he moaned and started to shift beneath my hands.

  The machine next to us had finished what it was doing, and the cold light emitting from the round bit of glass faded until it was dull once more.

  “Did it work?” A frantic female voice asked, and I looked up to see Francine brushing hair from Zara’s forehead, her fearful eyes darting about the room. The guards were managing to keep Alec at bay—only just. There were so many more of them, and for some reason he was refusing to use his ability, mowing them down with his fists.

  Gunfire and shouting could be heard from behind the white walls and closed doors. The rest of the Melior Group forces must have come to when Alec did, but who knows what they had to fight through to get to us.

  “Time to go!” Davis shouted. He gathered up some items from the bench, and his other scientists did the same, lifting out of their hidden positions behind benches.

  Zara sat up in her chair,
seemingly oblivious to the chaos. She held shaking hands out in front of her, her head bent, as she took shuddering breaths. She was turning her hands this way and that, seeing or feeling something the rest of us weren’t privy to.

  Davis yanked her out of the chair by the wrist and dragged her to a discreet door in the back of the room, her mother and some of his other staff hot on his heels.

  As more men in black burst into the room, Davis and his group disappeared through the door, slamming it shut behind them.

  Thirty-Three

  For a split second my heart sank, convinced the people streaming into the room were Davis’s guards. But then Jamie’s red hair caught my attention, and I started recognizing the Melior Group operatives who’d been at the compound. Lucian appeared at my side and started helping Ethan sit up as Kyo and the guys fell in beside Alec.

  We gained control of the room within seconds, but it was seconds too late to stop Davis.

  Lucian looked as if he’d aged ten years as he checked his nephew for injuries, finally pulling him into a hug as Ethan shook the lethargy from his head. As soon as Ethan’s eyes found mine, he pulled away from his uncle and scooped me up, one hand holding me close and the other running over me, looking for any harm.

  “You OK?” He asked my hair.

  “Are you?” I threw back at him.

  Neither of us answered the loaded question. We just pulled apart and got to our feet.

  Tyler was barking orders to detain the thugs Alec hadn’t killed, and a group of agents were trying to force open the door Davis had disappeared through.

  With everyone else occupied, Lucian turned to me. “What is this place? What happened?”

  My heart was ripped out of my chest. I was betrayed. We nearly died. I didn’t know where to start, so I stuck to the facts. “Some kind of fucked-up lab.” Lucian didn’t even flinch at my swearing. “You were right. He’s been trying to figure out how to switch on the dormant Variant gene in Variants without abilities—epigenetics taken to the criminally insane level. He did it. He nearly killed . . .” I swallowed around the lump in my throat, my gaze going to Ethan’s back. He was turned away from us, staring at the machines. “I glowed and . . . I couldn’t help it, but . . . I gave him . . . I . . . I . . .”