“Self-absorbed much?” This meeting had gone so wrong so fast. “I was offered a scholarship, and I took it. Nothing to do with you and your snarky ass. I’ve been so preoccupied with this move for the last month I haven’t even looked for you.”
He turned his attention to Tyler, ignoring me completely. “You know this . . . girl? Has she asked you about me?”
Before Tyler had a chance to answer, I jumped in. “Hey! Asshole! The girl is standing right here.” Fists clenched, I stepped back into his personal space. I had just as much right to be here as he did. “What the hell is your problem?”
He didn’t flinch, but his breathing became labored as I got in his face. He looked as angry as I felt.
Before our bizarre standoff could escalate any further, three distinct groans came from behind me. I turned to see Tyler and the brother and sister clutching their heads in pain.
“Man. Rein it in, would you?” Tyler spoke directly to the stranger, visibly making an effort not to double over.
Confused, I looked back at the stranger to see a horrified expression on his face. He met my eyes, his features hardening into anger, before he turned on his heel and stalked away.
I wanted to run after him—after all that, I still hadn’t actually thanked him—but I found myself rooted to the spot.
What the hell had just happened?
I turned around, the question on my lips, to see my three companions all staring at me, no longer holding their heads.
Tyler was the first to spring into action, throwing me one last perplexed glance before hurrying off after the stranger. “Dot, interference please,” he yelled over his shoulder as he broke into a run.
“I got this, Gabe,” the black-haired girl yelled after him. She turned to face me fully, a wide smile spread over her face as she looked me up and down. “I don’t know who you are, girlie, but you’ve got some serious balls, accosting the ‘Master of Pain’ like that. I’m Dot. That’s my brother, Charlie”—the boy behind her lifted his hand in a lazy wave—“and I can’t wait to hear this story. Charles, coffee.”
Charlie rolled his eyes and walked off in the direction of the café while Dot linked her arm through mine, guiding me toward one of the alfresco tables.
Up close, I could see her heavily made-up eyes were green, like moss, and her long black hair was perfectly straight. She was wearing a blouse, buttoned to the neck, and wide skirt that gave off the vibe of a fifties housewife, but she’d paired them with a studded leather jacket and hazardous-looking six-inch heels that only just put her at eye level with me. Her outfit seemed to say, “Yeah, I'm short—I dare you to point it out to me.”
I wasn’t about to point it out to her. It was an adorably deadly ensemble. Or maybe it was dangerously cute.
We sat down, but as soon as my butt hit the seat, I was up again. I had come this close to finally being able to get some answers, and now, once more, he had disappeared. I should have been chasing after him, like Tyler. I should never have let him walk away in the first place.
I didn’t get very far. Dot grabbed my wrist and, with surprising strength, pulled me back down into my seat.
“Let go! I have to go after them.” There may have been a hint of hysteria in my voice.
“Yeah, no. That’s a bad idea, cowboy.”
“Cowboy? Who . . . What? Please let go! I have to find him and . . .”
“Thank him,” she finished for me.
“Yes.” I met her eyes, the fight draining out of me.
She smiled back reassuringly and released my wrist. “Why is that exactly? What did he do to have you searching for him for a whole year for a simple thank you?”
“He saved my life.” It was so much more complicated than that, but it was the truth.
Charlie returned just in time to hear my response. He joined his sister in regarding me with confusion.
“Huh,” he muttered as he sat down between us, lowering a tray with three giant cups and assorted muffins onto the table. He was much taller than Dot, but they had the same dark green eyes and black hair, his cut short and a little messy. In complete contrast with the outrageous outfit his sister was sporting, he was dressed in simple dark clothing.
“And how did he save your life?” Dot asked as they both lifted their giant cups to their lips and took a sip.
Stalling, I reached for my own cup and had a taste. Scrunching my face up in disgust at the pure American pond sludge within, I placed it back on the table and pushed it away.
These two seemed to know both the stranger and Tyler. They had to have at least some of the answers I needed. Whether or not I could trust them was a whole other question. I would have to take a gamble—give something to get something back.
“Just over a year ago, I was on a plane that crashed over the Atlantic. That . . .” Asshole? Jerk? Angel? “. . . man saved me. He was part of the team that pulled me out of the freezing water, performed first aid, and got me to a hospital. The copilot and I were the only survivors. Two hundred and twenty-eight people died, and I lived. I’m pretty sure it was because of him.”
I reached for a blueberry muffin to mask the foul taste in my mouth. I’d left out the fact that my mother had died and the fact that my stranger had been there for me at the lowest point in my life. I hadn’t talked about those two things with anyone; I wasn’t about to start with these two.
“Heavy.” Charlie leaned back in his seat, sipping his coffee.
“And you’ve been trying to find him to thank him?” Dot asked.
“Yeah.” It wasn’t a lie. I really did want to thank him. They didn’t need to know that I also wanted to grill him with questions—such as why a special ops team was sent out to a civilian crash site, or how they even knew where to search, or even what brought the plane down. I was so close to being able to ask those questions. I had to be careful.
“Look, I don’t really know you guys, but I’m happy to tell you more about it if you answer some of my questions. Quid pro quo.”
“Deal.” Dot leaned forward on the table, all business. “Did you know he was Variant?”
“Hey, you already got two. It’s my turn. What’s his name?”
“Alec Zacarias. Did you know he was Variant?”
“Not on the night of the crash. After, when I woke up in the hospital and was told I was rescued by a Melior Group team, I put two and two together. What’s his ability?”
“Pain.”
Pain? The sudden headaches that had come over them earlier made more sense now, as did the crowd’s bated breath when I’d caused a scene. He was dangerous. Or at least, the people of Bradford Hills thought he was dangerous.
“Pain? Elaborate.”
She didn’t argue that it was her turn to ask the question. “He can cause pain by skin-on-skin contact. He’s very good at controlling it—he has to be—but sometimes, when he’s highly emotional, it kind of bleeds out of him and can give people around him headaches, or sometimes it makes them feel sick. He’s spent a lot of time learning to manage his ability, but it doesn’t make any difference to people who don’t know him. They avoid him like the plague because they think getting anywhere near him could hurt them.”
“That’s why you were so surprised that I was touching him so easily.”
“Yes. And now that you know . . .” A sad, resigned look fell over her face.
“Now that I know, it changes nothing. He still saved my life. And if what you say about his control of his ability is true, then I’m not afraid of him. I’ve given him no reason to want to harm me.”
She looked a little surprised, but a small smile had wiped the sad look off her face. “Well, all right then.”
That acceptance sounded loaded—as if it was for more than just my previous statements. She had observed me, questioned me, and now was accepting me in some way.
“All right indeed.” Charlie was a man of few words, but his emphatic agreement with his sister made me feel as if something had been decided. “But you shou
ld still be careful.”
“Yeah.” Dot elaborated, “Alec is mostly just . . . misunderstood, but he can still be dangerous, and he doesn’t know you, so proceed with caution. OK?”
“Noted.” I gave them a firm nod. I wasn’t an idiot. Someone with an ability to cause excruciating pain was dangerous; I just wasn’t scared of him. Kind of like I wasn’t scared of Kid when he threw that ball of fire at my head. Maybe I was turning into some kind of adrenaline junkie. “So, how do you two know Alec then? And how does Tyler fit into it?”
“Charlie and I are cousins with Alec. And Tyler . . . they’ve known each other since a very early age, and they went through some difficult things together some years back. They’re family too, if not technically related by blood. They live together with . . . It’s kind of complicated.”
They lived with Kid? Kid had told me himself just a week ago that he lived with Tyler. Dot was being as cagey about the situation as Kid had been, and my curiosity was piqued, but I could only focus on one mystery at a time.
Dot waved her hand dismissively. “I’m sure you’ll meet them all eventually anyway, now that we’re friends.”
“Friends?” I raised my eyebrows but couldn’t help the smile pulling at my lips.
“Of course! What’s your name, by the way?”
I laughed, amused at how she could be so sure of our friendship without even knowing my name. “Eve Blackburn.”
Even though the circumstances of our meeting had been a bit strange, I genuinely liked Dot and Charlie and wanted to get to know them more. If they could help me pin Alec down, that was a bonus.
“Listen, thank you for explaining some things to me, and thank you for the coffee and muffin, but I’m serious about delivering this thanks. Can you point me in his direction? Please?”
“Oh, Eve, honey, no.” It was Dot’s turn to laugh, and Charlie joined her. “We’ll help, I promise, but not today. When he’s that pissed off, Tyler is just about the only person he’ll allow in the same room as him. And anyway, I have no idea where he went. When he doesn’t want to be found, you won’t find him.”
“Don’t I know it.” I had been not finding him for a year.
“Another day. I promise. He has to stick around for the next few weeks anyway—official Melior Group business.” She gave me an exaggerated wink. Charlie shook his head at her, but he was smiling too.
Dot kept firing questions at me and sharing about herself and her brother. I found out Dot was the same age as me, and Charlie was only a year older. The conversation flowed so seamlessly that my plan to visit the museum was completely abandoned, and my mission to track down Alec almost forgotten. Almost.
Charlie mostly just watched us with his intelligent eyes, only occasionally throwing in a word or two. When he formed another complete sentence, it took me a little by surprise.
“Are you Variant, Eve?”
Dot and I both looked at him as he casually finished off his coffee, waiting for me to answer.
I found my voice. “No. I mean, I’m still waiting for my blood test results, but I’ve had tests before, and they came back negative, so . . . Um, are you guys?”
In answer, they shared a look, and a small gray blur came darting out of nowhere—startling me—climbed up Dot’s voluminous skirt, and perched itself on her shoulder. Once it stopped moving, I could see it was a ferret.
“This is Squiggles.” Dot scratched it under the neck and smiled wide at me. “My ability allows me to communicate with animals. It’s referred to as ‘control’ of animals, but it’s not a master-subject kind of dynamic. I simply ask them to do things, and they’re almost always happy to oblige.”
“Wow! That’s amazing!”
All of a sudden, I was the one firing questions. During my interrogation, I found out we were in some of the same classes. Dot was taking some science units in preparation for a career as a vet.
“Naturally, I’ll already know what’s wrong with the animals—I can just ask them—but I need to learn how to actually heal them.”
When she casually mentioned that Charlie was her Vital, the intensity of my interest and the speed at which I was firing questions doubled. Charlie was the first Vital I had ever met, and I wanted to know everything.
They were more than happy to explain things to me patiently. I knew that Bonds could form between any connected people—siblings, lovers, friends—but friendship Bonds were rare. There was a direct correlation between the strength of the Bond and the strength of the relationship between Variant and Vital, so the Bond sometimes pulled people who were not related by blood closer together, turning friendships into something more.
I had started reading an article about it the other night. The only relationship that never presented Variant-Vital Bonds was parent-child, and often the people in the Bond were close in age. Research had yet to determine why this was exactly.
He was only a year older, but Charlie had the protective big brother thing down pat. Apparently being Dot’s Vital only heightened the dynamic, bringing a supernatural element into his instinct to protect his sister. She said it could be overbearing at times, but they were so close it was hard to stay mad at each other.
“I’m sorry, Eve,” Charlie cut me off midsentence as I was trying to ask another question, “but I have to get to my Variant Abilities lecture.”
“Oh, of course. Sorry.” I checked the time on my phone, swearing under my breath. I had to get to the same lecture. We had been talking for hours, and I’d completely missed lunch with the Reds. “I’m in that class too actually.”
I laughed nervously, worried that I had bored them with my overbearing questions, but they both smiled, the resemblance clear in the curve of their mouths.
“I’ll see you soon.” Dot hugged me goodbye and turned in the opposite direction. “Give our new friend our numbers, Charles,” she called over her shoulder, her big skirt swishing around her calves as the sharp black heels clicked on the concrete. Squiggles settled in around her neck like a live scarf.
“Have a good afternoon, Dorothy!” he called after her, and she made a gagging sound.
“Neither of us likes our full name much. So naturally we use them all the time.” Charlie chuckled. As we walked to class together, he followed his sister’s instructions, putting both their numbers in my phone.
Zara walked up to the lecture theater at the same moment we did. “What happened to you at lunch?”
I was relieved she didn’t sound upset I’d stood them up. Before I had a chance to answer, she spotted Charlie next to me. Her sarcastic mask fell over her face, and she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Charles,” she deadpanned, arching one eyebrow in a decidedly hostile way. I had no idea eyebrows could be hostile.
“Zara.” He smiled, unaffected by the dangerous eyebrow or her use of his full name. “See you later, Eve.” He gave me a friendly wave and went in search of a seat.
“What was that about?” I asked as we made our way to our own seats.
“You should be careful with that one. He’s his sister’s Vital, and she gets a little protective. If you’re not careful, you could get your eyes gouged out. By a bear.”
I laughed, a little too loudly, my voice carrying through the massive lecture hall. “You mean a ferret? I met Dot this morning. She seems really nice actually.”
“What is it with you and that family?” Zara grumbled, pulling her books out of her bag.
“What?”
“Dot and Charlie are Kid’s cousins.”
“Wait, does that mean that Kid and Alec Zacarias are brothers?” If Dot and Charlie were cousins with both Alec and Kid, it made sense. I just wasn’t sure how Tyler fit into it.
“No, they’re cousins too. It’s a big family. Wait”—her voice rose in pitch—“how do you know Alec?”
“I met him this morning too.”
“What do you mean met him?” She turned on me, her eyes wide. “One does not simply meet the ‘Master of Pain.’”
I ignored her huff of frustration. Her problem with Dot and Charlie probably had to do with her aversion to all things related to the Variant community in New York. I felt a little sad for her—she had so much anger about her situation—but at the same time, I just couldn’t feel bad about having made more friends.
Plus, I had finally, finally found my stranger. Even though I hadn’t been able to speak to him properly, at least now I knew his name. I knew who he was. Not only that, but Dot had promised to help me deliver my thanks.
I did my best to focus on the lesson, but I kept smiling to myself, practically giddy. The scholarship letter that had brought me to Bradford Hills had also delivered me to something I had been chasing for a whole year; it had thrown me directly into the path of Alec Zacarias.
Maybe my bad birthday luck was finally running out.
Seven
Beth’s cute red heels clicked on the smooth footpath as we walked past the grand front gates of Bradford Hills Institute. It was a mild spring evening, and Zara, Beth, and I were on our way to Ethan Paul’s party.
Beth was beside herself with excitement, her freshly curled hair bouncing around her shoulders. Zara had illustrated her lack of enthusiasm by waiting until the last minute to get ready and putting in almost no effort, although she still looked fierce in her black jeans and gray jacket, her short silky red hair and simple black eyeliner completing the look.
I’d opted for jeans too, paired with a long-sleeved black top I’d borrowed from Beth. It was cut low in the front, showing more cleavage than I was used to, but she’d gotten so much joy from getting ready together that I couldn’t be mad about it.
Kid’s house was just off campus on a wide, leafy street. Half the walk there seemed to be devoted to reaching the end of his ridiculous driveway—clearly, his family had money.
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