by Leigh, Jena
“Electricity,” he said. The smug smile had returned. “Before I jumped on my own for the first time—before I learned to control it—I used to wreak havoc on nearby electronics. I don’t know why, maybe Brain over there can explain it. There’s something about the electricity we need to be able to harness in order to use our ability. An entry in one of my dad’s journals said that we build up a powerful static charge right before we jump. Until I learned to control it, I had a habit of… frying things.”
Somewhere beneath the smiling facade, Alex could sense Declan steeling himself, as if the mention of his father’s journal and the tiny glimpse into his childhood were opening the door to other, more painful memories.
Alex felt lightheaded.
She wasn’t a Variant. She couldn’t be.
Kenzie snorted in amusement. “I remember those days. You were public enemy number one to our household appliances for almost a year.”
“Weren’t we going through, like, four toasters a month at one point?” asked Nathaniel.
Declan rolled his eyes. “Wasn’t half as a bad as you sending the toaster flying across the room every five minutes. If we’re comparing cost of damages, you’d take the prize, my friend.”
Grayson cleared his throat and tried to steer the conversation back on course. “Well, if that’s the case, Alex, then–”
“Yeah and don’t forget Nathaniel’s birthday party when Kenzie locked Declan in the utility closet with Joanne Boathouse!” Brian interrupted. His face lit up in another thousand-watt smile.
Grayson groaned, sidetracked from whatever it was he had been about to say by the unpleasant memory. “Thought I’d never get that water heater working again…”
Declan scowled. “Brian, I don’t know why you love that story so much. You weren’t even old enough to know what was happening at the time.”
Nathaniel leaned in conspiratorially. “Joanne Bode-house was a year older than Declan, built like a tank, with afro-like red hair, an unfortunate case of acne, the temperament of an angry Doberman and god-awful breath. She had a huge crush on Declan when we were younger.”
Declan looked pointedly over his shoulder at Kenzie. “Still haven’t forgiven you for locking us in there, by the way.”
“It was for the greater good,” she said.
“What? And how do you figure that?”
“You’d just melted my computer’s hard drive! You needed to get your powers under control. I figured trapping you in a closet with the Boathouse might provide you with the motivation you needed to finally jump.”
The sound of their bickering continued, but it was soon eclipsed by the escalating clamor of Alex’s thoughts.
She flashed back to the hunted expression that had flickered across her aunt’s face when Alex had asked if she, too, was different.
All these months of burnt-out hair dryers and crackling cell-phone calls, malfunctioning computers and broken appliances. All this time her aunt had known what was happening to her, but had never said a word.
In the end, she’d found out anyway.
Alex finally knew the truth.
She was like Declan. Like her mom and her Aunt Cil.
Alex was a Variant.
The revelation left her feeling like some giant rug had just been pulled out from beneath her. Her world had gone from mundane to impossibly complicated in less than three hours.
“You okay?” asked Nathaniel.
“Fine.” The room started to spin. Alex took a deep breath. “I’m fine.”
She tried for a smile. It felt like a lie.
Declan and Kenzie were still going at it.
“Have you known what I was since I first saw you in the store?” Alex asked Declan.
Their bickering came to an abrupt halt. The room grew quiet.
“I suspected it,” said Declan. “My suspicions were pretty much confirmed after the coffee shop. I was watching when Brandt startled you. I knew from the way the barista was acting that something had just shorted out.”
Alex winced at the memory. “It was an espresso machine.”
Brian snickered. Grayson cleared his throat and the boy was silent.
The exchange called her attention to the computer in Brian’s lap. “How come I haven’t fried anything since I arrived?”
If it was emotional upheaval that triggered the surge, why hadn’t she been affecting any of the electronic equipment here at the cabin?
“I’ve been... managing it since you got here,” Declan said slowly.
Alex raised her eyebrows in surprise. “You can do that?”
“So long as you’re close by, yeah. Whenever I sensed an energy spike, I sort of siphoned it off.” He shrugged. “Our mutation isn’t just about teleporting. To some extent, it’s also about controlling electrical current.”
So Declan would always be able to tell when her emotions were heightened? She wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
Sure, it wasn’t the same as Kenzie having free access to her thoughts, but it wasn’t far off.
Alex pushed that notion aside as she considered the events of the last six months. It rarely seemed to be a problem when Aunt Cil was around. Had she been doing the same thing?
Alex thought back to that afternoon with Cassie at the coffee shop.
“The camera,” she said. “You did that, didn’t you? You made it take the picture somehow.”
His expression held just a hint of a smile. “Right now you’re building up a static charge every time your mood fluctuates. Near as I can tell, it’s tied in to our adrenaline levels. A fight-or-flight thing,” he said. “Until you learn how to control it and channel the excess energy, you’re going to keep on having problems.”
Alex sighed.
Grayson, who’d fallen silent after the Joanne Bodehouse digression, finally spoke. “I suppose that settles it, then,” he said. “Declan, I want you to start her training. Tonight.”
— 8 —
Alex eyed Declan warily.
To say that he was less than thrilled with the assignment would have been an understatement. After the order was given, Declan had dropped all pretense of civility. He was now openly glowering at both Alex and Grayson.
What a grouch.
“Why can’t her aunt train her?” he asked Grayson. “I’ve got plans tonight!”
“And Alex has a trained assassin after her. Something tells me that trumps your card game,” Nathaniel argued. “What’s the problem, Decks? I think the gang at The Corner Hole can go one night without your company.”
“It’s The Corner Pocket,” he corrected. “And that’s not where I was going.”
Card game? And what sort of a place went by a name like The Corner Pocket?
“She needs to learn, Declan,” said Grayson. “And time is most definitely of the essence. Whatever you had planned can wait.”
“Why not let Nathaniel train her?” suggested Brian.
The boy had an excellent idea going there. She’d take Nathaniel’s help over Declan’s any day.
“He knows enough about the mechanics of how it works to teach her the basics,” Brian continued. “Don’t you, Nate?”
Alex appraised the tall, dark, handsome and friendly guy in question. He seemed to be considering it. The look in his dark brown eyes was thoughtful.
The look in Declan’s, on the other hand, was one of pure indignation. For whatever reason, he didn’t like that idea. He wasn’t about to let Nathaniel take the job.
Crap.
“It’s going to take more than an understanding of the mechanics to get her to jump for the first time,” said Declan. His expression wavered toward aggravation before settling on determination. “I’ll train her.”
“Good,” said Grayson.
Crap, crap, crap.
“Uh… You sure about that boss?” asked Kenzie. Her stricken expression caused Alex’s stomach to do a back-flip.
Even his sister thought this was a bad idea. Wonderful.
“I’m sure Nate could handle it
,” Kenzie went on. “And hey, maybe I can help, too.”
“No,” Declan stood. “I’ll do it.”
He disappeared into the shadows of a dimly lit hallway.
Nate turned to face her. “You’ll be fine. Really. Just… try to keep on your toes.”
Alex swallowed. “Okay.”
Training.
The word brought to mind unpleasant images of five-mile runs in inclement weather, obstacle courses filled with mud, cumbersome climbing walls, martial-arts lessons and weapons coaching. Exercises that were meant to hone a person’s fighting skills and strengthen their endurance…
But what would Variant training be like?
“Come on, Alex,” said Declan. He’d reemerged from the darkened hallway and was striding quickly toward the front door. “Let’s get this over with.”
She scrambled to catch up, stumbling over the corner of an end table as she went.
Kenzie reached her brother first and snagged him by the elbow, bringing him up short. She didn’t say anything. Just gave him a look.
“It’s okay, Kenzie,” said Declan.
Alex silently observed them as she worked her feet into her still-damp sneakers. What was that all about?
She wondered idly if Kenzie could speak into other people’s minds in addition to being able to read their thoughts.
Declan pulled his arm back from his sister’s hold and walked outside.
Alex scrunched up the sleeves of her borrowed jacket and wished she had an outlet for the nervous energy now coursing though her system. She stepped from the warmth of the cabin and out onto the flagstone-paved patio, following a few feet behind Declan as he made his way down the twin staircases and over to the winding path that led to the lake below.
The evening air held a chill, but she hardly noticed.
One thing she had noticed, however, was the fluffy blue object Declan held in one hand.
She studied the towel. “Planning to go for another swim?”
“Not if I can help it.”
They continued on in silence for a while until the path grew steeper and they neared the lakeshore. Alex tried to focus on her footing. If it was bad working her way up the mountain in this muck, it was even worse trying to go down it.
And she wasn’t about to start this training session off with a face plant in the dirt.
Although half of her felt like it was probably a lost cause, the other half was bound and determined not to look like an idiot in front of Declan.
If he could do it—if her mom and her aunt could do it—then she could too.
She was going to figure out how to teleport tonight.
…Or so she hoped.
The lakeshore here at the cabin was very different from what Alex was used to seeing. Where Alex lived, lakes and ponds were usually bordered with swampy fields of saw grass and an endless array of cypress trees. Reaching the water without a dock often involved trekking through the mud until the water deepened and the scattered cattails gave way to lily pads. Only then might you reach open water.
Here, however, the dark sand of the lakeshore could stretch for a hundred feet at a time before being interrupted by a rocky protrusion, or a mass of plant-life creeping out from the edge of the forest.
Declan passed the dock and continued on down the beach, finally reaching the fallen trunk of a massive spruce tree were it lay, half buried beneath the sand, blocking their path. The trunk stretched from the edge of the tree line out into the water.
Declan tossed the towel over it and then, bracing himself on a few of the sturdier limbs, climbed up and over.
Alex followed suit, landing softly in the sand on the other side. As she turned around to get her bearings, she found Declan standing in front of her.
He reached out, put his hands on her shoulders and pressed downwards. She fell into a seated position against the fallen tree.
“Sit,” he said. “Stay.”
“That’s cute,” she said. “Tell me to ‘heel’ and see what happens.”
He smiled at her, genuine amusement shining in his eyes. All that protesting to Grayson aside, Alex wondered if he might actually be enjoying this.
“All part of the process.” He turned his back on her and started down the empty coastline. “If I’m going to teach you how to teleport, first you have to know how to follow orders.”
He disappeared into a stand of pine trees roughly ten yards away.
Alex dug the toe of her Chuck Taylor’s into the dirt and resigned herself to waiting.
Seconds passed, then minutes. She stared out over the placid waters of the lake and fought back an urge to follow him into the woods.
Just as the sky overhead began to change from the bright colors of the sunset to the inky-blue shade of twilight, Declan materialized in front of her.
The sight was breathtaking. One moment she’d been staring at an empty stretch of shoreline, and the next, beautiful tendrils of violet-colored lightning arced from a singular point that hung suspended in midair—a blinding white fleck of light that grew to form the shape of a man.
In less time than it took for her to draw in a breath, Declan had appeared hovering before her. He dropped the last two feet to the ground in silence, any noise of his landing dulled by the sand.
She tried to hide the look of awe that had flashed across her face.
“You didn’t move,” he sounded vaguely surprised. “Good girl.”
Alex chose to ignore that. “Why did you reappear a couple of feet up in the air instead of on the ground?”
In his arms, Declan was carrying a pile of rocks he must have picked up during his stroll through the woods. He readjusted his hold on them before he answered.
“I like the feeling of weightlessness, I guess. Plus, when I teleport, I’m going by the memory of what the place looked like when I last saw it,” he said. “Never know when something will have moved.”
He knelt near a shallow indentation in the sand and started arranging the rocks around it in the form of a circle.
The smell of ozone hung thick in the air, sweet and pungent, like it always did before the arrival of a summer thunderstorm back home. Alex could feel the tingle of static electricity on her bare forearms. She rubbed her arms distractedly as she watched him work.
“What happens if you teleport into a wall?”
“Can’t,” he said, moving more rocks. “You either wouldn’t be able to jump in the first place, or you’d end up a foot or two away from the obstruction.”
They were quiet for a long moment while he continued his work.
“What are you doing?” she asked when she couldn’t take the silence any longer. “What are the rocks for?”
Declan finished the circle and, without bothering to answer her, disappeared into the woods again.
Alex tried not to groan in frustration.
What was the point of all this? When were they going to get around to the actual training?
Alex wondered what her aunt would think about Declan teaching her to jump, and then dismissed the thought entirely. Aunt Cil had given up any right she had to complain the minute she decided to keep the truth from her.
If training meant that she would eventually be able to control her gift—control her effect on electronics—then train was exactly what Alex planned to do.
Declan reappeared in front of her, this time with a bundle of branches in his arms. He made for the circle again and dropped the twigs in a pile beside it.
He started toward her. “Jacket, socks, and shoes. Off.”
“What?”
“Take them off.”
Suddenly wary, Alex complied. The temperature was dropping quickly in the half-light of the setting sun. Shivering, she tossed the jacket Kenzie had loaned her over the base of the fallen tree.
“Why? Is it more difficult to teleport with clothes on?” A sudden fear gripped her. “Wait. I’m not going to reappear naked, am I?”
Declan laughed. “Well, it would certainly make my j
ob more interesting,” he said. She felt her cheeks grow warm. “Don’t worry about it. You’ll take whatever’s touching you along with you when you go. Clothes, some of the air around you… Even other people, if they’re touching you when you jump.”
“Alright. Good to know.” She tugged at the hem of her borrowed black camisole, feeling self-conscious. “So then why am I standing here barefoot and jacket-less in fifty degree weather?”
There was that grin again.
“Your eyes. Close them.”
“Yes, master.” She’d been trying for sarcasm, but the unexpected sensation of warm hands on her bare shoulders caused her voice to catch. His touch held that same electric charge she’d felt when she’d taken his hand in the bookstore. She peeked one eye open. “What are you doing?”
His expression was serious again. “Eyes closed.”
She curled her toes into the sand and tried to breathe normally. The heat radiating from Declan’s hands and the faint scent of his cologne were making it difficult to concentrate.
“I want you to think back to when we teleported here from the bookstore.” Declan guided her along the shore as he spoke. From the direction they were moving and the changing texture of the ground beneath her feet, she thought they were headed toward the water. Alex struggled to keep from stumbling in the loose sand. “Think about how it felt. Replay the motion of it over and over in your head.”
He brought her to a stop at the waters edge. Alex could feel damp sand beneath her feet and the frigid waters of the lake lapping at the back of her heels.
“Okay,” she said. “Insane pressure, tingly feeling, falling through the air…”
She let out a cry of surprise as Declan pushed her backwards. The shove was gentle, but with her eyes closed tight and the wet ground giving way beneath her feet, she’d lost any chance she had of maintaining her balance.
As Alex began to fall she found herself clinging to the memory from earlier. If she could just teleport herself away from the water, she could fall in the sand.
Acting on instinct, Alex braced herself. At first nothing happened…
And then time shuddered to a stop.
The world around her had come to a standstill. She was no longer falling, but the feeling of weightlessness remained.