by Leigh, Jena
Tendrils of violet electricity arced through the air and coiled themselves around her. Before she could react, a blinding flash of light engulfed her and the ensuing change in pressure forced her eyes closed.
As the pressure peaked and then abated, a tingling sensation surged through her, every muscle struck useless by the same prickling numbness she was accustomed to feeling when her foot went to sleep.
And then it was over.
Her eyes sprung open. She was falling, but not into the sand like she’d planned.
One second… Two seconds… Three…
Alex let out a curse as she sliced through the still waters of the lake.
She was going to kill Declan.
— 9 —
Alex surfaced and took a gasping breath. Cold. So very, very cold.
The still-setting sun provided her with just enough light to make out Declan’s shadowy form standing on the beach.
Though it was too far away to be certain, she figured he was probably laughing.
Desperate to get out of the cold water, she attempted a jump… And nothing happened. Something about being in the water seemed to be stopping her.
Frustrated, she swam for the shore, the extra towel and Declan’s order to take off her jacket and shoes suddenly making sense. He’d known before they started that she would end up in the lake again. But how? And why hadn’t he said anything?
Her anger-fueled strokes propelled her quickly toward the shore. The sooner she reached it, the sooner she could strangle him.
As the sun sank fully below the horizon, a light blazed into existence on the beach. Declan had started a fire.
Alex dragged herself slowly from the water, shaking from the cold.
“You knew!” she spat. Once again, she’d aimed for righteous indignation and landed at a whimper. Stupid cold water. “You knew I was going to end up in the lake again, didn’t you? You could have warned me, you jerk!”
Declan, to his credit, had lost the look of amusement he’d been wearing when he sent her back into the lake.
He tossed her the towel she’d asked about earlier and she fell to her knees beside the fire.
Alex wrapped the thin material around her, not caring that the sand was sticking to her borrowed clothes, or that her saturated camisole was probably leaving very little to Declan’s imagination.
“It was a possibility, yeah,” he admitted. “When you jump, you have to have a destination in mind. If you don’t, you could end up anywhere you’ve jumped recently. It’s like those paths are…” He searched for the word. “Like they’re magnetized. In your case, that meant you were drawn to the path you traveled this afternoon.”
“And it didn’t occur to you to tell me about the destination thing beforehand? Or to maybe, I don’t know, teleport me somewhere else before we started? Somewhere dry? So that I’d at least have a fifty-fifty shot of not ending up in the lake?”
“Huh.” His forehead crinkled in contemplation. “I hadn’t thought of that…”
Alex stared at him in disbelief. She was starting to think he’d taken the job with the sole intention of making her training as difficult as possible.
Why, oh why, couldn’t he just have let Nathaniel teach her?
“Look on the bright side.” Declan stoked the fire with a branch before dropping it into the flames. “Hard part’s over. You’ve figured out how to teleport on your own.”
Alex narrowed her eyes. Somehow, as she sat dripping and shivering on the lakeshore, muscles screaming in complaint, that didn’t feel like much of a consolation.
He got to his feet.
The smile was back.
“Now you just need to work on sticking the landing.”
Alex stood, dropped the towel, and smiled back at him. A mischievous gleam glinted in her steel-gray eyes. “Stick the landing, huh?”
Declan, rightfully, looked nervous.
“…Alex? What are you—oof!”
She’d cleared the few feet between them before Declan could react and, by using what she’d just learned, she managed to teleport mid-tackle, taking him with her as she disappeared from the campfire-lit shore and reappeared in the darkened sky above the lake.
They twisted as they fell through the air. Alex could feel Declan’s strong arms wrapping around her waist as they neared the surface of the water.
They jumped again.
This time they reappeared, a horizontal tangle of arms and legs, inside a dimly-lit room Alex didn’t recognize.
They landed on something soft, crashing into it with all the speed they’d picked up falling above the lake. There was a loud crack, followed by the sound of splintering wood.
The mattress they’d landed on dropped another foot and a half to the floor as the frame supporting it buckled.
There came the thundering sound of footsteps on stairs and the door behind them flew open.
Alex was lying nose-to-nose with Declan, their legs still entwined. She craned her neck around just in time to see Kenzie and Nathaniel burst into the room.
An overhead light flicked on.
Kenzie seemed amused; Nathaniel, annoyed.
“Hey guys!” Declan drawled.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” said Alex.
“This is exactly what it looks like,” said Declan. “What’s a guy got to do to get a little privacy around here?”
Alex managed to get in a good kick to his shin, despite being pinned to the bed.
“I am not even going to ask.” Kenzie shook her head and walked out as Brian appeared behind her in the hallway.
“Dammit, Declan.” Nathaniel appeared resigned as he took in the splinters of wood from the mangled bed frame and the general disarray that their arrival had caused.
For a moment, he looked as though he were going to ask about Alex’s freshly-saturated clothes and sand-covered bare feet. Instead, he glared at Declan.
“What?” Declan asked, feigning innocence.
Nathaniel sighed. “You’re paying for a new bed.”
“It’s alright,” said Declan, cheeky grin firmly in place. “Always wanted a futon.”
Nathaniel turned on his heel and walked back out, snagging a chuckling Brian by the shirt-collar and closing the door behind them.
Alex tried to disentangle herself from Declan, but he had her pinned with one of her arms trapped beneath his side. His arms were still wrapped tightly around her. That same electric sensation she’d felt when he’d touched her shoulders earlier was now cascading through her in waves.
Declan smiled, his face only inches from hers. “Yeah, I’d say you’re definitely getting the hang of it.”
His scent washed over her, a swirling mix of cinnamon and woodsmoke. For a moment, Alex forgot how to breathe.
Was it her imagination? Or was Declan actually flirting with her?
Alex tried to slow her racing heartbeat and worked to ignore the tremble of butterflies in her stomach.
The cabin was warmer than the beach, but she was still drenched. And still freezing.
Her eyes narrowed. She wasn’t about to forgive and forget so easily. He’d been nothing but a jerk to her since the moment they’d met. Plus, he’d sent her for an unscheduled swim twice now. And for that, he still needed to pay.
Placing her free hand on his chest, she pushed him backwards and with a little effort, managed to pull her other arm free.
“Where are we?” She sat up.
“My room at the cabin.”
“Your room?”
He propped himself up on one elbow and shrugged his other shoulder. “Needed someplace soft to land. Besides… Now when you teleport without a destination you’ve got a fifty-fifty chance of either ending up in the lake, or in my bed. I have to say, I like those odds.”
“Ha-ha.” She started for the door.
“Where are you going?”
Alex cast a glare over her shoulder. “To ask Kenzie for more dry clothes. And to shower—again—because her idiot brother cou
ldn’t resist dropping me in the lake for a second time.”
“Oh no you don’t.” He leapt from the bed, placing himself between Alex and the door and cutting off her exit. The action made her flinch.
Alex fought to calm her nerves. Her heart had started to race again, but this time Declan’s close proximity had nothing to do with it. She flashed back to that afternoon with Brandt in the bookstore.
A crystal-clear image of the shopkeeper’s blackened corpse tore through her thoughts.
That could have been her.
“We’re not done with your… training… yet…” he trailed off. “Hey, what is it? What’s wrong?”
She snapped back to the present.
Declan was staring at her, brow furrowed in confusion. “You haven’t tried to draw that much energy since we met this afternoon. What’s the matter?”
Damn.
She was starting to wish Declan couldn’t read the changes in her emotions quite so easily.
“Nothing,” she said, trying to push the awful image from her thoughts and quiet her sudden fear.
Declan’s gaze traveled from the door back to where he stood, blocking her exit. A look of understanding crossed his face.
“The bookstore?” he asked softly.
Alex nodded.
This was Declan. He might be a jerk, but he wasn’t Brandt. He wouldn’t hurt her. At least, she didn’t think he would…
He walked closer, tentatively placing his hands on her shoulders, the same way he had on the lakeshore. She could feel the electricity passing between them, a one-way stream, flowing out of her and into Declan.
Alex focused on the electrical currents she was affecting. Declan was right, she was calling up a large amount of energy as her anxiety intensified. Even before he had touched her, she could sense him siphoning off the excess. She’d never noticed it before. Had all this teleporting made her more sensitive to it?
Declan looked thoughtful. “Before you go, there’s one more thing I want to try and teach you tonight.” He guided her back to the bed. She perched on a corner of the mattress and he sat down beside her.
Her shoulders felt cold from the loss of his touch.
A moment passed. Alex looked at Declan expectantly. He was staring at her, but appeared lost in thought.
He scratched the back of his head.
“Well?” she said.
“I’m trying to figure out the best way to do this.” His expression was sheepish. It wasn’t a look she ever expected to see on him. The honesty in it was almost endearing. “Never exactly tried to teach this to someone before.”
After another minute of contemplation, Declan held up both hands, palm out and gestured for her to do the same.
“Alright. Close your eyes.”
She hesitated. “Last time you told me to close my eyes, I went for a swim.”
He laughed. Alex couldn’t help but smile. The low rumble of Declan’s laughter was quickly becoming a sound that she relished hearing. And oh, that was so not good.
“No swimming this time,” he said. “Promise. Just close ’em.”
She complied.
Their hands were still a few inches apart, but Alex could sense the current flowing between them.
“Feel that?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Okay, I want you to concentrate on that sensation. Right now it’s traveling one way. From you, into me,” he said. “I want you to reverse it.”
Alex opened her eyes. “How the heck do I do that?”
“Eyes shut,” he said again. “Do you ever do as your told?”
She smiled and closed her eyes once more. “Not if I can help it.”
“Stubborn…”
She could hear the smile in his reply.
Alex wasn’t sure what it was about this guy. Declan seemed to be bringing out a side of her that, before tonight, she hadn’t even known existed.
It was as though he’d somehow managed to light a fire inside of her. A fire that was now slowly starting to consume her, transforming her as the blaze grew brighter, searching for new ways to shine through.
Sure, he was driving her half-crazy in the process with his obnoxious attitude and that damned cheeky grin… But Alex’s growing desire to prove herself to him was forcing her to be far more brazen than she would have, normally.
And to be entirely honest, Alex was rather starting to enjoy herself.
“You reverse the flow by drawing the energy back into you,” Declan was saying. “You did it earlier when you teleported us from the lakeshore, and then again when you got upset, but you can affect the current without doing either of those things. You just need to recognize the electricity for what it is and learn to conquer it.”
She wondered if he could possibly be more vague. Conquer it? How was she supposed to conquer an intangible force she couldn’t see and could hardly feel?
“Think of it like water,” he continued. “Stop the flow and then pull it back toward you.”
Alex tried to do as he asked. She concentrated on the feel of the current, the way it flowed into her and then back out through her palms. She tried to interrupt the process and grab hold of the current.
The flow reversed. She could feel the energy pouring back into her.
“Perfect,” he said. “Now comes the hard part.”
Uh-oh.
“I want you to ground out the charge.”
“You want me to what now?” Alex knew she was on the verge of sounding like an idiot, but she really had no clue what he was talking about. She was beginning to wish she’d paid more attention in Mr. Mulvaney’s Physical Science class last year.
“You need to disperse the charge into something that can’t be affected by it. Get rid of it by grounding it.”
Alex pulled one hand back, stopping the exchange of energy. She held her palm up and followed her instinct, transferring the energy from one form to another. Moments later, a crackling ball of electricity, roughly the size of a golf ball, hovered above her palm.
Declan’s eyes grew wide. “What did you just do?”
She was staring at the roiling mass of static, surprised. “I don’t know! I just knew I wanted to get rid of the energy and… then there it was.”
The sphere of electricity hovering above her palm made her think of a different orb she’d seen only a few hours earlier… one that had been made of fire and wielded so skillfully by Brandt.
Before Alex could stop herself, she tensed.
The sphere in her hand started to expand, her anxiety fueling the electrical charge building in her palm. If she didn’t get rid of the ball soon, there was no telling how large it would grow.
“What do I do now?” she asked, panic edging into her voice. “How do I get rid of it?”
“I don’t…” Declan was shaking his head. “I don’t even know… How are you doing that?”
Someone knocked at the door.
The sound made her jump. Her hand jerked and the orb was sent spiraling toward the ceiling. It collided with the ceiling fan, blowing out the bulbs, shattering the ornate glass cover and plunging the room into darkness.
In a blur of movement, Declan lunged forward and covered her body with his, knocking her back to the mattress as he tried to put himself between Alex and the shower of sparks and falling glass.
The door opened. Grayson’s lanky form stood silhouetted in the low light of the hallway. “Alex? Declan? What’s happened?”
“Are you alright?” Declan asked quietly. She could feel the whisper of his breath on her cheek.
Cinnamon.
Woodsmoke.
“Fine,” she said. “I’m fine.”
Alex, once again pinned to the bed, took in Grayson’s upside-down form. Her eyes were slowly growing accustomed to the darkness.
“It was my fault,” she said, trying to free herself and sit up. “I, um, sort of fried the ceiling fan.”
“Ah,” said Grayson. He seemed less concerned once he realized they were both
in one piece and that nothing was, you know, on fire. “Not to worry. It’s not the first time something like that’s happened around here. Just need to reset a breaker or two.”
His blasé reaction surprised her. Even her aunt, who was so laid back about most things, would have been up in arms over something like this.
Declan’s room was littered with pieces of his demolished bed frame and hunks of broken glass, but Grayson appeared to be taking it all in stride.
Just how often did Declan and the others blow something up around here, anyway?
“I was just coming to let you know… I’ll be leaving for Washington tonight.”
“DC? Tonight?” Declan echoed. “Why?”
The shadows hid Grayson’s expression and his voice remained monotone. “Business. I’m afraid it can’t wait.”
Declan got to his feet. “Need a lift?”
“No,” said Grayson. “I need you to stay here. I want you and Nathaniel to keep an eye on the others. Monty’s already at the airport prepping the jet.”
The jet? They had their own jet?
Of course they did.
“I’ll be back in a few days. Sooner if I can manage it. I want you all to stay here at the cabin while I’m gone. Keep Alex safe and out of sight.”
“What about Kenzie and Brian? They have school tomorrow,” said Declan.
“They won’t be going. It’s Wednesday. Their break starts Friday afternoon, correct?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Well, until then, if anyone asks, they both have the flu. I’ll send their headmaster an e-mail later,” he said. “While I’m gone, keep up Alex’s training. And no looking into Brandt, Declan. I mean it. I’ll handle it.”
Declan scowled. “Yes, sir.”
Grayson turned to leave. Almost as an afterthought, he added, “Call my cell if you need me.”
“Yes, sir.”
Grayson disappeared down the hallway.
As Alex got to her feet, she noticed a small cut on Declan’ neck, just above his collarbone. “You’re hurt,” she said, reaching up.
He caught her hand in his.
“It’s nothing,” he said. He held on to her for just a moment longer than necessary. She started to say something, but he cut her off. “Better go flip that breaker.”