Blood: An Affinities Novel (The Affinities Book 1)

by Kirsten Krueger

  She supposed, finally, that it was not her weakness that caused him to withhold this information but his distrust. He did not know her; he had only really known her for a little less than two weeks. She was so quick to assume trust because she always knew whom she could trust. So, due to respect and the fact that the door had just opened behind her, she decided to surrender this conversation and leave.

  It wasn’t until she turned around and saw the customer that the heaviness of her heart mitigated.

  “Aethel—er, Mr. Certior,” she greeted, bowing her head as she avoided his eyes.

  “I’ve told you that you can call me Aethelred, Miss Mensen,” he assured her with a cordial smile. “Are you looking to get a job here, as well? I can’t imagine it’s much fun. What do you think of it so far, Mr. Lanio?”

  Hastings shrugged without turning to face either of them. Eliana pressed her lips together to restrain her sigh.

  “Hm. Well, that was the expected response.” Aethelred folded his hands as his warm, red eyes roved the room. “Smells interesting in here—stronger than usual. Anyway, you’ll both be excited to hear Mr. Hines will be demonstrating his Affinity in our class tomorrow.”

  Eliana smiled weakly, knowing he was referring to a student in their Mental Class, Damon Hines, who claimed he could speak any language. She hoped Aethelred wouldn’t ask her to present next, as she still couldn’t even read any specific thoughts.

  “It should be more interesting than listening to me ramble about life’s trivialities,” Aethelred went on before stepping up to the counter beside Eliana. “Do you see my coat there, Mr. Lanio? It’s red, like my hair—and my eyes, for that matter.” Mutely, Hastings grabbed the scarlet suit jacket from the rack and handed it over to Aethelred, who nodded with gratitude before opening his wallet. “The one thing I do miss about my old residence is having my own washer and dryer,” he said as he searched through his money. “The ones at the school are not top quality, you can imagine. Angor couldn’t splurge on everything.”

  Eliana’s hesitation was evident in her tone as she posed her next inquiry. “Did you help…build this town with Mr. Periculy?”

  “Well, yes, to the best of my ability.” Aethelred slapped a bill onto the counter and then turned his focus on her. “Angor and I are…old acquaintances, you might say. We attended the same school in our youth, and we were aware of each others’ abilities.”

  “But you weren’t friends?” she asked, though she could sense his answer in his mind and his voice.

  “Well, in a sense, yes, but he had others he would confide in before me. There were four of us Affinities in that school, coincidentally—all Mentals, too, so we were shocked when we discovered others in the world had Affinities that were more Physical or Natural. Angor was the one to distinguish the three classes, you surely know. Affinities always fascinated him in every way… Much has changed in the past thirty-or-so years, though. Acquaintanceships lasted longer than friendships, ironically…”

  Eliana’s eyebrows pinched together in contemplation. “Was…Dr. Wright one of the other Affinities you knew at school?”

  “Ah, well, Medea was always a good friend, but no. It’s unlikely that you know either of the other two.”

  Hastings grunted, as though he knew exactly what Aethelred was talking about, and perhaps he did—perhaps the past was what he and Angor spoke of during their little meetings. Eliana felt, for the first time in a long time, heavily excluded, and she was unpleasantly reminded of the sensation that had evoked her Affinity in the first place.

  “Have you had any success recently with your Affinity, Miss Mensen?” Aethelred asked as he retrieved his coat. “Any specific words or thoughts?” She shook her head. “Have you tried to concentrate?” She bit her lip, and he spun his attention back toward Hastings. “Mr. Lanio, would you be so kind as to think a specific thought repeatedly, so Miss Mensen can attempt to read it?”

  Without giving a verbal agreement, Hastings stopped hanging up clothes to lock eyes with Eliana, whose cheeks involuntarily grew hot with his gaze. She tried not to focus on her own embarrassment and instead relaxed her mind to allow his thoughts to flow freely. The emotions he exuded were not negative, but neither were they particularly positive. She knew he was thinking of her specifically, but she couldn’t quite decipher the words.

  “Your braid is coming undone.” She blinked, momentarily stunned by the fact that his thoughts had actually transferred to her brain—until she realized she had only comprehended them because his mouth was moving. “That was what I was thinking,” he said blandly, elaborating no further before resuming his work.

  Swallowing her pride, she grabbed the loose end of her braid and rewove it while giving Aethelred a curt nod. She wasn’t fleeing the building because she was upset or wanted to cry—because she didn’t. Hastings was being rude, but given his circumstances, he was entitled to that. She was accustomed to adverse attitudes and snide predispositions.

  It wasn’t even that he had lied about what he had been thinking that aggravated her—her frustration stemmed from the fact that she knew he hadn’t been thinking about her braid but couldn’t quite piece together the words, and now she would never know.

  “Damn, it’s hot,” Seth complained, shaking his t-shirt to air out his torso. The sun was beginning to set but still blazed hot on the bright buildings of Periculand.

  “Eh, I think it’s breezy,” Adara said with a shrug. Between her, Seth, Tray, and Ackerly, she was the only one not sweating. Although she should have been boasting about it, the lack of effect the heat had on her was unnerving in its implications. Everyone they’d passed so far had been complaining about the sweltering weather, and some were even stumbling into Periculand’s hospital ahead to evade it.

  “Breezy? It’s humid,” Tray said, fidgeting with the sleeves of his t-shirt.

  Adara observed how loose they were against his biceps compared to Seth’s and then asked, “When are you gonna grow some muscles, Nerdworm? I’d think buffness would come naturally with your Affinity, wouldn’t it?”

  “I don’t have a strength Affinity,” he grumbled, eyes roaming the streets to dodge her scrutiny.

  “That’s why I obviously have super strength. Just look at how jacked I am.” Seth made a show of flexing his arms, and his twin let out an irritated noise while Adara simply smirked. Ackerly was too busy admiring the quaint town to join their conversation.

  “It would make sense if Seth had a strength Affinity,” Tray said with a hint of frustration. “He’s always been athletic and strong—his Affinity would have magnified that trait. I’ve never been strong—”

  “So your Affinity compensated,” Adara finished before he could. Judging by the flummoxed expression of his face, that was not how he had planned to end his sentence.

  “No, my Affinity should have expanded on my natural intelligence,” Tray insisted. “I should be in the Mental class—I should be a super genius.”

  “Tray’s right,” his twin agreed with a pensive nod. “Something is wack here.”

  Adara gasped theatrically. “Don’t use such profanity in public, Jockface.”

  Seth covered his mouth with mock embarrassment. “Oh, I forgot that was offensive here.”

  “Mom and Dad would agree this is wack, too,” Tray said over their banter. They both pretended to suck in a breath this time, and Ackerly actually chuckled, shaking his head as the four of them turned into the alleyway of stores. Among the pedestrians, Adara recognized a few students, including Acid Attack, who was spitting at random people’s feet. She might have admired his mischievousness if he weren’t one of Nero’s worshippers.

  Refraining from starting a scene, she turned to Tray and said, “Mom and Dad let us get taken here without even putting up a fight. I don’t think they’d care much about your petty internal crisis.”

  “I don’t believe that Fraco man,” Tray said defiantly. “If our parents knew we were being swept away, they would have been there to say goodbye�
�or to stop it from happening, more likely. At least they would have sent us something by now. That Eliana girl said she received letters from her sister before she came here—”

  “Mm, it’s always about the mind reader with you, Nerdworm.”

  “Now that you mention it, I actually did get a letter from Mom and Dad,” Seth chimed in nonchalantly.

  Tray, ever the drama queen, skidded to a halt and gaped at his brother. “You—what?”

  “They sent me a letter—well, it was for you, too, I think. They wished us the best, gave us some money—”

  “Where the hell is this letter?” Tray demanded loudly enough that a group of passing girls gave him an odd look.

  “This is getting serious,” Adara remarked to Ackerly, nudging him with her elbow. “Nerdworm’s using cuss words. Intense shit.”

  “Of course they would send it to you before me,” Tray fumed, mostly to himself.

  “Hey, how much money did they send?” Adara asked, since that was the important part.

  “Enough to buy us ice cream, maybe. I think I might get a job, though, since they don’t have a football team here. D’you think there’s a sports store around here?”

  “Um, I’ll be right back,” Ackerly announced, nodding toward a window full of eyeglasses. The sign above it read “Louie’s Lenses” in teal blue letters.

  “Ooh, shopping for some new glasses, Greenie?” Adara mused as she followed him to the entrance. He seemed baffled that she was joining him but didn’t protest.

  “No, but I was hoping to get mine fixed, since they’re a little wobbly.”

  He fiddled with his eyeglasses a bit to show her and then almost dropped them when Seth called, “We’ll catch you guys later! I’m going to look for the sports store.”

  “And you, Nerdworm?” Adara shouted after Tray as the Stark twins continued down the street. “Going to look for some training gear so you can work on your strength Affinity?” His answer was a piqued scowl, and she entered Louie’s Lenses snickering beside Ackerly.

  The shop itself was small and fairly plain with white walls and accents of blue. A rainbow of hues were painted on the right wall, and beneath it rested displays of contact lenses, the colors matching the part of the rainbow they were positioned beneath. As Ackerly weaved through the store to find someone who might be able to fix his glasses, Adara sauntered over to the array of contact lenses to study them. She was admiring the red-colored ones when a voice cut through her silence and nearly made her jump.

  “‘Stand out among the outcasts.’ Clever, if you ask me.”

  Adara’s dark eyes slid to the side to see another pair of eyes, equally as dark, gazing at her. His, however, were like the depths of the ocean rather than the depths of hell. His presence didn’t frighten her as much as it irked her, the way he so casually leaned on the wall beside the contact display, as though he hadn’t tried to drown two of her friends only five days ago.

  “Where’s your boss, Pixie Prince?” she asked him, cocking her head to the side. “Beating someone up somewhere?”

  “Probably.” He flicked a few droplets of water at the wall, unfazed by her derision. “I wouldn’t know—I don’t answer to him.”

  She hummed, pursing her lips. “So you’re not following me around on his orders?”

  Calder let out a laugh as he shook his head. “Nero’s not as interested in you as you think, Stromer. He’d rather focus on your brother, I suspect, or your strong friend, now that he’s beaten him. I find the whole thing rather entertaining.”

  “Yes, entertaining, as though you didn’t come to Nero’s immediate defense when Tray opposed him.”

  A frown formed on his lips at this, though his confidence didn’t waver. “Well, you came to Tray’s defense when I was drowning him. Boyfriend?”

  “Is Nero yours?” Adara mocked with a condescending smirk that Calder reluctantly returned.

  “You’ll be delighted to hear my balls are still sore from the force of your foot.” He paused, glancing down at her green cargo pants, which were identical to the ones he wore. “You don’t have a strength Affinity, though. What can you do, Stromer? Electricity powers, like your brother?”

  “I have nothing in common with my brother,” she informed him, careful to avoid a direct answer to his question, “except for my hatred of Nero, of course. If you’re not here by his request, why are you here?”

  “Not everyone has perfect vision.” He tapped his finger beside his eye. “Which color contacts should I get? I want to be unique, you know?”

  A throaty laugh escaped her lips. “You should try glasses. Nothing’s scarier than a smart-looking villain, and right now, I’d classify you under cocky douche-bag villain. Glasses could change your whole dynamic, Pixie Prince.”

  Although he’d made a face when she’d called him a villain, he chose not to question her accusation and instead said, “Glasses don’t really jive too well with my Affinity. Glass gets foggy and covered in water—”

  “Oh, please. If you can nearly drown two people at once, I think you can remove a bit of condensation from your glasses.”

  The challenge was clear in her tone, and the Pixie Prince seemed inclined to accept, but then Ackerly strolled up beside her, holding his black-rimmed glasses in his hands and studying them without really looking up.

  “I think they’re better now,” he said as he slipped the glasses on and blinked his verdant eyes. “Louie’s a nice guy. He fixed them for fr—Oh.” Ackerly went rigid when his heightened eyesight caught onto Calder, who was still lounging against the wall, observing him and Adara with a droll expression. “You’re, um, you’re here…” Ackerly managed to say as he glanced away from Calder and tried to cover his mouth with his hand.

  “I was just telling the Pixie Prince that if he ever tries to drown you again, I’ll take a knife, rather than my foot, to his groin,” Adara drawled, plastering a sadistic grin on her lips.

  “That would be a sight,” Calder said thoughtfully. “I can’t really imagine you holding a weapon or having any coordination whatsoever.”

  “Maybe I’ll have Lavisa defend me,” Ackerly suggested, his voice muffled by his hand. “No offense, Adara, but she’s overly talented with weapons.”

  “She was also beaten by Nero,” Adara reminded him, almost bitterly.

  “As were you,” Calder reminded her, almost giddily, as he tapped his nose.

  Her mood soured with impatience. “We’re leaving now,” she announced, seizing Ackerly’s elbow. Initially, he was startled, but he managed to keep his hand over his mouth as they backed away from the boy who’d almost drowned him. “Get the purple contacts, Pixie Prince—they’ll bring out your inner royalty.”

  “Funny,” he retorted, eyeing her with dry disapproval as she and Ackerly continued to back toward the exit.

  “Or try the yellow ones, since you’re just such a ball of sunshine.” His following laugh was humorless, but Adara swore she saw him checking out the yellow contact lenses as she and Ackerly departed.

  18

  Peace For All

  “Tell me again why we’ve been summoned to wake up before noon on a Saturday?” Adara prompted as she rubbed her forehead. Her dark hair was a tangled mess atop her head, and instead of dressing like a normal human, she wore a wrinkled black t-shirt and ripped jeans, like some savage. In Tray’s opinion, she looked absurd.

  “Tell me again why you’re wearing duck slippers?” he countered, eyeing the yellow slippers on her feet. Seth had laughed when he first saw them, but Tray had been unable to get over how perturbing they were throughout their descent from the dormitories to the lounge.

  As they exited the Residence Tower, Adara shot him an impatient look. “I stole them from Kiki the other day, remember? You said the whole school would be here, so she’ll see them and throw a fit. Also, I’d like to find a way to mock the Pixie Twins with them—you know, since they’re water freaks, so they’re probably super into rubber ducks…”

  Knowing the
y belonged to Kiki, Seth stared at the slippers forlornly. It had been three days since the breakup, and he was doing fine—or at least, he was convincing everyone that he was doing fine. His grease-stained shirt and overly-disheveled hair told otherwise. Frankly, Tray harbored no sympathy for his brother. His obsession with loving Kiki was just as illogical as Adara’s obsession with hating Kiki.

  Tuning out Adara’s voice, Tray caught sight of Eliana strolling along on Adara’s other side. In her periwinkle cardigan, she was clearly the only civilized one other than himself—and the only sane one.

  “To answer your question, Stromer,” he began over her proclamations to humiliate the Pixie Twins, “we’re going to an assembly in the Physicals Building—a mandatory assembly.”

  “Thank you for stating the obvious, Nerdworm.” She shot him a patronizing smile as she motioned toward the Physicals Building, which they were now only a few paces away from. “Care to explain what this assembly is about and why it needs to interfere with my sleeping time? Actually, I’d rather like to know where Greenie is.”

  “You’re asking me?”

  “He’s your roommate, is he not?”

  “Well, yeah, but he follows you around. If anything, I’d assume you’d know where he is.”

  Adara shook her head agitatedly before pivoting her attention to Seth. “And your roommate?” He didn’t answer but instead craned his neck to look at Eliana. Her light cheeks grew pink as she cleared her throat.

  “Um, he’s in here, I think,” she said, nodding toward the Physicals Building, which they now stood in front of. Other students filed in before them, all groggy and grumbly on this gloomy September morning. Lazy, useless creatures, Tray thought.

  “And how, exactly, do you know that?” he asked skeptically.