“No,” she answered Nero, but the lie was clear in her voice. A fleeting chuckle escaped the Pixie Prince’s throat, causing his water orb to momentarily swell.
“What, did you think your brother wouldn’t notice you there when he told you not to come?” Nero questioned as his thick eyebrows rose.
Adara shrugged as she took a few casual steps closer to the circle of couches they sat among and pulled off her hood. “I was just gonna hang out in the outskirts and not make any comments or start any scenes.”
Calder actually laughed this time, and Nero was quick to join him.
“You’re not gonna comment or start a scene? That would be a sight.” Nero shook his head in disbelief. “Ever since I met you, you’ve been trying to start a scene.”
“I just like to be where the action is,” she said as she plopped down onto the vibrant green sofa across from theirs. Throwing her feet up on the coffee table, she kicked Calder’s off and then jumped her eyebrows at him in a challenge. He took the bait, but instead of nudging hers off in return, he planted his feet on top of hers in an uncomfortable fashion. She grimaced, but she didn’t move.
“That’s not what Belven tells me,” Nero said, ignorant to their odd foot war. “She says you were a quiet loser at your old school.”
“And then Nero told her she’s full of horseshit, since you’re ‘the most annoyingly mouthy loser’ he’s ever met,” Calder added as he flicked his water orb, producing ripples.
“Oh, you talk to Kiki now?” Adara asked the massive tertiary, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. “Is the romance between the two of you finally blossoming?”
“He was talking about Orla,” Calder said, and Nero shifted at the name, “and that ship’s already sunk, if you were wondering.”
A sly smirk slid onto Adara’s lips. “Oh? Is that why you won’t give Kiki a chance—because you dated her sister? Just the fact that she’s a bitch is enough for me to not want to date her, but I can imagine there are numerous other reasons that make her undesirable.”
“You’ve thought about dating her?” Calder inquired with intrigue. “You’re into girls, are you?”
“Of course she’s into girls,” Nero huffed. “Haven’t you seen the way she ogles Tray Stark?”
Adara emitted a genuine cackle as she clapped her hands in approval. “Good one, good one—too bad Tray wasn’t here to hear it. Luckily, I am not into Tray Stark, though, and I am into boys.” She shot a look at Calder and then added, “But I’m not really interested in pansies like you two.”
Nero rolled his eyes while Calder ignored her comment and focused on her hands.
“What are all those red stains?” he asked, referring to the smudges of red on her cheeks and reddish tint of her hands.
“Oh,” she began, holding them up for both boys to see, “I just brutally murdered some guy. Watch out for his body when you go back up the stairs. It’s nasty—and gory. Guts everywhere—”
“You have a darker sense of humor than your brother, don’t you?” Nero interjected flatly.
“Yes, yes, I know, Avner’s the perfect child,” Adara droned. “If we had parents, he’d be the favorite. Trust me, I’m aware.”
Calder’s orb of water dropped into his hand and was absorbed by his skin as he shot a wary glance in Nero’s direction. The larger boy swallowed, his discomfort clear in the tightness of his thick jaw.
“You don’t have parents?”
“Oh, you didn’t know Avner was an orphan?” Adara taunted, tilting her head at Nero. “Aw, is it making you feel bad, Big Boy? That bad feeling is called sympathy, in case you were wondering.”
Calder’s feet adjusted awkwardly on top of hers. “Like you know anything about sympathy.”
“I know what sympathy is,” Nero snapped before she could speak again, “but I don’t feel bad for you or your brother. I’d rather have no parents than my parents—they sent me to juvie, in case you didn’t know, just because I was mean to that little twat, Hartman. I spent three years in that hellhole, and the only good it did me was improve my strength Affinity.”
Adara avoided his eyes by staring down at her feet, which were still being crushed by Calder’s. Her bitterness over her parents’ absence held no weight against Nero’s years spent in prison—especially since she’d ultimately ended up living with a wealthy and kind family like the Starks.
“I forgot you went to prison…with Hastings, right?” she added when the realization popped into her brain. “Well, tell me what his power is.”
Nero scoffed and shook his head again. “I don’t want to die, Stromer.”
“Big bad Nero is afraid of this Affinity?” Adara pondered as she stroked her chin. “Well, it must be dangerous, then. Unluckily for you, Hastings is my friend and ally, not yours.”
“He’s your friend—really?” Calder asked, unconvinced. “He seems rather displeased whenever he’s in your presence.”
“He seems that way around everyone,” she dismissed with a wave.
“Not around the Mensen girl,” he jeered.
“Zeela’s sister,” Nero said resentfully. “Mind readers are sneaky—I rarely trust them.”
“I thought you had a mind reader ally?” Adara questioned.
“I trust him as much as one can trust a mind reader—and of course he knows it…”
Adara smirked, but instead of elaborating on the subject, she shoved Calder’s feet off her own and then hopped up from the sofa. “Well, as much as I’d love to listen to you grumble about the many things you dislike, I think I’d rather watch teenagers kick each other’s asses at JAMZ. Will either of you join me?”
“I’m not in the mood to beat your brother up tonight,” Nero started to say, but Calder had already removed himself from the yellow couch and was stretching his arms.
“Well, I’d rather go watch this lunatic make a fool of herself than sit here all night,” he said, glancing down at Nero.
Adara’s triumphant grin broadened as the other boy stewed. “We don’t even have to go to JAMZ. I’m sure we could spark up something a bit more devious if we sneak around town. You coming, Big Boy, or am I going to be stuck on a date with the Pixie Prince?”
“I shouldn’t have banned Adara from this JAMZ session,” Avner said to Eliana and Zeela as the last few students trickled into the concrete basement of the Physicals Building.
The orange mats were a beacon to which the two hundred students flocked, chatting and laughing in anticipation of the duels. The mood felt…different than last time, and Eliana didn’t know if it was because she could read the specific thoughts wafting through the room or because Nero’s antagonistic presence was markedly absent.
“She broke the rules and had to be punished, just like anyone else,” Zeela responded, her blank eyes roving the room. They stood along the edge of the mats with Jamad, but his wintry blue eyes were searching for signs of Orla Belven, detaching him from their conversation. “It was what you had to do, Av.”
“Well, yeah, I know. I don’t care if her feelings were hurt, and I’m almost positive they weren’t.” Avner gnawed at the inside of his lip. “I should have let her come—she’s probably out there doing something worse than anything she could do here.”
“She, um, left our room when I did,” Eliana piped up, scratching the back of her head. “And she was…uh…planning a prank on Nero earlier today—”
“Dammit,” Avner groaned. He sent Eliana an apologetic look for swearing, but she didn’t feel uncomfortable about it. Since beginning to read specific thoughts at breakfast that morning, she’d heard plenty of worse words—particularly from Adara’s brain. “She’s going to get herself killed by Nero. He’s far less docile than he lets on.”
“I’m not sure ‘docile’ is a word I would associate with Nero,” Tray said as he, his twin, Ackerly, and Hastings approached them. It was strange for Eliana to see Hastings walking among the others, like a normal teenage boy, but there was still stiffness in his posture and caution in h
is gaze as he scanned the room. “I’ve witnessed him beat up several primaries.”
“Have you ever intervened?” Zeela questioned, raising her white eyebrows at him.
“I, uh, tried to tell him to stop last week,” Ackerly said before Tray could open his mouth again, “and then he chased me into the gardens. It was a good workout, at least…”
Although Avner looked displeased by this news, he turned to Seth instead and asked, “Any luck with Adara?”
“Nah, she’s being her normal stubborn self. You’ll still consider teams, though, won’t you?”
Avner massaged his forehead in exasperation. “Yeah. We’ve already planned out the details—should be fun.”
“Sick,” Seth enthused, oblivious to the fact that the older boy’s tone hadn’t held the same excitement.
Eliana saw her sister give her a sly smile before she followed her friends to the other side of the rectangular mats, where they joined Lavisa and Hartman. Without Nero around, Hartman seemed the most jovial of all, bouncing on his toes as the yellow-haired girl quietly reprimanded his lack of inhibition.
Avner cleared his throat to gain the crowd’s attention. When no one listened, Jamad yelled, “Yo, shut your holes!”
All noise plummeted into murmurs as Avner stepped onto the mats with a slightly distracted gleam to his eyes. “Hello, everyone. Tonight’s JAMZ session will be a little different than usual—”
“Yeah, because you banned the two people with the best Affinities!” Nixie Mardurus yelled from within the crowd. Her short, navy-blue hair was in pigtails, sticking up and making her appear even wilder than usual. With dark makeup surrounding her equally dark eyes, she scowled at Avner. “This session is going to be even lamer than usual!”
The kids surrounding her jeered their agreement, and one stocky, brown-haired boy began to chant, “Nero, Nero, Nero!”
“All right, all right,” Avner tried to speak over them, but others joined in, making their volume too great.
He rubbed his fingers at his sides in agitation, creating tiny sparks of static electricity, but Jamad’s irritation won over first, and he shot a jet of cold water at the brown-haired kid that solidified as it covered his mouth. With his strong jaw, he snapped the ice and chomped on it in an animalistic way as he snarled and glowered at the leaders of JAMZ.
“I didn’t ban your boyfriend or your brother out of discrimination,” Avner said, keeping his gaze level with Nixie’s. “If you’ve forgotten, I also banned my own sister for causing the same disruptions.” Nixie’s small nose twitched, but she found no refute to his claim. “Now,” Avner started again, suppressing a sigh, “instead of doing one-on-one duels tonight, we’re going to try teams.”
“WOO!” Seth cheered, pumping his fists in the air. Tray, of course, rolled his now-brown eyes.
“Lame, Stromer!” Nixie yelled with one hand cupped around her mouth. “I demand a duel with Kiki Belven!”
“I don’t duel,” Kiki snapped from the other side of the crowd. She stood alone, as she normally did now, but instead of wearing pajamas or workout attire like the rest of the population, she wore a lacy white crop-top and a lavender miniskirt, accentuating her curves and displaying her glossy legs. Even with her pouting lips, Eliana couldn’t deny that she was the prettiest person here. “I’m up for a little fashion competition, though, and judging just by your hair, I would clearly win.”
“We’re doing teams tonight,” Avner announced with finality. Nixie grumbled to herself, but he ignored her completely. “The game we have created will normally call for eight on a team, but for our trial tonight, we’ll do teams of four. There is one ball—”
Maddy extended her body upward to show off the red kickball she held in her hands.
“The objective of the game is to get the ball into the opposite team’s garbage can”—he motioned to the two metal cans set up on either end of the rectangular mats—“using your Affinities as a team. So, to play, you’ll at least need to know your Affinity. All the same rules of non-violence we use for duels apply here. You can immobilize other players but not in a way that will injure them. So, for example, J could ice your feet to the mat, but he can’t encase your head in ice.”
“Damn,” Jamad sighed, snapping his fingers in mock disappointment. Many students chuckled, but Nero’s groupies still muttered peevishly.
“Anyone who breaks the non-violence rules is disqualified for the remainder of tonight, and their team can’t replace them. The team with the most points wins, but the game doesn’t end until every player on the winning team has scored at least once.”
“Can my team go first?” Seth asked as he raised his hand. “Me, Tray, Lavisa, and Hastings.”
“No,” was all Hastings said.
Avner visibly winced as he asked, “Do you know your Affinity, Seth?”
“Sure. It’s super strength.”
After exchanging a look with Zeela, who pursed her lips and shook her head, Avner said, “Maybe it’s best if we don’t have a team of primaries go first—”
“We want to go,” Nixie interrupted as she parted the crowd and stepped boldly onto the mats. Now that her body wasn’t hidden among the others, Eliana saw she wore thick, black combat boots, a blue fishnet crop-top, and a black miniskirt—essentially a darker version of the outfit Kiki wore. Nixie raised her eyebrows at the blonde, who still stood within the throng. “We challenge the primies, but we require they replace Lanio with Kiki Belven and Little Dispus with Broccoli-Head. We fight the Starks and the plant kid for Nero, and Belven is mine.”
Ackerly hiccupped when he realized he was “Broccoli-Head,” while Kiki glared at the other girl as if her eyes could snap her out of existence.
Avner expelled a weary breath. “This is not some battle for honor, Nixie—this is simply a fun game that helps us develop our Affinities. Your team can play first, if you want, and you can compete against the primaries, but Kiki and Seth aren’t allowed to play.”
“Aw, c’mon—”
“You can organize a team, Seth, but you can’t play until you’re certain of your Affinity,” Avner said sternly. “Form your teams and we’ll get started.”
Seth’s dejection rapidly dissolved as he surveyed his primary friends, stroking his chin. “Tray, Lavisa, Hastings, and…hm, this is tough—”
“I’m not going on those mats again,” Tray cut in, lacking his brother’s fervor. “I’m only here because Adara can’t be and it pisses her off that I can be.”
“Nero’s not here this time,” Lavisa informed him, as though he didn’t realize. She wrapped dirty brown tape around her knuckles, and her mustard-yellow hair was already contained in a braided bun. “And, if you’re really so ignorant, I’ll remind you that he flung me to my death last time we were here, but guess what I’m doing, Stark? I’m getting back onto the mats, because that’s what you do when you get beaten: get back up.”
“So inspirational,” Tray mumbled, avoiding her sharp gaze.
“Since you can’t join us,” Lavisa said to Seth now, “I say we add Ackerly. He’s fairly advanced with his Affinity.”
“But his power is plants,” Hartman complained, butting himself into the conversation by teleporting two feet forward to join their circle, “and there aren’t any plants in here. You guys need to give me a chance. I won’t have to teleport far if we have to stay on the mats.”
“I’m not playing,” Hastings announced blandly.
“Great, then I will,” Hartman decided, but Seth shook his head.
“C’mon, Roomie,” he pleaded to Hastings. “You must have a freakin’ sweet power—”
“No.”
“Then I’ll play,” Hartman repeated, and surprisingly, Lavisa nodded her agreement.
“He’s gotten better,” she assured Seth. “I’ve taught him how to teleport under pressure.”
“I don’t really see you being the best teacher,” Tray said with narrowed eyes, “and no offense, Ackerly, but I don’t think you should play. Ther
e aren’t any plants in here, and I don’t believe you have the power to make plants grow through concrete. I say we let Eliana play. She can read thoughts now—she’ll know what the other team plans to do before they do it. It could be an advantage.”
“You’re only saying that because you’ve got a crush on her,” Seth insisted, though he didn’t sound totally opposed to the idea. Eliana, however, shook her head fiercely as her pale cheeks reddened.
“I’m not good at sports—”
“Nah, you’ll be great,” Seth said now as he nodded. “This team is pretty stacked, I think. Tray, Hartman, Lavisa, and Eliana.”
“I don’t—” Eliana started to say, but the yellow-haired girl was nudging her toward the mats before she could make further protests.
Hartman teleported out of the crowd in six-foot increments while Tray simply weaved through the masses, easily splitting a path when others realized who he was; not many could forget the primary who had beaten Nero Corvis.
When they emerged in the center of the small arena, Nixie and her team were already stationed on the opposite side, guarding their garbage can. Beside her stood David Byle, the boy Adara often referred to as “Acid Attack.” His lime green hair was spiked upward, and his white t-shirt was riddled with burn holes from the numerous times it had been sprayed with his own acid.
To his left stood the light-brown-haired boy who had started the “Nero” chant. In height, he was the same size as Nixie, but his arms were nearly as thick as Nero’s, and he gave off the appearance of a boulder, completely dwarfing the frail girl on his other side. Her bright blue hair was nearly as long as her torso, and her equally blue eyes stood out in the dim light of the basement. As soon as Tray caught sight of her, Eliana felt his recognition.
Blood: An Affinities Novel (The Affinities Book 1) Page 27