Blood: An Affinities Novel (The Affinities Book 1)

by Kirsten Krueger

  “Hey, you’re Lana!” he called over to her, and her doe eyes protruded even farther. “You’re the girl from our town who fell out that window!”

  Color rose to the surface of Lana’s face, and while the boulder-boy to her right gave her an intrigued look, Nixie paid no mind to Tray’s statement; her eyes were fixated on him with predatory focus.

  “I’m lucky Adara’s not here,” he said in a quieter tone to Eliana.

  “She guessed that girl had an Affinity,” Eliana finished for him, and when his eyebrows shot up, she blushed and looked away. “I, um…just read your thought as you recalled the memory. Sorry…”

  “Yeah…” Tray said slowly, fidgeting as he compelled his brain not to think. Eliana could feel it—the attempt to stack hasty walls. Unpracticed, they had holes, so she willed herself not to focus on him. “Adara would tear me apart if she knew she was right. She normally does…”

  “Okay,” Maddy began. With the red kickball still in her hands, she now stood in the center of the mats, her orange eyes roving between the two teams. “Both teams start off the mat. I’ll place the ball in the middle for you all to fight over. Remember, severe violence is against the rules, as is stepping off the mat once the game’s started. Any questions?”

  The primaries all shook their heads, but the other team was tense and determined as they backed off the mats. Nixie already had a sphere of water in her hands, Dave’s skin secreted a clear layer of acid, the brown-haired boy had, somehow, acquired two large stones, and Lana stood gracelessly, her knees caving in on themselves as her wide eyes darted around the room.

  On the other end, Lavisa stretched her legs, Hartman literally vibrated with anticipation, Tray awkwardly tried to warm up his arms, and Eliana bit her lip as she pulled a chunk of blue hair behind her ear. Even to her, it seemed a shade lighter than before, brightened by the sudden enhancement of her Affinity, but she couldn’t dwell on that now; her attention was trained on their opponents.

  “The kid with the rocks plans to throw one at you,” she whispered to Tray, “and…Nixie’s going to drench you…and Dave wants to spit acid in your eyes.”

  “Wonderful,” Tray muttered as he tried to crack his knuckles. When one did finally pop, he shook his hand and attempted to hide the wince on his face. “What about Lana?”

  “Um—”

  Eliana was cut off when Maddy, who had backed off the mat, extended her elastic arm toward the center of the rectangle and placed the ball on the ground.

  There was an instantaneous surge of chaos within the arena. As Eliana had predicted, the brown-haired boy charged at Tray with his stones held above his head, while Dave ran, spitting acid in all directions, and Nixie hurtled her ball of water toward the Stark boy.

  His reaction time wasn’t fast enough, so the water drenched him with ease, but he managed to evade boulder-boy only by his instinctive reaction of ducking and extending his fist into the kid’s gut, sending him flying back to the other side of the mat.

  “Ow, ow, ow,” Tray breathed, shaking the hand that had collided with boulder-boy’s rock-hard abdomen. He looked up just in time to see Dave had reached him, his puffed-up cheeks clearly filled with acid.

  Eliana wished she could help, but then, before the boy could open his mouth, Lavisa swooped in and swept his legs out from under him with her own, causing his head to collide with the mat. Lips bursting open, he doused his own face with acid, but it didn’t burn his skin the way it began to chew at the orange mat beneath him.

  Well, Lavisa was certainly of more assistance to Tray than Eliana would ever be. She didn’t turn around to offer to help Tray up, though; instead, she hopped over Dave’s body and plunged her fist into boulder-boy’s face, knocking him back to the floor before he could fully stand.

  Soaking and panting, Tray extended his legs, but Eliana wasn’t watching him, anymore; she was watching Hartman, who had teleported to the ball, securing it in his arms before the other team could. Even though Nixie continually shot spurts of water at him, he teleported too quickly for her to keep up and reached their garbage can completely dry. As Dave struggled to his feet and boulder-boy groaned on the floor, Hartman slammed the ball into the metal garbage can, producing cheers from most of the crowd and heckles from the small portion loyal to Nero.

  “LANA!” Nixie roared. With most of her bottom half dripping, she marched over to her quivering teammate as the two groggy boys followed suit.

  Eliana found it impossible not to grin with her own team as they converged back on their side of the mats. Seth applauded boisterously as Ackerly clapped gently, and Eliana spun around just long enough for Hastings to shoot her a wink. With pink cheeks, she turned back to her teammates to see Hartman’s freckled hand in her face.

  “High five?”

  “Er—sure,” she said as she gingerly slapped his hand with her own. Hartman forced Tray to high five him, as well, but Lavisa refused because she was too busy adjusting her hand wraps.

  “You can’t take a break every time you hit someone,” Lavisa said to Tray as she rewrapped her right hand. “That gives them a window to strike back. You need to embrace the pain.”

  “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but I’m not a fighter,” he snapped back. Eliana sensed his entire right arm ached from the tips of his fingers to the shoulder blade, and she was unsurprised when he began to rotate it in a circle, grimacing throughout. “I only just realized I have an Affinity for strength.”

  “Yeah, you only just realized weeks ago,” she countered. “You should be practicing every day. Hartman has been, and he’s improved. You’re never going to get better at what you can do if you keep denying you can even do it.”

  “I’m rather impressed with myself, as well,” Hartman bragged as he stretched his hands out in front of him. “I think I can teleport seven feet now.”

  Lavisa’s dull, yellow eyes were unimpressed. “I’ll score next. Tray, you guard me—if you’re capable. Hartman, distract them—make them think you’re trying again. Eliana, alert me of any urgent danger.”

  This time, when Maddy dropped the ball, Lavisa sprinted and Hartman teleported toward it; somehow, though, their opponent was faster, and it wasn’t Nixie, Dave, or boulder-boy who beat them to it, either: it was Lana.

  She darted to the red kickball so swiftly that it almost looked as though she was flying, and once she had the ball grasped firmly in her hands, she actually did start to fly. Her knobby legs propelled her off the mat, and she sprung up into the air, hovering so high above them that even Maddy would have really had to extend herself to reach her.

  “What the—” Hartman spluttered, gawking up at the girl with disbelief. He glanced back at Lavisa, whose eyebrows formed a line of frustration.

  “She’s going to dive,” Eliana said, but her revelation was too late. Lana had already dipped back down toward the mats and was soaring toward the primaries’ garbage can with so much speed that Hartman couldn’t teleport there fast enough. Eliana yelped and ducked as Lana soared over her and sunk the ball into the can.

  Nero’s group shouted raucously as the thin girl flipped in the air and then floated back to her end of the mats. When she landed among her giddy teammates, none of them congratulated her, and her body slumped again as she slunk back to her corner.

  “Well, that was unexpected,” Lavisa said as the primaries regrouped. She chucked the ball to Maddy before pivoting back to Eliana, whose lips were parted nervously.

  “I, um—it was hard for me to tell what she was going to do,” she admitted sheepishly. “She was so unsure of it herself that it was hard to follow her thought process.”

  “It’s fine,” Lavisa assured her, “but they’re going to expect me to go for the ball this time. That’s why you need to be the one to get it.”

  Eliana’s mouth gaped as she grappled for words. “I, um, I don’t think…I mean…that rock kid is going to kill me.”

  “We’ll defend you,” Tray said before Lavisa could. “Lana’s not a threat
, anymore; I doubt she even wanted to play. Hartman can distract Nixie and the acid kid, and Lavisa and I will take down the rock guy while you run for the ball. It’ll be just like gym class at your old Regular school.”

  “I was terrible in gym class at my Regular school,” Eliana griped. “I—I was always picked last—”

  “This is different. You can read people’s minds now—you’ll know if someone’s coming for you,” Lavisa reminded her. “You’ll be fine.”

  While Eliana was far past unsure, she swallowed and nodded before assuming the position she’d been in previously. Faking an expression of placidity was just as difficult as forcing her pounding heart to decelerate, and when she peeked back at Hastings for reassurance, he appeared far more chagrinned than the last time she’d looked at him. Although he wasn’t a mind reader, he’d studied her enough by now to understand even her suppressed emotions.

  Time slowed for Eliana when Maddy dropped the ball. Her thin legs propelled her forward while Lavisa and Tray charged toward boulder-boy. He appeared to have gathered more rocks in his hands and relentlessly chucked them at the primaries.

  Lavisa, trained in agility, dodged them. Tray, however, was far less coordinated, grunting every time a stone pelted his flesh. Eliana could mentally feel his determination, but when an oversized rock collided with his forehead, his thoughts evaporated entirely. He collapsed onto the mats, his body landing on the hole Dave’s acid had produced.

  The yellow-eyed girl didn’t slow to aid Tray; she pressed on, and when she met boulder-boy, she assaulted him with jabs that made his thick, rock body tense and shudder with nerve-jolting pain. At this point, Eliana was certain Lavisa would ward him off, so she spun her attention toward Hartman, who teleported in circles around a rather irked Nixie. Droplets of water formed in the air and a harsh torrent began to swell around her ankles.

  Eliana was relieved to see Hartman’s distraction had worked, and she was about to grab the ball when Dave appeared before her, his hands dripping with what could have been water but was most likely clear acid. Decisions buzzed in her head as her mouth went dry. She knew Dave would try to attack her with his acid hands if she seized the ball, but she couldn’t let him take it so easily. Tray was unconscious, Lavisa was occupied, and Hartman, she could tell, was having a blast tormenting Nixie.

  With a deep breath, she held up her hands in surrender. A crafty grin spread across Dave’s lips, and he bent down greedily to retrieve the ball but then realized he’d burn it if he did. Hastily, he wiped his acidic hands on his shirt, searing through the fabric and leaving his sides exposed. Eliana took this planned opportunity to boot the ball between his legs and out of his reach. Nixie noticed and tried to free herself from Hartman’s circle of teleportation, but Eliana was quicker, darting past Dave to rescue the ball.

  She only took about three steps, however, when a thick drop of liquid struck her back. For a brief moment, she thought it was Nixie’s water, but then the scorching sensation cut through her thoughts as acid began to melt the skin over her shoulder blade. Another blast hit her as Dave ran past, this time burning the skin on her arm directly.

  A cry of pain escaped her throat as Lavisa stopped slashing boulder-boy with her hands and Hartman halted his teleportation. Nixie’s hurricane of water fell into a puddle at her feet as she watched Dave grab the ball and Eliana writhe on the ground from the sweltering agony. Avner was already shouting a time-out, and Jamad had thrown a ball of icy water at Dave’s feet that consolidated and glued him to the mat before he could move any farther.

  Despite this interference, and despite the fact that Avner would get help for Eliana, a volcano of rage had already erupted inside Hastings—one that had been dormant for so many years. She could feel it in her own mind, as scalding as the acid on her skin. He stomped onto the mats, stopping and muting everyone. His hands were clenched into fists and his eyes blazed red as the muscles in his body constricted.

  Eliana read his intentions even through the blinding pain of the acid. She twirled around on the ground to face him, her eyes brimming with tears and her throat tight with the cry on her tongue. Hastings’s Affinity was still a mystery to her, but whatever it was, it gave him the ability to kill, and Dave’s actions against her had sparked that desire.

  “No!” she cried, but her plea was too late—Hastings was past the point of consolation. As her single word echoed through the basement, reaching every ear except Hastings’s, hell broke loose.

  “How are you guys not cold?” Calder complained, shivering and rubbing his bare arms, which had developed goosebumps in the chill evening air.

  Midnight had passed, leaving September behind and opening the door for a cold October breeze to sweep through the roads of Periculand. The moon was nonexistent in the black, cloudless sky. Only the distantly-sparking stars and the faintly-glowing streetlights lit their path as Adara, Calder, and Nero trekked along the sidewalk from the Residence Tower toward the town.

  Nero wore only a t-shirt, but his muscles were dense enough to insulate his body, and Adara had been wise enough to wear a light sweatshirt; upon hearing Calder’s grouse, she shrugged it off and shoved it at his chest.

  “Here ya go, you frail, wussy baby,” she said with a simper. Even though his eyes narrowed, he took the black sweatshirt in his hands and slipped his arms through. Compared to Nero, his muscle mass was like a child’s, but his arms were still thicker than Adara’s, and the fabric of her sweatshirt was skin-tight and inflexible on his body. He shimmied uncomfortably in it as his embarrassed eyes avoided her mocking ones.

  “Only the weak get cold.” She extended her smooth, goosebump-free arm toward him as proof. “I’m always warm.”

  “Oh, is that your Affinity—staying warm?” he questioned, his patronizing inflection surfacing. “That’s awfully pathetic if you ask me, Stromer.”

  Her lips parted, but Nero spoke before she could continue their banter. “Why didn’t your sister ditch JAMZ with us?” he asked Calder with just as much agitation as Adara felt.

  “I don’t know if you could really say we ditched,” Adara said. “More like we were banned. Ooh, let’s go check out the fence,” she added as an afterthought, pointing toward the long road that loomed to their left.

  It was the same street the sketchy white van had entered on over a month ago when Adara had arrived in Periculand for the first time. From where they stood now, she could see the giant metal gates that kept enemies out and locked residents in. Both boys gave her an odd look at being so interested with a simple fence, but they followed her as she embarked down the road nonetheless.

  “Nixie wanted to beat up Kiki Belven at JAMZ,” Calder informed Nero, referring to their previous conversation.

  Adara shook her head in disappointment. “Damn, that would be a sight. Freakin’ Avner…”

  “Yeah, well, I’m gonna beat Nixie up for not hanging out with us,” Nero said as he massaged his massive forearms.

  “Whoa, whoa,” Adara spewed dramatically, her hands flying up as if to defend herself. “Little bit of domestic violence going on here, aye, Big Boy?”

  “I was joking,” Nero said dryly. “When we fight, it does usually become more physical by the end, though.”

  “What, one minute you’re yelling and the next you’re making out?”

  Nero glowered at her. “No, I meant we use our Affinities against each other.”

  “Yeah, and Nixie always wins,” Calder said with a proud smirk.

  “Oh?” Adara’s eyes danced jeeringly as she looked up at Nero.

  “That’s not true,” Nero snapped, glaring coldly at Calder. “I would win, but I can’t hit her because she’s a girl.”

  “You hit me,” Adara reminded him.

  “You’re not my girlfriend. She can drown me all she wants, but if I slap her across the face, it’s automatically abuse.”

  “Hm. That is the crooked society we live in,” Adara agreed thoughtfully. “Guess that means I can hit you without getting shit fo
r it.”

  Calder laughed loudly. “I’d like to see you try to hurt Nero—it would be more comical than abusive. You don’t even know your Affinity.”

  Her insides curdled as her posture stiffened. “I have a plant Affinity, if you’ve forgotten.”

  “That’s a bunch of bull,” Nero scoffed. “Everyone is fully aware that your dumb, green friend has a plant Affinity, not you. Why would you ever develop an Affinity for plants? I doubt you’ve ever eaten a vegetable.”

  “You do seem to eat mostly carbs,” Calder said.

  “You watch me while I eat?” she asked in an attempt to divert the conversation.

  “It’s impossible not to gawk at the disgusting way in which you consume your food. It’s the worst when you eat donuts, I’d say.”

  “We were all laughing at you that one time your green friend tried to give you broccoli and you spit it in Tray Stark’s face,” Nero recalled with a small, reminiscent grin, “which brings us back to the fact that you don’t have a plant Affinity. You probably don’t have an Affinity at all—I bet you’re Null.”

  “Thanks, Big Boy. I consider you a worthless piece of shit, as well—”

  “Null is a term used for people who have an Affinity chromosome but never develop an Affinity,” Calder droned over her affronted rant. “You’ll learn about it later this year in science.”

  Adara paused for a piqued moment. “Well, I’m not Null. I do have a plant Affinity and I also hate plants because I got stuck in a broccoli vine as a child, hence why I can control plants.”

  Calder tried to cover his mouth as he began to snicker, but her sweatshirt was too constricting for him to raise his hand to his face. “Broccoli doesn’t grow on a vine, you dumbass.”

  “Dammit!” she exclaimed as she kicked a few pebbles of asphalt. “I asked Tray if that was a believable lie and he said yes!”

  “He was clearly messing with you,” Calder replied, unable to keep his lips from curving upward.

  Adara began to grumble a number of profanities until they all halted abruptly, and her words trailed off into nothingness. They now stood at the towering metal gates, which at least tripled Nero’s height. On a platform built at the top of the fence stood a figure whose face was indistinguishable but whose body was clearly female. She held an oversized gun in her arms, and she gave them a wave before turning her attention back to the empty, outstretching meadows and forests that surrounded the remote town.