He smiled back, a rare genuine smile that almost made his eyes sparkle. Happiness shone in his gaze too, and . . . love. He had that same look on his face as when he’d first declared his love to me.
To stop him from voicing it again, I tilted my head up and kissed him. I wasn’t ready to hear him say those words again. I wasn’t ready to say them back. Alec and I were moving forward in our own stunted, fucked-up way, but I couldn’t go that far yet.
He kissed me back, then pulled out and headed into the bathroom to clean up.
Fuck! I mouthed to the ceiling, running my hands through my hair. I went into the bathroom after he’d finished and rushed through my nighttime routine, petrified he’d be gone when I was done. But when I came back out, he was under the covers, staring at the window with one hand under his head.
I flicked off the bathroom light, casting the room into almost complete darkness. The curtains weren’t drawn, but rain still pattered outside, and there was no moonlight.
I crawled into the bed next to him, pleased to find he was still as naked as I was. He wrapped himself around me from behind, and I fell asleep in his arms.
The next morning I woke to the sound of birds chirping obnoxiously and bright sunlight streaming through my window. One of my arms was slung over Alec’s waist, and when I cracked my eyes open, I found myself staring at his tattooed back. But someone was pressed to my back too, sandwiching me between two muscled male bodies.
I rolled over as carefully as I could, but Josh was already wide awake. He smiled when I faced him fully. He was shirtless too, and I wondered how the hell I got so lucky—most mornings I woke up next to at least one Adonis of a man, usually two. If any of our beds were bigger, I’d probably be waking up with even more from time to time.
I smiled back, biting my bottom lip.
“How was it?” he whispered, gripping my hip over the covers.
I didn’t know how to answer that—it was way more complicated than my brain could manage before coffee—so I just grinned in response.
He raised his eyebrows, a cheeky smile pulling at his lips. “Shall we wake Alec and ask him?” It was an empty threat, but my eyes widened in warning anyway.
He laughed silently, his smooth shoulders shaking, and leaned forward to kiss me. I kept my mouth shut to his probing tongue though, paranoid about morning breath.
He propped himself up on his elbow just as Alec yawned and rolled over.
“Morning!” Josh grinned at Alec and jumped up. He used my bathroom, put his shirt back on, told us Ethan was making pancakes downstairs, and left.
I chuckled but looked at Alec, a little worried about his reaction.
“I’m not used to sharing.” His voice was gritty from sleep, but it didn’t sound angry or hard—it sounded like raw honey. “But I’ll get used to it.”
He smiled and pulled me into the crook of his elbow.
“You OK?” I asked. I didn’t know what else to say. I wasn’t about to offer to be with only him. Not one part of me wanted to—they were all mine equally, and they would all have to share equally.
“I’m fine, precious, I promise. It helps that it’s them. That we’re already close. That they already know all my dark secrets.”
“Do I know all your dark secrets?” I ran my hands over his torso, tracing his scars. They fascinated me. They were like a roadmap of his pain, his history. I wanted to know the story behind each one.
“Not all. But I’m sure I don’t know all yours either.”
I shrugged. “My biggest secrets were my real name and the fact that I’m your Vital.”
We were both silent for a while, him trailing his fingertips up and down my back, me paying special attention to the scar that usually disappeared into the waistband of his pants. I could see now it went over his hip and all the way to the top of his thigh.
“Maybe you could tell me about some of your scars.”
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know, but not today, OK? I want to just focus on the nice things today—fucking pancakes, and that sickening sunshine and rainbows and unicorns and shit.”
“OK.” I chuckled and decided to take the focus off him. “You know, I only have one significant scar, and I don’t even know how I got it.”
I pushed the blanket down, revealing both our naked bodies, and lifted my knee over his belly so I could point to the long scar on the side of my right knee.
“I think it happened when I was little, before my mom took off. She refused to talk about anything in the past. She never mentioned any of you my whole childhood—not even Lucian. That’s probably why I don’t really remember much.”
“I know when you got that.”
I propped myself onto my elbow. “What? How’d it happen?”
“I was around twelve, I think. You were three, maybe? I was hanging with some friends after school. I don’t even remember what we were doing, but I decided I needed to go home. I had this urge to just . . . go. Then for some reason, I found myself walking to your mom’s place. So I get there, and you’re crying. Like, at the top of your lungs, hysterical crying, and there’s blood trailing down your leg. Your mom couldn’t get you into the car, and it wasn’t serious enough to call an ambulance, so she’d called a doctor to come out, but this guy couldn’t even get close enough to clean the cut. Anyway, I walk in, and you reach your fat little arms out to me, and I take you, and they’re finally able to treat it. I don’t even remember how you got the cut in the first place. I think that was the day they realized you might be my Vital. Not that anyone said anything to me . . .” His voice took on a note of bitterness.
“I’m so sorry, Alec.” I rested my chin on his chest, keeping my eyes on his face. “If I hadn’t been a kid, I never would’ve let anyone take me from you.”
“I know.” He ran his thumb over the scar on my leg. “It’s just that for the longest time, I thought that was the reason she took you. That my ability was so horrid and disgusting the adults decided it would be better if I never had my Vital. That your mom decided I wasn’t good enough for her little girl. I know now why they couldn’t tell me more at the time, but yeah, my mind filled it in with the worst explanation possible.”
I sighed, my heart breaking for him, for me, for all the shit we’d been through because of things beyond our control.
“Anyway”—he planted a kiss on my forehead and sat up, swinging his legs over the edge—“we said we weren’t going to talk about heavy shit. Let’s go get some fucking pancakes from one of your other boyfriends, the one who happens to be my cousin.” He shook his head, but when he turned around, a teasing smile tugged at his lips.
I laughed, letting the conversation drop. We got dressed and headed downstairs, following the smell of freshly ground coffee.
Six
Tyler drove us into the city early in the morning, our security detail close behind. The butterflies in my belly wouldn’t leave me alone; they’d been flapping all night. We’d spent so much time keeping our Bond a secret it was hard to let the paranoia go.
I’d agonized over what to wear the night before. I even called Dot to get her opinion—she said it didn’t matter, that I could show up in my underwear. All they were interested in was my status as a Vital. Eventually she took pity on me and told me to look presentable but not too dressy. No jeans but probably not a collared shirt either.
I settled on pale blue woolen tights, a simple long-sleeved dress that fell to my knees, and my favorite cardigan for warmth. Tyler wore one of his endless supply of perfectly fitting shirts and light gray pants. He looked sophisticated and smart.
I fidgeted with the hem of my dress and huffed, regretting not wearing pants.
“You OK?” Tyler placed a gentle hand on my knee, keeping his other firmly on the steering wheel.
“I don’t know. I’m obsessing over my outfit. I think it’s my brain’s helpful way of distracting me from freaking out about this.” I played with his fingers instead of the hem.
He sque
ezed my hand, halting my nervous movements. “It’s going to be OK. It’s standard protocol to go in and register. They’ll sit you down—”
“But you were so adamant it was dangerous. You wanted to keep it a secret.”
“When we first realized what you were, yes, that was the biggest threat. Some of the things I’ve seen in reports, the places Alec’s been, the things we’ve both done in this job . . . The work we do is important, but it’s not pretty.”
“Not helping.”
He turned a bend in the road, and the early spring sunshine streamed in through my window, making me even more hot and uncomfortable.
“Let me finish.” He chuckled. “At the time, I was really worried about Ethan and Josh getting recruited. If they decided to join on their own, then so be it, but I wanted them to finish college first, to have a choice. Once Melior Group knows a powerful Variant has found a Vital, they put a lot of pressure on. They offer a lot of money, promise travel around the world, put on the guilt trip about using their rare ability for good. It’s not how Lucian and I would run things, but the recruitment side of it isn’t up to us. I wanted to save them from that, and I wanted to protect you from the kidnappings. Now . . .”
“That’s the least of our worries.”
He sighed. “Yeah. Now we have a face and a name to put on the threat, and if Ethan and Josh join up with Melior Group, I don’t even care anymore. I just want us all to be safe, and we won’t be until Davis is rotting in a hole somewhere.”
His grip on the steering wheel tightened, his knuckles going white.
“What about the humans?” I asked. Part of this meeting would involve an interview with a representative from the government. All Variants had to be registered—it was the humans’ way of feeling in control. They thought if they could list and catalogue all the Variants, everyone would be safe.
“That’s just a standard, boring part of the process.” Tyler waved his hand dismissively.
I’d asked most of these questions already over the past few days, but he patiently answered them anyway. He knew I felt better if I had all the facts. I’d even badgered Alec to tell me the layout of the building so I would know what areas to avoid. He looked at me as if I was losing it, told me I would never be left unattended, and shut me up with his mouth and hands.
They all seemed to be using sex as a distraction—I’d had more sex in the last few days than I’d had in the few years since I’d started having sex. Or maybe that had more to do with Alec finally completely being in. The Bond was even, the connection as deep with each one as it was with the others.
Tyler battled the Manhattan traffic, then the next thing I knew, we pulled into an underground garage. Two armed guards checked Tyler’s ID—even though they greeted each other by name—and signed me in, and we parked in a spot with a little “Reserved for T. Gabriel” sign above it.
My heart hammered in my throat. I swallowed around the pressure and rubbed my hands on my thighs, but Tyler wasn’t about to let me sit there and freak out. He got out of the car, slung his bag over his shoulder, and went to the elevator. I followed him, trying my best not to show my nervousness.
In the elevator, he tapped away at his phone with one hand and threaded his fingers through mine with the other. We got off on a really high floor, stepping out to a stunning view of Manhattan through a floor-to-ceiling window.
“Whoa.” My trepidation was momentarily forgotten as I took it in, spotting the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building and straining to glimpse the Statue of Liberty in the distance.
“Come on.” Tyler tugged me along. “I’ve got the same view from my office.”
“Of course you have an office here.” I rolled my eyes as I followed him past the shiny reception area, through another keycard-protected door, and into a vast open-plan office area.
“Hey, kitten.”
I turned to see Kyo smiling and coming toward me.
“Hey!” I grinned and gave him a hug.
“Here for your induction?”
“I guess.”
“We couldn’t put it off any longer,” Ty jumped in.
“You’ll be fine, Eve. There’s nothing to be nervous about.” Kyo smiled in his easy, relaxed way.
“Oh, shit, we’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel if they’re letting you join.” Marcus sidled up to us, grinning.
I flipped him off. “You’d be lucky to have me.”
“Yeah, we would.” Jamie slapped Marcus on the back of the head and also gave me a hug. “Just promise you’ll let us be part of your team when you steal our Master of Pain.”
“Huh?” I frowned and looked at Tyler.
“When, if, a Vital decides to join Melior Group, they’re automatically placed in a team with their Variants. It’s the easiest arrangement—Bonds naturally work well together. If you join, Alec will automatically be assigned to your team, and I’ll probably have less desk time and more field time too.”
“Oh.” I didn’t want to break up Alec’s team. I didn’t even want to join Melior Group! I wasn’t a spy. I was a scientist. “None of you have anything to worry about. The scary, dangerous, brooding thing isn’t really up my alley. I’m finishing college and figuring out why the fuck I glow.”
Everyone chuckled, but Kyo also surreptitiously looked around the office before leaning in. “Just be careful about what you say. Pretty much everyone here is trained in intelligence gathering. There’s always someone listening.”
My eyes widened and I gripped Tyler’s bicep. All the banter had done a good job of distracting me, but now the nerves came slamming back.
Tyler sighed. “Thanks. That’s real helpful, Kyo.”
I shot Kyo a dirty look as Tyler led me away to a boardroom, which looked surprisingly mundane. Surrounded by glass windows, it had all the elements you’d expect—comfortable chairs, a projection screen, a conference phone.
Tyler barely had time to deposit his bag on the long table and rub a few soothing passes up and down my arms before other people started arriving. A woman in an ill-fitting suit was one of the first. She introduced herself as Susan from the Variant-Human Relations Department and shook Tyler’s hand and mine before taking a seat. The next few were Melior Group employees and greeted Tyler as if they knew him.
“Shall we begin?” At Susan’s invitation, we’d just moved to take our seats when the door opened again.
“Victor.” Tyler greeted the man in the sharp blue suit, and the others in the room sat up a little straighter.
“Hello, Tyler. I thought I might sit in for this one. Please carry on like I’m not here.” He sat at the far end of the table and motioned for us to continue.
Tyler cleared his throat. “Evelyn, this is Victor Flint. He’s our recruitment manager and a member of the board.”
“Nice to meet you, sir.” I was too far away to extend my hand, so I just waved. He returned it with a tight smile. The anxiety twisting my gut doubled down, but I made sure to keep a neutral expression on my face and my hands steady as I laid them gently on the glass tabletop.
“I hope you don’t mind if I go first,” Susan said. “I have another meeting to get to.”
No one objected, so she pulled a small stack of papers from her bag and slid them over to me. She explained the forms were standard and just a way to verify my identity and register me as a Vital in the database. Each one had Evelyn Maynard written on it, and most of my other details were already filled in. I signed in all the marked spots. She handed me a brochure about my responsibilities as a person with abilities in the wider community, said goodbye to everyone else in the room, and left.
“OK, Evelyn,” said a short woman who’d been speaking with Tyler but hadn’t bothered to introduce herself to me. “I’m Gemma, and it’s my job to make sure you understand what it means that you’re a Variant and that you’re receiving the appropriate training.”
I nodded. She handed me pamphlets, then spoke about Variant DNA and how Variant Bonds worked
. It was barely scratching the surface of stuff I already knew. Between Tyler’s tutoring and my own obsessive study, she really couldn’t have told me anything new. But protocols had to be followed. She ticked boxes on a tablet screen as she went through each topic.
“Have a glance at this list, and if you agree that I’ve explained all the items on it, please tick agree.” I ticked it without even looking at the list properly. I was getting bored. My focus kept wandering to my periphery where Victor sat, observing me as keenly as I wanted to observe him.
“Now, you’re attending Bradford Hills Institute, which means it should be easy to make sure you get the necessary education and training from now on. Tyler here can make sure you’re moved into the necessary classes.”
“Actually,” Tyler interjected, “that won’t be necessary. I’ve been tutoring Evelyn in the relevant Variant studies topics since we first learned of her status as a Vital, and she’s already enrolled in several Variant studies units. She’s a keen student and her knowledge is not lacking.”
“Oh, OK. Perfect. That takes care of that then. I’m done.” Gemma smiled at me and pressed some more buttons on the tablet.
Victor shifted in his seat. “Thank you, Gemma.” He leaned back and folded his hands casually in his lap, his head tilted to the side. Everyone paused and gave him their full attention.
“Evelyn, there is one last item I’d like to discuss with you.” His gaze was relaxed but intent on me.
I cleared my throat, not sure what to say, but Tyler spoke before I could. “What’s this about? I wasn’t informed of another item for discussion.”
Victor waved his hand dismissively. “Oh, you’re free to leave, Mr. Gabriel, if you have something else to attend to. It’s a last-minute item that I didn’t have a chance to add to the agenda. I only need a few more minutes of Evelyn’s time.”
No one got up. If anything, they settled into their seats, paying rapt attention to whatever this was.
Vivid Avowed (The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy Book 3) Page 8