Vivid Avowed (The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy Book 3)

by Kaydence Snow

  It was what she fought for—my future.

  I slipped the dress over my head and did up the zip on the side. It was a little loose around the middle, but the top fit perfectly, and the understated A-line shape reached just below the knee. I remembered us being the same height, but I was sure it used to reach midcalf on her.

  I smiled and took a deep breath, squaring my shoulders.

  At the last moment, I decided to grab a cardigan. I picked a red one, the color almost a perfect match for some of the poppies on the dress. I slipped my feet into black flats and came out of my massive walk-in wardrobe, pausing in the doorway.

  I would never get enough of the view from our bedroom. And I would never forget the day they showed it to me.

  Ethan had practically been jumping up and down from excitement. Josh had hung back, a smug, knowing look on his face. Tyler had led the way up the stairs, and Alec had held my hand and walked by my side, his posture more relaxed than I’d ever seen it.

  They guided me into the newly renovated section of the third floor and paused in front of an ornate set of double doors.

  “Ready? Ready?” Ethan’s grin was wide, his dimples prominent.

  I chuckled. “Ready.”

  Josh flicked a wrist and the doors flung open.

  I gasped, my eyes darting about the room. I’d had no idea what was taking the contractors so long, but it had never crossed my mind that they were converting the space into a giant-ass bedroom for me. For us.

  I couldn’t decide if I wanted to jump on the massive bed first or run past the light, gauzy curtains and take in the view from the balcony.

  “The bed is big enough to fit us all.” Ethan rushed over to it, then buzzed around the room, showing me all the different features. “My feet don’t even hang off the end! But this is your room, really. The bed is just for when we all want to be together, you know. There are four bedrooms just off the hallway, two on either side, so we’re close, but you still have your privacy. I know how you like your alone time. Oh, and there’s a walk-in closet! Look! Josh and I have been buying some things and filling it up already. I hope you like them. And on the other side—I mean, there are bathrooms off the hall too, but this is the main one.” He grabbed my hand and dragged me over to another set of double doors.

  “We already have a steam room in the pool house.” I laughed. The en suite was insane! Massive shower with two showerheads, two sinks—it was the size of the bedroom I’d been using, and half of it was taken up by a steam room. It wasn’t as big as the one on the secret Greek island, but it would fit us all comfortably, and the tiles were almost identical. There was even a little sink with a modern mosaic pattern behind it.

  “Yeah, but this one’s more private.” Alec’s breath fanned over my neck, making me want to test it out immediately.

  “And it has the best view of any room in the house.” Ethan was already leading us back out.

  A pair of cushy armchairs and a little side table sat in front of the windows. Ethan rushed around the furniture, flapping at the curtain to reveal the stunning view.

  “Do you like it?” Finally he stilled and clasped his hands in front of him. I realized he was nervous.

  Ignoring the view, I wrapped my hands around his neck and drew his face down to mine. “I love it, big guy!” I gave him a brilliant smile and a soft kiss. “Thank you.”

  Pulling out of Ethan’s arms, I went to each of them in turn, giving them kisses and thanks and appreciation. Then I rushed out of the room, the giddy excitement infecting me.

  “Where are you going?” Josh called after me, but I could hear his footsteps following.

  “I have to get something!” I knew exactly what I wanted to add to this room first.

  I rushed into my old bedroom and over to my dresser, Josh and Ethan only a step behind me. I grabbed the jewelry box they’d given me and handed it to Josh as I gathered up the framed photos—my friends and family cradled in my arms. Needing something to do, Ethan threw my closet open and scooped up a bunch of hangers, then led the way back to my new, magnificent room.

  Ethan set to putting the clothes away as Josh and I arranged the photos on the side table near the door. I’d added a photo of Lucian with my mom, my three-year-old self cuddled between them.

  “I want more photos on this. We need to take more photos together.”

  “You got it, precious.” Alec, surprisingly, was the first to agree.

  “Where do you want this?” Josh held up the jewelry box.

  Before I could answer, a piece of paper I’d forgotten I was keeping under the box dislodged itself and fluttered to the floor. I reached for it, but Tyler got there first.

  I chewed on my lip as he opened it, his slight frown of curiosity slowly giving way to amusement as he realized what it was.

  He smiled at me. “You kept this?”

  “What is it?” Josh leaned over, and Alec stepped around to get a better look. Ethan came back out of the walk-in to peer over all their heads.

  I was once again grateful I couldn’t blush. I had no secrets from them—I loved them more than I loved my own life—but I was still a little embarrassed.

  “It’s a note I wrote to Eve when she first got to Bradford Hills,” Tyler answered as Ethan gently took the piece of paper and they all looked at me.

  I rolled my eyes and huffed; it was silly to be embarrassed. I mean, I’d been having sex with the man. We lived together. So what if I’d kept a silly note about school supplies?

  “I had a crush on you from the first second I saw you, OK? You were a hot older guy, and you did something really thoughtful for me.” I shrugged.

  They all looked as if they were trying really hard to hold back laughter, even Ty. He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me through our chuckles while the others descended into full-on guffaws.

  “It was wildly inappropriate at the time.” Tyler pulled away just far enough to look into my eyes. “But I was attracted to you too. I couldn’t stop thinking about leaning forward and just closing the distance between us. And then you showed up in my damn office wearing that fucking schoolgirl outfit.”

  “Oh man, that skirt.” Alec groaned.

  “You know I spent that whole session with a raging boner?”

  “That’s why you didn’t move from behind your desk.” I slapped him on the chest.

  We spent the afternoon reminiscing about the way I met them all, teasing each other and laughing as we wandered between my old room and my new one. I was fully moved in before dinner.

  The view from the balcony that day had been a bit different. Summer had been ending; the leaves on the oaks lining the drive had only just started to turn.

  Now, we’d come through another harsh winter. Summer was just starting. Trees budded with new growth as the morning sun streamed over the manicured grounds. The balcony was smack-dab in the middle of the mansion, and the view overlooked the massive driveway, the top of the iron gates just visible over the trees. Beyond, some of the taller buildings of the Institute peeked over the lush trees littering all of Bradford Hills.

  I grabbed my bag off the bed and made my way downstairs.

  They were waiting for me in the foyer, reminding me of the day of the gala when I’d come down these same stairs, feeling sexy and confused at Alec’s lascivious stares.

  This time, there was nothing but love in their eyes as they looked up at me one by one.

  I’d asked that people not wear black—I didn’t want it to feel like a funeral. Ethan was in jeans, a white short-sleeved shirt stretching over his broad chest. Josh was in chinos and a green polo shirt that made his eyes pop. Tyler wore gray slacks and a crisp blue shirt, the sleeves rolled up. Alec had been wearing more color lately—lifting the blackness from his heart had opened him up to all the vibrancy of life in other areas. His jeans were black, but his shirt was an electric blue.

  “You look beautiful.” Tyler took my hand as I reached the bottom. I could hear it in his voice—he was s
peaking for all of them.

  Lucian joined us, stopping his wheelchair near the ramp to the garage.

  “Ready?” He looked as distinguished and dapper as ever in slacks and a light sweater.

  “Ready.” I nodded, and he looked at me properly for the first time. His eyes widened a fraction as they flicked up and down my body, his gaze more disbelieving than anything.

  I knew it was the dress giving him pause. He would’ve seen her wearing it before we left—I’d seen pictures of her in it from before I was born. But I was surprised at how much emotion he seemed to be feeling. His chest rose and fell a little faster, and his eyes were even getting misty.

  “Uncle Luce?” I took a step closer to him, worried.

  “That dress . . .” His voice was choked, and he cleared this throat before taking my hand in his. “She was wearing that dress when we met. I had no idea she still had it—that you still had it.”

  “It was one of the only things that survived the crash. She wore it a lot, always on happy days.”

  “For a second you looked exactly like her. You have the same eyes, the same hair—she had it long like yours when we met.”

  “I can change if this is too much—”

  “No.” He shook his head and smiled. “It looks beautiful on you. It’s a nice reminder of her. It just took me by surprise, that’s all.”

  “We should get going,” Tyler gently reminded us.

  We piled into two cars and headed off to a memorial that Lucian and I had organized for my mother.

  This was not another funeral. This was a way to acknowledge the past and focus on the future.

  In the weeks after the confrontation with Davis, we went to so many funerals, sometimes more than one in a day. There were a few days where all we did was eat, sleep, and go to funerals. I almost felt numb to it by the end, but then I’d hear the loved ones start to cry, and it would all come flooding back, my own emotion, my own tears bubbling up.

  I cried at every single one.

  I bawled uncontrollably at Jamie’s, Dot’s grief amplifying my own.

  The reprieve was brief. We took some time to say goodbye to the fallen, but there was a lot of work to do. We’d taken Davis out—we’d removed the cancer—but we had to make sure his poison didn’t keep spreading. Our cuts and bruises were fading, the broken bones healing, but the world still had a long way to go.

  All of Davis’s properties and holdings were seized and searched, all his secrets revealed. His horrific experiments were stopped, his machines destroyed. Any research that could be useful was handed over to ethical, educational institutions.

  The world learned how he’d stolen his ability, how he’d lied, cheated, and manipulated to get ahead. Everyone knew he was responsible for the Vital kidnappings, for countless deaths in incidents like the one that killed the guys’ parents. Everyone knew it was on his orders—in an attempt to assassinate Senator Christine Anderson—that an entire plane of civilians was shot out of the sky.

  He killed my mother, but I took him down.

  With Davis dead, his reputation in tatters, and no one willing to defend his memory or his legacy, Variant Valor started to lose steam.

  The world was more stunned to learn of the Lighthunters’ legitimacy. Their “coming out” went as well as we could’ve dreamed. They had insurmountable evidence to prove they were the “real deal,” not to mention decades’ worth of evidence to prove Davis was shady, manipulative, and a downright murderous psychopath.

  At every turn, they preached peace between humans and Variants, vowing they were on the side of order and peace. It’s what the Light demanded, and that included the human population.

  After initial mistrust, the Human Empowerment Network began to calm down too.

  The work Dot and Charlie were doing with other grassroots organizations across the world was helping. There were peaceful protests, Human-Variant community meetings, reconciliation speeches, forums, all kinds of small and large events in local communities all over the world that fostered cooperation and togetherness. Their main aim was to dispel fear through education.

  As we drove through Bradford Hills—Lucian, Alec, and Ethan in an accessible SUV, Tyler, Josh, and I in Josh’s Challenger—we had the windows down, enjoying the warm breeze. No armored cars tailed us. There were no security checkpoints to pass at the gates, no black-clad agents crawling over every inch of town or following every Vital.

  The violence had stopped. Some residual unrest lingered in Bangkok, Moscow, Mexico, and a few other spots, but for the most part, the world was getting back to normal. People were getting back to their lives. Businesses were opening, schools were back in session, Bradford Hills Institute was back at full capacity. Some changes in staff had been called for, and a handful of students had been expelled after it was discovered they’d worked closely with Davis and committed serious crimes, but the reputation of the Institute was intact. Most people were just happy to get back to learning.

  Me most of all.

  I’d decided I wanted to major in genetics with a focus on Variant studies. I’d spent so much time not knowing what I was, then struggling to understand what it meant. I wanted to contribute to the wider understanding of what the Light was and how it functioned.

  With the Lighthunters rejoining society and all the other Vivids coming forward, several new areas of study would exist by the time I finished my degree.

  Lighthunters were working closely with Bradford Hills Institute and other prestige organizations all over the world to help identify which claims of Vivids were legitimate. There were, so far, forty-eight confirmed Vivids. Forty-eight of us in the whole world. About two dozen were coming to Bradford Hills next week to get to know one another and do some experiments.

  Lucian, Victor, and Tyler had retaken control of Melior Group within days of Davis’s death, but I still refused to continue our research sessions there. No one dared to make me stick to the contract.

  Karen had died in the hospital a few days after the battle with Davis, and most of her research team had been disbanded while they investigated who knew of her treachery. Tyler’s ability helped enormously, especially now that Davis’s shield was dead and no longer protecting his people from being discovered. But it was a large organization, and things took time. Melior Group was doing a massive restructuring, and they let a lot of people go. Some were arrested and prosecuted, their transgressions going further than just disobeying orders.

  Even so, I needed to not be surrounded by black-clad agents. I’d had enough of that. Further research and testing was happening in the well-equipped labs at Bradford Hills Institute with professors I knew and liked. They would be in charge of welcoming the Vivids and working with us all.

  They were the ones I allowed to observe and gather as much information as possible the last time I glowed.

  Zara was released from the hospital maybe a month after the altercation. Her injuries were extensive, and she’d have scars to rival Alec’s, but she survived. Considering all that was revealed about Davis and how deeply his manipulations went, coupled with the fact that she’d cooperated and provided information early on, no charges were pressed against her. She was free to leave the hospital.

  I appreciated beyond measure how selflessly she’d acted to help us bring Davis down, but I wasn’t ready to forgive the way she’d betrayed me. I just had too much emotional baggage to wade through, and I wasn’t sure we could ever get back to how we were at the beginning. But to make it safe for others around her, to give Dana a break from having to stick by her side twenty-four seven, and as a gesture of gratitude, I took her ability.

  We did it under the watchful eyes of Bradford’s professors, my guys all standing by to take the excess Light as soon as it was done.

  We sat facing each other on the ground in the small research lab, legs crossed, and I took her hand. She smiled at me with a multitude of emotions in her face, but the one that seemed strongest was relief.

  I pulled the Light out
of her much more slowly than I had with Davis, careful not to take too much and kill her. She passed out anyway, collapsing onto her side as I dragged the last tendrils out of her. It weighed me down, the sheer force of that much Light making me grit my teeth as I glowed brightly.

  But my guys were right there, ready to step in and take it all from me safely.

  That was one thing I was sure of without a shadow of a doubt—they would always be there for me. They would always stand at my back, ready to support, defend, and love me in every way I needed, just as I would for them. We would lay down our lives for one another. After all the shit we’d been through, I knew there was nothing life could throw at us that we couldn’t survive.

  My Bond was complete and unbreakable. In them, I had the family, the connection, I’d craved my entire life.

  We turned the corner, driving slowly through the manicured grounds of the memorial park. The rest of my family had already arrived and were waiting for us on the grassy area near the parking lot.

  Olivia and Henry were standing in the shade of a tree, talking with their children.

  Charlie and Ed were getting married in a few months, giving us all another positive thing to focus on. Ed had moved to Bradford Hills permanently and fit so perfectly with our family we sometimes forgot he hadn’t been around from the start. He sometimes had to remind us to catch him up on inside jokes and conversations he hadn’t been around for.

  Dot, Kyo, and Marcus were looking for their own place in Bradford Hills—somewhere close to campus so Dot could finish her veterinary course. It still wasn’t possible to marry more than one person, but the way Dot ranted about it, I had a feeling she would make it her own personal mission to change that law.

  They were all dressed in bright spring colors—as if we were about to have a picnic and not a memorial.

  Dot rushed over to me, her black hair shining in the sun, and gave me a hug.

  “How you doing, girl?” She scrutinized me, but I smiled and pulled away.

  “I’m good. Focusing on the positive memories. You?” Like me, she’d struggled with all the funerals we had to attend, each one reopening the wound of her own grief and making it hard for the skin to stitch over.