Resistance (The Variant Series #2) (10 page)

When she’d joked to Declan earlier that she’d be needing help with chemistry if they went through with this plan, she’d only
sort of
been kidding. If she didn’t make it to that meeting tonight, she really would need to find someone to help her make sense of their final project.

And if she wanted to pass that final exam, it wouldn’t hurt to schedule an extra review session. Or, you know, five.

A shadow—one that was roughly human-sized and moving fast—flickered through her peripheral vision.

Alex scanned the area off to her right, but could find nothing lurking between the close-set trees except bunches of stringy moss and a scattering of palm fronds.

She didn’t
think
Cassie or Kenzie would have followed her into the woods. They weren’t exactly the outdoorsy sort. After nearly a minute passed with no further movement, Alex gave up and continued on.

It definitely couldn’t have been Kenzie. The closest Red ever got to mud was an exfoliating mask.

Out of the two of them, Cassie was the more likely culprit since, as an artist with four constantly roughhousing brothers, she was no stranger to getting her hands dirty. Although the odds that she would
intentionally
expose her new Hollister jeans to the ravages of swamp water existed somewhere between the neighborhoods of Slim and None.

But maybe Alex had underestimated just how badly the girls wanted this win.

The ground beneath her feet began to solidify and she said a silent prayer of thanks as the jet-black mud gave way to slate-colored sand.

Another shifting shadow, this time on her left. Alex spun around, but once again found nothing.

“Hello?” she called out. “Kenzie?… Cass?… Cassie, is that you?”

Alex’s words were met only by the chirping cry of cicadas and the rustle of a squirrel moving amongst the branches of a nearby tree.

Chalking it up to equal parts exhaustion and paranoia, Alex resumed her trek toward the junior lot and tried to distract herself from the slick substance squishing between her toes by daydreaming about dessert.

Next time
Declan
would be the one on swamp detail. And if he thought he was stealing a bite of her sundae after this, he was sorely mistaken.

Shimmering rays of sunlight peeked through the trees up ahead, allowing Alex a glimpse of the parking lot.

The end was officially in sight.

Before Alex could breathe a sigh of relief, her view of the sun-drenched finish line was broken by a fast-moving column of darkness, one that rocketed past her before disappearing into the trees just behind her.

Something brushed against Alex’s shoulder and she panicked. Stumbling over a tree root, she landed hard on her side, her left arm scraping across the detritus of the forest floor.

“
Hello, pet
,” said a whispered voice.

Masterson’s voice.

Alex sat up and searched the trees above her for the source of the sound.

Finding nothing but the shifting branches of the towering pine and cypress trees, Alex scrambled to one knee and tried to teleport.

Nothing happened.

Stupid, Alex
.

What had she expected? No abilities meant no means of escape. She was alone in the middle of the woods with the subject of her nightmares… and she was defenseless.

Alex cried out. The shadow she had seen shifting through her peripheral vision returned and now shimmered in the air high above her, an oily mirage sliding against the backdrop of the sunlit treetops, twisting and reshaping itself as it dove toward the ground.

In her haste to shuffle backward, Alex reached out blindly, her hands sinking deep into the moisture-laden soil.  Slipping in the mud, she found herself flat on her back, staring up at the plummeting black mass.

And then the darkness began to grow.

The shadow hung there, suspended above her head, billowing outward like an ink blot in a pool of water and spreading itself thinner and thinner until it evaporated entirely and nothing but daylight remained.

Instinct took over.

Alex was twenty feet away and sprinting blindly for the edge of the forest before she could even register that she’d made it up off the swampy floor.

Weaving between saplings, ancient cypress trees, and the bush speckled underbrush, Alex ran, gasping for breath, terrified that the shadow might have reformed and followed her.

Within seconds, she’d broken through the edge of the forest.

Alex glanced over her shoulder as she ran. With her attention focused behind her, she only just managed to keep from running headlong into the guy standing between Alex and her parked jeep.

As she stumbled to a halt, the stranger reached out and took hold of her shoulders, attempting to steady her.

“Whoa!” he said, laughing. “Easy there, darlin. I’ve got you.”

Startled, Alex stared wordlessly up and into the pale blue eyes of her unexpected roadblock. He was tall, with dark curly hair, and sharply chiseled features. He looked old enough to have been a college student.

Senior?
Alex wondered.

A strange chill worked its way through Alex’s shoulders, causing her skin to feel slightly numb in the places his fingertips made contact. She jerked her arms back at the exact same moment that he sucked in a surprised breath and released her.

The sensation immediately dissipated.

Cold hands?

That must have been it. Oz had assured them that there were only two other unknown Variants at Bay View—and this guy wasn’t one of them.

They stood for a moment in silence, each trying to get a read on the other.

“You alright?” he asked finally, his southern accent tinged with concern now that he’d had a chance to look her over.

“I—I’m fine,” she managed. “It’s nothing.”

The senior raised an eyebrow, bemused. He looked from Alex to the woods behind them and back.

“Right,” he said. “Okay, then. I’ll just… uh… I’ll just leave you to it, I guess.”

Obviously at a loss, he turned and started off toward the dark blue Camry parked fifty feet away—the only other car left in the lot.

Alex stood stock still beside her jeep as the senior climbed into his car and cranked the engine, sending her a few curious glances as he did so.

“Are you
kidding me
?” Cassie groaned from somewhere on the other side of the Wrangler. Alex could hear Declan’s laughter and Kenzie’s grousing coming from the same direction. “Two seconds! You hide in the woods for half-a-freaking-
hour
and then you make it past us in two flippin’ seconds! I demand a rematch!”

Her friends circled around to the rear of the jeep where Alex now stood, her back pressed against the spare tire, still working to catch her breath.

The second he was within reach, Alex lurched forward and grabbed hold of Declan’s wrist.

Declan’s smile fell. “What is it?” He didn’t try to pull away. “What’s happened?”

Even if she could have found the words, Alex wouldn’t have been able to answer him—surprise had robbed her of her voice.

The transfer had begun. And while the absorption of most Variant abilities wasn’t something Alex could actually sense, Declan’s ability was impossible
not
to notice.

A surge of electricity coursed through her palm where it met with Declan’s bare skin, the current radiating through her like a fire in her blood.

In that moment, Alex realized just how sorely
she had missed that sensation.

But there was more to it than that.

The link between them was restored. She could sense him, could guess his emotions—currently tension and a hint of worry—just by observing the way that the currents surged between them. It wasn’t quite the same as being inside Declan’s head, but it was close.

This
was what Alex had missed more than anything else—her connection to Declan.

“Geez, Alex,” Cassie breathed. “What did you do? Stop off to wrestle a gator on your way back to the parking lot? You’re wearing half the swamp.”

Declan’s free hand came to rest over Alex’s where she still clung to his wrist.

The woods were quiet, without the slightest hint of movement. There was absolutely no sign of Masterson.

“I—”

The jeep’s stereo roared to life, the sounds of a local classic rock station crashing through the stillness as Mick Jagger bid her to guess his name. With a strangled cry of surprise, Alex released Declan and backed away from the Wrangler.

Declan held up a hand.

The music cut off.

“Calm… Alex… kick-started the battery.” Declan was speaking, but only half of his words seemed to be reaching her ears. “…accident. That’s all.”

In her fear, Alex called up more energy than she could handle. The overflow surged into the Wrangler, flipping on the radio. At least the jeep’s engine was faring better than the computer lab.

There was a tug at the currents coursing through her as Declan took care of the excess. She fought to regain control, but focusing on any one thing had become difficult.

Her surroundings started to blur, the larger objects growing dull around the edges. Sights, sounds… even her movements had taken on a slow-motion quality.

Her gaze shifted toward Kenzie, who had stepped away from the group and now stood at the edge of the gravel lot, surveying the tree line. Had she heard something?

God. Why hadn’t she just accepted Declan’s offer earlier? If she had, this wouldn’t be happening. If she could just go back and do it over again, she would tell him yes in a heartbeat.

Explosions of light danced around the corners of Alex’s vision and she struggled to remain upright as the world around her slipped sideways.

“…doesn’t look so good,” Cassie was saying. “Declan, catch—!”

Alex could see Declan moving toward her, but it was too late.

The shadow had returned.

* * *

“Why was it red?”

His sister’s question barely registered. Declan was still staring at the empty stretch of blacktop where Alex had been standing only moments before.

“What just happened?” asked Cassie. She was waving her hand through the empty space as though she fully expected to find Alex still standing there, only invisible. Her hand slid through the air without resistance.

Alex had jumped.

Only, that wasn’t right. Alex had
passed out
—and
then
she’d jumped.

Declan pulled the cell phone from his pocket and dialed.

“Hey! You’ve reached Alex. Sorry I’ve missed your—”

He hung up. Straight to voicemail. Either her phone was dead, fried, or without a signal. Declan felt around for her presence. Now that she had reabsorbed his ability, he ought to have been able to sense her.

Nothing.

“Is she close, Kenzie?” he asked.

His sister closed her eyes for the briefest of moments.

“No,” she said. “Where do you think she jumped to? Better yet, how did she manage it? I mean, she was halfway to the ground and out like a busted headlight. How does someone jump when they’re unconscious?”

“And why was it
red
?” asked Cassie. “I thought the lightning you guys created was always that weird shade of purple.”

It
had
been red.

Declan had seen the lightning turn a dark shade of indigo in the past, particularly on jumps to faraway places. But red? That was new.

He scanned the tree line, searching for any sign of what had frightened Alex. The woods were quiet. There was nothing there.

Alright, Lex
, thought Declan,
where are you?

— 9 —

A
lex came to on a hard surface, sprawled flat on her back, her right arm submerged in a shallow pool of warm water. She opened her eyes slowly, cautiously, her surroundings reluctant to slide into focus. A clear azure sky gazed back at her.

Lifting her head gingerly, Alex took in her surroundings.

The pool of water turned out to be a sun-drenched rain puddle. The rainwater had dissolved most of the mud that had been caked on her arm after her journey through the woods. Clumps of dirt and thin blades of grass now floated across its surface.

Looking past the tiny pool, Alex recognized the boxy metal cubes of air conditioning units and the prism shaped domes of skylights set into concrete.

She was lying on the roof of a building.

Alex sat up, confused and disoriented, wondering how on earth she’d managed to get here in the first place.

Something moved off to her right. Thirty feet away, Declan was kneeling at the rooftop’s edge, his attention fixed on the ground below.

Ignoring the pain in her limbs, Alex scrambled quickly to her feet. She managed to call out his name at the precise moment he jumped, disappearing from the rooftop in a flash of violet light. He hadn’t heard her.

Damn.

Alex jogged across the rooftop to where Declan had been standing and looked below, wondering what had so piqued his interest mere moments before.

“—I’m using it to singe that windswept hair of yours right off your forehead. Try flirting with Sandy Bleaker with no eyebrows and see how far you get.”

Impossible. She was dreaming.
She
had to be
.

“Is it really windswept?”

Alex sank to her knees, the concrete connecting like a mallet with her unprotected kneecaps. The pain radiating through her legs was far better than any pinch on the arm. Alex was painfully,
impossibly,
awake.

She watched in fascination as her past self tried, unsuccessfully, to hide a smile.

“Where’s Cassie?” the other Alex asked.

On the rooftop, Alex leaned forward to get a better view.

On the ground below, her other self glanced skyward. Alex ducked swiftly out of sight.

Okay
, thought Alex, leaning against the small step that ran the length of the building.
Somehow, I’ve slipped back in time by half an hour and now I’m hiding from my former self on a rooftop. No need to freak. I’ve experienced weirder things than this.