Vital Found (The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy Book 2)

  Vital Found

  The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy - Part Two

  Kaydence Snow

  Copyright © 2019 by Katarina Smythe

  All rights reserved.

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. The events described are fictitious; any similarities to actual events and persons are coincidental.

  Cover design by Mila Book Covers

  Editing by Kirstin Andrews

  kaydencesnow.com

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  For you, the readers

  You make it possible for me to live my dream

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  Note from the author

  About the Author

  Also by Kaydence Snow

  Prologue

  At the sound of three excited little voices coming up the drive, Joyce smiled, set down her book, and checked her watch. With the others here, Evie and Ethan wouldn’t stay asleep much longer. They’d gone down for their nap a little later than usual, but one hour was still good.

  Tyler was the first to let himself into the house, Alec hot on his heels.

  “Hey, Auntie Joyce!” they yelled in unison, making a beeline for the fridge. At ten and eleven years old, they had more energy than they knew what to do with and needed unbelievable amounts of food to fuel it.

  “There’s cookies next to the stove,” she called after them, coming around the couch.

  Amanda came in a few moments later, a five-year-old Josh holding on to her hand.

  “Can I have a cookie, Mom?” He looked up, tugging on her arm. It made the Thomas the Tank Engine backpack on her shoulder come loose.

  Joyce caught it before it hit the top of little Joshy’s head. She took the bulky handbag off her friend’s other shoulder and set both down by the door.

  “Yes. Go. Eat the cookies.” Amanda heaved a massive sigh and then collapsed into a hug with Joyce, who patted her on the back.

  “Long day?”

  But before they could start their conversation, three-year-old Evie interrupted from the hallway, shuffling from one chubby foot to the other, her chocolate-brown hair a mess. “Mommy, I need to pee.”

  Joyce took her to the bathroom and put some shorts on her, then headed back to the living room.

  Ethan was up too, rubbing his eye by the kitchen island, his favorite stuffed bunny hanging from his other hand; he always took a while to wake up properly. Joyce patted him on the head as she passed, grabbing a yogurt from the fridge for Evie.

  “Enough.” Amanda lifted the now half-empty plate of cookies high over her head as the two older boys groaned. “You have to eat something other than cookies or your parents will kill us!” She set it down on the island before pouring two mugs of coffee.

  Joyce grabbed a cookie, but she paused with it halfway to her mouth and looked down. Ethan was hugging her leg, the bunny still clutched in his hand. He blinked his almost too-big eyes at the cookie, then looked at her and grinned. With those adorable dimples, how could she refuse? She sighed and handed it over.

  He dropped the bunny and wrapped both hands around the sweet treat, devouring it.

  “You spoil them,” Amanda grumbled, perching on one of the stools and taking a long sip of coffee.

  Joyce took a sip of her own, keeping an eye on the kids. “I know, but I love it.”

  After their snack, the children all piled out into the backyard to play. Joyce watched through the kitchen window as the boys broke into a run. Evie lagged behind, her little legs unable to keep up, but Alec shouted for the others to wait and turned around to take her hand in his.

  Joyce smiled and pressed a hand to her chest. These kids were so precious, and she knew, she just knew, they would be friends for life. Just as all their parents were.

  These people were her family—the family she had chosen—and they meant the world to her. She loved the chaos and laughter that came with having a bunch of kids around all the time. She loved how they all took turns watching them, picking them up from school and day care, feeding them, and having sleepovers. She loved Sundays, when they all got together, and it was the best kind of craziness.

  And when she was with them, she could almost ignore the awful memories of that night . . .

  Not a day went by that she didn’t think about what she’d done. Guilt was a permanent part of her life now, choking her as she brushed her teeth in the morning, tightening around her lungs as she played with the kids, casting a dark shadow over joyful meals with close friends. Staying silent was killing her, but what other choice did she have?

  All it took to strengthen her resolve was looking into Evelyn’s dark blue eyes, so like her own. Joyce couldn’t leave her little girl, couldn’t stand the thought of her alone in the world. And maybe it was selfish, but she couldn’t leave him either.

  Motherhood had changed her—put things in perspective. Nothing was more important than Evie, and Joyce would protect her—here, beside the people who were her home.

  After everything that had happened a few years back, she was finally finding true happiness in the simple pleasures of life.

  One

  I waded into the pool slowly, letting the sparkling water cool my skin and soothe my sore muscles. The midmorning summer sun was already scorching, and I ducked my head under, wading around for a few minutes before settling into a shady corner of the pool and leaning back.

  The Zacarias mansion looked even more impressive from this angle. I’d been spending a lot of time there since the end of last school year—since the invasion and Charlie’s abduction.

  I couldn’t quite believe it had been over two months.

  It made sense the time had flown—we’d all kept busy. I’d taken a few extra classes to lighten my load for the coming year, and Ethan, Josh, and I had also been getting some additional training, as the guys had decided I needed to learn to defend myself.

  With all the Vital abductions and the invasion of Bradford Hills Institute—an icon of the Variant community—I couldn’t disagree. No one other than Zara, Dot, Charlie, and the guys’ uncle Lucian knew I was a Vital and that Alec, Tyler, Josh, and Ethan were in my Bond. But with the appearance of new technology that could identify a Vital, I was definitely at risk.

  Resting my elbows on the edge of the pool, I kicked my legs lazily through the water, wondering how long the large bruise on my left thigh would take to heal. I understood the need to learn self-defense—I just wished th
e process wasn’t so brutal.

  Tyler had arranged for an ex-Melior Group operative named Kane to come out several times per week and train us in the fully equipped gym in the basement. He was a Kane by name and a cane by nature, with a stocky build and light brown hair. I wasn’t entirely sure how old he was or what color his eyes were, as I was too afraid to make eye contact long enough to find out.

  Kane was told Josh and Ethan wanted to train in preparation for joining Melior Group in a few short years. That couldn’t have been further from the truth; one of the reasons we’d kept our Bond a secret was that none of us wanted to become superspies, or whatever the hell Alec did. Melior Group’s recruitment tactics for Variants with impressive abilities, and Vitals to enhance them, could be very persuasive. Kane didn’t seem to care about that though, or the fact that he was also there to train me, stating, “All the recent tension between Variants and humans is making me nervous.”

  He didn’t blink an eye when Dot joined us either.

  She had spent a solid two weeks in bed, crying and hardly eating, after Charlie was taken. If being punished in the gym with us provided a distraction, none of us were going to say no.

  The only other thing that had managed to take her mind off Charlie, if only for a few minutes, was finding out I was Evelyn Maynard.

  Dot hadn’t put two and two together until a few weeks after she’d gotten out of the hospital. Even though Dot’s family had never met my mom, she’d heard the guys talk over the years about their missing childhood friend who was likely Alec’s Vital. When she finally made the connection, she had a million questions. I didn’t have many answers, but I did my best to keep her talking, keep her engaged, keep that vacant look out of her eyes for as long as I could.

  Ever since then, she’d treated me like the sister neither one of us ever had.

  Ethan, Josh, Dot, and I had just finished another murderous session with Kane, and I’d made a beeline for the pool while the others had gone to shower or do whatever they needed to recover.

  At least the training made me feel as if I was doing something, as if I was strong—even though it always left my limbs feeling like jelly. The bruises from the sparring sessions always healed quickly—our Variant DNA allowed us to take harder hits and heal faster than a human—but it still hurt like a bitch

  Thinking about the aches only made them worse though. Instead, I took a deep breath and dipped below the surface again.

  I swam to the other side under the water, emerging at the deep end and gripping the edge. A big pair of black boots sat on the ground nearby. Just past them, in the farthest corner, was a body in the lounger, partially obscured by the shade of a tree.

  The boots and the pile of black clothing were Alec’s. He was facedown, his head turned away from me, his tattoos prominent on his naked back, which rose and fell rhythmically in his sleep.

  I frowned. He was in the sun, and if he’d been too tired to go upstairs when he got back at some obscenely late hour, I was pretty sure he hadn’t worried about putting on sunscreen.

  We’d hardly spoken since our encounter in Tyler’s study the night of the invasion. Dot had dubbed the incident “Studygate,” and it annoyingly caught on. Both Alec and I were refusing to speak about it, but it had created even more tension between us, so the others were constantly trying to pry it out of us.

  Regardless of my messed-up personal relationship with Alec, I saw how hard he was working to find Charlie. Family—including Tyler and Josh, even though they weren’t related by blood—was incredibly important to him, and that I could understand, even grudgingly admire.

  He was an ass to me most of the time, but he’d probably spent all night out on some dangerous mission. I didn’t want him to get sunburned on top of it.

  Deciding to blame it on the Light that tethered me to each member of my Bond, I lifted myself out of the pool and found the sunscreen near a basket of towels at the pool house, then made my way back to Alec. From this angle, standing over him, I could see the side of his face. His mouth was open slightly, his lips smooshed against the lounger.

  I bit my bottom lip and fiddled with the lid of the sunscreen bottle. Maybe I should just wake him up and tell him to go inside. Maybe I should just let him get burned. It would serve him right after the way he treated me.

  Trying not to think about it too hard, I squeezed some of the white gloop into my hand and spread it between my palms. As gently as I could, I rested one knee next to his hip for balance and leaned over his broad back. Starting at the tops of his shoulders, I spread the sunscreen in two big streaks down the length of his back with slow, gentle movements. When I made a pass back up and over his shoulders, he sighed.

  I checked to make sure he was still asleep and smiled despite myself. Some part of me got satisfaction from the fact that he felt pleasure from something I was doing to him.

  I’d moved on to his arms when he woke up.

  He froze, the muscles in his back going rigid, his breathing halting completely for a beat.

  He raised himself up onto his elbows, turning his head to fix me with a hard stare, his ice-blue eyes narrowed. I jolted away and back to my feet as soon as he moved.

  “What are you doing?” His voice was low and gravelly from sleep.

  “Umm . . .” I fidgeted with the strap of my bikini bottoms, suddenly feeling like a naughty kid caught with my hand in the cookie jar. “The sun is strong and . . . uh . . . sunscreen?”

  He looked at me as if I were crazy, then lifted himself into a sitting position, giving me his back, and started rubbing his closely cropped hair with both hands.

  “I didn’t want you to burn in the sun, and I didn’t want to wake you.” I managed to complete a sentence. I was on the verge of saying “sorry” but managed to hold it back. His reaction made me feel guilty, but I hadn’t done anything wrong. In fact, I was doing him a favor. Asshole.

  He sat up straighter, ignoring my explanation, and stretched one arm over his head, holding his side with the other. The muscles in his defined back danced under skin riddled with scars and ink, drawing my eyes to the curve of his spine.

  In a bold, clean font, the words “With pain comes strength” ran across the top of his back. Underneath that, some tattoos were jagged and warped by scars, and some scars were partially obscured by the black or gray ink. I ran my gaze over the box jellyfish and some kind of snake entwined in either a dance or a battle, a striking female face licking the sharp side of a knife, and a skyline that looked familiar with angry-looking lightning above it.

  He stood up slowly, and I snapped my eyes up, not wanting to get caught staring. When he turned around, I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth.

  Angry, mottled bruising covered his ribs on his left side. He’d obviously had a rough night, but I knew better than to ask what had happened.

  He scooped his boots and clothes up, wincing in pain, and I winced with him. As he walked past me toward the house, he muttered, “Thanks” without looking at me, but I was so distracted by the evidence of how dangerous his job was that I didn’t even register it until he was halfway to the house.

  My chest was aching a little bit in a familiar way—the way it had the night of the invasion, when Alec had overused his ability to incapacitate all those people; the way it had the night when Ethan had overused his ability, and an inexplicable force had drawn me to him. I shuddered to think what that meant for whoever had been on the receiving end of Alec’s ability last night.

  He hadn’t truly overused it though. The pain in my chest wasn’t as urgent or overwhelming. He hadn’t depleted himself to the point of putting his own life in danger.

  That’s why it had seemed like a good idea to rub him down while he was asleep instead of just waking him up. I hadn’t even realized I was transferring Light to him while I rubbed sunscreen on his back—tiny, unnoticeable amounts, as though it knew it had to be careful not to gush out of me too fast.

  I considered going after him—the pull was still there, f
aint as it was—but I knew he would flat out refuse, and it would probably end in a fight. A good sleep would get him back on track.

  With a sigh, I flopped down onto the lounger, trying to focus on the feel of the warm sun on my skin and the sweet smell of summer in the air. Trying not to think about the feel of Alec’s back under my hands and the way he’d sighed in satisfaction.

  Ethan and Josh ran past my chair, one on either side, and cannonballed into the pool. I chuckled at their antics. Dot walked up a little more calmly, wearing a black one-piece with bold cutouts that looked perfect on her petite frame.

  “You already been in?” She took the seat next to me, gesturing to my wet hair.

  “Yeah. I had a quick dip to cool off.”

  A shadow fell over me, and I turned, shielding my eyes from the sun. Tyler was in gray pants and a teal shirt, the sleeves rolled up in his signature way. The sun was directly behind his head, making his messy brown hair look like a glowing halo.

  “Just came to check if you needed to do a Light transfer.” He sat across from me, swiping back the messy bit of hair that seemed to always flop over his forehead. His gray eyes looked bloodshot and tired.

  “I’m all good. Thanks.” I smiled. He was working as tirelessly as Alec, spending many hours at Melior Group headquarters or cooped up in his study—even disappearing with Alec from time to time.

  “Good.” He smiled back, leaning his elbows on his knees, drawing my attention to the corded muscle of his forearms. Why did he always have to roll his shirtsleeves up like that? It made me want to run my hand up from the expensive watch at his wrist to the fabric of the shirt, feeling the hair on his arm. “Let’s do one later, just in case.”