Vital Found (The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  I cursed Alec again for putting us all through this, even as I cringed at more blows landing to his ribs, his head.

  “Not the pain.” Josh picked up Ethan’s comment. “I think he likes the punishment. With his ability, no one can touch him. But here, he can punish himself.”

  His words rang true. Too true. A deep kind of sadness settled into the gamut of emotions I was feeling.

  As if he heard us talking about him, Alec turned into the metal fencing, trying to angle his front away from the onslaught of his opponent’s fists, and his eyes met mine. My tears spilled over. I allowed every single awful thing I was feeling to pervade my gaze as I held his as steadily as I could through the blur of tears.

  His eyes widened a fraction, and then his opponent was screaming. The massive, obscenely muscled man sprang away from Alec as the light above the cage flashed on. It didn’t take a genius to figure out whose ability had triggered it.

  Alec’s opponent crumpled to the floor, his blood-curdling screams cutting through the music and the sounds of the cheering, gasping, writhing crowd. He curled into a squirming ball, his body contorting grotesquely. I’d seen Alec’s ability in action—we’d taken down an entire campus full of people together—but that had been diffused over a wide area and so fast and intense that everyone passed out almost immediately.

  This was something else; the full force of Alec’s unassisted ability was making a grown man writhe and sob in pain.

  As if surprised to hear the screaming, Alec whipped his head around to take in the man on the ground, then whipped back to me. The surprise in his expression was gone—he was pissed off. He sneered at me and pounded the fencing with his palms. I had the distinct feeling it was me he actually wanted to pound.

  He turned around and took several deep breaths, visibly calming himself and getting his ability under control. The crowd started to boo, disappointed they’d been robbed of more bloodshed.

  The man’s screaming subsided into shuddering breaths. Only when it was clear Alec’s ability was under control did the bouncers enter the cage. They went to the crying man, and Alec exited unassisted.

  Nine

  Alec disappeared down the corridor Kyo had pointed out.

  “Let’s go.” Josh dislodged my hand from his T-shirt and pulled me in the same direction.

  “What the fuck just happened?” Ethan’s big hand stayed pressed to my lower back as we waded through the agitated crowd.

  I let them take the lead, just glad it was finally over. “What do you mean?”

  “Alec never loses like that,” Josh explained as we entered the barely lit corridor. “Sure, he’s lost from time to time, but never by using his ability.”

  “Shit . . .” He’d lost control because of me. He saw me and then his opponent started screaming.

  I wasn’t so sure I wanted to see him anymore. I’d done what I set out to do—I stopped the fight. Even if it was halfway through. Even if it had resulted in more pain for the poor man in the cage than he would have endured at Alec’s bare hands.

  But we’d reached the last door on the left, and it was too late to bail. Josh pushed the door open and dragged me inside.

  He dropped my hand as soon as we stepped in.

  “Alec, stop!” Dana yelled in frustration. “What the hell is wrong with you? Just sit down so I can clean your knuckles, you idiot!”

  She was standing by a bench on the right wall, a small dark bottle in one hand and a wad of gauze in the other. Even in jeans and a hoodie she looked hot, her messy blonde hair falling around her shoulders. In the same outfit, I looked like a bum, while she looked like an advertisement for Calvin Klein. So unfair.

  Alec was pacing the length of the room like a caged tiger, his shoulders bunched, his fists clenched by his sides—as if he were still in that cage, ready to throw a punch. He spotted us by the door and froze, his eyes trained on me. At the same moment, the door opened again, briefly letting the sound of the music and crowd filter in. Tyler walked halfway into the room, placed his hands on his hips, and sighed.

  Alec’s eyes on me didn’t budge. I tried hard not to wither under his stare, but he’d had a lot of time to perfect it. It was a really good stare. I lowered my gaze and leaned into Ethan, who immediately wrapped an arm around my shoulders and held me close. Maybe if Dana hadn’t been there, it would’ve been easier for me to speak up, or do anything other than shrink into my boyfriend.

  Tyler took a look around the room. “OK, let’s just—”

  “Dana,” Alec cut him off, his voice strained, “can you give us a minute, please?”

  No one said anything for a few moments, and I finally looked up to see what was happening.

  Alec was still staring at me. Dana was staring at Alec. Tyler’s hands were still on his hips, his gun showing in the waistband of his jeans, and as he looked between the three of us, his serious gray eyes were wary.

  “Did that steroid on legs damage your brain or something?” she snapped back, but I had a feeling she was similar to Zara in this respect—the sarcasm was a defense mechanism. “Your wounds need cleaning and dressing. You know your control slips after a fight. Is one of these spoiled brats supposed to whine through it? You need me.”

  At the less-than-kind evaluation of his family, Alec’s gaze finally flew to hers. “Dana. Leave.” His voice sounded barely restrained.

  She looked between him and me, then dropped the bottle and the gauze on the bench and stalked toward the door.

  She stopped right in front of me and stared at me for a beat, her breaths coming fast. “Who the fuck are you?” she half whispered, half growled.

  Before anyone could spin another lie in our already complex web, she wrenched the door open and stormed out.

  As soon as the door closed behind her, we all relaxed a little. Even in a situation as charged as this one, being alone, just me and my Bond, made everything feel a little easier to handle. Yes, our connection was rife with secrets and stresses, but it was there nonetheless.

  Alec dragged himself to the bench. Tyler helped him sit up as Josh opened a few lockers on the opposite wall. Eventually he found a duffel and brought it over to them.

  I remained in Ethan’s arms, unsure what to do, but then a familiar ache in my chest made itself known. I rubbed at it. How much of his ability had he used? No wonder his opponent was left whimpering on the floor. Alec wasn’t completely drained, but he was depleted. His physical wounds would heal faster if he had some Light.

  I stepped away from Ethan’s comforting warmth and tentatively made my way to Alec. Tyler was trying and failing to open a bottle of iodine with a childproof lid, muttering curses under his breath.

  I placed a hand over Tyler’s, and he looked up at me through the unruly tuft of hair over his eyes. I smiled and ran my other hand down his arm, giving his elbow a squeeze, asking him silently to move out of the way. He let me take the bottle, swiping at his hair as he stepped aside.

  Alec’s breathing was getting slower, the fight draining out of his slumped body. His legs were spread wide; his arms hung limply over his thighs. He was watching my every move with a blank expression. The scrutiny was making me a little uncomfortable, but I focused on the task at hand. Sure, I was still pissed at him for putting us all through this, but he was hurting and he was mine. I had to do something. I would tear strips off him later. And then I’d probably patch those wounds up too.

  Yeah, our relationship was fucked up. Whatever.

  I opened the iodine and, with a steadiness to my hands that surprised me, extracted some swabs from the first aid kit Dana had abandoned. Josh handed me a damp face towel; I hadn’t even noticed him move to get it.

  I paused, my eyes running over Alec, unsure where to start.

  A gash above his eyebrow—the one with the scar in it—had created a trail of blood down the side of his face. His other eye was already puffing up, I didn’t want to think about the state of his ribs, and he’d somehow managed to get a cut just above his right k
nee. But his knuckles were the worst by far, so that’s where I started.

  I gently cleaned away as much blood as I could, moving on to his other wounds once the knuckles were clean. I focused as hard as I could on my Light flow as I went, drip-feeding him tiny amounts as I touched him on his head, his hands, his legs, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

  “Can someone get some ice for his eye?” I said without turning, and the door immediately opened and closed. Probably Ethan; he was the closest.

  As if my voice had roused him from his trance, Alec spoke. “What are you doing here?”

  I paused for only a moment, trying to push aside the anger and frustration his question brought up. “What are you doing here?” I parroted, giving him a firm look as I dripped some iodine onto a cotton pad and dabbed at the wounds on his knuckles.

  He hissed, and my patience with him ran out.

  “Really ‘Master of Pain’?” I said, dripping sarcasm. “You take that kind of beating and you can’t handle a bit of iodine?”

  He frowned, but as I swabbed the rest of his wounds, he didn’t react, only wincing slightly for the worst ones.

  I dressed his cuts and grazes as best I could. Just as I was finishing up with the one on his knee, Ethan came back with ice wrapped in a tea towel. Alec reached for it, but I snatched it from him.

  He could easily do this part himself, but I needed another excuse to keep touching him. The ache in my chest had eased, but it was still there. The tiny amounts of Light I’d transferred were being used up as fast as I could give them, boosting his healing.

  I pressed the ice to the swollen eye. With nothing left to do, I casually lowered my hand to his thigh, just above the dressing, and pushed just a little more Light to him, hoping the biting cold and the sting of his injury would distract him.

  I was wrong.

  “Eve . . .” He said my name on a sigh as he extracted the ice from my grasp, dropping it on the bench.

  “You need to ice your eye.” I reached for it, but his hand grabbed mine and held on.

  “I know what you’re doing.” His eyes flicked down to my hand on his bare leg. I opened my mouth but hesitated, so he kept speaking. “Just do it properly.” He placed my palm flat against his chest, over his heart, and looked away.

  I didn’t waste time questioning his sudden openness to having a Light transfer. I just closed my eyes and put all my focus on the energy flowing through me and into him.

  With the now steady, strong flow, my palms tingled where they touched his skin. I carefully monitored the ache in my chest, using it as a guide for when to stop. Within minutes the ache was gone, and I pushed just a little extra to him for good measure before dropping my hands and stepping away.

  He gave me a disparaging look that told me he knew exactly what I’d done. But he looked better. He was sitting up straighter, his face less pale. His Variant body would heal itself at the accelerated rate that it was capable of now that I’d given it all the Light it needed.

  “Let’s get out of here.” Tyler handed Alec some clothing, and Josh packed the rest of his stuff into the duffel. “I’m going to kill Kyo for bringing you here.”

  “Disciplinary action for sure,” Alec ground out as he pulled the sweatpants on.

  “No one ‘brought me here.’” I frowned. They were treating me like a child. “I decided to come here. Zara and Dot came with me because they knew I would go regardless. Kyo, very intelligently, made the same decision. You should be thanking them for having my back. Would you rather I showed up in this dump on my own?”

  “That’s beside the point.” Alec’s voice was muffled behind the T-shirt he was pulling over his head—black, of course. “You should never have known this was even happening.”

  Tyler crossed his arms, putting on his in-charge voice. “Eve, this might seem like a shady bar, but it’s so much more. There are some seriously dangerous people here.”

  “What a load of shit.” I kept my voice level, refusing to look immature by raising it.

  “Eve, baby—”

  “No!” I cut across Ethan. Even Josh was looking at me disapprovingly. “That’s bullshit. You’re all ganging up on me for coming here instead of focusing on the actual issue.” I gestured to “the issue,” who was now pulling on his shoes. “This whole thing is bullshit. You went on about how I’m part of your family. That our Bond is special and unbreakable. And then you all lie to me and come here without me. What the fuck?”

  I was supposed to be their Vital—the thing that brought us all together as a Bond. Yet they’d lied to me and left me out. They left me out.

  I’d spent my entire life feeling as if I belonged nowhere, had no family, was alone in the world, especially after my mother died. Then I’d found out I had four people whom I would always be connected to, no matter what. And they deliberately left me out? It cut me to my core.

  Naturally Josh was the first to realize my anger was masking pain. He stepped over to me, remorse and worry in his beautiful green eyes, and reached out as if to hug me.

  I took a step away. If I let him comfort me, I would break down crying, and I wasn’t done ripping them all a new one yet.

  Giving myself something to do seemed like a much better idea. I marched over to Tyler and took his left hand. My other hand went to his neck, and I pushed Light into him with a determination I hadn’t felt since the night of the invasion. He looked surprised at the new way I was touching him, his hand coming to rest over mine on his neck.

  Soon the surprise was replaced with suspicion as he felt the force of the Light flowing into him. His hand wrapped around my wrist, but before he could yank it away, I broke the contact myself and took a step back.

  “Ask him,” I demanded.

  “Eve . . .” He sighed. “It’s not that simple. My ability isn’t destructive like the others, but it can be a real burden. You have no idea how many secrets I keep. Because they’re not mine. I believe in truth above all else, but I also have to respect other people’s privacy. Sometimes you need to let people tell you things in their own time.”

  “And sometimes they need a push. I’m his Vital. It’s my business. Ask.”

  “I don’t know . . .” He looked behind me, searching for assistance from the other three guys.

  “You’re the one who told me we should be more open with each other. That we need to trust each other. That I should come to you if I ever want to know something. Well, I’m coming to you now. Alec’s actions tonight have caused massive tension between all of us. I know me showing up as your Vital has changed a lot, but you need to accept it’s changed things between you all as well. You’re not just cousins and friends and brothers anymore. You’re more. Ask.”

  “I think you should ask.” Ethan came to stand behind me. He didn’t touch me, but I could feel his warmth at my back.

  “Me too.” Josh stayed where he was but added his support.

  Alec cursed under his breath. “Fine. Whatever. Just ask me, man.” He sighed, sounding resigned.

  We all turned to face him. He was leaning back against the bench, his arms gripping it on either side of his hips. He stared intently at the ground, refusing to look at any of us.

  Tyler sighed. “Alec, why did you come here tonight? Why did you fight?”

  For a beat no one spoke or moved. Tyler’s eyes lost focus as his ability gave him the answers that were left unspoken. Once his eyes focused on Alec again, they filled with despair.

  Instead of filling us all in on the answer, he marched over to his oldest friend and gave him a hug. Alec returned it, and the two men held each other tight for a long time.

  “Please, just talk to me.” Tyler finally pulled away, his voice pleading.

  “I can’t. It’s not just up to me.” Alec looked straight at me, and Tyler sighed again.

  “This is about Studygate?” Josh sounded surprised. “What the fuck happened, you guys?”

  “Not entirely,” Tyler answered.

  “I came here for the same re
ason I always come here,” Alec said, his voice hard. “I needed to prove to myself I have control. Of my ability, of . . . I don’t know, my own life? Ever since she came back into it, it’s like every ounce of control I’d built up over a lifetime just crumbles in her presence. Regardless of the fact that I’m not getting any extra Light from her. It’s fucking terrifying. I needed to prove to myself I could still do it. That I’m not a danger to everyone around me . . .”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Everyone turned to me. It was good to get an answer, but it wasn’t complete. They’d hinted this had something to do with what had happened between us in the study, but I was artfully ignoring that. I knew, realistically, how selfish that was—to focus on Alec’s shit while ignoring my own. But it was much easier to give in to the anger. Let it distract me.

  “You came here for some manufactured sense of control? To prove some ridiculous point to yourself? Do you have any idea what you put us all through? These three are worried out of their minds for you!” I was too, but again, I wasn’t ready to admit it. He had come here for a beating anyway, right? “Tyler used Melior Group resources so he could be here to watch you get your ass beaten. Ethan and Josh felt every blow as if it were landing on their flesh. Because they care. They love you, you complete fucking moron.”

  His face became redder as I continued my tirade, a thick vein appearing in the middle of his forehead, his fists clenching and unclenching, straining the bandages over his knuckles.

  He stepped right into my space and opened and closed his mouth several times, as if about to say something. But instead he settled on just growling in frustration while making a choking motion with his hands. Then he turned around and stalked out.

  Tyler shook his head wearily. “Let’s just go.”

  We followed Alec up a steep set of stairs, through a back entrance off the dingy corridor, and past several rows of parked cars.

  He stopped by a yellow Dodge Challenger. At least he was waiting for us.