Vivid Avowed (The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy Book 3) Read online

  I chuckled as he kept talking. I wasn’t going to say that at all, but he was on a roll, and there was no stopping him from geeking out. I slowly treaded water, watching him.

  Light reflecting off the water made his amber eyes sparkle, and his hair was dripping, the droplets meandering down his broad chest. His big shoulders were pushed forward, and the fire tattoo contrasted starkly with the blue water and light tiles. He’d started to tan over the last few weeks; his naturally olive skin soaked up even the meager spring sun and had taken on a golden glow.

  He was beautiful.

  A fuzzy, overpowering feeling bubbled up in my chest, and I froze, transfixed, almost overwhelmed by its intensity. I wanted to hold Ethan close and never let him go. I wanted to kiss him silly until he was laughing and the dimples became permanent. I wanted to see that carefree, happy look on his beautiful face every day for the rest of my life.

  As I realized what this feeling was, what I’d been feeling for a long time but hadn’t allowed myself to examine, I shot through the water and wrapped my arms around his neck.

  “. . . the balsamic vinegar can be—” When I plastered myself against his front, he cut himself off, dropping his arms to hold me loosely around the waist.

  “Ethan?” I struggled to hold back my smile, a tinge of nervousness mingling with the excitement.

  “Yeah, bubble butt?” he half teased, searching my face.

  “I love you.” I let the grin break out in full force.

  He blinked as all the teasing and lightheartedness left his features, replaced by that rare intense gaze. Then his arms tightened around me, and he pulled me against his chest as the most brilliant smile I’d ever seen crossed his face.

  “I love you.” He said it back without hesitation. “I think I’ve loved you since I first laid eyes on you.”

  I chuckled. “So that was an expression of love, was it? Throwing a ball of fire at my face and scaring me half to death?”

  He grinned. “You weren’t scared. You hardly even flinched. That’s what made me want to know you.”

  He cut off my witty reply with a soft, gentle kiss. I tightened my arms around his neck and wrapped my legs around his waist, drawing him impossibly closer. We made slow circles in the water, moving deeper into the pool as his tongue waded into my mouth and he waded further and further into my very soul.

  We broke apart, panting, and I opened my eyes to see beautiful flames covering the entirety of the pool’s surface. They licked four feet into the air, banishing the cold wind.

  I looked around us in wonder, smiling, warm and fuzzy on the inside and outside. It was almost exactly like the day we’d first tested our Bond connection, except this time, the flames weren’t raging as high, didn’t have that jerky, uncontrolled, volatile energy. Ethan was in perfect control; the fire was only high enough to hide us from view, an even height all over. He was doing this on purpose.

  “What—”

  My question was cut off when he leaned forward and started kissing and sucking my neck, then moved his hot mouth up to my ear.

  “I want you,” he whispered, and I groaned at his words, my thighs tightening around him reflexively.

  I kissed him again, pushing my tongue into his mouth. With one hand, I undid his swim trunks while he nudged the fabric of my panties out of the way. Our movements weren’t jerky or desperate—we knew we had the rest of our lives to spend together—but we weren’t taking it painfully slow either. Neither one of us wanted to wait much longer to start that life.

  Within minutes of declaring our love, Ethan was inside me, filling me up in every way. We both sighed into the feeling—warm, safe, and so fucking good. It was the first time I’d had him inside me without a condom, feeling every inch of silk-covered steel as he slid in.

  We made love in the pool, staring into each other’s eyes as his bright flames lit up the water around us. I’d never felt closer, more connected, to him.

  We came at the same time, our foreheads together, our soft moans mingling as we watched each other unravel in the sweetest kind of surrender, our souls bare.

  I rested my head on his shoulder, and he just held me as the flames flickered out completely. It was now dusk. A gust of wind reminded me we had no business being in a pool at night in April unless we wanted to freeze, but I didn’t care. I was safe and warm in my fire fiend’s arms.

  When we finally got out of the pool, Ethan froze, his back tense as he turned to me, wide-eyed. “Shit! Condom.”

  I chuckled and took his hand in mine. “It’s OK. I got the implant over a week ago, remember? We’re safe.”

  He took an exaggerated sigh of relief. Tyler had used his ability to make sure we were all clean before I had the procedure.

  Another chilly gust of wind made my teeth chatter, and Ethan wrapped a big towel around my shoulders. We headed back to the house hand in hand.

  “Maybe I’ll do the moussaka after all,” he mused. “I think I have enough time. I’ll have to get more eggplant though.”

  “Sounds perfect.” I smiled up at him.

  Nine

  I forced myself to sit up straighter in the lecture theater seat. The coffee Josh had brought me after lunch just wasn’t cutting it.

  It had been nearly two weeks since Zara’s capture—or surrender, depending on how you looked at it—and I was trying to maintain a routine, refusing to let her disrupt my life any further. But the Variant history lecture, a compulsory unit for all students with Variant DNA, was not holding my interest. Shaking my head to clear away the fuzziness, I noticed I wasn’t the only one having trouble concentrating.

  It started with a few whispers, pockets of people shifting in their seats, bending their heads together. Then it spread farther. People were getting louder and looking at their phones.

  The professor shushed them, a stern look on her face, but whatever was happening had them ignoring her. People were starting to get downright rowdy.

  A pang of worry shot down my spine, and I looked to the back of the room, searching for my security detail. The agent was standing near the door, his finger pressed to his ear as he spoke softly into his unseen mic. He was the only black-clad figure there—apparently I was the only Vital in the lecture today.

  Without even meaning to, I reminded myself of the exits. The closest was the one next to my security detail. Two emergency exits were on either wall at the bottom of the room, and I was pretty sure the office behind the professor’s lectern had another door leading to a corridor on the other side of the building.

  The professor gave up trying to wrangle the crowd and demanded to know what was happening. One of the students in the front row got up and showed her his phone. The professor frowned.

  “Surely this is a hoax,” said a boy a few rows down.

  “How is this possible?” a girl sitting near me asked no one in particular.

  “I have to call my mom.” A young boy, no more than sixteen, haphazardly gathered his things and rushed out of the room. Others followed, the theater erupting into disorder, the lecture forgotten.

  I packed my books and stood just as the crowd parted. Alec came down the few stairs to stand at the end of my row. He was in uniform, a gun strapped to his hip, his tattoos almost completely covered by the long sleeves.

  I swung my bag over my shoulder and took his hand. “What’s happening?”

  “Not here,” he growled over his shoulder as he pulled me along.

  When we exited the lecture theater, my other bodyguard fell in behind us. Alec marched us across campus, glaring at anyone who got too close. Several other people were rushing in various directions too, while some just stood around talking animatedly or looking at their phones.

  I was dying to know what the hell was happening, but clearly it was serious, so I kept my mouth shut.

  We jogged up the stairs to the admin building and marched straight past the reception desk, Alec’s boots thudding on the polished concrete floor as I struggled to keep up. The receptionists
barely spared us a glance. At the elevators, Alec ordered the other Melior Group agent to stay there, and we headed up to Tyler’s office.

  Once inside, Alec finally dropped my hand.

  “. . . you understand? Stand down.” Tyler was on the phone, every muscle in his body stiff. “We can’t risk turning this into an international incident. We’ll just have to deal with it as best we can quietly.” He was silent for a few moments. “Good. Report as soon as you have something.” Then, without saying goodbye, he hung up.

  “Guys, I’m starting to freak out here.” I found myself shifting closer to Alec, pressing myself into his side.

  Alec wrapped one arm around my shoulders as Tyler sighed and leaned on his desk. He picked up the remote, pointed it at the TVs on the wall behind me, and turned up the volume.

  Staring back at me from the screen, a charismatic smile pinned to his face, was Davis Damari—my so-called father and the reason for everything that had ever gone wrong in my life. I stiffened, the blood rushing to my ears making it hard to hear. Alec squeezed my shoulder.

  Davis was giving some kind of speech in front of a crowd. Cameras and microphones were everywhere.

  “This is, we believe, one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in modern history. Not only can we now isolate Variant abilities, we have developed technology that enables us to give Variants without abilities the gift of an ability.”

  The news program cut to a reporter summarizing the situation. Apparently Davis had given an impressive speech only an hour ago. My eyes flicked around the other three screens. Each one was covering the news; each one had his ugly face plastered all over it.

  Tyler stepped around his desk and planted himself at my other side. But even Alec’s and Tyler’s comforting arms around my shoulders and waist couldn’t stop me from feeling as if the world was crumbling around me.

  “What the fuck is happening?” I muttered to myself. No one answered.

  After the incident in Thailand, Davis, his core group of scientists, and some of his more fanatical Variant Valor supporters had completely disappeared. Melior Group had worked tirelessly to find him, but Davis was rich and well connected. He had friends in high places everywhere to keep him safe.

  I’d had several arguments with Tyler over why it wasn’t all over the news that Davis Damari was behind Variant Valor, the attack on Bradford Hills Institute, the Vital kidnappings. The whole world should know what a piece of scum he was. But Tyler and Alec kept explaining it wasn’t that simple.

  Much of what happened in Thailand was classified and therefore couldn’t be discussed. Plus, apparently Melior Group’s board had decided it would be bad for business if it got out that dozens of their best elite operatives had been knocked out in one fell swoop by a single Variant with an impressive ability. They were trying to save face.

  Senator Christine Anderson was talking, but she refused to front the media or go on record with human law enforcement for fear of her life.

  Zara was cooperating too. She’d told Melior Group about another of Davis’s secret labs in Australia, but by the time Melior Group had got a team there, the place was empty, completely cleared of people or any trace of useful information.

  While we knew the truth, the rest of the world was left to wonder what the hell had happened in Thailand, and Davis’s name was not once mentioned in relation to the incident. This had resulted in more suspicion, fear, and worry in the general public. They were filling in their gaps in knowledge with the worst-case scenarios.

  And now the psychopath behind it all stood, untouched, in a three-thousand-dollar suit, announcing a “scientific breakthrough” as if it was just another business day and he had nothing to do with the chaos erupting all over the world.

  Davis Damari was winning. It made my blood boil.

  He didn’t go into detail about how exactly he gave abilities to Variants who hadn’t manifested any, but people were losing their minds, reporters clambering over each other to ask questions.

  One of the main sound bites they kept repeating was that the technology was nearly ready, but there was one last kink to figure out. They were close, really close, but something stood in their way. At this point, Davis announced he was out of time and walked away from the frenzy of questions.

  “It’s me,” I breathed, stepping out of their embrace. “I’m what’s preventing him from figuring it out.”

  The attack at the café, the woman’s declaration that he would never stop coming for me—it made sense now. When he’d captured me in Thailand, he hadn’t had enough time to test his process, perfect it, poke, prod and torture me until he understood my glowing Light better. He still needed me to figure out how to not kill people during the procedure, because even he couldn’t sell that.

  The door swung open, and Ethan and Josh burst into the office, finally tearing my attention from the four screens.

  “Why haven’t they arrested him?” Ethan’s booming voice bounced off the walls. “Why the fuck was he able to just walk into a car and be driven away?”

  Josh remained silent, a deep frown on his face. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the door.

  “Keep your voice down.” Tyler’s commanding tone had an immediate effect on Ethan. He didn’t back down completely, his big shoulders still tense, but he did unclench his fists and take a deep breath.

  “Sorry.” He sighed. “I just don’t understand.”

  “It’s OK, Kid.” Alec slapped a hand on his cousin’s shoulder as Tyler muted the screens.

  “He’s in fucking Dubai. We have operatives in the area, but we couldn’t get them there before the cameras showed up. We couldn’t take him into custody with the whole world watching—not when no one knows all the shit he’s done. And now this . . .” Tyler groaned, running his hand through his messy hair and looking out the window. “He planned this perfectly. He disappeared off the face of the earth, forced us to spread ourselves thin looking for him, then reappeared in a location where we couldn’t get to him in time. Now with this announcement, the press will be on him like a bad smell, not to mention all his supporters and lackeys. He’s basically made himself untouchable.”

  He was looking out at the campus grounds below, and I knew what he was seeing—people rushing about, some excited, some worried, everyone talking about it.

  “So what do we do?” I asked. I needed a plan. I always felt better with a plan.

  Alec lowered his tall frame into one of the tub chairs.

  No one answered.

  “Guys!” I nearly yelled, a bit of panic leaking into my voice. “What do we do?”

  Tyler squared his shoulders. “We keep an eye on him, and we work on our own strategy.”

  “Which is what exactly?” Josh spoke for the first time.

  “We have to be smarter than him, stay one step ahead. If Eve is right, and I think she is, that he needs her to complete his machine, then we learn everything we can about the glowing Light. Maybe we’ll be able to use that against him somehow. We’ve already agreed to work with Melior Group’s research team—may as well use that to our advantage. But let’s keep as much to ourselves as we can, OK?”

  Ethan frowned and shared a look with me and Josh. “Are you saying we can’t trust Melior Group? What’s going on?”

  “Nothing I can put my finger on yet.” He exchanged a loaded look with Alec. “All I’m saying is, we should keep our cards close to our chests. People are scared, and scared people do stupid things. In the meantime, now that he’s surfaced, we have eyes on Davis. He’s hiding behind powerful men with even more questionable morals than his, but at least we can track him now. As soon as we can take him down discreetly, we will. All we can do now is stay vigilant and gather as much information as we can.”

  “And above all”—Alec rose to his feet, turning to face me—“we protect Evelyn.”

  Ten

  After ten minutes of focused mindfulness, I opened my eyes.

  Controlling my Light flow had become second nat
ure, almost instinctual. Our Bond was settling; it was formed, strong, equal. No one held back and created an imbalance in the connection, and the Light no longer gushed dangerously out of me in order to solidify our Bond. Transferring Light was just part of my physiology now—almost as effortless as breathing.

  But the glowing Light required more intention. I’d only glowed in a handful of situations—most of them highly stressful and potentially deadly.

  Continuing to take deep breaths, I uncrossed my legs and dropped them to the ground in front of the couch. Ethan and Josh sat in matching armchairs across from me, a heavy stone coffee table between us. The rest of the room was decorated like a modern living space—polished concrete floors, leather furniture, open bookshelves styled meticulously, hints of metallics and marble in the decor—but the heavy white drapes had nothing but thick brick walls behind them, and the giant mirror to my left concealed a team of Melior Group researchers, watching my every move.

  This session was meant to be as “natural” as possible, hence the living room setup. They wanted me to do my thing without external influence so they could observe—from behind the safety of the glass, of course. Dana was in the next room on standby in case anything went wrong.

  My first session had consisted of a battery of medical tests and basic observations of my Light levels when I let it flow into me unobstructed, when I mentally shut it off, when I transferred to someone in my Bond, then someone outside of it. Those were baseline tests.

  This session would be the first time they observed the glowing, and since we couldn’t be sure it wasn’t dangerous, I had to have my Variants there to transfer to. I didn’t want to find out what would happen if I took in that much Light and had no outlet for it.