“I’m so sorry, Alec.” I rested my chin on his chest, keeping my eyes on his face. “If I hadn’t been a kid, I never would’ve let anyone take me from you.”
“I know.” He ran his thumb over the scar on my leg. “It’s just that for the longest time, I thought that was the reason she took you. That my ability was so horrid and disgusting the adults decided it would be better if I never had my Vital. That your mom decided I wasn’t good enough for her little girl. I know now why they couldn’t tell me more at the time, but yeah, my mind filled it in with the worst explanation possible.”
I sighed, my heart breaking for him, for me, for all the shit we’d been through because of things beyond our control.
“Anyway”—he planted a kiss on my forehead and sat up, swinging his legs over the edge—“we said we weren’t going to talk about heavy shit. Let’s go get some fucking pancakes from one of your other boyfriends, the one who happens to be my cousin.” He shook his head, but when he turned around, a teasing smile tugged at his lips.
I laughed, letting the conversation drop. We got dressed and headed downstairs, following the smell of freshly ground coffee.
Six
Tyler drove us into the city early in the morning, our security detail close behind. The butterflies in my belly wouldn’t leave me alone; they’d been flapping all night. We’d spent so much time keeping our Bond a secret it was hard to let the paranoia go.
I’d agonized over what to wear the night before. I even called Dot to get her opinion—she said it didn’t matter, that I could show up in my underwear. All they were interested in was my status as a Vital. Eventually she took pity on me and told me to look presentable but not too dressy. No jeans but probably not a collared shirt either.
I settled on pale blue woolen tights, a simple long-sleeved dress that fell to my knees, and my favorite cardigan for warmth. Tyler wore one of his endless supply of perfectly fitting shirts and light gray pants. He looked sophisticated and smart.
I fidgeted with the hem of my dress and huffed, regretting not wearing pants.
“You OK?” Tyler placed a gentle hand on my knee, keeping his other firmly on the steering wheel.
“I don’t know. I’m obsessing over my outfit. I think it’s my brain’s helpful way of distracting me from freaking out about this.” I played with his fingers instead of the hem.
He squeezed my hand, halting my nervous movements. “It’s going to be OK. It’s standard protocol to go in and register. They’ll sit you down—”
“But you were so adamant it was dangerous. You wanted to keep it a secret.”
“When we first realized what you were, yes, that was the biggest threat. Some of the things I’ve seen in reports, the places Alec’s been, the things we’ve both done in this job . . . The work we do is important, but it’s not pretty.”
“Not helping.”
He turned a bend in the road, and the early spring sunshine streamed in through my window, making me even more hot and uncomfortable.
“Let me finish.” He chuckled. “At the time, I was really worried about Ethan and Josh getting recruited. If they decided to join on their own, then so be it, but I wanted them to finish college first, to have a choice. Once Melior Group knows a powerful Variant has found a Vital, they put a lot of pressure on. They offer a lot of money, promise travel around the world, put on the guilt trip about using their rare ability for good. It’s not how Lucian and I would run things, but the recruitment side of it isn’t up to us. I wanted to save them from that, and I wanted to protect you from the kidnappings. Now . . .”
“That’s the least of our worries.”
He sighed. “Yeah. Now we have a face and a name to put on the threat, and if Ethan and Josh join up with Melior Group, I don’t even care anymore. I just want us all to be safe, and we won’t be until Davis is rotting in a hole somewhere.”
His grip on the steering wheel tightened, his knuckles going white.
“What about the humans?” I asked. Part of this meeting would involve an interview with a representative from the government. All Variants had to be registered—it