Alex
I couldn't shift the smile off my face, and believe me, I was trying. It didn't seem right somehow, to waltz back home to Grace with a big grin on my face after finally finding my soulfinder, when she'd came back from the same situation broken and in tears. I didn't want to rub salt in the wounds, for either her or Zed, but I couldn't help it. I knew they were going to ask questions the moment I got back, and even thinking about Thea made my expression split into a wide grin on its own accord.
There was only one thing bothering me, and I prayed Grace wouldn't ask me about it. But she wasn't to know, and it was only natural she'd be curious. So it made it a little easier to keep my face straight when it was the first question she asked.
"Hello?" I called loudly as I stepped back into the house the next morning, feeling strangely happy and content, something entirely new to me. "Grace?"
A groan sounded in the living room, followed by a loud, dull thud and I started, rushing forward. "We've been sleeping for less than four hours, do you have to shout?" Zed's irritable voice came as I came to a halt in the doorway.
"We?" I repeated with a scowl, but fortunately, Grace wasn't anywhere in sight.
Zed glowered up at me. Apparently, rolling over on a sofa as small as our wasn't a good idea, because he was unsuccessfully trying to find the energy to pick himself up off the floor. "She's upstairs," he defended with a sigh. "Nothing happened."
"Um," I frowned at him, as footsteps sounded on the stairs. I leant back to see Grace, still tired and worn out, staggering toward us with her hair wrapped up messily and dressed in her pyjama shorts and vest shirt.
"Alex," she yawned in greeting. "Being delicate as ever, I see."
"It's eight in the morning," I shrugged defensively, grinning widely at her. "Everyone else is getting up."
"It's Saturday," Zed complained, still on the floor with his eyes shut. "I try not to get up before ten on a Saturday." Grace rolled her eyes at me exasperatedly, hesitating by my side abruptly. Frowning, I watched her blink in surprise, following her gaze back to Zed, who I was only just realising wasn't wearing a shirt.
"Breakfast," I warned her, pushing her gently toward the kitchen. She shook herself, taking a deep breath and tearing her eyes away from him. "And you, put a shirt on." Zed opened one of his eyes a fraction, smirking slightly when he noticed Grace. I felt my eyebrows pull together irritably. "Mate, her soulfinder or not, you keep staring at my sister like that and I'll have to beat the hell out of you."
To my surprise, he laughed loudly, reluctantly pushing himself up to find his shirt. "Told you," he winked at Grace.
"Oh, for heaven's sake," she sighed, scowling at the two of us. "Grow up."
I had no idea what they were talking about, but I didn't dare ask. This was weird, seeing my sister loved up with some biker guy she barely knew. Sure, the Benedicts were good people, but Grace was sensible, practical and mature, whereas Zed . . . wasn't.
"How's things at the hospital anyway?" Zed yawned, staggering to his feet as Grace started making coffee. She shot me a concerned look, but pursed her lips tightly and let me speak.
"Good," I nodded, failing to stop my lips twitching into a smile. He snorted at me, clapping me on the shoulder. "The doctors are doing a few last checks to make sure everything's alright, then she'll be discharged."
"Brilliant," he replied. "She scared the hell out of everyone back there."
"Um," Grace agreed with a small frown. "It is her, then?"
I hesitated, scanning her expression. "My soulfinder, you mean? Yeah."
Zed clapped me on the shoulder again with a grin, but opposite me, Grace's eyebrows tightened. "That's not what I meant, we'd already figured she was your soulfinder," she admitted slowly. "I was talking about the dreams. Is Thea the girl you were seeing?" My smile slipped. Of course she was asking that. Like always, my overly observant sister needed to understand every piece of the puzzle before jumping to conclusions.
"What dreams?" Zed yawned.
Grace's expression flickered impatiently, shooting me a pointed look before turning away from the two of us. Zed's eyebrows rose in surprise, but I understood. She'd been nagging me for weeks to talk to her soulfinder about these dreams, refusing point blank to get dragged into it all, and I couldn't blame her. I doubted he was going to take me hijacking his ability very well, and the two of them had enough problems getting on as it was.
"My, err, ability is a little . . . unstable at times," I grimaced at him, and Grace snorted. His expression suddenly became very serious. "Mate, relax, I haven't hurt anyone with it."
"Except from the migraines," Grace grumbled opposite me.
"Which I apologised for," I scowled. "Constantly. The thing is, I can . . . well, my ability means that I can . . . I, err . . ."
"For heaven's sake, Alex!" my sister sighed exasperatedly, spinning to shake her head at me.
"Fine!" I relented hurriedly, ignoring Zed's raised eyebrows. "I can sort of hijack other Savants abilities."
Zed went rigid, and despite her best intentions, Grace ended up shifting closer with a concerned look. "It's not as bad as it sounds," she assured him quietly. "Most of the time, he has it under control, but sometimes while he's sleeping, it just slips."
His eyes flicked toward her, and I couldn't tell if he was more irritated with me or worried about her. "The worst thing that's ever happened is I hijacked Grace's ability and ended up reliving the same ten seconds over and over again," I shrugged at him. "I've been working on controlling it more, and Grace usually keeps her mind locked tighter than Fort Knox. I didn't realise being around you would affect me like that, Grace is the only Savant I've been around this long before."
He still didn't look comfortable, but casting a glance sideways at Grace, he took a deep breath and took the coffee she slid across the breakfast bar for him. It took a lot not to shoot her a stunned look at that. One day with her soulfinder, and she was making people coffee. Instead of commenting, I took mine gratefully, smiling when she didn't meet my gaze. "So what happened?" Zed asked cautiously.
My smile slipped again, but I told him everything I could. Starting out with a scowl, his expression slowly relaxed as I spoke, until his eyes were wide and flicking sideways toward Grace like he was unsure about whether or not to believe me. I told him about the dream of Thea staggering through streets of blurry lights, being shot at, stealing the car, and avoiding a head on collision lorry. By the time I'd done, Grace's eyebrows were tight with concern, and Zed was gawping at me like I was from another planet.
"How many times did you hijack my premonitions exactly?" he stared at me in shock. "Shouldn't I have felt something?"
Grace shook her head with a heavy sigh. "Not unless he purposely breaks in and takes it, no." Zed shot her a look. "What? We were trying to figure out how to control it, and he only did it once." He opened his mouth to argue. "Zed, please focus. It was years ago, you can't protect me from everything!"
From the look on her face, this was an argument they'd had already, and from the look on his, not one they were ever going to see eye to eye on. Fortunately, Zed managed to limit his response to a scowl, turning back to me as he tried to calm himself down. "I never saw any premonitions of Thea," he shrugged at me. "So either her looking for you was affecting them, or it could just be because you're naturally linked together."
I blinked. "You see premonitions of Grace?" My sister went still, glowering at Zed in warning.
A small smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. "Sometimes," he conceded.
"You're pushing your luck," she scowled at him, placing her coffee on the counter and stalking back out of the room and up the stairs.
"Okay, for the record, I don't like being in the same room as you two," I told him awkwardly, but he just shrugged, still smiling.
"Back to the point," he continued. "You did the right thing, letting her find you. Seeing premonitions isn't as easy as it seems. If you tell people too much, you change their actions and by doing that, affect the outcome. Then, sometimes if you don't tell people, you don't change things enough and bad things happen. And as you've already noticed, you don't always know who the people in the premonitions are, where they are, or how long you have to wait for it to come true. If you'd acted on what you were seeing in anyway, Thea wouldn't have been able to find you as quickly as she had, and when we found her, she needed help. Badly."
I stared at him, then sighed heavily and grimaced at him. "Well, good luck with all that mate. I'll try harder to stay away from you."
"I'll warn the others to keep you out of their minds where possible," Zed added. "Trust me, you don't want to start messing with some of that in your sleep." I scoffed, vaguely wondering what could be worse than seeing premonitions of my soulfinder being shot at and being completely helpless to stop it.
"Alex!" Grace's voice came from the stairway. "Yves just called! Thea's being discharged!" I started, chest clenching tightly. All it took was the sound of her name . . .
Zed cleared his throat, smirking at me. "You'd better go and pick her up." I shook myself, nodding at him once before turning and snatching up the car keys again. I found myself wondering if Zed felt this strongly about Grace. It wasn't something I liked to think about too much, but at least I could take comfort in the fact that if he did, he'd do anything to keep Grace safe.
Grace skidded to a halt at the bottom of the stairs, freshly dressed in battered skinny jeans, combat boots and a dull green military style jacket. She frowned across the room at Zed, hesitating in the doorway. "You're not coming?" she asked, eyeing his still bare chest with flushed cheeks.
He winked at her, stretching out and grinning widely when she looked away hurriedly, embarrassed. Groaning to myself, I turned my back to them. "I'll be outside," I grumbled. "Make it quick." Grace muttered a quiet reply, probably to tell me there was no need, but I ignored her, my stomach squirming nervously.
It had taken Xav, Yves and Trace to get me to leave the hospital a few hours ago, and since Thea had spent the entire conversation giggling at me, it hadn't made things any easier. She might have been bruised and beaten, but she was easily the most beautiful girl I'd ever laid eyes on. She told me repeatedly that I was biased, and that I had to think that, but it didn't stop her kissing me with a shy smile.
Thinking about seeing her again, about her sat on the edge of her hospital bed waiting for me, made me impatient. Luckily, Grace managed to tear herself away from Zed in the space of a few minutes, letting herself out with an uncharacteristic flustered look. I lifted an eyebrow at her, and she scowled.
"Don't look at me like that," she muttered irritably. "Victor said we shouldn't be left alone. He's just being stubborn. Again."
I was barely listening, waving her away with a dismissive wave. "He can see the future, Grace, he'll be fine."
She shot me a cold look as the two of us climbed into the car. "He can't see everything, Alex."
"Then stay here with him," I found myself sighing in frustration, turning the key in the ignition and pointing out of the window.
"I promised Thea I'd be there," she argued, folding her arms over her chest. I blinked at her. "What? It's so difficult for you to believe that she trusts me? I was the first person she spoke to here. She asked me to be there for her when she moves in with us, and I promised her I would be."
I held out my hands in surrender, smiling as I pulled the car away from the house and started down the street. "Hey, I'm glad the two of you get along."
"Um. Well, I wouldn't worry about the two of us getting arrested for trying to beat the hell out of each other if I were you." She shot me another pointed look, shifting awkwardly in her seat.
"How many times do I have to apologise for that?" I groaned at her.
"You can say it as often as you want," she replied stiffly. "But you're lucky the only thing I've done is snap at you a few times." I had to give her that. If she'd gotten Thea into trouble . . . well, it wouldn't have been easy to forgive her.
Grace didn't say anything else as we drove to the hospital. She was upset about something, but I couldn't focus enough to ask. All I could think about was Thea. She'd spent weeks, months maybe, in the hands of a criminal family with the ability to manipulate her memories and thoughts. I had to make sure that couldn't happen again. I had to make sure she was safe.
The moment the car pulled up, I cut the ignition and jumped out. Grace was a little more hesitant, glancing back the way we came like something was trying to pull her back. "Christ Grace, we'll be back in twenty minutes," I snapped at her impatiently. "He can take care of himself."
She nodded distractedly. "I know, I just . . ." If I'd been more with it, I'd have worried that she'd lost the will to fight back.
We almost ran through the corridors, Grace a little reluctantly, until we were outside Thea's hospital room again. "Go on," my sister muttered distractedly, pushing me toward the door. "I need to talk to Karla." I hesitated, watching her slip past Victor and Trace, who were in deep, stern discussion, and head straight toward Zed's mother. I shook away the strange feeling I got from seeing that, shoving the door open with my shoulder and stepping inside.
"Alex," Thea beamed happily, and I went still inside the doorway. Muttering awkwardly, Xav and Yves moved past me and let themselves out, closing the door behind them. "I thought Grace was coming with you?"
It took me a moment to reply. Karla had brought her some fresh clothes, and she now stood by her hospital bed in slim fit jeans, a red plaid shirt and thick, woollen boots, her dark hair pulled back into a tight braid. Xav had done a good job of healing most of her superficial wounds, and the only marks left were a few burns on her forearms and a large bruise on her neck.
"Alex? Are you alright?" She spoke with a heavy accent with a remarkably soft edge that made me smile, stepping forward and pulling her into me as carefully as I could.
"Never better," I answered honestly. She smiled, leaning closer as I lowered my lips to hers. Having her so close, wrapped tightly in my arms, sent a thrill coursing through my body. I'd never dared to dream that this day would come, that I'd ever find my soulfinder, or that she'd ever find me. Now that it had happened, I could hardly believe it.
Reluctantly, Thea pulled back, breathing raggedly. "Focus," she muttered, and I couldn't tell if she was talking to me or herself.
"I was focused," I replied with a smirk. "On the only thing that matters."
She flushed. "I meant the others. Where's Grace? I want to meet her properly."
"And you might be the first person to admit that out loud," I grimaced at her. She frowned at me indignantly, punching my shoulder gently. I laughed lightly. "What? Even Zed never said that, and he's her soulfinder."
"Really?" she breathed, her eyes wide and shining happily. "Grace has her soulfinder?" I couldn't help smiling back, holding her tightly against me.
"Are you always this caring about everyone?"
She pulled a face. "What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing," I answered with a grin. "Come on. Grace is waiting out here." Thea beamed, slipping one of her hands into mine as I pulled the door open and stepped out in the hall. But, instead of the pleasant greeting Thea was expecting, she got something very different.
Grace was pacing anxiously in the hallway, her eyebrows tight in concentration, an expression I'd only ever seen when she was trying to use her ability. Around her, Trace, Yves, Xav and Karla were watching her worriedly, like they were all trying to muster the courage to talk to her but couldn't find the right words. I hesitated in the doorway, pulling Thea behind me slightly. As sure as I was that Grace would never hurt anyone here, this side of her was something entirely new to Thea and I wouldn't blame her in the slightest for being a little cautious.
"I don't care if he's sleeping, Yves, try again!" Grace was snapping.
Trying his best to keep his temper, Yves sighed heavily. "Grace, he isn't answering. He's had four hours sleep, he's probably fine."
"Probably?" she repeated, pausing to look at him with a scowl. "And since when was that ever good enough?" The Benedicts shifted, exchanging concerned looks.
"Okay," I interrupted slowly before Yves could snap back. "What's going on?"
Beside them, Trace took a deep breath and frowned at Thea and me. "Grace seems to think Zed is in trouble," he told us in a measured tone. "Victor left a few minutes ago, Dad left hours ago to talk to Will and Uriel, and no one can get hold of Zed."
"He's ignoring me," Grace frowned at me. "He never ignores me."
"Grace, give the guy a break, he's tired," I breathed at her, a little wide eyed. "You can't blame him for wanting some sleep."
"Oh for Christ sake, will someone please listen to me?" she as good as shrieked, dangerously close to losing it altogether. "He's been trying to get me to talk to him for months, and now I am, he's always in my mind, like he's worried that if he leaves I'll never let him back in. But now he's not there, and he's blocking me out. Something's wrong, Alex, I know it is!"
No one spoke for a minute or two, and I could tell the Benedicts were trying to work out if that sounded right for Zed. Thea, on the other hand, ignored everyone else entirely and stepped around me with a small frown, her hand slipping out of mine as she moved closer to Grace. I took a breath to argue, but she wasn't paying attention.
"We're going back to the house anyway," she pointed out calmly, and Grace frowned at her, obviously unsure of how to respond. "If there's something wrong-"
I scowled, snorting before I could stop myself. "If there's something wrong at the house-"
"Then stay with her and give me the keys," Grace interrupted impatiently, suddenly back in her element.
"Grace," Karla Benedict started in the background, her concern mounting.
"I'm going back to that house, Karla," she frowned back. "Now. With or without any help."
"I'll come," Xav and Yves immediately volunteered, the two of them stepping forward and straightening out. "If you're really convinced he's in trouble, we're there," Xav added, for once perfectly serious.
"Then we'll all go," Thea shrugged, nudging me sharply with a pointed look. "No one's stay here, after all."
I didn't like the thought of taking Thea anywhere the house. I wasn't sure Grace was thinking straight, but there was a chance she was right, and I wasn't prepared to take Thea near all that. But trying to convince her to go back to the Benedicts house with Karla – who'd already received sharp instructions from Trace to head back to Saul – was useless.
The ride back was awful. Grace refused to sit in a car with me and Thea, so she ended up in the Benedicts Jeep, sat upfront with Trace in utter silence. In one way, I was glad I didn't have to navigate through any sort of conversation with her while she was like that. In another, I hated the thought she'd already turned her back on Thea when she'd already admitted she was one of the few people my soulfinder trusted.
"Relax, Alex," Thea insisted softly from beside me.
My expression had set into a deep frown, my hands tight around the steering wheel. "I'm fine," I lied quietly.
"No, you aren't. You're annoyed Grace hasn't said two words to me." I cast her a sideways glance, and her cheeks flushed. "The barriers around your mind are very flimsy, I'm sorry."
"Don't be," I dismissed.
Her lips pursed. "You can't blame Grace for being like this, you know. She's worried, that's all. When she was talking to me back at the stables, she had to let me inside her mind to talk telepathically, and she let me see a lot she's never trusted anyone with, including her soulfinder, to earn my trust. I know she can be a little abrupt at times, but I also know she's a very nice girl. She'd do anything to keep Zed safe."
My lips twitched, my hand stretching to take one of hers tightly. "You're amazing, you know that?" She flushed. "And I know exactly why she's behaving like this, that's what I'm worried about."
Thea frowned, puzzled. "I don't understand."
Hesitating only a moment, I sighed heavily. "She spent weeks avoiding Zed because she thought he'd be in danger if he was around us," I told her, and having already listened to me explain very carefully about the dangers of being associated to my sister and I, Thea nodded with a careful frown. "In that time, she almost broke under the strain. If something has happened to Zed, this quickly after she's let him in, she will break. I know she will, and I don't know whether that will mean she gives in and shuts herself in her room, or . . ."
Thea sighed. "Or whether she'll end up like your father?" It was a question I didn't need to answer. I knew I'd never be able to bring myself to say it out loud, but that was exactly what I was scared would happen. With the ability to turn back time, Grace could get away with just about anything if she wanted to, and no one would be any the wiser to it all. She'd proved that much already, having broken the law multiple times without any record of it. If she broke like that, she had the potential of being just as bad as Matthews. The worst part was, I knew he'd love every second of it.
Trace's car pulled up just ahead of ours, and I'd barely drawn to a halt when Grace was leaping out of the front car. She managed to take all of a few steps before her face fell in horror. With an impending sense of doom, I followed her gaze and cursed loudly, slowly climbing out of the car. Around us, the neighbours were all lingering with horrified, curious expressions, pointing and whispering. In front of us, the front door was hanging off its hinges and the window had been smashed.
"Oh my," Thea breathed, her eyes shining as she came to a halt beside me. The Benedict brothers didn't look any better, already sure their brother was gone. Yves's fists were clenched furiously at his sides, Xav stared at the house with an unreadable expression, and Trace was already on the phone to Victor.
Grace didn't even turn to acknowledge us. Instead, she took a ragged breath and started forward. "Stay here," I muttered sideways at Thea, and she pursed her lips, nodding at me.
Be careful, she insisted internally. I squeezed her hand in response, moving to follow Grace in determination.
Inside was even worse than out. The living room had been turned over, the coffee table broken in half and the sofa ripped and torn. The kitchen wasn't any better, and the back door completely missing. Zed's shirt was still lay across the floor.
"Grace," I started slowly. She didn't turn, standing a few paces in front of me, completely motionless. "Grace, say something."
She sniffed, taking another shaky breath. "Like what?" she managed, her voice hoarse. "Like I should have stayed here? Like I knew there was something wrong and I still left him alone?"
I flinched. "There's nothing you could have done," I muttered back.
She scoffed darkly. "Don't lie, Alex, I can turn back time."
There was silence for a moment, in which I was starting to think I'd never be able to save my sister from Matthews. Then she turned to face me, her entire body shaking and her eyes brimmed with tears. A lump formed in my throat, my eyes narrowing furiously. No one had managed to do this to my sister in a long time. When I found whoever had taken Zed . . .
"He's gone, Jacks," she breathed raggedly through her tears. "And it's my fault."
My face fell, my heart hammering. She hadn't called me Jacks since we were eleven years old. Jackson had been my real name, Alexander being a name our grandmother had chosen for me when we'd first met her. Back then, Grace had been Olivia, and she was a very different person, completely unable to take care of herself, barely more than a little kid. Now, seeing her like that again, made my eyebrows tightened protectively.
"We're going to get him back, Livy," I replied quietly, stepping forward and pulling her into a tight hug. Immediately, her tears soaked my shoulder. "I promise."
Looking at her, we didn't have much of a choice.