Kylie was busying herself using an old palm leaf to dust a clean spot next to the relatively glass-free cement wall and motioned for Evan to sit beside her. He paced in front of her instead.
“Just start at the beginning, Evan. I’m all ears.” Kylie’s large green eyes looked up sincerely into his troubled face. She had pulled her long jean-clad legs up to her chin and wrapped her arms gracefully around her knees. Her head tipped to the side as she gave the troubled boy time to gather his thoughts.
“Listen, my brother and sister and I are—different,” he forced himself to start. “We were test subjects in this cruel scientist’s plan to create humans who were more.”
“More what?” she asked.
“More. Stronger, smarter, faster, quicker to heal—just more.” He sighed deeply and risked a glance at Kylie’s expression expecting an incredulous look at best. All he saw on her wide expressive eyes was curiosity.
“Dr. Williams, that’s his name, he injected us with a compound he called the ‘Infinite Serum’ and waited to see if it would kill us like it had all the prior human test subjects. Only we survived. He called us ‘metahumans’.” Evan couldn’t stop to look at her for fear he would see disbelief or worse, loathing in her beautiful face. So he just kept talking.
“Our mother was a scientist where Williams was carrying out these experiments. When she found out about us, she stole us away from him and raised us as her own in secret.”
“Wow. Well, are you?”
“Am I what?”
“More?”
“Oh, that. Yeah. I guess you could say I am. We all are.”
Evan’s shoulders relaxed when he saw Kylie’s facial expression remained that of curiosity.
Maybe she will understand, he dared to think.
“There’s more,” Evan tried not to flinch at his thoughts.
“Tell me,” she said calmly.
“My mom taught us to fight. She is a former special ops soldier, so she had this whole background before she focused on her work as a scientist.”
“She sounds like quite a woman, your mom.”
“She is,” he nodded, feeling a sense of pride for his mom.
“We didn’t know how different we were, Alik, Meg and I. We were raised separately from the world on a secluded ranch in Texas. It wasn’t until Mom was captured by—wow, Kylie this is a long story. Are you sure you want to hear it?”
“It’s about you and your family. Of course I want to hear it so I can better understand you.”
Evan watched her face and felt his heart clench in his chest. He moved to sit beside her on the cement step and leaned back against the cool wall behind him appreciating the quiet of the place. Evan was trying hard to stay neutral about the girl who felt like a tonic to his soul sitting beside him in the quickly darkening building.
“Tell me what happened to you and your siblings, Evan.” Kylie prompted. Her green eyes were wide with innocence. Evan hesitated at the thought that he was about to take away Kylie’s sweet naiveté.
“Kylie, I’m not sure this is a good idea.”
“Why?”
“Because my truths are scary enough to shake the most jaded souls. Your sweet and simple life would likely be changed forever.”
“Listen here, Evan Winter. I’m not a Faberge egg. We’ve never talked about my life—I mean my mother. She—left some pretty deep scars on my heart. I’m not without my own history of betrayal and tragedy. So don’t worry about shattering my innocence; my past already did that years ago.”
Evan had never seen Kylie’s face harden with anger before. For a moment, she looked unrecognizable. Not for the first time, Evan wished he had Meg’s gift of empathy. All he wanted to do was take away even just an ounce of the weighted pain pressing into her darkened face—just to see inside her mind and understand her.
“I’m so sorry,” Evan said earnestly.
“Don’t be,” Kylie waved her hand dismissively. “Just trust me to handle whatever you’re about to say.”
“Okay.” He breathed deeply and rubbed his hands on his jeans. “Remember me mentioning my mom stealing us away from that sick scientist? Williams?”
“Yes,” she nodded, watching his body language as much as she listened to his words.
“Well, he wasn’t done with us. He spent years hunting us. Everything changed when we were found.”
Evan sprang to his feet and began pacing again as he summarized the last eighteen months as concisely as possible. His boots crunched the occasional shard of glass against the cement below. The temperature was dropping quickly. Light jackets perfect for the day were feeling feeble against the autumn night air. Kylie rubbed her shoulders to stay warm. Without a pause in his retelling, Evan removed his jacket and draped the leather over her shoulders.
His handsome scent lingered on the material, briefly distracting Kylie. She slipped her arms into his still-warm coat and doubled her effort to focus on his story.