ONE

Anya’s hand hovered above an injured cardinal on the table while she fixed her eyes on a plant next to it. Adhesives stuck to her temples, sending data of her brainwaves to her uncle’s computer across the room.

“Focus on his broken wing,” her uncle said as he watched the data on the screen.

Anya could feel the life of the plant coursing through her body, then her palm began to glow a bright white above the bird. Sweat slid down her face as her healing ability slowly drained her energy. The bird’s wing twitched, and Anya smiled. She wasn’t surprised that it was working, but the act of healing a living thing never ceased to amaze her.

“Wait for it,” her uncle said with bated breath.

The bird’s wing twitched again, then began to flap uncontrollably. The plant next to her uncle withered and he jumped up from his chair, punching a fist in the air.

“And there it is! Yes, it worked!”

Anya scooped the bird into her hands while her uncle inspected the plant.

“How did that feel?” he asked, looking at Anya with wide eyes.

“Strange,” she replied, caressing the little bird’s head with her index finger. “To use another source of life other than my own feels...foreign.”

“That’s the whole point, sweetheart,” her uncle said. “If you can use another source of life when healing, then you won’t drain as much, or as fast.”

“Here…” Anya handed her uncle the bird, then reached for her bookbag and swung it over her shoulder. “I have to get to school.”

“Flawless,” her uncle muttered as he inspected the bird’s wing. He stared in amazement, even after witnessing her healing powers for seventeen years. Although, they’d only been gathering data in the basement for five of those years.

Anya stared at the dead plant for a moment. Her uncle might’ve considered it a breakthrough, but to Anya, she still killed the plant. There was no way around it. The only way to use her healing ability was to suck the life out of something else. And if there was no other living thing around, it would suck the life out of her.

Anya let out a long breath, wiping the sweat from her forehead. Her uncle noticed and his smile faded.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “Do you need me to get an IV bag?”

“No, I’m fine,” she assured him. The IV bag was usually needed when she used her own energy to heal. Having absorbed the life of the plant didn’t take as much of a toll on her body. “I don’t want to be late for school.”

“Are you sure?” He placed the little bird inside a cage, then turned to face her. “We could just do half a bag. Anya, you have to--”

“Rehydrate every time I use my powers. I know.” She grabbed a water bottle from the table and lifted it in the air. “How’s this for a compromise?”

He furrowed his brows, giving her a pointed look. “Just because you’re getting stronger, doesn’t mean you should lower your guard. Pushing yourself beyond your limit could kill you.”

She downed the water, then wiped her lips with the back of her hand. “It was just a bird’s wing, Uncle Evan. Although, I gotta say…” She pointed to the withered plant. “The blanket flower didn’t give out as much energy. The cactus has given me the most so far.”

“Actually…” Her uncle lifted a finger, then motioned for her to follow him back to his computer. “I’ve been looking into pulling energy from an artificial source as opposed to taking from other living things.”

Anya’s eyes widened. “So, instead of taking the life out of something, my powers could be fueled on energy? Is that even possible?”

“I don’t know,” he confessed. “But that’s what I’ve been working on.”

Anya followed her uncle’s gaze to the computer. An image of her brain lit up in multiple colors filled the screen. He’d explained several times what it all meant, but she could never manage to remember. Whatever it was, he seemed pleased with the results.

The sound of footsteps came from upstairs, and Anya looked up at the ceiling. “Rowan’s up.”

“Would you mind driving your brother to school?” her uncle asked. “I want to study this data a little more while it’s still fresh in my mind.”

“Let me know if there are any more updates,” she said, heading toward the stairs. She took two steps at a time until she reached the top. She pushed the door open and quickly closed it behind her. The secret entrance to the basement and her uncle’s lab looked like nothing more than a bookshelf. A place her nine-year-old brother wouldn’t easily find.

Rowan was sitting on a stool at the kitchen island, pouring himself a bowl of cereal.

“Don’t make a mess,” Anya warned him as she walked to the fridge for the milk. She placed the container on the counter, and her eyes landed on a large scrape on his knee. “What happened?”

He glanced at it as if it was no big deal, then shrugged. “I fell outside yesterday while playing with Jonah. His mom gave me a Band-Aid, but it fell off while I was sleeping.”

Jonah was the kid next door, and for a moment, Anya felt relieved that her little brother was not anomalous. Otherwise, the blood stain surrounding the scrape would have turned black. No doubt the neighbors would freak out and call an ambulance. His blood would be drawn, experts would be called in, and before long, her brother would have mysteriously disappeared from the hospital. Probably to a governmental blacksite to be dissected like a biology frog.

It was almost impossible to tell who knew about the anomalous kind, but in hospitals, someone was always on the lookout for the strange blood results. A simple blood sugar meter reading could reveal their anomalous nature.

Unlike ordinary humans, anomalous’ blood sugar ran so high, any doctor would be shocked they’re even conscious. It also explained why they drained and became lightheaded after using their powers. The blood sugar would drop, and if pushed too hard, it could fall to an almost comatose level.

But Anya didn’t have to worry about Rowan because he wasn’t anomalous. Not anymore. He was drained of his powers by a powerful anomalous named Sage. Anya wasn’t sure of all the details, except that it had to be done to save his life. Unlike Anya’s healing ability, Rowan’s powers had been deadly. Anya never told him any of it, for his protection. She didn’t want him to ever discover that he was responsible for their parents’ death.

“How many times do I have to tell you?” Anya said, rummaging through the kitchen counter for Neosporin and a Band-Aid. “When you hurt yourself, you gotta come to me so I can put the healing cream on your wound.”

She sat next to him, propped his leg on her lap, and gently rubbed the cream on his cut.

“Finish your cereal,” she said, hoping he would look away long enough for her to heal him. He didn’t know about her ability. No nine-year-old should have to carry the burden of a secret so big.

Power zapped through her fingers, making him jump. Milk spilled on his shirt, but before he could glance at what she had done, she covered it with the large Band-Aid.

“It’s going to sting for a little while, but it should be healed by the end of the day,” she said, flashing him a smile. “Now, go change your shirt so we can go. I still have to pick up Chloe and Zane on the way to school.”

A knock came from the front door, and Anya went to answer it. She opened the door to find Jonah’s mother. Her curly red hair pulled back in a bun.

“I was just on my way to drop Jonah off at school,” she said with a neighborly smile. “If you want, I can take Rowan and the boys can ride together.”

“Oh, can I, Anya, please?” Rowan ran from the kitchen and tugged at her shirt. “Please, please, please?”

“Alright, fine.” She ruffled his hair and he beamed. “But go change your shirt. Stat.”

He rushed up the stairs, and Anya turned to the neighbor. “Thanks for offering. He enjoys playing with Jonah.”

The redhead waved it off like it was no big deal, but then she stared at Anya with inquisitive eyes. “Can I ask you something?”

Anya never liked any question that required permission. More often than not, they always crossed some sort of line. Still, she didn’t want to be rude. “Shoot.”

“The other day, Jonah got a cut on his hand and Rowan told him about a healing cream you use?”

“Oh, it’s just what I call it,” Anya replied, waving it off. “It’s Neosporin. You can get it over the counter.”

The neighbor nodded, but the quizzical look didn’t vanish. “It’s just that Rowan fell and scraped his hands on the pavement last week and the next day...it was gone.”

Anya stared at the redhead, not knowing what to say. She hadn’t realized the neighbor had been paying so much attention to her brother’s injuries. Although, it wasn’t surprising. The woman was huge on the neighborhood watch.

“I soaked it in some Epsom salt, I think.” Anya glanced over her shoulder. “Rowan, hurry up!”

“You must share these home remedies,” the redhead replied. “They seem to be quite miraculous.”

“Rowan!” Anya turned to the neighbor again and forced a smile. “No miracle. Just science. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to make sure he doesn’t forget his lunch.”

“Right, of course.” She let out a chuckle, then stepped back. “Just have him meet me at my car.”

“Perfect.” Anya closed the door just as Rowan was coming down the stairs.

“Ready!” Rowan jumped down the last few steps, landing right in front of his sister. He flashed her a proud smile as if that was the largest gap he’d jumped that morning.

“You need to quit it,” she said, giving him a stern look. “No more getting hurt, you hear me? No more scrapes, or cuts, or blood of any kind.”

“I don’t get hurt on purpose,” he whined.

“I know you don’t, but…”

What on earth could she possibly say to help him understand how dangerous it was for her?

“You know what, never mind,” she said. “Just go get your lunch. It’s in the fridge.”

As Rowan ran to the kitchen, Anya let out a long breath. Even though she was glad that he could be a normal child with nothing to hide, she could never drop her guard.

Not even in her own home.

After buying food from the school cafeteria, Anya and Chloe walked to the courtyard to eat their lunch outside. They weren’t surprised to find Zane sitting at one of the circular tables with his face buried in a book. He picked the table under the shade of a tree because he hated the sun. He didn’t want his dark skin to turn any darker.

“There you are,” Chloe called out as she approached him with her blonde pixie hair spiked into a punk hairstyle. “Where’s your food?”

He ran a hand over his buzzed black hair and shook his head as if his brain was just then processing the real world. “I came to save our seat and totally lost track of time.”

“This is how people become workaholics, you know?” Chloe playfully nudged him to scoot over. “Here, Einstein, you can have my apple.”

Anya sat across from them and tossed him her bag of chips.

“Thanks.” He opened the bag and shoved a handful into his mouth. “So, how are you feeling?”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Okay, we are not doing this.”

“Doing what?” Zane asked.

“This.” She poked the crease between his brows. “The worry. I want none of that, you hear me? So, I have seizures sometimes. It’s no big deal, so there’s no reason to freak out. Got it? Now, let’s talk about something else.”

“Fine.” Zane grabbed another handful of chips and shoved it in his mouth. “Have you girls seen Garin around?” he asked with his mouth full.

Chloe’s brows squished together. “Garin, who?”

“He’s a kid from my chemistry class,” Zane said. “We were made lab partners, but he hasn’t been in school in over a week.”

“Since when do you need a partner to finish your homework?” Chloe teased.

“I don’t, but it’s just strange that he would disappear like that. I tried calling and texting, but...nothing. I even rode my bike by his house, and it was empty. It’s like he vanished.”

“So, he moved,” Chloe said with an unconcerned shrug. “What’s the big deal?”

“He never told me he was moving,” Zane pressed, only to get a pointed look from Chloe.

“Zane, do you know how many times my mother’s been evicted?”

It was obviously a rhetorical question. Even though they didn’t know Chloe’s mother personally, because she lived in the city, they’d heard enough stories about her irresponsible nature.

“All I’m saying is that sometimes our parents can make decisions without even considering what’s best for us,” Chloe continued. “Maybe your friend Garin never wanted to leave, but hey, he’s a minor, so...sucks for him.”

When Chloe went back to eating her food, Zane looked at Anya. He didn’t have to say anything. She knew Chloe was no longer referring to Garin, but instead to how her mother decided to leave New Mexico without telling Sheriff Weiss she was pregnant. He had no idea he had a daughter until Chloe reached out to him at the age of thirteen.

“So, will you be going to New York for the summer again?” Anya asked. Chloe spent the school year with her father and the summers with her mother. It made sense, considering her father was more stable, and her mother loved to party.

“Not this year,” Chloe replied with renewed enthusiasm.

“Really?” Anya liked the thought of having her best friend for the summer. “We should go on a road trip or something. I mean, it’s our senior year and who knows where we’ll all end up after graduation, right?”

“Actually...” Chloe bit her bottom lip. “I was hoping to spend as much time as I can helping my dad at the station.”

“Why would you want to do that?” Zane asked, giving her a quizzical look.

“If I’m going to be a good journalist, I need to go where the stories are,” she said as if it were obvious. “Remember last year when I started that blog online using some leaks from the station? Well, I got tagged by Lana Cooper from Warm Springs Daily, and since then, she’s been publishing many of my articles under her name.”

“So, she takes credit for your stories?” Anya asked. “That doesn’t seem fair.”

“Only because I’m still a minor, but that’s not the point.” Chloe waved it off. “The point is, she’s been invited to write for the New Mexico journal.”

Zane cocked his head, confused. “So...she’s a fraud?”

Chloe rolled her eyes as she let out a frustrated grunt. “You guys are not seeing the big picture here!”

“Okay, let me see if I understand,” Anya said. “So, because Lana was promoted using your articles, you feel like there’s hope for you in a big shot paper.”

“Exactly!”

“Except, you can’t necessarily include them on your resume,” Anya added. “Lana published under her name, which means she used you as an informant, not a co-writer. And she’s already reputable, which also means she can afford to keep her informant anonymous, but you…” She gave her friend an apologetic look. She hated bursting Chloe’s bubble. “You have a lot of ground to cover. If you want to make it into a big shot paper, you’re going to have to start from scratch.”

“But there’s still hope!” Zane cut in with an encouraging smile. “If she did it using your articles, you can too. It might take longer, but that’s where hope comes in.”

Chloe shrugged, slightly deflated. “Yeah, I guess. Either way, even an online blog is more exciting than serving coffee.”

“If you hate it so much, you could’ve applied at the yogurt shop,” Anya teased.

“And miss out working with my bestie?” Chloe flashed Anya a playful grin. “Never. There’s just so little to do in this town.”

Anya liked Warm Springs. The population was about forty-seven thousand, which was pretty small overall, but there was plenty to do without all the traffic. Although from New York City, it made sense that Chloe would notice a much bigger difference.

“Speaking of which, do you girls work today?” Zane asked. “I need to go downtown and get some more books from the library.”

“What’s wrong with the school library?” Chloe asked.

“They don’t have the books I’m looking for. So, how about it?” Zane asked. “Wanna tag along?”

“Count me in,” Chloe said with a grin. “Anya, on the other hand, has gone completely mad and asked for extra shifts.”

Anya looked down at what was left of her chicken pot pie. She didn’t want to go into why she needed the extra money.

“So, what have you been reading lately?” she asked Zane, hoping to change the subject.

“DNA altering.”

Anya choked on her food, and both Zane and Chloe stared at her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Zane placed a bookmark between the pages of the book he’d been reading. The word DNA was in bold yellow colors on the cover. Anya couldn’t make out anything else from the title.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Anya said, clearing her throat. “It went down the wrong pipe.”

“What class is that for?” Chloe asked in between bites.

“No class. Just fun reading. Which reminds me,” he said, leaning in as if about to tell a secret, “I read the coolest thing online the other day. There have actually been cases of altered DNA giving people extraordinary abilities.”

Anya kept her eyes glued to her food tray. Even though the food was gone, she picked at the crumbs left behind.

“What kind of abilities are we talking about?” Chloe asked, with her mouth full. “Superman? Batman?”

“First of all, Superman was an alien,” Zane clarified. “And Batman was just really skilled at fighting. He had no powers.”

Chloe arched her brow. “What shows have you been binging lately?”

“I’m serious,” he said, giving her a pointed look. “Remember that news report five years ago about that group of kids at the fair in Texas? One person said they saw a kid flying!”

“Are you sure this isn’t those sci-fi shows messing with your head?” Chloe teased, getting a light chuckle from Anya.

But behind the smile, Anya’s heart was racing.

Zane wasn’t wrong. Those kids from the fair in Texas were anomalous, her uncle told her about them. She also knew for a fact that altered DNA could give a person extraordinary abilities. She was living proof of that. Except no one knew about her kind other than the trackers, a specialized task force formed to hunt them down. Their sole purpose was to capture any anomalous and take them to a lab to be experimented on.

“You keep mocking me,” Zane spoke over Chloe who was laughing about something Anya didn’t quite catch. “But one day, I will prove my theory of altered DNA and you will eat your jokes.”

“Altered DNA, huh?” A young man with long black hair tied in a bun approached. His group of friends trailed behind him.

Killian was one of the seniors who’d been recruited last year to spend the summer in military training. To most people, it just seemed like part of a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps class, also known as ROTC, but Anya knew better. A few years ago, the government approved a special ops task force of trackers to hunt down the anomalous kind. Lately, recruits were being taken from ROTC classes from high schools. Perhaps the task force realized kids were worse at hiding their powers than adults, making them easier to catch. Not all students from the class were chosen to go, and the selected few that would return, came back more guarded. As if aware of new threats. The way their eyes roamed about the other students as if looking for something hidden, something no one else knew was there.

“So, tell me...” Killian said, sitting on the table next to Zane. “Why the interest in altered DNA?”

Zane’s eyes shot open, and although his mouth opened, he seemed too stunned to respond.

“So, he likes science,” Chloe cut in with an edge in her voice. “Is that a crime?”

Killian’s dark eyes never left Zane. “Get up.”

Zane’s small shoulders hunched, and Anya looked back at her tray. She couldn’t afford for Killian to target her.

“I said get up.” Killian grabbed Zane by his shirt and pulled him to his feet, which wasn’t difficult seeing that Zane didn’t weigh more than a ten-year-old. “Now, answer me. What’s with the interest?”

Chloe jumped to her feet and put her hands on her hips. “Let him go!”

“Not until he answers my question,” Killian said, shooting her a glare.

Zane lifted his hands, innocently. “I really just like physics.”

“Is that right?”

Before Zane could say anything else, Killian pulled something out of his pocket and made a small cut on Zane’s palm. Zane yelped as the smell of blood filled the air.

Anya jumped to her feet, horrified. That was when Anya recognized the device in Killian’s hand. It was a blood sugar meter. He touched the tip of the strip in Zane’s blood, then watched the screen. When the device beeped, Killian’s expression fell, just as if his football team had lost.

“You jerk!” Chloe yelled, balling her fists. “What is wrong with you?”

“With me?” Killian turned to give Chloe an innocent look. “It’s not my fault your friend here is clumsy. I mean, all I saw was him falling and cutting his hand. Isn’t that right, guys?”

His group of friends chuckled, and Chloe’s glare intensified. Anya looked away and closed her eyes. As much as she wanted to stand up for Zane and Chloe, she couldn’t give Killian a reason to take her blood sample.

“Killian.”

A thunderous voice came from behind the group and Anya turned around. Tristan Grant approached with a stern expression. She’d known Tristan since middle school. They’ve had many classes together over the years, but they had never been friends. He was quiet and mostly kept to himself, but when he did hang out with other people, it was always the same group since he was twelve. She hadn’t seen Tristan since the year before, when he was recruited to the summer camp. He seemed to have been the only one who was gone for most of the year. Anya wasn’t surprised. His father took the lead in the tracker training, according to her uncle. Tristan’s mother was a biochemist who worked with a team of scientists who experimented on anomalous.

As Tristan pushed through the group, Anya watched to see if anything about him had changed. His hair was a lot shorter, though still the same light brown color. His shoulders were a lot broader, as if he’d spent all year working out. When he stopped in front of Killian, he seemed a lot stronger than she’d remembered. The angry line between his brows was also new.

“Let him go.”

Killian grabbed Zane by the back of his neck and pulled him closer. “Good news,” he said in a low tone. “You’re not diabetic.” He spoke the latter as if it were a code word for something.

Zane looked at him, confused, but Anya knew what Killian was looking for.

“Don’t make me say it again,” Tristan said.

He spoke with such authority, Anya wondered if there were ranks among the trackers somehow.

Killian flashed Tristan a wicked smile, then pushed Zane away. He stumbled back and crashed into Chloe.

The stare down between Killian and Tristan lasted a few seconds, then Killian turned around and walked away. Zane’s eyes widened like a deer in the headlights as he held his wrist, blood still dripping from his hand.

Tristan let out a long sigh as he stepped toward Zane.

“Here…” Tristan ripped off part of his long-sleeved shirt with one hard pull and wrapped it around Zane’s hand. “Keep your fist tight and go to the clinic.”

“What’s going on here?” one of the teachers approached. When they spotted Zane’s bleeding hand, they gasped. “What happened?”

Zane lifted his eyes toward Tristan and chewed on his lip for a moment. “I fell.”

Tristan shoved his hands into his pocket and backed away.

“Go see the nurse, now,” the teacher urged before turning around to the crowd of students that had gathered. “Nothing to see here. Go on to class.”

“Come on. I’ll walk you to the clinic,” Chloe said, reaching for his book.

Anya stared at Zane’s hand. The blood seeped through the dark fabric, calling to her. All she needed to do was touch his wound. The burning would fade, the pain would disappear, and he would be fully healed.

But she couldn’t.

She balled her fists hard, forcing herself to stand still. If Killian saw Zane’s hand healed in a matter of minutes, she wouldn’t put it past him to go on a cutting spree around the school, starting with her and Chloe. And he would get away with it because Tristan’s father always knew how to get the tracker boys out of trouble.

“Anya, are you coming?” Chloe asked, ripping Anya’s attention from Zane’s bloody hand.

“Uh, I can’t.” She shook her head, her fists still clenched. “I can’t be late for class.”

Chloe gave her friend a puzzled look. “You’re never late for class.”

Anya lowered her eyes and grabbed her backpack from the table. “I have to go.”

She turned on her heels and hurried away as fast as she could. Away from her friends. Away from the strong temptation to use her healing powers.