Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
My lips turned up in a shaky smile. “Oh no. My Variation doesn’t work that way. I don’t feel anything when I touch animals. My body definitely doesn’t absorb their data. It only works on other humans.”
“Why do you think that is?” Devon asked, his shoulders losing some of their tension.
“I assume that absorbing another species’ data is unnatural.”
“As opposed to turning into another human being?”
I glanced at Devon’s face to make sure that he hadn’t said it with resentment but he gave nothing away.
“I know it seems wrong,” I said quietly.
Devon shook his head. “No, it’s not. I didn’t want to make you feel bad. We can’t help our Variations. It’s not perfectly normal to be able to heal people. I know that.”
“Yeah, normal’s got nothing to do with us,” I joked. Devon leaned back in his seat, the last of his tension disappearing from his body. “But honestly, I definitely can’t turn into an animal. I’ve tried.”
“You have?” Devon’s eyes flashed to mine, filled with curiosity. “Let me guess: a cute little puppy.”
I snorted. “Hell no. You couldn’t be further from the truth.” I raised my eyebrows in a silent challenge.
Devon flexed his arms. “I like a good challenge.” He ran his eyes over me like that would give him a clue.
Did I resemble any kind of animal? If he said hippo or hyena, I’d kick his ass. I felt my neck flush with red when his gaze hovered on me much longer than it should.
“A sloth.”
“Now you’re trying to insult me,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. Dimples flashed on his cheeks.
“Hand on my heart. I’d never do something like that.” But I could see from the look on his face that he was looking for an animal that would really make me crazy.
“A spider,” he guessed. Expectation flickered on his face. Did he think I’d start screaming like a little girl?
“Nope. I think my body would implode if I tried to turn myself into something that small.”
He frowned. “Aren’t you afraid of spiders?”
“Why would I be? Except for a few species, they’re perfectly harmless. They can’t hurt me.”
“I know,” he said. “But most girls are scared of them. What about bugs in general?”
I shook my head.
“Centipedes?”
I shook my head, suppressing a grin.
“Cockroaches?”
I shook my head again.
He hit the steering wheel with his palm. “Oh come on. There has to be something you’re terrified of!”
There were plenty of things I was terrified of. But creepy-crawlies weren’t one of them. There were worse things in this world than vermin with eight legs and four eyes. But I wasn’t going to tell Devon that or the light mood would go up in flames.
“Sorry. It looks like I’m a freak in more than one way.”
“Actually, I think it’s kind of cool,” Devon said. “So will you tell me now?”
“A chameleon.”
“That’s it? But with your Variation you’re practically a chameleon.”
“Not really. A chameleon can adapt to the color of its surroundings. It can blend in. That was something I never managed.”
“But you seemed to blend in just fine in Livingston,” he said.
And I realized he was right.
We’d been on the road for more than eight hours, when Devon pulled the car into a small rest area surrounded by forest. Dusk was turning our surroundings gray. He parked the car in a tree-covered spot that was shielded from view and we got out of the truck’s cab. Despite it being spring, the evenings and nights were icy. I pulled on my winter jacket as I scrambled onto the bed of the truck. Devon swung himself up beside me and together we pitched the tent, so we’d be protected from wind and weather. We crawled into our sleeping bags. The inside of the tent smelled like the great outdoors—reminiscent of bonfires and mold. My nose began tingling.
There wasn’t much room in the tent, so Devon and I sat pressed against each other. “Do you think it’ll be freezing tonight?” I whispered. It would have felt wrong to say anything else aloud.
Devon zipped the sleeping bag up to his chest and turned on the flashlight. Behind the thin material of the tent, I could see that the last sunrays had disappeared. “It might be, but these sleeping bags withstand temperatures far below the freezing point. We’ll be fine.”
I nodded. With Devon’s side pressed against mine, his body warmth creeping into me, I knew we would be. “So you grew up in Detroit?” Devon asked.
“Not really. I grew up in a lot of places,” I said.
Devon’s eyes searched my face and after a moment he nodded as if he understood but I doubted that was the case.
“So what about your mother, if she’s a Variant as you said, is it possible that she could take on other appearances like you do?”
The red stamps saying “volatile” flashed up in my mind. There was so much I didn’t know about my mother. I knew more facts about Devon’s family than I did about my own. “Her Variation is regeneration. I don’t think that entails changing into other people. I think she can just make her cells renew themselves, so she looks young again.”