Gifted Connections: Book 3

by SM Olivier

  She got over confident and cocky. I could see it in her expression. She was already giving herself the victory, but I wasn’t going to give it to her that easily. I came at her with several kicks she wasn’t expecting. I landed four of them and chased her out of the ring for the last one. She screamed a curse when she realized she had stepped out of the ring. Now she was angry.

  She advanced toward me as the whistle blew. I dropped my hands and went to go to my ‘corner’ once more. I never expected the punch to my temple as I turned away. I gasped as I leaned forward. Bright white stars were all I saw behind my closed eyelids.

  “Adams needs to be DQ’d!” Remy barked out in the stunned silence that followed.

  “What?” I could hear Adams say in a loud high-pitched voice. I could hear her attempt at an innocent tone. “I never heard the whistle blow.”

  “I didn’t blow it that loud,” Bradford added. I dropped my empath barriers, and I could feel the self-satisfaction rolling off them. Bradford had smugness emanating off him, and Adams was ecstatic. They were playing dirty.

  “Its fine,” I gritted between clenched teeth as I felt two pairs of strong hands lead me off the mat. “Let’s finish this.”

  “I’ll give you an extra minute,” Henderson stated, his voice full of concern. “Are you sure you want to continue?”

  I nodded wincing at the pain that followed the motion. “Yeah.”

  “Open those green eyes, beautiful,” Noah whispered as he laid a hand against my temple.

  I felt the instant relief as I opened my eyes and saw Drake and Noah had walked me off the mats. “Thanks,” I smiled.

  “Stupid bitch,” Jemmy muttered. She was so protective of us, and I loved her for it.

  All my connections and the rest of my friends crowded around me. I gave them an appreciative smile. We had grown even closer since arriving here.

  “She’s tired and pissed,” Troy said anger still in his eyes. “She knows you’re beating her.”

  I turned and looked at the score boards and saw I was leading by one point. I could see Henderson and Bradford in a heated debate as three more points were taken off the board. Adams exclaimed in outrage, but her friends didn’t seem to be terribly sympathetic, especially the guys in her group. They knew she had intentionally thrown that cheap shot. Even if she hadn’t heard the whistle, I had dropped my hands and was walking off the mats.

  “You’re leading by four now,” Jace said in a satisfied tone. “Play defense. You’re quicker and have more endurance. Let her wear herself out and keep the lead.”

  “She’s going to play even dirtier,” Marcel grunted. “She was Queen Bee on the mats, she never expected our girl to beat her. Her pride and reputation are at stake. Blake had nothing to lose.”

  I liked how we had become more like family since coming here. Once Marcel got over his fear of me, he became outgoing and flirtatious, but he didn’t mean anything by it, so the guys weren’t threatened by his sense of possession and his overtures.

  “You should have let her disqualify herself,” Remy muttered. I could tell he hated the fact that he couldn’t protect me. It went against everything he stood for.

  “So, she can complain that I didn’t actually beat her? No thank you,” I scoffed although I reached for his hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

  The whistle blew again, and I could almost see smoke coming out of Adams’ ears as she entered the ring. I had every intention on playing all defense and no offense. I was slightly winded, but I still had a lot of steam still left in me. I danced around the ring and allowed her to continue kicking and punching the air. I proceeded to antagonize her. I let her believe I was within reach, and then I danced back out of reach.

  She continued doing her theatrics. I made sure to watch the line so I didn’t step out on accident. I could hear my corner yell at me, but I didn’t hear what they were saying. I didn’t see the steel water container until it was too late. I fell and landed on my back. The wind was knocked out of me, and I saw the malicious smile from one of her friends.

  I looked over at Henderson who was talking to another group of guys. Then I looked over at Bradford. Bradford looked at me with a deadpan expression. He wasn’t going to call the penalty or the match.

  I rolled out of the way and stood quickly before Adams could foot stomp me. She would have lost more points, but at this point I didn’t think she cared. I stood up, feeling my own anger rise. It was one thing to get angry at the situation but attempting to cheat to win was a reflection of their characters. There was no way I would ever want to be on a team with her or any of her friends that helped her or looked the other way.

  I narrowed my eyes at her. If she wanted to play to dirty so could I. I glared at her.

  Wanna play a game? Why don’t you show off some of those fancy forms you know? I compelled her.

  Her eyes widened, and she stopped advancing towards me. She started doing some martial arts form. Troy had explained to me, that as you advanced through most martial arts, you were obligated to learn forms and other requirements to advance to the next belt. They were fascinating to watch, especially the higher through the ranks you climbed.

  I walked over towards my side of the ring while some of Adams’ friends started yelling at her to go after me. My corner was laughing at me as I neared them. I made sure to stay in the ring.

  “So much for keeping a lid on our gifts,” Jaxson smirked.

  “Maybe it’s about time we stopped hiding,” Jemmy bit out. “They continually treat us like we’re below them when we’re here to help them. If they want to take a fight to Horatio, they wouldn’t last long without us.”

  “Well, the winner is Thomas,” Henderson stated with a confused expression.

  Tell your fans thank you, and bow, I compelled Adams.

  Adams stopped in the middle of the form and started waving at everyone and bowing. “Thank you! Thank you!” she enthused.

  I giggled, maybe that would teach her not to mess with me.

  When training was complete, we went into the locker room to grab our duffel bags.

  “What did you do to me?” I heard the high-pitched voice before I felt the harsh grip on my shoulders.

  Dawn, Jemmy, and Rachel had grabbed her off me before I could even turn to glare at her. Her friends weren’t even trying to intervene. They just stood back with their arms folded across their chest.

  I composed my face of all residual anger before turning around. “You know what our main mission is right? I’m sure you’ve had to watch some training videos and see what Horatio’s capable of. Maybe you should be asking yourself why a−” I looked down at my watch and noticed I was turning eighteen in a week. “−18-year-old was recruited into this program. How many times did you apply to get in here? Maybe you should think about that before you continually mess me. I’m sorry you have the hots for Troy, but even if he were available, he wouldn’t be interested in you.”

  Her eyes narrowed on me. “Are you trying to tell me you’re one of those freaks?”

  “Like your Aunt?” Sierra asked casually. “Or your dad?” she turned to the other girls behind her. “Your sister? Your mom? Your cousin? Your best friend? Your sister in law? Shall I continue?”

  I looked at Sierra impressed. It shouldn’t surprise me that our techie girl had done her research and got to know who we were supposed to be working with.

  “Think again before you call people freaks,” Dawn said coldly. “There’s a reason we were recruited in to help you, and before you think you can just harass and mess with the smallest girl in our bunch, maybe you should think about our missions and who will have your six.”

  We picked up our bags, and the group stepped aside as we made our way past them. I could see that some of them now feared us. Unless they knew gifted people they had no clue what we were capable of, yet.

  Chapter 3

  There was a different vibe in the DFAC for dinner that night. We had the children with us and the rest of our little
group. From the furtive looks we kept on getting, I assumed that Adams had let everyone know that she suspected that we were gifted. Some people made a wide berth around us, while others made a point of stopping at our table to say hello.

  “We should go to town tonight,” Rachel stated as she speared an overcooked green bean. “I miss Drake’s cooking. Where is Drake?”

  I looked up and looked around. I had been so preoccupied in my thoughts, I hadn’t even noticed he was gone.

  “Oh yeah,” Jaxson said sheepishly. “I was supposed to tell Blake that he had to fly back home. Just in case she didn’t read her text messages. Apparently, Rose decided to change the latest doctor’s appointment to this evening instead of next week. Beth went with him since he couldn’t find you girls.”

  Rose was Drake’s ex-girlfriend. She was claiming that she was pregnant with Drake’s child. However, we knew she had been sleeping with another man at the same time. Ella, my precog sister, had predicted this occurrence. The time of conception was in the three-week period Drake had been away on a mission. He was an honorable man and didn’t want to abandon the child that may be his (even with the evidence stacked against her). If by a miracle it was his, he didn’t want her claiming he hadn’t been there for the child’s prenatal care. He would never abandon a child of his, like his mom had abandoned him and Jemmy.

  I groaned. Since we moved here, I had been bad about keeping my phone on me. Reception was nonexistent the deeper you got into the mountains. It made no sense to carry it constantly because we were with each other so much. Other than my short four hours I spent in class, I was with all of them.

  We were now in a mostly underground facility in the mountains. All our basic needs were here. Our apartments—or dorms—were kept in the North wing. The dining facility, a small shoppette (a military version of a convenient store), laundry rooms, and day room was in the center of the facility. Classrooms, offices, and board rooms were kept in the South wing. Our training rooms and gym was in the West wing. The East wing was where the head honchos worked, along with all the detaining rooms where I was first brought. Our gifts could not work in that wing.

  Will had tried to explain to me the mechanics and science that went into that, but it had all gone over my head. I knew he had a facility like this, somewhere. He housed dangerous gifted personnel there. Paul had created that wing in event that he was able to recruit people such as us. He wanted to make sure we were on board before letting us into general populations.

  “I left my phone in the room this morning,” I stated with a frown. I made a mental note to text Drake the moment I got back to the room. “I’m doing laundry tonight,” I said regretfully, although the idea of sleeping in new bedding sounded amazing right now.

  “Why did she move the doctor’s appointment up?” Jemmy rolled her eyes.

  “Control,” Troy said with a barely concealed sneer. “She has all the control right now, and when the baby is born she loses it all. She can no longer deny Drake his DNA test. He won’t sign the birth certificate without it. She knows the kid isn’t his. She’s painted herself in a corner, and she hopes Drake will forgive her eventually.”

  “I don’t understand how that works,” Sierra said slowly. “If she knows Blake is Drake’s connected, why is she trying so hard to separate them? Aren’t connections important?”

  Sierra’s grandmother had been gifted, and she had educated her granddaughter, but she had never been involved in a community. Connections were still a new concept to her.

  Jaxson and I exchanged a look.

  “Connections are very important to us,” Jemmy said as she gave a pointed look to Gavin and Sierra. “For instance, Gavin is my connection, but-” she started.

  “But this isn’t a conversation you should be having at the dinner table,” Jace cut her off giving her a piercing look.

  “So is Sierra,” Alex stated pragmatically with the innocence of a child as he eyed the mystery meat on our trays.

  “What?” Jemmy said mystified. She looked at Sierra and Gavin.

  They were both looking at each other with wide eyes. It was clear they still hadn’t connected the dots.

  “Your mark is the trident,” Ella said slowly as if she was talking to a much younger child. Ever since Ella had gotten her gift, it was like she had grown over night. She now had wisdom beyond her years. All the kids seemed to have grown over night except for Nadia, but we still didn’t know if she would be gifted. “So is Gavin’s and Sierra’s.”

  Generally, our gifts didn’t come to us until we hit adolescence. There were few exceptions. Jace, Jaxson, Ella, Alex, and I had all gotten ours before our teens. We had run across a few other prepubescent gifted in our rescue missions, but it didn’t happen often.

  When Jemmy, Gavin, and Sierra continued looking at her blankly, Jace finally spoke.

  “We have an eta. The seventh letter in the Greek alphabet. There are seven of us. You have a trident. A trident is a three-pronged spear, why wouldn’t there be three of you?”

  Ella nodded. “Yeah that,” she said as she took a big bite of her roll.

  Noah tried to stifle his chuckle as he tried to lighten the mood of the table. “Now, Ella. It doesn’t always work that way, but Jace does have a good point.”

  Jemmy, Gavin, and Sierra seemed astounded and floored with the news.

  “Jaxson and Blake knew that,” Alex blurted out. “They’ve been talking about it.”

  I inwardly cursed. This was the price I paid for have a telepathic brother that was especially sensitive to me, Micah, and Ella. He had a good connection with Kade, my other brother, but he said Kade had been silent for weeks. Just like the whole table was right now.

  “You knew, and you didn’t tell me,” Jemmy was pacing our apartment sitting room.

  I gave her an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. You guys were already having issues before I found out, and I didn’t want to add more stress to the situation.”

  We had all retired to our apartment after Alex’s little bomb. It wasn’t like dinner was all that great, and Jemmy looked like she was going to explode. Sierra seemed relieved. I suspected she had started to like Gavin on a deeper level and didn’t want to ruin his connection with Jemmy. Gavin looked like he was about to faint. In fact, he still had that dumbfounded look on his face.

  The children were currently in Jace and Remy’s room playing a game that we had found in the day room for them. Terrance, Marcel, and Sam had decided to head down to their rooms, so they could get a shower and a jump start on their laundry.

  “What are we going to do?” Sierra asked slowly.

  “Get to know each other and make your connections,” Remy had to bite back his snort as he leaned back into the couch I was sitting on.

  I ran my hand through his hair. I liked the soft texture of it against my fingertips. I looked over at Gavin. “There’s no rush, that we know of. I don’t think anyone’s saying you need to go make them now.” I quickly reassured him. He seemed like he was ready to bolt any second.

  Noah and Jaxson started snickering as they whispered to each other.

  “Knock it off you two,” Jace gave them a stern look.

  There was a knock at the door, and Troy got up to open it. “Hey Pops,” he said jovially. “Gavin, Jemmy, and Sierra just found out they’re connected.”

  Will took a few steps in before he paused. “Is there never a dull moment around here?” he asked in a slightly exasperated tone. He gave Gavin an almost sympathetic look after looking at his shocked expression. “I felt the same way when I found out I was connected with sisters. They already had a sibling rivalry going on and… well,” he shook his head. “Another time.”

  I had just find out recently that Jaxson and Jace’s mother was still alive as well as their aunt. They both seemed reluctant to talk about it. Jace more so. I knew their mother walked out, although I don’t know why or where she went. Megan, their aunt, was Will’s other connection. The boys had cared for her, but she couldn’t de
al with Will and their mother anymore, so she had left them. Megan was now back in their lives, and I was interested to see how things were going to transpire.

  Will turned and looked at me. “Did you use your gift today during training?”

  I sighed. I should have known it was going to get back to him. “I did.”

  Remy stood up. “Adams is lucky that Blake only used her gift of compulsion and not strength. Adams took a cheap shot to her temple after the whistle was blown, one of her friends tripped her in the ring, and she was fighting dirty.”

  “Blake had every right to defend herself, since the official was blatantly looking the other way,” Jace added quietly.

  Will nodded slowly. “I told Paul I felt like we were doing them a disservice by not utilizing our resources correctly. We have all of you here, sitting on gifts to soften their sensibilities but it’s not helping them. If they think they can go against gifted individuals without practicing with gifted individuals, then they’re in for a rude awakening. The only exposure they have with us are the low level gifted.”

  “So, no more kid gloves,” Jaxson asked with excitement. He had the gift of illusion and liked to play with it. He loved making people laugh. At our old school, he was known to have a goat walk into the middle of a lecture wearing a straw hat and a polka dot dress, or have a clown pop out of a closet. He was creative when it came to goofing off.

  “Don’t get too excited,” Will said with a small smirk. “At 0500 hours on Monday morning you’ll be dropped off in an undisclosed location. Then you need to find your way back here. Expect to spend at least a few days out in the elements.”

  “It feels like winter out there,” Jemmy groaned. “So, they’re going to drop us in the middle of nowhere, and we just have to find our way back? Can Micah come?” she asked expectantly.

  Will chuckled at that. “No, he has school. It’s not going to be that simple. Blake, Remy, Troy, Jace, Noah, Drake, and Jaxson will be dropped off, and an hour later the rest of you and twenty operatives will be dropped off. Blake and team, don’t get caught.”