by SM Olivier
One of the girls from the Illinois group offered to heal me, but I knew she wasn’t proficient in healing yet. Her specialty lied in sprains, so she wasn’t the greatest with open wounds and had been known to leave irregular scars. If I was adding to my scars, I wanted them to be more natural.
“Yes, sir,” I stated as I leaned back. I was drained, but my brain wanted to process everything. Was Lincoln Hudgens really standing in my hospital room? Was there a possibility I could get over my animosity towards him to try and restore our gifts? Could I separate my head from my heart, from my body?
“Do you still have your pain pills?” he asked as he pulled out the cuff to take my blood pressure. Usually a nurse did it, but I imagined Dr. Wyatt had requested to do it since he knew about my mysterious ailments.
“I do, but I stopped taking them,” I admitted grimacing when he spread the antibiotic ointment on my arm.
“You should be taking them as needed,” he frowned as he grabbed a gauze bandage.
I sighed, and I looked at Lincoln warily. He might as well know what he was getting into the sooner, the better. “Doc we talked about this, addiction runs in my family, and a little bit of pain never hurt anyone.”
It was his turn to sigh at me. “I support your belief and admire your convictions but don’t be stubborn when you need it.”
“I will,” I said placatingly.
He gave me another exasperated head shake.
“Now,” he peered at my chart on his tablet. “I see that your birth control will be running out shortly. Have you decided what you’ll be using next? Did you want to continue with the pills or did you want to try the shot?”
I groaned aloud. The guys knew I took birth control. They saw me take it daily, but it wasn’t something I discussed with them, and it definitely wasn’t something I wanted to converse about in front of Lincoln.
“Doc really?” I muttered as I stared down at my feet, feeling my face warm. “Could we have deliberated about this…later?”
Troy began to chuckle. “It is an important topic to discuss. What are the differences between all her options? Are their pamphlets we can read?”
“The shot!” I blurted out quickly. “I would like to try the shot, please.” With my illnesses and general inconvenience, I had already decided to come in next week to talk to him about switching up my birth control.
I glared at all three men as they exchanged amused glances. I knew it was my punishment for not following doctor’s orders. It was a little bit unorthodox, but our whole situation in the mountains wasn’t conventional by any means.
“Seriously, doesn’t this get old after a while?” I protested to Lincoln as we walked back to the apartment.
When we got back out, Will and the gang had been absent from the waiting room. I assumed Will had shooed them all away. He understood the importance of opening the line of communications for us without an audience.
Dr. Wyatt had cleaned me up, gave me my shot, and one of his power shakes that he swore by and sent me on my way. I was still tired because I had a physically demanding day, but I wasn’t lightheaded or woozy any longer.
“I wear disguises when I’m out in public,” Lincoln explained dryly as we neared the hall for our apartments.
It seemed like his presence in our facility spread like wildfire. There had been an inordinate amount of people in the halls as we walked to the elevators and then down to our floor. Everyone pretended to be doing different tasks, but it is evident that they just wanted to catch a glimpse of Lincoln. I guess I should be thankful no one had approached him yet or asked him for an autograph.
My relief was short lived as I saw Adams and a few of her friends leaning against the opposite wall of our apartment. “Blake! How are you feeling?” she cried worriedly as she ran towards us.
I groaned and rubbed my eyes. I wasn’t in the mood for her fake theatrics and apparent overtures. I wanted to tell her to eff off and gloat about the fact I beat her once again, but I didn’t have the emotional energy for it right now.
“Please leave, Adams,” Jace said more diplomatically.
“I just want to see how Blake is. I heard that you got shot, and I would have never sparred with you if I knew,” she theatrically wrung her hands. Her eyes swung to Lincoln. “Hi, I don’t think we met yet. I’m Dominique Adams,” she held her hand out to Lincoln.
I never realized she had a first name; I was so used to everyone being called by their last names or call signs.
Remy unlocked our apartment door, and Jace ushered us all in. Lincoln must have sensed our aloofness toward her as he coolly nodded at her and said, “Nice to meet you,” before following us into the apartment.
Noah seemed to take perverse pleasure in slamming the door in Adams' face.
“I’m going to start dinner,” Drake stated as he walked to the kitchen. “There is no way we are going to the DFAC tonight. Lincoln, do you have any allergies or food aversions?”
“I’m not picky,” Lincoln stated as he walked to our gallery wall. The guys had started the wall the week of my birthday in the other apartment we had been given. Megan had transferred it all to our new apartment, but now we had more wall space and had added several photos since then.
An air of awkwardness hung in the air. I don’t think any of us knew what to do or say. I think we all could agree that we didn’t want to get any sicker or lose our gifts permanently, but no one knew how to proceed from here.
“Do you mind if I go catch up with Leo?” Troy asked me quietly.
“Go ahead,” I told him. Leo and Paul had an extensive history. They had known each other longer than Leo and Troy had. I hadn’t asked, but I assumed Lincoln had tracked Leo down and then had him bring him here.
He gave me a kiss on my brow before leaving the apartment. Lincoln was scrutinizing all of us.
“I’m jumping in the shower,” Remy stated as he stood up stretching. I could see he was reluctant to leave but also was struggling with staying in this room.
“Me too,” Jace stated as he headed towards his room.
“You all live here?” Lincoln finally asked, when I nodded he continued. “Where are we exactly?”
“Paul is a private contractor for the government. This is a secret government facility. He recruited us in here for the sole purpose of using our gifts to help him thwart the gifted that is determined to give us a bad name,” I stated concisely as I curled up on the couch. I longed for a shower myself but didn’t want to leave Lincoln to his own devices yet.
“How very cozy like one big happy family. I thought you were attending Knightstown,” he said suspiciously.
“I was, and technically I am. I do all my work remotely from here,” I stated.
I was tired of the small talk, but I didn’t know how to broach the other more critical subject.
“You say that if we don’t make a connection I will continue to lose my gift and I may physically suffer because of it. Why?” Lincoln sighed as he sat down in one of our recliners.
I shrugged. Honesty was the best policy. “I don’t know. As you previously stated two connections max is what our community had been accustomed to until now. How much did you know about your mother, her past, our community?” I asked tentatively.
His jaw clenched for a moment. “For years, my mother didn’t tell me she was gifted. I caught her using her gift when I was nine, and she reluctantly told me about it. I had started to jump, and she finally told me some of the basics.
“My grandparents were gifted, but I never knew them. I’m a little hazy on the details, but I think it had something to do with me. My mother was fourteen when she got pregnant and fifteen when she had me. Her parents moved her out of state and acted like she had brought shame upon the family. When she was eighteen, she found a job as a live-in nanny in a prestigious actor’s home, and we left.
“She got sick a few years ago and finally told me about connections and marks, but she had advanced stages of Alzheimer's, even though her doctors
thought it was medically impossible. I didn’t know how much I should believe. She rambled a lot, and I wasn’t certain if she made up half of what she said.” A fond smile flitted across his features.
“She always had an amazing imagination,” he continued. “Even though she had no qualifications and hadn’t gone to school, she was never without a job as a nanny. The children loved her, and she knew how to tell a good story.”
“Did she ever tell you that she was a product of a science experiment, in essence?” I asked hesitantly.
His eyes narrowed at me. I was threading in unchartered territory. I didn’t know how to tell him I knew more about him than he probably knew about himself. “I knew her parents had trouble conceiving her and she was an only child.”
“Generally,” I explained, “in the gifted community some of us are sterile, but most of us can only produce one or two children, max.” He nodded as if he already knew that. I continued. “My grandparents and their colleagues thought they finally cracked the mystery. My mother and your mother were a product of their experiments… among a few others.” From his surprised expression, I knew this was news to him. “Some believe that the experiments may have thrown off the natural balance of things. Other anomalies have also been brought to our attention because of cases like mine, well, ours.”
“Why do I have a feeling you know more than what you're telling me?” Lincoln asked grimly.
“There’s so much to tell you, but I’m not sure what you know and what you’re ready for. I found out I was gifted a few months ago.” He didn’t need to know about the time change, yet. At his look of disbelief, I continued. “I knew I was marked, and I knew that when I was afraid or angry strange things happened, but I had no one to tell me what was going on. My father was killed when I was ten, and never told me about the gifted. Unlike other kids from gifted families, I wasn’t encourage to start practicing my gifts at the age of five.” He continued to look at me in distrust. “I was briefly institutionalized after his death, and for a while there, I thought I was crazy. I was able to silently communicate with Jaxson since I was ten.” I pointed to Jaxson. “My stepmother caught me talking to him. I didn’t know how to control my power yet.
“The doctors thought I had manifested him to handle the death of my father. I learned not to trust medical professionals then. Who was I to turn to? Who could I talk to about being able to stop bad things from happening to me? Who would believe me when I told them that I talked to someone mentally, that truly existed?”
“Are you able to talk to all your connections that way?” Lincoln seemed slightly intrigued. “Are you able to hear them?”
I nodded eagerly. “I can make anyone hear me when I can utilize my gift,” I said wryly. “Recently, we found out that, with a little practice, the connection is there for all of us. If I’m involved in the conversation, we can all communicate that way.”
“You said you had more than one gift, what else can you do?” he asked.
“Greg, one of the men Pops works with, told me that when I was child, when I was in the Institute−” he gave me a questioning look. “So…when I was three, my foster parents put me in the Institute because I was already exhibiting my gifts.” If anything, he looked even more confused. I sighed. I would have to explain in more details. “I was given up for adoption after my birth. I was placed with an ungifted family. They found out about an institute designed explicitly for exceptional children. I was unique but not in the way they thought. They transferred my care over to the Institute. I actually met Jaxson and Jace there initially because Pops was part of the founders. My biological uncle, with the help from Greg, took me away from the Institute. My uncle raised me as his daughter. I hadn’t known he wasn’t my father until recently either.
“Anyways,” I continued, “Greg saw my dormant gifts—he’s gifted as well and can tell if a person is gifted and what they have. As I made my connections with the others, my gifts finally manifested. I got the gift of force fields from Drake, empathy with Jace, strength from Remy, fire from Troy, illusions from Jaxson, and healing from Noah. Recently, I had started getting weak and had unexplainable ailments. Greg was the one who hypothesized that I had another connection out there, since he had seen the eighth gift in me. My sister Ella saw you, and we decided to come look for you.”
“Your sister?” he finally asked.
“Ella she is technically my cousin,” I explained. “My uncle had her with my stepmom. When I found the guys, her gift of precognition came to light.”
He sighed deeply and covered his head with his hands. “This is all so unbelievable. So, I’m just supposed to believe your word and happily become part of your harem. I don’t share well with others,” he said matter-of-factly. “I mean, I know some of my hookups have their own hookups on the sides but never in front of my face.”
“If you decide to do this, I demand an STD test and that you use a condom,” Jaxson demanded deprecatingly.
“Jax,” Drake said in vexation. He was placing some food on the table. He looked apologetically at Lincoln. “We all got tested. We didn’t want to infect Blake with anything.”
“What about her test?” Lincoln said with mock humor.
“She was a virgin,” Noah said defensively as he clenched and unclenched his fist.
Lincoln looked at me in disbelief, and I shrugged. He didn’t need to know all about my sordid past yet.
“Okay, what else don’t I know?” Lincoln snorted.
I swallowed past the thick knot that had formed in my throat. “I know who your father is,” I stated quietly.
“My sperm donor?” he asked condescendingly.
I nodded. “Did you know that he and your mother were in contact with each other until about six years ago?”
Lincoln gave me a look of disbelief. “My mother never talked about him, but they were teenagers. He walked away the moment he got a chance.”
I looked over at Noah and Jaxson, who had taken seats next to me. “Tell him,” Noah muttered.
“From the correspondence that was found, I think your father was forced out of her life and made to sign over his rights to you,” I explained cautiously. “There were a lot of pictures of you growing up, with the emails and letters. I think your father was still interested in you.”
He laughed cruelly. “Yet he never contacted me. I did my own research on the man. He is rich and held a prestigious position in that school you attended. He’s happily married with a child of his own.”
“He was marked,” I blurted out. “He already had two connections. I don’t condone his behavior or even agree with it, but I think he was afraid to lose his gift. He shouldn’t have lied to his connections, and he should have tried to have a relationship with you.”
“Was?” he asked with a raised brow of displeasure.
I stared down at my hands the feeling of guilt overwhelming. “He died over two months ago in one of our missions.”
He blanched for a moment but quickly recovered. “Should I care?” he said in a droll tone. “My mom struggled for a while. Until she found a spot with her last family, she was underpaid and treated little better than the help. He abandoned her while he continued with his great life.”
A loud knocking on the door reverberated through the apartment door. Jaxson got up from his position to answer it.
Will came striding into the room with a grim expression. “We’re under attack. You need to throw some stuff together and find the kids. Then we figure out who’s attacking us and come up with a plan of defense.”
Chapter 15
“They want everyone to move down to the caves until we can figure out what’s going on,” Will stated as we threw some of our clothing in our backpacks.
“Do we think it’s Horatio?” Jace asked as he grabbed my pack from my hands. “Why don’t you go find the children and meet us down there? We’ll pack up their bags and bring them all down there.”
“We think it is,” Will confirmed. “I’m going to get stuf
f together for the kids as well.”
Our living room shook, and I braced myself in the doorway. “Can someone call down to agriculture and ask them to keep Alex down there?” I asked trying to keep the worry from my voice.
“I’ll call before I go get Micah and Ella. They should still be in music,” Remy stated.
“I’ll go get Kade,” I added.
The loud alarms started to go off, and the red lights were flashing.
“Shouldn’t we have had some type of drill before this happened?” Jaxson asked anxiously as he came out of his room carrying his bags. “Alex is probably frightened out of his mind.”
“I’ll go with you,” Lincoln stated grimly as he followed me out into the hallway.
I felt anxious, plus I felt compelled to explain to him what was going on. This wasn’t the greatest welcoming party for him. Talk about trial by fire.
“Horatio is my biological father. Again, this is a recent revelation for me.” I explained as I opened the door to the stairway. There was no way I was using the elevator. “Horatio has a major God complex. People like Pops and Greg are content living as we have been, in secret, or in our communities if we choose to. Horatio believes that we shouldn’t live in hiding and wants us to lord our gifts over the Nons− nongifted, normal people,” I hastily explained at his puzzled look. “Horatio is a sick and twisted man.
“He has been trying to recreate Hazel’s experiments and build stronger gifted individuals. He doesn’t realize her experiments caused dire consequences for those affected by it. He’s abducted, lied, and paid women to carry these experiments. He’s kidnapped and bought children to build his own gifted army. We also think he’s been getting Nons and trying to make them gifted.”
“And here I thought I didn’t have a normal childhood,” he said cryptically. “You’re full of surprises.”