by SM Olivier
It felt like forever before he finally spoke again.
They found you! Hang tight! Jaxson stated. They’re on the way!
“They’re on their way,” I said in relief.
“How are you able to talk to the guys, to me?” Lincoln asked shifting closer to me.
I shrugged. “I began talking to Jaxson years ago. Pops said sometimes connections are able to. It’s a part of our gifts but not, does that make sense?”
He nodded slowly as he gently patted Harry’s back. “Earlier, though, the guys could talk to you like that, and I could hear them, but I wasn’t able to speak. Can they talk to each other, too?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. When I figured out I could read Drake’s projections we worked on it. It’s like a muscle in a way. We let the other guys know, and we came to the realization that we could all talk to each other if I was included in the…link. I don’t know if they’ve been trying to work on it without me included. As far as I know, they're not able to yet.”
The whole time I was talking to him I watched in morbid fascination as the burning floorboards above us gave way, fell, and deflected off the shield. I really hoped help was coming because I was getting tired. I didn’t know how much longer I could last.
Using my gifts nearly all day long was starting to take a toll on me.
“Why couldn’t I respond? How do you do it?” Lincoln asked.
Alex crawled up into my lap, wrapping his little arms around me. His eyes were wide open, watching the flames above. I felt him jump as I pulled him closer.
“You have to really focus on your words. We can’t hear random thoughts, but…we can. Eventually, you won’t have to work as hard on it, and it will come as natural as breathing. Now, my turn for a question. During our exercise today, you were able to jump when you were…still there. How? How did you not lose time, and how do you do it when you're conscious?”
Lincoln gave me one of his signature smirks, and I found it hard not to roll my eyes at him. “It seems like a lot of your other gifts require you to focus on feelings; with jumping you have to just let go. When you partially jump, you’re holding back. You need to focus on letting go, or if someone is really strong-willed, they can push you out. Maybe not consciously, but they do. Sometimes people will be doing something, and suddenly they stop and think, ‘wow, how did I get here?’ They get this surreal feeling. More than likely they were jumped and didn’t even know it.
“Once you let go and just embrace the other person, you obtain their memories, feelings, and consciousness. They have no clue you’re even there. Then when you want to return, you remember who you are and you return to yourself. The tricky part is doing it when you’re awake and not sleeping. I was sleeping when I did my first jump.”
I must have made some kind of noise because he put a hand up to his mouth to hide his grin. I backhanded him on his chest, and he laughed aloud.
“You are so disgusting.” I rolled my eyes, trying not to grin back.
While we talked, the world burned down around us. It was slightly perplexing to know fires raged beyond the shield I erected. I had to mentally tell myself we were okay. We couldn’t feel the heat or hear anything while the flames crashed around us.
“What? I didn’t say anything?” he said smugly even though we both knew we remembered the first time I jumped. “Anyways, you need to find something to keep you…grounded so you don’t lose track of time.”
“Like your necklace?” I asked. My energy was nearly gone. I felt so tired. I was hungry, and truth be told, I was aroused.
His head whipped around and his unique eyes met mine. You really could get lost in them easily. I felt my eyes drooping. “I’m not sure…I can do this much… longer,” I admitted.
And as if my words were heard, the storm door was wrenched open, and I saw the fantastic sight of firemen charging forward with their hoses. His mouth was agape as if he was mystified that the hostages remained unharmed while the house burned down around us.
The frontman aimed the hoses our way and then took a step back with a look of wonder when the water from his hose sprayed back onto him.
Alex giggled, reminding me that he was still in my lap.
I stroked the hair off of his face and smiled. “I don’t think he was expecting that, but it’s not safe to drop it yet.” I flinched when another board collapsed above us.
“Hang in there,” Lincoln murmured to me. “Just a little bit longer.”
In silence we waited for the flames and wreckage to abate and the smoke to clear. A few firemen rushed forward once they realized the hostages were huddled behind us. I saw the look of shock and revulsion behind their mask as they approached them.
I didn’t drop my shield in time before one of the men advancing towards us bounced off of it.
I heard the sweetest sound as Harry did a full belly laugh. I looked down, and it melted my heart to see his beautiful face beaming angelically. This is how he should look—not the toddler huddled in fear or crying out in rage.
“I wonder when his parents last saw that,” Lincoln uttered quietly.
“Probably too long,” I remarked as we watched more firemen return with bolt cutters.
“We need to get out of here,” Lincoln insisted as he stood.
The smoke was thick, and I could feel it in my lungs. I nodded as I coughed, heading towards the door, but my legs felt heavy. My feet felt like they were set in concrete. Lincoln reached back with one hand to lead me towards the storm doors, as if he knew my energy was waning.
Once we reached outside, I took deep breaths, breathing in the clean air. “Now what?” I asked after a few moments. “Our work here is done.”
“Not yet,” Lincoln stated as we headed towards the front of the house. “I think it’s important that Harry sees this.”
When we entered the front yard, I noticed cop cars out front, and I could see a few of the men that had been in the house sitting in the back. A box truck was wide open with the rest of the men handcuffed beside it. It was clear that the men planned to take the people away in that.
Other cars and news vans were starting to pull up as we moved closer to the squad cars.
“Harry,” Lincoln gently bade. “Look buddy. Look. The evil men are going away. We can help you get the bad men, but you have to tell us to help you. You need to talk to us, buddy.”
“Bye, bye bad men,” Alex chirped, looking up at Harry safely ensconced in Lincoln’s arms.
“Bye, bye,” Harry echoed.
“Bye, bye bad men,” I echoed squeezing Alex’s hand and leaning my head against Lincoln’s arm.
When my eyes opened, Lincoln was lying on his side watching me. There was something in his eyes I couldn’t quite decipher before his expression shuddered down.
“Hey, there,” Jace commented from my couch where he was holding Harry in his arms and had Alex laying on his lap.
I sat up and looked over at my clock. We had been gone for over two hours.
“Jace, you have to come see this!” Jaxson came running into the room. He came to a skidding stop when he noticed all of us were all lucid once more.
We decided to come into my room to focus better. It was the furthest room away from the living areas.
“You’re back, right?” Jaxson questioned.
I sat up. “Um yeah, why?” I queried.
“It’s kind of freaky when you…jumped. Both of you had your eyes open, but it was like you were daydreaming,” Jaxson shuddered. “Anyways! You made the news.”
“I what?” I asked in confusion.
“Come see,” Jaxson insisted.
“Are you sure you don’t want to sleep?” Lincoln said with a huge yawn.
“Are you okay?” Jaxson frowned.
“Just tired,” I waved off his concern. “But I’m also starving You?” I asked Lincoln.
“I’m starving, ” Alex's voice was slightly whiny as he hopped up off the couch.
“Eat?” Harry’s asked hopefully.
/>
Jaxson, Jace, Lincoln, and I all looked at each other in shock. I stood up on weak legs. “Yes, eat,” I smiled over at him.
“What happened exactly?” Jaxson asked in awe.
“Eat,” I demanded a bit crankily. “Then talk.”
Jace laughed. “I’m sure Drake already has something cooking.”
“He does,” Jaxson agreed as he picked Alex up, throwing him over his shoulder. “We go eat,” he roared before taking off down the hall, Alex’s laughter following them.
“Let’s go eat,” Lincoln stated as he stood and stretched.
We followed Jaxson and Alex out of the room and down the hall. The living room light was off, and the girls were already asleep. The television was on pause, but it was now positioned towards the dining room table. Everyone, with the addition of Darren, was sitting at the dining room table, save for Drake. Drake was standing at the counter spreading sauce on what looked like personal pizzas.
He looked up at me with a smile as he saw me enter the room. “What would you like on your pizza? We have pepperoni, sausage, ham, olives, onions, and green peppers.”
“Will it be greedy of me if I said everything?” I asked as I advanced towards him.
I loved him for knowing to have food ready for me without asking. I embraced him around his waist and took comfort from his embrace. I felt him chuckle against my body.
“You’re probably going to eat at least two of these aren’t you?” he inquired knowingly.
“You know me so well,” I murmured.
“Lincoln? Jace?” Drake asked. “Pizza? Toppings?”
“Yes, and everything for me as well. Thanks.” Lincoln agreed eagerly.
“Just pepperoni for me, and do we have any more of those pepperoncinos?” Jace asked. “What about you, Harry? Do you like pizza? What do you like on it?” Jace asked as he looked down at the toddler that was still in his arms.
“He eats cheese pizza,” Miranda spoke up as she worriedly looked over at her son.
“Ronis,” Harry insisted. I guess that was his way of asking for pepperoni, too.
You know that term, ‘it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop’? Well, it wasn’t quite right in this instance. Silence definitely followed but so did the sound of breaking glass.
“I’m so, so sorry,” Miranda blubbered as she tried to pick up the pieces of her broken coffee cup. “Did he? Did I?” she continued to ramble.
Greg and Hazel were already up and across the room. Hazel was openly weeping as she reached out to touch her grandson's hair. Even Greg couldn’t stop the tears from falling as he embraced his son.
Noah gently pushed Miranda out of the way. “Go see your son.” He carefully began to pick up the pieces of her broken mug.
“Thank you,” Miranda didn’t need to be told twice.
“What happened?” Megan asked in awe.
“Didn’t you watch it on the news?” I teased.
“We actually paused it,” Troy said ruefully. “Darren found the address where we located you, and we noticed the news vans. So we turned on the news but haven’t watched it yet.”
I trudged over to the table and didn’t even make it to my seat before Remy pulled me down into his lap and embraced me.
“He sees things as they’re happening,” I explained. “Today it was a human trafficking ring.”
“It was like his…sight lets him see things moments before it goes from bad to worse,” Lincoln added. “I don’t know much about our gifts, but something tells me the reason why Harry was so…disturbed before was that he never saw a happy ending.”
“It was the first one,” Alex chirped up from Jaxson’s lap. He was eating another piece of cake, better yet, inhaling it.
“What do you mean?” Pops asked as he leaned forward in his seat with his eyebrows knitted. “Have you been there before?”
Alex nodded before he looked down at his plate, his expression suddenly grim. “It’s always the same house but different people in the basement. I asked Ella to draw it for me, but she said she can’t draw things she doesn’t see. I asked Patrick, and he told me the same thing. They always come, and they always take them away.”
“Why didn’t you tell us, buddy?” Jaxson asked ruffling his hair.
“It scared me,” he mumbled. “I wanted to be a big boy.”
“You are a big boy, but even teens and grown-ups get scared,” Jace said gently.
“Like Noah is afraid of spiders, Jemmy is afraid of clowns, Darren heights, want me to go on?” Jaxson asked with a small smirk.
Darren shot Jaxson an annoyed look but added, “Sometimes when we face our fears, we can overcome them, but it’s even better when we have someone supporting us while we do it.”
“Cake,” Harry chimed up as if our discussion was boring him.
“Cake,” Miranda clapped her hands, tears still streaming down her face before running to the counter to get Harry a piece of cake.
“Can we push play now?” Troy asked as he leaned forward. “While they eat?”
“Push play,” Pops stated.
I leaned back into Remy and relished the feeling of his arms around me. The aroma of the pizza was tantalizing to my nose. I was famished, but now that the adrenaline had worn off and I was warm and comfortable, I felt sleep drawing me away.
We watched the news broadcaster in front of a house that was in flames as the camera panned out and showed all the people that were rescued tonight getting medical attention.
“We were right there,” Alex stated as he pointed to an obscure spot on the screen.
“It looks like a crack house.” Noah shook his head.
“It smelled and looked like one, too.” I wrinkled my nose up at the memory.
“How did you know that it wasn’t a dream?” Greg asked in curiosity.
“It was too real,” Lincoln stated.
“Does it feel different when you jump an adult versus a child?” Jaxson questioned.
“I didn’t jump him,” Lincoln commented. “I did initially, but then I was pulled from Harry and entered with them.”
“I didn’t do it,” Alex said with a shrug.
“I was able to do it with Jaxson before, too,” I added. “But it’s never been anything conscious.”
“Hmm,” Pops said thoughtfully. “That might be something we need to work on.”
I nodded, hoping my snack was coming soon because it was harder and harder to keep my eyes open.
I woke up in the middle of the night and realized Remy was lying beside me. I immediately noticed my hunger for food and other things. I slipped off my underwear and took his manhood into my hands and began to gently caress it. It didn’t take long for him to grow in my hands.
I knew the moment he woke up when he released a hiss of air out.
“Blake,” he husked.
I didn’t answer him as I climbed on top of him and sheathed him inside me. I rocked my self on him, enjoying the feel of him. He grabbed my hips but allowed me to set the pace and rhythm. I leaned back a bit more, bracing one hand on the bed and one on his stomach.
I continued to ride him until I couldn’t take it anymore, and I knew he was close by the way his thighs were hardening under me. I leaned forward and rocked on him faster, harder, seeking my release. His gripped my hips more firmly and moved me, so my bud was making perfect contact with him.
I brought a pillow to my mouth when I felt the pressure within build to its crescendo and the heat within unfurled. I cried out into the pillow and felt him stiffen. He took complete control as he sought his own release and groaned out when he found it.
I collapsed on top of his chest as I tried to catch my breath.
“Thank you,” I murmured when I could breathe normally once more.
“It should be me thanking you. Wake me up like that anytime.” He laughed softly.
I bit my lip. I hated to turn this post coitus afterglow into anything serious, but I didn’t want to continue to pretend everything was okay if
it wasn’t.
“I know you didn’t want me to make this connection with Lincoln, but I didn’t know what to do. Drake was hospitalized after he was losing his vision, Jaxson was having seizures, and Noah was too weak to take a shower. I didn’t want that happening to all of you.” I felt tears burn the back of my eyes.
“Oh-kay,” he said in confusion. “We all knew that, and quite frankly we would die for each other. I wish you didn’t have to feel pressured into it, but you did what you had to do.”
“I didn’t feel pressured,” I murmured. “I mean, I was happy with you guys, and I love you guys, but I knew it had to be done. We’re a family. You guys can’t always be the ones making the sacrifices and fixing things.”
“Where is this all coming from, baby?” he asked as he gently traced my spine with his fingertips.
I sighed and closed my eyes. “You haven’t talked to me directly since I made my connection with Lincoln; well, anything that didn’t pertain to work. Then today at dinner, you made a comment that made me feel like you still don’t like this situation. And I hate to admit it, but I felt your anger and hurt, too. Normally you’re locked up tight, but you must have felt it strongly because it was emanating off of you.”
He abruptly flipped me onto my back. One of his forearms was braced above my head, and the other grabbed my jaw before he gave me a fierce and thorough kiss. He pulled back, and I could feel the intensity of his stare. I wish my night light were brighter so I could see his eyes better.
“Baby, I was trying to give you space and let you get to know him. I didn’t want to like him, but I really can’t find fault with him. I wish I didn’t have to share you. Hell, if all of us were honest, we would want to have you all to ourselves. But we all knew when we were marked that we would have to share. It was easy when we knew each other. We practically grew up together.”
He paused for a momen, then continued. “I’m sorry if you think my anger and hurt were directed towards you. It wasn’t. It was Jemmy. I love her like a sister, and her behavior lately has been troubling me. I tried to talk to her, and she shut me out. And you know how much I love conversing.”
“Is that your not so subtle way of saying that you wish I hadn’t started this conversation?” I asked half-jokingly.