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Jax chuckled and looked at me in the rearview mirror. “No, but we’ve known each other for a very long time.” He cleared his throat as if he didn’t know how to broach the next subject. “We don’t want to rush you, honey, but we think we need to make these connections, sooner than later.”
“Why?” I gave him a deadpan expression. “When do most people make their connections? Why the big rush now?”
Noah looked at me hesitantly. “Well, most people don’t make their connections until after they turn eighteen, but Horatio knows about you now. He knows you are with us. If he were to get ahold of any one of us it could cause detrimental consequences to all of us.”
I chewed on my bottom lip. “What happens if Drake decides against the connection? Is it really fair to expect it of him if he loves Rose? What about you guys? Do you love Stacey and Tamara? What about Molly and Jace?”
Noah cursed softly. “Jemmy has such a big mouth.” He muttered to Jax.
I snorted. “So, it’s better to lie to me,” when he started to speak I held up my hands. “A lie of omission is still a lie. If, and I mean a big if, I were to connect with you guys, I won’t stand for lying. Any relationship should be built on trust. A relationship of trust is like building a house on a firm foundation. Otherwise, we might as well build it on sand, so when the storms hit our house crumbles.”
“Honey, we understand,” Jax said in a mollifying tone. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Tamara, but honestly I’ve been dating her out of comfort. We’ve known each other forever, and when I started dating her, it seemed like the right thing to do. The quarterback of the football team, one of the head cheerleaders. It just made sense.”
“Stacey and I have been fighting a lot lately. She wants a commitment I can’t give her. I still have to get through medical school, and I told her from the beginning I was a pair. I was part of a connection.” Noah explained.
“Yet, you’re willing to make a commitment to someone you just met. You don’t even know me.” I cried out in exasperation.
They exchanged one of their looks once more, and right when I was going to snap at them Noah turned in his seat to look at me. “We all are fated to be together. When we were taken into Knights Tower, we all grew to be very close friends. Remy was the first to arrive, Troy next, then me, and then Drake and Jemmy. Drake was gifted with manipulating the energy around us; kind of like a force field. Two years after he moved in he started saying he felt something was off. Then one morning, he woke up and asked us if we could see the threads around us. He told us he could see our threads and we were connected. We laughed at him and made fun of him. We teased him mercilessly until we woke up the next morning with searing pain and the etas. We didn’t think it was possible. Remy and Troy found it the hardest to believe because we are normally marked before our sixteenth birthday. Jace had just turned sixteen, Troy was eighteen, and Remy was nineteen.”
I gasped, that must have been the same time mine had appeared.
Noah continued hesitantly. “When Jace called me, Troy, Remy, and Drake, we thought he was mistaken. We had been looking for you for years; Jace, Troy, and Remy, more so. They were done with school and their work with Knight’s allowed them to travel more. Jace swore you had to be our nucleus, but he didn’t want you to be.” I must have made another noise because he quickly said, “You’re his student. He didn’t want to cross any boundaries that could jeopardize his career. His jobs in the schools help us find more gifted. His job is important to our cause. Well, we decided to humor him, and we came to visit the bar you worked in, and Drake knew immediately you were our nucleus. The way he described the thread that linked us before was a thin red line, but when we saw you he passed out, and when he came to, he said our threads had turned green, and you were indeed our connection.”
“What happens if he decides to break our connection? What about Rose?” I asked in a small voice.
“He’ll lose his powers,” Jax said grimly, “and it may affect us all. Not as disadvantageous if you choose not to complete our connection, but still harmful, none the less. Any connection beyond two is complicated. We know of a few Three’s, and when one of the three decided not to form the connection it left the nucleus weaker and his other connection almost giftless. But that won’t happen. Drake, more than all of us, understands the importance of his connection.”
“And what happens if I were to make the connections and let you guys freely date and sleep with whomever you wanted,” I wondered out loud.
Jax made a choking noise, while Noah laughed. “I guess that’s up to you, but in most cases, once the connection is made, we wouldn’t want to. We don’t lead normal lives. We can’t give one hundred percent of ourselves to any girl. Some of us have school, and when we’re not in school, we can be on assignments. Jace was placed in your school, next year his assignment may be elsewhere. Troy and Remy own their own businesses on top of being employed by Knights. Most girls, even the gifted, don’t understand that.”
“What happens if you guys decide to settle down, decide to stop working for Knights?” I tried to reason with them.
“We can’t,” Jax stated solemnly. “This is our fate, and we can’t run from fate. If we don’t do our jobs, people like Horatio are out there harming, using, and abusing the gifted for their own greedy gain.”
“For what purpose,” I asked in frustration. Their arguments sounded valid. I could understand I may be a small part of a bigger puzzle, but it didn’t mean I should accept it lying down. Blindly go without asking questions. Sacrifice my own happiness, to ensure the happiness of others.
“Horatio wants to rid the world of the non-gifted. He wants to build an army of stronger gifted people, and enslave the others.” Noah said solemnly.
Chapter 11
I braced myself for meeting Rose when we got to the house. If you could call it a house; it was a huge mansion. You couldn’t even get onto the property without entering a code in the gate. The long winding driveway led up to a large circular driveway with a water fountain in the middle of it. The landscaping in front was immaculate. The mansion was made of stone with a six-car garage attached to it. Jax pulled into one of the garage bays as Jemmy and Will were exiting their vehicle.
Will came around to Ella’s side of the car and gathered her up in his arms. It wasn’t the first time that I noticed he was in excellent shape, despite the fact he had to be in his mid-fifties. “I’m going to put her to bed, if you don’t mind, and head up to bed myself.” He said quietly.
I nodded with a smile. “Thank you.”
“Going to bed already, Old Man?” Jax joked. Noah let out a loud guffaw.
Will snorted at him. “I was up at five in the morning to run, when were you up, Young Pup?”
Noah continued to laugh. “Got you there. It’s a miracle you get up for school on time.”
“He is a little bit of a grump grump if he doesn’t get his beauty sleep,” I added mischievously.
Everyone laughed at that as Jax turned to me with a mock serious expression. “You think I’m beautiful?”
I lightly punched him, and I was glad I didn’t hit him harder in the bicep because it was rock hard. I was sure I could have broken my hand if I had. “You wish,” I scoffed.
