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“What’s wrong with her?” I heard Will mutter as I slowly opened my eyes. The lights seemed really bright to me. I cautiously looked around the room, unclear where I was at first. It took me a moment to realize that I was in the hospital wing.
I slowly looked around the room and saw Remy sitting on the floor next to the door. His hair was a tangled mess around his hair. Jace was standing with his arms across his chest against one of the walls. He looked even more tired than I saw him yesterday morning. Troy was sitting next to my bed as he gently traced the sheet that was covering me. Jaxson was in a chair on the wall with his head thrown back, staring at the ceiling. Drake was on the edge of my bed at my feet. Noah was wildly pacing next to my bed, his face was red and swollen like he had been crying.
I went to reach for Troy’s hand and noticed my hands had IV cords attached to them. I frowned in confusion. The last thing I remembered was falling asleep on Jaxson watching Santa Claus 2. I knew my body was still wanting to recover from getting poisoned, but I didn’t think it would be bad enough to end up in the hospital.
“Yaris removed all the poison,” Greg replied quietly. “Maybe his poison was more potent then what we believed it was.”
“We’ve tried everything,” Troy said wearily. “Noah has even tried to heal her but he says there’s nothing to heal.”
“Can it be her gift?” Drake asked cautiously. “We know it’s been acting like it had a mind of its own.”
“What do you mean?” Will asked despairingly.
“We’ve been noticing instances when it was out of control. Kind of like when Bradford attacked her, and then she had little residual effects of the drug she was given. When we healed Spencer it nearly killed her, killed us,” Noah explained as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. “These other things that we are able to do isn’t normal either. No one has ever reported the things we have been able to do.”
“You mentioned another gift that she had. An eighth,” Jace commented fiercely as he stood up staring intensely at Greg. “What did you mean? We hypothesized that our gifts had always laid dormant in her until we activated them by making our connections, could her not knowing what that eighth gift is and not using it be draining her?”
“We thought it may be something akin to a catalyst, except our boost never goes away because of her,” Drake added.
Greg sighed and seemed to be battling an internal battle. “There is no doubt that someone like her shouldn’t exist. Generally, it is hard enough for one person to have one gift and master it, with or without a connection. I don’t think our bodies were meant to be able to withstand that much power. It could be attacking her, it’s not the first time a gift has caused the carrier to die of their own violation.”
“All the children I helped create, except for three of them, had died by the hands of their own gifts,” Hazel said wearily as she stepped into the room. Her eyes met mine. She must have noticed everyone was talking about me without being aware that I was awake. “Miranda, Terry Moore, and Imala Hudgens. With Miranda, I admitted I went a little…overboard. I created her using the DNA of several different, strongly gifted people. I imagined this is still a residual side effect of the experiments. Blake shouldn’t exist, but the gift has mutated in her, allowing her to carry eight of them. Her gift isn’t trying to kill her. It’s restless because she hasn’t used it to its full potential.” Hazel sat on the other side of my bed and patted my hand. “She needs to complete her connections.”
I didn’t pull my hand back. I didn’t have the energy or really the desire to. There was something comforting about her. Maybe it was her mannerism or the way she carried herself, but she reminded me a lot of her son. The man I had called Dad.
“Blake!” Troy looked up at me in surprise. He leaned over and picked up my hand and kissed the back of it.
Soon they were all surrounding me.
“How are your feeling?” Jace asked firmly.
I knew better to lie to him again. I shouldn’t have in the first place.
“I feel weak and my joints ache,” I told him truthfully. “What happened?”
“You fell asleep on me two nights ago, then I carried you to bed. When I went to wake you up the next day, you wouldn’t wake up,” Jaxson answered me.
“From all the tests we’ve ran, there isn’t any physical reason you should be feeling this way,” Remy added gruffly.
I looked over at Greg and Hazel. “I already made all my connections. I don’t understand why my gift is unhappy with me. What is my eighth gift, so I can start working on it?”
“When you were younger,” Greg said carefully. “Your gift for compelling was prominent, but your other gifts were already there, including the gift of jumping.” He looked warily at Will and then the guys. “If what you tell me is true, then the only logical explanation for all of this is what Hazel is saying…You need to make your last connection.”
I sat there in stunned silence as the words slowly sunk in. “There’s no way in Hades I have another connection out there!” I stated vehemently. “I love my connections.” I felt tears burning the back of my eyes. “I would feel like I’m cheating on them if I allow another man into our lives. I can’t do it. I won’t do it. Let my gift be unhappy with me. I don’t care. Who cares about this gift of jumping? What does that even mean?”
“Jumping gives you the ability to—in essence—jump into another person’s body. You can feel what they’re feeling. See what their seeing. Smell what they smell,” Greg grimaced as he looked over at me. He must know how volatile my emotions were and didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news.
Too late! I was already freaking out and over this whole conversation. I couldn’t even look at the guys as I began to try and remove the tubes from my hand. I needed to get out of here and fast!
“We’re all feeling it Blake,” Jace said as he laid his hand on my hand, stopping my frantic movements.
“Feeling what?” I asked in confusion.
I watched Will give Greg a pointed look before they both left the room, followed closely by Hazel. I felt sick to my stomach. I had a feeling my day was going to go from bad to worse. I finally let the hot tears spill on my face.
“Our gifts,” Jace continued quietly. “They’re almost nonexistent.”
“Bull crap!” I cried out, angrily wiping my tears from my face. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on everyone’s emotions. I tried to feel how they were feeling, and it felt like when you walked into a room and turned on the light switch, only to have the light bulb blow. I felt like an engine that started to catch but then…nothing.
