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“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.
