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“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.
