by S M Olivier
“They said he left a note on his computer, but my dad was old school. He still sent cards to people for the holidays or birthdays. He would take the time to make each card personal and meaningful. There was no way he chose to end his life, leaving a brief, impersonal letter on his opened computer.”
I sat up and straddled his lap before I took his face in my hands and kissed him. “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t imagine. Was there any indication that foul play was involved?”
He rubbed my back and pulled me closer. “No, none. Pops even had an old friend look into it. Any evidence that they could have gathered was already gone. No one really collects much evidence when it seems like a suicide. Mom never believed me when I tried to reason with her, and eventually she demanded I not talk about any of it or him anymore.”
“Hey, Drake,” I said hesitantly. “If Patrick can see crimes of the past. Do you think with enough details he might be able to help you out?”
I could feel his smile spread across my forehead. “You are so brilliant! I’ll have to ask him and see if he could. It’s been years, but we already know he's solved older cold cases.”
I smiled against his chest glad, that he had a little hope.
“Just wait until I get out of here!” I heard a deep husky voice yell.
Confused, I walked out into the hallway as I pulled my hair back into a ponytail. “What is going on?”
The first thing I noticed was Jaxson and Remy leaning against the wall in the other hallway. Their shoulders were shaking with silent laughter.
Noah popped his head out of his room, pulling on his black t-shirt. “Lincoln,” he mouthed, pointing towards Drake’s room.
I walked over to the other side of the apartment in confusion. I reached out to open Drake’s door.
“Blake, no,” Jaxson groaned halfheartedly, trying to stop me from opening the door.
I looked over at Remy, and he shrugged and gave me a smirk like he was completely innocent of whatever was going on the other side of the door.
I opened the door and gasped in shock. It looked like an overgrown garden had been planted in Drake’s room.
“It’s a secret garden,” Jaxson grinned unrepentantly. “He need only to find the right passage, and he can make his way out of the room.”
“He’s baaack,” Noah said in a singsong voice.
Remy and Jaxson grinned at each other conspiratorially. I had no doubt they had teamed up to torment Lincoln. Jaxson hadn’t played a prank or used his gifts for too long. Woe are the people that crossed his path today.
“Is anyone going to let me out of here?” I heard Lincoln’s annoyed voice ask.
“Classes and training start in forty-five minutes,” Jace said with a smile. He was apparently amused by the situation himself and hadn’t tried to coax his brother from his mischief like he usually would have.
“Do we have to go?” Jaxson asked with a frown. “I feel like we should be out celebrating.”
“Tomorrow’s the weekend,” Jace said with a lopsided smile. “You have four hours of class and four hours of training. It’ll go by quickly.”
I groaned inwardly. Honestly, I wasn’t enthused about going to school or training today either. Drake and I hadn’t gone to sleep until nearly three o’clock. Drake told me Paul and Pops decided that everyone would have to return to our regular schedules today. I really wasn’t looking forward to it. Even if it was only for one day. Couldn’t they have given us a small break until Monday? After all, we were just attacked, and I knew the base hadn’t returned to normal quite yet.
“We should all get out of here, get a weekend pass, come back Sunday night,” Troy stated as he came out of the room.
“I doubt they will grant us the pass.” Jace frowned. “Not for the whole weekend. They still have too much to do around here. Maybe we can take the children skiing. There’s a resort an hour west of us. They haven’t been out in a while.”
“They’ll probably like that,” Troy agreed reluctantly.
I think a break away from school, and the base would be suitable for the children, although I knew our relationship probably needed the time together as well. Again, we were struggling and juggling with all our responsibilities.
“Hello?” Lincoln called once more.
I looked over at Jaxson.
“He needs to figure out the maze,” Jaxson said smugly with a smile.
“Jaxson,” I bade him sternly.
He sighed. “Fiiine,” he drawled out. “But this isn’t over. I need to flex my muscles.”
“Oh no,” Drake stated with an eye roll before he grabbed his satchel. “No one’s safe today. Let’s catch some grub. I’m sure Pops will want to know we have our gifts back.”
It was my turn to groan as Jaxson dropped his illusion and Lincoln came strolling out of the room. My eyes widened when I noticed he was dressed in black cargo pants, black boots, and a black t-shirt. In other words, he looked just like us.
He stopped short and perused me leisurely. He opened his mouth and then snapped it shut. He turned and looked at Jaxson who was barely containing his mirth. “You know what they say about paybacks, funny man,” he said sardonically. “When you least expect it.”
Jaxson laughed, seemingly unaffected by the threat. “Bring it,” he dared as he ran out of the apartment.
Shaking my head and trying to hide my amusement, I went back into my room and stripped down to my underwear, throwing my night clothes into my hamper. I went to my dresser and pulled out my uniform—black cargo pants, black Henley, socks, and my black boots. I quickly dressed, and after lacing up my boots, went back out to the living room.
They were all waiting for me, and I smiled at them, uncertain yet how they were feeling about our new situation.
“Let’s go.” Jace took my hand and led me to the front door.
I grabbed my messenger bag and laptop case. “I really don’t know how I’m going to focus today,” I admitted.
“I’m sure Mr. Bates won’t require much of you guys today,” Jace said reassuringly. We left the apartment, with Remy closing the door behind us. “It’s more of an orientation and settling the new guys in. Knightstown came with six students, and SC came with three.”
“I think we should bring Cooper,” Jaxson stated in front of us. He was casually leaning against the wall in the hallway. He looked at me with a mischievous smile before the little capuchin monkey materialized and came running forward.
“Cooper!” I cried happily. Cooper was the first illusion Jaxson had created that we realized could be touched.
Cooper launched himself into my arms, and I cradled him in my chest. “I missed you,” I cooed to the monkey.
“You’re going to drain yourself quickly,” Jace said dryly to Jaxson. “We haven’t had the use of our gifts for a while, and you can cause yourself fatigue.”
Jaxson grinned and shrugged.
Last night, or should I say early this morning, Drake and I had spent some time practicing our gifts, but we had noticed that we had gotten exhausted faster and easier. We knew better than to push it too much or too soon, so we had stopped. I knew Jaxson hadn’t and didn’t have the self-control to do the same.
It was a conscious effort not to look back at Lincoln. I didn’t know how to act now that we finally made our connection. If it had been any one of the other guys who went down with me, I would be showing more concern towards them. This was all new territory for me.
“I think Cooper needs to go,” Jaxson shrugged.
“Getting tired?” Jace asked smugly.
“Nope,” Jaxson said mulishly.
“Bye, Coop,” I cooed as I kissed his head.
He quickly vanished, and a second afterward, I felt warm arms embrace me from behind. “Wanna skip school today?” Jaxson said huskily in my ear.
“Mmm,” I contemplated as I tried to awkwardly walk with him embracing me. “As tempting as that sounds, we can’t really afford to miss any more school. Just because you have a few col
leges looking at you, doesn’t mean you’ve been accepted.” I reminded him.
“Mr. Bates loves me, he’ll hook a brother up,” Jaxson said cockily. “Besides, I’m in need of some loving.”
I laughed at him. “We’ll see what we can do.”
“Mmm hmm,” he said skeptically.
I laughed once more and gently disengaged from him. I stood on my tip toes and pulled his ear down so I could whisper in it. “We’ll slip away to the locker rooms before lunch and training.”
“Promise?” he asked hopefully.
“Promise,” I smiled up at him.
We entered the dining facility, and some of the chatter died down.
“Ever feel like everyone’s watching you?” I joked.
“Well… our search for you last night caused a stir,” Jace said with a shrug.
I groaned, remembering the condition I was in when I passed out.
“Don’t worry,” Noah teased. “We found you so…”
“Some people thought you left us for Lincoln,” Jaxson teased.
I looked over at Lincoln, and I could see the smirk on his face.
“Remember the days no one barely knew who I was?” I sighed dramatically. “Let’s eat.”
I started to advance to the line to get our breakfast. I could see that Will, Megan, and the children had beaten us there this morning. I looked down at my watch and noticed that we still had thirty minutes before class started. It was Alex who spotted me first.
“Blake!” he cried out before running towards me.
I embraced him. “Hey, buddy!”
“You’re better!” he cried happily.
I nodded with a smile. “I am!”
“Good,” he wiggled against me. “We can help Harry!”
I bit my lip in guilt. In all my excitement, I had forgotten entirely about Harry. I didn’t know if Alex’s belief would be correct, but I had to try.
“How does tonight sound?” I asked him. “I’ll find Greg, and we’ll see if he can bring Harry on by, then you, me, and Jace can see what we can do.”
“Okay,” he said excitedly before he ran back to the table.
I looked over at Jace, and he just smiled and nodded. “I’m in.”
“Do you think we can help him?” I asked grabbing some oatmeal.
Jace hesitated before nodding. “I think we can.”
“Harry?” Lincoln asked. “The Autistic boy?” It was the first time he’d spoken to me today, even if it was indirectly.
“My gifts manifested when I was really young,” I explained to him. “Up until about a year ago, Harry was a perfectly normal child. When his gift started to appear, he started to lose his speech. Sleeping became difficult for him. Then other troubling signs became evident. We don’t think he’s Autistic at all. We think his gift has caused most of the symptoms.”
We finished getting our food, and I allowed the cashier to scan my ID. We made our way over to the table where Alex was excitedly telling Pops and Megan that we were going to ‘fix’ Harry tonight.
“Are you guys ready for that?” Will asked hesitantly.
“Is that your way of asking if our gifts are back?” I teased Will dryly.
“Well,” Will said hiding his smile behind his coffee cup. “I know we had a manhunt out last night looking for you two.” He looked at me and Lincoln. “It wasn’t too hard to figure out where you guys were.”
Jaxson, Noah, and Troy chuckled, and I had to hide my ire. I guess I should have thought that one through better. I thought Will would have been slightly more diplomatic, but apparently I was wrong.
“If I were to remain here for a little while…” Lincoln cleared his throat avoiding making eye contact with me. “What will my training entail?”
“The first half of the day is mainly fulfilling your specialized training or working in your assigned area,” Will explained. “For instance; Noah will go to the clinic, Drake will go back to the kitchens, Jaxson and Blake go to school, Troy and Remy generally go with Henderson to enhance our security and physical training plans, and Jace typically accompanies me in the administrative side of things. Do you have any areas of interest?”
“He can do PR with Megan,” Jaxson said before stuffing a large mouthful of pancake in his mouth. He had gotten a triple serving of food because he had already utilized his gifts a lot this morning. “If Lincoln Hudgens were to be in some of those video conference calls with the other communities, I’m sure a lot of them would be jumping on board.”
“So, you want to pimp him out?” Remy asked dryly before taking a sip of his coffee.
“Why not?” Troy asked slowly. “We know we’re outnumbered. Horatio is playing dirty. He’s stooped to too many levels to bring a war that should have never been started. He’s going to be the reason why many gifted people will lose their rights as citizens.”
“I can’t ask him to do that,” Megan stated. “He came here to…well, make his connection. He has a life outside of here. He has a commitment elsewhere. Besides, he has just been made aware of what is going on.”
“Yeah maybe he wants to be part of the superior race,” Remy said sardonically.
“If he were to see the evidence we gathered, I’m sure he would want to be on our side,” Drake spoke up.
“Yeah, like when I was in a cage,” Ella stated as she reached for her carton of milk.
I looked at her in surprise. She never spoke about that time in her life. I had tried to cajole her several times, but she adamantly refused. I understood her reluctance to talk. I hated talking, so I hadn’t pushed her.
I hadn’t had a chance to talk to her about her meeting with Dr. Wong yet. I imagined it was his idea for her to talk about it.
“Or when I was sold to those bad men,” Alex added before he took a bite of his toast.
Alex spoke quite openly about his life before coming here. When he talked about it, he could have been talking about the weather. I think he learned how to compartmentalize and process his feelings and thoughts, making it easier to deal with.
“They aren’t nice people,” Kade added, looking at Lincoln pointedly.
“Before I become a face to anything, I would like to see the evidence against this man,” Lincoln stated resolutely. “My only obligation to the outside world right now doesn’t start for a couple of weeks, and my agent already knows the events I am unable to attend to at this time.”
“You’ll be here for weeks if not months if you saw it all,” Will said bluntly. “But we can definitely show you everything we have on him.”
Lincoln nodded. “That works for me.”
“I’ll take you with me to my offices after breakfast,” Megan stated. “After lunch, you can join the others for training, or you can remain with me. It’s entirely up to you.”
“We’re doing controlled gift exercises today,” Jaxson said gleefully. “I cannot wait!”
“Which you may not be able to attend,” Will eyed his son’s tray. “It’s not even eight o’clock in the morning. How have you been using your gift so much already?”
“Come on, Dad,” Jaxson said in exasperation. “I’m growing! I’m just hungry.”
Will looked at him in disbelief, clearly not believing him. Will looked at all of us, and we all hastily looked away, even Lincoln.
“But if you use your gifts during training today, you can’t help Harry! You might be too tired!” Alex protested.
Will looked over at Alex with an apologetic look. “This will be the first time we’ve had group training since the SC team got here and the other Knights. It’s important that they attend.” Once he saw Alex’s crestfallen look, he quickly added, “But don’t worry. We’ll come up with a game plan to help Harry. We know how important it is. How do you propose to help him?” He looked over at us.
“I’m going with Alex to see what we’re working with,” I informed him. “And Jace will be there to help him remain calm.”
“I can jump him too,” Lincoln added.
W
e all looked at him. “How will that help him if you take over his body?” Noah asked in confusion.
“I can jump a person without taking complete control,” Lincoln smirked.
Before we could ask him what he meant, Jaxson stood up abruptly and started belting out the song, Barbie girl.
He held his arms up high with a huge smile. “I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world.” He twirled around on one leg. “Life in plastic, it’s fantastic.” He began to prance back and forth in the middle aisle of the cafeteria as he groped his own breast. “You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere!” He mimed brushing his hair before he began to strip his shirt off. “Come on Barbie, let’s go party, oh oh oh!” Jaxson jumped up and did an awkward split jump.
The cafeteria erupted with laughter as Jaxson looked over at us, coloring slightly. Troy and Noah nearly fell out of their chairs as they laughed.
“Do it again, Blake!” Ella squealed with laughter.
I held my hands up smiling. “It wasn’t me.”
Jaxson took his seat as he pulled on his shirt. He pretended to glare at Lincoln. “Okay, man. We’re even.” He laughed then, getting over his embarrassment. Even he had to admit singing Barbie Girl by Aqua was hilarious.
“I’ll determine when we’re even,” Lincoln stated with a wicked smile.
“Dare I ask?” Will asked with an amused smile.
“It was a harmless prank,” Jaxson said in a disgruntled tone.
“I’m sure it was,” Will smirked as he drank his coffee. “What is a partial jump?”
“When I first learned how to jump, and before I worked on it,” Lincoln explained, “I was able to do partial jumps. They knew I was there. Most people tried to…push me out. In the beginning, some of them were even able to.”
“I feel like I need a shower now,” Jaxson grumbled.
“Can you feel him?” Kade asked in wonder.
Jaxson mocked a shudder. “Yeah.”
“As I got better,” Lincoln added. “I was able to completely jump a person and they never even knew I was there.”
“Did you know when Blake accidentally jumped you?” Troy asked, giving me a knowing smile.
