Chapter 1
“Hana, Dul, Set, Net. Hana, Dul, Set, Net,” Troy barked out as we did our warm-ups, counting in Korean.
My connection had an infinity for martial arts that spanned several different cultures, but Troy’s first love had been Tae Kwon Do, so he tended to revert back to that language when doing warm-ups. I followed his instructions as he continued.
“Okay.” Troy clapped his hands enthusiastically. “I need four lines, right here. We’re going to do front kicks all the way down and back.”
He demonstrated exactly what he wanted, and even though he was wearing a shirt, I still had to admire how graceful and powerful he looked. Generally, he preferred to train without his top on, but the presence of the younger ones prevented him from being entirely in his element. He was my Italian Stallion. His short dark hair and clean-cut features, combined with his honey colored eyes with outrageously long lashes, was everything you found in the stereotypical ‘tall, dark, and handsome’ man.
I had to get my mind back on task instead of admiring one of my six loves. I joined the kids and teens in their lines and dropped back into my ready stance before doing as Troy instructed. I looked around at the others and saw enthusiasm in most of their faces, while some seemed disgruntled that they’d been forced to participate in ‘activities.’ Today was martial arts and dance day, followed by either cooking, agriculture, art, or music class.
Recently we found out that a lot of the children had begun acting out due to their boredom. We had come up with a game plan where they were required to participate in two hours’ worth of activities every day. With the beginning of Christmas break, it was a great time to start implementing their new schedules.
Ever since we found out we were losing our gifts, we had all been at wit's end. We had to keep ourselves busy or we were going to lose the little bit of sanity we had left. I seemed to be suffering the most, though; physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Physically, my body continued to betray me. Some days were still fantastic. Other days…not so much. There were days that I couldn’t even muster the energy to leave the bed. On my good days, I tried to make up for those bad times.
Mentally, I still struggled with the decision we had made together. I even questioned my sanity and wondered if I was making the right one. At what point did I take care of myself and not care about the consequences it may bring to others? Then I realized how selfish I was being and found myself sinking into depression.
Emotionally, I wavered between denial and anger. I tried to make the most of my time with my six connections, but I found it increasingly difficult. I knew Remy and Jaxson were still struggling with our decision. That only made me feel guiltier and filled me with more hurt.
“How are you feeling today?” Troy asked as I returned to the starting point.
I smiled and nodded. “Good, want to do some sparring after this?”
He hesitated for a moment before smiling. “If you think you can handle it.”
I nodded reassuringly. “Today’s a good day. I want to take advantage of it.”
He reached up and moved an errant curl off my face, caressing my cheek before he removed his hand. I noticed the guys seemed to be doing that a lot lately. They had been affectionate before, but now they seemed to be even more so. I think they feared losing me to my seventh connection, our eighth connection.
I had tried to reassure them, telling them that I doubted I would even like the usurper, let alone create a genuine bond with them. It wasn’t long ago that I had struggled with finding out I had six men out there, and now the bombshell of the seventh was dropped on us. To make matters worse, we were looking for a needle in a haystack.
We had reached out to all the communities out there and asked them if they had any males between the ages of eighteen to twenty-eight—we were assuming he was around my age. We asked if they could send us any pictures of men that had a mark with no connection. We didn’t specify why or what mark we were looking for, precisely, and still our search was proving fruitless.
We found out nearly a week ago, and it didn’t take long for some of the communities to answer us almost immediately. We were reassured by three of the other groups that they were still helping us search for answers. The good news was that the communications with the communities were stronger, and we now had a photo album full of gifted people with marks. We were able to utilize it to find six pairs of connections for the other communities, which was great for them. The bad news was it only further rubbed salt into our wounds.
We knew there could be thousands of other gifted individuals that may not even associate with a community. We had just hoped since, more than likely, this guy had a unique gift that he was part of one. I wondered if he was like me; maybe he had this gift in him and lived in denial for so long or wasn’t aware of it. It wasn’t often that someone felt the need to “jump” another person, so maybe he was as clueless as I had been.
I found out jumping was the ability to jump into another person’s body. Jumping allowed you to see, hear, smell, touch, and even feel what the other person felt. Unlike my ability to compel, all their senses would be activated. The jumper could also control the other person much like my gift of compelling.
“Okay, now roundhouse kicks, there and back,” Troy said in an upbeat tone as he demonstrated the roundhouse kick down the mats.
He was a natural teacher. The children avidly watched him and listened to him. Even the children that didn’t seem too keen on participating. I joined in the line once more and smiled that my body wanted to respond and engage. Sometimes life put things in perspective. I hadn’t realized how much I had taken for granted until I couldn’t do the simple things like opening a bottle of water or even the ability to get out of bed.
Recently, my body had begun betraying me, without warning. It was hypothesized that I had another connection out there. My gift had behaved in this manner in the past, protecting me when I wasn’t consciously aware of it. Now it seemed like I was losing the ability to the do even the simplest tasks. My gift wanted me to find my other connection, and until that happened, my body was taking the brunt of it.
Even though it was pouring down rain, I was glad for the times the sun would shine.
“Okay, do the roundhouse kick, but when your back leg lands, I want you to stay on the balls of your feet. Then you need to pivot and take your back leg like you’re doing a back kick but swing it at a forty-five-degree angle,” Troy explained patiently.
I did my roundhouse kick but continued to fail to make my spinning hook kick look as graceful as he did.
I tried to follow his instructions once more but could feel myself losing my balance yet again. Today he was taking it easier on me, and we were just working on my technique. My enthusia
sm for sparring had waned the longer we trained the kids. I had been with them every step of the class, learning the basics, even though I hadn’t needed them.
Some of our more belligerent pupils had begun to act out, and it had become mentally draining to get them back in line. It was during those times that I wished I had the full use of my gift. I would have had them complying to our instructions without all the attitude and disrespect.
I had already been cautioned that my gifts would be sporadic and unstable. I didn’t want to risk draining myself unnecessarily or risk hurting an essentially innocent teen. Needless to say, I wasn’t using them anymore. The students had been taken from an ordinary life and dropped here; they were bored. I understood their angst. I just didn’t agree with it.
“Try to move your head in the direction you want it to go.” Troy took a firm grip of my hips, then turned my head in the direction he wanted me to look.
“Are you trying to distract me?” I teased as I felt his hands splayed across the dip in my waist.
“Is it working?” He chuckled with that glint in his eyes.
I turned around, grabbed his face, and kissed him passionately. “It would, but I have to go help Drake in the kitchens now. He has eight very sullen teenagers and five overly rambunctious children.
Troy laughed once more. He picked up a towel to hand it to me before grabbing his own. “Raincheck?” he asked hopefully.
I smiled up at him. “Definitely. I’ll come to your room tonight.”
He smiled triumphantly before wiping the sheen of sweat off his face. “Excellent. It was also smart of you to help get this ball rolling with the kids here.”
I laughed. “Half of them hate me for it. When I suggested it, I didn’t think they would implement the new program immediately. I thought we would at least warn them instead of telling them they were now losing over two hours of their days on their Christmas vacation.”
“I think Pops saw it as a good way to keep us busy and focused on something other than our current dilemma. Plus, some of those kids were going down a dark path. I should have recognized the signs sooner. They were sneaking off to the vacant levels, smoking pot, hooking up, and goodness knows what else.” Troy gave me a reassuring side hug as we started to make our way out of the training gym.
“You would know the warning signs,” I teased him. “I forgot about your city friends that liked to run wild.”
He grinned and shrugged. “Why did you think my mom kept me so busy, well that and the other reasons?” he trailed off. His mother had kept him out of the house as much as possible to avoid letting her son see how abusive his father had been towards her.
“Kade said as much. His parents kept him and his sister busy for that reason, too. Idle hands and all that.” I leaned into him briefly once more when we reached the hallway.
It was because of my fifteen-year-old brother’s suggestion that I had even thought to suggest the programs. He saw the warning signs, and he didn’t want our younger siblings to be influenced by their new friends. That and spending days in bed doing nothing but school work and sleeping had grown boring after a while.
“See you at dinner?” Troy asked as he pulled me in for a kiss.
He didn’t give me a chaste kiss. It was more sensual…demanding, even. His hands stroked my back and dipped dangerously low on my bottom.
“You know it.” I smiled at him as we pulled away, slightly breathless.
Looking at him and knowing how great my guys had been in my time of weakness, I couldn’t imagine ruining our dynamics. It was perfect just the way it was.
The new program that we were implementing had the children and teens doing martial arts for three days a week, and the other two days were spent in another activity that required physical exertion. Remy had the children on the two non-martial art days, and other operatives had volunteered to assist him. Troy had volunteered to do the martial arts program, with Butler acting as his second in command. Butler had almost as much martial arts experience as Troy and had a vested interest in the program.