Hidden Powers

Chapter 7: Mark

                After hearing that there’s someone out there who thinks Hope is their mate, makes my skin crawl. Whoever this Jack guy is, I need to make sure Hope is safe from him. What’s worse is that he was able to take over Tom and speak for him. We explained what happened to Tom and how Hope saw Jack’s eyes hidden with his. I wanted to ask more questions about him, but I didn’t think now would be a good time, but I knew it will happen at some point.

                I’m assuming he and Hope had a past, which is fine, everyone does, but if he thinks that Hope is still his, he’s delusional. Hope’s eyes were full if fear while she talked to her parents about Jack, and how is powers have grown from a family member transferring their power to him before they died. Since he got the new power, he developed a few new tricks that sounded familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I heard it before. As she was describing one of her dreams to her parents, Holton and Lucy showed up.

                “You’re finally telling them?” Holton asked Hope.

                “He possessed dad. It was time.” She responded. Holton’s eyes flashed red at this news.

                “He what!?” Hope explained what happened and he only got angrier by the moment. Lucy held his hand and started rubbing his arm with her other hand to try and keep him calm. When that didn’t work, she reached up and cupped his face then he looked down at her and leaned into her hand taking deep breaths. His eyes closed for a moment and when he opened them again, his eyes were back to normal. She didn’t react to his red eyes, so I’m assuming he filled her in on the prophecy. Hope and her parents were watching them as well.

                “Better?” She asked him with a smile.

                “Much. Thank you.” He smiled back and leaned down to give her a quick kiss. They looked over at us when they were done and Lucy’s cheeks grew red. Tom and I chuckled while Hope and Anne squealed at how happy they were together.

                “My boy has his true mate!” Anne jumped over and pulled them both into a hug.

                “Mom come on. Why aren’t Hope and Mark being hugged? They’re mates too remember.” He tried to move the attention to us instead of them, and it worked. She released them and brought us into a hug next.

                “Our family is complete.” She whispered. “Until the grandbabies of course.”

                “Anne, they just figured everything out, give them some time before you plan children in their lives.” Tom said as he dragged her away from us and held her in his arms.

                “I’m so happy, that’s all.” I could see unshed tears in her eyes and I had a feeling she was worried that she might not become a grandma due to Michael’s threat on her children’s lives.

                “I want to get through this whole prophecy thing first mom” Hope said to her gently.

                “Yes, of course dear. There will be plenty of time to plan out weddings and babies.” I stiffened at the topic of weddings which Hope noticed. She raised her eyebrow at me and I tried to relax my body. I guess I never thought about a happy ever after future once Lacey released me. Even though I had no intention of staying with her, I just never thought I would find someone else or need someone else.

                “Well, I need to go and do some spells to keep Jack out of my head again. If you’ll excuse me everyone.” Tom turned and went into the other room which would lead to an office space probably.

                “I’ll try and help him.” Anne got ready to follow then turned her head back to her children. “If you need anything, let me know.” We all nodded our heads and once she was out of the kitchen, Hope turned to us and said that she needs to explain a few things before going to see Ava and James and explain it to them as well.

                “Would it be better to tell us all at once?” I asked.

                “I’m not really sure actually. Ava and James will need to know eventually.”

                “Know what?” James came downstairs and stood at the bottom to look between us all. His gaze landed on Hope and stayed there. “What do we need to know?”

                “Where’s Ava?” I stepped in to give Hope time to think.

                “She fell asleep, so I thought I would give her some space. Now, please, tell me what’s going on.”

                Hope took a deep breath and filled us all in on Jack again. I stood next to her and wrapped my arms around her waist to give her strength. She was a little shaky while talking about him, so I wanted to make sure she could lean on me for support. Finally she got to her more recent dream, which was the exact same one I had.

                “You said he can reach out to you in your dreams?” James asked surprised.

                “Yes. He received that gift from his half-brother who recently died.” James was looking at her in shock as she confirmed it.

                “His half-brother? Did he mention anything more about him?” James was going paler, which I didn’t think could be possible for a vampire.

                “I know what you’re thinking James, and I believe it’s the same person. He said he was half vampire.”

                “Am I missing something?” I asked between the two of them.

                “His half-brother was Kyle.” James said in a low voice. Now I remember where I heard about those powers. Ava and James explained to me one night about what Kyle was doing so he could reach out to Ava since he was in love with her.

                “He’s wanting revenge for his death, but he doesn’t know who killed him yet.” Hope said softly. James let out a snarl and his eye were shinning blue with rage.

                “We won’t let him get anywhere near Ava.” I told him. “There’s no way for him to find out, and we’ll keep it that way. Her and your babies will be safe.”

                He took several deep breaths and closed his eyes. He nodded his head and then we all started thinking of ways to keep Jack from finding out anymore information. I was wanting to make sure there was no way for him to get close to Hope again. My plan was to keep her by my side at all times if that helps to keep him away. I’m sure there’s more to Hope’s past with him, but until she’s ready to tell me about it, I’ll be patient.

*Hope*

                We were sitting in Ava’s room after her nap and just finished telling her everything that happened so far. The room was getting crowded since Holton and Lucy felt it necessary to join us. Lucy was no filled in on the prophecy and was happy to keep our secret. Both of them thanked Ava again for bringing it to their attention, even though they would have found out soon enough. While Ava was thinking over what we told her about Jack, I was watching Holton. I’ve never seen him so happy. He’s been waiting to find a connection with someone, and he didn’t want to date anyone either.

                “Where is Jack now?” Ava asked and brought me back to the present.

                “I have no idea.” I started to say.

                “I want to keep it that way.” Mark gritted out. I looked at him and realized that this could be affecting him in more ways then one. The person he’s hired to protect is in danger from Jack, but also me, his mate, is in danger as well. I moved closer to him and grabbed his hand. He gave me a squeeze and kissed my forehead.

                “I need to confront him at some point, then maybe he’ll leave everyone alone.” Ava said while watching us with a hint of a smile on her face.

                “No.” James, Mark, and Holton said at the same time. The three of us girls burst out laughing.

                “This isn’t funny, Ava is in real danger being on Jack’s hitlist.” Holton said.

                “Are you forgetting who we are brother?” I asked him with my eyebrow raised. “There’s three of us here who can probably do more damage to him then he can do to us. Plus, James is stronger now that him and Ava completed to whole mating process and got married.”

                Ava blushed when I mentioned this, and I thought it was funny considering we all knew she was pregnant. I kept my laughter in though since it wasn’t the moment to bring attention to that. Holton is watching Lucy while Mark is watching me. Almost like the mention of mating made their senses on high alert. Lucy backed away and hid next to me which snapped Holton back to normal and there was hurt in his eyes.

                “Since Ava is pregnant, maybe James will be strong enough to help you both so we don’t have to be concerned about the babies.” Mark said.

                “No way! I am strong, and my babies are strong. This Jack guy isn’t going to do anything to me or my friends and family.” Her eyes started shining red, a brighter red then I’ve ever seen before. Even mine and Holton’s eyes have never shone that bright before.

                “Babe, calm down.” James whispered while placing his arms around her. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths. When she opened them again, she was back to normal.

                “I’ll deal with him.” Ava promised.

                “No, this isn’t your battle this time. I can handle Jack.” I assured her.

                “You won’t be alone.” Mark brought me into his arms and held me close again. I’m not sure if he thought I needed this, or perhaps he was the one who needed it, so I wrapped my arms around him too.

                *knock knock*

                We all looked towards the door and mom poked her head in. “Ava is on bed rest people, for a couple weeks at least. She needs to rest and not have stress put on her.” She walked in with bottles of blood in hand and took them over to Ava. She thanked her and started drinking. “Time to leave them alone. Go.” She shood us all from the room and made sure we all left the house after that.

                “I should probably go back home anyways before my parents start asking questions.” Lucy mentioned.

                “I’ll walk you.” Holton smiled and held out his hand. I watched as they walked towards the main entranced of the farm. Mark and I were left alone again and I felt rather shy all of a sudden.

                “Come with me.” I held out my hand and he took it. I led him into the barn and up the stairs into my loft area.

                “This seems cozy.” Mark said as he looked around then sat on my couch pulling me along with him. We cuddled on the couch for what seemed like hours, but it was only minutes. “Were you in love with him?”

                I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to hear, his voice was so small and soft. How do I respond? “Yes, but it’s over now.” I decided to tell him the truth, because there’s no point in starting this off on lies. Jack lied to me, and I don’t want to be lied to again, or lie to anyone myself.

                “He still loves you.” It wasn’t a question but a statement.

                “He does it seems, even though he’s been gone for two years.”

                “I guess we need to figure out the real reason why he came back.”

                “I think I know already, or at least I have an idea.” I told him. He rubbed my shoulder to encourage me to keep going. “For witches and warlocks, it’s rare for us to find our true mates so it’s common for us to find our second mates. It’s possible that Jack was meant to be my second and he knows that and is here to claim me.”

                “Since you found me, wouldn’t his connection to you break?”

                “He might have sensed something, but he’s the type that won’t play by the rules, unless it’s the battle to the death.”

                “What do you mean battle to the death?”

                “If there’s more then one possible mate to a person, the two can challenge each other in a battle to the death for their mate.”

                “So, Jack could challenge me to this battle for your hand?”

                “He could if he really wanted to. I don’t think he would because he knows that I don’t feel a connection to him.”

                “I know there’s more about him that you aren’t telling us about, but I’ll wait until you’re ready to talk about it.”

                “Thank you.” I turned my head to snuggle into his chest. He’s being patient with me, and it’s more then I can ask for. Am I ready to tell him what Jack did to me?