CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The lives of the group forever changed that day. It was the beginning of their new lives. Lives in which they could write their own story, their own history. They would start a new path of helping others with their gifts, not abusing them. They would never again allow anyone to use their gifts for evil.
In the months ahead, they discovered that there were no others like them alive in the world. All died either by their own hand or Moore’s and Viskoff’s. Their band of merry men and women was exactly what they saw in front of them.
Kane began writing a business plan for their new company. It would be called “TG Protection” – TG for The Gifted , which no one needed to know about. It would be their little secret.
He didn’t want them to become mercenaries or murderers. He didn’t want to be guns for hire or circus show freaks. He wanted them to make a difference in the world. Take on tasks to help the little guys, the underdogs. That might mean a small country or a family hoping to find their lost child. He wasn’t even sure what that looked like right now, but he was sure that the team would be able to make a difference in the world, just as he’d suspected.
Their team was fast becoming a family.
Ben and Mary were living together, although neither saw the need to get married at this point in their lives. Mary was content to be enveloped in the love and adoration that Ben showed her every day. His strong arms made her feel safe and secure in a world where she’d felt very little of that.
Kelly went off to college, much to the dismay of Juan, and then just as quickly, left to pursue her degree online. It was physically painful and detrimental to them both to be so far apart. Neither could stand the distance, and Uri and Melanie accepted it.
No one really knew the young man’s age, but Adam concluded he was most likely around twenty-five. He was tall, dark, handsome, and insanely quiet, but more than anything, he was in love with Kelly Bellum.
Juan was bitten big time. Kelly loved him as well, but they knew she needed to make her way through school in order for them to have a life together. Uri watched the young man every day, pining for his daughter, and he knew that one day they would be together, have a life, but today, they would just be friends.
Regan packed on the muscle, working out every day with the rest of the team. Before her very eyes, Ivy saw the young man she had fallen in love with change into a very different man that set her blood on fire in a variety of new ways. He was intelligent, handsome, kind, and, more than ever, sexy as hell.
Spook and Valentina were still working out their relationship, but there was no doubt the two were madly, deeply in love. For her part, she was able to calm Spook when the noise became too much. For his part, he gave her a love like the one she never knew existed.
Flip watched Nat walking toward him, and his stomach did that funny butterfly turn it always did when he saw the blonde waves swaying behind her. She was breathing heavy, but that was no surprise. She was carrying his child. A child that, by all accounts, was normal, healthy, and they hoped possessed no special abilities at all other than to wrap his or her parents around their fingers.
“Hi, baby,” she said, breathing heavy.
“Hi, honey,” he leaned forward and kissed her lips. “You look beautiful, Nat.”
“You always say that, Flip, but I’m as big as a house right now and feel like it.” She rubbed her big belly and smiled. Only a few more weeks and this little one would pop its head out and chat with everyone. “But I know in the end, it will all be worth it. You and me and this little guy or girl will be a family, along with our extended family.”
“We are indeed, love. We are indeed. One big, crazy, dysfunctional, mystical family.”
Taking her hand, they walked toward their cabin into the summer night, watching for fairy dust and the occasional elf.