Chapter 8

Tia POV

"Connecting with someone is usually called an exchange...," Steph muttered barely audible. I turned my head to see her twiddling her thumbs, as she showed the utmost control and good manners by not getting in the way of Jayden's discussion. Quite odd for a girl her age, I thought before Jayden cleared his throat.

"Like Steph said, we call it an exchange...," I blinked in disbelief, still contemplating how on earth he heard her?! I was right next to her, but he's a good five feet away in their kitchen and I could barely hear a thing. I'm not that deaf!

I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out, but a breath I hadn't even realized I was holding.

"That's part of the special abilities I was talking about... we're really good at hearing things...," he said, practically reading my thoughts. I licked my lips.

"So then you can...read my thoughts also, I suppose...,"I muttered slightly worried. He choked a chuckled in response.

"Now if I could read your mind, do you really think I would have let that girl make a break for it?" his words reminding me just what he was and doing up to a few minutes before.

"Not that my plan helped, you were right on her heels in seconds..." I mumbled grudgingly, looking away to play with my sandwich. At this his smile spread across his face. Milliseconds--actually, I corrected my self mentally due to his cockiness, it must be another special ability...running. My eyes widened suddenly, all grudging thoughts leaving me and I span back around to look curiously at him. "Why did you stop? You could have captured her..."his smile disappeared completely.

"You really don't remember..." he scoffed in his throat, "that was your doing...your specially endowed ability. The first proof you're an elite." I blinked.

"The first proof...?" I bit my lip, "I'm an... elite..." I said, exasperated. The words sounded cold and forborne, after they left my lips, and a bad taste went with them.

"First of a good few actually..." he continued, his eyes drifting across the room, "You demonstrated your ability first, then the exchange." My mouth opened, and my mouth closed. Somehow combating that with, 'What?!" seemed pretty useless so I went with.

"What... the hell!?" ah...two extra words changes everything, right? Jayden released a breath patiently.

"An Ability is a special technique kind of unique to each Elite."

"So...I have an ability..."I mouthed, testing the words out, "Just like you have an ability?" I continued, just as dubious. My heart stopped, and fear instantly consumed me," Does that mean I'll turn into a wolf too!?" a look of surprise flashed cross Jayden's face followed by a roll of laughter.

"This is no joke! I don't want to be wolf!" I practically whined, Steph smiled obviously intrigued by the light mood and turned to Jayden.

"Looks like you ruined that animal for her."

"And she looked so unafraid too," he commented in-between laughs.

"I'm not afraid of wolves," I stuck in, when he finally quieted a bit, which took considerably long since he never seemed to stop to breathe. His attention was on me again, but he still carried a wide, amused grin on his face. Dang, he had a cute smile, that ought to be some kind of crime!

"Then why don't you want to be one?" Aside from the obvious liking to be human concept, I rationalized.

"I always thought of myself as a...gentler being...," Jayden cocked his head and laughed slightly at this. Once again amused.

"That was definitely not my first impression," he spewed, "Quiet maybe but not gentle. Even before the exchange you were giving off a killer look." I shrugged uncertainly.

"Well I didn't bite you did I? That's my gentleness playing out." This earned more laughter from Jayden; much to my distaste I couldn't say I hated it. His laughter was low, and beautiful even I found it hard to discriminate him. I could really get use to that laugh, I thought

"Whatever you say," he replied again, restraining his laughter but still holding amusement in his eyes, "But you..." he paused for a bit staring at me, and looking deep in thought, "won't have to worry about turning in to a wolf. " His eyes flashed something like disappointment or regret, before he quickly masked it and continued, "Besides, only after you've reached a certain level as an elite will you change, some even after that never do," he concluded, supposedly reducing my fears. What in fact it did was snap me out of the trance of calm I was in and brought two horrifying thoughts to my mind: 1) There were quite a bit of elites for them to have some sort of statistics and 2)Jayden, the killer was among the really strong set. That couldn't be good.