Chapter 24: Connections I

   It was already reaching midnight and Mackenzie had fallen asleep on the roof while her head was on Sloane's lap. The tears in the girl's eyes had already dried up and so had Sloane's

"Aren't you tired?" Nathan asked

"I should be asking you the same thing" Sloane smiled softly "I've really caused you a lot of trouble, since you met me"

"Well, I needed the trouble a bit" Nathan said "This place was a tad bit boring" he looked at her warmly and she blushed. Nathan had to snap himself out of it and pick up Mackenzie and place her on his back. Mackenzie woke up but instantly hugged Nathan and rubbed her head on the nape of his neck before going back to sleep.

"Where are we-"

"Let's go inside. It's getting late....and I know you're tired" Nathan said and Sloane nodded.

   The two of them had gotten down from the roof and went straight to Sloane's room. Sloane opened the door for Nathan to come inside with Mackenzie. When the spirits saw Mackenzie, they let out a sigh of relief which didn't go unnoticed by Nathan

"Spit it out" Nathan said "What did you annoying things do?"

"We're very sorry" the spirits said

"We were eavesdropping on your conversation with each other and were playing it here in the room for Princess Kenzie. Then she heard Princess Sloane telling the truth about what happened to her father, and ran out. We searched the whole house, but couldn't find her. So, we became guilty and worried" Pint said in one breath and Nathan was about to yell at them. But, seeing how peacefully Mackenzie was sleeping, he had sighed instead and walked over to the bed before slowly dropping her and covering her with the duvet.

"Never again" Nathan said before glaring at them "Never, ever, eavesdrop on anyone in this mansion's conversation, ever again" he walked passed them again and brushed Sloane's neck with his fingers before whispering in her ear and she blushed without control

   Sloane heard a low snicker from him before he left her room. She instantly covered the spot Nathan touched on her neck with her hand

"Princess, what did he say?" Wood asked and Sloane ran into the bathroom before shutting and locking the door.

   She stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror and removed her hand from that spot. On her neck, was a slightly red spot compared to the rest of her body. It was oval and if one looked closely, there were light bite marks

"He wasn't joking" Sloane murmured as she stared at it while remembering what Nathan whispered in her ear:

'I sucked on your neck a bit so, there's a very visible mark there. I thought you'd use magic to clear it....but, it's very, very obvious and if people concentrate on your neck, they'll see it and start thinking that something's going on between us'

'I thought you knew about it' Violet sighed as she released magic from Sloane's body and made the mark disappear completely, in an instant

'If I knew, I would have asked you to do that, ages ago' Sloane sighed as she rubbed her neck before unlocking the bathroom door and heading straight to her bed

"Princess, what happened?" River asked as Sloane laid on the bed and covered herself with the duvet. Sloane's cheeks reddened at the thought of people noticing the mark, if Nathan hadn't told her.

"It's nothing" she said before offing the lights "Goodnight" she added as she shut her eyes and the spirits changed their forms to balls of light that floated around the room

*****

The next morning, it seemed like everyone was very busy. The maids and butlers were running around the house bringing food and paperwork to the dinning room while at the dinning table, Marcus was drinking tea while staring at a laptop in front of him while, Rebecca was tapping something on a tablet.

"I'm done" Rebecca said while stretching her fingers a bit

"I know. All the information, is already here" Marcus said as he carried several folders in one of his hands and passed it behind him. A butler took it and bowed before leaving; the process continued until all of the folders were no longer on the table

"Can I ask what's going on?" Jerald asked while playing with his food. It was a question that was bothering him and the others who were trying to have a peaceful breakfast.

Marcus looked at him before taking the tablet and inputting Jerald's name "How old are you?" Marcus asked

"Excuse me?" Jerald let out

"Your age" Marcus asked

"One hundred and ninety" Rosco answered for Jerald

"I see" Marcus instantly inputted the information and asked the same questions for everyone in the room. When it came to age, it seemed like it was rather vast and variable for all the kids.

   Marcus knew the ages of his children well: Nathan was two hundred, while Cassandra and Natasha were one hundred and fifty-two. He looked up at the people he saw as nothing but mature versions of children; Allen was three hundred and five, Alexa was three hundred and two, Christian was the same age as Nathan, while Josey and Fernanda were only ten years younger and Brianna, was a hundred and fifty.

   But the most surprising for Marcus, were Clark, Mary and Rosco: Clark was only twenty-one, Mary was eighteen, and Rosco was fourteen

'Their talents are really shocking for most at their age' Marcus thought while dropping the tablet 'But Nathan, was just as impressive when he was eight' he looked to the side and noticed that three chairs were empty and he drank his tea as the room went deadly silent. There was a clear divide among the children; as they only sat next to people they liked and knew well

"Where's Sloane?" He heard Alexa ask

"Probably still sleeping" Allen said "The important question, is where is Nathan? He's an early riser from what I heard"

"He's probably on the roof waiting for all of us to leave before he comes down to eat" Rosco said as though, stating the obvious, before sniffing the air "And here I was wondering when you'd come out" he said looking at the door where Mackenzie was standing with a plain face

"Did you sleep well?" Rebecca asked

"I did, Mrs Rebecca" Mackenzie said

"How do you know my name?" Rebecca asked with a chuckle

"Sloane told me everybody's names" Mackenzie said "I'll try my best to remember them"

"That's a relief. I would have hated introducing myself to you" Rosco said and Mackenzie frown

"For some reason, I don't really like you" Mackenzie said straight faced with her arms folded

"Me neither" Rosco said placing food in his mouth and Jerald whispered in his ear which made him blush and purse his lips

"Can you go call my son and Sloane?" Marcus asked dropping his tea cup

"I'll be back before you know it" Mackenzie said before running up the stairs

"Will she really be able to bring those two down here?" Marcus asked and they all shrugged. However, not more than five minutes later, they heard footsteps coming from the stairs and before they knew it, the doors opened and Nathan walked inside fully dressed.

   His hair was slightly wet and sticking to his face. But, his black tee-shirt, black shoes and greyish green combat trousers, suited his overall look nonetheless

"Were you in the shower?" Marcus asked with a raised eyebrow

"When Mackenzie came? No" Nathan said as he walked towards the table and sat next to his father "But she did arrive when I was about to get dressed" the words of Nathan, had choked everyone on their food

"Aren't you angry about that?" Allen asked

"She's a kid....and a human girl who's understanding about the world is so small. I wouldn't be able to get angry at her when she's so harmless" Nathan said as a maid served him food and he ate it without problem. As the maid was about to leave, he remembered what Sloane told him when he passed by her room and stopped the maid "When you plan on giving Mackenzie food, don't put any vegetables....she's allergic to them" he said and the maid bowed before leaving

"She's allergic to vegetables?" Everyone asked and Nathan nodded

"I've never met a human who's allergic to veggies" Allen said

"Her brother was also allergic to them" Alexa said "I never knew she'd also be allergic"

"You knew her brother?" Jerald asked

"Who didn't know Scott in town?" Fernanda said "The guy's family's filled with respectable people and every human girl's goal was to marry into his family. It didn't matter who they married among the men in the Connor family"

"Heck, they wanted to kill Sloane and Alexa for being so close to the guy" Josey said "Sloane was the guy's best friend and lived in the same house as him, while Alexa practically dated him" the whole place went silent as a sad look appeared on her face

"It a shame he was killed by the northern tribe the day we broke up" Alexa said with a sigh

"Wait. Humans know you all exist?" Rosco asked sitting up

"They know we exist but don't know what we are" Fernanda pointed out "We needed a place to set up base"