Eli was still flying high while he, Noah, Ryan, and Jeremy headed over to their study hall. Eli couldn't believe he was actually making friends. It had been so long since he had a friend he really wasn't sure just how he should act.
While Eli was in his study hall, David was making a call.
"This is Sheriff Mills, how can I help you?"
"Hi Sheriff, this is David Hunt. I was wondering if you could help me out. Eli was asked by another boy to walk downtown to get some art supplies. He was so excited I couldn't say no to him. I was wondering if you might have someone who could shadow him just to make sure he is safe."
"Was the other boy Noah? I know he asked to go to Clickit to get some black and white film."
"Umm, yeah it was Noah, but what is Clickit?" David asked.
"Oh, Clickit is our local camera shop, and Noah's favorite store. Noah is my son, by the way. I had planned on putting protection on Noah and his sister today anyway. It seems that Mrs. Johnson blames the two of them for her being in jail. I do not know if her threats are going to play out, but I am also not going to take a chance. I will have a deputy follow them without them knowing. I really don't want to freak either of the boys out."
"Thanks Sheriff. That really makes me feel better." David told the Sheriff.
"David, you really should call me Nevin, unless it's an official conversation. I have a feeling we are going to be talking a lot." Nevin laughed.
"Yes Sir, I will try!" David laughed. "You have to remember, I have eight years of Military behind me, and some things are hard to break."
When the final bell for the day rang, Eli and Noah headed outside with their friends. At the flag pole out front, they said their goodbyes and parted ways. Nothing really out of the ordinary for any of them, other than for Eli being with friends.
Eli and Noah headed down town talking and laughing the whole way. Eli was trying not to let things slip out, like the fact he was the Dexas or the owner of Eli's Fish House. For some reason he didn't want that to be known just yet. However he hated the fact he felt like he was lying to his new friend. He planned on talking to his mom and dad about this as soon as he could. After all, David had told people, why couldn't he?
About halfway there, Eli felt like he was being watched. He noticed a guy walking about a block behind them would stop every time Eli looked or turned around to look. This started to get to him. When they reached the camera store, Eli watched through the big windows to see what the man would do. He got really scared when he saw the man sit on a bench right in front of the store. Noah didn't seem at all bothered by any of this and Eli didn't want to look like a scaredy-cat in front of his new friend.
When they went next door to the office supply store. Eli couldn't help but notice when the guy got up he was wearing a gun. Eli went right to the back of the store and called his dad.
"Hello?" David answered.
"Dad, there is a guy following us, and he has a gun!" Eli said as quietly as his fear would allow.
"Calm down son. I am just about ready to leave and come get you. Does Noah seem bothered by this guy?"
"No, but I don't know if he saw him or not?"
"Okay, Eli I want you to ask Noah if he knows the guy, if he doesn't call me back." David said trying to let Eli know it wasn't a big deal without Eli feeling like David was making light of his fears.
"Alright, but I am not going out there until you are with me!" After saying goodbye to his dad, Eli walked over to Noah and asked him if he knew the guy out front who had been following them.
"What guy?" Noah asked.
"The guy there on the bench, that one with the big gun under his jacket?" Eli pointed out the guy.
"Oh, that's Parker. He works for my dad." Noah said like it was no big deal.
"What does your dad do that he had guys walking around wearing GUNS?" Now Eli was really getting worried.
"Oh, I figured your dad would have told you, my dad is Sheriff Mills. Parker is one of his deputies. But, I don't know why he would be following us. I'm going to go ask him." Noah said while walking to the front while Eli tried to stop him.
When they got outside, Eli stayed right by the door while Noah walked right up to the man.
"Hey Parker, what's up? My new friend said you'd been following us, want to tell me why?" Noah said with his arms crossed across his chest like he was really mad.
"Oh man! Please don't tell your dad you guys saw me following you!" Parker Evans said back. "He told me not to let you guys know I was shadowing you."
"Don't worry, I won't, but you have to tell me why he has you shadowing us! Otherwise I am going to have to ask him why he has you shadowing us!" Noah said without blinking.
"You are bound to get me into trouble, you know that! Well, seeing how I am busted either way, Crazy old Mrs. Johnson made some treats against you and your sister because she feel you two are why she is sitting in jail, so your dad just wants to make sure you stay safe."
"Nora I can understand, she videoed the whole thing, but what did I do?" Noah was really confused.
"Hence the Crazy old part of what I said. No one was to blame but herself. Anyway, she said she sent a message to her kin that you were to be dealt with. Your dad just isn't taking any chances."
"Oh, Okay. Well, you should really come inside with us then, so Mr. White doesn't try to cheat Eli out of a good deal on his pencils. Oh, this is Eli, Eli, this is Parker." Noah said like everything made sense now, even though Eli was even more confused. Turning back to Eli, Noah grabbed his arm, "Come on bud, your dad is going to be here soon and you still haven't picked out your pencils."
When the boys got to where the colored pencils sets were, they were met by the store owner, Mr. White.
"Hello boys. What do you need today Noah?"
"Hi Mr. White, this is my friend Eli. Uncle Greg told me to come with him to pick out a good colored pencils set, he said you should give him a good deal on the wooden boxed set because after people see what he can do with them you're going to sell more!" Noah said with a very straight face.
"Oh he did, did he? Well, I might be willing to give the young man a break on price if he has something to show me to convince me your Uncle is correct." Mr. White decided to play the game Noah was going after.
"Go on Eli, show him your drawings." Noah encouraged Eli. "Mr. White, Eli has only been drawing since the beginning of the school year, and he only had a basic cheap set of colored pencils. Oh, and his old teacher didn't like colored pencils so no one has worked with him on how to use them, but wait tell you see them!" Noah was bragging about his friends work.
Eli slowly got out his sketch pad and handed it over to the store owner. He was really worried Noah had talked up his drawings way too much. Mr. White walked over to a lit table and started looking through Eli's book. He kept making different sounds when he looked at different pages. When he got to the end of the drawings he looked up at Eli.
"Young man, is what Noah said true? Did you really only start drawing this school year without any instructions?"
"Yes Sir. My last art teacher said he thought you should know why art was important before you try to make art. We had only started working with charcoals' before I transferred here. I know they aren't very good, but I thought I was getting better." Eli said afraid the man was getting upset with him.
"Well, I while I agree the first few aren't very good, I can see a great improvement in your drawings as you go on. I have seen many high schoolers do not near as well with years of teaching. I think you should be working with Mr. Gordon after school several days a week. There is an art competition at the end of the school year every year. There are several different categories, and the winners go on to compete at the state level. With a little instruction, the right pencils, and the right subject matter, I really think you could not only win the all district, but do very well at the state level as well. Now, this is the pencil set for you, normally it is $139.99, however I am going to give it to you for half off, mainly because I am tired of dusting it!" The older man laughed. "You also need better paper, this is a fine sketch pad for doing charcoals or black pencil drawings, but for colored pencils you need something better. This is the best paper I have on hand at the moment. I will order you some much better paper right away, but for now you practice on this paper and when the other paper arrives, you can do your final drawings on them to determine what ones to submit for the contest. Now, all these discounts depends on you doing two things, first you must agree to enter the all district art contest, and second when you win, you will allow me to hang the drawing in my store for a year. Deal?" Mr. White was excited and held out his hand to Eli.
Eli thought about it for a few seconds and shook the man's hands. Both Mr. Gordon and Mr. White thought his drawings were great considering he didn't have any teaching.
They were still at the cash register when David arrived. Eli was trying to tell the shop owner he shouldn't give the paper to him, that he could afford to pay for it after all he had been prepared to pay the full amount for the pencil set, but the man refused to listen. David walked up to Eli placing his hands on his son's shoulders making the boy jump.
"Sorry son, didn't mean to scare you. Eli, sometimes you just need to know when to accept a gift from someone and say thank you."
"Sorry, thank you sir." Eli said knowing his dad was right.
"I am Eli's dad, David Hunt. Thank you for being so kind to him." David said shaking the older man's hands.
"It was my pleasure. Hunt you say? You any relations to Max and Markus?" Mr. White asked.
"Yes, Max is my Great Uncle, and Markus was my father. Do you know them?" David asked a little worried.
"Yes I did at one point. You're Father and I went through our training at the same time, and Max was our trainer. Man, I wish I could thank that old man for helping me when I was a dumb kid. I sure do miss him. I was sorry to hear about your folks, Markus was a good man."
"Grandpa Max lives with my Grandpa, maybe you could come out to dinner sometime." Eli said.
"Well now that was clear as mud. Who is your Grandpa, and I thought you just moved here?" Mr. White asked while chuckling.
"I did, but my mom grew up here. My Grandpa is Gerald Kerry, Grandpa Max and Uncle Matt, live with Grandpa now that we live at Uncle Matt's old farm." Eli told him.
"Wait, Grandpa Max isn't your Great Uncle Max is it?" Mr. White asked David, who nodded his head.
"Well, I'll be damned! He must be over 90 now. I was sure I had heard he had passed on." Mr. White said shaking his head.
"Well, he is 92 years old, best we can figure." David laughed. "You know getting a straight answer out of him is next to impossible. Here is our number out at the farm, give us a call and we will set up a night for you to come out to dinner. I am sure he would love to see an old student." David told him.
"I will do that, but I know you all just moved in so how about I give you a call in a few weeks, let things settle down a bit."
After saying their goodbyes to Mr. White, the three left the store. David wasn't sure what he should do with Noah, but he could see they were being watched.
"Noah, do you want a ride home or to your dad's office?" David asked the boy.
"No, that's alright. I will walk over to the offices with Parker. I want to make sure he doesn't get into trouble because we found him out." He giggled as the young deputy had walked up.
"Mr. Hunt, I am Deputy Parker Evans. It is an honor to meet you." Parker said holding out his hand to David, which David shook.
"Well, thank you for watching over the boys. I don't think I could handle it if anything happened to Eli here, yet I don't want him to feel like he can't go do normal things either. Now, Noah on the other hand." David decided to pick on Noah a little bit.
"Hey now, no picking on me!" Noah yelled out.
"I know just what you mean, Sir, sometimes I wonder if it would be that bad if he was abducted by aliens or something." Parker said while trying not to laugh at the look he and David were getting from Noah. "Although I am sure if he was ever abducted, they would bring him back so fast we wouldn't even know he had been gone."
They were all laughing when a Honda pick up pulled up and stopped right where they were talking. A large teenager got out of the truck. David right away went on the defensive, while Parker waved to the teen.
"Hey Squirt, did you get your film? I was told to pick you up and drop you off somewhere outside the county line. So, jump in, I don't want to be late for dinner." The teen said walking towards Noah. The large teen put his hands on Noah's shoulders and started guiding him towards the truck.
"I don't know who you are son, but you need to take your hands off that boy and step away, NOW!" David said getting ready for a fight.
"Oh, don't worry Mr. Hunt, this is my big brother. He is always telling me he is going to drop me somewhere! It's an ongoing joke between us." Noah said while laughing.
"Sorry, Mr. Hunt, I guess I should have introduced myself before joking with the Squirt. Wait, are you the David Hunt?" The teen said getting scared.
"Yes, I am that David Hunt, and you are?"
"Oh sorry Sir, my name is Mitch Mills. Wow, I can't believe I am talking to LCT David Hunt!"
"Well Mitch, it's now Former Lead Council Trainer, now I am just Mr. Hunt, middle school science teacher. You had me scared there for a moment, I would recommend you don't do that joke unless you know everyone around."
"Yes Sir, I won't do that again." The teen said.
After everyone had said their goodbyes, they all headed off in their own directions.
Eli tried to talk to his dad about telling his friends who he really was, however, David stopped him until they were at home. He didn't want to discuss this until Sherry was with them. This did not make Eli happy.
Once they were at the farm, David had Eli go straight into the house. Eli had wanted to go check on his fish, but David had said not until after they talk.
Sherry was a bit shocked at how angry David was when they came in. David took the time to explain what had happened during lunch.
"As of right now, the lady who did this is sitting in jail on multiple charges. Her boss might be looking at charges as well. The whole district food services department is being investigated as well as the school superintendent. I really don't know what we want to do with Eli or me. Part of me feels we should pull him from the school, and for me to quit. However, a bigger part says we should ride it out. What do you think?" David finished telling Sherry everything.
"Well, while I am scared for Eli, I don't think pulling him from school right now is the best thing for him. However, if you don't feel the school is safe for him then we really need to look at other options. Eli, how do you feel?" Sherry replied.
"I don't know. I mean, the kids were all nice to me and so were the teachers. The only problem I really had all day was at lunch, and she is now gone. I also might have made a new friend today, and I would hate to lose that. So I guess I want to say in that school for now." Eli told his parents.
"Alright, then I guess we are staying in school. Eli, did you have any homework tonight?" David asked.
"Nope, my math teacher said he was going to give me a placement test tomorrow because I am way ahead of the others. I didn't go to my history or English class today, so I don't have anything there. My science teacher decided not to teach today." Eli laughed as well as David. "So, I am homework free."
Eli was still trying to work up the courage to talk to his parents about letting his new friends know the truth about him. He finally just blurted it out.
"I want to tell Noah and maybe a few of the other kids who I really am. It's not that I want to be bragging about me being the future king, but I really hate the idea that I am starting new friendships with lies." Eli rushed out to his parents.
David was a tad bit shocked at how forceful the boy sounded when he told them of his desires. He had to think for a few moments before he could respond to his son.
"Eli I do understand where you are coming from. However, in saying that you really have to think hard about what you want to do here. There are a lot of items to think about. We as a family need to look at all the ramifications of letting others know about you. I know you are gaining your Gifts quickly and your ability to gain control over your Gift's is nothing short of amazing. And yes I really mean that. However, you have the ability to protect yourself right now, do those you want to tell have that same ability? There is always a chance that someone could go after one of your friends in order to get to you. Now, please don't get me wrong, I am not trying to scare you, but I think you need to have all the info possible in order to make your decisions. Sweetie, what do you think?" David told Eli, before asking Sherry for her thoughts.
"Well, while I see what you are saying David, I also can see where Eli is coming from. Son let me ask you a couple of questions. First, who is it you wanting to tell?"
"There really isn't that many. Noah of course, and that means Nora will have to be told because they are telepathic and share almost everything, and maybe their older brother, Mitch. The only other person I would consider right now is Ryan, but I am not sure about him."
"Okay, so you have given this some thought. What is it you want to gain by telling them? I guess what I mean is, why is it important for you to tell them?" Sherry asked her son.
"I don't want to gain anything from them or want to be treated any different than I am now. I just feel guilty for lying to my new friends. I feel like me not telling them the truth makes our friendship a lie, like it's not real." Eli told her without having to taking the time to think about the answer.
"David," Sherry started, "How much of a risk to the children is there really if they know?"
"Honestly I can't answer that. There are just so many unknowns I am not sure anyone could answer that."
"Son, what about your business? Are you planning on telling them about it?" Sherry asked.
"I don't know, maybe but not for a while."
"Wouldn't that be the same as not telling them you are the Dexas?" David asked a little confused.
"No not really. See, I own the company, but I AM the Dexas. Not telling them what I have isn't the same as not telling them who I am. Both Noah and Ryan told me what Class they were today. They also told me it doesn't matter if I am not a Class III, we could be friends any way and they didn't look down on anyone. I let them think I was a Class V, but I am not, so letting them think that is a lie!"
"So, if I understand everything right, Noah and this girl Nora are the twin children of Sheriff Mills who knows who Eli really is. Ryan is the son of Dr. Martin, who also knows the truth about Eli. Is that correct?"
Both father and son nodded their heads at Sherrie. David was not sure where she was going with this.
"Then this is what I suggest. While I agree and understand where Eli is coming from I also agree and understand where David is. So I think we should ask the good Sherriff and Ron to come out here to the house and talk to them about it. Let them help make the discussion on their own kids." Sherry told the two men in her life feeling proud of herself.
"That is a great idea my dear. I will call both of them and see when they can come out. Eli, I am asking you to hold off telling them anything until we talk to their fathers. Can you agree with that?" David asked his son.
Eli nodded and told them both he would wait and thanked them both with a hug for listening to him and helping him out. Then he ran out the door to deal with his fish.
When Eli walked into the building he was shocked at what he saw. There was a brand new room built inside the building. This room wasn't there yesterday.
"Well, the boss is here!" Uncle Matt said with a slight chuckle in his voice.
"Sorry I am late, mom and dad had to talk to me about some stuff. How did that room get here?"
"Well, your grandpas and I built it. We figured you needed an office, and there wasn't one so we built you one. The company computer and your new desk are already set up in there." Uncle Matt told him.
"That is so kewl!" Eli said as he ran around giving his older employees a hug. Once that was done it was down to business.
"Eli, now we know what was going on with the two females, do you want to start working on filling orders yet?" Grandpa Max asked after had a chance to go around and check everything.
"No, not yet. I think it would be wise to hold off for another week or so on shipping any of the rays. We can start shipping the cichlids if we have any orders for them. How far behind on ray orders are we right now?"
"Well, right now there are about a dozen on hold, although we think there are others waiting to place the orders because the website has had a huge increase in visitors in the last few days. Also, there is possibly one order that is going to cause us some issues." Uncle Matt answered for the older guys.
"Why would one order cause us any issues? Is there something strange about the order?" Eli asked getting worried.
"Well, it is a local order and we have run across an issue with shipping. Both UPS and FedEX have told us that we cannot expect overnight shipping in the same town. So what they are saying is it would have to go from here to the hub over in Spring Hill before coming back here." Grandpa Max stated.
"But wait, Spring Hill is like over a hundred miles from here! So what they are saying is in order to ship something into town, we have to send it on a dangerous 200 mile road trip? That is just BS!" Eli said getting upset. After thinking for a few moments, Eli turned to his Grandpa, "Let's send an email to them stating that as of right now their order has been placed on hold due to issues with shipping overnight to their small town. I don't really want to let them know that it is because we are in the same small town because mom says we aren't supposed to have customers here."
"I think you have the right solution as this will give them a chance to pull their order on their own. I will go take care of this right away."
After Uncle Matt had gone into the office to send the email, Eli asked his Grandpa Max what he thought about telling his new friends who or what he was.
"Well, tell me why you want to tell them?"
"I want to tell Noah because I don't want to our friendship to be based on a lie. Right now, he thinks I am a Class V, but I didn't tell him I was or wasn't. Nora is his twin and they have a very strong link, so anything I tell Noah she will know too. I am not sure about Ryan, but I kind of feel the same way, I don't want to start a friendship based on a lie."
"I would say that is the only reason I would approve of." The old Wizard smiled down at the boy. "Now, you must remember that there are going to be people you need to pick out, most of the time these people will not need to know in advance of your position. I have been told that The Wizard Heart will choose many of your court for you, how this is done no-one is sure. However, there are several tops positions of your court you will have to choose. One of them is the position of the Maxus. The Maxus is the King's top advisor and is the General of the King's Armies. The other position you need to think about is the position of Miluis. The Miluis is a prearranged escort of the king. It is her job to act as the hostess for any gatherings given by the King."
"Well, I would want Dad for my Maxus, and Mom could be the Miluis!"
"No my khil, your dad is the Ietanka to the Dexas, as such he couldn't serve any other position as that is the highest honor one could achieve. Your Mother is the Janius, the Mother of the King, and could not serve any other position. Normally the Maxus and the Miluis are the Dexas' own age, and grow with him. I am telling you this now so you can think on who you would want in the positions you will need to fill. There are many others, but we will cover them at a later time."
"But, Grandpa Max, how would someone my age know what to do? I don't even know how to host a party let alone run an army! Where would I find anyone who would know how?" A now very worried Eli asked.
"Well, first off, you don't have any armies! So you wouldn't have to worry about that part. The job of the Maxus is to advise you, something that both you and that person would need to work out just what advise you need. It could be a simple as just someone to talk to and tell ideas back and forth so you can work out a problem. As for the Miluis, there is another position that goes along with it, it is called the Piliuis. Typically the Piliuis is the Mother of the Miluis and acts as an adult assistant to the Miluis. The Piliuis will guide and help the Miluis for fill her duties."
Before they could get more into it, the phone in the office rang. Uncle Matt came out telling the guys to head up to the house, dinner was ready.
Once everyone was at the table David told everyone they were having company after dinner. Sherriff Mills and his family along with Ron and his son were coming out to the house to talk. David asked Eli if he was going to show them the fish. Eli still wasn't sure about that, but said he would be thinking about it. Sherry told him they wanted to talk to the adults before the big announcement was made.
Eli finished his dinner and asked to be excused. He went up to his room to think for a bit before everyone else arrived.
This is what Eli wanted, a fresh start with friends. Now that it is happening he is getting really scared. What if his new friends thought he was just showing off to impress them? What if they feel he thinks he is too good for them? What if they want to be friends with him just so they can use him because he will be King? What if they just want to be friends with him because of his money? These were the thoughts going through his mind when David knocked on his door asking to come in.
"I bet you are having second thoughts about telling them, aren't you?" David asked the boy.
"Yes Dad, I am. What if…"
"Don't start with 'What If's'! You can never start with what if's if you want to get anywhere. There are thousands of what if's and it would drive you insane if you tried to figure them all out. I understand where you are coming from and where this fear is from. But Son, think of it this way, you are almost ready to take your place as King of the Wizard World! You are going to need close friends when you do. You have an opportunity here to gain or lose those close friends. You need to trust your instincts about how you feel about them and go from there. You will never go wrong that way, even if the choice is a bad one!" David hugged Eli then left him to think.
After thinking hard for about 10 minutes, Eli knew David had been right. He felt he truly needed to trust Noah and Nora with what and who he was, that included his little company.
As Eli was coming back down the stairs the door bell rang. This was it, time to tell everyone who he really is. After greeting everyone, David suggested Eli take the younger guest out and show them around. David explained to everyone he and Sherry wanted to talk to the adults alone before talking to the whole group.
Eli took Noah, Nora, Mitch, and Ryan outside to start showing them around. He showed them everything except for the fish building, Noah noticed this and asked what the building was.
"This is one of the reasons I asked for you all to come out here. I want to be friends with you, including you Mitch, but I feel if I don't tell you everything about me then we would be starting our friendships on lies. Inside this building is my company I started. It has grown a lot in the last two years. It is one of the reasons we moved here. When we get inside, please do not touch anything unless I say you can." Eli told the group as he unlocked the doors.
The group was amazed at what they saw inside the building. Noah picked up on what was going on faster than the others.
"Holy Shit! You own EFH! Jeremy is going to crap his pants when he finds out!"
"Wait, what is EFH?" Mitch asked.
"EFH is only the best place to get stingrays from! Jeremy has only been talking about this for the last two years!" Ryan rushed out.
"Eli's Fish House is an online supplier of several types of stingray pups as well as a number of different types of cichlids. We breed them and once they are ready we ship them overnight to the costumer. Right now I am selling around 15 pups a month." Eli told them as he watched them walk from tank to tank in the large building.
"Wait, how much to they go for?" Mitch wanted to know.
"Most of the pups go for around $189.00 plus shipping." Eli answered.
"That is like three grand a month! Holy cow!" Mitch exclaimed.
"Yeah, but it's not like I really get that. But, guys I really don't want it to get out that I own all this. There are lots of reasons why I don't want it to get out, but the main one is that we aren't open to the public." Eli could see they were all excited about this new info about their friend.
While Eli was showing the kids around, the adults were having their talk.
"First off, thank you for coming out. As I told you over the phone, Ron and Nevin, Eli would like to come clean to the others. I don't want everyone to know yet, but we need to know how you feel about us telling your kids?"
"Wait, what are we talking about here? Is Eli gay?" Melonie Mills asked.
"No, Mrs. Mills, to our knowledge Eli is not gay. I thought your husband would have told you what we were talking about?" Sherry said looking over at Nevin.
"Please call me Melonie, I hate being called Mrs. Mills! My husband, who will be sleeping on the couch tonight, hasn't said a word to me about anything!"
"Melonie, I am sorry but that would be my fault. I asked him not to tell anyone, including you until I felt it was safe." David said trying to keep Nevin out of trouble.
"Fine, I will let him slide on this. But will someone please tell me what we ARE talking about?" Melonie asked in frustration.
"What we are talking about is Eli is the Dexas. He wishes to tell the others so he isn't lying to them about who and what he is. Right now he is telling them about the company, Eli's Fish house, which he owns as well as this whole farm." David said trying to make the Dexas announcement seem less important.
"I take it the Council doesn't know about Eli? How far along is he?" Melonie asked.
"No the Council does not know, and won't until he is ready to face them. Right now I would say he is about half way there, maybe a little more. I would say in a few months he might be ready to face the whole Council. Our biggest fear is one of the Council members trying to hurt Eli or stop him from gaining his rightful place. We have reason to believe one of the Council members killed both his birth parents and their whole families to try and prevent his birth." David explained.
"Sherry you're not his birth mother?"
"No, my best friend was before she was killed by a drunk driver." Sherry told her.
"You mean Katrina Miller is his real mom?" Melonie asked.
"Yes, she used my name when she gave birth to Eli while we were in hiding. She had my name put on his birth certificate so he would be mine to take care of if something happened to her. Less than two weeks later she was killed. Todd Everett is his birth father, his whole family except for an adopted sister was killed in a house fire which was determined to have been arson." Sherry told her.
"Right now Eli has a lot of Gifts. He is quickly mastering them faster than any young Wizard I have ever trained. He already has more Gifts than I do and is gaining more all the time. I truly believe he is going to be the greatest King our kind has ever seen. He will need help of those close to him, including his friends. What we are asking here is simple; you now know the risks, and the worries of knowing that Eli is the Dexas. Knowing all that, can Eli tell the other kids who he really is?" David asked the other parents in the room.
"While I don't like the thought of something happening to any of them, I have always believed the better educated you are the safer you are. I have no problem with you telling Ryan all about this." Ron told David and Sherry.
"Seeing how close I am to sleeping with the dog tonight, Honey I will leave this decision up to you." Nevin tried to chicken out.
"That is not helping you one bit mister! I don't like the idea of the kids being in danger either, however, even if they don't know the truth they will still be in danger just by being friends with Eli. I agree with Ron, the more info they have about each other the safer they will be. You," Melonie said pointing at her husband, "Need to get one of your men to shadow them and keep them safe!"
"Yes Ma'am." Nevin knew better than to argue with her.
I would really like to thank THE STORY LOVER for editing this work for me. Please let me know what you think.