Chapter 5

Hidden Truth

Mark stood over the bed looking down at the sleeping boy, his eyes travelling the length of the smooth torso, admiring every contour, every detail. He smiled to himself as his eyes settled on the erect cock, imagining what it would feel like to take it in his hand, to stroke his fingers along the trembling shaft, to take it into his mouth, swallowing the entire length, or, even better, to feel that warm hardness thrusting up inside him.

It had been such a long time since Dayle had gone; almost a full year now. There had been a brief relationship with Paul, but apart from that, nothing. No one to wake up to on a morning, no warm body pressed against his own during the night, no one to share his thoughts and feelings and fears. He could have had casual sex any time he’d wanted it, but that was just it, he didn’t want it. He wanted Dayle. He wanted something he could never have. He wanted the past.

With a huge effort, he pushed aside these thoughts. Losing oneself in self-pity was dangerous and destructive. He’d been there once and it wasn’t a nice place; he had no desires to go back.

He sat down on the edge of the bed and gently stroked the head of the sleeping boy. “Corey, it’s time to wake up.”

The fifteen year old moaned softly and rolled from his side onto his back. He yawned and stretched his muscles, causing his whole body to tense up and making his stiff cock stand up from his stomach. His eyelids fluttered and his eyes opened.

“What time is it?” the boy asked, sleepily.

“Just after seven.”

“Which seven?”

“Seven in the morning,” Mark laughed.

Cory gave a grimace. “Seven in the morning? Jeez, it’s still the middle of the night. Leave me alone and come back in a couple of hours.” He closed his eyes again and made to turn back onto his side.

“Oh no you don’t,” said Mark, catching hold of the teen’s arm. “You’ve been out for almost eighteen hours. It’s time you were up and about. You’ve a session with your tutor at nine, which you’d be wise not to miss, seeing as you’ve managed to avoid all of your lessons for almost a week now. Before that though, you need to get some food inside you; you lost a lot of blood yesterday and you need to make up for it. Also, the two of us need to have a serious talk.”

“Aw, man, not another lecture? Why are you always on my case?” Corey frowned. Suddenly a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes. “I’ve a much better idea,” he grinned. He took hold of his hard dick, right at the base of the shaft, pushing it away until his erection pointed straight towards the ceiling. “Why don’t you help me with this instead?”

Mark sighed and shook his head. “If you don’t quit clowning around I’ll help you in a way that I promise you will not enjoy. Besides, I thought you’d found yourself a boyfriend?”

“I didn’t say that,” said Corey.

“So you don’t have a boyfriend?”

“I didn’t say that either.”

Mark gave another sigh. “Any boy who takes you on must either be a saint or completely stupid.”

Corey’s grin widened. He knew he was being annoying and he revelled in it. “Hey, Marky-boy, I just had a thought; this is your bed, so where did you sleep last night?” He made a show of reaching down between his legs and poking his arsehole. “Hmm, feels OK. Just checking you didn’t take advantage of me while I was asleep.”

“In your dreams,” said Mark. “I slept in one of the empty rooms. I wanted to be back up to full strength today; I’ve something important to do, so I needed to get a good night’s sleep.”

“Well if you’ve got your strength back, how about healing my mouth? It hurts like hell this morning.”

“If it hurts that much, then I suggest you give it a rest for a while and cut out the smart comments.” Mark gently took hold of Corey’s chin and looked closely at the damage. There was a fair amount of bruising and the boy’s bottom lip was swollen at one side, but nothing serious. “It’s going to have to wait a bit longer, I’m afraid. I’ll take care of it for you later if I can, but there is someone else who has to take priority today.”

“Isn’t there always?”

“You know better than that, Corey,” said Mark, his tone reproving.

The young teen lost his grin and was quiet for a moment, and then he nodded. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I guess I can live with it; I’ve had worse.”

“While we’re on the subject,” said Mark, “Why don’t you tell me how it happened?”

The change in Corey was immediate; he was instantly on the defensive. “I already told you,” he said, his tone making it clear this wasn’t a subject for discussion. “I got into a bit of a fight.”

Mark wasn’t about to be fobbed off so easily. “Look, Corey, I’m on your side, so why do you always insist on making things difficult? You know the score, if you mess up again the Corps Council will take things out of my hands; they’ll have you so doped up you won’t even know what day of the week it is.”

“They’ll have to catch me first,” the boy muttered.

Mark ignored the comment. “Yesterday you turned up here with a serious knife wound in your arm. We’re not talking minor scrapes and bruises here Corey, the knife had cut into the artery. You’d already lost a huge amount of blood before you got here. A little longer and you probably wouldn’t even have been able to teleport. What would have happened then? I’ll tell you. You would have passed out and probably bled to death. By now you would be lying in some mortuary somewhere; assuming anyone even found your body. I’m scared for you Corey. I want to know what’s going on.”

“Nothing’s going on.” Corey’s face was set in a stubborn expression. “Not that it would be any of your business anyway.”

“While you’re in my care, it is my business,” said Mark, trying to keep his voice calm. He’d known this wasn’t going to be easy. Corey had always been fiercely independent.

“Fine. That’s easily sorted. I’ll get out of your hair, then I won’t be in your ‘care’ any longer. You won’t have to worry about getting into trouble with those constipated turds on the Council.”

Mark could feel the situation slipping out of his control. “I don’t care in the slightest what the Council thinks or says; you know that very well. But I do care about you. I don’t want to know all your secrets. If that was what I wanted I could have had Adam go into your mind while you were asleep. I just want to know that you’re not in any sort of trouble and I want to make you understand that you have to be more careful, for your own sake.”

“Yeah, yeah!” Corey lay back, his eyes fixed on the ceiling. After a long few seconds of silence he turned his head to look at the older teen. “You really want to know who cut me?” he asked, his voice cold.

Mark nodded.

“He was a drug dealer.” Corey’s eyes shone with a sudden cold fury. “Just a lousy small-time drug dealer.”

“Oh, no.” Mark’s heart sank. This was one of the worst possible scenarios. If Corey was mixing with people like that, for whatever reason, nothing at all good could possibly come out of it. At least the boy wasn’t taking anything himself; any foreign substances in his blood would have been immediately noticeable when Mark had healed the knife wound. Just the thought of an energy manipulator like Corey in the grip of hallucinogenic drugs was enough to make the young base leader’s blood run cold. “How come you were involved with that sort scum?”

“That’s my business.”

“You’ve already used that one, Corey. It won’t work. I want an answer.”

“Tough!”

“You’d better answer me, Corey, or I will get Adam in here. You won’t be able to hide it from him.” In spite of his best efforts, Mark’s temper was getting the better of him.

“Yeah, that’s just the sort of lowlife stunt you’d pull.” Corey was almost shouting; Mark wasn’t the only one losing his temper.

“Why can’t you understand, it’s for your own good?”

“Go fuck yourself,” Corey snarled.

Mark opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly there was no one there to reply to. Corey had teleported himself away.

“Shit!” Mark smashed his fist down onto the empty bed.





Almost exactly thirty minutes after Corey’s disappearance, Mark was sitting at his desk staring at the screen of his locked-up computer and debating whether it would do any good to put his fist through it. He decided that even though this would probably make him feel better, it was unlikely to get the computer working. Instead he used his desk intercom to connect through to Aaron’s room.

“Aaron, you there?”

There was a moment’s silence before a voice came back. “Yes, you want me, Mark?”

“Yeah. This computer is on the blink again. Can you come and sort it out before I decide to trash it completely?”

Aaron gave a sigh. “Hold on, I’ll be right there.”

“Thanks.” Mark turned off the intercom and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his hands across his face. First the business with Corey and now the computer problems. The day had not started off well. He was furious with himself for the way he had handled Corey. He’d lost control and pushed too hard, and the boy’s reaction had been perfectly predictable; Corey had done what he always did when put in that kind of situation, he’d closed up shop and left town. Mark just hoped that given a little time the boy would cool off and come back, preferably before the Corps Council learned he had gone missing.

Of course, Mark knew that the real reason behind his irritability wasn’t Corey or the annoyingly temperamental computer; it was Jayden. At some stage today Mark was going to examine the teenager again in the hope that having caught up on his sleep and brought his healing abilities back up to full strength, he would now be able to do something about the tumour in the boy’s brain. Unfortunately, a little voice in his head kept telling him that he was hoping in vain; even if he had slept for a week, he still wouldn’t have that sort of power. If this was the case, then Jayden’s future didn’t look good.

“Alright, what have you done to it this time?” Aaron stood in the open doorway, his hands on his hips and a frown on his face.

“I haven’t done anything to it,” Mark replied, moving back away from the desk to allow Aaron to get to the keyboard. “The stupid thing doesn’t like me.”

“It’s an inanimate object, it can’t like or dislike, and it certainly can’t be stupid,” Aaron pointed out, matter-of-factly. “It will be something you’ve done, just like it always is.” He began to tap at the keys.

In spite of his mood, Mark was unable to hold back a smile as he watched the boy work. Aaron was completely in his element with anything like this. The fourteen year old had moderately strong kinetic and telepathic abilities, but his real talent was his intelligence; Aaron had an IQ that placed him indisputably into the category of genius.

Prior to his powers appearing, Aaron had been attending an ordinary school in an ordinary town. Unfortunately, being anything but ordinary himself, he had stood out like a sore thumb. His intelligence made him different to the other boys, and some of them were quick to pick on this difference. Aaron’s life had been made miserable as he became the object of bullying. In this regard, his appearance didn’t help him any; his slim build, cute face and longish, blond hair, along with a slight prominence in his upper front teeth earned him the nickname “Tooth fairy”.

Since joining the Corps, Aaron’s confidence had increased in leaps and bounds. In any sort of social situation, he still tended towards shyness, but give him a situation where he could use his intelligence, particularly anything to do with electronics or computers, and he bowed down to no one.

“There, that should do it,” the young teenager announced. “In future, try and be a bit more careful what you click on.”

“What had I done?” Mark asked.

“You probably wouldn’t understand if I told you.”

“Probably not,” Mark grinned. “Thanks for the help.”

“Any time,” Aaron smiled, his air of cool competence ebbing away now that the job was done. “I’d better get back; I was right in the middle of something.”

“Oh, sorry. Anything interesting.”

“Sort of. I’m working on a miniature transmitter at the moment.” Aaron had set up an amateur electronics laboratory in his room and he spent most of his time in there tinkering with bits and pieces.

“Well don’t stay in there by yourself all day. Get out and mix with the others a bit. If I hear you’re not going to the dining room for your meals I’ll send Paul to get you.”

A frown appeared on young teen’s face. Paul loved to get into Aaron’s room so that he could fiddle around with all of the gadgets, and this was something Aaron hated. “That’s mean,” he said.

“That’s what being base leader is all about,” said Mark, wryly. “I spend most of my time being mean to people for their own good. Go on, get back to your printed circuits.”

Aaron gave a smile and turned to go. However, as he went out of the door he was almost knocked flat by a small, blond haired tornado coming in the other direction.

“Mark, you gotta come quick. It’s Jayden, he’s really ill,” Nathan panted. He looked close to panic.

“Jayden?” asked Aaron, from the side of the doorway.

“He’s one of the new boys,” Mark replied. “Alright, Nathan. I’ll come now.” As he followed the younger boy out into the corridor he turned briefly to Aaron. “Send a telepathic message to Adam for me. If he’s in the base, tell him that Jayden is ill and to meet me at the new boys’ suite.”

“Sure.”

A look of concentration appeared on Aaron’s face as he sent the message. However, Mark didn’t wait for the outcome, he was already hurrying down the corridor after Nathan.



As Mark entered the lounge of the boys’ suite, Adam appeared in front of him, the young Asian had responded to the urgent summons by using his teleport ability. Together they entered Jayden’s bedroom.

Jayden lay on his back on the bed, completely naked. His face was pale and his breathing was quick and shallow. He was moaning softly. By the side of the bed, holding Jayden’s hand and speaking to him in a low voice, was Nick, also naked. Tim stood off to one side, holding a towel around his waist, whilst Nathan watched worriedly from the foot of Jayden’s bed.

“What happened?” demanded Mark, hurrying to Jayden’s side.

“He’s been complaining of a headache since he woke up, but he said he would be OK,” Nick explained. “While we were in the shower he seemed to get a lot worse. Then he threw up. We had to almost carry him back here. Have you sent for a doctor?”

Mark ignored Nick’s question. Leaning forwards he placed a hand on the side of Jayden’s head, using his healing ability to assess the boy’s condition. “Jayden, can you hear me?”

The boy on the bed groaned and nodded his head weakly.

Some of Mark’s concern eased. The situation wasn’t quite as serious as it had first appeared. Jayden had a major headache and was obviously in agonising pain, but he wasn’t in any immediate danger. This was the good news. Unfortunately there was bad as well.

*Mark?* Adam’s telepathic voice sounded in the healer’s head. *What’s happening?*

*It’s not as bad as it looks,* Mark replied, back along the telepathic channel that Adam was holding open. *He’s got a severe headache, but he’ll be OK, for now anyway. I’m going to ease the headache for him.*

*What about the tumour?*

Mark gritted his teeth in frustration. *I’m not strong enough.*

*Damn!*

“Jayden, I want you to try to relax. I’m going to take most of the pain away,” said Mark, switching back to normal speech. He closed his eyes and concentrated, aiming at the pain centres in the boy’s brain and being extremely careful to avoid any contact with malignant growth that was the original source of the problem.

Almost immediately, the colour in Jayden’s face began to improve; the tension drained out of him and his eyes opened all the way. Uncertainly, he raised his hand to his temple and gave a relieved sigh.

“Is that better?” asked Mark, taking his hand away.

“Yeah, thanks.” Jayden was wearing a look of disbelief. “How did you do that?”

Mark smiled. “It’s all part of my healing abilities. You’ll be able to do things like that and much more besides, once you’re trained.”

“So I could have got rid of the headache myself?”

“No, sadly not. Healing only works on other people. We can’t heal ourselves.” Mark turned his head to address Nick, Tim and Nathan. “Can you three leave us alone for a few minutes? I need to have a chat with Jayden.”

“What about?” asked Jayden, nervously.

“About what it is that’s causing your headaches,” said Mark.

“In that case I want Nick to stay,” said Jayden, quickly.

“If that’s what you want,” said Mark.

“I want to stay as well,” said Tim.

“No,” Jayden shook his head. “Wait outside, Tim. Please. I’ll talk to you later, I promise.”

“But…”

“Please, Tim, this is important,” said Jayden.

“It’s not fair.” Grumbling, Tim followed Nathan out into the lounge.

Adam closed the door behind the two youngsters, then he took a seat on Nick’s bed.

“Can I put some clothes on first, before we talk?” Jayden asked, embarrassed. “It feels funny lying here with nothing on and all of you looking at me.”

“Sure, go ahead,” Mark smiled. He waited while Jayden and Nick found themselves some shorts. Jayden also pulled on a T-shirt.

“I think I know why I’m getting these headaches all the time,” said Jayden, once more sitting on his bed. He glanced at Nick for support.

Nick gave a nod of encouragement.

“You do?” Mark shot a surprised look at Adam. If Jayden already knew about the tumour it took a great weight from the base leader’s shoulders.

“Yeah,” said Jayden. “I told Nick about it last night and he said I should talk to you about it. I didn’t want to because I thought you’d send me home, but I guess after this morning I don’t have much choice.” He paused, his expression unhappy. “It’s all to do with what happened to someone I cared about.”

Over the next few minutes, Jayden told Mark and Adam all about his friend Eric. He opened up completely, sparing himself nothing as he described in detail his own feelings towards the boy. Blushing, his voice dropping to an embarrassed whisper, he explained about his love for Eric and how he fantasised about taking their relationship onto a much more personal, sexual level. Then, tears running down his face, he told them about the accident that had brought Eric’s life to a sudden, tragic end and how he’d been forced to hide so much of his own grief at Eric’s loss in case anyone discovered his secret.

By the time he’d finished speaking, Jayden was sobbing almost uncontrollably. Nick put his arm around the boy’s shoulders and gave him a comforting hug.

“I see,” said Mark, after a moment’s silence. “So you think the headaches are brought on by all the tension of keeping everything inside?”

Jayden nodded.

“Well, that certainly wouldn’t have helped,” said Mark. He quickly reached a decision. Explaining the real cause of the headaches would have to wait for another day; Jayden had enough problems to deal with just at this moment. “Let me set your mind at rest about one thing; there’s no danger of us sending you home, you don’t get away from us that easily. Also, there may be a way that we can ease some of the pain you are feeling as a result of Eric’s death.” He turned to look at Adam.

The Asian boy’s face was grim, but he nodded his head.

“You sure?” Mark asked the telepath.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

Mark gave a nod of thanks; he’d known that there was no way that Adam would have refused, even though the task required of him would be extremely unpleasant.

“What’s going on? What are you planning to do?” asked Jayden, worriedly. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Nothing at all, without your agreement,” said Mark. “There is a something called telepathic catharsis. It’s a way of taking away the pain associated with unhappy or unpleasant memories. It’s something that I think you would find very helpful.”

“I don’t want to forget about Eric,” said Jayden.

“It doesn’t work that way,” said Mark. “All your memories will still be there, exactly as they are now. You’ll still feel the same way about Eric, you’ll still feel sad when you think of him, it just won’t hurt like it does at the moment.”

“How does it work?” Jayden asked, looking sceptical.

“Adam would enter your mind and relive your memories with you. It would be an unpleasant and extremely emotional experience, for both of you. But it would be over very quickly, and when it’s done you’ll feel much better than you do now.” Mark gave a reassuring smile.

“You don’t need to decide now,” said Adam “Think about it for a little while and if you want to go ahead or talk some more about it, just give me a shout.”

“OK,” Jayden agreed, still not seeming convinced.

“Now,” said Mark, his gaze taking in the two fifteen year olds. “Something that affects you both. It affects Tim as well, but I’ll talk to him separately.”

“Sounds ominous,” said Nick.

“It depends on your point of view,” said Mark. “For Jayden this will probably be good news. For you, Nick, it might take a little getting used to. It’s something that happens as a result of your powers appearing. There are all sorts of theories as to why it happens, but no one really knows for sure. Basically, the appearance of your powers affects your sexuality. Boys with powers are sexually attracted to other boys.”

Jayden’s eyes narrowed as he looked in turn at each of the other occupants of the room. First Adam, then Mark, and lastly, his eyes settled on Nick.

Nick was shaking his head and looking far from happy. “That’s ridiculous,” he said. “I’m not gay. I’ve never done anything like that or even thought about other boys in that way.” He glanced at Jayden and his face reddened.

“Maybe not yet,” said Mark, patiently, “But you will. We wouldn’t normally even discuss this with you until you’ve been with us for a few days and hopefully by that time experienced some of these feelings for yourself. Even so, some boys still find it extremely difficult to accept the way they feel.” He got up to go. “I know this has come as a shock, Nick, it does for most people. I’m going to leave you alone for a little while to think about it. I suggest you talk to each other; you’ve both got a lot to talk about. If either of you want me, I’ll be in my office.”

Adam followed Mark to the door, and then stopped to look back. “Jayden, I’ll be around if you want to talk about the catharsis.”

“Thanks,” Jayden nodded.

The two Corps members went back into the lounge, closing the bedroom door behind them.

Tim, who had been sitting watching TV, jumped up and came to meet them. “Is somebody going to tell me what’s going on?” he demanded. “Is Jayden going to be alright?”

“Jayden’s feeling much better,” said Mark. “But I think he and Nick need to be left alone for a little while. Why don’t me and you go over to my office and have a talk?”



After Mark and Adam had gone, Nick sat staring into space. Could what Mark had said be correct? Could he be gay? This information had really shaken him and his mind was going around in circles trying to find something solid to cling on to. He tried to analyse his feelings, to work out how he felt, sexually, about girls and about boys. But he was getting nowhere. It was just too much to take in. It didn’t help that he could feel Jayden sitting right next to him, the boy’s eyes burning into the side of his face. Jayden. The prince’s mind travelled back a short time. He recalled the sight of Jayden in the shower, naked, his smooth young body so invitingly exposed. Nick found his heart starting to beat faster at the memory. No, he didn’t want to think about it. Not yet. He needed time.

“Nick?” Jayden’s voice held a note of concern.

Nick pulled himself back to the real world and looked at the boy sitting at his side on the bed. “Feeling better?” he asked. “You certainly look better. You really had me scared for a while there.”

“Yeah, I don’t now what Mark did, but it worked. I still have a bit of a headache, but nothing like earlier. It was as though someone had put a metal band around my head and kept on tightening it. Thanks for looking after me.”

“That’s OK,” said Nick with a smile and a shrug. “Are you going to go along with this catharsis thing?”

“I don’t know.” Jayden shook his head. “I can’t help thinking that it would be unfair to Eric. He was my best friend. It’s only right that it hurts that he’s not there anymore.”

“I think I know what you mean,” said Nick. “But from what Mark said, you’d still miss him just the same; your feelings for him wouldn’t change. It would be like your headache; it’s still there, you know it’s still there, but it doesn’t hurt as bad. Wouldn’t it be better if you were able to think about Eric without being distracted by all the pain you feel when you remember what happened to him?”

“I suppose it would. I don’t know. I’ll go talk to Adam later and find out some more about it.” Jayden fell silent, but his eyes were fixed on Nick’s face.

“What are you looking at me like that for?” Nick asked, as the boy’s stare started to make him feel uncomfortable.

“What you said to Mark earlier wasn’t really true, was it?”

Nick noticed a sudden nervous, sickly feeling in the pit of his stomach. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes you do,” Jayden smiled. “You told him you’d never had sexual thoughts about another boy.”

“And how do you know that I have?” Nick heard a note of irritation in his own voice. Jayden was pushing him into dangerous territory.

“Because I saw your face in the shower this morning,” said Jayden. He put his hand on top of Nick’s. “What do you think would have happened if Tim hadn’t arrived when he did?”

Nick ignored the feeling of Jayden’s fingers squeezing his own. He didn’t know the answer to the question and he wasn’t sure that he wanted to know. He suddenly jumped to his feet and went to find for some clothes to put on, keeping his back to the other boy.

“Nick?” Jayden’s voice came from behind. “Nick, please talk to me.” This time the voice was closer.

The prince turned to find Jayden standing directly behind him looking nervous and a little frightened.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to push you like that. Please don’t be upset with me.” There was a tremor in Jayden’s voice. “I suppose I just need a friend so badly at the moment and you’ve been so good to me right from the moment I arrived. It’s like I’ve hardly stopped crying since I got here. You must think I’m a real wimp.”

Nick couldn’t help the smile that came to his face. “I don’t think that at all.” His expression became more serious. “We can talk later. Right now, I need some time to sort out my thoughts. Just answer me one question though, totally truthfully.” He paused, biting his lip, getting up courage to ask the question, and unsure of what he would prefer the answer to be. He took a deep breath. “Do you want me as a friend, or as someone to play around with, you know, sex and stuff?”

“Truthfully?”

“Yes, truthfully.”

“Both,” said Jayden, softly. He dropped his gaze, his face red.

Nick nodded. It was the answer that he’d expected, but now that he had it he wasn’t sure how to deal with it. He took hold of the boy’s arms and lowered his head a little until he caught Jayden’s down turned gaze. “Give me a bit of time to myself, Jay. Let me sort myself out. I’ve got a lot to think about.” He released the boy’s arms and returned to his dressing.


 

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