**Deacon''s POV**


    I deliver my bond group back home and fight off the urge to stay with them. I have so much to do when what I really want is to scoop Josie up and take her up to bed then watch her fall apart as all five of us show her exactly how much we love her. I hand Luke the tech he needs to gets reconnected to the inte and he kisses


    Josie before porting to meet with ourmunications engineers I pull Josie to me next, giving myself a moment to just enjoy the feel of her in my arms.


    "I''ve missed you today," 1 tell her.


    "I''ve missed you too," she sighs contentedly.


    "I''ll be back as soon as I can," I say before kissing her.


    "I''ll make us dinner, we can eat together before bed," she smiles up at me.


    "That will be nice. There should be fresh groceries stocked I nod and kiss her once more before porting to my office at the academy.


    The academy is eerily quiet now that all the students have left. I don''t like it. I flick on the smallmp on my desk and pick up my phone, dialling the contact number I have for the militarymander''s o


    office.


    The phone is answered by one of the sergeants and I quickly exin the situation. The sergeant agrees to request an urgent meeting for tomorrow morning with all the relevant parties and promises to call me back within the hour with a meeting time and ce. I put down the phone and lean back in my chair with a sigh. I can''t wait for all this to be over.


    I look around my office and begin mentally nning a remodel. I need to make enough space in here for Little Bean. He or she can spend time in my office whilst the others attend their sses. Josie cane here to feed between her sses and my mum can probably help out with childcare once Bean is up and about. It shouldn''t be long after that until Mason finishes his time as a student and then he can take over from my mum. Between us all, we shouldn''t need to outsource any childcare. A sh of light out of my window catches my attention and I quickly turn off mymp. I watch out the window for any sign of movement, it could be security doing a patrol but they usually work in pairs and I''d only seen one light. The light ashes again. It''sing from inside one of the sciencebs. Some of the tutors had stayed behind as they live on campus but I doubt they''d be in theb at this time, and if they were they''d turn on a light, not try to navigate with a torch.


    I port straight to theb and grin when I realise who it is creeping around in here. Moving silently I sneak up behind Molly and take a firm grip on her arm before she even realises I''m here. She yelps in surprise and turns her head to face me with wide, fearful eyes.


    "Do exactly as I say," Ipel before she has a chance to protest. The fear remains in her eyes as she nods at me with resignation. "What are you doing here?" I demand, letting mypulsion giftce my words.


    "Making a cocktail to put in the water supply," she admits.


    "Interesting. Have you poisoned anything apart from the salt?" I ask.


    "Not yet," she shakes her head.


    "Who asked you to poison us?"


    "My father," she sighs.


    Is your father?" I demand, squeezing her arm a little harder than I meant to.


    "Grey, he''s called Grey," she cries and my heart sinks. Josie''s mother had said she had been coerced by a man named Grey, he was Josie''s father. Could this be the same drey? Is Molly Josie''s sister? Does it change anything if


    she is?


    "Are you still in contact with him?" I ask barely keeping my emotions in check.


    "Not since I came here," she shakes her head.


    "Then how did he tell you to poison us?"


    "rrisa came to visit me before they closed the portals. She said my father would return for me once I had destroyed the Spark bond and as many other students as possible,


    "You''re an idiot. He''s noting for you. You''re just a pawn to him and now you will spend the rest of your life locked away for your misguided loyalty," I tell her before porting back to my office and calling for the authorities to collect her.


    "Sit on that couch and don''t move or speak until I tell you to," Imand. Molly sits down with a huff and I examine her again, looking for any resemnce between her and Josie. They do have simr eyes, but where Josie''s are kind and full of light, Molly''s are hard and full of hate. Maybe she has her mother''s looks. I take out my phone and click on the video of Cornelius, pausing it on a good shot of his face to study it. Then I turn it to show Molly, her eyes sh with recognition.


    "Who is this?" I ask her.


    "That''s Grey, my father," she says.


    I blow out a breath at the revtion. Have I really just discovered Josie''s father and sister? Or is Grey just a name that wasmonly used when seducing human women? There is a way I could find out but it''s not worth the risk. Josie''s mum was already in a very fragile mental state, if I were to remove thepulsion to ask her she may not have enough mental capacity left topel her again. I couldn''t do that to her or Josie. An even darker, more terrifying thought hits me then. I have never scanned Josie forpulsion, never questioned if she had previous knowledge of our kind. For all I know she could be an amazing actress.