Gifted, A Donovan Circus Novel (32 page)

“Everyone has their moments of
weakness. I’m guessing you’ve never been in that position, so you weren’t sure
how to react. You were in a state of shock. It’s only natural and not the first
time it’s happened to anyone. You’ve had to lock down your emotions for so long
that when they bubble to the surface, your gift overwhelms you in ways.”

“I don’t want it to happen
again, though.”

“Lucy, if something were to take
place, I would want you up there with the strongest of us.”

“You’re not going to use your
gift to…er, collect?”

“I will not take others’ gifts
without their permission. Felix knows who I am; I doubt he’ll let me get close
enough to take whatever he’s given himself. He might even want my blood to mimic
my gift for his own, something we must absolutely prevent.”

“He wants to create that
multi-gifted person, though. I’m willing to bet he thinks he could do it even
better if he had your gift.”

Sheffield shrugged. “You’re
probably right.”

“So that it’s then? I go back to
working like nothing’s changed?”

“You said you didn’t want to
leave. Time to earn your keep.”

“What do I do about everyone
else?”

“They’ll come around.”

I didn’t know if Sheffield said
these things out of faith or experience. It didn’t make me feel much better,
but there wasn’t much else I could do. I was, however, concerned about a bigger
problem.

“Sheffield, what do we do now?”

He finished off his drink and
slammed the glass down. “I don’t know, kid.”

Sheffield fell quiet again,
smoking his cigarette while I got up and left. I went to bed more confused than
ever. I didn’t recall falling asleep, but I dreamt of shadows whispering to me
while fire consumed the circus grounds.

Chapter
27

They found Knox’s body the next
morning.

Whoever had murdered him
(meaning Felix) had deposited Knox in our parking lot, in the same state as
Marty: burned to a crisp. Keegan said Knox had been Native American, with dark,
silver-streaked hair, and a broad nose; now he resembled nothing more than a
piece of charcoal. I didn’t try to see the body, nor did I hover around the
edges of groups, hoping to hear something that didn’t include my being the
killer. I’d given up on that game at least a week ago. The show continued, but
fervent whispers and angry looks were the only things to be found backstage. I
didn’t go looking for Sheffield that night or the next, but I heard he didn’t
leave his camper for hours.

Two nights after Knox’s body
turned up, Keegan informed me he was off with the boys to play poker. I knew I
had to suck it up and take that time to talk to Gabriel. He knew more about the
situation than anyone and I felt he could give me decent advice on my next
move. He’d done a swell job of avoiding me for the last two days. I was glad,
because I would have either set him on fire or fallen apart; neither was high
on my list of things to do.

I went to my camper to change
into street clothes and went out to find him. Luckily, or perhaps he’d planned
it that way, I bumped into him around the animal area. He was walking away from
the tiger cages and when he saw me walk to him, he met me halfway. We met and
stood there for a moment in uncomfortable silence.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey yourself. I guess you’re
not here to yell at me or you’d have done it already.”

“Maybe at a later date. No time
for that now.” I cleared my throat and dove right in. “I met a guy the other
night by the name of Felix.”

His demeanor instantly changed;
his eyes grew dark and his back straightened as he cast a look around the area.
“Felix Hardy?”

“So you’ve heard of him.”

“He’s known in certain circles.”

“What do you know about him?”

“He’s not someone you party
with; most gifted don’t leave his nerdy little grasp. What did he say to you?”

“Lots, actually. And Sheffield
told me some fun stuff after the show last night when I confronted him. I know
his gift, by the way.”

Gabriel’s eyebrows shot up.
“You’re kidding. He just told you?”

“Felix told me, actually.
Sheffield’s made it clear to keep quiet.” I glanced around to make sure we were
alone but stayed silent on the matter.

“You’re not going to tell me,
are you?” he accused.

“I don’t want to be overheard.”

A cacophony of yells came from
the camping grounds. I twisted around and only briefly heard shouts of “Knox”
and “murdered.” Three guesses as to the popular topic of conversation this
evening. Gabriel grimaced, put a hand to his head and massaged his temples for
a second.

“Are you all right?”

“I’ve got a killer headache.
Fending off emotions after both Marty and now this Knox guy has been a little
intense,” Gabriel said. He had bags under his eyes and looked unusually tired.

An idea struck me. “C’mon, I
want to take you somewhere.”

“Is it to bed?” he joked
half-heartedly.

I threw him a dirty look, but
grabbed his elbow and led the way all the same. We maneuvered through the tents
until we came up on the Ferris wheel. A worker let it run without anyone on,
presumably to make sure it was ready for the next day.

“Is the Ferris wheel running
okay?” I asked the worker. I made sure my voice was extra syrupy.

“Yeah, no problems. Just had to
oil it down.”

“Do you think maybe we could hop
on for a few minutes? I’d love to see this place at night from way up there.”

“I can arrange that,” he said.
He gave me a once over and gave Gabriel a wink. I held back a shudder but kept
my bright smile glued on.

“Also, can you stop at the top
for a while? My head’s about to explode with the noise around here.”

“Sure thing, sweetheart,” he
replied. He motioned for us to hop on and we took the steps up to a passenger
car.

Gabriel and I sat close, his
long legs scrunched up next to mine. Shoulder to shoulder, our arms touched. He
looked at me with a quizzical expression.

“Don’t get any ideas. We’ll be
too high up for you to get help if you say something stupid and I burn you,” I
warned him. He smiled a little.

As the ride moved upwards,
neither of us spoke. I looked around at the circus grounds. Portions still lit
up with bright neon lights, but people were slowly shutting everything down. I
smelled fresh air that wasn’t full of popcorn, hay, or animal scents. I’d grown
so used to it that clean air was unusual to me now. When did that happen?

Our car finally squeaked to a stop
at the very top. I didn’t dare look down at the worker in thanks; I wasn’t
necessarily afraid, but I wasn’t about to shake the car, either. Instead, I sat
back and took in the quiet view. We could see miles of shadowed land from up
here. Lights from homes were scattered throughout the dark and when I looked
up, I was almost positive I could reach out and brush my hand through a cloud.

“What are we doing up here?” he
finally said.

“My friend, the Empath, she used
to go up on the Ferris wheel when she needed a break. I’ve seen Brooklyn do the
same thing on occasion. It’s so far up that no one’s thoughts or feelings can
reach you. I thought maybe you’d like a break trying so hard to fight off
everyone’s crazy emotions.”

“All these years and I never
thought to do this. That’s pretty clever.”

“What do you do when you need to
shut out the world?”

“It’s usually not too bad, but
lately, you can imagine. I hide in my camper, blare music or the television,
and concentrate on that. I used to go for long walks, but I’ve been finding I
don’t like to go too far from camp as of late.” His voice trailed off and I
pretended not to notice his glance at me.

“Why don’t you just leave? You
talk so much trash about it, maybe you should go.” The anger in my voice was
obvious.

“I don’t hate it here. It’s a
job, I know the people, and now it’s gotten interesting.”

“Well, this is a good place to
know about for the future. You’re still on the lot and can escape reality for a
minute, without missing anything down there.”

“Lucy, I’m sorry--,” he tried,
but I cut him off.

“I already said I was fine,
Gabriel. Just take my word for it and let’s move on.” I glared at the stars and
tried to keep my heart from sinking into my stomach.

“No, dammit, I want to
apologize. That was a really stupid thing I did. You’re not made of stone. I
know I hurt you. I wish I could take it back.”

“Which part?” I shot back.
“Telling me how you feel or doing some two bit town floozie?”

He sighed and continued as
though I hadn’t snapped. “I wasn’t patient enough and my ego was wounded. I’m
not big on apologies, but this time I really am sorry. I should’ve remembered I
was talking to you and kept my patience to give you time to think.”

“What do you mean, talking to
me
?” I asked. I folded my arms and
looked at him. It was the first time I had met his eyes without total
humiliation.

“You’re way too uptight to not
want to think things over a hundred times. I shouldn’t have tried to put
pressure on you.”

“You should’ve kept it in your
pants.” I sighed. “What do you want me to say? We both reacted
inappropriately—I ran like a coward and you got a hooker. I want to move
past this and hopefully never talk about either humiliation again.”

“I didn’t get—ugh, you
know what, I agree. You can go back to bossy and indignant.”

“Yeah, it’s weird when you’re
trying to be heartfelt. Try not to spread an STD, all right?”

His blue eyes glared into mine,
but his mouth twitched a little from biting back a smile. I couldn’t stop it
and laughed a little. He broke into a smile, took a deep breath and looked
ahead for a second. Aggravated as I found him sometimes, he was my friend,
maybe even the closest one I had right now.

“So explain to me this Felix
problem. What did he tell you? What did Sheffield say about everything?” He
shifted carefully and pulled out his smokes. He pulled two out and motioned for
me to light them. Then he handed me one. I took it—it was a bit of a
story. After I recapped the more essential parts, Gabriel shook his head.

“Also, Sheffield’s a Collector.
Keep that on the down low, would ya?” I added.

He let out a low whistle. “Well,
that explains a lot.”

“You don’t say?”

“Well, imagine if you’re one of
Sheffield’s least favorite people. What do you think is gonna happen if you
piss him off? He’ll take your gift and use it against you or get your group to
doubt your leadership. He has the power to dethrone anyone with a handshake.”

“Right. So Sheffield has
enemies, apparently quite a few around the country. I guess they usually try to
stay away from each other, but who’s to say they don’t come threatening us when
they think Sheffield’s about to take over their territories?”

“Let’s worry about that at a
later time. Focus on Felix, what to do with his information. Do you think
there’s any merit to what he says? If some of Felix’s story lines up with
Sheffield’s, does that put him in the clear?”

“Oh, hell no. That man is
batshit crazy and will make us lab rats in no time if we don’t comply with him.
He’ll tell the whole world about us, which we know is a bad idea. I don’t know
how to tell him in a way that won’t get anyone else killed. He won’t be happy
when I turn him down.”

“You need to be careful. I’ve
heard stories about him and evidently he’s as crazy as they come.”

“I’m probably screwed either
way, then. I don’t want any part of it.”

“Felix isn’t completely wrong
about Sheffield, not based on what I know.”

“You think Felix is the good guy
here?”

“Not at all. I don’t think what
he’s doing is right, but Sheffield’s certainly no angel. He went after what he
wanted and if people fought him, he sent them away in some fashion. I think you
got your proof with your attacker being beaten; now he’s gone missing.”

I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Sheffield may not have a clean slate, but I guess we’ll address that if it
ever comes up. He went after that guy because he wanted to teach him a lesson
and protect me. Felix is the culprit in Mac’s disappearance. He won’t stop
until Sheffield’s dead. That probably includes me in there somewhere as well.
You too, if you don’t quit hanging around me.”

Gabriel gave me a look that I
couldn’t read and opened his mouth to say something but the Ferris wheel gave a
sudden lurch. His lips came together in a hard line and I knew he wouldn’t let
it go forever. We began to come back down to earth. We both peered down and
around to see how dark it was on the lot. Most everyone had shut down for the
night near the booths and tents, but the party had moved to the campers.
Several lights were visible and I could hear laughter even from where we sat. I
guessed the torches and pitchforks were put away for the evenings. The car came
to a halt and Gabriel opened the bar to let us out.

“Hope that was enough time,
kids,” the worker said. He gave a know it all smile at Gabriel, who gave him a
broad grin.

“It was, Bobby, thanks,” he
replied.

Bobby grinned at me and I rolled
my eyes as we turned around to walk away. I wasn’t quite ready to crawl into
bed yet. My brain was too busy to think about shutting down right now. Gabriel
was quiet next to me and I felt bad. I wanted company and didn’t want to fight.

“I need to work on that fire
ring again. I don’t get a lot of time to practice it. Think we could swing by
the Big Top while it’s empty for a few minutes so I can give it a go?”

“You’re actually going to let me
witness your prowess?”

“I’ve been training with Keegan
and Nik, but I need to get comfortable doing this stuff in front of an
audience. Gotta start somewhere, provided you stay quiet, of course.”