Gifted, A Donovan Circus Novel (39 page)

“Yes, including me. Originally,
I did it because Sheffield helped me and I felt obligated to repay his favor. I
can’t say I care too much about the group. But you…for you, I will do whatever it
takes.”

Against my better judgment, I
met his gaze. His eyes searched mine and when I didn’t look away, he put his
hand against my cheek. I sat motionless; too many emotions conflicted with my
thoughts. He leaned in to kiss me and I didn’t turn my head; instead, I met him
halfway. I closed my eyes in anticipation. I felt the heat on his skin and my
pulse sped up as his lips brushed mine.

Chapter
36

Blam
! I jumped a foot in the air as a fist pounded on the door and
we heard Nikolas shout. “Hey asshole—get the fuck out here! Now!”

“Batman and Robin to save the
day, no doubt,” Gabriel said.

He heaved a sigh as we stood up
and walked to the door. Gabriel swung it open to find his visitors outside.
Nikolas and Brooklyn looked pissed while Delia looked worried, but my guilt
kicked in full swing when I saw Keegan’s face.

“Lucy, get away from him,”
Nikolas demanded.

“Are you all right? Your shirt
is torn,” Delia pointed out.

I nodded and stepped outside.
“Whatever you think, it’s wrong. We need to go to Sheffield.”

“You can’t possibly believe
anything he says,” Brooklyn said.

Keegan, who had remained quiet,
came to stand beside me. He didn’t take his eyes off me. “Finley’s gone and
Gabriel knows where he is,” he said.

“Actually, I know where he is,
which is why we need to see Sheffield right now,” I said. They all looked
surprised. I turned to Gabriel who still stood in the doorway. “You’re going
too. C’mon.”

Nikolas glared at Gabriel as he
stepped out and lit a cigarette. Brooklyn followed suit and began walking to
Sheffield’s office camper without another word. Keegan held out his hand to me,
a question in his eyes. I didn’t look at Gabriel, instead put my hand in
Keegan’s. The rest of us followed Brooklyn and I tried not to look at Gabriel.
On the way over, I finally snuck a peek at him; his expression remained
passive. I almost regretted my actions, until I remembered the last few days,
how Keegan had been there for me while Gabriel lied. Keegan deserved better. I
would sort it out later. Right now, I needed to be logical and think of what
needed to be done about Felix.

“What do you know?” Nikolas
asked me.

“It’s better I tell it one time
or I might set the place on fire,” I answered. “Trust me, you’ll want Sheffield
to explain things. I know I do.”

“Is Finley ok?” Keegan said.

“I don’t think so,” I answered.
Everyone fell silent as we reached Sheffield’s camper. Nikolas pounded on his
door. Sheffield opened it, saw the group and cocked an eyebrow. He saw me and
Gabriel, the looks on our faces.

“I take it there’s something
you’d like to discuss?” he asked.

“She knows, Sheffield,” Gabriel
said.

“And Felix has Finley,” I added.

He wordlessly backed away from
the open door and walked back to his desk while we filed inside. Sheffield took
his seat behind the desk while Brooklyn and Delia sat in the chairs in front.
Nikolas, Keegan and Gabriel stood with me and we all waited for Sheffield to
speak.

“Tell me what happened tonight,”
he said.

I started at the beginning, from
my drive over to Felix’s makeshift lab to the discovery of Finley as Gabriel. I
made sure to include that Felix thought he made a cure for gifted, continued
all the way up to my confrontation with Gabriel back on the grounds. I stopped
there, unsure if I should reveal to the group of Sheffield and Gabriel’s
secrets. Nikolas beat me to the punch.

“So tell me why we should trust
that malaka,” he said with a pointed look at Gabriel, who raised an eyebrow but
said nothing.

“I asked Gabriel to fool Felix
into trusting him,” Sheffield admitted. “That is my doing and perhaps my
mistake.”

“But he’s actually on our side?”
Brooklyn asked.

Gabriel huffed and I could tell
he tried not to roll his eyes. I bit back my own sigh of impatience. I wanted
to move on and talk about how to combat Felix’s plans.

“Yes, he is someone we can
trust,” Sheffield said. “On that same token of trust, I think it’s my
responsibility to tell you that I am, in fact, gifted.”

The group traded glances and I could’ve
heard a pin drop. They waited in anticipation.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you all
before, but I’m what’s known as a Collector,” Sheffield said. I was impressed
with his straight face.

Silence still coated the room,
but this time it was in shock. Brooklyn spoke first.

“You guys are um, really
powerful, right?” she asked.

Sheffield nodded. “Yes. Please
know I would never take your gift without your permission. I would never
threaten you in any way.”

Nikolas lifted a hand. “Maybe we
can come back to that? I mean, it’s definitely something we should discuss
later, but right now I’d rather focus on this Felix guy.”

The group nodded their
agreement. Sheffield glanced once at his lap before looking back at us again.
My question blurted out before I could stop myself.

“Did my father kill another
Firestarter?” I asked.

Sheffield sighed and sat back in
his chair. He lit a cigarette before he spoke.

“Felix didn’t lie about that.
I’d never seen anything like it. I was busy fending off a Runner when it
happened. He was too fast for me to collect his gift, darting around and
hitting me. The other Firestarter, he was also powerful. He and Lenny faced off
while Felix hid in the shadows. They engaged in fireballs; the other one kept
Lenny occupied for Felix to get away. But he taunted Lenny, threatened you, and
Lenny lost it. He built up a fireball so powerful, so massive…it was a bluish
color. He threw it at the guy, who dropped dead on the spot. It’s true what
they say about Firestarters having different levels of power.” He gave me a
meaningful look.

“Wait a minute,” Nikolas said.
“It’s true? We can catch fire like we always have, but hit us hard enough and
we die?”

“I don’t understand. Nik’s hit
me with plenty of firepower before and I’m still walking around,” Keegan interjected.

“It’s only happened a handful of
times in our history. While most times you can handle an everyday Firestarter’s
flame, there are others who can kill. It takes immense strength and energy.
Lenny’s flame didn’t look like anything he’d used before. Perhaps he tapped
into an anger he’d never experienced and it affected him,” Sheffield answered.

My flame had turned blue in the
tent. Now I understood Felix’s satisfied expression; I’d confirmed the power he
thought I had. I looked at Nikolas and Keegan; they looked worried. Felix had
plenty of rage and no doubt that would help his firepower. If he could control
his new gift long enough or worse, get a hold of mine, he could take us all
out.

“Felix said he was at an
advantage, that to control it that way, I would have to tap into my emotions.
He didn’t think I could do it. What did he mean?” I asked.

“Lenny passed it on to you…and
his father before him.” His gaze hardened on me. “Your family has plenty of
Firestarter history.”

Of course it did. I resisted the
urge to sigh and failed. Sheffield pretended not to notice and continued
talking.

“He taught you to control your
emotions, never let them get to you for fear of setting people or your
surroundings on fire. You get headaches at too much exertion, right?” I nodded
and he continued. “It’s your power. For your entire life, you’ve been taught to
bottle your anger, your happiness up so you don’t hurt anyone. If you finally
allow yourself to feel those things, your gift will come easier to you. It may
be harder to control, especially at first, but you would grow with it. That’s
why I didn’t want your family to leave, but Lenny insisted. He thought you
would be safer if he got you away.”

A light bulb went off in my
head. “When my dad killed the Firestarter…was that the first attack Felix tried
here? The one after we moved?” I asked.

“Yes, why?”

“That’s when Dad came back and
forbid firepower. He killed that guy, knew Felix saw it and would try to come
find us, find me. He made sure I couldn’t accidentally reveal ourselves to
him.”

Sheffield went quiet and looked
at me. I flashed back to my first day here, when Sheffield had lied and told me
he didn’t know why my father had changed. He’d known all along but didn’t want
to tell me my father had killed another, perhaps even several men. Without an
understanding of the necessary information about Felix, my happy memories would
have been shattered. My head moved a fraction of an inch at him in thanks.

“I do not understand, though.
What does this Dr. Hardy want exactly?” Delia asked.

“Power,” Sheffield said with a
shrug. “He thinks if he has enough of it, he can reveal us to the world, get
his old life back. We’ll either be with him or against him; those who fight
will be tested on, killed.”

“He killed Marty and Knox,”
Brooklyn said flatly.

Sheffield nodded. “And many
more.”

What happened to your mother was
an accident, I thought loudly at Brooklyn. She didn’t meet my eyes, but I
caught her slight nod as her mouth tightened.

“And how does he plan to do it,
get to us, I mean?” Keegan asked.

I spoke up. “His plan is to take
my gift, threaten everyone with it. Once he gets it, he’ll attack and take
Sheffield out. If he gets rid of the leader of this group, he thinks everyone,
both inside and outside of our circus, will take his side and support him out
of respect or fear. Maybe he’s right.”

Brooklyn snorted. “Not a chance
in hell.”

“Then he’ll kill you,” I said.
Brooklyn looked at me and I shrugged. “He doesn’t care. If you don’t want to
join his party, he won’t waste his time with you. He killed Marty and Knox to
prove a point. He’ll torture and kill anyone who isn’t supportive. He said as
much to me the other night.”

There was a thud against
Sheffield’s door. We all froze, braced ourselves for the visitor. A long moment
passed before it swung open.

Finley staggered in, bloody and
bruised. My heart almost stopped.

“He made me human. I can’t shift
anymore,” he croaked. He collapsed on the floor.

Chapter
37

We looked at him in shock. Delia
ran over, kneeled next to him to look at his wounds. He looked
awful—purple eyes, split lip, bloody hands. He winced as she touched his
side and I would bet he had a few broken ribs.

“Finley, I’m so sorry. What
happened after you told me to run?” I asked him. He instead addressed
Sheffield.

“He knew I let Lucy go, screamed
at me and told me to go after her. I hesitated, just for a second, and he
screamed at me—or Gabriel, rather—about being in love with her.
Then he jabbed me with a needle, injected his cure into my skin. I shifted back
to normal and he flipped out. He beat the shit out of me with whatever he could
find in that room.”

“I’m not knocking your trauma,
but how did you manage to survive?” I said. I didn’t dare look at Keegan or
Gabriel at the summation of Felix’s rage.

“He told me…he told me to go
back to you and Sheffield, to tell you that this is what the rest of us have to
look forward to. He said he’s going to take our powers, make us all human, hunt
us one by one until you surrender. If you do, then he’ll leave us alone, give
us the option to live. He figured you’d overheard everything and would run back
here to tell everything you knew, so why not send me back to warn you...after
he proved his point. He’s lying, of course. He’ll kill us like all the others
and enjoy it.”

The room sat in stunned silence.
Sheffield looked livid, his eyes now narrowed into a steely gray. His blonde
mustache twitched in anger. Brooklyn looked like she wanted to punch someone.
Finley coughed and more blood appeared on his lip; Delia remained by his side
while Nikolas and Keegan exchanged looks. Gabriel stood motionless. As though
he felt my eyes on him, he looked up at me.

Guilt overcame me, bubbled up in
my throat to the point I thought I might puke. If I hadn’t pulled my
self-righteous stunt, Finley could’ve gotten out of there with no problems.
Instead, Felix made him pay for my mistake. I walked over and bent down to
Finley.

“I am so sorry, Fin. This is my
fault. I will make this right,” I whispered. I stood up and looked at the
group. My voice sounded hard when I spoke.

“We need a plan and fast. It’s
only a matter of time before Felix shows up here. He thinks he’s waited long
enough.”

Sheffield spoke first. “I will
go, talk to him—”

“No,” I interrupted. “It’s
suicide. He
will
kill you. You won’t
give yourself up to him.”

I said it so matter-of-factly
that Sheffield looked surprised at my command. The rest of the room looked from
me to him, waited to see if he’d be angry at my statement. I pressed on.

“You have people to lead here
and while he wants you out of his way, his main objective is to obtain my gift.
Until he gets it, he’s fine with hurting anyone in the way.”

“Are you suggesting you go to
him alone?” Sheffield asked.

“No offense, Lucy, but that
didn’t work so well the last time,” Finley said. He gave me a weak smile and
guilt threatened to drown me again. I steeled my nerves.

“No, it didn’t. We need to go on
the offense. If he comes to us, and he will, we should be more than ready for
him. I doubt he’ll be alone; he mentioned followers and he wants us that
badly.”