Gifted, A Donovan Circus Novel (11 page)

“Well, Delia went to get—”
I started, but he cut me off by sitting down in her chair anyways,
“—beers for everyone. But sure, you can have her seat. I’m sure she won’t
mind,” I finished.

My sarcasm either went over
Gabriel’s head or he chose to ignore it. He set a half-full beer and a pack of
smokes on the table.

“How’s everybody tonight?” he
asked in a southern drawl. I tried to ignore his blue eyes staring at me over
his cupped hands as he took a cigarette out of its box and lit it.

“Fine, man. Enjoying your first
days with us?” Keegan responded.

“Definitely. Still re-learning
the ropes and all.”

Nikolas and Brooklyn sat back in
their seats and lit their own cigarettes. Finley sat in an unusual silence,
observing the dressed up girls by the music.

Though Gabriel appeared
oblivious, there was clear animosity towards him. I wasn’t sure why they felt
that way. Maybe because he had inserted himself into the situation without
warning? While annoyed he grabbed Delia’s seat, I didn’t want him to feel
unwelcome. After all, he and I were new together and I had been lucky enough to
have a nice roommate with welcoming friends. Maybe he wanted the same thing.

“What’s your role around the
grounds?” I asked.

“Right now, I’ve got the same
responsibilities as you—helping everyone with props, cages, that sort of
stuff. Sheffield wants us to get acclimated, so I’m for whoever needs the extra
hand. I helped my Uncle Rick with some of the machinery today.”

“I barely remember you from
before,” Brooklyn admitted. “Weren’t you a teenager when your family left?”

“Yeah. My mom didn’t want to
travel with circuses anymore. So we left, had a normal life for two or three
years. When I turned 18, I went back to a nomad. Here I am,” Gabriel replied.

There was a brief silence. I
snuck a peek at Brooklyn; she looked as though she was trying to read Gabriel.

Finley eyed him. “Are you
gifted?”

“I don’t really use it,” Gabriel
stated flatly. It was unmistakable that was the end of the discussion.

I gave a curious look to
Brooklyn, hoping she got a read from him, but she gave a half shrug. Clearly,
he did not want to risk any chance of revelation. If he knew about Brooklyn’s
gift, he knew how to ward her curiosity off.

Delia and Bianca came back with
our beverages. They both looked quite surprised to see Gabriel at our table,
but Delia slid into Renata’s empty seat without a beat. Bianca gave me a “told
you” look that was clearly directed at Gabriel’s sitting next to me.

“Here you are, friends,” Bianca
said, passing the drinks around to us. “Hi, Gabriel. I’m Bianca, we met
earlier.”

“I remember. You’ve got Henry,
right?”

She smiled, obviously pleased he
knew. “Yes.”

“So what brings you to our show,
Gabriel?” Keegan asked.

He shrugged. “I’ve kind of been
floating from one place to the next. A different job in lots of cities and
lately money’s been tight. Called my uncle up, asked if Sheffield had a gig for
me. Lucky enough, he did.”

“That is lucky,” Bianca said.
“Have you been in other shows?”

“No, just this one years ago.
Between then and now, I did odd jobs. Manual labor, waiting tables, bartending,
that sort of thing,” he responded.

“Actual real world experience,”
Finley drawled. He took a long gulp of beer, his eyes everywhere but at the
table.

“What about you, Lucy?” Gabriel
gave me a sideways look. “Heard you were a family friend of Sheffield’s.”

“That’s true,” I answered. I
wouldn’t lie; it would only make me look like I had something to hide. I paused
there and Gabriel raised an eyebrow as though waiting for me to continue. I
sighed.

“My father and Sheffield
are—were—very good friends. We were in the Donovan Circus from the
time I was born until I was almost a teenager. We moved away, did the human
thing for a while. Time went by, my folks both passed away, so I took Sheffield
up on an offer,” I explained.

“Wait ‘til you see Lucy’s
firepower in action. She deserves to be here,” Keegan said. He gave me an
encouraging wink. I blushed; I could already feel my crush on him grow bigger.

Gabriel turned his whole body to
face me. “Oh yeah? You a talented Firestarter?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” I said.

“Do not mind her modesty. She is
unbelievably good,” Delia added.

He put his cigarette out and sat
back in his chair. “How so?”

“She can harness fire that isn’t
her creation,” Bianca jumped in.

“And send out a heat wave so big
it knocks your ass over,” Finley said. He looked over at my face and grinned.
“Don’t look so embarrassed, Lucy. We can brag on me or Brooklyn next if it
makes you feel better.”

“Was that fireball dance in the
sky last night your doing?”

I nodded, feeling the blush
creep up in my cheeks.

“Pretty impressive for a girl,”
Gabriel commented.

“What did that malaka just say?”
Delia asked. A secret smile flitted through the group.

“You know. ‘Cause Firestarters
aren’t normally female, right?”

“It’s not like they’re
nonexistent. Just less of them,” I replied.

“I’ve never even heard of female
Firestarters, honestly,” Gabriel said.

“She’s definitely better than
me,” Keegan said. I looked over at him; he gave me a shrug, like we all knew it
was true. No one argued and I wondered if it was because they agreed.

“Well, what about you? I heard
you’re the best one here,” Gabriel said, glancing at Nikolas, who had remained
silent throughout the entire conversation.

Nikolas paused for a moment before
he leaned forward. He took a sip of beer and looked at Gabriel. It definitely
appeared as though Gabriel was baiting him. I did not approve.

“She’s a great Firestarter, for
a girl or guy. I think we
all
have a
lot to offer, regardless of what gift,” Nikolas finally responded. He took
another sip from his bottle and kept his hard gaze on Gabriel, who raised an
eyebrow. I found that to be a very diplomatic, mature answer.

“For example,” he continued,
“Brooklyn here is a Telepath. She keeps us updated with any potential threats.”

Jesus. Never mind that mature
thing I just thought. This was about to get heated. I didn’t want to look at
Brooklyn in case everyone else was looking at her too, but I snuck a peek
anyways. All eyes were on her, but she only gave a weird half smile and
finished off what I could only guess to be her fourth beer. If I were her, I
would’ve fallen right out of my chair.

“Yeah. I do that. I get the
machismo happening here. Don’t put me in the middle of it. Gabriel, I don’t
read minds that don’t want to be invaded. Nikolas, Gabriel’s provoking you.
Let’s not set anything on fire. Everyone grow up, drink your beers and go back
to X-Men comics or whatever the hell you nerds love to bore me with, okay?”

Delia and Bianca laughed, while
Finley and Keegan also cracked a smile. I had to admire Brooklyn’s tenacity, as
well as agree with her. My palms slapped to the table as I stood up and spoke.

“C’mon, you know I’ve never been
out like this before? You guys are in charge of showing me what it’s like to be
back in circus life as an adult. Who wants another beer?”

Everyone ordered a beer and I
moved through the tables to get to the bar line. In front of me were a few of
the older drunk men. A couple of them looked at me, so I smiled in greeting to be
nice. One gave me a normal (albeit drunken) smile back, while the other sort of
leered at me. Creepy.

“Thought I’d join you up here,”
Gabriel said from behind me. I jumped. What was he, a ninja?

I turned around to look up at
him. “Why? You were doing so well with everyone at the table back there.”

“I didn’t imply anything but the
truth.” He looked down at me and raised his eyebrow again. It was like Spock
how often he did it. I bit back a laugh at that last thought because of how
nerdy I sounded.

“You agree with me?” he said.
Damn, he had caught that.

“No. I was comparing you to a
Star Trek character.”

“Wow. You
are
a nerd.”

“But now that I think of it, you
were being a jerk.”

“How so? They were trying to
talk you up to get information out of me about my own gift. I deflected their
attention away from me.”

“Nice defense mechanism. Maybe
they were being nice since you wandered up and joined the table without
asking.”

“I asked. You said Delia
wouldn’t mind. Despite your defense mechanism, I saw another chair and thought
she could have that one just as easily.” He brushed against me; my skin tingled
where our arms touched. I ignored it and focused on my annoyance.

“What logic does that even make?
Maybe you should’ve sat in the empty chair since everyone was comfortable.”

“Maybe I wanted to sit next to
someone interesting.”

“We’re
all
interesting, I think. But I feel the same way they do—why
would I want to talk about my personal life with someone who isn’t willing to
put his out on the table, too?”

“We just met. You don’t need to
know my entire life story.” He leaned casually against the bar, those clear
blue eyes looking down at me. I wasn’t the type of girl to swoon, but I
certainly would’ve admired his good looks had I not been sputtering my irritation.

“I don’t…gah, I only mean that
if you don’t volunteer information about yourself, it’s hard for people to
trust you. That and you need to not bait people into making them angry.
Especially not the first time you really meet them.”

“Is this because of Nikolas?”

I was now so confused in this
conversation that I stopped my rant dead cold. “I—what? Nikolas? No, this
isn’t about Nikolas being rude.”

“Oh, good. I thought it was
about you wanting to sit next to Nikolas.”

“What are you even talking
about? I have no interest in him, if that’s what you’re inferring. It’s about
Nikolas being rude because
you
were
being an ass.”

“That’s where I disagree. I
wanted to have a seat and not talk about myself. People always want to talk
about themselves. I’d rather hear about everyone else.”

This conversation was going
nowhere. I felt a headache coming on from Gabriel’s verbal puzzles. If I didn’t
know better, I’d think he enjoyed it. I thought I saw amusement in his eyes and
I huffed.

“Then you could ask questions
and be pleasant, as opposed to starting a competition between the
Firestarters,” I responded. “Or doubt my abilities because I’m female.”

“I never said that. I don’t
really care how talented you are; you aren’t here because you’re terrible.
Sheffield refuses to take in anyone with just average talents. Even I know that
much.”

“Then what about you? Why are
you here if you won’t even talk about your gift?”

“I said I don’t use it very
often. I didn’t say I wasn’t good at it. You’re assuming things.”

“You just don’t want to talk
about whatever gift you’re hiding and
good
lord
how long does it take to get a beer in this place?” I exclaimed,
turning around to the old men who were now ordering their rounds.

The one who leered earlier
turned around. “Wh-, whassa-matta, sweetheart?”

I knew my mistake immediately. I
could feel them mentally undressing me. It gave me the heebie-jeebies.

“Sorry,” I muttered. “I’m just
impatient.”

“You’re a fiery little thing,”
another creeper friend said.

“You have no idea,” Gabriel
muttered under his breath.

Now more than a couple men were
a part of this, perhaps three others turned to look at me. Officially ready to
get back to my table, I looked past them to find the bartender. He had served a
few of them and moved onto the other end of the bar.

“Can I buy you a beer?” one
offered. I shook my head.

“Oh, c’mon. She wants a beer,”
weirdo number one said.

“I can buy my own drinks, thank
you,” I responded. I avoided all eye contact and chose to study the tap
handles.

“C’mon, sugar. Let me buy you a
drink. We can sit and talk at that table in the corner,” he said. Thick gray
hair and watery dark eyes accompanied his drunken state.

“I’ve got friends waiting on
drinks.”

“I want to buy
you
a drink,” he said.

“If it helps me get through here
any faster, I’ll take six,” I replied.

“I’m not
that
much older than you, Red.”

“You’re old enough for this to
be incredibly inappropriate.” Gritting my teeth together, I forced the heat
back down from my hands.

“I’m just old enough to teach
you a few things. I bet you can teach me a new thing or two,” he said. His
friends laughed and I made a face at him.

“You’re like what, 50? Sorry, I
don’t go for your type.”

He took a step towards me and I
felt the situation had quickly turned from annoying drunk to possible danger.
His friends looked like they’d rather encourage than stop him.

“Age ain’t nothin’ but a number.
You can do anything you want to me. I’m not your father.”

“Damn right you’re not. My
father wouldn’t be this stupid.”

“C’mon. Let’s go somewhere. I’ll
let you call me Daddy. Or any other name you want.”

A snarl escaped my lips as I
turned away from him. Time to go before I set him on fire. I took a step to the
other side of the bar, but the instigator grabbed my arm.

“You should really let me buy
you a beer. Let me get to know you better,” he rumbled. His breath smelled of
alcohol, stale cigarette smoke, and mustard. Yellowed teeth, slightly crooked,
filled his dirty mouth. His skin, wrinkled and pocketed, looked like alligator
leather. He ran his other hand down my back and touched my butt.

“And now we’ve gone a step too
far. Let go,” Gabriel stepped in. He moved in to take the guy’s hand off me.