Gifted, A Donovan Circus Novel (12 page)

“Chill, Gabriel. He won’t do
anything,” I said. I glared back at the man. His grip on my wrist tightened.
Narrow eyes met my glare, while a smile slithered onto his face. This guy
wouldn’t back down. I made my skin as hot as a stove and the guy yanked his
hand back, immediately cradling it to his chest. He glowered at me.

“What the hell?” he growled.

“I don’t know what you’re
talking about,” I said in a lowered voice. “But don’t touch me again.”

I took a step back, made sure he
wouldn’t lunge at me, and walked over to the other side of the bar.

“Dude, if you don’t give me six
beers right now, I’m going to light this place on fire,” I called to the
bartender, waving money at him. He rolled his eyes, thinking me melodramatic,
but took my money and went to the fridge. He motioned he had to go in back to
get more.

“That was stupid,” Gabriel
commented. He sauntered up beside me and waited to help carry beers.

“I don’t really care what you
think, personally,” I said, looking at him. “I don’t need your help.”

“Think what you want, but I
highly doubt you should be alone for the rest of the night.”

I looked at him and felt the
incredulous look on my face. “Are you serious? They’re drunk old dudes who
won’t even remember that tomorrow.”

“They’re pissed. That one guy
knows something isn’t right thanks to your sunburn. He might call your bluff.”

“You’re exaggerating. Don’t be
mad because you didn’t get to play hero.”

“I’m hardly a hero,” he said.

The bartender brought me my
order and we gathered them to walk back to the table.

“I don’t think you’re a hero. I
think you wanted to be one then to follow up that poor performance of
masculinity at the table.”

“
Ouch
,” he said, skirting around a chair. “Did you ever think that
maybe I wanted to make sure you didn’t get into any trouble?”

“In that case, thanks. But I
still think I’m right,” I added right as we reached the table. I went back to
my seat and Gabriel annoyingly sat beside me again.

“Short temper, so stubborn…my,
what an Aries,” he said as he pulled a cigarette out of its box.

“You must think all Firestarters
have the fire sign,” I said. I took an angry swig of my beer.

“No, but late March birthdays
do.”

“How do you know when my
birthday is?”

The hand bringing the lighter to
his lips paused and he gave me a surprised look. “Good guess, I suppose.”

“That took forever,” Finley
interrupted, waving his hand around for attention. “We finished our last beers
when you left. I’ve been without one for like four minutes.”

“Yeah, everything okay?” Keegan
said, looking straight at me.

“Your threat’s up at the bar,
throwing back those tequila shots right now,” Gabriel said to Nikolas. He gave
the table a brief summation of what happened.

“They weren’t happy. Lucy
shouldn’t be alone. That dude knows something’s not right. He’s probably
forming a coalition now,” he finished.

“Get real. They’re idiot
drunks,” I said to him.

“I don’t think I should fight
anyone that looks like my dad,” Finley said after a look at the group. “I’m not
saying it’d stop me, but I’d feel guilty during the punches.”

I looked over at the men, who
went back to another table near the other side of the room by the rednecks.

“See? No problem. Now, Fin, I
think you were telling me about why you liked Wolverine’s backstory so much,” I
said.

We easily led the conversation
back into silliness of heroes and who would win in a tournament match. Brooklyn
went outside to make a few phone calls while Delia and Bianca attempted to jump
in about the female characters they knew. Even Gabriel participated in the
debate and the tension between everyone seemed to disappear. We were friends
having a night out after work.

Chapter
7

After maybe another hour, we
decided to head back to the lot. We collected our things and headed out the
door. The parking lot was not nearly as full as when we arrived, but we still
had to cross through the entire gravel parking lot.

Delia giggled as Bianca tripped;
they’d both had more than a little to drink. I’d only had three and a half,
managing to sneak the others into Delia’s hands when no one was looking. Keegan
had only just caught on with the last round and he’d merely shared a secret
smile with me. I might be a little more giggly than usual, but I didn’t want to
risk being “that girl” on our first night out.

“I’m calling it even before I
see Brooklyn’s boat!
Shotgun
!” Finley
yelled.

“That’s cheating, dumbass,”
Brooklyn told him.

“We can still get back to catch
Angel’s poker game,” Nikolas said to Keegan.

Keegan replied back in a low
voice, but I couldn’t make out what he said. Nikolas shook his head and grinned
at him.

“Oh, did you drive, Gabriel?”
Bianca asked.

“No, someone dropped me off
after we got some supplies in town,” Gabriel answered.

“So I guess you need a ride
back,” Nikolas surmised.

“Wouldn’t mind one. I can walk,
but I’m not exactly sober,” Gabriel replied.

“Oh, c’mon, of course you can
ride with us,” Delia said. “Like we would actually leave you to walk four miles
back in the dark!”

I caught a sideways glance from
Nikolas. He didn’t look so sure about that part.

“Hey, Red,” I heard a voice
growl from the darkness.

I paused, wondered if I imagined
it. Surely those men weren’t that stupid to try and jump us in the dark.

The group kept walking, but
Keegan noticed I was behind. He turned around to find me. “Lucy? You okay?”

He saw the hesitation on my
face. “What’s wrong?”

A rock flew out from the
darkness and nailed Keegan on the side of the head. He yelped and clenched his
temple, blood already filtering from behind his palm.

“What the fuck?” he shouted. The
others turned to see what happened. They saw the blood on Keegan’s face and
immediately prepared to defend themselves.

The perverted, drunk old men
from the bar stepped out of the shadows. I wouldn’t normally worry, but they
carried baseball bats and tools for weapons. Of course we could defend
ourselves against them, but it wouldn’t end well. Sheffield would be pissed if
the circus got into trouble for any blowback this fight could cause. The last
thing we needed was bad publicity of circus members setting a town on fire and
hurting citizens. Everyone could find out we used our gifts, which would lead
to disaster.

“Don’t do it,” I heard Bianca
mutter to Keegan and Nikolas. My own temper flared, but I knew they could be
more dangerous. Alcohol and testosterone only fueled their desire to fight.
This couldn’t continue further.

“Let it go, man,” I called out
to the guy. “You’re just a drunk with a bruised ego. It’ll be better tomorrow.”

“You did somethin’ to me,” he
said. “I know I’m not that drunk. I didn’t imagine you scorched my hand into
third-degree burns.”

“Ah, Lucy,” Gabriel groaned.
Clearly, he thought I acted over the top with my feminist tantrum. I threw a
nasty look back at him.

“You don’t know what happened
back there,” I replied to the man. “But I do—you offered me a beverage, I
said no thanks, and we went along with our separate evenings. Let’s pretend
this didn’t happen and we’ll all walk away.”

I looked around. The boys
and
Brooklyn practically crouched into a
fighting stance, while Delia and Bianca eyed the direction of our getaway
vehicle. They couldn’t get there instantly without using their gifts and we all
wanted to avoid egging the aggression on. Keegan’s hands and face were coated
in blood. We needed to get out before the bar caught fire from Nikolas or
something much worse. It would be too easy to get caught up in the fight and
really hurt someone.

“Can you get to the car?” I
heard Delia ask Bianca.

“I can’t just disappear into
thin air in front of them! Sheffield would have a fit if they said something.
We’ll have to run for it,” she whispered. I turned my attention back to the
firing squad and the old guy piped up again.

“I don’t think so much of your
offer there, Red. See, we thought about it. Us old drunks aren’t so dumb. We
recognized you. You’re all from that freak show circus. And I don’t know about
the rest of your friends, but you’re one of them freaks. Something’s wrong with
you. You’re not welcome here,” he replied with a low tone.

“Look, old man. It’s about an
even fight as far as numbers, but we’ve sort of got you beat with age. You
should really rethink this,” Keegan said. He shot me a look and I was glad he
saw the problem with this situation as well.

“Weapons only go so far,”
Gabriel added. “Your bones can break easier than ours.”

“We ain’t the only ones offended
by you weirdos,” the old man encountered. As he said it, I heard a rustling
behind us. I turned my head to see those slimy rednecks from the bar. There
were several of them; they all looked healthy, muscular, and eager to put a few
bruises on us.

Well, shit.

“We can all walk away from
this!” I shouted.

“Not this time. You don’t
deserve to walk away. You can’t come into our town and talk to us like that. We
tell you what to do!” a redneck yelled back. Several of his friends shouted
their agreement.

“This is your fault, Red. You
burned me and now you and your freak group’s gonna pay. Brought it upon
yourself,” the old leader growled at me.

“This is bad,” Delia whispered.
“This is really, really bad. Someone will get hurt. Or they will tell humans
about us.”

“You don’t even know what we can
do to you,” Nikolas threatened. “You’re pushing it.”

“Nothing a large wrench can’t
solve,” an old man replied.

“We’re gonna beat the freak
outta you,” a redneck chimed in.

“This is ridiculous. Like, if
this were a movie, this is the part where everyone rolls their eyes type of
ridiculous. Please find a synonym for the word freak,” Brooklyn said with an
exasperated sigh.

“What’s your talent, metal
face?” a redneck asked her. “You gonna glare at us to death? Hope you fight
good for an ugly girl!”

“Oh good lord, even their
insults are retarded,” she muttered to us. She yelled back at him, “You’re too
busy thinking about going home to fuck your sheep. It should be easy to kick
your ass!”

A redneck grabbed another rock
and chucked it in our direction. Bianca managed to duck down as it whizzed by
her head. That ripped through the tension and all hell broke loose. I heard
Brooklyn shout at Bianca and threw her the car keys. I looked over to see
Bianca and Delia bolt to find the car. I couldn’t help it; I let out a gasp of
terror. Did I run with them or stay to fight?

Fuck it. I turned to run but one
of the lankier rednecks grabbed me from behind. I struggled but he squeezed so
hard I thought my ribs would crack. I sent volts of heat through my upper torso
and his grip loosened enough for me to throw my head into his face. His nose
crushed beneath my skull with a gross crunching sound. He dropped me like a ton
of bricks to clutch his bleeding face.

I glanced around to see how my
side fared. Keegan, the closest, was on the ground attempting to throw a
redneck off him. Blood still streamed down his face. I could tell that he tried
not to catch fire, but thought I saw a flame or two leap off his hands. I could
see another idiot headed over to help keep Keegan down. Nikolas had taken on
king ding-a-ling of the rednecks, who had a giant steel pipe; he dodged and
weaved, but I was sure I saw him catch a hit or two in the ribs. Finley was
winning his fight with an old guy; he threw him into a tree in time for another
guy to jump him. Brooklyn jumped on some man’s back, put him in a chokehold,
while Gabriel had three men with weapons circle him. They couldn’t help me.

Dust and gravel kicked up
everywhere. I whirled around and swept my hair out of my eyes. I looked up to
see the old man walk straight towards me. He carried a baseball bat and an ugly
snarl on his leathery face. That was enough to make me worry that I might kill
him; I’d have no choice but to defend myself and clean up the mess later.

“Don’t touch her!” I heard
Keegan yell from the ground. He couldn’t save me. No one could. I had to save
myself before I could help anyone else in this mess I created.

Using our gifts was the very
last resort. I could punch and kick all I wanted, but I couldn’t avoid a
baseball bat to the head. I did the only thing I could think—I ran as
fast as I could toward the direction Delia and Bianca had taken. I needed to
find the car.

“That’s fine, Red. I’m not as
old as you think. I can do more than race you,” the old man yelled. He may have
been older, but apparently running was not out of the question.

I darted past rows of vehicles
before I skidded behind a car and ducked down. If I could shake him, I could
get back to the car and we could swing through the lot to get the rest of us. I
knew if the old man touched me, I could burn him like I did before, but if I
lost control (a very likely outcome, given the fear coursing through my body),
I could set him ablaze and kill him. He might be a sick human being, but I
didn’t want to be responsible for his death.

I was more afraid for the gifted
community and the backlash this would receive if I set him on fire. Gifted were
persecuted within the community even if it was self-defense. We could not, under
any circumstances, allow our kind to be discovered by the entire human world;
panic, fights, war even, could break out. My father taught me never to use my
gift for violence; I had no idea how to handle this situation. Adrenaline
careened through my system and I tried hard not to panic. I crouched down and
struggled to hear his footsteps. My pulse raced so fast that all I could hear
was the blood rushing in my ears.