by Liz Long
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.”
“Let’s call in the troops then. Surely we have more talent in this room alone than he does in his crowd. We’ll get everyone involved,” Brooklyn said.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, either, sorry,” I replied. “He’ll expect that and chances are he’ll have a lot of firepower and whatever concoction he’s made to take our gifts. Too many people could get hurt or have their gifts taken; I would rather have a few strong ones out there who know the risks. We need quality over quantity—fighters, people with active gifts. Bianca is a great Transporter, for example, but it doesn’t really help in a fight.”
“Well, passive gift or not, I’m not missing the action,” Brooklyn said. I expected as much from her and gave her a curt nod.
“He doesn’t have that many people. He’s experimented on most of his followers and they’re what’s left,” Gabriel spoke up. “A handful, maybe ten to twelve, but they are very powerful and have no reservation about using it to their full extent.”
“So what do we do? Warn everyone, tell them to run if they don’t want to be a part of it?” Keegan asked.
I didn’t have an answer. I looked at Sheffield and the rest followed my gaze. He cleared his throat.
“I think it would be unwise to cause panic. I don’t want to disband everyone; there aren’t many places we can go. I think we recruit a small but powerful group, those who are of course warned of consequences yet willing to face Felix,” he said.
“And if he comes to us first?” Delia asked.
“We beat him fast,” Sheffield replied grimly.
“He wants Sheffield to come after him,” I said. “He expects Sheffield to try and take his gifts.”
“Hold up,” Nikolas interrupted. “Gifts, as in he’s got more than one? So he could be anything.”
“Yes, that is an unfortunate disadvantage,” I admitted. “I’m not entirely sure how we work around that part, but he fully expects Sheffield to fail. He believes if Sheffield only takes one gift, he can make it work so that Sheffield gets a passive gift. Then Felix can kill him with a more aggressive one. Personally, I’m more worried Sheffield gets all of whatever gifts Felix has and it hurts him.”
“So we can’t let you get near him,” Brooklyn said to Sheffield. “He’ll be ready for you, know a way around it. If he gets you down for an instant, he’ll stab you with whatever he gave Finley, take your gift to use it on the rest of us.”
“Is the answer not obvious to anyone but me?” Gabriel asked. Everyone looked at him and he nodded in my direction. “It’s Lucy. She’s the key to Felix’s demise.”
“Oh, I don’t think-,” I started but Sheffield spoke over me.
“I agree with Gabriel.”
I gave them all a look of disbelief. “Surely you don’t think I can take him? I barely escaped tonight. You saw me at the bar. When I panic, and I probably will, I can’t even make a flame in my hand. I’m a mess!”
“You’re the only one strong enough to kill him with firepower,” Keegan said. “The rest of us, it would go back and forth for hours. Or he’s learned enough to where he’d kill us first.”
“You just have to focus,” Brooklyn added.
I looked wordlessly at Sheffield, hoped I conveyed my thoughts in my half-panicked stare. They made it sound so easy—that if I simply willed myself to kill Felix, I could. No matter how much emotion or focus I gave, I had no guarantee I could keep it up long enough to make that happen.
Nikolas, who’d watched this exchange silently, finally spoke up. “Lucy, I don’t doubt your abilities, but I understand your hesitation. Maybe we need a better plan if she doesn’t feel that confident.”
I looked at him, gave him a relieved look for his voice of reason. Then he blew it.
“Why don’t we send Gabriel back to Felix for more information?”
Silence coated the room again. I snuck a peek at Keegan, who didn’t look terribly upset at the new suggestion. I gave an incredulous look at Nikolas, who crossed his thick arms across his chest.
“Well? If there’s a chance Felix still thinks Gabriel is on his side, we should use that advantage,” he continued.
“And if Felix thinks the whole situation has been compromised, he might make Gabriel human too, or kill him,” I argued.
“But think about it. Felix thinks that he told Finley these things and that Fin was the one to let you go. He could still believe Gabriel is on his side, maybe even that he could use Gabriel to shift Lucy’s emotions. Does Felix know what you are?” Keegan asked Gabriel.
Gabriel gave him a very pointed look. “How do you know what I am?”
“Lucy told me when we were together one night,” Keegan replied, as though it were obvious. My cheeks flushed at the insinuation his statement gave everyone. I had half a mind to elbow him in the ribs but instead I tried to look everywhere but at Gabriel.
Gabriel barked out a laugh. He opened his mouth to no doubt throw a nasty comment out but Brooklyn interrupted him.
“You’re an Empath?”
“Jesus Christ,” Gabriel muttered. “Yes, everyone, I’m an Empath. Big deal.”
“You’re a really powerful Empath,” Brooklyn mused. “And really good at secrets apparently.”
“Could you please stop driving the point home? It’s not that hard to work around a Telepath who doesn’t want to listen in on people. You’re not doing me any favors right now,” he replied.
She scowled. “Well, your thoughts are flooding in right now. You can do more than just hone in on emotions, can’t you?”
“Hey, while everyone’s arguing, could someone maybe go get the Healer? My face really hurts,” Finley mumbled from the floor. His eyes closed, head bleeding on the cheap tile, I’d almost forgotten he was lying there, hurt. Delia nodded and zipped out of the camper before I could volunteer to get the hell out of there.
“I like my plan a lot better than throwing Lucy out there alone,” Nikolas said. He glared at Gabriel. “Besides, it gives Gabriel a chance to show me why I should trust him.”
“Sheffield vouched for me. Isn’t that usually enough for you lemmings?” Gabriel replied with a cool stare.
“Why don’t you sway Felix’s emotions? Why haven’t you before?” Brooklyn asked.
“Felix knows my gift and how it works. If he goes from pissed off maniac one second to happy, spaced out hippie the next, he’d know what I did and stab me with whatever he gave Finley. Then he’d probably kill me or would have if I had done so before,” Gabriel replied. “It’s one thing to enha
nce a mood, but another to completely change it. He’d know the difference; he knows us and how our gifts work.”
“Besides, I’m almost positive he’s created a drug for himself to act as a barrier to such techniques,” Sheffield butted in. “Thoughts, emotions, any future plans he makes…he once told me he wanted to find a way to prevent gifted from affecting him that way.”
“Instead of a cure for us, it’s a way for humans to get around us,” I said slowly. “He could sell that to people, make millions.”
“It’s a dangerous notion,” Sheffield said. “There are pros and cons to that idea, but I see a lot of government officials using that for their people if a hate war ever grew against us.”
“Back to the issue at hand,” Brooklyn interrupted. “What do we do? How will we know when to be prepared if Felix comes to us?”
“I’ll go,” Gabriel said. “I’ll go there tonight and find out. Earn my keep and all.” I couldn’t ignore the look he threw at Nikolas as he said it.
No one spoke but I knew they seemed to agree he should go. I bit my tongue, didn’t want to beg anyone to do anything. I worried for him, but knew I couldn’t stop him, not when Nikolas practically baited Gabriel into it.
The door swung open and Delia walked in with the Healer I’d met earlier. She knelt by Finley, calmly whispered things to him while her hands emanated a soft golden glow. Finley’s wounds slowly disappeared and within minutes, he looked as though nothing had happened. He stood up, shook his limbs around and appeared pleased with his good health once again. He clapped a hand on Delia and squeezed his eyes shut for a minute. When he opened them, he looked down, saw his own hands and clothes and looked pained. Finley was still only human. We all sighed in disappointment; I’d thought for sure the Healer had gotten his gift back, too.
Sheffield thanked the Healer and she disappeared without a single odd glance or question about our little meeting. I had but a brief moment to think she was a smart woman, to envy her, before we dove back into our strategy.
“We have more power here, even if people aren’t involved. Felix might come to us to prove a point, but we’ll have plenty of backup if he does,” Brooklyn suggested.
