by Liz Long
“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.
An explosion lit the night sky and I heard several screams. I looked up to see the parking lot in a red and yellow glow, flames coming from where I left everyone. Son of a bitch, Nikolas lost it. I hoped it could be blamed on faulty wiring, a gas explosion, anything else. I heard tires screech and just knew that it was Delia coming to get me.
“Found you,” I heard a now-familiar grizzled voice behind me. I tried to stand but he shoved me into the car. My head hit the door and I saw stars. Dazed, I looked up at him. He kicked me in the side and I yelped.
“Don’t do this,” I choked out.
He grabbed a hank of my hair and dragged me across the dusty gravel lot. I kicked as hard as I could and tried to grab his wrists but I couldn’t get a grip to hurt him. Surprisingly fast for an older man, he hauled me into a bush behind a broken streetlamp. It was almost pitch-black. My fingernails clawed at the dirt and brambles scratched my face.
I reached up to grab his wrist again, but he only yanked on my hair harder and whacked my leg with his baseball bat.
“Touch me and I’ll swing this into your head,” he snarled. “Don’t think we don’t know about your kind. You freaks think you’re so superior. Buncha scum who cause nothin’ but trouble. You set things on fire, you meddle with people’s thoughts, you think you can tell us what to do. You’re all trash who shouldn’t be here!”
He had a remarkably strong grip on my hair. Tears formed in my eyes but I was ready to set this bastard on fire. Sheffield would have to be angry with me. I went to my last resort: I screamed bloody murder. He swung at my ribs with the bat, cutting off my scream into a gasp of pain. I hurt so badly I came close to puking.
“Don’t do this,” I garbled out. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Too late. Your attitude handled that back at the bar. Should’ve let me buy you a drink. It could’ve gone a lot differently. I just wanted to see what you were like in bed, but then you had to go and show your true colors.”
The man let go of my hair and kicked me completely down. Before I could get up, he lifted up his bat.
“Get on your knees and beg for your life,” he said.
“Never gonna happen,” I muttered, trying to shake my daze and steady myself to fight back. I had no energy to even form a fireball. He had beaten it out of me and I was on the verge of panic. I couldn’t focus, couldn’t even produce a tiny flame. What was wrong with me?
He undid his belt and pants zipper with one hand. “I might think about letting you live if you beg me the right way.”
“Fuck you,” I spat. Where was Delia with the car? Surely someone wondered where I was by now. We were all gifted for god’s sake.
“Have it your way. Maybe I’ll take you back to my place and when you wake up, you’ll have a change of heart.”
“I will set everything you own on fire, you dumbfuck,” I mumbled. I needed to concentrate.
“You and your kind shouldn’t even be in this world. You’re not human!” he roared. I would be crushed to death by an idiot townie. This was not what I could call going out in a blaze of glory. He swung the bat down.
Chapter 8
I threw my arms over my head to try and protect my skull. My father’s face flashed in my brain and bizarrely, I wished I could say goodbye to him. I braced myself, but instead of a bat cracking into my bones, I heard a crash and loud grunt as body met earth.
I opened my eyes and peeked through my arms to see Gabriel picking himself up from over the guy. He’d thrown the old man into a tree so hard it knocked him out. His entire body was limp; blood trickled down his face from the head wound. The baseball bat lay in front of me from where he dropped it upon the body slam. Gabriel picked up the bat and slammed it into the man’s side, for good measure I guessed, and threw it away into the bushes.
Gabriel walked over to me and knelt down. “Hey. Lucy.”
My whole body shook from rage and fear. By far the worst experience of my entire life, I couldn’t even move. My limbs refused to cooperate with my brain’s commands.
“Boy, that was anticlimactic,” I mumbled.
“Lucy, you’re okay,” Gabriel tried again. His voice was gently, buttery warm. I felt his hand on my arm and jumped. I looked up at him, but couldn’t register my thoughts. His face swam in front of me. My lips parted and a voice came out, but it didn’t sound like me.
“I couldn’t form a fireball.”
“You’re in shock. We need to get up. Brooklyn’s got the car.”
I stared at the man’s unconscious body. His pants were still undone. A shiver racked my body and Gabriel tried to get my attention again.
“Hey, we need to leave. Cops are headed here and we’ve got huge trouble if we don’t leave right now. Lucy, come on.”
When I still didn’t respond, he made the decision for me. He grabbed my arms and pulled me up off the ground. I didn’t want to be picked up like a damsel and instead tried to fight him. As he half-dragged me out of the bushes and back into the lot, I started to get my bearings back. My body hurt from where the bat hit me and I limped back as he carried part of my weight. I started to focus on current events.
“Where is everyone? Are they okay?” I asked.
“They’re fine. We’re all a little worse for wear, but okay. Nikolas finally lost it and when he aimed a fire streak for a guy, he hit a car. The gas tank exploded and it scared most of them away. That’s when we tried to find you. We saw that guy chase you.”
“This was my fault.”
“You can’t control what those idiots did.”
“You saw how it started, Gabriel. All because I couldn’t handle my temper and let you take a normal approach to stepping in. If I hadn’t burned that guy, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“Fuck him! He didn’t have to get his goons to jump us. He was wasted and couldn’t stand his ego taking a hit from a pretty young girl. He’s got problems with people like us but he took it too far. His ignorance far outweighs your reaction to a drink. He was probably itching for a moment like this to happen. There’s the car.”
I looked up to see everyone around the vehicle ten feet ahead of us. Brooklyn was now in the driver’s seat, cursing at everyone to get in the car. Keegan turned and saw us. He, as well as Nikolas and Delia, ran to help.
“Ugh, you were right. I hate that,” I grumbled to Gabriel.
A guffaw escaped him. “Almost raped, beaten, and killed, and you’re more upset about the fact I was right? I don’t have you figured out at all.”
The others reached us and overheard his statement. Delia’s eyes grew wide on my appearance.
“Almost raped and killed? Are you okay?” she asked me.
“Where is he?” Nikolas asked in a snarly tone. I half-expected claws to appear.
“Where I left him. I tackled him into a tree. He w
on’t be up for awhile. Be lucky if he remembers anything, I hope,” Gabriel answered.
“We need to get the hell out of here,” Keegan said. He grabbed me away from Gabriel. We all rushed to the car and crammed inside. Keegan and Gabriel sat on either side of me. The doors weren’t even shut before Brooklyn screeched out of the lot towards the circus lot.
“Seriously, is everyone okay?” I asked as we left the bar.
“We should be asking you the same thing,” Brooklyn replied. “I saw what Gabriel witnessed and we ought to go back and kill that guy.”
“No,” Delia said firmly. “We need to get back and find Sheffield. Someone needs to warn him that we might have trouble from the locals.”
“Seriously, Gabriel, cut that shit out. Think of something else. Ponies and rainbows, I don’t care. I’m going to have nightmares of those images,” Brooklyn barked from the front seat.
“What images?” Finley asked.
“Of Lucy on the ground, about to get killed by that guy,” she said.
“Get out of my head, then, why don’t you?” Gabriel snapped.
“Oh, pardon me if I’m having trouble focusing right now. I figure with the circumstances, we all understand our talents are a little shaky.”
I felt him soften a little. “I’m not happy about it in my head, either.”
“I’m so sorry, you guys. This is my fault,” I apologized.
Protests filled the car. I could barely keep track of who said what.
“You can’t control anyone else’s actions.”
“They were drunk and stupid. Fucking malakas.”
“We’re glad you’re okay. You definitely had the worst of it.”
“It’s over. We’ll go back and drink the bruises away.”
“I told you there’d be a bar fight tonight!” Finley was the clear winner for this one. He said it with a maniacal grin.
The car went silent for a moment before Bianca groaned at him.
“What? Everyone’s fine. We won!” Finley exclaimed. “Those bastards ran for their bourbon-covered hills when Nikolas hit that car. Sucks for that bar owner, though.”
Keegan put his arm around me and lowered his head. “You can relax. It’s going to be fine,” he whispered. I put my head on his shoulder and tried to bite back the pain. My hand flew to the back of my head to gingerly feel the sore spots.
“I’m never going to feel the back of my head again,” I muttered.
“Why do you say that?”
“After he rammed my head into a car door, he grabbed my hair and dragged me across the lot into the bushes where Gabriel found me. He’ll remember what happened when he wakes up and sees a chunk of long red hair in his hand.”
“I don’t understand. Why didn’t you defend yourself? Set him on fire or at least the area around him to get away?” Keegan asked. The car grew quiet and I saw Nikolas cock his head towards me to better hear my answer.
“I tried. He kicked and hit me so many times that I couldn’t get a grip on his hands. After my head hit the car, I couldn’t get the stars out of my eyes to focus. When he threw me to the ground, I tried to coax enough energy for a fireball, but I guess he hit me too much. I didn’t have it in me. After he offered his genitals as a reward, I told him to fuck off and he lifted the bat before I could even warm my palms.”
Brooklyn obviously had a lead foot, because we arrived back about a minute later. Delia, Bianca, and Brooklyn decided it would be best if they told Sheffield of the evening’s events. I offered to go with them, but they insisted I go take care of myself. I think they were scared I’d break down in front of Sheffield. I would never let that happen, but I was glad to avoid it all the same.
The boys and I walked back to the camping area. Finley and Nikolas decided to go catch the end of Angel’s poker game and maybe a few shots of whiskey.
“I can’t thank you enough,” I tried.
Nikolas waved me off. “We protect one another. Glad you’re okay. Let’s try to avoid that kind of excitement in the next city.”
“Speak for yourself. I had a great time. The explosion made it way better than the last one,” Finley said, always the optimist. “I wanted to get into a fight, so thanks.”
“Um, you’re welcome, I think,” I responded. He gave me a boyish smile.
“Hey, we’re all okay. It’s over; Sheffield’s gonna be in the know so we can be protected. It’ll be fine. We’ve had stuff way worse than this happen,” he said.
I didn’t even want to fathom the possibilities. Nikolas nodded at me and they walked off. That left me with Gabriel and Keegan.
“I’ll walk you back to your camper,” Keegan offered.
Gabriel lit a cigarette and looked around. “Guess that’s my cue. Thanks for the exciting night, Lucy.”
“Gabriel…” I began. I couldn’t even begin to thank him.
He gave me a long look that I couldn’t read. Then he turned around and walked away to his end of the campgrounds.
I watched him walk away, unsure about any of my emotions. He was such a guarded person, even more than me. Gabriel, whether I liked it or not, saved my life. I could never repay him. As his lean figure disappeared into the shadows, I couldn’t help but wish for Brooklyn’s gift—I wanted to know what his thoughts were about the evening.
“Are you okay?” Keegan asked, jarring me back to reality. I turned away from Gabriel’s back, looking up to see Keegan with a worried look. Blood still coated one side of his face. I lifted my hand to his face and my fingertips brushed his skin; his eyes closed briefly before focusing on me again as I dropped my hand to my side.
“I’m okay. It’s been a rough night. I’m ready to go to bed. And you need to get ice on your head,” I said.
“Let’s get you back to your camper, then. Delia can fill you in when she gets back,” he replied. We began our walk to the living quarters.
“We don’t have to talk about what happened, but it was clear Brooklyn was really freaked out by what Gabriel saw. If he hadn’t gotten there in time…” he trailed off. There was a brief pause and he squeezed my hand, but didn’t let go.
“I know. That’s what I was thinking. I owe Gabriel my life. I’m not sure how to feel about that,” I admitted.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I don’t know if it’s necessarily a good thing to owe him so much. I don’t know him, so I can’t guess how or when he’ll ask for a favor.”
“Maybe he won’t ask at all,” he suggested.
“No. I think when Gabriel thinks he needs something he’ll call this in. I don’t know why I feel this way, I just do,” I firmly replied.
“I hope you’re wrong. I don’t really have anything against him after he saved your life, but he doesn’t strike me as someone you want to owe.”
“I know. I can’t put my finger on it, but something’s off with him. The fact that he refuses to talk about his gift is clue number one.”
“He wouldn’t take his eyes off you the entire night,” Keegan commented.
“Oh, I don’t know about that. I think he was trying to push everyone’s buttons,” I said.
“Nikolas and the others noticed it, too. They mentioned it after he followed you up to the bar. I can’t say anyone cared for it too much.”
“Maybe it’s because we’re both new,” I suggested. “You know, we should stick together or something.”
“Maybe.” He sounded doubtful. “Who even told him where we were tonight?”
“I invited him, but no clue who told him about that bar. Of course, it’s a small town, maybe he figured it out on his own.”
“He seems pretty determined to get to know you.”
“I don’t know, Keegan. He’s a weird cat. I only know that he did a huge thing for me tonight.”
“I know. I guess I’ll have to thank him,” he said, giving me a sideways smile.
We came up to my camper. He still hadn’t released my hand. I looked up at him.
“Thanks for everything
you did tonight, too. Getting me back to the car safely. Hell, getting into the fight at all. It was because of me that the whole thing happened.”
“Stop saying that. It happened because his drunken ego couldn’t handle the rejection. And then of course there’s the prejudice of his world versus ours. We were more than likely doomed to that fight from the moment we walked in the place.”
“I still feel guilty. I will for a long time,” I said.
“You’re being silly. You had it worse, by far. What happened to you…god, Lucy, I don’t even know what to say. I’m just plain sorry.”
He stopped talking and instead put his arms around me. I buried my face into his warm chest. He smelled like dirt and blood, but also of woodsy cologne. He pulled me in tighter and put his hand on the back of my head to caress my hair where it had been pulled.
I breathed him in and suddenly the night’s events hit me again. I needed to get inside before I broke down in front of Keegan. I couldn’t risk losing it in front of anyone.
I reluctantly pulled away from him and met his gaze.
“I need to get inside,” I said. My voice still shook.
“You need anything at all, I’m here,” he whispered.
I nodded and he took a step back. I opened the camper door and stepped through the doorway.
“Good night, Lucy. I’ll see you in the morning.”
I raised a hand to him but didn’t turn around. “Night, Keegan.”
I shut the door. I walked in a daze to my bed and curled up into the fetal position under the covers, not even bothering to undress. The night had finally gotten to me. It was over and I was okay. That was all that really mattered. It didn’t make the knot in my stomach go away. Slowly, the tears fell.
Chapter 9
Aside from a few flesh wounds on us (which a Healer took care of in no time), a few whispers amongst the troupe, and a dent in Brooklyn’s bumper, the next week or so went by without trouble. Delia said after they explained the situation to Sheffield, he agreed we acted in our best defense. If anyone came asking, he would back us up. They were drunk, violent townies that nearly killed us all. Delia said he was as angry as she’d ever seen him. He specifically told us not to go into town again unless absolutely necessary. No argument from me.