Taming The Ringmaster

by Erin O'Kane

  My eyes are starting to close, with a sleepy, satisfied smile on my face as I turn and bury my face in Jesse’s arm. Blain curls around my back, keeping me warm. “Fucking perfect, Harpy,” he whispers, and my heart constricts at his soft words.

  I open my eyes, blinking away sudden tears, and stare into Jesse’s face from inches away, his expression full of love as he watches me.

  “I love you, Firecracker,” Jesse whispers, brushing my hair back from my face. His face is serious, but there’s a hint of worry, of nervousness, in his eyes.

  “I love you too,” I whisper back, kissing his fingers as his smile returns and his eyes light up. He snuggles closer to me, pulling my leg over his.

  Blain grumbles and kisses my shoulder. He wraps his arm around my waist and yanks me back into his body, pressing his cock against my ass. “Love you too, Harpy,” he murmurs sleepily, kissing my shoulder again before burying his face in my hair.

  I fall asleep in their arms, their bodies wrapped around me like a giant puppy pile. A feeling of safety blooms in my chest, but I can’t ignore the darkness gathering around us. I know Alcide is out there… watching, waiting for something to happen. The thought sends a nervous flutter through my chest, even as sleep claims me.

  I wake up long before the others and try not to disturb them as I climb out of the puppy pile, smiling as I look down on my guys. Pulling on my loose training clothing, I quietly leave the tent, heading towards the animal tent, knowing I need to do this sooner rather than later. I push through the flap and smile as Sid runs up to me, winding between my legs, almost tripping me up as I try to get farther into the tent.

  Laughing, I lean down and run my fingers through his short fur. “Morning, buddy, I missed you too.”

  A choked sounding growl has me raising an eyebrow and looking for the sound. I find Fluffy glaring at the cat winding through my legs for attention. I have to stifle the giggle that threatens to leave my lips, knowing Fluffy would sulk if I laughed at him.

  “It’s okay, big guy! I missed you too!” I coo as I walk towards him. “Oof—” I exclaim, getting the air knocked out of me as he butts my stomach with his large head, pushing at me until I stroke him. I grin as I rub his head, his purr rumbling through my whole body. A trumpeting noise, followed by loud, stomping footsteps lets me know Tiny is on his way over to see me, along with various other animals.

  I eventually manage to untangle myself from the onslaught of animal greetings with the promise I would return later to play with them. Dusting myself off, I look around for the reason I came here, a slight smile on my face as I notice two faces peeking at me from behind a hay bale.

  “Rumples, Bubbles, come on, come see me,” I call, walking closer to where they are hiding. “Come on, guys, you did exactly as planned, it was brilliant! If I didn’t know you, I would have thought you were attacking me. Great acting!” I exclaim, sitting down on the other side of the bale of hay, smiling as Rumple sticks he head out to look at me. “I’m sorry I didn’t come and see you yesterday, it was a bit crazy.”

  Some might think I’m mad for the way I talk to the animals, but our animals are way more than just animals. They have all been altered, just like we have been, to the point where they understand me. Rumple and Bubbles slither out from behind the hay bales, his heads drooping in shame as they make their way over to me.

  “Oh, come now, don’t look so sad!” I hold out my hand, showing them I’m not afraid of them. Rex and I had worked really closely with the snake and it had taken a lot of training to make him understand that the biting was necessary for the show, but we had never practiced that part. There was always a risk that my body wouldn’t be immune to Rumple’s venom, but my powers hadn’t failed me so far, so there was no reason to think that they might now.

  Slithering closer, Rumple pushes his head into my hand, enjoying the attention and forgiveness, but his other head, Bubbles, avoids my gaze.

  “Bubbles,” I call softly, waiting for him to meet my eyes. Bubbles was the more difficult of the snake’s personalities to win over, but really he is a big softy. “You did exactly as you were supposed to, we couldn’t have done it without you.” He blinks once, as if considering what I’m saying. “You’re the star of the show really,” I conclude, smiling as he pushes his head into my waiting hand, their body wiggling in happiness as I stroke them.

  I spend a little longer in the animal tent, making sure to cuddle each of them before I exit with a smile, always feeling better after spending time with them. The early morning chill has burned off now, the sun high in the sky as I walk through the camp. The hustle and bustle of circus life sounds around me as people get started for the day. Smiling at some of the crew as they walk past me, I think back over the last year with the circus and how much my life has changed since joining them. Rounding one of the communal tents, my smile widens as I see the reasons behind the change.

  Rex is standing by the cooking pot, helping the cook get breakfast ready, while Jessie is juggling the bowls with a scowling Blain telling him to knock it off. Nixon is standing to the side of the cooking area, watching with his arms crossed, our ever-present protector, as Alcide sits on a bench, nursing a mug of coffee.

  Nixon sees me first, a rare smile pulling at his handsome face. “Rhea.” His call causes a chain reaction. Everyone looks at him then over to me, smiles lighting their faces. Nixon doesn’t speak often, but when he does, we have learned to pay attention since he seems to know things. Walking over, I wrap my arms around his waist, my head coming to rest on his chest as he hums in happiness, his large arms cradling me against him.

  “Morning.” Glancing up, I see Nixon’s eyes shining with unspoken words as he leans down and presses a small kiss to my nose. I laugh and untangle myself from my gentle giant before walking over to greet the rest of the guys. Everyone seems to be in a jovial mood this morning after last night’s show. Smiling and joking as they prepare breakfast. Even Blain has a smirk in place as he scolds Jessie. Helping myself to a bowl of porridge, I make my way over to the bench where Alcide sits, his gaze on me as I move closer and I rethink my earlier thought—almost everyone seems happy today.

  “You okay?” I ask quietly, as I sit at the table next to him, facing out across the cooking area. “The show went really well the other day,” I comment, when he doesn’t answer my first question, trying to fill the silence. I feel Alcide’s attention back on me and glance across to see his frown.

  “Yes, that’s what I’m worried about.” His voice is quiet, meant only for my ears.

  Frowning, I tilt my head, not understanding his concern. “What do you mean?” Leaning closer, I place my hand on his, resting it on the table.

  “Why did they invite us here? Our circus has travelled past here before, but they have never shown any interest. Now, you join us and they are suddenly ‘inviting’ us to come perform.” His words are frustrated, and he pulls his hand from mine, before running it through his hair as he lets out a pent-up breath. “And what was with all of the shared looks between them and making us jump through hoops before we could perform? I feel like they are testing us.”

  “Testing us for what?” I question, trying to understand his frustrations.

  “I don’t know.” His voice is quiet, lost.

  We sit in silence, picking at our breakfasts, but I don’t think either of us have much of an appetite. Alcide’s words run through my head, turning me off from my food.

  Once everyone is done, we head into the big top to rehearse and train. Walking into the big tent, I look up at the towering peaks, the red and white of the fabric bright and familiar, but I can’t shake the feeling of unease that seems to follow me like a shadow. This place has always felt safe to me, even though we do dangerous acts, it’s been my home, so why do I feel this way? Perhaps it’s being so close to this city with its scheming Masters.

  Shaking off the feeling, I begin to warm up with the others, working through a series of stretches and exercises until my muscles are ac
hing and a fine layer of sweat covers my skin.

  “Something big is coming.” Nixon’s words cut through the tent, making all of us freeze. The words are sent with such conviction that I have no doubt this is Nixon’s gift warning us. We all share a look before turning to Alcide, our ringmaster, since he calls the shots. I see that flash of uncertainty in his eyes for a second before he straightens his posture, standing tall as he looks directly at me.

  “Let’s not panic. This could be something good?” Alcide inquires, glancing over at Nixon to see if he has any more words of wisdom for us, but the big guy just shrugs, back to his silent self. Alcide nods as he paces the tent, turning his attention to the rest of us as he walks. “Either way, we need to be prepared. I need everyone to focus on their gifts today, you need to be able to protect yourselves if necessary. Those are our strongest weapons in case we are attacked, so we need to make the most of it, make sure we are at our strongest.” There is a chorus of agreement from the guys as we break up and start to train. We need to be alert, we have gotten too comfortable over the last couple of months. If there is anything I have learned since I joined the circus, it is that I will do anything to protect my new family, I just hope it doesn’t come to that.

  Jessie smiles as he jaunts over to me, his usual happy-go-lucky self. Anyone who doesn’t know him would think what we learned hasn’t bothered him at all, but I can tell from the tightness of his smile that he’s worried.

  “Ready to train?” he asks as he throws his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his chest for a hug, extracting a giggle from me, which I’m sure is what he was after in the first place. Jessie is the kind of guy who will do almost anything to make others happy, including playing the fool.

  Extracting myself from his arms with a smile, I walk over to our training mats. “What did you want to work on today?” When Jessie and I train together we usually work on our acrobatics and gymnastic acts. While I may have the power to adapt and protect myself, it does not make me any more flexible or improve my balance, no, these acts take hours and hours of practice and working out to keep our bodies in shape, especially as we keep making our routines more and more difficult. A thought comes to me and I feel the grin spread across my lips.

  “Why don’t we try your ice?” I suggest, and watch in confusion as his hand comes up to rub the back of his neck sheepishly.

  During the last winter months, we learned about a celebration they did pre-war called Christmas from an old magazine we found during our exploration of a derelict building. While we were creating our own traditions as a family, Jessie discovered a new aspect of his powers—ice. Since we moved on from that town and headed farther south, he hasn’t tried to use his ice powers again, preferring to use his flames for our shows.

  “Or we could try something else?” I reply, unsure where his reluctance to use these powers has come from. He has never said as much, but I think it frightens him to have this power that he knows nothing about.

  “Just...I nearly hurt you with it before…” He hesitates with a flash of fear in his eyes, and I realise what has been holding him back. I had been practicing a new act where I was submerged in a tank of water, which Jessie had accidentally frozen with me still inside. I can still remember the terror that ran through me as I felt the water freeze and lock me in place.

  “Jessie…” My voice is soft as I take a step towards him, gently putting a hand on his arm until he meets my eyes. “It was an accident, I’m okay, I’m still here. If you learned to control it, nothing like that will happen again, I promise.”

  I can see he isn’t sure, but eventually he nods, and I pull him farther onto the mats. We spend the next couple of hours with him focusing on creating ice. It takes some work and encouragement, the others taking it in turns to help out, but when Jessie feels more in control of his ice powers, I call everyone over.

  “Show them what you can do.” I feel like a little girl again. Pride and excitement runs through me from what he has achieved in a few short hours. Taking on a wider stance, he clicks his left hand and flames appear in his palm, harmlessly licking against his fingers, before he turns his focus on his right. Frowning in concentration, he takes a deep breath as he silently stares at his hand.

  “What are we waiting for?” Blaine sneers, acting like we are wasting his time, but I can see the glint of interest in his eyes.

  “You will see.” Whispering, I keep my eyes locked on Jessie, and my patience is rewarded as his palm suddenly freezes over, seeming not only to produce the ice, but to become it. Looking up at me in excitement, his smile is huge as he manages to maintain both fire and ice at the same time. He still has a long way to go, nowhere near mastering his new gift, but he has made a huge step in learning to control his gift rather than let it control him.

  For the rest of the session, we go through our acts, pushing our gifts as far as they go until we are panting, and my muscles feel like they are going to give way.

  “Rhea, do that flip again, focus on your skin as you do it,” Alcide calls out. I want to protest, but when I glance across, I see that worried look in his eyes again and decide not to push it. I’m in my heavier stone form and moving is much harder, so performing flips is tricky. My concentration often wavers and my skin flickers back to normal. This would be fine, but during this act Blaine is throwing knives at me, so I can’t risk that happening. Taking up my position, I draw in a deep breath, allowing my body to change, feeling the heaviness of the stone weighing down my limbs as Blaine lines up, a knife appearing in his hand like magic. I get no warning before he throws it, trusting my instincts to keep me safe as the blade blurs through the air, moving too fast for my eyes to track.

  The knife misses me by less than an inch, but trying to move this fast in my stone form causes me to misjudge my landing, and I fall to the ground, the sound much louder thanks to my stone body.

  “Rhea! Are you okay?” the guys call out as Rex jogs towards me.

  Winded, I lay on my back and my body releases the stone form, my breath panting from my chest as I let out a little chuckle. “I guess I need to work on my landing.”

  Crouching down by my side, Rex runs his eyes over my body, checking for any signs of injury. “You okay, Wild Cat?” Holding out his hand, I reach forward to accept his offer to help me up, but the sun glints against something and catches my eye. Frowning, I look for what caught my attention. I use Rex’s hand to stand up before walking towards the corner of the tent, tilting my head in different directions. I can hear the guys behind me, wondering what I’m doing, but I pay them no attention. Something in my gut telling me this is important.

  There. Right on the top of one of the struts holding up tent is something glinting, like glass.

  “Guys, what’s that?” A hush follows my words before they come and join me, looking up at where I’m pointing. I’ve never seen anything like it, something like a circle of glass contained in some metal container, but I know for certain that it’s not part of the tent. I’ve helped put it up enough times to know. The silence continues and I pull my gaze away to look at the guys, but my attention gets stuck on Alcide. His face is grave as he looks at the object.

  “It’s a camera, they have been watching us.” The temperature in the tent seems to drop about five degrees at his words, all of us sharing looks at this statement. I don’t know what a camera is, we didn’t have them in Cinders, but I can tell from everyone’s reactions that this is bad. “No more practice, no one is to use their powers. We keep our heads down, and in the morning, we get out of here,” he commands, before storming out and leaving the rest of us to stand awkwardly in the practice tent. What do we do now?

  “Come on, Wild Cat, it’s time for dinner anyway.” Rex tries to keep his tone light, but I can tell he’s worried, we all are, and as I am led away, I can’t help but keep looking up at the camera and wonder why such a small object could cause us so much trouble. There is no way that this could hurt us, right?

  Light pierces my eyes
as I try to peel them open, they feel heavy and uncooperative, like that time Lil convinced me to drink too much. Raising my hand, I attempt to protect them as I wake up, fighting against the sleep that claimed me. I don’t even remember coming back to my tent last night, my last memories are of the dinner we shared together. Why is it so bright in my tent? Did I leave the entrance flaps open? My head is pounding and as I sit up, the world seems to spin around me. A groan slips from my lips as I try to balance myself. I’ve never felt so weak or disoriented before.

  Why do I feel so rough? Am I coming down with something? I’ve never been sick before, thanks to my power, is this what it feels like? I finally manage to open my eyes against the onslaught of bright light and frown at what I see, not understanding. The hard dirt ground under me bites into my skin, causing me to wince as I move and gravel and stones cut me. Shit, that hurts, why isn’t my body protecting me? Even from small pains like this, it should. Why am I on the floor, did I fall from bed in my sleep? Looking around again, a gasp escapes my cracked, sore lips.

  This is not my tent. Dread fills me as I push up onto shaking legs as I take in the scene before me, unable to believe what I am seeing. We appear to be in a large, circular cage, roughly the same size as our circus ring that we perform in. Sand and dirt fills the hard packed ground and I flinch when I spot dried blood splattered about, wondering what poor soul it has come from. I seem to be against the edge of the cage, feeling cold, metal bars at my back as I stare into the circle.

  Bodies litter the cage and it takes me a moment to realise that they are the bodies of my guys. A strangled cry leaves my lips as I hurry to the nearest person who happens to be Rex. He’s lying on his back, his face slack and pale, with none of his usual colouring or cheer evident. That’s what scares me the most.