Gifted Ones

Chapter 9 Haven

Gabriel. The one my parents were afraid of, the one Katherine warned them about, the one whose men tried to kidnap me, and ultimately the one who is responsible for my mother's death. I feel my grief twist and harden into something darker, more ominous. Disgust, loathing, and lust for revenge battle inside my heart. He is the one I who killed my mom. Therefore I will make him pay.

"Where is he?" I ask cooly.

"What?" Chase asks.

"Where is Gabriel?" I specify. "I want to find him. So I can kill him."

He looks at me in surprise and some amusement. "Get in line. We all have a score to settle with Gabriel Anderson."

I bite my lip and look down, my blood still hot with rage and pain. "Who is he? What does he want?"

Chase's eyes seem to get darker. "Gabriel believes that the humans are to blame for the near extinction of our race. He believes that we are superior and deserve to rule over all humans. The other thing is that he's a politician. His plan is to make it to Governor of Virginia before he starts his insurgency. The idea is to take down the US from the inside, using men he has holding positions up in DC. He has his claws in every agency and every court."

"How would you know that?" I ask him, confused.

"He told us."

"What? I don't understand." I look at him with a skeptical expression. Evil masterminds don't just give away their evil plans, unless in monologues. Just watch any sifi/action movie ever.

Chase deliberates for a moment, looking at his watch. "Well, I would explain, but I wasn't really born yet, and Garret will tell it better anyway. Besides, if we aren't careful we're going to miss the plane."

"Plane?" I ask.

"Yes, plane. We're flying to Paris in two hours."

"What? Why?"

He runs his hand through his hair, staring at my face as if gauging my reaction. "Because that's where your father is waiting for us."

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I sit in one of those annoyingly uncomfortable airport chairs, trying to shift around to find an agreeable position. We've been waiting here for about an hour, and I'm starting to get sick of watching planes leave and take off.

The younger redhead, Kara, apparently, sits on my right, playing some sort of game on her phone. Matthew sits on her other side, and his brother stays on mine. The others sit opposite us, either on their phones, talking quietly, or eating airport lunches. Garret, the middle-aged Shift with shaggy brown hair, introduced me to all of them on the drive over here. Morgan, the older redhead, is his Flyer wife, and Kara is their Shift daughter. Matthew is dating her, it seems, who, by the way, is a Flyer. Margot is a Shift. She was the eagle I saw at the hotel. Annalise, the blond, is a Flyer, and her brother Jonathan is a Mage, like Chase. Last but not least is the strongest Mage in the clan, aka Joshua. He's the older Asian man with the walking stick.

"So, Haven," Kara starts. "Have you ever flown in a plane?"

"No, actually. I've always wanted to, though."

Kara's face lights up like a Christmas tree. "Ohmygosh! I love planes! Taking off is a little freaky at first, but the cabin is so cool, and the refreshment carts are great too! Oh, and on overnight flights like ours they give you these little pillows! They turn off all the lights and everything to make it look like 'night' so that people can sleep. And then, like four hours later, they slowly turn on the lights to make it look like it's morning. And the meals! Ohmygosh the meals are in these cute little foil containers and they give you a little menu to choose what you want from, like, three options. The last time I was here I ordered this pasta with beef broth that was really good, surprisingly. And you can watch all the movies you want on the little TV screens on the back of the chairs in front of you! Oh, they also have European music! In a bunch of different languages. The French stuff was so good. . ."