Mrs. Sharpe blinked. “Sheridan?”
“Jules is the team leader. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome.” Mrs. Sharpe smiled. “That's him. They're all stubborn. Warriors to the bone.
And they don't like to be told what to do unless it's Jules commanding them.” She sighed. “I miss Admiral London. He used to command this group. But he's been so busy on another project for the navy that he can no longer commit himself to the team. That's why I'm here. It's not easy, but Ava helps. Melissa and Jack Keiser are worth their weight in gold.” She nodded at Melissa, the pretty woman with dark hair who stood at the kitchen sink, her hands buried in soapy water.
“You should know that we really have need of you here, Sheridan.” Mrs.
Sharpe looked deeply into her eyes. “Jules especially needs your help.”
Sheridan frowned. “Why is that? He seems healthy enough.” Had she missed something before when healing him and sent him home still wounded? Or had Ricardo's drugs had long-lasting effects she hadn't considered?
“He recently returned to us from a mission that went very wrong. He was gone for a long time, and he suffered greatly.”
I know. I was there.
When Mrs. Sharpe frowned, Sheridan hastily pushed back from the table and her barely touched plate of food. “Well. I appreciate all the help.”
“Jules likes you.”
“Ah, okay.”
He’d like to screw me, maybe, and what does any of that have to do
with me working to help you?
“How shall I put this?” Mrs. Sharpe placed her hands together on the table in front of her. “The men are very physical. Quite bluntly, they're sexual creatures.
They work hard; they play hard. Circs are difficult at best when it comes to social situations, this group in particular.”
“I don't have any issues with anyone, but I'll be sure to let you know if I do.” Mrs. Sharpe gave her a look she couldn't decipher. “Wonderful. Then I'll let you get started on your work. The lab is downstairs, and the passcode into your office is one-one-three. We normally use the stairs, but there's a freight elevator down the hall and to the right you might need to use from time to time.” Mrs.
Sharpe checked the gold band on her wrist. “Will two hours be enough time before your first appointment?”
“Sure.” First appointment?
“Good. I'll send Olivia down at eleven. Might be easier to work with a woman before you take on the men. I'd like you to make sure she's all right. I can't put my finger on it, but I think something might be wrong with her lately.” Sheridan frowned. “What do you mean?” She hadn't sensed anything about Olivia that seemed off, other than her psychic sense. Then again, she'd been so focused on Jules, she might have missed something.
“You tell me. Oh, and when you're done inventorying our supplies, be sure to fill out the forms in the computer for whatever else you think you might need.” Sheridan swallowed. “Mrs. Sharpe, you know I'm not a doctor.”
“I know. I couldn't be more pleased you're not.”
“Why?”
“Because normal medicine won't help our Circs. Doc has a medical degree, yes, but he helped created the Circe serum. He's more a research man than a medical doctor, though he serves both purposes. I want you to help heal our Circs, to fix what's wrong with them when you can.”
“I can fix physical problems, but anything else is beyond me.”
“No worries, dear. Olivia handles our emotional traumas.”
Interesting. “Oh, I didn't know she was a psychologist. Or is it psychiatrist?”
“She's neither, and she's both.” With that, Mrs. Sharpe stood. “If you need me, I'll be in my office. There's a phone list downstairs as well. Ava can help you with most things, but I'm available to answer any questions you might have as well.” Sheridan rose, done eating. “I have one now, if you don't mind.”
“Yes?”
“Where is everyone?”
Mrs. Sharpe laughed. “The team is training. Physical exercise is usually a morning event, unless they're on a mission. Circs need to expend a lot of energy to avoid issues of aggression and dominance that can get overwhelming. Don't worry, you'll learn as you go. And remember, Sheridan, to ask as many questions as you need.”
Fine. How about you tell me if I can trust the lot of you farther than I can throw
you
? She wanted to yell out all the doubt and anguish bothering her. Instead, she smiled, nodded, and made her way downstairs.
She spent the next two hours familiarizing herself with the lab. To her surprise, Doc, the Circ expert everyone talked about, had left electronic files full of notes about Circ behavior and medical issues to be aware of. He'd also left his personal number to answer any questions the medical staff here might have.
“Staff.” She huffed.
A staff of one. I’m no doctor. “Healing hands,”
Jules had said. She sighed.
I hope I’m enough for these people. Even if they are a bunch of
crooks, they won’t have to suffer bruises, breaks, or poor health while I’m around.
Healing them won’t make me an accomplice
. She froze at the thought.
Will it?
Someone knocked on the door, and Sheridan glanced up at the clock. Eleven on the dot. “Come in.”
Olivia Fallon entered covered in sweat, her face flushed.
“Are you okay?” Sheridan asked, concerned.
“I'm sorry. We were training, and the time got away from us. I just wanted to come down and ask if you could wait until I showered.”
“Actually, this won't take that long if you want to do it now.”
“Oh, okay.”
Sheridan measured Olivia's height and weight, then seated her on the exam table and took her vitals. A crash course in human physiology during her stay with Grayson, after she'd left Raul and the jungle behind, gave her the edge she'd need to carry on with her new job.
“Everything appears normal,” she said after comparing Olivia's current readings to the last ones Doc Dennis had entered when he'd given Olivia a physical.
“Everything is normal. I don't know why Mrs. Sharpe insisted we all get checked out.”
The curiosity in the woman's eyes unnerved her. Though she did her best to mentally shield herself, Sheridan had no idea if it was working.
“So what's this alternative medicine you practice?” Olivia glanced around. “I don't see anything different than what was down here the last time I visited.” Sheridan tried to explain. “I'm not a doctor; I never claimed to be one. But I have a special way with the healing process.”
“Yeah?” Olivia rolled her neck, and Sheridan heard a small pop. “Oh, man, that feels better. Jesse tends to forget I haven't been doing this as long as he has.”
“Doing what?”
“Being Circ.” Olivia smiled. “So tell me about your process.” Sheridan stared, surprised at Olivia's open trust. She'd expected to have to convince the Circs to allow her to work on them. Yet Olivia seemed very open to alternative medicine.
From what Grayson had told her, the Circs had first come into being as a government experiment to create super soldiers, but the scientists running the project had screwed up. Now, few Circs remained, and those in the private sector trying to continue Circ research were hunted down and arrested and/or killed, depending upon who did the hunting. The handful of living Circs had been created years ago, thanks to the Circe serum. Most of the Circs still in existence were male.
Females tended to be extremely rare.
“Do you mind me asking how you transitioned into being a Circ? From what I know, you can't turn Circ from ingesting bodily fluids or sharing blood.”
“Nope,” Olivia answered. “Only EP12, the Circe serum, works. I'm still not sure how I am what I am. We think maybe my dad was infected a long time ago with the serum. I'm just glad I'm Circ, so I can be with Jesse.” Right. Because only a Circ could satisfy another Circ. Sexually.
Heating up at thoughts of satisfying Jules, Sheridan cleared her throat.
“Thanks for explaining. You wanted to know about my healing process. Well, believe it or not, I build up heat inside me. I put my hands on you, and it happens.
The heat grows, and the healing starts. It's hard to explain. More like a feeling I get to eradicate pain.”
Olivia nodded. “Show me.”
“Okay. Lie back.”
Olivia lay down on the large exam table big enough to fit a giant. Or a Circ, Sheridan realized, still coming to terms with the fact that the Circs actually knew about her gift and seemed to accept it as real.
It was a heady feeling to have her talent out in the open. For years she'd been forced to hide it, scared of being considered a freak or taken advantage of by those less moralistic than herself.
By people like Ricardo. But maybe I can put all that
behind me and start fresh.
She glanced down at Olivia and, for the first time, began to feel hope.
No time
like the present.
Sheridan held up her hands. “I'm going to touch you. A light stroking outward from the direction of your heart to your extremities. It's both physical and metaphysical. Some call it a lot of bunk, but it works for me. Bear with me, okay?” Olivia nodded.
“You're much more open to this than I would have expected.”
“Let's just say I try to keep an open mind about what most of the world considers 'bunk.'” But Olivia's smile said otherwise.
It was too much to expect Olivia to believe her without proof. But she'd see soon enough.
Sheridan didn't try to convince her of anything more. Instead, she trailed her hands over Olivia's shoulders, down her arms, and to her hands. After a few passes, she worked from the tops of Olivia's thighs to her ankles. The heat of normalcy, of good health, felt right. This was where Sheridan excelled.
This was where she felt at home.
“Hey, I think you're on to something there. I feel, I don't know, warmer.” Olivia sounded surprised. She experienced Sheridan's small trespass of healing. Not that Olivia needed much, just a refresher to tired muscles.
“Relax,” Sheridan advised. “I'm going to make a few more passes. One over your head, then one more over your torso, and we'll be done.” Except when Sheridan passed a hand over Olivia's head, she felt a strong burst of heat. A mass of energy that pulsed with a strange paranormal power that nearly rocked her back on her heels.
“You okay?” Olivia asked.
Sheridan shook her head to clear it. “Fine, fine. Must have locked my knees. I just felt a moment of dizziness.”
Idiot. The woman’s some kind of psychic
. She'd felt that same intensity yesterday, when she was in the room with everyone.
But was it
a Circ trait? Were all these people gifted
? Sheridan quickly bypassed Olivia's temples and breezed over her face and neck. A light touch over Olivia's chest and abdomen proved Olivia to be in remarkable health. So strong, so sure. So
Circ
.
Sheridan found the contrast between a normal human's energy and Circ energy fascinating. Still, Olivia didn't jolt her libido the way Jules had, nor did the woman return the energy Sheridan slowly expended while touching her.
Sheridan cleared her throat, suddenly feeling awkward. “Sorry if my touch feels intrusive. I'm not trying to be fresh.”
Olivia chuckled. “Keep going. This actually feels good.” Sheridan smiled, feeling more secure. This was child's play, stuff she'd been building on and improving on since she was a little girl. She knew how to heal, how to stimulate a body's own energy to repair itself. Using her gift both drained her and thrilled her. She moved her hands to Olivia's stomach.
And then she felt a flutter in Olivia's energy. She paused, instinctively tuned in to the odd vibration that shouldn't have been there.
“What's wrong?” Olivia asked. “You seem worried.”
“Not worried, just interested.” Sheridan cocked her head, trying to make sense of what she felt.
Jesse Fallon burst through the door not a minute later. “What's wrong?”
“Shush, I can't… Wait a minute.” Sheridan pressed her fingers down onto Olivia's belly, but she didn't push hard. She rubbed the pads of her fingers in a circle, needing to feel more. “Olivia, I need to see something. Your energy is different. Hold on.” She pushed Olivia's shirt up to bare her midriff, then let her fingers dance over the woman's lower abdomen.
“What the hell, Fallon? You left me high and dry back there,” Tersch's loud voice barked from the doorway.
Sheridan had a hard time thinking of him as
Gunnar. Tersch
sounded like
terse
. Just like the man.
“Oh, wow. What's this? Girl-on-girl action?”
“Shut up, Gunnar. Something's wrong,” Olivia snapped.
“What? What's wrong?” Jesse growled. “Sheridan, talk.”
“Nothing's wrong.” Sheridan let the power of her energy soak through Olivia, warming the new life just beginning. “Something's very, very right.” She stepped back and rubbed her hands together to ease the tingling.
Jesse nudged past her and pulled Olivia into a sitting position. “What's wrong with my wife?” he growled.
Sheridan glanced from them to Tersch, not sure whether to tell them all or to keep the news in private, for Olivia at least. It was Olivia's exam, after all, and Olivia's body that would feel those changes for the next eight months.
Jesse paled.
Is he reading my thoughts
? “Um, I would tell you this in private, but you seem to be a family, so maybe I could just—”
“Spit it out, Doc.” Tersch's command brooked no refusal.
When Olivia nodded as well, Sheridan gave in and smiled. “Congratulations, Olivia. You're going to become a mother in another eight months or thereabouts.”
Jesse's eyes grew as round as saucers, and his grin stretched from ear to ear.
Olivia's mouth dropped open. Tersch blinked in amazement, then frowned in what looked like disbelief.
“Olivia, to verify your pregnancy, I'd like you to take this.” Sheridan dug through a nearby drawer for the pregnancy test she'd seen earlier. Someone had been thinking of a future for the Circs, apparently. “I believe the bathroom is that way.”
Jesse didn't speak. Sheridan had a feeling she'd blindsided him.
Olivia squealed, jumped off the table, and grabbed the box from Sheridan's hands. She turned and kissed Jesse on the mouth before hightailing it into the bathroom.