by Dani Hermit
“No, I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. We don’t know how deep he is and with my relationship with Colton,” Matt shrugged. “I just didn’t want to put anyone in danger.”
“Yeah, I guess. But this waiting is killing me.” Syd said. “And suddenly having my powers back is not helping.”
“That was what started all this.” Matt explained to her about his powers coming back online and going to see Colton about it.
“It took something that big for you to finally go see him?” Syd shook her head. “You are such a coward.”
“Fuck you.” Matt snapped. He couldn’t argue. She wasn’t wrong about him, but he didn’t like hearing it said out loud.
“Just saying,” Syd shrugged. “You refused to date, refused to even entertain more than the occasional hook-up and I’m actually not sure how much of that was even the truth. Everything in your life was on hold waiting for Colton to get back in it. And you had to fucking know that you could have called him up, showed up at his door any time and he’d have let you in no questions asked.”
“I know that now,” Matt replied through gritted teeth.
He turned away from their target practice when he heard the door to the ambulance slam. Thomas rushed out of it and bolted for the rental car. Matt didn’t get a good look at his face, but he seemed to be really upset.
“What the fuck is going on over there?” He started walking away from Syd. When he looked at the open back door, he was surprised to see that Boris was no longer sitting in his chair.
“If you’re going to lurk there, at least have the decency to bring me a fresh beer.”
Boris half turned to the figure in the doorway, lifting his empty beer bottle. Thomas had gone into the ambulance and Matt was outside with Syd, leaving him alone with the deeply sleeping Colton. He had thought he would have some time to himself, to sort out his thoughts and feelings, but it seemed that Syd’s young girlfriend, Vanessa, had other plans. Hopefully this time, he would escape her manhandling.
“I can make you something stronger.” Nessie stepped forward, wearing more clothes than the last time he saw her.
Her pigtails were reset in a long side ponytail and she wore what passed for a bartender’s outfit. Dark rose colored short shorts, a cute pink sleeveless shirt, and a bow tie that looked suspiciously like one of Colton’s. Her bared arms looked to be tattooed with scales intermixed with actual scales. Her smile was warm.
“Don’t worry. I’m under control, at least for a while. Not even a little horny.” Her smile wavered. “As long at that lasts. I was hoping to pick your brain.”
“Then I’ll stick with beer,” Boris replied.
He stood reluctantly. There was nothing he could do for Curtis perching in the doorway. Not that he was even certain he wanted to do anything for him. Talking to the young girl was a good distraction from his tangled thoughts. Might even give him a chance to let them settle themselves so he had a clear picture of what was going on.
“What do you need?” Boris walked with her into the bar to get himself a bottle from the cooler. He didn’t linger, leading her back to the room where he could at least keep a peripheral eye on Colton.
“You were Cat Fight for like eight years before you burnt out.” Nessie’s eyes were bright and full of hope. “I’ve only been Wavelength for three. When did you breakaway and get a hold of it? How did you do it?” She leaned on the back of a chair, not even completely aware of how provocatively she was standing as her tail twitched in the air.
Her question would have been vague to anyone who wasn’t a Transformed Chosen. She was asking how to control the sexual needs that went with the transformation. “I don’t know if I can help you with that. I was Cat Fight for over a decade, three years past when they said I burned out. I never had control.”
Boris couldn’t meet her gaze as he spoke. This was different than talking to the other guys. He’d been able to allude to what happened to him but none of them really understood. Vanessa might. Especially since she had been labeled a Villain like him.
“The Priests had these pills they used, and the best I could do was not Transform. I might have burned out sooner had I not been so reluctant to change.”
Nessie raised her hand to her mouth considering Boris’s words. “How awful. I can imagine what those last three years were like, considering what I’ve been through since I became Wavelength. Had they started the injections yet?”
“They were still experimental, and they wanted to use what they knew worked on me.” Boris sighed. “The best you can do is not--” He stopped and looked at Nessie directly for the first time. “Fuck. You’re stuck, aren’t you?”
“It happened during the Silence,” she said, referring to the Necromancer’s attack that stole everyone’s powers. “As far as I can tell, this is me for the rest of my life. I was two years into the injection program. Before this, I had only been trapped in this form for ten consecutive days, at most.” The sea dragon girl just assumed Boris had been through similar experiments. She stared at him hard. “But I’m starting to think you’re horrified at the thought of being transformed anywhere near that long.”
“Three days nearly drove me mad,” Boris told her, shocked at the endurance she must have had to go for ten days. “After they got me healed from what I did to myself, that was when they started me on the memory wipe pills. But they never left me in my other form for that long again. What the hell is the point of forcing you to do that? There’s no reason to keep you transformed once they’re done fucking you.”
At one point not that long ago, Vanessa would have died of embarrassment at how easily Wavelength explained it. But now that she was trapped as her horny alter-ego, she was getting used to a lot of things that would have been mortifying before.
“Ten days is only for special occasions. When we were needed for multiple guests and you need to treat each one with as much enthusiasm as the last.” She explained slowly, not sure how much Boris would understand and what she would need to expound on.
“Also,” Nessie continued after a moment’s pause. “When you pass 48 hours on the injections you can shift to be the guest’s ideal. Different breast size. Tighter pussy. Purple eyes. It also messes with your energy abilities, lets you change what you’re wearing to suit the physical changes. They sell us as fantasies as soon as we can withstand the new drugs.”
She ran a hand down her body. “But my power went wonky after the Silence. Like, when I put this on, it was a big cozy sweatshirt and jeans. By the time I got down the stairs, it became this.”
Boris was staring at her in horror. “Dear god.” He shook his head. “I didn’t think it could get worse than what I went through. But they’re training you kids from the start to whore yourselves out? Christ, I’m starting to think that Blue Bolt brat has the right idea.”
“Yeah, well, Leo did have some great ideas. But his timing couldn’t have been worse.” Nessie moved closer to Boris taking her chair with her. “Can I tell you something even Nate’s mom and dad don’t know? Every single one of us in his inner circle got hurt that day. Jammer’s messed up too.”
“No shit?” Boris tried to keep up with her, but his mind was spinning from what he’d learned about how bad it had gotten for the Transformed Chosen. “I would have thought he wanted to keep the lot of you safe.”
“I was supposed to go with Jammer. Meet up with Leo and help him achieve his bigger plans. Which I only kind of understand.” Nessie grabbed Boris’s beer bottle and took a sip. “Ugh, why did I do that? It never tastes better. I think maybe Leo got caught up with some bad people and is making awful mistakes. He used to be so sweet.”
“Why didn’t you go?” Boris asked, ignoring his pilfered beer.
“I don’t believe in him anymore. I don’t want him hurt but I just don’t have the faith in him I did. People weren’t supposed to get hurt.” Nessie started running her hands up and down her thighs and had to fight to keep them still.
“It helps you know, if y
ou can get an addiction that overrides it.” Nessie kept talking. “Nate would help me by shaking up my power with his but I’d always need candy, like sugar sticks and stuff, right away. It doesn’t work so great now. But if Cat Fight starts to go off for longer periods of time, you might be able to calm him down if you have a similar focus. Cookies, maybe. Also a fixation on a certain person, you know? Like being in love.”
Nessie was crawling in Boris’s lap now. She laughed seductively. “Look at that. I’m the one giving the legend advice. I must be really smart.” The hybrid girl truly could not help herself.
“That isn’t…” Boris trailed off, gently removing her from his lap and standing to pace. “I don’t want to be the one to encourage this but…” He looked at the twitching girl and sighed. “That guy out there, Curtis. He’s a horrifyingly degenerate junkie. Or at least he was, last night’s episode aside. He was clean when we fought him yesterday. Completely. Your friend gave him something that helped. Killed his craving.”
Boris stopped pacing and let Nessie get close before he voiced his suggestion. “Can he do the same for you? Give you something to control your urges?”
“I don’t know.” Nessie put both arms around his neck. She seemed a little crazed. “But don’t you like me? Am I not doing something right? What do you need me to be?” She looked terrified. “Please, let me try to please you. Don’t let them take me away.”
“Vanessa,” Boris said gently, petting the girl’s head with one hand and pulling her arms off him with the other. “If I had more than a passing interest in women, you’d still be a bit young to be tempting. But it’s fine. No one is going to take you away. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. And that includes me.” Boris lead her to a chair. “How about you sit here and wait for Syd? I’ll get her.”
Before he could even turn away to go call for the girl’s lover, he heard the slamming of the ambulance door, quickly followed by Matt’s angry voice.
“Fuck,” Boris swore, trying to get the girl to let go of him. “What are they breaking this time?”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Matt rounded the corner of the ambulance and almost kept going to confront Thomas about what had happened to upset him. But the rage boiling under his skin meant that interaction would be doomed from the start. Turning to say something to Syd, Matt was surprised to see that she was gone. Back inside already, presumably. He was on his own.
“Fuck,” he swore under his breath. It was probably safe to assume that Thomas wasn’t able to get anything of value out of their hostage. So Matt going in to work him over would be the next logical step.
Pulling the door open and hopping inside, Matt looked at what was left for him. There were what looked like burns on Curtis’s face and chest. Everything was wet. There were ice chunks still melting on the gurney.
“Looks like he wasn’t kidding when he said he was going to warm you up for me,” Matt said to Curtis, standing over him.
Curtis had hoped for a break, a little time to collect himself and be as uncooperative as possible. Not to mention work on an escape plan. There was no way he could use and reflect Thomas’s attacks. They came too fast and too painfully. Thankfully, Thomas seemed to have a conflict of conscience before the bone breaking he’d threatened had started. Still, Curtis’s body felt a hundred times worse than the most horrible sunburn he had ever gotten. He wasn’t ready for round two.
What he might be ready for was being clever. He might be able to convince Matt to let him be. Or Curtis might end up convincing him to kill him quickly. Either way, this would be over soon.
“Warm might be the wrong word. But effective. There’s really no need to ask me anything further. Did you not see him run from the things I told him? You should catch up with him. See what’s on his mind.”
“I’m not his therapist. He’s got someone for that.” Matt sat down on the narrow bench across from the gurney. “But we’re not here to talk about Thomas getting his rocks off with that damned cat, are we?”
“Oh, ah, I guess not.”
Curtis was still trying to understand what exactly was going on with Thomas and Boris and what it was doing to his emotions. He definitely needed to stop feeling jealous. He had Leo or at least he meant something to Leo. More than he’d ever meant to Bori. Though Bori had saved him from the overdose and it had seemed like he cared, he had left him to that monster Thomas. Who was also his boyfriend or something.
“I don’t suppose you’re the good cop?”
“You better hope not,” Matt said, playing with a small ball of flame between his fingers. “Because I sure as fuck wouldn’t want to meet the bad cop.” He dropped the quarter sized flame onto Curtis’s bared chest, watching it sizzle out on the wet skin. “Now, let’s start with the guy calling himself the Necromancer. Tell me about him.”
Everything about Matt told Curtis he needed to listen to all of his best survival instincts. Which would be fine if his emotions weren’t a horrible tangle and he wasn’t even sure if he had drugs in his system or if he was fuzzy-headed from pain.
“He’s about 5 foot one, maybe two. I don’t know. I’m not good with heights and he’s always wearing those fuck-me boots with like six inch heels. Oh, he likes antiques and quiet walks on the beach. Do you want to swipe right or left?”
Maybe it was the wrong way to go. Curtis would know soon enough. For some reason he didn’t want Matt to see he was afraid. Actually, he was terrified to let Matt know he was afraid. But a smart mouth he might find amusing. He might just keep up a battle of wits. And there was one thing Curtis knew about Matt, something that might clear his rage.
“Oh and you both have the same taste in men. Different ideas of how to romance them, obviously.” Colton’s life at stake might make his would be tormentor just a little gun shy.
“Not so different, really,” Matt let another couple of fireballs drop onto Curtis. “If we decide to let you live, you’ll have to let your friend know that his little pet Mythos likes my cock better.” Matt smirked and started making tiny sparks of fire in one palm, flicking them at Curtis with two fingers. “But I don’t care much about what he looks like. I want to know what he wants. There’s a lot of chatter on the internet about him. How much of it is true and how much is crazy cult gibberish?”
It could be worse. The sparks were minimal pain. The small fireballs had to compete with Thomas’s subzero amplification cocktail. Curtis squeezed his eyes shut tight, wishing he could do anything to calm his inner freak. Or just use a hand to subtly cover his erection. Now was not the fucking time for his body to notice how hot Matt was or how exciting his casual power was. Because both were also potentially deadly. His dilemma left him unclear of how to answer Matt’s question.
“What he wants? I don’t exactly know. For the world to make more sense, I guess.”
“Wouldn’t we all like that?” Matt started making larger sparks to flick at Curtis. “But not all of us defy the rules of existence for it. How’d that happen, by the way? Didn’t think anyone could just take away powers, let alone everyone’s all at once.”
“Yeah, it’s a hell of a superpower.” Curtis wasn’t liking the heat coming off the bigger sparks as they hit his chest, getting closer to his face every time. “But what can I really tell you about that? You saw him reawaken Mythos. You know what he did that fateful day. Have you considered I’m more of a foot soldier than an inside man?”
“You like what he does,” Matt stated, flicking a spark at Curtis’s erection.
He was having a bit of a problem himself. Curtis was obviously a submissive and with the changes to his relationship with Colton, Matt was feeling more like a dominant than he ever had. Just the idea that he could make this man submit to him was distracting. He was almost certain that he wouldn’t act on it, especially in anger, but Matt didn’t like that he was even considering it.
“No way you haven't been tied to the cult leader’s headboard and lead around on a leash. People in that position hear
things, know things. So might I recommend that you talk before I get bored and do something drastic.”
There it was again. Matt fucking knew he was doing it. The heat of the spark travelling all the way down Curtis’s erection was making his brain feel like it was on the edge of short-circuiting. He took a moment to find his words. “Not the way you think. I think he’s saving that for someone special. Your mutual someone special. You want a piece of info, here’s one. He knows how to bring someone to his side. He could get you too, if he wanted. I mean, he’s got your son and he’s after your lover... Huh. Maybe he does want you, after all.”
“Yeah, about my son,” Matt angrily flicked a large spark at Curtis’s face. “HOW does he have him? Never mind that. You probably don’t know. Or won’t tell me. And I might burn off something important if you start telling me sordid details of what goes on in that sex cult you’ve got there.”
“Not really a sex cult.” Curtis shuddered as the spark hit his face. “More like a belonging place. And your son, hate to break it to you, has been Team Leo all along.” If he wasn’t tied down, Curtis would have slapped himself. Why was he baiting Matt? Things were not suddenly going to turn into a fun but intense porno. “God, I need my high so bad. I can’t focus.”
“You got enough drugs in you last night to last a week.” Matt stuck his finger into the spark he was forming, turning it into a tiny torch on the end of his finger. He ran it down Curtis’s chest, just touching the skin. “No more for you until you give me what I want. And so far, your information has been lacking.” Matt jabbed into Curtis’s side, pressing the flame into his skin.
“What is with you people and burning me?” Curtis’s whole body shivered. “I’m beginning to think you’re enjoying this. I think you want to hurt me no matter what I say or don’t say. At least I gave you a fair fight. I mean, I like destroyed you. But I still gave you a fair fight. And when I had Mythos, I made him as comfortable as I could.”