“I always knew I would be, but it wasn’t like a goal so much as an inevitability. The family legacy.”
“But what did you say when people asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up?”
“I told them I was going to be a vet.”
Mirage blinked, levering herself up so she could see his face. “Seriously? Healing kittens and stuff?”
“My parents told me I couldn’t have a dog unless I could take care of it. I thought that meant I had to become a vet to have a dog.” He shrugged. “I was six.” The more she heard about his childhood, the more she ached for the lonely little boy he’d been, so desperate for companionship. She dropped a kiss on his chest before resting her head there and resuming her doodling. Julian hugged her to him briefly and went back to playing with her hair. “What about you? What did you want to grow up to be?”
“I never really thought about it,” she admitted. “When I was really little, I wanted to be a ballerina or a princess. Pretty standard, I guess. Then, after my mother died and my dad…changed, I stopped thinking about the future. I still don’t, I guess.”
“But you went to college—”
“Because Lucien would have flipped his shit if I hadn’t.” Her memories came easily, so clear now, so sharply defined it was becoming hard to remember just how broken she’d been.
“What were you majoring in?”
“Technically I was undecided, but all my classes were political science. Like that would ever pan out. Who would let a Mind Bender run for office? They’d put me back in Area Nine first.”
“Then why Poly Sci?”
“Because…” She blushed, wanting to tell him, but embarrassed to admit the truth. To him of all people. “Because I wanted justice.”
She felt his surprise in the subtle tensing of his body. “Justice?”
“I know. I’m the villain girl, right? I’m supposed to want chaos and destruction and all that crap, but justice, that was how Kevin got me. My father isn’t a bad guy, but he will never get a fair trial because of his compulsion abilities. Rapists, serial killers—they get a jury of their peers, but a scientist with one scary power is labeled a threat to national security and locked away because of his assumed guilt. I hated that. I hated the way superheroes were celebrated like gods for every life they saved, but never taken to task for their failures. No one ever admitted that my mother died because a superhero made a really shitty call that day. He screwed up and no one cared. They were too busy giving him the keys to the city because he managed to save some of the victims. I just wanted a chance to make that right. And now I’m wanted by the authorities and I’ll never be able to convince anyone of anything.”
“You won’t be wanted forever. We’ll fix this.”
She wanted to believe him. Her fractured psyche was mending, but her life was still as broken as ever. What kind of future could she really have? And would her mind just fall to pieces again as soon as she was separated from Julian? She couldn’t stay glued to his side forever. He’d already given her weeks of his life. Who knew what she’d been taking him away from?
“Do you have a day job? Or other heroic duties I’m keeping you from performing?” She knew from Darla that most heroes had jobs to pay the bills, given that hero work paid jack shit most days. Darla consulted with Trident on super-tech. The Nightwing family had massive manufacturing interests. But she’d never heard Captain Justice mentioned in a non-hero capacity.
“I inherited well,” he said with just a shadow of self-mockery, as if having money handed down to him was something to be ashamed of. “I’m also on retainer with the local authorities as an interrogation aide, but being the human lie detector isn’t urgent work. There’s nowhere else I need to be and nowhere I would rather be than here with you.”
How did he manage to make something so sappy sound so masculine? If any other man had said those words, she would have rolled her eyes and rolled away as fast as she could. But with Julian, the mushy stuff made her insteps melt.
She crawled up his body to press a sweet, uncomplicated kiss on his lips, but as with all things with them, it didn’t stay simple for long. Julian cupped the back of her head, Mirage tensed her nails in the pads of his shoulders, and then she was on her back and he was sliding high inside her where she was already slick and wet and there was only a slight twinge of an ache because they’d been doing this rather a lot the last few days and her body was having a hard time keeping up. Then he reached between them, thrummed her clit with his thumb and she was keeping up just fine.
“How does that feel?” he rasped against her ear. “And be honest. I’ll know if you’re lying.”
Her laugh broke into a gasp as he hit that sweet spot inside her. She was already primed and he took her up fast, his blue eyes piercing into her deepest corners, his expression so raw, so fierce and strong, this man who would fight any battle for her. And if that wasn’t an aphrodisiac, she didn’t know what was. He laced his fingers through hers, pressing their joined hands into the mattress and she gave herself up to sensation. The tight, coiling sweetness in her core, the tension, the ache, then the hard wrench of release hitting and suddenly she was coming apart in the best possible way. Not shattered like a broken mirror, but spinning off and reforming, like each new tremor took her closer to whole again. Until it was hard to remember any feeling beyond this perfect completion and any sight other than gorgeous blue eyes following her into sleep.
* * * * * * * * * *
Mirage jerked, coming awake with a start, and Julian’s arms were already there, soothing her, holding her, the memory of the dream already fading. It had been Kevin again, but this time he’d sounded so reasonable. So sane. She’d liked him. That was almost as frightening as the hate. Had it always been his mind games, or at some point had she liked him for real?
Had part of her liked the idea of letting him shape her? Decide things for her? Wasn’t that exactly what she was doing with Julian?
She twisted in Julian’s arms, needing to reassure herself that she wasn’t making the same mistake she had with Kevin, only to realize he hadn’t even woken up, just comforted her automatically in his sleep. He didn’t even need to be conscious to give her what she needed. That was good, wasn’t it? So why did it make her lungs seize, panic spiking down her throat?
Mirage extracted herself from his arms and slipped out of bed, quickly pulling on clothes to give herself some mental distance from the shag-fest of the last few days. They’d both been insatiable, but was alternating between reclaiming her memories and building new ones of Julian’s body really what she needed to be doing right now?
She padded to the kitchen and cracked open the fridge. They were running low on provisions. In the next couple days, Julian would have to go out to get more. He’d have to leave her alone. Would she backslide without his constant presence? She’d never thought of herself as the kind of girl who welcomed dependence, so why had she let that happen with Kevin and now again with Julian? Was she really so afraid of standing on her own two feet?
She grabbed a slice of cheese, nibbling on it as she wandered to the front door. She could leave. Slip out in the night and Julian would never find her. But that complete independence wasn’t what she wanted either.
She liked Julian. More than liked him. She trusted him totally, but was that stupid? Was she just setting herself up to let another man define who she was? Define her truth for her? Would he remake her into his own image—the virtuous, righteous hero so opposite to who she was? She didn’t want to be saved like that, but Julian was the only person who had seen past her crazy, shattered surface to prove there was still something left underneath. He’d helped her find herself again. Hadn’t he? Or had he just helped her find the person he wanted her to be?
God, why couldn’t the answers be easy?
She stared at the front door. She could go. Nothing was stopping her. But would the distance that could give her clarity on the Julian situation suck away all the memories she had recl
aimed with him? Would she relapse?
The truth was none of those questions mattered. She wanted to stay with Julian. Wanted it so badly it scared the ever-loving shit out of her. What kind of long-term prospects did the pair of them really have? Sure, he was shagging her senseless at every opportunity, but that didn’t mean he would’ve taken her home to meet his parents…if his parents had still been around.
She wished she could talk to Lucien. Like they used to, before he thought she was nuts, but even when he called now it was always careful and distant, checking on her status but never really connecting with her.
She wanted to hear from him so badly, when the phone began to ring she almost thought it was a figment of her imagination. Then she heard Julian call her name from the bedroom and the creak of the bedsprings. He came out of the bedroom as she reached the phone he’d gotten from Trident. She picked it up and grimaced when she saw the caller ID. Kim Carruthers.
Had she been calling the entire time she and Julian were holed up here? Just how over was their relationship?
Mirage tossed the phone to Julian—or, more accurately, chucked it at his head, but he caught it easily even though he still looked half-asleep, hair flopping over one eye, jeans half-buttoned. The man had no right to look so edible when she was jealous and confused and trying to work up the gumption to walk out the door. He frowned when he read the caller ID, but connected the call in a damn hurry that made Mirage’s back teeth grate together.
“Kim? How did you get this number?”
At least he sounded annoyed rather than lovey-dovey. Then Julian’s why-the-fuck-are-you-calling-me-here expression flickered through momentary confusion on its way to the righteously pissed determination of a hero on the job. His head snapped up, his gaze pinning Mirage to the spot, almost accusing. What the fuck had her subconscious done without her permission this time?
But when he spoke, it wasn’t to her. The darkly ominous growl was aimed at the threat on the phone. “Dr. Wroth. What an unexpected surprise.”
Mirage felt the blood drain from her face. Oh shit. Her father was back.
Chapter Sixteen: The Demon You Know
“He won’t hurt them. I know it.”
Julian whipped the car around another tight hairpin turn. “You know it? That’s funny because he flat out told me he would kill them if I didn’t hand you over to him in—” he flicked a look at the clock on the dash, “—seventeen minutes.”
“He was bluffing! You said yourself the truth-sensing thing doesn’t work over the phone.”
“Mirage. He’s your father and I know you love him, but a man doesn’t get a reputation as a ruthless killer because he’s misunderstood.” Barely tapping the brakes, he swung the car around another corner and Mirage grabbed for the dash as G-forces threw her into the door.
She was grateful the canyon road was abandoned at this hour of the night as they sped through the twists and turns so fast the wheels skidded sideways and the side of the car bumped against the guardrail. Mirage had never thought to see Justice racing through the night with such reckless haste, but Kim was in danger and apparently that changed everything.
She squashed the bitter pang of jealousy. He didn’t necessarily care more about Kim than he did about her. Justice was a hero. He’d be this much of a hero for anyone. They were still a solid fifteen minutes out from her father’s valley lair. And it wasn’t just Kim who’d been threatened. Her father had apparently kidnapped Eisenmann as well.
But still, it was hard not to be irritated when the slightest threat against Kim Carruthers had triggered a shoot-first-ask-questions-later reaction from Justice when it came to her father.
”It is a misunderstanding. He’s never killed anyone.”
“Not for lack of trying! Dammit, Mirage. He’s the enemy. If you can’t stay on task, I will tie you up and leave you in the car while I save Kim and Eisenmann.”
“Don’t even think about it,” she snapped, starting to wonder what she’d ever seen in the pompous, overbearing ass in the driver’s seat. “He thinks you’ve been holding me against my will. That’s the only reason he kidnapped Kim and Eisenmann—for leverage to get me back. If I’m not in there telling him everything is fine and dandy, there’s no telling what he’ll do.”
“You just said he wasn’t a threat and now there’s no telling what he’ll do?”
“Stop twisting everything I say! He’s my father. He’s just trying to protect me.”
“By kidnapping two people. I can’t believe I let this happen.”
“Is that some hero thing? Like you are personally responsible for everything that happens in the city, ever?”
“If I hadn’t been distracted by you, this never would have happened.”
“Well, excuse me for being such a distraction.”
“That wasn’t how I meant it. I’m sure you didn’t mean to be a decoy for whatever your father has planned.”
“You asshole.”
“What?”
“Just shut up. Before you say anything else to make me regret ever liking you.”
His head snapped around and the car swerved. He corrected, jerking them back into the lane with a skid of tires. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean? I’m not blaming you for anything.”
“How magnanimous of you.”
“This isn’t about us.”
“The fuck it isn’t. If you honestly think you can go after my father with guns blazing and it won’t have any impact on us, you are out of your fucking mind.”
“I didn’t say anything about guns blazing.”
“No, you were just thinking it really loudly.”
“I will protect you from him, whatever it takes. He’s dangerous.”
“Not to me. I know him. He’s a pacifist. Yes, he’s a little unstable, but there isn’t a violent bone in his body.”
“Is that why he blew up the VanderCo factory?”
“At night. Not even the security guards were injured.”
“So detonating the building isn’t violent?”
“They were making weapons.”
“For the government.”
“And anyone else who paid for them! The executives were all arrested for arms dealing three years later. My father would’ve been a hero if he’d had better timing.”
“A hero? What about when he tried to poison an entire city?”
Mirage ground her molars at the familiar argument. “It wasn’t poison.”
“He admitted it.”
“He calls it poison. It’s some kind of Ribonucleic-whatsit with the acronym R.A.T. so he started calling it Rat Poison. I told you he wasn’t all there. He’s always been different, but when my mom was killed, he went to a pretty extreme place, philosophically. The press used his writings to condemn him as an anarchist in the court of public opinion and then he admitted to trying to put poison in the water supply, so yeah, I can see how it looks bad, but he’s not violent, Julian. I swear it.”
“So what does this Rat Poison do?”
“I’m not a scientist. I don’t understand ninety-percent of what he tells me, but I know it activates some latent thingy in your DNA and triggers the development of superpowers. He tested it on himself, then gave it to both Lucien and me when we were kids.”
Julian jerked, the car swinging into the other lane briefly. “That’s why your powers developed so early? He accelerated them?”
“We weren’t super by birth, Julian. I wouldn’t have powers at all if my father hadn’t stepped in and given nature a hand.”
“Jesus, what kind of father—”
“Don’t go there, Julian. He wanted us to be able to defend ourselves. So we never had to rely on the whim of a superhero to save us like they failed to save our mother. My powers have saved my life a dozen times over. I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t done what he did and he gave it to himself first. How do you think he became a Mind Bender?”
That seemed to get him thinking. Thank God. It was about time he stopped reacting
and gave his brain a chance to do its job. “Even if he isn’t violent,” he conceded reluctantly, “he’s still a master Mind Bender. We need a strategy to bring him in. Do you think I’ll be immune to his gift as I am to yours?”
“I don’t know, but…” She wasn’t sure she could do it. Plot with Julian to defeat her father. It just felt so wrong.
“But what?”
In the end it was the knowledge that she might be able to help her father if she could get Justice to trust her that decided her. “I’m stronger than he is now. I surpassed him a few years ago and with this new power jump, I’m sure I can roll him without even trying. Let me put him under an illusion. You can get Kim and Eisenmann out and no one has to get hurt.”
“That’s exactly what I was planning.”
Her head snapped around to stare at his profile as he never took his eyes off the road. “Really?”
“He’s your father, Mirage. I wouldn’t hurt him if I could possibly avoid it. Give me a little credit.”
Mirage blinked, suddenly wondering if she was the one who’d flown off half-cocked, convinced Justice was going to try to hurt her father just because he was a villain. They swung around another turn and Mirage sat up straighter as the partially hidden lane appeared ahead. “There. That’s the turn.”
Justice’s mouth set with grim, heroic determination as he slowed to take the drive. He was in his element. Rushing off to save the day seemed to bring out the purest, sharpest version of him. If only it wasn’t so attractive. If only something about his derring-do didn’t turn her crank big time. The last thing she needed right now was to be falling for a hero. Because if tonight had taught her anything, it was that heroes and villains didn’t mix.
* * * * * * * * * *
Julian had snuck into a supervillain lair or two in his time, but never with another, not-necessarily-reformed villain at his side who also happened to be the daughter of the supervillain in question. His life had gotten a lot more complicated since he met Mirage.
The valley lair was really some kind of rundown rustic lodge tucked back in a canyon. Isolated and unsophisticated. It looked like the kind of place that didn’t even have indoor plumbing, which didn’t gel with his image of Demon Wroth’s lair at all. Where was the lab? Where were the sterile surfaces and high-tech defense systems?
Super Bad (a Superlovin' novella) Page 11