by A. J. Menden
“I see how it is. You’re going to show up anytime you feel like…meditating.”
He smiled at the old joke. “No, I thought I’d stay here, actually. Unless you don’t want me to,” he said quickly, reacting to the shock on my face. “If you think I’d be too much of a distraction…”
I shut him up with a big kiss.
We were just warming up when I heard raised voices in the hallway, followed by a loud pounding on the door.
“It isn’t your place to say!” That was Toby.
“Lainey!” I heard Simon’s wrathful voice, and then, “Open up!”
“What the hell is going on?” Wesley asked.
“I don’t know. I’ll take care of it.” I got up and slipped a robe over myself.
“That sounds like Simon, and it had better not be him.”
I gave Wesley a warning look and opened the door a crack. “Hello?”
Simon tried to shove the door open but I caught it and held it firm.
“Why the hell are you in here?” Simon’s blue eyes were flames of anger. “You’re supposed to be watching the monitors!”
“Simon, it’s…” I leaned back to look at the clock. “Three in the morning?” Wow. Time really does fly when you’re having fun. A lot of fun. “Why are you pounding on my door at three in the morning?” Now I was angry.
“We got back an hour ago,” Toby said. “It was a mess we straightened out pretty fast, but there was all of this red tape to sort through.”
“Literally?”
“No, not literally,” Simon growled. “We just got back and found you not at your post.”
“You are not team leader, and this isn’t for you to say, Simon,” Toby said. “And everyone knows monitor duty is a busywork exercise. You once blew it off to go to a movie premiere, for God’s sake!”
“We may have needed her!” Simon said.
“I was tired,” I lied. Not too much of a lie; it was three in the morning and now I was tired. “I was falling asleep at the desk. If it had been something serious, all the alarms would have gone off and woken me up. I set them up to alert me in here if I was needed.” My excuse sounded weak, even to my ears.
“Oh, you were falling asleep, huh? You were surfing online!”
“Simon, you know Rath’s not going to care. Why are you making such a big deal out of this?”
“Yeah, Rath’s not going to care. He doesn’t dare say anything because she’s screwing his old man!” Simon snarled. I cringed, hearing movement behind me.
“You’re just pissed because I’m not screwing you!” I retorted, waving behind the door for Wesley to stay put. If he hadn’t been ready to kill Simon before, he sure would be now. “And Toby’s right, it’s not your place to be lecturing me because you’re not the boss and you never will be!”
“You’re wrong about that,” Simon said, getting too close for my taste. “I will be team leader one day, when Rath retires, and then what I say goes. And letting some washed up has-been use you won’t carry clout anymore. And for the record, I’m not like the Reincarnist; I don’t like fat girls, so get over yourself.”
The door was yanked open behind me, causing me to stumble, and Wesley punched Simon. As Toby and I stared, Simon dropped like a sack of potatoes, unconscious.
“Damn!” Toby breathed.
“Oh, my God, Wes, you knocked him out with one punch!” I said. “That is so freaking cool!”
“He needed to be taught manners long ago,” Wesley said, leaning against the doorframe. He’d never looked hotter to me than he did just then. The thoughts I was having would guarantee that I’d never sleep that night.
“How have you been, Toby?” Wesley asked, as if we weren’t standing in the hallway after a fight. Or a knockout, really. It hadn’t been much of a fight.
“Great, sir. Good to see you again. Did you come to visit Lainey, or are you staying?”
“I’m staying, but let’s not say anything to anyone to night,” Wesley said. “I want to talk to Ben about it in the morning. And about Simon’s attitude problem.”
“Sure. No problem. Lainey, I’ll take care of the coffee orders in the morning—don’t worry about it,” Toby said, giving me a wink. “Have a nice night, you two.” He slung Simon over his shoulder and carried him off.
Wesley shut the door. “Coffee orders?”
I blushed. “I get coffee from downstairs for everyone in the mornings.”
“I see. So, what is it you do around here? You do correspondence, get coffee, and watch monitors that are set to alarm everyone if something happens, and never do any investigations. Yes, I can see how that is a much better use of your time than staying with me where you went on patrol and actually did things to help the world.”
“Don’t go mentioning the correspondence,” I said, stripping off my robe and getting back into bed. “Because you made me do that, too.”
He got in with me, moving so I could cuddle up next to him, his flesh warm against mine. “I give better benefits, though.”
“Mmm, is that what you call this?”
“You need more incentives?”
“Maybe.”
He kissed me. “I guess I’ll just have to give you some, then.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
I woke up with the smug satisfaction you feel when everything is right in the world. The warm male body next to me was a reminder of why life was good. I rolled over to kiss Wes good morning.
And came face to face with the blood-red eyes of the Dragon.
I screamed, horror and revulsion filling me. I stumbled out of bed, backing against a wall, my fear crippling me further. The Dragon lay languidly in my bed, one pale limb propping up his head, long red hair cascading down his shoulders, a taunting smile playing at his lips. If it wasn’t for the aura of evil surrounding him, he would have looked like the cover of a romance novel.
“What’s done is done,” he said with a slight Irish accent. “I offered you up to the Ancient Ones as a sacrifice and they were pleased. You will help me summon the Darklight that will bring their release.”
I looked down at my rounded belly. I was obscenely pregnant.
He laughed as I screamed, and I felt the monster inside me stir…
I was still screaming when I awoke, for real this time. Wesley was sitting up in bed next to me, reaching for me, trying to calm me down.
“Lainey, shhh…it’s okay. It’s me. It was just a dream.”
I was shaking uncontrollably. “D-did you dream it, too?”
He nodded. “The Dragon.”
“That’s not what’s going to happen, is it? If the prophecy is correct? The Dragon will impregnate me with some demon seed?”
Wesley looked away. “That’s one translation, yes, that the Darklight will be a child. An extremely powerful child that will one day be able to either release the Ancient Ones or destroy them forever.”
“That’s just great,” I said, feeling my adrenaline wearing off and the cool air on my sweaty skin. “Well, I’m not sleeping with the Dragon, and you are you, right?”
He smiled. “Last time I checked.”
Oh, God. Something hit me just then. Last night we had both been so wrapped up in the moment, out of our heads to the point I didn’t think we would make it my room, and we had forgotten something very important. I bit my lip, trying to run over my menstrual cycle in my mind to figure out if it was possible that I had dodged a bullet.
Wesley frowned. “What?”
“N-nothing. That dream was just damn creepy.” I wasn’t going to say anything to him until I knew for sure. There was nothing I could do now, anyway, and besides, we had bigger problems to worry about. I checked the clock and saw that the daily meeting would be starting soon. “Sorry for the rude awakening.”
“I was having the dream, too.”
“We’d better hurry if we’re going to make it to the morning meeting on time.”
“What are they going to do? Fire me?” he asked, a mischievous smirk
on his face.
“Maybe you’re safe from the chopping block, but I’m not.”
“No one’s going to fire you while I’m around. If anyone gets fired, it’s going to be Simon.”
“Inferno, fired? Nice pun,” I laughed. “You ought to get to the meeting before he does, or else he’ll be blabbing to everyone about your being here and picking on him.”
“He won’t mention getting punched out in one hit.” He frowned. “You’re right, though. We’d better be on time.”
I watched as he got out of bed. Yowza. “You know, there is something to be said for making an entrance,” I suggested.
He caught me staring, recognized my desire, and smiled. “There is, eh?”
“It makes a dramatic statement.”
“Got to love a sense of drama.”
“And I want to wipe away the memory of that dream,” I said softly.
A look of understanding crossed his face. “Me, too.”
We were late for the meeting.
“Nice of you to join us,” Rath said as we walked into the meeting room an hour later.
I slunk over to my seat like a scolded child. There was a now-cold caramel latte sitting on the desk in front of me. I noticed Mindy smiling at me from across the table. She mouthed, “Hell, yeah!” and winked.
Wesley, however, was not intimidated by Rath’s…well, wrath. I guess you can’t be intimidated by someone you have vague memories of diapering. “Good morning, Ben.”
“I know you have problems with the team, but you’re becoming a poor influence,” Rath said. “First you got Lainey to abandon her post and then you made her late to our meeting.”
Wesley snorted and repeated what Toby had said the night before. “Please. We both know monitor duty is busywork.”
“And I hear there was some kind of scuffle last night?”
Simon glared. “More than a scuffle—he punched me!”
“Knocked you out cold, you mean,” Toby chuckled.
“Shut up!” Simon turned his fury on him.
“That was a long time coming,” Wesley said to Rath. “I told you he had anger management problems.”
“You trying to get me fired?” Simon flew out of his seat.
“Simon, sit down,” Kate ordered.
“Stay out of this, Kate!” he snapped, moving toward Wesley. “The has-been is right, this was a long time coming. He’s always acted like he’s better than me, and he’s not! He thinks he’s too good for us!” He was in Wesley’s face, anger burning off of him, literally. Wesley just looked bored.
“Simon, power down now,” Rath said.
“Simon, you’re going to set off the fire alarms, and I just got them recalibrated,” Mindy complained.
“Just calm down,” Paul said.
“Simon, stop it.” Kate came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. “We both know the reason you act like this.”
Simon powered down and turned a dark look on her. “No, you don’t.”
“You have some issues and feelings you need to come to terms with.”
“Don’t use your psycho-babble on me! I’m so sick of this team holding me back.”
“We’re holding you back?” Paul looked incredulous.
“You never let me speak at the major press conferences. You’re keeping the spotlight on yourselves, on the good deeds you do! No one ever sees me except for at movie premieres. If I wanted to be famous like that, I would have been a damn actor—God knows I had offers. But I have these powers for a reason, and I wanted to show the world how good I was. I went through all that trouble with Jihad, and then he had to go and ruin it!” Simon pointed to Wesley.
Wesley stared back at him. “What trouble with Jihad?”
“Oh, my God.” I was on my feet in an instant. “It was you! You were the one that was working with the Dragon’s goons!”
Everyone was up now.
“Start explaining, Simon,” Rath said. “And it had better be good.”
Simon seemed to realize he had made a miscalculation. “I was just trying to raise my profile, I wasn’t helping them! Jihad came to me, said they wanted to start a fight. I thought any villain crazy enough to request a battle had to be easy to put down, and who knew what damage they’d do if we didn’t show up? So I met with them, started fighting with them, and called you guys. I took out a bunch of major players myself, and was about to take Jihad to the cops when he went mental.” He glared at Wesley.
“You got me and him killed!” I snapped. “And caused injury to a lot of civilians! And for what? Publicity? You make me sick, Simon.”
“And you tipped them that we were off-planet,” Rath said, his voice taut.
“Yeah, so they wouldn’t start something when we weren’t there to stop it. Duh.” Simon spoke like we were the ones being unreasonable.
“Syn killed a child that night,” Wesley said softly.
“God, you’re the stupidest person on the planet,” Mindy said.
“You’ve got explanations to make to the authorities,” Rath added.
Simon looked shocked. “But I didn’t do anything!”
“I’ll leave that up to them to decide. But you’re done here.”
“This is unbelievable!” Simon ranted to the room. “Well, fine—like I said, this team was holding me back anyway. You’ll see. You’ll see how well you do without me.”
“You’re going to tell the authorities about this,” Rath repeated.
“What for? My father has plenty of friends in Washington. They’ll clear up this misunderstanding and your heads will be the ones on the chopping block.”
“This isn’t a misunderstanding,” Paul growled, outraged. “I don’t care if your daddy is a senator, you’ll speak to the police about this.”
“No, I won’t.” Simon turned to walk out.
He ran into Luke, who had been standing quietly behind him. “Yes, you will.” In a lightning-fast movement, Luke struck him in the throat with two fingers. Simon collapsed on the ground, choking and gasping. Mindy threw a collar to Luke, who caught it effortlessly and snapped it on the rogue Hand. “I’ll take him downtown, sir,” he said to Rath.
“Thank you, Sensei.”
We were all silent as the two of them left.
“Wow.” Mindy broke the silence. “That was surprising. I knew he was dumb, but…wow.”
“So, did you come here for any other reason than to see Lainey and reveal that Simon is incredibly stupid?” Rath asked Wesley, somewhat peevishly. I was reminded with a mild amusement how annoying it would be to anyone for them to have their father pop in and suggest they were running things badly. How much worse would it be when you were in your sixties, your father was in his twenties, and you’d capably been running the show for years?
“The Dragon. He’s going to make a move soon.”
“So you only come around here when you need something? You need our help, and here you are,” Paul grumbled.
“Well, you know, you are the Elite Hands of Justice. You are supposed to be saving the world and all. If you can manage.” Wesley said.
“We do it all the time, why would this be any different?” Mindy asked, looking perplexed.
“Because this is the time it will actually be difficult,” Rath said with a sigh. “I’ve been helping with research on this. We’re standing on the precipice of something truly awful if it goes south, people.” He looked at Wesley. “It’s time we put all the cards on the table.”
“Ben, no.”
“If it’s bad enough that you’ve come here. It’s time she knew, time they all knew what we’re up against.”
I turned frightened eyes on Wesley. “What’s he talking about, Wes?”
Wesley looked like he had aged ten years in a matter of minutes. “I didn’t want to scare you, but you remember my dream?”
I grimaced. “Which one?”
“Either. You know what the Dragon’s coming for, Lainey. You. He’s spent all this time and preparation, casting the s
pell by organizing all the events to prime you. He doesn’t have much time left before the sorcery times out.”
“You want to share with the rest of the class?” Toby asked. “What’s the Dragon need?”
“Me,” I repeated, my voice sounding dead to my ears.
“Only partly,” Wesley corrected. “He really needs the Darklight, the one that has to be created through a dark soul and a pure one.”
Kate stared at him. “A child?”
“Most likely. One created between the Dragon and her,” Rath said. “He already began the process of corrupting her by having Syn take a piece of her soul and then having Jihad kill her.”
“And I helped,” Wesley said. “If I hadn’t given her part of mine—”
“We don’t know that,” Rath interrupted. “That may have stopped the whole thing; her soul isn’t one hundred percent pure anymore.”
“He’s still going through with it,” Wesley said. “The translation’s a bit off; it could be he wanted just a missing chunk of her soul, or it could be he wanted me to replace it with my somewhat damaged one.”
“It’s too late to worry about now,” I said. “So what do we do?”
“Until the spell times out, you stay inside,” Rath said. “One of us will stay with you at all times; this is the safest place for you.”
“I warded the building ages ago,” Wesley said. “And keep that circle of protection on you at all times.”
“How long until the spell times out?” Paul asked.
“A couple of weeks.”
“He’s going to do everything he can to draw her out,” Rath said. “We all have to be on guard. From here on out, things are going to be really dangerous.”
I fought back a shudder. For superheroes, what exactly did that mean?
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The alarms went off and my heart raced. I shot Wesley a sharp look. We were sitting in what Rath called the Research Room, which housed all of his—and now a lot of Wesley’s—old books, doing our favorite activity as of the last couple of days: reading the vague writings and prophecies regarding the Dragon.
Wesley looked up from the book he was reading. “Is that the general alarm, or is it the full alert?”