Tekgrrl

by A. J. Menden

  “Well, let me know when you make up your mind.”

  My head continued to pound. I was beginning to think it was a reaction to the sun or something. Or stress. I glanced around as we walked up to the ATM. “Is it just me or does it feel like everyone’s watching us?”

  Paul looked around. “It’s just you. No one’s looking at us any more than at anyone else.”

  “I don’t know.” I ran my hands up and down my arms, feeling a chill that wasn’t climatic. “I’m just getting that feeling you have when someone’s watching you.”

  “It’s probably because of what’s going on with us. It’s made you a bit paranoid. Understandable, but still paranoid.” He got money out of the ATM and tucked it away. “But we’re protected by magic, remember?”

  “No, that’s not it…” I trailed off as a sharp stab of pain burst through my head. “Ow!”

  Paul reached for me. “Mindy?”

  I swear I could hear my heartbeat in my head. I concentrated, trying to relax, to push the pain away, to breathe in and out and imagine the waves, like Paul had taught me.

  There you are, the voice whispered in my head. It was pushing unwanted into my thoughts.

  I mentally pushed back. Shut up!

  The pain was suddenly gone, as if a cloud had lifted around me. I looked over to see Paul still holding my arm and my waist, looking concerned.

  “Did I do anything? Did I hurt anybody?” I asked, sweeping a quick look around me. Everything looked normal.

  “No, nothing happened. Except, you looked like you were having some sort of episode. Are you all right?”

  “I’m okay,” I said, feeling my heart rate return to normal. It was the first time that I hadn’t lashed out during an attack. “I’m okay now. I visualized the waves like you told me. I think I’m starting to control things a bit.”

  “That’s great!” He looked pleased but still concerned. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “Yeah. That feeling I had like I was being watched? Someone just spoke to me. In my head. And it’s not the first time it’s happened.”

  “Before your other attacks?” he prompted.

  “I don’t know.” I thought back to all the times I had heard the voice. “I think so.”

  “A telepath,” Paul said. “Trying to contact or harass you. Maybe the stress of having them brush up against your mind is kicking off your telekinetic bursts. We’ve seen them come on from stress.” He frowned. “What has the voice said to you?”

  “Not much. ‘I see you,’ ‘There you are,’ and ‘You’re all alone’…” I trailed off. I didn’t want Paul to know some freak was playing on my sense of loneliness. “Whoever it was seems to have been looking for me. And found me.”

  “Now we just have to figure out what they want.” Paul frowned. “Maybe if we figure out how to help you better control your powers, you’ll be able to block this person completely. Their unwanted communications are—”

  “Like mind spam?”

  Paul gave a startled burst of laughter. “Like mind spam. Exactly.”

  “Great.” I sighed. “Another project. As if we weren’t busy enough with having to rebuild from the ground up and continuing to fight the good fight.”

  “You wouldn’t want life to be boring, would you?” Paul joked.

  “I guess not.” I took him by the arm to lead him down the road. “Come on, I still feel up to shopping. Let’s go find ways to turn a CD player and a dog’s shock collar into a weapon.”

  “Great idea. Let’s grab a toaster, too.”

  I gave him a smile. Paul had a sense of humor. It was just another one of the surprises about him I was discovering.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “So then I told him, if you can’t figure out how a car engine works, I’m afraid the science of black holes is totally beyond you. I don’t care if you did play the captain of a space exploration ship.”

  “That’s what you get for dating a celebrity,” Paul said. “They’re paid to be pretty, not brilliant. Can you hand me that motherboard?”

  “He wasn’t so pretty, either.” I looked around for the motherboard. Paul’s new bedroom had become our impromptu workshop, and there were random bits and pieces scattered about like a tornado had hit. We’d come home from our shopping extravaganza and immediately dug in, constructing a new communications system. “I don’t see it.”

  “It’s under that portable radio there.” He pointed again.

  “How did it get under there?” I handed the piece over and went back to work.

  “You scattered everything around like you were divining the future from the entrails of that poor radio.”

  I looked up with a grin. “Nice analogy, Paul. All highbrow and stuff.”

  He laughed. “Well, I have to live here, you know, so if you can keep the chaos to a dull roar, it’d be appreciated.”

  “At least you don’t have to live with Kate.”

  He gave me a pointed look, and I winced. “At least you don’t have to live with Kate anymore. I don’t trust morning people. Who wants to wake up early?”

  “I get up early,” he remarked.

  “And I don’t trust you either,” I retorted. “There’s something sick about someone who doesn’t need coffee to motivate them.”

  “Luke gets up early and doesn’t need coffee.”

  “He’s sick, too.”

  “Weren’t you the one getting up early to work out with him?”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not doing that anymore.”

  “Getting up early and working out? Not even if I ask you?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “I’m crushed,” he said.

  “You’ll survive.” I looked up to give him a teasing grin, and saw him watching me intensely. He flashed me a quick apologetic smile. He knew I had caught him staring.

  “However,” I continued, “if you want me to stay up late working on some invention, I’ll be glad to, so long as more coffee is involved.”

  “Good to know you’ve got your priorities straight.”

  “That’s right.” I looked around. “Now, where did I put that…?”

  “What are you looking for?”

  “Didn’t we get a soldering iron? I’ve got to fuse these two wires together.”

  “Here.” He got up and walked over to where I sat on the edge of his bed. “Which ones?”

  “These.” I held them up to the light.

  He leaned over my shoulder and raised a finger. “Hold them still.”

  I did. As I watched, a small burst of heat shot out of his finger and into the wires, melting them together.

  “Well, aren’t you handy to have around? Thanks!” I turned to look at him as I said it, and realized too late how close he was. As I turned my head, our mouths were just a space away. It was almost too tempting to close that tiny distance and lean in for a kiss.

  He didn’t move away, but judging from his intake of breath he must have realized the same thing. “You’re welcome,” he said. His eyes went to my lips.

  My breath quickened. “And it was going so well.”

  “Says you,” he said. “You and your sexy boots.” He tilted my chin back toward him with his fingertips, and brushed his lips against mine in a soft kiss that made my insides melt. God, what had happened to us?

  A knock sounded on the door, and we scrambled away from each other like teenagers caught by a watchful parent. I picked up a random piece of plastic and started tinkering as Paul went to answer the door.

  “Yes?” he said, and I hoped whoever it was didn’t notice how flustered he sounded.

  “Hi, Paul,” Selena said, breezing into the room. “I just brought you some clothes and…” She trailed off when she saw me. “Hi, Mindy. I didn’t know you were in here.”

  “Yeah.” I held up my piece of plastic. “Working on the communications system.”

  “It’s going to be a secure frequency,” Paul promised.

  “We’re modifying Bluetooth
technology,” I remarked, holding up a piece. “So we’ll look like every other random city person, yakking to no one but thin air.”

  “It won’t look suspicious,” Paul added.

  Selena nodded as if she didn’t notice the steady stream of babble. “Well, I won’t keep you. I just wanted to drop this off. Mindy, Lainey left yours in your bedroom, is that all right?”

  “Sure thing. Thanks, Selena,” I said.

  “No problem. Go back to work. Sorry for interrupting.”

  “That’s fine. Thank you, Selena,” Paul said, closing the door behind her.

  I put my tools back down and laughed. “Oops.”

  He smiled. “Oops is right.”

  “Do you think she suspected anything?”

  “Not a chance. Who would?”

  “Kate.”

  “Besides Kate. Our dirty little secret is safe, Mindy.”

  “Good, because I wouldn’t want anyone to know I have a hidden attraction for anyone who wears polo shirts. Yuck!” I held up the offending item from the bag that Selena had brought. “Really, Paul? Polo shirts?”

  He stared at me. “What’s wrong with polo shirts?”

  “Besides everything?”

  “I don’t make snide comments about your clothing.”

  “No, because I have good taste and you secretly like it.” I dug in further. “Ooh, jeans? If you wear these, it will be a first.”

  He took the bag. “Will you quit digging through my stuff, please?”

  “Afraid I’m going to find out if you wear boxers or briefs?” I teased. “I can just ask Kate, you realize. If you tick me off enough.”

  “There are better ways you could find out,” he said, completely deadpan.

  I looked up, my mouth hanging open. “Paul Christian! I can’t believe you just said that!”

  “Got you to stop, didn’t it?” He picked up some of the bits and pieces of tech lying all over his bed. “Now, we need to test this. Maybe we can take the prototypes out when we go on patrol. Leave the receiver here with Wesley…” He trailed off when he noticed me still staring at him. “What? I was just joking, Mindy. You know I would never take things that far.”

  He didn’t realize the reason I was standing there gaping was that I was actually imagining what it would be like to slowly unbutton his shirt and then his pants, all the while getting one of his bone-searing kisses. For some reason I was picturing him to be a briefs man, but not one of those tighty-whitey types. No, they’d be a darker color. Black or dark blue. Or maybe he wore those boxer briefs…

  “I’m sorry,” I said, realizing he was speaking. “You were saying?”

  “I said, maybe we’ve worked too long on that communication system. Why don’t we take a break and maybe see what we can do about teaching you how to control your powers?” Paul was apparently back to business. “How are your headaches, by the way?”

  “Oh, um, they’re fine.” I pushed aside thoughts of him undressing me next (Who would have thought I’d ever have to do that?!) and focused on work, not on my obvious extremely lonely and demented state. “It seems once we walk into this pocket dimension, whoever’s trying to contact me can’t.”

  “You’re away from the real world,” he said. “Hopefully we can teach you to put up walls of your own.”

  “But no one here has telekinetic or telepathic abilities. How is anyone going to teach me?”

  “Well, I’ve thought about that.” He cleared his throat. “I think I could maybe help you with your telekinetic abilities. As I’ve said before, your reactions have been stress-induced, and that’s how it was with me when I first got my powers, so I’m hoping there’s a similar mechanic. As for the telepathic part, I thought that perhaps Luke could work with you on cleansing and clearing your mind through meditation. It’s all about focusing your thoughts and blocking the rest.”

  “That makes sense,” I admitted. “So what do I do?”

  “Well, for starters…” He set an empty pop can on the edge of the bed and came to stand next to me on the other side. “See if you can create a psionic wave to knock that can off the bed. Focus all of your thoughts and attention on pushing the can away from you, if that makes sense.”

  “Okay.” I thought of the can and tried to think of pushing it, of knocking it away with my hand, except not doing it in the physical sense. “Nothing’s happening.”

  “Well, it’s not going to happen the first time. It will take a lot of practice,” he said, practical as always. “You’re not just going to wake up and be able to do it. Since your powers have been emotion-based so far, use that. Channel your emotion into using the power to your benefit. Think of something you are afraid of or angry at, and then make the can the focal point. That’s what I did for a while. My heat powers were an expression of my anger or frustration.”

  “I’m shocked the EHJ headquarters didn’t spontaneously combust a long time ago,” I joked.

  “I said for a while. I gained control eventually.” He nodded at the can. “Go ahead and try.”

  I focused on the can. I was angry and scared that some creep was trying to talk to me in my head. I was angry at the memories that I had so recently recovered. I was angry that we had been chased from our home by Simon Leasure and his cronies. I tried to channel all of that into pushing that stupid can over the edge.

  A dent appeared in the side of the can, but it didn’t topple over.

  “Well, that’s progress,” Paul said. “You just need to work on this every day. And when you experience anger or fear, you need to not panic and instead channel it inside for when you need to fight. Think of it as a backup system.”

  “So, bottle up all of my feelings like a man. Got it.”

  He shot me a look. “You’re not as funny as you think you are.”

  “Oh yes I am,” I said. “But you’re not the stick-in-the-mud I thought you were. You can be cool.”

  “You just say that now because you want to solve the underwear mystery.” A smile twitched on his face as he picked up bits of our project and started stowing it for later.

  “See, that’s exactly what I mean,” I said. “When you relax and tease and joke, you’re fun to be around. Kate must have told you—”

  “I never acted like that around Kate,” he interrupted in a low voice, picking up something else. “I always felt like I had to be on guard with her.”

  The full meaning of his words hit me. He had been with Kate for a long time but had never felt as comfortable around her as he did around me. Maybe that said something about how he felt about Kate.

  Or maybe that said something about how he felt about me.

  How did I want Paul to feel about me? I wasn’t able to figure out this strange attraction and friendship we were forging. I would have never thought that I could be this comfortable around him, either. I had known him for so long, and yet we had never been all that close. Previous to this, he had been almost like a familiar stranger. But that was changing every day. I didn’t feel like I had to impress him with how cool or how tough or how sexy I was, like I always did with other guys. I also didn’t feel like I had to hide my intellect. I could relax. I could just be me.

  How scary was that?

  I looked up at the can. I channeled those churning feelings in the pit of my stomach at it. The can toppled over the edge.

  Paul looked at the can and then at me. “Did you just do that?”

  I nodded. “Uh-huh.”

  “Great! Whatever you were just thinking of, hold that thought for later. Keep it in the back of your mind.”

  I nodded again. “Oh, I will.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  “So how’d we luck out and end up having patrol with Paul?” Toby groused as we stood atop one of the office buildings in the city and kept watch for trouble.

  “Just the luck of the draw, I guess,” I said, giving a glance around.

  When Wesley had mentioned patrolling tonight, Paul had immediately volunteered himself and me to test out ou
r communications system. I had the vague suspicion he just wanted more time together, a thought that wouldn’t have even crossed my mind a few weeks back—no, make that a few days back. So much had happened since Paul and I first kissed that it felt like weeks and not the day or so it had been. Toby was volunteered by Wesley to tag along. He didn’t look any more thrilled by the prospect now. I remembered all the times Toby and I had made fun of our stick-in-the-mud boss. Now those jokes weren’t so funny.

  Pushing the button on the Bluetooth headset Paul and I had modified, I said, “I don’t see anything up here.”

  “That’s because you’re too high up,” Paul replied through the earpiece. “Move down this way a bit.”

  “Reading you loud and clear, boss,” I said, with a bit of sarcasm. It had been Paul’s idea for me and Toby to scout the rooftops while he followed the alleys, so what more did he want? And why was I, the one with no controllable powers and no current technology, crawling around on rooftops in the first place? “I’m moving down to the ground with you.”

  “Give Toby your earpiece,” Paul said.

  I unhooked the device from my ear. “Here you are. I’m going down with the boss man.” Wow, that sounded pervy now! Good thing Toby didn’t know the truth.

  My friend took the Bluetooth without batting an eyelash. “Great,” he complained. “I’ll have to listen to Paul breathing into my ear constantly.”

  “It only works when you push the button,” I said. “So you won’t have to hear him all the time. Only when he wants you to.”

  “I’m sure that will be close to constant,” he grumbled, and took a running leap over to the next building. I descended the fire escape as quietly as possible; I didn’t want people in surrounding buildings to hear me clanging about and calling the cops. That was the last thing we needed.

  After climbing down what felt like five billion stairs, I ended up on the ground, splashing into a puddle of muck and God knows what else. “Ew!” I said, lifting my boot and cursing Simon and his cronies for ruining a good pair of boots that I shouldn’t have been wearing on patrol in the first place. Thanks to Lainey and Selena’s shopping, I now had a pair of jeans and sneakers, as well as a tank top or two and a few other essentials. We had all ended up in black jeans and T-shirts for patrol. Not the most stunning of hero wear, but who was going to complain? Unfortunately, the sneakers I’d gotten were bright white. I made a mental note to buy a pair of practical dark shoes so I wouldn’t have to wear these boots anymore—my “sexy boots” as Paul called them.