by Kai Strand
Oceanus closed her eyes and whispered, “Polar, I’m sorry.”
* * * *
Lying on the nondescript quilt in the bland room, Jeff replayed those five minutes in his head again and again, remembering how she’d only looked directly at him when he’d first opened the door, recalling her stiff posture when he’d pulled her into him, and agonizing over her initial look of fear and her final look of pity and relief. Why he was torturing himself, he didn’t know; it wasn’t going to change the outcome, and rehashing the tiniest details broke his heart into splintery, small shards.
A quick knock on the door was followed by, “Lovebirds, time to eat.”
“Go away,” Jeff growled.
The door swung open, and a grinning Sandra poked her head in. “That doesn’t sound like a happily reunited couple to me.”
Her voice trailed off. She and Source stepped into the room. “Where’s Oci?”
Hot, bitter anger surged up Jeff’s throat like bile. “She dumped me.”
Sandra blinked.
Source blurted, “What?”
Suddenly, the urge to set the room on fire consumed Jeff. He eyed the light gray curtains and conjured a ball of fire in his palm.
Source sprang forward and placed a hand on Jeff’s arm. “Polar, what happened?”
“Did you not hear me the first time?” Jeff spat. He tossed the fireball into the air and caught it again. “She dumped me. Said it just wasn’t working out. Changed her mind. Some other generic bull like that.”
Sarah stopped in the doorway. “Are you kids coming to dinner?”
Frank peeked into the room over her shoulder.
“Where’s Oci?” Sarah’s gaze scanned the room and settled on the blazing ball in Jeff’s hand. “What’s that for? Jeff, what happened?”
For some reason, having to admit his failed love life to Mother made things a thousand times worse. Whether she gave him a pep talk about how things would be all right in the end or if she chose the tough love approach telling him to suck it up and stop acting like a baby, he was going to feel small and worthless. Very, very worthless.
Sandra whispered the answer, as if saying it louder would make it truer. “Oceanus broke up with him”
Sarah’s eyes sparked with anger. “What?”
Jeff almost dropped his fireball.
“After crossing a minefield and fending off a stampede for her, she dumped you?” Sarah’s fists clenched. “That ungrateful little bitch.”
She twirled on her heel and stalked to the door. Frank caught her by the shoulders and held her back. “Whoa there, mama bear. This isn’t something you can fight with super powers.”
Sarah glared at her husband and fought against his grip. “I can slap her!”
Jeff chuckled, then laughed. His fire absorbed back into his hand, and his laughter grew until finally, he doubled over clutching his side. When he could stand straight, he walked over to his mother and hugged her. Still laughing, he hugged her until she finally hugged him back. “Thanks, Mother.”
“Isn’t this a touching scene?” Mystic said.
Jeff let go of his mom and heaved a sigh. “Go away.”
“Your dinner is getting cold. I just came to make sure you knew.”
“We won’t be eating,” Jeff said. “We’ve decided to leave.”
Frank slapped Jeff on the back. “Don’t be hasty, son. It’s late, dark and cold out there. Let’s take advantage of the hospitality and leave in the morning.”
Jeff glared at him and groaned when he saw his mom and Source nodding agreement. “Fine.”
The rest of the group joined them in the hallway, and they all followed Mystic downstairs to the dining hall. It was a long, narrow room with a table down the middle. There were already a couple dozen people seated around it. Those at the far end had already been served and were eating and chatting. Jeff saw an empty chair at the end of the table on the other side of the room that he headed for.
“Set!”
Jeff’s head whipped around at the sound of Oci’s voice. She pushed away from the table, her chair toppling over behind her. She ran the length of the room with her arms flung open and her hair streaming behind her like ribbons on a present. Jeff’s splintered heart ground to dust as Oceanus jumped up and wrapped herself around Set and pressed her lips to his.
Chapter 42
“Oh my god, you’re here,” Oceanus breathed against Set’s lips. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
Set gingerly placed Oceanus on the floor and stole a look over his shoulder at Jeff.
The guilt on Set’s face was all Jeff needed to connect the rest of the dots, and he wasn’t too happy with the final picture.
“You bastard!” Jeff said.
Mystic’s face lit up like she’d been handed the key to eternal life; she was positively glowing with joy.
Releasing a roar that sounded like a wounded ogre, Jeff drove his fist through the wall. Dry wall and dust exploded. His fist sailed all the way through the other side, leaving his arm buried to the bicep. Pain resonated through him, but not from hitting the wall. This pain was so deeply seated, he wasn’t sure where it started. Possibly his heart? His gut? His soul? His body hummed with hurt. Someone touched his shoulder. He felt the vibration of them speaking, but didn’t hear any words over the loud thrumming inside him. He reacted like a trapped animal, thrashing out at whoever dared to come near. He tore the sleeve of his shirt and the skin of his forearm when he yanked his arm out of the wall. His fist connected with soft flesh, but he didn’t bother to see whose. He wanted only one thing.
Set.
A small part of him recognized how out of control he’d become. For the first time, he reveled in it, allowing it to run unrestrained. He barreled straight through the group of supers, flinging them aside like they were standard humans. He was like a missile that had been locked on target.
“Polar, I can explain,” Oceanus sputtered. She stood with her hands in front of her like she hoped to placate him, which only incited more of his anger.
“No need.”
“But Polar, you need to know. It was the balancing…”
Reminding him of the balancing, those few perfect moments in time when Jeff held Oceanus for the first time. When he’d found the love of his life, his depths. It was not the most brilliant tactic, given he was currently having a hard time controlling his fire when he got a hangnail. Suddenly, Jeff’s body stilled in the same eerie way the weather goes calm before a storm. He leveled an evil grin on Oceanus and spoke in a taunting tone. “What about the balancing, love? Do you regret your part in it? Do you wish we’d never brought it about? Stick around, because I suspect it will be unraveling all too soon.”
“No, Polar…” Fear tainted Oceanus’s expression as her gaze swept Jeff from head to foot.
Jeff felt thin tendrils of evil snaking their way through him, traveling in his blood stream like parasites. They felt deliciously hot, like they belonged inside him, co-existing with his fire. His trademark crooked grin was accompanied by a piercing glare that soaked in Oceanus’ fear and fed off it.
“Polar, I never had anything to do with the balancing,” Oceanus said. Jeff could see she was afraid to admit it, and at the same time, afraid not to.
“You were there, sweetheart. We ended the world. Twice.” Jeff stalked toward her with slow, confident steps.
Oceanus shook her head, fast. Her hands were still held in front of her, as if that would keep Jeff at an arm’s length.
“Maybe we should do it again and see what happens,” Jeff said.
“Polar, I never had anything to do with it. If I had, then why hasn’t the world ended again and again since each time we kissed?”
Jeff squinted from her and then scowled at Set. He pointed between the two of them. “Then what does the balancing have to do with this?”
Oceanus audibly gulped. Tears flooded her eyes, which still shined with fear, not sorrow. “It balanced Set.”
The long table
in the middle of the room started to vibrate, and then lifted a couple inches off the ground. Silverware shimmied and rattled over the edge and clanged to the floor. The people sitting around the table scurried away as it swayed to and fro in random directions.
Oceanus’ face crumpled with pain and regret. She tore her eyes away from the hovering table and looked at Jeff imploringly. “It’s just that, well, Set and I had been together a long time before I met you.”
“Oceanus, don’t,” Set growled.
Jeff swung his attention to the storm villain, whose gaze swept the walls and ceiling of the room. “Afraid I’ll bring the place down on top of us?”
Set snapped his attention to Jeff. “Yes.”
Jeff looked at his rival, taking in his pristine appearance, strong jaw, relaxed, James Dean manner, and he smirked. “That isn’t what you should be worried about.”
Set pushed Oceanus behind him and the protective gesture fueled Jeff’s rage. Concern skittered across Set’s face as he frantically looked around the room. Jeff grinned like a fun house clown. They were underground, probably the only place in this world that would put Set at a disadvantage.
Strands of gravity wrapped around Set’s feet and ankles on Jeff’s command. Set struggled in place and glared at Jeff.
“You played me the entire time,” Jeff growled.
“It’s so easy to do,” Set said through clenched teeth.
Someone grabbed Jeff’s arm from behind. He tried to shake them off, but they stuck like glue. Enraged by the distraction, Jeff sparked the electric blue fire and shot a stunning bolt over his shoulder without even looking. The weight fell away and Jeff again concentrated on Set.
Without warning, he let the binds of gravity fall away and then levitated Set until he crashed head first into the ceiling. The storm villain crumpled forward, but Jeff continued to slam him upward again and again. Finally he left him fall unaided into a pile on the floor, and bound his limbs with gravity.
Set shook his head to clear it and struggled against the invisible restraints.
An electric rope wrapped around Jeff’s chest, pinning his upper arms to his sides. Instead of limiting him, though, the electricity exhilarated him.
“Mother, really, you should know better than to attack a super before you know their powers,” Jeff drawled.
His body drank in the extra energy from her electric rope. It seemed to have an element of her magnesium in it, which fueled Jeff’s blue fire. He greedily sucked in as much of the electricity as he could before she was able to break the bind between them. He didn’t see her collapse to the floor. Instead, he concentrated his abundance of magnesium into one bright shot of blue fire that drove straight into Set, causing him to cry out in pain. Seeing Set’s agony was the most delicious thing Jeff had ever experienced.
“Set!” Oceanus called out. She struggled to break free of Don, who had his arms wrapped around her to keep her back. Concern and worry and fear for Set were evident in her expression.
Fueled by fury, fire stoked from all surfaces of Jeff’s body. He became a human torch, completely covered in flames. The crackle and energy made him feel alive and oh, so powerful. He saw Set through the haze of animate and angry red heat. Set appeared to be speaking, but Jeff couldn’t hear anything over the hum of hurt and hiss of flames. Maybe he was praying.
Jeff siphoned a large ball of heat from the flames. He shaped the invisible, roiling mass like clay and leered at Set, knowing no one would even know what hit the super. Jeff raised the heavy wad of heat over his head. Set peered up at the movement. His gaze searched the air between Jeff’s hands, looking for a weapon he didn’t know Jeff already possessed. The ball of siphoned heat and steam was so hot, it singed Jeff’s palms. He planted his feet shoulder-width apart and aimed.
All at once, he was doused with a waterfall of cold water. His gasp sucked a mouthful down his throat and he choked. A torrent continued to pour on him, extinguishing his outer flame and eventually cooling his inner fury. The water finally trickled to a stop, and Jeff looked up to see broken pipes, large and small, puncturing through the ceiling and twisted in his direction.
A new pain lanced his heart when he looked at Oceanus. “I can’t believe you did that.”
Still pinned in Don’s arms and panting from the effort it took to redirect so much water, she rolled her eyes and looked away from him.
Everybody in the room stared silently at Jeff, some clearly afraid to set him off again. Mother leaned on the table, looking weakened. The look of pity on her face was humiliating. The look of pride on his dad’s was frightening. Jeff didn’t want to be the pure evil his male lineage had been. Yet he’d been about to melt Set to the ground, just for stealing back the girl Jeff had stolen from him in the first place.
With warring emotions filling him, Jeff stalked toward the door.
“Polar, stay for dinner,” Mystic purred as he passed her.
He grabbed her around the neck and dragged her up against the wall. Even then, her expression was one of delight. “Do not talk to me ever again.”
She opened her mouth.
He squeezed tighter. “Understand?”
She smiled and nodded.
Letting her drop to the ground, he left the room.
Chapter 43
Jeff ignored the pleas from the other side of his door. First Sandra and Source, then Mother, begged for him to let them in so they could talk. Even Set asked to be allowed to explain, which was the reason the curtains hung scorched and ragged. Jeff ignored them all until they finally stopped knocking on his door. It was a long night. He considered sneaking out before sunrise and leaving everybody behind, but there really wasn’t anything to be gained by it. Instead, he decided he’d travel with the group and zap anyone who tried to talk to him.
The few times he dropped off to sleep, he dreamt of depths, of Oceanus drowning in their inkiness, of him drowning in them, even of Oceanus drowning him in them. Each time he woke up, he wanted to hold Señora Valdez’s head under his black depths for having mentioned them in the first place.
At last he heard the stirrings of people. Doors opened, voices murmured, footsteps tromped, the toilet flushed.
“Would you like to join us for breakfast?” Mother asked, after lightly wrapping on the door.
“No,” he barked.
Shuffling feet and banging doors faded away as the others went downstairs for their meal. Jeff took the opportunity to shower and get ready to leave. He’d just closed his bedroom door behind him when he heard Sandra’s laugh burst into the hallway. With a deep breath, Jeff stepped into the hall.
“Hey,” he said, as if nothing was wrong.
“Hi,” Sandra replied equally casually. She socked his arm as she passed. “We leaving soon?”
“As soon as we can,” Jeff said. He went into the living room to wait.
They gathered one or two at a time. Jeff winced when Don walked in, sporting a nasty burn mark on his forehead that Jeff hadn’t noticed before. He cocked an eyebrow when Sandra escorted Whisper into the room, cooing to her like she was an injured puppy.
“Your outburst last night almost blew her head open,” Source said.
Jeff felt guiltier than he thought he should. It wasn’t as if he attacked Whisper directly. He couldn’t help that she was always in his mind. His guilt grew again when Edmond limped into the room supported by Mother. He hissed at Source. “What happened to him?”
“He tried to siphon power from you when you first started to lose it. He got…” Source shook his head. “I don’t know. It was ugly. Whatever he took from you was too much for him or something. He bloated like a puffer fish and then collapsed. Didn’t come around for hours.”
Eventually they were all gathered except for Set and Oceanus. Jeff looked around and asked impatiently. “Does anyone know if they’re coming?”
“Are we invited?” Set was covered in fading bruises and burn marks.
Jeff couldn’t help but smile.
Oceanu
s and Mystic followed him into the room.
Ignoring Set, Jeff asked Mystic. “Do we have to worry about obstacles on the way out of here?”
“Just be sure to follow the same route you came in on, since those are tripped already. I’ll keep the hyenas in so the pronghorns don’t stampede.” She stepped forward. “Listen, Polar, can I talk to you? Privately?”
Every nerve ending stood on alert. Jeff considered her. Was she still a threat? He was so confused by the turn of events he couldn’t remember who was dangerous or why. “How about out in the hall?”
She nodded and looked around at the group. “It won’t take long.”
Jeff led her back toward the bedrooms, but didn’t feel comfortable stepping into one of them alone with Mystic. When she turned to face him, the full force of her suave hit him head on. He staggered against the wall.
She pressed up against him. “Don’t leave.”
“Geez, Mystic, tone it down already.”
Her lips lay a hot path from his ear down to his collarbone. Her hands roved down his chest, across his stomach, and up his back. The images she’d implanted in his mind when they first met, of their naked, entwined bodies, played like an X-rated movie.
“Last night, you were so bad,” Mystic growled throatily.
He pushed her away, but she kept pressing against him.
“You have nothing to go back for. Stay with me.” Her tongue teased his earlobe, stoking a reaction in body parts he didn’t want a reaction in.
He squeezed his eyes shut and pushed hard against her shoulders. “Stop!”
She flew against the wall on the opposite side of the hallway and snarled at him. “Even after I mopped up that stupid water girl, you’re telling me you still don’t want me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Come on, Polar. Surely you know her feelings didn’t go away just like that?”
“What did you do?”
“It’s called brainwashing. I turned her against you. Stubborn bitch was hard to turn.” Mystic stood and brushed invisible dust from her shorts.
“I knew it!” Jeff stepped toward the living room and then swung back toward Mystic. “But how did you get Set to go along with it?”