The intern’s jaw dropped.
I know, I know, no one defies the Council. You can’t go against the Vampire Council, you can’t go against the GCP Council, I’m so sick and tired of Councils!
I took Cassie’s hand and started for the bathrooms.
“No, this one Big Sister,” Cassie corrected me as she was pulling on my arm away from the door.
What’s wrong with the bathroom?
I looked at the door. MEN’S ROOM in big blue letters stood out at eye level.
Whoops! I’d forgot for a sec that I’m a woman now. You’d think that would’ve sunk in by now.
Cassie led us into the Women’s Room. She took off her glasses and stared at the red smear on her skirt.
“I was pretty,” she said in a small soft voice, barely a whisper.
I knelt down and hugged her. She had tears in her eyes. I wanted to go back and kick that son of a bitch myself, just for making her cry.
“Never worry, I can fix this.” I think. You don’t suppose it would clean up with just water do you?
“How?” she asked me with those big eyes threatening to start pouring.
“Like this.”
I stood up in front of her. It took a second to flex my shields. I used my psionic shower and pushed the ketchup off of my skirt. The red glob lifted away from the fabric, without leaving a mark. Cassie stared wide eyed at the floating blob of ketchup. It dropped to the floor in a wet PLOP!
“You can fix my skirt too?”
Moment of truth.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure it would work at all. I’d never tried to do it to someone else before. I nodded to her anyway and knelt behind her, hugging her close to me. After a few deep breaths I tried the psionic shower again. Focusing on pushing away the ketchup. The shields left my body, and I had to force myself to keep them working farther away from me. I was concentrating so hard I’d barley heard her gasp.
“It worked!” She spun around in my arms, hugging me with a crushing strength that threatened to collapse my defensive shields.
Damn she’s strong. Stronger than Vicki even. Almost as strong as Marsala. Just how damn strong is this kid?
After we were both satisfied we looked good again, we left the bathroom. A small crowd was gathered around the loudmouth bald man. He was rubbing his bruised jaw. When he saw us he started pointing and screaming.
“I want that little bitch’s head! How dare she strike me! This will not go–”
I’d had enough.
He stopped yelling when I pulled out the pulse gun. Fear flooded his face. He started shuffling backwards. I just aimed and fired without warning. The gun had a good kick to it. A ball of blue-white energy left the barrel and slammed into the chest of the man.
Well now, I feel better.
Everyone in the hall just stared open-jawed at us. I put the gun up and went to the doors. The same intern still had his head sticking out with a look of pure terror on his face.
“We will see the Council now.”
He just nodded as he held open the door for us.
* * *
The Council Chambers were designed to intimidate.
Fabric strips hung like cloth walls that enveloped the entire dark circular room. We were led to the center of the room. The GCP badge was spread out in the tile under our feet lit by the single and only spotlight in the room overhead. The seven Council members sat in chairs ten feet off the ground on top of a wall of carved wood. All you could see of them from the floor in the dark were their heads lit by hidden spotlights. The last time I was there, those floating heads scared the hell out of me.
Now, it just seems funny. The big bad Council members are afraid of little ol’ me. Emmy had told me so. They believed I had the power to destroy the entire city before they could stop me. Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t, but I wouldn’t stop them from thinking it.
“Hunter Class Officer Kieran Grey, and other, how good of you to finally join us.” One of the head’s voice boomed in the room around us through some kind of amplifier.
Piss poor reception they’ve got for us. This is the second time they pissed me off already today. Alright, I’ll try to be nice.
“It is terribly shallow of you not to give my partner the respect she deserves. If your hospitality does not improve, then I think we’ll just leave. And cut the damn theatrics, save it to scare the locals. I know for a fact that none of you are psionics. You don’t scare me.”
There, that sounded good, right?
One of the floating heads came forward into the light. The upper body and head of a middle-aged woman was now visible standing in the light next to the other floating heads. She spoke in a normal voice that still managed to fill the room. “Forgive us, we meant no disrespect. Welcome to you as well, Hunter Class Officer Cassandra Grey. Thank you both for coming.”
“That’s much better, thank you. Now before we begin, tell me, who’s the bastard in the hall I just knocked out, and why in the hell did he treat us the way he did?”
“We do not answer to you!” That ugly first voice boomed again.
“That’s it we’re out of here. Cassie,” I called her name out as an order as I turned and headed for the door.
“Stop! We command you to stop!”
That does it.
I turned to face them. Gesturing to Cassie to stay back behind me.
“Command? You command? Just who in the FUCK do you think YOU are to COMMAND me!?!”
“We are the Council! You will OBEY!!!”
“Why don’t you come down here and make me!” I ripped off the hat and opened my jacket. Things were going just as I’d thought they would. Badly. Of course my bad attitude and temper wasn’t helping the situation any. Six of the seven Council members were now standing forward with their bodies fully visible in the light. They all looked back at the floating head still barking orders.
“Guards! Kill them!”
Footsteps rang like thunder in the open room. Fully armed soldiers flooded the room from all sides through the cloth walls.
“Cassie! Defend but don’t kill!” I yelled the order over my shoulder.
I could see her in my rearview in the glasses. She threw open her coat and pulled out the long straight blades from behind her back. Then she yanked her restricting skirt up to her waist in one yank, unveiling her underwear with little teddy bears on them to the room, and crouched down low with the blades out, ready to strike.
Note to self . . . survive first, modesty lessons later.
I reached behind me and drew my sword. I held it in front of me and activated the extendable obsidian blades with my shields as I twirled the handle in my hand. The effect looked great. I grabbed the hilt with both hands then used my shields to split it into two separate swords. A blade in each hand, I stood ready.
“Enough, this is not necessary!” The woman that had shown herself in the light first was yelling at the floating head.
“She is no longer human, and she defies the WILL OF THE COUNCIL!!! For that she must die!”
“No longer human? This from a floating head afraid of two girls!” I was getting a lot more than just pissed off.
“Get them now!”
With that my glasses went black. We were being jammed so I couldn’t call for backup, not that there was any to call anyway. I tore off the glasses.
They want theatrics, let’s give them theatrics.
I spread my arms wide. Then flexed my shields and began to float up in the room. Gasps and whispers filled the room. Apparently no one knew that I could fly.
Oh well, all the better a show then.
I rose until I was eye-level with the floating head.
“I have no wish to fight you, but if I must, then I will destroy you all.”
The woman reached out to me. “Please stop this. You already passed the test. There is no reason to have any bloodshed.”
“Tell that to the head.” I moved my arm to point the sword at him.
A single shot rang out.
The bullet hitting my shields a fraction of an instant before the noise.
I looked down to see Cassie crossing the room in a blur. She jumped in mid-air, kicking the guard that had fired at me. She spun around splitting his gun into pieces with her blades before landing on the ground. All the guards shuffled back out of her reach.
Good girl, she didn’t kill him yet.
“KLAUS!!!” the evil head commanded.
A mountain of a man almost as large as Marsala stepped forward. He raised his hand. Lightning flew from his fingers to hit Cassie. She fell to the ground screaming.
“CASSIE!!!”
I threw one of the black blades at him, slicing his arm clean off at the shoulder. His head flew back with a roar of pain. Then the other hand came up. Lightning arced up and through my shields.
The electricity flowed through my body forcing all my muscles to spasm at once. I fell to the ground with a crash. The pain cycling through me as if every single nerve in my body was suddenly on fire. I lay on the floor as the electricity flowed through my body until Klaus closed his hand again. Then the lightning disappeared. The pain remained.
My shields didn’t stop it!?!
“Klaus is more powerful then you. He will kill you now. Then he will tear apart that little monster, piece, by piece!” the head boomed.
“Mark, NO!!!” the woman was screaming.
I opened my eyes slowly. Everything hurt to move. Cassie lay very still on the ground ten feet away.
Is she still alive?
One armed Klaus moved into my view. He knelt down next to Cassie, petting her head like you would a beloved animal.
“DON’T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER!!!” I screamed getting to my knees.
I threw out my shields, shaped like a single tall knife blade aimed at the center of his body. Cassie instantly came alive like someone flicked on a switch, turning over, blades out and ready. She cut off the hand that was petting her at the wrist, while another blade cut him though the leg. Then my shields slammed into him. The tall shield-blade cleaving him in two. His body and head split in half spraying everyone around him in blood.
“Impossible!” the head shrieked.
I reached under the edge of my skirt, pulling out one of the throwing knives. Aiming for the spot just below the chin of the floating head, I threw the knife. The two THUDS were incredibly loud in the suddenly quiet room. A short gurgling noise followed.
Two thuds?
I looked up at the head. Lights shone brightly on the full body as the entire room was suddenly bathed in light from the room lights that switched on. My throwing blade had pierced the center of the throat just under the jaw, pinning the evil head to his chair. A second, much longer blade stuck out of the gaping mouth. The owner of the evil floating head was undoubtedly dead. Cassie was suddenly beside me, skirt back around her knees, with only one blade in her hand.
“I waited until you threw first. I didn’t act to kill anyone until you did. Just like you told me to,” she said in that sweet little voice.
I yanked her into my arms. “Are you okay?”
“I heal really fast, remember?”
“Thank God.”
The middle-aged woman was now standing on the floor in front of us. She had our blades out of the corpse in her hands along with my tossed sword. She held up both arms getting the attention of the entire room. “Clear the room. Everyone out. Take the bodies with you.”
The room came alive again. Soldiers and guards gathered the dead and filed out in a frenzy. The other Council members all left as well.
I think it’s over.
“It was not supposed to be like this. It should have stopped when you gave the order not to kill. That’s what this test was, a test of your control, your bloodlust. A test to see how you truly reacted since you were forced out of your coma. We had no idea you had grown so powerful. Especially with your new abilities.” She sat down on the ground next to us. “Klaus was one of the most powerful psionics on the GCP staff, an Executioner Class Officer. He was the only one we had that could attack you directly through your shields. He was only here if you went rogue. Not to openly attack either of you without reason.”
I reached out and took the sword from her hand. Cassie took the other two blades.
What am I supposed to do now?
“Who was that man?” Cassie asked looking at the blood smeared on the blades.
“That was Councilman Mark. He did not have the approval of the entire Council to attack you. He would never listen to us. We tried to get him to give you a chance, to let you prove you had changed for the better. He would have none of it. I am sorry things turned out the way they did.”
“What happens to us now? I’m not sure, but I think that killing a member of the Council is a bad thing.” As soon as I said it, I tensed, ready to grab Cassie and run for it.
“Under other conditions you would be declared rogue, hunted down, and exterminated. But, not today. Mark pushed you, even after we had our answer, he pushed. He knew the threat you are, the threat you could be. You could have easily brought the whole building down around us, or even destroyed the entire city. The fact that you did not proves you are a different person now. One more in control of her anger. Being forced out of your coma didn’t turn you evil like we had thought it would. No, your actions today will not be held against you. I am sorry that you had to go through all this. It is good to see you care for your partner so much. She’s quite an asset.”
“She’s also my sister.”
“Yes, of course. Do . . . do you wish reparations for what has happened today?”
That floored me.
“You mean, what type of bribe will it take to keep me on your side after your colleague just tried to kill me?”
She nervously laughed a little. “So you figured it out. Yes, we are bribing you to stay on our side. If you wish to leave the GCP we will understand, and we will be willing to make arrangements with you for your relocation.”
“Just like that, you’d let me go?”
“No, we would still want to keep tabs on you. You are still a threat to global security after all. But, we would be willing to compromise. We own a number of islands and land in other remote areas where you could live without our direct involvement.”
“As long as I never leave the island right?”
“Something like that.”
“No thanks, at least not right now. But you can do one thing for me. Recognize Cassie for the position she has. Give her all the same funding and benefits that I have. Most of all, I want everyone to recognize her for what she is and give her the proper respect she deserves.”
“Done. These are marvelous weapons you have. And the two of you, you both work well together.”
“Thank you ma’am,” Cassie said giving a little curtsy with a cheerful smile as she held the still dripping, bloody blades in her hands.
That is, without a doubt, the single, most disturbing visual I have ever seen.
Chapter 11
We received the same VIP treatment and motorcade back to the plane. Apparently someone had told the Council I’d been out of control since I’d been forced out of my coma, and they wanted to find out themselves. They paid a huge price for something that could have been settled with a phone call. Before we left I also had to explain what happened at the Dark Towers with Targ. I gave them an edited version, leaving out things like the traitor, and the fact that for a time I’d actually crossed over and went rogue. I just didn’t think they needed to know about that.
“Can I go sit with the Pilots during takeoff?” Cassie asked with wide hopeful eyes.
“As long as it is okay with them, and that you don’t get in their way, alright?”
“Okay. Thanks Big Sister.”
She left her seat and skipped up to the cabin. It was good to see her smiling after what had happened the last few hours. As the jet began to taxi to the runway, the bathroom door opened in the back.
“She sure is cut
e, isn’t she? I also hear that she’s one hell of a fighter. She makes a good partner for you.” Tanaka smiled, sitting down across from me.
“What are you doing here?” The shock was thick in my voice. He was one of the last people I’d expected to run into on a plane from New York.
“I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I’d bum a ride back. Is that okay?”
“Sure. I’m just surprised to see you. It’s been an . . . interesting day.”
“I know. Word is already spreading about what happened with you in the Council chambers. You gave them one hell of a show.”
“You already know about that?”
“Yeah. It’s not every day that someone kills a Council member and walks away without even a warning. You’re already becoming a legend. Even more of one than you were before.”
I blushed at his praise.
Why do I always feel like a horny schoolgirl around Tanaka? No matter what he says or does, I feel like warm jelly around him. Not even the idea of him being a guy, or a traitor, keeps me from feeling that way.
He was leaning across the aisle staring at me. His lust filled eyes sent shivers of anticipation down my spine. I suddenly felt like crawling into his arms and joining the mile high club.
Why do I feel like this? Is it some sort of rebound thing because of the fight I had with Vicki earlier?
“Something’s bothering you, what is it? Can I help?”
Damn his sincere niceness. It makes it almost impossible for me to keep it in mind that he may have been the one that betrayed the old Kieran and myself.
“Tanaka, am I a prize? Do you think you’re in a race to get into my pants?”
He threw his arms up in surrender. “Whoa! Slow down! I’m just being nice, no ulterior motives, promise! You just seemed unhappy, and I wanted to help cheer you up if I could. I am not trying to get into your pants. I know that you want time and space to get used to your new life. You know that I’m here if you ever decide you want me in any way at all. I wouldn’t think of pushing you further. Either you’ll come to me in time, or you won’t. Either way it has to be your decision. I want you to be happy. With or without me. . . . What brought this about all the sudden?” He reached out cautiously, touching my shoulder lightly. It was a comforting move. Completely platonic.
Revenge's Web (Kieran Grey Psionic Hunter) Page 9