by A. J. Menden
I took a deep breath and admitted, “I don’t know how much happier I’ll be, feeling like I have a responsibility to these people. Hell, I already feel that way.”
He grinned. “Thinking of joining the club?”
“No,” I said. “I’m just starting to realize that I need to keep a watchful eye on this team, because eventually this will all go pear-shaped.”
He laughed without humor. “You’re an incurable optimist.”
I shook my head, fixing him with a serious glint in my brown eyes. “I’m a realist. And I’ve been around long enough to know how this will all turn out. Everything’s fine and dandy, and it will be . . . until something goes horribly wrong. Then, even the closest of friends turn on each other. Why do I want to sign on for that?”
Cyrus threaded his fingers together in frustration, and I felt all the sexual tension that had been building vanish from the room. “Still waiting for the other shoe to drop, huh? The EHJ have fought people like the Hacker before. Hell, they’ve even fought the Dragon. They won. They’ll come through this okay.”
“It’s not just ‘this.’ ” I sighed. “I just don’t trust people. The EHJ mean well, and they will continue to do so until things start going bad for them personally. What if Paul has to choose between himself and the world . . . or Mindy and the world? What if Lainey does? And no matter how this battle turns out, the final test is still a long ways off. It’s not going to end here. It’s not going to end until Emily has her day and decides to choose good or evil. Then what?”
“Didn’t know you believed in prophecies, Fantazia.” Cyrus seemed to be taking my points more seriously, and not just taking everything as me being a pessimist.
“This one I do. Wesley does, too. He’ll do anything to protect Emily; you heard him. He’s ready to kill this Hacker just to protect her.”
Cyrus nodded. “As it should be. A man should protect his daughter.”
I fought back pain. “Yes, I know what you did for yours and I respect it, as I already said. And Wesley’s going to be just the same. But just wait until someone like, I don’t know, Mindy dies in some fight with the Dragon, likely trying to protect Emily. How do you think Paul’s going to feel? How’s that kid she’s carrying going to feel, knowing her mom died because the boss was fixated on protecting his daughter? This team’s eventually going to be at each other’s throats, because at some point everyone’s for themselves. Why do I want to sign on for something that’s eventually going to rupture?”
Cyrus shook his head. “It’s just not like that, Fantazia. These are heroes. That’s the point! For one thing, it’s not just about protecting Emily, it’s about protecting the whole world. Everyone’s working together. They’ve committed to something bigger.”
I sighed. “There’s nothing bigger to Wesley. Didn’t you see the look in his eye?” I felt a shiver run down my spine.
Cyrus’s face was a mask of denial, so I said, “Never mind all of that. I don’t know why I’m arguing. I’m not bailing on anything; I’m just worried about the outcome. I’m worried about Emily first and foremost, since she’s just a kid. Let’s think about how this will all turn out for her. Wesley is so determined to keep her on the straight and narrow because he’s worried about the Dragon influencing her. Can you imagine how her childhood is going to be? Someone’s going to have to be there for her. Someone not under her father’s power.”
Cyrus looked amused. “And that’s Fay’s job? Assuming we all survive this current attack?”
I nodded. “I’m beginning to see that it is. It’s going to have to be. This team needs someone outside to keep an eye on them. To remain objective.”
“So, you’re not planning on moving into the Elite Hands of Justice headquarters anytime soon. Even if we beat this cult.”
I shook my head. “No. But I can’t go back to hiding away in my own little world anymore either.” God, how I hated that fact, but it was true.
Seeing the way he was looking at me, I put on a fake pout. “Being a responsible person sucks.”
“It took a long time for both of us to grow up, Fantazia.”
“Some of us longer than others,” I murmured.
He smiled. Suddenly, all his warmth and attraction were back. “We’re getting there.”
Mindy walked back into the room. “Kate just called, and she’s on her way to help out in the field. Luke’s hopping the next flight back.” She gave us a wan smile. “Prepare for the tension around here to jump ten notches. Too many exes, and too little space. Everyone’s going to be thinking of their own personal awkwardness in the situation.”
I looked at Cyrus but said nothing.
Cyrus shook his head. “C’mon, give us some credit, Mindy. You’re all too mature to let that get to you. There are bigger fish to fry.”
Mindy gave him a dubious look. “What planet have you been living on?” She shook her head. “Ah, for the naivety of the new guy.”
I laughed, feeling the same way. “You two have fun. I’m going to go check on Emily, make sure she hasn’t torn the place apart.”
“Hey, Fantazia,” Cyrus called as I turned and headed for the hallway. I stopped so he could catch up.
“What?”
“It probably doesn’t mean much, but I was just going to say that I’m glad to hear that you’re going to be sticking around. I mean, at least you’re not going back to your pocket universe. Not right away.”
“You mean you like having someone around to argue with, someone to remind you of your criminal past so you won’t get a swelled head? No problem. I can oblige.”
He laughed. “Well, that, too. It’s just nice . . . having you around. That’s all.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. The attraction was still there, as strong as ever, but now didn’t seem a time to do anything about it. I wondered if there would ever be a time. “Thanks. Let’s not make a big thing about it, especially not in front of Wesley or the others. I want my reasons for sticking around to stay quiet. Just keep it between you and me, okay? You’ll be the only one unsurprised when I’m available next time there’s a world crisis.”
His smile grew. “Sharing secrets with me and only me now, huh? Oh, how the times have changed.”
“Let’s not get carried away.”
“And you haven’t tried to seduce anyone lately.”
“I could if you like,” I said, dropping back to the breathy, flirty voice I’d once used so often to get what I want, and tossing back my long, dark hair. “From whom would you like information?” I definitely wouldn’t mind if he named himself my target.
He winced at the return of sexpot me. “Please don’t.”
I laughed, watching him out of the corner of my eye, trying to gauge what he was thinking, and more importantly, how he felt about me. I knew he didn’t like the sexpot version, but how did he feel about this one? After a moment I said, “There are still parts of me that are bad, Cyrus. It was never all just an act.”
“Oh, believe me, I know. You’re still plenty scary, Fantazia.”
I shook my head, fixated on his glittering blue eyes. There was a slice of green in those depths, just around the pupil. How had I never really noticed how gorgeous they were, how they crinkled at the edges when he smiled, how that smile made me feel like I was the only woman in the world? My heart was thudding in my chest and I could no longer hold back. “I didn’t mean that. What I meant was . . . I’m still capable of doing something like this.” And in a quick movement I leaned forward, grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled him down to me. My lips met his.
His surprise was obvious from the tension in his body, but he recovered a lot quicker than I expected. For a moment I was afraid he would take it the wrong way and push me away, but then his posture changed from one of surprise to one of command. He turned, putting my back against the wall, not letting me escape. His kiss turned from one of shock into one of barely contained passion, something at the edge of control. His hands slid down my body, setting every bit he touched
on fire, and I had the sudden insane notion of jumping into his arms and wrapping my legs around his waist. Instead, I settled for pressing my body into his, angling every curve so that I fit against him just right and giving a little moan of need.
He tore away from my lips at that moment, and his mouth went to my neck, dropping light kisses there and nuzzling my jawbone, making me gasp. His hands went to other, more interesting places. “Why are you doing this to me?” he growled hotly into my ear.
“What is it that I’m doing?” I asked, my head spinning. Although, pressed against him like this I had some notion of my effect.
“Tormenting me like this.”
“This is torment?” I pulled his head upward to kiss him again, pushing my tongue into his mouth, wanting to taste all of him.
“You’re not . . . This is . . .” He pushed me to arm’s length so I would stop kissing him and he could form a coherent sentence. He looked as dazed by lust as I. “It’s not nice to tease the computer geek, Fantazia, into thinking this is actually going to happen.”
“It’s not?” I asked quietly. “Who says?”
Whatever his response was going to be, it was drowned out by the voice suddenly screaming in my head: Fantazia, I need your help!
I groaned, futilely throwing my hands over my ears. “Jesus, London!”
Cyrus eyed me. “This is an interesting way of distracting me.”
I gave him a dark look, wincing. “No, someone is telepathically screaming in my ear!”
“Uh-huh. Sure. That’s what they all say.”
I ignored him and concentrated on London. What’s wrong? What do you need help with?
Coming for me . . . Hacker’s coming for me. He knows I know. Please find me. She faded out.
“London? London!” I called, also trying to reach her telepathically.
“What was that all about?” Cyrus asked.
“London, one of the people who hangs out at Memory Plague. You know her, I’m sure.”
He shook his head. “Name doesn’t ring a bell.”
“Woman that dresses like a Victorian Gothic undead?”
“Oh, her.” He nodded. “What did she want?”
“Says the Hacker is after her because he knows she knows—who he is, what his big scheme is . . . I don’t know, she didn’t say. But she wants me to come to her.”
Cyrus looked doubtful. “Let me get this straight. Just a little bit ago you went to another magic-user’s house, at his request, because he knew who was behind these attacks and was afraid of that person coming after them.”
I nodded.
“When you get there he’s dead, and you get jumped by Dragon cultists.”
“Basically, yes.”
“Now you’re getting another call from another magic-user who wants you to come find her because she knows who’s behind the attacks and is afraid that person’s coming after her?”
I nodded again.
“So . . . you know it’s a trap, right?”
“Oh, definitely.” I rubbed my hands together. “And I can’t let a good trap go to waste.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“It’s possible they’re trying to lure you in to drain you,” Mindy said. I’d gone to let her know what I was planning, and to make sure Emily got the protection she needed. She was trying to get me to wait until the others came back.
I nodded. “It’s possible.”
“It’s possible they want to kill you like your friend.”
I laughed. “They’re welcome to try. We all know how hard that is to accomplish.”
Cyrus frowned and said, “You’re not taking this seriously, Fantazia.”
“I am,” I replied. “I’m just ready to go and get this over with and not sit here and obsessively plan it.”
Cyrus and Mindy exchanged looks of exasperation. Emily just furrowed her brow and frowned at me.
“Fay go bye-bye?”
“Yep, gotta go help someone—like your mommy and daddy do on a regular basis.”
“Unlike your mommy and daddy, Fay’s rushing in without thinking,” Cyrus said to the little girl. He turned to me and said, “If you’re knowingly walking into a trap, you’ve got to plan ahead.”
“Like you planned ahead for your various schemes?”
Cyrus threw up his hands. “And look where it got me! Jail time, for starters.”
“Look, I have to go,” I said. “I’m not scared of the Dragon or his little groupies. People like that want you to fear them; they get off on it. I’m not going to give them what they want. I’m going to help London. If it’s a trap—and it most likely is—then I’m going to fight my way out. I may win, I may lose, but I don’t have time to wait around for backup.”
“Take Cyrus,” Mindy said. “You can’t knowingly walk into a trap without any help. That’s, like, self-defense 101.”
“Too bad I’m not a hero and didn’t go to school for it like the rest of you people,” I retorted. “If Cyrus goes with me, I might not find London. What if they’re using her as bait for me alone? Think of the information I might miss. Or, what if they attack and Cyrus is caught in the crossfire?”
“You’re concerned for my well-being?” Cyrus asked. I detected a hint of hope in his voice amid the incredulity.
I ignored him and continued. “There’s also the vague possibility that this isn’t a trap. What if London really does need my help because someone’s coming after her, but she won’t tell me what it is if I show up with Cyrus? Again, no information for us.”
“Uh, just ask Cyrus to go and wait outside.”
“Seriously?” Cyrus said. He looked annoyed.
“You could always take one of my transporters,” Mindy mused. “Then you can transport out if things get hairy, or maybe have Cyrus transport in if you need him.”
“I can do the same thing with a teleportation spell,” I pointed out. “Of course, if I really need help, I won’t have hands free to push buttons, work spells or any of that kind of thing. So I better get going. Alone.”
Cyrus’s eyes brightened. “I’ve got it! This is what we do. Mindy, do you have a spare communicator lying around? One of those really tiny ones?”
Mindy nodded. “There’s one in the weapons cabinet, left over from when either Kate or Luke was still working here. I’ll just take a look.” She went over to what looked like a closet on the other side of the room and opened it up to reveal all sorts of crazy devices, some that looked like weapons and others that looked like computers mixed with toaster ovens. She dug around for a while before coming up with a small black box. “Here you go. One communicator.”
“Can you lock it so that it’s continuously transmitting?” Cyrus asked, watching her gently lift what looked like a clear stamp out of the box. It hung delicately from one of her fingertips.
“Yeah, I think so. The programming will only allow a one-way conversation, though. She’ll only be able to talk and not hear us.”
“That’s okay. Like she’d listen to us anyway.” I childishly stuck out my tongue at him, but he just winked and added, “We can use this to monitor the situation. If we hear something bad going on, I can jump in there and lend a hand. This way we don’t have to scare her friend, and we don’t have to hurt her ego about being the biggest, baddest, lone-wolf magic-user in the world.” He gave me an amused look.
Mindy nodded. She brushed my hair back and placed the square of plastic behind my ear, just below the lobe. “It sticks to the skin,” she said. “Usually you’d push the button to talk and then release it to listen, but I’ll fix that.”
She messed around for a few more moments, pushing the device on my ear, then holding up what looked like a small phone and pointing it at my head. Pushing buttons on it, she frowned. Finally she nodded. “Looks good.”
Her voice was echoed in the speaker near one of the monitors lining the room. As I moved a bit closer, it squealed with feedback.
“Definitely working,” Cyrus said, holding his ear in pain. He motioned t
o me. “Go on, do what you gotta do. But be careful. And if you need anything, don’t hesitate to give me a shout.”
“Are you concerned about my well-being now?” I teased.
He gave me a long look. “If I say yes, would you hold it against me?”
“ ‘It’?” I asked. “Which bit of me’s that?” He just stared at me, so I shook my head and said, “I’d never do that.”
“Then, yes.” He leaned forward and planted a kiss on my forehead. “Be careful.”
It was oddly comforting, that kiss, in the wake of the one we had just shared in the hallway. This gentle display of affection was like a glass of cold water on a hot day, and I enjoyed it for a moment, then glanced over to see Mindy openly gaping. It had probably been a shock for her to see us go from good-natured bickering to whatever this current interaction was. It was a bit of a shock to me, too.
She noticed me eyeing her and looked down, as if the computer monitor in front of her was the most interesting thing ever.
I was touched by Cyrus’s comments and gesture but tried not to make a big deal of them. “What’s the big deal?” I said. Though I didn’t believe it, I added, “I’m not that easy to kill, and this is probably just London overreacting. The EHJ will spank both the Dragon and this Hacker person and we’ll all be laughing about this over drinks in no time.”
“From your lips to God’s ears,” Mindy said. “Be careful, Fantazia.”
I gave them both a mock salute and cast my teleportation spell.
The next thing I knew I was standing in the hallway of an apartment complex. London’s apartments. She was a player in the magic community, but somehow this hadn’t translated into wealth—either that or she was cheap and didn’t spend any of her profits. She lived in a small, cramped and dirty building that was once an old hotel and restaurant. I’d heard her say once that pretty much all the developers did to make it residential was knock out a wall or two between hotel rooms and replace the extra bathroom with a mini fridge and a tiny stove.
The hallways were barely lit, and there were dark stains on the carpets that could have been dirt but were more likely blood or vomit. The walls seemed paper-thin: I could hear a television blaring from one room, a baby crying from another and a couple screaming at each other in a third. The smell of boiled cabbage permeated the air, and I took a deep breath and held it, trying to keep from breathing too much of the noxious fumes.