by A. J. Menden
“Big surprise there,” Cyrus mumbled. “I’m sure they just want it all to go away. Too bad it won’t.”
Mindy nodded. “Forrest convinced them to let us have until the end of the week, but if we can’t stop Hacker’s plans by that time, they’re paying the money.”
“He’ll just go ahead and do it anyway,” Cyrus repeated.
“You know that and I know that, but governments like to believe bad guys will play by the rules. Then they always turn around and act shocked when things go wrong.” Mindy sighed. “It isn’t helping matters that every available villain is taking advantage of the chaos. It’s had us and every other hero team hopping. Lainey, Toby and Selena have been out trying to keep the peace since you left. We haven’t had a lot of sleep. That’s probably why Paul’s so grumpy.”
“Do you need me out there?” Cyrus asked, perhaps a bit guiltily.
Mindy nodded. “Probably. Go catch up with Paul, he’ll tell you what needs to be done.” She glanced at me. “I know you just did what had to be done, but you really put him into a tailspin.”
“I’ll go talk to him.”
“You do that.”
She turned back to her monitor and touched a button on her headset. “Paul? Hold up, Cyrus is on his way to help.” She was quickly engrossed in a conversation.
Cyrus glanced at me. “That’s my cue.” He seemed to be waiting for something.
“Off to play hero?” I teased halfheartedly.
“Something like that. Want to give me one last kiss? You never know, I could be killed in the line of duty.”
“I’ll take my chances,” I said. My heart beat faster.
He winked at me, and started to walk to the door. “Your loss. But I don’t want to hear any regrets in the afterlife.”
“Hey!” I called.
He turned. In that moment I met with the bizarre urge to fling myself into his arms, to give him a bone-searing kiss just in case he was right and this was my last chance, but those kinds of thoughts always make me really uncomfortable.
“Yes?” He eyed me expectantly.
“What’s it mean?” I asked, pointing to my new ward.
“What’d you say last night?” he asked.
I bit my lip, not wanting to go there, though the answer was on the tip of my tongue, buzzing in the back of my brain. If I could think the words, why could I not say them in any language not so ancient that pretty much I was the only one able to understand them? But, I don’t like to acknowledge my feelings, let alone say them out loud, especially under these circumstances.
Cyrus shook his head. “You’d better hope I come back in one piece, Fantazia.” He gave me a mock salute and walked out the door.
I crossed my arms protectively over my chest and shivered. What were we doing?
Turning, I saw Mindy staring at me. I frowned. “What?”
She shrugged. “You’re really stepping in it, aren’t you, Fantazia? First with Wesley and now with Cyrus. I guess you only get out of your pocket universe once in a blue moon. Have to live it up, eh?”
“Does it look like I’m enjoying it?” I snapped. I turned and stalked off in search of my father.
It turned out I didn’t have to look too hard. Following the sound of a loud television, I found myself outside of his and Lainey’s bedroom. The door slid open and I saw Emily sitting in a mess of stuffed animals, happily playing some sort of tea party game. A popular cartoon show played in the background, but not the one that had been driving me bonkers. Wesley sat in front of a computer, equally surrounded by piles of ancient-looking books. Every odd interval he’d flip through one.
Emily saw me first. “Fay!” she shrieked, jumping up to run over. Wesley’s head jerked up at the mention of my name, and he stared at me as if I were some sort of ghost.
“Hey, kiddo!” I said, sweeping my half sister up in a hug.
“Daddy’s sad,” she said in an overly loud whisper. “He and Mommy talk about you. You in trouble?”
“Sweetie, when is Fay not in trouble?” I said in a light voice.
“I love you,” she said, plopping a big wet kiss on my cheek.
Even I, coldhearted as I am, teared up. “I love you, too,” I said softly, glad she didn’t know how hard that was for me to admit. I gave her a big squeeze and couldn’t meet Wesley’s eyes, though I felt them burning into me. “You go ahead and play with your toys, and I’ll talk to Daddy.” I set her back down.
“You’re all right?” Wesley asked softly.
“I’m all right. With Cyrus’s help, I escaped from those cultists with just a few cuts and bruises. I had to lock up my pocket universe, though, which is why I couldn’t get word back to you guys.”
He nodded at that, but didn’t say anything.
“I don’t know where to expect the next attack from. Well, other than from Dylan, but I was led to believe some other power player wants me more.”
“So Mindy said. I’ve been trying to find anything out about this Dylan character, but nothing’s coming up no matter where I look. Someone’s cast a very powerful concealment spell around him.”
“You probably wouldn’t have found out much anyway. He wasn’t a force to reckon with before all of this began. At least, he hadn’t lived up to his potential. Now, with all the extra magic they’ve given him . . .”
“I suppose the Dragon’s people wanted him to recognize his potential,” Wesley reflected.
“But”—I shook my head—“if someone had all this power to give, why give it to some pimple-faced kid? Why find an underachiever? Why not just use whatever magic you’ve collected to break the Dragon out yourself?”
“That’s a major question I’ve been asking myself,” Wesley said.
“Any theories?”
“The most likely answer is that this person can’t cast his spell directly, like the Dragon having that restraint on himself. But theories are useless. We won’t know the truth until we get our hands on this Dylan kid, on a major associate of the Dragon’s or the caster himself.”
I nodded. “Any other questions we should be asking ourselves?”
Wesley eyed me. “How does this mystery person benefit? What do they get from helping the Dragon escape?”
“World domination?” I suggested.
“They’re just as insane as the Dragon if they think the Ancient Ones are going to share the world with them. Once the Dragon lets them loose, then . . .” He shook his head and trailed off, his eyes getting a faraway look. After a moment he said, “Emily’s not the only person in the world that I’m concerned about, Fantazia.”
My nerves were immediately on edge. “I know. You have Lainey, too, and every member of the Elite Hands of Justice. And, of course, you have that whole I’ve-got-to-take-care-of-the-world complex.”
He frowned. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
“No, I don’t know it.” I shook my head. “The only thing I know is something we both do: that you ceased being my father sometime before Christ. We both know that.”
“I know that in every single life I’ve led since you told me who you are I’ve tried to make amends. And every time you’ll have none of it.”
“It figures you’d write that down,” I grumbled.
“I’ll admit that this time around I’ve been a bit more distracted. I’ll admit that this time around we seemed to rub each other wrong right away. But I’ll admit something else: when Mindy couldn’t get hold of you after you willingly walked into that trap, some half-remembered fatherly instinct kicked in. I wanted to find those cultists, the Dragon, anyone involved in this, and I wanted put a stop to them permanently. No longer just because of Emily, but because of you.
“I know I change looks with every life, Fantazia, and I lose memories with every life, especially the most personal ones. I even change superficial likes and dislikes. But there is something deep down, something essential inside of me that never changes. It’s what makes me, me. Call it a soul, call it whatever you want, but i
t exists.” His gaze bored into mine and I shivered, almost able to see my father again, the father who used to hold my hand as we’d walk together and would cuddle me on his lap before I would go to bed. “It’s that part of me that will always love you, Daughter, even if I don’t recognize you without help from a book. It’s the father who would have recognized you years ago if you hadn’t run and hid from me.”
I yanked my gaze free, closing my eyes and turning away. “Don’t,” I said. The emotional walls I’d carefully constructed felt like they were crumbling, and I could feel tears start to burn in my eyes. “Just don’t.”
“I’ll always care what happens to you,” he continued. “Just like I did for Ben Rath and for all of my other children, names and faces now just ghosts in my mind. Just like I will for Emily,” he said, glancing toward her.
He got up from his seat and strode over to take me by the shoulders. “All the children I’ve sired over the years have grown old and died. All except you. You act like you’re meaningless to me, when the truth is that you might be the person with whom I can share the deepest connection, other than Lainey, who shares a part of my soul. You’re the one constant in my life, Fantazia. Every other child but you, even Emily, will one day pass on. For whatever reason, you remain a constant, living and unchanged. I don’t know why—I don’t know if you even know why—but I’m glad to have you.”
I bit my lip so he wouldn’t see how affected I was by his speech. “Just lucky, I guess.”
He sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know how many times we’ve had this conversation over the years, but I want this to be the time we finally resolve your pain. You’re the one thing I’ll always have, Fantazia, no matter what, and I don’t want to live any further succession of lives with you hating me.”
“I don’t hate you,” I blurted. “God, how can you think I hate you? It’s stupid to be like this after so many years, when I’m thousands of years old, but damn it, there’s part of me who’s just a small girl who wants her daddy.” I was actually crying. Apparently I’d bottled up this emotion for far too long and now it was all bursting out and I was powerless to stop it. “We both look like we’re the same age, but I still look at you and think, ‘That’s my father.’ And you’re right, I am the one constant in your life, while you’re inconstant in mine. Which means I get to be hurt by you over and over again. I really needed you when Andrew was dying, Dad. I tried everything and couldn’t stop it. I guess some diseases can’t even be healed by magical means. I tried to come to you . . .”
He stared. “I don’t remember reading about this.”
I sighed. “It just so happened that it was during one of your newly reincarnated periods, and you’re not so helpful when you first come back. By the time you’d gotten it together to help, it was too late. He was already gone.” Tears burned my eyes. “I’m sorry, but you couldn’t be relied on to be there when I needed you. I . . . Well, eventually it just got easier to act like I hate you in order to avoid the hurt and disappointment.”
At some point he’d switched over to hugging me and I hadn’t even realized. He smoothed my hair like I was little child. “I know. And I’m sorry,” he said against my temple. “If I could change it, I would.”
“But you can’t. This is a cycle we’re doomed to repeat. You’ll forget me and I’ll react with distance. I have no one. And unless the Dragon, Dylan and their unnamed pal get their way and eventually bring back the Ancient Ones, we’ll be doing this again in, oh, about sixty years or so.”
“Only twenty years last time,” he reminded me wryly. “But I get your point. I wish I had a way to fix things, but I don’t. Still, can’t we call a truce for the next sixty years or so? Can’t we enjoy the time we do have?”
I looked into the eyes of my father and knew one thing: too much fighting was going on around us, and I just didn’t have the energy or will to continue this battle. If I was going to be involved with the Elite Hands of Justice, or even with my sister Emily, which I wanted, I couldn’t maintain this anger anymore. He was right that a truce was in order. At least for this lifetime.
Wow. Something was severely wrong with me. I was rapidly making my way toward working with superheroes to save the world, was getting close to admitting feelings for a guy, and now was trying to reconcile with my father. What had happened to the selfish bitch I’d used to be?
“All right, Wesley,” I said. “Truce.”
“Good.” He gave me another squeeze and then let go.
“Now,” I said, looking forward to changing the subject. “I can’t take any more of this family drama, so can we talk Dragon cultists?”
He relaxed. “I thought you’d never ask.”
We began discussing the cultists, me telling him about the various spells I’d seen them cast during their assault, and we didn’t stop until he heard the sound of voices in the hallway. The members of the EHJ were back. And they apparently had a few old friends tagging along.
“Thank God you showed up when you did,” Paul was saying to a tall man with cocoa-colored skin and a body that would make most women swoon. Wearing dark-colored martial-arts robes, he was nodding seriously. It was Luke Harmon, also known as Sensei.
“I thought we were doing a pretty good job on our own,” Selena said, giving Paul a pointed look.
I gave her a second glance. Considering her past with Luke, she was coming up a bit in my estimation. There was something about the way she stood: a bit of iron in her posture that bespoke not only outer strength but inner power as well. I wondered if she might be worth knowing better.
“It was a good thing we were all there,” Paul amended, giving Selena a wary glance and trying to keep everyone calm, as usual. “Every pair of hands was needed. It’s like every jail harboring a world-class villain lost all of its residents in a matter of minutes.”
“Do you think it could have been a coincidence?” Wesley asked, walking around me. “Just criminals taking advantage of the situation? Or do you think the Dragon and his people were behind their escapes?”
“It’s worth checking out every angle,” Paul said.
“I’ll run a patrol around the jails and see what I can find out,” Selena offered.
“I’ll go with her,” Toby piped up.
“That’d be great,” said Paul, clearly relived that some of the tension would now dissipate.
“And I can start researching through our computers—or through Wesley’s musty books of crazy prophecies and the like,” Mindy said, walking up, her pregnant belly preceding her. “God knows I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good to see you again, Mindy,” said a woman whose beauty rivaled my own. She’d been in the rear of the pack but she stepped forward now, flipping back long dark hair. With bright blue eyes and a body that looked like a starlet’s, Kate Hughes—Aphrodite, really, the goddess of love—was able to attract all the attention she wanted, male or female, without using her powers of love and persuasion. But her powers wouldn’t work on anyone already in love, and the one man Kate wanted had been torn from her grasp. Too bad she hadn’t recognized his value until he was happy with a woman who didn’t cheat on him. It was another source of tension.
She studied her rival. “You’re looking . . . pregnant.”
Mindy nodded. “An astute observation.”
The awkwardness between the two women was palpable. No wonder Toby and Selena were bailing for the first assignment announced. It was going to be like walking on eggshells around this place for a while. Joy. Why had I returned from my pocket dimension?
“It’s been tense like this since those two showed up,” Cyrus said, glancing at Luke and Kate. He’d come over and leaned down to speak softly into my ear. “I swear, they were more violent in the field than I’ve ever seen, and that includes the times I was on the other side of things. I swear, put exes in a single room and watch the fireworks fly.”
A thrill rushed through me at his nearness, which I fought to contain. “Glad to see you didn’t die,
” I said in a carefully casual tone.
He shrugged. “You lucked out.”
“I’m the luckiest girl in Megolopolis,” I agreed, giving him an eyelash flutter like a damsel in distress.
“I’m not sure how they’re dividing the rooms up,” Cyrus mused in a low tone. “There’s always the possibility that I may end up sharing a room with Luke.”
I patted him on the arm. “Thanks for the offer, but even with my reputation I’m not into ménage à trois.”
He made a face. “I wasn’t suggesting that. I’m definitely not into sharing. I’m old-fashioned and greedy; I want my woman all to myself. I don’t share well with others.”
I tried to keep my panic off my face. What was he suggesting? Were we a couple now? Were we going to do couple things? Did I have to ask him before I made plans? Were we going to plan dinner parties and double dates with Mindy and Paul? What the hell was going on?
Fighting my blood pressure back down to normal levels I said in a cool voice, “You’d be surprised how much sharing went on in olden times.”
“Well, then, I’m not that far back old-fashioned. I’ll just stick with greedy.” He gave me a wink.
Flustered, I continued. “Besides, it’s getting a bit crowded in here.” I motioned to all the tense figures. “You guys are near capacity for drama. I don’t think the building could physically hold any more without spontaneously combusting. I’ll just go home tonight and come back in the morning. It’s a quick commute after all.”
Cyrus shook his head. “The more things change, the more they stay the same. Right, Fantazia?”
I sighed. “Don’t be like that. I just . . . need some space, that’s all. It’s not you, it’s me.”
“Any other trite phrase you want to stick in?”
“Look, I’m sorry, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had any sort of relationship. A long time. Cut me a bit of slack.”
He gave a short, mirthless laugh. “And I don’t suppose you’ve considered being alone might not be a good idea. Not right now.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You want to be alone in your pocket universe? After what happened yesterday?”