by Stone, Naomi
* * * *
His gaze shot to Gloria. She slumped, propped against the same tree, head hanging forward, motionless.
“Gloria!” He scrambled forward and finally made it unimpeded to her side. He took her hand, checked for a pulse and only drew breath again when he found it.
“She’s just exhausted, poor thing. Don’t worry.” Serafina stood beside him.
“Are you sure?” Greg winced at the bloody scratches marring the creamy flesh of Gloria’s neck and arms. No worse damage showed. Her breath came deep and regular as if she slept. The rain still fell upon them and her arm and hand felt cold to his touch. Being half-buried in the mud must have sucked the heat right out of her.
“We need to get her out of this hole, warm her up. Do you have a coat? Blanket? Anything?” He had only his slacks and shirt, already wet.
“Help will be here soon.” Serafina gestured to the ground beside Gloria. “Why don’t you sit down beside her? You can keep her warm in the meanwhile.”
“Of course. Body heat.” Greg sat close beside Gloria, his back against the tree, taking all he could reach of her into his arms, cradling her against his chest.
Only then did he ask, “What happened here? Where is Elysha?”
“We took Elysha into custody while she was weakened from the blow you and your young lady dealt her.”
“Blow? I never touched her, but she sure knocked me back.”
“Actually not.” Serafina blushing? She avoided his eyes. “I must apologize, young man. It was I who pushed you aside just as you relinquished the magic I’d given you, before you completed the transfer of power. It was only proper that the energy go back to our FGU coffers. It was ignorant of Elysha to think herself capable of making use of it, any more than a housecat could make use of one of your people’s combustion engine vehicles.”
He let her go on, still stuck at the picture of the tiny woman knocking his substantial frame flat on the ground.
“You both did your parts perfectly in weakening Elysha.” Serafina smiled, as bright as sunshine, at both him and Gloria.
“But we didn’t do anything.” He’d been about to do something, but that didn’t count.
“Elysha was foolish enough to think you, and especially Gloria, would be unable to affect matters when you were physically powerless and immobilized,” Serafina went on. “She thought she’d be safe if she kept you suffering and off balance with fear for the fate of your beloved. She always underestimates the capacity good people have for selflessness. We chose you and Gloria precisely because there was such great potential for true love between you. Elysha was quite staggered by the surge of energy when Gloria realized her true love for you.”
For a moment, his ears rang with the sound of those words. Until he recognized the sound of distant sirens now growing nearer.
“Well, we must be going.”
Greg looked around. The light once filling the grove like daytime faded to twilight now, like a dimmer switch setting the world back to night. The glade felt oddly desolate, the light and company of dazzling beings all fled. The other fairy godmothers had also disappeared.
“Wait. What am I supposed to tell the police?”
“Tell them Wonder Guy led you here, the bad guys ran off, leaving Gloria behind and you are trying to keep her warm until help arrives.”
“Oh. Right.”
Serafina vanished with the last of the light. Or not quite the last. Greg caught sight of more lights flashing in the direction of the nearest road. The sirens died away and the sound of car doors opening and closing carried through the rainy woods.
“Over here!” he yelled. Gloria stirred in his arms, snuggling into his chest as well as possible, still half buried in the mud. She was in love with him? Even after all the rest, that made this the best day of his life.
* * * *
Gloria woke to jostling, feeling herself lifted up. Close to her ear at the same moment, Greg’s voice reassured her.
“It’s okay,” he said. He sat beside her and held her hand as other people freed her legs grown so numb with cold. It all came back to her. Bizarre scenes. Vines and brambles and roots moving at the command of an evil sorceress. She would think she’d been dreaming, but, if it were a dream, how had she come to be buried to the waist in the earth?
At least she had Greg. Somehow, miraculously, both of them had made it through alive and well. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she clung fiercely to him.
“What happened?” she asked. “That woman meant to kill us, and then everything got weird. Weirder.”
“It’s okay,” he assured her again. “We’ve been rescued. When the police arrived, Elysha took off and Wonder Guy left in pursuit.”
“Huh?” Oh. Right. He probably didn’t want the whole world knowing his secret identity. She’d play along, but she’d make him tell her the whole story later.
With a final sucking squelch, her legs came free of the mud. Several people helped lift her up and out of the pit. Gloria tottered, trying to stand, but was supported mainly by Greg’s arm.
“There you go, miss.” One of the EMTs who’d helped dig her out spoke, rising to his feet. “How are you feeling? Do you want a stretcher? We need to check you out. Can you make it to our vehicle?”
“A stretcher?” She felt awfully wobbly, her legs hardly supporting her. But she didn’t want to let go of Greg. Her grip tightened around his neck.
He gave a laugh, adjusting her grip away from his windpipe. “I’ll carry her.” Greg hoisted her up into his arms. She relaxed against him. He was strong enough for this, even without his superpowers.
“No thanks.” She smiled to the EMT. “I’m good.”
One of the police officers who’d been moving purposefully around the glade came and walked beside them as Greg followed the EMT through the woods to a path and then to an ambulance parked near several police cars along the nearest road.
“I’ll need to take your statement, Miss.”
“Of course, but how did you find me?” Gloria asked.
“Your friend, an Agatha Roberts, suggested we interview your co-worker, a Ms. Kathleen Pederson. We found your cell phone in her possession and she confessed to bringing you here, where another woman, a Ms. Ellis, took charge of you. We’re holding Pederson on charges of kidnapping and suspicion of conspiracy to murder.”
“She killed Jo.” Gloria shuddered, releasing Greg only reluctantly when he sat her in the open rear door of the ambulance.
The detective made a note.
“Excuse me, sir.” One of the EMTs moved between him and Gloria, deftly slapping a blood pressure wrap around her bare arm.
* * * *
The rain had stopped and dawn brightened the overcast sky to a soft, pearly gray by the time the EMTs had treated Gloria’s various scrapes and cuts. They had transferred operations to the nearest precinct station where the police had finished taking their statements. Aggie would be coming to pick them up shortly.
The police insisted on questioning Gloria separately from Greg, and she pleaded confusion about much of what had had happened. If she mentioned the magic, they might want to keep her for observation. She told them about Kathleen and spoke only vaguely of what had transpired in the woods.
The whole time she kept wondering about Greg. Everything would be different now. She felt shy toward him. What would she say to him? It was almost as if he’d become someone new, a stranger she’d have to get to know all over again.
But when she left the interview room, there he stood, waiting for her. Their eyes met and in his smile, everything familiar appeared, and a whole future of light and love shone forth. She leaned into his arms again as if it were the most natural thing in the world and lifted her lips to his.
Yes. He had given up his superpowers for her, but all the magic of Wonder Guy’s kisses remained.
* * * *
Greg could hardly believe it. No masks. No disguises. No superpowers. And Gloria kissed him anyway. Her yielding lips
and sly, slippery tongue ignited his senses, opened him up to the world of delight to which she held the key. The surge of sensation brought him to life in ways his studies never had. Love rang through his heart like a carillon of golden bells. Better than magic. Better than flying. He had everything he desired right here in his arms, and now that he held her, he’d never let her go.
Epilogue
“Serafina will present today’s follow-up report to the steering committee.” Philomena retired to her seat at the head of the table and her diminutive colleague stood.
“I’m happy to report an unqualified Happily Ever After outcome to the Superhero Sting operation,” she began, pointing to the screen on which a PowerPoint presentation displayed a bar chart. “Here you can see the across-the-board drop in dark energies over the entire Upper Midwest Region following our curtailment of Elysha’s activities.” She paused when Euphonia raised a hand.
“I hadn’t realized Elysha’s influence was so widespread. How did we miss this earlier?”
“In her way, she was quite clever. We knew someone exerted a dark influence in the region, but on the surface, Elysha’s activities appeared so innocuous we didn’t, at first, suspect her. In retrospect, we traced her actions to see how carefully she chose her targets. Small amounts of her influence cascaded to cause a quite disproportionate degree of misery.
“For instance, a word in the wrong ear at the wrong time led to a suicide, impacting many other lives. Discord sown between friends and neighbors led to larger breakdowns in consideration and trust. She made introductions between potential abusers and their victims. Most recently we curtailed an operation beginning with an introduction between two ambitious and ruthless people, leading to a criminal collaboration that would have cut short the careers of many bright and promising young minds who might otherwise have gone on to do work benefiting much wider communities.
“Thanks to our operation Elysha’s scheme has been short-circuited. I’m happy to report that one of the principal malefactors is in the hands of the proper authorities, and forensic evidence discovered in the trunk of her vehicle ties her decisively to the murder and the kidnapping for which she is responsible. Those authorities are also investigating the guilty woman’s co-conspirator.”
“Hear, hear.” Several voices chimed in, with a tinkling of teacups and silver spoons.
“Best of all, the activation of the True Love cascade between our principals not only caught Elysha in its blast, but repaid our investment of magical energies in the operation many times over–a ‘gusher’ so to speak, promising to continue its yield for years to come.”
She clicked to the first in a series of slides depicting the happy couple at their wedding ceremony: hand in hand at the altar, the groom lifting aside the bride’s veil for a kiss, greeting guests at the reception and a shot in which the bride tossed her bouquet of mixed wildflowers straight to her new mother-in-law’s waiting hands.
A chorus of happy sighs greeted each photograph.
About Naomi Stone
Naomi Stone lives with her imaginary husband and cats in an unconventional household in Minneapolis, with one, two, or sometimes three other people, depending on the day of the week. She enjoys reading fantasy, singing folk and filk songs and has an obsession with bookmarks–especially the fabulous collection at dreamspell.net/crafts.
Wonder Guy
9781616504793
Copyright © 2013, Naomi Stone
Edited by Penny Barber
Book design by Lyrical Press, Inc.
Cover Art by Renee Rocco
First Lyrical Press, Inc. electronic publication: 08/2013
Lyrical Press, Incorporated
http://www.lyricalpress.com
eBooks are not transferable. All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
Published in the United States of America by Lyrical Press, Incorporated
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Table of Contents
Cover Copy
Highlight
Wonder Guy
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
About Naomi Stone
Copyright
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