Karma Girl

by Jennifer Estep

  Johnny stepped back and dropped his hands. I bit my lip. All worked up and no relief in sight. The things I gave up for my city. Stupid superhero duty.

  I dug through my purse, grabbed my phone, and answered the call. “What is it, Henry? I’m right in the middle of something.”

  “We’ve got a lead on Siren and Intelligal,” Henry replied, not the least bit put off by my fierce growl. He’d long ago grown used to it. “We’re heading out soon to see if we can track them down and stop them. The chief wants you here ten minutes ago.”

  I stared at Johnny, who leaned forward and pressed another kiss to my neck. I closed my eyes. Mmm. “Do I have to?” Whining just a bit.

  “Well, you don’t have to, of course,” Henry replied. “We could go after the ubervillains by ourselves. But since you’re the strongest and since we’re down two members, it might be a good idea for you to come in. You do have the most firepower, after all. “

  I snorted. “Firepower? You’ve been hanging around Lulu too long.”

  “I have not,” Henry snapped back. “And you should be nicer to her, Fiona. If I get my way, Lulu will be part of the team permanently.”

  I narrowed my eyes. Permanently? I didn’t like the sound of that. What was up with Henry and the computer hacker? “What do you mean by that?”

  “None of your business at the moment. Now, are you coming in or not?” he asked.

  Johnny’s hand slipped under my short skirt and started creeping upward. He stroked my thigh. For a moment, I couldn’t speak.

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I ended the call.

  “Let me guess. Henry has more problems at the store.” Johnny arched an eyebrow.

  “Unfortunately.”

  “Perhaps you should think about getting another night manager. He always seems to call you at the most inappropriate moments,” Johnny said.

  “You’re telling me. I’m sorry I have to go, Johnny. I was having a fabulous time.” Regret tinged my voice. It had been wonderful spending the evening with Johnny and his family. And then being alone afterward with the man himself.

  “I know, and I understand. But since you have to leave, we should make the most of this brief time we have together, shouldn’t we?”

  Johnny flashed me a wicked, wanton grin and sank to his knees in front of me. Johnny stroked my thighs with his fingers. I gasped at the sensation.

  “Tell me to stop, and I will,” he said in a quiet voice.

  I couldn’t say a word, and I didn’t want to. For a moment, Travis’s face flashed through my mind. Then, Johnny moved his hand, and the image disappeared.

  “Go ahead.” My voice was thick and husky with passion, desire, need.

  Before I knew what he was doing, Johnny had pushed my skirt up and my panties down. I stepped out of the filmy lace and kicked them down the hall. Johnny hooked one of my long legs over his shoulder. Then, he leaned forward and put his mouth on me.

  Licking. Tasting. Teasing. Driving me insane.

  I dug my hands into his shoulders. “Johnny!” Begging him to stop. Wanting him to go on.

  Johnny chose to think of my strangled cry as one of encouragement. He quickened his pace, his tongue probing deeper and deeper with every sure stroke, as though he wanted to lick his way to the very core of me. Liquid desire flowed like thick lava through my veins. Pressure built deep in my stomach. My whole body trembled.

  And then—

  An eruption of epic proportions. But in a good way.

  I just stood there, wrapped in the soft blanket of sexual bliss. Afterglow, people called it. I felt as warm and fuzzy as a fleece blanket that had just tumbled out of the dryer.

  “Wow!” That was all I could say.

  “I aim to please,” Johnny said, rising to his feet. “Again...and again...and again...” He planted more kisses on my throat. His tongue flicked over my rapid, throbbing pulse.

  “I have to go,” I said in a weak tone, even as I drew him closer.

  We kissed long and slow and deep. Johnny’s hands moved up and down my body. I kneaded his back, his chest, his abdomen with my grasping fingers. I wanted to touch him. All of him. Over and over again until we were both sweaty, satisfied, and utterly spent. And then some. But Johnny had other ideas.

  “Oh, I think we have a little more time left,” he said, grinning.

  Johnny went down on his knees again.

  *

  It was close to midnight by the time I reached the underground garage at Sublime and parked my convertible next to one of the Fearless Five vans. It’d been almost half an hour since I’d left Johnny, and I couldn’t stop smiling. I’d even been humming on the drive across town. Humming! I never hummed. Superheroes did not hum.

  I made my way to the equipment room and changed into my orange-red Fiera outfit. I felt good tonight, charged, pumped up. Like I could take on Siren and Intelligal with one hand tied behind my back. And it was all thanks to Johnny. Oh, the things that man could do with his tongue...

  A loud squawk sounded, cutting through my sexual daydreams.

  “Fiona, are you almost ready? You’ve been in there almost twenty minutes.” The chief’s voice cracked over the underground intercom system.

  “Coming.”

  Since my dinner had been burned away by my time with Johnny, I stopped by the kitchen, made myself ten tomato-and-cheese sandwiches, and grabbed a two-liter soda before heading to the library. The others waited inside.

  “Hello, all,” I said in a cheery tone. “Ready to go kick some ubervillain ass?”

  They just stared at me.

  “What?” I asked. “What’s wrong? Why are you all looking at me like that?”

  The chief cleared his throat. “You’re glowing, Fiona.”

  I looked down. Sure enough, a soft, orangey glow enveloped my entire body. I hadn’t even noticed it, and I was pretty good about keeping my flare-ups in check. Even when I let myself go, most of the time I emanated more of an angry red. I glowed orange only when I was extremely relaxed or very, very happy. I was both right now.

  “Well, well, someone must have gotten lucky tonight,” Lulu drawled. “Did we have a hot date, Fiona?”

  I narrowed my eyes at the computer hacker. A spark flew from my fingertip. My orange glow took on a reddish tint. One day I was going to get her for those stupid heat-related puns. One day soon...

  My father cleared his throat again.

  But not today. Too many witnesses around. So instead of frying Lulu from the inside out, I tossed my hair back.

  “As I matter of fact, I did have a hot date tonight. Unlike you two. Let me guess. You’ve been sitting here all night pounding away on your keyboards trying to track down ubervillains. Is that your idea of a good time, or are the two of you still not over your tiff from the benefit?”

  Lulu’s lips tightened into a thin line. Henry stopped typing. The two of them looked at me, then each other, then back at their computers. I stared at my father. He shook his head, his way of telling me not to butt in. I glared at him. Lulu had just shoved her way into my business, but I couldn’t get a little get-back? So not fair.

  I learned long ago there was only one thing to do when life wasn’t fair. So, I marched over to the table with its F5 insignia, put my feet up, cracked open my soda, and started eating my melted, cheese-and-tomato sandwiches.

  Chapter Fifteen

  While I polished off my midnight snack, Henry and Lulu used one of their umpteen computer programs to pinpoint Siren and Intelligal’s exact location. Surprise, surprise, the ubervillains were holed up in another dilapidated warehouse. This time, though, they were near the downtown area. So, we loaded up the van, exited the garage, and headed toward Bigtime.

  We’d just gotten on the interstate when Lulu frowned.

  “Uh-oh,” she said.

  “What?” I asked. “What’s wrong now?”

  “SNN just cut into their charity benefit. Halitosis Hal and Pistol Pete were engaging in a mock fight to raise money f
or the children’s hospital. Pete would fire his pistol at Hal, but his breath would stop the bullets in midair. Funny stuff.”

  “But now...” I prompted.

  “They’re live at the construction site where the city’s building the new sports complex. The whole thing’s collapsed.” Lulu stared at her laptop. “Kelly Caleb’s on the scene. She’s saying that Swifte got trapped inside while he was trying to rescue some of the construction crew.”

  “Why is a construction crew working on a building after midnight?” I asked.

  “It’s a city contract, and the sports complex is two months behind schedule due to the snow we had this winter. They’ve been working round-the-clock shifts for the last six weeks to try to get back on track,” Mr. Sage said. “Is anyone else on the scene besides Swifte? Anyone providing security or backup for him?”

  Lulu shook her head. “Not yet. The police, fire, and rescue squads are there, but no other superheroes.” She hesitated. “It looks pretty bad.”

  She turned the laptop around to us. The skeleton dome of the sports complex had folded in on itself, like a deck of cards knocked over by a gust of wind. Hoarse screams and shouts could be heard over Kelly Caleb’s clipped voice. Sirens flashed blue and red in the distance while dust drifted through the air, obscuring the camera’s view. Lulu was right. It looked bad.

  I stared at my father. His was face smooth, but his eyes glowed neon green. He was reaching out with his psychic powers, trying to tap into people’s vibrations, emotions, fears. “It is bad. The worst accident we’ve had in some time. Turn around, Hermit. We need to go help.”

  “What about Siren and Intelligal?” I asked.

  “They’ll have to wait,” Mr. Sage said. “This is more important. Agreed?”

  I’d been looking forward to getting another chance to wrap my hands around Siren’s scrawny neck and squeeze until her head popped off her overinflated body. But I’d just have to settle for moving rocks around and saving sweaty construction guys instead. It wasn’t a bad tradeoff. “Agreed.”

  Hermit whipped a U-turn, and we headed back toward the collapsed building. You could see the smoke and dust miles away, billowing into the night sky like a mushroom cloud.

  “Hermit?” Mr. Sage asked.

  “I know,” he answered. “Step on it.”

  Hermit’s hands tightened around the wheel, and we made it to the construction site in less than seven minutes. He might be unnaturally fond of computers, but Hermit could drive when he put his mind to it. I thought it was one of his most useful skills.

  We stopped the van in a dark alley about two blocks from the construction site. Lulu outfitted us with two-way earpieces and turned on the cameras in our suits. Once we were set up, Hermit, Mr. Sage, and I jogged over to the scene, while Lulu stayed in the van to monitor us and the news channels.

  People were everywhere, like ants running around a pool of hot honey. They crowded into the streets, climbed onto parked cars, and hung out apartment windows high above to get a better view of the action. They chattered like magpies, their voices building to a cacophony of high-pitched, excited sound.

  I plowed into the crush, trying to clear a path. “Excuse me, excuse me, coming through. Now. Move, please. Thank you.” I kept up a steady stream of patter as I zinged people with hot flashes to get them out of the way.

  Finally, though, someone took notice of us.

  “Look! It’s Fiera!”

  “And Mr. Sage and Hermit!”

  “The Fearless Five are here!”

  Claps, cheers, and whistles sounded. People got the message and stepped aside to let us by. I smiled and shot a few sparks off my fingertips, my signature move. Folks roared in response. It was always nice to be recognized. That was another perk of being a superhero. People knew you wherever you went, and you never had to wait in line for anything.

  A woman darted through an opening in the crowd and clutched at my arm. “Please! Please! You’ve got to help them! My husband is trapped in there!”

  I’m used to such tearful pleas. I’ve heard thousands of them during my time as a superhero. But the raw panic in her eyes touched my heart. I’d felt the same way about Travis aka Tornado every time he’d gone out on a mission. Panicked and worried and slightly crazed.

  “I’ll do my best, ma’am.” I patted her arm, careful not to burn her, and gently shook off her hand.

  The three of us made our way to the police barricade, where the esteemed members of the press waited. My eyes scanned over the crowd, and I spotted reporters from The Chronicle, The Exposé, and of course, SNN. Word of our arrival had already spread, because Kelly Caleb was ready and waiting for us. She shoved her microphone in my face the second we approached the cops. The white lights of her television camera cranked up like headlights in my face. I squinted against the blinding glare.

  “Fiera! Fiera! Have you come to help? What’s the status of the trapped workers? Do you think you’re too late already?”

  “Later, Kelly,” I snapped and kept moving. Unlike Swifte, I didn’t have time to give interviews before I saved people.

  Besides, reporters were always so difficult. Why couldn’t they just leave us alone to do our jobs? Public’s right to know, my ass. All the public needed to know was that I would do my superhero duty—to protect and serve—no matter what.

  We went around the police barricade and entered the construction site, which was cordoned off from the street by a metal chain-link fence topped with razor wire. Cranes and bulldozers and backhoes sat behind the fence, along with tin trailers, cement mixers, trucks, and portable toilets.

  Police, fire, and other emergency rescue officials hovered around the back of a pickup truck, where a beefy guy with a dirt-covered face sat. His arm was in a makeshift sling, and cuts and bruises dotted his bulging body. He looked like he’d just barely escaped the collapse himself, but he was busy looking at several papers.

  The police let us through, just like they always did, and Mr. Sage headed straight for Beefcake.

  “What’s the situation, sir?” Mr. Sage asked in a calm but strong voice.

  Some of the tension dribbled out of the cluster of people around us. That was my father for you. He could calm down a hurricane if he wanted to. He’d done it many times before.

  “I’m Jim, the foreman. I was overseeing the night shift when she came down. Scariest thing I’ve ever lived through.” His eyes flicked to the destroyed building.

  “Any idea what caused the collapse?” Hermit asked, punching some buttons on his handheld computer. No doubt he was accessing the building’s blueprints, looking for structural weak spots and the like.

  “Not a clue.” Jim hesitated. “But right before she came down, I heard this...sound. Sort of like purring or something. It was the oddest thing.”

  Some of the policemen chuckled. A few meowed. The foreman shot them angry stares.

  “Well, that’s what it sounded like to me,” he growled. “Instead of just standing around, why don’t you boys in blue get in gear and get my folks out?”

  That shut the cops up real quick. I gave Jim an encouraging nod.

  “Please. Let us offer our assistance,” Mr. Sage cut in.

  Jim nodded. “I’ve been going over the blueprints. We’ve got some folks in sector two.” The foreman pointed to the area in question. “Swifte arrived about two minutes after she went down, but more of the building gave way and sealed off the entrance. He went in there, but he hasn’t come back out. Neither has anyone else.”

  “All right,” Mr. Sage said. “The first thing we need to do is shore up that section so it won’t cave in on us when we go in. Fiera, you move the big pieces out of the way. I’ll use my telekinesis to help and make sure that everything doesn’t come falling down on you.”

  I nodded. Standard operating procedure. This wasn’t the first collapsed building we’d seen in Bigtime. We’d run into and dug our way out of more than a few ourselves.

  “Let me help too,” a cool voice cut
through the air.

  I snapped my head around. Johnny Angel stood behind us, looking like his usual badass self in his shiny black leather.

  “What are you doing here?” I snapped. “I thought you were busy with your vengeance mission. Shouldn’t you be plotting ways to run down ubervillains with your bike?”

  “I heard about the collapse on television. I just want to help,” he said in a quiet, defensive tone.

  “Us too,” a pair of feminine voices chimed in.

  My eyes darted over the crowd. I couldn’t see them, but I knew they were there. Finally, I spotted two pairs of footprints in the dirt about ten feet away. I squinted and could just make out the faint outlines of two curvy figures. It was like I was looking at something through cloudy water.

  “The Invisible Ingénues. It’s been a while since we’ve seen you girls.” I’d been hanging around Lulu too long. I just couldn’t seem to stop with the bad puns.

  “Oh, we’ve been around...”

  “Just like always.”

  The Ingénues were sisters who had a strange habit of finishing each other’s sentences. I’d wondered more than once if they were joined at the hip. I couldn’t tell, though, since they were invisible.

  I looked at Hermit, who shrugged. I turned to Mr. Sage. His eyes glowed for half a second, and he nodded.

  “All right, Angel, Ingénues,” Mr. Sage said. “We can use all the help we can get. Let’s move, people.”

  Jim told us a few more pertinent details. Some of his folks had called in sick, and he’d been working with a skeleton crew. “There were thirteen of us inside when she went down. Me and five others made it out. That leaves seven, plus Swifte.”

  Once we got all the information we could from Jim, we stepped through the police barricade and approached the building. The sports center—what was left of it—looked like a doll’s house that had been upset by a child’s angry tantrum. Steel beams as thick as my body stuck up at weird angles. Bricks, concrete blocks, wires, cables, and more spilled down from the towering heap of metal. Every once in a while, something deep inside the structure would moan and creak and groan.