Karma Girl

by Jennifer Estep

  “Where is he?” I asked, growing impatient with the older woman.

  She pointed at the screen. “Just watch. He should be on in a few minutes.”

  I looked at Grace, then the television. What would Devlin be doing on SNN? The only thing the television station covered was superheroes—

  The anchor was prattling on about the latest ubervillain video game releases. Suddenly, his words became clipped and hurried.

  “Now, we go out to our reporter Kelly Caleb with a breaking story. Kelly, what’s the situation?”

  Kelly smiled into the camera, giving the audience a nice view of her trademarked teeth. “Well, Jim, I’m here at the Bigtime Museum of Modern Art, where the board of directors has just made a surprising announcement regarding Debonair, one of the city’s resident superheroes. Debonair, can you tell the audience what this is all about?”

  Debonair’s dashing face flashed onto the screen, and my pulse started to pound.

  “Well, Kelly, as you know, I’ve been responsible for a string of art thefts in the past. I’m here today to tell you and your loyal viewers I’m turning over a new leaf. I’m no longer going to steal paintings—I’m going to help the museum restore them.”

  Debonair went on to describe how he pilfered paintings from people’s homes in an effort to restore them before the works were lost forever. Arthur Anders came on a moment later to tell Kelly how happy the museum was to have someone of Debonair’s background working to preserve these priceless works of art. He kept shooting suspicious looks at Debonair, but Arthur seemed happy enough with the arrangement. The story went on for quite a while before Kelly had to send it back to the studio to cover Swifte rescuing a turtle from a storm drain over in Paradise Park.

  Grace clicked off the television. I fell back against the sofa, stunned.

  “I don’t believe it,” I said. “Why did he do that? Why did he agree to work for the museum?”

  “Because he loves you and wants to make you happy,” Grace said in a soft voice. “He’s not giving up being Debonair completely. He’s just making himself a little safer. For you. All because of you.”

  I looked at Grace and Bobby. Then, I got to my feet and rushed out the door to find Devlin and tell him how much I loved him. How much he meant to me.

  I went back to the museum, but he wasn’t there anymore. I cornered Kelly and demanded to know where he was, but she didn’t know. Some cousin she was. Nobody did. I called all his numbers again. I didn’t get an answer, but there was a message waiting for me when I tried his cell phone.

  “I’m in our special place. If you love me like I love you, come and find me there. I’ll be waiting. If not, well, I’ll try to understand.”

  I hung up the phone in frustration. Our special place? We had lots of special places now. The museum, the bridge, the bench down by the marina. At least, I thought we did. Suddenly, the answer came to me, and I knew where he was.

  I went down to the marina, determined to hop on board one of the tourist boats that cruised through the bay on an hourly basis. But there was no one milling around the stands where you bought tickets. I went over and banged on the ticket booth. No one answered. Finally, I spotted a sign on the door that read Closed until Dec. 1 for maintenance and repairs.

  Well, this wasn’t going to stop me. I was a woman on a mission—one I was going to complete even if I had to hop in the water and swim all the way over to that damn island myself. Of course, I’d be frozen by the time I did that, but a few minutes with Devlin would be more than enough to thaw me out.

  I stalked back and forth through the marina, fruitlessly searching for somebody, anybody with a boat that could ferry me out to the island where Devlin’s mansion was. But it was cold and rainy, and the marina was deserted, except for the gulls huddling underneath the picnic awnings. I prowled up and down the dock, considering stealing a boat, but then, of course, I didn’t have the keys and wouldn’t be able to start any of the monstrous yachts. I didn’t know anything at all about sailing, so the sailboats were out. I wasn’t dumb enough to try that again.

  Just when I was about to call Sam Sloane and demand to use the Fearless Five rescue boat, I spotted a shimmer of color out on the horizon. Bright lights and crazy colors and calypso sounds that could only mean one thing—Cap’n Freebeard and his Saucy Wenches were out on the bay partying while everyone else was home where it was nice and warm.

  “Hey! Hey!” I screamed and jumped up and down, waving my arms. “Over here! Over here!”

  My power flared, and I reached for it. It was something I was doing more and more of these days. Something had changed about my power, my luck, ever since I’d been trapped on Prism’s yacht. It wasn’t as much of a jinx anymore. Oh, things still exploded and spontaneously combusted and shattered whenever I was around, but the incidents were fewer and farther in between. It was as if I’d lifted the curse off myself by finally giving in to my power and accepting it. I’d even started working with Chief Newman to see if I could fully control it someday.

  So, using my luck, I focused on the boat and willed it to turn in my direction. And it did. Ten minutes later, Cap’n Freebeard eased his massive party barge up to the end of the dock where I stood.

  “Ahoy there, matey! What can I do for ye on this fine, salty day?” Cap’n growled, squinting even though the sun wasn’t anywhere to be found.

  “I need your help, please.”

  I explained the situation to Cap’n, telling him that I needed a ride out to Devlin’s house in the middle of the bay.

  “Devlin Dash, eh? He’s a fine lad, a fine lad. Come aboard, missy.” Freebeard beamed at me. “And join the fun.”

  *

  I wouldn’t say it was fun, but it certainly was something. Freebeard and his Saucy Wenches knew how to have a good time. They boogied and drank and ate seashell-shaped sandwiches nonstop—when they weren’t slathering each other with coconut oil and singing sea shanties.

  I stood next to the railing, tried not to get suntan lotion all over my clothes, and avoided staring at all the exposed cleavage around me. Somehow, I managed it.

  After about half an hour of steady sailing, we came within sight of Devlin’s mansion and island.

  “That’s my stop,” I said to Freebeard.

  The dreadlocked captain swung the wheel around. “All right, lass. Here you go.”

  He cruised the party barge up to the dock. I hopped off, careful to step on a steady-looking board, and waved back to the captain to tell him that I was okay. He took off his hat, waved it, then whipped the wheel back around. Two minutes later, the party barge was no more than a dot on the horizon. The thing had a powerful motor in it, much more so than it looked.

  I turned toward the house. I had to pick my way carefully along the rotten dock, but as soon as my feet touched the grass, I started running. My luck held, and I only fell on my face once. But it didn’t hurt much, and I kept going.

  I dashed along the lawn, through the copse of trees, ran up the steps to the house, then sprinted through the dusty, silent halls. I pounded my way back down the stairs to the Lair of Seduction and threw open the door.

  Devlin waited inside. There was a table with flowers, champagne, chocolates, and more. But I only had eyes for him. He was wearing his Debonair suit, but his mask was off, exposing his beautiful face.

  “Bella, I—”

  That was all he could get out before I swooped down on him and pressed my lips to his. I planted kisses on his cheeks, his eyelids, even the tip of his slightly crooked nose.

  “I love you,” I said. “I love you, Devlin Debonair Dash, and I want to make this work.”

  Devlin’s eyes held mine. “Are you sure, Bella? Are you positive? I know you have a lot of issues regarding superheroes. Even sometimes heroes like me.”

  I shook my head. “What you did today with the news conference blew me away. It was more than I could have ever hoped for. I know you’ll never stop being Debonair, and I don’t want you to. But you came half
way, so I can come the other half. I want to be with you, Devlin. If you’ll still have me.”

  “Always, Bella. Always.”

  We kissed again, and I felt Devlin nudge me back toward the bed. I happily obliged. It had been too long. A day was too long to go without him. An hour, a minute, a single second.

  “You’re my superhero,” I said as he lowered me to the bed. “And that’s all that matters.”

  Epilogue

  Six weeks later

  “How does it feel, Bella?” Joanne asked.

  I clutched the glass of champagne in my hand. Tonight, I knew there was no way I was going to spill it. “Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.”

  Joanne’s eyes roamed over my drawings, which lined the walls of the Bigtime Museum of Modern Art. Tonight was the grand opening of my first art exhibit at the museum. All the bigwigs on the society circuit had turned out, including Carmen, Sam, Lulu, Henry, Johnny, Fiona, and Chief Newman.

  “Well, your work seems to be very popular. Most of the sketches have already sold,” Joanne said. A sad smile tinged her lips. “I’m glad I got my request in early.”

  I’d done a portrait of Berkley for her a few weeks ago. Joanne had given me three times what the drawing was worth. I hadn’t wanted to take her money, but she’d insisted. I think it was her way of paying me back for hanging in there with her when we’d been kidnapped.

  “How are you?” I asked, putting my hand on her arm. “I haven’t seen you at many of the events lately.

  Joanne shrugged. Her face looked thinner and paler than usual under her perfect makeup. “I’m getting by.”

  “Call me if you need anything,” I said. “Even if it’s just to talk.”

  “Of course.” Joanne downed the rest of her champagne and moved off into the crowd.

  Bobby and Grace appeared at my elbow. Both congratulated me on the exhibit. I congratulated the couple on their engagement, even though I still had some reservations about it. But, as Bobby pointed out, there wasn’t much time to waste when you were their age. Still, I was happy for them, even if Bobby had started going out at night with Grace when she dressed up as Granny Cane. He called himself Grandpa Pain and carried a supercharged stun gun. That had been my idea. Somebody in this family had to be practical. I just hoped Bobby didn’t give himself a heart attack with it.

  An arm slid around my waist, and the world brightened.

  “It’s about time you got here,” I said, turning to face Devlin.

  “Well, I had to appear at the opening as Debonair and mingle for a few minutes,” he said, blue eyes twinkling. “It is part of my contract.”

  “Come on,” I said, taking his hand and dragging him off to a deserted corner behind a potted fern. “Let’s get out of here and go home.”

  Home for me these days was Devlin’s mansion out in the middle of the bay. Piece by piece, bit by bit, we were slowly restoring the home to its former glory.

  “But this is your big night,” he said. “Don’t you want to stay and soak up all the accolades?”

  “And I’ll have lots more of them. Right now, I want to spend what’s left of the night with you.”

  “I love you, Bella.”

  “And I love you, Devlin. Now get us out of here. Pronto!”

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  I put my arms around his neck. “I’m always sure with you. Now, take me home and seduce me. That’s an order.”

  POP!

  A KARMA GIRL CHRISTMAS – HOLIDAY STORY

  It’s Christmastime in Bigtime, New York, but society reporter Carmen Cole isn’t in the mood to celebrate since her husband, Sam, has to go on a business trip and might not make it home for the holiday. But Carmen has plenty to keep her busy, since she moonlights as Karma Girl, a member of the Fearless Five superhero team.

  On Christmas Eve, Carmen, as Karma Girl, is assigned to guard toys, clothes, food, and more that are intended for needy children and their families. But an ubervillain also has his eye on the toys and plans to steal and then sell them to the highest bidder. Carmen will have to use all her empathic powers just to stay alive, not to mention make sure Christmas is a happy one for all the kids who are counting on her. It’s all in a night’s work for a superhero....

  Dedication

  To all the fans of the Bigtime series who wanted more stories, this one’s for you.

  Chapter One

  “You want me to babysit a bunch of toys?”

  “It’s not just a bunch of toys, Carmen,” Henry Harris said. “They’re the toys for Oodles o’ Stuff’s annual Christmas charity drive—the biggest holiday event in Bigtime. Here, I’ll show you.”

  Henry leaned forward and started typing away on one of the computer keyboards surrounding his chair, along with three monitors and twice as many servers. He hit a final button on the keyboard, and a film screen dropped down from the ceiling at the opposite end of the room.

  We sat at a round table in an enormous library containing every sort of book, magazine, and encyclopedia one could possibly imagine. Volume after volume filled the floor-to-ceiling shelves, while maps dangled from the walls and globes gleamed in the corners of the room. Thick rugs covered most of the floor, giving only a glimpse here and there of the beautiful hardwood that lay underneath. Just strolling through the library, you’d never realize it was located deep underground—and that it had another function besides being a place to relax with a good book.

  A second later, images began to flicker on the film screen. I leaned back in my chair and watched the montage, which had been set to a medley of cheery holiday tunes.

  The first image revealed a humongous pile of toys. Dolls, stuffed animals, trains, building blocks, basketballs, jump ropes, art supplies—every conceivable kind of toy flashed by on the screen. The next few showed volunteers putting the toys into boxes, wrapping them, and handing them out to kids. After that, there were shots of the kids tearing into the colorful paper, pulling out the toys, and playing with them. And finally, a little girl hugged a doll to her chest, a huge grin on her tiny face, before the screen went black and the music faded away.

  “See? Isn’t it heartwarming?”

  Henry beamed at me. The light from the monitors made his dark hair and mocha skin take on a faint silver tint, while his glasses gleamed on his face. The monitor’s glow also brought out the white polka dots in the red bow tie he wore over his green-plaid sweater vest. Just looking at him sitting amid all those keyboards, monitors, and wires, you’d probably peg Henry for the computer geek that he was—but you’d never guess that he was also Hermit, a technological whiz of a superhero.

  “You want me to babysit a bunch of toys?” I asked again.

  Maybe I was being dense, but usually, things were a little more life-and-death in the superhero business. And that’s what I was these days—a bona fide superhero. I even had a costume and everything.

  By day, I was Carmen Cole, a society reporter for The Exposé, one of the biggest newspapers in Bigtime, New York. By night, I was Karma Girl, the newest member of the Fearless Five, the city’s most powerful and popular superhero team. The Fearless Five, along with the city’s other superheroes, spent their nights fighting crime and foiling the schemes of the many ubervillains that called Bigtime home.

  My being a superhero was more than a little ironic, because not too long ago, I’d used my skills as an investigative reporter to expose the real identities of heroes and villains. But getting dropped into a vat of radioactive goo will change a girl’s perspective on a lot of things—and give her superpowers.

  A delicate sniff interrupted my thoughts, and I looked at the woman sitting across the table from me. Fiona Fine was a tall, leggy blond with long, flowing hair and intense blue eyes, the perfectly gorgeous sort of woman that men tripped over themselves to talk to. The perfectly gorgeous sort of woman that made every other woman around her feel exceptionally dull and plain, including me.

  Most folks knew Fiona as one of Bigtime’s premier fashion desig
ners with a flair for bold colors, bright patterns, and dramatic styles. But to me, she was also Fiera, a member of the Fearless Five with incredible strength and the ability to shoot fire out of her fingertips.

  Fiona had just returned from an evening patrol of the city, and her orange-red spandex Fiera outfit left little to the imagination, although she’d taken off her flame-shaped mask, because it was just us superheroes here in the library. Sexy fashion designer or sultry superhero—I never could decide which persona fit her better.

  “It’s not just toys,” Fiona said. “I happen to have donated some fabulous children’s clothes for the charity drive. Some of my best designs done in a variety of spectacular colors and hip styles. Bella donated a bunch of stuff too. Of course, she decided to give the kids coats, boots, and winter gloves, instead of great sweaters and jeans like I did. But we all know how practical she is that way.”

  The Bella she was talking about was Bella Bulluci, another Bigtime fashion designer and the sister to Fiona’s fiancé, Johnny Bulluci. Fiona liked Bella, but she just couldn’t understand why the other designer seemed to prefer a muted, black-and-white color palette over Fiona’s more flamboyant fashion choices.

  Fiona sniffed again, then reached down and picked up a triple bacon cheeseburger—the fifth one she’d eaten since entering the library an hour ago. That wasn’t all that Fiona had inhaled. She’d also polished off three bags of onion rings, a tub of fries, and five cherry pies, along with the two peppermint milkshakes she’d used to wash it all down. It looked like she’d stolen all the burgers and fries from some fast-food restaurant and had decided to eat all of the evidence, leaving nothing behind but empty wrappers, flattened ketchup packets, and crumpled napkins.

  Fiona’s fiery superpowers made her metabolism burn at an incredible rate, meaning she could eat whatever she wanted to, whenever she wanted to—and never gain an ounce. Really, Fiona had to constantly eat to keep up her strength; I still envied her more than a little for that particular superpower. I could have put a hurt on some milkshakes myself, if they wouldn’t go straight to my hips.