The White Knight & Black Valentine Series (Book 3): Almost Invincible

by Brand, Kristen

  He was covered in so much gray dust that he looked like a ghost. It mixed with the dark blood that ran down his leg from under khaki shorts and shook from his hair when he whipped his head back around to the restaurant.

  “Heather,” he gasped. “She’s still in there. She was right behind me.”

  Julio and Agent Lagarde attacked the rubble with renewed energy while Rosa checked the man’s injuries. A few of the other bystanders followed and moved wordlessly to help, but there was a big concrete slab behind the spot where the man had been dug out, and even with the additional manpower, I doubted they’d be able to lift it. Using my cane, I picked my way across the wreckage toward the slab. Julio and Agent Lagarde stepped aside to let me through.

  “Left or right?” Julio asked.

  I pulled at the slab experimentally. Flipping it to the left felt like it would be easier, so that’s what I answered. Julio started digging to the left to check for Heather. If she wasn’t under the slab, I didn’t want to accidentally shove it on top of her while we searched. Julio and Agent Lagarde worked quickly, Julio gritting his teeth as he gave up trying to work one-handed and used his broken hand to support his lifting. His bandages quickly shifted from white to gray, and I bit back the urge to tell him to stop.

  “She’s not here,” Agent Lagarde said.

  Julio mercifully stopped working, and I bent my knees and got a good grip on the concrete slab with both hands. One of the bystanders moved to help, but Julio waved him off.

  “He’s got it. Back up.”

  The man looked like he was about to protest, but Julio and Agent Lagarde had scrambled out of the way, so he followed their lead. I took a deep breath and lifted the slab, causing rubble to slide off it and throw more dust into the air. There was a brief outburst of surprise somewhere behind me. I coughed and tried not to lose my grip. The muscles in my back spasmed, and my knee burned, but with a massive heave, I flipped the chunk of concrete to the left. Before I could catch my breath, I saw Heather.

  She was dead. Her torso was crushed, and there was too much blood. She couldn’t be alive. I stepped back as Agent Lagarde came forward. Her stooped posture showed she didn’t have much hope, but she still checked to see if Heather was breathing and felt for a pulse. Finding nothing, she removed her glasses and stared at the woman’s crushed form. She couldn’t be attacking…? No, she must have been telepathically searching for any sign of brain activity. I waited, afraid to look away.

  Agent Lagarde bowed her head and put her glasses back on. I swallowed with difficulty and turned to face the man who’d been dug out.

  “I’m sorry—”

  I didn’t get a chance to finish before he bent over, wracked with sobs. He wailed Heather’s name, and Rosa rubbed his back but looked utterly at a loss as to how to help him. I didn’t know, either. It was too late to make things right.

  Eventually, we moved everyone into a gift shop, worried that being out in the open for too long would draw Bloodbath to us. Julio and I carried Heather’s body out of the rubble, and Rosa found a white paper tablecloth from the restaurant to drape over her as a makeshift shroud.

  I turned to check on the man we’d first found—Heather’s… husband? A quick glance at his left hand confirmed the presence of a ring. He sat not far from her, staring quietly ahead in shock. At least there were other people around to look after him. Julio, Agent Lagarde, and I had to keep moving.

  My hands felt cold when I thought of our chances. Never mind Bloodbath, who seemed almost invincible now, but how could we fight someone with powers like Mother Earth’s? She’d wrecked an entire section of the park in less than five minutes, killing Heather and who knew how many other people. My super-strength only went so far. Maybe Mother Earth was right, and we should have taken her offer to leave the park. What good was I doing anyone in here?

  “Worried about Elisa?” Julio asked.

  He stood by one of the shelves of souvenirs, his arms crossed over his chest, while I sat on a low table I’d cleared of T-shirts. I hadn’t been thinking of Elisa in that particular moment, but anxiety over her fate was constantly eating away at the walls of my stomach.

  “Worried I’ll find her like that,” I said, thinking of Heather’s crushed corpse.

  “You won’t,” he said. “She has your super-strength, remember? She’s your and Val’s daughter. She’ll make you proud.”

  His expression was pinched, and I thought “proud” was an odd choice of words. If—no, when I found Elisa alive, the first thing I’d feel wouldn’t be pride. It would be tear-stricken relief.

  “I don’t want to feel proud. I just want her to be safe.” I looked down at my shoes. “If anything happens to her, it’s my fault.”

  “You’re good at that.”

  My stomach hitched, and my head jerked up. “What?”

  “Feeling guilty about something that’s not your fault,” he clarified.

  “We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.” I watched him for a moment. Though his posture was casual, his eyes never stopped scanning the windows. “Anyway, if I had to pick something I feel guilty about, it’s what I said to you while you were under Treat’s control. I don’t think you believe I didn’t mean it.”

  His watchful gaze turned to me, and he made a quick exhale through his nose that wasn’t quite a snort. “You say you didn’t mean it, and I think you believe that, but you fight every decision I make, and you don’t seem to trust me to fight a supervillain alone. I’m not a kid anymore, Dave. I’ve been doing this on my own for years since you retired.”

  “I know that.” I clenched my fist, wanting to slam it on the table. “At first, I was just used to being the one giving the orders, but—Jesus, Julio—you can’t expect me to be eager for you to fight Bloodbath on your own. I can’t just forget what happened in Washington. You know I thought he’d killed you for a while there? That was one of the worst days of my life.”

  Julio’s eyes widened, but before he could reply, an ear-piercing, echoing screech filled the air. I flinched and looked around for the source of the noise. It sounded like it was coming from the park’s speaker system.

  “White Knight and Freezefire,” said Bloodbath once the screeching subsided. The sound quality wasn’t that great, but the arrogant sliminess of his voice came through just fine. “I’m tired of playing hide-and-seek with your chickenshit asses. I’m at the White Knight: Invincible ride along with six very scared guests. Come face your deaths like men. You’ve got ten minutes before I start killing hostages.”

  The speakers clicked off, and Julio and I looked at each other in shaken, silent dread.

  Chapter 14

  “Did the department send you in here with any plan at all?” Agent Lagarde asked Julio and me.

  “They gave us a psychic disrupter,” said Julio. “It was supposed to take down Bloodbath’s other form. And to be fair, it did—for about five seconds.”

  “What about you?” I asked her. “You’re a telepath—a strong one. If you had Bloodbath in your line of sight, do you think you could take him?”

  Agent Lagarde folded her arms and looked thoughtful. “I don’t know. But unless anyone has a better idea, I guess we’re going to find out.”

  “Bloodbath’s expecting White Knight and Freezefire, not you,” Julio said. “If we keep his attention, you can sneak up behind him, and we might be able to end this without a single punch.”

  Agent Lagarde turned to Rosa, who’d rushed up to us once the speaker had gone off. “Is there a way besides the tunnels to get to the White Knight ride without being seen?”

  “Yeah.” Rosa’s voice was shaky. “There are some back ways you could cut through. If you go…” She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “No, it’s too complicated. I’ll have to go with you.”

  In that moment, Rosa reminded me of my daughter, and if I’d known her better, I would’ve given her a hug. It had been a long, horrifying day. There was a tired, traumatized part of me that wanted to give up
and go home, and I was a retired superhero. I couldn’t imagine how hard it must be for an average college student.

  Agent Lagarde’s stern expression softened. “I know you’ve been through a lot already, and I wouldn’t ask you if there was another—”

  “No.” Rosa swallowed. “No, it’s okay. I can do it. I have to, right? Just… Just give me a minute.”

  She took a deep breath through her nose, her shoulders tight and arms stiff at her sides. Then she strode up to one of the walls and crouched down into a little ball, hugging her legs and burying her head between her knees. As she rocked back and forth, I caught snippets of her talking to herself. Most of it was profanity (She used the f-word quite regularly), but the rest seemed to be a pep talk. (“Put on your big girl panties. You’ve got this. Estas haciendo fantastico.”) A few of the other civilians in the room broke off their whispered conversations and stared. When Rosa finished, she walked briskly back and gave us a look that dared us to say anything.

  “Okay. I’m ready.”

  After a brief discussion, Rosa led us out into the open for the first time. The back paths and shortcuts she knew weren’t accessible from Sea Nymph’s Bay, so we hurried down the park’s main route. Thick tropical plants lined both sides of the pavement here, making it seem as if we were in a jungle. A souvenir cart selling jewelry had been knocked over, and stalls offering temporary tattoos and custom airbrush T-shirts stood deserted. Sea Nymph’s ride peeked over the palm trees ahead, sand-colored and seashell-themed, but there was no movement anywhere I could see.

  Had Mother Earth told the truth about letting most of the hostages go? That would mean a lot of panicked people for the police to deal with outside. The DSA must know that not everyone had made it out, though, and that Bloodbath wasn’t finished. Did they have a Plan B? Their satellites were watching from overhead even now. At some point, despite Bloodbath’s threats, they would send in reinforcements or call a drone strike.

  The wall would be a problem, though. If Mother Earth didn’t bring it down voluntarily, it would take ages to evacuate the park. They’d have to bring in helicopters to airlift people out, and some of the people back at the clinic didn’t have that kind of time. Speaking of time, the seconds ticked by despite our hurried pace. How far was White Knight: Invincible from here? Could we reach it in ten minutes?

  We crossed a bridge in front of Sea Nymph’s ride, leaving me feeling open and exposed. To our right, a waterfall poured out of the ride’s high tower, the track continuing along a river that ran beneath us. Normally, this spot would be subject to periodic screams as riders went over the drop, but now, the only sound was rushing water. Mist and the smell of chlorine rose from below, and the sun beat down from overhead.

  Then the sound of falling water abruptly stopped. The waterfall looked like someone had hit a pause button, droplets suspended in midair. And before you could say, “Damn it, Tidal Wave,” the waterfall twisted up and shot at us. The blast knocked me into the bridge’s railing, and I thanked heaven it was sturdy enough to keep me from going over the edge. Water went up my nose as I tried to shield myself, and when it finally stopped, I was gasping for breath.

  “Off the bridge!” Agent Lagarde shouted, grabbing a sputtering Rosa by the sleeve. We dashed for land, barely escaping before a massive wave of water rose and demolished the bridge.

  We took cover behind a gift shop, and Rosa collapsed to her hands and knees. Her wet hair was plastered to her skull, and she was hyperventilating.

  “Take a deep breath.” Ignoring the cry of my muscles, I crouched down next to her. “Nice and slow. Just breathe.”

  “I’m really starting to hate that guy,” Julio muttered, wiping water from his face.

  “Forget him,” Agent Lagarde said. “Bloodbath has hostages, and we don’t have time to waste. Let’s keep going.”

  Before I could reply, someone screamed. I stood up, joining Agent Lagarde and Julio as they looked around the corner of the gift shop back at the ride. Two figures were visible at the top of the waterfall. Tidal Wave stood on a dry ledge to the left of the water. A woman was in the water beside him, getting forced closer and closer to the edge by the rushing river he controlled.

  He flicked his wrist and let up the pressure, allowing her to run away from the edge and out of sight. “White Knight!” he shouted. Even though the woman had stopped screaming, I could barely hear him over the waterfall. “Come out, or she takes a dive!”

  There was track under the waterfall. When the ride went over it, it was a controlled fall. The river below wasn’t all that deep, and I wasn’t sure the woman would survive.

  Bloodbath wasn’t the only one with hostages.

  “I can’t—” I started, but Agent Lagarde had already removed her glasses. She glared at the top of the waterfall, and Tidal Wave collapsed.

  “Never mind,” I said. “What should—”

  “Damn it.” Agent Lagarde blinked. “I lost sight of him when he fell. He’s—”

  The hostage screamed as a blast of water launched her off the top of the waterfall. She flew outward at first, her arms and legs flailing, but her trajectory curved inevitably down. She missed the water completely, landing with a fatal, sickening thump on the other side of the river.

  “I’ve got more people up here!” Tidal Wave threatened. “Surrender!”

  “I’m coming!” I shouted back, unable to take my eyes away from where the woman had collided with the pavement. “Leave them alone!”

  Julio grabbed my arm. “We can’t ignore Bloodbath.”

  “We can’t ignore Tidal Wave, either.” I pulled my arm away. “Why are you even arguing? You couldn’t wait to detour to deal with Treat.”

  “That was before we had a time limit.”

  I glanced at my watch. Less than seven minutes remained. Could I take down Tidal Wave and make it to Bloodbath before the latter started executing hostages? Could I walk away from Tidal Wave when he threatened to do the same thing? It was an impossible choice.

  “We can split up,” I said. “I’ll take Tidal Wave, and Agent Lagarde—”

  I stopped. I had the utmost confidence in Agent Lagarde’s abilities, but sending her against Bloodbath alone? That would be a death sentence for anybody.

  “Enough.” Agent Lagarde had replaced her glasses. “We’re going to—”

  A roar of rushing water cut her off. I spun around, afraid to see another victim get flung off the waterfall, but it was Tidal Wave who descended. He’d jumped off the falls and summoned spouts of water to act like stepping stones. He did a sort of controlled bounce from one to the other before landing with a somersault in front of us. Agent Lagarde reached for her glasses, and Julio raised a hand, but Tidal Wave was faster as he summoned a jet of water. And he was smart. He took out Agent Lagarde first.

  The blast knocked her into a rack of T-shirts that collapsed. The crash of the metal rack hitting the floor drowned out her hiss of pain. Tidal Wave summoned a second jet faster than I could blink, but Julio superheated it. Steam hit my face, scalding hot, and it was so dense that I lost sight of everyone.

  “Tidal Wave, what are you doing?” I squinted through the steam. “Didn’t you hear Bloodbath on the speakers? We’re on our way to him now.”

  “Yeah, I heard him.” Tidal Wave’s voice came at least several feet to the right of where I’d expected. “And I’m not gonna let him steal the credit for killing you.”

  Great. I checked my watch again, but it had fogged up. I didn’t have time for this. If all these supervillains wanted a piece of me, then they needed to form an orderly line. I walked blindly in the direction Tidal Wave’s voice had come from, my feet splashing in a thin layer of water that had spread over the sidewalk.

  The moment I disturbed the water, it was like an alarm went off. The liquid crawled up my body like something alive. I jerked back and tried to wipe it off, but it kept coming. It was going for my head, and I had no doubt it would flow into my nose and throat the instant it got the chance.


  Somewhere to my left, Julio grunted. A blast of wintery cold hit, vanishing the mist and freezing the water. It left the sidewalk looking like an ice-skating rink and my body coated in ice from the chest down. I strained my muscles and broke free, shards falling to the ground around me like broken glass. Tidal Wave was distracted for now. He pulled at his legs, his feet encased in ice. To my left, Julio had a thin layer surrounding his lower legs. He stared at it, and it slowly melted. Then he held out his hands, melting the ice that coated the ground around the two of us. Tidal Wave, he left trapped.

  Straining his legs, Tidal Wave had managed to form a few cracks in the ice around his feet. He glanced up and summoned a jet of water from the river behind him.

  Julio froze it solid before it could turn on us—and realized his mistake too late. Tidal Wave hadn’t been aiming at either of us. He’d been aiming at Agent Lagarde, who’d just climbed out of the broken T-shirt rack. The frozen water kept roughly the same trajectory it had when it had been liquid, and the huge chunks of ice slammed into her chest.

  “Nicole!” Julio shouted.

  He rounded on Tidal Wave, who’d already summoned the freshly melted ice at Julio’s feet. It surged up and knocked him down, washing him into the river.

  “Freezefire!”

  I’d already been advancing on Tidal Wave, but when Julio dropped off the edge into the river, I broke into a near-run. Tidal Wave was ready. He pulled more water from the river and blasted me with it, sending me tumbling across the pavement into a trashcan. It overturned with a bang, and the stench of rotten food washed over me as I pushed myself up. Tidal Wave had directed that blast of water one-handed. The other hand he kept trained in the direction of the river.

  He was holding Julio under.

  No sooner had I gotten to my feet than Tidal Wave regathered the water he’d just hit me with and sent it hurtling into me yet again. This time, instead of knocking me away from him, he blasted me back toward him. When I shook the water from my face and looked up, I saw Julio down in the river. Underwater, he was kicking and sweeping his arms frantically, but the swim strokes got him nowhere with Tidal Wave manipulating the water. He couldn’t use his powers. Freezing the water would trap and suffocate him, and if he turned it to steam, the heat would cook him alive.