Tekgrrl (3 page)

She spoke up, interrupting whatever was going on between her pal and Lucas. “Selena was just telling me Paul offered to bring her in for an interview about the new position. They’re going to talk tomorrow morning.”

“Are you going to take it? If it’s offered, I mean?” I blurted this, praying the answer was no. I couldn’t imagine this woman as part of our team.

Luck was not with me. “I don’t know yet,” the beauty queen answered. “Lainey knows I’ve turned down working with the EHJ before, but with the Reincarnist back, you guys are likely to go in a new direction that I have to admit is exciting. And tempting.” She gave Luke another dazzling smile. “Plus, work with the Fives has gotten a bit monotonous, so I’m looking for a change.”

“We still haven’t talked about who our team leader’s going to be,” Lainey said, throwing a cautious glance in Paul’s direction. “Just because Wes has been directing the team since Rath died doesn’t mean he’s going to stay in control. There’s some question…”

Ms. Perfect rolled her eyes. “Lainey, your man
should
be acting in that role and you know it.”

“Maybe so, but it’s not like he and I don’t have other things to worry about.” Lainey shifted her weight so that her baby could drool on her other shoulder. I could tell the poor kid was tuckered out from a long night of partying with her parents. “Raising Emily with the possibility of her apocalyptic destiny is going keep us both busy.” According to an ancient book, Emily was someday either going to save the world from the ultimate forces of evil or help them destroy it. The Dragon and his cronies wanted to make sure it was the latter and we wanted to make sure it was the former.

“Which is why you need the extra help,” Selena spoke up. “And the more I think about it, the more I’m hoping whomever you all decide is team leader will think I’m the woman for the job.”

Luke smiled. “I’ve heard about you. We could always use someone with your talent. A real powerhouse.”

I shot him a look. Was he flirting with her? She did remind me of the women he had dated in the past: stylish and beautiful beyond the scope of the rest of us plain Janes.

Granite smiled at him. “I don’t know if I’m a powerhouse, but thank you for the encouragement. I always get nervous before interviews, you know?” She raised an empty champagne glass. “I’ve probably drunk more of these than was a good idea. It’s a good thing you offered to let me use one of the spare rooms here, Lainey.”

“It seemed silly for you to come all this way tonight for the party, then turn around and have to come back in the morning,” my friend replied.

“Well, I appreciate it,” Selena said. “If you don’t mind, I think I should probably turn in now for some much-needed beauty sleep.”

“I don’t know if it’s much needed, but I’ll be glad to show you to your room,” Luke put in. “Any particular one, Lainey?”

My friend and I stared at him, openmouthed.

“Whatever’s open,” Lainey said, still clearly in shock.

“That’d be great, thanks,” Selena enthused, as if Luke had offered to take her to Paris instead of down the hall. “I’ll see you in the morning, Lainey. Lattes are on me!” She took Luke’s arm. “Shall we?”

“I think I’ll turn in after this, so I’ll say good night, too,” Luke remarked. “Mindy, Lainey, I’ll see you two in the morning.”

“Good night, Luke,” Lainey said.

“Good night,” I echoed, watching the two saunter off together.

Turning to Lainey, I muttered, “Good thing we’re just friends now or I would be incredibly jealous.”

“I’m so sorry! I never would have invited her if I had known she’d go for Luke like that,” Lainey said. “So, what happened with you two?”

“Obviously nothing good,” I grumbled, nodding to where he had walked off. “We danced, we talked, I got my stupid crush out of the way and we’re going to try to be better friends. He’s going to let me do patrols with him and train with him a bit. I think I can learn a lot.”

“That’s all?” Lainey looked more disappointed than I felt. “I thought for sure after the way he acted when you were injured in that fight with the Dragon—”

“Well, obviously you misinterpreted,” I snapped. “Because as far as Luke and I go, we’re friends. Friends with absolutely no benefits.”

Lainey made a sympathetic wince. “I’m sorry, Mindy.”

I sighed. “Don’t be, it’s not your fault. This is what I need to help me move on. And truthfully, I’m glad we had it out.” I looked over her shoulder. “Here comes your husband.”

Lainey grinned. “Husband. I’ll never get tired of hearing someone say that.”

Wesley put his arms around her waist in that sweet and comfortable way some couples practically ooze. “Can you tell everyone to go home now?”

Lainey bumped against him. “Could you be more antisocial if you tried?”

“Yes, I probably could. I think I’ve been congratulated on our wedding and for turning twenty-one again by every person in this room multiple times, and I drank enough champagne to qualify as overdoing it.”

“Good thing you’re legal,” Lainey quipped. “Wouldn’t want to arrest you for underage drinking.”

Her husband laughed. “If I drink any more, you’re going to have to learn how to cast hangover cure spells. But I have better things in mind.” He dropped a kiss on her neck. “Since we’re still in our honeymoon phase.”

“Careful, you two, that’s how things like
that
happen,” I warned, nodding to the sleeping Emily. “But why don’t you guys go ahead and take off. Paul, Kate, Toby and I can take care of shooing people out and paying the caterers.”

“You don’t mind?” Lainey asked. She didn’t look away from her husband, and I couldn’t mistake her hopeful tone of voice.

“Of course not. Just don’t be late for the staff meeting in the morning or Paul’s head might explode.”

“As long as I don’t have to get the coffee,” Lainey remarked. “I should get one day off.”

As the newest hire, one of her jobs since she’d arrived was to get coffee orders in the morning. Yes, we were in the business of saving people; yes, we were big-time celebrities with our pictures in the newspapers all the time; and yes, we might all be über-geniuses; but the way the EHJ was set up, one of us heroes still had to do the grunt work, and that task had fallen on Lainey. No wonder she was trying to get her old friend to come on board: She didn’t want to be the gofer anymore.

“Toby or I will take care of it,” I promised.

“Thanks,” Lainey said, giving me a hug. “We’ll be at the meeting bright and early.”

“Not
too
bright or early.” Wesley winked at me as the two of them walked off, his arm around her waist and their sleeping child drooling on Lainey’s shoulder. I couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous.

“So how did it go?” Toby asked, coming up behind me.

“It ended with Luke escorting another woman to her bedroom, so don’t ask.” I turned to look at him. “How’d it go with the waiter?”

“He talked about boy bands the whole time.”

I burst out laughing, both at Toby’s information and the expression on his face.

“I don’t need to date a walking stereotype, thanks,” Toby continued. He slung an arm around my shoulder. “So, we continue to be the dateless wonders of the team.”

“Looks like,” I agreed.

I smiled at him. I might not have a romantic relationship, but I had a kick-ass job and great friends. What more could a girl want?

Where was that strange hum coming from?

I blinked against the blinding light. How had I even fallen asleep with it right over my eyes, and what was that obnoxious noise? I tried to move my head so I could pinpoint from which direction it emitted, but found that I couldn’t; I was held still by something cold. Metal, perhaps. I tried to reach a hand to brush away whatever it was, but discovered my arms felt heavy, weighed down by something, almost as though they had been numbed through anesthesia: I was aware they existed, but they were unresponsive. A quick test determined my legs suffered a similar fate.

Panic rose up in me, made all the worse by the blinding light and the fact that I couldn’t escape. I concentrated despite the unnerving hum, and tried to move something; anything. A soft groan burned deep in my throat, and I felt pain. The more aware I became, the more my body registered that something wasn’t right, and the pain soon rocketed through me like lightning. I moaned and tried to writhe, to get away from whatever tormented me, but I couldn’t get far.

A hydraulic hiss filled the air and I heard footsteps, followed by heavy male voices speaking a harsh, guttural language I didn’t recognize. They were arguing about something, judging from the tone of their voices. Or maybe they always sounded this pissed off?

Casting my eyes toward my feet, away from the light above, I could see large shapes moving in the darkness surrounding my bed. They inched closer, stepping near enough to become no longer sinister shadows but sinister-looking humanoids. One had skin too dark to be human, almost obsidian, and what looked like scales. Another was pale, almost bright white, and had a vaguely feline look to his eyes and nose, like those people who have gotten too much plastic surgery. A third was green, and actually had claws on the hand he used to tighten whatever was holding my head still.

As they leaned over me, my eyes widened, taking in their large, bulky bodies clad in strange attire: almost tribal-looking leathers and torn one-piece flight suits covered with grime and who knew what else, all sewn together coarsely to fit much larger forms. Their dirty and matted hair resembled dreadlocks, with bits of bone and metal twisted in. What skin showed on their bodies was pierced with hooks and bits of metal, only slightly less terrifying than the wicked-looking blades hanging from their belts. I tried to scream, but my throat caught.

The obsidian-skinned alien leaned over me and spoke in accented Kalybrian that proved it wasn’t his native language, if his looks weren’t clue enough. My rattled brain was still able to translate.

“Do not be afraid, little girl. It is all a bad dream.”

His companions laughed with a terrible mirth, which was made all the more terrifying by the large scalpel rising above me. Any moment it would—

I awoke covered in sweat, crouched in a defensive position by my headboard. Looking around, I tried to get my bearings and take comfort in the familiar surroundings. I was in my bed, in the Elite Hands of Justice headquarters; alone, of course. I was safe, probably safer than almost anyone else on the planet, surrounded as I was by superheroes. My vision had been a simple dream, a terrible nightmare. Just like the monster said.

My head was pounding with the worst migraine I’d ever had. I was used to waking up with migraines; my teenage years had not only brought the usual female hormonal changes and suckiness like cramps and PMS, but also introduced me to accompanying headaches and intense nightmares. As I got older, these seemed to become rarer, slowing down to once a month or less. I only prayed they weren’t on the rise again as I groaned at the familiar and unwelcome feeling comparable to having a scalpel jammed into my right eye.

Scalpel?

That sent me right back to that terrible dream of monsters in the dark doing God knew what to me, and the pain in my head increased. My stomach lurched, and I stumbled to my small bathroom, feeling dizzy and unable to stand upright. I just barely made it before I threw up.

Clutching the toilet like an old friend, I wiped sweaty hair away from my face and cleaned my mouth with a bit of toilet paper. My stomach was still lurching like crazy, but I figured if I didn’t move for a bit I would be okay. The antiseptic smell of cleaning supplies wasn’t helping any, though, and I slid down onto the floor, curling up on the bath mat with my back to the bedroom and the light streaming in.

Why were the monsters in my dream speaking Kalybrian?

I’d thought I had forgotten the language. I certainly hadn’t practiced since the day I returned home. As soon as I’d come back from Kalybri, I plunged back into my life on Earth, putting the whole experience behind me. It wasn’t that it was bad; I just didn’t want to remember.

My head was torn apart by another spike of pain, and I cursed.

Still feeling creepy from the dream, I forced myself to stand. Reaching into my medicine cabinet, I pulled down both migraine pills and my antianxiety medication. (Yes, I’m a hero who gets panic attacks. Sad, I know.) I took both, slurping down some water from a cup with the EHJ logo on it that I kept on the sink just for such an occasion and, pills swallowed, stripped to shower, hoping the warmth would help my head and make me feel more awake and less like I was in that horrible dream state.

Shutting myself inside the stall, curtained off from the rest of the room, gave me a thrill of terror, and I couldn’t help imagining the monsters from my dream lurking outside, ready to spring in and get me. (This is why I don’t watch horror movies.) I shampooed and rinsed as fast as I possibly could, skipping my scented shower gel just so I wouldn’t have to stay any longer than necessary. Soon I stepped back out of the shower to towel off.

Drying my hair and running a brush through it, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I made a face, deciding at that moment that I was over my magenta streaks. It was time to join the bobbed-with-highlights crowd.

Rifling through my clothes didn’t put me in any better mood. Since my revelation the night before, nothing seemed age-appropriate. I finally settled on a pair of fitted jeans and a yellow sweater I didn’t remember buying, and put an updated wardrobe on my mental list of things to do. Slipping on a pair of heels, I grabbed the PDA that I had made myself out of bits of technology that wouldn’t probably be on the market for another ten years, and headed to the daily staff meeting.

Toby was already setting a white Cuppacino takeout cup in front of my seat. He was the only one there. “One chocolate biscotti latte for the lady.”

“Thanks, hon,” I said, taking a seat and hoping the caffeine would put the final nail in the coffin of this migraine.

“You look like hell. Couldn’t sleep?”

“No, I slept. Kind of wishing I hadn’t right now. Had this freaky-ass dream and woke up with a migraine.”