Temptress (6 page)

Deena lay on the ground, kicking a determined Rob in the head, while Oprah had the office boy in a one-armed headlock.

Drake kicked his statue aside. “Center of the room, Chance!”

Looking a little gray in Oprah’s grasp, Chance squinted in my direction. A rumble sounded above, and I tipped my head back in time to see the chandelier on its way down. No time to pick a power out of the hat. I thrust upward, trusting my self-preservation instincts.

As black and silver energy crackled up my arms, nausea boiled in my stomach. It would be
that
power.

A gaping portal opened at my fingertips. Burning hot air whooshed into the lobby with a chorus of otherworldly screams that made my ears ache. The crackling power singed my skin, but I gritted my teeth and held on.

The chandelier crashed into the hell dimension.

Before any demons or other beasties slipped out, I cut the energy. My knees buckled and I crashed into the ice. Brimstone lingered in the air, or maybe that was just my charred skin. My burns stuck to the frozen floor. I wanted to scream, but I wasn’t out of it yet.

Drake had wrestled free of the wax figures, and our gazes locked. He smirked and flashed invisible.

Bastard!

I couldn’t sense the field at all. Not that I was at my best. I could barely scrape myself off the floor.

“Drake!” Chance called. Still pinned by Oprah, he was paling by the second.

“Wait!” Deena kicked out in desperation, finally breaking free of Rob. She was going to get away. With the last of my energy, I slapped the ground.

Tiles rippled under my hands, and the people who hadn’t cleared far enough away started to sink. The matter shift should’ve flashed across the room in a blink, but I was too weak. The wax statues collapsed as I focused my last concentration on the ripples creeping toward Deena and Chance.

The floor sucked at Deena’s heels, but freed of the statues, she clawed her way to the doors. Chance wasn’t so lucky. He’d fallen under the dead wax, and sank until only head and bent knees peeked above the tiles.

I tried to conjure a barrier to stop Deena, but a sharp pain jabbed my skull. I’d overspent the mental abilities, and I was so going to pay for it. She shoved into the crowd outside, disappearing from my field of view. The security team would have to deal with that one. Where the hell were they, anyway? I’d been tearing up their gaming floor, and I hadn’t seen one guy with a crew cut.

I tried to sit up, but my skin tugged against the ice. Stuck. My body shook from pain, exhaustion and the beginning of shock. I’d pay for all the powers I’d used, but the portal most of all. Good girls weren’t supposed to open hell dimensions.

The crowd tittered, and a few brave souls crept forward, carefully stepping through melted patches. So many cell phones were pointed in my direction that the rolling video was almost audible. I groaned. So much for moving penthouses. I was going to need a new continent. Maybe Antarctica.

Before I passed out, I took a deep breath and wrenched my arms off the floor. Quarter-sized pieces of charred flesh tore away on the ice and the searing pain shot white spots in front of my eyes. Dizzy out of my mind, I was on the way to the floor again when strong arms grabbed my shoulders.

“That was some show.” Tank swept me into his arms. The quick motion blurred my vision. I could see two of him again. Two pairs of dark, unamused eyes.

“You’re bleeding.” I reached to wipe the trickle from one of his foreheads, but my hand wouldn’t lift high enough.

“I’m bleeding?” His eyebrows lifted. “I got a piece of a light bulb. You look like you got hit by a train.” Recognizing Tank, the crowd started to cheer. I winced at the sound and he tilted my head toward his chest, away from the cell cameras. “Want to get out of here?”

“You got Han and the super?”

“Steve took them off my hands. I ran for it but missed the fight.” Tank said. “Can’t wait to watch the highlights on Youtube.”

I groaned. “Let me down.”

“You can stand?”

“Probably not. Humor me.”

Tank eased me to my feet and held me steady as I wobbled. Security finally made their appearance, pushing the crowd back. I caught a few choice lines from the onlookers:

“Temptress and Thinktank are working together?”

“Wasn’t that Demonik’s portal? Isn’t he dead?”

“Make out with her!”

I shot a glare at the guy who’d said the last. His cell slipped from his fingers into his beer. That was one less viral video on my conscience.

“You need a hospital.” Tank gripped my shoulder. “Look at yourself.”

I glanced at the pus and blood that oozed from my arms and shrugged. “I have a pharmacy at home.”

It took everything I had to break away from him and walk across the floor. My legs shook, my vision spun, and every part of me throbbed. But the guy buried in the floor couldn’t be feeling too hot either. I sank to my knees next to him.

Chance took rapid breaths, his eyes as wide and panicked as a cornered bunny. The floor had solidified, burying his chest and lower body. No amount of probability manipulation was getting him out of that. I patted his forehead. “Want to tell us about your boss now or later?”

“Wo…n’t….” he chattered. “Won’t talk…”

“Whatever.” I’d read his mind later. After a handful of horse pills and two or three days of solid sleep. I bent for a kiss, conscious of Tank behind me. He shifted, using his body to shield from the cameras.

Chance’s eyelids fluttered as his powers shifted over. The addition wasn’t so much a rush, but it gave me the energy to stand.

One of the casino managers bustled over now that the pyrotechnics seemed to be over. Cindy. She had a bad perm and a worse attitude.

I waved and started to walk away.

She gasped. “Ms. Ray! You can’t leave him buried in our lobby!”

I froze. Ms. Ray? With this many onlookers? The bitch knew better than to use my name in public. I whirled. Heat boiled through my body.

Tank made a grab for me, but I brushed him aside.

“You…you…” Cindy trembled.

“Get me a luggage cart.”

I could feel my eyes glowing. Fear tinged the spectators’ faces. But what did it matter? Everyone with a computer was going to know Temptress was back, and living in Vegas. It would be open season for every supervillain I’d ever screwed over.

“Wha…?” Cindy cowered back.

“A luggage cart. Now.”

Cindy called for a baggage boy, and after a drawn out minute, he rolled the cart into the lobby.

I snatched the cart. “You’re going to want to move.”

Lasers shot from my eyes. I cut a neat rectangle around Chance to the sounds of gasps and camera flashes. Once the block of floor was loose, I pounded a fist into the tile and conjured Steel’s strength, one-arming Chance onto the cart. “That better, Cindy?”

She covered her mouth with a hand and backed away.

“Je—” Tank reached for me again, but I cut him off.

“Why don’t you bring the car around, honey? Hope I didn’t over pack.” The cart groaned under the weight of Chance and half a ton of tile and cement, but I pushed forward. All I could see was a rectangle of reddish light where the doors should be. As I crossed the threshold, I wasn’t so much guiding the cart as clinging to it. What little energy I’d sucked from Chance was spent.

“Tank…” I whispered as the world shot to black.

“Got you.” He lifted me into his arms. “You need to go to—”

“No hospital. Please. Take me home?”

He sighed, and I thought I felt him brush back a lock of my hair. “You win.”

It didn’t feel like it to me. I scrunched my eyes and pressed my face into Tank’s chest, finally relaxing as blissful oblivion took away the pain.

Chapter Six

Jenny slumped in my arms. That she’d even been able to stand was a miracle.

No. She was that tough. I tucked her against me, shielding her from the growing crowd. She was also insane.

Steve pushed through with more of the security team. “You’ve got her?”

“I’ll take care of her. Can you deal with that?” I nodded toward the baggage cart.

“We’ll figure it out.” Steve elbowed a path to the curb and waved down a cab. “You two get out of here.”

I ducked inside, careful not to jostle Jenny. She looked half-dead.

“Where to?” The cabbie glanced back, but either didn’t notice anything unusual or didn’t care. It was Vegas.

Part of me wanted to say the closest hospital, but Jenny was right. They wouldn’t be able to help her. “The Palms.”

We pulled out as the first news van pulled in. I ducked my head, which brought me closer to her. She smelled like an unholy combination of sulfur and cherry blossoms. Ragged burns scored her arms and dark circles nested under her eyes.

I moved curls away from her face. So soft and defenseless in sleep, it was hard to imagine the firepower Jenny held. Or that anyone could carry so many abilities.

The last moments of the fight had been a spectacle—the tip of an unimaginable iceberg. She could’ve fried me instead of taking my powers.

I couldn’t understand her, and I doubted mind-reading would crack the girl. She breezed into a four-on-one with no plan, no backup and the swagger of a heavyweight champ. She could afford the attitude with that arsenal, but it was no way to live. How many times had she been sent home to an empty penthouse wounded like this?

She needed handlers, or a support staff. Other heroes.

That was the part that made me want to kick a hole through the bottom of the cab. Jenny didn’t want to be a hero. She could change the world if she wasn’t so stubbornly committed to her life in the shadows. She didn’t have to suffer like this. At the very least, she didn’t have to suffer alone.

We rolled to a stop in front of the Palms, and I tried to reach for my wallet without jostling her.

The curbside door flew open. “Jenny?” Seth stuck his head in. The worry left his face as soon as he turned to me. “Is she okay?”

“I’ve got her.” I slid out of the car. “Can you take care of this? My hands are full.”

The cabbie shouted as I walked away. Seth shot me another glare, but leaned through the window to take care of the fare. He’d follow us like a puppy if I let him.

It was quieter on the casino floor, but not deserted. We might’ve passed for an average guy carrying his drunken girlfriend home, but I was too recognizable and Jenny’s arms looked like raw meat. The people who noticed us glared like I was the bad guy. Wasn’t used to that.

As far as I could tell, we made it to her penthouse without anyone calling the cops. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t, especially if I had to kick down the door. I’d never seen a keycard. Jenny stirred in my arms, her lids opening.

“Your key?”

She groaned, and her arm slipped off her chest. Her fingertip touched the key plate.
Click.
The green light flashed.

What couldn’t she do?

As I resettled her to grab the door handle, Jenny scrunched her eyes, letting loose a soft sound of pain. It was her first complaint, which was impressive for anyone who looked that ragged.

I eased her onto her bed and wondered if I should change her into more comfortable clothes. No. She’d just get pissed when she came to. First priority was treating her wounds. I moved into the bathroom in search of bandaging.

The cabinet under the sink was an addict’s dream. I wished I had my power to count the bottles, but I almost didn’t want to know. This shit wasn’t aspirin.

Vicodin. Oxycontin. Calcitonin. That one was for amputees.

Only the closest bottles were for pain. The girl had medicated ointments and eye drops, antibiotics and cases of needles and syringes. Even suturing thread.

What the hell was she doing to herself?

I grabbed bandages and burn cream. She didn’t stir as I wrapped her arms. She probably needed more treatment—a bruise formed on her chin, and her nose was still swollen from earlier—but mostly she needed rest. As I spread a blanket over her, I looked closer. Despite the dark circles, with those long lashes and cherry lips she couldn’t look anything but beautiful.

I wanted to kiss her.

To get my powers back.

I wanted to kiss her to get my powers back.

At least that was what I should’ve been thinking. I backed away and flicked off the light. If I didn’t keep it together, this girl would own me. She already had my powers. I couldn’t afford to give her more.

I moved into one of the guest bedrooms, pulling out my cell as I lay on the bed. With the lights off, the Vegas skyline glittered. I’d already spoken with the chief of police. He’d corroborated Jenny’s story. Steel was in custody and his trial would be fast-tracked with testimonies overseen by Verity, the truth-seeing super who judged high-profile cases. He’d probably be out before I was. I’d been about to call the feds to report the whole Vegas P.D., but the chief had put himself on the line in Jenny’s defense. She was a good girl. She’d never slipped up like this before, but she’d set it right.