by A L Magnus
“Yes. That’s why I was there, to blow it. I went to a good deal of effort to create a cover here. Not as much as Corey. He’s off saying goodbye to his fireman.” He grinned. “Our favorite trickster can’t resist a big fire hose.”
“Right. Back to business, Erik.”
“I want you to know I’m bending my non-interference rule for you. By the way, the explosives, although primitive compared to our powers, were quite safe. I would never put you in danger.” His fingertip trailed down her cheek to the corner of her mouth. His lips followed it.
He sat back, rippling, his erection writhing.
She wasn’t sure she believed him.
Something flickered in his eyes. Guilt. She filed that for later exploration. Maybe her beloved got her killed. It wouldn’t be the first time. The jaded thought seemed as familiar, and as foreign, as Erik.
Edrial. They said she was Edrial. She was supposed to be his beloved. It was too soon. She didn’t want to be an ancient god, not tonight. She had more important things to do. She had turd buckets to empty. Alten was going to pay for his crappy policies. He created misery for so many people. Lack of medical care, lack of decent affordable housing, Alten didn’t give a damn as long as other shits lined his pockets.
Her anger insulated her from her confusion about Erik. The one thing that saw her through was to stay in action.
They’d go after Alten. After that, she’d consider what to do about the craziness Erik made of her life.
She swallowed and drew her knees up under her chin, shifting away from the too-hot near-stranger. She might not have much time left as Sparks the Truth Teller. She’d finish this up right. Alten would suffer. He was the only council member who had been in power a dozen years ago, when social services cuts he’d spearheaded resulted in a dead end for her mother. It had taken a long time to reach this stage in her plans. Payback time.
Chariot
HIS HAND CAME TO REST on hers. The unexpected comfort pulled her out of her anger.
“Thinking of tonight?”
“Yes. So you’ve stopped listening to my mind?”
“Yes. You asked me to stop.”
She drew a long breath. Resisting him would be easier if he’d stop being so—perfect. “There’s one more thing you can help me with, if it’s not too much...” Shameless, she played to his ego.
“What?”
“We need a car. Alten has an estate in the heights, far from the peons.”
“I’m curious, what were you going to do for transportation if I hadn’t um, wrecked your life?”
“I planned to borrow one. The janitor downstairs keeps his keys in his glove compartment.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s illegal here.”
“Yeah, but it’s for a good cause.”
He smoothed her hair. “Glad I arrived. I’d hate to think what would happen to a pretty morsel like you in prison.” His flashing eyes and dirty smile suggested he was imagining it in detail.
“I’d have to start killing people.” She said it without expression.
Erik whooped. “You haven’t changed.” He ran his hands down his jeans, fingertips grazing his erection. “Alright. What do we watch?”
“Security guards, anyone who might interfere. I think Alten’s blowing one of the security guys, based on the slurping behind the pool house. He’s that kind of hypocrite, too. So many of the Family Values bleaters are.”
“You’ll have to explain all this to me later, but for now, we’ll remain focused on the plan. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get back.”
“To war.” She drove the words as a wedge between them. Nothing he’d said about the realm gave her any desire to make the trip.
Right now, she needed her mind clear, not clouded by the feelings that sucked at her like a riptide every time she looked at him.
His eyes softened, “Yes, my love, to war. It’s important, or I wouldn’t be making you give up this deranged playpen.” He slapped himself. “Sorry. I realize you’re still involved here. If it makes you feel better, we could come back to visit, but when you fully grasp who you are and what you’re doing in the larger scope of things, I don’t think you’ll want to do that.”
She looked out the window and ran her tongue over her teeth. “You’re probably right.” Controlling her voice, she continued. “Just get us a car for tonight. Please.” She wouldn’t promise him anything. There could be a way out of his plans for her, some way to stay behind.
Maybe when he saw more of who she was here, he wouldn’t be so sure Edrial was superior to her human self. Nothing wrong with wanting to go to college and make a difference in the world. Even if it turned out your world and everything in it was a blink. She blinked hard. Fucker.
Well, one good thing, if she left with them—she could enjoy flying. Here, she had to be careful, make sure no one saw. In the other realm, she imagined she’d be free as a bird. Well, free as a bird with gods out to kill it. Lovely.
WHILE THE GUYS WENT to find a car, Sparks paced the studio. She jumped and ran to the door to answer the thundering knock.
Eric stomped in, smeared with grease. He pulled out his wallet.
“We’ll take a cab to the shit bucket’s mansion. How’s that? I’ve been carrying around a phone number in case I need to move like a human. We’ll get out at a distance and walk to it.”
“Why?”
“Corey’s resurrecting the getaway car.” He looked pleased as he uttered the phrase. No doubt he’d watched a lot of local movies.
“Resurrecting?” She waved her hand. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. As long as he’s there when we need to leave.”
“He will be. He’s almost finished with your chariot.”
“Great.” She forced a smile.
They were trying to help. The grease smears extended from his model-handsome face to his hard ass. Her stomach sank. Nothing about this felt promising. Well, if anyone stopped them, they could say their car stalled.
“Alright. You do the honors with calling the cab.” She pulled on her hoodie, holstered her phone, and reached for a belt of—potions—that wasn’t there.
Huh. Seems she used to carry magical tools. That would be cool. Wished she had some tonight.
Having powers she didn’t understand and had little control over wasn’t super useful, but she’d pull this off as Truth Teller. This was for her, and for the people squashed by the rich-fucker policies.
They stood at the side of Alten’s palatial place, under the tree she’d used to get over the wall for her surveillance missions. Sparks checked her phone. Their timing was perfect. Alten would be on the way to visit the au pair he impregnated.
The cab ride had been uneventful, and they didn’t attract any attention as they strolled to the house in the dark.
“You’re appealing as a guy. We could explore this.” Erik’s deep voice caressed her.
His bulk beside her soothed her nerves. Her city’s night dangers were rendered impotent with a giant guardian at her side.
“Keep your mind on being a watchdog.”
“You don’t want to know what I’m thinking.”
“You’re right, I don’t.” Her face burned. Being so near a dirty-minded giant made her horny all the time.
She grabbed the tree and pulled herself up the rough bark.
Erik gave her a boost, his big hands sure on her ass.
She bit back a squeal. “You could warn a person!”
“Next time,” he whispered. He rose and hovered beside her as she climbed out the tree limb over the high wall.
She ignored him and gripped the limp with her thighs, bracing herself with a cross branch.
Alten appeared from his enormous home’s back door right on schedule. He scuttled through the yard keeping to the trees like a cat burglar.
Sparks pulled out her camera and shot him entering the pool house. She activated her high-powered mic and they listened in to the quick kisses and fuck sounds.
�
��I’ll be right back.” Erik flew off and touched down near the house.
“Shit!” Sparks held her position. What the hell was he doing? No, no, no.
Erik entered the house. Moments later, he emerged grinning.
Before she could come up with enough cuss words, he rejoined her.
“We’re all set.”
“What the hell?”
“You want to ruin him, right?”
“Right.” She said between her teeth.
“I took an incriminating picture and put together a going-away package for the young Swedish woman this slime bag has been exploiting.”
She didn’t know whether to damn him, or thank him. Clearly, he had something on Alten, and that counted for a lot, but she wished she knew what the hell he was up too.
Alten, premature ejaculator that he was, smacked the curvaceous au pair on her bottom and started back toward the house.
“Keep watch,” she ordered Erik.
She took a leap and landed in front of Alten.
He yelped and his face went gray, then red. The panic in his eyes was less for her than the fact that she’d fucked his schedule. He had mere minutes to get in the house before his wife got home.
“Be silent, or this goes live right now, you hypocrite turd.” She pressed playback and the fuck noises surrounded them.
“No, shut that off. What do you want? Is it money? Is this blackmail?” He kept his voice low and glanced over his shoulder.
“Oh, you wish.”
“What is it then? I can call my guards and bring in the police. You’re trespassing and...”
“And you’re fucking an au pair who’s in your employ illegally. You got her pregnant, too, scumbag.”
“How dare you—.” His bluster died, and he looked behind him, his hands and head jerking.
“We should just stand here talking until your wife gets back. Then she can watch my vlog and listen to you quickie-hump the underpaid help.”
“No. No.” His voice cracked. “What do you want?”
“I want you out of office, you shit. First, I want you to writhe in agony.”
“What—?” Deep frown lines gave him a cartoonish look.
Sparks lunged. The thought of touching him was revolting, but this was personal.
She grabbed his shirt and yanked it to his throat. She lifted him off his feet. Good timing, super strength.
His feet dangled above the dewy grass, pedaling hopelessly. He choked as his fist reached his Adam’s apple. Buttons popped.
A big car purred up the drive. Its lights highlighted the whites of his eyes.
He pissed himself. The acrid stench of ammonia and armpit fear overpowered the lawn.
She shook him. “You turd. Ah, good. Your wife is home.”
He tried to speak. Nothing but a gurgle made it past her grip.
The temptation to wind him up and throw him across the estate, maybe impale him on his spiked fence fought with her drive to make a point of a less literal kind.
“You’re not good enough to be sorry on your own, so I’ll help you.” Her voice came out so low and dangerous, she didn’t recognize it. Edrial rose in her, fierce in her determination to serve justice.
Both hands took his throat and squeezed.
“Are you sure you want to do that?” Erik whispered.
She jolted into the moment, as though breaking from a dream. She stared at her hands on the council member’s throat. He was nothing. She could teach him nothing.
Her hands relaxed and he dropped to the grass at her feet. He lay there whimpering.
High heels clacked in the distance.
Alten wet himself some more.
“Better. He’s trying too hard to live like a god. he must be punished.” He flung a bulky envelope through the pool house window.
She still couldn’t tell when Erik was kidding. He had her full agreement, though. She wanted to teach Alten a painful lesson.
Closing her eyes, she trusted to her heightened senses. Adrenaline roared through her. Her hearing amplified. A dog’s heartbeat raced in the house. The wife’s key turned in the front door. Someone dialed a cell phone.
The au pair gasped and twitched open the curtain. She stared out, holding her passport and mass of cash to her ample breasts.
“Thank you!” she mouthed.
Erik nodded to her and grinned.
A yellow jacket hive made a low hum from the tree overhead. Yes.
One thing first. She dug into her pack, pulled out the large old glossy photo without looking at it. The image watch etched in her brain.
Sparks crouched and held the photograph in front of Alten’s face.
“This was my mother. She had a mental breakdown when she was twenty six. Because of your war against social services, there was no help for her. I found her dead in the bathtub where she killed herself with sleeping pills. I was seven. Just wanted you to get a look at one of the victims of the city you’ve spawned.
“Where did you get a crime scene photo?” His voice squeaked, but his outrage made spit fly from his mouth.
She shrugged. The picture flamed into nothing.
Sparks spread her hands. “What crime scene photo?”
Focusing her attention, she urged the yellow jackets to fly at Alten, homing in right on his Johnson.
Alten’s shrieks were electrifying.
Ambrosia. She drank in his pain, becoming drunk with it. His minutes of agony were nothing to her mother’s last months of paranoia, rage, and despair.
She grinned at Erik. “I’m thinking we could add someone juicy to our team, a woman.”
“Does this mean you’re not feeling possessive?”
“It does.”
“If you’d wanted monogamy, I would have agreed.”
“I know. I love you for that, and so much more, Erik.” She kissed his cheek. “I can’t fight it. I’m Edrial, even though I don’t know all of what that means yet.” She squared her shoulders. “I’ve been meaning to ask, what is the war?”
“This might seem minor to you after flushing the toilet here to dispose of such foul turds,” he gave Alten a kick. “Well, we’ll talk in private.”
“He won’t remember anything.” She smiled. Edrial had that power. As Sparks, she wasn’t she how it worked, but she was certain she could wipe the turd bucket’s mind of this night. Concentrating, she made it so.
Alten’s face went slack, his eyes blank. He wouldn’t be able to report them. He had no idea they existed. He writhed, doubled over in his mess of bruised grass and loser piss.
“See?”
“Still. I’ve lived this long by being careful.”
“Careful. You?” Flickers of his exploits flashed through him. He was a bad boy god, beyond her previous imaginings. She bit her tongue to keep from mentioning his encounter with Cerberus.
The back door banged open. The mop dog yipped. A man ran toward them, his breathing raspy from too many cigarettes.
“Come on.” Erik grabbed her arm. “We’ve got to go.”
A few late yellow jackets homed in on Alten and the killer of health care wailed.
“Spoilsport.” She stuck out her lip. If the club at her neck and her hoodie didn’t have her hair captive, she’d whip it back. Stray strands fell over her eyes. Erik smoothed them back.
“There are two security guards on their way. We could take care of them, but one of them called the police before he came out here. Damage control time. My lady, your chariot awaits.”
“What do you mean?”
“We need to get our asses over the wall. Corey’s got the engine running on the getaway car. Let’s go!”
“Got it.” She leaped up and boosted herself along the branch, making for the wall. Crack. “Oh, fuck.”
The limb gave way, putting her in free fall. Instinct took over and she lifted off.
No idea how she did it. She hovered over the cement where she would have cracked bones, then a slap on her ass motivated her over the wall.
Except for some people’s. Those were the ones keeping the tabloids alive and buying total horse shit, but sometimes, the paranoid ones were right. It would suck hard if she became known as the flying woman here. That would destroy Truth Teller.
How could she let go of who she’d needed to become?
She ducked through the branches and landed behind the big oak’s trunk.
Wiping mist and tree grime from her face, she got a good look at the idling muscle car. It was extremely loud, V-8 death-rattle loud. It was black, which was good, but it was a junker piece of crap. Her heart sank.
“This is the getaway car?” she asked between her teeth as she pelted across the sidewalk and yanked the door.
“Yeah. Powerful, isn’t it? I mean, for a machine thing without legs.” He grinned. “I still wish I had a wrecking ball.”
The door wouldn’t open. Of course not.
Corey kicked the passenger door, holding the steering wheel for leverage. It creaked loud enough to wake up the block.
Keeping her teeth clamped shut, Sparks slid into the moldy coffin.
Erik squeezed in after her and muscled the door shut with a slam as loud as a shot.
They were fucked.
Sparks braced herself. Any instant the guards or the police would reach them. Erik might get his dirty prison fantasy.
Two Gods. Damn.
AGAINST EXPECTATION, instead of dying on the spot, the piece of shit shot off like a charger.
The old muscle car threw her back against the seat as hard as Erik once threw her down in the arena. Oh, yes. The memories were coming back, that giant stud landing on her as the crowd cheered.
She held the dash as the car peeled out, and grabbed Erik as it cornered on two wheels.
The muscular studs on each side of her helped keep her in place. She got part of her wish for tonight, but this wasn’t the kind of sandwich she’d had in mind.
Alright then. They might escape. Sirens filled the night behind them, and spotlights. “Fuck oh fuck.”
