Blood Legion: Adamantine Chronicles Book Two

by D. R. Rosier

  “Hey, gorgeous. Looks like you had a good morning,” I teasingly smiled.

  She blushed, but nodded in agreement, “Carol is a sweetheart, and a naughty kitten in bed. She just gave me the most amazing wakeup call…”

  I barked a laugh, and blushed myself, “Been there, hell of a morning isn’t it?”

  She smirked, walked over, and sat in my lap sideways, with her arm around my shoulder. She gave me a long lingering kiss.

  “So, you?”

  I shrugged, subconsciously, “We had a good night, had fun on our date. She slept in the bed next to me. It, was actually a bit hard when we got back here…”

  I explained the new plan, and that I was okay with it. I stuck with the her being unable to sleep with any man part without freaking out, but I avoided the rest. I even told her that things could change, but I had no idea if that was true, it was up to Tina if they did. I told her Tina would fill her in on her personal part when I sparred with Carol.

  She looked confused, and on the edge of anger. I think the only reason she didn’t go off the cliff was because I was both holding her and was so calm myself.

  She said angrily, “That makes no sense, why would she say all that she said to me, to talk me into this, if she couldn’t even let you kiss her?”

  I nodded, “That’s what she needs to talk to you about. She… fucked up, made some assumptions that backfired. Just remember I forgave her okay, and I’m alright with it.”

  She frowned, “Why?”

  I shrugged, “Because I know you like them both, I didn’t want to lose you or Carol, and I felt compassion for Tina’s… life and situation. Lots of reasons, because if I didn’t it would’ve torn us all apart.”

  She kissed me, and it was an angry kiss.

  “I love you, but I’m not waiting until later. I’ll just get angrier, and I’ll lose my mind. Do you want to fuck? You didn’t last night.”

  Is that why she was angry? No, couldn’t be. But that was twisted up in it somehow, in her mind, why else would she offer, when she was so obviously not in the mood anymore. Her earlier morning post coital buzz was completely gone.

  “I’ll be fine, it was one night, and you took care of me last night before you left. You’re kind of angry right now, my love, and angry sex wouldn’t be good for either of us.”

  I hoped I made the right decision, and she wouldn’t feel rejected, but it was how I felt. Wild, fun, loving, nasty and lusty, was all good. Angry sex to take care of me just seemed… really wrong. In short, I didn’t want it if she didn’t really want it. The last thing I wanted from the love of my life was a pity fuck.

  Her eyes flashed as she got up without another word and headed for the door.

  Damn, I thought, while she headed to the door with a scowl. I started to wonder if Tina had even told me the whole story, or what she’d done to seduce Alyssa into this. I was sure Alyssa had been faithful, but maybe I didn’t have the full truth yet. I didn’t know, I just knew it was very rare to see my goddess of magic that pissed off. No, not rare, I’d never seen her that angry. My door slammed as she walked out.

  Well, shit. So much for fixing it.

  It was Monday morning and another day off. I was back up in my apartment. The workout had been tense between all of us to say the least, and even with Carol’s focused expressionless face and intense blue eyes, I could tell she wasn’t happy during our morning spar session.

  After that, I figured someone would’ve filled me in, but nope. Carol and Alyssa took off for their patrol early, apparently eager to flee the building. Tina had left right after them, and that morning she hadn’t bothered to fill me in even tangentially on her errands. I felt a little abandoned, but at the same time it wasn’t hard to brush off, Alyssa was angry, but I was fairly sure she wasn’t angry with me.

  Mostly.

  We’d talk when she calmed down, and I’d find out what was going on. I already kind of knew even then. After all, Tina had seduced and manipulated Alyssa into this whole thing, so I was sure that hit her harder than it’d hit me last night. She must’ve been weighing everything that happened, and she must’ve been struggling to pick out what was true or not. Perhaps she was mad at me, for daring to forgive Tina for what she’d done to Alyssa.

  I’d find out.

  Point was, I was at loose ends again in that moment.

  I was going to fill the time by working on my new conjured suit enchantments, I still had to finish the shuttle, and then the atmospheric flyer version before I even started on any of the weapon and other system enchantments, but I remembered I wanted to retry the power source enchantment once the truth had sunk into my head, after a couple of days.

  So, I pulled out a new shark tooth, I’d bought them in bulk.

  That time, instead of a shack, or a small three tier tower, I imagined the tooth was a skyscraper. It was pretty simple to imagine it being the size of the empire state building, I’d been there a bunch of times during my year as a hero in New York. Then I closed my eyes, pushed out all my personal baggage which was a relief, and then focused on the meta-energy power core enchantment. I imagined it filling the vast skyscraper, with the power of the sun, and with very wide channels to both absorb and give me meta-energy. I just, put everything I had into it, and lost myself in the single purpose of the moment for about an hour.

  I smirked, when I studied the thing, it was everything I’d hoped that the first one would be. It gathered power quickly, about six times faster than I did, and channeled it with equal facility. That meant it could gather as much energy in thirty minutes, as I could fill up from empty in three hours. It would also make my weapons seven times powerful, if I needed them to be.

  The most important part was its capacity, which was vast. I wasn’t even sure, but even with the faster speed it would take days to fill up. Not on the level of my Alyssa, but I suspected it would hold more energy than Nightstar was capable of wielding. It would be somewhere around a hundred and fifty times my personal power, which would take two days and a few hours to fill up.

  It had also just turned me into a major S-class threat.

  I opened my amulet chain, slid off the other two, and slid on the new one. I wouldn’t need three, not when the new one was so powerful. It didn’t take much focus to channel energy from the enchantment to Rose, but obviously the less going on in my mind the better I could fight.

  I took a moment to wipe out the double power enchantment, erased it off the tooth so it could be used for other purposes. When my focus moved to the second one, I stopped for a second as a thought occurred, and then I started to debate internally. I’d sworn to myself I’d never set an enchantment with its own powerful power source, but I considered doing just that, for a good cause, and for someone I trusted with my life.

  Someone I loved, and worried about sometimes, despite her great power.

  I closed my eyes, and enchanted the three times my power energy source, with a purpose. Then with the blanked tooth, I created a third home for Rose, with all the enchantment hooks so she could run the armor and power distribution from it, as well as connect to her ten-gigabit internet connection, and I put that one back on my necklace. So, I still had six on my necklace, one much improved power source, and Rose’s soon to be new home. I had two more on either side for my new armor when it was done. They were actually on the necklace at that point already, they just weren’t even close to done yet.

  I took a break, and I slammed an iced tea while I tried not to think about earlier that morning. I couldn’t fix it, and I had to be patient and wait. I was sure when Alyssa calmed down, her compassion for Tina would kick in. Tina did care about and love Alyssa, she was just wounded, and had done something extremely stupid with the best of intentions.

  I started to debate with myself, on what to do next. It was barely lunchtime, and I wasn’t really hungry. I could either get back to my armor, or I could start on Rose’s stuff. I also debated where to set up Rose’s body, powers, and clothes amulet enchantments
. I could use the lamp which I set up as a backup, or I could use the tooth around my neck. Both had advantages, and disadvantages.

  The most obvious of which was the lamp could be stolen. On the other hand, I’d set up the backup in the first place in case something very bad happened to me, and my armor and her home was destroyed. If that scenario happened, she’d be stuck in the lamp without a body.

  “Do you have a preference?”

  Rose replied, “Both? That’s about five enchantments each, ten in total. But I’d feel safer around your neck, so start with that one, and do the other when you have time?”

  Yeah, her body, clothes enchantment, and three lightly offensive enchantments. I planned to give her a sonic stun attack, the electricity, and the cuff enchantment, just in case. The first would stun aggressive humans, the second would stun unshielded supers, and the third would give her time to run. I didn’t want her fighting, not really, but she’d have the tools to disable and run. Plus, her body alone would be a B-class fighter with speed, strength, and toughness.

  Worse come to worst though, she could just let her body unravel, and create it again in a safe place. It’d just be temporary conjured matter, if of soft and warm flesh and blood.

  I was about to start on that when the building alarm went off…

  “Where’s my partner?”

  We were in the sky already, heading toward to the fight. Myriad and White Witch were facing off against a major supervillain threat, and Red Siren wasn’t answering her cell phone, didn’t have her ear piece on, and was god only knew where. I was pissed about that, and a little worried too. She wouldn’t blow off the on-call requirements without a driving reason, what the hell had happened that morning between the ladies?

  Rose said, “Unknown, her phone is turned off. I’m doing a search, but I assume we won’t find her for a while.”

  I blew out a breath. So be it, the three of us would have to handle it. I zoomed as I approached the scene for a quick peek, and there were five of them. They were dressed in black, all of them, but each of their suits had different accents. One of the black bodysuits was covered in flames, another with swirling droplets of water, a third with tornados, a fourth with swords and knives, and the fifth with… plants?

  I guessed four of them were the four elements, and the fifth must’ve been nature, or something? There was one woman among them, and she was in the black catsuit with flames.

  Rose said, “Blood legion. They’re a supervillain family.”

  “How is that possible, that they all quickened I mean?”

  Rose replied, “Unknown, presumably a shared danger, where they were all under threat of death. The fact they encompass the four elements and nature is a curiosity though, and it seems to indicate it was somehow influenced to be that way. Which should be impossible.”

  I snorted, “Unless they planned it that way, and screwed with their kids heads to guide them in that direction. Maybe the parents were already fire and…” It was hard to tell who the father was, they all had their faces covered, and all four men were built the same, wiry and tall.

  She replied, “Earth. They’re also S-class threats, every one of them.”

  Right, no problem. I blew out a breath, right.

  I frowned as there was no more time for discussion, when my eyes failed to pick out the love of my life. Myriad was split, two were struggling to close with wind, and the third was… bashing on cement? The shape of the stone block was just about big enough to enclose a person.

  Myriad yelled, “Get her out of there, she can’t breathe!”

  Then the Myriad hitting the stone ran for the green one.

  I dodged and weaved in my suit, as several plasma blasts came at me. Holy shit, supervillain mom had some juice, not just a typical fire wielder at all. One of them hit my shield, and it packed quite a wallop, but Rose took care of it as I fed her some energy. I worried over how to free White Witch for a moment, not wanting to hurt her, until I realized nothing I had would ever get through her shields. I pointed my gauntlet toward the stone and fired three rail gun slugs in a line up the stone prison, and it exploded into small blocks and dust.

  When the dust cleared, I saw White Witch taking deep gulps of air. What the hell had happened, and how had they done it? Whatever it was, supervillain dad was a part of it, earth guy. So I went for him first. Except, at that point I had fire and ice blasts to worry about and dodge, while Myriad faced off against air and nature. That left Earth trying to get at Alyssa again, who gently rose from the ground.

  That made sense, she’d gotten caught on the ground walking with Myriad, just like I’d been walking with Red Siren, but I still didn’t understand how they’d almost killed a goddess of magic.

  I frowned in concentration, and I started to circle them from five hundred feet up, there was a lot of steam in the air as the fire and ice combined, and I thought those two were clever. They were hitting me, not enough to end things, but they were also using the steam to make it hard to see them. In short, they were obviously used to teamwork, since I imagined both earth and air had something to do with Alyssa not being able to breath or speak, although I had no idea how they’d done it yet.

  Point was, these guys were all s-class, and teamwork wasn’t something supervillains usually did well.

  Enough planning, I raised my gauntlet, and shot two plasma blasts at nature guy, who had somehow managed to get Myriad tied up in vines that were slowly constricting around her body. He had to go down fast.

  Before my plasma could reach the bastard, a blast of wind shoved the plasma ball, and it impacted the ground several feet away from the asshole. Shit, definitely good at teamwork, and while thinking of what to try next, I got hit by more plasma, and a shard of ice that felt like a punch from an A-class. I went flying backward in a tumble, and felt a bit shaken, but that was nothing new and I ignored it. The healing ring would take care of whatever just bruised my body.

  I narrowed my eyes, let’s see the bitch deflect this.

  I lifted my left gauntlet, and I gave Rose a lot of energy as I strafed down their whole line with my rail gun, as fast I could fire it. They impacted all the targets, who went flying back, but back roll flipped and landed on their feet just fine. My scanners were telling me they had plenty of energy left for healing, but at least I’d stalled their attacks for a moment.

  White Witch was in the middle of a spell, and Myriad struggled to get out of the vine and was failing. Myriad was in some real trouble.

  White Witch raised her hand an ice storm exploded out toward nature guy. It demolished his shield, and while it didn’t kill him, he looked partially frozen as he fell to the ground, or at least his skin was covered in small ice particles.

  I let out a small sigh of relief, as Myriad escaped the vines. Meanwhile the other two Myriads had been able to take advantage of the distraction I’d provided to close with air. One went low, the other high, and I actually winced as he spun into the air and then was slammed into the ground. Air still had plenty of shield left, but that had drained a lot, and Myriad went into one of her disturbingly hot and violent kick ass modes, air guy wouldn’t last long.

  The barrage of fire and ice started up again, or at least, I thought it had, but long before the attack reached me the large plasma ball exploded the ice into steam and mist which took them all out of visual range.

  I rocketed toward the ground, and raised my right gauntlet, as soon as she came into sight, supervillain mom was going to take a nap. I started to pour as much as I could into an ice ray, seven times my previous limit, which should just take her down. Damn, I really needed to learn their names.

  When I got through the mist and landed on the ground, it was still fogged up, majorly, and I suspected the fire and ice combo was the first one they did, and the follow up ones had been obscured.

  Fortunately, I had my scanner, and I didn’t really need to see them at all. I knew where all five villains were, as well as my sweet mischievous goddess of magic, and my warr
ior goddess.

  I fired my ray, and it hit, but the bitch dropped and rolled fast enough to evade most of it. Then they were running. Stone, or supervillain dad, picked up nature guy, and they made it about ten feet when they took to the sky. Shit, they could fly too? I fought off the desire to chase them, they worked too well together, and even if my new power source was already partially filled, it would take two days to be full. There’s no way I could take them alone.

  “Do we chase?”

  Myriad said, “I’m almost done.”

  I felt that, her invulnerability and power had taken a beating from air and nature.

  White Witch said, “No, we regroup, and plan how to take them. They support each other too well, and work in teams.”

  I nodded, and let out a sigh, “What the hell happened?”

  White Witch sighed, “I should’ve left the ground when the party started. None of them had gravity, so I got cocky. They couldn’t get through my shields, but they didn’t have to. Air created a pocket of vacuum around me, outside of my shield. It sucked the air away from me, and then stone guy created a stone prison around me, so the air pressure wouldn’t revert. So, I was trapped, and there wasn’t enough air to breathe or even speak. So, I couldn’t cast.”

  She gave me a meaningful look, and then looked at the large hotel across the street. I translated that to mean she could have used her energy blast to escape, but that it probably would have destroyed not only the stone prison, but half the hotel and hundreds of lives. Obviously, she couldn’t say that out loud in the moment, not with Jenna and probably Millicent listening on the line.

  She shrugged, “I won’t make that mistake again, and I’ll include an air supply rejuvenation in my shield spell from now on now that I know of that danger. Thanks, by the way.”

  I smiled, even if she couldn’t see it, she’d hear it in my voice.

  “Anytime, White Witch.”

  They both looked around and frowned, and I could see another question in their eyes.