The Ian Dex Supernatural Thriller Series: Books 5 - 7 (Las Vegas Paranormal Police Department Box Sets Book 2)
Page 42
Well, that about settled the debate over Gabe being a raving lunatic or not.
Then again, maybe all parents did shit like this to their kids? I didn’t really have much of a reference point aside from shows like The Brady Bunch, and I had a difficult time believing that was even remotely realistic.
As an aside, am I the only one who preferred Jan over Marsha?
“Loved those braces,” The Admiral sighed wistfully.
“Anyway,” I said, shaking myself back to the moment, “you essentially fucked with me my entire life, and now you want me to embrace you with open arms? Uh, no.” I then leaned in a bit and added, “That’s the summary from my side, if you give a shit.”
He blinked stoically. “Sometimes we must make sacrifices for the greater good, son.”
“Quit it with the ‘son’ stuff, will you?” I rasped. “And sacrifices are fine if you know you’re making them and if you agree with the cause in the first place.”
His expression changed to one of concern.
“I’m assuming you do agree with how well you turned out?” he asked. “Can crime continue in Las Vegas now that you have the powers I’ve given you?”
Technically, crime could continue just fine, but he had a point. It’d only be a matter of time before word got out that I was now a major badass. Once that happened, only supers who had a death wish would fuck with my town.
“Okay, I’ll give you that one, but I have a feeling you’re not planning to stop there.”
“Of course not,” he replied, rubbing his hands together like a maniacal evil genius. Technically, I guess that’s precisely what he was. “Between me, you, and Wynn, we will grow an entirely new batch of amalgamites. Then we’ll distribute them throughout the world and everyone will follow my rule of law without question.”
That caused an eyebrow to raise.
“Your rule of law?”
His face twitched slightly.
“You know what I mean.”
“Yeah,” I agreed with a heavy dose of sarcasm, “I really do.”
“Good.” His smile was wide and proud. “Soon, the world will bow to the Dexingtons.”
I grunted and then cracked my neck from side to side. Things were about to go south for old Gabe. I still couldn’t believe this guy was my dear old dad.
“How come my brothers thought their last name was Dex?” I asked. “I mean, I get why you did that with me, but why them?”
“In case they were captured, of course.”
“Ah, right.” That’s when a thought struck me. “What about…Mom?”
“Mom?”
“Yeah, what happened to her? Is she still around?”
“You didn’t technically have a mother,” he answered, looking a bit uncomfortable. “There was an egg, certainly, but it was chosen at random. I fertilized the egg using genetically altered sperm that contained DNA adjustments and additions from various supernatural donors. The only one you didn’t get was dragon. It was just too complicated and risky.”
“So you made me out of jizz soup?”
He frowned. “That is a juvenile way to put it, but essentially yes.”
“Which means that you aren’t technically my father.”
“My sperm was part of the concoction, and I did raise you.”
“No, you didn’t,” I shot back. “You paid others to raise me.”
“Technicalities,” he said, waving a dismissive hand at me. “You are my son and together we will rule the world.”
There he went again with the megalomaniac talk.
I was sure that his heart had been in the right place all those years ago when this all started, but it was clear that Gabe’s power exploded his ego somewhere along the way. Regardless, it was clear that he had no doubt that running the world under his ‘law’ was for the best. Dictators tended to get pretty fucked in the head over time.
Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.
- Lord Acton
Again, I watched a lot of documentaries.
“Here’s the thing, Pop,” I said, realizing the shit was about to hit the fan, “I think you’ve lost touch with reality a bit, and I’m not about to back the next Hitler or Stalin.”
He went to open his mouth and then grimaced.
“Don’t you think you’re being somewhat dramatic, son?”
“Says the guy who just announced that he wanted to rule the world?” I scoffed. “You’ve lost your marbles, old man. Worse, I was damn close to implicitly trusting you, but…”
I just shook my head.
He closed his eyes and took in a long, slow breath.
“I understand that you may be somewhat upset,” he said in a diplomatic tone of voice, “but that will soon pass.”
“Even if it did, I’m not going to be a part of your draconian plans.”
His eyes creased and his skin flushed. Obviously, Gabe was not a fan of the way I viewed his chosen path.
“You will be a part of my plans, Ian Rupert Dexington, or you will be killed.”
My jaw hung open.
“My middle name is fucking ‘Rupert’?”
I then jolted again at the breadth of what he’d just said to me.
“And, secondly,” I added, “did you seriously just do the parent thing where you called me by my full name?”
His face was so tight it looked to have been chiseled from granite.
“I have no more time for games,” he announced. “I have invested heavily into you over the years, both financially and emotionally. But you are a grown man now. You may choose to do as you please.” He stared at me. “What will it be, son? Do you plan to cast aside your pointless emotions and follow me now, or will you choose to die?”
“Well, when you put it like that,” I said, shaking my head sadly, “I guess I’ll have to die, then.”
“Excellent,” he said. “Finally, some sense…” He then glanced up at me, looking baffled. “What?”
“I’m not going to help you, Gabe,” I stated firmly. “In fact, I’m going to do everything within my power to stop you.”
The look on his face was a mixture of sadness and irritation.
“Pity.”
CHAPTER 43
T he one thing I wasn’t sure of was how my sister fit in to all of this. If it was just me against Gabe, I was cool with that, but Wynn was probably a lot like me, meaning she’d be tough to beat.
On top of that, I had no idea what other tricks Gabe had up his sleeve. I doubted he was unprepared, though. He just wasn’t the type.
Still, I was taken by surprise when he sprouted fangs and long, sharp fingernails.
Even more surprising was that my fangs and nails popped out a moment later. It was as if he could control what my body was doing, too. That was my guess anyway, seeing that I sure as hell didn’t purposefully dive into vampire mode.
“I will battle you with each fathet of our genetic makeup,” he declared, demonstrating that he, too, had yet to master the vampire lisp. “Thith will demonthtrate to you firththand that you cannot win againtht me.”
“Wait,” I said, “are you thaying that you’re an amalgamite altho?”
“Yeth,” he replied. “My path wath not as eathy ath yourth, though. I had to thuffer through the entire protheth ath an adult. It wath…difficult.”
He lunged at me, raking his claws at my head in a burst of speed that caught me off guard. One of his nails connected, slicing its way across my temple, causing blood to pour into my left eye.
I swung back, but he jumped away before I could connect. If he continued moving at this speed, I’d be dead in no time.
Then, he leaped backward and turned into a werewolf. It happened all in one motion. Smooth. I’d dare say, he’d practiced. Then again, if that were the case, why wouldn’t he have practiced speaking without a lisp when in fanged mode?
The other thing I n
oticed was that he didn’t howl.
There was no time to think about that right now, because my body twisted, sending shocks of pain radiating through every fiber of my being.
My howl was intense.
Too bad it was silenced by the crushing blow of Gabe plowing into me, knocking me flat on my ass. Then, my belly exposed, he went to wrap his massive jaws around my throat.
Uh…no.
I kicked up, sending him flying overhead as I struggled to get back to my feet.
We both spun to face each other at the same time, growling and showing our teeth like a couple of Rottweilers who were fighting over the same treat.
His eyes flashed.
He was going werebear, and that meant I was too.
As if the pain of turning into full wolf wasn’t bad enough, going full werebear was fucking ridiculous. I finally understood why Portman was gruff and often grumpy.
That shit was unbearably painful.
Gabe and I collided, tearing at each other with massive paws and teeth. Our roars were so loud that I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn the people in the Absinthe tent above us heard us.
We wrestled for a solid minute, neither of us getting ahead of the other. Sure, there were bites, and slashes, and plenty of blood, but nothing that either of us couldn’t withstand.
Gabe pushed away and changed again.
This time, into a pixie.
CHAPTER 44
I ’d never seen the world from such a vantage point. Everything was gigantic. The already large room appeared multiple times larger than before.
“What the fuck?” I said, looking at my hands.
“Quiet, you penis-hole taster!” Gabe demanded.
It was really strange hearing him talk that way, but I did take some solace in that he didn’t seem to be very good at it.
“What’s your plan now, cum donut?” I asked. “Are we going to race around the room or something?”
“No, you gargantuan taint stain,” he replied, crossing his little arms. “We’re going to have a Joke-off!”
Oh, goodie.
I’d wiped up an actual pixie at this not long ago. Somehow I thought Gabe wasn’t going to have a chance. He was too proper. Of course, that could also prove to be a problem for me since Joke-offs required the other side to laugh in order for the current joke-teller to get a point.
Gabe was not one who seemed prone to jocularity.
“Fine,” I said, feeling weird at hearing my voice sounding so small and tinny. “What kind of jokes are we going to do?”
“Free-for-all,” Gabe replied.
“I didn’t know that was an option.”
“It’s my game, pube-comber,” he sneered. “That means we play by my rules.”
Gabe clearly had a thing about people playing by his rules.
“Okay,” I started. “A guy is at the shrink’s office in the middle of a session. The shrink pulls out a bunch of cards that have inkblots all over them.”
“A Rorschach test,” affirmed Gabe. “Go on.”
“Right, well, the doctor tells the patient to say the first thing that comes to mind upon seeing each picture.” I cleared my throat. “He shows the first one and the patient says, ‘That’s a guy and a girl doing it on the bed.’ The doctor shows the second one and the guy remarks, ‘That’s a guy and a girl doing it on the kitchen table.’ The doctor says, ‘Hmmm,’ and shows another image. This time the patient says, ‘That’s a guy and a girl doing it on a park bench.’ The doctor finally sets the cards down and remarks, ‘I think I know what your problem is. All you think about is sex.’ The patient looks affronted at this diagnosis and shoots back, ‘Hey, Doc, they’re your pictures!’”
Gabe didn’t even crack a smile.
“Tough crowd,” I mumbled. “Right, well, your turn.”
“A three-legged dog walked into a pub in the Old West,” Gabe began. “He scanned the room with menace and said, ‘I’m looking for the man who shot my paw.’”
I didn’t laugh.
I did do a facepalm, but that didn’t count as points against.
“What did Cinderella do when she got to the ball?” I asked.
Gabe tapped his chin for a moment. “What?”
“Gagged.”
Again, nothing.
In fact, he didn’t even wait a beat before starting in on his next joke.
“How do snails fight?” he asked me.
I shrugged in response.
“They slug it out.”
Okay, so he was going for the really corny jokes. That made me think that those were the kind that made him laugh. So…
“What do you call a guy with a rubber toe?”
“Hmmm,” he mused. “I don’t know.”
“Roberto.”
It started as a twinkle in his eye, then turned to a grin, jumping next into a full-blown smile, and finally laughter ensued.
Right, so corny jokes were where it was at with him.
Unfortunately, he caught on quickly that I’d just bested him. His laughter stopped abruptly and he snapped his fingers, bringing himself back to his normal look and size.
I returned moments later, happy to find that my PPD suit was still in almost perfect shape. Obviously these things were magically imbued.
“I’ll give it to you that you were the better pixie,” he admitted. “I have never been one who excelled in humor.”
“Nooo,” I said, layering on so much sarcasm that it even made me feel I was being a bit douchey. “But you’re sooo good at it.”
“I sense your sarcasm,” he said, his voice just above a simmer. “No matter. We’ll now joust in something I know I’ll beat you at.”
“Being a dick?”
“Exact— What?”
“Nothing,” I replied. “You were saying?”
His hands began to glow.
CHAPTER 45
F ire struck against my shield with such power that I thought certain I was going to be fried to a crisp, but it held.
There may have been a fair bit of yelling coming from my side, though. It wasn’t the kind of yelling that you’d hear someone belt out due to fear, it was the kind that said, “Youuuu shallll notttt passss!”
After what felt like an eternity, Gabe stopped his flow of magic. That gave me time to drop my shield and let my energy fly.
There was no more holding back, either.
“You wanted to unleash the Kracken, Pop?” I barked at him. “Well, here it comes, motherfucker!”
I gave it everything I had, and then some.
I’d never felt power like this. And with each casting, it seemed to grow stronger and stronger.
My mages all got more and more tired as they fired off spells.
I didn’t.
My rage spilled forth like lava.
There was no pain.
Just pure, white-hot menace, and it felt terrifyingly wonderful.
I cackled like a madman as I walked around Gabe, throwing spell after spell at him, doing everything I could to destroy that son of a bitch.
“Yes,” he yelled over the noise, his shield somehow managing to contain my best. “You are growing, my son!”
That statement kicked the wind right out of my sails.
I stopped.
“What?”
“The more you use your power,” he said, his crazy-eyed face full of the same hate I was also feeling, “the more intoxicating it will be.”
My anger began to fade instantly as I looked around the room, down at my hands, and across at the man who was the impetus for all this insanity.
He was right.
It happened when I used compelling magic, it happened when I cast even the smallest of spells, and it was seriously happening when I threw massive ones like I’d just done against him.
I dropped my hands by my side.
“You’re a real piece of shit, Gabe,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re like the Darth Vader to my Luke Skywalker.”
“Huh?”
“Oh, please,” Gabe said, looking up at the ceiling. “You’ve had cars, clothes, a great place to live, and you’ve got more money than most CEOs in this country.”
I hated it when people pointed that out to me. Yes, it was true, but problems were relative. I’d have despised Gabe’s sorry ass even if I’d been destitute growing up.
“I’m not going to help you,” I said in a cold voice. “You may do your worst to me, but I’m done here.”
The look on his face was priceless. Years of research, waiting, pushing buttons, and releasing ubers on me had clearly failed.
He had failed.
I crossed my arms. “The one thing you didn’t plan for, Pop, was how so many decent people over the years would influence my personality.”
His eyes were burning, but they eventually cooled.
“Then there is nothing more I can do for you,” he whispered sadly. “After I kill you, your sister and I will rule the world. It’s a shame, boy, but I have no stomach for weak-minded fools.”
“Before you go and put me out of my misery, Pop,” I said, holding up a finger, “I just wanted you to know that I’ll be forever grateful for one thing that you did give me throughout all of this.”
He tilted his head as his hands dripped flames.
“And what is that?” he asked in condescending fashion.
“Time.”
His eyes shot open an instant before his world slowed. There was nothing he could do now, though, because I had the element of speed on my side.
Gabe was the one who had warned me not to use the Time power word unless it was absolutely necessary.
There were only three uses available of it, after all.
I’d called on the first one during Dr. Vernon’s awesome orgasm, the second one when we’d faced Charlotte in the Badlands, and now this.
It seemed fitting that Gabe was going to bite it due to this gift he’d given me—or was it a curse? I supposed it depended on one’s perspective.
Right now, I’d call it a gift.
I rushed over to him as his face continued to slowly contort into something that was beyond hate.