Supervillainess (Part One)

by Lizzy Ford

  “Then you shouldn’t have rescued me!”

  “If I had known this would’ve happened, maybe I wouldn’t have!” he retorted.

  “Whatever, Doc. You ran into a burning building to rescue complete strangers. I don’t need to read your mind to know you weren’t going to turn your back on me.”

  Kimber bit back his response. He wiped his mouth, seeking a way to talk some sense into her. If everything Igor said was true, then Keladry didn’t understand what boundaries or respect or consideration were, because she had never experienced any of those things. Did he have the patience required to teach a supervillain how to be more sensitive to others?

  He moved closer, so only she could hear him.

  “You have a problem with boundaries,” he started. “Take this as a lesson in compassion. If someone says they don’t want your help, then you have to respect their decision and allow them to face the consequences of their actions. If you want to help someone, help those people who are homeless because you decided to burn down my apartment building. They’re the ones who need it.”

  “You’re welcome for saving your life tonight!” she exclaimed. “I already learned a fucking lesson in compassion from you, Doc! What would you do, if you knew someone was going to die, if you didn’t help them?”

  “Finding you dying in an alley and you assigning me a babysitter are not the same.”

  “From where I stand, they are. The only difference is that I’m acting pre-emptively so you don’t end up in an alley bleeding to death.” Her eyes blazed with anger. “Look, Doc, I know what you’re doing. I know you have this bizarre tendency towards self-destructive behavior. You walked into the fire at your apartment building and probably told yourself it was so you could help those people, but the truth is much more selfish. You’re punishing yourself for something in your past. Nothing you could’ve done could have possibly been that bad. So, I’m going to protect you from yourself, while you attend your little pity party.”

  The words hit home harder than if she had punched him in the solar plexus. “Keladry –”

  “Reader!”

  “Whatever! You have no clue how I feel, or what I’ve been through, or why I chose to come to this city. I do not want your people anywhere near me!”

  “I don’t care what you want, Doc!” Keladry whirled and strode away.

  “If I see Igor or any of your ninjas within a block of me, I’m calling the police,” Kimber called after her.

  She flipped him off.

  Humming with anger, Kimber left the warehouse and called a cab. Was he upset with her alone or with himself as well? He barely knew Keladry, and she had verbally skewered him in a way no one else had ever managed to do. He despised her having any kind of insight into him and hated the idea of anyone thinking he helped others for selfish reasons. He helped others as a form of penance, yes, but he also did it because he wanted to make the world a better place, a place where good people who made a mistake, or got caught in the crossfires of Life itself, weren’t punished forever because of it.

  It wasn’t selfish to want to help people, and he was not holding a pity party for himself! He was being cautious, because he didn’t want to hurt anyone else by making bad decisions.

  Why was the year old wound, created when he ditched his old life to start over, reopening? Why was he starting to hurt again? A year of double shifts and few breaks had effectively numbed him to the pain of what he’d been through. How did a stranger like Keladry manage to rip him open again?

  Kimber was still fuming thirty minutes later when he entered the locker room at the hospital. He changed out of his running clothes and lingered by his locker, too angry for any of his thoughts to make sense.

  “Hey, Doctor K.”

  He closed the door to his locker and saw Gary dressed in jeans and a sweater. Kimber braced himself for the invite he knew was coming.

  “You want to ride with me to Tapirs?”

  Kimber hesitated, rolling Reader’s words around in his head. Dealing with her always left him ready for a stiff drink, and tonight was no different. He dreaded the idea of trying to fall asleep in the bay reserved for staff in need of some rest while working overtime. His thoughts were too agitated to leave him in peace, and he had the urge to go for another run.

  “Yeah. I’ll come,” he decided, unwilling to be alone with his thoughts and the ache at his core. If nothing else, a beer or two would help him sleep.

  They joined two other nurses in the waiting area nearest the parking lot and rode together to the trendy bar and nightclub district located in the eastern part of the city. Kimber had driven through the area once or twice without ever having stopped.

  He exited Gary’s car and glanced up and down the busy street packed with college students and others out for a night of drinking and fun. He didn’t spot Igor or any of Reader’s ninjas and started to relax, hoping she got the point to leave him alone.

  “Their margaritas are amazing,” said the female nurse, Anna, who got out of the car to stand beside him.

  “I’m pretty much just a beer guy,” he replied.

  Gary held out his hand to Anna, who took it with a grin. “C’mon, boys!” she said with the same cheerfulness Gary often displayed.

  The third member of their party, Joe, fell in beside Kimber as they made their way out of the parking area and towards the bar sporting a digital sign that alternately flashed Tapirs and Half-Priced Margaritas for the Ladies in bright hues.

  The bar was packed. Half a head taller than most men, Kimber was able to keep an eye on Gary as he followed the couple through the throng towards the bar.

  “What’ll you have?” Gary called when they had reached it.

  “Guinness,” Kimber replied. He pushed a twenty dollar bill at Gary, who pushed it back.

  “I’ve got first round. You get second!”

  Kimber nodded. Anna took his arm and tugged him towards a table with standing room only on one half. The area was large enough for all of them to squeeze in. Moments later, Gary joined them with drinks.

  Kimber breathed in the scent of fried bar food. His eyes settled on the live band playing across the room. Tension melted from his frame at the familiar surroundings. He had spent nearly every Thursday through Saturday night at bars like this in college; he hadn’t realized how much he missed it. He and Suzanne had always gone together, along with whichever of their friends were available. Social by nature, he didn’t realize how much he had isolated himself since leaving Chicago.

  One beer became two, three, four. He welcomed the warm buzz of becoming tipsy that made it harder for his more serious thoughts to stick around and easier to fall into light conversation with his companions.

  For the first night in a year, Kimber relaxed, though it was impossible to enjoy himself when he couldn’t stop replaying Keladry’s words in his mind.

  Was it possible she was right?

  Eight: The greatest arch-nemeses are former allies

  Reader watched Kimber cross the crowded street lined with bars, accompanied by three other people. He was smiling. It wasn’t the terse expression she had seen while in his care at his apartment, but a freer, broader, happier smile, probably facilitated by alcohol.

  She and the surveillance team tailing him kept their distance after his visit to the training facility. Already she had spotted two of her brother’s men, also discreetly following the stubborn doctor. Her brother was nothing if not impulsive, and she was as interested in his plans as she was in what Kimber was doing. Jermaine had already tried to murder Kimber once today.

  Reader studied the doctor, unaccustomed to being perplexed by anyone. She could read the minds of those around her with ease, but when she went too close to the doctor, he somehow managed to block her ability completely until she moved away. Fortunately, he was too intoxicated this night to notice her, which gave her the ideal opportunity to test the limits of his ability.

  Fifteen-ish feet. If she were within four or five yards of him, she
lost her superpower. The distance was far greater than she would have liked. It basically ruled out her ability to talk to him without rendering herself vulnerable to her surroundings. Safe in her lair or at the training facility, it wouldn’t matter. But anywhere else, especially in public, she couldn’t risk approaching him outright, not when her brother – and newfound arch-nemesis – was after her.

  Kimber and his coworkers disappeared into another bar.

  Reader telepathically ordered one of her men to stay with him before turning away and making her way down the street, towards the car, where Igor awaited her. As she walked, she sucked in the thoughts of those around her absently, always alert for any sign of threat. Forefront on her mind, however, was the unusual sensation she had first experienced the day she and the doctor spoke about suffering.

  Reaching Igor, who stood on guard at the front of the car, Reader tilted her head back and gazed up at his dark features and darker eyes. His thoughts were quiet and loyal, as always. Igor was easy to understand, because he had no real desire other than to assist her, and he generally spoke his mind, unlike pretty much everyone else she had ever met. Moreover, she trusted her longtime nanny, who had sneaked her candy when she was in the dungeon, despite her father’s orders to let her starve until she learned whatever lesson it was he wanted to teach her.

  “Igor, what’s the opposite of hate?” she asked.

  “Love.”

  She gave a snort of derision and rolled her eyes. “Not that opposite. Less opposite but still pretty far from hate.”

  “Like?”

  “No.” Reader frowned and sifted through the thoughts and emotions she picked up from Igor on a daily basis to provide some sort of basis for understanding what she was trying to ask. “It’s how you feel about your first cup of coffee in the morning.”

  “Ah,” Igor said with a smile. “Happy.”

  “Really?”

  “Happy and grateful for its existence.”

  “That seems extreme for coffee, doesn’t it?”

  “It’s the coffee, but it’s also the experience. The smell, the flavor, the warmth, when that first sip reaches my soul, and I know my day will go well, since I got my coffee in.”

  She rolled the explanation around in her head with some skepticism. “Can you feel that way for a person?”

  “It might be a little different if you feel that way towards a person.”

  “Then what would you call that entire experience if it involved a person?”

  “That’s difficult.” Igor was quiet. “It’s not one emotion but many.”

  Her phone buzzed, and she plucked it from her pocket. “My predictable brother,” she said. “He took the bait. Let’s go.” She climbed into the car and closed the door.

  Igor slid into the driver’s seat. Seconds later, they peeled away from the curb, headed in the opposite direction of the bars.

  “Affection?” Igor asked, glancing at her through the rearview mirror.

  “Hmm. Closer,” she replied. “But without the warm, squishy undertone.” She checked the alert on her phone again, thoughts turning from Kimber to her brother. “I’m going to kill that fucker.” As she said it, familiar pain radiated through her insides. Her brother deserved everything he had coming to him, so why did she ache when she thought about him? Why did she start to remember the times when they were starving or injured or abandoned in their father’s dungeon, and Jermaine was the only reason she survived such an ordeal?

  Reader locked her phone and set it down, gazing out the window. The cityscape zipped by as Igor deftly navigated through the city neither of them had ever left.

  “Igor,” she started. “Is it wrong for me not to want to kill my brother?”

  “No, Reader,” was the quiet response. “His betrayal was unexpected.”

  “I should have known,” she replied. “I can read his mind but I didn’t think it necessary, since we were always united against our father. My guard was down.”

  “Your father spent years trying to drive you apart. He finally succeeded. No one is to blame except for him. If not for the doctor, you’d be dead.”

  I prefer death to suffering. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll end this tonight,” she said aloud. “My father will have his heir, and the games will be over.”

  Igor was quiet for a moment. “I want you in charge of the city, Reader. But if you’re not ready for the final confrontation with your brother, don’t force it.”

  “I’m ready.”

  She didn’t have to read his mind to know he didn’t believe her. The man who helped raise her had a way of pursing his lips when he wanted to say more but chose not to. She studied his profile, aware of how her father had broken Jermaine. No part of her believed she was safe from the same treatment, especially if she did kill her twin and become her father’s heir. He preached isolation as being the only true way to prevent betrayal and maintain absolute, unbiased power.

  He’d take Igor from her or force her to kill him, just as he had done to the members of Jermaine’s inner circle. Reader couldn’t let that happen. Igor was loyal, and she cared for him more than he cared for his first cup of coffee in the morning.

  It was a weakness, a horrific one she was ashamed of. If her father knew the extent of her feelings for her nanny, he would have murdered him long ago. She couldn’t allow Igor to be harmed, couldn’t dismiss her shame in knowing she had a weakness others could exploit. She was left trying to sort through her confusion alone, unable to ask her only mentor what she should do.

  Beating Jermaine was the first step in protecting Igor. The second: preventing her father from ensnaring her and forcing her to destroy her only remaining friend. She wasn’t ready to face the city’s supervillain. Not until Igor was safe. Her father would destroy her if given a chance, and he wouldn’t hesitate to use everything, and everyone, he could against her.

  Before she faced her father, Igor had to be safe and …

  She cocked her head to the side, unease sliding through her.

  The doctor needed to be safe, too. She didn’t feel for him what she did for Igor, but something about him was special, even if she couldn’t identify what or why. The do-good doctor had to survive.

  Reader strapped on a mask. She needed a solid plan to safeguard Igor. She had been debating how best to protect him for months with no solid ideas. He wasn’t safe anywhere in the city; her father or brother could always get to him. That left outside the city, a place she wasn’t permitted to go. Supervillains weren’t allowed to leave the city limits of their assigned territory. It was the only real rule of the Supervillain Council.

  Igor would never voluntarily leave her, and she’d been unable to invent a reason as to why she would ever need to send him outside the city.

  “Ptolemy wants to know if he has a green light,” Igor said.

  Reader pulled herself from her thoughts and focused on the plan for this night. “Yeah.”

  Igor gave the quiet kill order.

  Still a mile away, the explosion was visible from the car. Reader checked her weapons, eyes glued to the location. The explosion wasn’t part of her plan, but it didn’t surprise her that her brother had reacted so quickly.

  Igor turned down the street housing her warehouse and pulled over. She got out of the car, breathing in the scent of super heated metal and rain.

  “Stay here,” she reminded Igor.

  He said nothing, and Reader trotted towards the action. Her men had formed a ring around the warehouse and were systematically executing the henchmen displaying the patch of a cloud and lighting, indicating their loyalty to her brother, whose villain code name was Thunder.

  She hurried towards them. Her black-clothed ninjas parted for her as she approached, and she made her way to the center of the circle.

  The report of a gun went off just as she stepped into the center of her men. The last of her brother’s men convulsed as he dropped.

  “Where is he?” she demanded, searching the dead bodies for sign
s of her brother.

  “Not here, boss,” one of her henchmen replied.

  She double-checked the minds of those closest to her, ensuring none of them sought to betray her. They told the truth, and she walked among the dead, sucking up the last memories from their dying brains before they were gone. The minds of the recently dead were harder to read, and she squatted in their midst, closing her eyes to concentrate. She had given strict orders for no one to be shot in the head, so she had access to their brains.

  Fragments of images formed in her head until she was able to distinguish an almost complete picture.

  Her brother had been among those who followed up on the leak about the training facility’s location. According to the memories of the dead, when Jermaine realized it was an ambush, he used his superpower to set her warehouse on fire and fled towards the river, leaving those he brought with him to be rounded up and executed by her henchmen.

  Reader bounced to her feet and bolted in the direction her brother had gone. She ran through the light rain, breathing in the scent of wet asphalt, and paused at the railing lining the riverbank. She strained, listening with her mind and her ears, to find her brother.

  Movement from the direction of one of the piers caught her attention. She ran a short distance, when a splash of red blood on the railing caught her attention. It was fresh and bright beneath the glow of the overhead streetlight. Reader scoured the ground for more drops of blood that hadn’t been diluted in puddles or hidden by the patches of darkness existing between the reach of streetlights.

  A sporadic trail formed, leading her in the direction in which she’d witnessed movement. The idea her brother was wounded filled her with elation – and also concern she tried hard to suppress. He had tried to murder her in cold blood, she reminded herself. Jermaine didn’t deserve mercy of any kind.

  The trail of blood led her towards the end of the pier, past the two warehouses and several smaller boathouses, and towards lights bobbing in the bay a few feet from the end of the pier.

  Reader ran to the end of the pier and leaned over the railing, squinting to see into the boat. No one appeared to be in it, aside from the driver, though the motor was rumbling quietly as it waited. Jermaine hadn’t made it this far, which meant he was still somewhere on the pier.