Dex sighed. He could feel the time running out. He glanced at Vivian, and wondered what she would think of him as he revealed more of himself. He liked this easy camaraderie they had now; would it change when she realized just how much he had influenced the comic books she loved?
Then he shook his head. She already knew he was the prototype for Superman, that Siegel and Schuster had thought their weird neighbor who could run fast and pull off feats of amazing physical strength was an alien, abandoned here from another planet. They mistook his magic for great physical powers, and mistook his character for the open, all-American Superman.
Dex was more like Batman—secretive and protected, not willing to let other people in. Or maybe the better analogy came later, from the comic book artists who had never met him—the Stan Lees, Len Weins, and Frank Millers of the world, who seemed to know what it was like to be an outsider with an outsider’s vision.
Vivian was watching Dex closely. He could feel her concern.
“You all right?” she whispered. No one else seemed to notice his pensiveness. The conversation still continued to run its circles around him.
He nodded, squeezed her hand, and let go. Then he looked directly at the Fates. “I have an idea, if you promise me I won’t get into trouble.”
Everyone turned toward him in surprise. Apparently, he had interrupted Nora, and his comment seemed to come out of the blue.
He ignored the others and just concentrated on the Fates—and Vivian, of course. He couldn’t delete her from his consciousness even if he tried.
“We have no power over you,” Clotho said.
“Right now,” Dex said.
“We’re not as rigid as you people seem to think,” Lachesis said.
Dex swallowed hard. They were that rigid and they didn’t even realize it. It was very possible that once he saved them and they returned to their jobs, they would punish him for disobeying the law.
Vari shot the Fates an irritated glance. “What’s your idea?” he asked Dex. “Because we’re out of time.”
Dex nodded. He looked at the Fates. They had wiped the tears off their faces, but they still appeared fragile. He couldn’t get used to how small they were, and how very human they looked.
“Okay,” he said. “I can take you to the cave.”
“The fortress?” Atropos’s voice rose.
He felt his cheeks grow warm. Vivian turned toward him, her expression surprised.
“I never called it a fortress,” Dex said. “You did.”
“Those books did,” Clotho said.
“Those books were fiction,” Dex said. “They had nothing to do with me.”
“You started them,” Lachesis said.
“I didn’t even know the boys had written the first one until they’d sold it,” Dex said. “And then they sold all their rights to it, so I thought it was over. Some big company was going to deal with it, and the company didn’t know me.”
“You’re talking about Siegel and Schuster?” Vivian asked, awe in her voice.
“No,” Dex said, “we’re talking about whether or not I violated some sacred oath I didn’t even know about.”
“Everyone heard of the comic book offender,” Blackstone said.
“You’re not helping,” Nora whispered.
“The comic book offender?” Vivian asked.
“There’s enough about our people in various comic books that we knew someone had blown the whole secrecy thing.” Andrew Vari shrugged. “Of course, you could say that about myths, or Shakespeare, or any writer worth his salt—”
“We will not get into your indiscretions.” Clotho glared at Vari.
“You’re one of the reasons we had to crack down on later offenders,” Lachesis said.
Dex leaned back in his chair, feeling discouraged.
“I don’t understand the problem,” Vivian said. “Dex is offering to help you. Stop fighting him.”
“By sending us to the fortress,” Atropos said.
“Which you promised you would get rid of.” Clotho had turned her glare on Dex. He had been wrong a moment ago. She could be just as formidable, even in her smaller, more human state.
Dex clenched his fists. He would not let anger get the best of him. It took all of his control to speak calmly. “See? This is what I was afraid of. You just don’t understand.”
“It was an order.” Lachesis’s tone had a bite to it that Dex had heard only once before. “No one disobeys our orders.”
“Disobeyed.” Vari glanced at Dex, obviously hoping Dex got the message. “Get your tenses right.”
“You already compromised your position among mortals,” Atropos said as if Vari hadn’t spoken. “You risk doing even more.”
That was it. He’d had enough. If the Fates hadn’t put Vivian in such danger, he’d walk out the front door and let whoever do their worst. But he was afraid it would ricochet on Vivian, who didn’t deserve it.
And he had to protect her, too. In fact, he wanted to protect her more than he wanted to protect anyone in his entire life.
“First,” Dex said, “the comic book thing happened a long time ago. The boys, as we’ve been calling them, are dead now. No one remembers but us. Second, no one has found my cave in all the decades I’ve had it. Third, that property appreciates every year, and I’m not a rich man. I’m not willing to sell it. Fourth, if people believed comic books—which they emphatically do not—then my cave would be a damn fortress and it would be in the Arctic. And fifth, whether you like it or not, I think taking you there is our only option.”
“To the Arctic?” Clotho asked.
“We’re not fond of the cold,” Lachesis said.
“I think he means the cave,” Atropos said softly.
“What kind of fortress?” Blackstone asked. He had been watching the entire interchange with interest. Dex found it odd that even though Blackstone wanted to be in charge, he let this entire conversation continue without interference.
“It’s not a fortress,” Dex said. “It was an experiment. It’s a home built inside a cave.”
But he wasn’t about to tell Blackstone where the cave was. Dex didn’t trust the man enough to do that.
“They called it a fortress,” Clotho said.
“Who?” Nora asked.
“The mortals. Those boys.”
“The boys who are dead?” Ariel asked.
“Siegel and Shuster,” Vivian said. “But they didn’t come up with the Fortress of Solitude.”
“That’s right,” Dex said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”
“You told someone else?” Lachesis asked.
“I got the idea from the comic book!” He raised his voice.
“I thought you said no one got ideas from comic books,” Atropos said.
“I said no one believed comic books were real,” Dex said.
“But if no one believes they’re real, why take ideas from them?” Clotho asked.
“You’ve been accusing me of putting ideas into them, not taking them out,” Dex said. “I never told anyone about the caves, not until you decided to punish me for every leak that made its way into the D.C. and Marvel offices. And most of those didn’t come from me.”
“You just started the problem,” Lachesis said.
“I did not,” Dex said. “Half the stuff came from world mythology anyway.”
“Yeah.” Andrew Vari grinned. “And you guys can blame yourselves for that.”
“This isn’t helping,” Vivian said.
“No, it isn’t.” Dex stood. He was shaking with anger. He pointed a finger at the Fates. “You see why someone has chosen to attack you? You’re unreasonable. I’m trying to help you and you’re angry—”
“Because you violated a sacred promise,” Atropos said.
“It wasn’t sacred,” Dex said.
“You made an oath to us that you would never interfere with mortals again. You promised to get rid of all the accoutrements, and still, still, you have this place.�
�� Clotho stood too. “If I had power—”
“If you had power, you wouldn’t even know I still had the cave,” Dex said.
Vivian rubbed the back of her neck. Dex frowned. He didn’t like that gesture. He had a hunch it was connected to this entire mess.
“We were out of time five minutes ago,” Vivian whispered to him.
But the others heard and the conversation stopped. Finally, Blackstone took a deep breath.
“A cave?” he asked Dex.
Dex nodded. “It’s really a vacation home now, and no one knows I have it. The only way in is through magic. I’ve been fixing it up. It’s nice.”
“It sounds perfect,” Blackstone said. “Let’s get the Fates there.”
“If we continually use magic to go in and out,” Dex said, “there’ll be a trail. Anyone with powers can find it. We bring the Fates in once and they stay until we find whoever has been attacking them.”
“You don’t need to discuss this as if we’re not here,” Lachesis said.
“Yes, we do,” Vari said. “You’re being petty. So he didn’t follow your rules. Or maybe he did. Who cares? It’s not relevant at the moment. And you know, you guys can make mistakes.”
“That kind of logic has gotten you into trouble more than once,” Atropos said.
The Fates might have gotten rid of their magic, but they hadn’t gotten rid of their arrogance. Blackstone’s arms were crossed. Ariel’s mouth was in a thin line, and Vari looked as angry as Dex felt. Vivian was watching the Fates as if she hadn’t seen them before.
Then she rubbed her neck again. The gesture seemed involuntary.
Dex sent a small reveal spell her way. A greenish glow tingled against the back of her neck and then vanished. Someone had touched her with magic, but he wasn’t certain what kind.
Maybe his sense in the pet store had been right. Maybe Vivian was the evil mages’ link to the Fates. But he wasn’t sure how that could be. He certainly didn’t sense any evil coming from her. She seemed to be the only person who cared.
Of course, she was the one who knew the Fates the least.
“Well,” Dex said to the Fates, “you get a choice. You go to the cave and you don’t complain about it. You stay until we say it’s safe to leave and you never, ever punish me, nor do you tell anyone else to punish me, for keeping that cave. Or you walk out that door now and survive on your own.”
Vari smirked, crossed his arms, and leaned back in his chair. Blackstone raised his eyebrows. Nora’s gaze caught Vivian’s and Vivian looked away. Dex felt her nervousness. She was worried that this would turn out badly for everyone.
Lachesis stood beside Clotho. Then Atropos stood. They stared at Dex, their gazes flat, their faces expressionless. They had looked at him like this the first time they had called him to them, before he had realized he had done anything wrong.
He had found their expressions terrifying then. They were still unnerving now, even though he knew he had more magic than the three of them combined.
“You dare challenge us?” Clotho said.
“You take advantage of our vulnerability?” Lachesis said, almost at the same time.
“You treat us like mere mortals?” Atropos said.
“Which you’re supposed to be right now,” Dex snapped. “Didn’t you say you wanted to learn what it was like to be powerless? Well, welcome to that world, and make your damn choice.”
His words echoed in the restaurant. Everyone looked at him in surprise, as if they hadn’t expected it from him. He hadn’t expected it from himself either, but someone had to take the lead. Someone who would ensure that Vivian wouldn’t be hurt any worse than she already had been.
One by one, the Fates sat down. They didn’t speak. Blackstone took Nora’s hand. Ariel laid her head on Vari’s shoulder.
Dex still stood, his arms crossed, his face set. He had taken quite a risk, and the Fates might make him pay for that risk at some point.
“All right,” Clotho finally said. “Do what you must.”
“But we’ll stay there no longer than a month,” Lachesis said. “Your time.”
“And we’ll need some sort of communication system that’s impossible to track. We’ll need to know what’s going on,” Atropos said.
Vari tossed Dex a cell phone. Dex caught it with his left hand.
“Take them now,” Vari said, “before they change their minds. Then come back here. We’ll have it all figured out by then.”
That was all the permission Dex needed. He was going to take them to his private cave, and he was going to take them alone. If this went wrong, he didn’t want Vivian anywhere near the Fates.
If this went wrong, he would take care of the problem himself.
THIRTEEN
DEX VANISHED, taking the Fates with him.
The room, which had seemed full of overwhelming personalities, suddenly seemed empty. And Vivian felt abandoned. She hadn’t known Dex when she woke up that morning, so why should she feel empty just because he left?
Although, granted, he didn’t just leave. He vanished, along with the three Fates, who had been the cause of her difficult day. And he abandoned her to Blackstone, Nora, Ariel, and Andrew Vari, people she still wasn’t sure of.
She stood near her plate, staring at the three empty chairs across from her, feeling the emptiness of the chair beside her. She felt more unsettled than she had all day—which was saying something, considering what had been going on. Partly, it was because she had no idea where Dex was or when he’d be back (if he’d be back, her insecure subconscious was saying to her), and partly it was because she missed his presence—in her mind.
She hadn’t really realized he had been there. Not completely, anyway. She had recognized the psychic connection and had even noticed when Dex blocked his thoughts from her. But she hadn’t realized that his being—his personality—had been inside her mind, like background music, something she wasn’t aware of until it was gone.
Odd that realizing how close they’d been in the short time they were together didn’t bother her. She used to hate being hooked up—as she called it—to anyone, not that it happened often. It happened with Aunt Eugenia, but as Vivian’s mother used to say, Aunt Eugenia was a Presence. No one could ignore her. It also happened sometimes with Vivian’s sister Megan, but they were as close as siblings could be.
It had never happened with someone outside of her family.
“Are you all right, Vivian?” Nora asked. Nora stood alone on her side of the table. A few moments ago, she had seemed surrounded by Fates.
Vivian rubbed the back of her neck. That ache had become almost a headache. “I’m still not used to people popping in and out of my life.”
Both Nora and Ariel smiled. “You’ll get used to it,” Ariel said.
Blackstone stood and put his napkin over his plate, as if the conversation offended him. “I’ve got to get into the kitchen.”
“That can wait,” Vari said. “We still have work to do.”
Work? What kind of work would they have to do? It looked like Dex was doing all the work. And like Vivian was now out of the equation.
“Am I done?” she asked. “Can I go home?”
“Good question,” Blackstone said. “Maybe I’ll have an answer after I’ve ducked into the kitchen for a moment.”
He hurried from the group, as if he couldn’t get away fast enough. Nora stood too, and started busing the table. Ariel took another slice of bread.
“They’ll work this out,” she said to Vivian.
Vivian wasn’t so sure. That feeling of being watched had returned. “I hope so.”
Nora took a pile of soup dishes into the kitchen, then returned with a bus cart. Ariel helped her clear off the table. Andrew Vari grabbed the rope. Vivian almost stopped him, feeling protective of it, as if Dex owned it instead of some mysterious evil mage.
But she didn’t stop Vari. Instead, she watched him examine each strand, as if he were reading information in the jute.
“Guess we don’t need the extra protection spells any more,” he said, raising his hand to call it off.
“Keep it for a moment.” Blackstone spoke from the kitchen door. “We don’t want to clue the enemy to the fact that the Fates are gone.”
“The enemy?” Nora set a stack of bread plates into the bus cart. “Isn’t that a bit dramatic?”
“I don’t think so,” Blackstone said. “I think whoever it is wants to kill the Fates.”
“And that person is still out there,” Vivian said. “I can feel him.”
Vari dropped the rope. “Where do you feel him?”
Vivian shrugged. “It’s just a sense.”
“It’s more than that.” He sounded certain, even though they were discussing her body, her feelings.
“She is psychic, Sancho.” Nora’s voice held wry amusement. “Maybe it is just a sense.”
“Is that true?” Vari asked. “Is it the same as your usual psychic experiences?”
No one had ever used the phrase usual psychic experiences with her before. Vivian would have smiled at it if the situation weren’t so strange.
“It’s not really the same,” she said. “Just before the rope came down, I felt this prickling in my spine. And then, there’s this feeling of being watched—”
“Does your neck bother you?” Vari asked.
“I’ve had some major psychic experiences today,” Vivian said. “I think it might be the beginnings of a migraine.”
He frowned. “Maybe. But it might be something else. Mind if I check it out?”
“Check what out?” Vivian asked.
“Your neck.”
She looked at Ariel. Ariel raised her eyebrows and shrugged, as if to say that her husband was always odd. “Just go with it,” Ariel said. “He’ll explain when he feels the need.”
“All right.” Vivian felt nervous about this. She wondered what Dex would say. Then remembered that Dex wasn’t here, and she didn’t know when he’d be back. If the pain in her neck was, literally, something evil, she wanted it taken care of sooner rather than later.
Vari walked over to her, started to put his fingers on her skin, then paused. “May I?”
“Sure,” Vivian said, not certain what he was about to do.
Simply Irresistible Page 14
